by Fox, Nicole
I had already started looking for another job. Something a little more stable and something a little more ‘appropriate’ for a mother-to-be. Until then, I was stuck at Kevin’s, and stuck with the aching feeling in my heart that Grizzly hadn’t yet come for me or even tried.
This particular night was slow, and for that, I was grateful. I ended up running the bar and doing some tables, too, since I had the time to kill and being bored at work meant that my mind would wonder places that I didn’t want it to go. I was still a little burned over Grizzly, but that was something that I was taking in stride for the sake of myself and my baby. So I focused on giving smiles and grins and little shakes of my ass to my customers to ensure some good tips. What I didn’t expect was for the hands of someone I wasn’t even servicing to reach out and take me by the hips, pulling me into their lap.
My heart thumped heavily in my chest, but not out of fear—out of hope. Was it Grizzly? Had he finally come around? I couldn’t help the hopeful, intrusive thought that maybe this was him coming to claim me. it was an intrusive thought, however, that was quickly squashed. This body wasn’t big enough, and the voice wasn’t deep enough to be Grizzly’s.
“It’s been a long time, Ana.”
It sounded somewhat familiar despite the fact that I couldn’t quite place who the voice belonged to. I found out just who it was, however, when I turned my head and I saw who had brought me into their lap.
“R-Rodent?”
He looked ... horrible. Like the years had treated him worse than they had treated me, and that was certainly saying something. He looked sick, haggard—drugged. I didn’t know what to feel. I—
“How ... how is this possible?”
I tried to move from his lap, but he held me there. The men at his table laughed at my attempts to get up. He grinned with a nasty mouth at me.
“Surprised, are you?”
“I thought—I thought you were dead.”
“A lot of people thought that I was dead. You and your boy Grizzly, I imagine, hoped for it.”
My brows furrowed. I was confused.
“Rodent ... what are you talking about?”
He gave a laugh and blew foul breath into my face. I cringed away from him, and he only held me tighter, keeping me pressed close to his body. I had never felt a stronger need to get up and run than I did in that moment. There was something incredibly, deeply wrong with Rodent.
“By the way, it’s Road Rage now. Rage, if you want. I’ve been looking for you for a long time, Ana. I’ve been waiting for your pretty little head to pop back up again. Naturally, like I thought, it was with your little boy toy ...” He tutted. His nails dug into my sides and I cried out.
“You’re hurting me, Rodent—”
“Road Rage!” he snarled in my ears. “Don’t fucking call me that name. Road Rage ... it’s Road Rage.”
“You’re hurting me, Road Rage ...”
“Yeah, well, you hurt me, Ana. You and Grizzly. Making me think that you loved me and wanted me. Making me think that we were going to be a family—”
“We were. And then you started doping—”
“Because of you two! Because I saw the way that you looked at each other. You think I’m stupid, huh? You think that day at the bar, I didn’t know what happened? Tried to fucking kill me so that the two of you could run off into the sunset together. Heh. Thought that I wouldn’t find out because I would be dead, but you were fucking wrong, weren’t you?”
He buried his face in my hair, inhaling. I wished that someone would come by, make him stop—but if it got him money, my boss wouldn’t do shit, and it wasn’t like anyone else around here was going to step in, either. I had worked enough bars in the past to know how this was going to go. So I steeled myself and stayed strong, even as his face came to my neck where he kissed me with a wet mouth, and his hands began to caress my front, sliding over my stomach and then up to my breasts.
“My, my,” he said gleefully as he squeezed them between his fingers. “These have gotten bigger. I bet Grizzly likes them. I bet he puts his fucking mouth all over them when he fucks you, doesn’t he? Or maybe he holds onto them when he’s got you bent over like the slut you are.”
“Fuck you, Rodent.”
He squeezed me harder that time, painfully. I held in the gasp that threatened to be let out—I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was causing me pain.
“What do you think, boys? She’s got some nice tits, doesn’t she? Used to be my tits.”
“Yeah, nice tits, boss.”
“Heh. They’re not fake. They’re too nice and soft for that. I wonder ...”
My skin crawled as he slid his hand into my shirt, under my bra. He rubbed his fingers over my nipple and squeezed my naked breast.
“Are you pregnant again, Ana?”
My blood ran cold and I knew my face paled as soon as he said that. Had he ... had he known?
I said nothing, and Rodent withdrew his hand from my shirt to grip my face and make me look at him.
“You think I didn’t see the test, huh? You think I didn’t know? I waited for you to tell me yourself ... I was so happy ... But then you never told me and you were being carried off my Grizzly.” His hand went to my belly, and I tensed. “You had his fucking baby in you, didn’t you? Did you lose it? Or maybe he made you get rid of it? You know he never would have treated you half as well as I would have—”
“It was your baby,” I hissed out. “I never fucked Grizzly when I was with you. I never told you because I was scared—”
“Scared I would find out that you were fucking around on me when you popped out a little bastard that didn’t look like me?!” His nails dug into my face. Wouldn’t someone fucking do something?
