RAW: THE ULTIMATE MC COLLECTION

by Palomino, Honey

  “What the fuck, Todd?” I said, as he paced around the room like a caged tiger, his eyes wild and wide. He kept running his hand through his short brown hair, and it was sticking straight up, enhancing his insane look. For the most part, he was ignoring us, as he did now, lost in his own thoughts, occasionally muttering under his breath about forgiveness and atonement.

  I had figured by now that he had suffered some type of mental break. He had snapped. This was the aftermath of that moment back home where he had finally hit me. He had always been able to regain a sense of calm after we fought before that, when he had only threatened me. Every time he had raised his fist to me, there was a peacefulness that would settle in his eyes when he turned away without striking a blow. As if he had fought his demons and won.

  But he wasn’t winning now.

  “I have to go to the bathroom,” Rosie said, the first words she had said since Todd had locked us in the hotel room.

  Todd stopped his pacing and looked at her with surprise. He blinked and then his face softened. Walking over, he leaned down in front of her and looked into her eyes.

  “Okay, sweetie, no problem. You are being such a good girl, Rosie. Are you always this good?” I was astonished at the gentleness in his voice. Todd had always loved children. He had always gone on and on about how they were the only ones who possessed pure innocence. When I saw him gently unwrapping the ropes from her arms, the glimmer of hope that he would let her go free grew inside me.

  “You go on, and come right back when you’re done.”

  “Okay,” she replied, her voice quivering. She padded past me and I tried to give her a reassuring smile. As soon as she closed the door, I began pleading with Todd.

  “You’ve got to let us go, Todd. This is ridiculous!” My voice was quivering with fear, too, but I pushed myself to keep talking to him. “Rosie is innocent. It’s me you’re upset with. At least let her go! I’ll do anything you want, Todd.”

  He had resumed his frantic pacing and was silently circling me as I spoke. Finally, he spoke, his voice low and threatening.

  “I saw what you did, Daisy. I saw everything. I saw you kiss him. I saw him put his tongue inside of your perfect mouth,” he stopped in front me, leaning down and bringing his face just an inch away from mine.

  “His hands, his dirty hands, they touched your skin - your beautiful, perfect skin - my skin!” He ran his fingers across my cheek, and I shuddered and tried to turn away. Grasping my chin as he did earlier, he pulled my face towards him, forcing me to look at him. I swallowed hard as his wide eyes filled with tears.

  “You were my everything, Daisy. I know I screwed up, but you just made me so damned angry all the time. I wanted you to live up to the perfect woman I knew you could be, the woman I knew that God would love, as long as you did everything the way I wanted you to. God wanted you to please me. And when you didn’t, he wanted me to teach you how to, Daisy. This is all God’s master plan, sweetheart. You are mine! God gave you to me to mold in his image.”

  “Don’t you see?” he said, his eyes darkening through his tears as he continued. “It was all redeemable. I know I hit you, but I could, and have, sought redemption for that! But this? This filth you’ve covered yourself in now? I don’t know that God will ever forgive you for that, Daisy. You’ve gone so far that He will not accept atonement alone. You must shed blood now, Daisy. As Jesus did! You must sacrifice yourself, you must show God you are sorrowful for the sins you have committed.”

  “Oh, for fuck’s sake, Todd!” I said, my frustration breaking through my resolve. I was impatient, and the tick, tick, tick of the contraption on my chest was causing me to be desperate. “God doesn’t want this! Do you think God wanted you to kill that man that was guarding the door of Mike’s house?”

  He looked at me quizzically, as if he barely remembered what he had done to Sonny.

  “That guy? Oh, no! I only knocked him out, he didn’t die. And God told me to do that, Daisy. I had to do it so I could get to you. If you were a better disciple, God would talk to you, too, you know!”

  I groaned in frustration. He was completely deranged.

  “So what’s your plan, Todd? This bomb is going to go off, and kill us both. Then what? What will you have accomplished?”

