by Lake, Rae B.
I don't even watch as Ink makes his way back to where he was standing before. All I can focus on is this man in front of me. What if he was the same fuck who took my sister and gave her to supremacist masters. I want to kill him for Keeley, and kill them all for Lyrica and Simone. They all needed to die for what they did to my family.
"Roth, take a photo of all of them. Identification purposes." A second later a flash to the side draws my attention. He's taking photos with his phone.
"Ok, it's done." I think I hear him say. I hope he did, because I don't hold back. I pick up the heavy bat that Tex had made for me with the barbed wire wrapped around the barrel of it and I swing for the fucking fences. I connect with every soft piece of his body I can. The force of my hits has him swinging back and forth like a pendulum. My own personal fucking pinata. The barbed wire hooks onto flesh and rips it off when I pull the bat back to set up again. I get to his face and swing repeatedly until his nose is completely indented into his face and I can no longer see his eyes. The bones in his face are so crushed and misshapen that he could be a completely different person and I would never know. When the blood pouring from his body is enough to fill a small bucket, I calmly walk to the tree and lift him back up so that he is over head again.
"Now that he has learned some manners, I'll ask you all again. When is Yemen coming back to the states?" Two of the four remaining prisoners, the only woman and another man squeal immediately. Telling me everything that they know. I'm hoping Roth and Ink are paying attention, because I feel like they are talking gibberish right now. I can't take my eyes off the man that no longer has a face. The one that had hurt my woman.
After about ten minutes they had no more left to say. I turn to Roth and Ink. "You got all that?"
"Yeah, fuck man. I got it." Ink rubs a hand down his face. Whatever they’d said is enough to surprise him. I would have to get a play by play later.
"Roth, cut those two down."
"Wait a minute. What the hell do you mean cut them down. What about us? What do you want to know? I can tell you other things." The man that had my baby in a duffle bag says.
"No, you had your chance."
Roth cuts down the two that were forthcoming about the information that they knew to the ground and I drag both of them out of the way. I turn them over and one at a time, I press my gun to the back of their head and fire one round. "They got the easy way out, it's more than I can say for the rest of you." I say before turning back to the three captives that were still alive.
"Wait, we can give you information. Have mercy on us." The man who had lugged my Lily around like luggage says and I nearly shit my pants I laugh so hard.
"Never, the fact that I don’t toss your asses in a meat grinder one piece at a time is mercy enough. I don’t have the machinery with me, but this will do just fine. Roth and Ink build me a nice bonfire stack right underneath them please. "
"You got it." They move fast and within a few minutes there are three triangle shaped stacks of stacks under each of the prisoners.
I take out my lighter and trusty flask, to toss some of my liquor on the sticks. They seem very dry already, but I don’t want to be out here all night. I had to get back home to my woman.
I light each of the bonfires up and stand back as the flames work. "Now you may scream for mercy." I tell them and a slight smile crosses my face. This was so fucking relaxing.
I had tied them high enough that they didn’t just catch on fire right away, but the heat from the growing flames is enough to slowly singe their skin.
They writhe and pull at their binds, but their own bodies are keeping most of the heat away from the rope. They will catch on fire long before their ropes ever do.
"Oh God! Please! Please! Mercy! I beg you! Mercy!" I walk as close as I can get to the man screaming for mercy without burning myself and bring the barbed wire bat down on his side watching the bones in his ribs go concave before I turn and walk back to my spot. Ink and Roth are on either side of me.
My three pinata’s hang there for a long while. Their skin bubbling with heat blisters and peeling away like old wallpaper. Until their skin chars like burnt toast. The one who had begged for mercy died shortly after I broke his ribs. His lung was unable to expand to its full capacity thanks to the smaller space I’d created for it. When a dark black sooty material begins to leak out of his mouth, and he no longer screams I knew he understood what my mercy felt like. The other two continue to moan though they were no longer screaming, the heat doing its job of slowly killing them.
When the smell becomes so intense that both Ink and Roth have to back away, I know it's time to finish them. The one who was carrying Lily in the duffle bag gets my knife straight into his chest. His bones are so hot that the knife broke through his chest plate easily.
I walk over to the man who had hurt my wife. He wasn’t moving, but he was still gasping in breath. I pick up one of the jugs of water that we’d brought and dumped it over the fire that was right underneath him. The steam is just as hot as the fire. I grab another jug and repeat the process, until I can kick the burnt sticks away and stand right under him. I stare at him and even though I can no longer see his eyes or even figure out if he can see me. I know that he is still alive. It’s time to rectify that once and for all. Moving quickly because I know it won’t be long after I do what I want that he will die. I jab my knife in the center of his chest away from his heart and drag the sharp blade from the insertion point down through his belly button. I stick my hand in both sides of the opening and pull it open as hard as I can. His abdominal cavity splays open and his innards along with other vital organs begin to spill out of his body. He jerks hard and gags. Just before he takes his last breath, I stick my hand under his rib cage to rip through connective tissue and find the trembling organ that is his heart. His body stills and I crush the fragile organ in my hands. The muscle and congealed blood squelching between my fingers like a stress ball.
Roth was right, it was like I was born for this.
