“Yes, I swear.”
Snakebite pointed his finger. “If you challenge me boy, any man here has my permission to kill her.”
“I understand,” he said, his voice flat.
“Okay then. The girl lives until my boy goes against me.”
Snakebite had saved my life.
Dice grunted out, “What about your only daughter, your only granddaughter?”
“Boy’s worth more than a girl, any day. Besides you and Viper can try again. Get it right next time and have me a boy.”
“I’ll fucking kill you, old man.” Those were Dice’ final words as the bullet meant for me landed square in his chest.
When he fell, Viper’s wails renewed, but her Dad consoled her by saying, “That child wasn’t his no how, as you were sleeping with Big Mike of Big Mike’s Pies, and we all knew it.”
As LuAnn hugged me and kissed my cheek, the men proceeded to cut the snake like slit into Snakebite’s tongue, splitting it in two, making him an official prospect.
My world changed when I turned fifteen. There’d been a raid. The Asphalt Gods’ MC had come to rescue me. Snakebite’s promise had saved my life, but Serpentine would be damned if he’d let my life be worth living.
“I didn’t say she’d be living the high life,” he told Snakebite when he locked me into the rabbit hole, what they called the basement of the bar, for safe keeping.
Halley 5 Years later
Lying in my bed, listening to the clock tick, I let my mind lock on a picture. Sometimes I can picture him in my mind. He’s far away, calling to me. I can hear him, but I can’t see his face that I imagine looks a lot like mine.
It’s no secret here, I’m the spoils of war. Well, it isn’t anymore. When I was young, I didn’t even know my real name. Growing up as simply Star—Fuck, things were good back then. But Serpentine’s a cruel man. The cruelest thing you can tell a young girl, her life is a lie, you killed her parents and she has a brother who’s fighting to get her back—that you’ll never let it happen. You’ll never let hergo. You’d kill her first. Yes, Serpentine really was the devil he proclaimed to be.
The first time the Asphalt Gods’ MC got too close to rescuing me, I was thrown in this basement and locked away. It’s where I’ve been for five long years. My life stopped when I was fifteen, but I guess, things could be worse.
“Did you want to die? What would you have me do?”
Putting my head under my pillow, I blocked the ticking, the sound of the clock, a cruel reminder my time was almost up. When Serpentine’s old lady LuAnn died in a gun fight last summer, he made a deal with me. I don’t know if her death softened him or it was just another cruel game. He said if my brother paid him what the Coyote Ghosts’ MC owed the club plus interest, he’d let me go.
Poof.
I’d be pardoned. If not, I’d get out of the hole anyway and become his old lady without a fight.
Hell yes, there’d be a fight, but I agreed to Serpentine’s deal anyhow.
Trying not to think about that, I remembered my brother’s voice. Serpentine let me listen to my brother, Edmond’s voice as he made the deal over the phone. Then I’d spoke to him this very week.
At least, I think it was this week.
Needless to say, the days and nights, the weeks and months run together down here in the rabbit hole. In the last five years, not many people had cared about me enough to go up against Serpentine. I could tell how much Edmond, better known as Scar cared from the desperation in his tone. He’d come through for me or die trying. Sometimes I imagine I was a princess locked away in a tower but instead of my prince charming, it was my brother who’d come and rescue me.
But, fairy tales weren’t going to save me.
I’d already waited for Edmond for five years. I had no illusions that Serpentine would keep his word. He was the devil. A trickster. My brother was being called to slaughter. I had a backup plan. I planned to save myself.
The door opened, letting a block of sunshine in. Snakebite came down the stairs with my dinner. I tried to get up but remembered, I’d been handcuffed to the bed.
“How long… who did this to you?”
“Since last night… when I tried to escape… I don’t even remember…”
Snakebite had taken a liking to me. Can’t remember exactly when. He liked me more than his brothers who came down to humiliate me, rape me, run a train on me. Though, they weren’t allowed to do that anymore since Serpentine decided he wanted me for his own. I tried to block a memory of last night out of my mind.
