Hinder (Midnight Saints MC Book 3)

by Iris Sweetwater

  “I just wish I knew where he took them.”

  “Eric said Kara’s been hiding Maxum in a junkyard, the plan was to crush him in the trunk of a car and to throw it into the lake. Apparently, they didn’t get around to it.”

  “Fucking Kara!” Tony said. He ran his hands through his hair. “I told her it was a bad plan.”

  “You knew?”

  “I knew.” Tony sighed. “She told me the plan before she did it. She wanted me on board, but I refused. I told her it was too dangerous since she was pregnant with my child. I couldn’t risk that. But that stubborn, beautiful bitch!” I would have laughed if lives weren’t at stake. “Now I’ve gone and lost both of them.” His voice had gone quiet.

  “You don’t know that yet,” Austin said. “Kara is one tough bitch. She won’t go down without a fight.”

  “That won’t save the baby.”

  “Because you think she will let Maxum hurt any more children?” Austin countered.

  “Alright, well, we can’t rescue them sitting around here, let’s go,” Tony ordered.

  “You heard him boys,” the Crypt Keepers Prez said to his men.

  We had guns strapped to our hips and any other weapons we could find. This was probably going to be the fight of our lives, and every last one of us was ready. To live or die, we didn’t know, but this was it. There was no turning back now.  We were suddenly soldiers riding to war.

  I had never been to war, I had never had a reason to go, but riding with the Midnight Saints and the Crypt Keepers to save the woman I loved, was all the reason I needed.

  I glanced over at Tony, since my bike was one of the fastest, I kept pace with the officers and Tony. He had Kara’s kutte clutched in his hand. He was like me, going to war for the woman he loved. He looked fierce; determined. I felt scared, but I tried to hide it. I wondered if he felt scared. He sure as hell didn’t look like it.

  “Jed, if you make it out of this, and if you prove yourself tonight, I’ll never let anyone razz you again!” Tony shouted as if he read my mind. “You’re not a coward like I thought you were. I half expected you to bail.”

  “They took the woman I love; I’m not about to bail.”

  “Good, because this could get ugly.”

  “I’m counting on it, Tony.”

  Chapter 28

  Kara

  I wasn’t going to let my baby be crushed to death in a fucking trunk, so I stopped crying and started focusing on a way out of my predicament.

  First, I needed to get the duct tape off my wrists and ankles. I started kicking, hoping to break something I could use to cut the duct tape, but there wasn’t anything. So, I decided the best bet was to use my teeth.

  I had to get my hands from behind my back to my front. I wiggled and eventually managed to get them under my ass, then I kicked my legs forward over my head and shimmied my hand down my legs and then pulled them through.

  It took me a while. It wasn’t as easy as they made it look in movies and it hurt like hell, but if I succeeded, I’d survive.

  My baby would survive.

  I finally managed and had to rest from all the exertion it took. I ripped off the duct tape from my mouth and started biting at it around my wrists. It tasted nasty and it took forever, but at last my hands were free.

  Next, to set my legs free, and then to find a way out of the fucking trunk without being seen. That would be harder. I didn’t think it mattered that my father might have found drugs again or was crazy, he wouldn’t take any risks of letting me leave his grasp.

  He had me right where he wanted me, finally. Never having liked the fact that I had the audacity to leave him in the first place.

  Disrespecting my father was disrespecting God . . . but what of the names he called me? The beatings? The days spent locked in closets without food or being allowed to go to the bathroom as a way to cleanse my soul?

  What about the day I found out he’d killed the ‘whore” who’d made me. Who allowed me to be born after tempting him into the sin of sex, outside of a marriage.

  She had to go—evidence that Maxum was not the man he claimed to be to the public, or to Sophie. That was the reason, I hated her the most.

  He wanted to hide the worst of him from the girl he wished was his real daughter; the perfect Christian orphan girl. But me? I was just a bastard with an attitude and a walking reminder of his iniquity.

