“Yes, fight me, bitch. I like it,” his breath coats my skin as he speaks these words to me. “We’re fixing to find out what all you remember about what happened to your friend. Fern was her name, wasn’t it?” My watering eyes close, Fern. Why does it always come back to her? Everything bad that’s happened in my life boils down to the friendship and love she and I had. I once thought she was my salvation, now, I find that she keeps bringing mayhem and mishap into my everyday life. Even in death she haunts me. Fern, what the hell did you get me involved in? I know she can’t answer me, but I always ask this of her. Why can’t I remember? I try to speak through the muzzle over my face. “Ah, are you trying to tell me something? If I remove my hand and you scream, I will make you pay. Understand?” I emphatically nod my head. I’d do and agree to anything to get his hands off from my face.
Once his hand is removed, I’m held in the same position. My back to his front; my legs begin to tremble and my body begins to shiver. My adrenaline begins to crash as my mind begins to contemplate how to get out of this mess. “I-I don’t know anything. Complete memory loss of that night,” I rush out the excuse. “Doctor says I may never recover those memories. Post. Traumatic. Stress. Disorder.” I verbalize each word individually. “That’s what he says I have.”
“Is that right?” His tone comes out sadistic with the question that I don’t get the feeling is really that… a question. I get the vibe that this man is menacing, he won’t accept the truth easily. It makes me question if this will be my final night alive.
“I can’t help you. I’m sorry,” I sob out, wishing my mind wasn’t drawing a blank. God help me, I feel like I’m gonna be pushing up daisies beside my friend soon.
Maybe death won’t be so bad.
Malibu
That motherfucker, Creed, hit me over the head hard as fuck. My assault was supposed to be more for show than tell, but I have to hand it to the guy… he takes his job seriously. Moaning as I stand up, I become dizzy and have to grab on to the dresser to gain my balance. I feel a sticky substance leak down the side of my face. My hand comes up to swipe it away; only to come away coated in a metallic smell, and a crimson shade of red. I feel a whelp already forming, and know that I’ll have a killer headache for the next few hours. Shaking it off, I quietly creep down the hallway to the office where Creed was to set up the monitors so I can keep an eye on the interrogation. I want to go in and stop him, but my fear overrides my good intentions. Now that things have progressed as far as they have, I can’t give myself away to Kassi. I have no other choice than to allow things to play out.
Please forgive me.
I just hope he’s as good as everyone proclaims he is. I need answers so I can avenge Fern. I want to ensure the safety of my brothers, my club, my family. Kassi. I don’t know if what happened to her is linked to the club or not; but I will leave no stone unturned to make sure we’re all safe. Including tormenting Kassi. Fuck! Even if she can’t remember what happened; those secrets and memories are buried in that brain of hers somewhere. Creed won’t stop until she’s made to remember. I should feel like an ass, feel something about her reliving that nightmare all over again… but I can’t allow myself to go there. I have to keep the anger I always feel front and center, or I’ll never make it through this. Even if it’s no longer what I want. I just need to find my balls and let this happen.
“I’m sorry, Fern.” I feel the need to apologize to her even though she’s no longer here with us. She’d have my ass if she witnessed what I was doing. She was as much in love with Kassi as she was with me. I should call it quits right now, but then; I’d never know what really happened. Could I live with that? Shaking my head at my own question, I know there’s no way I can. I can’t move forward with or without Kassi unless the truth is revealed.
“Please.” I hear Kassi whimper, drawing my attention back to what’s happening with her. Creed is working on containing her to one piece of furniture. He’s strapping her in, tightening bindings around her limbs. She looks petrified as she turns her head in all directions. Is she looking for me? I can’t help but wonder. “My boyfriend, is he hurt?” her wobbly voice asks.
“He’ll survive, for now,” Creed informs her with a smirk on his face. I want to punch his face through the monitor screen, his smugness toward her pisses me the fuck off.
“W-what do you mean for now? Please don’t hurt him, he doesn’t know anything. I swear, he wasn’t even there. He uh,” she licks her bottom lip, “he loved her very much, still does. If he knew anything, he’d have already taken action with his club to back him up.”
“Yeah? He doesn’t know anything, huh?” The sly fucker asks her, “but you do, don’t you?” He leans down over her and I see her visibly shiver. “Don’t worry, love. Before I’m finished with you, you’ll remember everything and all questions will be answered. It’s what I do.” He innocently shrugs his shoulders causing me to snort in response. I hate the fact that he called her love, it should be a term of endearment, not one to cause her undo stress. But that’s what this is about, isn’t it? Fucking with her head to make her mind open up to that traumatic night.
“Oh, God.” She whimpers and I close my eyes tightly to keep from running out there and beating that fucker into a bloody pulp. She may not be mine once this night is done and over with. She may catch on to the fact that I was in charge of this entire thing. Then, I’ll have a tough decision to make.
