Wanted: An Outlaw Anthology

by Lane Hart

  The president’s name was Hog. How fitting for the potbellied asshole. “Quinn, I’ll just go home,” I called softly.

  “Now, now, pretty. No need for you to go home. Quinn has to do some work, but that don’t mean you and I can’t have some fun.” Major suggestively thrust his hips, and bile crawled up my throat.

  I didn’t want him anywhere near me.

  That was when all hell broke loose.

  Quinn shoved Major, rocking him backward.

  Major swung at Quinn, connected with his shoulder, and knocked Quinn back.

  Quinn gained his balance and squared his stance. “You’ll have to kill me if you want to touch her,” he warned.

  Major rocked back and forth on his toes. “That seems doable to me.” Major lunged at Quinn, grabbed him around the waist, and pinned him to the wall. “I promise to take real good care of your woman after I put you in the ground, prospect,” he spat.

  Quinn stomped down on Major’s foot and landed a fist in Major’s side.

  The two guys who had been standing on either side of me moved closer. This was not a good sign.

  After Quinn stomped on Major’s foot, he had a split-second to move. He managed to push Major back and get away from the wall.

  “I’ve been wanting to kick your ass since you showed up here.” Major cracked his knuckles and rolled his neck. “Now seems like a good fucking time to teach you a lesson.”

  Quinn kept his guard up and moved back and forth. He loved to watch MMA fighting, and I knew that using his fists wasn’t something new to him. The reason he had been in prison before was because he had almost beat the life out of his mother’s boyfriend.

  “Same goes for me, Major. You need an ass-kicking, and I’m just the person to do it.”

  Major growled, not liking what Quinn had said. “I kick Core’s ass at least once a week, prospect. This is going to be like a fucking walk in the park.” Major moved quickly and swung at Quinn’s head.

  Quinn ducked and sidestepped away from Major. “That’s the thing, Major. I’ve watched you fight Core. I know how you fight. I know your next move before you even do.”

  Everything Quinn was saying was true, and it was pissing Major off even more.

  Major took another swing at Quinn, and this time, he connected with Quinn’s jaw.

  “Quinn,” I screamed. I shot up from the couch, ready to jump in between them, but I was stopped by the two guys grabbing my arms and holding me in place.

  “Stay here and shut up,” the one to my right growled. I struggled against their hold, but they weren’t going to let me go.

  Quinn was rocked back by the punch, and his eyes shot to me. “Just stay there, Kimber.”

  I didn’t really have much choice. From where I was standing, this wasn’t going to end good for either of us. “Quinn,” I cried. “Just let us leave.” If they would just let Quinn and me leave, none of this would have to happen.

  Major lunged at Quinn again, and this time, Quinn jumped backward. He slammed into Hog who pushed him toward Major and right into the fist that was flying toward him. Blood exploded from Quinn’s nose, and he fell to his knees.

  Major planted his foot into Quinn’s stomach and kicked the hell out of him. Quinn struggled to get off his feet while Major bounced back and forth, acting like he was some great fighter. Major never would have landed that punch if Hog hadn’t pushed Quinn into him.

  He wasn’t fighting fair, and I shouldn’t have been surprised.

  Blood ran down Quinn’s face, and he swiped at it with the back of his hand. “You got a good punch, Major, but it’s too bad you can’t land one without the help of Hog.”

  I wanted to scream at Quinn to shut his mouth. Each word he said egged on Major, and it didn’t seem like Quinn had anyone on his side here besides me.

  “Hold him!” Major yelled.

  Two guys emerged from the crowd, surprising Quinn. He swung at the one on his right, but the one on his left grabbed his arm. The two guys managed to take both of Quinn’s arms, and they held him in place.

  Quinn tried to strong-arm his way out of their hold, but he was too weak and winded from fighting Major.

  Major stood in front of him and spit at Quinn’s feet. “You think you’re better than me, prospect?”

