by Sara Crest
We walked into the room and the smell hit us like a sack of bricks. Edgar was hanging right where he was before, except this time he had 2 bullet holes in his chest. Laying next to him was the body of the Desert Vulture they left to guard him.
I looked at Edgar, how he stared blankly at the ground, part of me couldn’t believe that someone actually did this. I had dreamt about it for so long but I knew that I would never have the courage, strength, or stomach to ever actually kill another human, even if it was that sick bastard. I thought it would fill me with more relief but all I could feel was a knot in my stomach.
“What the hell happened here?” Axel asked as he handed me a cloth so I could cover my nose and breathe a little easier.
“We were hoping you’d know, we came here to interrogate him about Donnelly and find any connections with the Satans but we just found him like this. All we can tell was that it happened sometime within a few hours of the shootout” Mason said looking at Axel before glancing at me. “You both know this guy better than we do, can’t think of anyone that’s against us that would kill our guy but wouldn’t let Edgar go. There was no reason to kill him…”
“The cops did this” Axel said confidently, walking around and examining the scene that was laid out before him.
“Why would the cops kill our guys and Edgar though? They would free him wouldn’t they? As far as they know he’s an innocent man” Wyatt said.
“It’s not that simple” I replied, thinking back to how Donnelly had wanted to use me, making no attempt to ever free me from Edgar’s basement. Who knows how many of Edgar’s “friends” were also cops.
“She’s right” Axel said, backing me up. “Edgar told both of us that this shit we’re involved in is deeper than we think, and we know for a fact he has ties to Donnelly. I came here a few nights ago to find out more from Edgar but he refused to talk, all I could get out of him was some shit about how if he blabbed to me then people would find him and kill him. When I confronted Donnelly he told me that he had gotten everything he needed from Edgar, and how he had to clean up part of the mess that Edgar made. I don’t know how he would have found out about this place but it’s the only explanation I can think of that makes sense. I’d bet you Edgar knew something about the police, so they found were we were keeping him and put a bullet in him before skipping town.”
“If that’s true then we got a brother feeding them information” Mason said. “Someone who knows we were keeping Edgar here, somebody squealed.”
“When I was out last night I did see Donnelly and another officer driving around. I thought they were looking for Desert Vulture brothers to arrest but maybe they were trying to find this place?” I said.
Wyatt looked down at the dead Vulture member and sighed.
“I fucked up.”
“The hell do you mean you fucked up?” Axel asked.
“This guy laying dead right here, he wasn’t a brother he was just a mechanic I hired 3 months ago. He’s the only new guy in the whole building, I was so short staffed that I wasn’t thorough in my background check.”
“If he was just a mechanic then why was he looking after Edgar?” I asked.
“Who knows, I told someone else to watch after Edgar for the night, guess the new guy convinced the original guy to let him take his shift.”
Axel walked over to the mechanic’s dead body and kneeled down next to hit. He grabbed a handful of the guy’s right sleeve and ripped it clean off down his arm, revealing two horns on his bicep.
“God FUCKING dammit!” Axel yelled out as he kicked the dead body hard. “My whole fucking club is falling apart and now we have fucking tattooed Scorched Satans walking around like they’re our brothers.”
“There’s no fucking way...” Mason replied.
“Look, here’s what we know” Axel said still fuming. “We know that Edgar had some information and was afraid of being killed by a group of people he didn’t specify, we know the cops are walking around with Scorched Satan tattoos, the same fucking tattoo that this mechanic has. We know that Donnelly said he had to clean up Edgar’s mess and we know that these guys aren’t afraid to kill their own, I mean they shot their own chief for fuck’s sake. There’s ties between Edgar, the Satans, and the police that scared them enough to bust in here and kill Edgar before he could tell us anything.”
Axel looked at me and I could see him begin to calm down. He wanted to get things under control to prove to me that I could have a normal life with him, I couldn’t imagine how he felt to be losing control of this club. I didn’t want to think I was against him, I didn’t want him to think that I wanted him to fail so I had an excuse to get out of there.
I walked up to him and took his hand in mine, putting my other hand on his chest.
“It’ll be ok, you can do this, I know you can do this.”
He looked down at me and gave a little reassuring nod as he calmed down.
“Axel, I’m sorry, I fucked up” Wyatt said staring at the dead body of the mechanic.
“It’s fine brother, in the end none of our guys got hurt because of what you did… but we need to figure something out before we do get people hurt.”
“Where the hell do we even go from here though?” Mason asked. “The only guys with any info that we know are dead in front of us.”
Axel looked down at me for a few seconds before looking back up at his brothers.
“Vagas, Hannah and I gotta go to Vegas. I remember Edgar mentioned it when I interrogated him personally, it isn’t much but it’s the only lead we have. Maybe there’s somebody there that can connect all of this, somebody that can give us the dirt we need to get these cops off of our backs and finally get a chance to fight back against the Satans.”
