RAW: THE ULTIMATE MC COLLECTION

by Palomino, Honey

  I shuddered when I thought about what she was going through, what she went through when they snatched her from Harley’s house. She must have been so terrified.

  I couldn’t even think about what they might do to her in the few hours they had her. My mind couldn’t bear to go there, not for a second.

  I had to get her back. We had to get her back. Harley could blame me all he wanted, he could tell me I told you so as many times as he pleased, hell — he could beat the shit out of me if he wanted, I didn’t care — as long as we got Rebel back in one piece, I didn’t give a shit what happened to me.

  When we got to the clubhouse, Harley and I thundered into the war room, everyone else already seated and waiting for us.

  “This is personal, brothers,” Harley began. “They’ve got Rebel, and that changes the rules. We’re giving back the drugs for Rebel. Once we have Rebel safe and sound and back where she belongs,” Harley glanced over at me, his eyes a mixture of so many emotions I wasn’t sure if he was going to cry or start shooting at me. “Once we have her back, then we can discuss how to best deal with the Garcia cartel. We couldn’t let them get away with doing a deal with El Loco Gatos, and we certainly can’t let them get away with this bullshit. Right now, they have the upper hand because they have Rebel. But that won’t last long.”

  Everyone around the table nodded solemnly, each of them listening intently as Harley continued, relaying the details of the meeting.

  “Alright, we ride in one hour. Maverick, get the bag ready.” Harley said, as he dismissed everyone from the war room.

  I stayed seated, staring miserably out the window as the others trailed out of the room.

  “Mason,” Harley said.

  “Yeah, man,” I replied.

  “Look at me, dude,” he said. I looked over at him reluctantly.

  “Listen. I know you’re worried. I’m worried, too. But Rebel’s tough and we are gonna get her out of there.”

  “Oh, I know that,” I replied. “This is all my fucking fault, Harley, I am so fucking sorry.”

  “It’s not your fault at all, Mason, what the fuck?”

  “But it is, my friend. If I hadn’t touched her, hadn’t given her a place to stay, she would be long gone and none of this would have happened.”

  “Look, Mason, there’s no way you could have known. Stop beating yourself up. We need to focus on getting Rebel out of there, and I’m sure once we give Sergio’s drugs back, it’ll go off without a problem. Hell, I’m sure they can’t wait to give her back. I can’t imagine she’s being a model prisoner.” He smirked, and I laughed with him. He was right. Rebel was a handful, that was for sure.

  “Yeah, you’re right. Thanks, Harley.” I looked at him seriously. “Thanks for everything, man.”

  “I love you, dude.”

  Harley walked over, hugged me, patting me on the back loudly, before turning and walking out of the door.

  We left early, determined to get Rebel out of the hands of those assholes as quickly as possible. As we waited in the warehouse, Harley paced back and forth, one hand on his gun and one eye on the door at all times. He was like a tiger, pacing and waiting for his prey, and my stomach filled with dread as I watched him.

  Harley was unafraid of most things. It was this fact alone that made him unpredictable. You never knew when he might explode and unleash a fury that would frighten the most hardened of men. It was also why you absolutely wanted him on your side in a fight.

  The sound of the back door opening stopped Harley’s pacing. The ten of us stood still as we watched Sergio, flanked by two of his men, walking towards us.

  “Hello, gentlemen. Lovely to see you twice in one day,” he said, his voice laced with sarcasm.

  “Fuck you, Sergio. I can’t believe you would come to my house and take my sister like that. Who the fuck do you think you are? That’s not how we do business, and you stepped over the line big time, you fucking prick.”

  “Whoa, whoa there, Harley! I did not come to your house, in fact, I only found out where you lived so that I could deliver your sister’s bike back to you. I trust you received it?”

  “Fuck you. Where is she?”

  “You’ll get her, don’t worry. But you should know, I definitely didn’t come to your house. Your precocious little sister was here this morning. I’m assuming you didn’t know that by your accusations? I’m not a kidnapper…well, not normally. But when I saw your sister here leave the warehouse right after we did this morning, I seized an opportunity that I just couldn’t pass up. I’m sure you would have done the same thing, am I right?”

