by Jade Kuzma
Ben took another bite of his donut, his eyes shifting toward the ceiling as he thought about it.
“I suppose,” he said as he shrugged.
“What kind of guy are you?” I asked. “Are you more comfortable in small towns like this? Maybe you’re a big city kinda guy…”
“Big city. Small town. Suburbs. Urban. Rural. Whatever. You know what I really like in a place I’m going to live in?”
“What’s that?”
He leaned in close and whispered.
“I just want some nice peace and quiet. Some place I know I can just relax.”
“Um… You know you’re a cop, right? I don’t think you’ll be able to relax very much with that job.”
“When I’m on the job. But when I’m off-duty, what I really like to do is relax. No cell phone. No TV. No internet. Not even a book. Just a nice lounge chair and some peace and quiet. That’s all I really want.”
“And do you get that here, in Ivory?”
He didn’t answer me immediately. He just stared at me, his brown eyes locked on me with a serious look I’d never seen in him before.
“What’s this all about?” he asked, his brow furrowed and a frown on his lips. “Where’s this coming from?”
“What?”
“You’re asking me these questions like you’re trying to figure something out. No offense, Lydia, but I know you’re not interested. Not in someone like me. I know you don’t want to get to know me better…”
Who would’ve thought Ben could be so insightful?
“…I was just thinking,” I sighed, a smile on my face. “I’ve only been here for a few weeks. But it feels like a lifetime.”
“Well, you’re not from a place like this. It’s totally new to you. New surroundings can be like that.”
“I suppose you’re right. Still… I wonder if I’ll ever be completely comfortable in Ivory.”
“I can’t say I blame you. After what happened to Gina… Nobody would be comfortable after that.”
I shifted my gaze away from Ben as I thought about Gina. It had been a few days since it happened but it was still fresh in my mind.
“How is she?” he asked. “I’ve been so busy and I haven’t gotten a chance to check on her.”
I shook my head.
“No change,” I sighed.
“She’ll be all right. Gina’s a tough girl. She’s the last woman in this town that I’d mess with.”
Ben’s words were surprisingly comforting. He seemed even more comfortable. He swallowed the rest of his donut and pounded down his coffee with another satisfied smack of his lips.
“You want my advice?” he said.
“Sure,” I said with a shrug.
“Some things you can change. Some things you can’t. The most important thing is figuring out the difference between the two.”
“…Thanks… I think.”
“Thank you, Lydia.”
“Do you want another donut? One for the road, maybe?”
“What? Are you sure?”
“I’m throwing them out. Fresh batch every morning, remember?”
“All right! Sounds great! But first… Do you have a bathroom I can use? I think that coffee is starting to talk to me.”
“Yeah,” I said with a giggle. “It’s in the back. Let me show you.”
I led Ben to the back of the bakery and pointed him to the bathroom.
“This might take a minute,” he said as he disappeared into the bathroom.
“Take your time,” I said, still laughing at him.
I started rinsing some dishes off. The sound of Ben whistling was loud enough to hear through the bathroom door. It was nice to have some company, even if it were a cop sitting on a toilet and whistling.
I was in the middle of washing the dishes when I heard the bell on the front door ringing again.
“Just a second!” I called out.
I rinsed my hands off and without thinking too much, headed out to the front of the bakery. When I got out there, I looked around but didn’t see anybody.
“Hello?” I said. “Anybody there?”
The bakery was silent except for Ben whistling in the back.
I held my breath for a second. An odd feeling shot through my spine but I ignored it. The bakery was spacious but small enough for me to see the entire room.
I headed outside. It was a clear night. The moonlight illuminated the streets. I stood in front of the bakery and looked up and down the sidewalks. There was no sign of anybody. There weren’t even any cars in the street. The only car was a police cruiser, which I assumed belonged to Ben.
“Strange…”
I stood outside for a moment and enjoyed the quiet of the night. After a few seconds to myself, I headed back inside.
Ben’s whistling was still in the distance.
“I must be hearing things…”
My head was down when I headed to the back. My focus on the floor, my head jerked when I saw a pair of feet blocking my path.
Someone stood there in front of me.
It took me a second but I knew who he was.
Poison.
The man who got into it with Sean. The man whose brother was killed by Sean.
He stood right there in front of me, a smile so sinister on his face I didn’t want to think about what his intentions were.
My heart stopped.
“Shit—”
Before I could finish, he took a swing at me.
My instincts took over. I moved and fell backward to the floor.
I panicked as I crawled backward. He kept moving forward, stalking me like I was his prey.
“Where do you think you’re going?” he said.
“Ben!” I shouted. “Ben!”
“Shut up!”
He jumped down on top of me. I just managed to roll out of the way but he was right next to me. His arms wrapped around me, Poison kept me tight in his grip as I struggled to break free.
“Ben!” I shouted. “Ben! Help—”
“Shut the fuck up, bitch!”
