Lady Sings the Blues

by Sarah Zolton Arthur

  “What kind of release, Lo?”

  “Tardust, snow, dream—blow, baby. The best kind of release.”

  “Logan—no—please tell me no.”

  “Cleaned up since then, don’t pretend to worry. Of course, didn’t clean up fast enough to save my full ride or place on the team. Random testin’. Bullshit. So I come to my sweet girlfriend needin’ her to make me feel better and what do I find, my girl and my boy—my cousin—hell, coulda been my brother for as close as we were, not just standin’ at your back but stabbin’ me in mine.”

  It’s at this point Logan drops his hand from my throat and pushes back. Not far, but far enough to pace the carpet back and forth, clearly agitated. “Stab me in the back,” he murmurs.

  “He didn’t stab you in the back.”

  Logan lunges at me, stopping shy of touching me with anything but the tip of his nose against the tip of my nose.

  “He did. You did. Tellin’ me you’re havin’ my baby with him at your back. What the fuck was I supposed to do with that? Sleepin’ with that prick with my baby in your belly. That’s the fuckin’ definition of a whore, Elise.”

  “I never slept with him, Lo. Not once. Never. Before I thought you died and for the five years after, I never slept with another man. You, however, didn’t give me that courtesy.”

  “You’re a liar and a whore. But as I see it, he took what was mine so now I’m takin’ what’s his. Fair’s fair.”

  “Please, Logan. Tell me how you’re alive when the town buried you.”

  “Hard to identify the body with the head blown off. Was fuckin’ this girl, her brother was Horde. He helped me pick the dick out at a mall in Lexington. My body type, hair color. Rage helped me kidnap the douche, but I had to be the one to take him out. Didn’t think I could do it. Crazy thing about that, Elise. Didn’t realize just how easy it is to point and pull a trigger. My fingerprints on my dad’s rifle. Benefit of bein’ the god of Thornbriar, the town was too stunned for those losers to do a proper identification. Then Rage helped me disappear. Enter Houdini.”

  “You’re crazy,” I whisper.

  “No baby, not crazy…free.” He walks over to a dresser turning his back to me to pull open the drawer so I take the opportunity to look around and realize I know exactly where we are. Exactly.

  Same log frame bed. Same Navajo print blanket covering the soft pillow top mattress. Same tacky woodland prints hung on the walls. Same. Everything the same. Except the man. The man had changed. He too the same, but so very different.

  I cannot believe he brought me here, to the first place I’d given myself to him. That’s when he turns back around throwing a pair of drawstring shorts and a T-shirt over his shoulder. He reads my face, knows I know.

  “Yeah baby, long time since you been here. Let’s get you dressed.” Normally I don’t much take to being ordered around, but as I’m at a disadvantage sitting half naked on a bed with a crazy nutsoid, out of his ever-lovin’ mind Logan, I quickly stand, stepping into the shorts he’d crouched down for me to step into and allow him to pull them up.

  He ties them resting low on my hips. And after unbinding my wrists, he slips the tee over my head, knotting it at my lower back as I pull my arms through the armholes.

  With my wrists bound again, I’m led out of the bedroom. “I’m married to him, Lo. You can’t have me.”

  “I don’t want you bitch. That ship done sailed. I mean, I’ll fuck ya. Still got a hot little bod. Always had a tight little cunt. Don’t look used, so I bet you’re still pretty fuckin’ tight. No, I’m takin’ the baby. Imagine it, Elise, the baby of the VP of Brimstone Lords bein’ raised by the Horde.”

  “I’ll never stop fighting to get away, you know.”

  “Not sure what you’d be goin’ back to. Bossman’s dead. Either way, he’s dead. Givin’ you this one chance, come willin’ and Maryanne lives. Livvy lives. Trisha lives. Fight me, I take ‘em out and make it painful. Won’t realize the meaning of suffer ‘til I’m done with ‘em.”

  Deep breath in. Deep breath out.

  I close my eyes, picturing Beau’s molten chocolate eyes and crooked smile. I remember how it feels to run my fingers through that thick peanut butter hair. To feel his arms around me. His beard tickling my shoulder when he kisses my neck. To rest my cheek on my name tattooed over his heart when we’re lying in bed together. And at the very last, I remember how a duck walked into a bar.

