“So, you want to know the latest?” Patch interrupted my thoughts and I looked at him in confusion. I had no idea what he was talking about.
“The latest on what?”
“On Maggie. Who fucking else?” Patch declared and let out a sarcastic laugh.
Oh. Maggie. I hadn’t remembered her name. In fact, I’d forgotten all about her since we last spoke on this matter. I wasn’t much interested in the subject now, but Patch was in the mood to spill his beans and it was getting pretty late in the day. What else were we going to talk about?
“Sure, go ahead, tell me what’s going on with you two,” I said, trying to sound interested. Patch stood beside me, our backs leaning against an old dusty rock. We watched the guys shooting in the distance and Patch drew in a deep breath.
He was a big guy, muscular and beefed up just like the rest of us, but I knew he was a bit of a softie. Even though he didn’t reveal that side of him to everyone.
“She thinks it’s going somewhere, man,” he continued, and I clenched my jaws and shook my head. Patch caught that movement. He didn’t know every detail of what happened with Laura. It was nearly ten years ago, and Patch hadn’t even joined the club then. I’d just given him bits of information over the years, nothing full scale.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said, and I shrugged.
“What am I thinking?”
“Run for the hills, of course,” he added, and I smirked. Yep, that was exactly what I was thinking. It was the only thing to do if you wanted to save your ass.
“Why do you think she thinks that it’s getting serious? Did she say something?”
“I happened to stay over at her place the other night,” Patch continued, and I shook my head again.
“Big fucking mistake.”
He threw his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it with his shoe, just as another bang went off in the background.
“Don’t I know it. Next thing I know, she’s fucking cooking me eggs in the morning. Drawing up a bath for me, bringing in the newspaper. The fucking newspaper! I haven’t read one in years. She wants to domesticate me like a little dog. It made me sick, I wanted to throw up!”
“No, that was probably all the blue cocktails you drank,” I said with a laugh and Patch rolled his eyes. It was one night, two years ago, when he drank a couple of blue cocktails that were targeted at women of course. I wasn’t about to drop it.
“Anyway, what did you do?”
“I bolted out of there the moment I could get my legs through my pants,” Patch continued, and I was still laughing. I knew exactly what he was talking about.
I thumped his back. He knew what I was about to tell him, but I would tell him anyway.
“You need to cut that engine before it explodes in your face, brother. She’s starting to nest and that is a bad sign,” I told him. Patch had his jaws clenched and he was slowly nodding his head.
“That Laura really pulled a number on you, didn’t she?” he commented, and I furrowed my brows. I didn’t like hearing that. The truth.
“It was ten years ago, man, I’m not holding on to that shit. Besides, she did me a fucking favor,” I said. Patch was still watching me, but I started walking in the direction of the boys. I suddenly felt like doing a couple of rounds myself.
4
Vivian
It was going to be a long walk back to the apartment, but now that I was already nearly halfway there; it felt like I had no other choice but to keep going. If not, I would have to turn back and walk all the way to the bus station, which would be a waste of time anyway.
It was late in the evening and starting to get dark and the whole day was beginning to feel like a waste.
I was sure now that I wasn’t going to get this job, and I should have been at the deli instead; picking up an extra shift so I wouldn’t have to worry about having enough money to feed myself.
I kind of knew my way back but had to keep checking the map on my phone to make sure I was headed in the right direction. Eight months in LA and I still wasn’t totally familiar with the city. But it wasn’t like I really tried either. LA never felt like home. Even though I’d arrived here with a lot of hope and ambition—it felt from the very beginning that it would be foolish to expect much from this place.
I wasn’t welcomed in with open arms. I was always going to be an outsider.
I looked at my phone again. According to the map; I was definitely supposed to go down this road, but it was starting to creep me out a little as I walked. It was completely deserted and the streetlights didn’t seem to be working too well. I could barely see where I was going.
The place was so quiet too, so I could hear the scrape of my shoes on the pavement as I kept walking. Now more than ever, I wished I’d taken the bus instead of deciding to save the cash.
Up ahead I could hear voices now, but I didn’t want to look up and meet their eyes. From what I could hear, there were at least two men if not more and their voices sounded adult and rough. Maybe even a little bit drunk or high. I was well aware of what could happen in a situation like this. I was alone and feeling vulnerable.
I slowed my pace and now it seemed like their conversation and attention was turned to me. They’d noticed me walking towards them on the pavement.
I felt like I could hear my own heart beating in my chest now. Suddenly, I was very afraid, and I was sure that something was going to happen. I was usually someone who didn’t scare easily and knew how to take care of herself. But tonight, I felt vulnerable. I wasn’t carrying anything, not even pepper spray or something of the sort that I could use to defend myself. From the sounds of them, they weren’t just some unruly teenagers but tough men. They could easily overpower me if they wanted to. In fact, from the laughter which sounded like it was directed at me, it seemed like that was what they were planning to do.
