Emerald

by Rebekah Thompson

  I growl and yell out in fury, “Where is she?” Pulling against my chain causes more pain to run through my arms, into my chest, then down to my ribs. I try to push it away, but it throbs, reminding me of the fight at the bar. He sent five guys after me. I fought as hard as I could, but they overpowered me and knocked me out.

  “She’s gone, you don’t have to worry about her anymore,” he states like he’s saying it's warm outside or that it’s supposed to rain tomorrow. I freeze at his words, my body slumping forward.

  “Gone?” I register the meaning and lift my eyes. “You killed ‘er!” I scream, “You’re a dead man!”

  “Well, I got what I wanted from her, so she’s trash now,” he spits, walking closer to me. I try to pull myself up onto my feet, but the farthest I get is my knees before I groan in pain. Snake stands before me, smirking down at me. “Would you like to see for yourself?” He questions, grabbing my hair and jerking my head back.

  My chest heaves with every breath I take, my heart feeling like it will pound out of my chest.

  “Darren, bring it in!” Snake yells and a second later, I hear a thud. I wince at the sound and yanks my head towards the doorway where the extra man, Darren, is dragging a body in. My eyes widen at the sight of her limp body. The man drops the body in front of me and walks away, exiting the room.

  I study Emerald. Her dark hair is spread out, part of it covering her face but not enough to see her vacant eyes staring at me. Her chest is still, not pulling any breath in or out. The sight kills me. I try to reach out, but her body is too far away.

  “Go ahead, feel for a pulse,” he tells me. A fraction of hope fills me, so I move back, loosening the chains enough to move my arms. Snake kicks her forward, her body rolling toward me, and I glare at him but move my hands to her neck. I press my fingers on her pulse but find nothing. My hope disappears and so does most of my strength, my vision blurring as tears fill my eyes.

  I lean over her body, resting my forehead against hers. My heart falters when I open my eyes again. Her lifeless green eyes stare to the side. Reaching up, I tenderly close her eyes and whisper, “I’m so sorry, Angel.” This is my fault. If I’d watched over her more or fought harder…

  “You killed ‘er,” I mumble, a tear falling. I’ve only truly known Angel for a few weeks, but she’s my sister, even if we’re not related by blood. A lump forms in my throat, and I try to speak through it. “When I get outta here, I’ll rip you apart,” I growl, lunging forward. The chains yank me back, sending me sprawling to the floor.

  Snake laughs and laughs, stepping back and watching me struggle to reach him. After a minute, he lifts Emerald’s body off the floor and slings her over his shoulder. “I’ll be back for you after I… dispose of the body,” he tells me, walking out of the room.

  “I’m gonna kill you, bastard!” I scream, pulling against my restraints. “Coward!” I yell, trying to free myself. “You bastard! Come and fight me like a man!” I scream. I hear a thump in the other room and know that it was Emerald’s body hitting the floor. Squeezing my eyes closed, I pull on the chains again. I groan in pain and slump to my knees again.

  Blood coats my skin and seeps out from under the manacles, sending searing, burning pain through me. I fall back against the wall, coughing and panting through the pain in my ribs. At this moment, I wish I couldn’t feel pain. Emotional or physical.

  “It really is fun to watch you threaten me while you squirm around,” his voice speaks as he walks into the room. He looks over at me and laughs. “Oh, don’t look so sad, there are other women in the world,” he taunts. I growl as my anger continues to rise to an impossible level.

  Snake shakes his head and calls out for his little helpers. His men walk in and march over to me. The first man swings a fist, hitting me right in the face. A slight pain flares where he hit me, but I don’t let him see. I channel all my energy into keeping the image of Emerald’s dead body out of my mind.

  I failed her. I told her I would protect her. I promised, but I couldn’t deliver on that promise. Hawk is going to kill me, if Snake doesn’t, and I wouldn’t blame him.

  Another punch slammed into my face and my vision blurs again, but not from tears this time. Hit after hit come before I’m sprawled on the floor, trying not to pass out. “Hang him up,” Snake demands, and his little minions follow his order. They grab me and haul me up to a hook, hanging me from the chains around my wrists. My arms strain, the chains pulling at the muscles in my shoulders and biceps.

