“Now, don’t try and resist arrest else things will get alot more difficult for you.” The policeman advised me.
I walked along with him until he was pushing me into the back seat of the white police car.
“I’ll send Brief over.” Prez told me before they slammed the door in my face. Brief was the club’s lawyer. I already had some offences on my record, just small things, so I hoped he’d be able to get me off without going to jail. I couldn’t leave Beauty now, not when she needed me the most.
Beauty
As soon as the doctor told me I could leave his room I ran to the room I had been given here at the club and stayed curled up in the bed. The sun was shining in through the window and I buried my head under the duvet as I didn’t have the energy to get up and close the curtains.
Knock. Knock.
“Beauty?” Someone called out from the other side of the door.
“Yeah.” I answered as I pushed the duvet back from my face.
The door opened slowly and Heather, the Prez’s Old Lady stuck her head around it.
“How are you feeling?”
“Okay.” I whispered as I sat up in bed and tried not to cry.
“Do you want to come and get something to eat?”
“Is Riz back?” She shook her head. “Ummm, maybe I’ll wait for him.” Riz always made me feel protected and I secretly loved the fact that he paid me so much attention. I could never be in a relationship with him. I didn’t want to be an Old Lady and I didn’t want to live in a clubhouse. I wanted my freedom and do as I pleased.
“You’ll be safe. I promise. It’s just club brothers and their families. There’s a lockdown in place.”
“What’s a lockdown?” Heather walked further into the room and sat on the edge of my bed. Her long brown hair was tied up in a ponytail and she was wearing light blue denim jeans, a hoodie and a leather jacket.
“The Prez called a lockdown after what happened to you. It’s just a way to protect you and our club.”
“Oh my god. Am I putting you all in danger?” I threw the duvet back and jumped out of bed. “I need to leave.”
“You can’t leave.” Heather said as she blocked the door. “It may not be safe.”
“Do - Do you think he’ll come for me again?” I wrapped my arms around my body as I started to shake, I was freezing cold all of a sudden.
“I really don’t know. I don’t know how the mind of these sick men work.”
I nodded so she knew I was listening to her. The thought of going out there alone terrified me, but I couldn’t be here either. Not if I was causing other people to be in danger, if something happened to anyone of them I’d be mortified.
“Are you going to come and have something to eat? Or a cuppa tea?”
“Tea sounds good.” I gave her a slight smile. “I’ll just freshen up first.”
“Don’t be too long.” As Heather opened my bedroom door back up a scream sounded followed by sobs.
“Mummy!” A little girl with dark brown curls cried as she ran into the room.
“Kelsey? What’s wrong?” Heather knelt onto the floor as her daughter threw her arms around her neck.
“Daddy said I couldn’t have ice cream.” She sobbed.
“Oh my god. I thought something was seriously wrong.” Heather laughed.
“Mummy, it is swerious.” She placed her hands on her hips as she tried looking stern. She was cute, especially when she couldn’t pronounce her words correctly.
“Come on.” Heather stood up and held her hand out for Kelsey. “We’ll see you out there.” Heather began to steer Kelsey out of the room when she pulled on Heather’s hand.
“Who’s she?” She asked pointing at me.
“Hi, I’m Beauty.” I smiled to her.
“Like with the beast?” Her eyes lit up and I nodded. “Mummy, there is a priwcess here. I want my hair straight like Beauty’s.”
“One day, sweetheart. Come on.”
I strolled into the en-suite bathroom and looked at my reflection in the mirror. I had bruises and cuts on my face and neck. My hair was greasy and needed a good brushing. I glanced around and all that was here was a toothbrush, toothpaste, shower gel and shampoo. I gathered my hair up and tied it into a loose knot to keep it in place. I really needed to get to my apartment and get some things if I had to stay here.
I took a deep breath before leaving the comfort of my bedroom. I was shaking with fear, but I needed to be brave and move on. Hopefully Riz and the club would have sorted out Parker by now.