I immediately had flashbacks to when I was sold off, seeing the bright lights through the small peepholes in the hood they kept over my head, the purple glow of a neon sign in the distance right before they stuffed me into a van to be driven to Edgar’s.
“Vegas? Why do we have to go to Vegas?” I said gripping my hand into a tight fist as those neon lights flashed through my memory.
Axel motioned for Wyatt and Mason to leave us alone, they seemed annoyed at first but respected their president’s orders. They left the room and closed the door behind them, leaving Axel and I alone with these two dead men.
“I haven’t told the guys about your past, I don’t want them to know until you’re ready, when they find out they might treat you differently. If you want a real normal life with me then I want people to treat you like you’re a normal person.”
Stuff like this just furthered my belief that he really did care about me.
“Vegas is the only lead I have” he continued. “Edgar told me that was where he bought you, I know that’s the last place you want to go back to but it could lead to something big. Edgar, Donnelly, the Scorched Satan mechanic, their tattoos… they all have to connect somehow. If we can find the location where they had your auction we might be able to rough someone up for some answers, maybe even start connecting the dots.”
I looked down at my feet for a few seconds before staring at Edgar’s body in disgust. I just wanted all of this to be over.
He lifted my head up and looked into my eyes. “I already hate knowing how much you’ve been through, not to mention all the shit you’ve seen solely because of me. I’ve already asked you for so much, but you’re the only person that can lead me to that auction location. It’s not just me that needs you, the club needs you.”
I looked up at him and saw the sincerity in his eyes, if I had him with me maybe I could stomach going back there if it meant we could end this.
“If it helps you fulfill that promise you made me in your apartment, then I’ll do it, I’ll come with you to Vegas.”
A few hours ago I was trying to find a ride out of this town knowing I that I might have been leaving Axel behind forever.
Now him and I were about to go Vegas in his last effort to show me that he can give me
the life he thinks I deserve.
All I could do was fight the voices in my head that told me him and I weren’t meant to be together.
35
(Axel)
I hated leaving my club behind during a time like this but this was the only lead we had, even with the Scorched mechanic finding his way into our folds I trusted Wyatt and Mason enough to hold the club down and run things until I got back. I never thought I’d have this kind of responsibility.
Hannah and I were speeding on the highway, practically barrelling towards Vegas as we kept our fingers crossed and hoped that we could actually find out anything.
I felt her arms wrapped around me as my motorcycle hummed underneath us. I had to fix all of this, not just for the club but for her, I had to keep her in my life.
It hurt that she did try to leave, but having her give me one last chance gave me a feeling of motivation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
The sun was starting to set but you could see the city lit up like a christmas tree in the distance. Hannah gripped onto me even tighter the closer we got, I wish she knew how mentally strong she was to be able to go through all of this.
As we started to run into traffic I began weaving in and around cars, it felt like I was on a timer, not just for the promise I made to Hannah but for the club as well. Now that blood had been spilled between us and the cops it felt like only a matter of time before the state police and the Scorched Satans teamed up to push our shit in. I couldn’t let that happen, I had to find out what was going on, maybe if I got some dirt on the police they would back down and we could take on the Satans directly.
It had been so long since I had been to Vegas. Zeke, Wyatt, and I used to come up here when we were younger. If we had a bigger heist we would come and blow half of our money in one night, felt like a lifetime ago.
“So what exactly do you remember about the city?” I asked Hannah as I slowed down so she could hear me. I didn’t want her to have to think about that part of her life but I needed to know.
“All I remember was that we were on the outskirts of the city, or at least I think we were, it was really dark even for Vegas so we must have been pretty far away from the more populated areas. They kept a bag over my head with only two small eye holes so I didn’t get to see much.”
“The outskirts… damn I don’t know too much about what goes on in the outskirts of Vegas, anything else you can remember?”
“The only neon light I remember seeing was this bright purple one in the distance, I remember how it pierced through that night. I wanted to run towards it but I knew they would kill me right there if I did.”
It wasn’t much to go off of, but I would have to make it work. If that light was bright enough to be seen from far away then it must have belonged to a major hotel or casino. If we could find out where it was then we could work backwards and find the angle where she saw the sign from.
It was a long shot, but it was the only shot we had.
36
(Hannah)
I was exhausted, it was only about 9pm but I was already thinking about a nice comfortable bed.
Not only did it take nearly 5 hours to get to Vegas but we spent another 3 or 4 hours actually searching for the spot where the auction was held.
“Do you have any connections we could use?” I asked as I stirred some milk into the last bit of my coffee. We had stopped at a 24 hour diner to get some food, I could still see the fire in Axel’s eyes, he didn’t want to rest until he found the place.
“I wish, there used to be an MC up here that we were on good terms with. I haven’t seen a single sign of them since we got here though, hell I’ve barely even seen a motorcycle since we’ve come into this city.”
