by Isabel Wroth
“No chance of that.”
He snarled at the kid to not get cocky, “That’s my woman in that car, Ruckus, don’t you dare swing your fucking dick and risk her life.”
“Not swingin my dick, boss. Gee tossed a credit card in the back seat of the car. Figured Nasa could track the RFID chip, since the car is a piece of shit and doesn’t have a GPS.”
Nasa grinned like a mother fucker and rolled left to smack another keyboard around, then rolled back and suddenly there was a red dot on a map, moving down 71. “Got it. How the fuck did he get a credit card in the back of the car?” Ruckus cleared his throat, and he could hear the kid smiling. “Athena rolled the back window down, Gee said she was bitching at the dickhead about the car not having AC.” He ducked his head to hide the tears that welled, managing to huff a little laugh. Life on the line, and his bitch was arguing with her armed kidnapper about the AC. Top grunted, nodding while he stared at the computer monitors, the map. “She’s smart, she knows him, how to push his buttons and stall for time. Go get her. We’ll feed you information as we get it.”
THIRTY THREE
She was starting to struggle to stay pissed off. Denny had shoved her into a car that reeked of stale French fries, was littered with junk food bags and all manner of trash, and had pushed the rolling garbage can to its limit. Which was about seventy miles an hour. Any faster and the engine sounded like it would fall out from under the hood at any second. She was crossing her fingers that happened sooner rather than later. The car was not his, a car without the Perdition model GPS tracer to broadcast their location. Denny had made her toss her favorite purse out the window, but like a fool he’d taped her hands in front of her and she was already plotting the moment when she would escape with ridiculous ease. In the meantime, she had two choices:
Sit calmly and quietly and let him continue to rant at her about how it was all her fault that he had to do this and let him take her wherever they were going with confidence.
Or piss off the man who’d murdered her uncle, and her damn Chihuahua, likely get hurt, stall for time so Raid could find her, and make Denny potentially have a coronary.
That last bit sounded like fun, but she breathed deep and tried to remember anything Uncle John had told her about getting kidnapped. He’d told her stories, told her scenarios, generally scared the shit out of her as a teen, but for the life of her right now, she could not remember anything except that she was supposed to be looking around for landmarks in case she got the opportunity to make a phone call. Landmarks that would give the police somewhere to start looking for her. Or her body. So, uncertain how to proceed, she decided to just go with her gut, and piss him off. “You couldn’t have stolen a car without ebola virus brewing in the backseat?” She drawled, hands in her lap, trying not to let her anxiety show, or the recognition when she saw Ruckus in a truck, and another prospect in plain clothes on a dirtbike, following them.
She held her breath as Ruckus passed them, made eye contact with her and given a short nod to let her know she wasn’t alone. Denny might be driving the car, but he was not in control. No matter the gun he kept pointed her way, concealed in his lap. If Ruckus was right there, Raid and the rest of the club wouldn’t be far behind. She just had to keep it together long enough for them to get to her.
She licked her lips and glanced at Ruckus again, getting a jerk of his chin as though he was asking her if she was okay. She scrambled with a way to assure him she was thus far unharmed. Um… she shook her hair back a few times, then raised her taped hands to push it out of her face so Ruckus could see the four fingers she held up. He drove by like any other commuter, and she did her best not to make a sound. “Put your fucking hands down! So help me god, if you don’t shut the fuck up, I will fucking pull over and hit you with the taser until you’re convulsing in a puddle of your own piss and drooling like a fucking dog.”
Denny would do it, she had no doubt of it, but then he would run the risk of getting pulled over with an unconscious, restrained woman in the front seat with no way to explain. “Please do, then I won’t have to smell this stench. God, it’s like a fuckin sauna, turn on the AC.”
“And take my hand off the wheel, or the gun? How stupid do you think I am?”
“Pretty stupid, actually. I’m rolling down the window.”
“Move, and I’ll shoot you.”
A few blocks later, she saw the other prospect in the cracked side view mirror, rolling up alongside them, looking like just some random punk on a rice rocket. Denny was making a turn, and she needed to distract him in case he recognized the kid. He reached inside his jacket and pulled out a…credit card? What was he going to do with that? “Then shoot me, but I am not riding in this garbage can like Oscar the fuckin Grouch, with no AC!” She used her elbow to hit the window mechanism, glad that the filthy sedan at least had power windows, otherwise this wouldn’t have worked. “It is one hundred and five fuckin degrees, Denny, I am sweating my tits off, and since you don’t have the brains to steal a car with AC, the windows are going down. It’s not like I can escape with my hands taped up like this!” The prospect kept going straight as Denny turned, “Not so stupid that I didn’t notice your boyfriend and his friends tailing me non fuckin stop! Saw that, didn’t I? Found the GPS tracker on my fucking truck, let them think I didn’t know it was there! Smart enough to lose those stupid pussies in their oh so fucking inconspicuous matching leather gang jackets.”
