FORSAKEN: The Punishers MC

by April Lust

  Chuckie obediently quieted down. He climbed off my lap and ate a giant slice of cake. By the end of the evening, he was almost acting like everything was back to normal. He didn’t look at me until we were leaving. Chuckie was yawning and trailing behind me in the parking lot. He was carrying a stuffed mouse, his big prize from the evening.

  “Did you have a good time?” I kept my tone cautious and light as we slipped in the car.

  Chuckie nodded. He yawned again and pulled the seatbelt over his tiny frame. Soon, he’d be big enough where he wouldn’t have to sit in the booster seat every time we went on a car ride. “It was okay,” Chuckie said. “It wasn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.”

  His reply was strangely intelligent for a five-year-old. “Why not, sweetie?”

  Chuckie looked at me. “Because my wish didn’t come true,” he said heavily, as though he were sharing an ancient secret. “And that was really the only thing I wanted. I wanted my wish to come true.”

  “And what did you wish for?” I turned in my seat and looked at Chuckie.

  He shifted uncomfortably and looked away. “I wished for a daddy,” Chuckie said. A tear rolled down his cheek. I felt like someone had punched me in the gut. Just as I was about to say something, Chuckie opened his mouth again. “I wished for a daddy and it didn’t come true. I thought that was my new daddy talking to you but he wasn’t.” Chuckie pouted and I sensed the tantrum of a lifetime coming on. “Why can’t you give me a daddy, Mommy? That’s the only thing I really want!”

  My heart broke as I turned the key in the ignition. “Sometimes, mommies do better without daddies around,” I lied. “Sometimes, mommies do much better just with their children.”

  Chuckie sniffed. “But it’s not fair!” His voice was dangerously loud and I felt a headache start almost instantly. “It’s not fair! All of the other kids at school have daddies! Why can’t I have a Daddy, too!”

  I didn’t know how to answer that. “I’m sorry, sweetie,” I told him. “But some families don’t have daddies. Some families don’t have mommies, either. But we have each other, and that’s what counts, right?”

  Chuckie angled his small body away from mine and glared out the window. He didn’t speak for the rest of the ride home.

  Chuckie coughed loudly, pulling me out of my daze. “Mommy, who are those people?” His tone was excited but guarded. “They have the same kind of bicycle that Trey had!”

  For a moment, I was excited. I thought Trey had come after us, to get us, to tell us he loved us and he was ready to be a father. But what I saw made my blood run cold. Unfamiliar bikers were surrounding the car. One of them raised his fist in the air and motioned for me to pull over. Fear choked my throat and I could barely breathe. I tried to speed up but two of the bikers zoomed in front of the little car, making it impossible. I would have slammed on the brakes but there were two bikers behind me, making obscene gestures with their hands and screaming for me to pull to the side of the road.

  The biker who had made the first motion pulled a gun out of his jacket. I gasped loudly.

  “Mommy! What’s wrong?”

  The biker laughed and pointed the gun to Chuckie’s head. I heard him dimly through the closed window. “If you don’t pull over, little kid gets it!”

  My heart was pounding like a jackhammer in my chest as I pulled to the side of the road. Gradually, I slowed down and rolled over the shoulder. Chuckie was looking at me with a panicked expression.

  “Mommy! What’s happening?”

  “I don’t know, sweetie,” I said, trying to keep my voice neutral and even. “I don’t know, but everything’s going to be okay. Okay? I promise.”

  Chuckie started to cry. As the car rolled to a stop, the bikers dismounted and walked towards me with alarming speed. One of them yanked the door open and wrapped his strong hands around my waist, pulling me out of the car. I was screaming and kicking but another one of the guys came to restrain me. These guys weren’t idiot hacks like Nick and Randy, but giant, bulky, and intimidating. The one who had grabbed me reeked of booze and I suppressed a wave of nausea as he wrangled me out of the car.

  “Help!” I screamed loudly. “Help! Help!”

  “You dumb bitch,” the guy said. He spat in my face and I shuddered with revulsion. “Don’t you know you’re supposed to yell ‘fire’? No one’s gonna help you, honey,” he said, letting his eyes trail down my body and linger on my chest. I shuddered. “No one’s gonna help you, and we’re here to bring you and kiddie boy to a world of pain.”

  “Chuckie!” I screamed at the same time as I heard him yell, “Mommy!” at the top of his lungs, scared and loud.

  “You’re both coming with us,” the biker snarled. He reached for my wrists and flipped me around, shoving my body hard against the driver’s side of my car. I felt a trickle of panic run through my body as he bound my wrists tightly. I heard the sound of duct tape ripping apart and before long, I felt a tacky strip wind around my face and cover my eyes. Chuckie was sobbing and screaming and I was trying to comfort him as best I could when someone shoved a foul-tasting rag in my mouth.

  “Bitch, we’re going on a little ride,” a hot voice tickled my ear. “You better be good or your kid’s going in the trunk.”

  I felt my body being lifted in the air and every muscle tensed, waiting for the eventual drop on hard ground. But when I was put down, it was on something soft and upholstered. It was tilted, and after a few seconds I realized I was in the back seat of a different car. A small, flailing body was set next to mine and I realized it was Chuckie. The bikers were mumbling something under their breath, and after a second one of them got in the car and I heard the engine roar to life.

