by Rose Briner
I’ve always loved the way the open road feels under me; that’s the original reason I got my first Harley. My dad used to let me drive his Harley around the yard when I was a kid. I didn’t have to join the club if I didn’t want to, I could’ve gone to the city and went off to college, but I love being a member of this club, plus it gave me a purpose and brothers for life.
My Harley is like my baby. Before Brandon I spent thousands of dollars customizing my bike, my bike is worth more than I make in an entire year and at the end of this year, I plan to paint it red. Well, that depends on how high my expenses are with Brandon moving in with me and everything else. I’ll just have to take it one day at a time.
We drive for more than an hour before Drag pulls into to a gas station to fill up. The others look at me as if to silently say to ask Drag where we are going.
I approach slowly and stand beside Drag as he fills up on gas. “Can I ask you something?” I ask him cautiously. He nods once without looking away from the pump, “can you at least tell me where we are going so I know if I need to put more gas in the hog?”
He hangs up the pump before turning to face me, “Port Angeles,” he replies quietly. The anger has left his voice, but I can still tell he’s angry. Whatever is wrong, he’s fighting to contain it.
“What’s in Port Angeles?” I ask without thinking. I’m talking more to myself than to him, and I instantly regret it when I see the pain flicker across his face, and his black eyes darken.
“Don’t ask,” he responds curtly as he gets back onto his bike.
I quickly run off to mine as he takes off down the street.
I don’t ask a single question as we pull back out onto the open road. We drive for more than another hour and a half before he pulls off the interstate once more and we enter Port Angeles.
Port Angeles, is a relatively small place. There can’t be more than twenty-thousand residents here. I look around as we drive down the streets, trying in vain to figure out where we are going, but I don’t dare say a word as he finally pulls to a stop and cuts his engine on the corner of a street called Orchid.
“You could’ve told me Pres; I would have understood. You know I’ve been with you on this since the beginning,” Satch’s voice cracks as he looks down the street and then back over at Drag. In all the years I’ve known Satch, I’ve never seen him like this.
I cross my arms over my chest as I stay seated on my bike and glare at the three men who are quietly sharing a conversation. “We are just so close; I didn’t want to jinx it. You know what I mean? She’s still in danger until we get her out of his grasp,” whispers Drag as he looks down the street.
I throw my hands up in the air and let out a shout, “Does someone want to tell me what the fuck is going on here?” I’m angry. Apparently, this club has decided I’m not important enough to know what’s been going on. I hate secrets, especially when my brothers keep shit from me.
“Keep your fucking voice down, the last thing I need is one of the neighbors to alert that fucker that we are here, he’ll know why we’re here.” He takes a deep breath before he continues, “I can’t tell you exactly what is going on, she’ll need to be the one to tell you. It isn’t my story to tell, but there’s this girl-”
“Oh hell no you did not bring me here for some fucking girl,” I growl at him, cutting him off.
“Let me finish, you dickwad,” he dismounts and grabs me by the front of my cut and drags me closer to him. I almost fall off my bike as he forces me in his direction.
I pull away from him and dismount before he knocks my bike to the ground. I gesture for him to continue.
“I knew if I told you this was about a girl you would never come, that’s why I never told you. There’s a girl here; I’ve been watching her for a few years, she needs our protection, that’s all I’m going to tell you. She’s more than a club supporter or some random girl off the streets; she’s my friend, I love that girl like she’s my own daughter.”
He chokes on his words, and I can see the surprise on Satch and Fig’s faces. Apparently, I’m not the only one completely in the dark here. That makes me feel marginally better about all of this.
“She needs all of us, but the reason I brought you, Thunder, is because she’s going to need someone her age that she can talk to, she’s twenty-one now. She was only eighteen when I first met her. Us old-timers can’t relate to her the way you can. I’m not asking for anything more than that you protect her and give her someone to talk to if she needs it. Okay, VP? I’m not asking you the fuck the girl if that’s why you think I brought you here. She needs someone to talk to right now, okay? And I can’t guarantee I won’t rip someone’s head off when she tells me what happened this time, okay? I had to hang up on her this morning because I couldn’t handle her telling me what happened this time.”
