by Xyla Turner
"Nah," Razor laughed. "You the O.B."
My eyebrows squeezed together. These guys were about to talk biker shit, so I tapped Razor on the arm and said, "I'm going to the restroom, okay?"
He nodded and pointed towards the back. I noticed there were only a few women around. They were occupied with men, so I would not be getting lost. I bent down and kissed him on the lips and then whispered, "You're my home. I'm not going on the road again. I'm staying home."
His eyes grew wide and he went to grab me, but I evaded him and laughed as I walked away. I heard their president say, "Oh, yeah. You're gone."
"Told you." Razor laughed. "Got me by the fucking balls."
I went to open the door and everything went black.
17 – On My Watch
On my watch
RAZOR:
As I caught up on things with Pete, he shared some good and disturbing news. The old man wasn't playing when he said he was getting too old for this shit. He was ready to give up the gavel and he was looking at several guys to come in and take his place. He knew I was the district president, so he also wanted my thoughts. Shit, he set me up for that job. He technically didn't have to get a president if the district one assumed some of the major responsibilities.
Knowing that I had Kylie in my life and rooting her in a permanent way, I quickly declined that. Pete said he knew that when he saw our hands linked. I'd never brought a woman to see him, forget, introducing her to him. A chick might have been at the bar but never in the vicinity of my president.
Kylie took a long time to come back. Almost ten minutes. An eerie feeling came over me as I immediately thought the worse.
"Do your bathrooms work?" I asked.
"Yeah, they workin'," Pete answered.
"I'll be back."
I stood up and walked to the bathroom. There was no gender-designated bathrooms, because this was a biker compound. Therefore, mostly men used the room and there was no need for other accommodations.
Wait!
She wasn't in there.
I quickly searched the area and there was no sign of her. No where. Trying to remain calm, I stepped outside and still saw nothing out of the ordinary. Everything was in place except my lady.
Coming back in the compound, I searched the entire area again. Pete must have seen something was off because he was headed my way.
“Where is she?” he asked.
“Gone.” My hands ran through my hair. “He fucking took her.”
Without me elaborating, the old man knew me long enough to know something was wrong and what to do about it. Pete held up his one hand and just like always, the music stopped and everyone came to a standstill.
“Lieutenants to the base,” he said just as calmly and put his hand on my back to move me out of the room.
There was some murmuring, but around ten guys made their way out of the door to cross over to the next place.
When we were just outside the base, Pete started giving out directions. “Fuzz, call the Manor base and get Razor’s VP and lieutenants over here now. Let them know his lady is gone and they’ll know what to bring. Get Dean on the phone as well.”
“Got to go.” I started to walk away.
“No, you got to be smart.” Pete was giving me his president’s voice, so I knew he meant business. “Let us help you with this. Your guys are coming. Tell us everything you know and I’ll get Lift to track it. You know he’s the best.”
He was right. I knew it and so did he. We’d been here before. Search and rescue. Sometimes they were ugly and sometimes they were simple. Now it was for me. It was mine and she was gone.
Almost stunned into silence because anything from my mouth would turn into a roar and Pete’s guys were holding me down. They were more than his guys; they were my brothers too. They would protect me, they would watch out for her and they knew she meant something.
An hour later, there was no word from Lift and my guys were coming through the door.
“We’ll find her,” was Apollo’s first words.
“What’s the word?” Bronx asked.
He was asking whether to bring this man back dead or alive. Our club did not deal with violence as a practice, but we were no strangers to it. As a matter of fact, we were all highly trained in weapons, surveillance, and hand-to-hand combat.
The Legion of Guardians were based on the premise that we would keep the scales balanced and just, but what some didn’t know and those that needed to know was it meant by any means necessary. Some might have called us vigilantes but we made shit right.
This needed to be made right.
“What do you have?” I asked Apollo.
“The trail ended cold but it got hot again when I was looking into her old band. I have surveillance on the guy you decked. He is single but he wasn’t doing nothing as of two weeks ago. Fucking with some girl out of town. The other guy is sketchy. He’s the one I just started to tail. He lives in town, but at the local motel. People don’t live at motels and they definitely don’t live in local motels when they have a house in their name two towns over for an extended amount of time. Tate is over there now since the guys haven’t been back yet.”
“Good,” I exhaled.
Some amount of relief filled me but it was brief. I had to get her back.
“That’s good, but we need live intel now,” Pete added. “Can you get him on the phone?”
“Yeah,” Apollo called. “Tate, you in there yet?”
“Yeah, man, just...” he grunted, “got in.”
He was on speaker phone.
“Look alive. We don’t have him on radar yet,” Apollo said aloud.
There were at least thirty guys in the room and more than half of them were my guys. They weren’t all lieutenants, but they were brothers who heard what the hell happened and came to help. Some had on their cuts and others had on work clothes.
“Holy shit,” Tate breathed through the phone.
“What?” I grabbed it from Apollo.
“Razor, man, he’s been following her every fucking move. Looks likes for the past year or so. Even when she was still in the band.”
There was rustling over the phone and I saw Apollo talking with Pete.
“I’m gone.” I held up my phone. “Patch me through to Tate.”
