by Zoey Parker
“Your sister okay?” Jameson asked, never taking his eyes off the screen.
“Yeah, she’s just resting.” Zack put his feet up on the coffee table, feeling a pang in his chest remembering how his mother used to always object to such a stance.
“Feet off the table,” she’d tell Zack sternly as she playfully swatted at him with a rolled-up newspaper.
“You heard your Mother,” his father would chip in from where he was sat in the kitchen reading a book.
With a dramatic teenage sigh, Zack would drop his feet and glare at his mother. Looking back, he couldn’t believe that he ever wasted even a second feeling negatively towards her. If only he’d known back then that every moment with his parents was precious and to be cherished.
Jameson also propped his feet up on the table, his face starting to get flushed. Zack thought of his sister and wondered if his friend would be able to resist going to pay her a visit once he was fully aroused.
Chapter Eighty-Five
Brittany pushed her upper body out through the window, grateful that it was a single story house. She dropped her rucksack out onto the soft grass and then, as gracefully as possible, she followed after it. She landed on the ground with a dull thud and froze for a moment, her heart racing, waiting for Zack to come bounding into her bedroom demanding to know what the hell she was doing. She sunk low against the wall to avoid detection, but her bedroom remained silent and still, no one appeared.
Dressed in skinny jeans and dark green hooded sweatshirt, Brittany began to creep her way around to the front of her house. She’d sent Max a message before climbing through the window, telling him to meet her on the small bridge just outside of town. If she ran, she could be there in ten minutes, but she needed to avoid the main roads. Barely daring to breathe, she fumbled her way around to the driveway and then sprinted off towards the road, past the neat row of houses she’d grown up among. She kept running, not daring to look back. Her hair tumbled into her eyes, and she didn’t bother to knock it away. All that mattered was putting as much distance between herself and her house as possible.
Each time the beam of a headlight drew up, Brittany panicked. Twice she flung herself into some bushes. But the lights always continued on, oblivious to her presence.
“Nearly there,” Brittany told herself breathlessly as the bridge came into view up ahead. Her whole body trembled uneasily, and she yearned to fling herself into Max’ protective embrace and just remain there forever. Despite the choices he’d made, the company he kept, she still loved him and believed that they could have a future together. If only Zack weren’t caught up in all the gang mess, they could make a clean break and just run off. But she wasn’t about to leave her brother to fend for himself. With Max, she would go back and plead with him to turn his back on his pack, on his life of violence and crime.
Guilt caused Brittany to choke and stumble on the road. Rough asphalt connected with her outstretched hands as she fell. She was the reason Zack was involved with the Reapers. It was his feelings of duty towards her which had made him join the pack, had made him make all his bad life choices. Brittany was softly crying as she clambered up to her feet and dusted herself off. Her sobs caught in her throat when she looked up at the bridge and saw Max standing in the center of it, backlit by the moonlight, looking so handsome, so perfect.
Her knees buckled, threatening to not carry her the rest of the way. But thankfully, he turned and saw her, his chiselled features warming with a broad smile and he was running, running to scoop her up into his arms and spin her around. It was like something out of a movie and for several blissful minutes, Brittany forgot all about the motorcycle gangs and the fear polluting her veins. She thought only of Max and how good it felt to be with him once again.
Chapter Eighty-Six
The women on the television were still writhing all over each other. The taller one had lowered herself so that she was now gently sucking the other’s clitoris, her tongue expertly easing against the nub, the well-placed camera catching every intimate moment.
“Okay,” Jameson clapped his hands together and stood up. “I’m going to go and check on your sister.”
Zack tensed. He knew what his friend could be like with women. He could be charming and sweet, he could also be forceful when he didn’t get his way.
“If she’s not into it, just back off, you hear me?” Zack warned tersely as Jameson sauntered off down the hallway, not acknowledging his comment.
Looking back at the television Zack considered playing with himself right there on the couch. His hand already rubbing his hard cock through his jeans, keen to pull them down and give himself some much needed sexual release.
“Hey,” Jameson was calling him. With a groan of annoyance, Zack spun around on the couch to look at his friend. Jameson was in the doorway to Brittany’s bedroom, one hand shoved into his pocket.
“What is it?” Zack demanded angrily.
“We have a problem.” Jameson explained.
“If she’s asleep, just let her rest,” Zack exclaimed.
“It’s not that,” Jameson was shaking his head and intermittently glancing into Brittany’s bedroom.
“Then what is it?” Zack had no time for this. He stood up and glared down the hallway at his sheepish friend. “Well?” he prompted heatedly when Jameson remained silent.
“She’s not here,” Jameson explained softly.
“What?!” Zack narrowed his eyes and tried not to give into his rising levels of annoyance. “What do you mean she’s not there?”
