Terror went for breakfast and coffee. I’m here at the campsite waiting and worrying.
I can’t take this. I need to know she’s okay. I need to know I will see her goofy grin and hear her smart mouth. See her strutting in those short shorts.
I won’t fail Harley.
I can’t.
Terror returns right as I am tempted to set out on my own.
“You look like shit.” He grins, handing me a cup of black coffee and a takeout order.
“You’re no beauty queen yourself.”
“Eat up. You won’t be any good to me dead on your feet.”
I know he’s right. It’s just hard to think about anything but finding Harley and killing that fucker.
While I eat Terror maps out our search.
We don’t know which location Cocky set out for first, but we have to pick one and go with it. For all I know he could have found Harley and is trying to convince her to leave with him instead of me. I know I shouldn’t be having jealous thoughts. Harley is mine and I know that. Cocky will learn soon enough. Bastard can find his own woman if I don’t kill him first.
The first spot on the map is a cave. Only thing there is some old animal bones. Probably served as a winter den for a black bear.
When we get to the second site there is blood splatter on the ground and Cocky’s lighter is in the dirt.
Fuck.
He seems to have been in a struggle.
“Which way?” I ask Terror.
“This way.” I follow him as he moves through the thick woods silent as a damn Ninja.
He comes to an abrupt stop. He motions for me to move up next to him.
There’s a small clearing ahead that holds a rickety cabin.
I can faintly hear music playing.
This has to be that fucker’s hideout.
“I’ll go in quiet. You watch my back. When I give you the clear, move in.”
“Ten-four.”
I watch impatiently as Terror makes it to the back of the cabin. There doesn’t appear to be a back door or any windows. A large pile of firewood is stacked under a small shed.
Terror gives me the signal and we make our way around the left side together to access the situation. First thing I notice is Cocky chained to a tree like an animal. His face already took a beating from me, but he appears to have new injuries. I may not always like the bastard, but no one treats a brother like that and lives to tell about it. Harley is seated at a table with another woman and that creep from what I can gather.
“How many of them do you think there are?”
“I think it’s only them two and Harley,” Terror tells me. “If we move fast we can take them out together. Cocky ain’t going anywhere. Looks like he’s been losing blood from his ankle.”
I look over to where he is slumped and see a dark stain on his jeans. Well shit. “Rescuing him will have to wait.”
“If we go around the side we came from we can get closer behind that outhouse.” Terror points to the makeshift shitter. I wonder how long these folks have been surviving out here in the wild undetected.
The foul smell is enough to kill a man. Not to mention all the damn flies buzzing around. This was a terrible idea, but I don’t tell Terror that. I can see he has regrets by the sour expression on his face.
“Goddamn. Goddamn,” he mutters. “Fuck this.”
“That prick is mine. You can handle the bitch.”
“On my count.” He moves his fingers counting from one to three, then pointing.
We roll in fast and furious. I grab the cocksucker around the throat, putting him in a chokehold as Terror goes to grab the woman. When he goes to hook his arm around her throat her head falls off. Well I guess I should say her skull and the wig she had on.
“Mother of fuck,” Terror curses.
“What in the hell is going on around here?” I look to Harley. She’s dressed up in some getup like an overgrown baby doll. Wearing a white frilly dress and socks with lace ruffles and black dress shoes.
“Momma don’t like bad language,” he croaks out.
“Your Momma is dead, you sick freak. Just like you’re going to be.” I don’t wait for any explanations. I grab my bowie knife from my back pocket with my free hand then I slit his throat.
His eyes go wide, and I revel in him knowing I am the last thing he sees when his lights go out. Motherfucker had it coming. His body slumps forward onto the table ruining their sad picnic that looks to consist of the Lunchables he took from our cooler.
Terror geos over to free Cocky while I tend to Harley. Bastard handcuffed her to the arms of the chair. She still hasn’t spoken, and tears are flowing down her face.
