by Avelyn Paige
I try to relax, but the woman’s hands shock me as she grabs my hair, pulling the remnants free from my last night with V. Before I can protest, she pulls a bottle from a small cabinet to the left of the shower and places the contents on my hair. The soft fragrance is pleasing and calming. She makes quick work of washing my hair, before pulling me out of the shower. I shiver, as she gives me a soft cotton towel to dry off with. She fumbles with my hair, piling the wet glob of tangles in a bun high on my head, which she secures with a rubber band.
The cabinet re-opens and a shirt and pair of sweat pants come out of it. She helps me into the clothes quickly, and pulls me back to the door again. The point of all of this is still foreign to me, but as soon as the door opens revealing Gio and his goons on the other side of it, I know. This was the bath, before the blood bath. He was washing away the evidence of my time here.
“Good morning, Presley,” he chuckles. “It’s time we go to see your family.”
He produces a black bag, shoving it over my head.
“Take her to the car,” he orders. Two pair of hands grabs me and jerks me forward. I stumble as they pull me, until I can feel warm pavement underneath them. The familiar click of a car door comes from my left. One of the men grabs my head and shoves me inside. I land roughly against the smooth interior of the car, and the door is slammed with a loud bang, sealing me inside. Several minutes go by, before I hear the door opening again. The car dips as several people enter the car. I scuttle as far as I can away from them despite not knowing where I am exactly in this car.
The front door clicks open, and another dip tells me the driver has entered the car. The ignition dings as the jingling keys slide into it. A soft hum fills the car, as the engine starts. I commit the sounds and feelings around me, as the car takes off. The sounds of rocks crunching under the weight of the tires, the turns we take, and even the bumps we hit. Anything I could use to identify where I am should I survive this after all. Light passes through the black bag on my head the longer we drive.
The dark, monotonous voices of men converse around me. I pick Gio’s voice out of the conversation and try to listen in, when he decides to speak English.
“My wife,” he chuckles. “She’s soft-hearted. I tried to tell her there was no point in cleaning the girl up.”
The men around me laugh at his words. The gentle woman was his wife? How could she be married to a monster like that? Was this forced upon her or did she agree to this willingly? I had read case studies about women like her in college. Stockholm syndrome was the medical term for falling in love with your captors out for survival. Was that what happened to her? My heart aches for her, a complete stranger for being in his kind of world. I hope she could escape someday, if that was the case.
The car jolts as it comes to halt. Are we here? Are we at the clubhouse?
“Search everywhere. Every outbuilding. Every room. If you find someone, kill them unless they’re the girl,” Gio’s voice orders. The car doors open, and I can feel several exit the car.
We wait in silence. I listen for the familiar sounds of the area around the clubhouse, and it only confirms that we are in fact here. The exchange that I didn’t want. The deal my brother made against my wishes, sacrificing one sister for another.
Please have a plan, Mikey. Please let what’s on the surface not be as it seems. Ginny deserves to live.
“Clear, boss,” a muffled male voice rings out from outside the car.
“Let’s do this,” Gio’s declares, as a hand grabs me. A scream slips from my lips, as they drag me out of the car. My knees hit the dirt hard. What was another bruise to the collection he had already accumulated on me. “Say nothing,” he beckons me from above, as I’m thrust from the ground and tugged. He shoves me down again. This time removing the hood from my head. My eyes burn from the sun beaming down, but they adjust quickly.
My brother, and so many of his club members are lined up single file all along the front of the clubhouse. So many of the faces with him are unfamiliar. These men have come here on my behalf. Men who don’t have any idea who I am, but as soon as my brother asked, they came for him. V stands to his left with Hero flanking the other side. His eyes connect with mine.
“You son of a bitch,” V’s voice yells out.
His fists curl at his chest, as he sees the damage that they’ve done to me with my time with them. He starts to charge toward me, but Raze shoots his arm out to stop him. This was going to be a delicate balancing act, and his rage-fueled reactions were not going to make this situation any easier.
“Enough, V. Back down.”
“You should have better control of your dogs, Michael,” Gio exchanges. “Show me the girl.”
The line of men shuffles around, and an opening forms next to Hero, as Slider brings out Ginny. Her body is limp against his. Ginny’s slumped form kneels down in front of them with her dark hair covering her face completely.
They’re doing this. They’re going to trade me for her. This is not what I wanted.
I look for Ratchet, not finding him in the crowd. Oh god. He was shot in my kidnapping. Did he die? Is this why they have no qualms in trading her for me? Because her brother was no longer a problem?
Please god no.
“I held up my bargain. The clubhouse is empty. We’re unarmed. Give me Presley.”
“Tut, tut,” he bellows. “In good time, Michael. I have a business proposition first.”
“Not interested. The deal was for Ginny and Presley’s trade. Not a fucking business deal.”
Gio paces behind me. He’s pissed that my brother won’t hear him out. His feet shuffle quickly behind me, as I feel the warm metal of a gun being placed to my head.
“You will listen to what I have to say, or I’ll blow her brains out right here on your property.”