“I mean,” Jameson gestured in to the bedroom, “that she’s not here. The window is open and the room is empty. There’s no Brittany. Your sister is gone.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Zack sprinted towards Jameson and gazed into the empty room to see that his friend was right. Brittany was gone. All that remained were the curtains which flapped in the cool night breeze, taunting them.
“Fuck!” Zack pressed his hands to his temples and kicked at her bedroom door. “Fuck!” he yelled again. With Brittany gone they wouldn’t be able to go and join the rest of the Red Riders until she was found.
“This is so what we don’t need right now!” Zack raged. “Fuck!”
Chapter Eighty-Seven
Max breathed her in as he held her against his chest. She smelled so sweet, like cherries and cinnamon. His entire body trembled with the relief of holding her again.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered breathlessly. “I’m so sorry for everything.”
Standing on the small bridge just outside of town, they were silhouetted against a darkening sky. Max wanted to keep holding onto her never letting her go. But he couldn’t stop thinking about the gang he’d left behind. Even though Henry said he didn’t need to, Max lifted his head and glanced over his shoulder. Behind him the road was empty in the twilight, his bike rested against the brick bridge.
“It’s okay,” Brittany reassured him as she burrowed deeper against his chest. “I forgive you.”
Max bit back tears. He knew that he didn’t deserve her forgiveness. Before she came along, his life had been a string of bad choices and only now did he see the path he should take clearly laid out before him.
“There’s no excuses for the things I’ve done in my past,” he sighed, running a hand up and down Brittany’s back. “I’ve hurt people, Brittany. I’ve hurt them and not even cared about it.”
“But you see it. You don’t deny and get defensive about it. You know how bad you fucked up,” Brittany leaned back and looked up at him, her eyes sparkling as though they held fallen stars. “You want to break away, to move on with your life.”
“Yes,” Max agreed emphatically. “More than anything I want to move on now, to start a life with you away from them, away from all their expectations of me.”
“I wish my brother felt like that,” Brittany looked forlorn as she stepped away from Max and wandered sadly back along the bridge.
“Did you… ask him about it
?” Max hated that he’d been the one to tell Brittany just who her brother was. He understood why her brother would have been keeping the secret from her, seeing as how Max had been keeping his own secrets for the same reasons.
“No,” Brittany replied tightly, pulling her arms together across her chest. “I just left,” she hung her head shamefully. “I figured it would be easier to talk to him about leaving his pack together.”
Max tensed. She was expecting him to talk to her brother? A Red Riders member? Such a conversation would inevitably end in bloodshed. Even though Max had no intention to ride again with his own gang, in the eyes of the Riders, her brother’s membership to his own pack had a lifetime guarantee.
“He won’t listen to me,” Max insisted. “Besides, there’s no time. We need to get out of here, Brittany, before anyone comes looking for us.”
“We have to talk to him!” Brittany looked at him pleadingly. “We have to go back and talk Max out of fighting your pack. I can’t just run away from him.” Her beautiful face crumpled with hurt. Max rubbed his hand against the back of his neck and tried to think. He knew that they were already wasting precious time. They should be out on the open road putting as many miles between them and his uncle, as possible. Max still wasn’t sure he trusted Henry, but he had no choice but to heed the other man’s advice. Especially when it meant that he was now able to be with Brittany. But he didn’t want their time together to be short lived. He had to keep her safe.
“We really need to go,” Max looked at his bike, yearning to get on it and leave nothing but a trail of dust in its wake.
“Please,” Brittany approached him and reached for his hands, cupping them in her own. “I have to go back for Zack. I have to at least try to reason with him.”
“And what if it doesn’t work?” Max countered sharply. “What if we go there, white flags waving, and he still guns me down.”
“He wouldn’t do that!” Brittany objected, her voice high-pitched with horror.
“He’d do far worse than that,” Max told her flatly. “And the ties we have to our packs, it runs deep, deeper than blood. We pledge our lives to our packs.”
“So how can you just turn your back on that pledge now?”
“Because of you,” Max reached for her delicate face and drew her close to him. She looked so perfect in the fading light. She opened her mouth to speak, but he kissed her deeply, silencing her words. When they parted, her eyes glistened with joy.
“Don’t you think Zack will abandon his pack for me too?” she asked softly. Max wanted to tell her what she wanted to hear, that yes, of course her brother would leave his gang for her. But the truth was that he wouldn’t. He loved Brittany but not like Max did. For Max, Brittany was his destiny, his future, and for Zack she was a link to his past, someone he’d forever feel responsible for.
“I have to ask,” Brittany stated contritely, sensing Max’ misgivings.
“We don’t have time.”
