Discovering Me (Breakneck #4) (14 page)

I sit at the bar of the clubhouse and twirl this stupid strip of photos in my hands. Well, I used to think it was ignorant, but now that I think about it, deep down I know it isn’t. I wouldn’t have shoved it in my wallet to begin with if it was. I stare at the beautiful, goofy face Piper was making in the photo and then I look at myself. I was full on laughing in the three photos on this strip. It was during one of the lockdowns, and Piper insisted I get her off of the compound, so I did. She dragged my biker ass all over the Jamaica Mall. I admit, at the time, I acted miserable but I wasn’t. I was actually having fun that day, but I wasn’t about to let her know. I slide my thumb over her face and slump further down on the barstool. If I don’t get her back, there is no telling what I will do or what I may become without my best friend, a woman I love, a woman I very much want to explore love with.

“Sniper,” a voice behind me whispers.

I don’t bother to hide the strip of photos when Lucy sits down next to me. She isn’t supposed to be in the clubhouse. She is supposed to be over at the live-in, but by her tone, I assume she wants to apologize to me. So I let her sit down and wait for her to speak.

“She’s really pretty,” she says as she stretches her hand towards the snapshot. I jerk it out of her reach. This may be all I have left of Piper if something does happen. I will be damned if I let anyone touch it.

“I have to tell you somethin’, and you might very well kill me for it,” she sighs.

Her statement gets my attention. The word kill coming from Luce has my curiosity piqued. “Go on,” I say as I tuck the mall members into my wallet and my wallet into my back pocket.

“I… shit, Sniper! Don’t look at me that way. Your face already spells you want to blow my head off, and this is hard enough to tell you.”

I suspect she is going to own up to what she might have said to Piper. And it is about fucking time. Piper has never truly cut me off before.

“Spit it the fuck out, Luce,” I growl and tilt my shades to the top of my head. I want her to see the anger in my eyes.

“I may have led her to believe that we are closer than what we really are and that maybe we sleep together on a regular basis—”

I jump up and the bar stool makes a screeching sound as it flies across the floor. “You fucking did what?” I roar.

My hands fly to my head and I pull my hair. It finally makes sense. Piper kept going on and on about how our friendship was a fraud and how she thought she didn’t mean more to me than what she really does.

“You have no fuckin’ idea what you did. That girl is the fuckin’ sun in my eyes! The shit she’s been through and the smile she still has is a fuckin’ bloody miracle. Our friendship is nothing, and I mean not a fuckin’ inch to the miles long that Piper’s and my friendship is. Do you know she is the first girl I have ever cared about?” I growl and pace at the same time.

Lucy stands up and directs my attention back to her. “You cared about Christina…”

Christina! Fuck that bitch.
I thought I cared about her. Big fucking difference. That was all false. My brain tricked me into something I desperately wanted.

“Are you really that fuckin’ idiotic, Luce? Really?”

This isn’t happening. Piper is not laid up somewhere thinking she means jack shit to me. This fucking cannot be happening.

“You said so yourself,” Luce exclaims.

What the fuck. Anyone with eyes can see the difference between the shit I had with Chris and the connection I have with Piper. It is on an entirely different playing field.

I stop pacing and push up right into Lucy’s body with my chest and peer down at her. “You better hope I find her, alive, because if I don’t, our past won’t save you from my motherfuckin’ wrath,” I seethe.

Lucy’s mouth opens and closes as if she is this little lost guppie who can’t find her goddamn words.

“I’m sorry,” she yells as I retreat before I fucking kill her.

I don’t bother to swing back around, and I don’t waste words accepting or denying her apology. It means little to me.

“She’ll be reprimanded, Sniper. I’m sorry,” Dizzy says quietly as she passes me.

I snort. Why the fuck aren’t these bitches over in the other building? Times have changed. Braxxon has ordered them to the live-in, and yet, here they are all up in my motherfucking space.

I stomp into the Chapel, shut the door behind me, and wait for my brother to get off of the phone. He holds his hand up and nods into the phone. Why do people fucking do that? The person on the other line can’t fucking see your dumbass. Another human flaw. Proves we are all just a bunch of dumbfucks living until we aren’t living anymore.

By the time I sit down, Braxx hangs up the phone.

He holds his hand back up to stop me before I can say a word while he lights a smoke, inhales, and then lowers his hand.

“What’s the news?”

My brother points down at the map. I didn’t see on the table when I came in the room. Big, red circles mark six locations.

“Pipe and Jinx are at one of these locations,” he reveals.

“We have the man power. Why aren’t we out there getting her?” I clench my hands into tight fists.

“I already know what you’re askin’. The brothers are splittin’ up. Some are stayin’ at their posts. The rest will meet us back here and then I will assign locations for each group. If we hit them at different times lookin’ for her, brother, they will move her. We have to hit every place at the same time. Yeah?” he questions.

I exhale a sharp breath, lean against the back of my chair, and tilt my head up. I am aggravated, worried, and fucking angry. My girl is more than likely starving, and who knows what the fuck she has gone through.

“Don’t let what I’m about to say piss you off.”

Oh great. Those words don’t reassure me at fucking all. I tilt my head to the side in a motion to tell him go on, spit it out.

“See those two small bags right there?” He points to two duffel bags.

My face has to read confused because that is what I am. Straight up confused.

“They have clothes in it for Piper and Jinx.”

Okay, now I am fucking stupefied.

“Pyro is taking Jinx to Berry’s house, and you’re taking Piper to your house,” he instructs.

Why would we fucking split them up? They will need one another after whatever it is they have gone through.