As I rounded the corner I bumped into someone.
“Oh, sorry.” I said before looking up. “What… What are you doing here?” My voice shook as I spoke. I started backing away from him.
“Beauty, I’m sorry.” He started.
“No.” I whispered, shaking my head. I didn’t want to hear it. He was meant to be there at the club to protect us, not to make more money.
“Anton?” A woman called out. He looked behind him and nodded his head. Standing there was a woman with long blonde hair and a smaller version of herself. Was this his family? What was he doing here? I couldn’t bare to be in the same room as him. I shot past him and out of the main door. I needed to get away.
“Beauty?” Heather shouted after me.
Riz
A loud roar of cheer erupted as I ambled in through the club house doors.
“We weren’t sure if we were going to see you again, brother.” Prez slapped me on the shoulder.
“I got off on a caution and Parker has a restraining order against me and the club members. If I break it, I’ll be thrown in jail.” I shook my head in annoyance.
“Beauty?” Heather shouted. I looked around to see where it was coming from. Heather was standing at the front door. I hurried over to her.
“What’s going on?”
“I just saw Beauty come from that direction.” She pointed behind her. “And run out of the door.”
I glanced over my shoulder to see that Anton was where Heather had just pointed to.
“What did you do?” I shouted as I stormed closer towards him.
“Nothing.” He rose his hands in defence. “I just wanted to apologise to her.”
“Riz?” Buzz asked. “Everything okay?”
“No. I hadn’t had a chance to tell Beauty that Anton and his family were here on lockdown. She’s meant to be on lockdown and she’s run off.”
I hurried over to the main doors and dashed outside. She couldn’t have gotten far as the prospects wouldn’t have let her out of the gate.
“Beauty?” I yelled. No answer. I started hunting around the grounds. We had a lot of garden space with this hotel we called home.
A glimpse of black caught my eye and I looked again to see that Beauty was sitting on the step to the summer house. Prez had it built for the kids to play in when the weather was too hot for them to play in the direct sun.
I strolled closer towards her, making sure she could hear my footsteps. I didn’t want to scare her.
“Hey, what you doing out here?” I asked as I sat on the step next to her and placed my arm over her shoulders.
“I want to go home.” She shrugged my arm off and climbed to her feet. “I don’t want to be here.”
“You need to be here, so we can protect you.”
“I’ll be fine. I need to be on my own.”
“No. You need to be here, with me.” I climbed to my feet and stood in front of her. She was twirling her hands together and looking at the floor. I grabbed her hands and held them in mine.
“No. I don’t. I need to get back to work, or leave the country or something.” She pulled her hands away and folded her arms over her chest.
“Leave the country?” I asked in surprise.
“Yeah. I haven’t decided what to do.”
“What about us?” I frowned.
“There is no us.” She looked at me and said it with no emotion on her face whatsoever.
“We made a bab
y together. Doesn’t that mean something?”
“We made a baby by you taking me to the backroom of the strip club I work at. It wasn’t made with love or feelings. Besides, it’s gone now.” I hated that she was talking to me like this, I always thought we had a connection. She made a point of telling me that she never went to the backroom with anyone else and we never exchanged money either. She said me paying her would make her feel cheap. She wanted to enjoy what we had together.
“Beauty, you’re not leaving.” I told her, now folding my arms across my chest and staring at her.
“So, you’re going to keep me here? Against my will?”
“If I have to, yes.” Why was she being stubborn? Did she think she’d have to work here? “Beauty, you’re mine. No one here will touch you. You’re not a club bunny. You’re here so we can protect you.”
“Why is Anton here?” Her chin started trembling and I took a step closer to her. I wanted to comfort her. “No, Riz. I’ll stay, if I have to. But there is no you and me. What we did was a mistake.”
“Our baby was not a mistake.”
“There is no baby.” She screamed as tears fell down her cheeks. I managed to grab hold of her before her legs gave way. I picked her up, bridal style and headed back into the clubhouse.