  “Decide now,” he orders.

  There’s no way for me to escape right now. Not until he trusts me again. And if he’s proven anything this morning, it’s that he’s crazy enough to pick off my friends, one by one.

  No, I never. My friends have to stay safe.

  Swiping the wetness from my eyes, I agree. “I’ll go.”

  Houdini, because I can’t call him Logan anymore. He’s fallen so far from Logan Hollister or my Logan Hollister, that man, well, he’s as dead as the town thinks he is. Houdini blindfolded me again, along with replacing the binds around my wrists before leading me out of the cabin. “Safer if you don’t know just yet.”

  I assume this means he doesn’t want me to know which way we’re heading. After he’d shoved me inside the car again, he ran back inside the cabin muttering something about another clip. I’ll further assume he’s not talking about something to keep my hair pulled back.

  Suddenly and very unexpectedly my door opens to a whispered, “Elise.”

  Tears sting my eyes again, even as my heartrate kicks into overdrive. I know that voice. I know it. “Levi?” I whisper back.

  “No time, gotta get you out sweetheart.” And he yanks me from the car at the same time removing the blindfold. “Bend low, keep quiet and run,” he orders, as he pulls me by my bound hands along next to him.

  So many questions swirl through my brain, number one being where’s Beau? But I’m not stupid enough to open my mouth. Levi says keep quiet, he’ll get quiet.

  We run.

  In the distance we both hear an angry, “Fuuuk!” to which Levi responds by dragging me faster, and I must admit, with my being barefoot, he’s much more agile running over rocks, twigs, tree roots and other forest debris. My feet feel shredded. But if he can get me back to my Beau, then my lips will stay zipped without one word of complaint.

  His words come at me ragged. “Taking the river. There’s a ferry not too far, get us Ohio side. Hidden. Sit,” he orders then.

  Levi says sit, I sit.

  Beau would be shocked to see how well I take orders. Along with his proficiency in the rescue arts, badass biker prospect Levi apparently already developed that badass biker ability to read minds as well, since he says exactly that to me.

  “Boss always said you’re shit for taking direction.” He tells me this as we’re sliding down the craggy embankment landing our feet at the squishy mud shoreline of the Ohio River. A shoreline smelling of rotten plant life, which kicks in my pregnant woman gag-reflex and paranoia, as I’m sure at this very moment, the rotten seeps into the open cuts on my feet infecting me with some crazy E.coli or salmonella or tapeworm larvae in every step.

  I refuse to freak out about what I might already have contracted and instead, roll my eyes and mutter an annoyed, “Whatever,” back at him. An annoyed whatever we both know I don’t mean.

  And it’s not until we begin to slow from a run to quick paced walk that I realize my feet have gone completely numb. I’m not sure when it happened, when I stopped feeling the pain from my shredded feet. The cold mud put a stop to that.

  Numb feet infested with E.coli, only I could use them as a means to calm myself down. It’s what’s on my mind when I look over at Levi pulling his cell from his pocket. Being right on the river, there’s enough open space for a connection. I could cry when I see the name, the number he connects with.

  “Got her,” he speaks into the receiver. “On the river. Heading north. A cabin off route eight. She’s right here.” Then he thrusts the phone in my hand. “Make it quick,” he once again order
s.

  “Beau?” How I prayed to hear his voice one more time. His name, I whimper. Not that I want to cry, I’m just not sure I can help it. “Beau,” I repeat stronger, as I bend my head to use the fabric at my shoulder to wipe my eyes.

  “Elise, god darlin’ it’s fuckin’ good to hear your voice. We’re comin’ for ya. Stick close to Levi. Shit! Christ! Shit!” Beau’s voice breaks. “I… if you…shit!” he says again.

  I know what his sentiment means. I won’t make him say it.

  “I’m okay Beau.” I stare out over the river, while I try to reassure him. “Guess I owe you a wedding night?” There, my first gift to him, to lighten the mood. We can’t have him breaking down in front of his brothers.

