TORTURE ME: The Bandits MC

by Leah Wilde

  Gage blew out his breath in frustration. But he had to admit, she had some big brass balls, definitely bigger than his. “Alright, fine. But…be careful, okay? I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “Well, same to you,” Fiona said grumpily, right before she began marching down the dirt path towards the house nestled in the woods.

  Gage quickly followed her, the leaves underfoot crunching loudly as he ran after her. “Psst, slow down,” he hissed to Fiona, grabbing her shoulder to temporarily stop her movements. “I don’t want him to have warning that we’re coming.”

  “Jeez, fine, okay,” Fiona said, scowling at him. Goddammit, Gage thought to himself. He was really fucking up today, wasn’t he? He was never going to convince Fiona to stay with him in the city if he kept pissing her off all the time.

  They finally approached the front door, walking more slowly and casually, as if they were just visiting him as friendly neighbors. But Gage knocked firmly on the door, loud enough so that anyone inside the house could hear it. He waited a few moments before knocking again. “Hello? Officer Preston here from the police department. I just want to ask you a few questions.”

  Bang. A shot rang out above Gage’s head, whizzing through the trees around the house. “Shit!” Gage hissed, pulling at Fiona’s shoulders. “Get down!”

  “Is he shooting at us?” Fiona asked, and it was clear from both the expression on her face and the sound of her voice that she was terrified. “Jesus Christ.”

  “Go run to the nearest road,” Gage whispered to her, keeping his hand on her back, feeling her heart pound through her skin and the top of her dress. “Go!”

  “I’m not leaving you!” Fiona hissed back at him, right before another shot rang out, this time smacking a tree in the middle of its trunk.

  “Get off my property unless you have a warrant!” a male voice on the other side of the door shouted.

  “Fiona! Please! Just go!” Gage replied back before standing up to his full height and ramming the front door with all of his weight.

  “What are you doing? What the fuck are you doing?” Fiona shouted. “Get down, he’ll shoot you!”

  “No, he won’t,” Gage said, shoving his shoulder painfully against the front door again, this time causing the hinges to squeak pitifully as a result. “Stay down.”

  “Oh, like fuck am I staying down now,” Fiona said, springing to her feet and shoving her weight against the door.

  Gage suppressed a groan, barely repressing the urge to shove Fiona back down. But he could never do that. He could never do anything that might hurt her, even in the name of saving her life. It was too important for Fiona to have control over her body. Gage couldn’t tell her what to do with it, not even now.

  “On three,” Gage instructed her in a low whisper, gesturing towards the door. “One, two…”

  “Three!” Fiona cried out, and they both slammed their bodies against the door at the same time, knocking it off its hinges and sending it clattering inside the wooden house.

  There was a young man with short, cropped hair and wide, terrified eyes clutching a shotgun in his trembling hands.

  Before Gage could do anything, Fiona ran forward and grabbed the gun out of Josh’s fingers, turning it around and pointing it at him until he sat down on the ground with his arms up.

  “What have you done with her?” Fiona asked between pants for air. Gage didn’t know what to do. He felt frozen to the spot, shocked into place by the sight of Fiona in full fury mode.

  “Who? What?” Josh asked, and even from a few feet away, Gage could see him shaking, trembling like a little boy under the gun that Fiona was now waving in his face.

  “Tori! Tori Greenwood! What have you done with her?” Fiona shouted, shoving the tip of the gun into Josh’s chest. The boy winced and whimpered, turning his head to stare at Gage, an unspoken plea in his eyes. But Gage wasn’t in a very charitable mood. He let Fiona keep going.

  “Tori. Greenwood. Where the fuck is she?” Fiona repeated herself, her mouth screwed up into the most terrifying scowl that Gage had ever seen on her face. Maybe he’d never really seen her mad before, as this was a sight to behold, something more frightening than any argument they’d ever had.

  “T-Tori?” Josh stuttered in response. “The girl at the mall? I just met her a few times. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Oh, yeah, sure, like I’m going to believe that,” Tori muttered, sticking the tip of the gun harder into the front of the kid’s shirt. “Gage, search the house,” she said a minute later, still gripping the gun so hard her veins stood out from the rest of her hands and arms, her blood obviously working overtime inside her body.

  Gage nodded and began to do as instructed, running towards the nearest hallway and opening every door, looking into every closet and under the all beds before rushing to the other side of the house, searching under the rugs, looking for a cellar door. Gage was sure when he began walking down the steps that he was about to find Tori, but there was no sign of life (or death, for that matter) in the basement.

  Gage came back to the main room, where Fiona still held the gun, pointed directly at Josh’s heart. “Where is she?” Gage asked, leaning over the boy to stare directly in his eyes, watching his pupils for any sign of deception.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Josh sobbed out, banging the back of his head against the hard surface of the living room floor. “Please, I don’t know what you’re saying. I haven’t seen Tori in weeks, please, please.”

  “Why did you shoot at us, then?” Gage demanded, grabbing Josh by the shirt collar and shaking him a little bit.

