by Kasey Krane
I figured she would understand.
This was one of the things she would have to get used to if she was going to be a part of my world.
Tonight. I decided tonight we would sit together over a home-cooked meal and discuss the finer details of our potential life together. Firstly, we’d have to eradicate this Billy guy from the picture. I was going to make sure Allegra always felt safe with me. That she had no reason to keep looking over her shoulder.
And then I’d tell her everything she wanted to know about my lifestyle. Then it was up to her. She could stay or she could go.
But the thought that she might decide to go, that someday, some other man might touch her, made me want to kick my bike with fury.
No. I wanted her to stay. I was going to have to find a way to make her stay with me.
I charged up the steps and opened the door.
“Allegra!” I shouted her name and banged the door shut. I expected her to be in the living room, or maybe she was taking a nap?
The house looked clean and neat; maybe Rosie, the housekeeper had come around? Maybe they’d even had a little chat.
I checked in the kitchen, expecting there to be a full dinner laid out on the table. But it was empty.
“Hey!” I shouted, making my way toward the bedroom.
It was empty too. Her bag was on the floor, so it was obvious she hadn’t left. Her car was still in the parking lot of Fifth Element, so where could she have gone?
“You in the house? I’m sorry for being late. Did I miss dinner?” I was talking aloud while I walked around the rest of the house.
She was nowhere to be found.
I was beginning to grow angry and worried. I’d told her to lie low today. Did she leave the house? Where did she go? Would she be back?
I expected that she would have the good sense to not stay out this late at night. She’d been on the run long enough to know it could be dangerous. She was afraid of Billy. She wouldn’t be out right now voluntarily.
So there was only one explanation for her absence.
Something had happened to her. Someone had hurt her. Maybe she was abducted. Had Billy found her?
No questions asked. I needed to find her.
16
Allegra
I didn’t last in Billy’s backseat for very long. He had me there for about fifteen minutes of the drive, but I kept begging and pleading with him to let me go. I even lied to him, saying I had the ten grand he wanted. All he had to do was take me back to the red-brick house.
Eventually, my screaming and crying must have gotten on his nerves because he screeched the car to a halt. I got my hopes up, thinking he was going to let me go. Maybe he had a change of heart. But what really happened was that he pulled me out of the backseat and carried me to the trunk.
I continued to kick and scream but he threw me in the trunk and then banged the hood shut.
This was worse. A new kind of Hell hole.
It was dark in there. Other than the bits of light that slipped through the cracks of the trunk, there was nothing else to see.
I felt claustrophobic and hot, and kicked and screamed some more, but it was of no use. Now all Billy could hear was a muffled sound and my screams didn’t bother him so much.
After what felt like us driving around in circles for hours, we stopped somewhere. I thought he was going to pull me out, but he didn’t. He’d clearly parked the car somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Some place nobody could hear me kicking and screaming in the trunk of this car.
What was he doing now? Having a snack? Taking a piss? Trying to make a deal with those drug dealers he owed money to?
Even though I was once attracted to this man, and we had shared a home together, and although this man had once proclaimed he loved me and I cooked him his meals, it was obvious that I didn’t actually know him. Maybe I had never known him. Maybe he’d always been a stranger to me.
I sobbed in the dark. My cheek was pressed down on the floor of the trunk. I could smell the diesel, mud, oil and grease. Everything made me nauseous. I thought I’d choke or suffocate.
All these months of trying to outrun him, and today I’d made it so easy for him to find me and trap me.
I should have known all along that the end was near. That I wouldn’t be able to escape my fate forever. I should have stopped running a long time ago.
And what about Flash?
We had a very short time together, but I was so sure of him. He was the man I should have been with. The man I should have saved myself for. Of all the wrong decisions I’d made in my life, he was definitely not one of them.
And I would probably never see him again.
The thought made me sob even harder.
If only I had some more time with him. If only I had the courage to tell him exactly how I felt. That my attraction toward him was instant and real.
But instead, I was sure I would die tonight.
Soon enough, Billy popped open the trunk of the car, letting the light flood in and blind me. I’d been laying there in the dark for so long that I thought I would never be able to see again.
“Billy, please, why are you doing this? You don’t have to do this…” I cried. He reached for me and dragged me out of the trunk. Keeping a firm grip on my arm, he pulled me to the backseat of the car and shoved me in.
“If you keep screaming and kicking like you did, you’ll be back in that trunk again,” he warned and got into the front.
I wiped the tears from my cheeks with the back of my hand and snuggled into the corner of the backseat. This was better. This was far better than being in the trunk. At least now I could breathe. I could look out.
I dared to catch a glimpse of Billy in the rearview mirror while he started the car.
“Keep your eyes to your fuckin’ self,” he growled and I looked away.
I couldn’t believe this was the man I’d thought I would share my life with. How foolish was I?
