The Serpentine Syndicate MC: Manix

Chapter 18

'You dirty fucking slut', kick.

'Running away from me', kick.

'Embarrassing me', kick.

'Causing me to lie about where you are to my family', kick.

He'd found me, my past finally caught up to me and now I was paying the price. Lying on the dust track road outside the compound, at first his kick to the ground had caused me to see nothing but black. Now however, his cheeks and forehead had turned a ghastly shade of red, his eyes bulging as he spoke. I did nothing but cry as his spit hit my body, alongside his shoes.

The boots to my head eventually getting worse, my eyes pained from being throw to the back of my head. If I merely thought that this was worse of it, the gun he pulled from his back pocket, pointed at my head, had all the pain forgotten. My breathing hitched, scared the slightest move would set him off. His snarling face would have terrified me, if the barrel end of the gun wasn't shadowing my eyesight.

'No ones going to look or find a fuck up like you Carina, I've had enough of wasting my time trying to put you in your place, heck the new tits I've been fucking since you left has filled the slot entirely'.

His fingers curled around the trigger as my eyes could do nothing but squint preparing for the impact.

Bang!

I sprung up, one hand flying to my forehead the other pressed against my chest. Calming my erratic heart. A dream, it had been a stupid fucking dream.

Although little things reminded me of the past, halted my progress from time to time. Very rarely did it happen in my sleep, yet here I was practically feeling the affects of a heart attack, due to a dream of Calvin shooting me. All week I'd struggled to escape a version of events that ended with me dying at the hands of Calvin, todays sleep had not broke the recurrent cycle.

I guess a psychologist may rationalise the sudden nightmares, as my subconscious admittedly feeling guilty for not telling Keaton about my past. Ever since he'd sat me down just shy of a week ago and asked me to be his old lady, things had been great.

Though I could not shake the extreme liability I felt, by potentially putting him in the path of danger.

Sure in a fist fight I had no worries that Keaton or Manix would win, but Calvin doesn't play fair. Often employing larger, more ruthless bodies to get the job done. Cash speaks a thousand words to the right kind of person and he was someone who knew how to play the game.

The calendar in the kitchen seemed to serve as a constant reminder every morning. Manifesting further the guilt I already felt, by not telling everyone why I barged into the bar all those weeks ago. The date nights, and moments as a trio never served as the ideal time to talk about such a matter and even the mundane tasks like grocery shopping and taking Aldo to school, seemed to be far to enjoyable for me to ruin the mood.

Alas even when the small windows of opportunity presented themselves. My mouth seemed to clam shut or stutter when I finally found an opportunity to tell him the truth and just like that I would disregard the idea as fast as it had presented itself.

The secondary fear was what kept me tossing and turning at night. What if I did inform Keaton or the guys and they reacted terribly. The idea of relinquishing all the positives I had here, was potentially worse than revealing the secret itself. I'd learnt through more ways that one over the years, that if you required a secret to be kept, you could only really trust yourself. Once its shared with as little as one person, no longer is it a secret. And I wasn't going to be the one to test that theory out.

So for now, I've got to stay quite, thought it does seem to be proving a great feat. The nightmares were becoming worse each night and my brain had started to agitate and magnify small insignificant things.

For example, the knickers in my top draw, that seemed to have moved an inch to the left. Or the bed that looked a little to perfect for how I had left it, strange things that just made me feel off. But lack of sleep could do that to a person, make them feel insane and I was no exception.

I'm sure the rest of the club had an inkling we were more than just a casual thing. But I was off to meet Keaton's parents for the first time tonight and if all went well we would announce the old lady status to everyone else. It didn't really bother me either way, but Keaton was definitely a mummy's boy and so I was hoping I would make a good impression.

Calvin's mother had been aristocratic, aloof and pretentious. Every time I'd met her, always at country clubs or within the walls of her pristine home. Never once had her faced resembled anything but cold towards me. Her lips a thin line, often scouring and tutting at my presence. I never understood why Calvin had chose me. I evidently wasn't the obvious choice, his parents always seemed to mention a younger, richer, prettier girl who had been inquiring about their son. In retrospect, one could probably deduce that Calvin was his parents son.

Woefully, my track record with meeting the parents had been lousy.

Now as I shuffled within my bed, daylight had been unforgiving to my lack of sleep and nightmares. Deciding their was little that could be done until sleep rolled back around later tonight, I clambering out of bed and headed straight to the kitchen. Determined to forget the nightmare of being shot, the coffee's nutty aroma had instantly awakened my sense. Just in time for Alice to run through the doors.

'Hey girly, owh that smells good. Any left in the pot?'. Her chipper voice never failing to perk my mood up.

'Of course, let me get you a cup'.

Placing the cup of brewed coffee on the table along with some milk and sugars, I sat down opposite.

'What's wrong hun? I've seen you away with the fairies the last week. If somethings wrong you can tell me. You look so happy when your with Keaton, but seeing you on your own somethings up'.

Her interrogation being a blessing I needed to release a small amount of the stress I was feeling.

'I'm meeting Manix's parents tonight and I don't know, I guess I'm just scared. My last partner was somewhat of an asshole. As were his parents and I'm worried. Worried they wont like me or I'll make the shittiest first impression ever'.

My shoulders instantly sagged, having released some of the built up tension. I'm aware me and Keaton had agreed to not tell anyone, but Alice just had that way of reading you and knowing. I doubt I had to confirm we were an item for her to have already guessed.

'First off, Manix's parents are lovely. They couldn't hate you even if you shit on their lawn or something. Not to mention Keaton would not be taking you to meet his parents if he didn't think either party was ready. He loves you and by relation they will love you. But nonetheless you need a good outfit and a gift, nothing a good shopping trip can't fix'.

With one last manic laugh from Alice and a chuckle from me, we were already heading out to get change and go shopping in preparation for the event tonight.