by Rose Briner
Our baby. At least unlike Allison, I’m having Parker’s baby. The doctor says next month I can learn the sex of the baby. I cried when he told me this. That’s a moment I wanted to share with Parker. They tell me he doesn’t know, and the brothers that come here are so upset with Parker that they won’t tell him that I’m pregnant. They also won’t tell me his secrets either. I hate that they are so loyal sometimes. I only asked once, after that I didn’t ask again. At this point, I don’t give a fuck who he’s murdered. I just want to see him; I’d give anything to see him one more time. Tim warned me not to even think about running. I’m not stupid, where the fuck would I go? We’re in the middle of nowhere.
Earlier I got annoyed from being left alone for more than a week. No one has come to see me in a while, and they took my fucking phone away the second we got here, and there’s no TV here, so I decided to go for a walk. I’ve been out for about an hour now, and the sky is starting to darken, so I hasten my pace to get back to the cabin. I have an hour to go before I make it back. I’m a little surprised Tim hasn’t come looking for me. I get an eerie feeling as I walk, almost like someone is out here watching me, probably the darkness in the sky. I haven’t seen a single soul out here since we arrived. Only club members come here, and the extent of most of those visits are to make sure I’m still alive and have food. Tiger hasn’t alerted me that anyone is around. I should mention that Tiger is a Boxer, figures Drag would buy me a guard dog. Those guys all treat me like I’m their child, I’ve never felt so loved in my entire life and yet so alone at the same time.
I spot the cabin in the distance just as the first drops of rain fall from the trees. I see someone off in the distance and start to head that way, but stop short when I see another man right behind the first and what looks like a body on the ground. The body on the ground looks like Tim. Shit.
I hold my breath as I hear a gunshot in the distance and pray that Tiger doesn’t decide to go nuts.
I crouch down and try to cover Tiger’s mouth just as the first howl leaves his mouth. Great, here they come, I see the men turn this way and look in my direction.
“Run Tiger,” I shout, sending him running off into the distance. Lucky I’ve been training this dog day in and day out, if not they’d probably shoot him for protecting me.
My shoulders relax a little when I look around the corner and spot Jack and the other prospect from the day I left approaching me. They don’t have their guns out, so maybe I was mistaken thinking that they shot Tim.
“Hi Jack,” I greet as I step out from around the tree. “What are you doing here? What happened to Tim?”
“He had to take off back to the compound, club emergency,” he says with a shrug like it’s nothing. The thing is, I saw Tim lying on the ground, the gunshot, and know for a fact if there were a club emergency they would be back at the compound and Drag would’ve come to get me himself. Drag told me such on his last visit a month ago. He stopped coming; Dorothy’s been coming in his place. Probably had something to do with my continually asking him to take me to see Parker. I don’t get why he won’t let me see him; I’m the one that asked for some time alone. I want to go home now.
“Let’s get inside, a storm is coming,” says the other guy as they turn and I follow behind them. There’s no use in me running now; I know they have guns. I’m screwed if no one discovers they are missing from the compound.
The second they have me across the threshold, Jack grabs me and drags me across the cabin and to the empty living room. All the furniture is missing, and a bed sits in the corner of the room.
I fight against Jack as he forces me down onto the bed and ties me spread eagle on the bed.
I start to scream when his hands touch my body.
“Aww, there she is,” I silence and gulp down a deep breath and the bile that rises in my throat when Jack stands and reveals a third man. I shake my head no repeatedly, hoping I’m asleep right now. He chuckles, and I feel all the blood leave my face.
Jimbo and he’s here right now.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Parker
These three months without Natalie have been the worst of my life. I know the guys know where she is, but they won’t tell me. They’re trying to teach me a lesson, so there’s no point in acknowledging the fact that they are hiding her from me. Instead, I’ve focused my time on fixing up our house and working on growing my business.
“Hey Dean, can you give this to one of the prospects? I need them to pass this out to the local businesses in the area,” I say as I hand Dean the drawing I just made up to promote the business.
“This is really good,” Dean comments as he looks down at the drawing. He’s the only person that seems to have forgiven me for what happened with Natalie.
He disappears, and I go back to working on the next drawing for a client I have next week, he wants a full-color sleeve. Shouting outside has me turning to look around me. There’s an awful lot of bikes starting in the distance, and I go outside just in time to see several bikes take off in the distance. That was Satch and Fig with Drag not far behind them.
Natalie.
“What the hell is going on Dean?” I ask as I watch the bikes take off out the gate.
He hesitates for a moment, so I grab him by the front of the shirt and pull my gun out and aim it at him, “If you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on, I’m going to fucking shoot you.”
“Jack and Max are missing,” Max is the newest prospect. “We called Tim, he isn’t answering the phone; we think they went to find Natalie. I’ve started to suspect that Max and Jack have something to do with Jimbo, but we weren’t sure until now.”
“Where are they keeping her?” I ask him. When he hesitates again I push my gun further into his abdomen and cock it.
“Ridge Cabin, thirty minutes outside of town, down by the lake,” he says and let’s go of the breath he’s holding as I step away from him.