We drove in silence for a few minutes and then I decided I needed to say something. He was going to do something drastic any way. Most likely, he would kill me since I didn’t have his money. I should have prepared myself for this day a long time ago.
“Where are you taking me, Billy?” I asked. I gulped nervously when he looked at me in the rearview mirror again.
“No talking!” he growled.
“How does it matter if we talk or not? It’s just you and me now, Billy.”
“And that dick you’re fucking, right?” he said, spitting as he got the words out.
I looked down at my hands.
“I’m really sorry about everything. I want you to know that. I wish we could have just talked it out a year ago. I wish I didn’t go on the run.”
“And what would talking have done? Would you have talked your way into the ten grand I fuckin’ need?”
“We could have come up with a solution.”
“I don’t care about your fuckin’ solutions!” He was screaming now, making me tear up again. I looked out and saw that we had entered what looked like the outskirts of a woodland area.
It was beginning to grow dark. How long had we been on the road? Hours?
“Whatever you’re about to do, Billy, you don’t have to do this. You cared about me once, remember? I thought you loved me once.”
He glared at me in the mirror again.
“I didn’t love shit,” he spat and then stopped the car.
My heart sank as I looked out into the darkness of the woods. What was he going to do to me here?
“Get out,” Billy growled as he held the back door open for me. My chest heaved as I stared at him. I didn’t know where we were, the only thing I could see was the darkness of the woods around us.
“I said, get the fuck out!” He grabbed my ankles and started pulling me out of the car while I kicked and screamed. I got him in the face with the heel of my boot and he yelped in pain. But that just made him more enraged.
I screamed for help as I felt his fin
gers digging into my ankles. Eventually, he did manage to pull me out.
The air in these woods was so fresh that it almost made me sick. I thought I was going to throw up.
“Stand up straight so I can see your face,” Billy growled again. I was panting, feeling out of breath. Maybe I could run? It was dark. Maybe he wouldn’t find me.
I took a step back, away from him, and before I could make another move, he caught me.
“Don’t you dare fuckin’ try any funny business,” he hissed. Billy brought his face right up close to mine. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. I wasn’t surprised that he had been drinking.
“What are you going to do to me here, Billy?” I asked.
“All you have to know is that you’re getting what you fuckin’ deserve. Finally.”
He grabbed my arm and started pulling me along the woods, away from the car.
“Where are we going?”
“Shut up!”
“I deserve to know what is going to happen to me!”
“You don’t deserve anything.”
I yanked my arm away from him, and it slipped out of his grip. I stopped in my tracks and so did he, turning to me with an icy glare.
I was reminded of the first time I saw him with his icy blue eyes. He was at our local bar. The new guy in town nobody knew anything about. I wasn’t working at that bar—back then I didn’t work at bars. I was just having a drink with a group of my friends. What drew me to Billy were these eyes and the way he stared at me from across the room.
Anyone else around me would have hesitated to come up and say something, but not Billy. He strode right up to our table and asked me out, making all my girlfriends giggle.
“Remember that night we met, Billy?” I spoke in a low voice now. I wanted to do anything, say something that would slow him down from whatever fate he had planned for me.
With his brows crossed, he glared at me.
“Yeah, what about it?”
“You said I was beautiful and that you wouldn’t stop till you made me yours.”
“I always get what I want,” he replied, grinning a little as he said so.
I gulped and nodded.
“Yes, I guess you do.”
“Well I fuckin’ did till I met you!” he spat the next instance. My heart sank. I thought this line of defense would work. “Ever since you, everything just went tits up.”
“I don’t know what you’re blaming me for.”
“I’m blaming you for everything, you bitch!” He brought his face up close to me again.
A year ago, I would have flinched—afraid that he was going to raise his hand to me. But tonight I didn’t. I was at the point where I didn’t actually care what happened to me anymore.
It was all going downhill from here anyway.
“You had demands. You wanted things. A house. Clothes. Bathtub. All that shit!”
“And I paid for most of it, Billy. I didn’t ask you for anything. You bought that bathtub as a gift for me.”
He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Well I didn’t want to be tied down.”
“Then you should have left. You should have broken up with me. We weren’t married. We weren’t tied to each other.”
“Left you so you could go fuck some other cock?” he hissed. His eyes narrowed on me and I could see how jealous he was of Flash.
I hung my head down. “Billy, I just want to sit down with you somewhere and talk this through. We can work it out.”
“Do you have the fuckin’ money?” he asked.
“No, I don’t. But I can get it for you.”
Without an answer, he grabbed my arm again and started pulling me.
“I swear I can get it for you!”
“Who will give it to you? Your new fuckin’ boyfriend? I’ve made my own arrangements. Don’t you worry your pretty little head over it.”
“What arrangements? I cried. “Billy, tell me! What arrangements have you made? What are you going to do to me?”
When he didn’t answer, I started struggling again, trying to wriggle out of his grip, pull myself away. He lost his temper and whipped around to grab me tightly again.
