by Amy Davies
My leg is bouncing a mile a minute as I sit on the sofa. It has been nearly ten hours since Kara was taken. Colt, Crude and some of the other members of my father’s club are flying in. It would take over thirty hours for them to drive here, so flying was the better option.
The boys have rallied around me, trying to keep me from bombing it out of here to look for her. They said I need to keep a clear head until we get a solid lead. Click and Override have been working since I contacted them and they jumped right on it.
The prospects have been out riding, and I know that Slide and Rookie did a few rounds but there isn’t a fucking trail anywhere. No one seems to have seen a huge ass black SUV around.
Suki is sitting in my lap, giving me as much comfort as I’m giving her. We haven’t moved in over an hour, I think; time makes no sense to me right now. My fingers slide over her soft fur. It’s crazy how much she looks like a tiger.
The main door bangs open, pulling me out of my haze. I look up and see Colt, Crude, my mom and some of the brothers from back home, including Tank. Standing, I keep Suki in my arms and walk over to meet them.
My father wraps his arms around me, my mother standing close to us, rubbing her hand up and down my back.
“Any news?” Crude asks. I pull away from Colt to look at his VP. My mom takes Suki from me, and she goes willingly, clearly being used to them.
“None yet. I have people on it,” I explain. He doesn’t look happy and steps forward. Colt puts his hand on his chest to stop him.
“No, let him. He’s right in what he’s thinking. He sent her here for me to protect her, and I let her just walk out of here with him. I deserve what he wants to give me.” I spread my legs, bracing for the hit.
“You’re damn fucking right you deserve it. You were supposed to protect her, you motherfucker. My baby, she—” He takes a deep breath. “She’s my baby, Magnum. She may not be my daughter, my biological daughter, but she is my daughter by any other right.”
“He knows that, brother. He’s doing everything he can to track her down. Is your British girl helping?” I nod in answer.
“Yeah, Click and Override are on it. Haven’t heard anything yet. I’m sorry, Crude, so fucking sorry.”
“You have fuck all to be sorry for, Joey.” Jewel steps out from behind Crude and takes me in her arms, pushing my face into her large, fake tits that Crude paid for years ago. Fucker loves his titties.
“What Kara did was the right thing. She gave her life for a poor, defenseless baby. She knew she had more of a chance of fighting them fuckers than he did.” I chuckle, and she looks at me with a frown.
“That’s exactly what she told me, Jewel. My woman is one tough chick,” I tell her, and she nods, but I don’t miss the tears in her eyes. Kissing her forehead and wrapping my arm around her shoulder, I look at the men who belong to the Rugged Skulls, my club.
The loyalty and support is like a bright sunny fucking day dressed in black leather and denim, but fuck if it doesn’t mean the fucking world to me.
“How’s the baby?” my mom asks, and Jewel steps closer.
“He’s okay. Edge had a doc look him over. They found the lady who was watching him. She was knocked out in her home but is doing okay. She’s a friend of Jed’s.”
“We’ll watch over the baby so Edge can come and help you boys. Also, we’ll sort food out for everyone. Do you have any Regs that can help?”
“I’m here. I’ll help,” Dezi says, stepping up.
“Mom, Jewel, this is Dezi. She’s a Reg but also a friend of Risky’s. She’s a good girl,” I tell them. They nod at her and they all go into the kitchen to do what they do best.
“Alright, brothers, let’s do church,” Colt announces, and we all follow him into the church. Even though this is my club, he’s the original President, so he gets the chair and the gavel, both me and Crude on either side of him. My boys sit on one side of the table, his on the other.
Looking at the generations of the club astounds me.
A few minutes later, Edge comes into the main room, his face a mask of fury. He takes his seat and Colt bangs the gavel. We go over everything that we know so far. They tell us that Hancock’s father has cut him off because of his actions.
He was warned to stay away from Kara, but he went against his father’s orders. Not that that fucking helps us, because he has lost touch with the slimy fucker. No one knows where he is right now.
