by Erin Osborne
I struggle to keep my tone even and calm. It’s a struggle I’m losing as I think of Cassidy suffering again. The thought is never far from my mind. So, I’m always ready to explode and go off on anyone in my vicinity.
Slim meets us at the door to the RV. I really need to apologize to him.
“Slim, I’m sorry. This isn’t anyone’s fault and I had no right to run my mouth like that,” I tell him, meaning every word.
“Hawk, we’ve all been there, son. I get where you’re comin’ from. You’ll find your girl and help her get back to where she’s been. Watch her blossom under your hands and love. Cherish that girl because she’s a good one,” he tells me, letting me off the hook. “I wish we could go out and help you. If you need anythin’, let me know.”
“Will do. Thank you for havin’ us here, Slim,” Renegade says as we make our way to our bikes to head out.
Renegade starts his bike and we all follow his lead. Chains is upfront with him tonight so he can guide him to the houses we’ve circled. I put them in his GPS as we mapped them out. The first house takes us twenty minutes to get to.
It’s indeed abandoned. The house is an old farmhouse that’s seen better days. On the outside, the porch is falling in, the steps are rotten, and the front door is hanging by one hinge. Renegade and I walk inside the house first.
We all spread out and search the house. There’s no one here and no one’s been here for a very long time. Heading back outside, we make our way to the next house. It’s down the road from this one. But, it’s another dead end.
On our way back to Shadowville, we hit six houses in total. All but one of them are abandoned and sitting empty. No one’s been at the houses we’ve searched in though. Some are in better shape than others, but the same result exists at each place. This is not a good sign.
This means Craig has taken her somewhere else and we have to start our search all over again. He could have her anywhere by now. It’s been almost a day since Cass was taken from us. Craig has the money and means to go anywhere in the world and we don’t have the first clue where to search for him.
Pulling in the clubhouse parking lot, we all get off our bikes and head inside. Renegade heads straight for the bar and grabs a bottle and enough shot glasses for all of us. I don’t want a drink at all. The only thing I want to do is go to my room and get on my computer. I can pull up information on Craig and find out about any properties he owns we haven’t found yet.
But, if the President is pouring shots for you, you take them. I’m not having more than one though. Chains walks inside with me and we line up at the bar before grabbing our glass and slamming the shot back.
Looking at Renegade, I nod my head in thanks before walking away. Chains follows me to my room and waits for me to turn my computers on. Taking a seat next to me, he watches as I start clicking away on the keys. The screens soon fill with information on Craig. What immediately captures my attention is the large withdraws from his bank account.
Craig is broke. For a man who had well over six figures in his account a few months ago, he’s in serious financial trouble now. Somehow I need to find the money trail and figure out where the money is going. That will give us another piece of the puzzle.
“Chains this mother fucker has blown through all his money. We need to figure out where it’s goin’. If we find that, we’ll figure out where Cass is and what the help is he needed from her,” I say, looking at my best friend.
“How are we gonna do that if he’s payin’ the person off in cash?”
“I’m gonna call in some personal markers. If you’ve got any, can you call them in?” I ask.
“On it. I’ll be back in a little while. You keep doin’ your thing,” he says, walking out of my room.
Once the door is shut behind him, I begin making the calls I need to. One of them includes calling Fox to get an opinion on how else to find out where the paper trail leads. He tells me he’ll work it from his end because the money has to be going somewhere and no one is gonna keep that much cash on hand and not in a bank account somewhere.
Hanging up with Fox, I make several more calls while continuing to search for properties and other information on Craig the fuck stain. I make a list of properties in his name, his dad’s name, and his mom’s maiden name. That’s the one name they all forget about. People think because it’s not in their name, it’s not going to pop up in a search. You just have to know what you’re looking for. And I do.
There’s a listing for a property in Craig’s mother’s maiden name. It’s an hour from here and we’ve passed the property several times when we head out for rides. I make notes on the house, surrounding properties, and pull up the blueprints. We’ll need to know everything about the house if we’re going to get Cass back.
