Outlaw: A Motorcycle Club Romance Read online

  He grinned at me, his broken teeth making me think of the boggart for the first time in years. “Gonna fuck you so good, Cathy. Gimme a fambly.”

  He always said it like that. Fambly. Wanted a fambly someday. I couldn’t think of anything worse. “What do you think of that, Cathy? Fambly with me? Reckon that sweet pussy of yours can handle someone the size of Bruce?”

  I hadn’t even kissed a boy and the president of the Throat Rippers wanted to do things like that to me? My heart sank as I saw he really meant it. He wasn’t kidding.

  “I looked it up,” he continued. “Selective mutism, they call it.” He tapped his head. “All up here.” He moved his finger to his crotch. “I bet this could get you talking, make you scream even, if you’re wet enough.”

  The other bikers laughed at him and at my disgust.

  Bruce leaned further over the bar toward me, hand outstretched. I pressed myself back against the row of bottles behind me. He reached further, stretching so far he slid over the bar, crashing to the ground at my feet with a heavy thud.

  I felt a sudden urge to take the bottle in my hand and let it drop onto his head. He looked up at me, no longer grinning as my fingers loosened their grip on the neck of the bottle.

  “You made me fall over,” he snapped, scrabbling to his feet. “You stupid bitch. Maybe I should lock you in the safe room for a while. See how you like that.”

  He lunged at me, grabbing hold of my arm just as the door to the bar swung open. Six police officers burst in, guns pointing his way. “Bruce Toledo,” one of them said. “You’re under arrest.”

  “What for?” he asked, letting go of my arm and reaching under the bar for the shotgun.

  “Hands where we can see them.”

  Bruce put his hands over his head. “Let’s talk about this. I’ve been here all day. Two days in fact. Right, guys?”

  The officer had his cuffs out. “If you’re going to kill a cop, don’t wear your cut while you do it, you dumb fuck.”

  Bruce laughed, walking around the side of the bar toward them. “I’ll be out by midnight,” he said as he was cuffed. “And you lot will be out of a job. Every last one of you.”

  “Things have changed,” one of the officers said as he cuffed Bruce. “Got a new sheriff now. You biker gangs aren’t in charge anymore.”

  They moved out, taking Bruce with them. I was still holding the bottle.

  I did something I’d never done before. I poured myself a glass of bourbon and drained it in one.

  I hoped he was gone for good. I hoped I’d never see Bruce Toledo again.

  I was wrong.

  2

  Jake

  The door to my cell swung open and one of the guards was grinning a shit-eating grin at me.

  “What?” I asked, not bothering to get up from my bunk. They were ripping the piss if they thought I’d broken Jimmy the Greek’s arm just so they could get me a new cellmate.

  I thought I’d made my point. They’d brought me the hardest convict in the county to try and show me I wasn’t top dog no more.

  Jimmy got one night. Spent it boasting about what he’d done. Laughed when he talked about the stuff he’d done to this bunch of college kids in Detroit. Slapped me on the back and laughed like it was all a big joke. Said God told him to do it.

  Then he pulls out a shank he’d got from one of the guards and went for me after I told him he was a piece of shit who’d burn in hell for what he did.

  I got the knife off him easy enough. By the time they took him out the cell he had a broken arm and a left eye that would never see again.

  He was lucky it wasn’t his neck I broke. I was saving that for the man who’d put me inside. The man I trusted. Bruce Toledo. Came to the club begging to be a prospect. My pop didn’t trust him but I got him to change his mind.

  I persuaded him to let Bruce in as a prospect. I’d gone to school with him. He’d always seemed all right to me. Dumbest thing I’d ever done.

  Bruce told us about Barry’s work for the Throat Rippers, gave us his address. Gave us just enough rope to hang ourselves and we did it gladly.

  My pop ended up dead in the war that followed while I didn’t even get let out for the funeral. Last I heard the club had dissolved as I was next in line to be president and no one else wanted to step in.