I know he’s not going to elaborate when he turns away from me and waits for something, probably the girl. We’ve been waiting here for what seems like more than an hour now when I spot a girl with sunglasses strolling towards us from a distance.
I inhale a deep breath when I see her; there’s something about her, there’s something different about this girl. I can’t make out her features because she’s wearing ripped up jeans, a Dragon Skulls supporter jacket, and huge sunglasses that cover up a significant portion of her face, the rest of which is covered by the flowing brown hair around her face that has escaped the braid lying over her shoulder.
“Jesus,” I say under my breath, and this has Drag looking up at me and then turning slowly to face the girl that has stopped walking. Now that she’s spotted us, she’s ceased walking, and I watch her wobble and almost fall to the ground.
I move to go to her, but Drag holds up a hand to stop me, “No matter what, you stay here,” I know without him turning around he’s talking to me. I remove my sunglasses and watch as Drag makes his way over to her. The way he’s running, I can tell he’s concerned about her.
“Don’t scare her, okay?” Satch cautions me as they move a few steps closer to the direction Drag went.
What the fuck is going on here?
Drag reaches the girl just as she’s about to collapse and he holds her up and gently whirls her around, so she’s facing away from us as she wails in pain.
I watch as he slowly talks to her and hugs her close. The girl leans her head up and whispers something in Drag’s ear that has him staring down at her wide-eyed. Even this far away I can see his eyes widen as he reaches down and moves the hair out of her face as he removes her sunglasses.
“God fucking dammit, I’ll kill that motherfucker,” he screams as he releases her and starts to take off down the street. Satch and Fig quickly take off, Satch to grab the girl and steady her, Fig to contain Drag. He’s trying in vain to calm him down.
“But that motherfucker deserves to die, Satch. How could he do this to her?” I can hear turmoil in his voice. He’s wailing like a caged animal.
But my eyes are torn away from Fig and Drag as my attention turns to the girl who has since put her sunglasses back on and has her head hanging down, and her shoulders are shaking quietly. She doesn’t make a single sound as she sobs.
“Drag,” Satch calls out.
I fight the urge to go over there and help as Drag comes running back over to the girl and holds her close as he strokes her hair.
“Sweetie, everything will be fine. We’ll take care of you, okay?” She whispers something in his ear, and he shakes his head down at her, “don’t worry sweetheart, we won’t take you there, we’ll take care of you. Let’s get out of here,” he says as he gently guides her over to me.
I want to console her for some reason. I don’t know what is going on, but I know something awful has happened to this girl. Someone hurt her; I should be asking what she did to deserve this, but something tells me this girl didn’t do anything to deserve what she’s going through right now.
Something deep inside of me is telling me I’m fucked.
Chapter
Five
Natalie
When I’m done talking to Drag, I go upstairs and stand outside the hallway bathroom and stare at the cabinet for a long time. Can I really do this? I can’t believe I’m hesitating. After what he’s done to me all this time and after what happened last night, I can’t believe I can still stand here and think he doesn’t deserve this. I wish I could get a gun and kill the fucker, but I don’t want to go to jail for the rest of my life.
Do this so you can start the rest of your life.
I heave in a deep breath and blow it out as I approach the cabinet and pull out the bottle of pills. I probably should bring these with me anyways; I might need them. I don’t know if Drag is going to make me go to the hospital or not, so I might need these things, and I can’t come back to get them once I leave this place.
I decide for tonight to make Jimbo’s favorite. I look over at the clock and realize I better get started; he could be home within the hour, and I want to ensure he has his food so he can start eating before he decides I’ve done something unworthy of him. Time to pull out the steak and mashed potatoes. Lucky, he doesn’t know I make instant potatoes, or he’d probably bury me in the backyard in pounds of instant mashed potatoes. I almost laugh at the thought, but in reality, that actually could happen to me.
