A Ride or Die Kind of Love

by Chelsea Camaron

  Chapter 24

  I was on the highway before the first tear fell, and then like a tsunami, they overtook me, soaking my shirt and blurring my vision. The sobs were so strong that I could barely breathe. I was confused and hurt and I had no idea what the fuck was going on. I screamed at the windshield and banged my fist on the steering wheel, but nothing seemed to help. He had kicked me out of his house and out of his life, yet he held a box full of information about me that was gathered long before we were together. Why did he have it? What could he possibly gain by having it?

  My phone rang, interrupting my thoughts. It was Red. I answered immediately, planning to cuss her out for lying to me, but instead I sobbed in her ear.

  “Dallas, just calm down and tell me what happened,” she said soothingly. I felt a little better, just at the sound of her voice. How did she do that?

  “D-did you talk to L-Luke?” I stammered between sobs.

  “Yes, all he said was that he found you going through his stuff and told you to leave.”

  “I-I didn’t go through his s-stuff, Red. I swear! I w-was just looking for my suitcase and th-there was a box sitting beside it with my name on it. I thought it w-was my paperwork that I took t-to Tupelo.” What the hell was Luke hiding that he was so worried about me finding anyway?

  “So, you didn’t go downstairs?” she asked surprised.

  “What? No, I didn’t even know he had a downstairs,” I answered. So Luke did have a secret room.

  “Okay, honey, just calm down, this is all just a misunderstanding, that’s all.” Okay, now, I was mad.

  “A misunderstanding? He had pictures of me, Red! And he had my personal information, like my fucking social security number! If anyone deserves to be angry, it’s me!”

  “So, you still don’t know, do you?” Red asked, but I could tell the question was not meant to be spoken out loud.

  “Know what? Red, I swear to God, I will beat your fucking brains in if you don’t tell me what the fuck is going on, right now!” I screamed. “If he wants to keep his club secrets then that’s fine, but I’ll be damned if he keeps shit about me, from me.”

  “Dallas, I’m not at liberty to tell you anything. Mostly because I don’t know the whole story, but I promise that I will tell Luke to call you,” she said defeated.

  Luke was going to jump her ass for letting it slip. Oh well, serves her right for being an accomplice.

  “I don’t need you to do anything for me. I can talk to Luke on my own.” I hung up before she had a chance to respond. Fuck her. I didn’t need her any more than she needed me. I dialed Luke’s number and silently hoped it would go to voicemail, but of course, he picked up on the second ring.

  “Dallas,” he said calmly, too calmly.

  “Why do you have those pictures of me?” I asked trying to keep myself calm.

  “You were not supposed to find those, but since you did, I will tell you- as soon as I get back on Tuesday,” he answered stiffly.

  “Oh no, you are going to tell me now. I’m not waiting until Tuesday. According to Red, I should have already known.”

  “Yes, you should have. I was planning to tell you. I just couldn’t find the right time. I was going to tell you on Tuesday and show them to you myself, but you beat me to it,” he said smoothly. His tone was impassive and I envisioned him sitting on the couch wearing a face that matched it.

  “Why did you do this to me?” I choked out. I didn’t want him to hear me upset, but I couldn’t help it. I needed to know why the only man that I had ever loved chose to kill me inside.

  “I never meant for it to go this far.” I could hear the emotion seeping into his voice, although he tried to contain it. “I have to go, Dallas,” he said clearing his throat. “I’ll see you on Tuesday and I’ll bring Neo and the things you left with me. I’m sorry things turned out this way.”

  I wanted to scream at him. I wanted to run my car off the road so that he would come to my rescue. God had given me damsel-in-distress moments ever since I met him, yet when I really needed one, it wasn’t there. Luke had saved me numerous times. He had saved me from cowboys and motorcycle gangs and DUI’s. But above all, he had saved me from myself. I would thank him one day for what he had done for me, but right now, I just wanted to hate him.

  I needed a drink-a strong one. I stopped at Our Place-a small bar that served liquor just off of the highway. I knew I looked a wreck, but I didn’t care. I walked inside with my face red and blotchy from my endless crying, wearing nothing but Luke’s basketball shorts, a black t-shirt and my flip flops.