His voice was rising in volume, jerking the wheel with one hand to send them off the road and into an abandoned parking lot. She braced herself when he threw the car in park, figuring she was about to get tased. Which was about the time she struggled to stay mad, when fear was threatening to grab her in a chokehold. “Smart enough, to break into your fucking house, jack off all over your shit and walk right out. Would’ve gotten to watch you fucking him too, left a little camera in the bedroom, but you went and moved out into that new swanky place of yours.” The way he was yelling at her, it was like he was blaming her for all the trouble he’d had to go to, to follow her from Nevada, to hunt her down, and break into her house. Went through all that, and then she moved again. “Smart enough to kill my uncle and my dog, and get away with that too, huh?
He went still beside her, and when he turned his head to smile at her, it made chills ripple down her spine. It was like looking at a Chuckie Doll, that handsome face twisting into something unnatural and evil, “I wondered if you’d ever realize it was me.” She sat there and stared back at him, able to see how much he wanted to tell her all about it. All she had to do was stay quiet, and he told her everything. “Wasn’t hard, he was drunk like usual. Was easy, almost too easy to be any real fun. Nobody around, no one to see, who would suspect foul play, when a drunk just happened to run off the road.” Tears slipped down her cheeks to hear him so callously speak about killing the only family she’d had left. So proud of himself, like he should get a trophy or something for his genius. “That dog was just icing on the cake,” He ripped off a strip of tape from his roll and set the gun in his lap, clicking his tongue at her when she looked at it, making her wince involuntarily when he grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back at a punishing angle. “Sat outside your place and waited for the troopers to call you. I wanted to see your face when you came out the door, when you came back after having to go identify the body.”
“You are the most pathetic excuse for a man I have ever met. Small brain, small ego, itty bitty little di-“
He shut her up by slapping the tape on her face, pushing her head back hard enough to cut the inside of her upper lip on her teeth. The pain of that was enough to make her cry out, the sound muffled against the tape, but she didn’t feel it for long. Pain spiked through her head, the end of his gun hitting her right in the temple. Enough to knock her out.
THIRTY FOUR
She wished she’d just stayed out, because when she came to, she was lying on a cold cement floor, in a windowless room, hands still taped together,
Or worse.
“Oh good, you’re awake.”
She shrieked behind the tape when he hauled her up by the hair, dragging her forward until she was on her knees. He crouched down in front of her, wiggling a pair of pliers at her while his eyes stroked over her tattoo. Raid’s brand on her. “That’s a real pretty tattoo. You know, they say if you tattoo the name of your lover on your body, the relationship is forever after, doomed?” She didn’t try to say anything, wondering how, or where, he planned on using those pliers. She worried when he looked at her nipples, stroking the metal edge of the pliers down the slope of her breast. It was so cold in here, like a meat locker, that her nipples stood out as perfect little points to clamp pliers onto. “How do you think he’d feel, knowing I covered you in my come, fucked every hole I could put my cock in, carved my name over his and let him have you back?”
She wanted to let the fear take over, let it blot out her ability to think. But that would probably make his tiny little dick hard, and leave her at a decided disadvantage. Ever would have missed her about two seconds after Cruncher had come back without her, and when she’d last gotten a look at the clock in the rolling garbage can, it had been over a half an hour. At the least a full hour by now, Ruckus and the other prospect had seen her in the car with Denny. They’d have followed her. Raid wouldn’t be far behind, so she just had to stall for time. He was coming for her. One way or another, he’d get here. So she took a deep breath, forced herself not to flinch when Denny slapped her chest with the pliers and raised his brows at her like he was expecting an answer.
She looked back at him like he was stupid, lifted her chin at him and beneath the tape muffled out, “Can’t answer you, moron.” He ripped the tape off so roughly she was sure he’d taken chunks of skin, and part of her mouth with it. “What was that?” He cooed sweetly, “I said, you’re a fucking moron.” He hit her across the face hard enough to send her crashing to the floor, her head bouncing off the concrete with enough force to make her see stars. Mother fucker. Raid better hurry his ass up. “You and your big fucking mouth, Athena. Had to open it and get me sent to jail for a week. I lost my job at the Sherriff’s department, my shot at running that fucking county, because of you. Had to follow you here, get a job working as a fucking beat cop under my mom’s name, because you couldn’t get enough dick from that dirty fucking biker. And you opened your big fucking mouth again, and got me hit with an IAB investigation.”
She bit back the yelp when he jerked her back up by the hair, again. Bit back the tears when he shook her, making her now pounding head, scream at the pressure of her brain sloshing back and forth in her skull. “You went to jail for a week, for threatening to kill me in front of a judge, you moron. You lost your job, because you threatened to kill me in front of a judge. I moved here, to get the fuck away from you, and YOU followed ME, like an insane stalker. Making up the dumbest story to get your green partner to back your play, shakin your balls to get in my house and see me with Raid, whose dick is five times the size of yours by the way, and got hit with an IAB investigation because you LIED on your hiring paperwork and LIED about trying to force your way into my home, in front of your green ass partner. On CAMERA, you fucking moron!”
