by Kay Maree
“I’ve only met him briefly with Hawk, it’s just a shame he has the daddy he has, he is a sweet boy,” Angel said wistfully.
The three women sat quietly for a moment, all lost in thought. Lyric wondered if they were thinking of Pitt and Hawk also. Both men had grown to be her friends in that prison. She wished there was a way to protect Pitt. Gable would have known that he was the one to take her away from him and he would have made Pitt pay, she could only hope that he survived anything that Gable did to him. She wanted to save him, she wanted to protect him like he had her, but she didn’t even know where the place was that she was kept, so didn’t know how to reach him.
Hadley cleared her throat and picked up the bowl of soup, and a spoon before handing it to Lyric, encouraging her to eat. As soon as the hot chicken broth touched Lyric’s tongue, she had to force herself to slow down to prevent from gulping it down. She didn’t realize how hungry she was until that moment. Lyric moaned in enjoyment as the flavor burst in her mouth.
“I can’t say I’ve ever had my soup sound so good before,” Hadley chuckled.
“It’s delicious,” Lyric said, her face flaming with embarrassment at the noises that she was making.
Once Lyric scooped the last spoon full of soup into her mouth, her stomach was full, and her eyes were drooping with contented sleepiness.
“Let’s get you a shower and while you’re in there, I’ll change the sheets, and get you a fresh shirt and some panties to sleep in, then you can get some more rest. Doc said it’s going to take a while before your body is healed, and back to normal, you are going to be tired and probably sore for a while,” Angel explained, as she helped Lyric to stand from the bed.
The shower was heavenly, even with the awkwardness of Hadley holding her up. Lyric didn’t realize how weak she had become, but just standing was more than she could cope with. Once Hadley finished washing Lyric’s hair, careful, not to press too hard on the stitched wound on the back of her head and helped her to wash, she flipped the water off and helped Lyric to dry her body. Just the extra movement was exhausting, so, by the time she got back to the bed, and slipped into the oversized t-shirt and brand-new panties that Angel handed her, she was more than ready for sleep. Her head had no sooner hit the pillow before sleep overcame her and she was enveloped in a peaceful slumber.
CHAPTER NINE
X
When X and Blaine came back from Lyric’s home, they sat at the bar with Arsen while he went through everything that he found out. X sighed, this was a mess, this poor kid now had no family, because of his enemies. Gable was fucked up, that was expected when he is the byproduct of his father and sister fucking to make him. X ran his hands up over his face and leaned back on the stool, letting the chatter around him drift away.
“What’s the story Blaine?” Angel asked from behind them.
Blaine and X turned around to look at her, she had grown up in the club just like he and Blaine did, she knew how everything worked, but nothing like this had happened to them before. X wasn’t sure what Blaine was thinking and how he was going to handle it. Technically they didn’t have to do anything for the girl, they could just drop her off at the police station and let her go. She had a place to live, it was full of blood stains and bullet holes, but it would be easy fixed. However, the more X thought about letting her go, the more he wanted to hold onto her. She had gotten right under his skin and he hadn’t even spoken to her yet. X shook his head and closed his eyes, shaking the thoughts of a broken girl out of his mind.
“She has no one left. The house was full of blood stains from where her brothers and father died, there are bullet holes in doors and walls. She isn’t going to want to go back there, and I don’t know if she has money that she can fix the place anyway,” Blaine said with a shake of his head.
They might have been big bad bikers, men who in public would never show that they cared, but all the men that had seen Lyric lying there helpless, covered in bruises felt something. Knowing that her whole family had been killed and she had been tortured for what had nothing to do with her, and as far as she knew had nothing to do with her family just made everything worse.
“Shit, what are you thinking about doing?” Angel asked.
Blaine sighed and shook his head, “I don’t know, love, we are going to have to tell her. She is eighteen, it’s up to her what she wants to do, we can take her to the cops, but you and I both know they aren’t going to do anything. Gable is as untouchable as we are.”
Angel nodded and bit her lip as she tried to come up with a solution. “Who is going to tell her?”
“I will,” X said.
Blaine, Arsen and Angel all looked up at him with wide eyes and their mouth dropping open. He wasn’t known as having a heart, that’s why he was the executioner, he hated, he was angry and had a chip on his shoulder. He would never usually give a shit about a kid, but she reminded him so much of Bree, that he needed to help her, he needed to do what he failed to do with Bree, he needed to keep Lyric safe.
“Are you sure man?” Blaine asked.
X frowned and nodded his head, sighing, “this girl, I can’t explain it, but she has wormed her way in here,” he said tapping his chest over his heart.
Blaine frowned but nodded his head, “she’s not Bree man, just keep that in mind.”
X sighed again nodding, before he turned on his heel and headed for his bedroom. He gave a sharp knock on the door and listened, when he heard Lyric call out to come in, he quietly opened the door and poked his head in.
Lyric smiled sweetly at him when he stepped in and shut the door behind him, “hello,” she said.
