Chapter 3
Charity
“Yes, we are free. We’ll get something to get those zip ties off.” Brody tells me. I look from him to Rebel. I wish I could have met Brody under different circumstances. His eyes are drawing me in. There seems to be a connection between us. I can tell he is a good man. His eyes tell me everything I need to know. My ma used to tell me that your eyes always tell the truth. It’s not as if I think that Brody couldn’t be a harsh man if it is called for, but his eyes have compassion in them and a warmth that I am sure I will never see or feel again. It could be it is because I have been confined to interacting with only the people that lived in our community. I have been to the town close to where I grew up but not for more than a couple hours at a time. Rebel and Brody are still searching but I know they need to get away from this house before the other men come back.
“Leave me behind. Just get out while you have the chance. Just, please, don’t forget to try and come back for me.” I will do anything to help Brody get out of here, even if it means my death. Both the men stop and look at me.
“We are not leaving you behind. We will all get out together.” Brody tells me. Rebel is searching his vest for something.
“Here it is.” Rebel is mashing something in the bottom of his vest.
“You have a tracker on you? Why haven’t they found us already then?” Brody ask Rebel.
“I couldn’t get to it. It only works when I apply pressure to it. The Hell Keeperz MC is still a bunch of slackers, if not, they would have taken my cut first thing to humiliate me.” Rebel tells us. Brody looks at him with a puzzled look on his face. Rebel shakes his head and then goes on. “Being the President of the Demented Revengers, it is not always a good thing letting everyone know where I am every minute. This is my compromise.”
“How long until they will be able to find us?” Brody asks Rebel. I listen, taking it all in.
“I don’t know but they have a lead now to find us, but I have no intention of hanging around and waiting.” Is Rebel’s response.
“Do they have any hand soap on the sink anywhere? I might can get my hands slick enough to slide them out. They aren’t as tight now. I think me wiggling my hands around loosened them a little.” Brody walks over by the sink and toilet. There’s a bottle of liquid soap on the basin. Brody grabs it and walk over by the bed and bends over it and slicks up my wrist. I start rubbing the soap under the zip ties. I hear Rebel urinating in the toilet and Brody stand so I don’t have to see Rebel. That is sweet of Brody. Rebel comes back to stand by the bed. I look at him. I am still trying to twist my hands out.
“Charity look the other way, so I can take a leak.” I shake my head yes and then avert my eyes to the other wall. My wrist is finally free of the zip ties but still tied by a rope. I put my hands out to Rebel and he has them untied in minutes. I have a little blood running down my hands from where I have opened cuts up again.
“Rub your wrist to get the circulation back in them.” Rebel tells me with concern in his voice.
“Thank you for helping me. I need to wash my hands and if you don’t mind turning your backs, so I can take care of my business.” I am staring at the wall but talking to Rebel. It’s embarrassing telling two men you barely know that you need to take care of your business. They both look the other direction. “What do we need to do next?” I ask as I make it to the toilet. I turn the water on.
“Don’t flush. They may hear it down stairs. In old houses, sometimes the pipes are loud.” Brody tells me. I shouldn’t be running the water, but I don’t hear any unusual noises. It is gross not flushing but I am not arguing if it gets us out of here.
“Do you remember if there were any squeaks in the stairs? We need to be prepared. Where is the closest door? Which direction do we go when we get downstairs?” Brody is firing questions at me.
“One thing at a time. Do you remember where there were any loud creaks or squeaks in the hall floor and stairs?” Rebel is right. I was getting overwhelmed. I sit on the bed and put my socks and shoes back on as I think.
“I was walking on my right-side walking up and there was a lot of noise, but the bikers walked in the middle of the stairs and I didn’t hear anything from beneath them, but it could have been our stairs creaked at the same time. Walking in the hall it was such a short distance I didn’t pay any attention. I was anxious about what was going to happen to me. The guard in the living room usually sits on the sofa or paces the floor. From the few times I was out of my room. The front door is in the living room. The back door is in the kitchen. No lock on it except for a slide lock. I don’t know anything about the other side of the door. I didn’t take the chance to look.” I close my eyes and try to remember. “Those are the only two doors that I know about. I was only brought out of the room they put me in to put something together for us to eat.” I hope that the information I am giving them is enough to help.
