by Rob Somers
“Love you too, Pipe. Now let’s go fuck these dudes up.”
Riding down the road with the wind blowing in my face, I start to think about all the great memories that Connor and I have made. From the time we met, to him proposing to me, to our honeymoon, and of course, buying this house and starting our new life together. As all these memories go through my mind, I can’t help but go back to the same question. Why would he do this to me? I’ve given him my whole heart and I feel all he did was shit on me. I won’t stand for this. I am better than this. I could only imagine if my dad found out. He would, more than likely, have already been at the clubhouse, dragging him out in a headlock, telling him what a piece of shit he was. I guess it’s a good thing he isn’t with me right now. But on the flip side, I have Brit with me. I’m really not sure who would be worse, Brit or my dad. I know I’m going to have to try and keep her in check while we’re there because with her big ass mouth, she is liable to say the wrong thing to one of these guys. And I know for a fact they won’t take it very well.
As we get closer to the club, I can feel that knot growing back in my stomach. Not sure if it’s because I’m nervous or if I have to throw up. But it’s there, and so are my clammy palms and sweating forehead.
Brit stops the jeep a block away from the club. You can still hear the loud ass music playing. Of course, the cops won’t ever shut their parties down, as the club pretty much runs this town. Sitting back, Brit looks over at me. She can tell I’m nervous.
“You okay, Piper?” Pulling my hair back, she gets a good look at my face.
“Yeah, I’m good. Just have a knot in my stomach. Not really sure what I’m gonna say or do when I see him.”
“Okay. Hop out and stick your finger down your throat. Make yourself puke. You’ll feel a hundred times better. Here’s a bottle of water.”
I unbuckle myself and jump out of the jeep. I walk to the back so she can’t see me puke, even if she is my best friend. I shove a finger down my throat and let out this God-awful noise as I empty the contents of my stomach on the ground. I take a sip of water and do it one more time. Wow, she was right. I feel a hell of a lot better. I take a nice big swig of water, gargle it, and spit it out. I take one more gulp and swallow before walking back up to the passenger side and climbing in. I take the hair band from my wrist and tie my hair up in a ponytail.
“Let’s do this, Brito,” I say, giving her a look, full of confidence.
“Oh shit. Badass Piper is here, everyone. Watch out!” Brit hollers as she drives off.
As we pull up to the club, I see a bunch of people out in the front yard. Everyone looks pretty wasted, and for some odd reason, I sober up real fast. We park the jeep, and get out, heading to the front of the club. As we approach the front yard, Big Donnie sees us and comes up to meet us.
“Where is he, Donnie?” I ask with the sternest voice I could muster up.
“Piper, I can’t let you in there.” Donnie holds his arms out as if to block me from walking in.
“Donnie, you better get the fuck out of my way, and tell me where he is.”
“Piper, I can’t have you coming up in here causing trouble. It will be bad for all of us.”
“I’m gonna ask you one more time, Donnie. Where…the FUCK…is he?” I reach behind my back and pull my pistol from my belt loop.
“Holy fuck, Piper. You didn’t tell me you were bringing a gun.” Brit steps back a bit, a look of concern and fear crossing her face.
“Brit, he needs to know I’m serious.” As I raise the pistol up and point it in the direction of Big Donnie, he puts his hands up and steps to the side.
“Piper, you are one crazy bitch. Connor is out back with Brock. But you didn’t hear that from me.”
“Brit, you still with me?” I look over my shoulder at her while I lower the pistol and slip it back into my belt.
“You know I am, girl. Shit just got real, Big Donnie. How ‘bout them apples?” Brit puffs out her chest at Donnie.
We walk around the back of the house, not knowing what we’re walking into, but damn, if we don’t look like a couple of badass bitches. Walking with a sense of urgency to the back, all I can hear is the loud ass music. I am so filled with adrenaline right now that I am feeding off the music as it’s pumping through me like a drug. Then, all of a sudden, I see Connor. He’s off in the distance with Brock and two trashy-looking bitches. He hasn’t seen me yet, and that’s a good thing. I want to catch him off guard.
