Ashton
Once Ryder leaves I decide to find Bonnie. If I stay here on my own, I’ll be one anxiety-ridden mess. I hear the bikes fire up and leave about twenty minutes after Ryder and wonder what’s happening. Occasionally they go without him but not often. I know he wouldn’t want them at Cassie’s school so it must be something else.
It doesn’t take long and I reach Bonnie’s house and knock loudly. I feel anxious and worry what will happen. Ryder isn’t the sort to make a scene and upset his daughter but I saw the fire in his eyes and the resolve harden his face.
Bonnie opens the door and instantly realizes something is up.
“My God, Ashton, you’re as pale as a ghost. Is everything ok with Cassie?”
I nod but can’t stop the tears from filling my eyes and she drags me inside.
“Come on girlfriend, you’re gonna tell me everything?”
Nodding, I follow her in.
I watch her make me a strong coffee and falteringly I tell her everything. Now I’ve started I can’t stop, and it starts with the Club and ends with Ryder heading off for revenge. By the time I finish she sucks in her breath.
“Man, that is some story, honey. I can’t believe you’ve had to deal with so much in such a short space of time. No wonder you wanted to learn how to fight.”
I nod miserably and she looks at me kindly.
“Listen, Ryder may be one hard son of a bitch but he won’t do anything to upset his baby. He’ll sort this, you have no reason to doubt that. As for your other problem, so what if your daddy finds you? I’ve never known anyone leave this place unless they want to. Ryder won’t allow it and you know you’re protected, don’t you?”
I nod, but she doesn’t know my daddy. He isn’t one to let a bunch of bikers stand in the way of what he wants. I’m not stupid enough to think for one minute he wants his daughter back. No, it’s his prize bargaining chip that he’s missing. If I don’t marry Marshall Emmerson, then the deal they made will be null and void and daddy will lose everything.
I hang out at Bonnie’s for a good hour talking everything through before we decide to head to the guys' gym and get in some training. Bonnie thought it best to occupy my mind in a productive way which suits me just fine.
As we walk the short walk to the gym, we hear tires crunching on the gravel drive out the front. It sounds as if there are lots of them but they aren’t the usual sounds of the bikes. These sound like cars and Bonnie looks at me with worry in her eyes.
“Something’s happening. That’s not normal.”
She silences me with a finger to her lips and pulls me into the shade of a nearby tree. We move stealthily through them until we have a view of the yard. My heart starts hammering as I see trucks, cars, and vans all parked in the yard. Streams of men are pouring from them and taking up their stations all around. They are surrounding the compound and Bonnie looks at me with a hard glint in her eye. “Feds.”
I feel my heart hammering as I hear shouting. We hear somebody crashing through the trees and Bonnie pulls me deeper into the forest.
“Come on, we’ll hide out here until they leave.”
As we crash through the trees, I worry what’s happening. I hope Ryder’s ok. I hear shouting - lots of shouting and Bonnie whispers.
“They must know that half the men are missing. Nobody would dare come here if the guys were home. They must have been watching.”
I say fearfully, “What do you think they want?”
Bonnie shrugs. “Who knows, but as soon as the guys return all hell will break loose. We’ll hide out in the dugout until they return.”
The dugout is some way through the trees and I would never know it was here. Bonnie leads me through a covered doorway on the floor of the forest and I see some steps leading downwards. My heart thumps as the trap door closes behind us and she flicks a switch and the light illuminates a bare boarded room, with bunks lining the wall.
She grins, “Not very homely but a good place to hide. Nobody will find us here unless they know about it. It’s also soundproofed and you could shoot a gun in here and nobody would know.”
My eyes widen as I see the very things lining the walls. Rows upon rows of guns are locked in place and under them are cupboards stuffed with rations and supplies.
I look around in total shock and Bonnie laughs softly. “Ryder had this built as a safe place for the women to run to if anyone came here for revenge. We are taught to defend ourselves in every way and this is just one of them.”
Shaking my head, I sink down into a nearby seat and try to take it in. I whisper, “What if the children come here? It’s not safe with these guns around.”
Bonnie laughs. “The kids wouldn’t be able to grab the guns. They are locked in place with a fingerprint recognition system. Only those authorized to shoot are loaded onto the system. Nobody gets these guns unless Ryder wants them to.”
I shake my head in amazement. I still have so much to learn about the place I now call home. I watch Bonnie lift a revolver from the wall and look at her in surprise. “Can you shoot, Bonnie?”
She laughs. “Just a little. Before I became Snake’s old lady I worked for the Feds. I was considered a crack shot, and it’s where I learned my craft.”
I look at her with interest. Wow, this is interesting stuff. She carries on.
“I was assigned a mission to infiltrate a gang of bikers on the other side of town. It was all going well, and I found out every dirty deal they were involved with. I was the intelligence gatherer and boy did I find out some stuff. The trouble is, the Reapers were sent in before I could complete my mission. Somebody higher up than my boss called it and they forgot to inform me. The fact I could defend myself earned me my life as those guys mean business when they attack. I managed to get out and hide in the woods. It was there that Snake found me.”
I am mesmerized as I see the faraway look in Bonnie’s eyes as she remembers. She continues softly.
“I gave a good fight, but the bastard overpowered me in the end. I’m not sure why, but he brought me back here instead of turning me in, or even worse sending me to meet my maker like so many others that day. I didn’t make things easy on him though. I didn’t know that he’d been sent to remove me from the situation to protect my cover. The bastard kept that one to himself and enjoyed torturing me by keeping me prisoner when he should have let me go.”
She laughs. “I soon stopped complaining though. I mean, he’s so hot and I am a red-blooded woman after all. I had a lot of fun resisting him but well, you know how things panned out.”
I stare at her in awe. “You were a Fed? What made you give it up?”
She smiles. “Love conquers all. I couldn’t leave Snake once I found him and so I handed in my shield and enrolled in college instead. The rest you know. I became Snake’s old lady and we live a very satisfactory life here. I wouldn’t want it any other way.”
We fall silent and I think about her story. It seems that everyone here has some sort of amazing story behind them. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what happens here.
I look around me nervously.
“So, what happens now?”
She throws me a can and rolls her eyes.
“We wait.”
I try to still my pounding heart and worry about the others. I look at her fearfully. “Will the others be ok?”
Bonnie nods. “I wouldn’t worry. Even though we have unwelcome visitors nobody will care. We don’t have security for a reason. Mostly people know not to come here. It’s the unspoken rule and if they do they suffer the consequences. Despite there only being a handful of bikers here they are perfectly capable of defending us. Even the feds are no match for a Reaper and they will soon learn that the hard way. By the time the rest of them arrive back the feds won’t know what’s hit them.”
I stare at her in amazement and she laughs.
“Listen, Ryder will be back soon and sort it out. In the meantime, the guys will take care of our visitors and make sure they feel extremely uncomfortable.”
I whisper. “What do you think they want?”
Bonnie fixes me with a hard look.
“I think that’s obvious. They’ve come for you, Ashton. It’s why I brought you here for safety. We are not leaving this dugout until Ryder says so and if I must, I will shoot the bastards first before letting them take you.”