  Harley looked stunned, and I’m sure my face reflected the same thing. Rebel was there that morning? At the warehouse? How? And, for fuck’s sake, why? None of this made any sense.

  Harley glanced over at me, a quick flash of confusion in his eyes before he turned back to Sergio.

  “Well, I didn’t know that, Sergio. But fine, whatever. Your drugs are on the table.” Harley gestured to the bag on the table. “Now, where’s Rebel?”

  “Very good, mi amigo. I’m glad you understand my position.”

  “Where the fuck is Rebel?” Harley’s voice was getting softer, instead of louder, filling with venom and anger.

  “Relax, mi amigo! One phone call, and your bratty sister will be brought here. Hold on a moment.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket, smiling at a glaring Harley.

  “Jorge, bring me the girl.”

  Sergio listened briefly, and then began hurling a slew of cuss words and insults into the phone. My heart throbbed in my chest when I realized something was horribly wrong.

  When he hung up the phone, he looked over at us with a look of anger on his face.

  “Your cunt sister has escaped!”

  Of course she did, I thought to myself.

  “She hit my man over the head with a vase, apparently, and left the penthouse she was at.”

  “What the fuck, Sergio.” Harley said, his voice a menacing snarl as he walked over to him.

  “I sincerely apologize, Harley. I had every intention of returning her to you. Perhaps my men will find her. They are searching the hotel now. We were in the penthouse of the Crescent Hotel but it appears she was able to leave the suite. If she turns up, I will let you know. But, I’m sure she is already halfway home to you now.”

  “Fuck!” I muttered under my breath. If they found her first, I was sure they wouldn’t take such caution with her now that they had the drugs back.

  Harley was thinking the same thing.

  His face was inches from Sergio’s as he began speaking to him.

  “Sergio. This is no joke. You get my sister back to me safely if you find her, you understand?”

  “Of course, my friend. We have a deal.”

  I couldn’t believe it was happening, but I watched as Harley let them leave the warehouse. They walked out with the bag of cocaine, and I looked over at Harley accusingly.

  “I don’t know what else to do,” he said to me quietly.

  “She’s always been really great at escaping,” I said to him miserably. I wasn’t sure if I was proud of her, or angry with her for fucking up the plan once again.

  “Yeah, she’s a regular fucking Houdini.” He was pissed, confused, and unsure what to do next.

  Just like me.

  Did we wait? Where? Did we go looking for her?

  I pulled out my cell phone to call her. Harley nodded at me, waiting as her phone rang three times before going to voice mail.

  “Hey, there, this is Rebel…” her voice caught me off guard, and I felt like I had been punched in the gut.

  “Fuck. We gotta find her. Now.” I turned, storming out of the warehouse towards my bike.

  “Mason, wait!” Harley called.

  “Yeah?” I turned.

  “Sergio’s right. If she got out of the hotel, and it sounds like she did, then she’s probably on her way to either the clubhouse, your house or my house. I’ll send two of the guys to the hotel
to look around for her, you go to your house to wait, and I’ll go to mine.”

  “Alright, fine. Fuck!” I yelled.

  “I know. Just stay in touch and call me the minute you hear something.”

  “Alright, Harley. Alright.”

  I raced back to my house as fast as I could, hoping like hell she was there when I got there. But, she wasn’t.

  And as I sat on my front porch, impatiently waiting for any word of her, I knew that once I had her in my sight again, I was never going to let her out of it.

  Not for a good, long while.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Harley

  I sped back to my house, my blood racing through my veins. I had never been so angry, and I didn’t know who I was angrier at.

  Sergio, for starting this whole thing in the first place by trying to sell in my territory. Rebel, for somehow thinking it was a good idea to show up where we were conducting dangerous club business, or Mason, for not letting her walk out of our life when I told her to.

