Saige

by Shannon McFadden

  Nine

  Cotton

  Once everyone is situated, we head out to Mel’s Diner. Mel had started the diner up back in the fifties, and he was still going strong. His grandson worked there as well. Loki pulls up beside us, and we all go in to get a booth. “Hey Mel, how’s it going?” I ask as the old man makes his way over.

  “Everything is going great, young man. How are you all doing? And how is my little Bethany over there? Are you wanting happy face pancakes?” We all laugh as Bethany claps her hands, bouncing in the high chair. “I’ll take that as a yes,” he replies, chuckling. After we all order, Sloane and Saige started talking about the bakery. So I look at Loki, he just has this big shit eating grin on his face.

  “What’s with the look, brother?” He just grins bigger, looks from me to Saige to Bethany. Yeah, I get what he is saying without him saying a word. I shake my head no, grinning, but on the inside, I am falling apart. I want that more than anything. To have Saige as my old lady, watch her grow round with our kids. But I know that I’m not good enough for her, I need to back off some. I realize that I have been leading her on, I can’t do that to her. She deserves someone that is whole, that can love her the way she is meant to be loved. We get our food and the conversation around the table stops for a bit. Saige is helping Bethany by cutting up her pancakes. God she is so beautiful.

  I feel a shiver down my spine and know someone is watching us. I straighten up, give Loki a kick under the table, and we both start looking around. It doesn’t take long for us to see who is staring at us. I notice her right away. She is watching Saige, Loki, and Bethany. When she notices that I am staring back at her she smiles. She looks familiar, but I can’t place her right now. Short blondish hair, tall, slim. She walks by us with her takeout bag, stops, staring down at Bethany. She smiles at Saige, stating, “I’m sorry to disturb you, I just saw and heard that precious baby. Is she yours?”

  Saige smiles, “No, she is my niece. I’m just babysitting today.”

  “Oh, well she is beautiful. Y’all have a great day.”

  I nod at her, as Saige says, “Thank you. You too.”

  Waiting until the woman is out the door, I look at Saige asking, “Do you know who that woman was?”

  She shakes her head no, replying, “I feel like I should know her though. It’s just an odd feeling I have.”

  “Yeah, I felt it too, like I’ve seen her before,” Loki says.

  I look to Loki, “Hey, let’s go outside and wait. I know Bethany has to be cleaned up right quick. We really need to be going if we’re going to meet that realtor in time.” Loki and I head outside.

  “Who and what was that? Did it not give you the creeps? I mean she stared at us like she knew who Saige and I were. Then to come over and stare at Saige even more. Hell, she acted disappointed when Saige said Bethany was her niece,” Loki says. Yeah, he is getting worked up. All of us having a feeling like we should know the woman and not being able to place her is getting to him.

  “We’ll figure out who she is. Meantime, we keep a close eye on Saige. I don’t like the fact that we haven’t heard anything about the Ghosts of Darkness. We know that they’re still around here, but them being quiet like this, I know something big is going to happen.” Loki nods his agreement as the girls come out of the diner. I look over at them. Damn Saige looks so beautiful. I can’t help staring at her.

  “You girls ready?” Sloane nods. She gets on the back of Loki’s bike, as I put Bethany in her car seat. “Let’s go.”

  We’re looking at the second building with this realtor, and she hasn’t left my side, talking to me about the places, not Saige. I can see that Saige is getting irritated, I kinda like it, but I look at the woman and interrupt her spiel. “Look, I appreciate you telling us all about this place and the last one. But it isn’t me that you need to butter up. I’m not buying the place. Saige is.”

  The woman turns red, but looks to Saige, “I apologize. I knew you were looking, but I thought that you were just going to be baking the stuff, that the club would own the building.”

  Saige smiles, but it doesn’t meet her eyes, “No. I’ll be the sole owner and baking. Sloane’ll be working with me. The club has nothing to do with this.”

  She nods, and goes back into her spiel, talking to Saige now. This building is a lot bigger than the other one. It was a bakery before, is right in the middle of town, and it has everything Saige will need. We go over to a corner to talk over the buildings. Really wasn’t much to talk over. The girls knew which one they wanted, and finally Saige is signing papers. Now to get back to the clubhouse. I need to get to work in the garage.