As soon as I pull up pictures of the house, my gut tightens and I know this is where Cass is. I’ve learned over the years to trust my gut and I’m going to now. I want to have as much information as possible before I bring it to Renegade and the rest of the club though.
Chains makes his way back in my room and I fill him in on what I’ve found so far. He agrees with me about Cass being in the house I’ve got filling three out of five screens. Different views are showing and I’m making plans about going in and being as careful as possible so Cass doesn’t get hurt more than she’s already been. Craig is about to fucking die a slow and painful death.
Chapter Fifteen
Chains
EVEN THOUGH WE have the information Hawk found about the house, we’ve been taking turns riding out throughout the night. We’re looking for Cassidy and Diablo and the fucks. They’ve shown their faces, so they’re close. Now, we just need to find their hiding spot so we can take them the fuck out.
“Chains, we’re ridin’ out,” Bear tells me.
“I’m ready,” I answer, grabbing my wallet and putting it in my back pocket.
Bear, Grave, and I head out. There’s two teams of three riding out tonight. Psycho, Smokey, and Tex are the other team. Hawk will stay here and keep working on finding out what he can about Craig and the house we think Cassidy’s in.
Renegade wants more information before we go in guns blazing. I can’t blame him, but if that’s where Cass is, I want to go get her right now. Hawk feels the same. We’re both chomping at the bit to get her back with us. I’m pissed as fuck we can’t just ride out and get her.
I know Hawk good enough to know if we don’t get the order to ride soon, he’s going to go by himself. I’ll be right by his side to get our girl back. But, we’ll go against our President’s orders if we have to wait much longer. Part of me wants to do just that right now. Just leave Bear and Grave and head toward the house on my own. Hawk would never forgive me, but I’ll deal with that another time. The only thing that matters is getting our Pixie back.
As we ride through town and through the outskirts, I let my mind wander to Cass. She was so broken and scared when we first met her. Now, she’s getting stronger every day. And the feeling of trust she has in Hawk and I is like nothing in this world. Cass trusts us to keep her safe, give her what she needs, and love her unconditionally. We already failed at protecting her, I won’t make that mistake again.
Visions of her body writhing between Hawk and me fill my head. The last time we were together, Cass put her ultimate trust and faith in us. She let us take her body in a way she’s never had done before and it was a beautiful sight. Cass will be the death of me one of these days. I want to be buried inside her forever and give her what she truly wants; a baby.
“Got a bogey, one o’clock,” Grave says in the comms.
Turning my attention toward the direction Grave mentioned, I see a lone biker on the side of the road. I see the colors on his back and know he’s one of the guys here with Diablo. We’ve taken out all but Diablo and maybe one or two other guys. This one is definitely with him though.
He’s got his bike parked almost in the ditch and it looks like he’s three sheets to the wind. Never a good
combination to drink and ride. But, it makes it the perfect opportunity to capture this fuckwad and find out where the hell Diablo is. I park my bike behind his and walk up as he finishes pissing.
When the man turns around, I can see the recognition and brief flash of fear in his eyes. He tries to put up a fight and come at me first, but with him being so drunk, there’s no way he can do much of anything. The man trips and lands on his face in the dirt and grime of the road. I turn my head to look at Grave and Bear, laughing my ass off.
“Call in for a van,” I say, kicking out my leg as the man tries to use me to pull himself up.
Bear pulls his phone out and makes the call. He’s on the phone for a few minutes before hanging up and letting us know Steve will be here in a few minutes. I kick at the man again as he tries to pull me down. I’m not sure what the fuck his end game is right now. But, he’s not going to keep putting his fucking hands on me.
Pulling out a smoke, I take my time smoking the cigarette. It does nothing to soothe the rage or frustration filling my body. The only things that’s going to take a fraction of the rage away is getting my hands on this man. At least, until Cass comes home.
