Dancing With Danger

by Christine Michelle

  “I found out a few days ago,” she admitted. “I overheard him making the plans. That’s when I knew I had to escape and get to Ghost so he could help me make sure you weren’t sent there. Other girls…” she choked on a sob. “I knew other girls that were sent to him. Crank showed me the films they were in after…” Luanne swallowed hard. “I couldn’t let them do that to you.”

  “You tried to have me kidnapped from my father before, yes?” I asked without a hint of emotion in my words.

  “I tried to get you back with me, with your momma, where you belonged,” she told me as tears built and shimmered in her eyes.

  “What exactly did you think was going to happen to me if you got me?” I asked.

  She just looked at me as tears fell from her eyes. “You were my daughter. I just wanted you with me. You were my heart, and it was missing.”

  “Are you fond of having your heart stabbed out of your chest?” Her head flinched back from my question, and the glazed look in her eyes told me she didn’t understand where I was coming from. “What did you think would happen to me if your husband got a hold of me? Me – the daughter of his enemy.”

  She shook her head back and forth violently. “No, it wasn’t like that. You were MY daughter!”

  “In the world I remembered growing up in I was Marcus Kinkaid’s daughter. But in your world I was Brazen’s daughter. He was the enemy of your husband. I was the embodiment of the fact that you did more than gather information from Brazen. I became the proof that you weren’t careful with what you were doing with another man. I am sure that was an insult to Crank’s ego, wasn’t it? How could it not be?”

  She was full on crying now. “So, Luanne, what did you think he would do to me if you had gotten a hold of me? Were you that selfish that you wanted me to endure torture at your husband’s hands just to have me near you? Or perhaps it would be your other daughter who was allowed to torture me instead of him, because she hates me. You bred that hate by constantly moaning about missing your daughter, your heart. You had another child though, one that was there with you already, and belonged to that world. Why did you need me too?”

  “Because she was born of evil, and so she became evil!” Luanne spouted out rather loudly. I wasn’t sure if the rooms were soundproofed, but if not, Sheri Lynn had to hear the words her mother shouted since she was being held in the very next room. “She learned from her father. You learned from yours. You were everything sweet and pure that a daughter should be.”

  “And you wanted me in the same environment that tainted your other daughter?” I asked incredulously.

  “I would have done better protecting you,” she stated, though it was clear she didn’t believe her own words.

  “How old is Sheri Lynn?” I asked, changing the subject, because that line of questions was getting me nowhere. It was evident my mom had a few screws loose. Whether she had always been like that, or had it beaten into her remained to be seen.

  “Sheri’s 32. I was 17 years old when Crank found me walking home from school. He took me, put me on his bike, and drove away with me to his clubhouse. He kept me there for 16 days. He raped me repeatedly. Brutally. I had been a virgin when that happened.” Luanne stared at the ceiling as she told her story. “Nothing I said made him stop. If I cried, it was that much worse. When I fought…” her voice cracked. “He liked when I fought back. It fueled him somehow. He took me again and again and again. The only thing he didn’t do was allowing his other men to have me too. He said I was his alone. Since I was a virgin I was safe pussy, and he didn’t have to wear a rubber.

  “What didn’t click for him was that I was a virgin, and had no reason to be on birth control. He took me out one day to go get me some clothes since he’d shredded the last decent thing he’d had there for me. When he did, I was able to slip away. I made it home. I told the police. I told my parents. I did everything I was supposed to do when bad things happen to you. It was a month later when I found out I was carrying the monster’s child. When my parents found out they were devastated. They were also terrified. They made plans to send me away, but it didn’t matter. He’d found me by then. He murdered them. He did it right in front of me. The man just put a gun to my dad’s head and pulled the trigger. Then he made me watch as his guys raped my mom repeatedly before putting a bullet in her brain too. I had a sister who hadn’t come back home from school yet.