  The bar was almost empty, which wasn’t unusual for seven o’clock on a Friday night. I ordered a shot of Jack from the bartender and threw it back, letting the liquor burn my throat and distract me from the ache in my chest. I motioned for the bartender to keep them coming and before long, the pain was dulled and replaced with a buzz that had me lightheaded.

  The jukebox played an endless stream of country music, reminding me of the heartache that had summoned me here. When the tips of my fingers were numb and my speech slurred, I decided it was time to head home. I left the bartender a fat tip to silence the “Do you want me to call you a cab” speech, and stumbled to my car. I sat in the driver’s seat looking numbly at the windshield. A movement to my left caught my eye. A motorcycle sat in the shadows of the vacant parking lot next to me. I knew it was probably one of Luke’s PROSPECTS and the thought sickened me.

  It was almost nine when I pulled out of the parking lot, and I knew that I had drunk too much, but all I wanted was to go home. I tuned to a rock station on the radio and increased the volume to drown out the voice of Luke in my head.

  By the grace of God and cold air blasting from the air conditioner, I managed to make it home in one piece. Not seeing Neo when I pulled up, reminded me of Luke. Walking into the library reminded me of Luke and the first time he kissed me. My kitchen and counter and the stool on the end where he sat reminded me of Luke. My bedroom, where I had danced for him, my shower, my radio- everything reminded me of Luke.

  I crawled into my bed and shut my eyes trying to think of brown cows and light bread and England; anything to get my mind off of him. But, when I thought of cows, I thought of milk and the gallon we had drank from when he caught me in his Harley room. When I thought of light bread, I thought of the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that we had shared only hours ago, and when I thought of England, I thought of English which is the language that Luke spoke his lies with. Nothing worked. He was everywhere. At some point, with the help of a bottle of Jack, I managed to doze into a restless slumber.

  Chapter 25

  Two o’clock. That’s what the red lights on the alarm clock next to my bed read when I sat up. Something had woke me; a noise, a loud noise. One I was familiar with, but had no desire to hear, yet my heart skipped a beat at the sound of it. More than one. There were many. I could hear them under my carport, the sound of the loud pipes echoing across the house. I looked back over at my alarm. One minute after two.

  At one minute after two, I was making my way to the library to open the carport door and jump into Luke’s arms. Two minutes after two. My microwave flashed green numbers that told me either I walked really slow, or my clocks were different. I wanted to document this. I wanted to have it stored in my brain for my grandchildren to know the exact time their grandfather and I reunited with apologies and explanations. Two minutes after two. The large clock that hung on the wall read two minutes after two and the second hand was only at six. Thirty seconds of time remained. I had thirty seconds to make a memory that would be etched in my brain for years to come. I would never get to have that memory.

  When the door burst open, it was not Luke whose arms I would run into. It was the arms of the man who had watched me, the man who I had pulled a gun on, the man who wanted to take Luke’s life for reasons that I didn’t know -- the man with the scar in the red and gray cut.

  “Well, look what we have here.” The words that left his mouth
were menacing, although he wore a smile on his face. Three large men walked in behind him. Each of them wore the same expression-hate. My feet were frozen to the floor of the library. Maybe I was dreaming. Maybe this wasn’t really happening. “You remember me, don’t you, Dallas?” I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t breathe. I tried to nod my head, but it would not move. “Well, I remember you. Take a good look at me. You are going to remember this face for the rest of your life, although, I’m not sure how long that’s going to be.”

  His words went in one ear and out the other; although they did register and I took his advice. He stood about six feet tall. He had a stocky build with no hair on his face or his head. I didn’t remember him being bald the last time that had I seen him. The large scar that ran down his face drew the attention away from everything else. I could tell that at one time, he was a very good looking man. He looked to be in his forties and was covered in tattoos that went from his neck to his fingers, and everywhere in between that wasn’t covered in leather.