He put his hand on my mouth and muffled my shout. I opened my mouth and bit down as hard as I could. He squealed like a demon as my teeth sunk into his palm.
“Fucking bitch!”
He slapped me across the face and dazed me. My head felt like it was spinning. I was only half-conscious as he pulled me up to my feet.
“Come on!”
He dragged me along as I slumped against him.
Focus, Lydia. Focus!
I was trying my hardest to regain my senses. With all of my strength, I cleared my thoughts. He still had his arms wrapped around me. He was too strong for me to break free from but I still had to try.
I reached my hands up and started digging my thumbs into his eyes. He yelled out again, loud enough for the entire block to hear.
He put his hands around my throat and started choking me. I immediately started having trouble breathing. My hands loosened on him. My eyelids flickered. My vision started to go black. At the same time, he continued to drag me through the front of the bakery.
“Hey!”
Ben appeared from the back. He pointed his gun at Poison and me.
“Let her go!”
“Fuck off!” Poison responded defiantly.
He kept a hand around my throat and pulled the door open. I was so out of breath that I couldn’t focus on doing anything else except keeping consciousness.
Poison dragged me down the sidewalk. In the distance, I could hear Ben shouting.
“Let her go!”
I barely made out Ben holding his gun up. Poison ignored his orders, dragging me over to a bike that was parked in a nearby alley. I writhed in his grip until he swung his hand at me again.
“I said shut up, bitch!”
He slapped me so hard that my brain rattled in my head. I was so dazed that I couldn’t see straight. All I could feel was Poison dragging my body and forcing me to lay on his lap.
His engine revved. The bik
e started to move and I moved with it.
I laid on the bike, struggling to stay conscious. The last thing I saw was Ben down the street, slowly getting smaller. The dizziness finally got to me and my eyes closed on their own.
Chapter 21
SEAN
The Grindhouse was packed with enough people to create the rowdy scene that everybody inside craved. If you didn’t like the atmosphere in a place like the Grindhouse, you were better off going to one of those other dickless clubhouses.
This was the place where I became the man I was. This was the place where I made bonds that would never be broken. This was the place where, no matter what happened, I would always belong.
While the patrons in the bar enjoyed the beginning of the weekend, Garnet had us all gathered inside of the chapel, ready to take care of our business.
“Two teams,” he said. “Ghost, you’ll take Brash and Needle for one shipment. I’ll head up with Brawn and Petey. We ride 30 minutes apart, that way the cops don’t get suspicious about us heading up by ourselves.”
Garnet looked at Ghost.
“Product will be loaded on your bike. Brash will take the lead. If any pigs get to sniffing, make sure they don’t get to Ghost.”
“They won’t touch him,” I said.
“I’ll take the other half of the product. I’ll head up with Brawn and Petey and 30 minutes from now, you head out of Ivory. We can’t keep ’em waiting for too long. Once we’re up north, we make the drop and head back home. Simple transport. Just like we’ve done before. The only difference is the product.”
Garnet looked around the table, eyeballing us one by one.
“Any questions, Reapers?”
Nobody said anything.
“All right then. Petey, Brawn. You’re with me. Let’s go!”
We all left the chapel and headed back into the clubhouse. Garnet left with the other two patches who were accompanying him on the journey.
I took a seat at the bar and had myself a beer.
“You nervous?” Ghost said, taking a seat next to me.
“Nervous?” I said. “Why the fuck would I be nervous?”
“It’s your first job since you got out. It’s been a long time.”
“It’s been a long time. But you don’t forget shit like this. It’s like riding your bike. It never changes. You just do it. And you enjoy it.”
I took a sip of beer.
“You know, you shouldn’t be drinking before we head out,” he said.
“What are you, my mother?”
“I’m just saying. You want a clear head for this. Garnet says it’s just another deal. You do, too. But this is different. The Chinese don’t fuck around. This has to go smoothly.”
“…Yeah, maybe you’re right.”
I sighed as I pushed the bottle of beer away from me. I could have used some alcohol with how I was feeling. I wasn’t nervous. Nah, I never got nervous. I was just fucking distracted.
“You doing all right?” Ghost said.
“Now’s not the time for this.”
“Yes, it is. Garnet said we gotta be heading up north in 30 minutes. You gotta clear your fucking head.”
“My head’s clear.”
I stared at him. I’d known Ghost for so long that he always knew when I was lying. I tried to get this past him but I couldn’t.
“Just give her the space she needs,” he said. “Let her figure things out for herself. You can never force a girl to do something she doesn’t want to. That’s not the kind of woman fit to be an old lady.”
“I got you. Preaching to the choir, brother…”
I stared at the nearly-full bottle of beer. My mouth was watering, wanting to use the alcohol as a distraction.
It was pathetic. Here I was down in the dumps because some fucking girl left me. Shit like this never happened to me.
“How about you?” I said. “How’d you do it? How’d you get over her?”
“You wanna know my secret?”