  I’d never trust anyone again. Not after that.

  “Meet your new cellmate,” the guard said with a laugh.

  I sat up. The top bunk hadn’t even had the blood washed out the sheet and someone new was coming in. Who’d they sent to antagonize me this time?

  A figure appeared in the door of the cell. It was a face I knew. Older, balding, but the eyes as dark and the teeth as broken as last time I saw him in the courtroom, grinning at me from the witness box.

  “Mornin’ Jake,” he said. “I had to pull a few strings to get transferred here. You’re a hard man to get hold of.”

  “Bruce Toledo,” I replied, flexing my arms. “You’ve got some nerve walking in here.”

  He glanced out into the corridor where the guard was still watching.

  “Can’t we just pretend to get on?” Bruce asked. “I’ve got an offer you might like to hear. Good for both of us.”

  “Get out.”

  “As if I’d leave alone the man who dealt with Jimmy the Greek. Proud of you for that one. He was a nasty piece of work.”

  “Said he killed them kids on your orders.”

  “Did he now? Oh well, you know how bikers like to exaggerate. Ain’t that right, my friend?”

  “I’m not your friend, Bruce. Now you got about ten seconds to get out my cell before I rip your spine out.”

  He slapped my shoulder. “Always with the bad boy routine. Can’t you let bygones be bygones? We won and your club lost. No shame in that. The Throat Rippers took over Sherburn and Redd’s Cove is next. You get to be king of E-Wing. That’s all fine and dandy. But how’s about you listen to my offer before you start getting all pissy with me?”

  I’d heard enough. I got to my feet. “Five seconds.” I growled, clenching and unclenching my fists.

  “Woah,” he said, standing up and stepping back from me. “Just listen to my offer and then you can decide whether to tear me in half. Spare me one minute, can’t you? I think you’ll like what I have to say. To our mutual advantage as it were. What do you say?”

  The guard was watching me closely, his gun drawn. I wondered if I could snap Bruce’s neck before I got shot. I said nothing.

  “Rumor has it you were always a decent lock breaker. That true?”

  “It’s been a long time since I did any of that.”

  “I heard you broke into a Securbox 2000.”

  “Nope. Plain old Securbox. Ain't no one can get into the 2000 series. Hex coded digipad. I’m a pick and force man. You want in one of them, you need to bribe the guy with the code.”

  Bruce laughed. “You are out of touch. Them digipads on the Securbox are the same ones as on Securimax and Loc-Knights. Hexadecimal six digit code and tight as a drum-like you say. Except turns out you hit asterisk six times while pressing down one and they all override. Guy at the factory told me that one in return for half a kilo of the brown stuff. Everything’s got an override, Jakey. You just got to find it. Point is you still got the skills?”

  “I’ve been in here fifteen years, Bruce. Lot changes in fifteen years.”

  “Not you. You ain’t changed a bit.”

  “Time’s up. Get out before I snap you in half.”

  “I’m breaking out tonight,” he blurted out as I walked toward him. “You gimme a hand and I’ll call off the war. You can get your club back together with my blessing.”

  “Not interested.”

  “What about if I gave you Cathy Morgan? She’s a sweet piece of ass too. All grown up and yours if you help me out of here.”

  It had to be a different Cathy. It couldn’t be her. She was just a kid. A little girl locked in a shed by the pieces of shit who didn’t deserve
to be parents.

  “Remember her?” Bruce continued. “So sad what happened to her parents, wasn’t it? Bet you wanna know how she’s doing, right?”

  I said nothing.

  “Foster family took her in. Friends of mine. Amazing what a few bucks in the right hand can do. I got to watch her grow up and I did the right thing. Waited until she was nice and legal. Got her a job too at my bar, ain't I nice?”

  “Asked her to marry me and she said yes.” He pointed at his mouth and acted like his lips were glued together. “Well, said yes as best she could.” He started laughing.

