My Darling Mayhem
: Chapter 21

I needed her.

This was pain and agony all wrapped around the danger that made up my life. It beat like a drum in my chest and ached in my pulse as a reminder that happiness was always a thread ready to snap.

I didn’t get happy endings. Joy wasn’t going to be a part of my life.

Memories of when my mother died thrummed in my chest, a reminder that injustice happened every day. Seeing Kane being taken by strangers ricocheted like a bullet slamming into me. Seeing him through a piece of glass when he’d been in the state’s custody. Witnessing the death report for Brit, his mother, knowing he’d grow up never knowing the love of either parent.

Fuck, I was so tired of the bad…then Wren happened, and she was sunlight.

She was good.

The only thing I’d ever hoped to have, that actually became mine, and now they were going to take her from me. My heart wouldn’t withstand it. I couldn’t exist in a world that she wasn’t in. Would Saul cut her brakes next? Would he do something to Cruz?

“Turn around. Place your hands on the tiles.” Had I already told her that? I blinked, seeing the water drip down her back, her long thick hair soaked and dipping into a v right above her perky, round ass. Fuck, she was perfect.

My cock twitched, which had me wrapping my fist around it, stroking while Wren peeked over her shoulder at me. Her lip was pressed between her teeth, her thick lashes lowered as her eyes trailed down to where my wrist slowly moved.

I stepped forward, wrapped my arm around her, and placed my hand against her stomach. Lifting her the slightest bit, I lined up my erection while I rasped against her ear.

“Breathe, beautiful. I’m not going to be gentle.”

I felt her back arch into my chest, and I slid the tip of my cock into her tight cunt. I lightly kicked at her leg to make her stance wider while sliding further into her heat. She moaned while her hand came back, holding my wrist.

I pulled out and, with a sharp inhale, pushed back in, in a heavy thrust. She was so tight that I had to stand there for a second to calm down and not come on the spot. After adjusting, I grumbled closer to her ear while pushing her chest against the tile, “You’re mine. No one is taking you from me.”

Her tits were smashed while I fucked her. My hand was flat against her lower belly while I slid in and out of her, creating a chaotic rhythm. On her tiptoes, she used one of her hands to dig her nails into the tile while the other squeezed my wrist.

“Archer,” she said in a rush, her mouth agape as I continued to pump in and out of her.

I lifted the hand from her stomach up to her neck and added the slightest amount of pressure while my hips pushed forward at a rapid pace, making her ass bounce. The sight only spurred me on as I held her body against mine.

One of her hands came to mine, and she guided my fingers over her clit.

I rubbed her, sliding my fingers through her heat; my cock swelled inside her as a tingling in my lower back started, and my balls began aching. She was gasping, breathing hard as a moan erupted from her, her orgasm echoing around the shower.

The water slid over our bodies, making us slick as we slid against each other, and then I burst, groaning into her shoulder while I came hard, spilling inside her.

There were so many words tangled in my head. There were so many fears and worries, but the only thing I could manage to get out was something she already knew.

“I love you.”

I released her neck and pulled her into my chest. I slid out of her and let the water rush over us. Her arms came up, cradling mine as she repeated her own vow of love for me. I had to figure out a way to get out of this mess. I needed to go back to my club, talk to Thistle, and tell him we needed to dig into what happened ten years ago.

I needed to ask Juan about this guy, Kyle, who had been in that game.

The image of the guns, the glass…, and all of the fear in my chest when Anna walked out holding Cruz came back in a painful flash. They had to remain safe. I needed them to be okay. Kane too.

“Talk to me, baby.” Wren’s lips pressed into my chest over a few of my tattoos.

She didn’t understand how I felt for her. Not really. I’d said I loved her, but she didn’t understand how deep she’d dug inside me. If I lost her, I’d lose myself.

“Need you to be okay,” I managed to rasp while stroking along her sides and up her back. We stood naked under the spray, wasting time we didn’t have. I knew we needed to go. The back door was shattered; the house was getting cold. Cruz was scared.

I shut the water off and let out a silent breath.

Wren’s amber eyes pinned me in place as I ran a hand through my hair, letting the drops of water flick against the shower door.

Her arms came up, crossing and shoving her tits up. “I’m not leaving you.”

She knew deep down what was about to happen. Even if I didn’t tell her, she knew.

My fingers tangled in her hair as my forehead rested against hers. “I can’t breathe knowing you might be in danger. I can’t think. I can’t focus. I⁠—”

How did I explain this to her? I’d never felt this way about anyone. This fear consumed me, and if there was even a chance that she was in danger, I couldn’t do what needed to be done.

