Page 64 of Ox

Pipe placed his palm on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. “I promise you, Brother. We’ll find her. I’ve got informants all over the world. If we have to track her to Timbuk-fucking-tu, we’ll bring Kayla home.”

Though I trusted my Brother could do exactly what he said, I wasn’t sure what would happen to my girl in the meantime. There were some things people couldn’t come back from. And, if Ghost was half as fucked up as I knew he was, I feared for Kayla’s sanity.

Refusing to give up hope though, I nodded and asked, “Where to next?”

TWENTY

Kayla

We drovefor hours in silence. Once Ghost had gotten me into the van, he climbed in behind me and bound my feet and stuffed my mouth with a rag.

Warning me to keep my mouth shut or he’d make me pay, he draped a painter’s drop cloth over my body. My adrenaline rush over being drugged and kidnapped, led to a crash of my energy. The thrum of the motor beneath me, mixed with the heat of the blanket, caused me to fall into an exhausted, dreamless sleep. I only awoke when I heard voices and realized we’d come to a stop.

I wanted to shout out, but I didn’t know where we were or what was going on. I recognized Ghost’s voice immediately. He was speaking fluent Spanish with someone outside our vehicle. Where were we? Had I been asleep so long I didn’t notice we’d driven to Mexico?

Terrified that he was talking to one of his biker buddies over the border, I hesitated to call out and cause a scene. The lastthing I wanted to do was incur the unstable man’s wrath while I was still so vulnerable.

Suddenly, the voices grew animated. Then, both men were out and out shouting. The door to the vehicle was opened and the shouting moved further away until there was only silence.

I thought my heart might explode out of my chest when I heard footsteps approaching the van. Someone got behind the wheel and we began to move once more. However, we didn’t drive for long. After about twenty minutes or so, the vehicle slowed and parked.

In an accented English, a masculine voice announced, “I know you’re back there, Senorita. It’s time to show yourself.”

Ghost

The dusty sackcloththat had been covering my head was suddenly ripped off without warning. Light flooded in and I squinted against it. Whatever the border official had stuck me with was strong. I could barely stay conscious, let alone fight against my captors.

I didn’t need to see the man in front of me to know who was there. I’d thought I’d been clever, but he was cleverer. Always one step ahead of everyone else, Maze appeared bored, his VP, Snake, at his side.

My Prez didn’t speak for several seconds. He just looked at me with those pale blue eyes, like he was reading my very soul. But, as he well knew, he was going to be there for some time if he was hoping to catch a glimpse of it, as I didn’t have one for him to read. I’d lost it a long time ago in a shelter for boys that turned the other way when the lights went out each night.

Glancing around, I took in my surroundings. After I’d been drugged, I must have been transported to this bleak basement somewhere in Mexico. A place I was certain I’d never leave.

“Where’s Kayla?” I managed to say, even though my tongue felt as thick and cloudy as my brain.

“Don’t worry about that gash. You’ve got bigger problems than she does right now,” Snake sneered, his thin lips spreading into a cold grin.

Ignoring his slight, I tried to will my hands to move. But the sedative was too strong and I could only manage to wiggle a few fingers.

“You defied me, Ghost,” Maze spoke, as he watched me try and wrestle back control of my drugged body.

There was no use denying it. He was right. I had betrayed him and all the other Watchmen. Now it was time to pay the piper. And I knew it.

“Nobody defies the Prez,” Snake said, smiling like he couldn’t wait for what we all knew came next.

Maze spread his feet wider and shook his head. “I told you to get rid of the bitch, Ghost. Instead, you drove across the border and tried to escape with her in tow. Did you really think I wouldn’t know? That I wouldn’t find you?”

I should have known. But I’d thought I’d covered my tracks by killing anyone who knew about the abduction, ditching my bike, and stealing the van to drive to Mexico. My miscalculation was going to cost me my life. And, even worse, Kayla’s.

“Don’t—” I forced myself to push the words out like I had when I’d been a child and had a paralyzing stutter, “hurt her.”

Looking disgusted, Maze began to put on a pair of leather gloves. “You let a woman come between you and your Club, Ghost,” he lectured, disgust dripping from his words. “Now you gotta pay for that.”

He was right. I’d killed men for much less. Either way, I’d have done it again. Kayla was perfect. She would have made me whole. Happy even. I was sure of it. I was just a shell without her. Empty and hollow. My only regret was not tasting her before dying. And I knew, with all my dark soul, that I was never going to get the chance to touch her again. I wasn’t leaving this cellar in a foreign land. My Prez didn’t farm out his dirty work. He was going to do it right here, right now, himself.

“Snake, get the gasoline,” Maze directed.

His VP scurried into a dark corner to get a red jug. When he returned, Snake snickered and handed it off to his Prez. “I hope you like your meat well done, man.”

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