Rust: A Bad Boy Romance (Courage MC)

by Kara Hart

  Jackie

  Magic 8 was the roughest and toughest bar in town. It used to be my home, a place to get a drink and wind down with the boys. Now it was enemy territory. It’s funny how a safe spot can quickly turn into one of the most dangerous places for you to end up in. Here I was, in the thick of all evil. Don and the Darkhorse land. Bastards.

  Again, we parked our bikes nearly a mile away and treaded the dirt and rocks on foot. In the distance, we could hear bottles breaking, loud music blasting through the wooden doors, and yelling from some of the patrons. It was clearly a busy night for them. I just hoped we’d come across the kid we had set out to find.

  We sat for hours, waiting and drinking some booze that Bruce happened to bring with him. I sat with binoculars, eyeing the door carefully. “It don’t look like he’s comin’, does it?” Rust asked, ready to give up.

  “I don’t know. It’s still early. We may have to sit here for a while.” Maybe I was wrong. Maybe he wouldn’t be showing up anytime soon. Maybe he wasn’t even involved with Don and the Darkhorse gang. I was starting to have my doubts as well.

  “We stay.” Bruce said. “Worst that happens is we don’t find him and go home. We can always think up another plan tomorrow.”

  Rust sighed. “I don’t know, boss. Do you really want to sit here for another six hours? Maybe you were right earlier. Maybe he isn’t with the other side.”

  He shrugged him off. “I know what I said earlier. As the boss of this crew, it’s my job to be skeptical. I want to trust my men. I want to believe that they’ll always be on my side. But over the years, I’ve seen plenty of men go crazy. I’ve had informants, losers, people who couldn’t take the heat. Lots of men have come and go. So if this kid is truly with the enemy, I wouldn’t be all that surprised. So to answer your question, yes. I’d sit here for more than six hours if I had to.”

  He was right. This was a shady business. Shady things happened every single day. Even still, I was beginning to lose hope. I decided to look into the binoculars one last time, before deciding to lay down for a bit. It was a tiring thing keeping your eyes on the same spot for hours and I needed to take a break. Plus, the booze was kind of getting to me.

  Yet, when I looked into my binoculars, I noticed some odd movement in the darkness, off to the side of the bar. “Wait a second, guys. Something weird is going on.”

  Rust perked up and squinted his eyes, trying to see against the darkness. “What is it? What do you see?”

  “One second.” I swatted him away. As I strained my eyes to see, I finally found what I was looking for. It was the boy! And he was leaning against the side of the bar, clearly nervous. It looked as if he were waiting for someone. “It’s him!” I exclaimed. “The kid. He’s waiting around, leaning against the side of the bar.”

  “Give me that!” Bruce grabbed at the binoculars, squinting against the lens. “Well, I’ll be damned.”

  “You see him, Bruce?” Rust asked.

  “I see him alright. Look.” He handed the binoculars to Rust.

  “Holy shit. We got him!” He looked about as happy as a boy looking at his presents on Christmas day. “This means he’s turned over, right? We caught him in fucking enemy territory.”

  “It ain’t too good.” Bruce said. “But we don’t know anything yet. He could just be suicidal. You can never really guess the intentions of young men.”

  “Let’s wait and see where he takes us.” I said. “We could learn a lot more, fast.”

  They all agreed, and it wouldn’t take long to see what he was up to. Within ten minutes or so, another shadowy figure rolled up on his shiny, black motorcycle, followed by a team of seven other riders. I recognized that bike immediately. “Don…” I whispered.

  “You kidding me?” Bruce mumbled.

  “Hell no.” I said. “This is getting pretty damn interesting.” I took another swig of beer and kept watching.

  Don looked to his left and to his right. He even looked behind him, and for a second I thought he might have seen us. He eventually decided that all was clear, at least for the time being.

  “What are they doin’? Anything?” Rust asked.

  “Just talking. I wish we could hear what they’re saying. I think it’s clear, though. The kid’s working as an informant.”

  “Well, you were right. Good thinkin’ on your part.” Bruce patted me on the back. “Now we just gotta follow him and see where he takes us.”