“I never cheated on you, and I never planned for you to die,” I said slowly, looking into his eyes with a plea in my own. “Never.”
He was silent for a moment. I wondered if he believed me, and when he leaned forward and nuzzled his cheek to mine, I thought that he did. That was until he spoke.
“If you think that I’m going to believe anything that comes out of your lying cunt mouth, you’re dead wrong.”
He stood up, pulling me with him then. This time, I struggled against his hold and was about to yell before I felt something cold and sharp creep up under my shirt against my belly.
“You say shit, and I’ll kill this little fucker inside you, you hear me?”
No tears began to run. There was nothing but pure, flaming fury that rose up in me, but I kept my cool. For the sake of this baby, I kept my cool.
“I hear you.”
As Rodent led and nudged me out the door—no one even looked at the exchange, no one wantedto get involved, I saw Kid, sitting at a table near a corner. He began to stand up, his hand inside his kutte. I looked at him sharply and shook my head at him. I hoped that I wouldn’t have to speak in order to convey the deal to him.
Don’t do it.
Go get Grizzly.
He looked at me, conflicted, but sat back down as I was ushered through the door and onto the back of the Rodent’s bike.
“I’m gonna take you somewhere special, Ana,” he said. “Think of it like a first date, all over again.”
He let out a big laugh and so did the men with him. I was disgusted by him, but I said nothing. I knew that cooperating was the only way to maybe get out of this alive, unscathed, and with my baby.
I could only hope that help would be on the way. And if it wasn’t? Then I would just get myself out of this shit on my own.
***
Rodent lived in a pig sty if I ever saw one. They brought me to a house off in the cut, away from seemingly most civilization. Good for them, but that posed a problem for me—I wasn’t sure how I would get out of this on my own, and I wasn’t sure what Rodent planned to do with me while I was there.
Keeping out of trouble, I let him push and move me through the mess that was his new home. It smelled disgusting in here, like it ha
d been lived in and never cleaned, not once. The people that were in here weren’t any better. There were people strewn around, laid out. Drugged up. There were some mindlessly fucking. I pulled my eyes away from them and Rodent laughed at me.
“What, is it too good for you, huh? What was that that we called you back in the day? Duchess? You’re letting that little bit of you show, Ana.”
“Fuck you.”
“Gladly.”
I didn’t like the implication in his tone as he brought me to a room. It must have been his bedroom, if the bed and dressers were any indication. It was as much of a mess as the rest of the house, if only marginally cleaner—but calling it cleaner in any stretch of the word was a bit of a stretch.
He tossed me onto the bed. The mattress was springy and uncomfortable. I glared up at him as I scooted away from him.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I said.
He moved onto the bed, forcing himself in my space.
“Or what? What are you gonna do, Ana? Huh? What?” He grabbed me by the hair, pulling me closer to him so that he could speak to me. “You remember our first time, Ana? We were so young ... We were kissing and touching and you asked me so sweetly to be your first.”
“Things were different back that,” I hissed out. “You were different. I actually wanted you then.”
He sneered.
“And I guess you don’t want me anymore, do you? You ask Grizzly to fuck you sweetly too, huh? Or do you just crawl in his lap wet and dripping like you’re in heat and ride him? Is that how you got pregnant?”
“You’re fucking crazy.”
Wrong thing to say. His hand came out, striking me hard across the face. Despite the fact that he looked weak, he had an unnatural strength to him. I ended up with a ringing in my ears as he climbed on top of me, propping himself above me.
“That was really dumb of you, Ana,” he said. “I was going to be nice to you. Maybe let you come to me. Remind you why we were together in the first place. But now you’ve done pissed me off!”
He tried to kiss me, and I wasn’t so out of it that I couldn’t shove him away. Or try. I tried not to go too hard or too rough, for the sake of the baby, but I wasn’t going to let him just do whatever he wanted to me, either. He kept trying to kiss me—I put my hands in his face and clawed, scratched. I wasn’t going to let him do whatever he wanted to do without a fight.
He growled and snarled, pinning my hands to the bed.
“Bitch!”
“Takes one to know one, Rodent.”
I came up and kneed him in the gut, and that forced him off me long enough for me to spring up from the bed. If this was how things were going to be, I couldn’t afford to wait. I would hide out in the woods near the home if I had to, but I wasn’t going to let this happen. Not now.
Before I could get to the door, Rodent yanked me back and slung me hard against one of his dressers. It had my stomach shoved into the corner of it.
