by Lake, Rae B.
“Dillon, I can’t just stay locked up in my house.” She ran her hands through the hair in my nape softly. “I have a life. I have a career that I love, and I can’t run to the closet every time some big, bad man decides to try and scare me a little bit. I’m not built that way.”
Say no. Tell her she can’t go. Say she has to stay in the house where it is safe. Oh, you fucking pussy!
“Fine, I won’t lock you in.” I was becoming a real marshmallow when it came to her. She only had to rub on me or kiss me, and I was practically putty in her hands. She knew it too. “But you will have someone, more than likely me, with you wherever you go. You go to the store to get fucking tampons I'll be holding the basket.”
She opened her mouth to argue, I could see it on her face, but I guess she realized that this was one of those fights that she wasn’t going to win.
“Fine, but only until the threat is gone. Correct?”
“Yup.”
She sighed and smiled at me. “You drive one tough bargain.”
“Yeah, and you are too difficult.”
“Well, I don’t know. I was always taught, the harder the work, the better the prize.”
I just groaned in response. She raised herself up on tiptoes and kissed me softly on my lips. Grabbing her neck, I deepened the kiss, and I could do this all day long. I pulled her shirt out of her pants and put my hands on her skin. I bit down on her lips just to feel her squirm and moan in my mouth. She began to rub her hands over the growing bulge in my pants, and I pressed her against the wall so that I would get more pressure. All this petting and kissing and shit was going to drive me crazy. I hadn’t been without sex this long since I was fucking thirteen and started having sex.
“No, no no. We have to stop.”
“What the fuck? No.” I wasn’t even hearing what she was saying. If this was all that I could get, I wasn’t going to be denied.
“Dillon, I have to go to work. I need to be there at a certain time.”
“No, you don’t. It’s Saturday.”
“I do. I promise I do.” She pushed me away again.
I grabbed her ass hard and squeezed.
She squealed and kissed me once more, softly on the lips. “You want to come with me?”
“You don’t have a choice in that matter, do you?”
“I guess I don’t. You’re so damn bossy.” She walked over to the door and slipped on her hiking boots. I slipped on my biker boots and we walked out.
* * *
Keeley had to go to the forest instead of the office today. Apparently, there were some samples that she needed to pick up that one of her colleagues set out yesterday. I was watching her work and could see how focused she was. It was as if I wasn’t even there. I liked to see her in her element. Finally, after about two hours of watching her pick up vials of water and label them before putting them in her cooler, she turned to look at me.
“Hey. Do you want to see something cool?” She looked up at me, and the excitement was clear on her face. I didn’t have the nerve to tell her no.
“Sure.”
“Great, come on. We have to hurry, the sun is almost setting.”
She pulled me in the opposite direction. It was almost a jog. We made it to a partially cleared area in the woods, where there was a small lake. We sat down on the edge of the cliff and looked down at the lake and the trees.
“Ok, watch this.” She sat in between my legs on the ground, and we watched as the sunset. It was beautiful, one of the most beautiful sights I had ever been forced to watch in my life. I hugged her too my chest and watched the magnificent view. It was made even better because she was there with me.
“One day, I want to get an environmentally sound cabin or cottage in a place just like this, where there’s peace and nature all around me. No guns or anything. Just peace.”
Peace, I could get used to that. I could get used to a life of peace with her.
I pulled her tighter to me and watched the sunset with this woman. How did this happen?
Wire
We got back to the house around seven that night, but before I could even properly get out of the truck, I could see that there was a problem.
“Why is that guy standing in front of my door?”
It was a prospect from my club. Both Clean and Prez both knew that I wasn’t going to leave Keeley by herself, and since it wasn’t Clean or one of my other brothers that had come here to relieve me, Prez must need all hands on deck.
“Come on, we have to go.” I pulled her around the car and went straight to the prospect.
“What’s going down?”
“I don’t know anything Wire, but Prez said that you needed to get back to the club ASAP.” He was one of the newer prospects, but I could tell that he had heard about me. I could see the fear.
“Alright, look, you watch out for this woman with your life.” He nodded once and waited for her to come towards him.
“What is going on?” Keeley asked, clearly rattled by the new face at her door.
“I am not sure, but I will have my phone on me the whole time if anything goes down, hit my jack.”
“I can take care of myself, Dillon.”
“Stop the shit. Do what your fucking told, and that's it.” I wasn’t about to have her try and fend for herself when there was something potentially big going on.
“Fine, Dillon. Keep your freaking pants on. I’ll behave.” She smiled slightly.
“Prospect, I mean it. Don’t let her out of your sight. If something happens to her on your watch, you have me to deal with.”
“You got it, Wire. I'll be on point.”
I grabbed her arm and pulled her to me hard. “No fucking around.”
“You got it, babe.”
Babe, did she just call me babe? Why am I smiling?
“I'll be back as soon as I can.”
“I know.”
* * *
I walked into the club, and there was no music playing. The bunnies were away, and I could hear Prez shouting in the church.
