by Nicole James
She followed him out and through the club. It was deserted, but she did hear someone down a hall. They moved outside into the bright sunshine, and she breathed in the fresh air. It was wonderful after spending hours inhaling the spilled whiskey from the bottle she’d smashed.
Blood threw his leg over his bike. “Climb on.”
She did, and he handed her a helmet, waiting while she strapped it on. Then he fired up the bike, and they roared off.
Half an hour later they rode down a long dirt road back into the woods. Jessie was so lost she doubted she could find this place again if her life depended on it. He pulled up next to several parked bikes and a couple of pickup trucks. As soon as Blood shut his bike off, she could hear gunshots coming from further back in the woods somewhere.
They climbed off the bike, and she followed him down a dirt path, over a rise and through a thicket, until if finally opened up into a clearing.
There, standing in the dirt, were several men, all with guns raised and firing at targets which consisted mostly of bottles and cans.
As they moved down the line, Jessie spotted several guys with Evil Dead cuts on their backs. Three said Alabama. One said Louisiana.
“I see dumb people,” Blood teased.
“Ha ha ha, Blood. You’re hilarious.”
“Why is she here? I thought she was supposed to be in lock down.”
“What’s the matter, Slick? Afraid she’ll turn out to be a better shot than you?”
“Everybody’s a better shot than Slick,” one of the others teased.
“Go stand down there by the targets, fuckface. Bet you twenty bucks I hit you.”
They all laughed.
“I’ll put twenty on that one. Go on, Gator.”
“Fuck all you guys.”
They laughed harder.
Blood moved to an empty spot at the end next to the other man from his Louisiana Chapter.
“Will you get in trouble for bringing me here?” Jessie asked Blood.
“Suddenly worried about my well being, sweet cheeks?”
“No. And stop calling me that.”
He grinned. “Relax. I do shit like this all the time.”
He pulled a gun out from under his cut.
“Let’s start with the basics.”
“The basics?”
“Ever fire a gun?”
She shook her head.
“Ever hold a gun?”
She shook her head again.
“This is a 9mm. Let’s start with how to load it.” He pressed a button on the side of the handgrip, ejecting the magazine.
“You insert the ammo one at a time, with the rounded side forward until the magazine is full. You re-insert it by pushing upward into the handgrip until you hear a clicking noise indicating the magazine has locked in place.”
He handed her the gun.
“Now, you try it.”
She repeated the steps he’d shown her.
Then he stepped behind her, raising her arms toward the targets and whispered the rest of the instructions in her ear. She couldn’t help but be affected by his body pressed up against her back.
“Disengage the safety by pushing down on the safety lever at the top rear of the gun.”
“Blood, kiss her neck. Women love when you kiss their necks,” Sandman suggested. Bam. Bam. Bam. He fired at his target in rapid succession. “Just not when they’re driving,” he added.
Bam. Bam. Bam.
“And you’re in the backseat.”
Bam. Bam. Bam.
“And they don’t know you.”
Bam. Bam.
Jessie tried to hold back the laughter, her body shaking. “He’s a good shot, isn’t he?”
Blood snorted. “His greatest talent is finding places to sit down.”
“Why you gotta be the worm in my tequila?”
“Ignore him. He ate paint chips when he was little,” Blood instructed.
Sandman lowered his gun, taking offense to that last comment, and objecting. “My mind is like lightning.”
“Yeah, one brilliant flash and its gone.”
He turned, looked at Jessie and said in a low, conspiratorial voice, “He loves my ass. Don’t let him fool you.”
“I’ve stopped listening, why haven’t you stopped talking?” Blood asked him.
Jessie was giggling so hard, she could hardly keep her arms up and the gun on the target.
Blood lifted them back up. “There’s gonna be plenty of distractions when you’re shooting, you can’t let them get to you. Pay attention.”
She tried to pull it together.
“Chamber a round.”
“Do what?”
“Pull back on the slide on top of the barrel to load a bullet into the firing chamber.”
She did it.
“Now aim down the sight at the target.”
“Okay.” She focused in on a blue wine bottle.
“Place your index finger on the trigger when you’re sure you have a target and are ready to shoot.”
“Okay.”
“You pull the trigger one time for each shot you fire.”
“Okay.”
“Breath in, exhale and squeeze the trigger, darlin’.”
She breathed in, exhaled and squeezed. She wasn’t ready for either the deafening sound or the recoil the gun made when it went off. Luckily, Blood was there, still at her back, steadying her. When she saw that the bottle was still there, her shoulders slumped.
“I missed.”
“First time you’ve ever held a gun. Did you think you’d be Annie Oakley with the first shot?”
“I hate to fail. In anything.”
“Competitive bitch, are you?”
“I suppose.”
“Good. That I can work with. You’re high and to the right. Try again.”
She aimed at the target, breathed in, exhaled and fired.
Nothing.
“Again.”
She repeated her steps.
And missed.
“Again.”
She missed again.
“Focus, babe, or we’ll be here all day if we have to, ‘til you hit the damn thing.”