The first thing that I registered was a sharp, intense pain. I gasped, falling to my knees immediately as I clutched my stomach. The next thing that I registered was the fact that there was a wetness between my legs that hadn’t been there before.
No ...
I looked down, seeing red seeping between my thighs at my shorts. My blood ran cold while Rodent laughed behind me, cackling.
“Ha! Oops,” he said. “So sorry about that. Maybe next time you’ll think better than to keep me from what I want, Ana.” He leaned down, grabbing my hair to pull me close to him.
“Please, my baby—”
“I don’t give a fuck about your baby. But if you want one, we can surely work on getting you another one.” He laughed again, letting out a cackle. He stopped, though. I knew we heard the sound at the same time.
It was the sound of roaring motorcycles.
Rodent snarled a little and tossed me to the floor.
“You stay here while I go see what shit is going on out there. You fuck up again, Ana, and I’ll give you worse than a lost baby.”
He left, slamming the door behind him.
The pain ebbed in and out, almost like cramps—or contractions. The last time it had been the stress that had lost me my baby. This time, it might very well have been my own attempts to save it.
I let out a sigh, trying to steady my breathing. It hurt. It hurt so bad. When I tried to pull myself up, I found that I couldn’t. Any serious movement was too much for me to handle, and I didn’t want to risk hurting this baby any more than it already would be.
I lay in the filth of Rodent’s room, curled in on my stomach.
Grizzly ... I’m so sorry ... I tried to save our baby ... I did ...
Chapter Eighteen Grizzly
We were getting ready to ride out when Kid came barreling up the drive, coming to a skidding halt. I glared at him, bulking up as he hopped off his bike, tossed off his helmet, and ran over to me.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I demanded. “I told you to watch Ana. Why are you back here? We’re about to leave—”
“Some crazy fucker got Ana!” he panted out. “From the bar. He grabbed her and made her sit with him. He—fuck man. He did some gross shit and then pulled her up and dragged her out with him—”
I put my hands on Kid’s shoulders, making him stop and look me in the eye.
“Slow down and tell me exactly what happened.”
Kid looked like he was on the verge of angry tears. I could tell that he was beating himself up for whatever had happened to Ana. I had entrusted him to take care of her, and something had happened in the process. But panicking wasn’t going to help us.
“Tell me what happened,” I repeated. “Everything.”
When Kid was done explaining, I knew exactly who had taken Ana, and I knew exactly where to find them. Rodent ... Road Rage, whatever. That bastard. What the fuck did he think he was doing?
I had been ready to end this shit before Kid had ridden up telling me what happened—now, I was truly out for blood, and I would have my fill of it long after I put Road Rage into a fucking grave for thinking that he could lay his hands on Ana.
“That’s it. We’re rolling out. I know where their little hideout is. We won’t be that far behind them. Stay tight to me. Kid, hold down the fort—”
“No!” I looked at him in surprise; he sounded angry.
“Excuse me?”
“Let me come with you this time, Griz. Let me help. I was supposed to look after her, but I couldn’t. That’s my fuck up. I need to help fix it!”
“You need to stay out of trouble is what you need to do—”
“Let me help, boss.”
I sighed. There was no arguing him down this time, and I could see that on his face. Fuck.
“Fine,” I conceded. “But you stay in the back and you don’t do anything fucking stupid, you understand me? I don’t need you hurt, too, Kid.”
We rolled out, blasting down the fastest way to get to Road Rage’s hideout. I remembered how to get there perfectly but unlike the last time, I didn’t bother to try and hide our presence from that fucker. It seemed like he knew that we were on our way, anyway. There was a group of them out front. They were small in number, and I wasn’t sure they were all right in the head, either. They didn’t look like soldiers going into battle; they looked like people ready to tweak the fuck out.
We pulled up to the front and stopped. I didn’t waste my time getting off my bike and neither did my boys. The ones that were waiting outside for us eyed us warily; they didn’t look like they wanted to deal with us, and I couldn’t blame them. I took it as an advantage that the only person that looked like they wanted to scrap was Rodent—Road Rage—as he walked out of the front of his little druggie den.
“You came back,” he sneered at me.
“Well, I had so much fun the last time that I was over here, I figured I’d bring the boys over for a party this time, you see.”
He laughed, coughing a bit as he did. “You came for the little bi
tch, didn’t you? Typical. Always coming to her rescue.”
“Always.”
There was a rage that burned in his eyes. His hands flexed at his sides and he started to pace, agitated. As he did, he muttered to himself, cackling a little.
“That’s funny. Since you’re too late. Again. Ha!” He doubled over, his laughter so great. He held his sides and laughed and laughed and laughed. I wasn’t amused by his deranged state, and it just solidified more than he needed to be stopped.