“No, wait,” Pete yelled for me.
“Not waiting, Pete. My girl is in the hands of some psycho. Not waiting anymore. Patch me through to whoever I need to speak with, but I’m not sitting around here strategizing.”
“I’m with you,” Bronx moved towards me and so did Apollo.
“Fine, but let’s find out what we’re dealing with. We’ll put you on the live feed.” Pete nodded as I walked out.
“You take her house,” I pointed to Bronx. “You take that guy that I punched and get everything you can from him about this weirdo.” I pointed to Apollo.
“Where are you going?” Bronx asked as he held the clutch on his motorcycle.
“Ground zero.” I turned the ignition. “To this motherfucker’s house.”
We nodded and rode off.
KYLIE:
It smelled familiar but it hurt to breathe. It felt like something was sitting on my back causing pain to shoot up my spine and causing my head to hurt like a bitch.
There was movement in the dark room and then the heaviness was lifted off of me.
“You’re up.” A familiar man’s voice said but it was strained, like he was hoarse or he was trying to alter his voice.
Just like I was taught, I took inventory of what I could. There was a blindfold covering my eyes. My hands and feet were tied. I was lying on my stomach on a cement floor and there were lights in front of me.
“You. You. You have been bad,” the voice stuttered. “I’ve. Been. Watching you.”
“Justin?” My voice didn’t sound the same.
Holy shit. I think it was Justin.
“You remember?”
“Justin, what’s going on?” I asked as
my head felt like it weighed a ton. “Where am I?”
“I ask the questions.” His voice sounded far away. “You, you, you’re whoring around.”
“Uh, Justin what is this?”
A shrieking scream cut through the room and then unimaginable pain spread through my side, causing me to scream out.
Son of a Bitch!
When it registered what happened, I realized I was not dealing with the Justin I remembered. This guy was different, he just kicked the shit out of me, and I swear a rib or two broke.
“I told you,” Justin screamed. He was near me. Like really close. “I ask the fucking questions, you bitch!”
I could smell his putrid breath on my face as the spit hit my nose. He was really close to me because I could feel his body heat on my skin. My head reared back and with my eyes closed, I propelled forward, hitting my target. My forgotten rib be damned; it was fight or flight. There was a loud bang, like he fell on something. My hands were tied in the front, so I rolled over and tried to untie my ankles. Then I hit the ground with a breath-taking thud. The man had tackled me.
“You whoorrreeee!!!” he screamed as his clammy hands wrapped around my throat.
My hands were tied in between us, so I was able to push them up between us and break the hold of his left hand. Then I felt a sting across my face that sent my head whirling to the right as it was his left hand that struck me. He resumed choking me so I tried to squirm and use the momentum from my lower body to knee him off of me.
I must have succeeded because his entire body was no longer on me. There was ringing in my ears, but I heard other people and a scuffle. There were punches, screaming and things were moving.
Someone touched my shoulder and I screamed.
“Kylie, it’s me,” a familiar voice spoke in my ear.
Oh my God! It was Apollo.
“Apollo. Oh my God.” My body was hefted up.
The blindfold was taken off, along with the rope that bound my wrists and ankles. My eyes took some time to adjust but when they did, I saw Razor beating the shit out of someone. There wasn’t a fight; it was just him throwing perfectly executed punches in the upper and middle region. Bronx was standing next to him.
“Let’s go.” Apollo pulled me.
“Wait,” I said. “He’s going to kill that man.”
Apollo grunted and kept pulling me out of the underground space. We had to climb a ladder in order to get out. It was nighttime, but there were lights everywhere. There seemed to be every color. Bikes, trucks, cars and even an ambulance was coming. This was great because the lights and probably that last blow to the head had me going down.
My knees buckled under me and I saw all the lights dim but something caught my fall.
Or someone.
THERE WERE VOICES IN the room. They weren’t loud, but hushed voices like they were whispering. It was difficult to open my eyes but after several tries, I was able to see through one of them. When my vision cleared, I saw four guys and one had on a doctor’s jacket.
“Kylie?” a familiar voice whispered.
I tried to turn, but it hurt like a bitch to move. I grunted and remained where I was.
“Oh no, honey. Don’t move.” It was Shay.
I heard feet scampering around and saw the men turning their heads.
“She’s awake,” Shay called. “Hey, how are you feeling?”
“Hello Kylie, my name is Doctor Johnson. I’ll be the one asking questions.” He looked pointedly at Shay.
“That’s her friend,” Bronx added with a glare that even my one eye could pick up.
I raised my hand to see what was wrong with my eye but the doctor stopped me and said, “It’s in a delicate state right now. It has a patch on it and at this moment, we just want to rule everything out.”
All of this commotion and I still hadn’t seen my parents or Razor.
“Where are my parents? Where’s Razor?” I croaked.
"They just left out because your mom was feeling weak and uh, Razor, he’s on his way,” Bronx said.
“Just tell her the truth,” Shay snapped.
“There’s nothing to tell,” Bronx snapped back.
“Listen, you guys are upsetting her. Maybe y’all need to step out since this is her first time awake.”
