by Kacee Kupser
“What you got for me brother?”
“Nothing yet. I’m about to pull up the video from the surveillance.”
Techy walked into the kitchen and set his laptop up on the table. When he opened it up the surveillance program was up and running. The video started to play at 5:00 am and moved forward until we saw Everly coming into frame.
“There, that’s Everly coming across from my house.”
As we watched, someone wearing all black with a hoodie pulled up over their head and putting their face in shadow came up behind her and hit her in the side of the head with a crowbar. Everly was knocked right out and her aggressor picked her up under her arms and slowly dragged her down the pathway to a car parked in front of the neighbour’s house.
“I can’t see their face, their hoodie is covering it. Can you do your magic and pull in closer so you can get a better look?”
“No brother, whoever this is they seemed to know the cameras were there and how to avoid being identified. I’m going to see what I can get on the city’s CCTV and traffic camera systems. I’ve had the program running in the background since I got your message. I also tried to ping her cell phone, but it must be off so I can’t find her that way.”
He turned back to his laptop and started clicking away at his program.
“Anything?” I said, growing impatient.
“No man. I know this is hard, but you need to be patient. This isn’t something that you can just click a few buttons and it will all just pop up in front of you. Let my program keep running and I’ll let you know as soon as I’ve got something. Why don’t you just go out and talk to Beast to see if he has any leads.”
I slam out of my chair and march back into the living room. I’m going nuts with nothing to do and no one to hurt. Beast and Tiny were in a heated discussion when I walked up to them.
“What’s the word? Anything?” I questioned Beast.
“No, it makes no sense. Nobody is saying anything on the streets. Anything from the surveillance?”
“Fuck, no. Whoever it was seemed to know cameras were put up because they were covered head to toe and we couldn’t make out their face. Maybe it’s time to go door to door in the neighbourhood. Someone might have seen something. Let’s get some boys out here and we’ll knock on doors until we find something.”
“You got it. Let’s you and me get started and Tiny can send out a text to the boys to get whoever isn’t already out tracking down leads.”
Chapter 29 – Everly
I slowly started to wake up and my head felt like it was 10 times its regular size and it was pulsing in pain. I lifted my hand to feel the back of my head to see if I had a bump, but I couldn’t lift my hand that far. When I looked down I saw that I had a rope wrapped around my wrist. The other end of the rope was wrapped around the post I was lying against. I tried to sit up and get my bearings, but as soon as I tried to lift my head a wave of nausea and dizziness hit me.
Putting my head back on the ground I ran my hands down my body looking for any other injuries, but didn’t find any.
My eyes were starting to adjust to the lack of light in the room and I looked around as much as I could without moving my head. The room must have been a basement. There was a small window up high on the wall, there were cement half walls all around the room, the floor was unfinished cement and the ceilings were unfinished. There were two posts in the room, the one I was attached to and one about three feet away from me.
There were wooden stairs leading up to a door, which was the only other exit from the room. Above me I could hear a TV playing, but nothing else. I could see through the window that the sky was pitch black so obviously I’d been knocked out for the whole day, if not longer.
After lying on the floor for a while I decided to try to sit up again. I took it slowly, stopping multiple times. When I was finally able to sit all of the way up I leaned back against the post behind me and took deep breaths, waiting for my stomach to stop rolling.
Above me the TV turned off and someone started walking across the floor. I heard the door open and someone walk down the stairs. It was still dark in the room and even though my eyes had adjusted I couldn’t make out any features of my kidnapper, except that they were small. They stopped in the middle of the room and suddenly there was a light on above me, which made my head scream in pain and my eyes ache. I closed them until the pain diminished.
I slowly reopened my eyes and looked up. “Oh my God, Legs what are you doing? Why have you taken me and put me here?” I was so confused, why would Legs take me?
“Oh Everly, you are so gullible. You think you can come into the club and just take away my man?” She had a look of pure hatred on her face. She had been so happy and kind to me before this, I couldn’t believe the change in her.
“Your man? What are you talking about? Joker isn’t your man, he wasn’t in a relationship when I met him.”
“Oh he’s my man all right. He was going to make me his old lady and then you came into the picture.” She boasted.
“So you’re telling me that he slept with nobody but you and he told you he was going to make you his old lady?” I tried to keep the mockery out of my voice, but I wasn’t sure I pulled it off.
“He didn’t have to tell me, I could tell by the way he looked at me. He may be infatuated by you, but once you’re out of the picture I’ll be there to comfort him and he’ll come back to me.”
“You are out of your mind!”