  “You ready? Of course you are,” the guy said in a rough voice. He started laughing and pulled away with such a force that I felt my body slide off the seat and bang against the back of the driver’s seat.

  From under my blindfold of duct tape, I felt hot tears leak out and fall down my cheeks. So this was the end. All because of my mistakes, all because I’d left Trey.

  I’m so sorry, Chuckie, I thought desperately. Mommy is so, so sorry.

  Chapter 21

  Trey

  When I left the hospital, I was so mad I could have spat. Part of me wanted to go back in there and kill Wolf, slowly, like he deserved for being a goddamned pussy rat. What kind of man would rat out his president just for getting his fucking fingers broken?

  “No man,” I said grimly. “Only a little kid would do something so selfish.” I shook my head in disgust. The whole time I thought I’d been raising a tribe of men, I’d only been raising a tribe of pussies. No wonder Angel and Chuckie were in trouble. If I’d actually taken the time to be around real men, they would have been protected. Between the prospect’s fucking off when he was supposed to be watching Angel and Wolf’s easy betrayal, I wasn’t feeling good about the future of the Skullbreakers.

  I sped towards the shitty part of town, where Angel had a little bungalow. As I approached, my heart sank in my chest. It was obviously empty; she hadn’t been there in days. The driveway was soaked with the rain that had fallen all night, and I didn’t see any fresh oil or gas leaks from Angel’s old car.

  “Fuck!” I screamed loudly and beat my fists against the handlebars of my bike. “Fuck! They’re fucking gone!”

  Setting my mouth in a thin line, I climbed back on my bike and carefully combed the neighborhood. There was no sign of Angel or Chuckie. I tried to watch for similar cars, thinking maybe she had hidden somewhere. I had no idea where they would have taken her, but I didn’t think it could be good.

  Damien. He had to know something. Gunning my bike into high gear, I pointed it in the direction of Damien’s house. I hadn’t been there since I’d warned him to stay away from Angel. Now, it was almost comical. I’d been so stupid; I’d seriously thought that talking to him would prevent anything too awful from happening. But I’d been so goddamn cocky and stupid. I was no better than Wolf. I deserv
ed this.

  But Angel and Chuckie didn’t deserve this at all. They deserved a safe, happy, comfortable life, away from danger. They deserved more than I could give them, and now they might not even still be alive.

  My hope was mounting. They had to be with Damien. But as I pulled into his driveway, my chest tightened. His house was obviously abandoned. I could tell no one had been there in days. There were cobwebs stretching across the door and the driveway was as empty as Angel’s had been. I was racking my brain, trying to think of where Damien would have taken them. I cursed aloud as I realized I really had no idea. I didn’t even know where the Steel Demons had their nasty clubhouse.

  “Goddammit!” I screamed, beating my fist against my thigh. “God-fucking-dammit!” I couldn’t believe that I’d been so stupid, so horrible to Angel. If I hadn’t upset her, she never would have left. She and I could be making love right now! She and I could be fucking and Chuckie could be sleeping and all could be right with the world! In my desperation, the idea of fucking Angel almost made me sad. Now, I’d never get to fuck her again. Even if I somehow managed to save her, she wouldn’t want a goddamn thing to do with me. And she was totally right: she shouldn’t be around me. She should never have been around me. That was the reason all of this shit was happening in the first place. I closed my eyes to that fateful day, back in the library parking lot.

  Back then, I thought I could just punch guys and they’d respect my patch authority enough to stay the fuck away. But that hadn’t worked. I’d been too sure of myself, too cocky. I should have beaten them so badly they couldn’t even stand on their own two feet. Then maybe they would have thought twice about going after Angel and our son. Our son. The thought of Chuckie made me actually want to cry. He was so young, so innocent, and now he’d been dragged into more trouble than he’d ever seen.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket. I yanked it out and saw an unfamiliar number flashing across the screen. As quickly as I could, I pressed it to my ear. “Hello?”

  There was a wicked, dark laugh from the other end of the line and I immediately knew it was him. Damien. The evil one, the one who’d tried to steal my family. Well, he wasn’t going to have the last laugh. I’d beat him yet.

  “Find them?” Damien’s voice was dark and smoky, full of humor I didn’t see.

  “Where the fuck are they?” My own voice was a growl. It permeated the airspace like that of a caged animal.

  “Oh, I’ve got them someplace safe and tight for now,” Damien said.

  He laughed and I felt a new bolt of rage course through my body. It was enough to make the anger I’d felt for Wolf look like child’s play. “Where the fuck are they, Damien?”

  “Oh, so you figured out it was me,” Damien said with a chuckle. “I tell you, I’ve always wanted to put my hands on that little cunt of yours. What a foxy woman, Trey. I have to give you credit. Those tits! I wanted her back then and I sure as fuck still want her now.”

  “Leave her alone,” I hissed through gritted teeth. “She’s not yours. She never will be. Angel belongs to me, and she always will.”