  “I thought—I thought you were here for the drugs. I…I sell stuff,” Josh said, breathing so hard he could barely force the words out. “It’s in the kitchen, in the cabinet on the left side, you can take it, please, take it, I don’t care, I just…” He trailed off, his face screwing up as he began to weep, his entire body trembling as he sobbed.

  “Search the house again,” Fiona said, but Gage could see that her grip on the gun had become looser. She pulled the tip of the gun away from Josh’s body, letting it hang suspended in midair between them.

  Gage was tempted to argue with her. He already knew that Tori wasn’t in the house, but he could tell that Fiona meant business, so he set about searching it again, more slowly this time, while Fiona kept watch over the pathetic boy on the floor.

  “Nothing,” Gage announced as he finished his second search a few minutes later. “There’s nothing here, Fiona.”

  “If I find out that it’s you…” Fiona said, her jaw clenched hard, veins popping out of the side of her pale neck. “If I find out that you’ve hurt those girls, I’ll come back and kill you.” Gage saw Josh nod furiously, clearly terrified of Fiona. “I’m keeping your gun,” she said, finally pulling it away from Josh’s body. “Come on, let’s go.”

  They walked back out towards the main road, Fiona slinging her gun over her shoulder after emptying out the bullets.

  “That was…that was pretty wild,” Gage commented casually, a little worried that he might set Fiona off by asking too many questions. He knew she was disappointed that they didn’t rescue Tori. For a long moment there, it’d felt so certain, as if the killer had just barely escaped their grasp. In truth, they hadn’t accomplished anything besides scaring the shit out of a young kid for no reason. They were no closer to finding Tori’s captor. They were no closer to saving her.

  Fiona didn’t answer him, so after a few long moments Gage reached up and pulled the gun out of her hands, just to get her attention. She glared at him for a second before her scowl fell, revealing how exhausted she looked underneath her bravado.

  “Let me hold onto this, okay?” Gage said, taking the gun fully from her now limp grasp. “You don’t need it anymore.”

  “I always need it,” Fiona murmured.

  “What do you mean?” Gage asked.

  “Nothing, never mind,” Fiona said, shaking her hea
d before she began walking faster, heading back toward the city. “Don’t worry about it.”

  But Gage was worried about it. Fiona seemed to slip back into darkness so quickly, so easily, just by being surrounded by it. The worst thing was that it didn’t scare Gage. Not really. The only thing that scared him was how much he loved seeing it, watching her transform into the Fiona that he knew and loved. She’s coming back to me, he thought. But at what cost?

  Chapter Ten

  They were back in the city before Gage spoke to her again. Fiona was glad for the silence. She needed some time to gather herself.

  But eventually, Gage broke the easy, healing quiet. “Why did you…” He trailed off, apparently uncertain of what he was trying to say.

  “Why did I freak the fuck out at him?” Fiona suggested.

  “Well, yeah,” Gage said.

  Fiona wasn’t sure whether or not she even knew the answer at first. “Nobody shoots at me,” Fiona said through gritted teeth, as if that explained everything. Not anymore, she added silently.

  She was shaken up, though. She felt like all the hairs on her body were standing at attention, posed for a fight. The kid had crumbled beneath her like a cookie, falling apart under the slightest bit of pressure. I probably traumatized the hell out of him, she thought, feeling the heavy sensation of sadness descend upon her. I probably fucked him up for life. He’s going to have nightmares for years to come.

  Fiona sighed deeply, wishing she could expel the negative thoughts along with the air leaving her body. Instead, she pushed the bad feelings to the back of her mind. She’d just have to deal with them later. “Onto the next suspect?” she said to Gage, applying a fake smile to her face in an effort to trick him into thinking that she was okay.

  Gage stared at her for a long moment, looking like he wanted to say something else to her about the incident in the woods, but after a second, he nodded. “We’ll stop by my apartment first to drop the gun off.”

  “We might need it,” Fiona argued, her fingers itching to take the gun back into her own hand. She felt safer when she was holding it, stronger. She missed that feeling.

  “Maybe,” Gage said. “But it’s too big. It’ll be hard to get a suspect to talk without committing felony assault with that thing.”

  Fiona suppressed the urge to grumble under her breath and just nodded, letting Gage take them back into the city and onto the subway, where they got strange looks from other riders as a result of the huge gun in their laps. Soon enough, however, they arrived at their stop and went to Gage’s apartment.

  “We should try the teenage boy next,” Fiona said, thinking out loud as she stepped back into Gage’s living room. “Her ex or whatever he was. The guy who was annoying her.”

  “We’ll have to call the school, get his address. Do you have his first and last name?” Gage asked as he removed his jacket and placed the gun down on the mantel above his fireplace.

  Fiona shook her head. “Just his first name and his last initial. Tommy S. She referred to him that way in her text messages when she was talking to her friend Vanessa.” Fiona slipped out of her sweater, feeling too hot and sweaty to keep it on indoors.

  Gage didn’t answer her right away. Instead, he just stood still in the center of the room, apparently not doing anything. What’s up with him? Fiona wondered.