  I knew he was trying to rile me and it was working. I was already two steps toward him before he realized. I got him by the throat and lifted him up the wall, holding him high, watching his face turn blue. The guard was yelling behind me but I ignored him.

  “You get me out and you can have her,” Bruce squeaked. “Call it a thanks for all your help.”

  I loosened my grip, not by much but enough to let him breathe again. “I get you out and you let her go?”

  “You have my word,” he replied, waving the guard back. “Get me out and we have a truce. You can take her and get your club back together. How’s that sound for a deal?”

  There have been many times since then that I wondered what would have happened if I’d said no. Would she still be working in the bar? Would Bruce have married her? Would I have died in prison?

  I think about that and I think about what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped on the grass that night when the moon came out.

  A voice inside me told me to turn around that night.

  Look behind you.

  I listened and there she was, peering out from inside the shed. I might never have seen her. She might have starved to death in there.

  Fifteen years since I last saw her. I was desperate to see her again. I wanted to apologize to her. I’d promised I’d protect her and I hadn’t done it. She’d been brought up by friends of Bruce.

  I’d let a scared little kid down and it ate me up inside. That and the reason I was even at her place that night.

  It wouldn’t change anything to say sorry. They were still dead and I was still a piece of shit but at least if I got out, I could get her out of the Throat Rippers bar. No one deserved to work there, least of all an innocent kid like her.

  I let go of Bruce’s throat. He collapsed to the floor, rubbing his neck with his hands. “What do you say?” he asked, his voice strained. “Want her all to yourself? Help me out and she’s yours. I wouldn’t even ask but there’s one lock I can’t get to and Teddy over there hasn’t got access to the key.”

  I thought of the way she’d touched my arm that night. I’d told her I’d be right back, told her I’d protect her. I’d let her down all those years ago. Maybe this was my chance to put things right. I could still kill Bruce but only after I’d got her somewhere safe. Whatever happened after that didn’t matter.

  I nodded in Bruce’s direction. “I’ll do it.”

  3

  Cathy

  It had been six months since Bruce was convicted. No one tried to get in the safe room. Maybe they didn’t care because there was enough evidence at the scene to convict him.

  I was working at the bar when the news came through that he’d been given life. The club immediately became a battleground.

  Everyone wanted to take his title, from the deputy president down to the lowliest hanger-on. They all thought they had a shot. Fights became daily events but I still had to go to work.

  I didn’t care who won. I just wanted them to make their minds up so things could settle down again. I hated seeing the fights.

  I hated having to be the one to stitch up the knife wounds of men who refused to go to the hospital. The first few were awful but I got better at it.

  I hated that. Hated that I was good at fixing them up just so they could hurt each other again. I hated going to work each day knowing the money I was earning was going straight in my foster parents’ pockets. I was filled with hate and anger but I did nothing about it. Just festered behind the bar while blows flew and glasses smashed.

  It never occurred to me that I could walk away. Even if it had, where would I have gone? I had no money. I had no car. I had nothing but a cut and a silver box from a man I’d never see again, a man who’d become some kind of totem in my mind.

  He came to me in my dreams, told me he’d protect me, keep me safe, stop the hurting.

  They were nice dreams.

  They weren’t the only nice dreams. Sometimes I dreamed of him taking off more than his cut. I was back in the shed but I wasn’t a kid anymore. I was an adult and so was he. Not a teenage giant but a full-grown man, taking off his cut and his shirt to reveal a scarred and tattooed chest.

  I’d run my hands over his old war wounds and he’d do the same to me. He’d lower me to the floor and then quick as a flash we weren’t in the shed anymore. We were in a huge bed, me on my back and him on top of me, spreading my legs, telling me he’d never let anyone hurt me again.

  Those were the only times I liked my body. In dreams.

  When I was awake I cursed the way it had changed. It brought eyes on me. Eyes I didn’t want. Even as they fought, for who would be president they acted as if part of the prize was me.

