ONE MORE RIDE

by Sophia Gray

  For once, I had absolutely nothing to say. I hung up the phone and slid it into my pocket, swallowing hard and steeling my nerves. Val had done it. She’d betrayed me; she’d actually fucking betrayed me.

  “What is it? Stephy?” Alexa stepped closer. “What happened?”

  "She called the cops," I said dully. My limbs felt frozen in place like I couldn't move, even if I wanted to. "She called the cops and now everything is fucking ruined, that's what happened."

  Alexa gasped. “Oh my god,” she said hurriedly. “I can’t believe that! You need to go, Steph! You need to go to the site, now! Tell the cops there was a misunderstanding, and just tell them that everything’s going to be okay. I’ll go with you!”

  “No,” I said sharply. Springing into motion, I tugged my jacket on and grabbed my keys. “I need to go alone.”

  Alexa watched me silently as I ran out to the parking lot, climbed on my bike, and drove away from the clubhouse. This could be the last time you ride as leader of the Succubi, I thought grimly. If the cops got involved, we’d all go to prison.

  This was all my fault. I couldn’t believe that I’d been so stupid for so long, trusting Val like that! She’d been out to fuck me from the very beginning, and I was so blind for so long. I wished I could go back in time and slap myself upside the head, if only that would make me realize that I’d been a fool.

  I forced my bike as fast as it would go, until I was whipping around corners and bends so fast that I could have spun out of control. The breeze lashing my face felt painful, almost like being stung, and I closed my eyes as I wrestled my goggles down over my face. The loud sound of the highway roaring in my ears didn’t even have its usual soothing lull. All I could think about was Isaac. All I could think about was how I had to save him and his club from being unfairly charged.

  And Isaac. God, Isaac. What the hell was I supposed to say to him now? How was I supposed to tell Isaac that I was sorry for everything I’d done, that I was sorry about lying? He wouldn’t ever want to see me again. And if he went to prison, that would be my fault, too.

  I felt sick inside but there was no time to stop. Swallowing hot, sour bile, I continued out of the city until I was seeing nothing but dusty, dry mountains and a blue sky overhead. The day was shaping up to be a hot one, and I felt myself begin to sweat uncontrollably inside my layers of leather.

  Remembering where I’d gone with Val the other night, I drove my bike closer and closer to the canyons. The sun was starting to go down and it was quiet, yet I knew she was waiting there for me. With any luck, Isaac and the guys would be safe.

  “Stephanie,” Val cried loudly when I drove my bike into the clearing. There were footprints and tire tracks in the dirt. I gazed around at them wildly, trying to discern what the hell had happened. There’s no blood. At least there’s no blood.

  “What the hell, Val?” I said cautiously as I climbed off my bike and stalked towards the woman who had been my best friend. “What the fuck did you do?”

  Val put her hands together and grinned. “I called the cops,” she said gleefully. “And I got what I wanted. Now your boy Isaac is going off to prison, and the Jungle’s Thorns is ruined.”

  My mouth tasted like hot metal. “And you think you can just get away with this?” There were sirens in the distance and I closed my eyes and prayed with everything in me that somehow the cops would miss Isaac. They couldn’t attack him, not now! They couldn’t prove that he or the other guys in the Jungle’s Thorns had actually done anything wrong!

  “Of course,” Val said. She sauntered towards me with a grin plastered on her dark face. I jumped back but Val was too quick. She reached for me and grabbed my arm, twisting it painfully behind my back. I tried to reach for my pistol with my free hand but Val was quicker, and I felt her yanking it out of my waistband. Sweat crawled down my back as Val shoved me down in the dirt. I felt her boot pressing down painfully hard on my back.

  “What the fuck?” I hissed. “What the fuck are you doing?”

  “I’m getting revenge,” Val said with a nasty grin. “I’m doing exactly what I wanna do. I’m hurting you because I can. I’m hurting you because I hate you, Stephanie. I hate you, and I’ve always hated you. I’ve been biding my time to take over the Succubi, but you’re so fucking hard to get rid of!” I could hear Val sucking her teeth and spitting down on the ground. “You’re like a fucking pest, woman.” She kicked me in the ribs and I cried out as the toe of her boot connected with my soft tissue and bone. Pain exploded in my body and tears came to my eyes as Val kicked me again and again. I kept holding my breath and trying to anticipate where the blows would catch me but each one was harder and more bone-crunching than the last. If she kept doing this, I didn’t think that I’d make it for much longer.

  "Come on, Val," I gasped, reaching out for the ground and trying to crawl away from her. Anything was better than lying there, getting kicked to death by my former best friend. "Come on, don't do this! This isn't you, Val! I know you can do better!"

  Val leaned down until her face was almost touching mine. She glared at me and growled. I felt a shiver of fear pierce my heart as I gazed into her eyes and saw nothing but darkness. Whatever good had been in Val, whatever had compelled me to love her for so long, wasn’t even visible. I could tell that she was completely changed, a completely different woman than she’d been before. She glared into my eyes with a fierce anger.

