BLAKE

 

One week later…

 

The sun beat down on me. Sweat was pouring from my brow and trickling down the rest of me. It was getting annoying having to wipe it from my forehead. On the other hand, I couldn’t remember the last time I was able to put myself through this kind of labor. How often did you get the chance to chop firewood?

I split the logs in half one by one. Every swing of the ax was more satisfying than the last.

In the distance, I heard Katrina talking on her phone. I couldn’t make out her conversation but the tone of her voice told me enough. She was talking to her brother, that was for sure. And she was frustrated.

Why wouldn’t she be?

She’d spent a whole fucking week out here with me. She had nothing to do with any of it. We were both getting comfortable around each other but I knew there were limits to her patience.

Neither the Reapers or the Cobras were any closer to figuring out who hit Michelle. Even worse was that she was still laid up in the hospital.

It was hard to distract myself by chopping wood. My damn thoughts kept wandering to how I was going to get Katrina out of this mess. Thankfully, she was still level-headed about everything even after all this time.

She let out a loud sigh as she walked over to me. I looked up and saw a smile on her lips despite the frustration on the rest of her face. She gave me a curious smirk.

“You look good,” she said. “All sweaty and chopping wood… It’s giving me the wrong ideas.”

“What’s gotten into you?” I said with a laugh, returning to my task. “What did he say?”

“Take a guess,” she sighed. “He’s pissed.”

“I think everybody is pissed.”

“Jordan says your club isn’t cooperating. That you’re stooping lower than any other club ever has.”

“How does he figure that?”

“Because you’re keeping me hostage and forcing him to work for your club.”

“It’s in his best interests to find out who stole his vehicle. If he’s innocent, there’s nothing for him to worry about. Some maniac is out there in Ivory that just hit the old lady of a club president. That’s not good for anybody.”

“I tried to explain that to him but he’s not listening.”

“I thought you said you two were close,” I grunted with another swing of the ax.

“We are. But he’s running out of patience. And frankly…”

I turned toward her. She turned her head to the ground. I let out a deep sigh through my nose and set the ax off to the side.

“We can’t stay out here forever,” she said as she shook her head.

“This is the safest place for you. If I took you back to Ivory, then Garnet and the boys would just tie you up and stuff you in a storage room.”

“Or you could just bring me back to my brother.”

“I don’t think—”

“It’ll be an act of good faith. I’ll convince him to keep trying to figure out what happened. Show some trust in him and he’ll trust you.”

I’d known Katrina long enough to know that she was telling the truth. Unless she was lying to me this entire fucking time, I knew she wasn’t being insincere about all of this.

But there was a part of me that had to doubt her.

I put a hand on her shoulder.

“The club—”

“I know, I know,” she sighed. “Your loyalty to the orders your president gave you. Keep me captive until they get to the bottom of this.”

“If there were some other way…”

She looked off into the distance. The woods were silent except for some small creatures scurrying around in the brush. I stared at her face. She was innocent in all of this. I wanted to do anything for her. But nothing came to my mind.

“Listen,” I said, trying to look for a way to calm her down. “Just give it a few more days. If nothing happens…”

What is that?

My words trailed off when I heard something.

“If nothing happens what?” she asked.

I wasn’t looking at her. I stared into the distance as I heard something.

“Do you hear that?” I said.

“Hear what?”

I closed my eyes to try and hear it better. It was slowly getting louder and louder.

“Blake? Blake, what the hell—”

“Get in the cabin and lock the door.”

I grabbed her by the arm and dragged her toward the cabin.

“Blake? Blake, what are you doing?”

I opened the cabin door and held it for her.

“Lock the door,” I said. “Don’t open it unless I tell you to. Only me.”

“Blake—”

“Only me! Do you understand?”

“…Yeah. I got it.”

Seeing the worry in her eyes hurt me more than anything. But she gave me a nod and reluctantly stepped into the cabin.

“Stay low to the ground.”

I gave her a last set of instructions before sealing the door shut.

The sound I heard had grown so much louder that it was unmistakable. You weren’t a rider if you didn’t know what exhaust sounded like. And from where I stood, it was more than one bike heading my way.

“Shit…”

I muttered to myself as I headed back toward the pile of firewood. I grabbed the ax and got on my bike.

“Come on, come on…”

I struggled to get it started. I twisted the throttle and finally pushed it forward behind the cabin. I pressed back against the wood cabin and waited until the exhaust I heard was close.

I closed my eyes to try and count how many of them had arrived.

One… Two… Three… Four…

I guessed that there were four of them. The exhaust was so loud like it was right next to me. After a few moments, their engines shut off. I couldn’t see or hear them but I knew someone was there.

Whoever it was, they’d found Katrina and me.

I promised I would protect her.

And now I had to keep that promise.

“Come out!” a voice shouted. “I know you’re out there! Make it easy on yourself!”

I leaned up against the side of the cabin. My heart was pounding in my chest. I was having trouble controlling my breathing. I reached into the waist of my jeans and pulled out my pistol. In my other hand, I held the ax up. I was ready for anything.

“Come on! We’ll make it quick!”

The sound of footsteps approaching was unmistakable. Whoever they were, they were moving closer to the cabin.

I looked down at the ground and saw the shadows being cast from around the corner.

“You’re gonna die either way! Don’t die like a coward!”

I tried to place the voice but it wasn’t familiar. It wasn’t anybody from the Reapers. It wasn’t anybody from the Cobras. I went over every fucking club in my head but I couldn’t match the voice.

“Come on!”

I heard a loud thud against the cabin door.

They were going for Katrina. If I were gonna do something, I had to do it now. I gritted my teeth and took one last deep breath.