“Brody, we need to go downstairs and take the remaining Hell Keeperz down. There should only be three of them at most but be prepared for more and be careful. They may have some they are keeping out of sight. There should be two inside and one outside. We take the two inside down and take their weapons. The one outside we do together. Charity stay down and out of sight.” Rebel fires off his thoughts. I don’t want to be hit by a stray bullet but neither of these men have even asked me if I can defend myself.
“If they are not both in the living room, the ones that watched over me, most of the time, were sleeping in the room right beside mine. It’s the first door down the hall.” I tell the two of them. The thought of Rebel or Brody getting hurt is eating at me, but my eyes always stray back to Brody. He is one handsome man and he puts off an aura of confidence. He is the type of man that I have no right to be interested in. I am sure he is educated and has women falling all over him. I can’t compete with that. I am a plain jane every day woman. My facial features are alright, but I have curves. I am not a pencil thin woman. I like food, so I eat. I am muscular but not in a manly bulky way. I work every day either in the garden or our warehouse or I should say I did work every day. I have devoted my life to my family. Learning everything from my pop about our way of life. I get up and work all day to make my family’s life easier and then go home and sleep. What do I have to offer a man like Brody? Nothing but that does not stop me from dreaming of his hard-muscular body. The one man that I thought I could trust with my body back home made me feel ashamed and he told me no man would ever put a ring on my finger. I guess I had the last laugh because I never met a man, from our community, that I would let put a ring on my finger. In our community getting married meant you were taking another man besides your father that you were required to take orders from and in turn the male members of his family. I could never see myself as a woman who blindly followed the instructions of other people. Just because I am female does not mean that I do not have a brain.
“Charity stay behind us going down the stairs. No wait, this is too risky.” Brody looks torn. He walks over to the window and tries to get a look at something through the boards. “We don’t have a choice, that ledge out there looks rotten.” Brody looks at me and I feel weak in my knees. I need to get myself together. “Stay behind us Charity. We don’t want you hurt for helping us. Try to stay away from the places you remember creaking on the stairs.” Brody looks at me again. “Maybe you should just stay up here until we have the downstairs secure.” I roll my eyes and start to argue but Rebel speaks up.
“No. Brody we are all going together, and we will keep Charity safe. If one of those men get up here to Charity, then they have the upper hand.” Rebel looks at me. “Charity follow the instructions Brody gave you and be aware of what is going on and your surroundings and just maybe, we’ll all come out of this alive.”
“I agree with Rebel.” I speak up. I look at Brody and he is not happy with any of this, but he has a resigned look in his eyes.
“Then let’s quit talking about it and just do it.” I agree with Brody. Let’s do it.
“I’m going first and then Brody. Charity come right behind Brody and stay close. When we get to the bottom of the stairs stay put until one of says to move.” Rebel takes control of the situation. Rebel turns and goes to the door. He barely opens the door and looks out to the hallway. He opens the door wider and steps out. Brody is close behind him and I follow. We quietly make our way down the stairs. My memory served me well. No creaks on this side of the stairs. We make our way down the stairs quickly. Once we are at the bottom of the stairs Rebel and Brody look around. I listen for any noises. Rebel raises his hand and motions for us to stay put. He sneaks over towards the living room and sneaks a look. He puts up one finger. Then I hear a snore coming from down the hall. I grab Brody’s arm and point down the hall and touch my ear, so Brody will know to listen. He nods his head. Rebel is watching us. Brody moves up the hall and stops at the first door. He puts his ear to the door and shakes his head affirmatively. Rebel puts up three fingers and then takes them down one at a time. When the last one is down they both move. I pray they are not hurt. I look up the hall and I can’t pull my eyes away from the door Brody entered. I forget to do what Rebel told me to.
