Game Changer (Hell's Saints Motorcycle Club)

by Marinaro, Paula

  “I’m good for it.” I looked him in the eye.

  I heard someone snort in the background and amber eyes skimmed my body. Then he reached out with his hand and touched me. Two fingers trailed a slow a path from the hollow of my throat, over my scrubs and in between my breasts to my belly button. I held my breath and watched him as his eyes followed the path he made and then below.

  He looked up and smirked, “Darlin’, there’s no doubt in my mind that you’re good for it.”

  I pulled my arm out of his death grip and said, “I can get you that money.”

  Then I did a mental calculation in my head. Today was Monday.

  “I need five days, and you’ll have your money.”

  “Banks are open tomorrow darling.” said a voice so close to me it made me jump. It was the badass in black.

  I looked him straight in the eye, “It’s not in the bank.”

  He arched his eyebrow.

  I hurriedly added, “It’s my money, I’m not doing anything illegal to get it. Don’t worry.”

  I heard some chuckles and looked around the room to a sea of black leather and grins.

  “Darlin,” Badass grinned, pulled his hand through his hair, cocked his eyebrow at me and continued. “I don’t care if you do blow jobs at a thousand a head to get it.”

  That was accompanied by a lot of hoots and hollers. Then it started.

  “I would be in a grand for that. Look at that sweet mouth.”

  “Fifteen here if you include anal.”

  “Hell I’ll give her five hundred bucks right now just to show me her tits.”

  I ignored them, reminded myself that I was my father’s daughter and looked Badass right in the eye. He waited, grinning, until the hilarity died down.

  “Why can’t you get it now?” He wasn’t smiling any longer.

  I took a deep breath, because I didn’t like thinking about Gino.

  “Because it’s hidden in a strong box in my ex’s garage along with a lot of other stuff that I left when I left.”

  “You left thirty grand in your ex’s garage?”

  I nodded. “I had to leave everything. He doesn’t know it’s there.”

  “How long ago?”

  “About 4 months.”

  “How do you know he hasn’t found it yet?”

  “Because he would have found me and killed me for hiding it from him.” That was what a horror Gino had become, and it was the straight up truth.

  His eye brow went up.

  “But it’s your money? Not that I give a shit. Just trying to sort this out.”

  “Yeah, it’s my money.”

  “Go get the shit now, Diego?” Gunner from the side lines.

  So the man in black was Diego.

  I shook my head. I was seriously afraid of that lunatic Gino.

  “No!” Claire called out and everyone turned their eyes to my little sister.

  “No?” Gunner.

  Claire turned her big beautiful blue eyes on him and said, “Then he’ll find out where she is and when you’re gone he’ll come back and hurt her.”

  “What do you mean, hurt her?” Diego was staring at Claire.

  I stood very still watching Claire.

  “He broke her nose before and ...”

  “And?” Diego was looking at both of us now.

  I held my breath and shook my head slightly in warning to Claire.

  “And …..” Claire had paled looking at my face.

  “YEAH, AND WHAT?”

  I pulled my arms tight around me. Praying to Sweet Jesus she wouldn’t finish that sentence.

  “…...some other bad stuff.” She ended weakly with her eyes on me.

  I closed my eyes and began to breathe again.

  “He took a really rough turn on the bitch.” Jamie croaked out gleefully, never missing an opportunity to capitalize on shame.

  Diego’s eyes squinted and I felt them on me.

  “He raped you? That sonofabitch raped you?”

  All eyes on me then. I felt myself flush and go dizzy. Faces started swirling around in a haze, my head pounded and my lungs hurt. I had stopped breathing.

  “Did he?” Diego was moving towards me.

  I couldn’t seem to catch my breath.

  “Did he rape you?” He was closing in on me.

  Breathe Raine. Just breathe. I told myself. Inhale. Exhale. 1…2…3...

  “Raine, did he?” Diego was still moving in.

