by Paula Cox
“Please?” I begged.
“Okay, sure. I think you just like to watch me squeeze my big ass into that little car. That, or you want the guys at the club to laugh at me.”
A small grin tugged at my lips. Hopefully he would give up the Hounds and join me because I did enjoy his company and I thought, given a chance, I could and would fall in love with him.
***
“Hello, Cherie,” I smiled as the woman sat down beside me. We had just arrived at the clubhouse and I was waiting for Cain to get involved with what he was doing before I made my escape.
“I haven’t seen you since the big announcement. How’re you doing?”
“Okay, I guess. Yesterday and today have been a little rough.”
“It will all be worth it when the baby comes. Have you picked out a name yet?”
“No, not really. I have turned a few over in my mind, but nothing had really jumped out and grabbed me yet.”
“May I?” Cherie asked as her hand hovered over my belly and she looked into my eyes hopefully.
“Go ahead.”
She stroked my stomach softly a moment before pulling her hand back. “It’s so amazing to think of what is going on in there. I want to have kids someday. I’m just waiting on the right time. It doesn’t seem fair to trap a guy, you know?”
“I know. This was a…surprise. Even though Cain and I were taking all the precautions…” I raised my hands in a what can you do gesture.
“Wow. It is like it was meant to be. I would have never picked Cain as the daddy type. I have to admit to being a little jealous of you. To have Cain, and have him be a good father, and perhaps husband, too? Somehow it doesn’t seem quite fair to have all that in one guy, you know?”
I said nothing. He might be coming back on the market for all I knew. “I need to get some air.” I stood and Cherie stood with me.
“You feeling okay?”
“Yeah. It’ll pass. Fresh air helps.”
“I’ll go with you,” she offered as she followed me to the door.
I stewed. I needed a head start with no one watching me. I had planned my route to take me away from New Orleans on the first leg home in case the Hounds came after me. I was going to take I-35 North then highway 82 to Texarkana, then South on I-49. It was a big loop out of the way that would add hours to the trip, but I was banking on the fact the last direction they would search be north when my home was southeast. But I needed that head start for my gambit to work.
I staggered, as if I were feeling faint. “Woah,” I gasped weakly.
“Alex! Are you okay?”
I leaned heavily on my car. “Yeah, I think so. Just a little light headed.”
“Let me go get Cain!” she said as she started to turn away.
“No! No, it’s okay. I’m better. It’s nothing, really. Probably just my blood sugar. Could you get me something from the kitchen? A piece of fruit, or something like that, and a glass of water?”
“Sure! Just wait right there,” Cherie said as she turned and ran into the clubhouse.
The moment the door closed behind her, I opened the door and dropped into the driver’s seat. I had left my purse in the car and I retrieved the keys from the front pocket. I stuck the keys in the ignition, started the car, and quickly backed out and turned around. As I turned out of the parking lot I glanced into the rearview. Cherie hadn’t reappeared. I wanted to smile at my clever escape, but I just didn’t have it in me.
I was only ten blocks away when my phone rang. I knew before I even looked at it that it was Cain. I tossed the phone back into the cubby in the console where it lived, downshifted, and punched the car through a yellow light.
***
I was twenty minutes outside of Dallas when a Ford F350 pulled out from behind me and bellowed around, black smoke pouring from the exhaust as the diver lead-footed it. Just as he passed, he dipped back into my lane, causing me to purse my lips in annoyance. That was one of the problems with driving a small car: nobody, and especially full-size trucks and SUVs, gave me any respect. I lifted off the throttle to allow the asshole to gain a little distance on me, but then he slammed on the brakes.
I didn’t even have time to swear before I slammed on my own brakes and swerved, trying to miss the rapidly approaching rear bumper of the giant truck, but it was too little, too late. I hit the back of the truck with a metal rending bang and the airbag went off with a deafening explosion.
When I regained my senses, I was sitting in the grassy median, facing the wrong way. Someone was yanking on my door, trying to open it. I reached up to my face, and my fingers came away bloody. “Ah…” I gasped as the pain began, then I went cold. The baby!
A pair of hands reached in, unbuckled me, and then began to drag me out of the car. I tried to help, but I was still woozy from doing a face-plant into the airbag. I reached for my face and pulled my broken sunglasses off and dropped them to the ground. I felt again, and I had a sore place on either side of my nose, and another above my left eye, probably from where my sunglasses had cut me.
The hands steered me to a waiting truck. I couldn’t hear as my ears were still ringing from the airbag, and the strong hands had to hold me steady as my legs weren’t working right, but I was beginning to get my wits about me again. As we walked toward the truck, I noticed that the bumper on the truck was badly bent.
I dug my heels in. “Wait…who are you?”
