Chapter Twelve
Julie
I can’t see anything, but I can feel the floor vibrate beneath me. I’m in someone’s trunk, gagged. My hands are bound behind my back with what feels like a long, thin strip of plastic.
Russ is breathing heavy beside me, grunting as he struggles against his restraints.
So, this is how it ends. Twenty-seven years, I led a perfectly safe life, a comfortable life. Now, I don’t think I’ll ever see my house that’s way too big for me, or my job that made me feel so trapped.
Was it worth it?
Up until Riley came pounding on Russ’s door, I would have said yes. Right now, though…
He tried to warn me, but I wouldn’t listen. I should have just called the police. That wouldn’t have saved Russ, though. For as much breath as he wasted trying to save me, I’m almost glad I didn’t call 9-1-1.
Almost.
So, all that’s left is to figure out how I want to go. Do I want to fight, or do I just want them to get it over with? Right now, I’d do anything for this to be over, but I’m sure when that trunk opens, I’m only going to wish I had more time.
I wish I could at least talk to Russ. We could lie to each other and say everything’s going to be okay.
He tried to warn me, but I had this thought in my mind that nothing like this could actually happen to me. This is the sort of thing you see in the movies, not the sort of thing that happens to…it doesn’t matter. It’s happening now.
The car is slowing down, and judging by how bumpy the ride just got, I think we’re on a dirt road. I’m jolted up and down and back and forth, and my left hand hits something on the floor, cutting it.
Cutting it.
I reach back, trying to keep steady as possible, but it’s hard. All I feel is the carpet, and then—yes! There’s a thin piece of metal jutting up from the corner of the floor and the back of the seats.
Scooting back, I maneuver my hands over the edge, but it’s small. I have to press my body hard down to get both hands where they need to be, and now I’m working my plastic tie over the edge.
Nothing’s happening. I’m doing a good job scratching my hand, but hardly making any progress cutting through the thick plastic.
The car’s slowing down. There’s not much time. I don’t know where we are, or how long I was out, but I know that stopping is bad.
With a loud snap, my hands are free. I rub my wrists a moment, but if we have any chance of fighting our way out of this, I have to free Russ.
I don’t have a knife, and the trunk is too small for me to change places with Russ, but I do pull down my gag. “I’m free,” I tell him. “How do I get your hands loose?”
It occurs to me he can’t speak with a gag in his mouth, so I pull it down. He says, “How’d you do it?”
“Small piece of metal coming out of the floor, but I can’t get past you. It’s too tight in here.”
“I’m going to turn around so my back is to you, and I’m going to need you to help me. You’re going to have to take your fingernail and shove it into the locking mechanism of the zip tie. It’s the little square piece where the end is threaded through,” he says.
“You’ve done this before?” I ask.
“More like I’ve seen it done,” he says, rolling over. “I’ll tell you about it later. Now, just take one corner of your fingernail and try to jam it in the locking mechanism.”
I’m trying to do what he’s telling me to do, but I don’t feel like I’m accomplishing anything. My fingernail is too wide to get all of it down there, and the corner doesn’t seem to be enough to get in there.
The car makes a long, slow right turn, and then it stops.
I’m struggling with the tie, but it’s not coming loose.
One of the car’s doors opens, and then another. They close, and I’m forcing my fingernail as hard into the locking thing as I can. Russ keeps plenty of tension on the zip-tie, but nothing’s working.
There’s another snap, and I’m sure it’s my fingernail as the trunk is opened, revealing the night sky. Before I have time to reflect on how long we must have been in here, Russ is pulling himself up, throwing a hard fist that makes a loud packing sound when it connects.
Russ is out of the trunk now, and I’m reaching for anything I can use as a weapon. There’s a removable section of the floor. It was useless with both of us lying on it, but I reach underneath, hoping beyond hope.
My fingers wrap around the round metal of a tire iron, and I don’t waste another moment. I’m out of the trunk and on my feet. There are a lot more men than I thought there would be, but they’re all focused on Russ, who’s ferocious as he goes after one and then another, and then another man.
I’m as quiet as I can be as I quickly move over the dirt, and everything just happens like I’m on autopilot as I bring the tire iron down with all my force into the back of one of the men.
