Chapter 19
Pike
I had her in the palm of my hands, fucking her in any way I wanted. I had her bent over, fucking her from behind. I had her riding me, begging for my cock, and it was the best fucking thing in the world. I wanted her. I wanted more of her, but the time ended. We both fell asleep, and I snuck out in the morning out of my own house. I know she didn’t want me there. I know she wanted her space, and I interrupted that. So, I did the smart thing and left.
I pull out onto the main road and sigh. It’s early in the morning, and the air is still cool. I inhale deeply when the sound of a car speeding up behind me catches my attention. I start to look over my shoulder when I’m hit. The bike starts to swerve out of control as I try to correct it. It does no good. I spin, holding the handlebars as tight as I can, except it's no use. The bike spirals out of control, and I’m thrown off. I fly through the air, ready for my landing. I bounce off the pavement and skid down the fucking hill thanking god I didn’t slide across the pavement.
My whole body screams in pain as I skid to a halt. I close my eyes as I breathe heavily. What the hell were they thinking? Didn’t they see me?
My question is answered when I hear someone walking toward me. I reach up and try to pull my helmet off, but my arms are like limp fucking noodles right now.
“Is he dead?” I hear someone ask.
“No, he’s moving.” Another says.
“Thanks for the help, assholes!” I growl as I try once more to get to my helmet. When I reach it, I pull it off as sweat drips down my temples. I blink a few times to get my vision to stop blurring when I see them. Fuck. Fuck! This can’t be happening. What the hell do they want?
“The point wasn’t really to help you,” the asshole in the RRMC cut says as he stares down at me.
“What do you want?”
“Everything.”
“You won’t get shit,” I tell him. He smiles and shakes his head.
“We already got a few of you.” Now, my heart begins to thunder in my chest. Who the fuck do they have? Which guys did they grab and why?
“You can fuck off!” I roar as my head spins. I feel sick to my fucking stomach at this point.
“I could. But you don’t seem to be understanding me. You’re ours now,” he laughs. The thought of shooting him in the fucking face has crossed my mind, but I don’t have my fucking gun on me. I left it at the clubhouse when I went to see Feather.
“Fuck you,” I tell him once more as his hands reach for me. Before I know what’s happening, I’m being punched in the face over and over again. I try to block it, but my arms are heavy. I feel like I’ve been hit by a fucking bus from the fall. Nevertheless, he continues to beat on me until I fall unconscious.
I blink my eyes not knowing how long I was out. I try to get my vision to focus once more when I see Rooster and one of the prospects lying on the ground next to me. Both of them are chained to a pole, and when I lift my arm, I realize I am too. I groan and try to roll over, feeling the pain of the accident all through my body.
“Fuck,” I mutter under my breath.
“You up, Pike?”
“You good, Rooster?” I ask him.
“They’ve beat the shit out of us, brother. I don’t know how long we’ve been here,” he replies.
“Can’t be too long. I saw you yesterday,” I remind him. He groans and rolls to his side to look at me, his face a bloodied mess.
“You’re shittin’ me? We’ve only been here a day?”
“Apparently.”
“I must have been really out of it then.”
“Judgin’ by your face, I’d say that explains it.”
“That bad?”
“It ain’t pretty.” He nods his head before resting it back on the concrete floor. I shove myself up and glance around through the black eye I can feel swelling as we speak. Looks like an old basement. Nothing special here. Now, I need to find a way out of it. A way out of here.
“One door,” Rooster tells me.
“That’s it?”
“All I’ve seen, brother. We’re gonna have to go through them to get out of here,” he answers when I hear the chuckle.
“There’s another way out.” Both of us turn our heads to see a man come out of the shadows. He’s a bigger guy, tall and built.
“How?”
“Fight us.”
“We’re not in any shape to fight,” I tell the asshole. I know what he’s doing. He’s baiting us. And I’m not taking it.
“Just one of you.”
“I got this,” Rooster states, eyeing the guy up and down.
“Fuck that, Rooster.”
“What? I can take his ass,” he adds as the man chuckles and stares at me. Why is he looking at me so hard? I’m not about to fight his ass. I was just hit by a fucking car and beaten. I’m in no shape to fight him.
“Shut the fuck up, Rooster.”
“Let the man talk. He could be your way out,” the asshole instructs.
“Or you’re just lookin’ to play fuckin’ games. What’s the point in takin’ us if you’re just to let us go?” I ask in a condescending tone. He shrugs and looks between the three of us.
“From what I can tell, you three aren’t shit anyway,” he says. My stomach tightens as I think about the other two. The prospect hasn’t even moved since I woke up. He may very well be dead at this point.
“What’s the point?” I ask once more.
“You’ll see what we’re capable of, what we can do. You’ll see you’re never safe from us,” he says as two more men walk into the room. They’re just as big as him, if not bigger. I know bigger doesn’t always mean shit but damn it, they are bigger than we are and uninjured. I eye both of them before glancing over at Rooster. He does the same, eyeing them both before he looks back over at me.
“I can do this,” he says. I shake my head. There’s no fucking way he can take three on. No way in hell. Not alone anyway.
