Chapter 28
Skye
T he thought of having a baby fills me with joy and a new determination to survive. But the prospect that this tiny life growing inside of me could be snuffed out along with me tonight sends shockwaves of icy fear down my spine.
“Come on, follow me. Try anything funny and I’ll leave you in Brute’s hands. I ain’t kiddin’, baby or no baby, I ain’t dying for you or nobody else. I got kids of my own I need to get back to,” Veronica says.
I look at her then, perhaps seeing her properly for the first time. A party girl who’s had a hard life. She’s thin, too thin, her eyes sunken and cheeks hollow. But it’s clear she was pretty, maybe even beautiful, once. She has dark eyes, and I can tell from the dark roots on her head she’s not a natural redhead. She has a smattering of freckles across her nose and her arms are sinewy and tan from years in the sun betraying perhaps the life of a farm girl before she got caught up in this life. I look into her eyes and see no hatred there and in that moment, I decide to trust her.
“Okay, let’s go.”
Veronica nods, turning on the recording device on her phone and slipping it into a side pocket of her purse before lifting her gun to point at me. My heart skips a beat as I wonder if this was all a ruse and she’s about to shoot me, but then she says, “I gotta walk behind you with the gun pointed at you, make it believable. Walk out the door, and then open the second door on your left. With any luck, it will only be Brute in there. The place is filled with other Demon Riders though, so don’t try to run,” Veronica warns, and I nod, doing as instructed.
We walk down a nondescript corridor with old-fashioned wallpaper into a dated wood-paneled living room where Brute is sitting drinking a beer in a La-Z-Boy. On the coffee table in front of him are lines of white powder and a rolled-up dollar bill. Next to him is a man I don’t recognize with a big scar through his lip, he has a shaved head and several tattoos, as is the back of the man's head I spot in the kitchen through a small service hatch. The large TV is playing grainy footage of a football game, the volume turned up on full blast.
“Brute!” Veronica yells when he doesn’t notice us enter the room. “Turn that goddamned TV off!”
He looks up and, seeing us, he puts the television on mute. Immediately the sounds of very loud sex can be heard from above us. It seems some of Brute’s friends are having a party. “That was quick ladies!”
Veronica rolls her eyes, “Yeah Brute, it only takes two minutes. Don’t you have enough kids to know that by now?”
“Well… she knocked up or what?” he asks with a belch, leaning down to snort a line.
“Shouldn’t we talk about this in private?” Veronica asks, looking pointedly at the other two men within earshot.
“You’re right as always darlin’. Tank, why don’t you go on back upstairs and rejoin the party, take Razor here with you,” he calls to the man in the kitchen.
“Sure thing boss, was just coming down for some beers anyway,” he replies, walking back through the kitchen door and into the living room.
To my surprise, I notice he’s fully naked, his still semi-erect penis on display. He notices me and winks, “Wanna come join the fun sweetheart?”
“She’s ours… for now. You can play with her later boys,” Brute replies, and to my relief they both leave. “What did yah bring her in here for? All I needed was the fucking test,” he asks Veronica, pointing at me.
“Because… I want her to hear what her stepfather has to say, how little she’s worth to him. She still thinks that anybody gives a shit about her, that who her daddy is will save her. I wanna destroy the perfect image of her privileged life and show her she’s no better than us. Uppity little bitch, always looking down her nose at me. Now she’ll see that no one wants her, not her men, and certainly not her family,” Veronica sneers.
She’s lying to one of us. Either way, Veronica is one hell of a convincing actress.
“Ooh my wicked girl,” Brute says indulgently. “Come on then, is she or isn’t she?” he asks impatiently.
Veronica walks over to Brute and hands him the pregnancy test. He looks at it for a moment before asking, “Two means she’s pregnant, right?”
Christ, he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the box, is he?
“Yep baby, it sure does, which means Bill is sure to cough up more cash!” Veronica explains with a whoop.
Again, the two engage in swapping spit, this time with lots of heavy petting. I contemplate running, both of their guards are down, and the gun is no longer on me, but then I remember Veronica’s warning. If she is helping me, I have to trust her, she won’t help me if I run. If she’s tricking me, there are still god knows how many coked-up bikers in the building who’d stop me before I got out. I don’t even know where the exit is.
So, despite it going against all my instincts, I stay put.
“Come on, baby, let’s call Bill. Make sure you put him on speaker, I want her to hear all of it,” Veronica says jerking her head in my direction.
Brute does as she asks and after a few rings, there’s a familiar voice on the other end of the line.
“Well, is it done?” Bill asks.
My heart sinks as the last shred of doubt I had that my own stepfather would do something this horrible disappears in a puff of smoke.
“Not exactly. There’s been a development,” Brute replies.
“Fucking hell. It’s just one girl, is it so hard to make her sign and get rid of her?” he snaps exasperatedly.
