“I’m sorry man. I didn’t know. I won’t fuck with them again. I’m loyal, I promise.” Cyrus says over and over trying to calm Nitro down.
“That’s what I fucking thought. Now get the fuck out of here. I’ll take care of them.” Nitro straightens up slightly, but still doesn’t take his eyes off the man until Cyrus walks out of the room and closes the door behind him.
Nitro quickly turns in Jessica's and my direction.
“Shit, are you okay? These fucking bastards don’t know how to control themselves.”
Jessica surprises me by speaking out, “You seem to have enough control for all of them.”
She’s not lying though. Even though I’m still upset about what happened I have to admit what he just did was impressive.
“It’s bullshit, no one should be forcing themselves on you or any of the women in here. Fucking savages.” He shakes his head and walks over to me. He picks up the edge of his shirt and wipes under my nose. I see a bit of blood on the fabric when he moves it away. “You, okay? Anything else hurting?” He runs his hands over my face and arms as if it’s the most natural thing to do in the world. I don’t pull away. It actually feels good to have someone worrying about me for a change.
“I’m good. Let me check on Jessica.” I smile at him a bit before I back away and look over at Jessica who is already standing and wiping away her tears.
“I’m okay too. Do we have to go now?” She asks. I look back to Nitro to see if time is up. He nods his head in response.
“Okay, remember what we talked about okay. Stay alive.” I pull her into a hug and let her go with Nitro.
He escorts her out the door, but turns to talk to me. “I’m going to lock you in here. I’ll be back for you, but it’ll keep those bastards away.” His dark eyes pierce my soul and it’s in this very moment I know he doesn’t belong here. I don’t know what he’s trying to pull on Rooster, but Nitro isn’t my enemy.
“Alright, I’ll be here waiting for you.”
“I like the sound of that.” He smiles wide and for the briefest moment in time I forget that I’m stuck in a fucking prison.
Nitro
Tink did a kick ass job getting the women ready for the auction. By the time they were ready I wouldn’t even know that they had been locked in a basement for all the time that they had been there.
Now all that's left is that we impress Yemen and the rest of whatever cronies he brings with him. The closer we get to the time that he's supposed to show up the more irate Rooster becomes.
“This is bullshit Nitro! Who the fuck is going to want to fuck any of these three? They’re still not good enough!“ He yells at me as he looks at the three girls that Tink had picked out.
I take a step back and make sure that I don’t seem like a threat. Right now, Rooster is liable to take any flinch in his direction as an invitation to fight. I don’t think I’d lose a fight one on one with just Rooster, but if the rest of the club gets in on it, I’d be dead within seconds.
“Rooster, man there is nothing more that we can do. These are the women that we have to work with. We got them looking the best we can, so right now this is who we need to use to impress Yemen.”
He takes a deep breath before he storms off cursing to himself. He’s fucking unraveling and fast.
“Nitro, I had an idea. Thought I would run it by you, see what you thought about it.” Rage steps up closer in my space.
“What?”
“Why don’t we set up a few of our people on the outside of the compound? Take this Yemen out before he even has a chance to get in here. I mean why the hell should we just give these girls to him? I mean we paid for them and he is going to take his pick of the crop, because he feels like this is his turf? I think that’s bullshit. Besides, I think we would have more fun with them then a bunch of old farts would. I want to keep them for myself.” Rage waggles his eyebrows and claps me on the back like he thinks I’m going to agree with him.
“Rage, what the hell did you do before you came here?”
The smile on his face falls and he steps away from me. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”
“I just want to know what kind of dumb fuck you were before all this? What in the fuck would make you think that a man who has escaped federal prison, assassination attempts, political persecution, and almost every other gangbanger on the planet is just going to be caught walking into the building? What the hell do you think is going to happen when he catches a few of our people trying to ambush him? He’ll kill us dead or worse, he’ll keep us for whatever fucked up shit he does over there in his country. As for the women, none of them are yours. You don’t touch a hair on any of their heads. If Rooster tells us that they are all for Yemen then we pack them up and give them to him. If he tells us that they are going to be our prisoners until they die then that is what is going to happen. But nowhere in there are you going to think that I'd just let you take one of them for yourself, because you want to have some fucking fun. That shit isn’t going to happen.” I keep my eyes trained on him and watch as his nostrils flare with anger.
“You can’t make that decision. I’ll go to Rooster. I’ll tell him that we have to look out for the club.” I can see his shoulders starting to tense up. I wish he would raise a hand in my direction. Ever since Rage had got here there has been an underlying tension between him and I like he doesn’t think that I should be in the position that I’m in. He wants my spot and for the life of me I wish I could fucking give it to him.
“Go on, try to go to Rooster. You forgot who the fuck is the VP here? You forgot who the fuck was around when Rooster became President in the first place? Rooster will believe me over you any fucking day. I know what’s best for the club and running out trying to find a weak spot on one of the most ruthless motherfuckers, isn’t it. We put our fucking heads down and do what we're fucking told.” I put my hand on his face and push him away hard. “That’s for you to make sure that everything is exactly how I told you to make it. Now get the hell out of here with that bullshit, stay in your fucking lane Rage.” I stand there and wait for him to retaliate, but instead he just turns on his heels and stalks out in the same way that Rooster did. I don’t have the patience to make any friends here, especially when I know that making friends could potentially open me up for someone to figure out that I’m not who I say I am.
* * *
It’s like seeing a fucking ghost or a legend in the flesh. Yemen Ratliff is standing in front of me like it's the most normal thing in the world. This man was in jail last I heard for decades, so how the fuck is he just walking around right now without a care in the world?