WRECKED: The Beasts MC

by April Lust

  It made me sick. It had all happened in a flash, much too quickly to look back on now. One moment, Charlie and I had been happy together, in bed, cuddling. I’d felt safe, warm, and loved.

  And now I was outside, wearing only a sheet, feeling more miserable and afraid than I’d ever felt in my life.

  “Help!” I screamed as I ran towards the road. The desolate landscape around me only added to my discomfort as I realized that I could be miles away from anyone or anything willing to help me. My throat swelled up and my eyes filled with fresh tears. “Help me! Help!” The scream filled my throat but sounded surprisingly empty when it came out. As I screamed and cried, the arid desert air did nothing but swallow my pleas.

  I felt a sharp stitch in my side as I ran towards the roadside, waving my arms, no longer caring that the sheet was slipping down my body and exposing the curves of my breasts. I have to get out of here, I realized quickly. I have to move! Jack is going to come looking for me, and then I’ll really be in trouble. When I didn’t see any cars coming, I whipped my head over my shoulder and started running in the opposite direction. The road was hot from the midday sun, but the pavement felt good on my feet. Despite my fear and panic, I was starting to feel powerful, strong in a way I hadn’t ever experienced before.

  I wondered if my baby was afraid. Closing my eyes, I quickly rubbed my protruding belly. It felt hot and hard, like a rock baking in the sun. It didn’t even feel like a part of my body. The blood was pounding in my ears as I crossed the road, over and over again.

  Think, Nicolette! Get your shit together! I blinked back tears as I tried to remember everything Charlie had told me about working for some of the neighbors. He’d done some minor repair work for them, on and off, ever since we’d found ourselves staying in St. George. But even though I’d listened to him gripe about the work itself, I realized with a growing panic that I’d never even bothered asking their names.

  In the distance, I saw something dark on the horizon. From where I stood, I couldn’t tell what it was. But I knew that I didn’t have much time – if I didn’t get moving, Jack was sure to find me.

  As I ran and stumbled towards the shadow, I cursed the desert. There were no trees here, no shade, no place to hide from my monster of an ex-boyfriend. I stuck out like a sore thumb in the dry, dusty landscape. Jack wouldn’t even need to look long. All he had to do was follow the road, and there I would be, sheet billowing around my body.

  I was probably the only person around for miles, save Charlie and Jack. I felt a pinch of sadness in my chest as I pushed my body forward and began to run again. What would happen? Would Jack kill Charlie? I hated thinking of that, I hated even thinking of Charlie being hurt, but I knew how sadistic Jack could be in a fit of rage. I shivered as I thought of how it would feel when he found me. What would he do? Beat me so badly that I’d lose the baby? Kill me? Drag me back to Carlsbad and kill me in front of the other Steel Gods?

  The metallic taste of fear seeped into my mouth as I approached what looked to be a ramshackle little house by the side of the road. I didn’t want to allow myself to hope as I ran, but I couldn’t ignore the swelling inside my lungs. The pain, which had been absent for what felt like hours, was starting to come back. As my bare feet slapped against the hot tar of the road, tendrils of agony crept up my ankles and legs. I moaned in pain as I ran towards the shack, waving my arms in the air and screaming.

  I can hide there, I thought in a panicked moment. But maybe there’s someone home, maybe they have a phone, maybe I can call 911 and send for an ambulance! With a heavy heart, I noticed ] there was no car in the driveway. The pavement was cracked and split, with weeds and grass growing through. I stubbed my toe on a broken piece of concrete and howled with pain, grabbing my foot and hopping through the air. The sheet fell down about my body and I cried out, reaching down and pulling the thin material around my naked curves.

  “Help!” I screamed as I pounded on the ramshackle door. “Help me! Somebody, please! Help!”

  Tears burned hot tracks down my cheeks as I slammed my fist into the wooden door over and over again. Pain shot through my arm but I kept beating on, even after I had begun to realize that the shack was abandoned.

  “Help!” I yelled once more. “Please, somebody! Please help me!”