He knew just what buttons to push to make her determined to make the shot. She steadied her arm, breathed in, exhaled and squeezed the trigger.
This time the bottle exploded.
Blood grabbed the gun from her hand as she swung around, excitedly.
“I hit it!”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She jumped up and down.
“Good job. Now shoot the shit out of those cans like they’re Ashley.”
“How do you know about Ashley?”
“Lucky guess.”
He handed the gun back to her. She took aim and fired.
Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam. Bam.
When she was empty, he took the gun from her as she turned to him.
“Thank you. That felt so good.”
“You’re welcome. So, what’d Ashley do this time?”
She hesitated to tell him all of the reasons she disliked the girl, so she just shrugged. “I just find it hard to be nice to her, and I’m a nice person.”
“Yeah, well, some people suck the nice right out of you.”
“How do you know Ashley?”
“For about five minutes, I thought about fucking her. Thankfully, I had the good sense to drown that kitten in the river.”
That brought a smile to Jessie’s face. “Well, thank you for this. I needed it.”
“I could tell.”
“Now what?”
He nodded toward the targets. “Now you practice until it comes natural and easy. Never know when trouble might come callin’, sweet cheeks. And you need to be able to defend yourself.”
And then she knew he must have heard her story and knew all about the danger she was in. And she wondered if the reason he’d brought her out here had less to do with Ashley and stress relief, and more to do with the trouble that followed her. And that said
a lot about the man. That he cared enough to take his time with her like this, preparing her like he was.
“Why are you being nice to me?” she blurted, before she could stop the words.
He studied her a long moment, and then began reloading his gun. “Let me put it to you this way. I’ll try being nicer, if you try being smarter.”
She frowned. “Smarter? What do you mean?”
His eyes met hers.
“Look, I know Ghost. He’s a good guy. And for reasons I haven’t figured out yet, unless it’s your sweet ass, he’s taken on your shit. All of it. And from what I hear, it’s a lot.”
Jessie swallowed. She couldn’t deny it, any of it.
Blood continued.
“He’s taken your back. That means something. You need to trust he’s got this. That he isn’t going to let anything happen to you. So, I guess what I’m saying is, wise up and quit giving him grief. Deal?”
She looked off at the horizon, contemplating his words. They were true. Everything he said was true. So she did the only thing she could do. She nodded. “Deal.”
He handed her back the gun, his chin lifting toward the targets. “Have at it, Annie Oakley.”
She grinned and took aim.
An hour later, they pulled back up at the clubhouse. Blood led her through the common room, catching the eye of Boo, who was behind the bar, mopping. His mouth dropped open when he saw she wasn’t still in the room that he and everyone else knew she was supposed to be locked in. But apparently he knew better than to question a full-patched member, so his mouth clamped shut.
Blood led her down the hall and deposited her in the room, sitting her down on the bed. He reached for the handcuff still hanging from the bedpost and held out his hand, waggling two fingers for her to lift her wrist.
“Please, Blood. Don’t handcuff me. I promise I won’t go anywhere.”
“I know it. ‘Cause you’ll be cuffed to the bed.”
“Blood, please, don’t.”
“Stop whining. I’d hate to leave duct tape marks on your face, but I will.”
She thought he was joking, but with Blood, she couldn’t be sure. She didn’t know what his limits were, and she didn’t want to cross them. So she lifted her hand, holding it out to him.
“Good girl.” He clamped the handcuff around her wrist. Then ruffled the top of her head and headed for the door.
“Blood.”
He paused with his hand on the knob, and turned back to her.
“Are you going back to New Orleans? Will I see you again?”
“I’ll be around for a while longer. You’ll see me again, sweet cheeks.”
Then he walked out.
She yelled through the closed door, “Quit calling me that.”
She heard a fist hit against the wall of the hallway, and she smiled.
About an hour after Blood left her, Boo came in with a fast food bag. He stepped over the broken glass and approached the bed.
“I brought you a hamburger. Ghost called and said it’d be another hour before they get back, and he thought you might be hungry.” He set the bag on the bed and handed her the drink cup. Then he righted the table she’d thrown across the room, and he set it back next to the bed so she could set her drink back on it.
“Thank you. Can you let me go to the bathroom?” She lifted her wrist and rattled the handcuffs.
He eyed them. “Um, yeah, sure. Let me get the key.”
A couple minutes later he returned with the key, released her and escorted her down the hall to the bathroom.
When she was finished he escorted her back and waited, allowing her to finish eating before he put the cuff back on her.
“I’ll get one of the girls in here to clean up the mess.”
“Thank you, Boo. I’m sorry about that. I was a little upset.”
He just nodded without comment, then slid out the door.
About five minutes later, there was a tap on the door, and Ashley stepped in, holding a broom.
“Boo sent me in to sweep up the glass.” She looked anything but happy about it.
Why did it have to be her? He couldn’t have sent anyone else? She supposed the girl was going to rub her nose in it now. Ashley began sweeping the glass in a pile.
“Guess you were pretty pissed off. I would have been pissed, too. I don’t blame you for smashing up everything in sight. I’d have done the same thing.” When Jessie just glared at her without commenting, Ashley’s eyes lifted. “I told you the truth, you know.”
