by West, Naomi
He still hadn't received a text message back from Squirrel, but he could understand that. Squirrel and Smalls were probably throwing darts or playing a hand of cards, and he just hadn't heard. It wasn't a big deal, either. He and Smalls were brothers in the MC, after all, and Cutter trusted both men with his life, and with Liona's. Besides, he couldn't worry about that stuff now. He needed to stay focused, needed to keep his eyes on the prize.
He realized, as he walked up to Wyland's little sports car, that something was wrong. Now that he could see better through the heavily tinted black windows, he began to see that no one was in it. He stopped next to the car's passenger side door, and stuffed his hands in his pockets. That wasn't right. Where could Wyland be? He frowned and looked around the park, a wave of uneasy confusion washing over him. He looked out to the pond, to the indistinct figure out there feeding the ducks. Could that be him? He frowned and shook his head. He could image Wyland doing a lot of different things, but feeding the ducks wasn't one of them.
As he stood there, though, he heard something. A faint, distant sound, like the jingling and singing of wind chimes just beyond the edge of his hearing. He stood still, very still, and held his breath. It was coming, he realized, from inside the car. He leaned down to the passenger window and, cupping his hands around his face to block the glare, peered inside. There, resting in the middle of the driver seat, was a cheap burner phone that was lit up, ringing. He didn't see a red light on the dashboard, or anything, to mark the car as having the alarm turned on.
He straightened up, shaking his head, and walked around to the driver side. He tried the door, but it was locked. He looked around the park again, to make sure it was still as deserted as it had been, then put his jacket-clad elbow through the window. The sound of shattering, tinkling glass filled the air as Cutter brushed away the jagged edges of glass and reached inside to unlock the door. The phone, meanwhile, continued to ring without pause.
He picked up the phone. On the front of it was a local number, keyed to the contact name “Oldest Friend in the World.” His stomach dropped. Wyland. At least, a name like that as the contact seemed to match his sick sense of humor. This felt like a setup, like a trap of some sort. He needed to get Wyland on the phone, one way or another. He answered the phone and pressed it to his ear.
“You're late, Desmond!” Wyland chirped on the other end of the line, with that normal, amoral and upbeat attitude of his. “Figured you would have found this phone a little while ago. Oh well, time moves on without us, with no care for our feelings one way or another. Am I right? Or am I right?”
“Thought I was acting in good faith when you dragged my ass out here, Wyland. What the fuck happened here? Thought you and I were doing this meet face-to-face.”
“Good faith?” Wyland asked into the phone. All the false sanity had been dropped from his tone of voice. Now, he just had that cruel streak running through it. “Just like all the good faith I put in you all those years ago, you miserable piece of shit? Faith when you tried to steal my girl?”
If this was how he wanted to play it, then so be it. Cutter shook his head and pulled out his cell phone from his pocket and held it up so it could record their conversation. “Look,” Cutter said, “I admit it. I fell in love with her, and I told her about it. Is that why you came after my MC? Why you came after the Vanguard?”
“I came after you because you're all criminals, through and through. I wanted to see you all behind bars, because that's where scum like you belong.”
“That why you beat Liona, then?” Cutter asked, trying to steer the conversation towards something more incriminating. “Why you abused her for so long?”
“What?” Wyland said. “Who told you that? I love her. Everything I've ever done was for her. It was for our life together.”
Cutter sighed. No luck on that front. “So, do you still want to do this deal, then? Me testifying against the Bolt Riders in exchange for immunity for me and my club?”
Wyland laughed. And laughed. And laughed. “Testify against the Bolt Riders? Who are they, some other biker rejects?”
“You said-”
“Let's get this clear, Desmond,” the assistant DA cut him off, the words practically slithering out of his mouth, “I'm going to bring you down, and I'm going to bring the rest of your crew down with you. I know you've been protecting Liona, and that's fine. I'm glad you have, even. She means the world to me.”
“I've been protecting her from you, you son of a bitch.”
“That's just what she wants you to think, Desmond. Deep down, she knows I love her, and that her life is with me. Her future is with me. That's why she chose me all those years ago, and not you. And, that's why you've come back into our lives and stolen her away from me. You want your revenge, you want to ruin my life.”
“What? No-”
“You showed up on our wedding day, Desmond,” Wyland chided. “Everyone knows it, people saw you. A bride was seen riding away on the back of a chopper being ridden by a man matching your description. Same vest, same paint job, same everything. You stole her from me, but I'll get her back. I promise you.”
Somehow, in Wyland's twisted mind, he'd flipped the script around. He'd convinced himself he was the hero. Either that or he knew he was being recorded, and that Cutter was trying to trip him up and admit guilt, some other piece of incriminating evidence. But, how could he know?
“Just remember, Desmond, you're not always around. One of these days, she'll pick up her phone when I call. Hell, she's probably there alone right now. I think I'll just call her, or maybe swing by. I'm just around the corner, anyways.”
Cutter shook his head, pounded his fist on the roof of the white BMW. He was nearby. This had all been a setup to get him away from the clubhouse. “No, you son of a bitch,” he yelled into the phone. “You keep away from her?”