“I’ll have some of my boys ride around. Maybe the fucker will slip up somewhere. Crude, you staying or taking a ride?” Colt asks.
“Riding, brother. I need my girl back.” Colt nods and most of the men volunteer to take a ride with him. Nodding as each of them leave the room, I give them my thanks without words. Crude steps up to me and I brace.
The fucker may be older than me, but damn he can still pack a punch.
“I know you love my girl.” I nod with no words. “I was wrong with the shit I said out there. I lashed out. Once we get her back, you make an honest woman out of her, Joey. All we have ever wanted was for her to be with a strong brother. We always kinda knew that your heart would catch up with your dick and take what was always yours.”
His words shock the shit out of me, and again, emotion is thick in my throat. He pulls me into his arms, hugs me tight and breathes deep.
“We will get her back. No way is our ride over yet. She will wear my patch, my ring, and carry my babies. No doubt about that, Crude.” He nods at me and slaps my biceps before stepping out of the room to join the brothers that are going to ride around town.
My heart has been beating slower than normal. It will never beat normally until Kara is home and in my arms again. We lost so many fucking years because of one thing or another, but now we’re here, and we will end our lives together when we are gray and fucking old.
I can just see us sitting on a back porch, having a beer after a day of watching the grandkids running around. I would no doubt still be a horny bastard for her and maybe fuck her in our rocking chair, or a wooden swing we might have fitted.
My phone beeps and I pull it out of my pocket. Click, telling me that she’s close to tracing them down and to hold tight. Shaking my head, I walk out of church and head to the kitchen. As old as I am, my mom calms me down. I’m such a fucking mama’s boy.
The kitchen smells top-notch. The long table we have here for club meals is full of food of all kinds. Hendrix is laughing at something Dezi is doing, and the sound alone makes me believe there is some hope that Kara is alive. All I can do is pray to every fucking god out there that she isn’t too badly hurt.
“Eat, baby,” my mom says, wiping her hands on a towel. I lean over and kiss Drix’s head, thanking God that he’s healthy and unhurt.
Taking a seat at the table, I load up a plate that’s put down in front of me. I smile up at Dezi in thanks. Adding a burger, fries and a corn onto my plate, I dig in, just as the boys file into the room.
“You forcing that down, man?” Opal asks, and I nod. He knows me too fucking well.
“Have you ever told my Lilly no?” Sarge asks, taking a seat across from me.
I let out a chuckle, and it sounds foreign to me in this time of darkness. These fuckers are scared shitless of my mom. She’s short but full of attitude and feistiness; she keeps my dad in line.
“Feck no. She’s as bad as me ma back home. Scary as hell when she’s mad at ya,” Rookie adds, stepping up to kiss my mother’s cheek.
“Kiss ass,” Slide coughs, which earns him slap on the back of the head from Mom. “Ouch, Mama Masters. Damn, woman, you been working out?”
Everyone chuckles around the table. I look around and see my brothers fill their faces with food, fueling themselves for the fight we all know is coming. No one is having any luck tracing down Hancock or Kara.
It all rests on Click and Override now. Colt thought it was crazy using someone so far away, but he clearly doesn’t know what they can do. I hope they find her soon; I can’t bear the thought of h
er being stuck there with that cunt.
Thoughts of Kara beaten and bloodied, and Lord knows what else that cunt is doing to her, fill my mind. A beating is all I hope he does, but thoughts of more sends my blood boiling again, and I can’t stop the rage that I’ve been holding in from breaking through. I slam my fists down on the table, growling then swiping anything in front of me off the table. Drix cries out in fright, and everyone jumps back from the table as things scatter across it onto the floor.
I punch the table, over and over again, until I feel arms wrap around my upper body and I’m taken to the ground, where someone sits on me, pinning me down. I roar, trying to scare them into letting me go, but I know these fuckers would never do that. They will always be there for me.
