by Lane Hart
Sax returns, lugging a five-gallon bucket, sloshing over with water. He walks up behind Mike and unceremoniously dumps the entire thing over him, drawing another horrified screech from the traitorous prospect.
“Shut up,” Reece barks at him. “You’re fine, you fucking pussy.” Walking over to him, he slaps Mike gently on both cheeks, then grabs him by the chin to jerk his head up. “You ready to talk now, or do you want this to keep going?”
“I can’t.” Mike gasps. “You’re going to kill me. It dies with me, it’ll be over. Just get on with it.”
“Now that’s a bad attitude to have,” Reece says as he scrubs a hand through Mike’s damp hair. “I told you before you can get out of this alive if you just cooperate with me. Come on, spit it out and let’s put all this behind us, Mike.”
“I told you, I can’t. I know you’re full of shit. If I tell you anything, I’m dead. Do whatever you have to do.”
Reece sighs, his expression looking, for all the world, like a father disappointed in an unruly child. “All right, then. For the next phase, we’re going to take care of those wounds on your hands and feet. We don’t want them becoming infected, so we’re going to go ahead and cauterize them.”
“What?” Mike gasps, which is exactly how I feel.
Reece digs in his toolbox and brings out the propane torch, twisting the valve and then clicking the trigger. He makes a great show of adjusting the flame as he walks back to Mike, then once again crouches down in front of him. “You sure about this, kid?” Reece whispers.
Mike just hangs his head, refusing to make eye contact with him. Before Reece can begin, I turn my back, digging another cigarette out of Sax’s pack.
“Good idea,” Sax whispers beside me as the screams begin from behind us. “Want to head out into the yard?”
“Yeah, man, let’s…let’s give them some space,” I say shakily, as the first whiff of burning meat washes over us.
Once we’re outside, Sax takes a deep drag on his cigarette and says, “This ain’t my favorite part of this gig, you know.”
“None of us like it,” I agree, “but he’s done something, and if he ratted us out somehow to the feds, well…this is what happens to rats.”
“I hope he is a rat,” Sax says fiercely. “I hope to god he is, so…so I can justify all this. We’ve all got secrets, man, things we don’t want people to know. I hope he’s not trying to hide something stupid, and he really did something worth all this.”
“That’s a weird way to look at it, but yeah, I get it,” I reply. Shit, how much torture would I take to keep my secret with Audrey away from War? Should I even keep it a secret? God, I wish I had a reason to see her, any reason that didn’t make me look like a pussy-whipped bitch.
“You say something?” Sax asks me.
“Huh?” I cough, choking on the cigarette smoke. “Shit, sorry, man, just talking to myself.”
“Thought I heard you say ‘pussy-whipped bitch.’” Sax laughs. “That is what he sounds like in there, isn’t it?”
I nod in agreement, not wanting to tell him that no, it’s what I feel like, out here. We both light up another cigarette and stay outside, until Reece steps out and joins us a few minutes later. Uncharacteristically, he lights up a smoke too, and stands there with us in silence for a moment.
“All right,” Reece finally huffs. “We’re done for the night.”
“We are?” I ask.
“For today, right? Doesn’t sound like he told you anything,” Sax says.
“Seriously?” I ask. “He still hasn’t told you shit?”
“We’re going to try another approach. We’ll leave him here for a few days without food and water. Eventually, he’ll crack when the choice is talk or die,” Reece replies.
“Days?” I repeat.
“Yeah, days, son,” Reece says. “Hunger and thirst can break a man when nothing else will. You’re on first watch. Make sure he doesn’t leave. That’s your one and only job until we come back.”
“Okay,” I agree.
Looks like I won’t be getting any sleep tonight.
Chapter Fourteen
Audrey
The first day of my fall classes is going great…until Organic Chemistry with Professor Talbot. It’s obvious, by the way the silver fox stands a little too close and laughs a little too much with students who come up and talk to him, that he thinks he’s God’s gift to women.
Just like Professor Burrows.
“Miss O’Neil, I need to see you after class,” Professor Talbot says, as everyone starts putting their things away in their backpacks.
While I wish I could say I’m surprised that he’s called me out, I sort of assumed it was only a matter of time, based on my grocery store conversation with Professor Burrows.
My heartbeat is hammering away at an unhealthy pace as I quickly pack up and head down the auditorium stairs, wanting to have this conversation while other students are still milling about.
“Yes, sir?” I ask when I get to his podium.
“It’s nice to meet you, Audrey. I look forward to a wonderful semester,” he says, holding his hand out for me to take it.
“You too,” I reply politely as I put my hand in his to shake. He doesn’t let go right away.
“I’ve been told that science isn’t your favorite subject,” he says with a grin. “Such a shame.”
“No, sir, it’s not, but I plan to study and work very hard this semester.”
“I’m also aware of your…unique but highly effective study techniques from last semester,” he replies. “The hard work you put into Professor Burrows’ Physics class was impressive.”
And here we go.
“I would prefer to stick to the traditional methods of studying this year,” I tell him, trying to shoot down his implication.
