Baron
987 Words
I was Yvonne Delgrado. My hands were stained with engine grease, and my back ached from sixteen-hour shifts. They said I was the girl who'd fallen the furthest. It was the greatest shame of my bloodline. Why? Because the daughter of a motorcycle club president wasn't supposed to be crawling under broken-down cars in Murphy's Auto Repair.
Our club, the Delgrado Riders, had been one of the most feared in the territory. My father Richard had built an empire through bike customization, underground racing, and strategic alliances. The Delgrado name was respected in both legitimate business and the shadowy world of MC politics. We controlled territory that stretched across three states.
Even though the Delgrado Riders commanded respect from every club in the region, we were cursed by our enemies' envy. The greater our power, the more rivals wanted to destroy us. My father thought his reputation could protect everything. Eventually, our prominence would make us targets.
My grandmother Rosa's love was the only thing that kept me anchored to who I used to be after everything fell apart.
I had been away at college when it happened. Far from the club, far from the violence, pursuing a degree in business administration like my father wanted. I was supposed to be the legitimate face of the Delgrado empire, the daughter who could move in both worlds - the corporate boardrooms and the motorcycle clubhouses.
The call came at 3 AM on a Tuesday in October. Uncle Nandes' voice was broken, barely recognizable through his grief.
"Mija, you need to come home. There's been... an incident."
I drove through the night, my hands white-knuckled on the steering wheel, praying it wasn't as bad as Nandes sounded. But when I arrived at what used to be our compound, I found half the buildings burned, memorial flowers piled against the gates, and my uncle aged ten years in a single night.
"They're gone, Yvonne," he told me, his voice hollow as he stood in my father's destroyed office. "Richard and Catherine. The Iron Wolves ambushed them outside Romano's Diner. Albarron Dominikus himself put the bullets in your father's head."
The words hit me like physical blows. Gone. Both of them. While I was safe in my dorm room, studying for midterms.
"Why?" I whispered.
"Territory war. Your father was trying to negotiate a peace treaty, thought he could reason with Dominikus. But Albarron wanted total surrender - our businesses, our territory, our reputation." Nandes pulled out a blood-stained newspaper clipping. "He made an example of them. Shot them in broad daylight and left their bodies as a message."
I couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. The world tilted and spun around me.
Since then, I'd sworn vengeance. Every night, I fell asleep planning ways to make Albarron Dominikus pay for what he'd taken from me. Every morning, I woke up powerless to do anything about it. The Iron Wolves were untouchable - too powerful, too well-connected, too dangerous for what remained of the Desert Serpents to challenge directly.
But I never stopped wanting his blood.
After the murders, Nandes inherited leadership according to my father's will. He renamed us the Desert Serpents MC and moved operations underground. But we were broken, scattered, barely twenty members left from what used to be over two hundred.
Since then, Nandes had fought tooth and nail to keep us alive, to keep Rosa's medical bills paid, to maintain even the shadow of what we once were. He'd sold off properties, liquidated assets, begged favors from old allies. But it was never enough.
"I'm sorry, mija," he'd said last week when I asked for another loan for Rosa's treatment. "We barely have enough to keep the lights on. The club is hemorrhaging money, and these new medical specialists... they want payment upfront."
I could see the shame in his eyes. Nandes had always been the strong one, my father's right hand, the man who promised to take care of us after Richard died. But the Iron Wolves had broken more than just our bodies - they'd broken our spirit, our resources, our future.
That's when my friend Carmen called with the job offer.
"I know you don't want to hear this," she'd said, her voice careful over the phone while I scrubbed engine parts in the garage sink. "But there's a position open. Executive assistant. The pay is... substantial."
"I'm not interested," I said immediately, not even looking up from my work. "I've got steady work here, and I'm not getting mixed up in anything shady."
"Yvonne, just listen-"
"No, Carmen. I told you before - I'm done with all that. I work an honest job, I take care of Rosa, and I stay out of trouble. Find someone else."
"The salary would cover your grandmother's surgery completely. Plus enough left over to-"
"I said no." I hung up the phone and went back to my engine repair, trying to ignore the growing pile of medical bills on my workbench.
But Carmen was persistent. She called back an hour later.
"Just hear me out for thirty seconds," she pleaded. "If you're not interested after that, I'll never bring it up again."
I sighed, wiping grease from my hands. "Thirty seconds."
"Executive assistant position. Completely legitimate front company. The client specifically requested someone with your educational background and... family history. Someone who understands corporate structure but also knows how to keep their mouth shut about sensitive business practices."
"Sounds like mob money. I told you I'm not-"
"The client is Albarron Dominikus."
The wrench slipped from my hand, clattering to the concrete floor. My heart stopped, then began pounding so hard I could hear it in my ears.
Albarron Dominikus. The man who'd murdered my parents. The monster who'd destroyed everything my family built. The target of every revenge fantasy I'd harbored for three years.
"When do I start?" I heard myself saying.
"Yvonne-"
"When. Do. I. Start."
- Writer
