Liberated (10 page)

Two of the police officers quickly handcuffed the Liberators right where they snoozed while the other cops searched the adjoining rooms. It wasn’t until they reached a double-bolted locked door that they knew they’d hit the jackpot. The biggest cop in the group stepped forward and landed a strong kick to the area right below the doorknob. The wood splintered into pieces. A young girl inside the room screamed in terror.

“Shit! Look at this!” one of the cops said, rushing into the room.

Two frightened girls clad only in bras and panties huddled together on the floor in a corner. They looked to be no more than sixteen, clearly undernourished with visible track marks on their arms. Another teenage girl was tied spread-eagled to the bed. A professional video camera was set up on a tripod, with a cord running from the camera to a laptop on a small desk.

The policeman hastily untied the girl on the bed and helped her to sit up. “Who did this to you?” he asked.

She started shaking uncontrollably. “I can’t tell you,” she choked out. “He’ll kill me.”

“His name is Roy,” one of the girls in the corner whispered. “They call him Big Roy.”

The other cop knelt down in front of the girls on the floor. “You know his last name?”

The girls shook their heads reluctantly.

“What does he look like? Anything else you can tell us?”

“He’s really tall with reddish hair,” the same girl offered. “And he has a tattoo of a snake on his arm with his name.”

“Did he force you to have sex with him?”

They both nodded.

“With anybody else or just him?”

“Lots of men,” she said. “I don’t know their names. Sometimes he would videotape it. Other times a bunch of them would watch and take turns.”

The cop wiped his tired eyes and stood up. “Call dispatch and have them send a couple of the female officers out here to take these ladies to the hospital.” He turned back to the girls. “We’re going to make sure you’re taken care of. Big Roy will never hurt you again. You have any idea where he is now?”

“No,” the girl answered. “He was here earlier and said he’d be back. We were afraid to go to sleep.”

Another police officer walked into the room. “The building is clear. We didn’t find anyone else. Only the three guys out there.”

“If they can stand up, arrest them and take them out to the police cars. If not, drag those assholes out by their boots. If their heads happen to hit a few rocks on the way, then so be it.”

****

A
ll thirteen members of the Steel Infidels were gathered in the voting room. Flint had been given the task of clearing out the clubhouse of any Sweet Butts or prospects hanging around for the night, so only the crew remained.

In the voting room, nobody talked. They were all waiting patiently for Jesse’s phone to ring. He had called them all together as soon as his source at the police station contacted him to say the raid on the Liberators was on. It was the middle of the night, but they didn’t care. No way would any of them have missed this.

Already jittery and on edge, they jumped when Jesse’s cell phone finally rang.

“How many were arrested?” Jesse asked the caller. “What about the girls?” He listened a few more minutes. “Thanks for calling to let me know. If there’s anything I can do for you, I will. Thanks again.”

The crew looked at Jesse expectantly.

“They found the girls,” he said. “Just like we knew they would. Three underage girls no more than fifteen or sixteen locked up in a back room. As we suspected, Big Roy was forcing them to have sex with different men and making porn movies. Unfortunately, only three of the Liberators were there at the time. They’ve been arrested.”

“And Big Roy?” Flint asked. The President of the Liberators ran a tight ship. All orders came straight from him, and nothing happened without his approval.

Jesse shook his head. “They didn’t get him. They’ve put an APB out for him, so they will, eventually.”

“Unless we get to him first,” Flint said. “Cut off the head of the snake and the body will die.”

“How many Liberators does that leave to take care of?” Rocco asked. Rocco had many talents, including being able to completely chop up a car in a matter of hours. However, he wasn’t known for being sharp with numbers.

“Six,” Flint answered. “Four dead on the mountain, three arrested today. That leaves Big Roy and his closest team of five.”

“Big Roy is mine,” Jesse said firmly. “As most of you know, we go way back and have a long history. This is my score to settle. I want to get to him before the police do.”

Flint nodded. “Understood. Let’s make it happen.”