  I was still searching for a way out, a trunk release, a way to kick down the backseat, when the trunk opened.

  “You fucking bitch!” The guy punched me in the face.

  I ignored it, ready to fight for two lives today. Ready to show Maxum he had underestimated me. Had tried to pull me down but had created a monster he could never defeat instead.

  I fought the guy–possibly a Shadow Order lackey–by wrapping my arms around his neck and twisting. Two more guys came and grabbed me off of the first, lifting me entirely out of the car.

  Then, they hauled me out and held me while the first guy got his revenge, punching me in the face again and kicking me between my legs. Nothing too deep. I didn’t think it would do any permanent damage.

  “I should break your fucking leg for that, but your daddy wants you.” He punched me again and then they dragged me to a shed where my father was waiting.

  I would’ve liked to believe he had something merciful in mind, but of course I knew better. If he would abuse a child, what he would do to me now was unimaginable.

  I looked at the man who raised me only once before being thrown to the ground. Someone sat on me while my hands were rebound, this time with more duct tape.

  “What do you want us to do with her?” the first man gruffed out, his voice revealing how many cigarettes he must have smoked.

  “Just watch her. Carlos is on his way with Sophie. With any luck, the Midnight Saints are on their way to their deaths. Don’t leave a single one alive when they get here. Understood? Not a single one alive. Shoot them and then stuff their bodies in the trunks and crush them.”

  Carlos? Was it a coincidence?

  Of course not. With an MC nothing was. I had been right not to trust him. I would have to warn Eric if I ever got to see him again.

  Chapter 29

  Sophie

  “You didn’t have to do that!” I shouted at Carlos once the elevator doors had closed.

  “Shut up! Be grateful I didn’t actually kill him. I probably should have, but Maxum wants to trap the Midnight Saints. What better way than to use your boyfriend as the bait? He’ll run back to Tony who will saddle everyone up. They’ll come looking for you and for Kara.”

  He chuckled darkly, and I just didn’t understand. I didn’t understand how this darkness could be associated with my father or how Carlos could have been pretending this whole time.

  Not all humans were good, but I thought at their core, all humans were good and innocent if given the opportunity to be. Being a lawyer was to protect that innocence, even if it meant locking a hardened criminal away and giving a chance of recovery.

  I quickly felt my very beliefs trying to slip away from me as reality came crashing down.

  “Kara?”

  “Yeah, that bitch is going to get what is coming to her, and if you’re not careful, so will you.”

  “What do you want?”

  “I don’t want anything; your dad wants to see you. And he is the one I answer to.”

  “There is no reason to take me at gunpoint, you should have just said so to begin with. Take me to see him.”

  “That’s what I’m doing.” He snarled.

  “You can put the gun away, I’ll come with you. I want to see my father anyway. You didn’t have to knock my boyfriend out.”

  “Shut up!” he responded, the barrel of the gun pressing into my flesh hard, likely to leave a mark or bruise. It hurt, and it was frightening.  Was it possible that Maxum had given such an order? To scare me? To harm me? Or had this man gone rogue?

  “You don’t have to be so mean!” I sna
pped.

  “I’m going to kill you, if you don’t shut up!”

  I realized this man was serious. He would actually kill me and then Jed would probably come looking for me and he’d have to kill him too. And if he killed Kara, Tony and the MC would hunt him down and he’d probably kill them all. When would the bloodshed end?

  It was an endless cycle of violence.

  I became quiet. Why would Maxum send this monster to get me at gunpoint? Had he really lost his mind to the drugs that much?

  We made it out to his car and instead of opening the passenger side for me, he opened the trunk and expected me to get in. When I refused, he grabbed me and threw me in. Then, he slammed the trunk shut.

  I was beyond terrified now. I laid there as silent tears rolled down my cheeks. The engine started and I kept listening for the sound of a motorcycle coming after us, but I never heard one.

