by Unknown
“Yeah, he’ll bitch but I know he would have done the same.”
“Uh, no, he would have shot him in the balls but he wouldn’t have cut them off and then shoved them into his mouth to shut him up like you just did. Nobody does shit like that except you,” Burner said as he let out an uncomfortable laugh while walking towards them.
“Damn it, Animal. I get why you do this but next time could you make less noise. His screaming almost warned them early enough that they got away,” Reaper growled, coming up behind him.
“Sorry, you know this shit makes me nuts. I don’t think, I just fuck the asshole up. I can’t control it,” Animal told him with an unconcerned shrug. It didn’t bother him that he was likely considered crazy by most of the club because of his reactions to certain situations. It was just how things were and he didn’t overanalyze shit like other people did because some things just were and there wasn’t anything you could do about it.
“I get it, man. Rape is fucked up but damn.” Reaper had a pained expression on his face as he looked down at the body of the man who’d been trying to rape a teenager. The man’s bloody dick was sticking out of his mouth and he was staring at the sky with a glassed over look having died of blood loss. Animal gazed at the body too, unconcerned by the others’ reaction to it. The asshole had deserved it; he’d tried to rape a child for fuck’s sake.
“Geez, what the fuck, Animal? You’re always doing that shit. Just kill the fucker, no need to make him eat his own cock,” Bull said, coming up to stand with them and gagging as he looked down at the body.
“Well, he wanted someone to eat it. I just gave him his last wish,” Animal told the pansy-assed fool, his smile evil and his conscious clear.
“Damn, that’s just cold,” Rebel muttered with a rueful chuckle.
Animal didn’t pay any attention to them because he was already done with the situation. He turned to see Lock and Iron walking up to them. Pansy was standing nearby leaning against a tree, his hands in his pockets and a bored expression on his face.
“We put the girls into the largest truck. Most of them are unharmed but a few are banged up and one or two were raped I think. One might not make it through the night, she was beaten pretty badly. If we can get her to Lance in time, maybe,” Lock informed Reaper. Animal felt his head ache at the words. They made the angry beast who took over when he was aroused or angry jerk on its chain. He hated cowards and any man who beat a woman bloody was a coward.
Yeah, Animal liked to whip her skin a bit pink in the sexual sense but you always did it only enough to bring your partner pleasure, never more than that. His chest tightened and his lips thinned because thoughts of that night filled his mind. The mistake that had sent him running out of the dark hole he had somehow crawled into with the Headhunters had led him straight to the Blue Bandits.
Shaking those thoughts away, he turned towards Pansy planning to go talk to him. He didn’t need to hear this report or any more about any of the young girls that had been hurt tonight. He had barely taken two steps when he heard Iron speak up.
“Hey, you see that over there. I think I saw a few of those Headhunters we didn’t get take off in that direction. I couldn’t see it from the area we were in because of the trees but there is a barn back there.” Animal turned back to see that he was pointing towards, a building that could be seen in the distance.
“Yeah, we should check that out. Animal, Pansy, Iron and Burner can come with me to check it out. Rebel, you and Lock and the rest of the men take those girls to Lance. He needs to check them out,” Reaper told him nodding. Rebel and Lock both turned to head in the direction that the truck was parked, signaling the rest of the crew to mount up. “And make sure he takes a look at all of them, Lock. Even the ones that don’t want him to. It could be that they were raped or hurt and they don’t want to say.”
“Yeah, okay, Boss,” Lock said, nodding in approval. The club rolled out a few minutes later.
Animal turned to Pansy as he moved to his bike and asked, “Think any of them will be holed up in there?”
“We can only hope, man. We can only hope,” he said, proving that he was just as bloodthirsty as the rest of them were when it came to the shity assholes that were in the Headhunters M.C
Chapter 4
Shutting down the bikes a few minutes later before they were close enough to be heard, they climbed off their bikes. Pulling his gun free, Animal nodded to Reaper when he indicated that Pansy and he should head around to the back before Reaper led them towards the building, his hand wrapped around a Glock. Animal had another Glock in his saddlebags but he didn’t think he’d need it; not with Reaper, Pansy and Iron around because they were all crack shots. He didn’t know Burner as well as he did the other three men so he couldn’t judge his skills with a weapon, but he’d bet having trained with Reaper he likely would be a solid shot too.
As they neared the shack, they split up. Animal and Pansy headed around the back and the others headed to the front. It had looked like a barn of some sort but as they got closer they realized it wasn’t much more than a small storage shed. Animal went to the corner and peeked around it, signaling to Pansy that it was all clear. Pansy nodded and moved along the back wall of the little shack.
It was getting late and the sun was just starting to go down. Its dying rays shined on Pansy’s red hair, making a strange halo of fire look around his head for a second before he moved into the shadows, peeking into the window. Animal watched his back while he looked in.
Pansy started cussing and moved to head back around the building without another word. Animal was pondering what the hell was going on as he took off after him, coming around the little building moving quickly. Holding his Glock as he followed behind Pansy, Animal wondered what the hell he’d seen that made him move so fast back towards the front. As they rounded the corner, they saw Iron coming out of the door shaking his head, followed by Rebel and two young girls. Neither Reaper nor Burner were with them.
