I pull my hair up in a ponytail and run out the door. The drive to work is quick as I speed through the stop lights. As soon as I walk in my office Mallory looks up and the look on her face makes me blush instantly.
“Your dad is pissed, Britt.”
“I lost track of time. It’s not like anything ever happens here anyway,” I say and shrug my shoulders.
Mallory lifts the headset off her head and hands it to me. She walks towards the door and stops turning around to look at me.
“Do you love him?”
Her question catches me off guard and I sit back in the chair. I haven’t thought about my feelings for Boog except for the fact that I don’t want to be away from him. When I first met him he was conceited and arrogant. I didn’t want to like him but over the last few weeks he has showed me a side of him that I didn’t think existed.
I look back to Mallory and she is watching me closely.
“Yeah, Mallory. I think I do actually.”
“Then you need to tell your dad.”
“Tell him what? That I have fallen in love with the one thing he hates the most?”
“He deserves to know.”
I nod my head and watch her walk out the door. I look around the room and think about the days I have spent at the clubhouse. Could I walk away from that and never look back? I have never felt like I was in love before but just the thought of Boog’s name and my heart flutters and the butterflies take off in my stomach.
My dad walks in the door without knocking and sits down across from me. From the look in his eyes he already knows something.
“Hey, Cupcake.”
“Hey, Officer Dad.”
He looks to me and smiles.
“When you were a kid I used to watch you play on your bike in the yard and you would pretend it was a motorcycle. Your mom would laugh and say that it was just a phase. But I used to see how your eyes would light up at the sound of them in the parade or if we were in town and you saw one.” He smiles at the memory and shakes his head his eyes filling with tears.
It breaks my heart to see him look at me with such pain and hurt like I am breaking his heart.
“Dad…”
He shakes his head and holds up his hand.
“I know what you see in him, you see adventure and danger and the thought of all of that makes your heart race but Britt, I am telling you now they are not worth it. You are going to end up in jail or worse, dead. Please walk away while you still can.”
“How do you even know?”
“I am a cop, Cupcake, I look into things,” he tells me with a small smile on his face.
“Dad, they aren’t the same guys that got your friends killed.”
“They do the same thing. They aren’t just guys on bikes, Britt. They are so much more than that.”
The whole time I have been at the clubhouse Boog has spent all his time with me except for meetings and trips that he and the club took. The only thing that has happened to me is I got beat up and, in my opinion, that could have happened in any relationship.
“You can’t judge a man just because he rides a bike and wears a cut, Dad.”
“You know why my friend was killed? Did your mom tell you that part?”
I shake my head. I don’t know what to say to him. I haven’t seen any of the bad things people talk about.
“He was riding with them to the club, the same one they use now, and he got gunned down by a rival gang, Britt. He was riding his bike and just because of the name on the back of his cut they shot him.”
“Dad, I am so sorry about your friend. I truly am.”
“How about your friend Boog? Did he tell you how he got the nickname Boogie Man?”
Again I shake my head – my heart pounding. I don’t want to hear this. I don’t want him making the decision for me. I want to do that on my own.
“Do your research, Britt. You work in a police station. He is the one that all the other clubs were supposed to be scared of.”
I wipe the tears from my eyes and stand from my chair. I go to my dad and give him a hug. I have always been daddy’s little girl, always did my best to listen to Daddy but I don’t see the evil in Boog that he sees. I see a man with a big heart on his sleeve and the attitude to cover it up.
Dad wraps his arms around me and kisses my cheek.
“Why don’t you go on home today? We have too many officers on the schedule today. I am sure we can find one of them to answer all these calls we have coming in.”
I pull back and look at my dad confused. He wipes his cheeks and smiles letting me go and walks out the door. My heart hits the floor and I slide to the floor in front of my desk. The door opens and Officer Duke walks in. He is skinny with blond shaggy hair and glasses. His smile fades as soon as he sees me and he slowly shuts the door behind him.
“You okay?”
“Yep I am fine.”
I stand from the floor and walk out the door. My dad doesn’t look up from his desk as I walk by and I can tell he is still crying. I never wanted to hurt my dad by falling in love but he only knows what he wants to about MOD not what they are now.
Chapter Ten
I walk down the stairs towards my car. My steps are quick as I feel like someone is following me. I look around the parking lot. There are cops in their cars pulling out of the parking lot and inmates mowing the grass in their black uniforms with the white stripes. I turn back towards my car and walk right into a broad chest. His hands grab my arms and I feel the pressure of a gun in my stomach.
“Walk to your car and get in the passenger side,” he demands.
His voice sounds familiar and I let my eyes travel the line of his body to his face. His eyes are dark green with a long nose and big full lips. He has a dimple in his chin. When he smiles I can’t help but gag at the smell of his breath.
“What do you want?”
“Walk now, talk later.”