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” the man said, pushing me along.
“This is the truck that I hit! Are you okay?”
“Yes, yes, we’re fine. But you’re bleeding. We need to get you to the doctor.”
He opened the door and I started to get in, but then I paused. “Wait. We have to wait for the cops.”
“Just get in the truck. The cops are on the way. Everything is going to be okay, Alex.”
I started to get into the truck again when I felt a rush. “How did you know my name?” When the guy paused with a stunned look on his face, I started backing away from the truck. “I’ll just wait for the cops, okay?”
“Just get in the goddamn truck!” the man snarled, pushing me back toward the open door.
“No!” I screamed, bracing with hands and feet against the truck. “No! Help!” I screamed again as he tried to muscle me into the truck.
“Get her in here!” a voice called front inside.
“No!”
The man jerked me backwards, wrapped me up in a bear-hug to pin my arms, and shoved me head first into the truck. The moment he released me I twisted and started kicking as he tried to shut the door. That is when I felt the gun press to my head.
“Enough!” a woman yelled. I stopped kicking and the man slammed the door shut before he crawled into the driver’s seat. He was bleeding from the face where I landed a solid kick before he got behind the door.
“So, Alex, we meet again.”
I sat up in the seat as the man accelerated hard back onto the interstate. It took me a moment before I recognized the woman. When I had seen her last, she had blonde hair and was wearing a stylish dress. Now she was a brunette and wearing riding boots, jeans, and a man’s shirt, opened far enough to show off her ample breasts.
“You! What the fuck do you want!”
“Information.”
“You said I could go!”
The woman smiled nastily. “I lied.”
“You fucking bitch!”
“Yeah, I am.”
“How did you find me?”
“We’ve been watching you. Following you around, waiting for our chance. You’re a hard woman to catch alone.”
“What do you want?”
“I told you. Information.”
“I’m not telling you a fucking thing.”
The woman looked at me a moment then lowered the muzzle of the gun to my stomach. “Oh, I think you will.”
I swallowed hard. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Want to try me? I’ve got nothing to lose here, sweetheart.
I know the Hounds are moving against us, but I don’t know how, when or where. You’re going to tell me.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“Oh please. I have Cain’s apartment bugged. Unfortunately the only thing you two talk about is a bunch of shit that doesn’t help me. But you said enough for me to know something is going down. Now tell me what!”
“You’re a liar!”
The woman smiled. “When it suits me. But not this time. How do you think I knew your name? Or where to find you in New Orleans? Or that we had missed you the first time?”
I thought about what she said. That would explain a lot. Cain thought they had a mole in the club, but he didn’t know who it was. It turned out it was him.
“Still don’t believe me?” the woman continued when I didn’t answer. “That was sweet of Cain to tell you that he loved you. Then you turned to such a bitch. That was some pretty hard fucking you two did last night.” She paused a moment before continuing. “So, are you going to talk, or am I going to have to kill you? But I warn you, your death will be slow and painful. And don’t bother lying. I might not know all the details, but I know enough to know if you are lying.”
“The information you sent me? Is it true?”
The woman smiled. “Every last word.”
I slumped in the seat. “What do you want to know?” I had just become a pawn in a deadly chess game…and pawns were always sacrificed for the greater good.
Chapter 32
I spilled my guts on the drive back to Dallas. I told them everything I knew, and the more I talked, the unhappier the woman became. When I finished talking, she called someone and repeated what I had told her.
“Yeah, I know we’re fucked. The question is, what are we going to do about it?” the woman snarled into the phone. “I don’t give a flying fuck! But if the Hounds have the backing of all the other clubs, there is no way out.” She paused a moment to listen. “That might work,” she said as she looked at me. “We got nothing else to bargain with, that’s for sure. Okay, yeah. See you there.”
“I told you everything I know. I’m of no more use to you.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. You’re our ace in the hole. So long as we hold you, the Hounds won’t move against us. Not if Cain wants to see his baby momma again.” The woman looked to the driver. “We’re going to the Bedbug Inn.”
Less than thirty minutes later we pulled into a rundown motel call The Red Rug Inn. They hustled me up to the third floor and stuffed me into a dirty room.
“Sit tight and don’t do something stupid,” the woman snarled as she shut the door behind us. “Killer here, he’s going to be right outside. If you try to run, well, let’s just say that wouldn’t be wise.” She pulled a nasty looking straight razor from her pocket and flicked it open. “After he beats the shit out of you, then fucks you, I’m going to cut your baby out. Are we clear?”
I nodded, unable to say anything.
“Good. Watch her,” the woman said to the ape as she turned toward the door. “And Boyd… don’t touch her. We need her in good shape. If the Hounds don’t come through, you can have her, okay?”