“Is she ok, brother?” Buzz asked as he saw me carrying her. “Do you need the doc?”
“Na. We’ll be ok. Don’t disturb us unless it’s an emergency.” He nodded his head, before heading to the bar to order a drink.
I headed down the corridor until I reached the end room on the left hand side. I pushed the handle down and kicked open the door. I walked over the threshold with Beauty still in my arms, only now her face was buried in my neck.
I kicked the door closed and it slammed shut. She jumped in my arms and her whole body stiffened.
“It’s ok, sweetness. I’m just going to put you on the bed.” I laid her down and her gaze began searching the room.
“This isn’t my room. Where are we?”
“We’re in my room.” I shrugged out of my leather cut and hung it on the back of the door. I kicked my boots off and left them at the end of the bed.
“Ummm, Riz. I don’t think I can, I’m still in pain.” She looked panicked.
“Sweetness, I’m going to take a shower. I can still smell the bloody jail on me.” I screwed my face up in disgust. I couldn’t believe that low life called the cops on us. “You relax. Climb in, if you want?” I handed her the remote control for the flat screen TV I had in my room. It sat on top of the chest of drawers. Sometimes club life got too intense and I used my room as my escape. “I won’t be long.” I kissed her on top of the head and she relaxed. Maybe there was hope for us after all.
Beauty
I woke up a lot earlier than normal, my body was still aching and I needed to take the pain medication that the doc had given me. I slipped on some jogging bottoms and a hoodie and headed for the door. Riz was sound asleep on the floor. I felt guilty for making him sleep there but he said he didn’t want to leave me and I couldn’t have him sleeping in the same bed as me yet.
I snuck out of the door trying not to wake him. Once the door was closed behind me I headed in the direction of the kitchen.
“Oh, hi.” Heather and another blonde girl were sitting at the kitchen table.
“Beauty are you ok?” Heather asked.
“Yeah, I just need some water to take my medication. Sorry for interrupting.”
“Oh, you’re not. This is Ashlyn.”
“Hi.” Ashlyn greeted me. I smiled back as I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with some water. I popped open the pill packet and grabbed two painkillers and swallowed them down.
“I’ll leave you to it. I’m going to watch some TV. Riz is still sleeping.”
“Uh, Beauty, can we talk a minute?” Heather asked.
“Of course.” Ashlyn climbed to her feet and left the kitchen and I sat in her seat.
“We had several guests come in last night. Eleven women. They were being held against their will at another club…”
“Parker?” I whispered, cutting her off.
“No. Just a bad club that has now been taken care of. They are all a bit scared, especially of the men. Would you help me keep an eye on them?”
“I don’t know if I’m the right person for the job. I’m still very fragile myself.”
“It’s just talking to them to make sure they’re ok.” I nodded my head. “Shall we go and meet them?”
“Yes.” I drained the contents of my glass and placed it in the dishwasher before following Heather out to the bar.
“Everyone, I’d like you to meet Beauty. She’s here to help too. You can trust her.” Heather nodded at me and I took a step towards the girls.
“Hi, I’m Rayna.” A pretty girl with dark hair smiled at me.
“I’m Naomi.”
“Hi, I’m Tia.”
“Becky and that’s Sara.” Sara was asleep on the sofa.
I found it strange that all of these girls looked the same, they were all pale with blonde hair, except for Rayna.
“What happened to you?” Rayna asked as she stood by the side of me. The other four girls were huddled together in front of the TV. Naomi, Tia and Becky listened in on our conversation.
“I was attacked, raped and beaten so badly that I lost my baby.” All the girls gasped and I had to fight the tears back. I had to show them that you can move on from this, even though I wasn’t convinced myself yet.
“We were all taken because we look like Ashlyn.” Tia started saying. “She was the one he really wanted. I wanted to hate her because of it, but she was the one that saved us. Got us out of there and to safety.”