  “Don’t you see, sweetheart?” he asked, his hand caressing my cheek, his face still too close to mine. “I’ll have saved you. When your blood is finally shed, then you will be forgiven. We’ll die together, we’ll be sealed together in death, my love. We’ll eternally live in Heaven together.”

  “What about Rosie?” I asked.

  “Rosie? Oh, of course I’ll let her go. I just brought her here for fun. I thought it would be nice to have a little adventure together before we leave these mortal vessels. I just thought I’d give her father a few minutes of hell to pay for the suffering he brought me.”

  His eyes clouded over with pain.

  “He should never have touched you, Daisy. None of this would be necessary if he hadn’t laid a hand on you. It’s all too late now.”

  He stood up quickly and began pacing around my chair again. After a moment, he walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. When there was no reply, he gingerly opened the door and peered inside.

  “Rosie?” he called, walking into the bathroom. “Dammit, she crawled out of the window!”

  My heart raced with fear for her. Now, she was all alone in the middle of the night in Los Angeles. I almost wished she were back in here with me, but I knew she was smart. She would find help. She would tell someone what was going on and they would rescue me.

  Be safe, Rosie, I silently pled.

  “So what now?” I asked the angry freak as he looked out of the curtains onto the parking lot outside of the door. I was hoping like hell he wasn’t going to go after her.

  “We wait,” he whispered. “Till the strike of midnight.”

  What does the number twelve mean to you, child? Lady Sylvia’s words ran through my head and I shuddered in fear when I realized what she was trying to tell me. Remember child, after the darkness comes the sun.

  Slowly, he turned to me, with a wild look of desperation.

  “Why didn’t you just kill me at the house? Why didn’t you just kill me months ago? You’ve been watching me all this time, haven’t you?”

  “Of course, my love. I had to make sure you were safe. I was with you from the very first rest stop you stopped at after you left.”

  I felt sick to my stomach, knowing he had been watching me all that time, and I hadn’t known. I felt like a naive idiot. I thought I was actually free. I wasn’t free for a second. As I looked up at him, I had no doubt in my mind that he was serious. He planned to kill us both.

  “Todd.” I said, a plan forming in my mind before I formed the words. “I have an idea.”

  “What’s that, sweetheart?” he asked.

  “You said we needed to be sealed together,” I looked over at the clock and saw that it was a little after eleven o’clock. I didn’t have much time. “How can we do that if we’re dead?”

  My stomach churned with disgust as what I was about to propose. It was the only way I thought I might be able to reach him.

  “Look, Todd. You’re right. I did sin. I sinned against you by being with Mike. I’m sorry. I apologize. Will you forgive me?”

  He rushed over to me, tears beginning to fall down his ugly, gullible face again.

  “You do? Really? Oh, see Daisy, I knew you would come around. You just needed a little guidance, that’s all.”

  “You’re right. But don’t we have to lie together to be sealed?” I said, my voice quivering. “How can we do that if we shed our flesh?”

  He cocked his head. He hadn’t thought about that. I was hoping to convince him to have sex with me, so that he would have to remove the bomb.

  “I hadn’t thought of that…” he said, once again pacing as he contemplated my words.

  “Okay, you’re right,” he said suddenly, as he began un
tying the ropes from my legs. “Get on the bed. We must be fast, though, because I’m sure that sweet little Rosie is going to find some one to try to rescue you. I really hope they don’t get too close, I’d hate to hurt anyone else during our journey.”

  What a sick fuck, I thought. I despised Todd, but at least I was making some progress.

  “Take off your clothes,” he said after he untied me, pointing the gun at me still.

  “I can’t do that with this thing strapped to my chest, Todd.”

  I was hoping he would take it off. It was strapped around my torso with two leather belts, and the incessant ticking was slowly driving me crazy, each tick sounding like a nail being driven into my coffin. I had to act fast.

  “Oh, that? No, it stays. Just take off your jeans, and lie on the bed.”

  Fuck! There goes that idea.

