Relinquish (17 page)

I turn the van on and start the long trek to the ranch. The miles pass slowly, watching the speed limit. I normally fly down Texas highways, but I have to practice caution with all these bodies in the back. I have The Eagles playing low and we each seem to be in our own little world. I wonder when we will be done so I can get back to Avery. I hope she’s doing okay. I’m sure she is; she has London. I’m glad she seems to be recovering more from the shot. Her stiches are healing up nicely and she hasn’t complained much about it. Who knew that girl would be such a trooper. I’m driving for about an hour when I hear some moaning and rustling. That can’t be Nightmare, was he shot or sumthin’? Surely Ex would have said something if Night was injured. “You all right back there, Nightmare?” I ask and glance in the rearview mirror.

“Turn on the back light,” he gripes. I flick on the light and Exterminator turns so he can see in the back. I hear a thud and a grunt. The van rocks with the heavy movement. What the hell?

“Fuck!” Ex yells out and turns to me. I glance back and see Nightmare’s arm dripping blood and he has someone pinned down. “We have one awake already. You need to find a place to pull the fuck over.”

“Yeah, bro, I’ll take the closest exit. I think it’s three miles up.” Ex turns back to watch Nightmare.

“You straight, Night?” he asks while taking out his own blade.

“He fuckin’ sliced me, why wasn’t he secured? Hurry up,” he snarls angrily.

“I am, brother, just a sec,” I say loudly so he can hear me. I hear some more rustling and some pissed off murmuring. I hate having to make an unscheduled stop. You never know what could happen. Cops are always hiding where you least need them to be and what if there are more Snakes not secured properly. I’ve never done any time and I’m trying to not have to now, for kidnapping and whatever else they cook up. I take the exit to a little rest area. It’s surrounded by plenty of trees so I drive around toward the back of the building. There’s some worn out covered picnic tables and a few large trash dumpsters. “All right, Ex, you go around and I’ll stay here with my weapon trained on them until you get asshat unloaded.” He nods and jumps out of the dark van.

The back door flies open. Night holds the scum down and Ex stabs the guy in the ribs then in the opposite leg. “Ain’t gonna get far now, buttercup,” Exterminator snickers and Nightmare rolls the Snake out the back of the van by kicking him repeatedly. Niko and Cain pull up behind the van with the rest of the guys. They all approach the van carefully. 

“It’s all good, brothers. We had one wake and Night got sliced, so we’re dealing with him now.” They nod and Twist gets a pleasantly surprised look on his face. Ex has his gun trained on the tied up idiots so I make my way to where they are surrounding the douche that woke. “So what are we going to do with this one?” I ask curiously. Nightmare turns to me; he might as well be the grim reaper right now, with that look gracing his features.

“I take care of the problem,” he says. Nightmare pulls out his gun and shoots the guy in both his legs.

“Arrrggghhhhhh.” The guy screams in pain and my brothers chortle. I stay silent, watching, taking note of the Nomads’ methods. He grabs the screaming man by his wrists and drags him to the dumpster.

“Anybody got some gas?” Night says and looks at each of us.

“Of course,” Nikoli replies and grabs his gas can out of his truck bed. Night nods at Ex. Exterminator grabs the man’s legs and Night holds his wrists as the fling him into the dumpster.

“Now the fun part,” Night says cryptically.

He pours gas all over the opening of the dumpster, the man wails inside and I scan the surroundings to make sure no one is near. Night pulls out his zippo and lights a piece of trash, then throws it into the dumpster. The bin erupts into a blue gold blaze burning off the gas. The Twisted Snake screams, bone-chilling screams and I try to hold my breath. The smell of burning flesh is ripe and makes me gag. Twist sees me and grins evilly. I make my way back to the van and most of the guys follow suit. God, if Avery only knew how much of a bad man I was. I don’t deserve someone as kind and good as her. Fuck, it’s going to be hard to sleep tonight.

