Redemption

by Elizabeth Knox

  Here’s the funny thing, they are both in this damn bar with me.

  They call each other brothers; they share a bond. Hell, they are even friends, and Kyle has no idea that I have been sleeping with Ollie. Sleeping...if that’s what I should even call it. It’s more than sleeping, it’s so much fuckin’ more than that.

  Reed pulls away from Elena, turning to us all in the room “We’re getting married in 30 days, put it on the calendar, people!”

  “There is no way in hell I am marrying you in 30 days,” Elena snaps back, glaring at him. It always makes me laugh how much they’re alike. They both have this distinctive fire in their eyes and in my opinion Elena’s shines a lot brighter than Reed’s.

  “The fuck you aren’t woman. It’s 30 days, or tonight,” he challenges her, and Elena starts turning red, almost as red as her hair.

  “You two are criminally insane,” I laugh at them. A few of the brothers start laughing with me.

  Elena rolls her eyes “I am not insane, but this guy definitely is. 30 days? Who gets married in 30 days? It takes months to plan a wedding, months!”

  “Elena Michaels, you are marrying me in 30 days and that’s the end of this discussion. You have 30 days to rein in all your wedding mumbo jumbo shit, whatever you want, you shall have. It’s about you baby. Whatever you want, wherever you want, hell, you can put the girls in puke green dresses for all I care.”

  “They will not be wearing puke green,” Elena informs him. I agree. Definitely not puke green. I am sure I am gonna to be a bridesmaid, ain’t no way in hell I am wearing puke green. I wouldn’t be surprised if Elena has us in some sorta green though; it is her favorite color. “And we’re not married yet; why are you even calling me Michaels?”

  “We’ve got 30 days, baby. Better get used to that shit now Mrs. Michaels.” The banter between them is adorable and I am not one to eat that shit up. But with Elena and Reed I can’t help it. I just hope that they work out. I’m not pessimistic, but I am a realist – I know that shit happens. Life is ugly and throws us curveballs that we never expect.

  Reed turns to look at me Jenna and Michelle; he even looks at Maria, the latest addition to our posse who is also the girl who they purchased from the Cartel a few weeks back. “You four better help make this wedding happen in 30 days. I need all your assistance, whatever she needs, you all help her. If you work at the bar and Elena needs something, Elena gets top priority. I can put the whores in the bar for the night.” Reed is talking about the few whores who have been hanging around the club since the cartel shooting. Apparently, it won us points with the community and the women just keep coming and coming, figuratively and literally.

  “Uh boss. I’m not tryna burst your bubble or anything but do you really want those girls serving drinks and booze? You wanna know where their hands have been?” I ask, staring right at him.

  Elena bursts out into laughter, and she pats him on the chest and giggles as she walks away from him. “Dais’ has a point. babe.”

  “Fine, I’ll put the prospects behind the bar.”

  “I don’t wanna know where their hands have been either….” I mumble while Elena continues laughing. Jenna and Michelle even join in. I look over to my left, and Seamus is shaking his head while a small smirk drags across his face. Reed, good ol’ Reed is glaring at me, full throttle.

  “That ring is on your finger in 30 days. I’m serious. You won’t be weaseling your way out of this one, Elena.” Reed growls out, diverting his attention back to her.

  “You’ve only said it like 5 times. I’ve got it. Comprende?” she says back, a little sass in her voice.

  “Keep it up, Siren, I know just what I’ll do with all that attitude later.” As Reed and Elena keep bantering back and forth, throwing in flirts. I walk behind the bar, my domain, my home away from home so to speak.

  Looking out from behind the counter, I become thoughtful, damn right reminiscent. So much has happened in this bar; I was proposed to in this bar. Only, my story didn’t end up with a happy ending like Elena and Reed’s will. I think about all the memories here, everything with Kyle, the bug that keeps buzzing back around me.

  He destroyed me. He ripped my heart out and abandoned me when I was at my weakest most vulnerable moment. I needed him, and he was nowhere to be found. He didn’t come back for almost two years and he just shows up a few weeks ago and thinks that we can just press play and resume where we left off? No, that’s not happening. It didn’t matter how scared I had been to see him hurt or how much my broken heart remembered what it was like to care about him. My body also remembers the torture I went through because of him and his abandonment.