  Quinn didn't speak. I could tell that he was done bowing down to the Rolling Devils. They had tried to preach to Quinn that being treated like a piece of shit was part of being a prospect, but they had taken it too far.

  “You got one chance to apologize to me.”

  Quinn’s nostrils flared, and his eyes darkened. He was pissed and ready to explode. “Let her go,” he growled.

  Major looked over at me again. “She sure is a pretty thing. It’s amazing how she wound up with a tool like you.”

  “Don’t look at her,” Quinn said lowly.

  Major turned quickly and landed a swift punch to Quinn's stomach. He hit him so hard, Quinn lifted off the ground, then crumpled over. He only stayed standing because the two guys were still holding his arms. “Don’t ever fucking tell me what to do,” Major spat. He nailed Quinn three more times in the stomach ‘til Quinn was spitting blood and unable to stand. His breathing was labored, and I knew he was hurting.

  Quinn managed to lift his head, and his eyes connected with mine. “I’m sorry, Kimber” he gargled.

  I struggled against the hold the guys had on me again, needing to get to Quinn. They tightened their grip on me and twisted my arms behind my back.

  Major swung again, his finest connected with Quinn’s face, and I watched his eyes roll back into his head. The two guys holding him released his arms, and Quinn fell in a pile on the floor.

  “No!” I screamed. “No!” I shouted, begging for them to let me go. They had made their point. They were assholes who could and would gang up on one guy.

  Tears were streaming down my face and snot was running from my nose. I was a blubbering mess trying to break free. My arms hurt, but I kept struggling to get away.

  “Shut her the fuck up,” Hog yelled.

  The guy on my right reared back and slapped me across my face.

  My eyes watered even more as pain spread across my cheek. I had never been hit in all of my twenty-seven years.

  “Get rid of him and put her in one of the rooms.”

  I heard the words spoken, but I didn’t register what they meant until I was tugged toward the long hallway. “No, no!” I yelled.

  I watched Major land three solid kicks to Quinn’s stomach and spit on his face. “Get up!” I shrieked. Quinn just laid there. Not moving.

  My boyfriend had just had the living shit kicked out of him, and I was now being led down some hallway while the order to get rid of him was barked.

  My eyes were still watery, and I struggled to see as the two guys drug me down the hallway. “No, please,” I pleaded. I didn’t know what to do. I had no idea what to say. I needed to get out of there.

  “Shut the hell up, bitch,” the one who had hit me growled.

  I shrunk away from him since he would have no problem hitting me again. I had lost sight of Quinn as we turned down the hallway and we passed four doors before we stopped in front of one.

  “You can scream all you want in here, bitch. Ain’t nobody going to be able to hear you.” The guy who hit me opened the door and shoved me into the room.

  He shut the door before I could run back toward him. The lock clicked into place, and I tried the door handle, praying for a miracle.

  The handle didn’t budge, and I pounded on the door. “Let me out!” I screamed. The room was pitch black, and my eyes couldn’t adjust. It was like my eyes were closed, but I knew they weren’t. “Quinn! Please just let me out!”

  I screamed until my voice was hoarse, and my hands ached from pounding on the door. I had tried the door handle hundreds of times hoping it would magically open, but it didn’t budge.

  I felt along the sides of the door trying to find a light switch. My fingers landed on the s
witch but nothing happened when I flipped it.

  “No,” I screamed. I was locked in a pitch black room while the man I loved was lying on the floor possibly dying. I moved back to the door and pounded on it again. “Let me out!” I screamed.

  I was greeted by silence and the slight echo of my voice. My hands tried the handle again, but nothing had changed in the thirty seconds since I had last tried it. I pressed my forehead against the cold metal of the door and attempted to figure out what to do.

  “Think, Kimber,” I said out loud.

  I didn’t have a phone.

  No one knew where I was.

  No one was going to miss me until I needed to be to work in two days.

  “Two days,” I whispered.

  Two days was a long freaking time when you had no idea what was going to happen to you and if anyone would ever find you.

