by Avelyn Paige
“If you kick that seat or open your mouth one more fucking time, I will pull your ass out of the car and teach you how to respect an officer of the law, you fucking cunt. Sit back and shut up!”
Spitting on the glass on the divider between the seats, the officer driving slams on the breaks, sending my head rocketing toward the glass. “That’s fucking it. Harris, shut her the fuck up or I’m killing her now.”
The man I now know as Harris bolts from his seat and flings the back passenger door open. He crawls in to grab me as I ball up away from his grasp in the opposite corner. Wildly kicking my feet, I connect to his face, sending him falling to the ground. The other officer flings open the door I’m cowering against while I was distracted and pulls me out of the car by my hair. Throwing me to the ground, he kicks me in the stomach twice before hauling me to my feet. He slams my face against the glass of the back window, causing me to slump over the back fender.
“Jesus, she’s a hellcat,” Harris exclaims. “Are you sure we can’t have a little fun with her before we take her in? She’s a hot little number if you discount the fact that she’s covered in blood. We could break her jaw afterward so she can’t talk.”
Fuck! He’s trying to convince the other guy to let him rape me in broad daylight. I have to get out of here before that happens. Who the fuck are these guys?
“You’re fucking sick, Harris. You know we have strict orders to take her down to the cabin. We weren’t even supposed to bang her up this badly before he got to talk to her. He’s going to be pissed she’s roughed up as it is. If you fucking rape her, he’ll kill you for it.”
Who the hell are they talking about? Who is he?
“I know, Parsons, but fuck, I like it when they fight. She’s got my dick begging to come out to play with those big, beautiful tits. Maybe the boss will let me play with her when he’s done. She might not look as good, but her cunt will still be useable.”
“I fucking doubt it. Get her ass back in the car,” Parsons orders. “Make fucking sure she doesn’t open her mouth this time.”
Harris stumbles around the car and jerks me against him by my hair again. He leans down to my ear. “You’re fucking lucky that the boss ordered you to be delivered alive, or I’d have my dick pounding into that ass of yours right now while Parsons watched,” he whispers just before he slams my face into the car, sending blackness spiraling around me.
I’m jolted back into consciousness when one of the fuckwit officers drags me out of the car and onto the gravel. My hands try to soften the hard collision with the ground, but I forget about the cuffs. I fall to the ground on my face, ending up cut open and bleeding from the embedded stones. My vision is blurry, which makes my already aching stomach on the brink of retching up the breakfast Hero made me.
Fuck, Hero. Just thinking his name pains me and sends seething anger coursing through my veins. He watched as the men threw me against that car as they took me into custody. He spouted all this bullshit about protecting me and needing me, but he just sat there like a fucking stone statue and let them haul me off. Where the fuck was the fight in him? Where was the man who eliminated an entire fucking motorcycle club as revenge for taking one of his brother’s lives in cold blood? He’s a fucking joke. He’s no one’s hero. Just a fucking coward with a bullshit medal of honor.
I can’t believe I bought into his bullshit. He was in it for the pussy. His words were laced with lies to get me to open my legs because any other man would have stood his ground and fought them for me. I can’t believe I was so stupid to believe he was the real deal. I’m a fucking idiot to believe my life would ever be sunshine and rainbows with him. It was all just a pipe dream of a romance that could not, or would not, ever happen.
“Get up, bitch,” one of the officers orders. My attempt to stand on my own is fleeting without the use of my hands as leverage to push myself up to my knees. Falling back down to the ground, the officer repeatedly yells at me. Finally realizing that I can’t move, they drag me up from the ground and carry me by the arms up the wooden steps of a building. Swinging open the building’s front doors, they literally throw me into the interior. Looking up from my landing spot, I realize that I’m not in a police station at all, but in an old cabin. I can smell the cedar in the wooden floorboards and the smell of a forest trickling in from the open door.
“Where am I?” I rasp against the floor boards as my head pounds with the beginnings of a migraine.
