No need to tell me twice. I jumped out of the chair, grabbed my bag, and bolted from the room.
I rounded a corner and slammed into a wall of muscle. Strong arms wrapped around me and held me in place, “Whoa. Where do you think you’re going?”
It was Dash, the nicer guy from outside. Shaking like a leaf with tears running down my face, I blinked up at him, “He-he-he told me to get out.” I immediately started squirming in his arms, trying to get away from him.
“Stop that,” he ordered. “You’re not going anywhere until I find out what’s going on.”
I hadn’t made it far. I could still hear Phoenix yelling and destroying things in his office. “I need to go. He told me to leave. I want to leave. Let me go.” He didn’t. Instead, he tightened his hold on me. My only explanation for what happened next is that years of training and conditioning kicked in and instinct took over.
Since I was facing him, and he clearly did not perceive me as a threat, I swiftly brought my knee up between his legs. He released his hold on me and bent forward to cradle his manhood. I shoved the heel of my hand into his nose, sending him up and back. Using his momentum to my advantage, I swept his feet out from under him, sending him crashing to the ground and giving me the opportunity to run for my life.
I could hear voices in the hall behind me, but I didn’t dare look back. I ran with everything I had. Once I made it through the front door, I thought I had a pretty good chance of getting away. I was halfway to the front gates when I suddenly hit the ground. “Gotcha!” an unfamiliar voice sounded by my ear.
“Get off of her, man. I got this,” Dash angrily spat at the man currently crushing me.
“Sure about that?” the man crushing me snickered.
I didn’t have time for this. I had to go. I snapped my head back, successfully making contact with Crusher’s head. I rammed my elbow into his side and quickly pushed up and out. I leaped to my feet and took off.
I made it to the front gate, ready to climb up and over. Pete apparently had decided to do as Phoenix said and was standing by the gate. He stepped in front of me, his gun aimed steadily at my head. I probably could have taken him, even with the gun, but he wasn’t standing close enough. Every time I took a step toward him, he took a step back and ordered me to stay put.
I didn’t stay put. I had already decided that I would rather die than be sent back to the farm. Pete didn’t know it, but he had two options, let me through that gate or shoot me. I was fine with either. Pete had about three steps left before I had him backed against the gate. It was obvious to me by this point that he wasn’t going to shoot me, so I continued moving forward. If I could get close enough, I could disarm him and run for the hills.
Hands grabbed my arms from behind and lifted. Crap. It was Dash and Crusher, each man had one of my arms held tightly between both hands. “Pete, get her feet.”
“No way, man. Phoenix told me not to leave the gate for any reason,” Pete protested.
“Get her fucking feet or lose that prospect patch, what’s it going to be?” Crusher barked.
Pete reluctantly stepped forward and wrapped a hand around each of my ankles. Part of me wanted to kick him, but that would just be mean, it wasn’t like I was going to be able to get away from the other two.
The three of them carried me back inside the clubhouse. I screamed, cried, fought, but nothing helped. As a last ditch effort, I started begging. “Please don’t hurt me. Please! I just came to ask for help. You don’t know what my life has been like. I won’t go back! I won’t!”
My eyes found Carbon standing in the hallway. “How could you tell your sister to send someone here for help? No wonder you won’t let her come around here. You’re all just like them! All of you!” I screamed at the lot of them standing in the hall staring at the tiny girl being manhandled, not a one trying to intervene.
Phoenix appeared in my line of site and started barking out orders. “Carbon, get your fucking sister here right now. I want to know what she knows. Dash, lock that bitch in one of the cells. Byte, I got some shit for you to start digging into. The rest of you, do a perimeter check and I want a brother at each corner of the property, two at the gate, and two on the roof. No prospects. We aren’t on lockdown, but we damn well might be depending on what we find out in the next few hours.”
The men scattered, I assumed to carry out their assigned tasks. It amazed me that grown men would run off to do the bidding of another grown man just because he said so. It made no sense to me. If I ever got out of this mess, I wouldn’t be taking orders from anyone ever again.
The three men carried me down a long hallway and through a door. When they started walking down a flight of stairs, I started to panic. “Where are you going? Where are you taking me?” I shrieked.
Dash made a sound low in his throat that sounded very similar to a growl. A chill ran down my spine when he spoke, his voice low and dark, “What did you think was going to happen when you walked into an MC and started causing trouble? Did you really think you could pull one over on us?” He scoffed, “We may look like big, dumb, bikers, but we’re a lot smarter than people think.”
I continued to thrash around, trying to break their hold on me. “I didn’t do anything. I just came here and asked for help and that psycho in there started yelling at me and throwing things.”
Dash squeezed the arm he was holding, “It would be wise for you to not disrespect our club’s president, especially given the position you’re in right now.”
They carried me down another hallway, this one much darker than the first. We went through another door, into what I assumed was a room of some sort, but it was so dark down there I couldn’t see much. I was suddenly dropped onto something that felt like a hard mattress or cushion. Then, I heard it, the click of a lock being closed sounded loud and clear through the blackness.
Another click and the room was illuminated with bright, artificial light. I gasped. We did enter a room. A room divided by bars. I was locked in a jail cell. The three brutes were on the other side of the bars smirking at me. I took in my surroundings, noticing that I was indeed perched on a disgusting looking mattress. My only other accommodation was a bucket in the corner. “No!” I screamed. “No, no, no! Let me out of here. Please! Please don’t do this!”
Pete and Crusher left without a word. Dash just stood there looking at me. All thoughts of him being the nice one were long gone. He was just like the rest of them. He sneered, “If you stop screaming, I’ll leave the light on for you.”
I shut my mouth immediately. I didn’t want to be left in the dark. Big tears poured down my face as the severity of my situation hit me. I wrapped my arms around myself and slid to the floor. Bringing my knees up, I buried my head in my arms and rocked back and forth, trying to keep my sobs as quiet as possible.
I looked up when I heard the door close. Dash was gone. He left me there all alone. My sobs grew louder. Was my life destined to be controlled by a man in a self-appointed position of power? What had I ever done to deserve my life turning out this way?
I continued to ponder the events of my life, trying desperately to figure out why mine was so messed up. Eventually, my thoughts had provided enough of a distraction for me to physically calm down some. My breathing had returned to an almost normal pattern and my tears had slowed considerably until I realized I had no idea how long I would be locked in the cell or when anybody would come back.