  Ten

  Saige

  A few weeks later…

  The day was a great one, for the most part. Sloane and I worked our butts off to get this place open. We baked and decorated for two days straight. Saige’s Sweet Treats is now open to the public. Most of the club was here to help out for the day. We did a huge grand opening, with door prizes, a cake walk, samples for people, and it was a huge success. We already have orders for a couple of birthday cakes, and a retirement party. The only thing that would have made today better was if Cotton wasn’t acting so weird towards me again. I thought maybe we were headed towards a relationship, but after the day we signed papers for the bakery, he’s gone back to ignoring me, or being snippy. I have no clue what I have done to set him off like that. I just know it hurts.

  Loki is staying behind to be with me and Sloane as we close and clean up for the day. There was a prospect here too, but I told him to go ahead and leave, since Loki was here. Yeah, Dad will be pissed at me for not having the two patches and a prospect with me, but it’s been almost a month, with nothing from the Ghosts. So I let the guy go home. He was so tired. I guess that was my first mistake. The second was letting Sloane and Loki take off a few minutes before I did. As I’m getting my stuff in my saddlebag and grabbing my helmet, I’m hit from behind. Everything goes black as I feel arms go around me before I hit the ground, passing out completely.

  Oh my God my head is pounding, and I can’t move my arms. I slowly open my eyes to see that I’m in a room with a couple of men staring at me. “It’s about time you woke up, bitch!” a man snarls at me. I look at him and see that he’s wearing a President’s patch on a cut. He is disgusting and evil looking, that’s the only thing I can think, looking at him. He has greasy brown hair, an overgrown beard, a belly that is protruding over his pants. He has tattoos and a long scar on his face. It finally hits me; I am looking at Rancor.

  “What do you want with me?” I ask.

  Rancor sneers. “You’re going to be my payback to your club. Stone never should’ve tried stopping us. Just because my old man got put in jail and killed, doesn’t mean that we were going to stop. You’re going to be sold to the highest bidder. You’re going to make me a lot of money and it’ll destroy your father in the process. I can’t wait to see who buys you. I’m going to make sure that you’re treated the way you deserve, bitch.”

  “You think you scare me? My club will find me, and they’ll stop you! Your whole club will be put to ground!” He steps closer to me, then punches me hard. I see black again and hurt like hell, but I try not to show any emotion at all to him.

  He laughs. “Oh, you’re going to be so fun to break.” He walks out of the room slamming the door behind him, locking it.

  “Are you okay?” a small voice asks. I look towards the sound and see a beautiful woman, tied up about ten feet away from me.

  “I think so, are you okay? My name is Saige, what’s yours? How long have you been here?”

  She looks at me, “I’m Bexley. I think I’m okay, just scared. I try not to let them see it. They took me from work a couple of days ago. Said they were going to sell me to the highest bidder and that I would make them a lot of money. He won’t take pictures of us right now. Said they have to get the right clothes to put on us.”

  “Where are you from, Bexley? I really love your name by the way.�
�� I’m trying to stay calm by talking to her. She is the only other person in here.

  “I’m from Texas originally, but I moved here about a year ago for a job. I’m an accountant at the Jefferson Bank.” I nod. I know that bank.

  “I just opened up my bakery. Today was our grand opening. I can’t believe I was so stupid in letting Loki and Sloane leave without me. I let my guard down. We knew that this club was around, but they hadn’t made a move or anything. They were quiet. I’ll find a way to get us out of here, Bexley. My dad, brother, and cousin will be looking for me. I’m not leaving here without you.”

  “What was he talking about, your dad stopping them before?”

  I sigh, “It was several years ago. Rancor’s dad was the president of the Ghosts of Darkness. He was running drugs and guns through our town, along with a sex trafficking ring. At the time, my dad was still working for the police department. He and a few others went in, busted up the gang at the time. Rancor’s dad, Snake, and his Sargent at Arms, Hellboy, went to prison. They were both murdered there. It wasn’t long after that, that my dad left the department. See our MC is mostly LEOs, former LEOs, military, firefighters, EMTs. Not all but most of them have worked or still work in those fields. I guess Rancor has been building up the gang and learning some new tricks since all that happened. I’m so sorry that you are caught up in it.”

