In the pitch blackness of the space, I can’t make out any windows. My eyes burn straining to find something around me. I can’t even tell how big the room is or where there is a door. Sliding with my back to the wall, I keep moving to my left until I finally bump into another wall. Sitting in the corner, I focus on my breathing.
I have to stay calm.
Panicking will not help me, but remaining alert and smart will.
I’m alive when I could be dead. I can’t give up.
As much as my mind fights me to go down the rabbit hole of everything I have lost, I don’t.
That saying, it ain’t over ‘til it’s over, that’s going to get me through this. I will not give in, and I will not give up. So, rather than dwell on never kissing Axel again, I’m going to think about the taste of his lips when I get out of here.
We’ve wasted enough time with me being stubborn and stupid. No more. I’m going to get out of this and call Axel.
If he rejects me, then I deserve it, but no more wondering what if. No more daydreaming of what could have been or what could be.
Since my mom and dad weren’t home, I am going to remain hopeful they weren’t taken as well. I have to. I don’t know who has me, or why, but I do know without a doubt my parents will move Heaven and Earth to get me back.
I just have to endure.
I can do this.
For them.
For Axel.
For me.
Regulating my breathing, I focus on calming my erratic heartbeat. Okay, I’m in a room. For sanity’s sake, I’m going to assume it’s a basement. I’m alone … I think. I remember the prick of a needle, so again, going on assumption, I was drugged. It could be day; it could be night.
I could be anywhere.
The anxiety rises. Each breath gets harder to take than the last. The invisible elephant on my chest won’t win. I fight to slow my breathing into steady deep breaths.
The sound of shuffling from my far right gets my attention as the panic is crippling me. I hear a groan and scoot against the wall.
Who is with me?
Is it Laura?
Please let it be Laura.
More shuffling. Then a whimper and the sound of hiccupping from crying. Definitely a female shares my space. I blink trying to make a shadow, trying to find this person.
“Help me,” she whispers. Recognizing her voice, my heart skips a beat.
Laura.
I sigh and then grunt to make noise since I can’t do anything else with the gag in my mouth.
“Who’s there?” she asks, not hiding the choking sound of her voice. She’s afraid.
Against the fabric, I try to tell her, “it’s me,” only it’s muffled by the gag.
“Yesnia?” I hear her moving near me. “Please be Yesnia,” she whispers and fights back a sob but it still escapes her.
“Yes,” I cry out against the gag.
More shuffling, and then a figure appears closer to me. I make more noise so she can find her way to me. When she gets closer, I let the tears fall.
My friend is with me.
My friend is alive.
She shifts and wiggles like a worm to me where I turn so she can use me to get herself in an upright position.
In the dark of the night, I struggle to make out her face.
“Yesnia,” she whispers, “are you hurt?”
I shake my head.
She studies me in the dark. When she gets up close I can see the streaks of tear lines down her cheeks and a mark on her forehead of dried blood.
She keeps focused on me. “Okay, we have to have a plan. First, I think we need to get the tape off your mouth,” she whispers, and I nod. “This is gonna hurt.”
Again, I nod. I know it’s going to hurt but I need to be able to talk to her so we can get out of this mess. I don’t know how she’s going to get the tape off my face with her hands restrained behind her back too.
Laura is smart, and when she leans in at me, I’m surprised, but I remain still trusting her.
When her mouth brushes past mine, I wonder what’s going on until I feel her teeth nip my cheek before the agony of the tape being ripped from my sensitive skin begins. She pauses, and I take long deep breaths fighting back the scream inside of me.
“I’m sorry, Yesnia.”
I shake my head. This is not the time to apologize. Like a bandage, just rip it off. She goes back to her task, and even though this hurts almost as much as getting shot, I get through it. It’s a piercing burn just like when the bullet hit. When I’m free from the gag, fresh tears fall down my face.
“I’m so sorry, Laura. I’m sorry you’re in this mess. I’ll get you home. I promise. Somehow, we’ll get out of this.”
She leans into me her head resting on my shoulder.