V starts to charge again, but this time one the man to his left grabs ahold of him, securing him in a bear hug. “No” I mouth to him. This isn’t helping at all.
“Just get on with it, and take that fucking gun away from her head,” Mikey demands.
“I’ll think I’ll leave it just where it is.”
“Just get on with it,” V interjects.
“I want your connections to the skin trade.”
Mikey’s entire body flinches. My father was the one who was involved in that. Not my brother. Gio is fucking crazy.
“Why the fuck would you think I had access to that shit? We don’t deal in girls.”
Gio clicks the hammer back on the gun, driving home his point to my brother. The sound of the car door opening sends my head spinning back. The older man from the call steps out.
“Motherfucker,” a voice calls out, from the club’s side of the fight.
“You’re supposed to be dead,” Mikey coolly states. His face flashes with concern. Who is this man?
“You will show my father respect,” Gio orders to my brother.
He’s the leader? Fuck, this is so bad.
“What is that old saying?” the old man says. “Ah, yes. The news of my death was greatly exaggerated, but back to business. What my son is eluding to you is that you’ll be re-opening your pussy transport business again. For me. Thanks to you, my family has acquired your old pal Rex’s inventory.”
“You’re already doing it right now with acquiring the girl for me. What’s one step further?” Gio interjects.
Hero and V look to Raze, seeking answers to the impossible question laid before him. Gio’s plan is all out on the table now. While Ginny was his main concern, Gio found another way to manipulate the club. My capture opened up a new business venture for him, because he knows my brother would do just about anything to get me back.
“And if I agree?” Mikey questions. “What’s in it for me?”
“I’ll equip you, and of course, your sister will walk free, as soon as we conclude our little business transaction.”
“She’s off limits, and that extends to the rest of the women and children. They will not be har
med.”
“Deal,” Gio casually agrees. “Not one little hair on their heads will be harmed. Do we have an agreement?”
“Yes.”
“No!” I scream out. “Don’t be like our father. Just let them kill me. Please don’t do this.”
Gio strikes the gun against my head, sending me spiraling to the ground. My brother roars at his assault on me.
“Let’s get this over with,” he orders. My brother roughly grabs Ginny by the arm and leads her toward the dividing line between the two groups. He tosses her to the ground like a discard toy, and walks away from her. Gio drags me off the ground, mimicking my brother’s action. He tosses me to the ground, and I reach out to touch Ginny’s outstretched hands. She trembles under my touch.
Gio kneels down next to Ginny with the gun still in his hand. “You’ve been a tough girl to find, Veve.” His hand moves her hair away from her face in one movement. Her eyes peer up connecting with mine, and I nearly gasp.
Gio’s eyes flash with rage, when he realizes the same thing. That’s not Ginny.
“Who the fuck is this?” he roars. “This isn’t the girl.”
“Run, Presley,” V calls out. My feet scramble below me, but Gio catches me, before I can even take off. Within half a second, his arm is around my neck and the gun is pressed against my temple. It shakes under his grip.
“Say goodbye to your brother,” he says into my ear.
“I love you, both,” I scream, as a shot rings out. A sense of peace flows over me, as my body falls forward.
The moment that bastard pulls her from the car, and he rips that hood off her, I fucking lose. Her face is barely recognizable from the swelling along the right side of her jaw. Both of her eyes are black as the damn night. The only thing left untouched on her face was her nose. How he hadn’t broken that in the process I will never know.
Raze warns me to back down, and every fucking fiber in my body wants to tell him to go fuck himself. She’s hurt. How can I stand here watching him toss her around like a goddamn rag doll? My heart is beating so hard that it’s a wonder that I haven’t had an aneurism or a heart attack
I vow that for every mark on her body, he will receive the same thing. A cut for a cut. Gio Zezza would not leave this place alive, if I had anything to do with it.
Then he caught on. Gio takes one look at our other version of Ginny, and realizes the deception. We knew going into this that we couldn’t give him Ginny. Not a fucking chance, but we had to give him something. We turned to our club girls, asking for their help. Not demanding. This was a dangerous plan. It came with its own risks and that was something we couldn’t just blindly order one of the girls to do. Misty volunteered. Her build was close enough to Ginny’s. Add in a little hair dye, and you have a good enough lookalike from afar. We instructed her to keep her face down, and to not say a word. She followed every rule that we gave her to a tee, but it wasn’t enough.
We had tried and failed.
But I wouldn’t.
This was not how her story was going to end.
The shot that stops my heart rings out. I watch in horror as she and Gio fall to the ground. And then it happens. Police cars come flying in the parking lot followed by dozens of men in bullet proof vests, guns drawn. They circle us and The Zezza’s. The look on their faces tells me all I need to know.
Game fucking over, Gio.
That is if he is still alive.
Good thing I had negotiated a dead or alive clause.
A chopper skims over the top of the clubhouse, kicking up dust all over the parking lot. The air off of its blades, whips through us like a damn tornado. Every pair of eyes are wide in shock, except for mine. Plan B just arrived with the goddamn Calvary. Just in time.
The plume of dust from the chopper blocks Presley and Misty from my view, except for the outline of bodies dotting the ground.
