When I pull off the blindfold, she blinks once, twice, three times, and then her eyes finally find mine and fill with tears. She bites down on her gag as I kneel in front of her and untie it from behind her head. Pulling a knife from my pocket, I cut the zip-ties holding her wrists and ankles in place. She immediately covers herself, so I strip off my cut and shirt to put over her head.
She trembles as I pull her to me, my shirt falling down her body and hitting her knees. She doesn’t move her arms into the sleeves; she just falls against me, shaking.
I kiss the top of her head. “Vida, I’m here.”
Boomer stands behind me and clears his throat. “We need to get Doc Kelly to look her over.”
Head Case and his ol’ lady Doc Kelly are both doctors. They followed us in Boomer and Pam’s van since we didn’t know what state we would find Vida in. He is a shrink, and she is a physician, both for the club and in general practice for the Catawba Hellions.
I pull away from my wife who looks up at me, and I break into a million pieces.
“Can Doc Kelly check you out?”
Jenna nods her head and steps away from me. She is in shock; that is evident.
As the small, brunette doctor comes around me with her backpack of medical supplies, I move to the side so she can wrap her arm around Jenna’s shoulders and guide her away from the crowd.
My instincts scream at me to stand beside my wife, but the look in her eyes tells me this has been a hell she doesn’t want to relive in front of me.
There is a commotion sounding from the store front, pulling my attention away from Jenna. Not long after, Roundman, Danza, Frisco, Tripp, and Rex come in with three Hispanic men in front of them, zip-tied with their hands behind their backs. The men are muttering to each other in Spanish not to speak about the boss or the debt.
Walking to them, I wrap my hands around the throat of the first one I reach. “Respuesta! ¡Hablaras!” I order him to speak.
“Julio Natera?”
“Respuesta!” I again tell him he’s wrong as I tighten my grip, cutting off his air supply.
“Get Vida situated to go home. We’ll handle these three until you get her on her way,” Roundman says as he shoves one of the guys forward.
He’s right; she’s been through enough. I need to get her home before showing these chuckleheads just how wrong they were to ever target my family to resolve their debts.
The sounds of the bikes pulling up have me ready to sigh in relief, knowing Ruben and the Hellions are here.
In the same moment, panic fills me. What if it’s not them? I’m stuck, completely helpless, but I have to believe it is Ruby.
I twist my head and fight my rapid breathing as I hear the door being busted open and the footsteps entering my space. Lots of footsteps.
Fear grips me. Naked and unable to see what’s coming, I feel like I may hyperventilate.
“Vida,” Ruby says, and my heart skips a beat. The feeling of safety fills me from his voice.
Ruben is here and no matter what, he will get me home to my babies. Emotions overwhelm me, and my body trembles involuntarily.
He removes my blindfold. With the dim lighting in the room, it is hard for me to adjust, and I have to blink multiple times. Within a few moments, he has me covered in his shirt and over in a corner with Doc Kelly.
“Jenna, I need to check your eyes first since you sustained a head injury. The cuts need to be cleaned, but we will get you home first.”
I hold my head up and open my eyes to stare blankly at the wall behind her. Then she moves the light from one eye to the next. Satisfied with whatever my reaction is, she leans in closely.
Whispering, she asks, “Do we need to perform a rape kit?”
I choke back tears and shake my head.
“Jenna, whatever you say stays between us. I won’t tell Ruben if you don’t want me to. I need to know, though, so you are examined thoroughly.”
Opening my mouth, it takes a minute to get words. Everything burns, and my mouth is so dry.
“They hurt me,” I croak, “but not like that.”
“Are you sure? Even when you were knocked out?”
The room spins, and I feel like I’m going to pass out. I have been so caught up in everything happening to me in the moment that I haven’t given myself time to really assess what happened while I was unconscious.
“Breathe, Jenna. You’ve gotta breathe.”
I exhale loudly and try to steady myself.
“Let’s get you to the car. You’re dehydrated, so we need to get an IV in you and go from there first.”