"Cut them all down and let the fire turn them into dust. Less for us to bury. This one too." I point to the disemboweled man hanging over my shoulder."
They both nod their head and I make my way back to my daughter.
"I’ll meet you back with the others. Don’t take too long."
I’d done exactly what I set out to do, destroyed those that thought they were going to take what belonged to me. I walk out of the tree line and in the field. I can see group upon group of children and teenagers. Some of them are huddled together, others sitting on the ground by themselves. I wouldn’t believe it if they said there were less than fifty captives here. Right along with them though is my family. All the crews—the original Wings of Diablo, the New Orleans chapter, Eve’s Fury, Boys of Djinn, and even the Spawns of Chaos running around helping everyone that they could. All of these people in my life, because of decisions I made to help our cause. My few bad choices didn’t outweigh all the good that I had brought into our lives or helped make happen. I want to do more of this.
I want more of this everywhere.
Ink and Roth walk out of the tree line and immediately go their separate ways. Now that the killing was done I doubt they would have much more to say to each other. Roth makes his way over to me. "It's all done, the bodies are all burned, I doubt anyone will find them. Especially with the wildlife running around. We may have another issue though." He points over my shoulder. I turn in the direction that he is pointing and sure enough far off on the horizon I can see a convoy of cars. I don’t know for sure that they are police cars, but that is the only thing that would make sense.
The calvary is on their way and all of these kids will get back where they need to be.
Wyatt and Brendan come jogging over to where I am. "You guys need to get out of here. They know there was a shooting, and I’ve coordinated with the office down here to explain as best I could. We will get this covered up as much as possible, but if they see y’all here, that’ll just be mor
e questions that we don’t need to deal with. Go, we got this." Wyatt pushes me away. I rush towards Lily and put my bloody hand out, she sees me and runs towards me. Gripping my hand she runs off with me, not even caring about what I had to do to get her back.
Dillon
The magic that Wyatt and the Boys of Djinn had pulled out of their asses is unbelievable. Not only were they able to cover up what we had to do in order to get this done, but they even made it seem like our little vigilante crew were the heroes. The news did a story about the MC Clubs, praising us as the unsung heroes of the country. They even reported on the horrible conditions of the so-called reform school and most of the children have already been placed in new foster homes. I nearly peed my pants when I saw the story running on the TV.
It also turns out that Fly had a very lucrative arrangement with a few private airfields. Fly had been a pilot in his past life, and still had all the friends he needed to get in and out of tight spaces with ease. Once we were all cleared to leave, he made sure that everyone had a flight back to where they needed to go. Lily was checked out at the local hospital, but besides a few bumps, bruises, and a bit of dehydration, she was okay. Apparently from what she was able to tell me they were going to send her away instead of keeping her at the school. It was lucky that we had made it there as quickly as we did.
Roth, Ink, Clean, Archer, and Vexx all decide to come with me and Lily back to Vegas to support me so that I can be with Keeley. She still hasn’t woken up, but the doctors seem to think that she is coming around. At least that is what Sven told me. It was his turn to take watch the last time I’d checked in.
Along with Ink is Justin, he really took that protect him order to heart. Now that everything is over Justin had nowhere to go. Ink thought that it was his duty to make sure that Justin was ok before he tossed him back to the street. Justin was too young to join up, but I think Ink’s planning to hold onto the kid until he is old enough to prospect.
"What are you going to do about Duchess?" I look over to Vexx who is sitting next to Roth.
"We still haven’t been able to find her, but this gives us more of a clue as to what is going on. I just hope we find her in time." She looks away from me and I can tell that not being able to find her patch mate is tearing her apart. The same way it was tearing me apart when we couldn’t find Ink. I’d spent so long running away from my problems that I didn’t even stop to realize how broken some of my family actually was. They all have their own problems that I could help with.
"What have you done in regard to recon over in Ireland?"
She quickly looks to Roth before she turns to me again, surprised that I’ve even taken an interest. "Well Roth has been pulling as much information as we can get, but besides the small amount that we know so far, not much."
"Have you reached out to Wyatt?"
"No, I have only been able to get what we know from Clean. I think his resources have run dry though."
"Wyatt and his boys may be able to help you. I can facilitate."
A bright smile breaks out on her face. "Yes, I would appreciate that so much. Thanks Wire."
I nod my head and lean back in the chair, pulling Lily closer to me and stare out the small window of the plane. This is the right thing to do, my right path.
* * *
When I walk into the hospital, I see Marko Juric and Sven there. Both of them could shoot me in the face right now for putting their family in this position, but when they see Lily behind me all the anger in their eyes drains out.
"Is that my Lilypad?" Marko bends down, and Lily bounds out from behind me.
"Tata!" She squeals and rushes into his arms. The man is a cold-hearted killer, but he sure loves that little girl. Sven ruffles Lily's hair for a second before he makes his way to me. When he puts his hand out for me to shake part of me is a little put off by the motion. I was sure that they would be upset that I’d popped back into Keeley’s life for a few days and already she is in the hospital.
"Good work Wire, you move fast and the loyalty that you have with all these different groups of people is inspiring to say the least."