“That’s why I’m asking. Shit, you and Anna… I thought for sure she was gonna be an old lady.”
“You and me both.”
Ghost leaned back slightly in his seat and sighed. He was always the wisest motherfucker in the building. Always introspective and pontificating like some sage or something. There was never a time when I didn’t want to hear what he had to say.
“I never did,” he said.
“You never did what?”
“I never did get over her. You ever see me with any women since then?”
“I’ve seen you tag a few broads here and there.”
“But it was never anything serious. That was just me looking for some company for the night.”
“You are the man always telling me not to fall in love with the pussy.”
“That’s all they were. None of them were like Anna.”
I thought about it for a second. Then I started laughing. All I could do was fucking laugh.
“Look at us,” I said. “A couple of grown ass men in the middle of a sea of women, and we’re talking about two broads that got away.”
“That just means they were special, that’s all.”
“There’s no need to talk about it any longer. You’re right. We gotta stay focused. We get through this tonight and then we’ll deal with whatever shit we have to deal with.”
“We might have to swim through a river of shit but we’ll always come out clean on the other side.”
“Amen, brother.”
Ghost patted me on the back and left me alone with my thoughts.
I sat at the bar, my elbows up on the counter. I was surrounded by the usual Grindhouse patrons. They were hooting and hollering. The bastards weren’t even drunk yet and they were already making a scene.
But I couldn’t hear any of them. I only paid attention to what I had to do tonight. If we pulled this job off, it would mean a hell of a whole lot for the club.
Time went by quickly. Before I knew it, Ghost was tapping me on the arm.
“It’s time,” he said.
I gave him a nod and hopped off of my seat.
“Do you think they’re doing all right?” I asked.
“Garnet and the others should be doing just fine. He’s been riding all his life. Dealing with cops for decades. If they stopped him before the Ivory city limits, we would have heard from Petey or Brawn by now.”
“Maybe they got pinched, too.”
Ghost stopped in his tracks and looked at me.
“Always an optimist,” he said with a smirk on his face. “You having second thoughts?”
“Not a fucking chance. Let’s do this.”
We headed outside where Needle was waiting for us on his bike.
“Nice of you ladies to join me,” he said, cocky as always.
“Ladies first, motherfucker,” I responded.
He laughed at me then tossed his cigarette butt to the side.
I hopped on my chopper and revved the engine. Needle got on his bike and Ghost did the same.
“Once we get out of the city, it’s a straight shot to the big city,” he said. “It’s an easy ride, gentlemen.”
Just as we started to move out of the Grindhouse parking lot, a police cruiser slowly pulled up, lights flashing.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I muttered.
The cruiser pulled up right in front of us, blocking us from leaving.
“Shit,” Needle said.
We all looked at one another. We hadn’t even left the fucking parking lot and the cops were already on us.
I stayed calm even though this wasn’t the best sign in the world. I watched as the cop hopped out of the driver’s seat.
He wasn’t anybody I recognized immediately. He was young. Real young. He looked like a fucking choirboy with the way his hair was combed.
There was something strange about him though. He looked like he was fucking panicking. His forehead was sweaty and his skin was pale like he’d seen a ghost or some shit.
He rushed up to us and I was just waiting for him to tell us we were under arrest.
“You,” he said as he looked at me. “Brash. Sean.”
“What do you want?”
“It’s Lydia! Someone took here.”
“What?”
“I was hanging out at Amy’s, you know, the bakery—”
“I know where fucking Amy’s is.”
“Right. I was in the bathroom. Next thing I know she was screaming. I got out but the guy already had his hands on her. He dragged her out. I tried to shoot him but I couldn’t get a clear shot.”
I jumped off my bike and grabbed the geek by the collar.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” I said.
“The guy took her.”
“What guy? Who the fuck are you talking about?’
“That guy. Poison.”
“Poison?”
My eyes widened as the realization hit me.
“I’ve been studying all of you guys,” he said. “I know about all the clubs in this town. I know what everybody looks like. Even a guy like Poison, who lost his patch.”
“Are you lying to me?”
“No! I swear!”
“Hey, take it easy, Brash!”
Ghost stood next to me and put a hand on my shoulder. When I turned to him, I realized how worked up I’d gotten. My heart was thumping mad inside of my chest. My teeth were grinding into dust.
“Let him go,” Needle said on the other side of me. “It’s probably not a good idea to threaten an officer.”
I freed my sweating hands from the cop and nearly pushed him to the ground before I thought better of it.
“You have to help,” he said.
“Why the fuck are you coming here?” Ghost said. “Why aren’t you calling the cavalry?”
“Because I know Lydia is a friend of Brash’s here. The cops don’t know where to find this guy. You do.”
“Shit…” I muttered. “Gimme a second.”
“We can’t waste any time—”
“I said gimme a second!”
The sheepish cop took his place back near the driver side door of his cruiser. Needle and Ghost stood next to me, whispering to me.