“Calm the fuck down, Magnum,” Opal says, tightening his hold on me. I see that it’s Sarge pinning my lower body down. I try to move to get out of their hold, but it isn’t working. I look up and see my mother crying, Jewel holding her, and the fight leaves me. My muscles go lax, but Opal still doesn’t let up.
“You good?” he asks next to my ear. Nodding, he lets me go. I lay there and close my eyes as tears escape. Opal moves, helping me into a seating position.
No one says anything, and the silence is deafening.
More tears escape at the thought of losing Kara or finding her in such a state that she never recovers from it. New arms wrap around me, and I know they belong to my parents; they hold me while I cry like a fucking baby.
“She’s tough, baby. She will survive this, and you will be by her side as she heals. We all will be,” my mother tells me. I nod against her shoulder.
I can only hope that we get her home in one piece.
Twenty-Six
Kara
I gasp for air as another bucket of ice-cold water is thrown at my naked, beaten body. The cold water makes the little cuts sting. I shiver, and my lips quiver, so I bite down on them. That helps stop my teeth from chattering.
Time makes no sense to me at the moment. I’ve been in and out of consciousness since the beatings started, and the only things that are keeping me going is knowing Magnum will come for me and hoping Henny is safe.
They showed me a photo of the prospect picking Henny out of the black duffle bag they left him in.
“Are you awake yet, bitch?” BA shouts from a safe distance.
Yeah, that fat fucker learned his lesson. Not long ago, he came at me, slapping my face to wake me up. Well, he got a swift kick to his peanut-sized balls for his reward. Prick.
“Who you calling ‘bitch’, bitch?” I mouth off, chuckling when his face twists in anger.
“I will fucking kill you, cunt. After I fuck every hole, ripping you open so much you bleed to death.”
“Dude, I bet you have to search for your dick, even when you take a piss. No way can you actually fuck a girl, let alone tear her open.” I laugh but it turns into a cough.
Hell, if the beatings and the cutting doesn’t kill me, the pneumonia will.
Marvin comes slithering into the room like the snake he is. He’s in a black tailored suit today; his hair is slicked back. Why the hell did I find this man attractive?
I think it was the risky factor when we first started dating. Yeah, the sex was okay, but that’s it. He got off, I got off, then he would leave or go to sleep. Nothing like Magnum, who rocks my world, sending a spiral of lights through my body.
“Still running that pretty mouth, I see. Maybe we should stick something in it, to shut you up?” He smirks at me, and I laugh.
“So, you brought me some food then?” I joke, but it gets me another slap from Marvin, since he’s the only one brave enough to come close to me.
“I know something that will shut you up for good and prove to you that you mean nothing to that scumbag biker.”
I frown and my heartrate picks up as he opens his phone and shows me a photo of Magnum sucking on a woman’s tits. Riley’s tits. The photo was taken in the clubhouse, over by the pool tables. Bile rises up my throat, and I gag on it, before letting it all out.
My heart shatters into a million pieces.
Tears fill my eyes and I look away, resting my head on my upper arm, wishing they would just kill me. I thought Magnum was different, but clearly, he’s just like the rest of them. Holding in a sob, Marvin call’s my name, but I ignore him.
The punch that knocks the air out of me gets my attention. Raising my gaze to his, he’s smirking at me. He steps closer and I flinch—I fucking flinch—and he knows he’s won.
His laughter fills the shitty room I’m being held in. BA joins in, and he takes the opportunity to hit me. I don’t fight back. The fight has left me. Magnum has left me and moved on to that skank Riley.
Everything he ever told me was a lie. He just wanted to conquer me, the club’s risky member who’s up for most things.
“Kill me,” I plead. “Kill me, please.”
I don’t stop the tears. I let them fall down my cheeks, the salty liquid stinging the cuts on my face. But I savor the pain because it’s better than thinking the love of my life is fucking some whore while I’m slowly losing the will to live.
I guess Risky has taken her final detour on her risky journey. She has gone over the cliff that she’s been balancing on for years.
I hear a few bangs, then shouting, but I’m not strong enough to look up.
