by Cee Bowerman
A few minutes later she came back in with a bottle of water. She took the top off and handed me the bottle. When I shook my head, she aimed it for my lips, and just before she tipped it to spill on me, I took the bottle from her hands. I took a big swig, and she smiled again before she handed me the lid and walked out of the room.
Impertinent little shit.
✽✽✽
“Finn!” I turned my head to the bedroom door to look at Royal. I didn’t move a muscle, because I didn’t want to wake Dylan who was asleep on my chest or Bellamy who was asleep in the crook of my arm. “Come into the kitchen.”
Royal took Dylan from me and waited for me to ease my arm out from under Bella. He laid Dylan down beside his little sister, and they instantly snuggled closer to each other. Royal and I moved the pillows and blankets around to make a nest for the babies in case one of them wiggled too much, and then I followed him out into the kitchen to see that it was full of people.
Clem, Kale, Daughtry and Bird Forrester were there, along with their Dad, Smokey, who had been an acquaintance of my Father’s. I saw Hank and a few other men wearing the leather cuts that showed them to be members of The Texas Kings MC. Sam, Zeke, and Jace Duke were all there, along with quite a few men wearing cuts that proclaimed The Texas Knights MC. My brothers were all standing around, and in the middle of it all was Detective Amerson.
“They found her. She’s at the hospital, and I’ll drive you there.” I heard Shirley start to sob, and when I looked toward her, I saw Ralph pulling her into his arms. Chess was beside them holding Lily close. “She’s unconscious, but alive. She has a few injuries.”
Detective Amerson’s voice faded as I turned around and rushed into my bedroom. I pulled on my boots and pulled a hoodie on over my head as I turned and went back toward the front door.
“Shirley and Ralph are going to stay here with the babies. We’re coming with you.” Royal announced.
I glanced over at Clem and realized that his arms and neck were covered in scratches, his boots wet and muddy. The men around him all looked the same. I walked to Clem and stuck my hand out, knowing that he had found Lena and realizing that nothing I could ever do would pay him back.
He took my hand and I leaned in and slapped him on the back as I whispered, “Anytime. Anything. I can never repay you.”
Clem nodded his head and smiled. “Go get to your girl. Two of my brothers are with her, they escorted the ambulance back, but we came to get you.”
I rushed out of the house behind Royal and jumped into his truck. Lily and Chess got into the back seat, and before the back door was even shut, Royal was speeding down the drive toward the road that would take us into town.
“What time is it?” I asked as I looked down at the dashboard. Four-thirty in the morning. A little more than twelve hours since Lena had been taken. What had happened to her in that time? What had she gone through?
I made a vow to myself that I would protect her for the rest of our lives. I would do anything I could to pay Clem and the men with him back, pay them for giving me the gift of a life with Lena.
14.
“Danger or not, I drew the line at digging around in a dead woman’s tits.”
Lena’s private thoughts
LENA
The sound of feet breaking twigs as they walked closer to me woke me up from my daze. I listened, trying to figure out if Ronnie had been able to get up after I hit him, or if Nellie had found me on her own.
“Lena, babe. It’s Clem. Remember me from the diner? I was there when you told that fuckhead you were going to kick his ass?” I heard a deep voice ask me. My mind shot back to the biker that I had met in the hallway of the diner. “Finn sent me to find you, sweetheart. Can you come out from under there?”
“Where is Ronnie?” I whispered to Clem. “You have to be careful; he might be out there. He’s looking for me.”
“Lena, honey, he’s not going to be coming after you again. He fell into a hole and broke his neck. Freak accident.” I heard another man snicker and saw Clem shoot him a glare. “I promise. You’re safe. Your man is worried about you. He’s home taking care of your babies until I can get you back to him.”
“I don’t think I can walk, Clem. I don’t know what to do.” I shimmied a little bit, trying to get out from under the prickly branch I was hiding in. “I’m hurt.”
