by Zara Teleg
“I love you with my whole soul,” she cried.
Trails of blood ran down our chests as we broke the kiss.
Maggie wiped away tears as she ripped open the alcohol pad, dabbing it over my wound and then hers before covering them with squares of gauze.
I folded my knife after cleaning it. I tugged on my jeans and dropped it in my pocket. I felt the vibration immediately. Lost in Maggie, I had forgotten all about the pager. At my last check-in, Voodoo had a meeting with someone representing Kingston. Viper said he would page me again with an 11 if it was good and 13 if it went wrong.
“Fuck.”
“What’s wrong?” Maggie sat up.
“I gotta get to a phone, now,” I said more sternly than I meant to.
Thirteen appeared several times, followed by 911.
Rocks flew in every direction as I spun out of the drive.
Maggie kept asking what was wrong as I frantically drove until I found a phone in the next town.
“Wait here,” I directed as I leapt out, sprinting to the phone booth.
“Hello,” a cracked voice answered.
“Sienna, it’s Venom.”
“Venom! Where are you? They were ambushed! Ringer made it back, practically crawling, all busted up and bleeding, said you weren’t there.”
My blood drained to my feet. “Put him on.”
Sienna called for him.
“Where are they?” I yelled into the receiver.
“Man, it was bad. Guns, knives, more men than we prepared for. Where were you? Viper kept calling.”
“Where are they, Ringer? Tell me.”
“I don’t know who’s left. Voodoo and your brothers were still there when I got out to call others and get patched up.”
“How long ago?” My hands trembled.
“Less than an hour. The cops have probably gotten there by now. It’s not safe, man. Kingston’s got his army looking for Kings with shoot-to-kill orders.”
I turned my head slowly, eyes falling on the angel who I might have just put in danger. I couldn’t take Maggie. This was a mistake. It all was. Why did I think I could have her? They were all right. If she were hurt because of me… The thought of it was too much to bear.
Her smile faded in slow motion. She blinked as if she had read my mind, shaking her head no.
“I’ll be there soon.” I dropped the receiver, taking the dreadful steps to say goodbye to the girl I loved.
“What’s wrong?” Her words seemed distorted in my spinning head, like a dream that didn’t make sense.
“Maggie, It’s not safe. I promise I will find you later.” I heard the words coming from my mouth, but they didn’t sound like my own. A terrifying chill broke over my body as I took her hand and led her out of the car. I grabbed her things and dropped them next to the phone booth.
“Find me? What do you mean?” Her words seem slurred in my panicked brain. I couldn’t explain the apprehension that seized my tongue. I’d only experienced the “twin intuition” one other time in my life...when we found our mother gone. I took her hand, tugging her to me, and kissed her for what I feared would be the last time. I turned over her wrist, placing coins in her open hand.
“Call someone to come get you.” I looked into her eyes one last time.
“Vincent, what’s happening?” she called after me.
“I’m sorry. You have to stay. It’s not safe.” I repeated as the gut stabbing feeling took over my body.
I tore from the lot, leaving Maggie screaming my name. I couldn’t bear to look in the mirror and see the hurt and confusion she felt as she cried after me, begging me to come back.
Chapter 21
Magnolia
“Vincent,” I cried, waving my arms as the car disappeared from the lot. What was happening? I was in disbelief. Did he really just leave me here? I did not even know where here was. I plopped on the ground and waited. He had to come back, didn’t he?
Time ticked by. I didn’t know how long before I finally accepted that I had to make a call. Especially after a third man had stopped to ask me if I needed a ride.
I dialed the number, knots tying my insides on the first ring. On the second, they grew tighter. The third ring made me sick. The fourth, still nothing.
“Hello.”
The words were stuck in my throat.
“Hello,” he repeated.
“Alcide.” My voice cracked, and pain gripped my throat as I held in tears.
“Who is this?”
“Maggie,” I tried to say without sounding as upset as I was.
“Maggie, are you alright? Where are you? Are you hurt?” His questions were like bullets.