“Please, Wren. My love, I beg you.” I pressed a gentle kiss to her jaw and then her lips. “I need you to go with your brother and your mom…I need you to get away from here.”

Tears lined her eyes as her lip trembled.

“I’m going tonight to get Kane; I know Sarah will let me take him. I need you to take him with you. My gut says my father is linked to all of this. I think he plans to try and take or leverage Kane somehow. I don’t know, but I need to figure it out, and I need you three safe while I do it.”

“But you⁠—”

I leaned back and kissed her forehead. “I will meet you there and then you’ll introduce me to the rest of your family.”

Her voice shuddered, “Archer, I can’t lose you.”

“You won’t.” That felt like a lie. She nearly lost me tonight. There was no way I should be saying this to her, but I had to do whatever it took to get her out of here.

Her voice was thick as if she were on the verge of tears. “Promise me. We just started our story, we can’t–” Her voice cracked before she cleared it. “Say something that lets me know this isn’t our ending.”

She was a vision, standing wet and naked in front of me. I smiled, tracing a drop of water that trailed down her breast and over her nipple.

These were thoughts I’d had but never spoke. Things I’d thought I’d keep in a journal or locked up in my head where my dreams remained.

Smiling against her cheek, I whispered in her ear.

“The first time I saw you, I thought you were more beautiful than any sunrise I’d ever witnessed. Then you walked up to me like you owned the dirt under our feet, and something happened in my chest as I realized I wouldn’t mind if you did and that perhaps one day you’d own everything in me, too. Your eyes are the color of the sun trapped in honey, and every time you look at me, my breath stalls. Your skin is the softest thing I’ve ever felt, and after our first touch, I knew I would be ruined forever. Your heart slid into mine, shoving my organs aside and making room where I was sure there wasn’t any, and now, all I can think of is making sure you stay there for good.”

My lips stopped moving right as her hands wrapped around my neck urgently. Fevered.

“Please come back to me.”

I traced the shell of her ear, feeling that same urgency in my own movements.

“Darling, it’ll be as though I never left, and you should know by now that not even death will separate us.”

I ignored the tears rolling down her face and turned to grab us towels.

Wren’s mother went with her; Juan hadn’t shown up. They got into her car, the two of them, with Cruz in the back, and drove over to the city’s east side. I followed them on my bike and ensured Thistle and my men watched over the side roads so we weren’t followed.

Sarah, Kane’s foster mom, had agreed that I could take him, even at this late hour. I told her I had some urgent business that would take me out of town and that I didn’t want to miss my date to get him. She packed his things for me and had him ready to go. Sleepy but happy, I grabbed my little brother and pulled him into my arms, holding him tight.

Then, under the cover of darkness, I walked him to Wren’s car and buckled him in.

“Kane, I need you to be brave for me, okay?”

His blue eyes searched mine as if he understood how serious this was. I knew he would, and I knew he’d adapt to this change, just like he had to being in foster care, and now removed from it. My chest ached with all the change he’d been forced to go through and how unfair it was that he just kept being expected to deal with the hand he was dealt.

“Wren and Cruz are going to visit some of their family, and I wanted you to go because—” The words caught in my throat because I was still so scared about the possibility of losing him.

Cruz took over, reaching over to grab Kane’s hand. “We’re going to be a family. You get to live with Archer, and he loves my mom. We’re going to be brothers.”

Kane’s eyes slid back over to me. “But Archer is my brother. Unless can you be my dad instead?”

I caught Wren’s smile in the mirror, which had mine stretching while a few tears tugged at my eyes. I pulled him into a hug. “I’ll be whatever you need, buddy, as long as you’re mine. Okay?”

His little hands wrapped around my neck, and I inhaled deeply, knowing I needed to let them go. But it was so painful.

I buckled him, closed his door, and moved to Wren’s door.

Her smile was encouraging. I dipped to kiss her, and then she hugged me.

“If something happens, he’ll be with me, Archer. I’ll have Juan forge the papers. Whatever it takes, I’ll raise him. Okay. Don’t worry about us. We’ll be safe.”

I nodded, but words wouldn’t come. “I love you.”

Thistle was next to me, and I knew he was silently telling me we needed to move. I let her go and stepped back.

“We’ll have six of our best follow them and stay out of sight until we know she’s safe in their territory.”

Dipping my head in thanks, I turned away, shutting my eyes. I heard the gravel crunch under her tires as she drove away from me.