  I listened to them discussing me like I was property of the club. No one stood up for me. Even my foster parents talked about it sometimes, telling me it would be good to get me married, that I should be grateful anyone wanted a freak like me. Unwilling to talk, no emotion on my face. A robot.

  The night my life changed didn’t seem anything special at first.

  I’d set off for work just after five same as always. It was only when I got there that something was different. The fighting and bickering had stopped.

  The bikers were talking to each other in low voices. They knew something I didn’t but they didn’t want me to hear it. I tried not to care.

  I poured the drinks and as they loosened up, they got louder. They were laughing and cheering like they were celebrating something. I had no idea what until a little after ten when Kev sat himself at the bar and grinned at me. “Bet you’re happy about it, aintya?”

  I frowned at him and he rolled his eyes. “Jeez, don’t you know what’s happening?”

  I shook my head, still frowning.

  “Bruce is busting out tonight.”

  I froze. But he was in prison. He’d got life. He was never getting out.

  “Got some help on the inside,” Kev continued. “All goes well he should be here soon enough. We’re relocating when he gets back. Moving someplace new and you’re gonna be coming with.”

  A shudder ran down my spine. Bruce was escaping. He was coming back. Then the club was going on the run from the law. Could I refuse to go?

  Every minute that passed after that felt like an hour. I must have peed something like ten times before midnight. I didn’t want him to reappear but at the same time I wanted it over with.

  Ten past midnight Kev called for silence, his cellphone glued to his ear. He muttered something into it before hanging on. “Gentlemen,” he shouted. “And scum.”

  A cheer went up.

  “Our president is out.”

  Another cheer, deafeningly loud.

  “He’s on his way and he’s bringing us a gift. Says he’s got an Outsider for us to tear to pieces.”

  This time the noise was so loud my ears rang. An Outsider. Jake was an Outsider. It couldn’t be him, could it? If it was, what could I do? What should I do?

  Kev was still talking. “He wants us ready to move by sunrise. This’ll be the first place the cops come looking for him when they realize he’s out so get the stuff together.”

  “What about in the safe?” someone shouted.

  “I’ll get that in a minute. He gave me the code. Oh, and get her ready.” He nodded my way.

  I pointed at myself. Get ready? What did he mean get ready?

  “Come on,” someone said,
walking around the bar and grabbing my arm. “Time to get dolled up for your fiancé.”

  Two bikers grabbed me. I fought against them as Kev disappeared into the safe room. They dragged me across the floor while I tried to get free.

  “She wants to piss about,” Kev said as he emerged from the safe room. “She can wait in there for him and tell him when he gets here why she ain't dressed all pretty.”

  They shoved me inside. “Don’t go anywhere, will you?” Kev said with a laugh. I tried to run back out but he shoved me off my feet.

  I crashed into a pile of boxes behind me. By the time I was on my feet again the door had swung shut, the bolts sliding into place deep inside somewhere.

  I was left alone in the pitch black, feeling my way around the walls, searching for a way out.

  There wasn’t one.

  I prayed for a miracle. I prayed that Jake would save me like he had done all those years ago.

  My prayers were ignored. He didn’t come.

  All I could do was wait and see which happened first. Would I get out or would the air run out?

  I wasn’t even sure which one I would have preferred.

  4

  Jake

  The escape was easy. Bruce had done the hard work, paying whoever needed paying. Ten at night, the lights went out in the block. Alarms went down a minute later. “We got ten minutes,” Bruce said, pushing open the cell door. “Time to do your thing.”

  We got to the laundry three minutes after leaving the cell. Each door was open ready for us. Alarms were starting to go off in B-Wing, part of Bruce’s plan. “They run over there,” he said. “While we sneak out the laundry.”

  I said nothing. I was still itching to kill him.

  “Get that open,” he said to me once we were inside the laundry. He was pointing to the big back door, the one that led to the yard where the trucks came in through the main gates. I kept thinking of Cathy.