Forever Faith: A Biker Romance Page 5

  “Yes. I will try.”

  “So no more Stacy or any other girls?”

  “You are the only woman I want.”

  “Not clear enough. Answer the question, Liam.”

  She’s tough. I like that. “No other woman but you.”

  “But we are not touching or doing anything?”

  “Not yet.”

  “This sounds crazy. But if it means you are coming back, I am in.”

  “I am going out of town for a few days. Not to avoid you. I have to visit another charter. It’s club business. When I get back, we will move out to my place.”

  “Ok. When do you leave?”

  “Tomorrow morning. Are we ok? Do you have any more questions? I want you feeling safe and secure while I am away. The clubhouse is the safest place for you. Are you good now?”

  “I’m good. Just one more question. Did you stop because I told you I loved you? Did that freak you out?”

  “Maybe. It is what woke me up to what I was doing. But now, I kind of like it. Remember, we are going to take things slow.”

  “Ok. But you are getting older every day!” She laughs.

  “So are you, Baby.” I give her a wink and a slap on her ass as I take off promising her I will be back in a few minutes to sleep with her and that I won’t pay attention to Stacy or another female while I am out there.

  God help me. This is going to be tough.

  Faith

  Most of the guys take off around eight the following morning. I am feeling high as a kite. Liam kissed me goodbye in front of everyone. Not an open-mouthed, passionate kiss but it was on the lips and he hugged me and held me wrapped in his huge arms for a long time like he hated leaving me. My status in the club has been totally upgraded. I joined the other wives and girlfriends in standing outside and watching the guys ride out. I suddenly have the respect of the other women and not their pity.

  Megan and Gypsy wake up around ten and hear all about my PDA with Liam and literally squeal with delight. “I knew it! He is making you his old lady! I can’t believe this! I never dreamed bringing you here would turn out this way! I’m so happy for you!” Gypsy says while bouncing up and down.

  “Slow down, Gypsy. We are taking things slow to see what happens,” I tell her.

  “You mean he still hasn’t spanked your ass and fucked your brains out? What are you waiting for?” Megan asks.

  “Oh my God, you guys, just give it a rest,” I plead, and the conversation turns to other gossip and chit chat. I catch them looking at each other a couple of times, and I know I am still some kind of an oddity to them, but I feel close to them, like I have real friends for the first time ever.

  The women of the club seem closer when the men are gone. The days fly by and the atmosphere is much more relaxed. I, of course, read one book after the other, uninterrupted. The meals are lighter and more casual without the guys. We do a lot of salads and sandwiches. There are only a few of the club whores around, but no sign of Stacy. My paranoid mind wonders if she has maybe gone out of town with the guys, but I force myself to stop those thoughts.

  On the last day before the guys are expected to return, Megan and Gypsy invite me to go to town with them. They are doing a Walmart run and some additional shopping. The thought of going someplace totally excites me, and Gypsy’s mom says it will be fine with Liam as long as we get back in a couple of hours.

  We take off with Megan driving her little car. I don’t have a penny to spend, but the idea is to shop and be a girl for once. We do Walmart proud, and I have a very anxious moment when I see some men from the Family there. I am initially afraid, but they seem to ignore me completely. In shorts and a tee shirt, I am probably unrecognizable to them. It does make me wish we went to a Walmart out of town.

  After Walmart we stop and park downtown to walk through some of the smaller shops. Megan is on a serious mission to find exactly what she is looking for. We laugh and have fun and I feel so happy and free. This is no big deal to these girls, but to me, it is one of the best days of my life.

  In the little mom and pop shop, we wait while Megan is in the little dressing room, when Russell Malone walks up to me and grabs me by the arm.

  “Hey! Let her go now, you big loser! I will call the cops!” Gypsy yells, and Megan comes out of the dressing room. I look to the store owner and his wife to see if they are already calling the police, but they are deliberately looking away to ignore the whole drama, and I know I am screwed.

  Russell and I are staring at each other as he still has not said one word. His violent anger is evident by his clenched fist and heavy breathing. Once Gypsy and Megan start trying to physically get him away from me, they are stopped by three other guys from the Family. They restrain them there as Russell drags me out of the store. There is total screaming and chaos now, but no one seems to care. I hear the girls yelling and cursing inside the store as Russell climbs into the passenger side of a pickup truck holding on to me. I fight and squirm as hard as I can while his friend starts the truck and drives us away. I know I am done. I will never see Liam again. I pray the girls will be ok. This is a religious group; how can they support violence and kidnapping?