  Suddenly a burst of air let out of my lungs in a giant whoosh and I had to steady myself with the force.

  “No! Of course not.” All that air and all I could manage was a squeak.

  All eyes still on me. I thought I might throw up and briefly wondered how Diego’s badass biker boots would look with puke all over them. The thought made my stomach turn one more time.

  I desperately wanted this conversation to move on. But not in the direction it took.

  Jamie, ever the chivalrous junkie, chimed in from his throne on the floor, “Why would I say it if it ain’t true?” He was sniveling from his place in the corner.

  “Because you’re a desperate jacked up ass who would say anything and do anything,” I made myself busy looking for my pocketbook and found it on the counter. I had recovered my ability to inhale and exhale and was taking full advantage of the moment.

  Feeling those eyes still upon me, I was fighting against a full blown anxiety attack. I had better calm down if I wanted to get us out of this one. And I had better get us out of here fast. I dug into my pocketbook and my hand came out shaking.

  I handed Diego my license and said, “This is where I live. You come by Friday night and I’ll have your money. Or you can tell me where and I’ll bring it to you.”

  He looked at me like I was from another planet. “Seriously?”

  I realized how absurd that was.

  “At least you know I’m not going to be hiding from you. My sister and I’ll both be there. If we don’t come up with the money, you can kill us then.” I said it more casually then I felt. I put my license back in my bag.

  “Killing ain’t the first thing I’d have in mind.” He was staring at my breasts. And he was doing it to make me uncomfortable. Then he grinned. Asshole.

  I was a long way from smiling. “I don’t have your money, you do whatever you want to me. But my sister leaves with me now.”

  I held out my hand, “Agreed?”

  He took my cold, small hand and held it too tight in his big, warm man paw and said, “Agreed. We recoup our green and it’s all good. That’s unless we find the little missus and her man are in it up to their ears, then the thirty grand won’t mean jack. Then we’ll be looking for a payment of a different color. You get what I’m sayin’ babe?”

  My eyes turned to Claire.

  My sister struggled from where Jamie was holding her, “Raine, I swear to Jesus, there’s nothing else. And he can get it. Jamie has that money.” She pleaded with him, “Don’t bring my sister into this.”

  Then Jamie tightened his hold on my sweet baby sister and said, “Bitch shut up. Let the cunt pay so we can get these assholes off our backs.”

  I heard a sharp intake of breathe from behind me and Diego took a step toward Jamie. Claire tried to pull away from him and elbowed him deep, catching his ribs.

  “What the fuck? I’ll hurt you bitch!” Jamie reached out, grabbed my sister’s hair and snapped her neck so far back I thought for a minute that he had killed her.

  All hell broke loose. Gunner and I both moved in on Jamie. Diego yanked me back quickly and held me so close against him that I could smell his leather and clean soap. I pulled away from him just as fast, my eyes glued to my sister. I watched as the blonde biker put his hand against the junkie’s throat and squeezed.

  “Let her fucking go. Right. Fucking. Now.”

  “FUCK YOU GUNNER!” Jamie managed to squeak out. Then he did the unthinkable and he spat in the bikers face.

  Gunner roared and let go of the Jamie’s th
roat, He pulled back fast and hit him once hard in the face. Jamie lost his death grip on Claire. With a sob, she got up and ran to me. Struggling to be free of the iron arm band holding me, Diego let me go. When he did, I opened my arms to my sister holding her close. Then they were on Jamie, raining kicks and punches. Gunner picked him up and threw him across the kitchen splintering a row of cabinets. When Claire opened her mouth to scream, I clamped my hand over it. We heard sirens sounding in the distance. Another vicious kick to the ribs and I heard someone say, “We gotta get the fuck outa here.”

  Diego grabbed my arm and growled. “You got five days to make this right.”

  Then he pulled me close and whispered against my hair, “You got no green, you gone. You take your shit and you leave tonight. Get me babe? You lying about this shit, you find a way to disappear. Your sister lying about this shit, she’s as good as dead.”