“No. Fuck this, Rooster. They’re just fuckin’ with our heads,” I tell him. Just as the words leave my mouth, I see the gun in the asshole’s hand. He raises it and shoots the prospect in the back of the head. I close my eyes, not wanting to see that shit. Not wanting to know he’s dead.
“The fuck is wrong with you?” I roar.
“You want to play games. Now, we’re down to two. One of you will live; one will die if you follow our rules.”
“What rules?”
“A fight. One of you will walk out of here to tell your little friends. The other, well, you see my men.” He motions to the guys next to him as I shake my head. There’s no way we’re walking out of a fight with them. No way in hell.
“No.”
“No? Then I’ll shoot you in the fucking head just like your friend there. I’ll grab three more assholes from your club and do the same thing. I’ll work my way through them until they’re all gone. Then I’ll turn to the women.” Anger flares in my chest a the mention of women. That would leave Feather unprotected. I can’t do that.
“I’ll let you boys talk it out,” he says before turning and leaving me and Rooster. I look over at him and see the slight fear in his eyes.
“I can do this, Pike.”
“You won’t walk out of here, and you know it.”
“I don’t have an old lady to go home to. Let me do this,” he argues as I shake my head.
“No. I got this,” I tell him.
“Fuck no, brother. You got a woman who’s waitin’ on you. I won’t let you do this. I got this,” he repeats.
“As an officer of the club, I can’t let you do this, Rooster.”
“I already made the decision.” I don’t know what to say as Rooster calls out to the guys who have us hostage. My heart aches. My chest hurts. I feel like I’m going to be sick as I glance over at the dead prospect.
“Made a decision that quickly?”
“I’ll fight them,” Rooster announces as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. I huff out a breath, but it does no good. The man nods and grabs Rooster off the ground, hauling him to his feet before unhooking the chains. The other guys stand in the center of the room, ready to end this shit. My stomach drops when Rooster walks over and holds out his hand to me.
“Been a good run, brother. A damn good run.”
“Don’t do this, Rooster. We’ll figure this out.”
“Can’t do that. I need to handle this,” he tells me.
“You don’t have. I’m orderin’ you to step down, Rooster.” He shakes his head and smiles at me before grasping my hand in his.
“Don’t watch, Pike.”
“Rooster. Come on, brother.”
“Just don’t watch.”
“Don’t do this shit,” I roar louder as the guys laugh. Rooster pulls his hand away from me before walking to the center of the dingy room. I scream louder this time for him to step down and not do this. I scream for him to walk away and let’s figure this out, but when the first punch is thrown, I know it’s all over.
It doesn’t take long. Rooster threw some good punches, but it wasn’t enough. His body falls to the floor, his head hitting the concrete harder than it should. I close my eyes and try to look away when my face is jerked back in his direction, and my eyes are pried open.
“See that? Two down. That’s just the beginning. Now run back and tell the others we’re coming for them.” The hands leave my face, and the cuffs are undone before I’m punched once more, and my cell is flung at me. My head snaps back and hits the floor, blurring my vision once more.
I lay still, listening to the silence after they left. Knowing Rooster is over there, not even ten feet from me. Dead. He’s fucking dead. How couldn’t I stop this? How?
I shove myself up until I can sit and then scoot on my ass until my back hits the wall. My breathing is heavy as I look up and see the carnage left behind. Two dead. Not just the one. Two. My insides churn, but I don’t throw up. I’ve been around death before, and it doesn’t bother me in that way. But knowing that’s my brother, my family over there. I heave. I throw up everything in my stomach and then some.
“How the hell did this happen?” I ask myself as I run my hand over my face. I wipe the spit from my lips and try to shove myself to my feet on unsteady legs. The room spins, and my stomach somersaults inside of me. I trip as I walk toward the door. I stumble as I walk past the two men who now lie dead. I can’t look at them again. Their faces will never leave my mind. I’ll never unsee this shit. I will never be able to close my eyes and not see what just happened here.
Stumbling out the door, I hit the fresh air. I suck it into my lungs as I drag myself away from the building. It wasn’t even a basement, just some old building. I glance around, trying to get my bearings, when I reach for my cell phone. I dial Mask and wait as the phone rings.
“Yeah?”
“There’s trouble, Mask. Lock down the clubhouse and come get me,” I tell him.
“Where the hell are you?” I look around, having no fucking idea where I am.
“GPS my ass, Mask, and lock down the clubhouse. Rooster and the prospect are dead.” So is a piece of my fucking heart. “Get Feather and get her ass over there.”
“I’m on it, Pike. I got you.” The line goes dead as I drop to my ass and rest my head in my hands. This is all fucked up. How did my day go from fucking Feather to this? Maybe I shouldn’t have left the house the way I did. Maybe I should have stayed; then I wouldn’t have had to witness this shit.
The images of Rooster are fresh in my mind, and I bend over and throw up once more. He sacrificed himself for the club, for me. How the hell do I live with that? I should have taken his place. It should have been me, but they wouldn’t allow it. My head hurts, and my heart aches.