A heavy set of footsteps walks toward me, the wooden floor creaking underneath the person’s weight. Black, polished, dress shoes stop in front of me. Judging from the style and width of the shoes, I determine it’s a man. Who the hell is this guy? Craning my neck upward, I find that he’s dressed in black dress pants. His large frame is evident as my eyes scan farther up. His chest is broad, but it’s his face that sends fear spiraling out of control within me. It can’t be him. No, I repeat. Please, God, let it be anyone but him.
“Hello, Dani,” a low voice calls to me. “It’s nice to see you again. I’ve missed your pretty face, princess.”
The man standing before me is my worst nightmare. This man is the reason I ran. The reason I left my life in Cleveland behind and traded it for sunny California and a motorcycle club. He is the ghost from my past that made me fearful of everyone and everything around me. He is the catalyst to all the bad shit in my life.
Mikey is the fucking cop that murdered my parents to get to me, but that’s not the worst of it. He’s my fucking step-brother.
“Hero,” a soft voice calls from outside my door.
“Go the fuck away, Ruby. I don’t want to talk to you or to anyone else standing outside that fucking door. GO AWAY!” I scream at her.
Sitting on my bed, I just sit and stare into nothingness. Dani is a fucking murderer. I just don’t fucking understand how someone like her would even be capable of something like that. She cut down her own family and then tried to spin this sob story of how they were taken away from her. Watching the police haul her away bleeding in the back of that goddamn police car nearly killed me. I wanted to reach out and save her, but I couldn’t help her. I just stood there and watched them rough up my woman and take her away. The police made it clear that if we interfered, we would be charged for harboring a known fugitive. With the kind of rap sheets our club has, we’d be locked up for life. I had to protect my club, and in order to do that, I had to let fate deal Dani her own cards.
Raze ushering me inside was for the best because he could see the beast inside of me rising. I would end up in jail next to her if I acted on the rage-induced acts playing in my head. Those two bastards signed their death warrants when they slammed her face into that car. Raze had to restrain me from tearing off after them. There had to be some mistake. She’s not like us. She has a temper, sure, and violent streak when provoked, but she’s not a killer. There’s no way, but doubt creeps into my mind.
She came to California to hide, even Red told us that. If her wanting to work under the table didn’t raise red flags, the escape bag filled with a change of clothes and cash might have sealed her fate in the club’s eyes. She was planning to leave when she packed that bag. She had everything she needed to survive on the run. Money, clothes, even a few bottles of water and baggies of dry goods to keep her belly full. I want to believe she’s innocent, but she’s not giving me any clues to think otherwise.
“Hero, get your fucking ass out here right now,” Raze’s voice bellows from outside the door.
“Go fuck yourself, Raze. I don’t need a lecture from you. I know we’re fucked.”
Raze barges through the door, huffing in anger. “The next time I order you to open the door, you fucking do it. I don’t want to keep sending the prospects to Home Depot to get new ones every fucking day.”
“What do you want from me, Raze? I know I fucked up. I trusted her too goddamn much without really knowing her.”
The bed dips with Raze’s added weight. His face is hardened, but his eyes are gleaming with
pity. I know he’s trying to keep his cool, but I don’t need pity. I need Dani, as much as I hate to admit it. Guilty or not, I need a chance to find out for myself.
Raze slaps his hand on my shoulder. “I understand, Hero. Trust me, I do. The women in our lives royally fuck us up to the point where we even doubt our own minds. Without them, we’re fucking lost in this life and damned to hell.”
“I never thought I’d be torn like this, Raze. One minute, we were fucking blissfully happy. The next, she has bodies lying in her wake back home. I just don’t know how to process this. I want to believe her, but I just don’t know if I can. I handed her my heart on a silver platter, and she grabbed it with bloody hands. She was the only pure thing left in my life, and she’s just as fucked up as I am. I wanted her to be my saving grace with all the shit in my life, and she’s just like the rest of us. Her soul is stained just as black as mine. ”
“Hero, I know what you’re going through. Once you lose trust in them, everything falls apart. Dani’s a good girl. I know it, and you fucking well know it, too. Voodoo hacked into her police file from back in Cleveland and is looking through it now. If she’s guilty, we’ll know within the hour. I sent Slider down to the police department to see if they’ll let him talk to her. I’ve got you, brother. We’ll find out the truth. Until we know one way or another, do not give up her on like I gave up on Maj.”