  The boy reached into his pockets and pulled something out. It was an envelope of sorts, most likely filled with information, perhaps even money. It wasn’t clear at this point. “The boy gave him an envelope, guys. I can’t see what’s inside, but it’s something relevant, that’s for sure.”

  Rust just shook his head in disbelief. “I knew the bastard was no good. This is key information though. Keep watchin’.”

  Don pocketed the envelope and shook the kid’s hand. He then simply turned around and got back on his bike, howling into the wind. It was bizarre to watch and not a good sign of things to come.

  “We gotta move in.” I said, watching as the kid stumbled off into the darkness. “He’s on the move! We gotta follow him!”

  “Alright. Let’s go! Hands on your guns, everyone. This is Darkhorse territory now.” Rust announced.

  We ran towards the side of the bar, making sure to keep ourselves as hidden possible. This could be big, I thought. Or it could be a trap. Nevertheless, we had to find out one way or another. This was our only chance of gaining some ground, without launching full-blown attacks.

  Through the darkness we ran and quickly we caught up to him. The boy was sitting in the dirt of the desert, his hands against his face. He was wasted and not doing too well. We aimed our guns and Rust cried out, “Put your filthy hands up, mother fucker. We got you now.”

  The boy nearly shit himself. He was so terrified. He threw his hands up in the air and tightly closed his eyes, as if a bullet was on its way toward his skull. “I’m sorry, officers! I’m didn’t mean to!”

  “Officers? We ain’t no police, boy.” Bruce slurred. “We’re much worse than that.”

  “Who are you then?” He squinted, unable to see us through the dark night.

  “Your worst nightmare.” I said.

  Rust

  We grabbed the boy and tied him up. “What should we do with him, boss?” I laughed, cracking my knuckles and clenching my fists. I couldn’t wait to pound the kid’s face in.

  “I’m not sure. Maybe we should take him further out into the desert. Put a few bullets in his body. How does that sound, kid?”

  He was shivering and crying, looking completely pathetic. “Please! Please don’t do this! I’ll tell you anything. Anything!”

  “Just like you told Don everything? Look, kid. You’re done for. Got it? Done!” I yelled.

  “Oh, God. Please spare my life. Please.” It was hard to feel any sympathy for him at this point. Too many lives of our men had been lost. Behind us three men exited the bar, breaking bottles on the ground while laughing wildly. The boy tried screaming, but I dove and punched his mouth closed.

  “Bag him. We gotta get out of here, guys. Fast.” Jackie said, looking behind us. The drunken men had heard something and now they were curious. Bruce quickly covered his mouth and threw a bag over his head. It was almost time to demand some answers.

  Meanwhile, the men were stumbling over in our direction. “You hear that? Sounds like someone’s over here.” one of them announced.

  “Shit.” I whispered, looking in their direction. We stayed as still as possible, trying our hardest not to be seen. Luckily, we were wearing black.

  The drunken man’s friends disregarded him. “Come back, Bundy. You probably heard a jackrabbit or rattler. Ain’t nothing but your mind playin’ tricks.”

  But the man wouldn’t let it go, saying, “I know what I heard dammit. And it was a muffled scream!”

  “Fine, have it your way. We’re leavin’!” His friends walked the other direction
laughing to themselves, but the man’s curiosity kept at it.

  He was slowly walking up to us, and when he did, he stopped dead in his tracks. “What the hell?” he asked himself. Famous last words.

  BANG!

  Bruce’s gun went off and the man fell over, dead in his tracks. Of course, this alerted the whole damn town. I picked the kid up and threw him over my shoulders. “Run!” I yelled.

  We ran in the direction of our bikes and within seconds, we were being chased by the whole damn bar. Bullets whizzed by us, hitting the desert floor and the rocks in front of us. “Shit!” I screamed. “Bruce, what do we do?!”

  “We ain’t got a choice, now do we? Get on your bikes and ride! Take the mountain pathway. That’s the only way of escapin’ them!”