“Hey, I got you. I’m here now.” I tilt her face up and then I see what he did. Her lips have been sewn shut.
I feel blinded with rage and I want to kill that sack of shit all over again. I want to bring him back to life to torture him slowly and methodically.
Terror returns with a limping Cocky leaning on him for support.
Dumbshit got caught in a bear trap and was captured by the Hills Have Eyes looking fucker.
“When we get to the trucks, I’ll call Amber and get her to meet us. She’ll make Harley good as new.”
I find the keys to the cuffs in the dead man’s pocket. I free Harley and she practically leaps into my arms still crying. I wrap my arms around her as her legs go around my waist. I kiss her tear stained cheeks as I carry her the whole way back to camp. My legs are burning, and my arms are aching, but I don’t care. I have Harley back in my arms where she belongs. Where she will stay.
Terror loads Cocky into the back of my truck. There’s a motel not too far once I get on the main road where Amber will be meeting us to tend to him and Harley.
Terror is staying back to burn the cabin of that freak and scrub any traces of our being at the campsite.
All I want to do is get Harley to safety.
Chapter Twenty
—Harley—
Two days later
“I’m fine, Quinn. I promise.” I smile at him for good measure.
He shakes his head.
“Are you sure you’re feeling up to it?”
“I told you. I have to.”
“You’re a grown ass woman. You can do what you want.”
“Exactly. What I want is to go home and see my mom and my brothers. It doesn’t change the way I feel about you.”
He frowns but gives me a nod as I pack my bag. The stalker was caught and dealt with. Turns out he was a thug working under the orders of Tiny Leone. A guy who from my understanding runs the cartel in Texas. It was his house that Sara was found at when Danny kidnapped her for Marek in my place. The whole thing makes my head hurt.
As for that dude in the mountains…we don’t know who he was or where he came from. I’m simply happy that nothing too terrible happened to me. I was afraid the guy was going to rape me, but he had some sick fetish. Told me I looked like his Momma’s favorite doll and that I was gonna be her birthday present.
I didn’t even know Cocky was there until that morning when Wendell, the creepy dude told me he caught a new dog and needed to chain him up. I wanted to help Cocky, but I was scared. I had already been bathed and groomed to look like a doll. At least when he sewed my lips shut he rubbed some toothache gel on them to numb them some.
When Quinn and Terror showed up we were celebrating his Momma’s birthday and they crashed the party. Thank God.
“Will you be back?”
I shrug. “I’m going to a concert with Sara in a month I think. It’s in Nashville. Maybe we could meet up after.”
“So that’s it? You’re just going to go home and pretend none of this happened. That we never happened?”
“What do you want from me, Quinn? I have a job.”
“So, quit. Work for me. Be my assistant. My secretary. I need you, Harley, and I’m asking you to stay. To give me a shot. To be my girl.”
“Want me to stay here and be your
old lady because that ain’t me, babe. I like you. We have a good time together but…all this bad stuff. I don’t want to live it. I don’t want to worry that there will be another bad guy wanting to use me to hurt you. I don’t want to worry that you might not come home one day.”
“Listen, that’s a risk you are going to face no matter who you are with. If you are saying walk away from the club and you’ll be with me then I won’t choose.”
“I’m not asking you to choose. I’m asking you to go at my pace. To see where things go. Danny and Sara made it work. He waited over six months for her.”
“Yeah but he knew where they were headed. He knew he was going to marry her.”
My jaw drops. “Are you saying you want to marry me? Quinn, that’s crazy!?”
He shakes his head and slams the bathroom door.
I feel like I have entered an alternate reality.
A knock sounds at the front door. I know it’s Sara here to drive me back to Drag Creek. She’s taking CT to see her folks.
“Just a sec,” I call out to her. I go over to the bathroom door and tap lightly. “Quinn…Sara’s here. Are you at least going to tell me goodbye?” He says nothing and my heart falls to my feet. I hear his fist hit the wall. “Please, Quinn. Say something.”