“You didn’t take me. You didn’t take yourself. This is not your fault. And we will get through this, together. You are my best friend, Yesnia.”
“I love you, Laura,” I whisper into the darkness and cling to her strength while I try to figure out what to do next.
Life is full of ups, downs, and times in between. Life is a kaleidoscope of emotions that blend from fear to elation and everything in between.
Life has many levels but there are things that remain constant in the movements. Family. When you have a rock solid family, they support you through it all.
Love.
Love is ever steady. Love is what I will cling to, I decide. In my life it was constant. When everything has blown up in my face, the love of my mother has been steady. When I’ve been afraid, my love for Axel has pushed me through.
Love will see me through this, too.
7
Axel
Weaknesses.
I have very few.
She’s my greatest strength and my biggest weakness.
Good thing I refuse to fail.
“Call a fuckin’ sermon,” I bark into the phone at my dad. “One with Tripp.”
“Whoa, Double, what the fuck?” Dad replies with my road name because this is club business and club life.
I know I’m pushing the limits of what he’ll put up with. Son or not, he’s the Catawba Hellions President therefore he won’t tolerate disrespect.
Javier Almanza didn’t answer my call. This pissed me off. From there the domino effect of my anger has only continued to topple as one piece of the puzzle falls into another all leaving me with no answers.
His top guy, Aurelio, didn’t answer my call either. That shit sent me over the edge into the furious place I’m at in this moment.
When shit hit the fan with Yesnia getting shot, Javier left Yesnia’s care in Aurelio’s hands. He is Javier’s top man. The trust they have is tight. If Javier isn’t able to make a call Aurelio can. Him not answering my call sends me into overdrive to figure out what Yesnia needs from me. While Javier and Mari went on the hunt for Maricio, Aurelio was my point man if Yesnia needed anything. At every turn, he checked in and kept me apprised of Yesnia’s safety.
With the shut out from them, I didn’t know what to think. I even dialed Yesnia’s phone only to get a voicemail recording to leave her a message. Time is not my friend, and with none to waste, I did what a Hellion does … I called on my family.
“I said call the fuckin’ sermon, Prez,” I repeat sternly.
Yes, I’m being a dick. Yup, I’m irrational and unyielding right now. I don’t know what is up or down. I only know I need answers.
“Axel, watch yourself,” he warns. “Got your mom worried. Lux, too. Shit has been off balance with you since you got back from Chicago. I’ve given you room because you’re my son, but you need to watch it, Double.”
“I’m not Axel, your son, right now.” I let the emotions speak for me, respect is gone, I’m in warrior mode. “I’m Double, your brother, Prez. I’m sayin’ call a sermon, brother.”
“Done.”
The tone in his voice tells me I’m walking a fine line right now. My dad has never lost his cool with
me not even once. In fact, I’ve always been able to get away with more around him. Right now, though, I’m pushing him.
I’ll deal with his wrath for my tone and the way I approached him later. Right now, I’ll do whatever to get a lock on Yesnia and know she’s okay. No matter the cost to my pride, ego, or even the physical pain I have to endure, I’ll take anything on if it means she is safe. The call disconnects, and I look to Hawk with fury in my eyes. He reads me and gives a nod. I feel the blood pump through my body as I leave the bar, Hawk on my heels.
“Round up, boys,” he calls out as I continue on my path to my bike.
Hawk stays in step behind me as we both get on our rides and take off to the cave. Normally, any minute I’m on my bike, I’m calm. Not right now. No, I’m restless and uneasy. I need to know if what Trapper said is true. I need Yesnia to be okay.
My brothers are at my back. We sound like thunder rolling through the area as we make our way to the cave. There are things about the Hellions MC that don’t fit the typical way outlaw clubs are run.
First, we don’t wear a diamond patch because we don’t affiliate ourselves as outlaw bikers.
Now, that doesn’t make us law abiding citizens, but rather, men who follow the rules we can and break the ones we have to when necessary.