  We drove for what seemed like a long time. I wondered where he was taking me. At last the trunk popped open, and Maxum peered down at me.

  “You didn’t need to have me stuffed in the trunk, all you had to do was tell me to come and I’d come,” I said, already trying to climb out.

  “Shut up!” Maxum stopped me. He shoved me down and pinned me by my throat. “Where’s my money?” he snarled.

  “It’s not your money. I’m not paying for your drugs.” I barely was able to croak it out with his hand on my throat, and it hurt even more as I looked at him, his eyes clearer than that day in my car.

  Was he doing this sober?

  “You owe me ten grand, and now it’s twenty.”

  His fist struck the trunk beside my head.

  I tried to pry his fingers off my throat.

  “You owe me twenty grand, You’re going to figure out a way to get it. Hell, no, you know what, you don’t just owe me twenty grand, but you also owe me for the college tuition I paid for, and all the clothes I bought you. Let’s call it fifty grand. You owe me a lot of money, and you’re going to pay it back, with interest. So better think of a way to get me what I want, or well, I’ll make you work it off. And I ain’t playing. I ain’t going to let you go ‘til you pay me off.” He pulled his hand from my throat.

  “Get her out.” It was suddenly clear to me that the God-fearing part of my “Father” was gone, if it was ever there at all. Maybe Kara had been right all along.

  I could feel my very soul breaking at the thought that my whole life with him might have been a lie.

  “Put her with the other one. We got more important shit to deal with.”

  They dragged me off and threw me into a dark room. There was someone else there. I could smell blood and hear soft whimpering. “Who is there? Kara?”

  “Sophie?”

  “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I didn’t believe you,” I wailed, having known her voice instantly.

  “It wouldn’t have made a difference; he would have come for us either way.” It was the most defeated I’d ever heard the woman. I’d always thought she was a lying bitch, an awful person. But always tough as nails.

  Not now.

  If Maxum could do this to her, what would become of me?

  “How did this happen? When did he turn into this monster?”

  She let out a wry, maniacal laugh. “Maybe it was when he killed my mother to cover up his sin. Or maybe it was the first time he locked me in a closet to starve, because he caught me watching a TV show he said was possessed by Lucifer. Or maybe it was the first time he rammed his fingers inside me to check my virginity.”

  If anyone could have seen my face, it would look as if I’d seen a ghost. I’d never listened to the hints at Maxum being abusive or not the man he claimed to be. Maxum had always portrayed Kara as a sinner. Crazy. Possessed maybe. Someone who made the devil happy.

  I felt so dumb, being conditioned to not see it. To hate her all the while he was hurting her.

  Doing unspeakable things that no righteous person could ever excuse.

  “I’m sorry,” I whispered in the dark, knowing it was inadequate. “I didn’t know.”

  “Look, no one knows we’re here, so it’s up to us. Either we die here, or we find a way out. Together.”

  It was the first hint of her old confidence I heard.

  But could we do that? Against so many enemies?

  “Jed does, well he knows I was kidnapped. He came to the office to ask me to go on a weekend getaway with him. He had roses and everything. Then, Carlos came out of his office. He left Jed unconscious. when he wakes up, he’ll go to the MC, Tony and Jed, they’ll come to our rescue with full back up.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of, that’s what my father and the Shadow Order are waiting for. They plan to kill them. Every last one of them.” Kara became quiet as she sobbed again. “What have I done? I caused this,” Kara said. “I never thought I was a bad person all those years he said I was. But now, after overseeing his torture, and then torturing him myself, maybe I’m a bad person and maybe I shouldn’t be a mother.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I’m . . . ”

  “Shut up in there!” Someone banged on the door. “Next peep I hear in there, I’m coming in to pistol whip you.”

  We fell silent, lost in our own thoughts.