The branches moved up, and I saw a flashlight beam light the path for me to crawl out of. I winced as I moved on my stomach, wondering if I was still bleeding from where Nellie had cut me. My leg was on fire, and I knew I couldn’t walk on it anymore. The last time I had fallen, I heard a pop, and fire exploded in my hip. I could crawl like I had done to get under the bush, but I couldn’t stand up.
Clem leaned down to pick me up, and I saw his face when he got a good look at me. He took off his leather vest and handed it to one of the men around us, and then he pulled off his hoodie. He handed it to me, and I worked to get it on over my head. He helped me, and I felt better as soon as the warm material covered my body. Clem got his vest back from the man beside him and pulled it on over his t-shirt.
My head hurt with every movement, and I screamed when Clem picked me up in his arms. When he pulled me toward him, my hip made an odd noise and pain shot through my entire body. I was overcome with nausea and then I felt the world go black.
✽✽✽
Thirteen hours before
LENA
Fire exploded in my head, and I felt my nose crunch as my face hit the desk in front of me. I tried to sit up but felt a hand at the back of my neck, pressing my face into the solid wood below it.
“Stay still bitch.” I heard Ronnie whisper, right before Wyatt lost his fucking mind. He was growling and snarling, and I heard Ronnie gasp just as he let go of my neck. Wyatt had him by the leg and was pulling him away from me. Ronnie reached into the back of his jeans and I saw his hand on a gun. I grabbed the only thing I could find and swung it at his head. A stapler.
I had a fleeting thought that if it was good enough to bean my ex in the head with, it was good enough to beat this asshole to death with.
The stapler in my hand hit Ronnie in the side of the head with a loud crack and he fell onto the floor. I dropped to my knees and landed them right in the middle of his gut, hoping to knock the air out of him so I could get him again with the stapler before he tried to go for his gun.
Ronnie hit me in the face with his fist, and my body flew backward and thumped against the wall next to the door leading into the nursery. I scrambled to my feet, the blood on my hands smearing all over the white paint as I tried to clear my head so I could get back into the fray. I jumped when I heard a gunshot, and turned to see Wyatt lying on the floor, a hole in his side. Josie was touching him with her nose, praying as I was that he would live.
When I looked up, it was into the crazed eyes of Creepy Ronnie, and he was pointing a gun at me.
“You fucking bitch!” he roared as he came toward me. “Get in the fucking car!”
Ronnie shoved me toward the office door, and I went willingly, praying that the gunshot hadn’t woken the babies. I didn’t want Ronnie to know that they were there. I knew in my heart that he would hurt them and use them to get me to do what he wanted.
I needed to protect them, and if that meant leaving with Ronnie, I would do that willingly.
✽✽✽
“What are you doing, Ronnie? Where are you taking me?”
“You were supposed to come with me, but you had to get lippy, and then that fucking biker had to butt in.”
“What are you talking about? Go where? Where are you taking me?”
I was trying to be calm, hoping that someone we knew would be coming down the road toward the office, and would see me in the front seat of Ronnie’s car.
“If you had just done what I said that night, I wouldn’t have had to hurt you.” Ronnie glared at me and yelled again. “You fucking hit me; you bitch.”
I never saw Ronnie’s hand coming,
and with a sickening thud, my head bounced off the passenger window. I saw stars and then the world went away again.
✽✽✽
My head was cloudy, and it hurt so bad that I could barely catch my breath. I tried to lift my head up, but just that small movement made me nauseous. All the sudden what happened in the office came back to me in a rush, and I prayed that someone had found the babies before I had been gone too long. And Wyatt. My poor dog had only been trying to protect me when Ronnie shot him.
I heard a muffled voice and opened my eyes. I tried to brush the hair away from my face but couldn’t move my arms. I tried again and realized that they were tied together behind my back. Gritting my teeth with the pain in my head, I lifted my face up and opened my eyes. The sunlight coming in through the little window let me know that it was still daylight, but just barely.
The last time I looked at the clock on my computer, it was just a little past two in the afternoon. That was today, right? How long had I been unconscious?