Her voice had a husky quality to it, she reminded him of a blues singer. X could close his eyes and listen to her talk all day. She was beautiful. He noticed that she had been up and showered, the dark blood that had stained her blonde hair was gone, her eyes looked brighter than they had, she still was painfully thin under the blanket. He noticed for the first time that she was wearing one of his t-shirts, he liked it. He wanted to see it on her all the time, he also had an urge to tear it off her and show her how a man should treat her.
“Hello Lyric,” he said clearing his throat. “My name is Maverick, or X, that’s what they all call me here anyway. How are you feeling?”
She smiled at him again and fingered the ends of her blonde hair, “I’m doing alright, just sore and a bit sleepy. Did you find my dad?”
X sighed and moved further into the room to sit on the chair that was beside her bed. He looked down at his hands, before looking up at her. His face must have said everything, as her eyes widened, and tears welled up in her eyes.
“I’m sorry, we went to the house and the shop. Arsen, investigated the police records, unfortunately your father and brothers were killed, the night that you were taken,” X said sadly.
Lyric nodded her head, before a huge sob bubbled from her chest and fell from her lips. Tears started to streak down her face and sobs fell from her mouth, her whole-body shuddering under the weight of her pain. X didn’t think, he reached out and took her in his arms, pulling her into his lap. Lyric buried her face into his chest. X rubbed her back and rocked her back and forth, holding her tight to him while she cried. He kissed the top of her hair.
They sat for an hour or two while she continued to sob, eventually he looked down and noticed that Lyric had fallen asleep. He gently slid her back into the bed and pulled the blanket up to her chest. As X went to move away, she started to sob again, in her sleep. X pulled his boots and jeans off, before sliding in beside her. He wrapped her up in his arms, and her tears eased. He lay there allowing sleep to take over him, with a pretty girl in his arms. Something he hadn’t done since Bree.
X didn’t know how long they had been asleep for, but he woke up to tender fingers running over his face. He cracked his eyes to see Lyric looking down at him and touching his cheek.
“I’m sorry I fell asleep on you,” she whispered.
Lyric giggled and nodded her head, “I haven’t slept so soundly ever since Gable took me,” she said her voice hitching at the end.
X gently ran his fingers through her hair, careful to avoid the wounds at the back of her head. “What do you want to do now?” he asked.
Lyric shrugged a slim shoulder and sighed, “I don’t know what I can do. Is the house bad?”
X grimaced and nodded his head, “yeah, it’s going to need some new plaster, and some new flooring,” he said.
Lyric sighed and nodded, “I don’t have any money, so, I couldn’t fix it anyway. I guess I can go to a shelter or something.”
“No, you don’t need to do that, you can stay here for as long as you need. I think we contact one of the cops that we are friends with, at least if he knows your alive, there might be more that can be done for you,” X said.
“Maybe, I don’t know if my dad had a will or anything. Not that I care if the house falls down or whatever, but I would like to be able to get some of my mum’s things,” she said.
“I’ll get dressed and get Blaine and Gannon and then we can contact, Steve, he is a detective, he should be able to tell us what is going on with the investigation and what we can do from here on out,” X said, standing from the bed, and slipping his jeans back on.
When he turned back to Lyric, he noticed she was blushing, like she had been checking him out, it caused X to smirk. “I’ll be back in a minute,” he said as he went out to the main bar to find Blaine and hopefully Gannon.
When he came out into the bar, he noticed most of the guys were there, playing pool and drinking. Hadley was running around cleaning up, Johnny was pouring whiskey and beers, while Angel he could see through the window into the kitchen was cooking. X went to the bar and sat in the stool next to Blaine.
“How is she?” he asked looking over at X.
“Yeah, she didn’t take the news really well, she fell asleep sobbing.”
“Poor kid,” Gannon said with a shake of his head.
Gannon was older than Blaine and X, while X’s dad and Blaine’s dad had been killed, Gannon had managed to escape only being shot in the shoulder. He was big and scary looking. One side of his face was a melted scar, that he got when he was five years old and his mum threw boiling water over him as punishment. X’s grandfather shot her in the face while Gannon’s dad was in the hospital trying to save his son.
“I think we need to contact Steve, there has to be something he can do for her, if her dad had a will, what happens with the house and the shop,” X said looking between Blaine and Gannon.
“Yeah,” he said turning to Arsen who was playing pool, “Arsen, come here.”
Arsen came to where they were sitting, “did you find a missing report for Lyric?” Blaine asked.
Arsen nodded his head, “it was a part of the report for the murder, they said that there was a daughter that they believed to be missing, but that’s all I found.”
X frowned, were they even looking for Lyric or did they just assume that she was taken by Gable and give up. “Who was the detective on the case?” X asked.
Arsen frowned and pulled his phone out of his pocket, pulling up the reports and reading through them, “it was James Burton,” he said.
Blaine, Gannon and X all groaned, “well that explains why they didn’t look too hard for the kid,” Gannon said with a sigh.
“Yep,” Blaine agreed.
“What do you mean?” Arsen asked.
“Burton is on Gable’s payroll,” X answered.
“Shit,” Arsen groaned as he realized the problem, “that’s definitely why they didn’t bother looking for her, that’s fucked. I mean I know we do shit that isn’t legal, but kidnapping? That’s fucked.”
