by Evie Nichole
“Like the key,” I offered, dejected.
“Exactly. All of this may be a coincidence, but it is very unlikely. What is more probable is that this group have a proven track record as killers, and that you have been targeted by them, most probably for the key. It was a tragedy when Daniel died… But you made it out, Maxine. You’re alive. Don’t throw that away out of stubbornness. Find somewhere safe.”
He was right. I knew it. I was just getting comfortable in my new life, but I would be damned if I’d let them snuff me out like a candle, just as they had done, Daniel. I had to find somewhere to lie low, at least for few days while I got my head around all of this. There weren’t many people in the city I felt I could truly rely upon. It also seemed out of the question to go back home to Kelso town. In the end it came down to only one place, and one person I could truly trust. Someone who had always been good to me. I just hoped that their kindness would stretch to giving me a roof over my head. I packed up some things, and, most importantly, took the Rip Bay Hornets’ key Daniel had hid, and slipped an old silver necklace through the keyring. I’d keep it close, around my neck at all times and out of sight. If it was that important, my life might depend on it.
Chapter 14
In the morning, I enjoyed myself. I packed up all of my things at the hotel, said goodbye to the staff there who had been nice to me during my stay. Stopping off at a little cafe, I grabbed a Danish and some coffee. I strolled around for a while, sat on a bench at a canal, not far from where I’d first met Maxine. I smiled in the sun, watching the birds on the water fight over what was left of my pastry. Then, I hit the road.
It didn’t take me long to reach the city limits. I’d have felt sad leaving Maxine behind, felt remorse that it had ended the way it did, but I didn’t have time for sentiment. There was too much at stake. My mind was now focussed on one goal, one last mission for this Night Rider.
After about an hour, I was on a long stretch of highway. The countryside either side of me was a mix of glorious greens, and dried out yellows. Flicking on my indicator, I knew it was nearly time. I took the exit, turning onto a road which was long forgotten. A year back the gas station there had been a regular stop off for me and the gang. The owner there, Hank, was always nice to us, always happy to fill us up and see us on our way.
Of course, by then I knew how poisonous being a Night Rider really was. I didn’t know all of the specifics, just that someone wanted to buy the land for a development, but old Hank wasn’t for moving. He’d had a gas station there for 37 years, and that was that. Drake made sure the place burned to the ground. I watched in horror as he was so callous, so cold to Hank’s dream, the guy he’d known for years, all for a paycheck.
It was just another sign to me that loyalty, friendship, decency, these were all unnecessary to being in the Hornets. They were alien concepts. There was the gang, and everybody else, but even then I knew that was bullshit. A few of our riders had disappeared throughout the years, supposedly going off somewhere to start a family or a new life. Drake patted them on the back and wished them well.
No one would ever hear from them again.
Luckily, Hank survived. On the night Drake was going to burn the gas station down, I made it there 30 minutes before him. I told Hank and his wife what was going to happen, and persuaded them to get the hell out of there before Drake, Hendrix, Anton, Pit, and the other Night Riders arrived. In the end, Hank got the insurance money and he sold the property. Even that couldn’t make up for the loss of his home. At least he was alive.
Drake suspected I’d warned him, I’m sure of it, but after the night Daniel died, I was committed to making sure no one else did. Not at the hands of a Night Rider. Slowly but surely, they edged me out. I wasn’t getting called in for missions anymore. I was a Night Rider, but one he couldn’t trust. That’s why I’d taken the break, to mull over my future, whether I could outrun the gang. I guess, deep down, I always knew it would somehow come down to this.
Pulling in, I looped round what was left of the gas station. They hadn’t started building on the land, hadn’t even demolished what was left of Hank’s place. It just stood there like a ghost, burned out and hollow, staring at me. I hoped it was because whoever bought it, the same person who paid Drake to force Hank off the land, was caught up in red tape, or bankruptcy. Even better.
I knew the layout of what was around the back of the now defunct gas station. I’d stopped there on my way to the city a week earlier, good thing too as it was the perfect place for a trap. I could hear the hum of the motorbike engine behind me, and as I disappeared around the corner of the gas station, I quickly parked my bike and hid flush against the wall.
It was all about timing. I had to know when the rider following me would be exactly at the corner of the building. In my hand was an old short wooden club, similar to the ones the cops used to carry decades ago. I might not have been able to carry a gun on Drake’s orders, but after one too many close calls I always had my little wooden club in my bag if things got dangerous. Only a few inches long, it could pack quite a punch.
The engine of my stalker revved. I could hear the wheels spinning in the dirt as he came close. Very close. The engine noise loudened.
Be patient, Josh. Be patient. Just a little longer…
As the front wheel of his bike came by the corner where I was hiding, I jabbed the club through the spokes. There was an almighty clunk as the metal bent around the wooden club. The rider didn’t have time to react, and as the bike crashed to the ground, he flew through the air, landing on the dirt track which headed back towards the Highway.
