Chapter Thirty

Savannah

Life in the house had been interesting since Axel had challenged Duke to the challenge. Hordes of people had come in and out, which meant that Duke was at least too busy to worry about me or Bobby. I saw some familiar faces, some that I hadn’t seen in a very long time. There were some people that I was happy to see and others that I never wanted to see again in my life. Two people stood out to me. The first was a good friend of Duke’s and a man I had always hated. He and my father had never seen eye to eye. He’d walked in and grinned at me, licking his lips as he looked at me up and down.

“Good to see you again, Savannah. It’s been too long. I forgot how much I always liked you. That’s what I miss about this place. The eye candy.”

I frowned. I was currently the only woman in the house. It was clear that he meant me and nobody else. I didn’t say anything. I continued making the food in the kitchen for Bobby and myself and tried not to look his way. He’d gotten older and uglier. I wanted to tell him how much he disgusted me, but I held the thoughts to myself.

“Making some food for me are you?” he leered.

“I’m making food for myself and Bobby,” I said.

He laughed. “Ah, nothing has changed has it?”

“What do you mean?”

“You. You haven’t changed. You were always the feisty one. Then again, that’s what I always liked about you. I should think about coming back here. Might be a little bit more fun now that your father isn’t around watching everyone.”

I held onto the knife that I was using to cut the bread and glared at him.

“My father is dead. Please don’t be disrespectful towards him. You have no right talking about him or me in that way.”

He laughed. “Okay, okay. You got me there. I won’t say anything more. You can put down that knife too. You’re holding it a bit too tightly,” he said and laughed, but I could sense a bit of nervousness in his tone. “But if you ever want a bit of company around here, you know who to call. Okay?”

I sighed. Did he really think I would call him? The men in this house were clearly delusional. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. If things didn’t work out with Axel coming to get me, then I was going to have to start devising a plan to leave. I would leave the country if I had to. Anything to get away from this. These men were not healthy for Bobby. I didn’t want him to grow up with them as his role models.

The following day, another group of people came in. This time I breathed a sigh of relief to see an old friend of mine. Eva was married to one of the men in the club. They’d stayed in the house for a while and her, and I had gotten close. There weren’t often many women in the club, and it had been such a welcome relief to me. She was a good woman too, not like some of the others I sometimes came across. She grinned when she saw me and immediately came running up to greet me.

“I thought you had left this place,” she said. “That’s what I heard at least.”

“She came back,” Duke said out of nowhere. “Isn’t that right, Savannah? You missed your old man too much.”

I nodded tersely. “Yep, I came back. It’s so good to see you, Eva.”

“You too. You’ve lost so much weight. Too much,” she said to me with a worried look on her face. “Uh, do you want to go for a walk? Like we used to? I feel like some fresh air.”

I looked at Duke, but he shook his head.

“Uh, maybe we can talk in my room rather? We can watch a movie while the men talk.”

She could see that something was wrong and that I didn’t want to talk about it front of Duke. So she grinned.

“Movie sounds a lot more interesting to me.”

We walked off arm in arm, and we heard Duke muttering something about ‘women will be women’ or something derogatory. When we were safely in my room, I turned to look at her.

“Bobby is sleeping,” I said as I pointed to the little bundle on the bed. “But he sleeps through most things, so we can still talk. I’m sorry about that.”

“Aren’t you allowed outside?”

I shook my head. “Nope.”

Her eyes widened. “Shit, Savannah. That’s not good. That’s not good at all. I know he thinks he’s all powerful now and all that crap but I didn’t think he’d actually do something like that. He can’t stop you from going outside, can he?”

“He can, and he has. You know what he’s like.”

She shook her head and peered at Bobby. “Ah, he’s gotten so big. What a beautiful boy. You must be so proud of him.”

I beamed. “Thank you. This whole thing has been so hard on him. I feel like I’ve been the worst mother in the world even though all I have ever done is try to protect him.”

“What the hell is really going on? Can you tell me?”

I sighed. The two of us took a seat on the other side of the room so that we could talk without Bobby waking up. I could hear Duke talking across the hall, laughing with some of the other men, so I knew I could talk without him hearing me. I quickly detailed everything that had happened before we were interrupted. She looked at me in shock when I was finished with the story and shook her head.

“I cannot believe this. I mean, I guess I can. Like you said, I should expect something like this from Duke. But it’s still shocking. I can’t believe you actually went back to Axel. How was it? After all this time.”