Another big thing is our clubhouse situation. In Catawba, we don’t have a clubhouse like in Haywood’s Landing. We’re a smaller charter, so it’s simply not necessary. We do have the cave, which is where we go for sermons, a meeting in Hellions terms—another uncommon thing from the general motorcycle club verbiage. Some clubs call it going to church and sitting on a pew. We go to our cave, which is the same non-descript style building in each charter in the Carolina’s. Inside the cave we have sermon. The cave is sacred so much so no one without a full rocker can enter the space, not even to clean it.
Pulling up, we park and get off our rides. Hawk and I are the first two here, so I unlock the door to ready the space. Going inside the cave, I flip the light switch by the door and drop my phone in the helmet. All of the caves are set up in the same style and fashion for every charter. The room is bland, void of real decoration outside of the black and red of our colors. The flags on the walls are Hellions insignias, and the few pictures in frames are of Hellions history living on through captured memories of previous events. In the middle, a long rectangular table that seats twelve fills most of the room. Chairs along the walls fill the remaining space, with a large standing safe in the far back corner.
I pace the area as I feel like I want to jump out of my skin.
I have never felt so helpless in my life. It hurt to know she had been shot, but she was stable by the time I learned of her situation. This being in limbo, trusting a man I don’t know, and her possibly being in Juarez with one of her father’s enemies … it doesn’t sit well with me. None of it does.
The men file in, each dropping their phones in the helmet.
Aces is the first to enter as an officer and takes his place at the table. He’s the Catawba Road Chief. Currently, we don’t have a Sergeant-at-Arms because Sparks our previous man moved to Sumter to be part of that Hellions charter. Rack is our Treasurer and he moves inside to his seat beside Aces. Stitch, our secretary, follows Rack. For a long time, the Catawba Hellions only functioned with a President being my dad and Shooter as our VP. Before that it was Tripp as Prez and my dad as his VP. Since our charter keeps growing so did our officer needs. I know soon there will be a meeting in Haywood’s Landing where all the officers talk about each charter and the positions to be filled. While Tripp lets the President’s run things pretty much how they want—which was the way Roundman did it before him—he still gets the final approval of an officer.
As a patched member, I’m expected to take a seat along the wall. The table is for officers. The Road Chief is three spaces from the head of the table where my father Drexel “Rex” Crews takes his seat. Andy “Shooter” Jenkins, my step-dad and club VP, sits to his right.
Right now, I don’t care who sits where. The patches, the titles, it’s all secondary to getting everyone together to sort out what is going on with Yesnia. As soon as the patched members in town are accounted for, Knuckles locks the cave door, and my dad calls the sermon to order.
“Tonight, we’re called here for Double. Take the floor, brother,” he commands. I never bothered to sit in a chair, so I continue to pace.
“We need to get Tripp in on this,” I begin, and immediately everyone shakes their heads. I know I’m out of order. I know the bylaws. I know what proper procedure is.
Do I care right this second?
Nope.
“Gotta tell us what’s up before we go gettin’ Tripp. You know that. You tell us you need the whole damn club across the country, you got it, but shit comes to the table here first,” my dad explains what everyone in the room knows including me.
“Got a call tonight. Yesnia’s in trouble.”
“You claimin’ her?” Aces asks, putting his hands up in surrender. “Not to upset ya, but brother, you left her in Chicago. Before we go in, gotta know if she’s ours to fight for.”
I don’t hesitate. “Yes.”
Shooter looks to Rex and nods before getting up and going to get my phone. He hands it to me. “Get the information on where she is, and we’ll sort shit out to get Tripp in on it.”
With shaking hands, I call Trapper on speaker so everyone can hear.
“Oh, young buck seems to have a change so soon,” he taunts me answering. “I really didn’t expect you to call tonight. I thought it would be in the morning before you found the balls to call me.”
Instantly, my dad throws up his hand to keep me quiet and take the lead on the call. There’s so much I want to tell them starting with the fact that I have balls. The kind that make me crazy when I’m pissed and if he keeps talking shit instead of laying out facts, I have the kind of balls to show up on his doorstep regardless of the patch he wears.