Steve pulls up and we manage to get the fucker loaded in the van and chained to the bar running down the side. We don’t want him to sober up enough to attack Steve as we head back toward the clubhouse. Grave already put the call in and everyone should be there by the time we get back with our prisoner in tow.
The clubhouse parking lot is full of my brother’s bikes. They’re all here and waiting to see what we’ve got for them. Grave, Bear, and I walk through the main door and head through the common room. We don’t stop to talk or let anyone know what’s going on. Instead we head directly down to the basement. I can hear the booted steps of others following us down.
“What’s goin’ on guys?” Renegade asks.
“We found a present waitin’ on the side of the road,” I answer, continuing to the back door to let Steve in with the van.
Renegade watches Steve back the van in. He stands back as we fling the doors open and I climb in to get the piece of shit out of the back. The man is starting to sober up and is screaming and yelling at me to let him go. That Diablo will come after us full force if we don’t.
I laugh in his face, which does nothing but piss him off even more. Renegade sees the man standing before me and realization dawns on his face. Yeah, we finally caught a break and got one of the bitches.
Leading him into the closest room, I nod to Grave to help me chain the fucker up. We’re not using the chair for this prick. No, I string him up by his hands while Grave makes sure his feet are in the short shackles attached to the floor of the room. Once we know he’s secure, I pull my knife out. He’s going to be naked as the day he was born for this interrogation.
As my blade heads toward the cut he’s wearing, the man suddenly finds his voice.
“You can’t touch my cut. You know what this means to me; to the club,” he tries saying.
“Too bad we don’t recognize your band of pussies as a club. This isn’t a cut, it’s a piece of leather you guys use to commit vile, ruthless acts of violence against women and children. You use this leather to peddle flesh and get people hooked on the drugs your pushin’. So, I can do anythin’ I want to this scrap of leather,” I tell him, getting in his face and yelling at the bitch.
“Why were you guys at the land? Who told you we were there?” Renegade asks as I begin to cut away his clothes.
“I’m not tellin’ you shit,” he says.
“Good, that just means I get to have fun. You know, take out some of this rage since my woman is missin’ and we can’t find her,” I say.
Starting at his neck, I trail the blade of my knife down his skin. I’m barely pushing it into his skin and the pussy is already whining like a bitch. From his chest down to his waist, I leave a small line from breaking open his skin. On his stomach, I carve the word ‘bitch’. It fits his personality from what I can see.
“You sure you don’t wanna talk?” Hawk asks, stepping up next to me.
“I don’t know anythin’,” he tries to say.
“Do you really think this is our first time doin’ this?” Renegade asks. “I’ll tell you it’s not. We’ve been after Diablo for a long time. You either tell us what you know, or you’ll suffer. So, do you want a quick, easy death or a slow, painful one?”
Hawk gives him a minute to try to answer. When he doesn’t, Hawk unleashes his pent-up rage. I watch as my friend unleashes all of his pain and aggression out through his fists. It’s not until I hear bones crunching under his fists that I go to stop him. We need this asshole to talk, not be killed in a fit of rage.
“You ready to talk or do we keep goin’?” I ask.
The man keeps his mouth shut, so I bend down and begin to work his feet over. I rip out every toenail in each foot before slicing the bottoms of his feet open. The cuts aren’t deep enough to bleed out, but they will cause him discomfort. Moving to the tops of his feet, I slice my way up to just under his knee.
“Stop! Stop!” he cries out.
“You talk, they’ll stop,” Psycho tells him.
“What do you want to know?” he pants out.
“Who brought you to the land? Who is Diablo workin’ for here?” I ask.
“I don’t know the guy’s name. All I know is he told Diablo the woman he wanted is his wife and she got mixed up with your club. You wouldn’t let her leave, so he hired us to help get her back. We were to cause a distraction while he snatched her back,” the man says.