Do I let her live to go back and rat me out to her brother, my brothers? I hope that’s a decision I don’t have to make in the end. It’s not something I take lightly. It scares the ever-loving fuck out of me. I want her to talk, I want to possibly have a future with her, one that’s secret free. I’m a contradiction to myself, I’m wishy-washy when it comes to her… to us. I want the woman I fell in love with, but I also harbor some ill-will when it comes to her. I need to make a final decision where it pertains to us, but I can’t… not yet, not until I have all of the facts laid out before me.
I’m a motherfucker. But a desperate one at that. One who can’t rest, no matter how much my body craves it. I can’t filter this desperate need to know the truth. Who does this to the one he proclaims to love? Me, the selfish son-of-a-bitch who resides deep within. That’s motherfucking who. I desperately watch as Creed pulls out a vial and a syringe.
“Do you know what this is?” he asks her.
“No.” Her eyes are wide and terrified.
“It’s truth serum. No matter what secrets you’re trying to hide, this will make you speak the God’s honest truth. You won’t be able to withhold your secrets, no matter how much you wish to.” He chuckles, but it’s not one of those used between friends. It’s malicious and even makes me quake a little in my boots.
I watch her squirm around in her seat, fear evident in her eyes. As he comes closer to her with the needle she begins to whimper, then beg him not to hurt her. I have to close my eyes for a minute and breathe through the pain of watching her plead for mercy.
What the fuck have I done?
7
Kassi
Once the needle pricks the skin of my neck, I immediately begin to panic and have a hard time catching my breath. Who is this person? How did he find us? These are just a couple of the questions plaguing my mind. “Why are you doing this to me?” I finally wheeze out through my tears.
“Because the truth needs to come out. What are you hiding?” he asks me.
“Nothing! I’m hiding nothing from anyone. I can’t remember anything.” I feel my body growing tighter. My speech is beginning to slur with the heaviness of my tongue. My mouth tingles, I feel like I’ve swallowed gravel and the taste in my mouth is indescribable. My eyes keep shifting to the hallway, hoping and praying that Malibu is alive and well. This man claims he is, but until I see him with my own eyes, my body and mind won’t relax.
I’ve accepted my fate. I most likely won’t make it through the night to see tomorrow’s sunrise. I’m good with that. I’ve often wished that I�
�d followed Fern in death. Now, it seems my wishful thinking will be coming true. My eyes grow tired, my head lobs to the side, I have no control of my functions. It’s an odd feeling, almost like I’ve heard the date rape drug works. You’re aware of everything around you, but can’t control anything taking place. The man steps in front of me, lifting my head by the roots of my hair to meet his eyes.
“Ah, it won’t be long now. Soon, you’ll be sharing all that you’ve kept hidden away.”
“Fuck you,” I try to holler out, but it sounds hollow to my ears.
He chuckles, and I wish more than anything that I could control my fingers to flip him off. “As long as you cooperate, you’ll make it out of this just fine.” He pats my head like I’m his dog who’s followed a command well.
“You’re gonna die,” I happily inform him. I’m not sure if my smile is present on my face, but I can see it clear as day in my mind.
“Good, you’ll need that feisty spirit to get through this. Are you ready?” Is that a rhetorical question? Of course I’m not ready! I’d rather be in bed curled up with a good book than dealing with this motherfucker. Hell, I’d rather be wallowing in a mud pit with some pigs than do this. “And as far as me dying,” he leans into my face and continues, “they’d have to find me first.”
“They’ll find you,” I emphatically inform him. “And when they do, you’ll wish you’d never set eyes on me.”
“Honey, I’m a ghost. No one can find me when I don’t want them too. But I’ll enjoy watching your friends squirm in their seats.” I hate him! I hope he falls into a pit of snakes and they saturate his veins in poison. I try to spit on him, but dribble runs down my chin from the attempt. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
“No.” My stubborn side is still present and snarky as ever.
“Well then, let’s see if we can change your mind.” I don’t like those words nor the way they came out of him. I cringe when I see him pick up a toolbox. My mind wanders off to what all he could carry in there. It’s not large, but big enough to capture my attention. “I don’t torture women in the same manner as I do men, but this right here,” he says and I recognize the taser in his hands. “This girl right here, she has the potential to send some shock waves that could scatter your brains. We’ll start off on the lowest level and see how well you do.”
No. no. no. no. no. I chant in my head. He presses on a switch and I see the electricity dancing from the probes. “No!” I finally manage to blurt out right before he strikes me on my lower belly. My entire being begins to thrust and pulsate as the current flows through me.
“Ready now?” He chuckles. My body feels as if it’s caught on fire. I don’t want to cry in front of him, give him that power over me, but I can’t seem to stop the flow that’s streaking down my face. “Let’s go back to the night that Fern was killed.” No, please, I don’t want to remember that night. It’s been buried in the back of my mind for a reason. “What were the two of you doing before your night was interrupted?”