The reality that my club was at war still hadn’t settled in, not entirely, until I arrived in the city and found that our club had been completely destroyed. I walked through the shattered glass and found all the pictures on our walls smashed, our pool tables tore up, our liquor bottles emptied.

My men were somber and angry. They were really fucking angry.

“How are we supposed to respond to this?” Dozer kicked at an upturned chair.

Buck was there, pulling up a table, and replied, “We fight.”

Yeah, but their operation was much bigger and far more lethal than ours. They had been planning this and preparing. They surely would have the numbers on their side. I could get a few allies in my back pocket to be on the safe side, but our club was far from any other clubs that might be an option. The only ones on my mind were those I had considered double-crossing after Simon Stone’s funeral.

I didn’t doubt that Killian Quinn wouldn’t want to solidify a stronger alliance by backing me up, but their club was too fragile and had gone through too much recently.

“We need to be smart about it. El Peligro’s previous leader said something happened where our territory became theirs, and we’ve been essentially stealing from them ever since. I need to know what happened and with who.”

Thistle glanced over. “We can get, Ruth.”

She helped us with hacking skills when we needed them. She was an unofficial member of Mayhem Riot, but only when it suited her.

“Do it.”

Thistle pulled his phone to his ear while I looked at my captains.

“Call a disaster repair crew, have them come and get this place fixed up, and send a crew to Wren’s place, too.”

Their cells were out, huddling together while a few other members started brushing glass and picking up pictures.

I had to replace out what the hell happened before we were at war because something told me we wouldn’t survive it.

“It was offsite; there were no cameras.” Ruth spun in her chair, facing us, while she fixed the blue-light glasses on her face.

“You’re sure?”

Thistle shifted nervously. Ruth had always made him act like a kid in middle school, and I didn’t think it was because she didn’t seem to have a single thing on this earth that scared her. No, I had a feeling it had something to do with the fact that she looked like a model, and when she set her sights on him, she acted like he was the only one in the room.

“There are cameras showing who walked into the building. That’s as close as I can get, but there’s none set up anywhere in the room at all.”

I was still impressed that she was able to dig all the way back into digital files from ten years ago; I wouldn’t punch a gift horse in the mouth by complaining that we didn’t have enough information.

“Can you pull that up?”

Ruth spun back around and started typing. I took the opportunity to pull up my phone and check in with Buck.

Buck texted back immediately.

We paid extra for the disaster crew to come out, same day and board up what they didn’t have on hand glass wise. They’d rigged the club to look like we were all inside. There were lights on, and we’d even set the television back up so that it played and could be seen through one of the boarded windows. Their bikes were parked in front, but my men were scattered along rooftops and streets, watching for El Peligro. They were ordered to shoot on sight, and until I figured out what the hell had happened, I planned to keep that order, even if it meant Wren lost her brother and nephews.

“Okay, we’ll have to play it at two times the speed; otherwise, it will take forever. The players all arrived at staggered times. It doesn’t seem like there was any set period for them all to arrive.”

Shit, it was going to be difficult to narrow them down.

Thistle slid into a chair farthest away from Ruth while glancing at her from the side of his eye. She wore blue light glasses that were cherry red, which seemed to complement her beautiful Black skin. She kept making an exaggerated show of pulling her sucker in and out of her mouth while glancing over at my VP. I covered my mouth, hiding a laugh as Thistle shifted in his chair, but I saw his eyes trailing over her tight braids that went down to her waist. It was the same way he watched her every other time we’d been here.

“I won’t bite, Thistle. Not with an audience at least.” She winked over my head at my friend. I shook my head, ignoring them while I leaned forward to view the screen.

It was black-and-white footage, a little grainy, but I could make out the one-story brick building that boasted Gusto’s Bar. Based on the clientele entering, it seemed to be a front for street fights.

“Was there a fight booked on this night?” I asked, and Ruth started clicking away on her keyboard, looking at a different monitor.

“No.”

So, why so many people? Dozens started at six in the evening and continued until ten. I had no idea what this Kyle person looked like, but I’d know if one of my men showed up, and that was all I was looking for at the moment.

Thistle cleared his throat as if he were gearing up for the courage to ask Ruth something. “Could we do a search on The Joker and cross-reference it with the name Kyle?”

Ruth paused, peering over her shoulder. With a smile and pursing her lips like she was blowing him a kiss, she said, “Anything for you.”

I couldn’t smother my laugh this time because Thistle turned bright red.

She clicked away on her computer as I watched the people enter the establishment on the video feed. There was no one wearing our patches, no one at all. Who the fuck had he talked to?