“It would be a shame for you to struggle through the semester and come up short at the end of the year, Miss O’Neil. Failing would mean having to postpone your graduation another year. That would be a real shame. Better to get ahead of the curve now, don’t you think?”
He’s going to fail me if I don’t sleep with him. That’s basically what he’s saying.
Leaning closer to whisper in my ear, since there are still a handful of students in the auditorium, he says, “I’ll see you at Burrows’ house tonight, eight sharp. Don’t keep us waiting. It’s going to be an enlightening encounter that you’ll never forget.”
“No, thanks,” I respond before I start to walk away. He claps a hand down on my elbow and squeezes it, stopping me.
“Then I’ll see you next year in Organic Chemistry, and the year after that, and so on, Miss O’Neil,” he threatens through clenched teeth before he eventually lets me go.
I rush out of the auditorium and practically run back to my apartment across campus.
By the time I get inside, my breaths are infrequent, coming in partial gasps.
I recognize the tightness in my chest and the trembling as a panic attack. Usually it’s thunderstorms that cause them.
I’m starting to realize there’s something I’m even more terrified of than lightning, and I have no idea what I’m going to do about it.
Chapter Fifteen
Maddox
“Hey, he’s still here!” Sax says when he comes into the old salvage yard garage the next afternoon. His voice sounds loud, echoing around the room that was silent after Mike had stopped crying and bitching for a few hours to get some sleep. He’s awake now.
“Water,” Mike croaks when Sax approaches him.
“I’ll think about it,” Sax says to him.
“Really?” Mike asks.
“No,” Sax responds with a slap of his palm to his face. “Not unless you start talking.”
Mike’s head hangs in defeat, so Sax comes over to where I’ve been sitting on the hard cement floor for so long, I can’t feel my ass or my legs.
“You did good. Now go get some sleep,” Sax says, offering me a hand up so I can get to my numb fe
et.
“Thanks,” I tell him before I head outside. Realizing that Sax and Reece took the van back to the clubhouse and Sax rode his bike over today, I start walking the mile back, ready to crash into bed and sleep for the next twelve hours.
I don’t even make it downstairs before Cedric stops me at the bar.
“Hey, Maddox. Got a second?”
“Not now,” I tell him. “After I sleep.”
“Okay, but she said it can’t wait.”
“She?” I repeat in confusion. “She who?”
“The girl that just called the bar, looking for you. She said it’s important and that you didn’t have her number, but you know where she lives…”
“Shit,” I mutter. It has to be Audrey. Glancing around the bar to make sure there are no brothers around, I ask, “Did she leave her name, by chance?”
“Yeah,” he says, wetting his lips nervously. “Her name was Stella.”
“Stella?”
“I’m certain that’s what she said. I wrote it down and the number from caller ID,” he says, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket and holding it up to me. “I didn’t know where you were, and Reece knew but wouldn’t tell me, so I tried to call you on your cell phone and it went straight to voicemail.”
“Fuck, my phone must be dead again.” I yank the paper out of his hand. “Thanks, Cedric. You did good,” I tell him, repeating Sax’s encouraging words.
Going around behind the bar, I pick up the landline and dial the number on the piece of paper for “Stella.”
“Hello?” I don’t get the cat, instead Audrey answers.
“Hey, it’s me,” I say.
“Maddox! I’m so sorry to call but I didn’t know what to do, and I can’t tell Warren…”
“Can’t tell him what?” I ask. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” she replies with a sniffle and I realize that she’s been crying. “Can you come over?”
“You want me to come over? To Wilmington? Right now?” I ask, since it’s not just down the road but over an hour away.
“Please?”
I haven’t had any sleep and I’m dead tired, still I find myself saying, “I’m on my way.”
“Thanks, Maddox,” she responds before hanging up.
Going over to Cedric, I tell him, “I need to take the club’s van for a few hours to run an errand. I’ll charge my phone on the road and have it ready if anyone needs me.”
“Okay,” he replies, then asks, “Where’s Mike? I haven’t seen him in a while.”
“No clue,” I lie before I walk out of the Savage Asylum.
…
When Audrey opens the apartment door an hour later, she looks even worse than she sounded on the phone. Her eyes are red and puffy, and she’s distraught, appearing as if her world is coming apart.
“What’s going on? Are you okay?” I ask as I wrap her in my arms and pull her to me.
“It’s…it’s a long story,” she says. “And I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
“Come on,” I tell her, taking her hand and leading her to the sofa, where I sit down and then pull her onto my lap. “How about you start from the beginning?”
“Okay,” she agrees with a nod. “You remember that professor I told you about?”
“The one you slept with?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“What about him?”
“I ran into him at the grocery store the other day, right before the semester started,” she explains.
“What happened?” I ask, as dread as heavy as an anchor sinks in the pit of my stomach. Audrey and I may have been together only briefly, but I don’t like thinking about her with another man. “Did you sleep with him again?”
“No,” she answers, which is a relief for whatever reason. “But he mentioned that he’s close friends with the professor I have this semester for Organic Chemistry.”
“Yeah?”