“We’ll make time,” Brittany was approaching his motorcycle with quick, determined steps. Max groaned in frustration before jogging after her.
“This is a bad idea,” he warned as he swung his leg over. Brittany climbed on behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist. It felt good to have her so close. With them both on the bike, it truly felt like them against the world. Max had to fight the urge to take off in the opposite direction and just burn rubber until the streets around them became blurred and alien.
“Do this for me, please,” Brittany was speaking directly into his ear; her breath feather light and hot.
“Okay,” Max turned the throttle on his bike and the engine purred to life. “We’ve got one hour. That’s at most.” he told her before roaring off into the night.
Chapter Eighty-Eight
Nancy had drawn all the drapes in her apartment and sat on her sofa, her legs curled up beneath her as she held a large mug of hot cocoa and watched a marathon of Next Top Model. She had no intention of leaving the safety of her home until the following morning. Over the sound of the television, she strained to hear any sides of chaos drifting in from the outside but so far the evening had been still.
She was about to fast forward through an ad break when her phone whirred to life on her nearby coffee table. Nancy strained forward to glance at the screen. Zack was calling her. She groaned and considered just letting the call ring out and have her answering machine pick it up. But after the fifth ring, she conceded and grabbed the device, pressing down hand on the green answer button.
“Hello?” annoyance flooded her voice, making it sound much sharper than usual.
“Is Brittany with you?” Zack barked the question at her.
“Wait, what?” Nancy blinked and lowered her cup of sweet hot chocolate to the nearby table. “You call me up and the first thing you do is bark a question at me like some sort of drill sergeant!”
“I don’t have time for this,” Zack groaned. “Is she there or not?”
“No.” Nancy was alone in her apartment and she intended on keeping it that way, at least until the trouble in town had blown over.
“Shit.”
“Zack, what’s going on? Where is Brittany?”
“If I knew that I wouldn’t be calling you asking that very question! Fuck!”
Nancy could feel her chest tightening with panic. Where was Brittany? Surely she was secure in her own apartment. She hadn’t been foolish enough to leave, had she? To seek out her biker boyfriend?
“She’s probably just at her apartment,” Nancy said logically.
“No, I took her from there,” Zack replied tersely. “I bought her home.”
“Why?”
“You know why.” Ice coated each word Zack spoke.
“How bad are things going to get here?” Nancy glanced dubiously at her concealed windows, her vow not to leave that night strengthening with each passing second.
“Bad. Really bad.”
“Jesus.”
“And now Brittany has up and left my place,” Zack admitted. He sounded so desperate, so out of control. So unlike his usual strong self.
“Do you have any idea where she might be?” Nancy wondered, wishing there was some way she could help. Brittany was a sweet girl, she certainly didn’t want to see her pulled into all the biker’s mess and possibly hurt.
“No,” Zack sighed. “I’ve got my mate running laps around the block searching for her, I’ve called you. She must be with that… bastard.”
“Probably.”
“I’m going to fucking kill him.”
“Don’t you think you need to let all this hate go?” Nancy suggested. “After all, the reason Brittany is in danger is because of all the hate you harbor towards this other gang.”
“Don’t talk about things you know nothing about!” Zack raged down the phone.
“Don’t make assumptions about me,” Nancy’s rebuttal was swift. “You’re not the only one who got dealt a shitty hand in life, Zack. But other people don’t allow it to weigh them down like you do, they don’t wear their tragedy on their sleeve, like some heinous accessory.”
Zack hung up. Nancy blinked at her phone in surprise, and then put it down and continued to fast forward through the ad break on the television.
Chapter Eighty-Nine “She’s here,” Jameson ran into the house, just as Zack was angrily shoving his cell phone back in the pocket of his jeans.
“You found her?” Zack felt hope swell inside him, warm and pleasant. Of course, Jameson had found her, it wasn’t like Brittany could have gotten far.
“Not exactly,” Jameson jerked his head behind him to the driveway. The thunderous roar of a bike engine erupted across the neighborhood. Zack watched the motorcycle approach the house in disbelief, its single headlight illuminating the house as it turned to the driveway. Even in the darkness, he could make out his sister clinging to the rider like a limpet out at sea. He ground his teeth together and cracked his knuckles. Had Brittany really been foolish enough to bring a riv
al gang member to his home?
“Go grab the crowbar,” Zack ordered his friend, never taking his eyes off the rider who was now turning off the engine, killing the headlights, and climbing off his motorcycle. Brittany held his hand in hers as they came towards the house, her hair wild around her head from her time on the bike. Zack steeled himself. The fight had now moved from Colridge to his own living room. So be it. He’d still do the Red Riders proud, still honor all his pack brothers. There was no way he was letting him walk out of his house alive.
Chapter Ninety