Page 38 of Taming the Demon

“Good,” Cyrus said. “Prayer. Right here.” Cyrus turned his head. “Everyone not praying, fuck off right now. Shut the door behind you.”

Everyone except Cyrus, Linc, Slade, Darrow, Custer, Monte, and Deed exited the garage. The last to go was Drix.

“Prospect,” Cyrus barked at Drix. “You stand guard at the door. Do you have a gun?”

“No, sir, I don’t,” Drix said. “I have a knife.”

Cyrus reached behind himself, pulled out a handgun and flicked it like a toy at Drix. Without an ounce of fear, Drix caught the gun, held it tight, and nodded.

“Drix,” Darrow said. “Did Bram lick up all the piss?”

“Of course he did,” Drix said with a smirk.

Drix shut the door behind him.

“Might be time to take a vote on him,” Slade said. “He’s tough. And evil.”

“First things first,” Cyrus said.“We need to find the fucking rat…”

Chapter Sixteen

Honey Medicine

Mara hated feeling stuck but she had no protection if she decided to leave the apartment. She hated to live in a sense of perceived fear too. Not to mention being alone like this reminded her… she was alone. So much of her old life, just gone. Vanished. Wiped off the face of the earth because of Fitz.

Before getting tangled up with Fitz… life was just fun. She managed a strip club and a diner. Working two important jobs, living a nocturnal life, always busy. It was actually the diner where she met Fitz, ironically enough. She had seen him and the others in the strip club many times. That’s where she learned how to navigate the outlaw lifestyle. Very rarely did those guys get out of line at the strip club. The diner was a different story.

In fact, the first time Fitz asked her out, it was right after he put some guy through the front window. To her, Fitz was this epic monster of sex. And by the time she realized who he was, her ass had his initials and she was marrying him. Confessing a love she never truly felt, speaking vows that were just words on paper.

The first time she met Darrow though…

“Fuck,” Mara whispered to herself.

She found herself going through her phone, stopping at a name she promised herself she would delete about fifty times.

“Macy,”Mara whispered and her eyes instantly filled with tears.

Macy’s stage name wasHoneysuckle.She had creamy skin that never tanned but could get sunburned from a lightbulb. Strawberry blonde hair, Caribbean blue eyes, and a sweet smile that even made Mara’s heart race. The only person Mara ever trusted. Someone she considered not just a friend or even a best friend, but someone who was like a sister to her.

In fact, Mara almost lost her job one night when some business guy got handsy with Macy and forced a finger between her legs. Macy slapped the guy and the guy slapped her back, leaving a horrible red handprint on Macy’s face for two days. Instead of having security kick the guy out, Mara grabbed a letter opener and put it through the man’s hand, literally going through the man’s hand and into the wooden arm of a chair, leaving him attached. It took a lot of apologizing and a favor fromSOFRAWto get Mara out of that jam.

She kept her job and the guy who slapped Macy was barred from the strip club for life. Then the worst possible thing happened between Mara and Macy.

Fitz got between them.

Mara caught the flu and was in bed for three days straight. During that time, Fitz decided it was a great opportunity to try and fuck Macy. Thedeeceesat the clubhouse weren’t doing the trick. Fitz wanted something different and something wild. So he went to Macy’s studio apartment and worked his way inside, then tried to work his way inside her.

That wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it came when Macy showed up to talk to Mara about it. Mara remembered the way Macy’s face looked. Shocked. Scared. Mascara running down her cheeks from crying. She was completely disheveled and spuna story of how Fitz forced himself onto her. And if she hadn’t kneed him in the balls and locked herself in the bathroom…

Mara didn’t believe Macy. Her own best friend. No matter how much Macy cried and swore, Mara just refused to believe it. Even if in her heart she knew it were true. Once the lifestyle got into your veins it was like a deadly drug. And since a guy like Fitz was the one injecting that lifestyle, Mara just slipped more and more.

Mara quit working at the strip club. Quit the diner. She gave up everything to be solely Fitz’s inked-up old lady. And that was what sent her down the path of wine and pills.

Her only enjoyment in life was going to the clubhouse to call Maggie a whore. And to wait and see if Darrow was there. Those precious few seconds of staring into Darrow’s eyes…

Mara popped the lid off the bottle of Xanax and put the bottle to her mouth. She threw her head back and felt a few of the pills touch her tongue. Instantly, she shook her head and spit the pills into the kitchen sink. She ran water onto them, watching as they dissolved.

“No,” she said.

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