  “He promised to leave Janine alone if I just went with him. So, I did. I couldn’t save my parents, but I could save my sister. I made him prove to me that she was okay periodically. He did. Janine went to live with our Aunt Nancy, and she grew up happy and healthy. She’s married now and has four kids of her own. I traded my life for hers that day, and I have never regretted it.” Jesus. I was seriously regretting ever eating today. My stomach roiled as I listened to this woman’s story. She wasn’t done yet though. She looked past me into the room, into the eyes of the man that could never be forgotten. “I know what you really want to know.”

  “And are you going to tell us?” Ghost asked. He didn’t seem at all phased by her story except for the way he was working his fingers in a tighter fist then releasing, then clenching again.

  Luanne nodded. “Crank came up with a plan to destroy your club. He wanted the guns and drugs he thought you guys were running through Cedar Falls. The Tribe usually operated out of Richmond, Virginia, but they were trying to branch out west at the time and it seemed like one little MC in West Virginia was killing his hopes of running a straight line through to Louisville, Cincinnati, and Columbus. They already had a charter in Indianapolis too. It just made sense to go through West Virginia rather than around. Every time they did your guys were hitting their shipments though. It was as if you had a man on the inside telling you exactly where and when to be.”

  She looked at Ghost for confirmation, but he gave her nothing so she continued. “When he couldn’t figure it out he started prepping me. I was to go in and get close to you. You were the original target, but you had Celia. Crank hadn’t done his homework well enough back then. He thought she was just some slut. He didn’t realize some men actually value their women. When it was obvious to me that you were not going to be able to be pulled away from Celia’s attention I focused on Brazen. He was the one paying me the most attention anyway, so it seemed like the easiest in.”

  “How did you pass information to Crank?”

  “He would meet me at the grocery store. I went every Tuesday and Thursday like clockwork to give him updates. After a while, he must have worried that I was falling for Marcus, because he started bringing pictures with him of my sister and her new boyfriend. Later, he brought me pictures of her children too in order to keep me in line. When I ended up pregnant again, after Marcus proved that Charlie was his, that’s when Crank decided I wasn’t useful there anymore. I had that test in the fifth month to check for abnormalities. Crank had them draw enough for a DNA test when I went. The boy was his. He wanted to pull me out of there in order to keep the boy for himself.

  “He staged the accident, but it didn’t go the way he had planned it, and well you know I lost the baby. I came close to losing my life too, and some days I wish I had.”

  “What do you get out of this little visit?” Ghost asked. “What do you get out of telling us the truth after all this time?”

  “I got to see my Charlie one last time. I knew I was a dead woman the moment I went to you. Crank already has a new girl, a younger one. Hell, she’s younger even than his own daughter. He doesn’t need me around for anything anymore. I’m a traitor to your club for what I did to save my sister. I’m a traitor to his for coming here. Either way, I’m dead. I just hoped that I could see my girl one more time. I still hope that you’ll kill the bastard so my sister stays safe.” Luanne shrugged. “She’s lived a long, happy life already. I can’t keep suffering for her any more though.”

  I had heard enough. I didn’t know if I should feel bad because this woman selflessly gave her life over to the mon
ster who stole her innocence in order to save her sister from the same fate, or if I should hate her because of how she had tricked my father and stolen a piece of his life away. My brain swirled with confusion and I just needed to get out of that room for some fresh air. I glanced over my shoulder at Rage, who had stood at my back rubbing circles there the entire time my mother spoke. He was a comfort, but right now it wasn’t enough. “Get me out of here,” I whispered to him. He nodded and moved to push my chair out of the room.

  “No! Wait!” My mother shouted, desperation evident in her voice. “Please, don’t go. I just want to know that I’m forgiven. If I could have chosen my life I would have given anything for what I had with Brazen to have been real. For our family to have been the real one.” Tears streamed hot rivulets down her face, and my own were a matching force to be reckoned with.

  “It’s not my place to forgive you. That’s up to my daddy wherever he is now. Thank you for telling us your story, and I am very sorry that happened to you.” I tapped Rage’s hand to let him know I wanted to leave now.