“So, he didn’t mention he beat the shit out of her, raped her more than once, and that she’s here with us of her own free will?” I ask, letting the guys know just a taste of what our Pixie went through with Craig.
“No! He never told us that.”
Hawk takes my knife out of my hand and slices the man’s side. After screaming out his pain, the man hangs his head down. I don’t even care enough to find out this piece of shit’s name. That’s how little he matters to me right now. No, the only thing I care about is finding our girl and bringing her home.
“Where does he have her?” I ask him, grabbing the jumper cables we have attached to a battery down here.
“I don’t know. We met in a bar and he would only talk to Diablo. None of us really saw his face or heard any of the conversation. All of what I’m tellin’ you came from Diablo.”
“Fine. Where’s Diablo?” Renegade asks.
“I don’t know,” he says.
“That’s a load of shit. You’re ridin’ with him and you say you don’t know where he is?” Renegade asks.
“I had to take care of some personal business. Diablo told me to call when I got to the other side of Shadowville and he’d let me know where to go from there. He doesn’t trust anyone,” the man tells us.
“That’s not good enough for me,” I tell him, looking at Renegade. “He can’t tell us where Cass is and he doesn’t know where Diablo is. I say we finish him off.”
Renegade nods his head, giving Hawk and me permission to kill the fucker we’ve been toying with. We let loose and take this man apart piece by piece. I turn my focus on the man’s upper body. My knife slashes through his skin like a butter knife sliding through melting butter. I make several cuts in his skin, each one a little deeper than the last one.
Hawk takes the dull, rusty machete off the stand of our tools and circles the man chained before us. It’s a mind game Hawk does sometimes. He’s going to keep him guessing as to what part of the body he’s going to attack. After circling him several times, Hawk stops in front of him.
Lifting his arm, he brings the machete down along his limp, shriveled up cock. The man pierces the quietness of the room with his screams. He’s screaming so loud my ears hurt and they echo off the walls of the dungeon we’re in. Every man in here, myself included, grab onto our own cock in an attempt to ease the pain we feel in sympathy of the bitch losing his.
None of us ca
re what happens to him. But, it’s a natural reaction for when another man gets hit in the junk. This man won’t have to worry about that happening ever again. Or much of anything else by the time we’re done with him.
Hawk and I continue to dismantle the man. I’ve removed his fingers and hands with the dull saw blade I picked up from the stand. Standing back, I try to figure out what I want to do to the man next. Honestly, I’m bored and I’d rather be out looking for Cassidy. So, I grab the bucket of ice-cold water and toss it in the man’s face. He passed out more than once and we keep waking him up.
Once I know he’s awake, I grab the bottle of alcohol we keep down here. I dump it from the top of his head to his cut-up feet. He winces and cries out as the alcohol fills the cuts and areas he’s missing limbs. The man can’t even scream out he’s in so much pain now. It doesn’t matter to me. His suffering will be over with so we can get back to our search of Cassidy and then Diablo.
Hawk grabs the matches from the stand and pulls one free. Striking the match, he lights the entire pack of matches on fire. The flame mesmerizes me for a second before he tosses the matches at the man’s body. He quickly goes up in flames as the rest of us cover our noses against the smell of burning flesh.
I look into the man’s eyes before turning my back on him completely. He knows he’s going to die and has accepted his fate. There’s a hint of regret, pain, and torture as the flames lick higher and higher on his mutilated body.
Hawk and I leave the room and head upstairs to get a drink before we head back out. Renegade hasn’t told us to leave in search again, but I’m done letting him stop us from finding our girl. She’s out there somewhere and needs help. Who knows what Craig has planned for her? We don’t and we’re not going to let him do as much damage to her again.
Chapter Sixteen
Cassidy
I THINK I’VE been with Craig for a few days now. I’m not sure how many it’s been or how many more I’ll have to be here. Locked away with my husband and the man I can’t stand. He’s taken so much from me already and I refuse to let him take anything else from me.