Page 53 of Praying for Thunder

“Piercer—”

He charged forward, his gun being tossed into his left hand while his right struck out… She was suddenly on her knees, half-lifted by the mean grip on the back of her hair.

“Ani!” I screamed.

Piercer couldn’t care less about my feelings. Specks of spit were in the air as he sneered in her face. “You forgot who you belong to and let others see what is mine?”

I was haunted to the core when I saw his head tilt in the creepy manner Ani did the night of Dio’s red eyes—

Dio! Hurry!

Ignoring the pain she must’ve been in, Anita placed her shaking hands on his chest. Her voice was attempting to sound tender. “I’ll go with you.”

“Oh, yes, you will.”

“Just, please, leave the boy here.”

Open-mouthed, he smiled, then licked the bottom of his upper molars. “And dishonor my brother?”

“Piercer,” she begged, “you know he’s not your brother’s—”

Abruptly, her body violently jostled as he thundered, “Who fucked that whore?”

“My Ani!” I reached out to still her but sensed I would only cause her more pain. Pulling my aching hands to my stomach, I cried, “Please, sir! Please don’t hurt her!”

Desperately, she vowed, “I don’t know who he is! I swear it!” Sideways, the gun lifted in the air as if to hit me with it, but Ani screamed and burst into uncontrollable tears. “Please, Piercer! Do not punish the child who has nothing to do with mistakes I made!”

A motorcycle rumbled outside.

The man scorned, “Speaking of mistakes made. Befriending the Bastards? I saw them ushering you.”

A gun was pointed to my head, so close I became paralyzed. Only a week earlier, such a weapon had murdered Tiny Cherry.

Was I next?

Head still cranked back by force, Ani’s palm slipped in front of me and blocked the end of the barrel. “I’ll do anything you want.”

The barrel lowered and her hair was released. “Get rid of the Bastard, or I’ll get rid of the boy.”

Nodding, she grabbed my hand and started crawling off the bed, but he stopped us. “No. He stays with me.”

“I-I could ask the Bastard to take him for a ride. T-Then you and I could go.”

The barrel rose…

As Dio’s heavy boot-falls echoed in the stairway on the other side of the wall, she panted, eyes darting. “Okay. Okay. I’ll get him to leave.”

We were lucky. Piercer was very unaware of what Dio was to us. Dio had been out of town, so this Fallen God was clueless as to how hard Dio would fight for his Tiger and Thunder.

Piercer only knew he preferred to not kill a Bastard and have hundreds of them chasing him to the ends of the earth.

The front door swung open. “Hey! Where are you guys? My dude, I have great news.”

Anita was trying to close the bedroom door, but a hand pulling on the inside knob kept it cracked so she could be spied on. She told Dio, “Shhh. He just fell back to sleep. Late night.”

Happier than he ever sounded, Dio whispered loudly, “Tiger, don’t be mad at me, but I did something for the Little Guy.” I heard his full saddle bags drop to the dining table, then, “What the—You’ve been crying?”

His boots scuffed the floor as he rushed to her but stopped when she raised her hands. “Oh, just torturing Niño and myself with some Joe Young.”