He hit her again, sent her down to the floor again, punched her in the ribs hard enough to crack something, and dug his fingers into her face to make her look at him. He looked high, eyes bloodshot, spit frothing at the corner of his mouth, and behind the pain, she couldn’t believe that she had ever found him attractive. He had a pretty face, a nice body, but beyond that…he was so ugly that it sat on his body like a layer of filth. She could smell it. Or maybe he’d picked up something gross from the trashcan car. “I can do this all day and take the greatest pleasure in making you bleed. I thought I might break your jaw, so I can fuck your face and not worry about you trying to bite my cock. But then you couldn’t suck it, so I thought, teeth. You won’t need them after I’m done with you. Right?”
Heart racing, blood filling her mouth after the cut under her lip had started to open back up, she was starting to panic. She knew as soon as she gave into that, she was going to lose what little control she had left. “Asked you a question, bitch.” He slapped her head sideways, her ears starting to ring in truth. “Make up your mind, do you want me to speak, or be quiet?” Another slap, pain was radiating through her entire body now, but that talk with Uncle John, she remembered. Pain was good. Pain meant you were still alive. Pain made you afraid, and being afraid made you fight to find ways to survive. Uncle John forgot to mention to her that pain this bad, really fucking sucked. “I want you, to answer the fucking question, Athena.”
“Which one?”
“What?”
“You asked me how Raid would feel if you raped me, and then gave me back. He’d still love me. And I will be needing my teeth, because pretty soon, about twenty armed, dirty, pissed off bikers are going to bust into this place and carve your ass up like a Thanksgiving day turkey. I’ll want to smile pretty for that, so yeah. Teeth would be good.”
For a second, Denny looked worried. He looked around quickly, long enough for her to notice he had a big knife on his belt, right within reach. But he recovered quickly enough, hauling her to her knees again, fisting his hand in her hair to hold her steady, discarding the pliers to work at his belt and his fly. Revulsion made her stomach churn, though it could have been the probable concussion and rapid movement, “No one knows where we are. We’ve got all night, baby, and I’m game to test your little theory. Let’s see, just how much he’ll want you after I’ve had all there is to have of you. Bite me, and I will rip out every single one of your teeth.”
He had to let go of her hair to whip out his tiny little dick, needing both hands to move his clothes aside for it to poke out far enough, and she made her move. It was over so quick, she barely had time to think. She threw her hands up and jerked them down, using the trick her Uncle had taught her to split the duck tape, and punched Denny right in his tiny little balls. He dropped with a high pitched shriek, and she scrambled to get the knife off his belt. Running on pure adrenaline now, she used her feet to push herself away from him, slashing at his hand when he reached for her ankle, his face purple from pain, mottled with rage. He launched himself at her with a roar, driving her to the floor with his hands around her neck.
THIRTY FIVE
Ahead of him by one step, Roar didn’t hesitate when they heard Athena shriek. He kicked the warped door in like it was made of tissue, and they ran in, guns drawn to see the stuff of fucking nightmares playing out right before them. Athena was kicking and fighting, trying to get Woodward off of her, his meaty hands around her throat, his massive body pinning her to the floor. He fired, Roar fired, several other weapons fired, and the mother fucker’s body jerked and jolted like a marionette.
He rushed the last few feet and kicked the now very dead piece of shit off of Athena, slipping in the huge pool of blood, heart in his fucking throat that she was hurt or dying from that much blood loss. He was taken aback for all of two seconds to see that she was totally naked, frantically grabbing at her despite her struggles, shouting at Roar for paramedics, a towel, anything to stop the bleeding. “Bro, it’s not hers!”
Someone brought a coarse blanket to cover her with, and at Roar’s bellow, he managed to look past his panic to see that Athena was in one piece. No holes, and the source of the blood was the knife sticking out of the dead fucker’s gut. Athena had been kicking and screaming, because she’d already killed the guy before they’d even fired a single shot. He hauled her into his lap, rocking with her while she hiccupped and cried, pretty sure he was close to shedding a tear or two himself, staring at the corpse a few feet away. The corpse with his fly open and his pants around his thighs. “I got you, I got you baby. I got you,” She clung to him while he rocked with her, repeating that over and over until the paramedics got there and made him let her go so they could check her out.
She was sleeping, curled up on her side in the hospital bed, making it look huge with her little bitty body in it. Bruises were bright and ugly on her face, her lip was split, she had three stitches on the inside of her upper lip, pretty serious concussion, two cracked ribs, a good bruise blossoming on her belly in the shape of steel toed boots, another one from the hilt of the knife where it had dug in under Woodward’s dead weight. Some skin abrasions on her cheeks and wrists from the duct tape…every single injury made him sick to his stomach, but it could have been so much worse. Would have been, if his woman wasn’t such a bad ass and had somehow managed to get that knife she’d used to stab the fucker with.
-->