“I need a ride. I don’t know where I am.”
“Okay, sweetheart, I need you to take a breath. Tell me what you see.”
“I am at a gas station, Willis Fuel. It’s off the highway.”
“I know where it is. Honey, are you okay? Can you wait in a safe place? It will take me about forty minutes to get there.”
“Alcide, please don’t tell anyone. I’m okay, I promise.”
“I’m on my way. Stay under the lights. I’ll be there as fast as I can.”
Those forty minutes were like watching the last drop of molasses pour out on a winter day. My mind raced as I thought of all the things that might have happened for Vincent to just abandon me. I knew in my gut something terrible was happening.
Alcide’s Jeep kicked up dust clouds in the driveway as he found me. He came to a stop and jumped out and ran to me. He placed his arms around me, and I fell into him, letting the floodgates open.
“Shhh, shhh, shhh.” He supported my body. “Calm down, it will be okay.”
“It’s Vincent. I know something bad has happened. He couldn’t take me with him, and he sped out of here, after making a call, saying it would be dangerous if I came.” I shuddered. “I know something’s wrong. I feel it.” My voice hitched.
“Honey, you are just upset. I’m sure he’s fine. He’s smart and strong, and his family will keep him safe. I’m going to take you back to camp. You’ll be safe there.”
I just bobbed my head in agreement and followed him back to the Jeep. We drove in silence as tears sprung on and off as I let my emotions take hold. Lightning blinked in the distance.
“We have to get back fast to beat the storm. It’s supposed to be a nasty one. Hold on.” He drove the back roads. Trees bent as the winds circled, getting stronger and stronger as the flashes intensified, followed by deep rumbling.
We arrived at the camp as the first of the cold drops spattered on us and the windshield. Alcide jumped out and began zipping up the windows on the doors.
“Can I help?” I felt bad that I dragged him out in this weather.
“No, just get back to your cabin before it pours. We will discuss this tomorrow.” His look was stern.
“Alcide,” I yelled over the howling wind. “Thank you.”
Drops began pelting my skin as I raced down the path to my cabin. I reached the door as lightning struck, vibrating the area in an electric snap. Drenched to the bone, I forced open the door, fighting the wind. Shannon was on her bed, painting her toenails.
“What happen to you?” She froze, looking at me like I were a ghost.
“I can’t talk about it now. Vincent’s in trouble, I know it. I have to find him. Shannon, I know something terrible has happened.”
My nose burned as I struggled to hold my tears. I lifted the lamp, locating the paper I had shoved under it. I didn’t know how to reach anyone at the club. Sissy was my only hope.
I tucked the paper in my bra and tugged a sweatshirt over my head. “I’ll be back.”
“Maggie, where the hell are you going in this storm?” As Shannon asked, the sky turned blue, and the little lamp went out, leaving the room black.
“I have to make a call.” I couldn’t hear Shannon over the sound of pouring rain hammering the tin roof. I struggled to open the door against the force of the wind, using
all my strength to close it behind me. I yanked the hood over my head before I kicked off my sandals, holding them to trudge up the now muddy hill that water rushed down like a river. The only light that glowed in the storm was outside the main house. My toes dug in the thick mud, and my face stung as the hard drops pounded against it. I struggled to see through the sheets of rain. The wind slapped the branches against the cabins. I continued up the hill, finally reaching the payphone that sat outside the main parking lot. I hauled open the glass door, shoving myself inside and closing it. The rain pounded forcefully against the booth. The wind whistled through the door as the sky illuminated every few seconds in electric blue spiders. I dried my hand in the interior of my sweatshirt before I reached in my bra, taking out the slip of paper. I placed the quarter into the slot. My hand trembled as I pressed the silver buttons and waited for the phone to connect.
“Hello?” An older women’s voice answered.
“Um, hello, I’m a friend of Sissy’s. She gave me this number. Is she there?”
“Who is this?”
“My name is Magnolia.”