  “Russell, please…” I try to reason when he strikes me hard across my face. I am in shock at his violence, although I knew he had it in him. My vision is kind of blurry and my ears ring from the force of the slap. I lower my head and sit still. No more fight left in me for now. My father won’t stand for this. As soon as we get to the compound, this nightmare will end. When he sees that Russell has hit me, he may no longer force me to marry him. I decide to just stay silent and submissive until I get home.

  We continue driving beyond the compound and completely away from town. I panic now.

  “Russell where are we…” and he slaps me again before I can finish my question. I am scared now knowing my father can’t save me and stop this. My mind races over all the possibilities. Where are we going? Is Russell separated from the Family now? Who will help me? Russell has not spoken a single word since this began. Not even in the store, and every time I try to speak, I get hit. He looks straight ahead and keeps a tight hold on me. I just have to wait.

  After an hour or more, we pull into a dirt driveway of an older, small house on a deserted country lane. There is another truck in the driveway that I know belongs to Russell. He yanks me out of the truck and into the house as our driver backs out of the drive and leaves. Russell now has me by my hair and we stand in the entry, not moving. I hope he is having second thoughts. I hope there is a way out of this nightmare.

  Finally he pulls me by hair further into the house and into a back bedroom. When I see the unmade bed I see rope, cable ties, duct tape, bottles of pills, a pair of handcuffs, and a couple of filled syringes. I panic for real now. He wasn’t hauling me off to marry me, which I had thought was the worst scenario possible.

  He plans to torture me and God knows what. To make me pay for running. I begin to scream and fight with everything I have. He fights me back just as hard. I am tossed against a wall where I hit my head pretty hard. I taste my own blood in my mouth as I try to raise myself up from the floor and continue the struggle but Russell grabs me by my throat and slams me into the wall over and over until everything goes dark, either from being choked or hitting my head repeatedly I am not sure. All I see is black as I leave this world. My last breath says one word only: “Liam.”And I am out.

  Liam

  I cannot ride fast enough to get back. The call came in less than an hour ago. Fucking Russell Malone has Faith. I know him. Religion or not, he is a violent psycho. I can’t believe her old man would let him pull something like this. My poor girl. I am so pissed that she was in town, but it’s too late now to fight that battle. I have already lost so much time. The girls went to the cops first and that got them nowhere, so I guess everyone stood around for a few hours, afraid to make the call to let me know what had happened. Now, I am still more than an hour away from home and Malone has already had Faith fo
r three or four hours. I took off without ending the call, and the other guys were still scrambling when I hit the road. They will be at least a half hour behind me. We try not to ride single out on the road just to be certain we don’t get into some shit with rival clubs or cops or anything, but I couldn’t wait. I keep picturing Malone raping and abusing my girl. I should have never left her alone. I will kill Malone for this. I may blast away the entire cult out there. Whatever it takes to get Faith home safe.

  The sun is setting when I pull into the clubhouse. There are a couple of cop cars here and I hope this means Faith is home.

  As soon as I walk in, I know I am wrong. Everyone is sitting around the tables with heads hung down. It reminds me of funerals we have had in the past. Oh God.

  “What’s happened?”

  The cop is the first one to answer. “We don’t know anything yet Liam. They aren’t at the compound. Officers have been out there several times this afternoon. Russell and the girl are nowhere to be found out there. Her old man had a coronary when he heard. I really believe he is clueless. No way was he in on this.” It’s plain to see he’s trying to keep a lid on things and avoid an all-out war between the Horsemen and the Family.

  I see a lot of tears around the table and the two little bitches that took her into town can’t look me in the eye. At least they are smart enough to be crying their eyes out right now.

  I walk over to the table and say, “I want to talk to you two.”

  They begin apologizing and saying how sorry they were and I cut it off.

  “Just tell me who exactly was there. Who helped Malone? What kind of car. Tell me everything you can. I don’t care if you have repeated it over and over all afternoon. Tell me everything.”

  They lay out the story for me and it makes me sick. I have no names or IDs, but Russell has kind of a crew out there, so I am pretty sure I can figure it out. I just need to get her before it is too late. I let the girls know I may ask them to identify the men for me when I round them up, and head to my room to get armed better than I am now. As I walk away the cops start saying shit like I need to keep a cool head and not set this town on fire, and we need to find a peaceful resolve and so on. Bullshit.

  Armed to the teeth, I return to the main room, planning to head out, when I hear the roar of the bikes as my brothers returning. I need all the help I can get right now.

  We are all heavily armed and thirsty for blood as we leave for the Family compound. It seems they were expecting us. A large number of men are lined up on the front porch of David Holmes. I don’t see weapons but I know all the whackos carry.

  David stands front and center with his arms crossed in front of him. As all the bikes shut off I walk right up to the porch.