I pull out the steak to defrost in the microwave and then what I need for the mashed potatoes and the orange juice I plan to put his pills in. I bite my lip as I stare over at the bottle of pills and then the juice before I say, “Fuck it,” and move to grab the cutting board.
I smash the pills up and pour the juice into the glass before dumping in the mixture and stirring it up. I stir it up well before I put the juice back in the fridge so that it will be cold. If the juice isn’t cold, he’ll make me dump it and get him a new glass. There’s no way I’m going to let that happen because then that work was all for nothing.
I stare at the fridge long enough to realize that the steak needs to get into the pan, so it will be done by the time he gets here. I do that and finish prepping the potatoes just in time to put the steak in the oven and start plating his potatoes, some corn, and put his juice next to his plate, so all I need to do is put the steak on it. I double check the amount of juice in the cup before removing the steak and throwing it on the plate to cool down a bit before he gets here.
I throw the pills into my bag that I’ve moved next to the computer in the corner, so he won’t see it and move back into the kitchen just in time to hear the door opening and shutting with a thud. I say a silent prayer as I hear footsteps behind me in the doorway. I hold my breath, expecting to see his towering figure behind me at any moment, but breathe a sigh of relief when I hear his chair scraping across the floor and his fork and knife moving across the plate.
I start doing the last of the dishes as I wait impatiently for him to finish eating. A massive thud has me cringing and turning slowly to look behind me. I find Jimbo with his face planted into his steak. I stand there and count to a hundred before I move over to poke him and make sure he’s out. When he moves slightly and moves back like jello would if you poked it with a fork, I know the plan worked.
I don’t hang around to check to see if he’s going to wake up as I move backwards out of the kitchen and quickly over to where my bag is. I grab my keys as an afterthought and throw them in my bag as I softly open the door and slowly close it behind me. When I get to the end of the driveway, I turn one last time to look at my grandmother’s house before showing the house a giant middle finger and turning to walk down the street.
When I get a few steps down the road, I stop and pull on my Dragon Skulls jacket Drag sent me last year and my sunglasses, so he won’t flip out when he sees how bad the damage to my face is. I don’t know who he is bringing with him, but I’m pretty sure the two men who were with him the day we met will be there, and I don’t want to scare them with how hideous I look right now. They might decide to leave me behind. Let alone how pissed Drag will be when he sees what Jimbo did to the back of my head and how close he came to nearly killing me this time.
You can do this, just one step at a time. I tell myself silently as I look back in the direction of my grandmother’s house, half expecting to find Jimbo running down the street after me. I fight against the urge to go back. Who knows what will happen to me when he finds out I’m gone.
I walk for what feels like forever when in reality, I only need to walk to the end of this block, around the corner and halfway down the next street. As I round the corner, I see four Harleys parked off in the distance. They brought someone else with them. I know the older three, that’s Drag and the two other bikers who were with him the day we met. He mentioned to me that everyone calls them Satch and Fig. I never did ask him why they have those names, never seemed necessary until right now. I stop dead in my tracks when the fourth biker turns to look at me.
He still has his sunglasses on, but from what I can see from here, he’s younger than the others and rougher around the edges. I am instantly drawn to him for some reason. That isn’t good; I only attract assholes and cheaters.
Be nice; they are here to help you. If they brought him, it's only to help you.
I watch as the young one says something to Drag and he turns to face me for the first time since I saw them just now, and he takes off running towards me. My world starts to tilt as I feel relief flood me for the first time since I left the house. I feel safer than I can ever remember feeling. For the first time, I feel safe, cared for, loved. He reaches me and steadies me a little too roughly, and I wail out in pain as he holds me close and pushes a little too hard on my abdomen.
He pulls me gently as close to him as he can and whispers into my ear, “Sweetie, tell me what’s wrong,” he prods as he strokes my hair. I feel so secure right now that I almost don’t want to tell him what happened. Can’t we just stay in this moment a little bit longer before he tries to kill Jimbo with me standing here watching?