“He’s gone cold. They won’t last long,” Iron told them.
Animal knew he meant that Reaper was inside slicing up whoever had been in there with his knife. The men in that shack had flipped Reaper’s switch apparently. Reaper was like him in a way because he was set off by certain situations just like when the asshole earlier had flipped Animal’s kill switch. The fact that Reaper appeared to be unpredictable when he chose to explode meant nobody fucked with him. He had a hair trigger that went off if you weren’t careful. If you were lucky you got a bullet, but when you really ticked Reaper off you ended up skewered on his knife, and since he liked to gut people that wasn’t where you wanted to be.
“Why?”
“They were raping the other one, eighteen or nineteen year old,” Rebel told him, motioning inside.
“What other one?” Animal asked, a cold feeling settling in his chest at those words because neither Iron nor Rebel would have left another girl inside with Reaper and whoever else was in there.
“She didn’t make it,” a quiet voice said, a slight tremble making it squeak at the end. “Are we going to be your whores now?” the girl asked, looking at him with sad green eyes that nearly ripped him apart. The young girl couldn’t be a day over eighteen. She looked like she’d been beaten several times. A fading bruise was over her right eye and she had a fresh cut on her chin; she was dirty and her clothing was torn in places.
How long had she been with them? Jeez, this was a fucked up night. He didn’t like the way this was turning out. Animal didn’t want to think that this was who he could have been if he hadn’t gotten out of the Headhunters MC when he did. Would he have become a child molester who didn’t give a fuck about anything or anyone because the drugs had eaten away the man he was? Animal felt his hand grip the hard metal of the gun tighter and his palms felt sweaty as a sick feeling pulled at the pit of his stomach as this thought entered his mind. Fuck, he couldn’t stand thinking about what could have become of him. He was damned glad he’d woken up before he was
just like the fuckers who’d hurt this girl.
“No,” he told her at the same time Rebel spoke.
“Hell no, you’re safe now. We’ll take you home after we’ve made sure you two are okay.”
“We don’t have a home,” the littler one said with a fearful expression. She looked to be about ten but she seemed to be in better shape than the older girl. Animal wondered why. She had blue-green eyes and a small bruise that looked like it was almost healed on her neck but otherwise she looked almost clean. She wasn’t as thin looking as the older girl was either and Animal suddenly felt anger flowing in his veins. He’d bet good credits the older girl had been skipping meals to be sure the younger one ate.
“Sharon, it’s fine. We’ll be okay,” the older girl hissed, holding on to her arm while standing slightly in front of her.
“Fuck, he’s really fucking pissed. I don’t ever remember him being this angry,” Burner said coming out of the shack looking a bit nervous.
“How bad?” Iron asked, looking concerned.
Burner looked at the two girls and shook his head before speaking. “Let’s just say that there won’t be much of them left to bury and leave it at that. He’s working on the second one now cause the first one passed out. I’m surprise you can’t hear him screaming even though he has him gagged.”
“Maybe we should head back towards the bikes then,” Iron said, looking at Pansy over the girls’ heads likely thinking the same thing that Animal was because these kids had been through enough; they didn’t need to hear the Headhunter Reaper was ripping up screaming.
“Let him scream,” the younger girl said fiercely despite the older girl’s attempts to shush her. “He hurt Casey and they killed Nancy. He deserves it. I hope that your friend cuts his heart out.” The girl’s face was screwed up into the most hateful expression he had ever seen on the face of such a young girl. It made his skin crawl thinking of what she must have been through to make her feel that way.
That look made him glad that Reaper was in there tearing those two men apart because she shouldn’t have had to discover how hard life could be so early in life. His fingers itched to go and help Reaper finish the job because there was no reason these kids should ever have had to go through what they must have gone through.
“No, Sharon, no. It’s fine, I told you he didn’t hurt me that bad. I’m fine, let’s go back to the bikes.” She tried to steer Sharon away from the shack but the younger girl jerked her arm away and turned to face her screaming.
“You’re not fine, Casey! They hurt you. I know you and Karen let them because of me. I know they hurt you because I heard you crying when they were–were–you know.” Sharon looked heartbroken. Tears were glistening in her eyes and her lips trembled. Animal wanted to hug the kid, tell her it would be okay now, but he knew that after all they’d been through any affectionate gesture from a man would be misconstrued. He met Pansy’s eyes and knew that he felt the same way. He was sure that Pansy was thinking similar thoughts to his own. Animal was glad that those fuckers weren’t dying easy in that little shack because no child should have to face this kind of abuse.
This was why they were trying so hard to stop these fuckers from shipping the women and young girls to the Cut Throats MC. Animal felt his insides squeeze thinking of Tammy, Stitch’s fifteen year old daughter, or hell any man’s daughter in the hands of these monsters. Feeling a red rage course through him, he wondered if Reaper needed help because he was suddenly in the mood to make those assholes pay for what they’d done to these kids.
The door swung outward and Reaper moved from the little interior looking for all the world like a man who’d just gone out for a Sunday stroll. His hands were the only clue that he’d been torturing a man to death only seconds before. They were covered in red and he was wiping them on a cloth.