“Let’s go,” I tell him as I run for my bike. Ten minutes later we are on the interstate racing towards the cabin.
Dean pulls over to the side of the road and points as we near the lake, “That way,” he says as he pulls out in front of me and cuts his engine, I quickly do the same.
We head slowly down a path, and he stops suddenly and dismounts. “We have to stop here, if we don’t, they will hear us coming.”
He slowly makes his way down the hill like he’s got all the time in the world and all I want to do is push him down and run past him, but the shouting in the distance stops us dead in our tracks.
“Hold it right there, Dragon, come any closer, and I’ll shoot her,” I know that voice, that’s Jimbo. Shit, he found her. No one calls him Dragon.
Dean signals for us to move further to our left so we can go around the back of the cabin that way they don’t see us. Hopefully, there aren’t more of them there.
We walk for about another five minutes before the cabin comes into view. He was right on with his calculations; this is the back of the cabin. I screw on my silencer when I spot Jack and Max standing guard outside of the cabin.
“I’ve got Jack you get Max,” I whisper to Dean who is also screwing on his silencer. We count to three and fire, taking them both out at the same time. We remain crouched behind the tree until we are sure there aren’t others and then slowly make our way to the front of the cabin. There are no windows on this side of the cabin, so there’s no chance that Jimbo will hear or see us. We peek around and find Satch and Fig tied together on the ground. I run over and quickly use my pocket knife to cut the ropes holding them together.
A scream inside has us all holding our breath, but no gunshots follow the scream. That was Natalie. I know that voice anywhere.
I start to take off for the front door, but Satch’s hand on my arm stops me as he yanks me back. “Go around back, Drag is in there with them, Jimbo tied up Drag and is talking with Natalie right now; I think we got here just in time. Don’t take too long; I think he’s going to kill her.
I slowly move to the back door and use the key to unlock the door and push it open slowly. The room is empty, but I can hear Jimbo’s yelling in the distance.
“Did you really think I was going to let you just walk away from me, Natalie? What’s mine is mine and if I can’t have you, then no one will,” he says to her as I round the corner and watch him start to undo his belt. His gun is on the table closest to the wall, so I reach around and grab it before I step into the room.
“Freeze, motherfucker,” I tell him as he turns to face me. I almost shoot him right then and there, but his laugh stops me.
“Well, look who it is, Natalie, it’s Parker Martinez,” he turns to face me unfazed by Natalie sitting behind him, I notice she’s tied to the bed under her.
“How do you know my name?” I ask him, curiosity taking over my desire to shoot him in the face.
“Dragon didn’t tell you? I’m the other man who was there that day with Bear, shooting your father and cutting you, too bad you survived,” he states point blank.
Natalie’s gasp behind him draws my attention away from him and over to where Natalie is. So truth time is upon us.
“I killed the man who killed my parents; I don’t know what you are talking about. I served five years for killing the man that butchered Bear,” I confess, it feels good to say it out loud.
“Your wrong, Parker, he’s the other man who was there that night, he’s the one who killed Bear,” interjects Drag. I turn to look at him as he walks into the room, one of the guys must have freed him. He reaches over and takes one of the guns from me and points it at Jimbo. “That’s why I’ve been watching Natalie all this time, Jimbo killed your father and almost killed you; Viper killed your mother. They weren’t the same person. That’s how I found Natalie; I was watching Jimbo, and I saw her with one of his lackeys. We’ve all been watching one another for a long time, Parker. Don’t you remember any of this?” The more I think about it; he’s right. I always thought the way I remember it happening wasn’t the way it happened. The doctor at the hospital told me the blow I sustained to the back of my head made me forget what actually happened that night.
“Shoot him, Parker,” I hear Natalie beg from behind him. “End your nightmare once and for all.”
I don’t think twice as I pull the trigger and watch as the bullet lands between his eyes as he falls lifelessly to the floor.
I drop the gun as Drag checks to make sure Jimbo is dead and run over to Natalie. When she’s untied, she throws her arms around me and hugs me close.
“Finally,” she whispers.
“Finally,” I whisper back. Finally, I have her back, but more than that, Natalie finally knows the truth and hopefully now my nightmare is over. It will only be over if she forgives me for not telling her and for all the pain I’ve caused her.
“Let go of the darkness, Parker,” she says as she turns to look at Jimbo on the ground. “Leave it behind with his death.”
“How did he find you anyways?” asks Dean as he walks into the room.
I watch as she walks over and kicks his lifeless body. “He, well, I was in Everett, and he tracked my credit card there,” she admits sheepishly.
“What the fuck did you use your credit card on, if you needed money you could’ve just asked me,” I growl at her.
She scratches her head as she looks over at Drag for help.
“Something for the club, that’s not important right now,” he interjects as he pulls her over and whispers something in her ear. Great, now they have secrets.
“Let’s get out of here,” I tell her as I take her by the hand and try to drag her out the door.
“Not so fast there, champ,” interrupts Drag as he pulls her away from me.
“Don’t tell me this punishment isn’t over yet; I can’t stand to be away from her any longer,” I plead with them both as they look at me secretly.