“We’re not going anywhere.” Bronx’s eyes narrowed. “We’re Guardians and so is she.”
Dr. Johnson leveled his eyes on Bronx and said, “And I’m not? She just woke up and you are bickering. This is the last thing she needs. Now put a lid on it or I will have you all thrown out of here.”
Bronx folded his arms over his chest in a defensive stance like he dared the doctor to throw him out. Shay touched his arm and only then did he turn his gaze to her.
“It’s cool, doctor.” Shay rubbed Bronx’s arm. Then she nudged him and nodded. “Right?”
“Whatever.”
“Look, let’s catch up alright?” The doctor made his way to my bedside. “You have a broken rib and a fractured one. There’s a cut on your wrist that has been bandaged and your eye, we will know more tomorrow.” He nodded. “Besides that, you will be okay young lady.”
“Is my mom okay? Where’s Razor?” I asked again as panic begin to set in. My chest was tight, my hair was matted to my head, my palms were sweaty, and my body was sore.
“Honey, your mom is fine. She was just a little worked up,” Shay reassured. “They’re just down the hall. I’ll get them to come back, okay?” She looked to Bronx and continued, “Razor is just being detained with the Sheriff right now. He’ll be out soon. Wolf is there with him.”
“Who’s Wolf,” I asked.
“The club’s lawyer,” Bronx answered. “He’ll be here within the hour.”
I nodded as I knew Shay wouldn’t lie to me. As long as he was alright, I was fine.
A few more minutes had passed and I was back in la-la land.
RAZOR WAS THERE THE next time I opened my eyes. He had a somber look, but I wasn’t sure if that was because he had been locked up for reasons I didn’t know yet or I just looked like a beast or something. He wasn’t talking and was answering me with one-word answers. My parents were there and though everyone looked physically fine, the weary look in their eyes told me they were more stressed than they let on.
I was released and went home with Razor. There was still a patch over my eye and my wrist was bandaged up. They did not want to confine my ribs, so I basically had to be extra careful.
For three days, I looked in the mirror at the patch over my eye and the ugly bruises on my side. Razor helped to wash me but he was distant, and to the point that it was getting on my nerves.
This also happened at the hospital; so when I got out and it was still happening three days later, I finally lost it on him.
“Take me to my parents!” I exclaimed. “Now!”
“What?” he asked.
“You heard me. I want to leave.”
“Why?” he asked as he sat on the couch, like he had done for the past three days, staring at nothing.
Razor hadn’t touched me, barely kissed me and wanted to always check the surveillance on the house. He even had a couple of guys stopping in once every two hours. Bronx told me to let him do it and Apollo just grunted. Shay and Lori kept their distance because he was in a terrible mood.
“Because you are driving me crazy. I’m in pain, like real physical pain and now you’re contributing to my emotional pain,” I exclaimed as I started to climb the stairs one at a time.
“Wait, I can help you up.” He touched my arm.
“No, don’t fucking touch me. I can walk up the damn steps,” I snapped at him.
Razor was right behind me but I did not care one bit. When I reached the top stair, he cornered me against the closet door.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he growled.
I growled back, “You!”
His head drew back and his eyebrows closed in on each other, “What did I do?”
“Yo
u’ve been sulking for the past five days; at the hospital for two and here for three. I’ve tried to be patient, but I need some time. This is fucking ridiculous.”
“Sweetheart.” He sighed. “Wait a minute.”
“No. You’ve been ignoring me. Giving me one-word answers. Not sleeping in your bed and you’re driving me fucking crazy with the surveillance. You got the guy. So what is the actual...”
“He took you!” he roared. “He took you, broke a rib, fractured another one, cut your arm and fucked up your eye. He did all of that on my goddamn watch. Know how that makes me feel? Huh? I’m a fucking Guardian. The goddamn district president and my woman was taken on my watch.” Razor put his head down and growled, “My watch.”
“Razor, you found me. Okay? You found me. You’re going to beat yourself up for this? How long? Huh? Let me know because I’ll come back when you stop.” I pushed him away and walked toward the bed. “Cause if you think that your brothers or the other club think any less of you as their leader, you are absolutely wrong. If it wasn’t for you, only God knows where I would be. So sulk about the fact that I was taken and not rejoice that I’m back. That’s how shit works when it gets tough. I don’t want that. I thank God I’m fucking alive.”
I turned to see he was staring at me and his eyes were wet.
Shit.
“It was on my watch.” He shook his head.
“Have you forgotten, it was also on your watch that I was retrieved in less than eight hours?” I was about to get emotional. “Xander,” I said on a sigh.
Walking back to him, I pulled his face down towards me and said, “I know I don’t look the best right now, so I understand.”
His face reared back. “What the fuck? Shit, Kylie! That has nothing to do with anything.” He scoffed, “Woman, your beauty goes much beyond your looks. That’s for damn sure. I love you, no matter what. You hear me. That’s why I’m so fucked up. I almost lost you for good. That sorry excuse for a man was about to take you away from me. We were fucking minutes to hours away from you being gone and darling....” Razor put his head down. “I...” He sighed. “I wouldn’t be able to handle that.”