  I pressed my hands against the door and slid down onto my knees.

  I was fucked, and I had no idea how to unfuck myself.

  Chapter Five

  Quinn

  So this is what death feels like...

  Death.

  This was what death felt like.

  Everything hurt, and it felt like a six hundred pound man was sitting on my chest. I struggled to draw in a breath and could only open my left eye.

  “Holy hell,” I wheezed.

  It was the middle of the night, and it seemed that I was lying outside in the dirt. I had to get up and get back to the clubhouse. I had let them take Kimber, and I needed to get her back.

  The two problems I had were I didn’t know where the hell I was, and I couldn’t move.

  Thankfully, headlights bobbed above me, and I hoped to God whoever it was could help me. Blue and red lights bounced off the night sky, and any hopeful thoughts I had of getting back to Kimber were quickly shot down. I heard the door of the police car open and tried to think of a good reason to be lying on the side of the road in the middle of the night.

  “Dispatch, I’ve got a body on the side of highway thirteen. Subject appears to be alert.” The dispatcher repeated what the officer had just said, and I tried once more to get up. I had to get out of here. Wherever here was.

  I had been out of prison for a few months and couldn’t afford to be getting picked up by the police.

  “Sir, can you hear me?”

  I could hear him all right. “Yeah,” I croaked. I tried to roll to my side. If I could just get on my knees, I would be able to get up.

  The officer knelt down beside me and pressed a hand to my chest. “Where are you hurt?”

  It would be easier to tell him where I wasn’t hurt. “Everywhere.”

  “Just hang tight with me, son. An ambulance is on the way.”

  “Where am I?’ I gasped.

  “You’re on the side of highway thirteen.”

  I had heard him say that before, but I had no idea where highway thirteen was. “What town?”

  “We’re a few miles from the border of Canada. Port Huron is just up the road.”

  Holy fuck. I was almost two hours away from the Rolling Devil’s clubhouse. “I need to get out of here,” I breathed out.

  They had Kimber.

  “Whoa, whoa. Take it easy there, son. I don’t know what’s all wrong with you, but I can tell from how hard it is for you to talk that you got some things wrong. Take a breath and try to tell me why you’re on the side of the road.”

  “My jacket?” I asked.

  “Son, you’re lying here in a ripped shirt and jeans. You ain’t got a jacket.”

  Of course they had taken my cut so it couldn’t be traced back to them. “I…I…don’t know what happened.” I wasn’t even going to hint at what went down at the club. The police weren’t going to be able to help me.

  I knew what kind of club the Rolling Devils were. They felt they were above the law. Good if you were on their good side, but bad if you weren’t.

  I was definitely on the wrong side.

  Sirens sounded in the distance, and I closed my eyes.

  I needed to get back to Whitmore Lake and get Kimber back.

  The only problem with that was I couldn’t even walk at the moment. I needed to come up with a plan, and I needed to do it fast.

  Kimber

  I didn’t know what time it was.

  I didn’t know how long I had been in the pitch black room.

  I stayed by the door, occasionally trying the handle, hoping it would open. I needed to move around the room to figure out where I was, but I didn’t want to leave the door. If it opened, I planned on trying to run. I didn’t know how far I would make it, but I knew I needed to at least try to escape.

  Every now and then, I would hear voices outside the door and would listen quietly. I never could make out what they said, but they never stayed by the door for long.

  “Move, Kimber,” I whispered. I needed to figure out where I was. Maybe there was a way out that wasn’t through the door.

  I stayed on my knees and turned to my right. My hands touched the floor, and I slowly started to crawl.

  The floor was rough wood planks with lots of splinters and cracks. My fingers snagged and caught on each one. I crawled about six feet before I ran into a wall then moved to the left. I stayed along the wall until I ran into another corner. This time, I crawled a few feet and touched what felt like a mattress.

