“Think her name is Izzy. It’s tattooed on her wrist. She goes nowhere but to take a shower, Nik. I fucking mean it. We can’t have her wandering around.”
She walks over to him and wraps her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss.
“Come on, Izzy.” Nikki holds her hand out to me, and I take it.
My eyes drift back to Max behind me. He’s watching me like I’m a puzzle he can’t solve. He nods his head at me almost as if he’s saying it’s okay to go with her. I follow Nikki into a room and see the other girl from earlier. The room is a decent size, with a bed and a large dresser lining the wall.
Her long brown hair hangs loose and her eyes look up once we walk in. She gazes at me, and I can tell that she too wants to help me. “Hey, everything okay?” She turns to Nikki, who just shrugs.
“For right now we are just getting her cleaned up.” Nikki moves over to the dresser. “She looks about your size, Luce, so I’m gonna grab some of your extras.”
“No problem.” She turns to me. “I’m Lucy, this is Nikki and we—”
“Okay, I’m here, what the hell is going on?” Another girl walks in, her long blond hair hanging in waves. “Whoa, Torch wasn’t kidding when he said that you did something stupid tonight. Just ‘cause we took you in, Luce, doesn’t mean this is a damn refuge.” She laughs before plopping down on the couch.
“That’s Tracie. She’s Torch’s old lady.” Lucy turns to me. “Just ignore about seventy-five percent of what she says.” She laughs.
“Have we not settled that shit yet? I thought we talked about a new nickname. I’m so over being called an old lady. I warned Torch the next time he says it to me my tits better be down to my knees.”
I laugh and quickly cover my mouth.
“You got good taste, kid. Don’t listen to Lucy. I’m fucking hysterical and I basically raised her ass.” She smirks.
“Trace, I came here when I was fourteen! You totally didn’t raise me.” Lucy shakes her head.
“In everything that counted I did.”
Lucy doesn’t argue. She was fourteen? I feel like there is a huge story that I’m missing there, but my low capacity brain is already on overload.
“Here’s some clothes, babe. The shower is through there and it already has everything in it you’ll need.”
I take it from her, walking toward the door. As my hand reaches for the knob I turn around. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank us yet, we still don’t know your fate,” Tracie says, laughing, but there is an air of seriousness in her voice.
I walk into the bathroom and close the door. My eyes slowly rise to look in the mirror. The skin on my face is multiple shades of purple, green, and black. My bottom lip has a cut on it and so does one of my eyebrows. My blond hair is matted to my head and dusted with dirt.
What the hell could have happened to me?
Chapter Three
Izzy
The shower doesn’t really help my clarity very much. No matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to move past the fog that’s clogging my head. It’s like I know the answers I’m trying to find are there, but they are just out of reach. I don’t really want to walk out of the bathroom because I’m scared of what might lie ahead of me.
Their President doesn’t seem to trust me. Not that I blame him. The girls seem welcoming, but I can tell that if they were told they had to shun me that they’d listen. Max seems the safest option for me, although I still don’t know why I feel like that. Maybe because he has shown me small signs that he is different from the other men here. I noticed that his vest doesn’t have the patches that the other men do, which might mean something. Slipping on the clothes I was given, I stare at the stranger in the mirror.
Why am I here?
There has to be a reason, right?
A knock at the door makes me jump. “Hey, girl, you still alive in there?”
I take a deep breath. Time to face whatever lies in my future. I open the door and all three girls are still there.
“Twisted is waiting to talk to you,” Nikki says to me.
Who the hell is Twisted?
I cock my head to the side in question. His name alone makes me not want to meet him.
She smiles at me. “That’s who you were talking to earlier. He’s the MC President. I’m not really sure what he’s going to say to you.”
I give her a nod, not really sure myself of what is going to happen. I open the door and head back out toward the main room. It’s a huge open space, and a bar lines the one wall with some small tables around it. On the opposite side of the room, there are a few couches and recliners. Twisted is standing near one of the tables, talking to Max.