“Thing is, Mr. Anderson, your daughter… she’s pregnant,” Brute replies, a gambler showing his cards.
“She’s not my fucking daughter, she’s my wife’s mistake and a problem I need you to make go away. I couldn’t give a shit if that slut got knocked up by one of the filthy gang members she’s been running around with, it doesn’t change our arrangement,” Bill replies.
My hand flies to my mouth and my eyes pop in shock and horror at the venom in Bill’s voice. Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined he could be capable of such cruelty.
Brute looks at my expression and smirks, enjoying the pain and shock on my face. “Well see, there’s the thing Mr. Anderson, I’d say it changes things. Now you’re not just asking us to take one life, it’s two. Plus, I figure the baby could be worth something to the dads… maybe thought you might want a bouncing bundle of joy, a grandchild left on your doorstep by your no-good runaway daughter.”
Bill sighs, “So, you’re after more money I take it.”
“Bingo!” Brute replies, lighting a cigarette. “Double for taking her and the kid out now, or if you want us to keep her till it comes and handle the delivery and her disposal after, you’re looking at a much bigger fee.”
I can’t believe how casually my life and the life of my unborn child are being discussed. A visceral feeling of hatred courses through my veins and I can barely hold myself back from clawing Brute’s eyes out. The only thing stopping me is that Bill is the real reason behind all this. He needs to pay.
“You must be fucking mad if you think I want some bastard mongrel scum baby. Skye’s father was one of those Angels of Havoc and look how she turned out,” he spits out and I wince to hear the hatred in his voice. “I’ll pay you five thousand more for the added hassle of the child and I want it done. Today. I’m not asking you to perform a goddamned magic trick. When I said make Skye sign the contract and then disappear, I didn’t mean literally into thin air. Fucking do what you have to do to get the job done. She’s a sheltered twenty-one-year-old, she won’t hold up to torture. If the body turns up somewhere, that’s not an issue as long as it can’t be traced back to us, they’ll think it was the Angels of Havoc. In fact, you can make sure she is found and it’s pinned on them. Unwanted pregnancy is the oldest trick in the book. Just figure something out and dump her,” he snarls before hanging up the phone.
I stand there, frozen in shock over what I’ve just heard. My mind is struggling to comprehend what happened and how the hell Veronica and I are going to get out of this alive. I can only hope that Brute will want to toy with me. If I can withstand his torture for long enough, perhaps Veronica will be able to send word to Angel and the others. If Veronica has been tricking me, then it’s game over.
My mind goes to my mom. My poor mom, she doesn’t deserve this. She’ll believe I ran away. Or if my body is found, Bill will make it seem like Angel, Buzz, Drifter, and Gunner are responsible. They’ll go to jail and the real culprits will never be found. Mom will continue to share the same bed with a monster, and then if Bill’s plans are successful, he’ll have control over the entire county, maybe the state.
“Well, you heard the man. Time for you to give me what I asked for, only this time, the easy way isn’t an option,” Brute says, looking at me with malice.
He snorts another line, and I glance over at Veronica, panicked. She looks back at me with sympathy but as though she too is uncertain of what to do now. It’s clear even she didn’t expect the conversation to go that way.
“Come on baby, have a bump, and then let’s fuck this bitch up together. I know you wanna beat her ass, and I wanna fuck her ass,” he says handing Veronica the note as he gets up and comes over to me, his eyes wild as the drugs hit him.
Despite Veronica’s earlier warnings, I blindly turn and try to run from him, but he easily catches up with me, tackling me to the ground before I can reach the door. I’m able to put my hands out to catch myself as I land. I struggle, but he pins me down with his body weight, hiking my dress up over my ass. I scream and thrash, trying to roll over and scratch him and he slams my head hard into the floor, dazing me before ripping off my underwear. I hear him fumbling with the buckle of his belt and I know with sickening certainty he’s going to rape me.
I kick and fight, managing to kick him in the balls. As he’s buckled over in pain, I wiggle around so I’m on my back and try to get away, but he grabs my ankles and pulls me back toward him, his leering face enjoying every second of my fear.
The first thing my mind registers is the deafening pop. The second is the hot splatter of liquid hitting my face. The third is the gaping, bloody hole in Brute’s head.
I watch in shock as his eyes go flat and his body falls limply on top of me. I frantically struggle under his dead weight, trying to free myself, my gaze falling on Veronica who’s still standing holding the gun, pointed where Brute’s head was a moment ago.
“Veronica, help me!” I groan under his weight, unable to move and starting to panic.
The others must have heard the gunshot. How long do we have until they come and find us?
My words seem to snap Veronica out of her daze, and she rushes over to help remove Brute’s already cooling body off me.
“Fuck!” she swears as the sounds of footsteps come pounding down the stairs.
“What do we do?” I ask her, frantically.
“We fucking pray that your men care enough to come save our asses,” she replies bluntly.