  I made the mistake of looking over at Kyle, sitting over in a booth with Enzo, Chaos, and Butch. I could see him laughing from there. Like old times, his gaze found mine, our eyes just staring for a moment. It was always weird how he could do that, like he knew exactly when I was looking for him. He’d always find me, and he did. Well, until the time he didn’t.

  Kyle stopped finding me, and Sea began.

  Everything was perfect once upon a time, with Kyle, with me. I never could have ever anticipated what would eventually come to happen. Even in my most horrible nightmare, I still wouldn’t have imagined that. It crippled me. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I can see everything happen in slow motion. Bad memories were funny like that.

  ***

  “Dais, shit, I don’t mean to do this to you. Fuck, fuck. I gotta go, it’s- it’…s” Pain didn’t have to tell me anything. I knew exactly what it was. It was his sister. I could bet a thousand bucks that she called him sounding groggy, probably high off whatever botched drug she got from the streets.

  “Go. I got it. I’ll be fine” I told him. He looked at me anxiously but he didn’t need to be here. I was going to be fine.

  “GO.” I smacked his arm, urging him, and he did, only, he stopped a few steps out.

  “Daisy, don’t you go anywhere. You stay in this damn grocery store until I get back. Okay?”

  “Okay, okay. I’ve got it. I won’t be done shopping for a bit anyway.” He nodded at my response and darted out the door.

  Only, I didn’t stay in the store. I ended up finishing buying groceries for that club barbeque in about an hour. I filled up the cart, looked at my phone, and saw no messages. Instead of calling one of the guys to come get me at the store and possibly get Pain in trouble I marched up to the register, paid for everything and walked outside to my car alone. I always thought that the safety procedures that the club had put into effect for the women were a bit overboard. After that day, I’d never say that ever again.

  I’d walked up to my car, popped the trunk, and started loading the groceries into the back when I heard footsteps. I knew in that moment something was terribly wrong, and what did I do? I continued to load groceries like there wasn’t an evilness surrounding me. When I finally finished loading the car the men came closer to me. I should’ve done something, like maybe dropped all my shit and got in the car. I might’ve been shot. I could’ve been beaten. There were so many possibilities to what would’ve happened that day.

  “Ah, so you are Daisy. Kyle’s beautiful little girl.” I heard one of them speak up as I turned. He was only about a foot away from me. I didn’t speak, I stared at him, remembering Kyle’s lessons of staying quiet. ‘Staying quiet keeps you alive. Don’t say shit. And button, don’t you ever piss them off with that mouth of yours’.

  “She’s a lot prettier than the photos. I think we’ll have a lot of fun with you,” I heard from a voice behind me. I didn’t dare look. I kept staring at the frontrunner in the eyes. His eyes were dark, maybe even as dark as his soul. In that exact moment, I knew I wasn’t going home. I knew that my future was uncertain, but most importantly, I knew about everything horrible that I was going to endure.

  “You know why we’re here?” the frontrunner asked me. I didn’t know. It wasn’t important to know. I was a target because of my association with the club, becau
se I was a full patched member, because I was a woman and because I was the Prez’s Ol’Lady. That’s why, or at least, that’s why I thought I was targeted.

  “Your man owes us a lot of money, and you’re collateral for that little one. We’ll give you back eventually, after he’s paid up, and after we’ve all had our fun with you.” That’s the last thing I remembered before waking up in the dingiest, smelliest, metal box on the planet.

  ***

  I don’t blame Pain, never blamed him for the reason I was taken. In fact, I really believe that if he was with me, he would’ve been killed. I’d rather he be gone, the way it happened. He was safe, and I….I went through what I did, but I survived it. It is in the past, and none of that shit matters anymore. It’s been a little over two years since I was taken and a year before that, Pain and his brother, Chaos, started prospecting for the club. Chaos was voted in last year and Pain still isn’t. I think that Reed is doing it on purpose as punishment for what happened when I was taken, but it isn’t fair. I’m going to end up talking to him about that. Pain deserves to be a full patched member of the club. He doesn’t need to be a fucking prospect anymore.