  “Please, Charlie, don’t go,” she pleaded as we left the room. Was it heartless after hearing her story? I didn’t know. She was still the same woman who had wanted to willingly kidnap me to put me in the middle of that hateful world she described. So, I didn’t have too much sympathy for her. I’m sure her warped sense of the world around her was a product of being trapped in that environment so long, but that just wasn’t my problem to have to sort through in that moment.

  “That was a lot to take in,” Rage finally said to me as he pushed my chair up the ramp that lead to the main floor. “How are you doing?”

  “I seriously need some ice cream with lots of chocolate,” I sighed out.

  “Let’s go see what the women have hidden away in the kitchen then.” Rage wheeled me in there, made me the biggest damn ice cream Sunday I’d ever seen and then sat with me to help eat it.

  “Do you want to talk about it?” He asked.

  “I don’t know what to say,” I offered with a shrug of my shoulders as I scooped another spoonful into my mouth. I moved the spoon around to indicate the food we were eating. “I know this seems weird, but my dad used to give me ice cream whenever things didn’t go my way. He said, ‘I don’t know how to deal with girl tears, so just eat this, it will make it all better.’” I smiled through tears that welled up with the memory. “He was completely clueless about what to do with teenage me when it came time for my periods, but he tried in his own way, and I loved him all the more for it.”

  Rage smiled as I remembered my dad. “I don’t know how to reconcile the life he thought he lived with the reality. A part of me understands the gun my mother was under, but then I can’t condone her ruining other people’s lives either. You know? How do I wrap my head around the fact that her reality is so warped she would have taken me to that environment as a young child, or even now as an adult woman? She had to know what would happen to me.”

  “Darlin’, I don’t think your mom is all there. From the sounds of it, she hasn’t been for a long damn time. I can’t regret the way she played your father, because you’re here. I don’t think he’d regret it either, because it would mean his life would have been emptier for the lack of you.”

  I turned my watery smile up at my man then. “I guess you’re right about that part, but I don’t want anything more to do with that woman or her other daughter if it’s all the same.”

  “I will make sure no one even thinks to ask you to speak to them again, and if anyone does you let me know so that I can explain where they went wrong with my fists.”

  “I don’t think that will be necessary,” a man said from just behind me. I turned to see turquoise eyes staring down at me. “You mind sharing that? I could use a bit of a sugar rush after that absolute shit show of a history lesson.”

  I pushed the bowl further over on the table and nodded my head back toward the drawer where the spoons were. “Spoons are in there, help yourself.” I glanced up at Rage. “I think he thought he was feeding an elephant when I asked for a bowl of ice cream.” Rage just grinned at me.

  “Ah, he’s just doing right by his woman. I would have done the same for my Jamie too, you know. I was a lot like your dad after my wife died. Well, actually, scratch that. I was a single parent with one daughter too, but I checked out for a long time after I lost Celia, and Jamie suffered for it. I’m man enough to own that. But on the few occasions I bothered to be a decent father, I would shove ice cream at her problems too.” Ghost informed me with a wan smile.

  “Did you learn from your mistakes though?” I asked, sensing sadness in him when it came to his daughter.

  He nodded. “Still learning every day. Your dad did right by you, girl. I should have followed his example.”

  That made me smile. “My dad was amazing. I’m sure you’ll make up for whatever shortcomings you had while you were grieving. You already admitted the problem. That’s the first step, right?”

  “Sure is. Hopefully, you’ll be able to meet my Jamie some time. She’s close to your age, a couple years younger though. She was just a little thing when everything happened and your dad took you away. I have a feeling the two of you would have been best of friends if you and your dad had stuck around the clubhouse. She could have used that too.” With that, Ghost took one more spoonful of the swiftly melting ice cream mess and then smiled over at Rage. “You keep her safe, and love her fiercely. Her father wouldn’t have put up with anything less from her old man. You hear?”