“Wait. Gave up on Maj? What the hell are you talking about? You love Maj.”
Raze’s head hangs low. “I’m divorcing her, Hero. The night we went to the club to get them, I found two of those male strippers fucking Maj in a private room. She knew I was there watching them. She came home spouting some bullshit about how it was a mistake and she was drunk, but I know it wasn’t the first time. She slept with a guy from Trax’s chapter the night before the hit on Twisted Tribe. I found them in our bed together. She’s living at her mother’s for the time being and she’s banned from the clubhouse. I’m fucking done being miserable while she whores herself out behind my back.”
Is no one happy anymore in this club? Everything is imploding around us. Twisted Tribe was just the beginning. We are systematically being dismantled by the fucking women in our lives. Our own brothers are forsaking the patch they swore allegiance to to fuck another brother’s wife in their marital bed. Maybe Dani killing two people wasn’t so bad in the grand scheme of things. Jesus, what am I saying? Murdering her own fucking family is the worst of the worst. Taking the lives of the people who love you most is the farthest you can fall down the deep, dark pit of hell. I want to be okay with what she did, but I just can’t process it. Maj may have whored herself out, but she didn’t have her own mother’s blood on her hands.
“Fuck, Raze. I’m sorry. What about Ky and Harley? When are you going to tell them?”
“They already know. We told them yesterday. Honestly, they weren’t surprised.”
“Shit, Raze. How the fuck did we get here? Your woman’s a cheater and mine may be a killer.”
Raze laughs and slaps me on the back. “Brother, I’d much rather have your problems than mine. At least there’s a chance she’s innocent. I know Maj isn’t.”
Raze is a broken man, just like I am. These two starkly different women ripped apart our lives. He’ll get a chance to repair his life once the dust settles and Maj is gone, but for me, it’s not that simple. I need proof she’s innocent. I need solid evidence to tell me the woman I love is still the woman I know. I can’t let her back into my life or my heart until I know for a fucking fact she didn’t murder her only family. I need those answers sooner rather than later.
“Raze? Hero?”
Looking up at the doorway, Slider hesitantly stands. Damn, Slider has perfect timing. Hopefully he got her to talk, or at least found out something that would prove her innocence or damn her in guilt. I need to know either way. My stomach twists and turns in knots as we both wait for Slider to deliver the news. I’ve never felt like this before, even in the heat of combat. The dirt and sand hell I left is nothing compared to this.
“Did they let you see her?” Raze hopefully asks. I need her to be okay, even if I’ll never see her again.
“She wasn’t there, Prez. The fat cop sitting at the front desk said they had no idea what I was talking about. They didn’t have a Danae Espinoza booked nor did they know anything about her.”
“What?” I exclaim. “If they don’t fucking have her, who does?”
Raze and I stare at each other before jumping up from the bed and bolting down the stairs into Voodoo’s tech room. He’s frantically tapping away on his computer when we walk in.
“Talk to me, V. What did you find?” I ask.
He looks up from his computer before sliding over to the printer and retrieving a stack of papers.
“This is her file. It’s muddy at best. Cleveland PD found her mom and step-dad gutted in the dining room of their house. DNA in the room was a match for both victims, Dani, and an unknown male related to the step-dad. According to the police report, a family member reported Dani missing the morning of the murders and they issued an APB for her. It was a standard issue search for the Cleveland area. It was never expanded outside of Ohio. We, of course, know where she ended up, but I found something odd about her file.”
Flipping through the pages, I verify everything Voodoo reported while searching the pages for the oddity. The answer doesn’t immediately become blaringly apparent, but Voodoo points to the details of the APB.