  “You like my scar?” he asked amused. I quickly diverted my eyes to something other than his face. “Oh no, don’t look away now. This scar is important to you. Do you know why, Dallas? Because the day that I got it, your fate was sealed.”

  The evil in his voice was unlike anything I had ever heard. It was full of hate, yet I had never done anything to this man that I could remember. “Get her outside,” he said so low that I almost didn’t understand him until I was grabbed by my arms and drug out the door.

  My adrenaline kicked in and I suddenly remembered how to move. My body thrashed. I kicked and screamed and tried to bite anything that came in contact with me. I managed to get a piece of flesh from someone’s arm and I bit down, hard.

  “You bitch!” he yelled, letting go of my arm to check his wound. I could taste the blood and saltiness of his skin on my tongue. When he let me go, I was so shocked that I had actually hurt him that I froze. He grabbed my arm once again and back handed me with so much force that I fell sideways causing the guy on my left to catch me before I hit the ground. I felt blood trickling down my nose and into my mouth. I could already feel the swelling of my right cheek. My eyes watered as the realization of what was happening set in. They were going to kill me.

  I put up as much of a fight as I could manage as they dragged me to the barn and flipped on the bright fluorescent light that hung from the ceiling.

  “Tie her up,” the guy with the scar ordered, throwing a length of rope at them. I struggled harder this time. I screamed for them to stop, but my words fell on deaf ears. I screamed for Luke and the answering response was, “He can’t help you now.” Another harsh blow landed on the right side of my face, then everything went dark.

  Cold water stunned me back into consciousness. I was gasping from the shock of it when I noticed that I was hanging by my arms from the rafters in the barn.

  “Wake up, sleeping beauty. I have a story to tell you. I don’t like to be interrupted, so Crazy here is going to shut you up with a little something called duct tape.” He threw his head back and laughed at his humorless joke.

  This man was the one who should be named Crazy. Crazy stepped in front of me and pulled a piece of tape from the roll and placed it over my mouth. I thought that he would tear it off, but instead he wrapped it all the way around my head-twice. I screamed through the tape. I kept saying Luke’s name over and over. No one could make out what I was saying, but I couldn’t stop screaming for him. My right eye was now swollen shut and the one good nostril I had, limited my breathing, making my chest ache from the lack of oxygen.

  “Shut up!” The man with the scar yelled at me. I immediately silenced my incoherent screams at his demand. “There, that’s better,” he said sweetly. “By the way, my name is Frankie the Cutter. I know you think that I got my name from this scar, but the truth is that I get enjoyment out of cutting people,” he said laughing once again.

  He must have been on drugs of some sort, because only people in an insane asylum acted like this.

  “You sure are pretty, Dallas. I bet you have a smoking hot body. It’s hot in here. How about we relieve you of some of your clothes?” He stepped closer and my screams began again. “Hey, hey, hey. No need to get upset. It’s not like you’re bashful, are you? I promise you, the more you scream the harder you are going to make it on yourself.”

  His voice was so sickeningly sweet that I would have vomited had my mouth not been taped shut. My throat burned from screaming, but I couldn’t stop. I was scared and panicked and my natural reaction was to scream. It was the only defense that I had left. Frankie placed his hands over his ears and began stomping his feet on the ground. “Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!”

  Crazy walked up to me and pulled a knife out of his pocket and stuck it to my throat. I stopped screaming, scared to move an inch in fear that he would cut me. “The man said shut up, so I suggest you keep that shit down,” he whispered to me like he didn’t want Frankie to hear. He slid the knife away from my throat, but before he could put it away; Frankie walked up behind him.

  “Cut her clothes off for me, please,” he whispered in Crazy’s ear loud enough for me to hear. He was back to being calm and sweet, but his eyes were still full of hate. My screams went silent, but I couldn’t help but whimper as he shred my clothes from me, leaving me hanging naked in front of them. Tears fell down my cheeks as I looked into the eyes of my intruders. They were sick-all of them. If they wanted to kill me, why not just get it over with?