The door opens, and he pushes past me. He won’t even look at me, and I don’t know what hurts more. His silence or that he refuses to meet my eyes.
“Just go,” he growls.
“Quinn…don’t be mad at me.”
“I’m not mad at you, Harley. I’m just not strong enough to watch you go. I would walk through fire for you and you can’t even meet me halfway.” He grabs his cigarettes off the counter and takes a beer from the fridge. I pick up my bag as he goes out on the patio and lights up without looking back.
I feel like my heart has been ripped out and stomped on even though I am the one leaving.
——
Drag Creek, Kentucky
It’s been one week since I have been back home. I thought I was okay after everything that has happened but I’m not. I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes I see that creepy guy from the woods and his burned hands coming at my mouth to sew my lips shut.
I don’t know how he ended up in the woods or what happened to make him so sick in the head, but I don’t want to know. I am beyond trying to comprehend the how or why. I only want to forget, but that would mean forgetting parts of my time with Quinn. I don’t know how to be with him and not remember, but I don’t know how to be without him either.
I miss him more than I thought I would.
I miss lying next to him and trading silly questions in the dark.
“You okay, sis?” Axel plops down on the couch next to me at our parent’s house. I haven’t been able to go back to my apartment without thinking of that poor cat laying in the doorway.
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look or sound fine.”
“Can I ask you something?”
“Would you turn away someone you cared about because you asked her to be with you and she said let’s take things slow?”
“I don’t know. It’d take a hell of a lot for me to want to settle down. Who is it?”
“He goes by the name Reaper.”
“As in a member of the Devils Rejects?” he scratches the back of his neck. “Dad will kill him.” He laughs.
“That’s so helpful, shit for brains.”
“I don’t know the dude, but it probably took a lot for him to put himself out there to you like that. Sucks for him that you weren’t on the same page, but if I were him I’d say fuck it and go get some easy pussy from a whore.”
“You’re a jerk.” I pinch his arm
“Ow. Fuck. I was joking.”
“No, you weren’t. No wonder you can’t keep a girlfriend.”
“He can’t keep a woman because he fucks all their friends too,” Abel pipes in as he falls down on the recliner with a joint hanging off his bottom lip.
“If mom catches you you’re dead,” I warn him.
He waves me off. “She’s gone shopping with Aunt Karly. They will be gone till late. What’s your problem, anyway?”
“She’s love sick,” Axel teases.
“I’m not lovesick.” I sigh and fold my arms across my chest.
“Take a puff of this and you’ll forget all about him.” Abel passes me the joint and I hand it off to Axel.
That’s the problem. I don’t want to forget him.
I miss Quinn so so damn much. I miss his grumbly bear attitude. I miss his silly side.
Getting up I go into my old bedroom. I flop down on my bed and reach into the nightstand. I pull out the ring Quinn gave me when he fake proposed. He looked so cute down on one knee for me.
Then my mind flashes to when he asked me to stay. The hurt masked on his face when I said no splits my heart in two all over again.
I grab my cell phone and send a text to Sara.
Harley: I need a favor.
Chapter Twenty-One
—Reaper—
Webb Hollow, Tennessee
“Don’t take it so hard, man. She shot me down too.” Fucking Cocky hobbles up to me and takes a seat at the bar next to me.
“Fuck off. She wouldn’t have your crippled ass.”
“Hey. I take offense to that.”
I roll my eyes and peel at the label on my beer bottle. Nothing has been the same since Harley left. It’s like she stole every bit of joy I had in me the day she went away. There’s no sunshine. All I have is cloudy days. I don’t know what I was thinking asking her to stay. I thought what we had was a real connection. I was wrong.
I take a swig of my beer and it don’t hold the same taste as it used to. I can’t even smoke a cigarette without thinking she’d say it’s unattractive.