“Look here, Dani was never officially listed as a suspect. They considered her a possible kidnapped victim.”
The pictures of her parent’s mutilated bodies are amongst the reports. The DNA does confirm Dani was there, but just looking at the bodies I know it takes a lot of rage and a lot of strength to gut someone like this. Handing the pictures to Raze, I see shock register in his eyes.
“Look at her step-dad’s body in this photo,” I say pointing to the photo. “He has to be at least two hundred pounds heavier than Dani. How in the hell did a woman weighing a buck forty-five force him into that chair and restrain him? It doesn’t make sense. That’s Ruby versus Voodoo. There’s no way a woman could do that, even if he was drugged. Not without help anyway.” Grabbing the photo back from Raze, I toss the pile back onto Voodoo’s desk.
“Any information on the other set of DNA found at the scene? You said it was a relative. Maybe she had help,” Raze suggests. He looks at me while speaking. His words stoke the fire of anger within me, but I know he’s just trying to be thorough.
“I hacked into the criminal DNA database and it’s still searching. It could take weeks before I get a hit, or I could get nothing at all. It takes time.”
Running my hands through my hair, I pace the room. I slam my fists against the wall twice out of frustration. A pair of bleeding knuckles isn’t going to help find Dani.
“We don’t have that kind of time, Voodoo. Slider just got back from the police department and she’s not there. The fuckers that took her weren’t real cops. Someone sent them here after her and we just fucking let them take her.”
“Shit,” is all Voodoo replies as he frantically types on his computer. We wait in silence for hours as he works his magic, trying to find every lead to who the other blood belonged to at the scene of the crime and who has Dani. Finally, his computer beeps loudly. We surround his desk as a report loads onto the screen.
“The DNA is a perfect match for a Mikey Amos Williams. He’s the son of Dani’s step-dad, which makes him her step-brother. Says here he’s a rookie cop for Cleveland PD.” Voodoo types in a search for Mikey into Google. News report after news report comes up in the search. He’s been suspended twice for misconduct and harassing two female suspects. The last new story is dated for four days ago. Voodoo clicks on the link and the story pops up.
“Looks like Mikey missed his court date for a sexual assault on a female prisoner.” Her photo pops up on the screen and shocks us all. She looks just like Dani.
“No
fucking way. It’s the fucking step-brother. He killed them to get to her!” I yell as everything clicks into place. She is innocent, and I just handed her over to the man who killed them. I have to fucking find her.
“You’ve got to track them down, Voodoo. Call in every favor we fucking have. I don’t care if we have to alert the fucking National Guard. We need to find her before he kills her.
“On it, boss. I can’t promise a miracle, but I’ll fucking try.”
Leaving Voodoo to his work, Raze calls an emergency session of Church. My brothers come running into the room quickly, and Raze doesn’t wait to start barking orders.
“Dani has been kidnapped by her step-brother. His name is Mikey Williams and he’s a cop on the run. Looks like Mikey has a sick fucking obsession with Dani, and he killed her parents to get to her. In the last year alone, he’s assaulted two women that look just like Dani... I can only assume that she’s either already in his hands, or she’s on the way to him with those fucking bastards I let take her. I need you all to contact the other chapters and get them on the road. Send them Dani’s picture. I want every single fucking Heaven’s Reject looking for her within the hour.”
“Of course, Prez,” they all respond.
“They can’t be more than a couple hours away. Hot Shot, get on the horn to your cop cousin. See if he can issue an APB on Dani or the two fuckers who took her. Check in with Voodoo to see if he can pull their license plate off the car. Make tracks, brothers. Let’s bring Dani home.”
The men disperse quickly from the room, leaving just Raze and me alone. He comes to sit by me as my head hangs in my hands. Guilt pangs me for the things I said to her.
“I should have fought for her. They should have never been allowed to take her. If that fucker touches her, I’ll die trying to take him down. She’s probably already fucking dead, and it’s entirely my fault, Raze. I won’t be able to live with myself if she’s dead.”