Brit stands next to me, leans over, and says, “Promise me one thing. Promise me you don’t shoot anyone tonight. At least not here.”
“Oh Brit, I can’t promise you that.” It’s like a switch in my body has turned and I feel nothing but anger toward Connor right now. Not only has he been lying to me about where he’s been, but now he’s over there talking to some skank bitch.
“Well fuck, this is gonna be a pretty epic night.” Brit grabs her hair band from her wrist and ties her hair up in a ponytail. “I’ll handle the skanks. You get your man.”
Before Brit can even finish her sentence, I start walking toward them, with force, determination, anger, and only one thing on my mind right now. I’m going to beat his ass.
As the two of us get closer, Brock looks up and sees us, slapping Connor’s chest to get his attention. As Connor looks up, I see the expression on his face turn from being happy to one of panic. I hear one of the skanks ask, “Who are these bitches?” and Brock quickly shuts them up. But it doesn’t stop one of them from thinking her shit doesn’t stink, and she starts walking toward us. This should be interesting. Just as she gets close to us, I watch as, out of the corner of my eye, Brit reaches far back and cold cocks her right in the nose. Blood begins spurting everywhere, like popping a huge zit. Brit looks down at the girl as she covers her nose and tries to keep the blood from getting all over her.
“You got something to say, bitch?” she taunts, standing over top of her like a badass on the school playground. All I can hear is whimpering and crying. Brit looks directly at the other girl. “You want some too, whore?” She holds her bloody fist up. The girl does a double take looks at Brock and scurries off.
“Now hold on, babe. Let me explain.” Connor holds his arms up as I approach him, almost as if he is keeping his distance from me.
“Oh, you have a lot of explaining to do, you asshole!”
Brock tries to get in between the two of us, to keep us separated.
“Brock, get the fuck away from me. This is between me and this shithead.”
“Piper, this isn’t the place to do this.” Brock puts his hand on my shoulder.
“Get the fuck off me, Brock.” I turn toward Brock and shoot him a deathly glare.
“Bro, if you need me, I’ll be right over here. Handle your shit. And do it quietly.”
Brock walks away, looking back at us, shaking his head, as Brit follows close behind him.
“You piece of shit. You have been running with the club this whole time, haven’t you?”
“Piper, please let me explain. It’s not like that. Brock called me and asked for my help. He needed me to help him with a job.”
“And there is no one else in this shithole that could’ve helped him? It had to be you, Connor? Tell me, how long have you been coming up here? All this time, you were telling me you were working overtime, and you’ve been running around with that asshole and these skanks, haven’t you?”
“No, Piper. It’s not like that. Well, not completely like that,” Connor stutters a little, backpedaling as if he doesn’t know what to say to me. He knows he has been caught and now the lies grow deeper and deeper.
“Well, what is it, Connor? Either you’ve been working overtime, or not. You know what, I already know the answer. You’re a fucking liar and a cheater. Our whole marriage is a joke to you. You think you can live this double life and do whatever you feel like doing. Well, let me tell you something, you son of a bitch. It ends here. Right fucking here.”
“Piper, I
am so sorry. I didn’t know how to tell you. No, I haven’t been working overtime. Yes, I have been coming to the club. But the only reason I’ve been doing this is to help Brock.”
“Fuck Brock, Connor. I’m your wife. Is Brock more important to you than me?”
“God no, baby.”
“Don’t you fucking call me baby. I am not your baby. You are such an asshole. And let me guess, those skanks were all part of helping Brock out too, huh?” Turning away from him, I look back at Brock, who is sitting on a wooden picnic table watching us, too far away from us to hear what is being said over here. I raise my hand up at Brock and shoot him the middle finger.
Connor reaches over and grabs my arm to pull me toward him. I pull my arm away from him.
“Don’t you fucking touch me. You disgust me,” I spit out, as the tears start flowing down my face.
“Piper, what do you want me to do?”
“You know what I want you to do, Connor? I want you to get your shit out of my house and leave. I want nothing to do with your lying, cheating ass. I gave you everything! I gave you my heart, my soul, all that I had. And what do you do? You shit on me. I want you out of my house, and out of my life.”