I nod my head while I watch in the distance as Ruben wraps his hand around some stranger’s neck. I can feel the rage coming off my husband from this distance.
Fear has a way of changing one’s perspective on violence. After I sat here, afraid for my future, there is no amount of pain that could be inflicted that would make me have any sympathy for those men.
It’s all so wrong. Why take me? I have nothing to do with my brother’s business in Mexico. There are still so many questions, but in this moment, I don’t care about the answers. I want to get home and get cleaned up so I can hug each of my children. I just might never let them go.
Everything is a blur as Ruben comes over and then rides with me in the van as Head Case follows behind us on Ruben’s bike. My throat tightens, anxiety gripping me as we pull into the driveway.
“My babies,” I panic. “They can’t see me like this.” I don’t want them to see a light on at the house from where they are at Boomer and Pam’s and think they can come home. I would never turn them away, but I do not want them to be scared or upset.
“Compound camping.” Ruben says as he gets out and extends his hand for me to follow. “Boomer and Pam made this big deal of you having a night off. We can go and get them later. Boomer is on his way back, so when they wake up, they won’t know anyone was even gone.”
I let out a relieved sigh as we make our way inside. My body feels like I have fire running through my veins.
“We need to clean you up and see if you need stitches. We also need to get you hydrated,” Doc Kelly says as she moves into my kitchen and opens her bag.
Ruben takes me by the hand, guiding me through the house. “We can do this in the bathroom.”
He sits me on the toilet and I wince. The more I get comfortable in my surroundings, the more the adrenaline wears off, and I feel the crash coming.
I watch as Ruben gets a bowl and washcloth to begin cleaning me. He’s reaching up to my face when I start to panic.
“No!” I scream and jerk back from his touch. “This is wrong. Everything is wrong!” I inhale sharply. “You can’t come and save me then think it’s your place to take care of me. Go away, Ruben. Go the fuck away!” My throat burns. My eyes feel like someone is pricking them with a straight pin because I have no tears left to cry when my body wants to.
“Vida,” Ruben whispers, and I can see the hurt in his eyes at my rejection.
“No! Vida nothing. I was scared, Ruben. You were scared. Nothing changes, though. You don’t love me.” I sob. “You. Don’t. Love me.”
He drops to his knees in front of me. “I’m so sorry, Vida. I messed up what we had because I was looking for something I thought was lost. It was me. It was my issue. I failed us, and I did wrong. I allowed myself to question something good until I convinced myself it was something bad. I was wrong.” He looks up at me, his eyes pleading for forgiveness. “I failed you twice. I promise you, with everything I am, I will spend my every breath for the rest of my days by your side. Ride or die, you’re it for me. I’ve had time to realize, when I say you are my Vida, you are my life. You are me. We are one.”
Without the energy to fight, I drop my head on top of his. “This is wrong.”
“No, Vida. Me and you together, that’s always right. I was wrong to ever think there is anything better than me and you, baby.”
I want to believe him. I want to know, just as I h
ave seen where I failed us, he can see his shortcomings, too. I want to believe that, out of so many wrongs, we can find something right again.
Walls
“Ruby,” Doc Kelly calls from the doorway of our bathroom, holding a bottle of whiskey. “Why don’t you give me some time with Jenna?”
Feeling defeated, I stand, and as I cross paths with the doctor, I reach out for the bottle.
She smiles at me. “Not for you.”
“I don’t drink,” Jenna immediately replies, looking at Doc Kelly.
“Once we get the IV in you, I need to scrape the cut in your shoulder and then stitch it up. Since it has partially tried to heal, this means reopening the wound. You’re gonna want a little something to take the edge off, babe.”
Rage fills me.
“I’ll be back. Gonna take a ride.” Going over to my wife, I kiss her forehead, seeing the distance she’s trying to keep between us in her eyes.
Healing both physically and emotionally will take some time, and not just from her ordeal the last twelve hours, but from the damage done by me. She needs to know where I’m at with her and with us.
