Nora
“Looks like we’re here,” Alice said eventually, swinging the car into the parking lot of what looked like an abandoned warehouse. There were motorcycles all around, and a few black SUV’s and sedans, much like what was parked in front of the Reapers clubhouse. Then, it hit me. We weren’t meeting the other MC at some random location the guys had decided on.
“We’re meeting them at their clubhouse?” I asked in disbelief.
The only guys standing around were Shadow Reapers. They stood around their bikes, gathering in front of the door to the rival clubhouse. I had expected a meeting on much more mutual grounds, but this looked like an ambush.
“Where else would you have done it?” Alice asked. “These guys didn’t want to meet anywhere else with the Reapers, so they brought the fight to their front door.”
“It just doesn’t seem safe,” I said. My main concern was still the safety of my unborn child. I didn’t want to be right in the middle of enemy territory, and we were at ground zero.
“Don’t worry, I’ll park out of the way.” Alice pulled the car down to the edge of the parking lot. We were out of the way, but we could still see the action. She backed into the parking space so we were facing the building.
I leaned forward and surveyed the blacktop around us, making sure no one else was hiding out near us, watching us. I didn’t see anyone nearby or watching the parking lot.
“You feel safe now?” Alice asked. I thought I heard a hint of sarcasm in her voice, but she didn’t seem to be making fun of me.
I nodded as I sat back against my seat. I turned my attention to the front of the clubhouse building, particularly the door where the men in the Reapers were congregating. I didn’t see anything at first.
“Congratulations on the pregnancy,” Alice said while she stared on at the bikers at the building.
“Thanks,” I said, not turning my attention away from the scene in front of us.
“Do you know the sex yet?” she asked me.
“Not yet,” I told her. “We’ve still got a few weeks left before we learn that.”
“Oh.”
Silence returned to the car as we both turned our attention to the rival clubhouse and the men standing outside. There had been something odd in her tone when she asked me about the pregnancy, something very detached but curious. It was like she was standing back, away from the scene, but she desperately wanted to see in.
“Someone’s coming out,” I said, sitting forward again to try to get a better look.
“That looks like the president,” she replied.
The guy who walked out first was pudgy compared to Mark’s wiry frame. While Mark’s body was all lean muscle, the other boss seemed to be thick and chubby. He was not in the same shape as Mark, that was for sure, but his fists were as big as my man’s head.
A conversation started, and other members of the rival MC filed out of the building behind their president.
“The Asphalt Demons. These guys are basically the big city equivalent of the Shadow Reapers. They’re a bunch of ruthless cutthroat bastards. They’d as soon kill someone as shake their hand,” Alice said.
I heard people shouting, so I rolled down my window to try to listen to the conversation. We were too far away, though, and I couldn’t hear what was being said. I could only hear their voices. Soon, those voices turned angry. As they grew louder and angrier, my heart slowed, as if it were trying to silence itself so I could hear better. I breathed lightly, quietly, trying to listen more closely.
I glanced at Alice, who didn’t seem too concerned. She sat back and watched with a bored look on her face. She’d seen it all before. She’d probably tagged along with Ozzy on many different jobs like this one.
It looked like the other boss pushed Mark, and a fight broke out between the two of them. There were no guns or other weapons. It was a good, old-fashioned fist fight. The two of them threw punches left and right, back and forth. They grappled with each other, trying to take each other down.
I was impressed that the rest of the guys, on either side, didn’t try to jump in to defend their boss against the other. I did hear them cheering on the presidents duking it out in front of the door. I also imagined that some of the sounds I was hearing were Mark’s punches landing on the Demons’ president.
It was fortunate that Mark didn’t take any punches from the other guy. His huge fists and the weight of his arms would have made any punch into a crushing blow. One hit from him had to be a game-ender. If he’d landed one punch, I found it hard to believe anyone would have been able to get up from it.
“I guess they aren’t using guns because of the close proximity,” Alice mused while we watched.
“You mean they don’t normally have fist fights like this?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Usually fights with the Reapers end in shoot-outs. But the last time they squared off with the Demons, it was a fist fight.”
“Maybe they’re doing this to honor the last fight,” I thought out loud. “You know, Mark really seems to be bothered by Alan being behind bars as a result of that last fight.”
“Yeah, it was a pretty intense blow to the whole MC,” Alice said. “I know Mark’s supposed to be the acting prez and all, but there still seems to be a power vacuum at the top.”
“Maybe today he can fix all that.”
While we watched, Mark got the other boss on the ground and started pummeling him while the other guys surrounded them. No one joined in. In fact, it looked like the members of the other MC were backing away from the fight as the Reapers closed in around them.