“Dear, hold on.” I couldn’t hear over the relentless pounding rain what was being said in the background. I shivered, waiting for Sissy to finally pick up.
“Maggie?” she answered, sounding more cheerful than I had ever heard her.
“Oh, Sissy, I am so glad you answered.”
“What’s wrong, Maggie?”
“I don’t know…something with the club. Vincent and I were out for my birthday having the best time, and he got a page. He freaked out and left me in the middle of nowhere. He said I’d be in danger if he took me with him.”
Sissy was silent.
“Maggie, give me the number where you are. I’m calling my mother.”
“But, you’re in hiding. I don’t want to blow your cover. I’ll call if you give me the number.”
“This is my family. What’s the number, Maggie?” Sissy urged.
I squinted to see the digits when lightning struck again, just in time for me to see them in the dark, repeating them to Sissy.
“Stay there. I’ll call you back.” The line immediately went dead.
I hung up the receiver and leaned against the glass wall. I began to fiddle with the pages of the giant phonebook attached to the bottom of the phone.
A wave of nausea hit me. My stomach quivered as I opened the door to the booth and I began to dry heave. I needed to calm down.
I jumped when the phone rang a few minutes later.
“Maggie…” I could hear Sissy crying.
“Sissy?” My heart was pounding out of my chest.
“It’s Voodoo…” She paused, like she couldn’t get words out. “Voodoo’s been shot, and the boys are off trying to find the guys who ambushed him. Sienna was leaving for the hospital when she picked up the phone, screaming. I need to come home.”
“What can I do?” My body felt frozen as I thought of Vincent. What if he had been shot? What if the love of my life was lying somewhere bleeding right now? Sissy’s words became noise through my own grief.
“Maggie, I’ll see you soon.” Again the line went dead.
On wobbling legs, I made it to the tree line. My head grew dizzy as my legs buckled beneath me, knees crashing to the muddy ground. The turbulent sky poured furious rain down like tears falling from heaven. I slammed my hands together. My cheeks were beaten with hard drops as I faced my head to the sky to beg for forgiveness.
“Lord, please forgive me.” A painful ache squeezed my heart.
“Please protect him,” I shouted at the sky as the thunder shook the ground in response.
“I’m sorry,” I cried.
“I love him. Please, God, don’t let him get hurt. I promise if you protect him…” I couldn’t get the words out. I didn’t want to say them.
The sky flashed angry white streaks, and a nearby tree split with its strike. My eyes were blurred with tears and rain. I tried again, swallowing the pain in my throat. “I promise if you protect him… I…” I’d broken too many promises to the Lord, and this was my penance.
Then I did it. I said the words that I knew if I spoke, I would have to keep.
“I promise if you protect him, I will let him go. I will dedicate my life to service. I will say goodbye and let him go.”
Venom
Ambushed. I knew things had been too calm the past few days. I had traded the car for my bike and gripped the handlebars as I turned fast and tight around the curve leading to the spot where it all happened. Adrenaline pumped through my veins.
Viper was on the ground kneeling over someone. I stopped the bike dead in its track. This couldn’t be real. I was not really seeing my father lying in a pool of blood. Any moment now, I was going to wake up from this nightmare.
EMTs jumped from the ambulance, moving Viper and the others away. Shame kept me from approaching as I watched them perform CPR and loaded Voodoo on the stretcher.
A shocked Vicious sat in the ambulance. He saw me before the doors closed, shaking his head as his eyes met mine. Red and yellow lights circled and the siren rang as the van took away my father. Shot.
“Venom!” Viper shrieked as he charged me, knocking me over. “Where were you? You were supposed to answer the pager. Why weren’t you here?”
I lost my breath as my twin punched me in the gut. We rolled on the ground, fighting as the thunder met our punches.
“Knock it off!” Ringer hollered as he and another brother tore us off each other. “Save your energy for fighting those fuckers.”
He was right.
Forge’s bike came to a skidding stop in front of us. “We got a lead. Come on. It was those assholes you confronted at the convenience store.”