“Pyro will have Akela and Ripley escorted over there when he calls them. You, on the other hand, know Piper the best, so you’ll be alone with her. I will be sending the Doc to both locations. That’s who I was on the phone with. Asshole raised his rate. He said he’s sick of doing house calls for hurt women, and frankly, so am I. This shit has to stop, bro. Women didn’t get hurt around us before last year.” He sighs as he taps his Zippo against the wooden table.

“We didn’t really care about women until last year, so maybe we didn’t notice women were getting hurt.” I offer up the truth to him.

My brother gives me a rare look, and I know I am only to witness it because no one is around, but the look is sad and laced with regret.

“I have shit here under control. When, and I ain’t saying if, because we are getting them back, tonight in fact, but when we do, you take all the time you need with her. Understood?”

I bite my lip. What is my brother’s meaning? She’s Piper. She’ll bounce back from this quicker than Winter did after her kidnapping. But hell if I say that to my brother. He would have my balls cut off if I said anything about Winter. I guess it goes to say I’d do the same for Piper, too.

“Now go make sure you have all the guns and ammo you will need for this raid and for protection once you get to your house,” he directs.

When I stand, my brother says something I have never heard him say to me. “And Sniper?” I look over at him. “I love ya, brother,” he says with a serious tone.

I walk over to him, clasp his outstretched hand, and jerk him out of his chair. I hug my brother in the first family hug we have ever shared. When we pat each other twice on the back, we loosen our embrace, and I say the same words to him. “I love ya, too, blood brother.”

He nods his head and sitting back down in his chair, he studies the map while I head to my room to gather my fire power.

***

Chapter Twenty

Piper

I lost all the sensation in my face when I took that blow from the guy who raped me. I know the feeling will come back and that it will take time, but it is scary. I think we have been here for three days, four tops, because my body is crying out for food. The pain in my ribs has not lessoned any. Nothing can be done for broken ribs but to wrap them, so my concern is my face, and if my jaw needs to be wired shut or not, and if I will require corrective surgery. This is what worries me the most.

“Piper, I’m worried about my kidneys,” Jinx whispers.

Whispering has been our only form of communication. When and if we get out of this, it will be a long time before we both stop with the whispers. Feeling threatened does that to you. Afraid if you speak too loud, it will result in another beating or rape. We’ve been lucky. We haven’t been touched sexually for a few days. I assume they are too busy trying to get whatever they want from Breakneck. I have been strong up until this point, but my mental stability is threatened more with each passing moment.

“Faith, Jinx.”

I have little left to give her and telling her to have a little faith makes me feel like a dirty liar. And I hate lying, and false hope is just that, lying.

“I ran out of faith the second day.”

I turn over on the cold concrete and sob my fears out in silence so she doesn’t stress out even more. I thought I would be able to come out of this, but this time is different. The first time I was drugged so much that I could barely remember anything, but this time, I am completely sober, and every second that goes by that we are down in this basement is burned into my memory.

Everyone thinks I am this easy going person and I was. I can no longer say I still am. This time I will be forever changed. It does not make me weak. It makes me human. I was easy going and lived life to the fullest because of the years I lost. Not being able to remember is the one thing that made it easy to move on with my life.

I pray Sniper loves me enough and isn’t so angry he is not out there looking for us. I regret our last conversation and the things we did not resolve. I guess, deep down, a part of me knows he is doing everything he can to bring me home, but when you have been through all the things I have, you learn to doubt everything and everyone.

It is all about self-preservation.

If he happens to save my miserable sorry ass once again, I am going to kiss him on the lips, say thank you, and then I will sleep forever.

“Piper?”

“Yeah, Jinxie,” I mumble.

I hear her stir about. “If we get out of this, I want the biggest, fattest steak ever, and I’m a vegetarian.”

I giggle for the first time in days. “You aren’t anymore, huh?”

“Hell no,” she whispers. “I understand the food chain now.”

I don’t laugh because being in a position such as ours, you learn to appreciate the stupidest things.

“I’ll buy an entire cow for you,” I say.

Jinx says nothing back and I assume she is falling asleep. Rest is key to our survival now.

I close my eyes and picture my badass biker best friend who, now that I am fucking dying of thirst and starvation, I realize I may be in love with. Our photo booth fun flashes in my mind and tears form in my eyes. That was one of the best days of my life. I had that giant biker laughing, smiling, and enjoying life that day. His beautiful sun bleached hair spiked up, his gray eyes twinkling, and his straight white teeth smiling into the camera as I made faces. The screen on the photo booth reflected our images back at us and counted down the seconds each time it went to snap the picture, and I would do something crazy stupid like always.

“Piper, you’re a fuckin’ nut job,” he teases.

I fake hurt until he falls for it, and when he goes to embrace me in a hug, I reach up and run my tongue along his cheek.

“Darlin’, if you’re gonna run that tongue on somethin’, it needs to be below the belt line,” he growls playfully.

“Shut up and take pictures with me, Snipe.”

He wraps his large, muscular arms around me and laughs into the camera. “Better?”

I squeeze him back. “Yes, thank you.”

He leans down and kisses the top of my head. “Anythin’ for you, darlin’,” he whispers into my hair.

With that memory, I sit up and reach for Jinx’s chain to wiggle it. “Jinx, wake up,” I whisper.

She startles, sits up, and whispers, “What?”

I gulp and shake as I form a plan and voice it to her. “I can’t stay here. I have a man to get back to. We have gotta get out of here.”

The sound of her sitting up echoes. “Tell me,” she whispers back with excitement.

“We’re in a basement. Start feeling around the ground and walls for something sharp and small enough for me to pick these locks.”

She gasps. “You know how to do that?”