Page 3 of Banshee
I should have told my mother the first time Pepper hit me. My father would have loaded up his men and gone to war. But the Death Dogs had too many members. They outnumbered the Gods of Mayhem two to one.
People might fear my father’s club, but numbers don’t lie. Numbers were what I knew. So, I kept my mouth shut to protect my family.
We’d already lost so much.
“Aspen?”
I spun around to look at Kytten. “Yes?”
“Stop fretting. What about putting up an advertisement for someone creative? Maybe you could hire a young girl who has a passion for flowers?”
“Maybe,” I sighed. I didn’t understand why Val was so insistent on a flower shop. I understood I couldn’t do something in accounting; it would be too risky, but flowers?
“You’ve got this!”
With a heavy exhale, I smiled at Kytten. I wished she could stay. I liked her. She was sweet and kind, always so happy. Like a ray of sunshine after a storm.
I used to be like that. A long time ago, before my sister disappeared. She went off to college when I was eight years old and never came home.
My family was never the same after that.
Now, nothing would ever be the same again. I now lived in a small town in the Midwest, with no family, no friends. I didn’t even get to keep my name. Not that I wanted to.
I hated the name Irene. My parents took the whole mythological god thing too far. My sister and I were both named after goddesses. Why my brother wasn’t named after a god, I didn’t understand. Maybe it was because they knew he would run the club one day. He’d gotten his road name early on. And Zeus wasn’t the kind of name you gave a baby.
“I’ve got this,” I whispered. Everyone wished for a fresh start at some point in their life, right? This was mine. I was safe and free; that was what mattered. Anything beyond that was just the cherry on top of the sundae.
Chapter One
Banshee
February 2025, Diamond Creek, Nebraska.
Looking up from my place at the bar, I found Gunner barking orders at the prospects as he pointed to multiple bags on the floor.
“Archie, put those bags in the room Amber readied,” Gunner ordered, pointing to Aspen’s bags. “Johnny, put those bags in my room.”
We’d all heard what had happened to Aspen, the woman who ran the flower shop in town. She’d been living here for almost two years, but I’d never met the woman. I’d had no reason to visit the flower shop, and the old ladies said she kept to herself, not making much of an effort to get to know the people in town.
“Wait, I am not staying in your room.”
“We’ll talk about it later. Let’s get Aspen settled.”
While Gunner argued with the woman he had been stalking, I searched the room for Aspen. She was easy to find, being the only woman I wouldn’t recognize. Except, I did fucking recognize her. And that was the moment my world tipped on its axis.
There was no doubt in my mind it was her. Her hair was dark, not the golden honey she’d had when she was younger. Her features were a little different, softer.
What the fuck was she doing here, and why was she going by the name Aspen?
I remembered the first time I saw her. She was barely twenty years old, and I felt like a perv when I couldn’t stop staring at her. She was beautiful. And I’ll never forget the day I had to walk away from her.
2018 Little Rock, Arkansas.
“Banshee, get your ass in here!”
“You’re fucked, brother. Steele sounds pissed.” Romeo snickered.
“When isn’t the fucker pissed off about something? You’d think with all the money and pussy the man has he’d smile once in a fucking while.”