I looked around the small room and saw that it was someone’s bedroom. There was a bed under the window, and it was covered with an old quilt. The pillows on the bed were set perfectly in place, and on the table beside the bed there was a digital clock. I tried to read the numbers, but they kept swimming around and wouldn’t stay still. I squinted my eyes and was finally able to see that it was 6:08. I glanced back at the window and confirmed that it was evening, not morning. There wasn’t any sunlight at six in the morning, so I had been gone from the office for about four hours. By now, Finn and the rest of the guys knew I was gone. Lily had already been back to the office and found Wyatt, and then the babies, and knew something was wrong.
The voices in the other room rose, and I thought I heard my Stepmother in there. I shook my head to clear more of the fog away and realized that I was right. That was Nellie’s voice in the other room. She was screaming at someone. When I heard a man’s voice yell back at her, I realized that it was Ronnie.
Ronnie and Nellie had done this to me. What had Ronnie said the other night at the diner? “She promised we could be together soon.” That’s what he meant. Nellie had promised me to him.
I felt bile rise in my throat, and I took a deep breath and then swallowed to push it down. Finn would find me. He would know to look at Nellie first, he would know she would want me hurt.
But he wouldn’t know about Ronnie. I had never told him about what happened in the hallway with Ronnie and that big biker. I meant to tell him but when I got back to the table I got into a conversation with Shirley and it completely slipped my mind.
My eyes shot over to the door when I heard footsteps coming closer, so I hung my head back down and shut my eyes, praying that they would think I was still unconscious.
“How hard did you hit her, you idiot?” I heard Nellie snarl as the door flew open. “She’s still out. Jesus. I thought I could trust you to do this one little thing. I thought you said you wanted her for your own.”
“I do.” Ronnie whined; his voice closer to me than Nellie’s. I felt his hand on my hair and had to physically resist the urge to pull away. “You said I could have her.”
“You can. As soon as she wakes up, I’ll get her to sign the papers and you can do whatever your perverted little heart wants to do with her.” Nellie’s voice started to taper off, and I could tell that she was walking away from me, back down the hall.
“Wake up, sweetie pie.” Ronnie whispered as he ran his hand over my hair and down to my shoulder. “Maybe if I kiss you, you’ll wake up like the princesses in the movies.”
Ronnie used my hair to pull my head back, and then I felt his wet lips cover mine. He mashed them to me, and tilted his head this way and that, as if we were movie stars in an old film. I did my best not to grimace, and let my head fall forward when he let my hair go.
“It didn’t work. I think maybe you’re broken and you won’t be fun to play with.” Ronnie whined as he started to pet my hair again. He moved away from me for a second, and then I heard a metallic snick, just before he pulled the neck of my t-shirt away from my chest and sliced it down the front. Once it was hanging on me like a vest, Ronnie reached down and groped my breast, his breathing becoming more labored the longer he touched me. “I bet if I use my knife on you, and you scream, it will be more fun.”
Ronnie giggled. Actually giggled, like a little kid with a new toy. Holy shit, what was going to happen to me?
‘Hurry, Finn! Come get me!’ I screamed in my head, all the while trying to relax so that Ronnie didn’t know I was awake.
✽✽✽
I heard footsteps in the hall and made myself go limp again. The sun had set, and it was just barely light outside. I had been working on the rope that was tying my hands and had almost loosened it enough to get my left hand out. Just a little bit more, I thought to myself, and I can get out of the ropes and then crawl out that window to find help.
I heard the footsteps stop just a few feet away from me, and I made sure to keep my breathing even so they wouldn’t know I was awake. I couldn’t stop my gasp as ice-cold water was splashed all over me, the water was thrown so hard that it made my head slam back when it hit me.
I opened my eyes to see Nellie staring down at me with a smile.
“Well, that worked!” Nellie said cheerfully. “So glad you could join us, Lena dear. Ronnie is getting impatient to have his new toy.”