“And that he had told him about us, what we did together,” she explains. “He said that Professor Talbot was ‘looking forward to meeting me.’”
“Okay,” I reply, unsure why that would upset her this badly.
“Today, after class, Professor Talbot called me out to talk.”
“What did he say?” I ask, even though I’m starting to get an idea.
“H-he basically told me I have to come over to Professor Burrows house tonight, or he would fail me over and over again,” she says before she starts to sob against my chest.
Even then, it takes a few seconds for me to put everything together.
“He wants you to fuck him?” I exclaim.
Audrey nods her head and says, “And Professor Burrows.”
“No,” I tell her. “That’s not going to happen!”
“What else can I do?” she cries. “I have to have this class to graduate, and if I try to transfer, Warren will get mad and want to know why…”
“You don’t want to tell War about the professors because he would kill them,” I reply with full understanding.
“Yes.”
And Warren would, the consequences be damned. He’s so protective of his family that he keeps his son and sister away from the MC, his brothers I know he loves. If he found out that someone was trying to manipulate Audrey, he would put a bullet through their heads.
That’s when it all clicks into place—why Audrey called me instead and asked me to come over. She wants me to figure out what she should do. She’s trusting me to help her without committing murder.
And fuck, having someone put that type of confidence in me for the first time sends a rush of adrenaline through my veins.
Even after all of the years in the MC, the crazy and illegal shit they’ve made me do, none of it was even half as important as making sure that some pervy-ass fucking professors never lay another finger on Audrey again.
“It’s gonna be okay,” I promise her, as I brush her hair back from her face and hold her to me. Because it will be. I’m going to make damn sure of that.
“You don’t ever have to do anything you don’t want to do. Got it?” I ask her. “I’ll make sure neither of them ever looks at you again with a foul thought in their heads.”
Audrey’s head pops up and she wipes the tears on her cheeks before she asks nervously, “Wh-what are you going to do?”
“I won’t kill them,” I assure her, but that’s all that I can guarantee. “But I’ll teach them a lesson they won’t forget. Does that work? Will you trust me on this?”
“Yes,” she answers with a nod.
“What time were you supposed to go over tonight?”
“Eight.”
“And you have the address?” I ask.
She nods again. “Yes.”
“Good, so we just have to wait a little while,” I say with a heavy exhale. My adrenaline is rushing, raring to go right now.
“Can I come too?” Audrey asks.
“Yeah, you can come,” I agree. Having her there may be the only thing that stops me from killing the bastards.
And of course, it will be a lot easier to get them to open the door when they see her.
Chapter Sixteen
Audrey
Somehow, I knew that Maddox would come to my rescue, even though he’s made it clear the two of us are done. Well, can you be done if you never started anything? We slept together for three days, and then once again at the MC’s clubhouse, so that’s all it ever was. Still, I think of him as a friend now. Maybe my only friend, who I can count on in times like this, when I find myself standing on the porch of a big, beautiful brick home, ringing the doorbell.
The heavy door opens and on the other side stands the man I once thought was handsome and sophisticated. Turns out, he was just an asshole who preyed on his students.
“I told Danny you would show,” Professor Burrows says, wearing his typical uniform of a sweater vest and slacks. I bet he even wears his fancy brown dress shoes around his house all the time. Even though we fucked around together for we
eks, he told me repeatedly he didn’t want me to call him by his first name—Peter—even during sex. “Come on in. Professor Talbot is already here.”
“Okay, but I brought a friend. I hope that’s not a problem,” I say with my hands clasped behind the back of my summer dress, trying to look the part of the innocent school girl.
“The more the merrier, as long as she can be discreet,” he agrees. “Where’s this friend of yours? Is she waiting in the car?” he asks before he takes a step out onto the porch.
“No, he is right fucking here,” Maddox says when he jumps out of the bushes and shoves Professor Burrows’ chest, knocking him back into the house so hard, he falls on his ass. Once Maddox is inside too, I follow and shut the door behind us to make sure no neighbors see what’s going on.
The door barely clicks shut before Maddox falls on top of Professor Burrows and starts slamming his fists into his face while calling him various profane names.
“Fight back, you worthless piece of shit!” Maddox says.
“She…she started it. I swear!” Peter cries out in defense.
“Oh yeah?” Maddox asks, pausing with his fist pulled back. “Well, I’m finishing it.”
“What’s going on—” Professor Talbot asks as he walks into the foyer and takes in the scene on the floor. “Oh shit,” he mutters before he starts backpedaling, and then turns to run further into the house the way he came.
He doesn’t get far because Maddox jumps up and chases after him.
Since Professor Burrows doesn’t look like he’ll be going anywhere for a while, I kneel beside him and pull his phone from his pocket to make sure he can’t try to call anyone.
“Please, make him leave! Or call nine-one-one,” he begs me, with a bleeding lip and head. “You wanted it…”
“How about I call the police and tell them you blackmailed me for weeks instead?” I ask, holding up the device threateningly. “What I did was stupid, but what you did was illegal! So, you’re going to take your beating so that you can keep your job, even though you don’t deserve to get off so easily.”