He presses the gun tighter into my stomach and tightens his grip on my arm. I take a deep breath and walk towards my car. He leads me to the passenger side and opens the door slinging me in so hard my side hits the console in the middle and I cringe. I watch him walk around the car his eyes never leaving mine. The gun is at his side and he slides in. None of the officers are watching us. They’re all going about their normal duty watching the inmates or getting in their cars.
He points his gun towards me once more. With us living in a small town I have always laid my keys in the cup holder. If someone here wanted my car it would have been gone years ago. My dad used to gripe about it all the time and I would always laugh and remind him that he is a cop and the whole town knows this.
The man beside me laughs and grabs my keys cranking the car and pulling out of the parking lot. He reaches in his pocket once we stop at a red light and slams a blindfold against my chest.
“Put this on,” he commands and once again raises his gun.
The blindfold smells like cigarettes and sweat. I scrunch my nose and tie it around my eyes. It’s solid black and covers most of my eyes other than right below them. He causes me to jump as he reaches over and checks it.
My hands are shaking and I feel like I can feel the pain of being scared deep in my stomach.
“What do you want from me? I have no money.”
He laughs then and coughs.
“If you think this is for money, bitch, you are so wrong.”
“Then what is it?”
His fist slams into my chest and I double over in pain trying to catch my breath – tears running down my cheeks. We drive in silence for what feels like hours before we finally stop and he slams my car door. When mine opens my whole body tenses, he grabs my arm and pulls me from the car and the gun is pushed into my back.
“Take the blindfold off.”
I take it off and squint from the sun hitting my eyes. Once I can see I look around me. There is nothing but woods as far as I can see. A house sits in the middle of the woods. The paint on the outside is chipping and the
porch looks like it’s about to fall through.
He pulls my arm and drags me towards the house. The door to the house is hanging open and the bottom hinge is broken. He walks in front of me and almost pulls me into the house. The inside of the house is no better than the outside. The walls have years of abuse showing. The windows are broken and the floors have holes. He pulls me into what used to be a living room, and there is nothing in the room but a chair in the middle of the floor.
Once we make it to the chair he slings me down and starts working on tying my hands and feet to it. When he is done he walks around me and inspects his work nodding his head up and down.
“You know it was too easy taking you out of the one place I would have thought you would be safe.”
“Are you… Mercy?” I ask realizing where I know his voice from.
“I am indeed. You remembered,” he says it like it’s a good thing, like we are old friends and he is excited that I didn’t forget who he is.
“It was hard to forget you after what you did.”
His eyes light up and he sits down on the floor in front of me raising his knees to his chest and wrapping his arms around them. The gun is still in his hand only now it’s pointed towards the floor. I try to move my arms and the rope tightens on them, there is no way I will be able to untie them without hurting myself.
“Boog has been looking for me for weeks. So I would say mission accomplished.”
“Why me? Why are you doing this?”
“If you want to hurt a club you go after the head of the table. You are the one thing that can make or break that.”
“You do know I barely know Boog or the club?” I lie.
“Oh, I know a lot more than you think.”
“Like what?”
“I know that your dad hates the club. I know that your best friend is Mallory.” He runs his hand along his chin and looks towards the floor and then back to me. “I know that Boog has never cared about anyone other than the club like he does you.”
The fact that others can see that makes me want to smile even at a time like this. To have someone like Boog have feelings for me feels amazing. I know that he would do anything for me even in the short time that we have been together. He might be the Boogie Man but he is my Boogie Man. The danger is just a hurdle I will have to learn how to jump over. The man in front of me slides back until his back reaches the wall and then he leans his head back shutting his eyes. He is waiting for something or someone and I am scared to know what or who.
Chapter Eleven
I can feel the pains shooting up and down my back from being in the chair for hours. My wrists and ankles feel like they are on fire. I roll my head side to side and front to back a few times and take a shaky breath. We have sat in silence for hours neither of us saying a word.
Mercy moans and looks up at me. He must have fallen asleep.
“What are we doing here?”
“How about a small history lesson on your boyfriend?”
“Do I have a choice?” I ask and roll my eyes.
It seems like the last few days has been nothing but a history lesson on something.
“Hmm, seems like you are a feisty one huh?”
Mercy nods his head and looks out the front door.
“Well let’s see. I know your dad is a cop. I know how long you have been with Boog, and I knew the first time you came to the clubhouse. Shall we just say I have a very reliable source. And Boog’s real name? It’s Camden, what else… Oh and I don’t need information from you… I want to hurt Boog and the only way to do that is with you.”
“He doesn’t even know I am with you.”
“Oh he knows.” He laughs.
His laugh causes chills to pop up along my skin and tears to come to my eyes. He is so full of hate and anger and I am at the end of it all.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“Now that would take the fun out of all of this.” He waves the gun around and stands up.
He walks around the room and runs his hands along the wall and then he walks around my chair.
“This house used to be so nice when I was a kid. I always told my friends I would own this place and now that I do, look at it. It would take more to clean it up than it would just to burn it down and start over.”