“Huh, thought you would have taken the girls back to the bikes by now,” he finally said, frowning at them. He began wiping down the knife, which was also covered in blood.
“We wanted to hear him,” Sharon told him, that same determined look in her eyes.
“Sharon, no,” Casey cried, her eyes closed tightly and her hands clutching the younger girl to her in a desperate hug. “She’s just upset. Don’t hurt her, please.” Casey’s eyes pleaded with them, turning Animal’s stomach. He wanted to revive those men and kill them all over again.
“Too quick,” Reaper muttered, looking around the group shaking his head. They all knew that he meant he’d killed the men too quickly because they had deserved to be tortured for hours instead of the quick death on the end of his knife. “Much too quick. Damn, too bad.”
Animal knew what Reaper meant with those words but from the way Casey was moving in front of the younger girl, he knew she was afraid that they were about to take that rage boiling inside each of them out on her and Sharon.
“Let’s get them over to Lance and let him check the girls out. Then we can find someone to care for them.” Iron tried to ease some of the fear that the two girls were suffering by smiling. Looking at Reaper, he filled him in on what the girls had told him about not having anywhere to go.
“Fine, they can stay with the club then,” Reaper muttered because they never turned children away. If they needed a place the Blue Bandits handled it; all they ever wanted in return was loyalty and for the most part they got it. Some had strayed down a path that had ended their association with the club but most stayed.
This statement was not reassuring for Casey if the way she shivered and her eyes darkened with panic was any indication and that didn’t help any of their moods. These girls were much too young to be so fearful over just a few sentences and it broke him a little bit inside to see the way they moved slowly as if seeking not to provoke a wild animal.
Casey clung to Sharon and she clutched Casey back. Watching the way they clung to each other, almost shaking with fearful expressions covering their faces, made Animal’s hands clench and his teeth snap together. His chest felt tight and glancing around him, he knew that the other men felt the same way. Burner looked almost green and his eyes burned with disgust, likely thinking of the ones he hadn’t been able to save while he was with the Headhunters. Pansy was trying not to glare because his scowl seemed to frighten the girls more.
Iron turned away, his body tense and his posture stiffening as he stomped a few feet away. Reaper stared at the two girls, his hands still bloody. Finally he spoke. “No one is going to hurt you again. We don’t believe in hurting women or children so you’re safe now. How long have you been here?”
“How do we know that’s true?” Casey asked in a voice that shook with the weight she’d had to carry for goodness knew how long, making every man present feel the anger burn brighter.
“You don’t. You’re going to have to choose to trust me,” Reaper told her flatly without any sugarcoating because the man wasn’t one to be nice to anyone except his old lady and their kid.
Casey’s mouth was open and she stared at him with a considering look for several moments. Sharon reached forward putting her hand into Casey’s “He’s the only one who helped us, Cas,” she said in a quiet voice that was barely heard. Animal again wanted to murder those bastards all over again.
How could anyone do this shit to children; it didn’t fucking make sense to him. He’d known from the shipments they had intercepted in the past that they seemed inclined to take young girls but Sharon was the youngest he’d seen. Most were seventeen or older and the thought that some of the men might have touched Sharon sexually made his stomach twist in distaste. He wondered if they took younger girls because they were more durable when it came to abuse or because they were easier to abuse because of their size and lack of skills.
Either way it was abhorrent.
“Fine, we were here for about a year,” Casey spit out, making them all step back in shock. Fuck, a year. “Our mother didn’t want me and Sharon no more and she sold us to Wiley who sold us to those men in there. After they got us, we were moved a
round a lot and kept in binds and chains. They bought Nancy a few months ago. Nancy and I tried to protect Sharon from their––um–attentions.”
The way she seemed to shove those last words out of her chest with such hatred and pain made his chest ache. Animal wanted to protect these kids and he knew that they wouldn’t want for anything. He’d bet they’d end up at Momma Joe’s over in Death Riders territory. Although they were technically all one MC with Reaper as the vice president and Death as the president, the territory was so big they’d had to split it up.
Since last year they’d essentially been a club of their own with Reaper at the head and Lock as second in command. That didn’t mean that church wasn’t held halfway between the two and that Reaper and Death weren’t still the law when it came to decisions. It just meant that they had to make things work and still hold the territory while they fought to protect their home.
Momma Joe was in her early fifties. She’d been in the club for years and she always seemed to end up with the wounded birds. These two were definitely that. They were going to need help and getting them to trust any man was going to be difficult.
“That won’t be a problem anymore. You have an issue, you come to me and I will handle it. For now let’s get you two to Lance so he can check you over,” Reaper told the older girl, ushering them towards the bikes.
“I don’t want to see anyone, I’m fine, and Sharon just needs some food,” Casey told him, looking green around the gills over having someone look her over.
“Yeah, I make the rules, not you, kid. That means you go get checked out,” Reaper told her. Animal was walking behind the girls and almost plowed into them when they stopped abruptly.
“I see. So this is just another prison,” Casey bit out. Reaper swung around, his scowl dark, and the two girls cowered. Reaper’s face softened but his voice was still firm when he spoke again.