  The cuffs dig into my wrists more than before as my body sways, my feet barely touching the floor.

  I watch through hazy vision as someone new comes into the room, rolling a medium-sized silver table with him. I blink several times to clear my vision and see that the table is full of knives ranging from small to large. Groaning, I let my head fall forward.

  He killed her, and now, he’s going to torture me. Well, there’s nothing more tortuous than what he’s already put me through. The failure he’s dropped on my shoulders.

  “Now we can have more fun,” Snake says, picking up a small knife. He dismisses the extra men and stalks towards me, like an animal hunting its prey. He gets close to me and uses the knife to cut a line down the front of my shirt. He discards my shirt and starts cutting my vest.

  “If you’re goin’ to torture me, do it, because if you keep disrespectin’ my club, I’ll no’ hesitate to rip your arms off,” I threaten as he slices up my vest. I know I can’t exactly do anything in my current position, but I can’t keep the threats in. Snake grins at me and pulls my vest off, throwing it on the floor where my shirt lies. I growl in anger. If I could just get out of these chains, I’d kill him.

  I’d kill all of ‘em..

  A drop of blood snakes from my eyebrow into my eye. I blink a few times to clear my vision just as Snake drags a small knife across my stomach, right above my pants. Next, he digs the knife in and drags it under my left pec, causing blood to run out and down my torso. The pain flares like fire, burning at both cuts and across my bicep as Snake drags the knife for two or three inches.

  With a hum, Snake turns away and puts the knife down. Next, he turns to me, cracks his knuckles, and walks up to stand in front of me. “I,” punch, “think,” punch, punch. I groan as his fists strike the fresh cuts he just made. “I’ll let,” punch, “You,” punch. His fist slams into my face, making my head jerk back. My head falls forward and black dots swirl in my eyes.

  “I think I’ll let you leave, so you can give the good news to your President,” he says, spinning and kicking me in the upper right leg. “You can tell him,” he pauses, kicking me in the left leg, “that his beloved Old Lady is dead.” He lands another punch to my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

  “Aye?” I wheeze. He nods and gets ready to hit again. I shake my head and look back up at him, “As soon as- I’m outta these chains, I’ll- kill you with my bare hands,” I threaten, only to take two more hits, one to the face and one to the stomach.

  Momentarily, my vision blacks out.

  “You said that already,” Snake’s voice pierces the darkness. A blade, larger this time from the feel, slices across my stomach. I yell in pain as he digs deeper than the other cuts. The pain seems to jolt my vision, bring it back.

  Snake stands in front of me, slapping a bat against his palm. Inwardly, I curse. I try not to show my pain, but when he swings the bat, I know I’ll pass out. The bat hits my thighs, making me moan in pain. Snake laughs a menacing laugh and swings again, hitting my stomach. All the air in my lungs rushes out, and I cough.

  Blood spatters out of my mouth as I wheeze, trying to bend over to help the air flow and it helps a bit.

  “Goodnight, Wolfy boy. I hope you have a good trip home,” Snake says, swinging the bat. I take in a breath and next thing I know everything is black.

  Chapter 17

  I wave my arm in a circular motion to let the boys know to pull over at the next gas station or rest stop. We’ve been driving for
a day already. We still have at least a day of driving, maybe a little less, if we keep going the speed we’re riding now.

  It’s been about four and a half hours since we ate dinner, so I decide we need to stop for a few hours of sleep. I want to keep going, but I know my men need to get some sleep or else they won’t be alert and ready when we reach the warehouse.

  A motel sign flickers up ahead, and I motion to it, getting the return sound of roaring engines. It only takes a minute for all of us to pull into the parking lot and cut our engines. The engines all cut off and silence surrounds us.

  A wave of exhaustion hits me. I didn’t realize I was so tired until I turn to my men. “I’ll get the keys, you guys stay here until I come back,” I announce. They all nod and sit on or lean against their bikes.

  Climbing off my bike, I make my way inside. When I get to the front desk, an old woman turns around. Her eyes widen. I can see the fear in her eyes as I lean on the counter, so I offer her a smile. “I need ten rooms with two queen beds in each, just for one night,” I tell her. She gulps and looks at her computer. She types something in and looks to a calculator, typing numbers in.