  I’ll have to take him down myself, I thought. Everything I had learned from Justin in my self-defense classes ran through my mind. If I could get him in a finger lock, I could bring him to his knees. I could even break a finger or two, but then what? He was crazy enough that it might just make him angrier. I wasn’t sure what effect pain would have on someone in the process of a mental breakdown, but it was the only chance I had.

  I had to hurt him.

  A lot.

  Eyes, ears, throat, groin. Justin’s words ran through my head. You must cloud the mind of your opponent. Stay calm, and concentrate on your breathing.

  Considering Todd’s mind was already clouded, I figured I had one advantage there.

  But first, I had to get him in a vulnerable position. I had to play along, make him think I was absolutely serious that I wanted to have sex with him. Just the thought made me gag, but I held myself together, and gathered every ounce of willpower and began unbuttoning my jeans.

  He watched, his wild eyes glued to my flesh as I shimmied out of my jeans. He walked over to me as I straightened back up. I was still wearing my panties as he stood in front of me. Small bits of drool began forming at his mouth, his sickening smile shooting electric shocks of fear straight to my heart, as he began caressing my face.

  “You’ve always been so beautiful, Daisy,” he said, his resolve weakening quickly. He was such a fucking putz. So gullible.

  “Todd, really, I’m so very sorry for everything,” I said, reaching out and touching his hand with my fingers. The bomb ticked between us, and I struggled to push it out of my mind. The first thing I needed to do was incapacitate him.

  I smiled up at him, trying to conjure up even a glimmer of love in my eyes. I needed to convince him I was sincere. But, that was the problem. I had no love for this awful creature.

  I thought of Mike, his smile, his quiet strength, his gentleness and the confident, respectful way he touched me, and I used that. I needed to get back to Mike.

  “Baby, I just don’t know what I was thinking. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me, Todd. I panicked. I left, and I’ve been missing you this whole time,” I said. He smiled at me, his breathing soft and calm, as I obviously pleased him with my words, the words he had been wanting to hear all night.

  “Really, Daisy? Oh, honey, I love you so much.” He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine and I fought to not turn away in wretched disgust. I still had his hand in mine, and I took my other hand and discretely cupped it under our two clasped hands. As I kissed him back, I slid my thumb between his first two fingers, and once I had a good, firm grasp, I wedged his fingers up and pulled down as fast as I could, holding his hand from underneath so that he couldn’t pull away.

  I had practiced this move so many times with other women in class, and I had only imagined how satisfying the crack would sound if I ever had to use this to actually defend myself. When I felt his fingers give way as I bent them backwards violently, coupled with the loud cracking sound, I almost smiled.

  As he went down, his twisted face looking down towards the stained carpet, yelling at the top of his lungs in pain and holding onto his broken fingers, I brought a knee up and slammed into his nose.

  When I saw the blood, I remembered what he had done to me. I remembered why we were here, what brought us to this moment - the most fucked up, insane moment of my life - and I brought my knee up a second time, hitting him in the nose even harder than the first.

  He was barely holding onto the gun, and I struggled with him briefly trying to wrestle it away. But, just as I expected, his anger raged even more savagely in his eyes and he stumbled backwards, the gun pointed right at my heart.

  “Don’t fucking move, you manipulative whore!” Blood poured from his nose as I put my hands up and froze.

  “It’s okay, Todd. It’s okay. I’m sorry.” I said.

  Tick, tick, tick. The red numbers on the bomb counted down. Ten minutes left.

  I thought about Rosie, and realized she was the only hope I had left.

  CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

  MIKE

  The sound of rumbling Harleys filled the parking lot of the Azul Inn Motel. Flashing lights from police cars lit up the dirty white paneling of the motel rooms. Guests were being evacuated and were streaming into the parking lot with frightened faces as I pulled up. None of them were more frightened than I was.

  I was just taking off my helmet when I saw Kelly standing against a cruiser, holding hands with Rosie. My heart soared with relief, and I ran over to her as fast my boots would take me.

