by L. Wilder
I don’t know how long I’d been out, but it must’ve been too long for Mr. Terror because he tossed a bucket of cold water over my head. “Shit!”
“Well, lookie there. She can speak.” I heard his boots squeak against the wet concrete as he walked back over to me. “Did you have a nice nap?”
“It was lovely. Thanks for asking, dickhole.”
He reached behind me and grabbed a hold of my hair. “You got anything you want to tell me?”
“Eat shit and die,” I grumbled.
“I’m gonna do you a favor and give you a heads-up here. Now that you are wet, this is gonna hurt a hell of a lot more.” He released his grip on my hair, then zapped me once again. Numbing pain shot through me, and my body convulsed with the shock. He was right; it hurt twice as much, and I passed out within the first few seconds.
When I finally regained consciousness, I was surprised to find that my blindfold had been removed. After a few seconds of letting my eyes adjust to the light, I looked up and found my assailant sitting on a stool smoking a cigarette. There was no sweat on his brow, his hair was still perfectly combed back, and his shirt wasn’t the least bit wrinkled. He seemed completely unaffected by the fact that he’d been torturing me for hours while I was falling apart. Every muscle in my body ached and burned, my clothes were sopping wet, I was freezing cold, and I could barely keep my eyes open.
It was then that I started thinking their computer guy was better than I thought. I thought I could handle whatever he dished out for a few hours, but I was wrong. My plan was falling apart, and there was no sense in trying to hold out any longer. It was just too much. When I finally gathered the strength to speak, I mumbled, “I know what you did.”
He took a tug off his cigarette and let the smoke billow around him as he glared at me. “Care to clarify that?”
“I know you killed her,” I spat.
“Who?”
“You know damn well who!” I wanted to punch him right in the face. The very idea that he would deny it repulsed me to no end. “I know you did it, and I know why! You were afraid she’d run her mouth… tell everyone about all the crazy shit you do here, so you killed her.”
“You’re stalling with this shit.”
“You sit there acting like you are all tough and strong, but you are just a damned coward. Too afraid to admit what you did.”
He took a step towards me, and I could feel the anger radiating from his body. “I don’t take accusations like that lightly.”
I should’ve taken that as a warning, but I let my anger deter my thinking. “I don’t know what the hell she was thinking. She knew what kind of men you were. She should’ve known you would’ve come after her, but she trusted you… all of you.”
“Enough of the bullshit. I’m tired of fucking around.”
He stood up and tossed his cigarette to the floor, then he took the long, metal rod in his hand and started walking towards me. I knew he was about to shock me again, so I shouted, “Wait! You can’t stop it without the code.”
“What the hell are you talking about now?”
“If you kill me, you will never be able to stop it. You will lose everything.” I knew he’d never admit what they’d done to my sister and in the end, I knew they were going to do the same thing to me, but I had to give it one last shot.
“I don’t know shit about any fucking codes. You’re just rambling a bunch of nonsense now. I’m done listening to your bullshit.”
He was just about to hit me again when I heard a door open and a man shout, “Hold up, Stitch! Stop!”
Seconds later, he was behind me, releasing me from my restraints. Relief washed over me as my hands dropped to my side. I tried to take a step, but stumbled backwards. Just as I was about to hit the ground, I was lifted up into the air. Before I had a chance to resist, I was in his arms with my head resting comfortably on his shoulder. My mind was a blur. That’s the only excuse I have for my actions. There was no other way to explain why I would be nestled close to his chest, feeling the warmth of his body against mine, when I should’ve been running for the door. Dammit! I was not following the plan.
The man he’d just called Stitch started walking towards us with a shocked expression on his face. “Am I missing something here?”
“Her name is Josie Carmichael.”
“And?”
“She’s Tristen’s sister,” he explained as he took a blanket from one of the cabinets and covered me, making my escape plan even more difficult. I wanted to protest, to tell him to fuck off and let me down, but I couldn’t form the words. He continued to hold me protectively against his chest as he explained, “She’s been looking for her, and she thinks we had something to do with her disappearance. She was looking in…” Before he could finish his sentence, the power went out. “Damn. It just keeps coming.”
“What the fuck?” Stitch grumbled as he pulled a lighter out of his pocket and lit it.
“It’s a blackout. She did a number on us. Slipped a virus in through the back door and compromised our entire hard drive. I did everything I could to slow it down, but…”
“Wait a minute. She did all that and knocked out our power?”
“I reckon she did. I’ve got to see how much of our system was wiped. We need to see if we can get the generators going before Cotton gets here.”
As Stitch headed for the door, he said, “I’ll take care of it. You just keep an eye on her.”
Now that he was gone, I finally had my chance to get out of this place, to run, but unfortunately, I couldn’t move. I needed a few more seconds to gather my strength. I was thinking about my next move when Big whispered in the darkness, “I don’t guess you’re gonna tell me how you did all this or why?”