“Away from the woman who'd already agreed to marry me?” Wyland asked like Cutter was daft. “I just want to talk to her, Desmond. There's no harm in that, is there?”
Cutter could hear that cruel smile of his coming through in his words. He clearly planned on more than a little chat. But, thank God, Squirrel and Smalls were still there. They'd keep her safe, or die trying.
“Probably won't stick around to say hello. But, maybe, just maybe, Liona will want to come back home with me. If I can convince her, you know. But, I'm going to really take her on a trip down memory lane, first, maybe change her mind. Fingers crossed on that. Once she sets herself to something, she's more stubborn than a mule.” He paused and laughed. “But, hey, you love who you love, for whatever reason. Am I right, Desmond? Or am I right?”
Fuming, seeing red, Cutter hung up the phone. He sprinted back to his bike, clearing the parking lot in no time flat.
Chapter 35
Liona
They'd already gotten about half-way through their game and Squirrel still hadn't touched his beer. It was maddening, and she was having a hard time being inconspicuous by checking the progress on his drink. Finally, she decided she needed to come up with a different plan. Something else that was maybe more direct. Maybe she could make him a sandwich or something, and slip it into that? Or, some other bit of lunch? She gripped her pool cue tighter, twisted her hands on it, and shook her head to herself. That wasn't going to work, not at all. She took another drink of beer, hoping the alcohol would calm her nerves.
“Your shot, little lady,” Squirrel said, walking around to her side.
“What am I again?” she asked, feigning ignorance.
“Stripes,” Squirrel said with a sigh. She'd already asked two times before.
She walked around to the other side and, cue in hand, leaned down to line up her shot. She needed to hurry up and get him drugged somehow, but she was out of ideas. The drugged beer had been her moonshot, her plan so crazy it might just work. But now she decided, as she shot the cue ball into a nine up against the rail, her original plan wasn’t going to carry through. She also realized, as the nine bumped
off the rail in a completely unintended direction, that she kind of sucked at pool still.
“Your shot,” she said as the nine rolled to a final stop in the middle of the table. She walked back around the table to her old spot. She grabbed her beer, grumbled to herself, and slammed back the last of it in frustration. She kept her empty and went to head into the kitchen.
“Grabbing another beer?” Squirrel asked.
“Yeah,” she said. “You need one?”
“Hardly touched mine,” he said, holding up his beer. He shrugged and offered it to her. “Not in much of a drinking mood. Why don't you just take mine? Hate to see it go to waste.”
Her eyes flickered from his to the beer. She shook her head a little. “No, I'll just grab another one.”
“Think I got cooties, or something? Didn't even take a sip of it.”
She shook her head, laughed a little. “Well, it's kind of warm, isn't it?”
“Not really,” he said, running the tip of a finger through the condensation gathered on the side. “Still near as cold as when you pulled it out.”
“Well, I wouldn't want to take your beer,” she said quickly. “That's all.”
“Does seem a touch rude,” Squirrel replied with a laugh as he nodded his head. “Know what's really rude, though?” he asked as he took a step forward. “Lacing somebody's drink. Liona laced my beer. Didn't she?”
“What?” she asked, furrowing her brow and trying to pretend to be shocked by the accusation.
“Little lady,” he said, taking another step forward, “you think I don't know when my beer smells funny? I been drinking that piss for years. Years, I tell you. Now, here. Have my beer.”
Her eyes widened in surprise, and she shook her head. She put her hands out in front of her, defensively, and took a step back from the advancing biker.
Squirrel advanced. “Know who else wants you to take a drink? Mr. West does, that's who.”
Wyland? What did he have to do with this? “No. No, no, no,” she said, the words tumbling from her mouth like a waterfall as she backed away.
“Don't worry, you made it easy on yourself. Instruction from him was to beat you black and blue if I had to. Said he didn't care one bit. Enjoy myself even. I ain't no woman beater, though.”
She backed into a chair, almost stumbled to the ground, but managed to stay upright and kick it away. She lost her grip on the empty beer bottle, and it tumbled to the floor and shattered. “Squirrel!” she shouted. “What are you doing? You can't be working for him! You're a Vanguard!”
“Known his daddy for a while, but Wyland's got me working for him, now, little girl.” With beer in hand, he advanced on her double-time, corralling her back into a corner.
She stopped as her back and heels hit the wall with a soft thud. In the understatement of year, this was not going the way she'd planned in the beginning. “Squirrel, please, you can't do this. What about Cutter?”
“What about him?” Squirrel asked with a shrug. He advanced, coming closer and closer with each step. “Now drink.”
Smalls could help her. That was it. “Smalls!” she screamed at the top of her lungs. “Help!”
“Smalls!” he screamed right along with her, his voice pitched to a false falsetto as he waved his hands around in a mockery. “Help!” The biker just laughed, laughed so loud and freely she could see his mouthful of rotted teeth. “Oh, little girl, he ain't gonna here you. What do you think that broken pool cue was all about? I knocked that fat bastard out when you went to Cutter's room, then locked him in his bunk.”