I rushed over to the rider. He was alive, hurt, but I knew he wasn’t riding fast enough for it to be fatal. His heavy panting could be heard through his visor as he rolled onto his side. The broken wheel of his bike stopped spinning. Unfortunately my wooden club had seen better days, it was broken into splinters – good thing I let go of it when I did.
The rider tried to get up, his leathers covered in dust and dirt. As he did so, I placed my boot on his stomach and forced him back to the ground. He let out a pitiful cry, no doubt from bruised or broken ribs. Good, that would give me some leverage.
I pushed my foot down just enough to cause searing pain. Let him know I meant business. When he stopped struggling, he pulled at his helmet, finally removing it.
“Hello, Pit,” I said, anything but jovial.
“Josh… When Drake finds out he’s gonna…”
I pushed down again with my foot. He let out a scream: “Help! Help! Somebody!”
“It’s no good, Pit. I chose this place because I knew there’d be nowhere to hear your screams. Now, we need to have a little chat, and if you don’t answer my questions, you’re going to make me angry, and you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.”
“Fuck you!” he said, trying to be defiant. “You’re just a little runt!”
Pulling my foot off his chest, I smiled at him. He looked at me as if unsure, then he slowly smiled back. “Look, Josh, I…”
I kicked him in the side, hard enough to cause searing pain where he was hurt. He screamed for about twenty seconds, which I waited through, just until he had his focus back.
“I might be the youngest Night Rider, Pit, but I’m still capable of things you wouldn’t believe. Are you going to answer my questions, or do I have to fuck you up some more?”
He’d broken. There was no resistance left in him. He nodded, reluctantly.
“Good. Now, why are you following me?”
“Drake ordered me to follow you when you left. He wanted to see if you were gonna do a runner and leave…”
“And if I did?” I waited for an answer. He didn’t give one, so I kicked him again to remind him of consequences.
After the screaming died down again. He answered me. “Okay… Okay… Please, just leave me alone. I’ll answer your fucking questions!”
“What did Drake say would happen if I was ‘doing a runner,’ and leaving the Hornets?” I aske
d, already suspecting the answer.
“You were to have an accident on the road. I was to run you off when you were out of prying eyes… Please, just let me go, Josh, it was just orders…”
“I will, I promise, but only if you tell me what you’ve told Drake about the last few days.”
He looked at me, and at first it was clear he didn’t want to answer, but as I raised my foot ready for another kick, he caved in.
“Look, I’ve been checking in at the end of each day with Drake, giving him updates.”
“And? What did you tell him!”
“I was to take photos. You know how controlling he is, he wants to know every little detail.”
“My God…” I knew what he meant. I kneeled down and put my hand in his pocket, retrieving his cellphone. “Pincode… Now!”
“1967.”
I entered the pin number, and started looking through the images Pit had been taking of me. There it was laid out in front of me – the last few days in their entirety. Pictures of me, pictures of Maxine, then… A picture of Maxine’s apartment.
“Does he know who she is!?”
Pit started coughing. “Please, I need to go to the hospital, I think you broke my ribs…”
“Does he know who she is!?”
“Yes… Maxine… Daniel Sturgeon’s fiance. He knows…”
Panic coursed through my veins. I thought I could protect Maxine, I had hoped Drake didn’t know about her, that it would just come down to me and him, but now I knew there was more at stake.
“Pit, what’s Drake’s plan?”
“You’re too late, he’s after her already. All you can do is ride, Josh, and hope the Night Riders don’t catch you.”
I smashed Pit’s phone into pieces off of a rock.
“Hey! I need to phone an ambulance!”
“You’ll live. I can’t have you warning Drake.” I ran over to my bike as quickly as I could.
“What you gonna do?”
But I didn’t answer. I just rode as fast as I could out of the old gas station and back onto the highway. I was an hour out from the city, another 30 minutes at least. I phoned Maxine’s phone, but she wouldn’t answer. I left a voicemail, then several text messages, but I received nothing back. All I could hope for was that she was being stubborn… That she wasn’t already dead. The only other course of action I could think of was to phone the police and tell them that I thought a woman was being murdered at Maxine’s address. They would get there before me, maybe they could stop all of this madness before she’d been hurt.
I felt sick. The highway sped before me as I weaved in and out of the traffic speeding as fast as I could. I’d brought all of this on Maxine. If I’d just got back on my bike the day I met her and left the city as I’d planned, none of this would have happened. Drake wouldn’t have seen her, and Maxine would have been free to rebuild her life and be happy.
That’s all I want for her…
Chapter 15
Chuck escorted me out of the apartment. Like the gentleman he is, he made sure I got to my safe place. The truth was I had no idea whether the place was safe at all, but it was the only one I could think of that might even remotely qualify. It was The Hidden Truth. The bar Josh and I had gone to, but more than that, Henry and the bar flies there were pretty much the closest thing I had to real, regular friends.
“I’m going to stay in the city, Maxine. There are a few sources I need to speak with, see if I can get more information which might help us. If you need me, call, okay?” Charles said gently.
