Twisted Steel: An MC Anthology: Second Edition

by Elizabeth Knox

  “Subdue him,” Emerson speaks as he walks over to the other side of the bed. When I turn my head, I see Dela is already up and they have a gag in her mouth.

  The two guards that are there with him grab my hands and I pull away, I kick and punch at them until one of the guards on the side places a gun to the side of Dela’s head.

  “It’s unfortunate but you’ve already sullied this one. I must pray to Gaia to see if she can be saved but right now, I would let them kill her. Don’t make me do that. We don’t want to harm you, my child. You must see the logic in my ways,” Emerson speaks softly from next to Dela.

  I put my arms down and let the guards bind me to my heavy bed. This is the first time since I bought this bed frame that I was pissed that it was such good quality. I had no idea how I would get out of here until someone came for me.

  I turn my head back toward Dela as they began to pull her out of the room. She turns her face to mine and I can see the fear in her eyes. This is the last place that she ever wanted to be again. In the arms of her captor. The cultist who took away her freedom for the past two years “Fight!” I growl at her.

  She shakes her head no.

  “You fight. Trust me. I’m not going to let you go.” I keep my eyes on her as she is pulled out of my room.

  It’s only seconds later that I hear the cars pulling away from behind my house. There are no alarms and at this time in the morning there is no one that would have seen them coming.

  “Fuck!” I scream and start to pull with all my might against the binds. “Cody! Spark!” I scream, hoping that maybe someone would be able to hear me but I know that they won’t we are all separated. They are only a few hundred feet away but it is more like a few hundred miles right now.

  When I look down at my wrists, I see that the rope that they used is already cutting at me. The blood making my hands slick.

  “Motherfucker! God damnit.” I pull harder, doing the best I can to ignore the pain in my hands and forearms. “Winnie!”

  Even with the blood coating my wrists I still couldn’t get my arms out. I had to find a different way to get out of here.

  The only thing I can see is my pants. My phone is all the way on the other side of the room so I can’t call anyone.

  I do my best to grab my pants with my feet and pull them onto the bed with me. There is nothing in my pants that can cut through the fucking rope. The only things in my pockets are my keys and my wallet. “Cody!” I continue to scream for them even though I know that there is no way that they will hear me. Who knows, maybe I will get lucky and one of them is outside for a smoke.

  I pull my keys out of the pocket of my pants and look at the metal to see if it’s sharp enough to try and cut through the rope. Of course not. “Shit!”

  I take a breath in, trying to keep my wits. There has to be a way for me to get some help in here.

  Alarm.

  I have an alarm on my bike. The key fob is on my keys. If I can activate the alarm someone would wake up. I move as fast as I can and try to push the small button with my big feet. After about a dozen attempts, my frustration is at an all-time high.

  “You piece of shit!” I wrench my hands back and forth trying to force the rope to break.

  I put my feet out again and try to press on the alarm. Finally with a loud blare, the alarm sounds. I don’t turn it off. That shit is loud as fuck.

  “Brendan! Spark!” I call out, trying to make my voice heard over the alarm. A few minutes of the alarm going off and my voice is becoming hoarse.

  “Cody!” I croak out.

  “What the fuck, bro?!” I hear someone through the window but they are still far away. “Turn that shit off.”

  “Cody?”

  “No, asshat, it’s the fucking easter bunny. Your alarm is going off. You don’t hear that shit?”

  “Cody, get the fuck over here. Double time!” I yell out at him.

  He looks in the window. “Uh, is this some BDSM shit because I’m not down for that.”

  “Cody, they took her. Get me out. Now. Hurry the fuck up,” I snarl at him, if I could bite his fucking head off right now I would. The bastard is always fucking joking around.

  “Oh shit!” He takes off and I can only imagine that it’s toward the front door.

  He breaks the door down and rushes over to me. “Fuck, are you okay? How long ago were they here?” He shoots questions out at me quicker than I can answer.