  “This is what happens when you fuck with me,” Val said in the same low, warning tone that she’d used before. “This is what happens when someone tries to hurt me. Do you understand, Stephanie? Don’t you fucking get it by now? I hate you, and I want your fucking club to be mine. And if I can’t have that, I want to ruin everything. And that’s exactly what I’m going to do.”

  I struggled to climb to my knees. A hard blow to my back made me collapse into the dirt again, sending clouds of dust right into my face. Coughing and sputtering, I flailed my arms and my legs for Val, reaching out to see where she’d gone. My fingers only groped air and for a moment, my vision went black as pain shot through my body.

  It took me a moment to realize that Val had managed to get me on my side and kick me in the gut. By the time I was breathing again, she was kicking and punching me in a frenzy. The blows rained down upon my head and neck and I tried to cover myself with my arms, all while wailing unintelligibly. Val’s fists hit me harder than ever, punching all of the air from my lungs. When I lay there like a weak, helpless woman, Val climbed on top of me. She reached into her pockets and pulled out a couple of plastic zip ties which she tied around my wrists and secured until my fingers were aching with lack of blood. I struggled helplessly as she dragged me to my feet and then fastened my wrists behind my back.

  I felt vulnerable like this, and an incredible, strong pain was slowly beginning to seep down my limbs and torso. Val glanced at me as she dragged me over to her bike and threw me over the seat like a sack of potatoes.

  “Stay here,” Val warned. “Don’t try anything, you bitch.” She climbed on the bike and cranked it up into gear. Nausea filled my body as I realized what was happening.

  Val was kidnapping me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Isaac

  TJ, Nick, and I barely got away from the desert clearing before the cops showed up. Fortunately, I navigated the way through brush and rocks, steering the van expertly around a giant hole in the ground and a hill that would have really held us back.

  TJ and Nick were high-fiving in the backseat, whooping and hollering about how we’d escaped. I didn’t feel so fucking great, myself; even though we’d gotten away with both Kyle and the guns, it wasn’t really what I could call a success. After all, Stephanie had betrayed me. Or she hadn’t been able to convince that bitch in her club that my guys hadn’t been involved with the rape.

  TJ had cut the ropes around Kyle’s wrists and ankles. Now he was sitting in the passenger seat of the van, rubbing his wrists and trying to get the blood flowing in his hand
s again. While he looked a little weak and hungry, I knew that he’d be just fine as soon as we got a beer and a cheeseburger down his throat. He was also being much nicer than he had before, as though the assault had taught him some manners.

  “Thanks,” Kyle muttered when I passed him a big thermos of water. “Did you guys think they were gonna do anything to me?” He swallowed hard, making his Adam’s apple bob. “I mean, I wasn’t scared,” he added quickly in a casual voice. “I wasn’t really worried about what they’d do.”

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re fine, Kyle, and that’s what matters,” I said as I reached over and cuffed him on the shoulder. “You made it through, man, that’s what counts.”

  Kyle grinned at me. “You still mad, boss?”

  I stared at him for a second, then shook my head. Clouds of dust were billowing around the van and making it hard for me to see out the windshield. I was glad for the distraction; I didn't want to keep staring at Kyle. I wasn't mad at him anymore, but I couldn't stop thinking about the Succubi and what they'd done to get us into this mess in the first place. After all, it had been Stephanie's fault.

  Or had it?

  “Kyle,” I said sharply. “When was the last time you heard from Alexa?”

  Kyle swallowed hard. He took another long drink from the thermos and wiped droplets of water away from his chin. “It’s been a while,” he admitted slowly. “Maybe, like, two days before Sergey and his guys took me?”

  I nodded. “We need to get to the Succubi,” I said sharply, grabbing the wheel and turning it sharply. I was maybe an hour’s drive away from their clubhouse, but I had the worst feeling that something had gone wrong. After all, I hadn’t heard from Stephanie since the previous day. If Val was really and truly up to something…

  “Boss,” TJ said sharply as the van bounced over the roads. “What the fuck are we doing? Where are we going?”

  “We gotta get to the Succubi,” Kyle said. He turned around in the seat and stared at Nick and TJ. “Boss thinks they know something about them cops who showed up.”

  I shook my head, feeling sick. “Something’s going on with them,” I told the guys in a warning tone. “That Stephanie, she doesn’t trust about half of her girls. You’d better listen to her and everything she says, got it?” I glared at the side of Kyle’s head. “You’re not allowed to run off and fuck Alexa. I know you just got out, but you’ll have time to catch up with her later.”

  The van sped through a sleepy desert town. My eyes ached from all of the warm, brown scenery around me. Suddenly, I wished that we were heading out of town. I wished that we were going towards a mission in the hills, or anything that would mean stepping away from the Succubi for a goddamned minute. I was still so angry with Stephanie, but I was starting to understand that in order to really fix everything that was going on, we’d have to put aside all of our personal problems.

  “Kyle,” I said sharply. “Can you call Alexa? See what’s happening at the clubhouse.” I grimaced as I tightened my grip on the steering wheel. Considering what Val and some of the other women thought, I knew that we’d probably be in for a fight when we rolled up to face the Succubi.