I turn to walk away from him. The sight of him is making my stomach knot up again. He reaches for my arm again to pull me around to him.
“I’m not done talking to you, Piper!” He squeezes my elbow tightly in his grasp. With my other hand, I reach behind me, feeling for my pistol. As I bring it around and point it at him, he releases his grip on my arm. With the gun pointed at his face, everything at the party comes to a halt. The music stops, the people bullshitting outside are silent, and all eyes are on us.
“I told you, don’t you ever fucking touch me again! You are nothing to me! Get your shit out of my house, and leave me the hell alone.” Tears are running down my face as I keep the pistol dead locked on him. “We are through, Connor.”
I turn away from the one man I loved more than anything in this world. Walking through the backyard, I feel my life falling out from beneath my feet. Brit runs over and puts her arm around me. She takes the gun from my hand and puts in her waistband.
As we walk past Brock, he murmurs, “Piper, I am so sorry.” I can’t muster up anything but tears.
“You’re an asshole!” Brit yells out to him as we walk out to the jeep. “It’s gonna be okay, Piper. I’m here, sis. I always will be. Let’s get you home.”
As I lay in this trashy bed that so many club members have slept in, and fucked in, I stare up at the ceiling, thinking about Piper and what I’ve done to our marriage. It’s been a few weeks since she and Brit came up to the clubhouse and confronted me about still being with the club. I can’t help but wonder what things would be like right now, if I would’ve just walked away like she’d asked. I know it’s my own fault, my own screw up. But, what’s done is done. Now I need to try and salvage my marriage. After tonight, I’m leaving the club, and my outlaw ways, once and for all. I sat down with the President and the other chapter members, including Brock, and told them I need to step away to work on my issues with Piper. Surprisingly, they were okay with it. They gave me a stipulation, though. I could leave, but I had to finish the job Brock and I started.
We still haven’t gotten Brett’s money yet, and when this club says we’re going to do something for someone, we do it. So tonight, when the sun sets and we know the time is right, Brock and I will head back up to Wacko’s Bar and get Brett’s money. After that, I walk away. Free and clear of the club. I’m turning in my colors and never looking back.
I have to do this for Piper, and our marriage. I have to make things right. Who the hell even knows if she will even take me back, or even consider it. I have to try, though. This woman is my everything.
I’m deep in thought, trying to figure out how I can fix my marriage when there’s a knock at the door. From the other side, I hear Brock yell out to me.
“Hey bro, we’re gonna meet with everyone in thirty. Clean yourself up and come on out.”
Even though I really don’t want to, I know I have to. I sigh heavily. “I’ll be out there, brother.”
I sit up in the bed, rubbing my eyes to get the dried-up sleep from them. I need to shower before we sit down and discuss tonight’s job. I gather myself and head into the bathroom.
Letting the warm water beat on my face, I say to myself, “This is it. One last job.” Then it’s time to work on Piper and me.
After I’ve dried off, I slide on my jeans and a black t-shirt, and tie up my work boots. Before I head out of the room to meet up with the rest of the club, I throw on my colors. Every time I put this vest on, it’s like I turn into a different person. I’m not that nice guy anymore; I turn into the motorcycle club asshole. When you’ve been a part of a club for as long as I have and done some of the things I’ve done, you learn to be a dick and really not have a care in the world. I think that’s what really scared Piper the most. Not so much the illegal things I did, but how I became someone else. Someone she didn’t like.
Grabbing my pistol and sliding it into a holster underneath my vest, I take a deep breath, open the door, and walk down the hallway toward our meeting room. As I walk into the room, all my other club brothers are in there sitting around the long wooden table. Cigarette smoke fills the room and beers are lined up in front of each chair. I take my seat next to Brock and give him a little squeeze on the shoulder, letting him know I’m focused and ready for tonight. We start discussing how we plan to get Brett’s money back from those douchebags. It won’t just be Brock and I tonight, and I’m glad for that. I’m hoping we have a little better success this time, and I think if we have more guys with us, it won’t turn out as bad as it did before.