“It was wonderful.”

“You love him, don’t you?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I do. I knew I had strong feelings for him that first night we slept together. But it’s more than that. I want to be with him for the rest of my life, and I want him to be Bobby’s father.”

“And how does he feel?”

“I think he feels the same way.”

“You can’t stay here, Savannah. This place is going to kill you. You have to get out.”

I nodded. “I know. I’m trying. I really am. Maybe I shouldn’t have come back here in the first place, but I was so scared that he was going to do something worse than burn down the shop.  I was so scared. I came back here to protect Bobby and to protect Axel. But I’m so scared. I hate it here.”

“Leaving this place was the best thing I could’ve done. It was easy for me, of course. I married a man from the club. And, between you and I, he’s a good man. He only pretends in front of Duke when he’s here. It’s so hard to break ties. So we just pretend. But it was only when we left this place that we realized how toxic it was. You have to get out of here. And, most of all, you have to get Bobby out of here. Your life is with Axel.”

We were interrupted moments later by Duke, who didn’t seem too happy that we were hanging out together. Eva gave me a big hug and told me that she was going to join her husband.

“It was so good to see you again, Savannah. I’m glad that you’re back here,” she said. I knew she was only saying it for Duke’s benefit. He was standing by and watching the two of us. He seemed pleased by Eva’s words.

I stayed in the room, watching over Bobby and listening to everyone talking outside. I felt good after seeing Eva again, but also sad. Even though she had gotten out of this place and had started a life outside of the club, she still had to pretend when she was back here. I could hear her laughing with the men outside, and I wondered how they couldn’t hear how fake it sounded. Eva might think she’s free, but she wasn’t. The club still had a hold on her life. But she was right about one thing: I had to get out before it was too late.

I was listening to their conversations from a distance when I suddenly heard Duke talking to Jock. The two of them had distanced themselves from the rest to talk, and they were standing a bit closer to my room. I could hear everything they were saying. I think Duke forgot how loud his voice was sometimes. He had the most annoyingly loud voice that could usually be heard no matter where you were in the house. It usually annoyed me, but now I was grateful for it.

“So, you ready to race Axel?” Duke asked.

“Of course I am. I’ve been waiting for my chance to beat that guy. You know I’ve been talking about it ever since he beat me that first time. Thanks for giving me a chance to do it.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear it. That’s just the sort of attitude that I want. That’s why you are my favorite guy for this. You were my first choice for sure. But listen, you have to win.”

“I know. And I’m going to try. He’s not an easy man to beat though, but I’m glad to have the opportunity to at least try. I really don’t want him to win again.”

“That’s just the thing. I can’t have him beat you. I need to know that you are going to win,” Duke said. I could hear that he had been drinking again. There was a slight slur in his voice that hadn’t been there before.

“I’m going to try,” Jock said again, but even I could hear the uncertainty in his voice. Jock knew as well as everyone else that Axel was better than him.

“No, you’re going to win,” Duke said. “And we’re going to make sure of it.”

“What do you mean?” Jock asked. “Do you have something in mind?”

“Of course I do. You know that I would never let you go out there if I thought you were going to lose. I’m going to make sure that you come out of there a winner and I’m going to do it my own way. We’re going tamper with the race.”

Jock laughed. “Really? Ooh, I like the way you think. But how exactly are we going to do that?”

“We’re going to mess with his bike. That way, he’ll lose, and you’ll come out the winner. And if he claims that there is something wrong with is bike, we can just say that he’s a sore loser. I want you to get your revenge on him, and I want you to win. Both of us will come out of this on top. We’re the better club, that’s for sure. I’ve always known it, and it’s about time they know it too. Why do you think this club was started in the first place? Because we’re better than them and because we’re not afraid to bend the rules.”

I listened to the two of them talking about their plan, and I felt sick to my stomach. I should’ve known that all of this was too good to be true. Jock was a much better racer than Duke was, but Axel had still beaten Jock before. I should’ve known that Duke wouldn’t take a gamble like that. I had to find a way of letting Axel know before the race began. But how was I going to do that when I couldn’t even get out the house? Even if I did have a key, I wouldn’t be able to get out with the guard on watch. But I had to find a way. I had to at least try. This house was known for breaking the rules, as Jock had just said, so it was about time I broke them too. No more being scared. I had to do the right thing. I looked at Bobby and made a promise to myself that I was going to help Axel. Now I just had to figure out how.