Exterminator and Nightmare load up in the van and it’s so silent I could hear crickets. I look back at Night in the mirror. He has his shirt off and wrapped around his arm. The cut’s not deep, just long, so it’s making a mess.

“So now you know why we are Nomads, brother. We tend to not fit in so much with everyone else,” Ex says and stares solemnly out the front window.

“Yes, now I know. Although I want to do something similar to the dirt bag who shot Avery,” I say and he looks at me skeptically for a few beats. I don’t cower and he nods in acceptance.

“We can make it happen then, brother,” he answers and I start driving towards the ranch again. That was just one little hiccup in what’s to come tonight.

Avery

I tried calling 2 Piece but never got any response. London thinks I’m being paranoid and tells me to leave the guys alone to do what they need to do. I don’t get how she can be so calm. She clearly has more faith in Cain doing his job. I on the other hand have no idea what 2’s job even really is. I know he does the ‘long runs’, whatever that means. This is the first time I’ve been around him and he has let me know something is up. That means we are definitely making progress if he is opening up to me about things he normally keeps quiet. I’m bored, so I may as well call my parents.

“Hello.” My dad’s voice brings a feeling of warmth and comfort to me. I actually miss my dad a lot. I think if my mom wasn’t around so much, then I would visit him more.

“Hey, Dad.”

“Oh, honeybee! So nice to hear from you. How ya’ been, kid?”

“I’m doing really good, Dad, how about you?”

“Oh same ol’ same ol’ you know, this old man doesn’t do much. I went and watched the dolphins this morning with your mom, and then she went to work.”

“That’s awesome, I miss working with the animals and watching the dolphins.”

“All the more reason for you to come on home.”

“Dad, you’ve been trying for a while now and it hasn’t worked.”

“You can’t blame me for trying to get my only daughter back close to me.”

“Maybe, I’ll see if my friend wants to take a ride out there sometime soon.”

“That’s great, hun. Is this Miss Emily?”

“No, it’s a guy I’ve been seeing for a while.”

“A guy? But you’ve never really introduced us to guys before.”

“I know, Dad, that’s how you know this one’s kind of special.”

“Well, if he’s won my girl over, then I’m certainly intrigued to meet him.”

“I’ll discuss it with him and give you a call when we know more, okay?”

“Alright, stay safe. I love you.”

“I love you, too, Dad, tell Mom hi for me.”

“I will, bye, kiddo.”

“Bye.”

I can’t believe I told him we might visit. Where on earth did that idea come from? I’m surprised he didn’t get all bossy about it, but then again that’s my mom and not him. I definitely need to talk to 2 about my feelings I’m developing.

2 Piece

We drive down the long, dark, dirt road that leads to the ranch. It’s going to be a busy night ahead, I’m looking forward to this much deserved retribution. Our friends and families should not have to live in fear of being hurt and terrorized by another club. The ride has been silent and I’m jonesin’ to get the fuck out of this van. I pull up to the side of the giant, faded white barn. There won’t be anyone coming this way, but better safe than sorry. I jump out hurriedly, grateful to stretch my legs. Ex steps in front of me before I make it to the back door of the vehicle to let Night out.

“Whose bikes are parked out front?” he murmurs quietly.

“One is Capone’s. He’s supposed to make sure the barn is all ready for us. I don’t know who the others is.”

“You checkin’ that shit out?”

I raise my eyebrow. He’s serious right now? I just told him it’s Capone. He looks at me solemnly. Fuck it. Guess I’m goin’ in.

“Sure, I’ll go check on Capone, if it will keep your panties out of a wad,” I say, exasperated, and he shakes his head as he walks over to open the door for Nightmare. The building illuminates more with the oncoming headlights of Niko’s truck and the night rumbles with the sound of Cain’s Challenger coming behind the truck. It all feeds into the headache I’m starting to get. Tonight is just not my night. I’m grumpy and would rather be spending time with Avery. I know she will be leaving to go back sometime soon now that we are taking care of this shit. I wonder how she would feel if I was to drive her up after Nikoli left. I’ll have to discuss it with her. Maybe I’ll see if Ares wants to go too, we could have some fun with her before we leave Tennessee to come back home. I don’t even want to think of coming back without her and he might make the trip more bearable.