“I had my reasons.”
The lights flickered back on just as Stitch walked back into the room. “Well, I gotta say. I never saw that one coming.”
“That goes for both of us.”
Stitch shook his head as he walked back over to us. “So, let me get this straight. All that shit you were saying about us killing someone… that was about Tristen? You really think we fucking killed her, so you hacked into our club, got yourself tortured, and wiped out our computer systems and power? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
There was something in his voice that made me start to question everything, and a world of doubt crashed around me. Before I could answer, Big whispered, “You’ve got it all wrong, Josie. We’d never hurt Tristen.”
I looked up at him, saw the sincerity in his eyes, and for a moment, I actually believed him.
Chapter 3
Big
Cotton charged into the room, but stopped cold when he found me holding Josie protectively in my arms. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Big Mike got into her computer.”
“And?”
“She’s not the threat we thought she was.” Stitch looked over to Josie with his eyes filled with regret, and I could see that he was struggling. He’d let us know from the start that he didn’t like the thought of hurting a woman. He assured us that he’d get the information we needed, but he made it clear there were boundaries he wasn’t willing to cross. In the end, he did what had to be done, but knowing he’d tortured Josie unnecessarily was fucking with his head. “She’s Tristen’s sister.”
While Stitch caught Cotton up on everything I’d found on her computer and the virus she’d used to crash our system, I turned my attention back to Josie. A spark of anger flickered in her eye as she pushed against my chest and demanded, “Put me down.”
She winced with pain as I eased her down onto the counter. I had no idea what Stitch had done to her over the past four hours, but she looked like hell. Her body shivered and twitched as she gripped onto the edge of the counter. “Are you okay?”
“No. I’m not.”
“Can I get you anything?”
“You can get me the hell out of here.”
“That’s not going to happen.”
&
nbsp; “Then how about an aspirin and a stiff drink?”
“Aspirin I can do.” I walked over to the cabinet, grabbed the pain relievers and a bottle of water from the minifridge, then brought them back over to her. Her hand trembled as she reached for the water. “Stiff drink later.”
“Make it two.”
Her eyes skirted over to Cotton as she watched him walk over to us. After placing a timer down beside her, he pulled up a stool and sat down in front of her. “You’ve got ten minutes. Either you convince me that what you’re saying is true or you go back on the hook.”
“What exactly do you want from me?”
“I want the truth. I want to know how you got it in your head that we killed Tristen.”
“I know what kind of men you are… the things you do in this so-called club.”
“And what is that exactly?”
“I know that 1%er patch on your jacket means you aren’t out there passing out bibles.”
Cotton raised his eyebrow as he looked over at the timer. “The clock’s ticking, kid. You’re just digging a deeper hole.”
“You got a young girl in your club, seeing things, hearing things, and you didn’t like the fact that she’d had enough of all the bullshit and decided to move on. You were afraid she might run her mouth about things she’d seen and heard while she was here, so you made sure there was no way she could talk.”
Cotton looked over at me. “Kid’s got one hell of an imagination.”
“When did she tell you she was leaving?” Stitch asked her.
“She was on her way to Mexico. Something was bugging her, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was. I kept pushing, and that’s when she said she’d decided to quit her job at the club.”
I looked at Stitch. “Probably had something to do with Smokey.”
“What about Smokey?”
Maverick answered, “She tried to be cool about it, but anyone could see she had a thing for him.”
“So?” she pushed.
“So… he got himself an old lady.”
“Of course, he did,” she huffed. “She was never going to find the right guy in a motorcycle club. She was crazy to think she would. She thought of you as her family.”
“We feel the same about her.”
“That’s not true and you know it. Tristen isn’t your family. She’s just some chick that would pick up your trash and put food on your table during the day, and a warm body to crawl in bed with at night. Do you even know about her past? The hell she’s been through? Do you have any idea how hard she had it? She was just looking for a place where she could feel safe… where no one would hurt her again.”
“We’ve been good to her,” Cotton growled. “She’s happy here.”
“If she was so happy, why would she want to leave?” Josie sighed with frustration.
“That’s something you’d have to ask her.”
“I would if I knew where she was,” Josie snapped.
“So, what makes you think she never made it to Mexico?” Cotton asked.
“I’ve called the hotel, and she never checked in. I’ve been calling her cell phone over and over, but she hasn’t answered. Since the night at the airport, I haven’t been able to reach her.”
“Tell me about that phone call,” Cotton ordered.
“I thought she was just tired. She mentioned she’d been feeling dizzy, so I told her to splash some water on her face. As soon as she stepped into the bathroom, the line went dead.” Her eyes were filled with worry as she continued, “At first, I thought the call had just dropped or something. Thought it was just bad reception, but then I tried calling back and couldn’t get her to answer. By the next morning, I knew something was wrong.”
“And you’ve had no contact with her since that phone call?”