  My only answer was silence.

  For a brief second, I closed my eyes and wished all of this away. Soon, this will be over, I prayed as I wrapped the sheet tight around my body. The heat of the midday had given way to a cooler, dusky atmosphere, and the lack of humidity made my whole body feel as though I was covered in dust.

  I knew I had to do something, and fast. If I didn’t hurry, Jack would come and find me and drag me back home in chains. My eyes teared up again but this time I blinked them away. No, I thought fiercely as I began to stumble away from the ramshackle little cottage. No, I won’t let him find me. Besides, Carlsbad isn’t my home. My home is with Charlie, no matter where we may be.

  As I ran back towards the road, hope soared inside of me. There, maybe a couple hundred feet away, was a car. I darted out into the center of the road, ignoring the way the hot pavement burned my feet.

  “Help!” I yelled loudly, waving my arms around in the air. “Help me! Please!”

  The car came closer and closer. As it approached, I squinted and shielded my eyes from the sinking sun with my palm. I couldn’t quite make out who was driving – a person of indeterminate sex, with a puffed cloud of white hair. Thank god, I thought. It’s some little old lady. She’ll feel sorry for me. I’ll tell her that I’m pregnant!

  But as the car came closer and closer, I panicked when I realized that it didn’t seem to be slowing down. As deftly as I could, I ran back and forth on the road until the soles of my feet were bloody and torn.

  “Please!” I begged loudly. “Please stop!” I stood there, waving my arms until I saw the car begin to slow. As soon as the car had screeched to a stop in the middle of the deserted road, I ran towards it, arms outstretched. It was, in fact, a small elderly woman. She was wearing big block sunglasses and a pink sweater embroidered with cats.

  “Please,” I begged again. I rapped on her rolled-up window with my head, trying to make my face look as desperate as possible. “Please help me! Please!”

  The woman shook her head nervously and I yelled loudly in frustration. As I reached for the handle of the door, she locked the car from the inside and then the car began to move forward. When I realized she meant to drive off without me, I let out a scream of fright and pounded against her window harder than ever. The sheet slipped from my body, exposing my ripe breasts, and I watched as a look of horror spread across the old woman’s face.

  In a matter of seconds, her car was nothing but a small bump on the horizon.

  Shit.

  I felt like I’d been defeated. Like Jack had won – and he’d barely even looked at me after bursting through the cabin door. He’d been focused on Charlie, but I knew I was next on his list. And unless a miracle happened, I knew I wouldn’t be safe for much longer.

  Lowering a hand to my belly, I began to rub my baby bump. “I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I know – you have every reason to think I’m the world’s worst mother. But you were wanted, little baby.” A tear escaped my closed lids and dripped down my cheek. “I wish I could have given you a better life.”

  A sound from behind me made me jump. When I whirled around on the road, I saw something so beautiful I wanted to cry. It wasn’t the pinkish orange of the sun fading in the sky, or the lone cactus that stood a few feet away.

  It was a semi rig, big and powerful. I watched in amazement as the truck sped towards me. Without even thinking about what I was doing, I raised my arms into the air and let out a powerful scream. I waved my arms back and forth as my throat strained with the loudest cry for help that I’d uttered yet that day.

  The driver of the semi leaned on the horn and the loud roar assaulted my ears. As he approached me, I heard the brakes squealing.
My heart filled with hope as the semi glided to a stop right in front of me.

  As quickly as I could, I ran towards the truck with my arms outstretched. “Help!” I screamed one last, final time. “Please! Help me!”

  Chapter 23

  Charlie

  As Jack hit me again and again, I was aware that I was beginning to lose consciousness. The blows rained down upon my head like heavy bricks of lead and I felt my eyes rolling back towards my brain as a particularly brutal blow landed on my cheek.

  “Fight me like a man,” Jack growled. He leaned down and grabbed me by the collar, pulling me up off the floor.