  The mountain pathway was one of the most dangerous routes in this town. Not only did it circle around the mountain, the trail was only about six feet wide. One false move and you fall to your death. Even worse, once you got to the top, the way down was pretty much a 90-degree angle. Straight down, towards infinity, as the bikers liked to say. No one in their right mind took this trail.

  We got on our bikes and sped off. Towards death. Headed right into the devil’s mouth. Behind us were at least twenty bikes. This wasn’t gonna be pretty.

  I felt Jackie’s arms around my chest and realized just how much was at stake now. I couldn’t lose her. I just couldn’t. I could die, sure. But if she were to get hurt, I’d never forgive myself. How could I?

  We zipped around the bend and hit the rock trail. At first, the path was wide. A sign read “NARROW TRAIL AHEAD! ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK!” I pushed ahead as a group of lights followed behind me. Bullets whizzed by our heads, the ongoing threat of death or severe injury was ever-present. And still, I felt Jackie’s grip and knew we had to come out of this alive. We had to because I needed her. I needed her love, her presence, her warmth. Shit, there was so much I was realizing that I needed.

  “How we doin’?” I called out.

  “Just drive faster!” she yelled. “There's a lot of them, Rust.”

  “Don't worry. I'll lose them!” I yelled, speeding around the narrowing cliff.

  A rider from behind us quickly caught up to our speeds. He immediately rammed his wheel against ours, causing the bike to wobble. “Rust!” Jackie screamed.

  “Just hold on!” Bruce reached for his gun and aimed as I pressed on my brakes, allowing him to slam into the back of my bike. I gave the motorcycle some gas and Bruce shot straight into the man’s body. He immediately fell off the side of the cliff in a puff of smoke.

  “One down!” Jackie exclaimed, still clinging on to me for dear life. We were only half way to the top. However, they were gaining on us.

  “I’m gonna need you to reach into my bag!” I yelled. “Grab a grenade, pull the pin, and drop it after 2 seconds! Got me?”

  “A grenade?!” she cried. “Rust, what the hell!”

  “You wanna live? Just do it!” She had no choice. It was either us or them.

  She reached into my bag and grabbed ahold of the only grenade in my bag. “Alright. I’m pulling the pin.” she whispered to herself, taking in a big, deep breath. “Here goes nothing!” She pulled it and let go of the safety clutch.

  “Drop it!” I yelled after two seconds. She, of course did. And then the funniest thing happened. As the explosive rolled down the hill, one of the bikers behind us didn’t see it. He rode over it, losing control of his bike. While he fell over, two other bikers crashed into him! Then, the grenade went off, causing the whole trail in front of them to collapse. From what we could tell, we had outrun them all.

  “What the hell?” Bruce yelled, glancing at us. “You couldn’t save one of them for me?” He laughed, holding onto the boy from earlier.

  “Looks like you’re a bit occupied, Bruce.” Jackie said.

  “Occupied? Shit, this ain’t nothing. I can ride this whole trail with no hands on the wheel.” he bragged. That, of course, wasn’t quite true, though he claimed to have won the path with only one hand. No one was there, of course, to verify if that was fact or fiction.

  When we finally reached the top of the mountain, we pulled off to the side and looked down on the city. “This our country.” Bruce declared. “Ain’t nobody gonna take that away from us. No one.”

  I liked the confidence. I just hoped it was fact, rather than fiction.

  Jackie

  “We should get going.” I suggested, while looking at the kid. “We still gotta get some answers from him.”

  “Yeah, but where do we take him?” Rust asked.

  “I can’t believe you even have to ask. Your club, of course.”

  “The safe room?” Rust’s eyes raised.

  “You got it.” I said, kissing him. “You know, you’re really cute when you get excited.”

  “Drop it.” he laughed, getting back on his bike. And we were quickly off toward his burned down club.

  When we finally did reach the area, we carefully looked around for any cops or Darkhorse figures. “All clear.” Bruce said, grabbing the kid and running toward the safe room. We followed and Rust typed in the necessary code to get in.

  The inside of the room was dark, damp, and empty. The only thing inside was a long table, pushed into the corner. Bruce turned to Rust and asked, “You thinkin’ what I’m thinkin’?”