I open the weathered barn door and it creeks loudly as I slip through. The smell of hay and dust hits me and I place my shirt over my nose until I get used to it. It’s so dark inside. The old dingy light globe at the very top of the barn is useless, and I can’t see more than five steps in front of me. It’s just enough to give everything an eerie shadow and make your eyes play tricks. I squint, trying to make out specific shapes.

“Capone?” I ask into the silent barn and it echoes slightly. The brothers talking and making noises seep through the cracks and I can make out a few different conversations between them.

I feel it against my back, the cold stiffness, before I hear the click that seems to echo throughout the entire barn. I put my hands out to each side of my head, palms flat, pointing forward. I stand stock still and slow my breathing. I don’t know who the fuck’s behind me, or what’s going on right now. I’m not going to chance it and try to play the hero. The only thing that runs through my head, is that one of the Snakes must have found out our plan. It pains me to believe we have a rat in our club, but it seems as if it’s the only feasible answer.

“Look, there are about twenty other bikers outside this barn. You really don’t want to be doing this right now.”

“Fuckin’ lyin’ bitch. There’s only seven outside.” I hear his voice and chills spread over my body. I can’t fucking believe this is happening right now. Is he crazy? Is he completely ignorant of what he is doing to himself right now?

“Capone, man, what the fuck’s goin’ on?”

“It’s simple; you’re each going to die,” he replies cockily. “Heya, Joker, this is the one you wanted. Came right to us.” As soon as I hear the name Joker my body goes rigid, on high alert. Fuck, he wasn’t at the club with the rest. This is what we were worried about, them not all being there. What am I gonna do? I can’t let my brothers get hurt. I refuse to carry that on my shoulders if I make it out of here okay. Joker swaggers over to me with his top lip up in a small snarl. I remember that ghostlike figure, he almost glows in here compared to the dingy surroundings.

“Well, well, well, look what we have. It’s the little cunt that ran from me on my bike. Fucking coward,” he spits angrily, close to my face. It takes every ounce of self-control I possess not to head butt him as the word coward leaves his mouth. I can only savor the visualization of my forehead meeting his nose with a loud crack and the sickening spray of blood erupting. I know if I actually do it, the repercussions would be me getting shot and not protecting my club that is right outside that old door.  I swallow my pride and stay quiet. He will more than likely give me more information if I stick to a lackluster expression. I hear the brothers chortle and pray they decide to not come in after me.

“What next, Joker?” Capone asks and digs the gun deeper into my back.
Fuck that hurts.
I’m gonna mess up this fucker so bad if I get free from this. Joker’s eyes light up with ideas, I’m sure I’m not keen on hearing.

“First we need to move him out of the way before the rest come in here. We sneak him out the back where I took off those boards. We will get him out there and once the rest of the club comes in we will torch this shit hole. Teach these fucks to try to kidnap my club. I’m gonna find something to tie him up with.”

“No problem,” Capone says happily as Joker walks behind some equipment.

“Capone, why are you doing this? Why betray your brothers?”

“My brothers? Are you kidding me? You all treat me like shit there. I was just trying to talk to that little piece of ass you have at the club and she was a fucking bitch too. No, my
brothers,
are the guys you have tied up out there. My real brother just went to get something to secure your ass with.”

“Your real brother? Joker’s your kin?” I need to keep him talking while it’s just him alone. I have to figure a way out of this. The only rational thing I can think of is to scream to my brothers that it’s a trap. However, I don’t know if they would decide to try and come get me, or if these idiots would start randomly shooting and kill one of my brothers. 

“Yep, our father used to be President of the Twisted Snakes. Then Brently’s stupid ass just had to start seein’ Seraphina. We don’t take kindly to our sister seeing some fuck face kid of another club.” Bingo, all the pieces come together. I can’t believe this shit. Capone’s been around for about four years.