  “I wasn’t lying.” I whispered. “I got it.”

  Diego took one long last look at me and headed for the door.

  “How will I find you?” I called softly to him.

  Diego turned around and looked at me.

  “Got that.” He said and was gone.

  Claire and I ran to my car and after the third try the engine turned. We pulled out of the parking lot exit just as the police were pulling in the off ramp to the complex. I pulled out on to the highway and reduced my speed to legal. Claire had begun moaning in the seat and her nose was bleeding. I made a split second decision and turned off the exit that led to the hospital. The strangulation marks on my sister’s throat stood out in sharp relief against her pale skin. She was holding her head to one side cradling her neck in her hand. I was beginning to think that Jamie might have done some serious damage.

  Claire was also jonesing from the coke and I knew the nose bleed had something to do with that. I was familiar with a lot of the staff at the hospital and I thought that they wouldn’t question it if I told them my sister had been mugged. From the hospital I knew that I could get her into rehab for the blow. Not sure how Point Memorial would feel about employing a nurse with an addict sister, but I guess we would just have to wait and see on that one.

  It took me an hour in the parking lot to convince a sobbing, terrified, strung out little sister to go along with the plan. She wanted to get clean and I knew that wouldn’t be a problem with Jamie out of the picture. I also knew that if things went bad, I couldn’t have her anywhere near me or that house on Friday. Claire was the only thing I had left that I loved. I wouldn’t lose her. If it came down to it, I would give my life for hers. No question.

  It took me the better part of the night to get Claire settled into the hospital and to arrange for a subsequent bed in rehab. We had to file a (falsified) police report and I was exhausted from the fear, and the lies, and the worry.

  Chapter 4

  To say I thought a lot about that night would be a lie. To say I thought of nothing else would be much closer to the truth. I jumped at every sound and locked every window despite the heat of the evenings. I jammed a chair against the bathroom door while I bathed and against the bedroom door when I slept. I fretted and worried constantly. I had a permanent headache and my eyes hurt. I wanted this to be over. I had no idea what had happened to Jamie and I didn’t want to know. If my head was clear, I might have worried about him coming after us. But my head was full of other really, really bad things.

  About a year ago I had moved in with Gino Abbiati. He managed a club next to the hospital that served cheap drinks and pub food. Best of all, the staff never made you feel rushed or complained when a study group of ten took up a table for a few hours during the busy time. Appreciating this, we always ordered the cheapest thing on the menu to be able to tip big for the privilege of sitting there.

  Gino was beautiful, charming and persuasive. He smiled, flirted and asked me out every single time I was in the place. He never charged me for my drinks and on the odd occasion I ordered a burger he would pick up the tab for that too. He was genuinely interested in everything I had to say and took every opportunity to converse with me. I held him off for a while but not long enough to really get to know him.

  He showed up for our first date with the biggest bouquet of flowers I had ever seen. Since no one had ever given me flowers, it could have been one rose and it would have had the same effect. He showered me with just enough and just the right kind of attention. He took me out when he sensed I needed that release and when the class work became overwhelming, he sat up with me all night and tested me on my flashcards. One time when I complained that my hand was cramped from taking such copious notes, he showed up with a little handheld tape recorder so I could record my lessons. No one had ever done anything like that for me. No one had ever treated me that well. No one had ever paid enough attention to my life to know about the things that would make it easier. He not only paid attention, he made an effort towards the making it easier.

  I fell hard and he wanted me to move in immediately. He hounded me about it day and night until finally six months into it I agreed. The agreement was that I would stay at his place but still keep gram’s house. He had wanted me to put the house on the market or rent it out but that was where I drew a hard line. He didn’t even attempt to cross it and we lived happily ever after for another six months. The sex was great and we actually had fun together when he wasn’t drinking. He had a nasty streak that came out when he drank, but he had never hit me. I had been dealing with drunks in one way or another most of my life, so while I wasn’t okay with the nasty drunk side of Gino, I could put up with it.