  “That’s better. Thank you, Crazy. Now, back to my story.” He said walking in wide circles in front of me with his hands behind his back. “You are a hard woman to catch. Luke did a very good job of protecting you. Did you know that Luke had been hired to protect you?” he asked, stopping to look at me for an answer. I stared blankly back at him. Protect me? What did he mean?

  He sighed loudly and walked behind me. I jumped at the feel of his rough hands running down my back. I tried to squirm away from him, but I had nowhere to go. My wrists were already chaffed from the rope and my legs hung in the air giving me no leverage. His hand ran down to my ass, and I screamed when he placed it between my legs. I heard the snap of a knife opening and looked over to see Crazy holding it up and shaking his head. I stopped screaming, but couldn’t suppress the whimper as he shoved two fingers inside me roughly.

  “When I ask you for an answer, I expect one. Do you understand, bitch?” I nodded my head vigorously as he pulled his fingers from inside me. He walked back around to face me, sucking his fingers, and I had to swallow back the bile that rose in my throat. “Did you know that Luke was hired to protect you?” I shook my head letting him know that I was not informed of that. “Well, he was. He knew I was going to get to you. I tried everything, but you are a hard bitch to catch,” he said waving his finger at me. “I tried seducing you with a good looking man, of course he had a little too much to drink and fucked it up, but hey, I tried. You know that’s why Luke took you home with him? He found out that I had hired someone and knew if he didn’t take you with him that I would eventually get my hands on you that night.”

  My head was spinning. I didn’t want to hear this, but I did. “Then, I said, you know what? Fuck it. I’ll just go get that bitch from her job, but no. You already had plans with Luke that night. I figured that I could tag along and see if I could start a scene and lure you away from the crowd, but you surprised me, Dallas! You fought for those stupid cunts that you didn’t even know!” He stopped talking and walked up to me. I could feel his hot breath on my chest. He looked up at me with a menacing stare.

  “I tried to poison you. Hell, I even paid someone to trash your place, hoping you would come up to Tupelo. But, you know what really pissed me off, Dallas? What really got under my skin?” He looked at me as if expecting an answer. Not wanting his hands on me again, I shook my head. “You accused my brother of touching you.” My eyes widened at his words. How did he know that I had accused anybody of that? “Dennis!” he snapped causing m
e to jump.

  Dennis appeared in front of me. He seemed to be coming down off of whatever it was Frankie was on. His face looked like it had recently been pummeled. The bruising had turned to yellow and purple and his nose was crooked from what I suspected was a break. “See, I sent ‘ole Dennis here to get some information from Luke’s house. I knew where it was, but I couldn’t risk going myself. Dennis found the hidden room and retrieved the information that I requested,” he said smiling at Dennis like a proud papa. “But you,” he said turning his evil face to me once again, “fucked that up for us when you started talking in your sleep. ‘I love you, Luke,’” he said mimicking me. “Fucking idiot. So, what did Dennis do? Well, I’ll tell you what he did! He freaked the fuck out!” he said laughing. “You scared the shit out of him, so he tossed the box in the closet and left, but not before breaking a window in the clubhouse to throw Luke off what we were actually looking for.”

  That was why Luke thought that I had found the box. He didn’t know why they were there. He thought they were after him.

  “Oh, you figuring shit out now, ain’t ya?” he asked looking at me. I started to nod, but he cut in. “But you told ‘ole Lukey boy that Dennis here touched you, so while you were in Tupelo fighting off what you thought was the flu, Luke was beating the shit out of Dennis! Isn’t that fucking crazy?!” he asked grabbing his head and spinning around. “So, since Dennis was accused of it, I figured he might as well do it.”

  I started shaking my head and whimpering. I knew better than to scream, but I contemplated doing it just so Crazy would cut my throat and put me out of my misery.

  “Go ahead, Dennis. Feel those perky tits,” he said reaching up and roughly caressing my breasts. I tried to writhe away from him, but it was no use.

  From above them, I could see Dennis’ excitement rising in his pants. “Don’t worry about explaining it to us, man. We are all gonna get a turn. Take your time.” I couldn’t take it. I would rather die than let these men touch me.