  “Woman, when we’re done I’m takin’ you away for a month where you’ll do nothin’ but lay in bed naked, givin’ me my weddin’ night.”

  Levi tugs my arm and spins his finger in the universal gesture for “Wrap it up.”

  “I’m being ordered to wrap this up. But Beau, you gotta know Houdini—it’s, he’s—he’s Logan.” The line goes silent at the same time Levi jerks us to a stop.

  “He can’t be baby girl. Lo—”

  “He is,” I demand, cutting him off. “He kidnapped me. Took me to the family cabin on route eight. He escaped death.”

  “Houdini,” that’s all Beau clips back.

  “Yes, just like Houdini.”

  “Put Levi back on.”

  “Okay, love you Beau.”

  “Love you too, darlin’.”

  Levi grabs the phone from my hand without me even offering it up. Because he did just rescue me from my crazy ex-boyfriend. A man who we all thought killed himself years ago. A man we found out murdered several people and wants to fuck me until my baby is born so he can steal the kid to raise hating his or her father and arch nemesis in a rival club. Because of all that, I’ll let that slide.

  After he hangs up, Levi tells me Beau wants us to continue up to the ferry, and starts off walking again while shoving the phone back inside his front jean pocket.

  “Come on,” he follows that. “Time to hustle.”

  It takes us another twenty minutes of hiking before we find ourselves in a crouch behind a tree at the wooded shoreline. We watch as the ferry unloads passengers on the Ohio side of the river, which means we’ll have to wait a while.

  With little grace, I plop my butt onto the damp ground and hold my bound wrists out to Levi. I think he almost forgot they’d been bound. Since I kept up, and as I vowed, didn’t complain once. He reaches inside his boot to pull out a switchblade. He flips it open and slices through ties. The delicate red fabric flits down into a mud patch, soaking up enough brown to turn a dulled red reminiscent of dried blood.

  Absentmindedly, I rub at my wrists. As I watched Levi pull the switchblade, I noticed his skin full of welts and bruising. Now I see his T-shirt torn at the sleeve. And belatedly it hits me that when he rescued me, he wasn’t on his bike.

  “What happened?” I ask. And I finger the torn cotton like expensive silk.

  He watches my fingers, but doesn’t push them away. “Got sidetracked by some Horde outside Dover.”

  My hand immediately stills, gripping his shoulder. Levi got sidetracked by the Horde? By himself?

  “Are you okay?” Though whispered, I shriek. If I hadn’t heard myself do it, I wouldn’t have known it possible.

  “Just a little banged up. My guess, Horde won’t be too happy with me, though.”

  “Why?”

  “Let’s just say there’s five of them outta commission for a while.”

  “Five?” I whisper a shriek again. “Five.”

  He locks his hands together over his bent knees and drops his head, smiling possibly one of the sexiest, most panty-melting, cat-ate-the-canary grins I’ve ever seen. So hot, I don’t know how to channel my reaction. Yesterday I married the love of my life, I shouldn’t have a reaction to channel. And I have no excuse, except to say he’s a badass, rescued me, he’s beautiful and I’m human.

  “If I wasn’t totally in love with Beau I’d kiss you right now.”

  His smile evaporates. “Maybe keep that to yourself.”

  “What, is badass Horde dropping Levi scared of Beau?”

  “Yes,” his answer comes without hesitation. “I want my patch, but more importantly—I want my life.”

  “Okay then.” I chuckle. “I’ll keep it to myself.”

  “Good. But Elise…”

  I lift my head to look him in the eyes.

  “Thanks. I know why he loves you. Someday when I’m ready to find the right pussy, way, way, waaaay down the road, I’ll know what to look for.”

  Two choices. I could laugh or I could cry. I pick laugh and punch him in the shoulder, just a soft punch to show I get him. Then we hear the rumble of the ferry engine cranking to life across the river, effectively ending our Levi and Elise bonding moment. We push up from the ground, and I wipe at my behind while I stretch, bending slightly backward. It’s time to go home.

  32.

