I looked out onto the crowd and I saw myself, women who had all experienced what I had experienced, and now they were free.

“I was once in the same situation as all of you, I was sold off like an object and forced to entertain a man for two years. When I freed myself I thought I could never trust anyone ever again, and I know that It’ll be a long road for all of us before we ever become normal people again… If that’s even possible…”

I looked at Axel and smiled, I could feel his love through his gaze.

“But I want you to know that you should never give up hope, that there are people out there with open hearts willing to help. This place brought us nothing but pain, but that doesn’t mean that the whole world is that way. If you open up your heart the way I opened up mine you might meet someone who will help lift you up and make you feel like you can do anything, because I know you can do anything.”

One of the women from the crowd walked towards me, I recognized her as the first woman Axel and I freed from her room.

She came up and hugged me, crying softly into my shoulder as she pulled me tight.

Axel walked up behind me and put his hand on my shoulder as I comforted the crying girl.

“So what happens now?” I asked him. “With your promise? The police coming for your club? These women?”

I felt his hand tense on my shoulder as he looked at me with his crystal blue eyes.

“I’m calling my brothers and telling them that we’re going to fight back, I’m not letting us getting bullied around by those corrupt bastards anymore. We’ve already freed these girls and taken out their coordinator, if we take those cops out then their whole system will fall apart. We’re riding back right now, I’m gonna put a bullet in Donnelly for Zeke, Clay, and every woman here. Then, when all of this is through, I’m gonna give you the best damn life I possibly can.”

The woman let go of me so that I could embrace Axel, he pulled me in and kissed me deep as we held each other in the soft light of the burning building behind us.

When he first made the promise to me I wanted him to succeed but I thought it would be impossible, now I could feel joy building inside of me as I began to realize that we might actually be able to make this work.

“I love you Axel, I love you more than I ever thought I could ever love someone.”

“I love you too, and I’ll always love you and fight for you. What we’re about to do will be dangerous, but at the end of it all I know that both of us will walk out of it ok, I’m going to do everything in my power to fulfill my promise and make this all right.”

He broke away from me and walked to the crowd of woman, spotting the girl that doused Frederick’s room in gasoline and waving her over.

In her hands she held the documents and laptop she took from Fred’s office, she kept them close to her chest almost as if she was afraid someone would snatch them out of her hands.

“Is there enough info in your hands to prove what happened here? To prove what happened to all of these girls?”

She nodded her head. “I’ve been in that man’s office hundreds of times, I’ve seen him organize and put these files away more times than I can count. I know for a fact that there’s more than enough info in these files and in his computer to bury everyone involved. We just have to get out of the south west, I know California hasn’t been infected by them just yet, their cops should be clean.”

“Los Angeles would probably be your best bet then” Axel said as looked up at all the women. “Is anyone here fit to drive to California?”

After some murmuring two more women came out from the crowd.

“We both know how to drive and we have the energy to do it right now. I used to live in the suburbs outside LA so I should be able to find the way. Thing is, we don’t have a car...”

Axel spotted a car across the street and walked over to it. He took his elbow and with two solid hits he shattered the side window of the car. As the alarm went off he quickly opened the door and climbed inside, after a few seconds the alarm stopped and before long the car engine roared to life.

He walked back over to the girls and took out his wallet, handing them $300.

“Now you all get gas and drive as fast as you can to Los Angeles, there’s a federal court there as well as some cops who are probably far too experienced in dealing with shit like this. You tell them absolutely everything that happened there, and above all you tell them that as we speak those sons of bitches are coming straight for my town Los Aves with the full intention of getting more blood on their hands.”

I ran up to him and grabbed his arm. “Do you really want real cops and federal officers coming into your town? What about your club? What if they try and get rid of you or lock you up again?”

“That’s a risk I’m gonna have to take, but I have a plan” he said turning to me. “I don’t know how many men will be coming down on us, in the end those feds might end up bailing us out. My club will fight the Scorched Cops for as long as we can, keep them all in one place for the feds come and mop up. The first sign of them coming over the horizon I’m taking my brotherhood and we’re high tailing it out of there, no way the feds will come after us when there are hundreds of corrupt cops staring them in the face.”

Axel sighed, it looked like he was struggling to come to terms with what he was about to say.

“I’m gonna follow Clay’s wish and take the Desert Vultures out of Los Aves, permanently. We’ll relocate somewhere far away from here and leave this all behind, we’ll start a new life not only for the two of us but for the whole club. We can all make this work, we just have to do it right.”

I was afraid that the feds would take Axel away once they came to stop the corrupt police, but I trusted Axel to make the right choice. If his decisions have gotten us this far then I had to trust him to take us the final mile.

“What if they don’t believe us?” one of the women in the car said. “What if they don’t take us seriously?”

Axel turned and looked at the guards that they had hogtied on the ground. He walked over to them and got down on one knee to talk to them.