I nodded, and gave him a big hug. He was kind to me, and not in the way that men sometimes are when they want something. He genuinely was trying to do the right thing by me, to help as much as he could, and I was very happy to have someone as smart as him on my side looking for some sort of solution.
When he left, Henry came over to me. A colossus of a man, his black mustache big and bushy, his eyes wide and wild, but his cheeks rosy and full of cheer. “You’ll be safe here, kid. Don’t worry about that.” He handed me a beer.
“Thanks, Henry. You’re a great friend. I didn’t know who else to call.”
“There’s an extra room upstairs. Make yourself comfortable.”
“What if they find me here?” I said.
“They won’t, darlin’. How would they know you were here?”
Henry was right, I had no reason to think they’d know where I was. I mean, sure, Josh went on a date with me there, but he probably just thought it was a bar I liked rather than a sort of home away from home.
I tried to wipe Josh from my memory, but it was difficult. He was such a charmer, I was certain that he used that charm to get what he wanted. He needed to get close to me to find out about that key, then, lo and behold I show it to him up front. Letting him know I had it! I felt deceived, cheated, and worst of all, I felt stupid for falling for him. There was no doubting that last part, I had fallen for him, hard.
It was important that I focus, that I try to think how best to get out of it all. I needed to relocate to another city, but how? I had very little savings, and the only asset was my apartment. Even if I tried to sell it, that could take months. Never mind my job!
Frustrated, I kissed Henry on the cheek and said goodnight to the regulars, before going up to bed. Thankfully, my mind slowed down a little and let me get some sleep.
When I looked at the clock it was midnight, the bar must have been closed downstairs as it was quiet. Well, it was quiet at first. As my mind woke up, I could hear muffled voices. Nothing strange, considering I was now staying above a bar, but there was something about those voices. They were pointed, unfriendly, argumentative.
Then I heard shouting. It was Henry. Yelling at the top of his voice. I had to investigate. If it was Drake’s men, then I couldn’t let Henry get hurt over me. I’d hand myself over to them if necessary. I put on some clothes, and gathered up my bag.
Slowly, I descended the stairs. They creaked under my feet, but the yelling didn’t diminish. Henry was screaming at someone to get out of his bar, his voice booming, loud and proud. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I could see Henry standing behind the bar, red in the face, his fists raised as if ready for a fight.
The staircase led directly behind the bar, but just as I was about to step forward and reveal myself, something happened.
I heard a loud snapping noise. It sounded once then ceased. Henry, that behemoth of a man, that kind soul who had looked out for me, had been shot in the chest. He touched the wound, looked at the blood on his hand then fell to the ground.
Lying on his back, he looked up at me, realizing I was there for the first time. I stepped forward, and he shook his head, mouthing the word run. He then smiled at me, and the life ran out from his face. Now his eyes were glazed over. He was dead. It was terrible, and I wish I could say that I was shocked, but having seen the same look on Daniel’s face, I was almost more prepared for it to happen again. The numbness kicked in. Quickly followed by survival and nothing else. The world slowed down.
“Get upstairs and look for the bitch,” a voice out of sight said.
I didn’t need to know whose it was. It was sharp, thin, horrid. There was no humanity in it, or rather, it contained only the worst parts.
Stumbling footsteps moved as two men jumped over the bar right on top of Henry’s body. I had nowhere to run, but upstairs.
“There she is!”
They’d seen me! I clambered up the stairs, down a hallway and then into my room. The clunking footsteps of biker boots on wooden floorboards came rushing after me. Pushing a wardrobe in front of the door, followed by the bed and anything else I could try to barricade myself in with.
Someone was kicking at the door. “Maxine, you really need to make this easy on yourself.” The door quivered, but stood firm for the moment.
“I’m calling the police!” I shouted as I fumbled for my phone.
“You’ll be dead by then,” the voice from behind the doors said, cold
and calculated.
I hear the same snapping noise I had before, some sort of gun silencer, and splinters of wood sprayed across the room. They were firing through the door hoping they’d hit me. I was lucky that time, next time…
I ran to the window and opened it, yelling out of the window for help. The door creaked, and after several more shots, the wardrobe, now with several holes in it, slid to the side. They’d be in my room any minute!
That was when I heard the roar of a motorbike engine. It screeched below as a bike came to a stop in the street out front. The rider, all dressed in black, removed his helmet quickly.
It was Josh. Was he there to kill me too!?
“Climb down, Maxine! Now!” he yelled up at me.
I wasn’t sure I could trust him, but under the circumstances I had no choice.
“I can’t climb down!” I started to cry.
“Maxine, look at me. Please, I don’t want anything to happen to you. I can get you to safety, but you need to climb down. Look at the drainpipe at the start of the window. Hurry!”
The door behind be splintered once more with gunfire, this time it started to open. There was no time to be afraid. Survival kicked in once more. I grabbed hold of the drainpipe, it shook slightly from the wall. I was terrified that it would come away and I’d fall to my death, but there was nothing else I could do.
“That’s it, Maxine, good!” Josh mounted the sidewalk on his bike directly beneath me.
As I reached the ground, I heard the door cave in upstairs.