Boyd smiled. “Got it. But if she runs?”
The woman patted him on the chest. “Have fun.”
I sat and cried for a while, listening to the shrieks and moans of men and women fucking their brains out. I peeked out of the blinds, and saw that the gorilla the woman had placed on guard was propped against the rail directly in front of the door. There was no way I could get by him before he grabbed me, though I debated rushing him and trying to throw him over the railing. After thinking about it, I gave that idea up, afraid of going over the side myself.
I moved to the bath and inspected my face. There was a lot of smeared blood, but the bleeding had stopped. I picked the cleanest looking cloth and, after wetting it in the sink, cleaned my face. I had fair-sized cut on the left side of my nose, with a slightly smaller one above the eye on the same side, and another cut, smaller still, on the right side of my nose. Blood wiped away, I inspected my face and decided that the cuts would heal on their own and probably not leave a scar, though they were already sore as hell.
Three hours later, the woman returned. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. “We’re going to make a phone call,” she said as she walked toward me, the razor coming out with a quick flick of her wrist. “You are going to talk to the Hounds. If you say even one word about where you are, I will slit your throat and they can listen to you bleed to death. Sit down,” she ordered as she gestured to the bed.
I sat, and the woman walked across the bed behind me, pressing into my back as the razor touched my throat. She held the phone and dialed. She touched the screen and I could hear the phone ringing.
“Hello? Alex?” Cain’s voice came through the phone.
“Cain?” I whimpered.
“Alex! Thank god! Are you alright?”
“Yes, but there is a woman here with a razor against my throat.”
“Has she hurt you?”
“She’s fine,” the woman said. “And she will stay that way so long as you cooperate.”
“Sloane…so help me, if you hurt her…”
“You’ll what, Cain? Kill me? That’s the plan already, isn’t it?”
“I’ll make it hurt, Sloane. I’ll make you wish you were dead.”
“Here’s the deal, Cain. You’re going to call off the wolves. It’s going to be just Bulls and Hounds…no guns. Tomorrow night, at the water treatment plant on Beltline Road. Your ten best against my ten.”
“Hounds and Bulls, doing it old school. And what of Alex?”
“She’s the prize, Cain. She’s the prize. You stick to the agreement, then she walks, win or lose.”
“Deal. Win or lose.”
“Oh, and Cain. You’re mine.”
“Looking forward to it,” he said, his voice deadly.
“As am I,” Sloane sneered.
She ended the call, but kept the razor to my neck. I said nothing, afraid the crazy bitch would cut my head off. She finally backed away.
“What’s this all about, Sloane, is it?” I asked.
“Sloane Peters. It’s about respect and taking what I want.”
“Your dad was in the Hounds?”
“Yeah. He’s the President of the Bulls, but he’s weak. He isn’t willing to do what has to be done.”
“And you are?”
“Yes. I take what I want, and I will kill anyone that gets in my way.”
“And your father approves?”
“I don’t give a shit what that old fucker thinks. He may be the President, but I run this fucking club.”
“And you’re going to let me go tomorrow night?”
“Fuck no! I will deliver you there in good shape, to keep the Hounds honest, but then, after we fuck the Hounds, we’re going to fuck you, too.”
I went cold with fear but I tried to not let it show. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, when the Hounds show up, we’re going to kill every one of those fuckers. All except Cain, I think. He’s been a complete pain in my ass over this gun deal, and I have plans for him. I’m going to make him watch while my guys fuck you, one after the other, until they are used up or you’re dead.” She grinned coldly. “Boyd out there, he may not even care if you’re dead.”
I felt my blood run cold at her words. “You lying bitch,” I snarled.
“Then, I’m going to tie him down, and I’m going to fuck him while I cut him.” She flicked the razor open and then twisted it so the blade gleamed in the light from the window. “So long as he can keep it up, he will live. We’re going to fuck, in his own blood, until he dies. I’m literally going to fuck him to death.”
“You’re crazy!”
Sloane crawled back across the bed and laid the flat of the razor against my cheek as her other arm went around my chest, pulling me into her. I went stiff with fear. “No, not crazy. Mean,” she whispered
into my ear. “I do it because I enjoy it. Just like I enjoyed fucking Boss as I slit his throat. He was pretty good, but not like Cain. For Cain…I want it to last, for old time’s sake.”
I wanted to spit in her face, but I was afraid of her, afraid of what she might do in a fit of rage.
“Oh? You don’t like the thought of me fucking him? Was it good for you, too?” she asked as she pulled the razor away. I refused to play her sadistic game and kept my mouth shut. “I picked him up one night at a bar and he took me back to his place. We fucked like savages. Did you know he gave me a black eye while we fucked? Not that I blame him, really, since I was trying to choke him to death at the time.”