“She needs to wait for Dorothy to bring the car, Parker, she can’t get on that bike,” he growls at me.
Whatever the fuck that’s supposed to mean.
“Fine,” I declare throwing my hands up in the air. “Can we at least go outside and talk while we wait, Nat? I haven’t seen you in three months; we need to talk. Alone.” I glare at the others standing in the room.
She allows me to take her hand and I pull her towards the door.
“Nat,” calls out Drag when we reach the door. She stops and turns to face him, “Tell him before I do.”
“Okay Pops,” she smiles and puts her head down as she turns and follows me out the door.
“Tell me what, Natalie?” I ask her impatiently as I sit her down next to me. I try to get her to sit on my lap, but she refuses to do it. I know that tactic, I’ve been doing that for a long time, she’s hiding something.
“Can’t we start with something else first, like what you haven’t been telling me?” she asks as she plays with her hands. I suddenly notice her shirt is awfully big for her frame, but ignore it as I prepare to tell her all my secrets.
“Fine, I tell you, and we leave it here today and never discuss it again,” I tell her.
“Deal,” she says as she adjusts herself and fixes the hem of her shirt. I narrow my eyes at the action but turn to look out at the trees in the distance.
“But then you have to tell me,” I add. She laughs simply, so I take that as her consent.
“Ten years ago, my dad Bear, was the president of this club. Drag wasn’t always in charge; he was VP before. Bear always thought he was this big bad ass and wanted to turn the club into a drug running club. My mother wasn’t into it, and they were separated for a while because of it. Long story short because I don’t know all the details before that night, I came home from my friend’s house to find my parents tied up in the living room and a man I learned was called Viper, was holding them hostage. He knocked me out, and when I woke up, it was in time to watch him torture my father and rape my mother before he shot her and nearly killed my father.
“The part I didn’t know is that Jimbo is the one who killed my father and cut me, he was wearing a mask. The doctor said he missed my heart by mere inches, I almost died,” I pull my shirt off so she can touch the scar. Her cold fingers on my skin, send a chill through me, more because she’s touching me for the first time in three months and has nothing to do with the coldness.
“I did five years for manslaughter. It should have been first-degree murder, but the club lawyer helped me get a reduced sentence. I am still on probation; I have another year left to go.”
She surprises me by standing and coming before me so she can hug me, “It’s over now,” she assures me. “But don’t ever do that to me again.”
“You don’t hate me? You aren’t scared I’m going to do the same thing to you?” I ask her in confusion.
“Park, your past is your past, it makes you who you are today. I was doomed from the first moment I saw you on that street corner. I love you, and I don’t care if you killed ten men as long as you never hurt me,” there are tears in her eyes as she looks down at me. “I know you’ll protect me; that’s all that matters. Stop hanging onto the past; you’ve got to learn to let go. Just because you spent a lot of time making mistakes, doesn’t mean you need to spend the rest of your life allowing it to control you.” I know she means more than Viper and Jimbo, she’s talking about Daisy and all the other women who have hurt me over the years, and she’s right.
“Daisy’s gone for good this time,” I blurt out.
“I know that,” she says as she reaches over and squeezes my hand. “Dean told me.”
I narrow my eyes; I don’t like how close she and Dean have become. I know Dean’s been spending time here with her, he disappears all the time, but I let it go for now. I just got her back; I don’t want to fight already. Besides, she’s out here with me and not insi
de with him. She could’ve gone directly to him once she was freed, but she chose me.
“Your turn,” I tell her, and I watch as the light leaves her eyes as she stands, steps away from me, and leans back against the railing. I start to stand to go to her, but she stops me with a shake of her head as she points to the bench I’m sitting on.
I watch as she turns away from me, pulls her hair over her shoulder, and lifts her shirt, so her back is exposed. I hold the side of the seat for support as I see what she’s done to herself. She branded herself permanently with my name and the club colors.
“That’s why I used my credit card, I couldn’t exactly tell you about this Parker,” she says as she looks at me over her shoulder.
I stand to go and touch it, but she pulls her shirt back down when I stand from my seat.
“There’s more,” she whispers.
“What else could you possibly have to tell me?”
“Before I tell you, you have to promise not to flip out. I know you said that women only do these types of things to trap you guys, but that was never my intention,” she looks away from me and out in the distance at the water.
“Just tell me, Natalie, you are starting to scare me.”
She turns to face me and reaches for my hands as she brings them to her stomach. I fall to my knees before her and lift her shirt. There’s a baby in there.
“We’re having a baby?” I ask her as I look up at her and then back down at the baby. Tears fill my eyes as I look at her belly.
“Yes,” she whispers. “I’m so sorry, Parker,” she cries.
I laugh as I get to my feet. “You really think I don’t want a baby with you? You do know what the property patch symbolizes, right? It means that I want forever with you, Natalie, you're it for me.”
She flings her arms around me, and realize that everything will finally be all right. Today is the first day of the rest of our lives together. No more secrets in our way, she’s right, I have to let go of the past and focus on building our life together.