  “Well, that’s just the thing,” Damien purred. He’d slowed his voice to a liquid drawl. “If you know where to look, you might be able to find that sweet little cunt pretty soon. The thing is, Trey, I’m gonna need your word on a few things first. You got that straight?”

  I nodded even though Damien wasn’t able to see me. “I understand,” I said through gritted teeth. “Whatever the fuck you want me to do, I’ll do it.”

  “I know you will,” Damien purred in reply. “I’m gonna need your resignation as president of the Skullbreakers before twenty-four hours have passed. You got that, asshole? No longer are you gonna lead that MC. You’re gonna be a broke asshole like the rest of us, fighting for your cut in the world. You’re gonna have to struggle, just like I struggled for all of those years.”

  I gritted my teeth. “Fine,” I snapped. “I’m out. I’ll call the guys as soon as I’m off the phone with you. I’m done. I’m out. I won’t ever see your face again, Damien. You got it.” I couldn’t believe he was letting me off so lightly! It felt like I was being given a light sentence.

  “Good, good,” Damien purred. “I’m so glad you’re starting to see things from my point of view, Trey. It’s always better when we can work together.”

  I snorted in disgust. I couldn’t believe that, years ago, I’d actually been friends with this cretin. I’d even felt bad for him so many times. I’d pitied him and wanted to help him come up in the world because I felt so sorry. He’d come from the same wrong side of the tracks I’d come from, but, unlike me, he was obviously still nursing a grudge that I’d succeeded where he’d failed.

  “Oh, and, Trey?”

  “What?” My words cut through the air like a dagger. “What else, Damien?”

  Damien laughed, a high-pitched sound that made me think of a farm animal. “There’s one more little thing,” he said in a jokey tone. “One more, tiny little thing. I don’t think you’ll mind, Trey. I don’t think you’ll mind at all.”

  My heart thudded in my chest. “What is it, Damien?”

  “Just one more teeny little favor,” Damien wheedled. I could sense he was grinning even through the phone. “You promise me you can help me out with that?”

  “I’ll try,” I said through gritted teeth. “But since you haven’t told me what’s going on, I don’t know.”

  “Oh, Trey,” Damien said. I could tell he was pouting. “You need to help me out with a little cash. You know things have been real hard on me lately. Don’t you wanna help me out?”

  “How much do you need?” I asked shortly. “You’d better fuckin’ deliver her to me in one piece, and the boy, too.”

  Damien laughed. “You gettin’ ahead of yourself. You didn’t even ask when I needed it by.”

  I growled. “Cut the shit, Damien. Just fucking tell me, okay?”

  Damien chuckled again, a low, sinister sound. “I’m gonna need somewhere in the ballpark of five million. You think you can help me out with that, boy?”

  I gulped. Five million? I had no fucking idea where that money was going to come from. All of the Skullbreakers had a decent stash built up but even borrowing from the guys, I had no idea where I was going to come up with that money on such short notice.

  “Got it,” I said smoothly. “Five million.”

  “And I’m gonna need that within twenty-four hours,” Damien said smugly. “So I really hope you’re gonna be able to provide that shit for me. You got it?”

  I paled. I had no idea where the money would come from, especially on such a short notice. But letting him know it was impossible was like handing Angel and Chuckie a death sentence. I wouldn’t be able to do that. Somehow, I’d have to lie and bluff my way through this one.

  “Fine,” I snapped. “Within twenty-four hours. I got it, Damien.”

  There was a silence and I heard Damien suck in a big gust of air. “Good, good,” he said mildly. “You got any questions, Trey? Or is that everything?”

  “That’s everything,” I snapped. “Now where is she?”

  “Ah, ah, ah,” Damien said. “Now isn’t a good time to be hasty, Trey. All in time. You’ll see.”

  “Promise me you’ll let them go,” I hissed. “Promise me and the money is yours. I’ll step down from Skullbreakers, and I’ll never see any of my guys again.”

  Damien chuckled. “They’ll be fine,” he said. Before I could answer, he hung up.

  Fuck. What the fuck was I going to do now?

  Chapter 22

  Angel

  Chuckie was whimpering beside me and I wished, more than anything, I could reach out and stroke his soft hair. I knew he must be terrified out of his wits. Hell, I was terrified out of my wits and I was the adult! I was so worried about what was going to happen. Where were they taking us? I tried to ask, forgetting I was gagged, and it came out as a wet gurgle.

  From the front of the car, I felt a gust of air and someth
ing hard slapped me on the cheek. A hand. One of the men had actually slapped me! I felt tears well up in my eyes and leak down my cheeks. The duct tape was loosening but I could feel it clogging all of the pores on my face and I knew it would hurt like hell when it was ripped off. I only hoped they hadn’t managed to get too much of my hair caught in the tape.

  Stupid Angel. You’ve been kidnapped and all you can fucking think about is your hair! You deserved this!

  “We’re almost there,” said one of the gruff voices from the front of the car. “What do we do with them?”

  “I don’t know,” the other voice replied. There was a chuckling sound and I could tell the men were having the time of their lives. “I wanna fuck around with her first. Did you see the tits on her? Goddamn would I like to suck those!”