“What are you doing, Nellie?” My voice croaked, and I winced as my head pounded with each word. “Let me go.”
“I will, as soon as you sign some papers for me.”
“What papers?”
“I have a new will, the paper to sign over the title of my house to me, and a nice letter telling the world that you just don’t want to live in this town anymore. The memories of your parents and all are making you depressed, so you’re going to start somewhere else.” Nellie smiled again. “I’ll let Ronnie play with you, and then when he’s tired of you, I’ll help him bury the body. Just like I did the last girl I got for him when we were testing our plan.”
“You let him kill a girl?”
“I did. I wanted to get him primed up and excited for his time with you.” Nellie laughed. “I’ve been putting these thoughts in his head since the day you had me kicked out of my house, Lena. I told you that you should have left well enough alone, but you wouldn’t listen.”
“I’m not signing anything, and even if I did, no one would believe you anyway.”
Nellie’s eyes filled with tears and she sobbed loudly. Just as quickly, the tears were gone and that evil smile was back in place. “I can do that in a heartbeat, you little bitch. I’m broken-hearted that the ungrateful girl I helped raise put me out on the streets. When you disappear without a trace, I’ll cry a little bit more, and everyone will believe me.”
“Finn won’t believe you. Neither will Shirley. They know how much I hate you.”
“Then maybe Shirley should slip and fall in that kitchen of hers. That man you’ve been spreading your legs for could have a car accident just like his parents did.” Nellie got right down in my face and leered at me. “I’m going to win, bitch, and there’s not a fucking thing you can do about it.”
Without a thought, I reared my head back and slammed my forehead into Nellie’s nose, causing it to crunch and spray blood over both of us. She screamed and put her hands to her face as she staggered backward. I kept my eyes on her the entire time, straining against the ropes on my hands.
These two were going to kill me. I had no idea where I was at, and I knew that Finn wouldn’t either. By now the cops were involved, but they had nothing to connect me to Ronnie, and I was sure that Nellie had an airtight alibi. I would rather go down fighting than lay down and take the shit the two of them had planned for me.
I was done. My decision was made, and I just prayed that I could stay alive and keep fighting long enough for Finn and the police to find me.
✽✽✽
“She’s going to kill me, Ronnie,
and then we won’t get to be together.” I whispered to Ronnie as he opened a water bottle for me. I heard the little snapping sounds, so I knew the water was fresh, and no drugs had been put in it to knock me out. “I don’t know what to do. Will you help me?”
Nellie was on to my plan though, and she was back in the bedroom in an instant, but this time she had a knife in her hand.
It was a big knife. An ugly, sharp, hunting knife. And she was waving it around like a magic wand.
“What are you going to do with that?” Ronnie yelled at Nellie.
“This!” Nellie swiped the blade over my leg, and I howled in pain as I looked down at the flesh of my thigh, the sides of the wound gaping open and the blood soaking my jeans. “Now, you’ll do what I tell you to do.”
Ronnie picked up the lamp and hit Nellie in the back of the head with the base of it. I heard a loud crunch, and Nellie crumpled down to the floor like she was a balloon that had lost all of its air.
“I can’t believe she cut you!” Ronnie roared as he kicked Nellie. Her body moved each time his heavy boots thudded into her side, but no sound came out of Nellie’s mouth. The dent in the back of her skull was a much worse injury than the broken ribs Ronnie was making sure to give her. Ronnie covered his face with his hand, and screamed, “Now what am I going to do?”
He paced back and forth in front of me for a few minutes muttering to himself.
“I’ll dig another hole. I have the one for you all ready, but she’s bigger, so I’ll need to dig a little more so she’ll fit. I’ll be back as soon as I can!” Ronnie smiled at me and then leaned down and gave me a peck on the cheek with his wet, mushy lips before he hurried out of the bedroom, pulling the door shut behind him.
I sat there, breathing heavy, trying to control the pain in my leg. I tested the waters by wiggling my toes and saw more blood bubble up with my movements.
