by Brook Wilder
I wished it was all just a dream. If only I could just wake up.
***
The bike lurched to a halt. Hands grabbed me and pulled me upright. The same hands dragged me forward. I had to bunny-hop to try and keep up. I felt dizzy as the blood rushed back into its proper places after the ride on the bike.
A face came into focus in front of me. I blinked. It was Ruiz. He was standing beside a trailer that looked like the kind people haul cattle or horses in. I heard a groan. It was then that I made out shapes moving inside the cattle trailer. Fingers wrapped around the trailer bars and my blood went cold. There were people in there.
Two men manhandled me toward the trailer. I fought, but the men paid my struggles barely any attention.
“What a miserable looking lot,” Ruiz spat as he peered into the trailer. “This the cream of the crop?”
A man to the side nodded. “Best we could round up.”
“Good, put her in there.” Ruiz motioned for the men to put me in the trailer.
Despite my struggles, I was forced up to the gates of the trailer. When they were opened the girls inside all moved as far back as they could, as if they were afraid of being seized. I was shoved inside, still bound. I stumbled and fell on the trailer’s metal grates.
“Fuck,” I whispered.
“Fancy a European vacation, ladies? Looks like you lot are headed overseas.” Ruiz laughed.
The man’s eyes locked on mine as I pulled myself up on the bars.
“The Russian Mafia is willing to pay a pretty penny for American women. You don’t mind Russians, do you?” He chuckled. “I bet you’ll even like it.”
A woman behind me cried. Another begged to go back to her family.
How did he expect to get away with this? Surely someone would notice these women gone?
“You won’t get away with it, Ruiz,” I said, trying to sound bolder and more confident than I felt.
Ruiz smiled at me.
“On the contrary. I’ve been getting away with it for years, love. I expect to continue to get away with it for many more to come.” He looked over at another man. “Get them to the warehouse. I’m eager to sample some of the wares in this batch.”
I looked around at the girls in the trailer as the truck engine roared into life.
“It’s going to be okay,” I said softly.
The women huddled toward the front of the trailer, as far from the gate as they could get. The trailer lurched harshly as the truck pulled forward sending me into the grate.
The ropes hindered my ability to hang on, and I fell again as the trailer bumped over the dirt and onto the road.
One of the girls scrambled over to me. She was dirty, and her eyes were wild with fright.
“Are you alright?” she asked, her hands patting me all over as if testing for broken bones.
I nodded.
“Just my pride hurt,” I said with as much of a smile as I could muster.
I knew what she must feel like, but she had been braver than me. She hadn’t completely shut down yet.
“I’ve got friends. They’ll be looking for me,” I assured her.
She nodded, but there wasn’t much hope in her eyes.
“Of course they will.”
She helped me into a sitting position and, before, long we had loosened the ropes enough for me to slip my wrists out. I sighed in relief and rubbed the sore skin.
“Thanks,” I offered the girl my hand. “I’m Cassie.”
Her hand grasped my hand shakily.
“It’s been a while since anyone cared to know my name.” She pushed some dirty brown strands behind her head. “I almost forgot I had one. It’s Rachel.”
“Nice to meet you, Rachel,” I said with a smile.
I looked around the faces of the other women in the truck. They all looked so afraid. I had no real hope to offer them. Despite what I’d said, I had no idea if Mason would bother looking for me. With the GRMC’s resources already stretched, I somehow doubted that one ex-bitch like me would qualify for a search party.
I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. Rachel gave me a small smile, which I tried my best to return.
Chapter 17
Mason
The sun woke me.
I sat up and grimaced as I remembered how I had treated Cassie the night before. The thought of her made me look over to where she should have been asleep, but she wasn’t there. I got up and searched the house. As small as it was, the search didn’t take long.
I stepped around the house and cursed. The shed door was open and I could see tracks leading away from it.
“Damn it,” I muttered.
I went back inside and rounded up my phone. I quickly hit Diesel’s number.
It took a few rings for the man answer.
“Yeah?” he grunted groggily.
“I need you to come get me at the safehouse.”
I didn’t really feel like going into details, especially when I considered that anyone could be listening in to the conversation.
“Don’t ask me any questions. Just do it.”
I clicked the phone off.
It would take Diesel a good half hour to get here from where he and the boys had been stationed last night. I went inside and changed into some clothes that didn’t reek of sweat and dirt.
How long had it been since I’d had a decent night’s sleep? Probably fucking years, I mused as I tugged my vest on.
Diesel arrived right on schedule. He eyed me curiously.
“So, care to tell me where your bike is?”