  “What? What’re you going to do to him?” I asked.

  “Throw him on the table.” Bruce demanded. Rust grabbed the kid and took the bag off his head, pulling the gag off his mouth. I looked at Rust with worry.

  “We should at least hear what he has to say, Bruce.” We stood around the boy, arms crossed, waiting for an answer.

  He looked up at us and smiled. “Fuck you!” He spat at Bruce’s face. “You’re all traitors! All of you!”

  Bruce angrily wiped away the spit and grabbed the boy by his hair. He lifted him off the ground and said through clenched teeth, “What did you call me, boy?”

  “You’re a rotten traitor. And my father would be ashamed of you all.” He whispered, trembling against Bruce’s fist.

  Bruce slammed him down on the ground and grabbed his gun. He hit his cheek with the butt of his pistol. “Say it again. I dare you.”

  But the boy only laughed. “It doesn’t matter anyway. The war’s over. You’ll all hear soon enough.” Blood poured down from his cheek as his laughter grew louder.

  “What’re you sayin’, boy? C’mon. Spit it out.” Rust said.

  “You know those papers you saw me give Don? Those were the addresses of all of your gang members. All of those who swore an oath to the holy Bruce will now suffer the consequences of blindly following his leadership. They should’ve got out when they had the chance. Instead, they decided to stay and fight against the one true noble cause.”

  “What the fuck.” I whispered, astonished by his revelations. This was not good and it came at a time when we thought everything was about to go our way.

  The boy went on, saying, “We are the new era of bikers, the ones who don’t answer to the big elites, the ones who don’t play by any of the old rules. You see, this life is the only life we know. We got here by our fathers when their fathers before them hadn’t a clue what to do with their lives. They had no purpose, but we do. No more leaders. No more territories. There is only the one crew, the Darkhorse crew, and all that fall before it. It’s no use to threaten me with violence. Death is but a door.” The boy pushed his mouth over the barrel of the gun. “Pull the fucking trigger.” he said.

  “What the fucking fuck?!” Bruce yelled. “What’s this kid talkin’ about? Death? A door? Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Hell if I know.” Rust said, shaking his head.

  “Sounds like he’s a part of some cult or something.” I whispered. “You guys, we have to warn the rest of the guys. Fast!”

  The boy fell to the floor, writhing against the tile, and practically foaming at the mouth. “Uh, you guys, look! S
omeone help him!”

  “He’s dying!” Rust yelled, picking him off of the cement.

  The boy’s eyes were wide with fear and anger, sometimes rolling in the back of his head. And then he tried to speak, between rapid breaths. He said in strain, “The key to winning this is in the pill. Watch your back. They’re coming for you. And they’ve already infiltrated the ranks.” He fell forward, completely unresponsive.

  “Help him!” I cried.

  The two men picked the boy up and set him on the table. They ripped his shirt off and tried to resuscitate him as best they could, but they weren’t doctors. They were just two bikers, trying their best. When it was obvious nothing could be done, they gave up. “He’s gone.” Rust whispered. I even saw a tear fall from his eye. “God dammit.” he muttered.

  I covered the boy’s eyes and wrapped my arms around Rust’s shoulders. “It’s not your fault. Something happened to him, Rust. It was weird. It was like his body just shut down. I don’t understand.”

  “I don’t either.” he said. “Things are getting dark, baby. It’s like we’re the only ones left who care about what we used to have. Loyalty, honor, courage. All those things have gone out the window. And what did he mean when he said ‘the key is in the pill’? Was that some kind of code or something?”

  “Gotta be about some kind of drug, right?” Bruce shrugged. “But what could it be that we don’t already know?”

  And then it hit me. “Check his pockets. Now!” I yelled. They emptied the contents out onto the table and stood over them. There were some loose cigarettes, some trash, notes, and pills! There they were, right below our noses! The question was, what was in them?

  “You think this is what he was talking about?” Rust asked, stroking his chin.

  “It’s gotta be.” I said. “We have to bring it to Glen. He’s the only one who could figure out what they are.”