  “Th-that will be seventy dollars for each room, so your total will be seven hundred dollars,” she tells me, looking up.

  Nodding, I pull out the money and hand it to her. “I can promise that you won’t have any trouble from me and my men,” I reply. She gives me a friendly smile and takes the money, putting it in the register.

  Turning to the key rack, she pulls off several rings with a single key attached to each. When she comes back to me, she says, “Rooms one through five and rooms ten through fifteen are available. Both sets of rooms are on the front of the building where you and your friends parked. The first ones are on the first floor. The others are on the second floor.”

  I take the keys from her with a nod. “You have a good night, Ma’am,” I call out as I leave the compact office building.

  Gripping the keys, I walk back to my men. “Pair up. Two men to a room. We ride at six,” I tell them, tossing keys around.

  When they’re all in their rooms, I look at my key and see I got room ten. I grab my overnight bag off the back of my bike and head inside. The room isn’t the nicest, but it’s not the worst. It’s clean, thank god, but it’s small with just enough room to fit the two beds and a bathroom. A medium size window sits beside the door, so I close the curtains.

  Pulling my phone out, I dial the clubhouse. I would call Ruby, but Sniper is probably talking to her. The phone rings twice and the line picks up, “Black Hawk Compound, this is Kayden,” he answers.

  “Kayden, how are things going? Any word from Roman?” I ask, sitting on the edge of the bed and letting my body fall back. My body aches, good and bad, from riding so long. I love the feel of riding, the wind, the freedom, and the time stretching in front of me.

  “Yeah, he said he’d call you when he reached the warehouse,” Kayden replies with a yawn. “Everything else is good; though, no new information came through the computers.”

  Running a hand through my hair, I sigh. “Well, we’ve stopped for the night,” I tell him, and I hear him yawn. “And Kayden, get some sleep.” He yawns again, the sound loud and long.

  “Oh, wait,” he calls, keeping me from hanging up. “The kids keep asking about you and Ruby said to call whenever you can,” he says.

  “Thanks, I’ll call her and check on the kids,” I mumble, hoping they’re okay. From what I’ve seen and been told, the kids don’t spend extended periods of time without Emerald. I need to get her back for those kids. For my sanity.

  “What did you say when they asked where I was?” I ask. My eyes don’t stray from the ceiling as I wait for his response. The last bit of my energy is slowly slipping away as I lay there, my eyes growing heavy.

  A shuffling sound comes from his side of the phone and he speaks again, “We told them you were going on a trip to find a bad guy.”

  “What?” I bark. Why the hell would he tell the kids that?

  “Yeah, I didn’t want to lie to a kid, and we couldn’t tell them you were getting their mom just in case… ya know… you didn’t come back with her,” he says, stating the last part in a softer voice to where I almost don’t hear it. Anger courses through me at the thought of not getting Emerald back.

  “I’m getting her back, Kayden,” I growl, a hard tone in my voice. I let out a frustrated breath and close my eyes. “Call me in the morning if anything comes up. I’m going to bed,” I tell him, hanging up the phone.

  Once the call disconnects, I set an alarm for five am and cover my eyes with my arm.

  The blaring, obnoxious beep, beep, beep of my alarm makes me groan. Rolling over, I slap my hand on my phone to silence it, then rub the sleep from my eyes and check for missed calls. I have one from an unknown number. I ignore it and head to the bathroom.

  After a quick shower, as I’m drying off, my phone rings. I rush over, picking it up. “Hawk.”

  “Prez, something just popped up on the monitors,” Kayden says. “We have a signal on Wolf’s phone, it’s close to you, about an hour drive if you go the speed limit,” he informs me. Quickly, I thank him and hang up. Grabbing my clothes, I pull them on and run out of the room. I bang on every door my men are in as I rush to my bike.

  Passing the doors, I hear groans and grumbles as I wake them. One of the men yells out, so I yell back, “Let’s ride, we got a location on Wolf!” I open the text from Kayden to see a location drop. When I open the location pin, it shows me a fifty-two-minute drive toward the Hell Rider’s warehouse.