  “You have my word, brother. She will never know another bad day if I can help it, and when she does, I will be there with ice cream to pull her out of it.” He winked at me then, and my heart melted a little more. If this man kept it up I would be in puddles, boneless at his feet. With that said, Ghost and Rage cleaned up the mess while I sat there and prayed Doc had ESP and would come to me with more pain meds. My head, shoulder, knee, and ribs all seemed to be throbbing in time with my every heartbeat. “Rage, can you get Doc?” I finally asked as he finished toweling off the bowl he’d washed.

  “Yeah, darlin’. I’ll have him meet us upstairs that way you can be comfortable when he gives you the good stuff.”

  That was an idea I could definitely get behind. As much as I didn’t want it earlier, sweet oblivion was definitely calling my name now. Part of me wanted to escape the pain aching through my body, but the other part of me just needed to shut down and process the lifetime of suffering my mom had just spelled out for us. When this was over I was going to find my aunt and go have a sit down chat with her about my grandparents, about her life, and about how her sister sacrificed so much for her. She should at least know that much. My mom was right about one thing, no matter how you cut it she had screwed over two MCs. One of them certainly deserved her wrath while she hurt the other one to save her family. Either way, she was a traitor to both, and I didn’t see how any of them could grant her mercy.

  ~*~

  When I awoke it was to the men scrambling around with a plan in place. While I had been tucked away in my chemical cocktail coma reality had continued on without me. Agent Gordon Cooper had called to give the MC the heads up that Crank and his crew were on the way to the clubhouse to demand the release of his daughter. He apparently wasn’t aware that we also had his wife. Either that or he really didn’t care about her, but I honestly don’t think he’d make it that easy for her to get away even if he had replaced her with a younger model already. I’m pretty sure that was supposed to be part of her torture, seeing him with another woman.

  At any rate, he was making demands, and was apparently ready to huff and puff, and blow the house down. Our job, or the Aces High MC’s job to pay Agent Cooper back for all his help was to stall The Tribe out front of the clubhouse long enough for them to set up a secure net around the place so they could be sure to pick each and every single one of those bastards up and hopefully bury them somewhere deep in the criminal justice system.

  “I still
don’t like it. I get that the fed did us some favors by providing intel and setting up that giant clusterfuck in an attempt to fake Charlie’s death to get them to come out of hiding, but they’re asking us to let that fucker live and be tried by the system.” Rage was arguing when I got downstairs.

  “I get that you’re angry, but you know as well as I do that The Tribe hasn’t made many friends in the MC world. None of those bastards will last long on the inside, no matter where they put them.” Iceman countered.

  “Fuck man,” Rage glared over at Ghost then. “You can’t tell me you don’t a little personal fuckin’ justice considering Brazen was your man, and it was your club that was infiltrated.”

  “I’d love nothing more than to get a piece of him, especially after hearing what he’s been doing to Luanne all this time, but son, I’ve been around this world probably twice as long as you have, and I promise you sometimes you have to play the long game to find peace and satisfaction. What happens if we shoot, miss, and he is the one who slips through our fingertips? Your woman will be looking over her shoulder the rest of her life. I dare say she’s probably tired as shit of being cooped up in this clubhouse, even if it is a giant fucking monstrosity built on a house of horrors.”

  Ghost had a point, and once again reminded me that this place was creepy as fuck just beneath the surface areas that the club had tried to cozy up with the motorcycle memorabilia and bits of Americana hanging from its walls.

  “Okay, fine, but you know if we use them as bait the chances they’ll live through an exchange are slim. Luanne came to you of her own free will this time and not as his pawn. He won’t think twice about offing her. Can’t say for certain what he’ll do with his own daughter.” Rage posed the questions to the audience at large that consisted of Iceman, Ghost, Spinner, Shameless, and Rabbit.

  “Why don’t you give the two of them the choice to be used as bait? Obviously they don’t have to know they’re bait. Just that Crank is here and you’re either offering them protection from him or turning them over to him. This way it is their choice. Then, whatever they choose is on them and not on anyone here if things go wrong.” Everyone stopped and stared at me as if I had two heads then. “Sorry, I know this is a boys club, but since I share DNA with the people in question I figured I should get a say.”