Legs marches up to me and slaps me across my face. “You shut the fuck up. Joker will be mine as soon as I get rid of you. I just need to decide how I want to get rid of you. Do I want to kill you or do I want to sell you off and make some money.”
“Sell me off? What are you talking about?” I asked, confused. Who would she sell me to?
With a smile she walked back up the stairs leaving the light on.
Getting a better look around the basement I saw there were some tools in the corner, but I didn’t think I could reach them. In the opposite corner there were some buckets of paint, but that was all that I could see.
The door at the top of the stairs slammed open and Legs came down the stairs with a plate in her hands. She put it on the floor and pushed it towards me with her foot.
“Eat up, if I decide to sell you I want you to be healthy, want to get as much money as I can for you.”
With that she left and I looked down at the plate. I didn’t want to eat anything she gave me, but I hadn’t eaten anything since last night and I was starving. If I was going to have any chance of getting away from here I was going to have to keep up my strength.
After I finished eating I tried to stand up. I only got as far as my knees before I had to stop. I must have a concussion or some kind of head injury because I was dizzy and nauseous every time I moved.
I sat on my knees for a few minutes until the dizziness had subsided and then turned to face the post behind me. I held onto the post and slowly stood up. I had to lean my face on the post and pause for a lot longer this time.
Turning around to face the rest of the room I tentatively took a step away from the post. When I didn’t fall down I kept going, slowly taking steps towards the tools in the corner, stretching the rope wrapped around my wrist to see how far I could get.
I made it part way across the room, but I was still a few feet from the tools, too far away to get to them.
I slowly made my way back to the post and slid down it, sitting down and leaning back. Time to think up a new plan.
Laying down on the floor I closed my eyes to rest and think about it when I woke back up.
The next time I opened my eyes the sun was shining in through the window and I had to pee so badly I didn’t think I was going to be able to hold it.
When I sat up there was a plate of toast on the floor in front of me and an empty bucket beside the post I was sleeping against.
I stood up as slowly as possible and peed in the bucket. It was disgusting, but it was better than
peeing my pants and having to sit in my own filth for who knows how long.
Sitting back down I started to eat the toast and thinking about how I would get out of here. The rope was quite thick, but there must be a way I could get it off my wrist. Once I was free I was sure I could get away from Legs.
I put the piece of toast down and tried to pull the rope off over my hand. It was too tight and I pulled so hard that my wrist started to chafe and blood vessels broke under my skin.
Next I started rubbing the rope on the edge of the post trying to get it to break. If it was going to work it was going to take hours, which I wasn’t sure I had.
Chapter 30 – Joker
Canvasing the neighbourhood didn’t give us any leads. Everyone was asleep when Everly was taken.
Walking back into the house I found Brenna sitting on the couch looking lost and Techy was in the kitchen sitting at the table tapping away at his laptop.
“What you got for me brother?”
“Well so far not a lot. There aren’t a lot of CCTVs around your neighbourhood. I’m just starting to hack into the city’s traffic cameras to see if I can see anything unusual.”
“Okay thanks man, keep at it. I’m going to see if we have any news from our sources.”
Walking back into the living room Beast was sitting on the couch beside Brenna talking to her quietly. She wasn’t looking at him, but she seemed to be listening. He reached out to rub her back, but she flinched away from him and he dropped his hand.
I walk up to the couch and Brenna looks up at me. “Anything?”
“Not yet, but we’re still looking. We aren’t giving up until she’s home with us.”
I nod my head over towards the bedrooms and Beast gets up off the couch and follows me into the hallway.
“Brother I’m going crazy just sitting here doing nothing. Any news from our contacts around town?”
“Not yet, but I’ve got feelers out.”
I left Beast to go into Everly’s room and sat down on the bed. I don’t know what I was going to do if we didn’t get her back or if anything has happened to her when we do get her back.
One thing I do know is that when I have her back I am going to stop putting off making her my old lady. Then I am going to make her my wife and put a baby in her belly. I can’t wait to see her rounded with my child.
While I was thinking about our future I could hear boots coming down the hallway towards where I was sitting. When I looked up Beast was in the doorway with his phone to his ear.
“Thanks man, we owe you one.” Beast hung up his phone and walked into the room.
“What have we got brother?” I asked anxiously.
“Just got a call from Axel.”
“What did the president of the Cursed Bastards want?”
“He got some information. One of his guys got a call from some woman saying she has a hot commodity they might be interested in.”
“What does that have to do with us?” I didn’t have time for this shit. I needed to find Everly.