“Look, both of you are fucked, I ain’t gonna lie about that… but if you’re willing to rat out those cops then I can guarantee you that you’ll get off easier. Hell they might barely even give you time if you flat out come clean, so what do you say? Lay here on the hard ground until the feds come and lock you up for the rest of your lives? Or go with these girls and back up every word they say?”

The men looked at each other as they lay there with their wrists and ankles tied together.

“Alright, you win” one of them said. “But we get to be untied for the ride.”

“You’re not in the position to make demands” Axel said as he picked both of them up by the ropes that bound them, walking them over to the car and throwing them in the trunk and shutting it.

“Alright girls, get to LA as fast as you can” Axel called out as he slapped the back of the car a few times.

The girls sped off heading west, I just hoped they would make it in time for everything to work out.

Axel took his phone out of his pocket and dialed a number before putting it to his ear.

As it rang he looked at me with a smile, although he smiled with confidence I could see the weariness in his eyes. It had been a long couple of days and everything was coming to a head. I couldn’t imagine how he felt, the next day would define his club and our relationship.

I didn’t know what would happen to his club, but as I looked at his tired eyes and inviting smile I knew I loved him too much to ever walk away from him again. I walked over and took his hand as I heard the soft ring of the phone against his face.

I brought his hand to my mouth and gave it a soft kiss. I no longer cared if he ever fulfilled the promise to me of a normal life, I knew that in some way it would be impossible, at this point all I wanted was a life with him. I finally realized that a life with a man as loyal, loving, and dedicated as him was all I could ever really ask for. As long as I had him in my life he would fight for me, and in exchange I would fight for us.

I never thought I could feel a love like this.

It was a feeling that I never wanted to go away.

Finally we heard Wyatt’s voice on the other end of the phone, Axel put it on speaker for me to hear.

“Axel? I just gathered up the brothers and we’re close to being able to roll out of here. We got some men to go distract the cops on their route with barricades and tire traps on the road. We think the cops are about 3 hours away, maybe 4 if everything worked right, but some of the men really don’t want to run without a fight…”

“They’re gonna get their fight Wyatt. I found out that those fucks aren’t assisting the Satans, they are the Satans, we got enough evidence to bury every one of them for years but in the meantime I want you to hold down Los Aves for as long as you can. I’m heading over right now, you tell every single brother there that their president is coming back to fight with them, and that those cops coming right for them have been masquerading as a second rate biker club this whole time. We’re ending this thing.”

“The cops are the Scorched Satans? Fucking hell…. You sure about this?” Wyatt asked.

“I found out from the best source I could find, it all makes sense; how they were willing to kill their own chief, the people they killed to cover their tracks, the tattoos, the hidden secrets. They were trying to push us out to take control of our territory. They shut off all our revenue streams because they wanted us out, they want the south west as their own to make money.”

Wyatt was quiet for a few seconds before sighing. “Alright, you’re my president so I’ll trust you on this.”

“Much appreciated Wyatt, I’ll see you in a few hours.”

Axel hung up the phone and looked at me before looking at to all the women that stood there watching as the building that was their prison burned.

“What do we do with all of them?” I asked him. “We can’t just leave them here, can we?”

Axel looked slightly distressed, for the first time since I met him he looked like he sincerely didn’t know what to do. What could we do with nearly 100 women who had nowhere to go?

“Just leave us here” one of the women said. “As long as we stick together nobody can hurt us. We’ll wait for the girls to reach the police in California, I’m sure we’ll be fine for a few hours until then.”

Axel walked over to his bike and dug through his bag, I saw him dig out another magazine for his pistol, ejecting the empty one and putting the new one in.

He walked back over to the women and handed it to one of them.

“I wish I could help you more but I really have to get back to my club before shit goes down, this gun is all I can give you. I just hope you don’t have to use it.”

She took it from him and tucked it into the waistband of her pants.

“You two have already done more for us than anyone else in a long time. We’ll be fine waiting here, we’ll move so that we won’t get questioned when the fire department comes and then wait it out until we’re safe.”

Axel nodded at her, patting her on the shoulder before turning to me and taking my hand, walking me back over to his motorcycle.

“All of them will remember what you did here today” I told him as I rested my head against his arm.

“I’d like to think I just did what any other man would have done” he replied.

“No, hundreds if not thousands of other men have looked the other way. You’re the first one who's found out about it and tried to put a stop to it.”

“I was just in the right place at the right time, you know I just came here for information.”

“But you made sure the women had a chance to free themselves, you said so yourself you wanted all of them to have the same chance for freedom as I did. A thousand men stood by and did nothing, you took action and now these women’s lives have just changed for the better.”

He didn’t give me a response, he just held my hand a little tighter and smiled as we approached his bike.

We had come so far together, now we only had to go a little farther.