Please don’t let it be her form lying on the ground. Not after all of this.
I start for her, but a swarm of FBI agents surround us. One horse collars me, dragging me down to the ground. I fight against his grip.
“Get off of me. I have to see if she’s okay!”
He shoves his knee against the back of my head, pinning me to the ground. My chest heaves, as I still try to fight. The agent puts even more pressure on me, and I know I’m trapped.
“Get on the ground,” they all scream at us. Raze looks back down at me, knowing what I have done. My brothers take to their bellies in the dirt with their hands on the back of their heads. The armed agents check us one by one for weapons roughly. They find nothing. Just like in the clubhouse. I had made sure of that. “Woah. Easy killer,” I tell the agent frisking me. She must have liked what she found because I’m pretty sure she owes me dinner, after where her hand was just searching. I’d give her a solid B plus for enthusiasm, if I was grading her frisking performance.
Raze rotates his head toward me.
“This you?” he asks. The agent searching him presses his head into the dirt, causing him to growl back.
“Yeah,” I admit to him, as the officers move down the line. “Plan B in case shit went south.”
“This going to work out in our favor?”
“It should.”
“Explain yourself.”
I exhale, and lay it all out for him.
“I knew we were outnumbered. So I did the one thing that no one would ever expect, I called the FBI. They wanted The Zezza’s, and I knew exactly where they would be. It was a dark horse long shot to protect as many of us as I could.”
“You protected us.”
“Yes. In exchange for them,” I say, while I nod towards them. “They wanted Gio, and I gave him up to keep us safe. The club. Ginny. Presley. All of you.”
He’s angry. Just like I thought he would be. I had defied his orders and gone rogue. But that decision just saved our lives. I just had to hope that when the dust literally settled, that Presley was still there.
The clubhouse door kicks open behind us as an officer drags Ratchet out. He looks up noticing the chopper hovering above, and his eyes immediately find me.
“What did you do, asshole?” he calls out, as they shove him down.
“What I had to do,” I answer.
The blades of the chopper echo off the mountains behind us, drowning out most of the sounds from the other side where Presley and The Zezza’s lie.
“Officer,” I yell. “The women. Are they okay?”
No one of them fucking moves. Presley and Misty aren’t who they’re after. That’s not the deal that I made. We’re all after thoughts, until they secure who they came for.
The sound of the chopper above starts to gets quieter, as it hovers away from the clubhouse. I watch as it lands in an open section of our property, kicking up more dust as it lands. Two men exit in the distance, walking towards the scene in front of us. They look over at us, before diverting their attention to The Zezza’s.
My gaze moves instantly to the spot where Presley should be, as the dust begins to settle.
I will sell all my comic books and action figures, if she’s there. I make promise after promise to the man upstairs, hoping that he’s listening. I would give up everything I own to just see her breathing.
The air finally clears enough. Misty sits slumped over by an agent who is talking to her. Another agent kneels on the ground next to a too still Presley.
“I’m sorry to do this, dude, but you need to get your ass off of me.” I twist my body, rolling the agent off of me and releasing his hold on my neck. I’m on my feet in a few short seconds. I scrabble and skid trying to get to her. Ignoring the fact that half a dozen guns and men are chasing after me. I skid, as I get close enough and slide in next to her body. The agents near her draw their weapons on me, screaming at me to get down. They can shoot me for all I care. It won’t stop me from checking on her.
“Let him be,” a voice orders the agent.
“Presley,” I yell grabbing for her. Her body is limp, as I r
oll her over onto her back in my lap. The damage to her body is much worse close up. I rake her body, looking for wounds from the shot, but find none. She wasn’t hit. “Baby, please wake up.” Her lashes flutter.
“That’s it. Come back to me,” I beg. I pull her upper body into a deep embrace, and I cry like a bitch against her shoulder. It’s when I feel her hand splaying across my back that I realize that she’s awake.
“V?” she whispers in a hoarse voice.
“It’s me, Presley. It’s me.”
She pulls me in as tight as she can, sobbing.
She’s okay and in my arms again. I fucking did it.
For one fleeting second, I look to where Gio lies with a bullet wound right in the middle of his forehead thanks to Ratchet’s crack shot from one of the hidden rooms. You would have had to know this entire clubhouse from floor to ceiling to spot the false wall, where he sat armed and ready for the right moment to take the shot. May he rot in fucking hell.
Presley shakes, as she pulls away from me. She’s weak.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” I cry.
“Sssh,” she hushes me. “I’m okay.”
I sit there in the center of everything just holding her. Not caring about anything else, but the fact that she’s breathing. The time passes slowly around us. It’s like watching a video in slow motion. Men move around us in handcuffs, as The Zezza’s are systemically rounded up, and shoved into the vans that arrived sometime after the raid began.
Nothing in this moment is more important than the woman in my arms. She is the moon to my stars. The Khalessi to my Khal. I could name about a million other pop culture couple references, but none of them would compare to this moment. It’s just the two of us in a firestorm of guns, villains, and heroes holding onto each other for dear life. It’s the perfect ending to a sordid and dangerous tale.