K
endra crossed her arms and eyed the motorcycle with distrust. “Not even a hint of where we’re going?” she asked.

“You’ll figure it out soon enough,” Flint said with a grin. “Put this on.” He handed her a helmet and she slid it over her head before climbing onto the motorcycle seat behind him. “Hold on tight because I drive fast.”

“Like I don’t know that!” She wrapped her arms around his waist and scooted closer. “But don’t worry, I will. I’m still not quite used to all this biker stuff. Tell me again what is so terribly wrong about riding in a regular vehicle like a car or a truck?”

Flint didn’t answer. Instead he laughed, a deep rumbling sound she loved so much. He revved the engine. “You all set?” he asked over his shoulder.

She pressed her cheek against his jacket. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

He swung the motorcycle onto the highway and picked up speed. Riding behind Flint on the motorcycle had taken a little getting used to, but now Kendra looked forward to their weekend rides with the Steel Infidels. There was something about being out on the open road with the fresh air that she found quite thrilling.

At first, she would instinctively tense up every time they went around a tight curve until eventually she learned to relax, lean with the bike, and enjoy the ride.

She had even made a few good friends in the motorcycle club, women who were either serious girlfriends or wives of some of the crew. The ladies had been quick to accept Kendra into the fold and never seemed to question Flint’s choice for a girlfriend. From the very first get-together where they’d pulled Kendra aside and told her a few things she needed to know until now, they’d hung right by her side.

The pretty young girls who made up the Sweet Butts weren’t high on Kendra’s list of favorites though. She realized they were an integral part of the motorcycle club, mostly there for eye candy more than anything else. Or at least as far as she knew. Flint never said much about them, but she didn’t worry since Flint had made it clear he wasn’t the least bit tempted by their big boobs or their loose morals. The best thing about the Sweet Butts were that they seemed to change frequently so if there was one you didn’t particularly like, she would probably be gone soon anyway.

Kendra tried to be nice and polite to the girls at the very least, but she’d found that trying to have a real friendship or even a deep conversation with most of them was almost impossible. They were there for the male bikers, not to make girlfriends.

As long as they kept their hands off Flint, everything would be fine. They could look all they wanted. After all, what normal female wouldn’t want to stare at Flint? But the second they laid a hand on him, there would be hell to pay.

After the police had dropped all charges against Jesse, Flint had begun to slowly relax and show a side to her that she hadn’t seen before. She knew the MC was still going hard after the Liberators even though she wasn’t privy to the details. Flint felt it was safer that way. She’d read in the local newspaper that several men had been arrested, and even though the article didn’t mention the Liberators by name, she knew it had to be them.

“You doing okay back there?” Flint yelled over his shoulder, breaking into her thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m good.”

“You want to see how fast this baby can go?” he challenged.

“No, not really,” she replied with a laugh, knowing he was going to show her anyway. She tightened her grip on his waist and leaned up to peek around his shoulder. They were on a flat stretch of highway in a valley between two mountains. She could see at least a mile ahead, if not more. Of course Flint wouldn’t be able to turn down a perfect opportunity to speed.

Flint opened the throttle full blast and the speedometer crept up. When the needle went over 100 mph, she shut her eyes and said a silent prayer. She trusted him completely, but it still unnerved her a little bit. To think there was nothing between her skin and the asphalt if they had an accident. At least she would die happy. Or at least that was what she told herself.

There would always be a little bit of holding back and timidness in her. She wasn’t a risk taker or an adrenaline junkie like Flint. But there was no way in hell she was going to ask him to slow down. Just as he needed her calming and steady presence, she needed his thrill. In a weird way, they completed each other, two oddball parts to equal a decent whole.

Flint lived to ride. To feel the engine underneath his body, the wind in his hair. It was as much a part of him as breathing. To love Flint meant accepting every part of him, especially the wild and sometimes reckless man she had fallen for in the very beginning. And she did love him. More than she ever would have thought possible. There wasn’t a single exact moment where she knew she’d fallen in love with Flint. To her, it seemed as if her love for him had always been there. Forever.