I look behind me for a second to see the rest of the guys that had decided to fly back with me waiting in the doorway. Watching my back and supporting me in every way that they could.
"Yeah, my family is good to me. What about Keeley? Any word?"
"The doctor says she could wake up at any time. Her brain activity has picked up and the swelling has gone down significantly, but there is no timetable."
I nod my head before walking out of the waiting room and into my woman’s room. There are less tubes now and the one that was in her mouth is gone. Her lips are chapped, but at least I am able to feel her lips against mine. I kiss her softly and silently pray for her eyes to open. Of course they don’t, but I still have hope.
"Hey princess, you wouldn’t believe it if you saw it. They all came out for me. I'd thought that I needed to prove to them that I was still the man that they all could depend on when they never stopped depending on me. I got our baby back, Lily is fine. She’s a little shaken up, but our girl is so strong." I swipe some of her hair behind her ear. Keeley is so beautiful and even if she isn’t speaking, I can imagine what she would be saying.
I hear movement behind me and sure enough, Lily and Marko have taken a seat and are looking at me. Lily smiles big at me.
"What are you laughing at little girl?" I joke with her.
"You said I was strong." She says proudly.
"You’re stronger than anyone I’ve ever met other than your mom." I move over to her and pluck her out of Marko’s lap. I spin her around once before I cradle her like a small child. "But not strong enough to get away from my tickles." I start tickling her. She laughs and tries to pull away, her body bucking and twisting in my grasp.
"Lily?" A soft cracking voice stops me from spinning my baby around. When I look over my shoulder, Keeley’s head is slowly moving from side to side, but her eyes aren’t open yet. I put Lily down and run to Keeley’s bedside.
"Key, you with me babe? Keeley?" I caress her face not wanting to jar her more than I have to.
Her eyes flutter for a second before piercing gold eyes focus on me.
"Dillon?"
I press my head down to hers, there is nothing that I can do to stop the tears pooling in my eyes. I knew she would come back to me. There was never another fucking option. Either she would come back to me in life or I would follow her in death. Our love is just that damn strong.
Keeley
Everything hurts. My eyes refuse to open, but even through my closed lids I can see the sun blaring in the room. I take a deep breath, but my ribs protest the movement. I force myself to go back to sleep. Just a little more and I’ll be okay to wake up.
A loud tinkling giggle floats into my mind.
Oh … my Lily. Anger and fear consume me in that instant. The last time I had heard Lily she was crying and screaming out for me in pain. They took my babies. The bastards had forced their way into my home and stole her from me.
Another giggle reaches my ear and now I’m even more confused. Am I dead? Am I stuck in a dream? She’s not here. I know she isn’t so how can I be hearing her laughter. I will my eyes to open, but it feels like a two-ton weight is sitting on top of my body. I lift my fingers slowly and one by one I feel them lift up. My fingertips graze over a starchy material—sheets.
When I hear Lily laugh again, I feel my head turn in the direction of the sound.
"Lily?" I can’ t recognize my own voice, but realize that the sound of Lily laughing is gone.
I can feel my heart galloping in my chest. Maybe it is all a dream or I’m hallucinating and when I call her out, she goes away. I’ll stay quiet if it means that I can keep hearing her.
Large rough hands touch my face, but they feel different from the men that were touching me before. These hands feel like they have worked every day of their lives, but they are still gentle and safe.
"Key, yo
u with me babe? Keeley?"
Dillon, oh my love. If my soul could fly free and entwine with his right now, I would let it. I love this man; he accepts me with all he has, and I feel the same for him. I thought that I wouldn’t be able to forgive him after all he had done back at the clubhouse, but I realize now that I was just scared. Scared that he would change into a man that I didn’t know and stop loving me the way he once did, but it only took one fall on his ass to get him back on the right path. I can say for sure that this man loves me just the same as he always has. Dillon is my entire world and I’m so happy to hear his voice.
Again, I try to open my eyes, but this time when I do I feel them opening. I blink furiously trying to get my eyes to adjust and once they do the first thing I see is the dark eyes of my love. His beard is almost fully grown in, with bruises and cuts on his face, hair too long and a mess, but he’s here with me.
"Dillon."
He presses his head down to mine, and I can feel the relief and happiness rolling off his body.
When he pulls back I can see the tears ready to fall. "You scared the shit out of me woman." His voice is gruff.
I try to smile at him. "Sorry about that. Next time I’ll leave a note." I roll my eyes before I realize that he might not know about Lily. I don’t know how long I’ve been out. I don’t know how far they’ve gotten, but he has to go get her. "What are you doing here? You have to go!"
"Go where?" His face crumbles slightly.
"Lily, you need to get Lily. They took her. We need ..."
"Momma, I’m here." A small voice says and my eyes dart to the sound.
Dillon moves to the side and Lily pops her head up under his arm. "You know I had to get our baby."
I suck in huge gulps of air and try to get myself to calm down. My arms still aren’t moving the way I want them to. Dillon already knowing what I want picks Lily up and puts her on the bed next to me before he steps back so I can have time with her. I don’t even care if just that small movement is enough to feel like my bones are grinding together. I need to feel her.