“Well lookie who we have here. Thinking about skipping out on us.” I relax but I am filled with fear. Not for me but for Brody and Rebel. I don’t know which of the men this one is. Then a calm comes over me. I feel the gun poked in the back of my right shoulder. “Turn around and look at me.” I do what the man says. There is a loud noise coming out of the room Brody went into. It surprises the man with the gun on me and he lets his guard down for a moment and I take full advantage of it. I reach for the gun he is holding and hit the clip release. I lean my body to the right and with my left hand I pull the slide back and make sure the bullet releases from the chamber. I have practiced this move hundreds of times with my dad. The man grabs me by one arm, but I bring my knee up and with my other hand and slam his nose into my knee. I kick the clip away. It is all accuracy, balance, and weight leverage. I have been practicing hand to hand combat since I was old enough to practice moves and remember them. I step back from the man, but he is not giving up that easily. He tries to slam my face into the wall. It doesn’t work. As he is using his weight to try to slam my face into the wall. I let him have his move but right before my face hits the wall I bring my hands up and push off the wall and hook my leg and foot around his leg and take him to the floor. I am on top of him and slamming fist after fist into his face, his eyes and nose. I feel him hitting me as well as he can, but I feel nothing, and I see nothing but blood. I lose myself in destroying this man, but I am pulled off him.
“I thought you were supposed to stay safe and out of the way.” Brody growls in my ear. Rebel is laughing.
“Damn, she is a wildcat.” Rebel eyes move to the gun on the floor. “What the hell happened?” Rebel is not laughing anymore. Brody releases me.
“I was worried about you two and I didn’t hear him come up behind me. He had the gun on me, but I ejected the clip and rolled the bullet out of the chamber and after that it was just a fight to stay alive.” I explain what happened.
“You could have been killed. Where did you learn how to do that?” Brody asks me. I see Rebel is waiting for me to answer also.
“We all learn hand to hand and how to use weapons in our community. I am accurate with shooting almost any kind of weapon and I know about some explosives. The elders in our community are always worried about the government forcing their way into our homes and closing our way of life down. We all learn, female or male.” I try to explain things to Brody and Rebel that I don’t even understand. I have never understood why I needed to learn things that I never hoped to use. I know self-defense is important but to be able to use so many guns and weapons is not normal. Is it? I walk over and pick up the 45 and then find the clip. I look at the man who is not moving and he is unconscious, but I see he is still breathing. I look at Brody.
“You might want to check him for more ammo. We may need it.” Brody shakes his head in an affirmative motion. Rebel is smiling again.
“Charity keep the 45 with you. You could be a real asset to us.” Rebel says. Brody is patting down the man to see if he has an extra clip. He brings one out. It’s just then I notice that the man does not have a leather vest on like he was wearing when I arrived.
“Why is he not wearing a vest?” I look at Rebel and wait for the answer.
“It’s a cut, not a vest, and that is a very good question.” Rebel answers. “The one that was on the couch in the living room wasn’t wearing one either. How about the one in the bedroom, Brody?”
“No, he wasn’t wearing one either. I got his keys to his bike and his cell. I called Kaden. The Demented Revengers were not getting a good signal off your tracker. I also let him in on the restaurant we were in when we were nabbed.” Brody answered.
“I found the keys and cell from the one on the couch. I called Sin and Cap. Tip said when I get back where there is not as many trees around us they’ll be able to pick up the signal better. Cap also said to be careful about the bikes they could have been tampered with and I agree. This was too easy and even if these three are prospects they should have their cuts on. They had them earlier or at least two did.” Rebel tells us. “Let’s be careful when we look at the bikes and didn’t you say they brought you here in a car or SUV. The others left on their bikes so maybe it is here somewhere.” Rebel turns to leave but I remember about the pills in the kitchen.
“I have a suggestion.” Rebel and Brody both look at me, so I go on. “The pills in the kitchen cabinet will keep the guys here out for a while if we give them one or if we crush them and let them dissolve in their mouths. My ma always slept seven to eight hours after she took one and they were less milligrams.” Rebel is shaking his head yes.
“That’s a clever idea. Can you crush them up for us and we will put it in their mouths?” Brody says, and I can see Rebel agrees.
“It may get in there systems faster if you put it under their tongues.” I say and then walk into the kitchen and get the bottle of pills from the cabinet. I take them down and look in each of the drawers for something to crush them with. You would think that something as small as a pill would be easy to crush but I know better. I find nothing in all the drawers. I look under the cabinet and I see an old hammer. It will do in a bind. I use the hammer to crush two pills and I see some plastic cups on top of the refrigerator and I grab one and put the first two pills and in it. I do the next two and put them in another cup and then the last two the same way. I pick up the cups and walk back where Brody and Rebel are. I notice as I am walking up they are whispering. That throws up all sorts of red flags up for me. “Are you two keeping secrets from me?” I wait for an answer.