“No. And since you’re denying that you had anything to do with her disappearance, have any of you talked to her?”
The room fell silent. As far as we all knew, Tristen was living it up at the beach with one of her friends. None of us had reason to be concerned, so we left her alone. Cotton finally answered, “No.”
“She’s been gone for days, and none of you… her so-called family… even took the time to check up on her?”
“Tristen needed some time away. Besides, she’s always had a mind of her own. As her sister, you should know that.”
“She’s young and naïve. I’ll give her that, but this is extreme, even for her.”
“It’s late.” Cotton stopped the timer and stood up. “Get her down to Tristen’s room. Let her get a shower and a change of clothes. See what you can do to get our computers up and running again.”
She shook her head frantically. “No. I want to go home.”
“You should’ve thought about that before you hacked into my club and crashed our fucking hard drive,” Cotton barked at her.
“It’s an easy fix. I can give you the code, and you can have things back running in a matter of minutes. Just let me go home.”
He handed her a sheet of paper. “Write it down.”
Once she was done, she handed it back to him. “Now, just let me go home.”
“That’s not gonna happen. You’re staying here until we get this thing sorted.” He looked over at me. “Big, keep an eye on her.”
“Well, shit,” Josie grumbled under her breath.
I walked over and helped Josie down from the counter. I took her arm, supporting her as she took her first steps, and we were just about to walk out of the room when Stitch stepped in our path. Her body tensed as he spoke. “You should’ve said something… anything to stop me from doing…”
“I was just biding my time, but it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. You had a job to do.”
“No. If you had just explained… told us what was going on…”
“It was my decision to make. Can’t go back, so there’s no point in trying to change things now.”
She quietly held onto my arm as I led her into the clubhouse and down the hall to Tristen’s room. When I opened the door, she released her hold on my arm and stepped inside. I watched as she walked around the room, studying all of her sister’s pictures and knickknacks.
Tears filled her eyes as she turned to me. “Where could she be?”
Damn. She wasn’t making it easy. Seeing her look so beautiful, but so broken, tore at me. I wanted to reach for her, pull her close to me and whisper promises in her ear, but reality kept me from moving towards her. Even though she thought she had reason, she’d done a real number on us. It was going to take me hours to get our computers back up, and we still had no concrete evidence that proved she was telling us the truth about who she was. Until I uncovered everything, every last detail about her and her past, Josie would remain a threat and had to be treated as such.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find her,” I assured her. “It’s what I do.”
“I can help.”
“No.”
“At least let me get the power back on for you.”
“And how are you going to do that?”
“Just need your phone for a minute.” I reluctantly pulled it out of my back pocket and handed it over to her.
“You got something other than a burner?”
I grabbed my other cell and offered it to her. Seconds later, the lights flickered, letting us both know that everything was back up and running. She handed me back my phone as her lips curled into a prideful smile. I didn’t bother asking how she’d done it. It was clear that she had her own connections to the utility department. “I can help with other stuff, too.”
“Like Cotton said, it’s late. You need to get some rest.”
She crossed her arms and glared at me with determination. “It’s not like I’m going to sleep… not when she could be out there needing me.”
I took a step towards her and placed my hand on her shoulder. “You’re no good to her like this. You’re exhausted, beaten all to hell, and on top of all that, you’re soaked to the bone. Now take a damn sh
ower and get yourself some sleep.”
I walked out and closed the door behind me. When I got back to my room, Cotton was sitting at my desk waiting for me. It had been a day from hell, and from the look on my president’s face, I knew it was far from over. “We need to know if she’s really Tristen’s sister.”
I walked over to my desk and reached for the file that had everything I’d found on her laptop. “I looked through their emails. They’ve been talking since the day Tristen moved in.”
“Okay, but how do we know this is the same girl? The truth is, she could be anyone. She crashed our entire fucking system, Big. There’s no doubt she’s seen the same damn emails and could’ve used them to come up with that harebrained story of hers.”
In my gut, I believed she was telling us the truth, but he had a point. We had no photographs of Tristen’s sister, or any real means of proving Josie was actually who she said she was. “Agreed.”
“You need to start digging. We have to know everything there is to know about Tristen and her sister.”
“What exactly do we know about Tristen?”
“Not a lot. Her parents died in a car crash when she was sixteen. She ended up living with some aunt here in Washington. Tristen rebelled like teenagers do. Drinking. Partying. Got herself into some trouble. She hadn’t been living with the aunt long when she ran away. Bounced around from place-to-place until I gave her a job here.”
“And the sister?”
He ran his hand through his salt and pepper hair as he sighed. “There are two kinds of people in the world: those who thrive under adversity, and those who crumble beneath it. Tristen was lost, couldn’t get her shit together after the death of her parents, while her sister went on to college and managed to make something of herself. It caused a rift between them, and I just assumed they never got back on track.”