  I put up with it right until I caught him in our bed with our sixteen year old neighbor. When she saw me, she ran out screaming and disgusted I turned to walk out the door. In my mind, it looked to me like she was happy to be escaping and not just from me. But Gino wasn’t happy, as a matter of fact, he was so enraged that he came charging at me. The first punch he landed broke my nose. Then he took payment from me for the sex I guess he thought he was missing.

  I always knew I had to go back and get that money. I knew it would be safe there, Gino never went into the second bay of the two car garage. But the thought of what he did to me made me sick and honestly, I was afraid of him. Really, really afraid. He had raped me while I was barely conscious and my nose was gushing blood. That made him an animal in my mind, all the good forgotten.

  I had made some mistakes in judgment in my life but I wasn’t that girl. And I was never ever going to be that girl. The one who forgot and forgave when a man beat her and raped her, that girl was not me. The only way I had escaped from him was because he was so strung out he passed out right after. I had no thoughts of giving him another chance at hurting me again. A drunk Gino was annoying, a jacked up Gino could be deadly. I wished with all my heart I didn’t have to go get that money, but I did and it loomed over me like a big black doomsday cloud.

  Waiting around the house until the time rolled around was just too much. I jumped at every noise. I paced, and I couldn’t eat or sleep. I decided to see what I could do about getting to that money sooner. I sat outside his house in different spots at different times for the next two days. Finally, I saw Gino and his Lexus leave with a pretty flaxen haired blonde riding shotgun.

  Now or never.

  I slipped around to the back yard and carefully turned the door to the garage. It gave way immediately. I saw a newly installed alarm system to my right and figured it was to the main house. Who would alarm a garage? But I hurried any way.

  The cardboard box I had hidden the money in was at the very top of the shelf and I grabbed a ladder to retrieve it. I had it!! I hurried down the ladder and was heading towards the out when the automatic garage door came flying open! Gino was standing in the driveway with the Lexus still running behind him. I looked quickly at the alarm and the sequencing of lights was going crazy. I must have set it off. I was shaking so hard at seeing him, I almost wet myself.

  He was standing in front of me shouting. His fists were
balled and the next thing I knew he was straddling me alternately choking and hitting me. I put up my hands to block my face right after I felt the left side of it split with the force of his fist. He had my head firmly in his hands and was getting ready to smash the back of my skull in. I fought and screamed like a wild cat, then I heard a gunshot and felt plaster raining on my face.

  “GET OFF HER NOW, YOU WOMAN BEATING SONOFABITCH”

  Gino let go of my skull long enough to turn around and scream at the pissed off blonde.

  “Shut up cunt, or you’ll be next!”

  I felt Gino slump on me then. I pushed him off and looked up to see the blonde heaving with the exertion that came from clocking Gino with the butt of the gun. That coming after shooting the hell out of the ceiling.

  She extended her hand, pulled me up and said, “Sugar, the guy’s a bastard. Now get your sweet ass out of here and never come back.

  Gino started moaning. The blonde and I looked at each other and ran like hell.

  Chapter 5

  I wasn’t sure I could make it home. My head was pounding and my cheek felt slick with blood. I wondered if I would need stitches on my face. I was sick with the knowledge that Gino would come after me now and vaguely wondered if I needed to worry about Jamie as well.

  My hands were trembling so hard I could barely drive. I decided to pull into the back of my house and go through the cellar as a precaution. My eyes welled up with tears. I wasn’t a crier. Self-indulgent tears had been one of the luxuries I wouldn’t allow myself. I had learned to keep my feelings bottled up until the emotion passed. The few times I had allowed myself tears, I had cried for so long and hard that I couldn’t stop for hours. Opening those flood guides was a bad idea for me. But it had been a really, really shitty few days.