They both turn toward me and survey me like a wild animal. “Considering we don’t know who you are, and neither do you, we can’t let you stay here.” Twisted takes a few steps toward me and my flight instinct kicks in. I want to run. He’s at least a foot taller than me and he exudes power and authority. I look up at him hesitantly. “At the same time, I don’t want to just let you leave. For now, you’ll be staying at the motel down the road. The girls will get you some clothes. Prospect here, is gonna stay with you just to make sure everything is on the up and up. You remember anything, you need to tell someone, understood?”
I nod, trying to take in what he just told me. He expects me to live under their watchful eye until he can figure out who I am. It all sounds a little suffocating, and even though I don’t know who I am I know I sure as hell don’t want that. “What if I say no?” My question causes the eyes in the room to widen as they land on me. Honestly, I surprised myself.
“Then this arrangement can be a lot less pleasant. Either way, you showed up at my club, and I want to fucking know why.” His voice is almost like knives cutting through the air. It’s harsh and dangerous, letting me know not to push him anymore. “So what is it, Izzy?” My name slowly drags out of his mouth, almost as if he’s daring me to choose the harder path.
I have no options. I have nowhere to go, and no idea who I am. “Option one,” I say as I rebel in my own way, refusing to look at him.
“Fine, then. The girls will meet you tomorrow so they can take you to get some clothes.” He turns and walks away from me, and I slump into the chair next to me.
“Hey, you ready to get out of here?”
I look up at Max, whom they’ve only referred to as prospect, then simply nod at him. He walks toward the door, and I follow him, not really wanting to, but not wanting to stay here either. We walk back out to the truck and as I look around I see that it’s the only one here. There are only bikes surrounding us.
Max is watching me with wide eyes and seeming to try and evaluate me. What he doesn’t know right now is that it’s no use. I’m a puzzle missing half of the pieces. He can look as long as he wants but there isn’t an answer to be found. I bite my lips, trying to keep the threatening tears at bay. I feel so helpless and I hate it.
“Come on, let’s get out of here.” He smiles at me and holds the door open for me.
I climb in and buckle my seatbelt while he walks around the car and then does the same. The moment we hit the road something flashes in my mind.
A fast bike, red, pulling into a field.
It’s the field from that night.
I’m looking down at the bike, not able to see the person in front of me.
My stomach churns with nervousness as the engine shuts off.
I jump as I’m thrust from the memory and find myself still sitting in the truck.
“You good?” he yells back.
I just nod as I rest my head back against the seat..
Twisted told me to tell someone if I remembered something, but I barely have anything right now. I decide to keep this to myself until I can actually get something from it. Maybe this is a good sign. Maybe this means I’ll start getting things back.
The truck stops and I look up to see a small one-story motel.
Max climbs out of the truck, but I jus
t sit there for a minute. We are in front of a one-story building that looks like it hasn’t been updated in a long time. My door opens and I climb down from the truck. I look over at Max, wanting to ask him all of the questions running through my mind.
A loud horn passing by makes me jump. Max chuckles. “Let’s go get a room.”
He grabs my hand and leads me toward the office. The walls are covered in wood panels and the carpet shows years of tread on it. The small balding man behind the desk looks up as the bell above the door signals our entry.
“I need a double bed room, not sure for how long, so I’ll pay per day,” he says but the older man’s eyes are focused on me. As his gaze snakes over me, I can’t help but want to tuck behind Max. He looks between the two of us before giving me a creepy smile.
After giving him the cash for the room, he leads me out of the office. Is it normal that they barely give him an identity? I want to ask him why he doesn’t have patches like the other men. I want to know what he has to do to get them.
I follow him into the room and freeze when I see there is only one bed.
Max turns toward me. “I told the fucker I need two beds. Wait a minute. I’ll be back.”
He leaves before I can answer him. The room smells musty and the blanket is scratchy as I run my hand over it. I stand by the window, watching the cars as they zip past us.