  Bexley smiles. “It isn’t your fault. And if we work together, hopefully we can get out of here soon.”

  “Absolutely.” We talk a little bit more, but my head is hurting so bad that I can’t fight it anymore and fall asleep.

  Eleven

  Cotton

  “Hey Loki, Sloane, where is Saige? Stone is looking for her.”

  “What do you mean where is she? She isn’t here? We all left at the same time.” Loki is looking at me like I have grown horns. He takes off running outside to see if her bike is here.

  “Sloane, where is she?”

  Sloane looks out the door. “I don’t know, Cotton. She was putting her stuff in her bag and putting her helmet on when we started out of the parking lot. I thought she was right behind us, because I could hear another bike.” Sloane is crying, and Loki comes back in shaking his head.

  “She was right behind us. I tried calling her, but it’s going straight to voicemail. What the hell, man?” Loki’s really upset.

  “Come on, we need to let Stone know.”

  They walk into Stone’s office with me. He looks up, sees Sloane crying, and Loki all upset. “What is going on?”

  “Saige isn’t here, and she isn’t answering her phone. They said she was right behind them when they left the bakery, but she isn’t here, man.”

  Stone pushes back from his desk, yelling, “Get out there and look for her!” Just as we are leaving his office a prospect runs in, the same one that was supposed to be watching out for her.

  “Excuse me, Pres, some guy just dropped this off at the front gate, said it was important that you get it asap.” He hands over a letter to Stone.

  I look at him, see that his hair is wet from a shower and ask, “Where were you this evening? You were supposed to stay with Saige, make sure she made it home safely!” The prospect looks at me and actually grins at me.

  “She told me to head back here. She saw how tired I was. I didn’t want to leave her, but she ordered me to.”

  “You are to stay with her at all times if you are ordered by your pres to watch her! Go get Cruz, have him and Tires get in here now! I will deal with you later!” Stone snarls. The prospect takes off down the hall. A few minutes later the guys come in. “Sloane, sweetheart, I need you to go to out with Stella and wait, okay?” She leaves the room; the door is shut behind her.

  “What’s going on, Dad?” Tires asks. He looks to me also.

  “We just got a letter from the Ghosts. Apparently, they have Saige. The note says if we ever want to see her again, we need to keep an eye out on the dark web. Cotton, I want you, Tires, and Loki to go back to the bakery, see if you can find anything. Check the security cameras from the buildings around hers. Cruz, you and I are going to go get Tech, see if he can find anything out on the computer. The man is a genius, if anyone can find out about this dark net, he can. I’m going to put in a call to Commander Thomas. See if he can find out anything too. I want my daughter home, now!”

  Tires, Loki, and I ride out to the bakery. When we get there, we see Saige’s bike still parked at the back door. Her saddlebags are wide open. Loki opens the door and goes inside to check it out. Tires and I go to the buildings next door and ask for their security camera feeds. Loki comes running out and hollers for us to get inside with him. “You have to see this! Now!” He pulls up the video and we see a big man with the Ghosts cut come up behind her, hitting her on the head, hard. He is pulling her over to a dark SUV and damned if Pyro doesn’t open the back door to pull her in it.

  “That son of a bitch! I’ll kill him when we find them!” Tires yells. He has his phone out, dialing Stone. I’m just standing here, staring at the screen, feeling like my world is crashing down around me. I have to find her. I have to get her back, safe.

  Tires breaks through my thoughts, saying, “Dad wants us back at the clubhouse. He said to bring the tapes and come straight to church. Tech found something also.” I nod, grab the tape, and we head out. We have to find out what is going on, where she is and fast.

  We get back to clubhouse, and Sloane runs up to Loki, “Have you found anything out, is she okay?” She is still crying.

  Loki walks her towards his mom, stating, “Babe, I have to go into church. I’ll tell you what I can, when we get out. Go sit with my mom, okay?” She goes to Stella, who is also crying, and we go into church.

  “Stone, we need y’all to see this video.”

  “Put it in the player, Cotton.” I set it up, then hit play. Everyone is watching it, holding their breath. When they see Pyro pulling her into that SUV, everyone yells out.

