Chapter Twelve
Harley
W aking up in an empty, dark room does nothing to stop the panic from setting in. I can feel my breathing picking up, hear it echoing around me from where I sit on the ground in the corner. My ankle is chained to the wall, only a few feet of extra chain for me to move.
The memories assault me all at once, taking me back to the basement, the fear, the torture, the pain.
Breathe, Harley. Inhale. Exhale. You can do this. Just breathe. This isn’t the same, and you aren’t the weak little girl you were.
Someone groans, and I can hear them shuffling around across the dark space. Sucking in a breath, I don’t move or make any sounds. “Fuck.”
Straightening, I whisper, “Gabe?”
“Harley?” he rasps.
“Are you okay? Are you still bleeding?” I crawl forward, feeling around for him, but my chain stops me before I can find him. “Gabe?” I question when he doesn’t respond.
“I’ll be fine, Harley. Do you know where we are?”
“No, I just woke up here.”
“Fuck,” he hisses.
Footsteps come from the other side of the door, and Gabe shuffles around again. “Don’t provoke them, not until we figure out who it is and where we are. No matter what, Harley.”
I nod, even though he can’t see me, right as the door is pushed open a blinding light streams into the tiny room, a basement with bare white walls. Two men step into the room, wearing all black with ski masks. Another man without a mask steps into the room behind them.
It’s the same one from the gas station. He flashes his teeth at me before glancing down at Gabe slumped against the wall, not chained up but pale and weak from the blood he has lost from the gunshot wound.
“You fucker. How?” Gabe seethes.
“After someone tried, and clearly failed, to kill me, I decided it was my chance to make some changes.” He grins down at him. “Did you miss me, son?”
“Missing you would mean I’ve thought about you, Dad.” Gabe glares up at him with hatred I have never seen before. This is– this is his dad?
Turning towards me, the man steps forward and squats down in front of me. Gripping my chin roughly, he turns my face from side to side, examining me. “It’s nice to officially meet you, princess. I’m your grandfather, but you can call me Killer.”
I don’t respond to him, just stare at him blankly, even though I would like to ask hundreds of questions. How? Who tried to kill you? How have you stayed hidden all these years? Why are you doing this?
Instead of being angered by my nonresponse, he simply smiles at me, a smile I recognize, just like his eyes… Gabe looks just like him. “You definitely aren’t like your parents. You have,” he contemplates for a moment, “fire within you.”
Releasing my chin, he straightens and walks back towards the door. “As for you—we have unfinished business. Enjoy your daughter while she’s still here,” he tells Gabe and then gestures for the other men in the room to follow him out.
“Gabe?” I ask into the darkness.
He breathes deeply. “I’m so sorry, Harley. This is my fault.”
“How could any of this be your fault?” I ask softly.
“Because I was the one who killed him. Or, at least, thought I did.” He curses as he shuffles around on the floor, clearly in pain.
Shutting my eyes since we can’t see in this room anyway, I listen as he explains. “My father is a piece of work, and there is only so much of him one could take. I dealt with him for years, hoping he would just end up getting himself killed. But that never happened. He just kept living. No matter what was happening, the man never fucking died.
“He was planning on expanding the drug and gun exchanges we were already doing, and he was going to put my brothers at risk to do it. I overheard him planning to send Axe and Stone to do all the runs, where they would have to be on the road for hours watching over the transport trucks going through territories that we didn’t have a deal with and could easily get them killed. I couldn’t let him go through with it.”
“What happened?” I ask, wishing I could see him or at least go to him.
“He made me come to this club with him one night to get a deal going. In order for the deal to go through, he wanted me to do horrid things to the club owner's daughter. I wasn’t going to do it. I was done with his shit. I told him there was an emergency, and when I got him into the back alley, I shot him three times. There was nothing else on my mind. I just knew he had to go. He was the problem, and there was one solution. If I didn’t do it right then and there, I wouldn’t be able to do it, because the thought of killing my father ate at something in me, even though he was a horrible man.”
Heaving a breath, he continues, “His right hand man came out and promised to deal with the body. He was someone I trusted. I knew he would leave when I took over the club because even though he didn’t love everything my father did, he was loyal as hell. But he made me get out of there and dealt with the body. I should have known it was too good to be true. Fuck.”
“I’m so sorry, Gabe. You did the right thing, though. Even though he didn’t die, you were protecting people. It was the right thing. You turned that club around yourself.”
“Expect for the fact I have now put my daughter in danger because I didn’t make sure the fucker was truly dead.”
Silence falls over us as we both get lost in our thoughts. Being chained up in a dark room is easier to handle when I have someone here with me, but I want out. I don’t know what their plans are, but I know I am going to have to be strong and not get sucked into the memories of my past in order to save us both.
“Harley?” Gabe whispers.
“Yeah?”
“Promise me something.”
“What?”
“When there is an opening, I want you to run. I want you to move your ass and don’t fucking look back. Don’t think about me or anyone else. You get the hell out of here, okay?”