“Well, it turns out that the Cursed Bastards have put the word out that they are looking for women to sell at an auction in the next week.”
“What the fuck?! Since when are they in the skin trade?” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I didn’t think the Cursed Bastards were that kind of club.
“They aren’t, they are working to stop the skin trade. They found some women who had been kidnapped and were about to be sold into sexual slavery and they’ve made it their mission to stop that shit from happening in our city.”
“So what, are they thinking the hot commodity is Everly?”
“It’s the only lead we’ve had. They’ve set up a meet with this woman in the next hour and wanted to know if we wanted in.”
I stood up and started walking to the front of the house.
“Slow down Joker. We need to get some boys together and meet up with the Bastards before we just go charging in there. We want to do this right so that Everly doesn’t get hurt.”
He made sense, but all I could think about was getting to my woman and making sure she was okay.
“Yeah, okay. Where are we meeting?”
“We are going to meet up at an abandoned warehouse on the outside of town. I’ll send out a text to the boys and you can follow me there. We’ll leave Techy here working his angles just in case this doesn’t work out.”
While Beast goes into the kitchen to let Techy know what is going on I approach Brenna. I sit down beside her on the couch and when she looks at me she has red eyes, she’s obviously been crying.
“Hey Joker.” She sniffs and looks at me with hope in her eyes.
“Hey Bren. We are going to head out for a bit. Techy will be here with you if you need anything.”
“Where are you going? Do you know where she is? I want to come with you.” She burst out.
“No babe, you can’t come with us. You need to stay here. Everly would never forgive me if something happened to you. I’ll let Techy know if we find anything and he’ll let you know right away.”
She nodded at me and went back to staring off into space.
I walked outside to my bike and as soon as I was seated Beast started up his bike. We rode out and when we got near the end of town four bikes pulled in behind us and followed us the rest of the way to the warehouse.
When we pulled in five members of the Cursed Bastards were already there waiting for us. I shut my bike off and sat there waiting for Beast to speak. It was killing me to not just get off my bike and demand they tell me what they know, but I can’t do that, I need to be as calm as I can so that I don’t fuck this up.
Beast turned off his bike and got off, walking towards Axel. They shook hands and started talking. Beast looked over his shoulder at me and nodded, which was my signal to come join in the conversation.
When I walked up, Axel turned to me and stuck out his hand. “Hey man, sorry to hear about your woman. I hope we can help.”
I shook his hand and nodded. “Thanks Axel, I hope you can help too. What do you have?”
“Recently, when one of my brothers was riding home from the bar he came across a boarded up house that had a group of women in it that had been abducted and were waiting to be sold off in the sex trade. He normally would not have even noticed the house, but when he was at a stop sign he heard what sounded like screaming, which made him go investigate. Up until that day we had no idea that there was an underground sex slave ring in our city, but now that we know, we are doing everything we can to wipe it out, including setting up a fake auction to try to nab some of the buyers. We’ve put the word out that we are looking for women to sell and have been getting calls for weeks. Every time we get a call we go in and save the women and get rid of their captors. About a half an hour ago one of my guys, Ace, got a call from an anonymous woman stating that she had a hot commodity we might be interested in. When asked more about what that commodity was, she was cagy and wouldn’t give any more information. She wanted to meet up and make a deal. We have a meet set up for just under an hour from now.”
“What makes you think that this hot commodity is my woman?”
“We don’t know for sure, but when we got word that your woman had been taken we thought there was a good chance this was her so I gave Beast a call.”
Beast took over the planning for the meet up with Axel and in a half an hour we were heading out, eleven men strong. The meet up was at a house outside of town where there weren’t a lot of neighbours, which was great for us, no one would be calling the cops if there were any gunshots.
We pulled up at the end of the road and parked our bikes so that they couldn’t hear us coming. We started walking towards the house.
The Cursed Bastards were all ex-military as well and so we all had ear pieces in and microphones on so we could communicate with each other.
Axel was at the front door with myself and Beast while the rest of my brothers and his Cursed Bastard members were surrounding the rest of the
house, blocking off all routes of escape.
Axel beat on the door and a minute later the door was opened. “Did you come alone?”
“That’s what we agreed to. Are you going to let me in to let me have a look at the product you want to sell me?”
The woman backed up to let Axel in and once he crossed the threshold he pushed her back into the house and we followed him in. Axel pulled his gun and pointed it at the woman.
“What the hell?! You told me you were coming alone.” She shrieked.
When I got in the house I recognized her immediately. I charged up to her and pushed her up against the wall with my hand around her throat, pulling my gun and pushing it into her forehead.