Before I took another step in their direction, I stopped in my tracks and turned. I was clutching my purse to myself tightly, keeping my head down and I tried to walk back down the pavement as quickly as possible without actually running away from them. Because that would just draw more unwanted attention to me.
But as I hurried down that road, I could hear the sound of their shoes. They were saying something, shouting words at each other that was making them laugh even more. They were following me.
Now I started running. I was panicking, shaking with fear. Then two pairs of hands grabbed me from behind just as I screamed at the top of my lungs for help.
“Why are you running, bitch?” one of them said and hauled me towards the wall on the side. He pushed me to it, keeping me pinned there. There were two of them. One was bald with a long wispy beard, and the other had strange oily hair. They were both heavily tattooed and they both stank of alcohol.
“Take this!” I said in a scared high-pitched voice and I held my bag out towards them. The two men looked at each other and burst out laughing like I’d done the funniest thing on Earth.
The bald guy swatted the bag out of my hand, and it fell on the ground. When he took a step towards me, I tried to retreat, as far back into the wall as I could but I wasn’t really going anywhere.
“You think we want to rob you?” he hissed, bringing his face close up to me. His breath smelled disgusting. I could smell the sweat off him too. I thought I was going to die tonight.
“What do you want…what? Please! Let me go!”
I tried to push past him, but the other one grabbed me by my shoulders and pushed me back to the wall again. The back of my head hit the bricks in the wall.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“You know exactly what we want!”
They were both crowding in on me and then they grabbed me again.
“No!” I shrieked, fighting them, trying to claw them but one of them grabbed me by my waist while the other started to rip my clothes off me.
I couldn’t think straight. I could barely feel anything. Somebody’s hand was in my hair, holding my
head back—but I couldn’t feel that either. The only thing I knew was to fight. I kicked and screamed and scratched, but they tore my thin cotton jacket off me.
One of them was trying to get my jeans off too but I kept kicking at him, making it difficult for him to do it easily. So, in retaliation, the other one slapped me across my face. My lip must have split open because I got the metallic taste of blood on my tongue.
But I continued to scream and continued to struggle against them.
The road remained deserted. Nobody was going to show up to help.
Until I heard the roar of bike engines. The men must have heard it too because they stopped for a moment to look over their shoulders. I took the opportunity of their distraction to kick again but they were still holding on to me tightly.
“Help! Help me! Help!” I kept screaming till there were two bikes that stopped on the side of the road near us.
The two men who were on the bikes were big muscular tattooed men too. For a moment I thought maybe these men were all in the same gang, but they didn’t seem to recognize each other.
“What do you think we have here, Patch?” one of the guys said as he slowly started walking towards us. His friend, assumedly called Patch, sighed and shrugged his shoulders.
“Looks to me like an innocent young woman is getting harassed by two motherfucking assholes,” Patch replied.
The two men who were holding me, released me now and turned so they could fully face the other two.
“Walk away now, boys, and nobody gets hurt,” the bald one said to the other two and he cracked his knuckles.
“Aww shucks, we were hoping we could tempt you gentlemen to a game. You know, something to help us decide who gets to stay and who gets to go.” The guy with the dark beard and the dark eyes who had a tattoo of a snake creeping up his neck, said. His eyes had darted to me once, but he didn’t linger. Even though I was still breathing hard, pasting myself to the wall and still scared…something told me this man was on my side.
“No games, motherfucker. Just walk away now!” The bald guy growled.
Patch pulled out a gun in the next split-second. His friend, the one with the dark eyes, took one step forward and sucker-punched the bald one, bouncing him back towards me.
I screamed from shock, just as my other assailant tried to take a shot at him but he got head-butted, pushed back to the ground and now the two of them were both on the ground, nursing bleeding wounds.
“Get out of here you two. Crawl back into whatever hole you came from,” the guy with the snake tattoo said, cracking his knuckles now. Patch pushed his gun back down the front of his belt.
The two knocked out guys on the ground staggered as they tried to stand up straight. Neither of them looked in my direction as they hobbled away, cursing aloud. They were both clearly still drunk and still making threats of revenge as they went.
I realized my hands were clasped to my mouth in fright. I was still pressed to the wall, my eyes popping out of my sockets in horror.
Even though those two thugs were gone, I couldn’t seem to catch a breath yet.
The two men left behind exchanged looks and the one with the beard took a few steps towards me.
“Are you alright? They’re gone, they’re not coming back,” he said in a voice that was now suddenly different. My breasts were heaving, I lowered my hands from my face, and he must have seen my split lip because he clenched his jaws.
“Just nod if you’re okay,” he said. I gulped and managed to nod. “Okay, good, one of us should escort her home.”
The other guy, Patch, ran a hand through his hair.