He stared out the window silently, looking at his bike parked outside the diner. He tapped his finger on the table rapidly, making light sounding clicks that showed how stressed out he was.
I took his hand in mine, I had to admit I was stressed out too, just being in this city made me think about that auction non stop. Seeing those men eyeing me up and down as they adjusted themselves in their seats, each one willing to pay thousands of dollars just to keep me. It sent shivers down my spine.
I gripped Axel’s hand tight and he gripped it back, I wanted him but I was afraid of furthering my attachment to him. It would just make it harder to leave if the time came.
I tried to think back to the auction to try and remember anything else that could possibly help us. I had tried to hard to block out all those bad memories that there truly was a lot that I had forgotten, not to mention how many of those memories were overshadowed by Edgar’s basement.
A waitress came to fill up my now empty coffee, it wasn’t our original waitress so she didn’t know that I only intended to drink one cup. I had never been much of a coffee drinker so I looked up to stop her.
“Oh no thank you I’m good for-”
I made eye contact with her, and for a moment both of our faces went blank. I recognized her from somewhere but I couldn’t remember where. She had deep hazel eyes and black hair braided into cornrows that ran to her shoulders. She had smooth dark brown skin but a face that somehow reminded me of my own at one point despite how different we looked, it was a face of despair and exhaustion.
I was knocked out of my trance when she accidentally over poured my coffee while staring at me, causing it to slightly burn my hand.
“Oh my god I’m so sorry” she said nervously as she grabbed some napkins and tried to dry my hand off.
“I’ll be fine I said” trying to make her feel better, I watched her as she tried to clean up the spill and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew her.
“I’ll go get more napkins for you I’ll be right back, just please don’t tell my manager” she said as she looked around for any signs that her manager saw what she did.
She went back into the kitchen and I immediately turned to Axel.
“I know that girl, I don’t know where but I’ve met her before. I can see it in her eyes too she thinks she recognizes me.”
“Maybe it’s just someone you went to school with?”
“No I don’t think so” I said shaking my head. “I went to a small school in Oklahoma, I doubt I’d run into anyone I knew in school here.”
The waitress came back with more napkins to help me clean up, I looked at her shirt but she unfortunately didn’t have a name tag.
As she wiped down our table we kept making our contact, she wasn’t weary of me but it seemed like she was in the same boat I was with trying to figure out how we knew each other.
Suddenly she stopped wiping the table and looked up at me, I could see in her eyes that she finally recognized me but I still couldn’t figure out who she was.
“Oh my god, it can’t be you, what are you doing back here?” she asked worriedly.
“So you do know me. Who are you? Where do I know you from?” I asked.
She looked around to make sure she wasn’t watched before whispering to the both of us.
“I can’t talk here, meet me out back in a minute.”
She left our table and Axel and I looked at each other, this might have been the first real lead we had gotten since we arrived in this seedy city.
“Hey Jerr” the waitress called out to the back of the diner. “I’m going outside for a smoke break, all the customers are taken care of I’ll be back in a minute”
Before the man she called out to could complain she disappeared out the back door.
Axel took a few 20s out of his wallet and left it on the table, motioning me to follow him outside.
We quickly walked out of the diner and went out back to where they kept the dumpsters. It was dark with only a single street lamp giving us some light but we saw the girl leaning up against the wall puffing on a cigarette.
“I’m Veronica. I know you can’t remember me but I remember you, and I remember the man that bought you and that right there is most certainly not the man that bought you.”
“You… you know me from the auction? But they kept us in separate bedrooms before the auctions happened, how do you know who I am and why can I remember your face?”
“They brought me into the auction room a little early by accident and we saw each other for a moment, I got to see the end of the sale and you being bought by that creepy fat guy.”
She looked to make sure nobody was coming out from the diner and then flicked her cigarette, walking up to me.
“What the hell are you doing back in this city?” she asked grabbing my arms. “Why aren’t you thousands of miles away from here? Why didn’t you get out?”
“I… we, have some business to take care of” I replied not telling her what Axel and I were really doing here. “But I can ask you the same question, why are you here working? Why haven’t you run off?”
“You think I’m here because I want to be here?” she asked me. She leaned down and rolled up the leg of her jeans, revealing a discrete ankle brace.
“The bastard that bought me bought another girl too, he has us working jobs like this so that he doesn’t have to work and can just live off of what we make and his retirement money. He put this brace on both of us that’ll shock us to death if we go too far from the city, I can’t even escape. Every morning he drops me off at work and every night he picks me up, he makes me and the other girl share a bed with him in some weird, sick, twisted fantasy.”
That sounded all too familiar.
“But why don’t you tell the police? Why don’t you tell anyone and try to free yourself?” I asked.
“The police have to be paid off, I went to Nevada state police and they look the other way whenever they see my brace or tell them my story. When I try to tell other people they just think I’m some crazy woman on probation who’s trying to convince people to break her out. There’s nothing I can do.”