As they rode deeper into the mountains, it didn’t take Kendra long to guess where they were headed – the safe house where they’d first met. As to why he was taking her there after all this time, she couldn’t guess.

Flint turned off the highway and started up the dirt mountain road. The last time they’d been there, the road had been icy and dangerous. Now yellow jonquils and pink blooming mountain laurels dotted the woods beside the road. Except for some times when she’d catch Flint flexing his injured arm to work out the soreness, there was no evidence left behind of their time on the mountain.

Flint didn’t stop or even slow down when they reached the stretch of road where the shootout with the Liberators had occurred. Neither of them ever mentioned the incident anymore, and as far as she knew the whole thing was in the past where it would hopefully stay. The spot looked completely normal, with nothing amiss to indicate four men had lost their lives there.

Kendra had never once regretted her actions and had eventually made peace with the fact that one of her many bullets may have ended a life that day. Flint was breathing and alive because of her. She was grateful every time she heard his heart beat underneath her cheek at night. If she had to do it over, she would make the same decision again a thousand times over. To think she might have lost him forever was a terrifying and sickening thought.

When they passed the spot they would never forget, Flint reached back and squeezed her leg reassuringly. His touch said he knew exactly what she was thinking.

It didn’t take them much longer to reach the cabin. Flint pulled the bike around the back of the house and parked it underneath the shed. He slid off and undid his helmet, suddenly grinning from ear to ear.

“What are you up to, Flint?” Kendra asked, hopping off behind him and stretching her tight leg muscles. “The safe house, huh? Are we hiding from somebody? Please tell me we’re not going through that again.”

He took her helmet from her and locked it in the compartment. “Not this time. Come on.” Flint grabbed her hand and led her around to the front porch.

“How did you get use of the cabin?” she asked. “Someone still owes the Steel Infidels a big favor?”

He flashed his mischievous grin again and chuckled. “You could say that.”

After unlocking the door, he moved aside to let her in. She walked a few feet inside the door and stopped. “Wow!” she said. “This looks different than I remembered.”

The cabin had been completely redecorated. The sparse furniture of the hunting cabin was gone, replaced by warm colored rugs and comfy looking chairs. A large bed covered with a handmade patchwork quilt took up the space where the old sofa bed was before. An ice bucket with a bottle of champagne and two glasses sat on a table in the corner. A fire had already been laid in the fireplace, waiting to be lit.

Kendra walked around the room, noticing all the homey little touches someone had taken the time to add. A photo frame sat on the fireplace mantel. She went over and picked it up, expecting to see the cabin’s owner or his kids. Instead, it was a photo of herself holding a baby Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the palm of her hand. Flint had taken it with his cell phone a couple of weeks before. She turned toward him and held it out. “What’s this?”

“My favorite photo of you,” he replied. “I wanted to put it on the fireplace mantle where I could see it often.”

She rolled her eyes. “I know what it is. What is it doing here in the cabin?”

He shrugged. “I thought the cabin could use some personal touches. It was pretty bare before.”

“
You
thought?” she repeated, confused. “What are you? An interior decorator now, too? I’ll admit finding out you’re a lawyer threw me, but an interior decorator? That’s a stretch, though not completely unbelievable. I’ve discovered you’re a man of many talents.”

“So, do you like the changes?” He waved a hand at the room.

She raised her eyebrows at him. “Okay, stop right there. What’s going on? I can tell you’re up to something.”

Flint walked over and opened the closet door. He pulled out a big box with a bright red ribbon. “Here, I have a present for you,” he said, handing her the box. “Sit on the bed and open it.”

She tentatively took the box from him and sat down on the quilt. She bounced up and down a couple of times on the mattress, testing the firmness. “Oh, this bed is much better than the sofa bed that was here before. I feel kind of like Goldilocks, a little girl who wandered into the wrong cabin.”

“Are you going to open the box or play around on the bed all day?” Flint teased, plopping down on the bed beside her.