  Elena comes behind the bar as I am wiping some glasses, taking off those yucky finger spots I hate. I may be a bartender at a biker bar, but I have pet peeves. My worst is finger spots. I’ll wipe the glass down until it is beautiful and pristine.

  Elena plops her butt up on the bar and stares at me. “So, are you going to tell me who this man is that ‘isn’t so serious’?”

  I told Elena a few weeks back I was seeing someone and that it wasn’t serious. I’m so full of shit. It is so beyond serious with him. It is amazing and perfect, and downplaying what we have makes me angry at myself.

  “I dunno yet. I’ll let ya know when I figure it out.” I tell her, grabbing another glass and cleaning the fingerprints off.

  “I have a feeling that this not being serious is bullshit. You’re a straight shooter Dais’. It’s why we love you so much, and you avoiding this, is telling me that whoever you’re with is important to you. I’m not here to bug you or annoy you about it, but I am here to tell you that I support you in whatever you do and whoever you are with, even if you are hiding his identity from us all.” Elena says. I look over to her, and she smiles, and I laugh.

  “Who’s hiding an identity?” Jenna pipes over and asks. Michelle is close behind her.

  “Daisy is seeing someone in the club. She says it’s not serious, but it’s serious,” Elena fills them both in.

  “Butch!” Michelle guesses, looking over to him.

  “Ew, no!” That answer was enough to gag a maggot, ew. Never Butch, ew! He isn’t ugly. In fact, he’s very handsome, just not my kind of handsome. The man has a swimmer’s physique, a blonde beard, with light blue eyes. For some women, he’s the jackpot they’ve been waiting their whole lives for but for me, he is the opposite of what I like.

  “Hm. Dmitri?” Jenna asks, quietly.

  “No, it’s not Dmitri. We all know you want to fuck him, anyway. We’re steering clear of that mysterious man.” Jenna busts out laughing at my comment.

  “I don’t want to fuck him.” Jenna argues, unconvincingly.

  “You do, don’t lie about it. You’re tall, tattooed, and mysterious. He’s tall, tattooed, and mysterious. You two are two peas in a pod, and you need to act on it.”

  “He’s not even interested in me” Jenna protests.

  “And how do you know that? Don’t you actually, I dunno, have to communicate to figure that out?”

  “Oh, shut it! We communicate,” she says angrily.

  “When?” Michelle, Elena, and I ask her. The three of us stare at her, waiting. We aren’t letting her off that easy. Besides, I like the way the conversation has turned from me. I don’t know when I will be ready to tell everyone. I had been so certain until Kyle and his puppy dog eyes had snaked their way back into my life. It would hurt him, and who knows what the revelation would actually do to this great thing Ollie and I had.

  “He told me I was beautiful last week before I left to do my Sunday stuff.” I can’t help the smile that spreads across my face. I have been there for a few years. I think I am coming up on five years of being with the Skulls. Jenna? She’s been here for a long time, since she was nineteen. It must be around a decade that she’s been with them and not once have I ever heard about her being in a relationship before I came around, or have I ever seen her with someone.

  “Dais! I need a refill.” I am pulled back into work mode. The night goes by a lot faster than I thought it was going to. Between the guys from the MC and the normal folk coming into the bar, we are packed. Maria was supposed to get off at 11 but she ended up staying late and closing with me until 1. Butch stayed at the bar, waiting until we were ready to leave, and he escorted us back to the clubhouse, following us on his Harley the entire time.

  “Have a good night, Mar,” I tell her. She turns over to me and smiles.

  “You too Margarita, noche.”

  I watch and wait as I see Maria slip into her room. I am not going to mine, and I never go into his unless I know that no one will spot me. I don’t need anyone in the club discovering that we are in a relationship before I’m ready, especially since Kyle is back. That’s only gonna add fuel to the fire.

  I walk through the clubhouse, back down the hallway until I pass my room. I pass Maria’s, Dmitri’s, Jenna’s, Kyle’s, Reed and Elena’s, until finally, I’m at his room. I don’t bother knocking. Instead I slip in, shutting and locking the door behind me. My eyes land on him right away. He is in the bathroom, brushing his teeth, his chest with small bubbles of water still on him. He must’ve just gotten out of the shower, lucky me.