“Come out—”

Before he could finish, I spun around the corner and held my gun up. I took a split-second to make sure I wasn’t firing at someone innocent.

They weren’t.

Bang. Bang. Bang.

I squeezed the trigger and clipped one of them in the shoulder. He fell to the ground and yelped in pain. Another shot hit the next man in the chest. I only got two of them before the other two fired back at me. I was already back around the cabin before they could hit me.

“Motherfucker! You’re gonna pay for that!”

I could hear them stalking me. More footsteps approached me from around the corner of the cabin. I made my way around the back, trying to remain as quiet as possible. But I wasn’t fast enough. They turned the corner faster than I could get away.

“Come here, motherfucker!”

I dived to the ground and fired back at them as they shot at me. I managed to get out of the way of the line of fire.

Bang. Bang.

My bullets sprayed in their direction, managing to hit one of them in the stomach. He collapsed to the ground in pain.

I didn’t have time to celebrate. The other man kept moving forward, stalking me like I was his prey. I stumbled back up to my feet and fired at him.

My gun only clicked. The sound of no ammo.

“Shit…”

I tossed the gun aside in frustration. The madman smiled at me as he moved forward. His gun raised, he fired at me.

This was the end for me.

Another click.

Fate was smiling on me.

The last man tossed his empty gun to the side and motioned for me with his index finger.

“Hiding out in the woods like a little bitch,” he said. “Why don’t you come take your beating like a man?”

“This is your unlucky day, motherfucker.”

I stepped toward him with the ax in both hands.

He didn’t care that I had a weapon. He had his hands up like he was going to kill me regardless.

I swung at him and he moved out of the way. Another swing of the ax and he rolled to the side. He was surprisingly fast. All that practice chopping wood made it hard for me to hit a moving target.

“You swing like a girl,” he said. “Why don’t you stop being a bitch and put that thing away?”

“You’re gonna regret this.”

People always told me my pride was gonna get me killed. Having an ax meant I could kill this guy with one swing. But I was gonna give him what he wanted.

I tossed the ax to the side. As soon as I did, I raced forward and tackled him to the ground. He struggled underneath me as I rained down punches onto his face.

“Come on, motherfucker… Get up…”

There was nothing more satisfying than pounding some punk who deserved it. I wasn’t just punching him for me. I was punching for everybody he probably bullied in his life.

His eyes started to roll back in his head. His face was covered in blood. But through all of the red, I could still see his yellow teeth smiling up at me.

“Is that all you got?”

He reached up suddenly and grabbed me by the throat. I struggled on top of him as he started to strangle me.

Shit…

“Lights out, motherfucker.”

He gripped both of his hands around my neck.

I struggled to breathe.

Everything was going black.

Katrina… Katrina…

I couldn’t stop. I had to keep going. Not for me. For her.

With my last ounce of strength, I elbowed him as hard as I could in the stomach. He released me from his grip and stumbled backward. My vision returned to me as I tried to catch my breath.

I only had a moment to relax. He rushed back toward me. I spun out of the way and he stumbled.

I saw the ax on the dirt. I picked it up and got behind him. I pulled the handle around his throat and held it tight. He reached up and tried to free himself, clawing at me. His breaths grew weaker as I choked him out.

I yelled as I used every last fucking muscle I had.

Finally, he stopped struggling. His arms fell to the ground. I released the ax handle from around his neck and his body fell lifeless to the floor.

I pushed my fists into the dirt and worked my way back up to my feet. Heart pounding in my chest, I looked at the trail of bodies I left as I headed back to the cabin. I checked to make sure there was nobody else. There were only four bikes, so I had to assume that they were the only ones there.

“Katrina,” I said as I banged on the door. “Open up. It’s okay.”

A few seconds went by until the door slowly creaked open. Katrina stared at me, wide-eyed with a look of horror on her face.

“Blake…”

“It’s okay,” I sighed. “It’s okay.”

I could only imagine what I looked like to her. I wasn’t going to reassure with anything I said.

“What… Who…”

She stuttered her questions. And I was searching for the same answers she was.

I made my way over to the one man who was still alive. He writhed on the ground, blood gushing from his shoulder in a small pool around him.

I knelt down in front of him and grabbed him by the collar.

“What are you doing here?” I said.

He didn’t give me the answer I was looking for. He just smiled, yellow teeth as bloody as the rest of him.

“What are you doing here?”

I shook him as if that would make any fucking difference.

He wasn’t going to tell me anything. He let every drop of blood spill out of him. The smile stayed on his face as his eyes went lifeless.

“Shit…”

I got back up to my feet and shook my head as I looked at the other body next to him.

“Who are they?” Katrina said.

“Spades.”

“Spades?”

I kicked one of the bodies and flipped it over. I pointed at the tattoo on the back of his shaved head.

“They all have a tattoo of a spade. That’s why they all shave their heads. There’s no mistaking it.”

“What are they? Are they a club—”

“They’re not a motorcycle club. They’re a white supremacist group.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “Why would they—”

“I don’t know. I have no idea why a bunch of fucking skinheads would come out here to kill us. Maybe they were doing it for themselves. Maybe someone hired them.”

“You don’t think—”

“Right now, I don’t know what to think. The only thing I know for sure is that it’s not safe for you here anymore.”

“Blake… What are you saying?”

The situation had changed. The Cobras were pissed at me. My own club was pissed at me, too.

None of that mattered to me now though. As I stared into Katrina’s eyes, I knew I had to protect her. So there was only one choice I could make.

“Get your phone,” I said. “Call the police and tell them these guys attacked us. Tell them I had to protect you. They don’t have any evidence otherwise. They’ll believe you.”

“And then?”

“Gather your things. I’m taking you back to Ivory.”