“Wire, where you been, bro?” Clean ran up behind me and clapped me on the back.
“I was with Keeley. What happened?”
“Chaos retaliated. They got one of our prospects. They said that it was payback for Scotty.”
I sighed. I knew that I’d only done what I’d been instructed to, but somehow, all this mess seemed like it was my fault. I was the one who messed Scotty up, and I was the one they were coming after. Now one of the young prospects had gotten into the line of fire, so much pain for a simple misunderstanding.
“Shit, did they kill him?”
“Nope, they cut off his legs and hands.”
“What the shit?”
“They wanted to make sure that he would never ride with us. Never.”
“Fuck.”
I guess I could understand, but taking away someone's ability to ride was torture. It was something that I would do.
“Yeah, tell me about it.”
“So, what’s Prez thinking?”
“I don’t know, they’re still having church. From what I can gather, he feels that this closes the issue, and any further problems mean war. We got three brothers missing right now, so if they don’t show or we think The Tears of Chaos had anything to do with harming them, we’re going in guns blazing.”
“I hope they have the balls to fuck with us, I really do. They all need to be taught a lesson.”
I went up to my room and tried to relax until the verdict came down. I wanted this over, right now. I could hear pieces of what was being argued about in church but not enough to get my hopes up. One thing that I did hear a lot was that they were thinking about disbanding Gin. They were going to take his patch. That was almost as bad as the torture. To be accepted into the brotherhood and then kicked out, it was almost impossible for people to adjust back to a civilian lifestyle. I did not envy him in the least.
I laid back, waiting for the next shoe to drop. I checked my phone eve
ry so often, in case Keeley called. But I wasn’t prepared for what came next.
There was a loud sound of metal scraping on the concrete floor outside. I jumped out of bed and grabbed my piece, ready for whatever was going down.
I slammed open my door and nearly ran straight into Clean. “What the hell was that?” He had his gun ready as well.
Everyone in the club was armed and either running or walking towards the door. Prez and the rest of the higher-ups must have heard all the commotion while they were in church because they were coming out as well with their weapons in hand.
Before anyone could make it to the door, it burst open. Guns were drawn, but luckily no shots fired. It was just the two brothers that were missing. But they were dragging an enemy member with them, a young prospect from the Tears of Chaos.
Magic looked pale and seemed to be bleeding from a wound in his chest. I was no Doctor, but chest wounds were never good.
“Shit. What the fuck happened?” Prez ran past all of us to assist them. Clean helped Larry hold the Chaos prospect, who was gagged and bound at the wrists. He was fighting to get free.
“This fuck ran up on me and stabbed me. No preamble. No fight. He just stabbed me,” Magic said, blood still pumping through his fingers.
“Get the Doc down here!” Ryder, our treasurer shouted, jumping in with Prez to get Magic situated.
Prez handed him off to a prospect then turned back to Larry.
“Has he said anything?” He nodded towards the still squirming prospect.
“Nope, he got a lot of fight in him, though.”
“That’s ok. We got someone who can get the fight out of him. Wire, you’re up!”
For a second, I hesitated. It was the first time I had ever hesitated when Prez asked me to interrogate someone, but all I could hear was Keeley asking me that dumbass question.
Did you want to hurt him?
This prospect looked young, almost too young to be in a club as ruthless as the Tears of Chaos, but here he was chomping at the gag and kicking his legs like he was going to take me down if he could.
“Find out what the deal is, why he attacked Magic, and if Monte has anything planned that he knows of.”
“To what means?”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Prez looked at me like I had three heads. I had never asked that before.
“I mean, look at him, Prez. He’s young. Where do you want me to stop?”
“Wire, you don’t stop until he has no more information.” He looked at me hard, waiting to see if I had anything else to say. I didn’t. I would do my job.
I looked over to Clean and Larry. “Set him up in my studio, chain him to the table.” I walked past everyone, going up to my room. My chest was tight, and I didn’t know why, but this felt so wrong.
I gathered all the gear I would need to do the task, just like I had done countless times before. The splatter guard, the gloves, the rubber overalls, in case I needed to involve some water or there was excessive blood, but no matter how much I went on with my regular prep, my chest still felt like it was going to implode.
I sat on the edge of the bed to get myself together and could see that my hands were shaking.
“What the hell is this?” I balled my hands into a fist and released them, shaking them out a bit. I did this over and over until I had that under control.
I grabbed my gear and made my way to the studio. The sweat was pouring down my face before I even made it to the prospect.
I opened the door and could see that he was squirming on the table, cuffed tightly, his hands above his head, and his legs spread and pulled taut.
“I’m here to gather information from you, we can do this the painful way, and you will tell me what you know, or we can do this the not so painful way, and you will tell me what you know.” I always started with the same spiel.
“Fuck you and your bum ass club.”
I pulled out my ball-peen hammer and hit him hard, once, on his fifth right rib. I hit him hard enough to break the rib but not hard enough that it would pierce the abdominal cavity. I didn’t want his lungs to collapse before he could even tell me anything.