  As I stare at him, I am reminded of what I told myself after I was found by Sea. I told myself that love was too hard, that love would only get me hurt again. I thought I’d never be able to fall for anyone ever again. Little did I know that I’d fall for the man who scooped me up in his arms and took me out of that horrible place that day. He was the one who got me through it all. I didn’t leave my room at all – well, besides going to the Docs. He’d come in my room and just watch a movie with me. He wouldn’t leave if I couldn’t sleep, which happened a lot. My nightmares are still an issue, even to this day. some days I think I’ll never move past them. I hope I do, but…your memories haunt you, and I’m counting on that to still happen.

  I kick off my heels next to his bedroom door, for as messy as the man is, he hates it when I do that. I giggle, knowing he’s going to get aggravated that my heels are right by the door. One night, he didn’t turn the light on and stepped on the bottom of my heel. He wasn’t very amused, it made me giggle though.

  I pull off my jacket slowly, my back hurting from the long day at the bar. Sea’s arms wrap around me, and I gasp at the sudden touch. I didn’t even hear a whisper, not any indication that he was behind me. He encases me in his arms, wrapping me up like a precious present. I can feel his cool minty breath against the back of my neck, his lips so soft and warm pressed against me.

  He doesn’t say a word as his hands rub my stomach, slowly going lower until they’re are on my thighs, squeezing, rubbing. It’s nothing, but it’s everything. His touch is a volt of electricity, it soothes me in a way that no other has.

  This is what I crave.

  He is what I crave.

  He grabs the top of my leather jacket, pulling it off my right arm first and then going to my left, yanking it off me. He sucks my skin between his lips, biting softly with his teeth. I moan softly, loving the way he takes charge. Oliver “Seamus” Virts is not a man who asks; he takes and deals with the consequences later. Sea grabs my chiffon top, it’s not so fancy but it’s a little classy and gives me some good tips at the bar. It does show a bit of the girls though.

  “Red, good.” He rubs the material between his fingers, his lips grazing over my neck.

  “Yep, Caveman,” I tell him, pulling his hands from my shirt down to my jeggi
ngs. I hook his thumbs under the waistband, urging him to become the caveman I need him to be right now. “Woman yours, fuck woman now,” I say, grinding my ass against his crotch.

  He hooks his hand around my throat, applying a little pressure. His lips move against my jawline as he speaks, “You a little eager, Babygirl?”

  “What does it look like, Caveman?” I growl out, and he brushes his thumb against my throat. It’s one of the favorite things that he does to me. I really love it when he’s pounding into me from behind, holding onto my throat, squeezing slightly. It makes me dripping wet, and he does enough of that without having his hand wrapped around my throat. I love it rough, and I won’t apologize for it. I love the way he manhandles me, how he makes me feel like I’m weaker than him because I am, and where I am weak he holds strength. Feminist bitches would hate me for saying that, but that’s how we work, it’s how we fit together. He’s my rock, and I’ll lean on him as much as I can.

  Sea grabs my jeggings, tugging them down in one swift movement, then, he grabs my ankles practically tearing them off me. He puts a hand on my ass, another on my torso and flips me around towards him. I stare into his heated eyes, he’s scanning over my body, he keeps looking at my shirt, puts his hands to the material, rubbing it between his fingers again. “You show too much skin in this shirt, all of the men at the bar get to look at what’s mine. I don’t like it.” Before I can respond, he has my shirt ripped in half. I yell at him, smack his chest and grab his chin.

  “That was my favorite shirt!”

  “I’ll buy you another one where you aren’t showing so much”

  “I don’t want you to buy me another fuckin’ shirt!” I yell, not watching my voice. I realize how loud I’ve been, how someone may have heard. He picks me up, slams my back against the wall, grinding his cock against me. “You want them to hear us, Babygirl? Want them to hear me fucking your brains out? You want every fucking person in this club to know it’s me who’s had their cock inside you this entire time. Shit, and I thought you wanted to keep us a secret. Especially since Kyle’s back.”