“Hey, Reaper,” Regina coos, raking her fingernails down my arm.
“Go fuck a cucumber or whatever it is you shove in that loose pussy of yours,” I growl.
Cocky busts out laughing. “Come here, sweetheart. I ain’t got no Oscar Mayer but I’m packing some meat.”
“Eat me, both of you.” She flips her hair and struts to the other end of the bar.
MaryAnn shakes her head as she takes my beer and replaces it with a cold one.
“That whore ain’t right. But you two should be nicer to her.”
“The fuck for? Bitch tried to contaminate my food.”
“I’m going to tell you something but don’t repeat it.” She leans across the bar. “About two months ago, Regina had a miscarriage. I’ll give you one guess who she thought the father was and who she’s been fixated on ever since.”
I shake my head. “I’m sorry for her, but I don’t fuck without a rubber. Never have.” My mind flashes to Harley. She’s the only person I’ve not used protection with.
“I believe you but, would it hurt you to be a little nicer to her.”
“Hell yeah it’d hurt. Bitch stuck my hot dog in her snatch.” I go to get up from the bar when Hades calls me to his office.
“Close that door.”
I do as he says and grab a seat. “What’s up?”
“Need a favor.”
I throw my hands up. “Fuck. Here we go again.”
“I don’t need your lip. Only person who gives me lip is my wife and that’s because I get to fuck her after.”
“What is it this time?”
“First, I need you to know something. That business before with the stalker shit. There was no stalker. I was working with Outlaw to setup Tiny. I want him gone, but I needed him to do something to someone that wasn’t one of us to get the BRRMC to step in and help me put him down. Tiny’s not that dumb to get caught. Outlaw knew that. We worked together.”
I bang my fist down on the desk. “Did she know? Did Harley know?”
He shakes his head. “No. She still doesn’t. I just thought you should know. That cat wasn’t even real. It was a prop.”
I take a deep breath. I�
��m glad it was a fake threat but if there hadn’t been one to begin with that fucker in the woods never would have laid a damn finger on her. “Anything else, Prez?”
“You still got that bitch seat on your bike?”
“Why?” It sounds stupid, but I couldn’t bring myself to remove it. I wanted to, but I kept thinking that she’d change her mind.
“One of Sara’s friends needs picked up at the bus station.”
“Fuck you. Not happening.”
“Just do it, dipshit.”
I shake my head. “Fine. Whatever. What time?”
He looks at the clock on the wall. “Ten minutes ago.” He grins as he strokes his beard.
“Where do I need to bring her to?”
“She’ll tell you.”
“What’s this bitch’s name?”
“I don’t know some flower. Lily, Rose, Daisy…”
When he says Daisy my mind immediately goes to Harley and her damn short shorts. Thoughts of her cut just like a knife.
Going out of the clubhouse and starting up my bike it feels like only yesterday I was going to pick up Harley at the station. I smirk to myself remembering the first time I saw her. It’s only been two weeks, but it seems like another life.
I get to the station and pull into the same spot as before. I watch as everyone files off the bus, but I don’t see anyone looking my way.
Maybe Hades got the time wrong or maybe the bastard is fucking with me.
I’m about to take off when at the last minute I see a pair of hot pink high heels attached to an all too familiar set of legs.
Harley.
My heart nearly stops as she struts toward me wearing a timid smile and carrying a bag.
“Need a ride?”
“I’m looking for a big mean gay biker,” she teases.
I shake my head.
“For a half-eaten granola bar would you rather I tell you I’m sorry now or later?”
“I don’t want your apology. It’s all good. Get on and I’ll drop you at Sara’s.”
“I’m not going to her house.”
“No? Where to then?”
“I was hoping we could talk.”
“Harley…”
“Take me home, Quinn.”
“And where is that?”
“Wherever you are,” she says as a tear rolls down her cheek. “I’m sorry I hurt you. I was confused and going through a lot.”
Reaper's Till Death Page 8