Chapter 20
Summer
Jack and I are the last ones to enter the cabin. The rest of the Crows move in first with Roman. Shortly after that there’s a lot of shouting and a lot of gunfire, then things quickly settle down. By the time we move in, the gunfire seems to have stopped. For now anyway.
I’m still shaking from almost getting raped by that asshole Kane. It wasn’t too hard getting out of that conundrum though. I remembered the empty whiskey bottle that had rolled under the bed this morning. Once I managed to get my hands on it, all I had to do was smash it on the floor and drive that thing through his pathetic dick. Thinking about it, I should feel slightly sick or something. I just stabbed a human being. Truth be told, I don’t really feel anything like that. I just feel vindicated. He was going to rape me. I did what I had to do in self defense. I stop and wonder for a moment if being around Jack for so long is starting to have an effect me.
The club house is the last place that I want to go back to after everything that’s happened in here. As we walk in I stay close to Jack, now he’s back again I don’t want to let him out of my sight. Even with all the crazy bullshit that’s happened, at least I feel safe around him. We walk into the main room and I see the that the bodies from before are still on the floor. Considering I only saw my first dead body less than twenty four hours ago, this is starting to feel a little more normal.
There’s another body however. One of the young Crows that rode in with Jack. I look at him for a second out of curiosity, there’s a hole in the side of his head where his jaw should be.
“Get down on your fucking knees Cole!” I look up and see the gang standing around two men who are holding their hand up. My captors. Cole and Deacon.
“Alright.” Teddy says. “How are we going to do this? Jack I’m assuming you want to kill Deacon…”
Jack takes a step forward. “Damn straight. But I want answers first.” Jack lifts his gun and walks over to Deacon, who looks up at him with blood stained teeth.
“Let me kill Cole.” Joyce says. “Fucker shot Knowles. I’ve lost too many friends these last two days.”
“Let’s both do it.” Teddy says. “I’ve hated this fucker long enough. It’ll be my privilege.”
“You’re both fucking queers.” Cole laughs, coughing up a mouthful of blood. I look down and see a large pool of blood coming from his stomach. “You had a chance to be someone here. Could have ridden to the top with me. This could have been a revolution.”
“Some revolution.” Teddy scoffs. “I’ve seen bikers try to throw plenty of coups before in my time Cole, but this has to be one of the worst. I don’t even know if it’s worth mentioning to Abbott.”
“Abbott will the death of you all.” Cole croaks. “You’ll see.”
Teddy and Joyce look at each other, nod and shoot Cole in unison. His body slumps onto the floor to lay with the rest of the dead.
“Guess it’s my turn now!” Deacon shouts, laughing into the stone quiet room.
“What part of this is so fucking funny to you?” Jack growls, tightening his fist around the gun. “Why did you flip in the first place? Why did you come down here?”
“Oh I’d love to fill you in Jack. But in all honesty it’s none of your fucking business.”
“A prick to the end then.” Roman chimes in.
“Fuck off traitor.” Deacon tries to spit blood at Roman but fails.
“Traitor?” Roman laughs. “That’s rich coming from you.”
“You destroyed my club.” Jack says. “You tried to kill my woman. You tried to destroy the Crows. All this destruction, and for what? Because I messed up?”
Deacon rolls his eyes. “Forget it. You’ll never understand. So you might as well shoot me.”
Jack pulls the trigger back on the gun and I can see the anger in his eyes. He’s not a mindless criminal. He needs to know why. He needs a reason for Deacon’s betrayal. What method is there to this madness?
“Why did the Salt Dogs help you?” Jack growls. “Why did they come down here with you?”
Deacon says nothing in return. He simply smiles and a line of blood crawls down the corner of his mouth.
“Why is this so fucking funny to you?” Jack hisses. “You were my right hand man Deacon. What changed?”
But Deacon says nothing. Instead he just closes his eyes and starts singing.
“Jack pardon the interruption.” Teddy starts. “But can you hurry up and kill this guy already? He’s starting to piss me off.”
“I need to know why.” Jack says. “I need to find out why he betrayed me in the first place or someone else might just fill his place.”
“Sometimes chaos reigns Jack, no?” Joyce chips in.
“No.” Jack answers. “Deacon was always too much of a coward for chaos. There’s a reason behind it. He’s just too much of a coward to admit why.”