  Soon all my men are on their bikes, and we’re pulling out of the parking lot.

  ~*~

  Pain surrounds me. I pry my eyes open with a groan. I feel something tug at my body and I look up to see a woman with wavy blonde hair and black glasses, trying to drag my body. I let out another groan, and her eyes snap to mine. “Whatcha doin’, Lass?” I groan, and her eyes widen,

  “Oh, my gosh, you’re awake! Thank God,” she squeaks.

  I blink a couple times to make sure what I’m seeing is real. “Lass, not so loud,” I murmur. Her hand flies to her mouth, and she squeaks again, and let me say, it’s a very cute sound, mousy sound.

  “Um, I was just… uh, you’re on the side of the road, so I’m taking you to the hospital,” she babbles. “Can you stand?” She asks, looking down on me. I lay there for a minute and nod.

  “I can try,” I tell her. She steps back, standing from her crouched position.

  Moving, I try to push myself off the ground. Pain rushes through my arms and my torso, making me slump back to the ground. The girl stares at me with worry filled eyes and reaches for my arm.

  “Come on, you can lean on me,” she offers. I nod as she grabs my arm. I use all the strength I have to help her, and once I’m standing, she wraps my arm around her shoulder, letting me lean on her much smaller body. She’s slight, but curvy with blonde hair and the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen hiding behind black glasses.

  “I’m taking you to the hospital where I work to get you looked at,” she says as we trudge to her dark blue jeep.

  “No hospital,” I groan, and she looks up at me. She stares, probably wondering why I don’t want a hospital. For all she knows, I’m a horrible person, and I could hurt her. But she’s still helping me. She’s putting herself in danger to help a complete stranger.

  Nodding, she stops at the passenger side and opens the door. With one hand, she leans the passenger seat back and turns me towards the door. “Climb in,” she instructs, “Use the handle to pull yourself up.”

  Following her orders, I grab the handle above the window and haul myself up into her jeep. She pushes me on my back to make sure I’m in, then closes the door. I lay my head back on the headrest. My eyes follow as she jogs around the front of the car and climbs in. She cranks the car and brushes some hair out of her face.

  “Okay, since you said no hospital, I guess I’ll take you to my house,” her
light voice says, making me want to look at her.

  Her bright blue eyes pierce me, and she offers a smile. Something pulls at my heart, and my eyelids grow heavy. “Okay, Lass.” With a lurch, the jeep moves forward, and I close my eyes, letting myself fall into the darkness.

  “Hello? Wake up. Please, please wake up,” an angelic voice pleads as something shakes my body. “Come on, mister, I need your help,” she says, and my eyes snap open. I search the area and find the blonde beauty beside me.

  “What happened? Are you okay?” I ask, my voice hoarse from pain and dehydration. She smiles at me and holds her hand out. She is beautiful. The sun behind her, blacking out everything but her and her shining blonde hair.

  “I need your help because I can’t carry you. I need to take you inside to check your injuries,” she tells me. Right. She’d never be able to carry my full weight.

  Like earlier, I gather just enough energy to get to my feet and lean on her. I know I’m not light, so I try to hold most of my weight, so I don’t crush her. The pain in my body isn’t any less than before, but it’s more bearable after some rest.

  The woman leads me inside, and as she does, I glance over my shoulder to see the sun setting. I don’t know how long I was on the street, but I don’t think it was long because someone would have noticed an unconscious, bleeding man. However, whether or not they would’ve helped is a whole different matter.

  “Stay here,” she says, and I chuckle. I can barely walk, and she tells me to stay put. The thought makes me laugh.

  “I cannae go anywhere, lass,” I tell her as I lean against the doorframe where she left me.

  “Okay, you can lay here, and I’ll go get my first aid kit,” she says, pulling me out of my thoughts. I look up to see she’s put down towels on her couch so I don’t get blood all over it.

  Nodding, I lean into her as she helps lower me to the towel-covered couch. When my weight settles, I let out a breath of relief. The woman walks away, and I close my eyes. This time, I don’t pass out. I lay here, thinking about what happened today. Snake killed Emerald, beat me, then dumped me on the side of the road to die.