  “More than fucking fifteen minutes. We have to fucking move. I don’t know what they are going to do to her. We have to fucking go!” I pull my hand free as he works on the other one. The second I’m free I shove my feet into my pants and grab my other weapons.

  “Get everyone the fuck on the road now. I’m rolling in one damn minute. I’m not waiting,” I order him and he takes off running for the clubhouse. Either everyone was there or they had slept there like Dela and I should have. I knew the dangers but instead of playing it safe I was more concerned about fucking the woman instead of keeping her safe. Them being able to take her is on my hands. If they kill her that blood will be on my hands too.

  The need to go is intense enough that it feels like nausea. The anxiety of not knowing what the fuck is going on is maddening. I hop on my bike and turn it on, by the time I rev my engine I hear my brothers on their own bikes racing to catch up to me.

  “Wyatt! You okay?” Spark asks. His eyes darting up and down my body on the bike.

  “Yeah, the fucker was right here. He caught me fucking sleeping.” I couldn’t believe how weak that shit was. I was a trained FBI agent and I was caught in bed with my woman.

  “How many?” Brendan asks.

  “There were five of them plus Dela.”

  “Do you know which way they went?” Winnie asks.

  “How the fuck should I know? Did you forget I was fucking tied up to my fucking bed!” I roar at my newest patch mate. It was a valid question but I’m too pissed at myself to calm down.

  “They went this way,” Cody says and points down to the ground.

  I breathe out a sigh of relief. One of the great things about living out in the country is the dirt roads and the ease in tracking. There are clear tire tracks in the dirt and with all of them packed in the one car it should have made it heavy enough that the trail shouldn’t let up any time soon.

  We ride out immediately following the trail as far as we could on our bikes. When it brings us right back to the same place we found the women before, we know that there has to be some sort of location here.

  “She’s here somewhere,” I call out as I start to move through the trees.

  There is nothing around here.

  “What the fuck?! Where could they have gone?” Winnie looks in a large circle trying to find a clue as to where they could have taken them but the same as the rest of us there is nothing around.

  “Hold up,” Brendan calls out.

  “No, fuck that! I’m not going to hold up. You know what Dela said about the punishments and shit there is no way that I’m just going to sit back and wait for them to have their way with her. I can’t fucking do that. We need to find her now.”

  Brendan puts his hands up to placate me. “Wyatt, I’m not talking about waiting. We just need to put our information together. We’re roaming around here like chickens with our fucking heads cut off. She said that they were always kept in a basement right, that they were blindfolded on the way up so they wouldn’t know which doors to use and that there was more than fifty people in the compound.”

  “Yeah, we know that already.”

  “She said that it was always lit up with candles and pretty damp.”

  “Yeah, what the fuck is the point, Brendan? Get to it.”

  “I’ve looked through the entire area using the public blueprints that are given to the city. Nothing can be built in this area without them getting the okay. Zoning laws and everything,” he continued.

  “So what are you saying?” Cody asks his annoyance clear on his face. Brenda
n was wasting time that we didn’t have. Time that Dela didn’t have.

  “There are no basements in this area. None of the cabins have them.”

  “Are you really trying to insinuate right now that Delaney was lying, that this whole shit was some kind of game? I’ll throw you right the fuck off this mountain.” I take a step toward my little brother. I love him but all this conspiracy theory shit is for the birds.

  “No, I’m saying maybe we are looking for something that isn’t supposed to be there. Maybe we are only looking for the basement.”

  “Like a cellar?” Winnie asks, putting together what Brendan was saying quicker than the rest of us.

  They dug a fucking bunker underground. That’s why we couldn’t find it. It was camouflaged.

  “Holy shit, that is a smart motherfucker.” Cody shook his head in amazement.

  “Spread out, start looking for anything on the ground that shouldn’t be there. A false door. Sewer access. Anything,” I call out and the boys take off in different directions, their eyes down to the ground now. Their feet kicking at things that they would have ignored a few seconds ago.