“Listen to me, you fuckin’ bitch. You’re not going anywhere. Do you get that? I’m not letting you get away. One year I spent hunting you down. One year to get the money you fuckin’ owed me. You owe me!”
I could feel the tears in my eyes but I fought against them. I didn’t want to give in to the weakness of crying. I didn’t want him to see me like that.
“So you can try and run but you won’t get far. I’ll hunt you down again. I’ll strangle you with my own bare hands if I have to,” he growled. I spat at him. I wasn’t thinking of my safety anymore. I spat at him because it was the only thing I could do.
Billy wiped it off his face but he was smiling now. He was sure that I had no escape from this.
“I hope they give you exactly what you deserve. You and your new boyfriend,” he hissed.
“They? Who? Who are you talking about?”
Now a new fear gripped me. Billy was selling me off to someone. Who? Why would anyone else want to hurt me? None of this was making sense.
He grabbed me by the back of my neck, bringing me up close to his face again so our foreheads knocked. The smell of the stale beer on his breath was sickening.
“You got yourself tangled up in some serious shit, sweetheart,” he said with a wide smile. Whatever it was, Billy was enjoying this.
I shook my head, or rather, tried shaking it. He was still holding me so tight that I could barely make any movements.
“Please tell me who you’re talking about.”
“The Silver Knights. That’s fuckin’ who. Stop acting like a little deer caught in the headlights. You know exactly what I’m talking about!” He released his grip on my neck and I stumbled backwards.
The Silver Knights…I’d only heard of them in passing. Flash mentioned something about them as the rival MC. But what did they want with me?
“I have nothing to give them…” I began but Billy shut me up.
“They noticed I was following your boyfriend and his MC, and they figured they could get me to do a job for them. I happily obliged, of course.”
“They want me? Why?”
“Because you are one of them now. You’re one of the MC girls. That cock you’re fucking comes with a price.”
I was shaking all over. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’d had no idea Flash was involved in anything with the Silver Knights that would put a price on my head.
“What do they want from me?” I asked, my voice was shaky now.
“They want to send a message to the Iron Thunder guys. To your boyfriend. And you are perfect for the task.”
My chest heaved, I started backing away from him. Billy continued to smile. This was hilarious to him. In his eyes, he was finally getting his redemption.
“They get what they want, and they pay me ten grand for my good work, and see…we all get what we want.”
“You fuckin’ scum!” I hissed. He jumped at me and caught me again, dragging me along the path. I tried to run but he wasn’t about to let me go.
“It’s been a very long year, Allegra, and finally, it’s paying off. You led me right to where the cash is. Good girl.” He was talking aloud in the dark as he dragged me along.
In the distance, I could see a bright glow in the middle of the trees. Flashlights. We went closer and I saw more shadows. Of men. Standing in a huddle. They were waiting for me. Waiting to hurt me or worse. To send a message to Flash.
I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer, because this was beginning to feel like the end.
Billy dragged me, kicking and screaming, to where the group of men were standing holding flashlights. I didn’t bother counting how many there were—but at least five.
What I did notice were the big grins on their faces as they stared at me.
“Good job, Billy,” one of the guys said. He
had a thick handlebar mustache and tattoos on his shiny bald scalp. He was eyeing me up and down like I was a piece of meat. “Chaz, hand him the cash.”
I could hear Billy literally sniggering as one of the guys handed him a duffle bag. Ten grand in exchange for me. For my life?
“What do you want from me?” I asked, spitting my words out to them in fury.
The men smiled and looked at each other like this was all a big joke.
“You’re making a big mistake. All of you. When Flash…when the Iron Thunder find you…”
“What do you think will happen to us, doll?” the guy with the mustache asked. He took a few steps toward me and I backed away from him. But there were men behind me now; they had formed a circle.
I gulped. I didn’t actually know the answer to that question. Frankly, I didn’t know how a biker club worked. What was Flash going to do to them? Was he even looking for me? Did he know I was gone?
My shoulders heaved as I stared at him, looking straight into his eyes.
“If you let me go, they will reward you. I’ll make sure that they do,” I tried. The man turned to the other men and they all chuckled.
“She’s entertaining, this one,” he said and looked back at me. Now his smile started to droop and a new kind of rage filled his eyes.
“Who the fuck do you think you are? You think I’m looking for some kind of reward from the fuckin’ Iron Thunders?”
I licked my dry lips. Behind me, I heard someone running away. It had to be Billy. He wasn’t going to stick around and see this thing through till the end. He was a coward.
“What do you want?” I asked and the man came closer to me. I saw the hatred in his watery gray eyes. He hated me. He hated the Iron Thunders.
“I want those motherfuckers to know they will never beat us again. That we don’t plan on giving up this fight. We are taking over their territory, even if it means one of their chicks at a time.”
I felt sick to my stomach again. Whatever these men had planned for me—I knew now that I wasn’t about to get out of it. He smiled at me again, like he was amused.