Ruth didn’t look over at us as she read from her screen. “The Joker popped up a few times in different redacted reports. There was one person…looks like he used to be with the FBI, he got messy. Seemed obsessed with this guy and had a few notes in there that have the first name, Kyle, but the last is redacted as well. I can’t seem to replace a clear shot anywhere, but give me a few more minutes.”

I had a feeling it wasn’t going to make a difference.

“I need to talk with Juan,” I told my second in command, but I knew Ruth heard it. I had no idea if she knew who I was talking about, but she’d earned my trust years ago when she started working with us. I didn’t have secrets because she’d just dig them up anyway.

“I can get you his number,” Ruth said, clicking away on her keyboard, which lit up with a variety of colors every time she tapped.

My eyebrow rose. “Really? The last name is Hernandez based on a few reports we gathered over the years, but at birth, it may have been Vasquez.”

She clicked around, and I just kept adding to her information pile.

“Mother is Anna. Father would have been Manuel Vasquez. Sister Henrietta.”

What else was there?

“Location, North Carolina…wife, no idea. Kids…Kingston and⁠—”

“Got it.” Ruth interrupted me and then spun around with a piece of paper in her hand with a number written on it.

Thistle let out what sounded like a dreamy sigh.

Fuck, the guy was gone for her, and he was too chicken shit to admit it. I stood up, gently squeezed Ruth’s shoulder, and walked off, leaving my second-in-command to deal with his crush and pay her.

Dialing this number could go one of two ways…but either really couldn’t be worse than what had already happened.

I punched in the number and let it ring.

On the third ring, he answered.

“Bueno?”

I paused, curious at his cheery tone.

“Juan, it’s Archer Green.” I waited a second to see if he’d hang up, and when he didn’t, I continued, “I need to talk to you.”

There was some shuffling on his end. “Where are you?”

A dark city greeted me as I walked to one of Ruth’s windows in her apartment. “I’m in the city.”

“Good. She left?”

I knew he meant Wren, but admitting I’d let her go still hurt. “Yes, with your mother and Cruz.”

Juan paused again. “And your brother.”

He must have eyes on them right now. My stomach flipped. “Are they safe?”

“Of course,” he replied easily, but I wasn’t buying it.

“Even my brother?”

Juan let out a sigh. “I would never hurt an innocent kid, Archer.”

“No, but your kids would.”

That made him go quiet for so long that I thought he might hang up.

“My sons aren’t perfect…there was an incident that sort of transformed them both…they weren’t always like this.”

Didn’t give a flying fuck how they used to be.

“Don’t care. I need to meet with this Kyle person; you called him The Joker. How would I go about talking to him?”

There was more shuffling in the background.

“How do you know it’s not a trap, you agreeing to come meet us…what makes you assume I just won’t let my boys kill you?”

I had no assurances whatsoever, but it wouldn’t make a difference at this point. I had to try for the sake of Wren.

“I plan to ask your sister to marry me. I plan to have a child with her. I plan to buy your mother earrings for Christmas next year. I plan to meet whoever else is over in North Carolina. I think that means something to you, and because Wren means something to you, you’ll make sure I stay alive.”

Juan was quiet, and then he let out a small laugh.

“Get my mother pearls.”

“Why?”

His voice sounded light as if he were amused. “Because she hates them, but she’ll feel obligated to wear them. I would pay money to see her put on an act for an entire evening just because she wouldn’t want to offend you.”

I was curious if perhaps his wife had made that mistake once, remembering what his mother had said about treating her poorly.

“What else?” I asked, hoping this was a negotiation.

Juan waited, then added, “I want to attend your wedding. It’s non-negotiable. I want to see my baby sister walk down the aisle.”

“Deal, but I’m on the fence regarding your spawn.”

“Fair,” Juan chuckled, “I’ll text you a meeting location.”

Urgency raced through me, along with panic and a little bit of fear. “It needs to be this Kyle person.”

“He headed this way the second I told him King and Gio had gone off book.”

My brows caved in as I processed that, and while I knew he probably wouldn’t answer, I asked anyway.

“Why would he do that?”

Juan was stoic as he replied, “Because they fear him.”

A text message from Buck came through on my phone, but my mind must have run away with me because while I pulled the phone away from my ear to check the text, I asked.

“Why fear him and not you?”

Juan was quiet for so long that I assumed he had hung up. Then he finally said, “We’ll just say they gave Kyle a good enough reason to be feared.”

Something about his tone told me it was a painful story, which I’d imagine would be hard for any parent to tell. I hadn’t known Juan for more than two seconds, so I understood that.

“I’ll text you the address.”