Liona's hope began to fly away, just like a bird released from a cage. Her eyes began to fill with tears, clouding her vision. “What kind of man are you?” she sobbed. “You're a fucking monster!”
“Gotta make a living somehow,” he said. “Now, drink.”
He edged closer. She could see every little piece of stubble on his chin, every individual hair. If she'd kept the pool cue, she would have had something to defend herself with. If she'd managed to hold onto the empty beer bottle, she could have protected herself. Now she had nothing. Just her tears, and her obstinacy.
“No,” she sobbed, shaking her head. “I won't.”
He sighed and rolled his eyes. “Didn't wanna do this,” he said, mild regret in his voice. His hand shot out, fast as lightning, and slapped her hard across the mouth.
Pain flashed in the jaw, the kind of pain she'd almost grown used to under Wyland. More tears filled her eyes, but this time she knew they were tears of anger. She cried out as she stumbled to the side with the force of the blow, but she picked herself upright. Squirrel closed in on her, shoving her backwards as he swept her legs out from under her.
She went down in a thudding tangle of limbs, tears streaming down her face. She looked up, saw the blurry form of the biker standing over her, the beer still in hand. She drew herself away from him, curled up into a fetal position to try and protect herself from the rain of kicks and punches she'd grown to expect. Instead, he reached down and pulled her over onto her back. He came down on top of her, straddled her chest with his superior weight.
She struggled against him, kicking and screaming now, as he snatched up a flailing wrist with one hand. She tried to fight him, but his grip was like rebar around her arms.
With one knee, he pinned her wrist to the rec floor. Calmly, he switched the beer from one hand to the other and grabbed her clawing hand. “Stop it, little girl,” he yelled through gritted teeth. “Only gonna hurt yourself more, you keep fighting this.”
She reached up for his face, her fingers searching for his eyes. Squirrel grabbed her hand, yanked it back down to the floor, and slammed his other elbow into it. She screamed out in a surprised yelp of pain, and he took the opportunity to pour the laced beer into her mouth. She sputtered and shook her head, spraying the beer everywhere in a fine mist.
He grunted and slapped her again, harder this time. “Open your mouth,” he yelled. “Open it!”
Spilled beer covered her face, soaked her hair, and had gone down to the front of her shirt. It filled her nose, gagging her.
“Open it!” he yelled again.
She clamped her lips together and shook her head from side to side. He reached down and pinched her nose, shutting her nostrils. She screamed in closed-mouthed protest, her wordless yell like a trapped animal. She thrashed violently, trying to buck him off, but it was no use. He was too big, too heavy for her. His fingers and thumbs were like a vice, gripping her nose closed, shutting off her air.
“Come on, little girl,” he drawled. “Just one drink.”
Finally, she gasped out, desperate for breath. He took his opportunity when he saw it. He shoved the beer bottle to her lips and began to pour. Liona struggled and gagged as the cold, acrid-tasting liquid flowed into her mouth and filled it. She choked on it at first, but even choking on it wasn't a defense. She could feel it flowing down her throat, slowly making its way to her belly.
With most of the beer gone, Squirrel took the bottle away from her mouth. He stayed on top of her, though, and kept her hands pinned by her side. She shook her head some more, tried to gag herself. Without any free fingers to stuff down her throat, she knew that was almost impossible. The worst part, though, was that the struggling with no air had already helped her earlier beer along. She could feel herself becoming lightheaded, detached from this world and its worries. A sense of warmth and blessed confusion was filling her body.
“There you go,” Squirrel said, his voice almost congratulatory. Before she could think to close her mouth again, he was pouring the last of it down her throat.
She hated herself suddenly for not having tried harder. She should have just run out the front, and not tried to do this foolish ruse. If she had, maybe she would have been miles from her. After all, it had worked with her wedding, hadn't it? Time as a concept seemed to fade, and the world simultaneously slowed to a crawl and seemed to rush past her. Squirrel stayed on top of her, though, his eyes fixated on Liona's as
hers began to droop and shut.
There was no shame or anger, or even a will to fight. No Wyland West, no Desmond Hawes or his alter ego Cutter, and no Vanguard. A moment later, just before her world went dark, she heard a familiar voice.
“She out?” the voice asked.
“Yes sir, Mr. West,” Squirrel replied.
“Good.” Then, the sound of a gunshot, followed by three more in rapid succession. “Cutter never should have trusted a rat.”
After that, there was just blessed darkness, and deep, unbroken sleep.
Chapter 36
Cutter
Cutter slammed into the front door of the clubhouse at a dead sprint. He hoped against hope that he wasn't too late. He still couldn't believe he'd been tricked so easily by Wyland, been conned into letting his guard down like this. He shoved through the doors, and the old, familiar smell of gunpowder filled his nose. He ran through to the rec room, calling for Liona, Smalls, Squirrel, anyone. Only silence answered him. He rounded the corner into the rec room, his feet pounding the floor, and came to dead stop. He looked around, eyeing everything, until his gaze fell on a crumpled form sitting up against the wall. Squirrel.