  In fact, Gage was looking at her, just not at her eyes. His gaze was focused on her….chest. It took Fiona an embarrassingly long time before she realized what he was looking at. Oh, fuck, he’s staring at my cleavage, she thought, immediately feeling the urge to cross her arms over her chest. But…for some reason, she didn’t. She held back, wanting to see how long he’d stare at her before he got embarrassed. It never happened, and eventually, his eyes moved upward to her face, a slight smile playing across his lips. Shit! Fiona thought. He knows that I know. He knows that I know he still wants me.

  She cleared her throat and looked away, feeling her cheeks go red in shame. She shouldn’t have allowed Gage to stare at her. She should have told him to stop it the second she noticed. Why was she letting him cross these lines with her? What was wrong with her?

  “Um, anyway, you should call the school. Pretend you’re the police again. That’s always a good way to get people to listen to you,” Fiona said, pacing back and forth so that Gage couldn’t grab any more cheap glances. “Get his last name, get his address. He’s in her civics class; that might help you when you talk to the people in the main office.”

  “Got it,” Gage said, walking out of the room to make the phone call, leaving Fiona with her thoughts again.

  She sighed deeply and walked to the bathroom to splash some cool water on her face. “Okay, it’s okay,” she said to her own reflection. “You haven’t done anything. Nothing is wrong. Everything is okay. You’re going to be fine.”

  A moment later, she heard the front door slam, causing her to jump a little bit before she slapped her own forehead in frustration. It was just Gage coming back in. Why was she so jumpy, so nervous? Why couldn’t she just be strong? She’d been through so much worse than this investigation. It shouldn’t have been affecting her like this.

  She walked back out into the living room. “So?” she asked.

  “We’ve got it,” Gage said, slipping his jacket back on. “Come on, let’s go. It’s not far.”

  They hopped back onto the subway, heading deeper into the city, the opposite direction from before. Fiona felt her anxiety rise with each passing minute, her shoulders bunching up around her face. Gage must have noticed it, as—once again—he reached over and tapped her knee, lightly this time, like he was a little boy trying to get her to smile. It didn’t work, but for some reason, Fiona appreciated the effort. She wished he would touch her a little bit more, maybe even give her one of his great massages like he used to when they were together. She used to melt under his touch, coming apart in the best of ways. But now, she had to remind herself that she couldn’t get that gentle, tender treatment from Gage anymore. It was unfair to expect it from him, right? She’d sacrificed that when she’d left the city, and there was no getting it back, no matter how exhausted or stressed-out or overwhelmed she became.

  Gage tapped her elbow, so lightly that the hairs on her arm stood up, when it was time to get off the subway and head toward the second suspect’s house. He was rich, that much was clear, judging by the district that he lived in. “He probably has a doorman for Christ’s sake,” Fiona said, sighing deeply as they turned onto the right street to find “Tommy S.”

  “We’ll find a way in,” Gage reassured her, rubbing his hand down her back once, then twice before letting his hand fall away from her body. Despite what she’d berated herself about earlier, it seemed like Gage was still willing to comfort her, even if he got nothing in return for it. Somehow, that only made Fiona feel more guilty about this whole mess.

  There wasn’t a doorman, at least not that Fiona could see, but there was a heavily-locked front door. They’d have to buzz their way in. It wouldn’t be as easy to break in this time.

  “It’s number 16,” Gage said, hitting the buzzer for Tommy’s apartment. They waited on pins and needles, Fiona fidgeting with her hands while they waited for a response.

  “Hello?” a male voice said from the speaker above the front door.

  “Hey, is this Tommy Snyder?” Gage said into the speaker.

  There was a long pause where they heard only static before the male voice said, “Um, yeah. Who’s this?”

  Fiona panicked for a second, her eyes going wide as she realized she never thought up an excuse that would convince the kid to let them into the building. It was all up to Gage now, but at least he didn’t look as scared as Fiona felt.

  “We’re here from the Weekend Post. We’re doing a story about the soccer team, and we were hoping that we could get a few minutes of your time?” Gage said, his voice going up at the end of his sentence so that it sounded like a question.

  There was silence for a long minute b
efore they heard a loud buzzing noise, signifying that the door was unlocked. Gage quickly grabbed the door handle and opened it for Fiona, allowing her to step inside first. Fiona found the elevator on the first floor and pushed the button to go up, jumping in place just to get the excess anxious energy out of her body. It wasn’t going to do her any good if she looked nervous while they were lying to the suspect to try to get information out of him.

  They rode the elevator, going up to the sixteenth floor. Apparently, Tommy’s family owned the whole level. Fucking rich people, Fiona thought.

  Gage gently rapped on the door across from the elevator, looking as secure and confident as ever. Fiona tried to match his level of calm, even though she honestly expected more gunshots to ring over their heads.

  But instead, the door swung open a second later. The kid had clearly been waiting on them. Tommy was dressed in bright neon pink shorts and a tie-dyed top, very out of place in his otherwise monochrome, minimalist apartment. “I’m Preston, Preston Gage,” Gage said, flipping his first and last names to disguise his identity. Fiona made a mental note of that, reminding herself to berate him for that later. It’d be incredibly easy to find him that way, just by Googling the two names together, but she figured that he probably couldn’t think of another name quickly enough to look natural.