“Cassie took off on it, would be my guess,” I said. “I’ll go to her house and pick it up. I figure that’s where she’d head when she bolted.”
The man narrowed his eyes and folded his arms across his chest. He had taken a shine to Cassie and I could see, even before he spoke, that he was none too pleased.
“No disrespect, Boss, but I thought Cassie and you were tight.”
“Things change,” I said dismissively.
Diesel shook his head but held his tongue. He could push his luck because we were friends, but he knew better than to cross too many boundaries.
I understood how he had gotten attached to the brunette though. Cassie had that effect on people. Half the boys and their old ladies treated the girl like she was an honorary Ghost Rider.
I frowned. “She wasn’t one of us, Diesel.”
“The hell she wasn’t,” the man said risking injury at my hands. “Fuck, Mason,” he continued boldly, “that girl went into the fray and pulled girls out of buildings. Just cause you tried to keep her at arm’s length doesn’t mean the rest of us did. She deserves her place.”
I slammed my hand on the table.
“This isn’t up for debate. Unless you think you can run the GRMC better than me?”
I looked him straight in the eye. Diesel shook his head as he looked away.
“We’ve got shit to do, and none of it involves chasing bitches around the county. She made her choice.”
“Yes, Sir,” Diesel said. “Want me to drop you by your place?”
I nodded. “Yeah. If she’s home, then I’ll grab my bike.”
“If not?” Diesel looked over at me questioningly.
I shrugged. “Then I’ll just get the truck I keep at the house and meet you at the safehouse.”
I knew that was not what Diesel was getting at, but I had no interest in discussing this clusterfuck with him right now. I had to get my head straight. Ruiz was not going to just sit around and allow us to keep on disrupting his supply lines.
“Let’s go,” I said.
Diesel was quiet after that.
When we pulled up at my house, I glanced over into Cassie’s yard. I cursed under my breath,
“Dammit!”
There was no bike to be seen. Diesel looked at me, but I waved for him to go on. He backed out of the driveway and was soon gone down the road.
I strode over into Cassie’s yard. Th
ere was no sign that anyone had been there. She should have had enough gas to get to home.
It was entirely possible that she’d gone somewhere else, perhaps to where her family lived. She might have been too afraid to come home because I could track her there so easily. I sighed and went back to my own house to get the truck.
I spent the day getting the boys organized. They could run most of the operations without me.
Diesel gave me a knowing look when I cut out early. I ignored the man’s curiosity. I couldn’t have got Cassie back even if I’d wanted to. I had no desire to explain to Diesel what had happened. I wasn’t even sure I could explain.
The night crept on in. As I walked out of the liquor store, I did a double take. My breath caught in my throat as I caught sight of someone out of the corner of my eye that looked just like Cassie. The girl smiled at her boyfriend and I shook my head, trying to clear away the thought.
Despite the girl having only been with me for such a short time, I couldn’t shake the feeling of her.
“Get out of my head,” I muttered as I popped the top off one of the brown bottles and took a deep pull at the beer.
I could almost hear her laughing at me.
“Bet you are probably loving this,” I whispered as I cranked the truck.
By the time I got to the safehouse, I wanted nothing more than to sleep. However, despite everything, sleep stayed far away. I drank two more beers sitting at the kitchen table, and then a dozen behind those. My foot hit an empty bottle on the floor, causing others to topple like dominos. I angrily swept the bottles across the floor with my boot.
I stumbled into the bedroom and collapsed wearily into bed. I don’t know how long it took to fall asleep, but it felt like hours. Finally, I succumbed to the alcohol and fatigue. Sleep, however, brought no rest with it.
I cried out at the scene before me. How many times had I witnessed this? Dana screamed and cried. She pleaded with me, with her captor. She pleaded for death. I sobbed as I strained against my bonds.
I shook my head at the brunette. I blinked my eyes to clear the tears away. No, it wasn’t Dana. It was Cassie.
No, not Cassie! Her lip was split and her eye swollen shut. Blood dripped from a gash on her forehead. She could barely see as she reached out toward me. The next moment, she was knocked to the floor unconscious. He didn’t stop. He kept hitting her limp body with a motorcycle chain.
“No,” I raged at him. “Let her go! It’s me you want, not her!”
Ruiz grinned viciously as he raised the chain again. When he brought it down across her head, it landed with a dull thud and I heard the crack of bone. A gurgling sound broke from Cassie’s throat. Her one good eye peered at me as blood pooled the floor around her mouth. I watched in horror as she bled out with Ruiz’s laughter echoing in my head.