There’s a tension in the cabin that’s high. Jack wants answers that Deacon isn’t going to give, and the longer we wait, the more Teddy and Joyce are getting pissed off that Deacon isn’t dead already. Then a gun goes off and everyone jumps.
“She stabbed my dick!” An arm reaches around from behind me and grabs me tight by the throat, so tight I feel as if I’m going to choke. I’m pulled back and nearly trip over my feet, my eyes roll round my skull as I struggle to breathe.
A coughing sound splutters from my right and everyone turns to see Tom fall face first onto the floor. Whoever is holding me must have shot him.
“Let her go!” Jack roars and now his gun is trained on my captor. Something cold and hard presses against the side of my head. It’s a gun. I struggle for breath and realize who is standing behind me. It’s Kane. I’d left him to bleed out on the cabin floor, I just assumed he would be dead.
“Shut the fuck up and drop your weapon or I’ll kill the bitch.” Kane hisses. Jack keeps his gun trained on Kane for a moment and then realizes he has to do what Kane says.
“Alright, alright. Just don’t hurt her.” Jack puts his gun down on the floor.
“Everyone else too!” Kane rasps. Roman is the first to lower his gun, but Teddy and Joyce keep their weapons trained on Kane.
“Fuck you asshole. Teddy spits. “I shot your traitor president and I’ll shoot you too.”
“Teddy please.” Jack pleads. “Put your weapons down we’ll figure this out.”
Teddy and Joyce stare at Jack as if they’re about to disagree, then they look at each other and slowly lower their weapons.
“Finally!” Deacon shouts from the other side of the room. Everyone turns to look at him. He slowly lifts himself to his knees with one hand stretched out. In it there’s a grenade. In his other hand is the pin.
“What the fuck are you doing you psychopath?!” Kane shouts from behind me. His arms tightens around my throat and he presses his gun against my temple harder. I try to cry out in pain but I can’t even get air.
“Just a little escape tactic I cooked up!” Deacon grins. “Let’s get out of here!”
“I’m not working with you anymore you crazy fuck. Cole’s the one who agreed to that. Not me!”
“Well your traitor president is dead!” Deacon spits. “So it seems you don’t have much choice.”
“Can I just say this is the worst fucking hostile takeover I’ve ever seen.” Teddy grunts.
“Shut the fuck up you old cunt, or I’ll blow us all to shit!”
Then, something comes over me. I don’t know what it is but I am fucking done with this biker drama horse shit. Kane has one significant injury that I know about, and I’m going to hit him where it hurts.
I take a deep breath and then swing my right leg back as hard as I can, smacking Kane right between the legs where I stabbed him earlier.
Kane screams in agony and releases his grip for a moment, giving me the chance I need. I swing my elbow back into his stomach, causing him to double over and then I pull the gun out of his hand and squeeze the trigger under his jaw. The bullet screams through Kane’s head, his eyes go white and he falls back to the floor. The blast is so loud it deafens me. For a second everything is quiet and then the world slowly whistles back in my ears.
“Holy fucking shit!” Joyce is jumping up and down slapping his hands together. “Did you see that?! Summer just went full biker!”
I look around the cabin and my whole body is shaking with adrenaline. I look down at the gun in my hand, and feel half surprised that I’m even holding it. Then I look down at Kane’s body.
“Good riddance asshole.”
“Hello? Hello?!” Everyone turns to see Deacon shouting and waving his grenade. “Need I remind everyone that I’m in control here?!”
I lift the gun and point it at Deacon. I’ve just about had enough of his shit too. Deacon looks at me and laughs. “Look darling, I know you think you might be the baddest bitch in the west now you’ve iced that fucking retard, but put the gun down or I’ll kill us all.”
I look at Jack, unsure of what to do and he nods his head slowly. “Do it. He’s crazy enough to do it.”
I put the gun down onto the floor slowly. “Fucking bullshit.” I huff.
“That’s just life I’m afraid darling. Now…you.” Deacon turns to Roman. “Give me the keys to your bike.”
Roman fishes his keys out of his pocket and throws them at Deacon begrudgingly. “Okay. Brilliant! Now everyone step over there against that wall. Away from their guns.”
Everyone does as Deacon says, and we line up on the far side of the cabin. “Good. Good.” Deacon walks over to the front door and looks outside to make sure his exit is clear.