  I tried to think about Jed. I wondered if I’d ever see him again. Would they really kill him? All because he loves motorcycles? He could be anywhere in the world living it up right now, why would he choose to be a part of something so dangerous? Something that would lead to an early death? I just didn’t understand it. I didn’t understand any of it.

  I closed my eyes and prayed like I had never prayed before. Even if Maxum was a bad man, I had still learned a faith in God from him that was unwavering. Because I had seen proof of miracles myself. And I hoped I would witness another tonight.

  “God, some really bad men are about to kill a lot of innocent people. Please, God protect the innocent. God, help Maxum. Help him fight the darkness, the evil that has taken over him, and help him to find the path back to you, back to the light. Help him and Kara find love for each other, help him see the error of his ways and to change. God, I know it’s not too late. Please, please, God, help him, before he does something he can’t come back from.”

  Someone banged on the door again, and then it opened. Maxum was standing in the doorway, looking at us. “Okay, get Sophie, we got to move. Leave Kara. You boys can do what you want with her. She’s worthless and beyond saving. She’s carrying a bastard child of a criminal, so she can burn with the rest of the Midnight Saints. But Sophie is mine; we have unfinished business.”

  “You’re pregnant?” I asked her, now more frightened for my adopted sister. We had never seen eye to eye, but I would never wish for her to be hurt with a child in her belly.

  Kara nodded.

  “You’re wrong. You’re going to be a great mother,” I told her, feeling the words come from above through me. I knew it was the truth. She knew how not to be, so she would do right by that baby.

  “She won’t be alive to be any kind of mother.”

  “You can’t kill her, she’s your daughter, carrying your grandbaby,” I shot back at Maxum, acting braver than I felt.

  “She’s nothing to me.”

  I was simply grabbed and dragged out.

  “Let go of me!” I screamed. “My boyfriend will come and kill you all!”

  “You have a boyfriend? In the Midnight Saints? Sophie, I thought you were smarter than that. I thought you were better than Kara. I thought you were going somewhere with your life.”

  “Jed is more than just another Midnight Saint; he has the kind of money you only wish you had.”

  “Oh good, then maybe he’ll pay your ransom. It just went up to a hundred thousand.”

  “Daddy, why are you doing this?”  It was the one question I desperately needed the answer to.

  “I ain’t your daddy. You should have just given me the money. Why did you have to make things difficult?”

 
“You don’t have to do this, you can walk away, come with me, I can help you. You can be the man you once were.” I tried desperately to reason with him. “Look, I’m sorry, I know you’re mad that I went to Kara for help, but . . . ”

  “Shut up!”

  “You’re not really going to let anyone hurt me, are you?”

  “As long as you’re a good girl, no one is going to hurt you. Just work off your debt, and you’ll be fine. Or have your boyfriend pay it. As long as I get my money, I don’t care. You can even continue at law school or your internship or do whatever the fuck you want with your life. All I care about is getting my money.”

  “What do you need it for?”

  “That’s not your concern.”

  I turned instead to another tactic. Surely, there was some emotion in there somewhere, even if it was buried deep. “Do you really have no feelings for Kara at all? She’s your daughter, your flesh and blood, and she’s carrying your grandchild. I can’t believe The Preacher I know really doesn’t care for the child he raised.”

  “She’s a fucking whore and that bastard child.”

  ‘She’s still your daughter, and she’s a lot more like you than you know. You would know that if you only gave her a chance. Tony isn’t a bad guy either, you once liked him.”

  “That was a long time ago.”

  “That was before the drug addiction, once you have all that out of your system, Daddy, you’re going to see things more clearly and feel a lot better. You’re sick, you need help.”

  “The only thing I need is to finish what I started. And just so you know, I’ve been clean since I left the Saints. Get it in your head, little girl, I’m not who you fucking think I am.”

  I was carted away in a car, Maxum driving, backup in the backseat in the form of the man I thought was just my new boss. I didn’t know where we were going so fast, the highway and my home passing us by.