Another hit comes at me and everything goes black.
Twenty-Seven
Magnum
Two hours pass before I hear back from Click.
“Church now. Get my laptop,” I bellow. In seconds, Rookie is placing it in front of me on the table. Kick starting Skype, I see Click and Override appear on the screen.
“Hey, Mag,” Click’s tired voice comes through the speaker. She has dark circles under her eyes, so I know she’s worked her ass off for me.
“Sweets, any news?”
“I think we found them. We hacked into the street cameras and the motorway—sorry, highway to you. We tracked their car but lost it. Override remembered that newer cars carry a new tracker system, just in case they get stolen, and we were lucky. The wanker that took Kara had a tracker. I’ll send you the last location of the car.”
“Magnum, did you see the car outside your compound a few hours ago? We tracked it back to you for a few seconds, then it left again,” Override asks, pushing his hair out of his eyes.
“Yeah, they dropped the baby off, then bolted again. No words can say how much this means to me. Send me the location, Mae. I need to go and get my girl,” I plead with her, and she nods.
“Sent. Good Luck, Magnum. Let me know yeah?” Nodding, I shut the device down. My phones beeps, letting me know that Click’s info has come through.
Pulling my cell out, I load up the email and check the location on the map.
“I’ll call the boys back,” Colt says. I zoom in, checking to see exactly where it is.
“That fecking cunt. That’s the old park ranger building in Forest Nature Park that got shut down because of a fire. They built a new one,” Rookie says over my shoulder. Ninja fucker.
“They’re about two hours away. We can make it quicker if we ignore every fucking speed limit and avoid the cops,” Slide adds.
“Let’s load up, brothers,” I yell into the room. Cheers of agreements sound after me as we make our way outside and climb onto our bikes. Engines rev, filling the yard, each brother pulling the throttle, making a shit ton of noise, telling people that we’re coming, so look out.
The Rugged Skulls MC are on a fucking mission to bring one of their own back.
We follow Colt out onto the road, everyone in formation. Me beside my father, my VP behind us, everyone else behind Opal. We go ten minutes down the road and Crude and the boys join us. Crude taking his place next to Opal.
We ride for under two hours, stopping a distance away so these fuckers don’t hear our bikes. Climbing off my bike, I stretch out, but I’m coiled way too fucking tight to get some relief.
My fists are clenching, itching to kill some motherfuckers and get my girl home.
“Hancock is mine. You get to him before me, you bring him to me so I can end him.”
“No one stands alone, brothers. Let’s end this,” Colt says to us all, stating the club’s moto.
Everyone agrees and we move in, all spreading out and taking our positions.
I see Tank over by the large main door to the building, and he nods at me, so I move in. Looking to one side of the building, I see my father nod, and I know we’re all going to bust through the door at the same time.
Sneak attack. I just hope and pray my girl is alive.
“One. Two. Three,” Colt mouths and taps the wall, and we are a fucking go. Tank brings up his foot and boots the door in. It crashes open, splintering. Yelling starts, and I hear gunshots then men crying out in pain.
My main focus is finding Kara, and then Hancock.
That motherfucking cunt will die tonight.
I bring my gun up, aiming at the huge ugly fucker that was at the club with Hancock. But the prick throws a piece of wood at me and I drop my fucking gun.
“Kill him,” I hear Hancock scream. I swing my gaze to his and freeze when I see him standing behind Kara with a gun to her head.
Her head is hanging forward on her chest, her skin back and blue, hair matted with blood.
My blood boils and I lunge for the fucker. I clock him in the jaw, and the fucker is lights out. I smirk down at him, then stand to full height, looking at Hancock.
“Not so big now, is he? Who do you have to protect your slimy ass now, fuckface?” I say to him.
“Don’t come any closer, biker,” he demands. “I will shoot her. If I can’t have her, no one can.”
I laugh at him and feel someone step up to me. Looking to my right, I see Opal and Rookie. They both nod at me, and I bring my smile back to Hancock.