“Alright boys, we’re gonna be heading out of the city tonight,” Big Donnie states. “I got word these little gang banger bitches are having a get together over at the river bridge. As you know, it’s where the local clubs and gangs hang out, out in the woods. We can handle our business without any trouble from the cops.”
I’m pretty sure, from the way Donnie was talking, these guys have no idea we are coming out there to collect. Who knows what’s going to happen tonight. I’m hoping it goes smoothly, but we all know what happened the last time Brock and I tried. Let’s hope that shit doesn’t happen tonight.
Hopping on our bikes, we ride away from the clubhouse and make our way out to the river bridge. Wanting to have the element of surprise, we discussed parking the bikes a mile down the road so they wouldn’t hear us rolling up. We don’t want to give them any idea we are coming. Even if we don’t leave with the money, we are gonna leave with something for Brett.
It’s a nice cool night as we line our bikes up and park them before heading into the woods toward the river bridge. Twelve of us are heading in, and we left our four prospects by the bikes to watch over them. They each have a burner phone, so if anything comes up, they can call one of us and let us know what’s going on.
It’s dark as hell out here as we walk through the brush, trying to stay off the path. We move closer, and hear the music playing. Off in the distance, they have a pretty big bonfire going. As we get right up on them, Big Donnie tells us to spread out and surround them all. That way, we can all come out and there’s nowhere for them to run. Brock and I start heading around the brush, trying to find a good spot where we can just run right out. Brock gives me the signal that in two minutes, we are going to bum rush them. I can feel the tension building up inside me. My stomach starts to tighten, and my palms start sweating again. It’s time to do this!
I look over at Brock, and he motions to me that it’s go time. In unison, all twelve of us come out of the woods and surround the party goers, guns drawn, just like we were raiding a house.
“Don’t you fucking move!” Donnie screams out at them. “One of you motherfuckers move, and we take you all down!”
These guys had no idea we were here. Shock colors their faces as we have our pistols pointed at
them. Brock walks up to a familiar face. It’s one of the guys who hit me from behind at Wacko’s that night, according to the report I got from Brock when I came to the next day. The guy looks at Brock, and kind of gives him the onceover.
“What the hell you gonna do, big boy?” he says to Brock. Before he can finish his sentence, Brock reaches back and lunges forward, hitting the guy square in the jaw. The dude flies backwards and falls down to the hard dirt ground. As soon as this happens, all hell breaks loose.
It’s like an all-out brawl at a hockey game. Fists are flying everywhere. I get locked up with one guy who is a little shorter than me, but this fucker is built. His fist hits my face and I can feel the pain shoot straight through my jaw. I’m able to maneuver around, and get him in a headlock to keep his fists from coming at my face. As I start throwing punches to the back of the guy’s head, I glance up to see Brock on top of the guy he just laid out. His fists are dropping one after another, over and over. The blood is pouring from the guy’s nose, his eye socket, and his mouth. Brock is destroying this dude. Releasing my guy, I run over to where Brock is and pull him off of him.
“What the fuck, bro?” he spits out, throwing his arms up in the air.
“You’re gonna kill him, man.”
“And?” Brock throws one last punch down on him and splits his forehead wide open. All of a sudden, a gunshot rings out. I hear it as clear as day. And just as fast as the brawl started, it stops. Everyone stops, wondering where the shot came from, and why.
Just as we all start looking around, I notice people staring over at me. Was it my gun that went off?
Then the pain starts, and I can feel the warmth of fluid running down my leg. Brock looks at me, and starts screaming, “No! No, no, no!”
Looking down at where I’m feeling the pain, I realize I wasn’t the one who fired the shot; I’m the one who got shot. There is blood everywhere. I try to stop it from pouring out of my stomach, covering the bullet hole with my fingers, but it continues to flow. I lose my balance, and fall to my knees. Brock catches me before I hit the ground, and lays me down. Through my blurred vision, I watch everyone scattering like mice, running every which way. Just trying to get out.