  “Uh, Wyatt?” Winnie calls out.

  I turn to look at him and he isn’t moving any more. Just looking down at his feet.

  “What?”

  He looks at me and then slowly and deliberately stomps his foot three good times. The hollow sound of wood echoing up.

  “Oh shit!” Spark runs over to where he is. Under a pile of leaves and dirt is a door. It’s about seven by ten.

  “Okay, everyone armed?” I ask. I don’t know what the fuck I’m going to find down there and I’m not stupid enough to think that I will be able to go in there by myself and get her out. If there are others down there, we have to get them out too. The main objective though is to get rid of Emerson. It makes no sense to release all these women if he is still running around.

  “Yeah, maybe you should let me take point on this one?” Brendan says.

  “Get the fuck out of here. I got it.”

  “Wyatt, now isn’t the time for dick measuring. I’m trained for stealth operations. You aren’t, let me take lead, watch my back.”

  I nod once, Brendan is right. We are about to go into a dark hole and fight upwards of fifty men in a cellar with only one way out. There is nothing about this situation that I’m trained for. “Don’t do anything crazy.” I push him in front of me.

  “You know me,” Brendan says with a small smirk. He puts his hand down and finds the lever that releases the catch on the door. It swings open and below is a long dark row of stairs.

  Time to go get my woman.

  18

  Dela

  “Get off of me!” I scream as they pull me from the cabin. I hear Wyatt grunting and trying to get out but I don’t think he is going to make it in time. He’s not going to be able to save me this time.

  “Shhh, don’t fight. I understand that you were confused. These things happen. I’m sorry that I wasn’t there to save you from yourself and that heathen of a man. He tainted you. I only hope that it’s not as severe as I think. The goddess Gaia will show us the way. Once you are cleansed you can take your rightful place as a carrier. That is what you want right? To bring the true heir of Gaia into this world?” He rubs a hand through my hair in a loving manner. This is the man that I thought I had fallen in love with all those years ago. How could I not see how fucking crazy he was?

  “No! I want to go home!” I fight against him.

  His hands clench and anger flashes in his eyes. “That is such a shame. I would have thought by now that you would have figured it out. That you would have realized that what you or I want isn’t what we are called to do. I hope you survive your penance. Your strong will will make for a wonderful child.” He leaves me with the acolytes and they don’t waste any time pushing me into the trunk of a car.

  The darkness is something that I should be used to by now. It’s always dark. Except now that I’ve had the chance to be with Wyatt and his brothers, I’ve been able to feel the sunlight again both figuratively and literally I don’t want to just give that up. I promised Wyatt that I would fight and I will.

  My hands reach around in the tight space trying to find anything that I can use for a weapon but the only thing that I can feel is a crowbar and that is too big for me to hide. I do see a small box that looks to have some screws. I open it up and there are a few that are pretty long. It’s about the size of my hand and it’s the corkscrew kind that end in a sharp point. I can for sure use this as a weapon.

  Or I can stick it in the side of my neck and end all of this back and forth.

  I shake my head to get the thoughts to go away. That would have been my solution a few days ago but I promised that I would fight. I’ll keep on fighting as long as I can. I know Wyatt and the boys are coming for me. I have faith in that.

  The bumps in the road are hard and every other second I have to brace myself from slamming up and down. I don’t want to end up knocked out before we even get back, I might end up dropping my weapon if that happens.

  After about an hour of driving the trunk opens and they pull me out. They put the gag back in my mouth and slap the blindfold on my eyes so that I can’t see the entrance of the compound. My heart is racing in my chest, I have no idea what type of penance Emerson has in store for me. Every other time he has caught me I had only ran away. This time he caught me in bed with another man. He even threatened to kill me, something he has never threatened before. I must really be of no use to him now. He probably is only bringing me back so that he can show the other women what happens to those that try to leave the compound. I’m going to be made an example of.