“Girls.” Heather interrupted us. “Macy, Luna, Charlotte and Carol are heading home now.” I glanced over to the door to see everyone saying goodbye to them. Everyone got up except for Tia.
“You not going to say goodbye?” I asked her.
“Yeah, I will in a minute.” A tear escaped and rolled down her cheek.
“When are you going home?”
“I don’t have anywhere to go.” She folded her arms over her body as if protecting herself. “No money, no job, nothing. Will they let me stay? They’ve let you stay, haven’t they? Do you have to pay them back in sexual favours? I’ve heard that about some clubs.”
“This club isn’t like that. The Prez is a family man, with three kids. Yeah they have their club whores but they protect people who need protecting, like me. They won’t just chuck you out.”
“Tia, we’re going.” Charlotte called out. Tia jumped to her feet and ran over to the girls. She hugged each of them and by the time they were leaving all the girls were in tears.
“Beauty.” Riz called out as he headed into the bar. I noticed a few of the girls shrank back into their seats. I jumped up to meet him and cried out in pain. He flew towards me and held me up on my feet.
“What are you doing out of bed? You should be resting.” He glanced around when he noticed eyes on him. “Who the hell are they?” He whispered to me.
“Church!” Blade called out just as I was about to answer him.
“Looks like you’re about to find out.” He kissed me on the side of the head before following the Prez into church.
“Who’s that?” Rayna asked.
I sat at the table with them.
“Uh… that’s a tough question.” I laughed. I explained to them about mine and Riz’s history and what had happened to me. I was hoping that if I was open and honest then they would be too.
“Sounds like he loves you.” Naomi smiled. “I wonder if I’ll ever have that.”
“Of course you will. We all will, it’ll just take some time.” Becky said as she hugged Naomi.
“Who’s that?” I asked as a guy I didn’t recognise walked into the bar with a blonde girl attached to him.
“That’s Owen, he’s Ashlyn’s brother. He was at the MC, trying to find her. He also fe
ll in love with May too. She was captured like the rest of us, only she never got raped like the rest of us as he came down early every day, picked her and kept her safe.” Sara explained.
“How long were you all there for?”
“I was there the longest.” Tia rubbed her arms as if she was cold. “I was there for nearly six weeks I think.”
“Hey, girls.” May came over to see the girls. “I’m heading home with Ashlyn and Owen. Are you going to be ok?”
“Yeah, we’ll be fine. We’ve got each other.” Rayna smiled as she wrapped her arm over Naomi’s shoulders.
“I’m going to miss you.” She hugged each one separately. “We’ll keep in touch, I promise.”
There were more tears, more hugging and I felt like I was intruding. I climbed to my feet and headed back to Riz’s room. I sat on the bed and thought about what they all went through. My heart broke for them all, they had to endure that torture every single day. One night of it was bad enough for me.
I yelped in surprise when the bedroom door was opened.
“Hey, what’s happened?” Riz asked as he knelt on the floor in front of me.
“I was abused for one night, they had it over and over again. We need to help them. There are five of them that have nowhere to go. They have no families, nowhere to live.”
“Prez is sorting that out now.” Riz assured me.
“They’re scared that if they stay at the clubhouse that they will have to be club whores.”
“Now, I shouldn’t be telling you this, you know club business and all. But the club has a house a few streets over. It’s currently empty and has plenty of room for all the girls. When they’re ready to leave they can go there and the club will pay for it until they can find jobs. But it’s all in their own time. We just don’t have the room here for them all.”
“Oh, that sounds great. That’ll be good for them. That’s really nice of the Prez.”
“I think Heather had a lot to do with it.” He laughed.
Riz
A week had gone by and Beauty was still sleeping in my room with me. She made me sleep on the floor and denied that anything would ever happen between us again. I loved spending everyday with her, even if it was just making a cuppa tea together or watching TV. She was a special girl and I wanted her to be mine. I reminded her of this everyday and she just laughed at me and shook her head.
South Coast Brothers: Part One Page 67