Feeling that desert wind blow through my hair was the best thing I could ask for, it was like the planet was telling me “welcome back to the real world.” I was loving every second of it.

We pulled up outside of a garage and Axel got off of the bike.

“If you don’t want to see this you don’t have to you know” he told me as he led me to the back door of the garage. “I brought you here so that you’d have the option but that doesn’t mean you have to go through with it.”

I grabbed onto his hand and held on. “No, I need to see it, I need to know that sick bastard was hurt just like he hurt me for so long. I know I might regret it later, and I know I should never wish harm on another person but he treated me like… like…”

“You don’t have to say it” he replied to me. “Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon.”

He opened the back door and I was surprised to hear that there were still men working on bikes and cars in the front. Seemed a little late for them to still be here.

When we opened the door Wyatt was sitting there smoking a cigarette, looking down at the floor as he tapped his foot in frustration.

“Something’s happened Axel, something big.”

Axel walked over and put his hand on Wyatt’s shoulder.

“What happened? Did Edgar escape? Why didn’t you tell me on the phone?”

“No no, we still have Edgar, he’s right behind that door there” Wyatt said taking the cigarette out of his mouth and pointing to a nearby door that was closed. “I just got word… those fuckin’ Scorched Satan bastards hit us again. A group of our guys hanging out near another auto shop, they just rolled in and gunned them down. Clay was in that group but by some fucking miracle he survived with only a bullet in his leg and arm.”

I immediately thought of the Scorched Satan bikers Axel and I ran into on our way to Edgar’s house, were they the same men that did it?

“Jesus christ” Axel muttered. He put his hand up to his head, almost as if he was in physical pain just by hearing the news.

“How many guys did it?” Axel asked, sounded like he had the same thought as me.

“Our boys counted around 15” Wyatt replied. “No fucking clue how they got into town unnoticed by our scouts.”

Axel seemed to breath a little sigh of relief knowing that it probably wasn’t the 4 men that we saw earlier. Having that weight on him would almost be too much. I watched him as he looked at the door to the room where they were keeping Edgar, he opened his mouth to say something but Wyatt cut him off.

“Look I know you want to go and see Clay but the guy is already warmed up for you, I'm not sure if we can get him to this state again I think he's just about ready to call it quits. If you want to find out about Zeke’s killer then nows the time.”

Axel looked at me and then patted Wyatt on the back. He walked over to the door and opened it, immediately the sound of blaring heavy metal music filled the garage. With the door closed you couldn't hear it over the sounds of the men working on the cars but now it was so loud you felt as if you could go deaf at any moment.

Axel walked in and the music stopped. After a few seconds I heard him call out.

“If you want to come in nows the time.”

I took a deep breath and prepared myself for what I might see.

I headed into the room to see Edgar hanging by his arms from a chain attached to the ceiling. He was still completely naked from before and it looked like someone had beaten him all over his upper body. He had purple and brown bruises all over him, including some marks that looked like cigarette burns, if it was any other person I would have been disgusted with what they did to him, but this man deserved everything that was coming to him.

He had two speakers on either side of him connected to a CD player. Mason stood nearby and was wearing thick hearing protection that he took off when he saw both of us walk into the room.

“Are you ready to talk?” Axel said as he lightly pushed Edgar so that he'd start swinging from the chains.

Edgar hesitated but slowly nodded his head. It was hard to believe that the man who had brought me fear for so many months, the man who given me so many sleepless nights, was now hanging here defenseless at the mercy of a man who vowed to help me.

Axel took the photo out of his pocket and showed it to Edgar again, just like he did in the basement.

“Tell me, who is this man and what are your ties to him?”

Edgar coughed and tried to catch his breath but remained silent.

Axel hit him with a solid punch to the right side of his ribs, causing him to grunt in pain.

“Don't FUCK with me old man! I can make this so much worse, so tell me who this bastard is!”

“Okay, okay” Edgar said sounding defeated. “His name is sergeant Donnelly, sergeant George Donnelly of the Arizona state police.”

“What's your tie to him? Why couldn't we track him down and why didn't he arrest you for what you did to Hannah.”

“What do you want me to say? He's corrupt and he's my friend. That's it that's all I swear to God.”

“He's lying” I said before Axel had a chance to ask him some more questions. “There's something more to this than he's letting on I just know it. Back at the house when you left him and I alone he said that we were in over our heads and that this goes deeper than we can imagine. He's looking you right in the face and lying to you.”

Axel gave him a solid right hook across the face before grabbing him by the throat.

“You're gonna tell me what's going on right fucking now!”

“Fuck you, I gave you his name that's all you're getting out of me.”

Axel wound up to deliver another blow but Wyatt walked into the room.

“Axel, it's Clay, the wounds are worse than we thought you gotta get to the double H bar now!”

Axel looked back to Edgar pointing his finger in his face. “Your life just got that much worse.”

Axel escorted me out of the room, turning on the music as we left. I looked back to see Mason putting on his hearing protection as he watched Edgar.

I made eye contact with Edgar just as the door closed, and for the first time since I met him it was his eyes that were filled with anger and rage, not mine.

He deserved worse, and I hated that he turned me into a person that thought that way.