He goes down, but he doesn’t stay down for long, and now I’m swinging for my life just like Russ.
The tire iron cracks into another man’s arm, and this doesn’t seem real. None of it seems real until someone grabs the tire iron and wrenches it from my hands. Before I can do anything else, someone grabs me and there’s something thin, hard, and cold against the front of my neck.
“That’s enough!” the man holding me shouts. “One more swing, and I filet your little plaything.”
Slowly, Russ puts his hands up above his head. He says, “She has nothing to do with any of this. Just let her go.”
“You know why I brought you here?” the man asks.
Russ doesn’t answer.
“I brought you here, because I believe in tradition,” the man says. “This is where we’ve been taking out the trash since before you and I ever heard of the Grinning Heretics. Back in the day, this sorta thing happened all the time. Leader gets soft. The pack takes care of it. We need someone strong in charge, and boy, that ain’t you.”
“I never wanted to be in charge of anything,” Russ says. “Just fucking take it. Just let her go, Auric.”
“You know it ain’t that easy,” Auric responds. I’m holding my breath. “Times like these make people take sides if there’re sides to take, you know what I’m sayin’? We need a nice, smooth transition of power, or every day’s just gonna be cleanin’ up mess after mess after mess.”
“Then do what you have to do, but let her go!” Russ shouts.
“It didn’t have to be this way, Ghost.” Russ goes to answer, but now the knife is pressing harder against my skin, and I suck in two lungsful of air. “On your knees.”
In the distance, I can hear the roar of approaching motorcycles.
“You hear that?” Auric asks. “You’ve got a few friends gonna join you tonight. Can’t have your soldiers servin’ in my army, know what I mean?”
“What are you going to do to her?” Russ asks.
“That all depends on you,” he says. “You act up, I’m gonna take my time. You do what I tell ya to do, though, and I’ll make sure it’s over before she feels somethin’.”
“She’s not involved in this,” Russ says. “She was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“With the wrong asshole,” Auric adds.
The sound of approaching motorcycles grows louder, and in the darkness, I can see the first headlight coming out of the trees on the dirt road. We’re in what looks like a wide forest clearing, but further than that, I have no idea.
“Don’t take it too hard there, Ghost,” Auric says. “It ain’t personal, just you never stopped getting’ in my way. Big guy gives you the nod? Shit, you’re afraid of gettin’ your hands too dirty, and how did you think that was going to work out, huh?”
“I never wanted it,” Russ says. “I didn’t want to get the nod.”
“And don’t that just make you so damn special,” Auric says. “Now, are you gonna behave yourself, or am I gonna have to keep my blade at your lady’s throat ‘til we’re square?”
“I won’t fight back,” Russ says. “Just let her go, and I won’t fight back.”
Even if Russ tried to fight back, he’s outnumbered, and the others are almost here.
Auric says, “Now don’t you try nothin’, or you’re gonna wish I cut your throat, know what I mean?”
Suddenly, I’m shoved forward, and I fall to the ground. I want to run, but there’s nowhere for me to go.
The motorcycles make their last turn, and now their headlights are pointed right at all of us. I’m shielding my eyes from the lights, and a second later, Russ is charging Auric.
I slide one leg behind Auric’s feet just before impact, and he falls back hard against the ground.
This is how it ends, but at least I can spend my last moments knowing I put up some kind of fight. Before I’m to my feet, something strange happens.
Auric’s men, the ones that attacked us, they’re running. There are twice as many men climbing off their motorcycles than had us surrounded. A few of them pull out to chase down the others, but mostly, they seem to be concerned with Russ and Auric.
They don’t intervene, though. They just form a circle enclosing Russ, Auric, and me within.
Russ is still on top of Auric, and he’s pounding away, either unaware, or uncaring that there’s no way out.
One of the men in the circle, he must be almost seven feet tall, he’s the first one to do anything. He shouts, “That’s enough!”
A moment later, Russ is on his feet and Auric’s holding one arm up, still trying to see through the glare of the headlights.
“He’s trying to throw you under the bus,” Auric shouts. “I was just taking care of it.”
“You’ve been gunning for me since the raid,” Russ shouts.