  “Prepare her for the bath,” Emerson speaks calmly and the acolytes begin to strip me. They only threw a robe over me, since when they found me, I was naked in bed with Wyatt. The stripping was a quick ordeal.

  “You shouldn’t have run,” the acolyte in front of me says as he swipes his hand over my body in his poor attempt to check if I have any weapons. “Gaia demands that we sacrifice in order to make the world great again. You know that, Delaney. You shouldn’t have run.”

  I don’t say a word, I can’t. Before they started taking my robe off I managed to sneak the screw in my mouth. I can only hope that I will have the chance to use it.

  “Let’s go, Emerson is waiting.”

  The two guards walk on either side of me. I’m naked and am paraded through the halls. A long wooden walkway with cells on either side. All of the carriers are out and watch me. They follow behind the guards in a procession of sorts. We are led into a large room, one that I’m so very familiar with. It’s the room where I will do my penance. In front of me is a large metal bath. Even from where I’m standing, I can see the thick liquid bubbling and rolling with heat. My feet stop where they are and the guards have to drag me along. I want to cry out but I know that if I do the screw in my mouth will be revealed. They intend to put me in that tub. They are going to boil me to death in tar. Fear like I’ve never known before rockets through my body. I should have ended it myself when I had the chance. I should have just stuck the screw in my throat like I planned.

  I thought I would have a chance to wait for Wyatt. Even if he managed to get out by now there is no way that he is going to be able to find me in time. Every time I told them the compound was in a basement they seemed to not understand or not believe. They don’t even know where I am. I’m truly on my own here.

  “Children of Gaia, please gather around. There is a lesson here for all of you to learn. This carrier has been chosen by Gaia but instead of taking that blessing she has chosen to reject her calling. She has chosen to live a life of evilness and deceit. She has lain with another man and has sullied her temple. It isn’t up to me to say, I pray that the merciful goddess will spare her sinning soul.

  Have you anything to say before you complete your penance?” Emerson pushes me further toward the tub.

  There is nothing more that I can do, th
e time for me to take my own life has passed and the chances of Wyatt finding me is nil to none. At least I can go out telling all these sheep their shepherd is nothing more than a crazy murderer. I press my hands to my face making it seem like I’m crying for a second. I need to get the nail out of my mouth.

  “Your faith is being abused. Emerson is nothing more than a religious extremist. His ego is so inflated he actually thinks that a goddess chose him to spread his seed. Have you noticed that all the women who fall pregnant disappear? That is because he kills them once they give birth and he realizes the child is nothing more than human. You are just sex slaves for him. Don’t let him blind you. What good is faith if you can never question it?” A sharp blow to the back of my head stops my tirade.

  “Blasphemer,” Emerson snarls behind me.

  The rest of the guards stand to the sides of the tub leaving Emerson and myself in the front. This is going to be the only chance I would have to attack. Even if I only got to the first door I had to try.

  “Children, bear witness to the . . .”

  I didn’t want to hear his voice any longer. I think I’ve lived through enough sermons. I take the long nail and holding on as tightly as I can I swing my hand back toward him and it plunges into his side.

  “Ahh, fucking bitch!” he screams out and falls backward, trying not to fall off the platform. I jump off and dash toward the exit of the room. The room is in complete shock and it’s that shock that allows me to get to the front door. Then I hear the footsteps and screaming. They are coming for me. I don’t have time to open the doors to the newer carriers and I’m sorry about that but I need to get free myself. If I get out then I can get people back here to get them out. I run down the main hallway that we always are brought down but that is the extent of my knowledge of the place. I have no idea where the exit to outside is. This whole entire place is like one big maze. I hear thumping to the right. I turn to go in that direction, it could be a trap but it seems as if the thumping is coming from above, maybe that is the way up. The corridor gets smaller but it’s still enough space for me to get through without bending down.