  There were no sheets on it and just a single blanket was balled up on top. I made my way around the rest of the room ‘til I got back to the door. Now I needed to figure out where a window was. Hopefully this room had one, otherwise I was back to hanging out by the door.

  I gingerly stood up, my legs cramped from sitting and moving around on my knees. I felt along the wall as I moved and knew I was screwed when I made it over the last wall and came back to the door.

  That was why it was so dark in there. No fucking windows.

  So I was in a square room that had a door and a mattress. A room they must use to hold people. I slowly walked over to the bed with my hands out and fell on my knees when my feet bumped the mattress.

  The mattress was crusty in spots under my fingers, and I tried not to think about what I was touching. It was softer than the hard floor I had been kneeling on for God knows how long. Someone was bound to come in here eventually, but I didn’t know how long that was going to be.

  My mind kept racing between trying to figure out how I was going to get out of here and whether or not Quinn was dead. I didn’t know what to think when Hog had said for the guys to get rid of Quinn. There were so many questions, and I didn’t know the answer to a single one of them.

  Fatigue hit my body, and I slumped over on to the mattress. I didn’t want to fall asleep, but my hours of crying and screaming had worn me out. I closed my eyes that felt gritty and sighed.

  I would get out of here. I just had to come up with a plan.

  I drifted off to the thought that I may have felt like I was dying, but I was going to claw my way out of this room and find Quinn.

  Chapter Six

  Quinn

  Not any better than being dead...

  “Can I leave?”

  “Sir, I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to go anywhere.”

  I looked at the IVs and shit in my arm. “But are you making me stay?”

  The nurse bustled over to the side of my bed. “You can barely walk, you have six broken ribs, and a concussion. I’m surprised you are even able to string three words together, Mr. Smith.”

  I hadn’t given them my real name. At least, not my last name. I didn’t need the cops running my name and finding out that I was fresh out of prison. They would more than likely somehow pin me getting the shit kicked out of me on my own actions.

  “The doctor would like to run a few more tests before you leave.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t need any fucking tests. I just need to get out of here.”

  The nurse tsked and grabbed the clipboard from the holder at the bottom of the bed. �
�The tests are for your own good.”

  “No, the tests are to pad the doctors’ pockets. I don’t need tests. You told me what is wrong with me. The only thing that is going to fix it is time, not ten different fucking tests that are going to tell me the same thing.” I yanked the IV in my arm out and tossed it on the floor.

  “Mr. Smith,” she gasped. “You at least need to talk to the doctor before you leave, and I need to make sure we have all of your information.”

  Apparently, the old broad hadn’t ever had a patient like me before. “I’m leaving. Do whatever fucking papers you need to do, and I’m gone.”

  She stormed out of the room and left the door wide open.

  “Going somewhere, Mr. Smith?”

  Of fucking course the cop would be hanging out by my room. “Yeah, back home.”

  “Where would that be?” he drawled.

  I got up from the bed and hobbled to the small standing closet the nurse had told me my clothes were in. “Detroit.” He didn’t need to know exactly where I was going. Whitmore Lake was in the vicinity of Detroit. Sort of.

  “Where exactly in Detroit? I have some family down there.”

  I grabbed my torn shirt form the bag and gingerly pulled it over my head. Fuck, I was going to be sore as fuck. “Don’t worry. I’m sure they don’t live anywhere near me.”

  The cop chuckled. “I’m sure they don’t, son. Though I’m not really worried about that.”

  I pulled my pants out of the bag. Now came the hard part. The nurse wasn’t joking when she had said I could barely walk. Shuffling along was the best I could do.

  Both of my knees felt like they had been hit with a sledge hammer, and I could barely lift my feet off the ground to walk. “I’m getting out of your town. Don’t need to worry about me.”

  “But that’s kind of my job, Mr. Smith. Someone decided to use you as a punching bag, and it’s my job to find out who and why.”

  “You ever think the other guy looks worse than I do?” Major looked a hell of a lot better than I did, but Mr. Cop didn’t need to know that.