“Well guys. I can’t say it hasn’t been fun. But it looks like old Deacon has lived to see another day.”
“You’re a fucking dead man walking.” Jack growls.
“Now now Jack, play nice. I’d fucking drop you here if I thought I could get out alive, but–”
“But you’re a coward. So you’d never do that.”
Deacon swallows at something in his throat.
“But don’t you worry. I’m going to head back to the city and get a new team together. And then I’m going to come back and make sure I kill you properly.”
“New team?” Jack sounds skeptical. “Who else would help you in the city? You’re a lost cause.”
“Actually it’s you that’s the lost cause Jack. I’m not the only one that wants you dead. There’s a long line of people who want to see you dead. Don’t you worry about that. Bon voyage!”
Deacon slides out of the cabin and then he pops his head back in. “Oh, I nearly forgot!”
Deacon throws the grenade into the cabin and then ducks back out. The grenade smashes against the wooden floor with a solid thud and rolls across the room toward the bar.
“Get down!” Jack screams and everyone throws themselves on to the floor. Something heavy lands on top of me. The grenade explodes and the room fills with heat and sound.
My ears go again, and the only sound in the room is a high pitched whistling. My head feels slightly funny, like all the air in my body has been sucked out. I’m screwed up in a tight ball on the floor, and there’s something heavy on top of me. The weight taps my shoulder, I look up and see that it’s Jack, he must have thrown himself on top of me to protect me. He mouths something at me but I can’t hear a single thing.
“What?” I strain hard to try and hear him over the whistling. Sound slowly starts to floods back.
“I said are you okay?” Jack holds his hand out and pulls me up.
“Oh…yeah. I think so.” I look down at myself to check. Apart from the graze on my thigh from Kane’s shotgun there isn’t a scratch on me.
“That’s my girl.” Jack says smiling. “Everyone else okay?” We both look around the cabin. Slowly but surely everyone is pulling themselves to their feet.
“I’m good.” Teddy says. “Just pissed off.”
“Same.” Joyce says.
“Fucker stole my bike.” Roman lights a cigarette and lifts himself to his feet warily.
“That’s the club destroyed.” Teddy nods to the far end of the bar and we all look.
The blast from the grenade has torn the cabin apart, blowing a hole in the wall and the roof. The far end of the room is now nothing more than a pile of broken wood and splinters.
“Jesus Christ.” Joyce whistles. “Abbott isn’t going to be happy about this.”
“No he isn’t.” A gruff voice comes from the doorway.
“Abbott.” Teddy’s voice sounds grim. “What are you doing here?”
“I heard Cole was trying to stage a revolution. You really think I wouldn’t come?”
“Cole’s dead. Deacon just rode out of here a few minutes ago.”
“Fucker!” Abbott smashes his hand through a wall. “We must have rode right past him.”
“Come with me now.” Abbott says pointing at Teddy and Joyce. “You’re going to explain everything.”
Teddy and Joyce follow Abbott towards the back of the smoking cabin and disappear through a door in the back.
“I need some fresh air.” Roman heads out the front, leaving Jack and I alone.
“You’re quite something. You know that?” Jack comes over and brushes his hand up and down my arm. I fall into his chest and let out a deep sigh. “I thought I’d lost you there for a moment.”
“I don’t know what came over me. I didn’t want to let him kill me.”
“You’re a warrior. You did what you have to do. Just like me.” Jack kisses my forehead and runs a hand through my hair. He pulls away from me, concern covers his face.
“What’s wrong?” I say. “I thought you would have liked this side of me?”
“I do I guess.” His eyes glass over and he stares into the distance. “I’ve corrupted you though. There’s no going back now.”
Jack walks outside the cabin and joins Roman for a smoke on the front porch. I stand in the doorway and watch them both in the calm afternoon sun. Fifteen minutes ago this place had been a war zone, now they were just standing and joking around like everything was back to normal.
I turn around and look at Kane’s lifeless body and I feel nothing. Twenty four hours ago I’d seen my first body and now I’d killed someone. Sure, it was in self defense, but I don’t think the old Summer would have been able to do that.
Jack might not want me to be a part of his world, and for good reason. Looking around at the corpses of those who have fallen, I can easily see that most don’t live long in this game.
He might want to keep me away, but I’m part of this life now and there’s absolutely no going back.