He looks to me as he says it and my heart feels like it’s just hit the floor as the realization of what he wants to do hits me.
“You’re going to burn the house down with me inside it?”
He nods his head and walks out of the room. When he comes back he has two gas cans, and he starts to throw gas all around the room and on the chair I am sitting on. The smell of the gas makes me gag along with the fear of knowing that I am about to die in here and no one is here to save me.
“Why would you think killing me would get to him? We have only know each other for a month. He doesn’t love me,” I plead trying to think of anything I can to make him change his mind.
“What did he say when you told him I said hi?” he questions and yells the last part in my face.
Once again I try to move my hands and again the ropes only grip tighter on my wrists. My fingers are starting to tingle and my heart feels like it is about to come out of my chest. I don’t want to die in a run- down house.
“He was shocked.” I don’t know what he thought he would do.
He laughs and pulls a lighter from his pocket. He walks around me and with each step he strikes the lighter and laughs each time I jump.
“I used to be MOD. My dad was one of the founding members. He was on the ride that killed your dad’s beloved friend. It was his friend too. He tried keeping me away from them telling me the normal things people in this town say, ‘they are bad news,’ ‘they are dangerous,’ blah, blah, blah. I didn’t believe him and went to Boog. I did all their dirty work. They’d say, ‘clean the bathroom,’ ‘pass me a beer’ and I did it. Then I got my patch and I was a member. I was so high on happy I could have flown.”
He stops in front of me with his revelation and smiles the first sincere smile I have seen since I met him.
“What happened?”
His smile fades and he starts to walk again striking his lighter with each step.
“Boog,” he says it like his name is venom.
I hear motorcycles and can’t help but smile – he came to help me. Maybe I won’t die here. Mercy walks to the window and turns back to me. The look on his face is like nothing I have ever seen before. He looks like he’s won.
I hear boots walking up the stairs and turn my head to see Marco walk in smoking a cigarette.
“Marco, thank goodness please untie me,” I beg.
I want to dance for joy and laugh in Mercy’s face as I walk out of here. Marco laughs and hugs Mercy and I can feel the world falling out from under me.
“Untie you?” he asks and laughs.
“What? What is going on?”
“How do you think I knew who you were? Bitch, I don’t have X-ray vision.”
“Marco? Why?”
“Marco? Why?” he mocks and he and Mercy both laugh.
He takes a long drag off his cigarette and looks back to me blowing it out in a big cloud of smoke.
“Boog should have known better than to hurt my brother. Now I will show him what it’s like to see someone you love hurt and there’s nothing he can do to stop it.”
“Is he on his way?” Mercy asks.
“About five minutes behind me. The pictures about tore him apart.” He smiles.
They both walk to the window and wait until the sound of the motorcycle gets louder and louder. Mercy turns back to me and holds up a rag with the lighter under it. It doesn’t take long before it is engulfed in flames, and he throws it to the floor laughing when he sees it follow the line of gas around my chair.
I squeeze my eyes shut and scream. The flames are so close to the chair I can feel the heat off them. The only thing I can see around me is flames. I scream until my throat is raw. I hear g
unfire going off outside. My eyes are burning. The room is going in and out and before I know it, I can’t hear or see anything other than the prayer in my head that I don’t die in here.
***
“Get her untied, Temper!” I hear.
“Working on it, man!”
I open my eyes and look around the room. Boog is standing at the window looking out like he is waiting for someone. His gun is in his hand at his side. I try to swallow and my throat feels like it’s on fire. I look around me and there’s a black line on the floor around me still smoking. I can feel Temper cutting the rope and I can’t help but wince as he frees one wrist and starts to work on the second.
Boog turns towards me and bends down, his eyes locked with mine.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“Did they do anything to you?”
“No, Boog.”
My other wrist falls to my side and I grab it rubbing my hand around it. The feeling of being able to move my fingers again hurts as if there are needles in the ends of each of them. Temper moves in front of me and lets my feet loose as well. I sit for a few seconds moving my hands, rubbing my wrists and moving my feet.
I watch Boog as he turns back to the window and watches.
“Where are they?”
Temper looks towards me and then to Boog neither of them saying a word.
“Where the fuck are they, Boog?” I yell.
Without turning to look at me he says the one word that sends chills down my spine. He says it with no emotion.
“Dead, Brittney. They are fucking dead.”
I hear a door slam and Mallory runs through the door looking all around her. She locks eyes with me and runs towards me throwing her arms around me.
“Are you okay?”
“Would you all stop asking me that? I am fine okay. I am fucking fine!” I yell and spin around the room.
On the inside I feel like I have been ripped to shreds. I know something is going on that is a lot bigger than me. The whole time I was sitting in the chair the one thought I had was that he would come in the door and wrap his arms around me like a knight and now he will barely look at me.
Destruction (Masters of Destruction Book 1) Page 6