“Kidnapping, with the intent to fucking rape her and turn her into some baby factory for Gable’s fucked up needs,” Blaine growled.
X clenched his teeth and shook his head. He already held nothing but hatred for Gable and the whole of the Iron Horsemen, but this situation made him want to go in and burn the place down with all the club members inside.
“I wonder why Pitt saved her then?” Arsen asked.
“That’s a question that I keep asking, X find out what her relationship was like with Pitt and Hawk. Doc said she was still a virgin, so it wasn’t a sexual relationship, but for Pitt to defy his dad like that, something doesn’t sit right with me,” Blaine said.
X nodded and stood up stretching, he had a few questions that he wanted to ask Lyric, the most important one being how it came that Pitt chose to save her.
CHAPTER TEN
Lyric
After X left the room, she lay staring at the ceiling. Her father and brothers were dead. Gable lied to her, not that she was surprised by that. He was willing to beat her and wanted to use her as a brood mare, of course he was willing to lie to her. But she couldn’t understand why he waited so long. He had her there for seven months, and according to X, killed her dad and her brothers on the day that he took her, so why wait seven months before even attempting to rape her. Not that she was complaining, the idea of having him inside her body made nausea overwhelm her. However, it didn’t make any sense. This was a man who killed as often as he brushed his teeth, rape wasn’t any different, and she wouldn’t believe for a minute that it was because he had a conscience. All that bullshit he would spew about her being a willing participant, was just that, bullshit.
The door opened quietly, and Lyric looked over, her body was still healing and because she was still malnourished, she couldn’t walk very well or even sit for long periods of time without becoming exhausted. X came back in the room with another man, who was dressed in a cheap looking suit. His black hair was plastered to his head with sweat and his glasses slid down the end of his nose.
“Lyric, this is Steve, he is a detective and has worked on the case investigating your dad and brothers’ deaths,” X said gently.
Steve stepped forward with a smile and jutted out his fat hand at her, Lyric took it gingerly in hers and gave it a quick shake. Steve sat in the chair beside the bed with a sigh and looked over at her.
“I’m really sorry for what happened to you Lyric and for what you have lost,” Steve began, “can you tell me what happened the night you were taken?”
Lyric nodded her head and began to go over the story with him, how she was cooking dinner when there was a knock at the door, then the two men, Gable and one of his son’s came in looking for whatever her father had supposedly taken from him.
“I know this is going to be a tough question to ask, but your dad or brothers did they ever sell drugs, or even take long trips somewhere?” Steve asked.
Lyric chewed on her lip. She had never seen drugs in the house or the shop before, she would have never thought it possible, but there had to be a reason why Gable killed them, there had to be a reason why he took her. She frowned, thinking back of the random times her brothers or her dad would disappear for a week at a time, they told her it was to get parts they couldn’t get sent to them, but now she wondered. When she looked up at X and Steve, they both were watching her, but their faces said they knew the realization she had just come to.
Nodding her head, Lyric sighed, “I never saw them with any drugs, but they would on different occasions have to leave for a few days to a week. They always told me it was to get parts that they couldn’t get shipped to the shop. I just believed them, but they were lying to me, weren’t they?” she said as tears began to run down over her cheeks.
Steve sighed and nodded his head, “it seems that way. We didn’t see any evidence of drug use or dealing when we looked at the shop or the house, was there somewhere that they would have hidden stuff like that?”
Lyric frowned, as far as she knew the only place that her father kept anything important was in the safe that was i
n the shop. “The safe, how did you get into it?” she asked.
Steve frowned and looked down at his notes, flipping through a few pages before shaking his head, “we didn’t find any evidence of a safe there,” he said.
“It was in the basement of the shop, it’s not hidden or anything,” she said.
X and Steve looked at each other before looking back to her, “would you feel up to coming and showing us?”
Lyric sat up and nodded her head, she was nervous about having to go back to the shop and the house, but she wanted to help, she hoped that there would be evidence that would show that Gable was responsible for her family’s death and that way the police would be able to arrest him. She suddenly frowned, if she was found and they knew that Gable took her, why weren’t they arresting him?
She asked Steve exactly that, he quickly flicked a look over at X before sighing. X sat down on the edge of the bed and took her hand in his, considering his size and how mean he looked, he was so gentle with her.
“Lyric, the thing is, that Gable owns a bike club just like us, they have a heap of the cops in town on their payroll just as we do. So that means that none of the local cops will investigate them, not without their being problems and fallbacks,” X explained.
Lyric frowned, before she looked up at Steve and then at X. “How many cops do you have on your payroll in comparison to Gable?” she asked.
“We have slightly more,” X answered.
“Then it is in your favor, Steve, surely you can do something can’t you?”
Steve blustered before nodding his head and sighing, “I will do what I can,” he said.
Lyric knew the lie straight away, she didn’t know whether he was just trying to make her calm and tell her what she wanted to hear because he couldn’t arrest Gable, or whether he was playing the double agent and was on both Gable and X’s payroll. But she decided to leave it for the time being. She would take them back to the shop and hopefully she would be able to find the evidence that they needed, one way or another, she would have answers.