Viper looked at me—a right hook connected with my jaw.
“Your fault!” he screamed, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth.
It was my fault.
We followed the brothers as the rain continued to come in big drops. The smell of cold rain on hot asphalt filled the air as the sky flickered in blue and white.
Bikes were parked outside a bar not far from town. A few other brothers arrived moments later.
We parked on the other side of the bushes as Ringer shouted out instructions. I pulled my knife from my pocket, my stomach souring as I remembered the sacred moment I used it on Maggie just hours earlier.
A group of men rushed out the doors of the bar, and before I could think, we were all matched up with someone—fist flying, knives swinging, and rain pouring down its fury.
My father’s words haunted me with each punch I took. When the bearded man began to choke me, I plunged my knife into his side, the blade sliding into his enormous body like butter. He let my neck go, and I watched him collapse in front of me, and then another man took his place. Blood mixed with puddles, and sirens competed with thunder.
When the sirens got closer, the fight began to disperse, everyone running for their bikes. I glanced over my shoulder. The man I stabbed lay still on the ground as gunshots whizzed in our direction. I started my motorcycle and counted the number of our brothers making it to theirs. A sigh of relief came when I saw Viper climbing onto his and peeling out onto the nearly flooded road.
We followed one another to the compound. The road leading to the clubhouse was almost entirely underwater. Our bikes had to be parked outside the gate.
What I didn’t expect was to find Maggie waiting there when we arrived. How the hell was she here? The entire ride back, my mind flipped between Voodoo’s condition and thinking what if Maggie had been with me. What if a gunshot would have hit her? When I saw her drenched and sitting at the gate sobbing, I knew what I had to do.
She quickly stood, our eyes locking. When she ran to me, I didn’t give her the response that she expected.
“You need to get out of here. Go home, Maggie,” I said coldly. It broke me seeing her eyes well up as she took me in.
“Is that blood?” Her eyes bulged as she star
ed at my formerly white shirt now stained red. I couldn’t even feel the pain in my face when she put her frail hand on it.
“Talk to me, Vincent.”
“Venom. What is she doing here?” Viper seethed.
I removed her hand from my face. “She’s leaving, now.”
“But, Vincent, I don’t understand.”
Before I could answer, Viper did.
“Maggie, I know you mean well, but you don’t belong here. You never did.” His words were icy. “I should have stopped the two of you. Now our father lies shot in a hospital because you two were off running around and Venom wasn’t where he should’ve been.” His voice morphed into a yell. “Summer is over. You two are over. You stay here any longer and you’re going to have him so fucking distracted, you’re going to get him killed. You want that? You want to be responsible for another person getting injured or dying?”
“Enough.” I pushed Viper out of Maggie’s face. “I got this. Go change for the hospital. I’ll be right there.”
Maggie’s big eyes looked at mine in disbelief, but Viper was right.
“Maggie. I’m sorry. He’s right. You don’t belong here. We were fooling ourselves. I let my club and my family down.”
She reached for me again. “Y-you don’t m-mean that,” she stuttered as she shivered in her wet dress. I wanted nothing more than to hold her in my arms. Instead, I pushed her hand away.
“No, I do mean it. It’s over. Go home, Maggie. I have to take care of my family.”
I didn’t say another word. I couldn’t look back. I walked through the gate, trying to ignore her cries as I stretched the distance between us. I knew it was probably the last time I’d see my Magnolia Grace, but it was also the best way to keep her safe.
Beep. Beep. Beep. I listened to the heart monitor torture me for hours. Voodoo was lying in the ICU bed in a coma. The squiggly line indicated his heart was still beating. The wound was lethal, clipping his heart. His blood loss was so great, he might never recover.
The waiting room was full of bikers in various states of awareness. They kept arriving from different chapters. Everyone worried about their fierce leader. Sienna was so distraught she slapped the shit out of Sissy before collapsing into her arms. The two had been holding each other for the past twenty-four hours as Voodoo’s chances of regaining consciousness dwindled.