“I love you, Vida. Build whatever walls you need to, but brick by brick, I’ll tear them down. I’m not, nor have I ever been, afraid of hard work. I’ll see you later. Rest when you can.”
She takes in my words and nods her head. I reach the bathroom doorway before she croaks out a reply.
“Make them pay, Ruben.”
I turn around and again am hit by the pain in her eyes. It cuts me to my very core.
“For you, for me, and for our children, mi amor,” I answer her as I exit.
The ride back to the old storefront only amps me up further. I will fight to the bitter end to get back what I walked away from. I want my life with Jenna back. Only, now I know it will be better than ever because I am aware.
I am aware I have shortcomings as a man.
I am aware I am human and will fail.
What defines me is how I overcome my failures. I will be defined as the man who stands for and by my family.
Pausing, I blow out a breath before climbing off my bike and making my way inside to my club and my enemies.
At the door, standing watch is Tank, stopping me before I enter.
“Your brother-in-law—”
“This isn’t about him in this moment.”
“I get that, brother, but you’ve gotta know. He’s in deep across the border.”
This is not what I wanted to hear, but I will deal with Julio later. Right now, there are three men on the other side of this door who kidnapped, assaulted, and sliced my wife. They attacked my family, and they will pay tonight.
Walking in, I find the guys are tied to chairs in the same fashion as Vida, although with their clothes on. This isn’t about manipulation or humiliation; this is about retribution. I’m not here to solve the issue with Julio. That is his business. I’m here purely to inflict pain.
“We didn’t know,” one of the men stutters.
“Yeah,” the third adds while the man in the middle remains silent, hanging his head down. “We didn’t know she was an ol’ lady to the Hellions.”
The first guy looks at me. “We didn’t know she was your wife.”
Standing in front of him, I wrap my hands around his throat. “She’s more than my wife.” I choke him harder. He fights to breathe as I tighten around his windpipe, pressing my thumbs in. His face changes colors as his eyes grow big. “She’s my life,” I say, meeting him eye to eye as I apply more pressure.
His two friends watch as I continue to squeeze long after their man has passed out.
“She’s my partner, my other half. She’s my reason, and you touched her,” I say over him as his body goes limp.
I press my thumbs in deeper and grip more tightly. I squeeze the life out of him as I let my mind focus on the worries and pain my wife endured at the hands of these men. No resuscitation will be had tonight.
Next.
Roundman stands in front of the second guy, the man who will not meet my eyes. I can tell by my brothers’ reactions this is the one with the debt to Julio.
I move past him and go to the third man in the lineup. Taking the knife Rex has extended to me, I look over the metal in my hand.
“You and your amigos”—I look to the man in the middle chair—“felt it necessary to take a blade to my wife’s body.” I trace the blade down the third man’s face, splitting his skin enough to burn and bleed yet not going deeply … yet. He whimpers, but he doesn’t cry out. “You and your amigos felt it necessary to cut into my wife’s skin. You and your amigos felt it necessary to take my wife away from our children and our family to avoid a debt. In doing this, you and your amigos felt it necessary to bring pain to the mother of my children.” I can’t help raising my voice as I continue to speak, the rage burning deep inside me. “If only I could find your mothers and reign down my retribution on their bodies...”
I pause, backing up. “But in our culture, we don’t do that. My mother was cherished, protected until her very last breath. You and your amigos didn’t respect where we come from. You pathetic pieces of shit used a woman as a pawn for your debts.” Swinging, I step forward and plunge the knife into the stomach of the third man.
He grunts and looks up at me as I twist the metal in his body.
“Was it fun to make my wife bleed?” I ask as I yank the knife out and plunge it back in again. “Do you feel the fear of what will happen to you next? Do you sit here and ask yourself, ‘how long until I am free of the pain?’ ”
The man in the middle continues to look down while his buddy slumps in the chair, mumbling incoherently in pain as his blood pools onto the floor beneath him.