  “What the hell is going on?” Lynch asks. “He was followed back to Morriston and left there with Tonks. Has anyone heard from Tonks?” Rubble grabs up his phone and dials him.

  “It’s going straight to voicemail, Pres.”

  “Son of a bitch!” Lynch yells. “Stone, if I’d known anything about this, I would’ve told you.”

  Stone replies, “I know, Lynch. It’ll be handled, brother. Tech, show them what you found, let us know what it means.”

  I sit down next to Stone and watch Tech hook his computer up to the tv so we can see what he has found.

  “The note said that if we wanted to see Saige again to look on the dark net. That’s what I did. I found her and some other girl on a site. They’re being auctioned off in three days, it says the auction will run for two weeks. Highest bidder gets the girls. I can’t find the IP address yet that this is posted from. It’s bouncing off a lot of towers. But I will find it.” The video that Tech found shows Saige and another girl huddled up together in their underwear. They’re tied together, it says bidding and more photos to come soon.

  Stone starts delegating to us all, “Tech, I want you to stay on this site. See if you can crack that IP address. Also, if bidding starts before we find them, bid on them both. We aren’t leaving that other girl behind. Cotton, I want you to go with me and Tires to show all of this to Commander Thomas. He is expecting us. Lynch, you and Rubble, keep trying to get Tonks. If you have to, send someone to look for him. And try seeing if Pyro will answer you. Call him. Tech, try triangulating his cell phone. He may have a burner now, who knows, but try. Cruz, take a couple of guys with you and Loki, see if you can find any of those bastards out anywhere, and if you do, get them back here for a little chat.” We all leave to get to work on finding Saige and that other girl. I just hope we can get to them before anything more happens to them.

  Twelve

  Saige

  Bexley and I have been stripped down to just lingerie they made us put on after we showered, and left tied up together. Now this slime
ball is taking our pictures, adjusting his junk the whole time. It’s making me sick, but I won’t let them know it. Bexley is trying to be strong and not show her emotions either. She is trying to draw strength from me, and I’m drawing strength from her. Rancor comes in, watching as the guy takes our pictures. He stares at me the whole time, as I glare back at him. “I’m not going to touch you yet, Saige. But if you don’t pull in the amount of money I want, I may just keep you for myself or my brother. I would love to be the one to break you. You have so much spirit, and fight in you. It would be a pleasure to take that from you.” He laughs. I just stare back at him, not saying a word, which pisses him off. “Let’s go! You have enough photos for now.” Once they leave the room slamming the door, I relax into Bexley.

  “Bex, we’ve to get out of here. I know my dad and club are looking for us. I just hope they find us soon.” She just leans into me. We’ve learned a lot about each other, and I really like her. Bexley has beautiful ginger hair, blue eyes, and a kickass attitude. We are quickly becoming friends, and when we get out of here, I’m having her brought into the clubhouse for safety. Sloane and Stella will love her. Just as I go to ask her a question the door opens again. I look up, only to see Pyro. What the fuck?! He comes in the room and sits right in front of me.

  “Hey, Saige. See what happens when you don’t listen to me? If you would’ve just listened to me, you’d be safe. But no. You had to defy me, make me look like a fool, again!”

  “Pyro, what the hell are you doing with them, here?”

  “Hmph, that’s what you’re worried about? Well seeing as how you’re going to be sold, and I get a lot of money out of it, and you’ll not be seen or heard from again…. Rancor is my half-brother. Several years older than me, as you can tell. I found out from Mom when she was on her death bed. I reached out to him, we talked. Got to know each other. I saw what they were doing, the money that they were making. I wanted in. All I had to do was spy on the Vipers. Easy enough, seeing as how I am one. If you’d just go along with my plan, you would be my old lady, and we would be rolling in the dough right now, figuratively and literally. But now, I get to watch and hear you beg me to help you. And believe me, Saige, you’ll start begging soon enough.” With that he grabs me by the hair, smashing his mouth onto mine. I try to turn away from him. Pyro gets angry, and bites my lip, making it bleed, before he walks out of the room, slamming the door behind him, laughing the whole time. For the first time, I let my fear show a little.