He wants me to leave him? How could I ever do that? Maybe I hated him at first, but now, I would gladly take a bullet for him. “Gabe–”
“No. I’m not asking. As your dad, I am telling you this. When the opportunity happens, you fucking take it, Harley St. James.”
“Okay,” I lie softly. I don’t know how to respond to the anger, the desperation in his voice. I could never leave him behind, but I can fight to get us both out of here. “I promise.”
Rage (Gabriel)
The door opens, and one of my father’s goons steps into the room, drawing me out of my own thoughts as I try to fight off the pain in my side from the bullet I know is still inside me.
Harley has been dozing off and on in the far corner of the room while I have been lost in my thoughts. I should have told the guys, my brothers, about my father. But I thought it was something I needed to handle on my own, so I never told a soul. It was a secret I thought I would carry to the grave, but I should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Of course, the bastard lived.
A guy in a ski mask walks in alone, a plate of food in his hand. Glancing past him out into the bright long hallway, I don’t see anyone else, and I know now is the time.
Harley has fully woken up and watches each movement as he walks between us and bends to set the plate on the ground. Sucking in a big breath, I push aside the pain pulsating through my body and let the image of my little girl being chained to the wall give me strength to fly forward and grip his leg, yanking him back so he loses his footing and falls on his back with a grunt.
He goes to jump back up, but I tackle him, straddling his stomach, swinging my fist down into his face over and over again.
My breathing becomes erratic, and I can feel my energy slowly leaving my body, but I keep going.
When I feel his body stop fighting and his eyes fall shut, I stop and pull myself off him before checking his pockets and finding the key for Harley’s chain. When I toss it over to her, she undoes it in record speed and comes over to me. “Gabe? Gabe, you need to get your breathing under control.”
“I’m,” gasp, “fine.” Gasp, “get the fuck out of here.” I push her away from me. She opens her mouth to say something, but I yell, “Go!”
Standing on shaky legs, Harley starts to move towards the door too hesitantly for my liking but before I can yell at her again, a shadow falls over the doorway and a dark chuckle comes from my fucking father.
Without saying a word, he grips Harley by her hair and begins pulling her out of the room while two other men come in and grip me under the arms and drag me along after them. They take us into an empty room, where he shoves Harley down onto her knees in front of me while the other two goons pull me into a metal chair in the center of the room. Once they get me tied up, they back away while Killer pets Harley like a fucking dog.
Her eyes are closed, and I can see her taking deep, slow breaths as her fists clench at her sides. All I want to do is reassure her that everything is going to be okay, but we don’t actually know it will be.
“I had a plan, but since you wanted to play, we can just play instead.” Releasing Harley, he walks over to me and punches me in the gut. “My own flesh and blood tried to kill me. I honestly didn’t think you’d ever have the balls, but, turns out, you did. You just didn’t make sure the job was complete. I’ve spent years thinking about what I would do to you, but I had to play the long game.”
He grabs something off a counter on the far side of the room and walks back over to me. Holding what I now see is a revolver in front of him, he fires, and I bite my tongue until I draw blood to stop the scream from coming out as the bullet penetrates my thigh. I look at Harley, who is still kneeling with her eyes closed, and I keep my eyes on her. Don’t open your eyes. You don’t need to see this, Harley.
“You see you blew that plan out the window when you just couldn’t take a fucking hint after I blew up part of your club. I told you to back off, but you were still planning to come after the ball. I knew it was time to take bigger steps, and what’s a bigger step than taking the precious Harley and you, the president of your pussy club?”
Using the butt of the gun, he hits the side of my head, making my vision go blurry. I groan in pain before trying to focus back on Harley again.
“Tamara was supposed to keep Harley safe until it was time for her buyer to take her, but she couldn’t even do that, so now, it’s my turn to take things. But seeing as he won’t be here for a while, we might as well have some fun. What do you think, Daddy ?” He sneers at me. “Should we give Harley the same fun we gave her mother at my club years ago?”
“Don’t fucking touch her,” I seethe.
“Why not? You got your hands on her mommy all those years ago, so it’s only fair my men get to have the same fun with your daughter now.” He chuckles darkly.
Two men in ski masks come into the room and go straight for Harley, I jerk against the chair, trying to move as I scream, “Don’t. Killer, fucking don’t!”
Harley doesn’t open her eyes or make any sounds as they yank her to her feet and pull her a bit closer to me. Killer steps in front of her and slaps her twice. “Open your fucking eyes.”
Snapping her eyes open, she looks at Killer blankly. There’s no fear, anger, sadness, nothing—just her shell. Fuck.
“You will be staying here until it is time for you to go home to your new owner. In the meantime, it is important you learn the rules. I expect perfect obedience.”
I watch as Killer slides brass knuckles onto his fingers. Knowing what is coming next, I lock eyes with Harley and don’t look away as I mouth, “I’m sorry.”