I gasped awake and sat up in bed. I groaned and rubbed my face as if to scrub the dream from my memory. It was better she was away from me. Let her keep the bike.
I threw myself back and stared at the ceiling. It’s better this way.
***
Chapter 18
Cassie
Every bump and clang of the cage as we sped along the road was jarring. I felt great pity now for all the cattle I’d ever seen being transported. I’d never given much thought to how horrible it must be to have no control over what was happening to you, no idea where you were going, or why. I understood then the abject horror that the feeling of helplessness brought.
When the truck stopped, it didn’t bring any relief. The cage opened and the girls were dragged out. Rachel was among the first group. I tried to hold onto her, but the men yanked her away and backhanded me for my efforts. We crowded together in the cage and awaited our turn. I trembled as much as the others, but I trembled with the knowledge of what could be coming next.
“Grab ’em,” a man yelled. “Gotta get that truck empty.”
Someone screamed. I couldn’t tell who. The men paid us no more care than if we truly were cattle. I was shoved roughly as I baulked at walking down the ramp.
We were at a warehouse. I remembered warehouses.
Visions of the warehouses the GRMC had raided flashed through my head. Those had been run by the Cartel too.
I spun around, looking for any way to escape. The girl behind ran into me in her eagerness to get away from the men herding us toward the warehouse. I grimaced at the impact. She didn’t even look up at me.
“Get over here,” a man in a yellow t-shirt barked.
We shuffled toward him. It was impossible to do much else with the guards herding us so close together. The man looked at a clipboard and motioned to a cell. He pointed out some of the girls and the other men pulled them out the herd and put them in the cages indicated. My breath caught as he pointed at me and several others.
A hand wrapped around my arm and dragged me to the cell. The door yawned open and I found myself thrown to the ground inside.
The warehouse would be full of these small metal cells, barely ten feet across. How many girls like us were in here?
I closed my eyes. Part of me hoped I would just die and not have to suffer.
I’m not sure how much time passed, but sometime later two men dragged a girl across. They opened the cage door and tossed the girl roughly to the ground. She just lay where they had thrown her. Instinctively I scooted across the cage floor.
“Are you okay?”
The girl made a low noise, but no words I could understand. I recognized the clothes she was wearing.
“Rachel?”
I pushed her hair out of her face and gasped. Her face was bloody. Her body was covered in deep cuts and ugly purple grazes and her clothes were torn and disheveled.
“Rachel, can you hear me?”
Her eyes flickered open, then closed again.
“She’s lost a lot of blood,” I mumbled to myself.
I put pressure on a deep gash across her collarbone that was spilling blood. Meanwhile, the other women just whimpered and moved further away. I couldn’t really blame them.
Rachel’s blood oozed around my fingers. I leaned over to listen to her breathing and realized it had stopped.
“No,” I sobbed.
I pressed my fingers against her wrist.
“No, no,” I mumbled over and over as I began chest compressions.
“Rachel,” I whispered to the girl. “Wake up. Don’t die.”
I was just a nurse. I looked around frantically, but most of the other women in the cage had covered their heads with their arms. I was all alone.
No matter how I tried, Rachel did not wake up. She was gone.
I finally gave up. I sat by her dejectedly, with my hands covered in her blood. I cried tears for a girl I had only just met. It wasn’t fair that she’d had to go so soon. But maybe, I reflected, she was the lucky one.
“I hope it’s better where you are,” I told her softly.
One of the men nearby yelled over to someone else.
“I think that one’s dead.”
“Fetch her then. You know how the boss likes to keep ’em.”
Revulsion coiled up inside me. I wanted to stop them, but I couldn’t help Rachel anymore. She wouldn’t feel whatever they were going to do with her body.
I watched solemnly as they dragged her out by her feet. Her head hit the concrete with a sickening thud. It left a trail of blood along the floor behind them.
I felt bile rise in my stomach. I clasped my hands over my mouth only to jerk them away after I tasted Rachel’s blood. I sobbed as I tried to wipe the blood away.
When the cage door opened again, a man shoved another woman in. The woman was petite, even shorter than myself. Her red hair was messy and fell over her eyes. She looked around the cage and her eyes settled on me.
“Looks like I’m in here now,” she said calmly.
I wished like hell that I felt that calm. I was still wiping at Rachel’s blood on my hands and face.
The woman came over and sat
down facing away from me. As she sat down, I noticed a tattoo on her lower back. It looked just like the GRMC badge on Mason’s jacket. My breath caught in my throat.
“Are you with the Ghost Riders?”
The woman looked around at me in surprise.