  “Daddy!” she cried, flying into my arms and sobbing against my shoulder. I held her tightly, never being so thankful to see anyone in my life. I looked over her shoulder at Kelly and saw her smile at me.

  “Are you okay, baby?” I pulled her away from me, inspecting her. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, Daddy, I’m not hurt at all.”

  “Oh, thank God, baby. I love you so much, Rosie!”

  “I love you, too, Daddy.” She clung to me tighter than she had ever done before, tears streaming down her face.

  “It’s okay, baby. You’re okay. Daddy’s got you.” I murmured into her ear. Her body was shaking.

  Rosie wasn’t about to let go, so I carried her over to Kelly, frantically searching the parking lot for Daisy.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Your daughter is very brave. She escaped through a bathroom window. Daisy is still in there with him. Room number 106.”

  “Rosie, I gotta go. Stay with Kelly,” I said, untangling myself from her grip and putting her down.

  “Wait!” Kelly said, grabbing my arm. “There’s something else you need to know.”

  “What?” I asked, gruffly. I was seeing red and I wanted a piece of this asshole more than I wanted anything ever in my life. At least now that I had Rosie back.

  “There’s a bomb. Rosie said he strapped a ticking device with an alarm clock onto Daisy when they got to the room.”

  “Fuck!” My mind reeled with worry for Daisy.

  “I know. We can’t just go barreling in there without a plan, Mike. We gotta be smart. The bomb squad is on its way right now. They’re just moments away.”

  So, I thought to myself, this guy wants to play dirty. I can do that.

  “There’s no time, Kelly,” I said, turning away from her.

  I spotted Sandman across the lot, watching me with the other brothers. I grabbed Rosie’s hand and we walked over to them.

  “Hey, boss, what can we do to help?” Sandman asked.

  “This asshole has a bomb on Daisy inside the room. I want you to take Rosie and get her far away from here, in case it goes off.” I said, leaning in to him to whisper in his ear. “Take care of her. If anything happens…”

  “Nothing is gonna happen, brother. I’ll get her to clubhouse. We’ll see you there soon.”

  “Thank you, brother.” I said, before leaning down to talk to Rosie.

  “Baby, I gotta get Daisy out of there, okay? Sandman is going to take care of you until I get back, okay? I love you so much, Rosie.” I said, kissing her on the cheek.

  “Ok
ay, Daddy. Make sure Daisy’s okay. I don’t like that man in there, he’s not very nice to Daisy.” My blood boiled when I thought about what they had both been through.

  No more. This ends now.

  “I will baby, I promise you.”

  I gave her one last hug and then looked at my watch.

  Ten to midnight. No time to waste.

  I ran across the parking lot past the useless cops standing around with their hands on their guns and talking on their walkie-talkies. The sound of Kelly’s voice calling my name drifted through my consciousness but I ignored it.

  All I could see was Daisy’s face as I barreled straight for the door of Room 106.

  I listened briefly at the door, and heard nothing but low murmuring. Using all my weight, I slammed into it, knocking the door frame from its place, the door splintering into a thousand pieces.

  I took in the scene in a blinding moment.

  A blurry Todd, looking over his shoulder as pieces of wood flew into the room. The gun pointing straight at Daisy.

  And Daisy, my beautiful Daisy, standing there shaking in fear, the bomb strapped around her chest. Her bare legs almost buckling beneath her when she saw me.

  The fear on her face, replaced with a ghostly smile.

  When my right fist made contact with Todd’s hideously twisted face, I felt one shot fly by me before his gun hit the floor, bouncing across the carpet.

  I was on him in an instant, pummeling his face with my bare fists, blood flying along with bits of his facial flesh, bone, and teeth. I paused and pulled my knife from the holster on my belt, with only one thing on my mind.

  Death.

  I paused when I heard Daisy’s voice.

  “Mike. Help.” I looked over my shoulder at her and my heart melted. She was so scared, so vulnerable, so beautiful.

  I stood and rushed over to her, my lips pressing into hers as I embraced her gently.