Jessie turned her head away, trying to fold her arms, but the handcuff prevented her from doing so, and it rattled with her attempt.
Ashley’s eyes dropped to the cuffs, then she put her finger to her mouth, as if warning Jessie to stay quiet.
Jessie frowned as she watched Ashley peek down the hall, wondering what on earth she was doing. She quietly closed the door, and then approached Jessie. Her hand slid into the hip pocket of her jeans and pulled out a key ring, holding it up.
“I was at the bar when Boo came in to get the key to let you go to the bathroom, so I saw where he kept it. When he told me to come in here and clean up, I went behind the bar when he wasn’t looking and grabbed it.”
“And? Are you going to let me out of these?” She rattled the cuffs.
Again Ashley shushed her and hissed quietly, “Do you want us to get caught?”
Jessie shut her mouth.
“It’s no secret I want you gone, but I wasn’t lying to you. I told you what JJ told me. Now, its up to you if you want to believe it or not.” She shrugged. “Maybe Ghost will let them turn you over, maybe he won’t. But is that a chance you want to take?”
“Are you going to release me or not?”
Ashley crossed her arms. “If I do, you better never rat that it was me that let you go.”
“Who do you think they’ll blame it on?”
She shrugged. “Boo, I guess.”
“Fine. I won’t rat you out.”
“Can I trust you?”
“Can I trust you?” Jessie quirked a brow at her. “Besides, how will I get out of here without being seen?”
“Climb out the window.” Ashley gestured to the window in the room. “It faces the side of the clubhouse. No one will see you, but if you’re going, you’d better hurry. The guys could come back anytime now.”
Jessie held her arm up. “Okay, quick, unlock these.”
Ashley tossed her the keys, and they landed on the bed next to her. “Here, do it yourself. Just wait until I sweep up this glass and leave the room.”
“Fine, but hurry.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ghost strode into the clubhouse, Shades, Griz, Hammer, and JJ with him. The club business had taken way longer than any of them had expected. He’d never meant to leave Jessie cuffed to that bed for most of the day, and it was late afternoon now.
He made a beeline to the bar and moved behind it, squatting down next to the lower shelf where he’d left the key for Boo. When it wasn’t there, he looked over to where the man was standing at the other end of the bar.
“Boo, where’s the key?”
Boo looked over at him. “Where you left it.”
“It’s not here.”
Boo frowned and checked his pockets. “I’m sure I put it back.”
Ghost stood, his jaw ticking impatiently as he waited for Boo to check all his pockets twice.
“I swear to God, Ghost, I remember putting it back. Maybe it fell on the floor.”
“Find it,” Ghost snapped. “I’ll be in the room with Jessie.”
Boo nodded.
Ghost moved around the bar and down the hall. He opened the door, took one step in and froze in his tracks. The bed was empty, the handcuffs were hanging empty still attached to the bedpost, and the fucking window was wide open, the curtain blowing in the breeze.
Godfuckingdammit!
Ghost strode over to the window and leaned out; looking both ways on the sliver of a chance she’d just
climbed out. Nothing.
He straightened and slammed his palm against the window frame causing the already cracked window to shatter and smash to the floor at his feet. A moment later he was storming down the hall.
“She’s fucking gone!”
Everyone in the room turned to look, stunned at his outburst, but he only had eyes for one man. Boo. He marched straight to him, grabbed a fistful of his shirt and slammed him up against the wall.
“I left you with one fucking task! Keep an eye on her, and you fucked that up! Where the hell is she?” He slammed him against the wall a second time.
“I swear to God, Ghost. She was in there when I brought her the food.”
“When was that?”
“Right after you called.”
“Who the hell was in there besides you? ‘Cause somebody let her out.”
“Ashley swept up the glass. And Blood was in there earlier.”
Ghost dropped him in shock. “Blood?”
“I didn’t see him take her out, but I saw him bringing her back.”
“When the fuck was that?”
“Couple hours ago.”
“What the hell was Blood doing in there?”
Boo shook his head. “I don’t know. I don’t ask patches their business.”
“Your fucking business was watching Jessie, fucktard!”
“Sorry, but wherever he took her, he brought her back. She was in there when I brought her the food.”
“And you didn’t uncuff her?”
“Well…yeah. I mean, she needed to go to the john and to eat. But I locked her back up. I swear.”
Shades stepped in. “Ghost, we’ll figure out how she got out later, now we need to find her.”
Ghost whirled on him. “Don’t you think I fucking know that?”
“Okay, brother, so where would she go?”
“Hell if I know.”
“Think, Ghost.”
“I don’t know. Her mom is in Daytona. She said she wanted to go there.”
“Okay, then lets hit the bus station.”
Ghost nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Shades turned to Griz, Hammer, and JJ, who were the only other members in the clubhouse at the moment. “Let’s mount up boys.”
“I’ll put out the word to the rest of the club,” Hammer offered.
“No! Let’s try and find her before Butcher gets word of this,” Shades replied.