  “She didn’t answer,” Kyle said. He dropped his phone into his lap and gave me a look of disgust. “You don’t think she found another boyfriend, do you?”

  I laughed. “Fuck that, Kyle,” I said sharply. “Right now, we have to let them know we’re coming. Nick! TJ! Look at those guns we got—do we have any ammo?”

  “Yeah,” TJ barked from the back seat. “We’ve got tons.”

  “Good,” I said as I pushed my foot harder on the gas pedal. “We’re gonna need them.”

  When we pulled into the Succubi’ clubhouse parking lot, I noticed a couple of things. For one, I didn’t see very many bikes. There were only two or three, but the parking lot was full of skid marks. I frowned as I got out of the car. Sergey had supplied us well—we had enough stuff to stay in business for maybe six months, maybe even a year if we did really well. TJ and Nick and I had armed ourselves to the teeth. Even Kyle had a gun stuck in the back of his waistband and a pistol in his hand.

  “Come on,” I said as I directed the guys closer to the building. “Come on, come on, we gotta get closer to the inside.”

  TJ and Nick glanced at each other. “Boss, isn’t this dangerous?” Nick asked. “Didn’t they just call the cops on us? What the fuck are we doin’ hangin’ around here?”

  I shook my head impatiently. “They didn’t,” I said. “They had a member who did, and she’s fucking crooked. I have to tell Stephanie what happened, I have to get to her as soon as possible.”

  Nick and TJ stared blankly at me. “Man, I don’t know if this makes sense,” TJ complained. He kicked at the ground with the toe of his boot. “I mean, man, I wanna help and all. But what if they just get angry, like they did when we showed up for that party?”

  “Yeah,” Kyle said. He rubbed his arms with his hands and looked dour. “I mean, I wanna see Alexa. But I don’t know what her deal is, and I don’t wanna go barging in.”

  I sighed. "Come on," I said, gesturing for Kyle to follow me. After a few seconds, he walked closer and knocked on the door.

  There was a lapse of about ten seconds until it was opened by a brunette girl. She was glaring at me. “What the fuck are you doing here?” She narrowed her eyes. “I don’t wanna see you around.”

  “Alexa!” Kyle exclaimed. He pushed past me and wrapped the surly-looking girl in his arms, pressing his mouth against hers and shoving his tongue inside. She squealed and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling him close and pressing her tight body against his. “I’m so fucking glad to see you,” Kyle murmured into Alexa’s neck. She pushed away from him and then looked at me.

  “I’m Isaac,” I explained. “I lead the Jungle’s Thorns. I need to speak with Stephanie. There’s been…well, there’s been some kind of accident.”

  Alexa frowned. “Stephanie’s not here,” she said softly. “She just left.”

  My phone vibrated in my pocket and I reached down to pull it up. “Hello?”

  It was Stephanie. But when I answered the phone, I didn’t hear her voice. There was an odd ringing sound, like someone had picked up her phone from the ground and called my number. I got a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Before I could even hang up, Alexa and Kyle pounced on me.

  “What happened?” Alexa was looking at me with big, scared eyes. “That’s what I was trying to tell you,” she said, swallowing hard. “Stephanie came and we talked and, um, we cleared some stuff up. Then when Val showed up, Stephanie made her promise that she wouldn’t call the cops. They fought about it but Val lost, and she and Jessica left.”

  I frowned. “Who the fuck is Jessica?”

  Alexa blushed and glanced away. She got up on the tips of her toes and leaned towards Kyle, whispering in his ear.

  “She’s the girl who was attacked,” Kyle said blankly. “She was the one who was raped.”

  A sick feeling settled in my stomach and I clenched my teeth. "And she left with Val?"

  Alexa nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “And now you’re getting creepy calls from Stephanie’s phone? Did something happen?”

  I nodded. “Something must have fucking happened,” I growled. “I don’t understand what, though.”

  "Val's trying to ruin the club," she said. "Oh God," she added, her cheeks turning white and bloodless. "Do you think she tried to hurt Stephy?"

  My hands made fists at my sides. “Probably,” I muttered. “Hold on.” I pulled my phone out, examining the call. It had only lasted for thirty seconds. I wondered if Stephanie was in danger, if somehow she’d gotten stuck in the desert. I wondered if she was alone, or if that snake Val had found her. Most of all, I hoped that she would be okay. But I had no way of knowing.

  “Man, look,” Kyle said. He pointed down at my hand. My phone was vibrating with a call coming in from an unknown number. “You should answer it.”

  I glared at him befo
re swiping my phone open and holding it up to my ear. “Hello?”

  There was a dark female laugh that made me shiver. “Hello, Isaac,” the voice said. “I bet you know who this is.”

  I closed my eyes and tilted my head back. “Val?”

  There was another laugh. “You got it, baby,” she growled in a low tone. “And I bet you can guess why I’m calling?”

  “Because you want my MC fucking ruined?” I snapped into the phone. Anger coursed through my veins and I found myself feeling more vulnerable than I had in a long time. “What the fuck do you want?”

  “I have Stephanie,” Val said. “And unless you give up all of the weapons you just bought—every single one—I’m not telling you where she is.”