That’s when a flash of red goes by, a motorcycle.
No, it can’t be the same one.
I’m probably not even remembering anything.
The door opens and Max walks in. “He says this is all he has. I can’t take you anywhere else and I gotta stay in the same room with you.” I slowly nod. “Sorry, it’s orders. You hungry?”
I wasn’t until he just asked me. Now I feel like I haven’t eaten in years. “Yea, really hungry.”
“You like pizza?”
I smile wide as the thought of a pizza makes my mouth water. Wait, I can remember that I like pizza but nothing else about myself? Jesus, my mind really prioritizes.
“Guess that’s a yes. You want anything special on it?”
It’s a simple question. One that most people might know the answer to. Not me. How pathetic is it that I don’t even know my favorite pizza topping? “Anything is fine.”
His mouth opens as if he is going to say something but then it shuts. He pulls out his phone, and I hear him ordering a pizza. Taking a seat on the bed, I think about turning on the TV, not that I have any idea what I’d like to watch. Jesus, I’m depressing.
Max is standing by the door and the way he is rocking side to side I realize he’s uncomfortable. Looking around, I notice that there are no chairs in the room.
“You can sit down,” I say as I move closer to the edge.”
“Listen, I know this sucks. Hopefully, they figure out who you are soon and then we can work everything out.” He offers me a kind smile.
I appreciate that he’s trying to make me feel better. I want to get to know him, to maybe understand why he’s treating me differently than the other guys have. “What’s the difference between you and the other men? Why do they call you prospect?”
He blinks a few times as if my question surprises him. “A prospect is someone who wants to join the club but isn’t a member yet. You have to earn your spot and until you do you take orders and shut your mouth. And yea, to answer your next question, it sucks.”
He grabs the remote, turning the TV on and flipping through channels before he finds one that he likes.
I watch as the group of friends on the screen get into a stupid argument and before I know it a fit of laughter rips out of me. I look over at Max, and he’s smiling at me.
Maybe this prison won’t be that bad.
Chapter Four
Max
A scream jolts me awake and I reach for the gun under my pillow. Jumping up to a standing position by the bed, I flick on the light and scan the room, seeing that it’s empty. The scream came from Izzy, who is currently thrashing around on the bed, a pained expression marring her face. Another scream rips from her throat and I climb back onto the bed. Her eyebrows are drawn close together and I see a few tear streaks down her face. My hand touches her shoulder in an attempt to wake her, but she recoils from my touch.
What the hell am I supposed to do?
“Izzy,” I say in a low tone, but her hands fist the sheets as if she’s in pain.
Whatever the hell she is dreaming about must be bad. I need to get her to wake up. I place my hands on the sides of her face. “Izzy, you’re dreamin’. You gotta wake up, girl.” My sister, Mallory, used to have night terrors when she was younger. I remember my mom telling me that you had to wake her up easy. If you scared her even more, she could have a heart attack. My thumbs brush back and forth over her cheeks as I try to coax her out of whatever hell her mind dreamed up for her. As much as I couldn’t stand her ass when she showed up last night, I feel an urge to help her.
When I was watching her get interrogated by Twisted something inside me wanted to stand by her, to help her. I couldn’t make a big show of it in front of the brothers, so I tried to let her know she wasn’t alone in the smallest ways I could. Offering her the bottle of water, whispering to her that everything would be fine even when I wasn’t sure that it would be.
I move my mouth closer to her ear. “You gotta wake up, girl, get outta your head. You’re safe.”
Her eyes shoot open, wide and full of alarm. She immediately pushes herself away from me but ends up hitting her head on the headboard.
“Ow!” She winces, her hand rubbing the spot.
I retreat, giving her some space. “Sorry I scared you. I didn’t know how to wake you up and you were screaming.”
Her chest is heaving and the sheen of sweat covering her shines in the dim light.
“You okay? You need somethin’?”
She shakes her head slowly. She is looking at the floor like she’s embarrassed.