“You got Rex. If you’re fuckin’ with Double, then Trapper, you know the deal, you’re gonna bring the wrath of the Hellions MC to your doorstep.”
Well, obviously, my dad knows the Devil’s Due Motorcycle Club and this Trapper guy.
Trapper laughs like he has not a single care in the world at my dad’s words. “I don’t give a fuck about the wrath of any motherfucker. You fuckin’ know that shit, Rex. I called because Javier Almanza and I have a history. I tried to reach him when the word about his daughter hit the street. He’s unreachable. So, I figure out of respect for your club and knowing your boy has history with the Spanish beauty, I’d call the next best thing to her father by callin’ her man.”
“Where is she?” Shooter asks keeping the conversation on track.
“I have it on good authority she’s in Juarez. Now, who has her … that’s a little uncertain. The information I have right now is Almanza has bought himself a rival down there by the name of Fernando Sanchez. They are in a deep beef. Sanchez saw an opportunity to get to Almanza and took it, well that’s what it looks like if you take everything at face value. Approximately twenty-four hours ago, he took Yesnia and her assistant, a woman by the name of Laura, from the Chicago home. A private plane landed with surveillance showing men from Sanchez’s crew carrying body bags.”
Rage like never before washes over me at his words. Immediately, I swing and land a hit to the wall, busting my knuckles wide open. Hawk grabs me and fights to restrain me.
“Calm your shit,” my dad orders, and I still my whole body while fury continues to flow in my veins.
“The street says she’s not dead,” Trapper continues. “They were drugged and left in some abandoned house. Sanchez is up to something with Almanza because no one from the Almanza Cartel can be reached.”
“Is this common?” Shooter asks, “for Almanza to go ghost?”
“Aye,” Trapper confirms, “My brother, Rowdy, his ol’ lady has a long history with the Almanza Cartel. She says it’s not uncommon for Javier to l
ock down his people when he’s prepping for a war. Javier is the kind of man who is only reached when he wants to be reached and keeps his shit close to the vest. Only we aren’t so sure he knows what he’s facing.”
“What’s the play from Sanchez?” Dad asks while I fight to calm myself.
I don’t know this Trapper character. How much weight can I put in his word?
“Don’t know the full scale. Just know Almanza has shut down any way to communicate with his organization.” Trapper pauses, “Rex, we got history with Roundman and the Hellions. Know the kind of club you are. Respect that. Devil’s Due, we’re about righting wrongs when we can. Talked to my boys, and we’ll ride in with you if you need it.”
Ride in with us? Ride in where? He doesn’t have enough information. I’m thankful for the call, but he doesn’t know enough. I want to know it all … right this very second.
“Thoughts ‘ppreciated. Yesnia is Double’s woman. You understand we have a personal stake in this one. We’ll handle this our way. If you can get me a location on her, we’ll owe you a marker.” Rex says giving up something we don’t often do.
No biker wants to be in debt to anyone. To owe a marker is to be on someone else’s call at any given time for any circumstance. It’s huge to give someone that kind of authority. For Yesnia, I’ll eat whatever shit I have to when that marker is called.
“Already called my brother, Deacon. He’s got connections with the Jacoby brothers as do you, I understand. Deacon’s got an address believed to be where the women are so I’ll send that to Double. Deacon also said to touch base with Draven Jacoby. We know you have a direct line to him and he is expecting the call from either you or Karma. Jacoby can reach the unreachable if you need Almanza. This is not a new contact to you so I won’t go into all the ways the Jacoby’s can help you.”
Now, I could believe him. We do know the Jacoby’s very well. Draven Jacoby is the middle brother of trio who own and operate Jacoby Investigative Service. For the Hellions, the Jacoby brothers have a deep connection to one of our own. They happen to also be cousins with Dillon “Karma” Jacoby, a Haywood’s Landing Hellion.
Bleed for It: Hellions Motorcycle Club (Hellions Ride On Book 3) Page 7