In a deep, ferocious voice, the tall man shouts, “I said that’s enough!” He walks over with enormous steps, and just when I think he’s about to bend down and help Auric to his feet, the tall man kicks the other hard in the stomach. “Heard you’ve been disrespecting the chain of command,” the tall man grunts.
“I can explain everything, boss,” Auric says. “Ghost here was just gonna run the whole club into the ground, and you know he’s the one that got the cops onto ya. I was doin’ what I thought you’d be doin’ if you was out here to do it.”
“Well, I’m out here now, and you must think I’m some kind of fool.”
“You ain’t gonna take me out, boss,” Auric says. “I got a bunch of guys…” Auric looks around, finally noticing he’s all alone.
“Oh, you’ll see them soon enough,” the man says. “You’re all goin’ the same place.”
“Rev, you can’t—”
“You’re Riley’s father,” I blurt.
Rev turns his head and looks over at me. “Julie, right?” he asks.
I nod.
“Ghost, take Auric’s bike and get her out of here,” Rev says. “She’s not going to see what’s about to happen.”
Everything else stops, nobody says a word. Russ walks over to me, clutching at his side, and together, we walk to one of the motorcycles parked by the Civic.
I start, “Should we—”
Russ interrupts, saying, “Not now.”
We get on the bike, and I refuse to accept that I’m safe until Russ is dropping me off at my house. He says, “Go in and call Riley for some company, but you’re gonna be okay now. I’ve got to get rid of this bike, but I’ll be back before you know it.”
Just like that, he speeds off, and I’m standing in my driveway, wondering if the nightmare could really be over.
***
It’s different now, riding on the back of Russ’s motorcycle. I’m different.
Riley got a call after Russ and I made our break for it, some guy named Carlos. Apparently, Auric said he would be in charge soon, and he wanted to make sure things kept going smooth between the Grinning Heretics and the family. I don’t know what any of that means, but I guess it was enough.
Some of the guys went through Auric’s place, and they found the burner cellphone he used to slip details about the club’s inner workings to a detective. Auric hadn’t even bothered deleting some of the messages. The men who found the phone told Riley, and Riley told her father. After that, Rev called in a favor with whatever family Riley kept talking about, and Rev’s charges were dropped.
It seems all that was stopping him from doing that in the first place was he wanted to know who to trust when he got back out.
That night, after Russ came back from ditching Auric’s car, I just clung to him. As much as I hate using the word, he’d protected from the first moment he met me, and he didn’t stop trying to protect me even when it could cost him his life.
It’s hard to be too mad at someone when you have empirical proof he’s willing to die to keep you safe.
Looking back, there’s more I’d change than I’d keep the same, but I still find myself clinging to Russ. Russ is out now: A special dispensation from Rev in honor of Russ’s service.
It’s the most horrifying thing I’ve ever been through, and yes, I should never have walked into that bar in the first place, but I’m alive. For the first time in my life, that means more than just breathing.
I don’t know what’s going to happen with me and Russ. That whole ordeal only ended last night, and I’m going to be processing the lot of it throughout the foreseeable future. For now, I’m content knowing I’m alive and Russ is alive, and there’s no reason anymore both of us can’t stay that way until we come down with a case of “natural causes.”
Russ pulls into my driveway, and we go inside.
When I went over to Russ’s apartment, I was going to tell him he should stay with me for a few days. I even went out and bought a Christmas tree just to make the place homier. Then everything happened.
As I flick on the lights to the tree, though, I realize this is the first Christmas since Jonah died that I have something to look forward to. I’m alive. Russ is alive. I’m trying not to wonder about Auric.
Russ and I embrace. I never thought I’d see this house again. I never thought I’d see anything again.
We kiss by the glow of the Christmas tree.
I don’t know what comes next, or if things can even begin to go back to normal in my life. What I know is I’m alive, and I have Russ to thank.
Of course, I wouldn’t have been in that position in the first place if it weren’t for meeting Russ.
You know, I’m feeling a lot of complicated emotions right now, and I’m not sure how to adequately process them.
So, as Russ pulls away from our kiss, and he’s looking down on me with a smile, taking a deep breath, I ask him, “How do you feel about couples’ counseling?”
He’s looking at me like I’m crazy. The truth is I don’t know what the future holds, but whatever happens next, it’s going to require some serious therapy.
The End
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