“Um, I think I have a few broken or bruised ribs, and my face is killing me,” I whisper back slowly knowing the shit is about to hit the fan. I think about lying to him and telling him I’m fine, but Drag isn’t stupid.
He leans back from me slowly, his eyes widening as he pushes the hair back from my face and takes my glasses off my face and holds them out for me to take without once looking away from my face. He focuses on my face slowly, and that’s when he officially loses it, just like I knew he would. I watch his face slowly morph from loving to downright terrifying.
“God fucking dammit, I’ll kill that motherfucker,” he screams a little too loudly, and before I can stop him, he takes off running in the direction of the house. Several voices shouting draws my attention away from Drag and almost brings to my knees as I lose it. I knew he would be upset; I just didn’t realize I looked that bad. No sound leaves my body as I sob silently. More out of embarrassment than out of actual relief to be safe from Jimbo for the first time in more than two years.
I look up slowly as Satch reaches for me and steadies me, “Everything is okay, you don’t need to cry anymore,” I quickly put my glasses back on before he can see my face. He’s too busy looking in Drag’s direction to notice my face.
I cringe when I hear Drag’s voice cry out in agony, “But that motherfucker deserves to die, Fig. How could he do this to her?”
I watch through tears as Fig says something to Drag and Satch calling out to Drag brings him running back over to me. He quickly takes me from Satch and holds me close. “You’re safe now, sweetie. He’ll never hurt you again; you understand me? No one will ever hurt you again, I promise.”
“Please no hospital,” I quietly beg him. I’m more talking to myself than him, but I hope he can hear me. “Please, he’ll find me there.” I start to shake harder at the thought of him showing up to find me there. I probably wouldn’t make it out of his truck alive if he found me.
“Don’t worry, I won’t bring you there, let’s get out of here and somewhere safe, okay?” he kisses
the top of my head and strokes the crown of my head, and I cringe as I realize he’s touched the spot that hit the wall last night. “What the fuck?” he asks as he gently pushes me in front of him.
“Drag, please-” I start, but his growl silences me. He turns me and looks at the back of my head.
“You’ve got to fucking me kidding me!” he shouts as I watch him stomp a short distance away and grab his ponytail and yank on it. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone falling to pieces the way I’m watching Drag fall apart right now.
“What the hell?” Satch looks at Fig before he slowly approaches. “May I?” he asks me.
I nod my head in consent, and he looks at the back of my head and gently moves some of my hair out of the way. “Jesus, fucking shit,” he curses as he walks over to Drag and places his hands on his shoulders and says something to him before he nods and comes back over.
“Sweetie, we need to get you out of here, okay? I have some things I need to take care of so we can arrange for you to get out of here safely. You’ve already met Satch and Fig. This here is Thunder; he’s the club’s VP. I know you’ve never met him before, but he’ll keep you safe. You can trust him the way you trust me,” I look up at him, and he nods at me encouragingly, telling me silently to trust him. I nod my head in consent. I’m scared, but I don’t have much of a choice right now.
“Thunder, this is Natalie, take her to get something to eat and then to that hotel we discussed in Everett, keep her there behind closed doors until I call you. No one is to enter or exit the room; you stay in there with her. Under no circumstance are you to leave her side,” the look Drag is giving Thunder is one that says behave or I’ll kill you. It also says to me, that Thunder has no clue what is going on right now.
I can’t make out Thunder’s features, but that beard he’s sporting sure does make him look rugged. He doesn’t move to introduce himself, but I offer out my hand anyways. When he grunts and turns to his bike and throws a helmet at me, I take it introductions are over. I look down at it and then over at Drag hesitantly who nods, before I gingerly put it on my head and mount the bike behind him, trying to figure out where to put my hands. With Jimbo, I wrapped them around him, but if I do that to Thunder, he might push me off the back of his bike onto the ground.