“That’s what my wife did for the hours you had her. From the moment she woke up after you took her from the gas station, she had to ask herself what was next.” I rip the knife free and stab the man again, this time in the ribs. “She had to helplessly wonder if she would ever see our babies again.”
I pull the knife free and jab it into his other side. “I had to sit and wait while my brothers here had to use resources to find out who took her. I had to wonder if I would see my wife, my Vida, again.” I yank the knife out while the man in front of me chokes on his own blood and his head lolls from side to side.
Leaving him to bleed out, I move to where Roundman is standing and watching the man in the middle. I force the man to lift his head by taking the tip of the bloody knife and putting it under his chin. When his eyes meet mine, I ask, “Do you have any idea what that does to a man?”
I watch as the man swallows hard, but he doesn’t speak. I give a sinister smile.
“It makes him go loco.” I laugh. “The thing is, as crazy as I may be, I’m not stupid. You see, dumb fucker, your debt is to Julio Natera. If I kill you, the debt will not be repaid in money, markers, or in whatever way Julio desires. I’ve had my vengeance.
“What do you think being in another country and knowing his sister was taken did to Julio? It drove me loco in a matter of minutes. I can only imagine what it did to him. Now you get sent back to Mexico. You are Julio’s problem.”
Rex and Tripp laugh, and I look beneath the man’s seat to see he has pissed himself. As much as I want to kill the man, I don’t want to take care of his problem in any way. Julio can deal with how to make him pay.
Knowing Roundman and the Hellions will handle getting this clown back to Mexico, I hand the knife back to Rex. I have walls to climb at home to get back to my wife’s heart.
As I reach the exit door, I look at Boomer. “I’ll be by to get my kids later. As for this, when they get him out, you do what you do. Make it go boom, brother.”
Doc Kelly wasn’t kidding. The shots of whiskey did take the edge off when it came to getting my shoulder scraped clean then stitched. Since we didn’t know what happened to me while I was knocked out, she did a rape kit, but there were no signs indicating I was violated in that manner.
&nb
sp; Thank God for small blessings. This whole ordeal was bad enough on its own.
Julio, my brother, got me into this mess, and I don’t even know why. Does it matter, though?
My phone and my van aren’t here, so after Doc Kelly cleaned me up, she recommended I rest until later when Ruben brings my kids home.
I want nothing more than to see them, hold them, kiss them, and know they are really with me. Still, I have spent their entire lives sheltering them from so many dangers of the world, but this is something I can’t hide, and I don’t know what to tell them.
After Doc Kelly gets my IV set up, I allow myself to drift to sleep. My body aches, the exhaustion from everything taking over. Being in my own home and knowing Doc Kelly and Head Case are part of the Hellions’ family, I am safe.
“Vida.” I hear Ruby’s whispered voice. I am not fully awake yet not completely asleep. “I know I put you through hell, baby. I got lost in my head. I played the shoulda, coulda, woulda game that always ends in disappointment. You know, before this happened, I was ready and wanting to work things out. I need another chance. I need our life back, my wife back.”
Two strong arms pull me over. Except, instead of lying on his back and draping me over him, Ruben Castillo cocoons himself around me.
In his warmth, in his love, I fall into a deep sleep, the kind fairytales are made of.
Can I trust that he will be a prince of his own making? Can I believe we will have our happily ever after?
There is one thing I learned from being taken: I have to hold on to myself. When no one else was there, I had to pull through, not just for my man and my kids, even though they drive me, but for me. I can’t get sucked back into the wash of the day in and out routine. I can’t simply be my children’s mother and my husband’s wife. I have to be me and live for me. I have to find a way to take care of myself so I can take care of the needs of those around me.
Ruben’s way of handling all the changes between us may not have been the easiest of roads—it hurt like hell—but the end of the path is still the same, isn’t it?
Heated Ride: Hellions Motorcycle Club (The Hellions Ride Series Book 7) Page 12