He screamed out in pain but said nothing I wanted to hear.
I broke two more ribs and moved on to the other side. He screamed. He didn’t stop screaming, but I didn’t stop until it looked like he was having a hard time breathing.
The tightness in my chest and the sweat that was dripping off my brow was now long forgotten. The hum had already settled into my muscles; this was what I was meant to be doing. Death and destruction.
“Let’s start with a simpler line of questions. What’s your name?”
He wheezed and took in a deep breath, the broken bones hurt with every movement he made. “My name is Kenneth Purcell.”
“How old are you?”
“I’m seventeen.”
Seventeen? What the fuck? I’m torturing a goddamn baby.
The hum that had previously washed over me started to lift, and I could feel my chest begin to tighten again.
This shit was just wrong. It was so wrong, but I had no choice. I had to do it for my club for my brothers. I was beating this little boy for some information that he probably didn’t even know was important.
I calmed my breathing down and tried to force down the rock that had somehow managed to settle right down on my chest.
Why the hell am I feeling like this? Am I having a heart attack?
“What the hell are you doing here at this age?”
“That’s none of your fucking business. You won’t get me to snitch on Monte.”
The hum began to descend back on me fully.
“You don’t even know what you’re fighting for, do you?”
A glob of phlegm infused spit landed directly on my cheek. “Fuck you,” he wheezed out.
I grabbed my mallet and swung down with all my might. I barely registered the fact he was screaming and crying now, both of his ankles were broken and pointing in awkward directions by the time I’d finished.
“Why did you stab Magic?”
“Had to,” he said in between sobs.
I had put a knife to sit in a flame at the beginning of the session. I pulled it out of the flame and stuck the white-hot metal object against the thin skin on the bottom of his feet. At first, he tried to kick, and then the begging began. I left it there until his skin melted around it, holding the blade in a loving melted caress. It would continue to burn until he had no nerve endings left in his foot.
I looked at him expectantly. I rarely asked the same question more than once. I was giving him another chance to tell me why he stabbed Magic.
He got the hint. “Monte told all of us that the Wings of Diablo were our number one enemy, and if we were able to take out any of the brothers, we would automatically get patched. And we would get all the benefits. I’m just tired of sleeping on the fucking streets. So yeah, I saw the fucking kutte and I didn’t care who was under it. I just wanted to be in the crew so that I could sleep better.”
“Monte and your crew already avenged Scotty. So what’s the plan now?”
“You think I’m a dumbass? If I tell you, they’ll kill me.”
“You think you’re in a good position to hold out?”
He groaned. I was done with this game. I picked up a cricket bat and attached the barbed wire to it.
“Wait, wait. You don’t understand. I can’t tell you. I can’t.” Everyone knew my expertise with the barbed wire. I could skin you alive and never nick one artery. I was a fucking savant when it came to dealing out pain with it.
I raised the bat, slamming it down on the skin of his abdomen. He screamed but didn’t answer the question. Slowly I pulled the board, carving deep rivets into his body, long strips of skin rolling upwards, blood spilling over his sides. I took his nipple off with this strike. He was hyperventilating by the time I raised the board over my head again to deliver my next blow.
“He wants… he wants… he wan
ts…” He stuttered through the pain, but he was trying to tell me something.
“Hurry the fuck up, or this is going to get worse.”
“He wants to take out this entire chapter. He thinks this whole town should be his. He already has recruited the Wolves to help him out, and a few other crews are working together to take all of you out. They are going to pick you off one by one. I swear that’s all that I know.”
I believed him. I walked down to where his feet were still cuffed up and ripped the knife that had melded to his flesh off. There was no muscle left, and I could easily see the bone, blackened by the heat of the knife and the burned skin from above and below where the knife had been.
I washed my hands and walked out of the studio like it was just another day in the park. If he said anything after that, I couldn’t hear it. I didn’t feel my hand open the door to let me outside. I couldn’t see the people around me. I walked straight up to Prez, who had a few of the higher-ups with him and told him what the boy told me. It looked like he said ‘good job,’ but my ears couldn’t hear it. I just turned on my heels and went to my room.
I took all of my clothes off, got into the shower, and let the hot water wash any remains of that boy’s blood off my body.
Wire
I laid in bed. I wasn’t sure for how long, but it wasn’t until the flashing lights signaling that my phone was ringing caught my attention that I moved.
It was Keeley.
“Speak.”
“Eww. I hear your asshole hat is firmly planted on your head this evening.”
“What do you want?” I blocked out what she said. It wasn’t any information that I needed.
“Why do you sound like that?”
“Keeley, I’m busy.”
“Busy with what, Dillon?” I could hear the uneasiness in her voice, but my name on her lips began to break through the fog. It was like she was reaching out to me, and the only thing that I was able to grab onto was the sound of my name in the wind.
“I just… They brought him here, and I had no choice…” The large stone that was once in my chest began to make its way back, and I rubbed at it, thinking that it may go away with pressure.