“That happen a lot?”
“I...um...I don’t know.” Her hand runs through her hair.
Right, she doesn’t have a memory, idiot.
Looking over at the clock, I see that it’s seven in the morning. “Okay, well, I guess it’s safe to say that we’re both up. You hungry? I can grab some stuff from the vending machine. You’re technically not supposed to go anywhere without club permission.” I feel like an asshole saying that. It makes her sound like a prisoner. I get why it has to be like this. She has some tie to the club, to Twisted, in some way. That can be dangerous especially since we have no idea who she is and if she is a friend or an enemy. Looking at her, though, I can’t imagine her intentionally causing us harm. She radiates this sense of goodness, one I haven’t felt before. The girls where I grew up were all stuck-up bitches. They walked around like their shit didn’t stink, and you could tell they’d betray your ass in a second if a better option came along. That’s why I ran as far as I could once the opportunity presented itself.
“I’m a little hungry. I could really use a shower too.” She stands up, and I see her pause for a minute to get her bearings. It takes everything in me not to walk over to her and offer her some comfort. That’s not my place right now, though. Twisted’s words to me from last night replay in my head.
“You watch her, and that’s it. Anything fucking suspicious you bring it to me. I don’t give a shit if you think it’s important or not. You are there to keep an eye on her till we figure out where she came from and who she is. That picture she was holdin’, it was of my parents. I need to figure out where she got it and why she had it. This all goes well, you might get patched in. You fuck it up, you’ll be out on your ass. Speaking of ass, you stay away from hers. Keep it in your fucking pants.”
I won’t jeopardize my place in the club for a girl I know nothing about, no matter what pull I feel toward her. She pauses in the doorway, and I hear her sigh. “Problem?”
“I just remembered I don’t have any other clothes.” She walks back over
to the bed and sits down. “Guess I’ll just wait till later.”
I can’t help but feel bad for her. She’s got no memory, no idea who she is, and she’s stuck in this place with nothing of her own. I reach into the bag I brought last night, with a few changes of clothes. I toss a shirt over to her. “It’s not much and judging by your size it will be huge on you, but if you want to get showered you can wear it. I’ll text Pres and let him know you need some clothes.”
She gives me a smile. “Thank you.”
I walk out the door, heading to the vending machine before I do something I’ll regret. I can’t touch her, he made that clear enough last night. Besides, I’m sure the last thing on her mind is me. She’s probably only thinking about when she can get out of this prison I’ve been made the warden of.
The phone rings twice before Twisted answers. “Yea.”
“She’s got no clothes here, no supplies. Can I take her out to the store to get some stuff?” I hate being a damn prospect. I hate feeling like a child because that’s why I ran from where I’d been my whole life.
“Girls are ready. I’m taking them over to you now. They are plannin’ to take her out shopping. You stay with all of them and make sure you keep an eye out for any clues as to who this girl might be. I’m hoping she isn’t faking this whole memory loss shit, but you never know.” His voice is hard. “I’ll be dropping them off in a little and leavin’ you with the truck.” The line clicks in my ear before I can answer.
I internally groan at the realization that I’ll have to spend the day with the Bitch Brigade.
Walking up to the vending machine, my choices are few and far between. I can’t even go out to get her something because she isn’t allowed to be left alone. I make a note to myself to grab some delivery menus from the office for the rest of the time that we’re here. The club gives me a check to keep me afloat while I’m prospecting. It’s nothing compared to what the brothers make, but it works for now.
I take my time getting back to the room because I really don’t want to sit in there knowing she’s in the shower. I feel like a goddamn horny teenager around her. There’s something pure about her, something that makes me want to wrap my arms around her and tell her that I’ll keep her safe. Seeing her in pain earlier got to me. All I wanted to do was take it away for her. I’ve never met a girl who I wanted to treat like this. I’ve never had more than sex with anyone, so I wouldn’t know the first thing about how to treat her. My parents certainly weren’t any example of a healthy relationship.
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