  Elise

  When my eyes had popped open, they opened to dark, the darkest of dark, darker than the cave Beau had taken me to at Carter Caves, and soundless. Only the sound of my breathing, my blood pumping in my ears, my heartbeat kind of sensory deprivation. About two point five seconds after that, my freak out commenced. About two point five seconds after that, I realized how cramped my quarters, as in just big enough to hold my body. Then about two point five seconds after that, I shut the hell up.

  My head hurt then, it still hurts now.

  Darkest of dark, sensory deprivation and the softest padded satin surrounding me, it didn’t take a genius to figure out where I am. A coffin. I don’t know how much time has passed since I woke up and came to that eerie realization, but now all I can do is sit with my memories, waiting, hoping someone will find me in time, that my Beau doesn’t lose his family today. I rest my hand on my small baby bump. Mommy’s little parasite.

  The ferry. Levi and I watched it glide back across the river toward us. I guess we both let our guards down. But the ferry was coming. We’d be safe. Away from Houdini. So neither of us thought anything of it when he grabbed my hand and pulled me to start for the dock. “Let’s go.”

  He’d sidled over so his feet rested in the water to prepare to help me climb on board the boat. And then it all happened so fast…so fast.

  Houdini was there. He’d found us. He’d found us with his gun out, trained on Levi. And Levi dropped. Well first his body jerked several times, I screamed bloody murder because I think I had, in fact, witnessed a bloody murder, and then Levi dropped.

  Scared immobile. I’d been too stunned to move because my badass biker buddy might have just died to save my life. Then my flight instinct kicked in, but kicked in too late. Once I turned to run, Houdini, he’d already caught me.

  I felt it when the butt of the gun connected with the back of my head. It hurt for a second, after that second, nothing hurt. Not until I woke up here. In a freaking coffin. The real Houdini, the magician Houdini’s most difficult trick. The one he never got to perfect before his untimely demise.

  Come on, Elise. I know I have to listen to that inner voice inside my head. All this reminiscing serves no purpose, save messing with me enough to get worked up again and thus using up my limited oxygen stores. And as I’m not keen on using up my limited oxygen stores, I force my eyes to close, to think of Beau and how he looked at me as I walked down the aisle toward him. The love, the pride he wore for all his brothers to see, but it was all for me, just for me.

  Then I let myself drift off to an imaginary world where Beau and I relax on the beach, the setting sun still warming our skin while we hold each other watching the ocean waves lap, break after break, eating away the sandy shore until the salty water finally laps our toes.

  Tears sting my eyes.

  I wanted that imaginary world. I still want it, but the chances of ever getting it slip further and further away wi
th each passing minute. So I let it go, imagining another, where I rock our baby on the swing out front of Beau’s house, leaning against his chest. Beau’s powerful arms hold the both of us.

  And I begin to sing. Softly. I pick a lullaby my father used to sing to me when I was a little girl. He’d sing it those nights I’d wake up scared from some unidentified monster hiding in my closet or under my bed, or when the thunder rattled the house so fiercely, my child mind thought it would crash down around us.

  I sing because I would have sung to my little parasite when he or she woke scared from some unidentified monster hiding in the closet or under the bed. Or the nights when the thunder rattled our little bungalow so fiercely, his or her child mind would think it would likely crash down around us.

  As I sing, my words muffle out from a loud thud. A heavy, loud thud. Like maybe the edge of a shovel hitting the coffin lid, thud?

  “Hello?” I call. But my voice comes out softer than I mean it to, probably due to the sheer surprise of hearing the thud in the first place. “Hello?” I call out louder this time.

  “Elise?” I hear my name called back. Muffled, but called nonetheless.

  “Beau?” I yell this time. “Beau?” A screech now.

  “Calm down baby girl.” Thud. “I’m here.” Thud. “I’m here, darlin’.” Thud. Voices grow louder. Thud. “Elise?” Thud. Thud. Thud.

  “Here!” Thud. Then there’s a crack. And blinding light, so blinding, so light I have to close my eyes to shield them, missing that first look at my Beau. That is until I hear the thunk of his boots hitting the wood, his broad, strong body shielding me, I see the light dim through my closed eyelids then open them. And I have never seen anything so beautiful, so wonderful in my entire life.

  33.