  Air rushed into my lungs and I put both hands on Jack’s shoulders and pushed him away with all the power I had. Miraculously, it worked – his body flew across the room and slammed into the opposite wall with a sickening thud. I struggled to my feet and wiped my hands on my bare thighs. Jack groaned, his eyelids fluttering. I knew he wasn’t going to pass out, but I had to act quickly if I wanted to rescue Nicolette.

  My head was pounding and there was so much blood in my mouth that I had to breathe through my nose, but I knew I was alive. My heart was pounding in my chest – a singular, desperate rhythm to the beat of Nicolette’s name. I winced when I remembered that she’d darted outside in nothing but the bed sheet. She hadn’t even taken her purse – it was still in the corner of the living room, slumped down to the side. Somehow, I felt even sicker when I realized that. Despite everything she’d been through, Nicolette was currently more fragile than ever. I knew, without even having to think about it, she couldn’t take much more. It would kill her – the pregnancy hormones had already been enough to make her paranoid and insecure. And now that Jack had invaded our cabin, the safe space I’d worked so damn hard to create for Nicolette, she wasn’t going to feel like she could sleep with both eyes closed for a long, long time.

  “Charlie,” Jack growled. He stumbled to his feet, falling once, then righting himself on the thin carpet. “Charlie, you motherfucker. I gave you a life, and this is how you choose to repay me!” His voice faded in and out, and I watched carefully as he stumbled, bracing himself against the dirty wall with one hand.

  “Jack, get the fuck out,” I growled. “This is my home, and you ain’t welcome here.”

  Jack laughed. The sound almost scared me – it was deep and sonorous, like he was feeling just fine. He shook his head, spitting once on the floor. “I’m not leaving,” Jack growled. “I’m not leaving until you’re nothing but a puddle of blood and guts on the floor. Not until Nicolette’s back. And she’s coming with me, you asshole.” He grinned, showing two front teeth smeared with his own blood. “You’re a fuckin’ fool if you think you’ll make it back to Carlsbad. I have half a mind to kill you right here and string your dead ass up in front of this shitheap.” Jack burst into laughter and gestured around. “Jesus, Charlie! This is the kind of shit life you was lookin’ to get away from! Don’t you remember that?”

  I felt myself shaking with rage as I stared him down. Jack curled his fingers into a fist and took a swing, but this time I managed to duck and Jack went stumbling forward. As he staggered past me, I kicked him square in the gut. Jack howled, clutching his stomach as he crashed into one of the bedroom walls. Plaster and dust rained down from the ceiling and the walls of the small cabin shook, threatening to collapse around us.

  “I’ll tear this place apart!” Jack laughed bitterly, shaking his head from side to side. His skin was sweaty and pale and I could tell he wasn’t in the best shape of his life.

  I hoped I looked better than I felt. My head was swimming and blood was draining into my stomach so fast that I knew I’d be puking before too much longer. Worst of all, my heart was beating a staccato rhythm in my chest, threatening to burst free of the skin and ribs that held it in. “Fuck you,” I mumbled under my breath. I stepped forward and swung back, landing a powerful blow at the back of Jack’s head. He rushed forward and I ducked out of the way just in time to see him crash into the old dresser Nicolette had found for me at Goodwill. The particleboard and wood crashed to the floor and Jack fell on top of the rubble, twisting an ankle and screaming in pain.

  I knew that part of me, deep down, should have realized that what I was doing was wrong. Attacking my boss was a cardinal sin to the MC – something so bad it warranted death. Those were the rules, and had been since I patched into the Steel Gods. But instead of guilt, I felt nothing. At least, nothing but a cruel kind of satisfaction that I’d managed to fend off the toughest man I’d ever known.

  Jack looked up at me, blood dripping into his eyes from a deep gash on his forehead. “Charlie, you’re a fuckin’ rotten traitor,” he said. His voice was steely and cold. “You oughta die for even thinkin’ about hitting me back.”

  “I don’t give a shit,” I snarled, stepping closer and kicking Jack in the gut.