“Actually, it looks like he’s got the upper hand now,” I said. “It looks like he’s going to get his wish. He’s going to have a kid and come out on top of this fight.”
Then, I heard a gun click beside me, as if being cocked. I stopped talking and glanced over at Alice. I expected to see someone standing behind her at the window, pointing a gun at the back of her head. Instead, what I saw was a gun in her hand pointing at me.
My heart stopped dead.
“What is this?” I asked her.
“Ozzy should be the president,” she declared. “Then, I could be on his arm, and I would get the reverence that is rightfully mine, instead of you. What have you done for the MC besides lay down and let the president fuck you? He’s not even the president. He’s a fool. Ozzy would be a great president, and the MC wouldn’t have to worry about me running off once we have a child.”
I put my hands up and leaned back against the door. My best friend had turned on me.
“He doesn’t even know what I’ve done,” Alice went on. “He doesn’t know I set all this up for him.”
“Wait, you set this up?”
“Yeah, this little confrontation? My doing.”
“So you’re the one who’s been running and telling these guys about what’s going on in the MC? You’re the reason they’ve stayed a step ahead this whole time?” I asked.
I couldn’t fucking believe this bitch, screwing over her boyfriend’s MC so she could make herself look better. Sure, if things had worked out the way she had planned, Ozzy would take over from Mark, but it wasn’t even about that.
All Alice wanted was to be in my position, to have the power and prestige that came with being the president’s girl, or old lady, or whatever my title was.
“You’re crazy,” I told her.
“Am I, Nora? Am I crazy? Would that make this easier? What if I’m just fed up and tired of watching my MC go down the drain because the acting president is more concerned about getting his dick wet?” she asked.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about,” I argued. “Mark loves the MC. He’s trying to change. He wants to settle down. He wants to lead the MC. But he needs guidance.”
“But he needs guidance,” Alice repeated in mocking tone. “Quit making excuses. He’s pathetic, and you have no clue what you’re doing by his side.”
“I think I know how to support my man,” I said. And, dammit, he was my man. I wasn’t merely a piece of property for him. Regardless of our reluctance to label our relationship, it was a relationship.
“There’s so much more to than that,” she said. “But you’re not going to have to worry about it.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked. “Mark won the fight.”
“He may have won the fight, but he was supposed to die today. Their president was supposed to beat him to a bloody pulp right here in the parking lot.”
While she talked, my eyes drifted back over to where the guys had been fighting. Mark stood up, victorious. His fists and shirt were covered in the other man’s blood. I could see it from where we were sitting.
Alice sighed again. “I guess I’ll have to take it upon myself to make sure he doesn’t take over permanently,” she said, bringing my attention back into the car.
I looked to see that she was aiming her gun at my belly. My eyes slowly raised up to look my best friend in the face.
“What the hell are you thinking?” I asked her. “No, Alice. Don’t do it.”
“Shut up,” she said. “This is the only thing that’s going to keep Ozzy from being able to take his rightful place at the head of the MC. Once you’re gone, we can present the MC with its next heir.”
My eyes had followed her arm back down to the gun pointed at my stomach. I sat staring at the threat to my baby. If she pulled that trigger, everything was lost. Then, it hit me what she’d just said.
“Wait. Alice, are you telling me you’re…” I started to ask, but a gunshot rang out in the car.
I closed my eyes and screamed. My hands instinctively covered my belly, protecting my baby. I leaned forward, expecting to feel the searing pain of the bullet entering both of us. But there was no pain. I didn’t hurt, other than my ears ringing from the noise.
I opened my eyes slow in disbelief. I couldn’t imagine that there was any conceivable way I could have come away without being shot.
First, I saw Alice’s body slumped over in her seat, leaning slightly towards me. She wasn’t moving. She didn’t even seem to be breathing. There was blood everywhere, even spattered on me. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t force a scream out if I’d had to.
I looked up behind her to see Ozzy standing on the other side of her door with a shocked look on his face, as if he couldn’t believe what he’d done.
“Ozzy,” I barked, snapping him out of his little trance. He blinked and looked at me. The disbelief melted from his face and he put away his gun, rushing over to help me out of the car. I couldn’t help wondering if Alice’s suspicions were right in that moment and that he’d come to save me because of his infatuation with me.
I hated myself for having her voice stuck in my head because I also knew that most of what she’d said had been bullshit. She’d been trying to justify her actions by talking trash about Ozzy. There was no way Ozzy was more in love with me than he was with the MC.
Also, had she been pregnant? Did Ozzy know? Would anyone know? Was that part of her plan? She’d been my best friend for years, but I realized I hadn’t known her at all.