“You know those two guys were Sons of Satan, right?” he said, and I had no idea what he was talking about. This made the other guy glare at him and I sensed it had to mean something. The bearded guy looked at me again. He was taking care to maintain a respectable distance from me, he wanted to give me space. I was still shaking all over.
“We can deal with that shit later,” he said, almost in a mumble and focused on me again. “Do you want to tell me where you live? I can take you home. You’re very shook up. I don’t think you should be walking home alone.”
I could barely think. I could barely even understand what the man was saying to me. My hand traveled down to my stomach now, I was worried I was going to be sick.
Slowly, the man extended a hand towards me, like he was testing the waters to see if I could deal with him touching me. Then gently, he placed a hand on my shoulder, and it felt good. He had a big warm protective hand. For some reason, I felt better, I felt safe when he was touching me.
“Hey, I’m going to take you home, alright? You have nothing to be afraid of anymore,” he added. All I could do was nod.
“I’ll catch you later, man,” Patch called out to him from behind and he got on his bike and rode away. I was staring into this man’s eyes.
“What is your name?” he asked me, and I forced myself to find my voice again.
“Vivian,” I squeaked.
“It’s good to meet you, Vivian. I’m Cash,” he said, and he squeezed my shoulder lightly and then drew his hand away.
I knew immediately that I was attracted to him. Even though he was nothing like the kind of man I would usually go for. Well…nothing like the kind of man I would usually bump into socially. He was very big and tall, muscular and strong and his beard was thick and dark and well maintained.
Besides, the other thing was that I couldn’t be sure if this attraction was merely the result of me going through a traumatic experience or if it was genuine in any way.
There was only one way to find out…I was going to let him take me home.
5
Cash
Vivian was a delicate looking beautiful creature, but at the same time, there seemed to a certain fire in her eyes. She had the smoothest olive skin I’d ever seen. Even in the dim light of this street, where we could barely see anything, I could see how delicious her skin was. And those light brown eyes reminded me of something…caramel maybe. They were large and bright and intense, and she was staring up at me now.
Was it messed up that I wanted her? Just when I’d rescued her from two motherfuckers who were going to hurt her? Yes, it was totally messed up and I wasn’t going to make a move on her when she was in this position.
I could see she was shaken up and still scared. She’d barely said anything, apart from her name.
Now I needed to know her address so I could give her a ride.
“Can you tell me where you live?” I asked her again and finally, Vivian whispered her address to me.
“Okay, good, I’m going to give you a ride there on my bike. All you have to do is hold on tight, okay?” I said and she gently nodded her head. I searched her eyes and she searched mine right back. Despite the trauma she had just experienced, she had enough balls to stare right into my eyes challengingly.
I moved towards my bike and waited there for her. She picked up her bag from the ground, fixed it on her shoulder and finally came towards me. I gave her my hand, to help her on my bike.
“Thank you,” she murmured, staring into my eyes again and I nodded.
“It was no problem at all,” I said, and I helped her on the bike. She sat there demurely with her legs thrown on either side and I got on too.
“You will have to put your arms around me and hold tight,” I said and slowly, Vivian’s delicate arms came winding around my torso. She seemed light as a feather now as she clung to me and I kickstarted my bike’s engine.
It wasn’t going to be a long ride to her place, and I wished it was. For some reason, I wanted to keep feeling her delicate touch on my body. Neither of us were going to say anything else to each other now for the rest of the journey.
Only sometimes, I caught her in the rearview mirror over my shoulder. She was sitting straight up and tight, trying to hold herself together. Her long dark hair was flying in every direction and she didn’t seem to care about it.
I looked away becaus
e I didn’t want her to catch me looking. I didn’t want her to feel threatened in any way again.
* * *
We arrived at her apartment building and I helped Vivian get off my bike. Despite the way her cheeks were flushed to a tomato red right now, she looked a little less in shock than she did when we first got on the bike.
“I want to…I want to thank you again, Cash,” she said, running a hand through her hair in a weak attempt at smoothening it back into place, but the bike ride had done its job. Her hair looked wild, but she still looked beautiful.
“We did what anybody should have done and I’m glad we were passing by,” I told her, and she nodded.
“I am too,” she replied, and I noticed the way she was twisting her fingers together now.
The blood around her mouth seemed to have coagulated and caked, but now in better light, I could see she also had bruises on her arms from where the men had clutched her too tightly. When we arrived at the scene, they were trying to rip her clothes off her body. Who knew what they would have ended up doing if we hadn’t arrived when we did.
“You should get yourself taken care of. I mean with first aid. Do you have any first aid at your place?” I asked. Vivian glanced shyly up towards what I assumed was her apartment.
“I think so, I’m not sure. I’ll have to look. I’m sure I’ll find something.”
“Do you have someone up there, a roommate or a boyfriend or someone who can help you with this?” I continued. I didn’t want to admit, even to myself that I wanted to know if she was single. There was no wedding ring on her finger at least.
Cash: The Black Cobras MC #2 Page 2