  She wasn’t there when I got to my house. I called her cell phone three more times, her voice mail greeting cheerfully greeting me each time. I began punching the wall in my bedroom with every thought that ran through my head.

  What the fuck was Rebel thinking? I wanted to feel bad for her, I wanted to be worried about her, and for fuck’s sake, I was, but goddammit, if she had put herself in this situation, then I would never forgive her for it.

  My knuckles bled as I punched the wall again, Sergio’s ugly face staring back at me. He had looked so smug, and I couldn’t wait to see the blood pouring from his nose after I gave him the first punch of my fist.

  I called Mason to see if he had heard anything, but he hadn’t and he sounded even more miserable and angry than I did, if that was even possible. I couldn’t stand to hear the pain in his voice, and I hung up quickly.

  I knew he thought I blamed him, and I did. I blamed both of them. Fuck, I blamed myself, too. But right now, there was no time for blame.

  We had to figure something out. I couldn’t just sit here and wait for Rebel to show up. I was jumping out of my skin just imagining where she was and what she was going through.

  “Fuck!” I yelled, my voice echoing through my house, the pictures hanging on the walls bouncing with each crunch of my knuckles against the dry-wall.

  “Where the fuck are you, Rebel!” I screamed to an empty house.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  Rebel

  I had been hiding under the bed for an hour now, and while I desperately wanted to come out and ask them to politely return me to my brother, I knew that was never going to happen.

  Not now. Not now that I had fucked up the situation even more than ever.

  As I lay there under the bed, breathing as quietly as I could, I wondered if there would ever come a time when everything I touched didn’t turn to shit. When everything I attempted didn’t fail miserably and embarrassingly.

  I was a huge failure, and I always had been. It was no wonder Harley didn’t want to take me when I was twelve. Sure, he went through the legal motions, but I could tell his heart wasn’t in it. He was only eighteen, and he wanted to start his life, but still, I knew that if I had not been such a handful, he would have fought harder to become my guardian.

  But I wasn’t that kind of kid. I was a troublemaker, an annoyance, a hot mess that nobody wanted anything to do with. The foster family only took me in for the money, and, as I quickly learned, to be a punching bag for my foster mom, and a secret, forbidden plaything for my foster dad.

  And ever since then, I had stayed broken. I kept fucking up over and over, until I had proven to everyone else that I wasn’t worth saving.

  Until I had even proved it to myself.

  And here I was, once again, the fuck-up that needed saving. Tears began falling down my face, making me angry and even more annoyed with myself.

  Why couldn’t I just suck it up and deal with the situation at hand? Why did I always start crying and turn into a sniveling little kid?

  I couldn’t believe I was in this situation, and as I got angrier and angrier, the tears fell harder, until I was biting the back of my hand and sobbing into it, desperately trying to not make a sound and get my emotions under control.

  I had heard voices from the other room the entire time I had been under the bed, and as I slowly got a hold of myself, and my sobbing stopped, I realized it was now completely quiet in the penthouse. I hadn’t heard the elevator door open, but it was possible it rang, and I didn’t hear it.

  I waited a few more minutes, listening to the perfect silence under the dark bed before I slowly lifted the dust ruffle and peeked out. I saw no movement, but my sight was very limited, and I could only see the bedroom doorway from where I was.

  Slowly, I wiggled out from under the bed, laying still next to it, waiting and listening for any sign of any of Sergio’s men.

  Nothing.

  I raised myself to my feet, and slipped off my black boots before taking a step. I walked to the bedroom door and peered down the hall.

  Nothing.

  Slowly, I tiptoed down the hallway, my heart beating so hard I could hear it throbbing in my head. There wasn’t a soul in sight, and Jorge’s pool of blood had been cleaned up, along with all of the broken glass from the vase.

  I had never hit anyone in my life, and I almost felt bad that I had made Jorge bleed.

  I sighed a huge sigh of relief when I saw that I was, in fact, alone in the penthouse. I sprinted across the living room as quickly as I could, grabbed my backpack and phone and hit the button to open the elevator.