I whimper; thinking of how loving and caring Fern had been with me that night makes me want things I can no longer have. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to share the intimacy that was Fern and myself. “We took a bath. I’d had a hard day so she was pampering me.”
“You two took a bath together?” he asks.
“Yes,” I sneer the best I can at him.
“Were you two intimately involved?” Is this really any of his business?
“Yes.”
“What happened after your bath?” he continues.
“She blow dried my hair.” I lovingly remember the way she made me feel as if no one else in the world existed beyond the two of us. Everything around us vanished as she pampered me that night.
“Then?”
“We settled into bed and watched a movie.” My throat becomes clogged with the loss of my friend, my lover, my world.
“Did you stay awake through the entire movie or did you fall asleep at some point?” I wrack my brain trying to remember, it’s becoming hazy.
“I t-think we fell asleep.”
“Okay, what’s the next memory you have?” I feel as if we’re beating on a locked door, it wants to open, but stays firmly shut.
“I-I can’t remember.” A pain so intense hits me like a wrecking ball. I moan from the torment. “It hurts, make it stop.”
“That’s your memory trying to seep through,” he informs me. “Fight, Kassi. You have to remember.”
“No-no please,” I implore.
“Someone or multiple people have invaded your sleep. Who were they? What did they want?”
“I can’t remember. Please stop!”
“What did they want, Kassi?”
“Granger. Drugs. Money!” I scream, as it all comes back.
Malibu
Granger! That motherfucker is the reason his sister is dead? What the fuck? He and Fern were as close as two siblings could be. Where she went, he followed and vice versa. There toward the end of her life, they had slowly started drifting apart, Fern always worried. He started pushing her away, began hanging out with some thugs. I thought it was a phase he was going through. He was at that in between place, not a young boy, but not quite a man. I had her convinced that’s all it was, but now I wonder if she knew more than she shared with me.
“It’s okay, Kassi,” I hear Creed consoling her. “What happened? How do you know that’s what they were after?”
“They broke in. The crashing of the door is what startled us awake. At first, I thought Malibu had stumbled in drunk from hanging out with his brothers. So, I closed my eyes and nestled back into Fern’s arms. Just as I’d settled back in, nearly asleep, I was yanked out of the bed by my hair.” My anger for my women spikes as my fists clench at my sides.
“What did they do once they grabbed you from your bed?” When Creed asks this, all the hair on my body stands on end. This is what I asked for, this is what I wanted, so why is it that suddenly I feel sick to my stomach?
“We were tied to chairs in the living room. Our brand-new kitchen chairs! I was so upset because I worked hard to refinish that table and the seats. I’d refurbished them as a gift to Fern. I was so proud of those chairs that now held me prisoner. I had just given them to her two days before this, she was so grateful that she cried. This time, she was crying for a completely different reason all together. I hated myself for it. How could a gift that was meant to bring someone such joy end up being the worst thing you could give someone? They would’ve had no furniture to tie us to if it wasn’t for those fucking chairs!”
“Tell me what happened once you and Fern were immobilized, Kassi?”
“They started saying all of these vile things to us. How they were gonna tear our pussies up. That they’d show us what a real man was like to where we wouldn’t be disgusting lesbians. It’s as if they didn’t even know we were Malibu’s as much as we were each other’s. It made me angry, I spit on one of them for their chauvinistic words. Who were they to preach about what’s the right way to love someone and what’s wrong? My judgment day didn’t lie in their hands. The man ended up backhanding me for it. Fern screamed to leave me alone. They started taking turns slapping and punching us. To the point where it hurt to talk, cry, scream, beg for them to stop. And we did, we pleaded with them to leave us alone. Nothing worked! They started asking all sorts of questions about Granger. We didn’t have the answers they were looking for, which infuriated them more.”
Her words are like a slap to the face. I wasn’t there to protect them. No, I was at the clubhouse that night, drinking and hanging out with my brothers. What I should’ve done was go home after my workday was over. I wanted to give the girls some time alone; I knew from day one that I’d have to do this for them from time to time. Things were strenuous between the two of them at home; I thought some time together was what they needed. What was meant to be my good intention, turned out to be the worst time in any of our lives. Our trio became a duo that night… we lost the per
son who united the three of us in the first place. She was our rock, our glue, and once she was gone, we crumbled. I take my part of the blame for that, but I won’t take it all on my shoulders. She’s just as much to blame for our downfall as I am.
“What information did they want to know about Granger? What were they wanting you to share?” Creed’s question brings me out of my reverie.
“Where was he? Where was their money and drugs? They thought we were harboring him and what they claim he stole from them. They already knew Fern was his sister and would do anything for him. They know she met with him a few days before, and wanted to know what all he said to her. She sealed her mouth and refused to acknowledge their questions. They tried using me to get her to talk, no matter how much they beat on me, stabbed my leg, everything, she refused to answer them.”
Forever Yours: Rage Ryders Templeton Chapter Book 2 Page 5