  His body jerked and twitched into the air, but somehow he managed to right himself and stagger forward with his arm outstretched. The blow hit me in the jaw before I even saw it coming, and then I was reeling across the bedroom with my hand clutched to my face. “Oh? You don’t give a fuck?” Jack laughed again before kicking me hard in the thigh. The blow sent pain spreading through my lower body and suddenly I was on the floor, helpless in front of the man I’d formerly worshipped.

  “No,” I managed to stutter. “I don’t give a shit, Jack. What you did was wrong. Beating and abusing Nicolette for all those years, just because she was smaller than you and you could land a punch?” I laughed, despite the horrific pain in my chest. “You’re a fucking bully, Jack. That’s all you fuckin’ are.”

  Jack reached down and grabbed me by the shoulder, yanking me into the air. When we were eye to eye, he dropped me, then swung out and punched me hard in the gut. I gasped and choked as the air rushed out of my lungs. For a few seconds, everything around me went black and fuzzy. It was like I was seeing fireworks explode behind my eyes.

  “I’m a fucking man,” Jack growled. “And if you were a good one, you’d realize that you’re nothing but scum, Charlie. I took you in! I took you in off the fuckin’ street and gave you a chance, even when you had nothing but that shitty chink bike!” He shook his head. “And this is what I get for trusting you?” He scowled and rubbed his forearms like he was rolling up his sleeves.

  Dazed and bleeding, I stepped back. The thoughts swarming around in my brain were almost more intense than the fight my body had experienced. But now I knew something that I would never have realized before: joining the Steel Gods, an outlaw gang, hadn’t been the escape from all those goddamned abusive families. The Steel Gods had just been yet another abusive family wrapped in leather with tattoos and shiny chrome road hogs.

  “Fuck you,” I mumbled as I stepped backwards, out of the bedroom and into the hallway. When Jack rushed at me again, I was ready for it. I kneed him square in the face as he lowered his head into my belly. At first, I was worried the blow wasn’t enough. But then Jack released his grip around my stomach and fell over, howling with his hands pressed to his nose. His face was covered in blood. The bedroom itself looked like the scene of a brutal crime: furniture destroyed, blood everywhere, the goddamned ceiling half caved in. It turned my stomach, almost as badly as the realization that I’d done all of this bad shit to myself.

  Before Jack could come at me again, I ran outside. There was a strange car in the driveway. Alarm soared through my body until I realized the man in the driver’s seat had fallen asleep. His chin was tilted up and he was snoring so loudly I could hear him from six feet away. I blinked, rooted to the spot in terror.

  Get moving, you fuck! The thought was enough to jolt me into action and as quickly as I could, I ran out to the street where my old truck was parked. I always kept a spare key tucked in the visor above the driver’s seat.

  There was a loud slam behind me. I whirled around, only to see Jack darting out of the cabin and climbing into the car. There was a brief pause, then the loud sound of a smack. I watched
in horror as the driver woke up. Jack shook him by the shoulders and yelled something I couldn’t hear from where I stood.

  I launched myself into the old truck and fumbled around for the spare key. Come on, come on! Sweat poured down my face and I gritted my teeth as my fingers flopped around on top of the hot leatherette visor. Finally, my fingers made contact with a piece of hot metal. Crying out in triumph, I grabbed the key and jammed it into the ignition.

  A quick glance behind me told me that Jack was still screaming at the driver of his car. They weren’t moving yet, and he had a hand pressed up to one of the massive cuts in his face. My stomach twisted and turned and threatened to empty its contents all over the dashboard of the truck as I desperately pumped the clutch and tried turning the engine over again and again.

  “Come on!” I yelled, slamming my free hand into the plastic steering wheel. The horn honked but finally I heard the telltale roar that told me I’d managed to get the truck running. I yanked the gearshift with my right hand and groaned loudly as pain shot up my arm. My wrist was swollen and sore – I could tell it was probably broken – and I howled in agony as I shifted the truck into gear. My foot slammed down on the gas. As I shot down the street, away from the cabin, I could barely feel the pain over the adrenaline coursing through my body.