  My hands were shaking as the mirrored doors slowly parted, opening up to the promise of sweet freedom. I jumped in, quickly hit the close button and then hit the button to take me to the parking garage. I was sure that Sergio’s men were still looking for me, and there was no way I was going to go strutting across the hotel lobby in full view.

  The garage was my only other choice.

  I silently thanked the universe for letting me out of the hotel and dialed Harley’s number with my cell phone at the same time.

  He answered on the first ring.

  “Rebel!” He sounded so relieved, I smiled.

  “Harley! I’m safe. I’m so sorry! I just made it out of the penthouse. I’m so fucking sorry, Har —,” the doors opened, and I stood face to face with Sergio.

  “There you are, niña!” he said, the most sinister smile I had ever seen spread across his face, as he grabbed the phone out of my hands.

  “Rebel! Rebel!” I could hear the faint of sound of Harley’s voice yelling my name as Sergio put the phone to his ear.

  “Hello, Harley. Looks like I found Rebel. We’ll call you back in just a few minutes.” He hung up the phone before Harley could say anything.

  Sergio pulled a gun from his suit coat, pushing me back into the elevator as the doors closed.

  He stood directly in front of me, his gun pointed right at my heart as he snarled at me.

  “You’re a little troublemaker, aren’t you?”

  I met his gaze silently, the gun cold and hard through the fabric of my t-shirt.

  “I almost feel sorry for your brother to have to put up with a little perra like you.”

  “Fuck you.” I said, the gun pressed into my chest scaring the shit out of me, but I was determined not to let him see how much.

  “Oh, niña. You are so brave, aren’t you?” He reached out with his other hand, wrapping a strand of my hair around his fingers and pulling hard.

  He lowered his voice, his menacing stare turning dark and dangerous.

  “You and your brother have humiliated me over and over today. Do you know what I do to people who humiliate me?” he asked.

  “Fuck you.”

  “Ah, niña, no — fuck you!” he replied, his grip on my hair pulling tighter and tighter.

  The elevator reached the penthouse again, and he shoved me back into the suite.

  �
��Sit on the couch, you little bitch. And don’t move.”

  He threw my phone on the table, and pulled his phone out of his pocket, punched a few numbers, and put it up to his ear as he looked at me, his gun pointed straight at my head.

  “Harley. Sorry to hang up on you like that. Yes, yes, I found Rebel. She’s safe, don’t worry. As a matter of fact, she’s right here in front of me,” he said.

  “Yes, don’t worry, you’ll get her back in no time. Unfortunately, there’s been a change of plans.”

  “Harley, if you keep yelling, you won’t be able to hear what I have to say.” I could hear Harley’s voice from across the room.

  “Good, that’s better. Now, here’s the deal, mi amigo. Your sister has caused a lot of trouble today, for both of us. And she injured one of my men, too. Jorge is still at the hospital getting stitched up. And as you know, Harley, as a businessman, time is money. And your sister has wasted a hell of a lot of my time today.”

  “Harley, listen,” he said, waiting for Harley to stop yelling before he continued.

  “Here’s what’s going to happen now. I am going to return your sister, in one piece, but I’m going to need a hundred thousand dollars for my trouble.”

  My mouth fell open as he looked at me, pulling the phone away from his ear to avoid the volume of Harley’s voice.

  “Harley, of course I’m not joking. There’ll be no negotiating. Bring the money to the warehouse in two hours, and she’ll be there. Don’t bring your whole crew either. Just you and Mason. Also, if this annoying little brat causes any further trouble, the price will double!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  Mason

  I hung up the phone with Harley, my guts wrenched with worry for Rebel. Now that the cartel had found her, there was no telling what they would do to her. I could only imagine, and I could imagine some pretty horrific stuff.

  Shaking off those images, I ran to my bedroom. I pulled everything out of the closet, then pulled the knife from my holster that was attached to my belt. Using the tip of it, I pried open the floorboards, pulling six of them up one at a time. Using both hands, I pulled the portable safe out of my hiding spot.