  “Holmes.”

  He nods.

  “Where is she?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. I can only guess Russell Malone has taken her for his bride like he was promised, but they aren’t here,” he says.

  “You and I go way back. You know Malone as well as I do. He’s not right in the head. And your little girl is off with him someplace.” I am trying to get him to team up with us and get to the bottom of this much quicker.

  “That is none of my concern. The day she left here she broke her vows and has been excommunicated. She is no longer my daughter,” the bastard says.

  “Ok. Fair enough. Where are they?”

  “I told you I don’t know,” he says.

  “Who would know? Where are Malone’s boys? They would know.”

  “I’m not sure who you mean.”

  “Ok. Then I plan to tear this place apart. I will shoot first and ask questions later until someone knows what the fuck I am asking and gives me some answers.”

  We proceed to do just that, and it doesn’t take long—after about three houses in—that everyone has something to tell. It appears that Malone and three of his guys are missing and have been for a day or two. I got nothing. No names. No addresses. Nothing.

  “Someone knows something, and until they give it up, we are going to keep coming around and paying visits just like this one tonight.” And with that we take off. It’s pitch dark and we are dragging families with little scared kids out of their homes to search and find answers.

  Most of the guys head back in to the clubhouse. I can’t stop yet. I drive to the shop and take off like the girls told me the pickup truck did. I go over and over it. The Horsemen that chose to stay with me probably think I have lost it, but stay silent. The entire little town is the same. I stand on the porch in front of the store and look back and forth down the sidewalk. I try to picture it going down. I try to develop some kind of psychic powers to lead me to her but nothing works. The store is owned and run by the Lilies. An older couple that attend church out there but don’t actually belong to the Family. The girls told me how they didn’t lift a finger to stop Malone. I decide their place is my next stop.

  There are only four of us riding now but it still makes one hell of a noise when we pull up. Especially in this little town at this time of night.

  The porch light goes on before I get off my bike.

  “Mr. Lillie, sorry to bother you so late, but I understand something went down in your store today.”

  “Yes. There was a problem, I think, between a young couple. Why? What has it got to do with you people?”

  “That wasn’t a young couple. That was a kidnapping and I am pretty sure you know that by the way the girl was screaming and crying.”

  “Well we know him, and he is trouble. We had to do what was best to protect ourselves. He is a nasty piece of work if he doesn’t get his way. We cannot afford those kind of problems.”

  “So you let him drag a young girl out to his truck while she was screaming and crying?”

  “We didn’t know. They treat their women different out there. It’s always best not to get involved. And anyway, I will ask again: what has it got to do with you people?”

  “She belongs to me. Not him. He had no right to touch her. But you two. You two could have helped her. Do you think he is more of a threat to you and your business than I am? I will deal with you when I get her back. But know this, you are going to wish Russell Malone was your problem and not me.”

  We take off for the clubhouse and know the hunt is over for today. I won’t sleep or rest as long as Malone has her, but I know the guys can’t keep going door to door bothering everyone in town.

  Back at the clubhouse we all sit and talk and plan. There seems to be a lot more coffee drinking tonight than beer drinking. Everyone is feeling the loss. Everyone loves Faith. She could honestly be anywhere.

  They may still be driving at this moment putting her farther and farther out of my reach. Big outlaw bike gang. We deal in drugs and guns and all kinds of foul shit, and here we are brought to our knees over one missing girl. I call in every favor, all through the night. I have connections on both sides of the law and believe me, I have contacted them all. I have only the description of the pick-up they drove off in as well as Malone’s truck, including his tag number. One of them has to show up somewhere. Someone will spot them.

  It’s almost daylight, and I head to my room to shower and get ready to head out again. I am overwhelmed by her sweet smell everywhere in the room. I should have never left her. I am completely responsible for putting her in Malone’s hands. She was easy pickings. The scariest part I haven’t let myself think about is that he didn’t just haul her ass to the compound and force a marriage on her. He has just taken off with her. What does he plan to do?

  After showering and changing, I head to the dining room to get some much needed coffee and breakfast. One of the deputies from last night is at the biggest table with some of the guys. He has a map spread out in front of them. I join them and my breakfast and coffee appear in front of me without me asking for anything. He has sectioned off the map and says unless someone has a better idea, we can each take sections and look for either pick-up truck. Until there is some proof to the contrary,
we will assume they are still in the county. It’s a good idea, but days of hard work. I can see why he brought this to us. His little office could never pull the manpower to cover a big job like this. Like I said, even with all of our guys, this could take days or weeks. We are all in agreement. No vote necessary and I lay out the rules. No one moves in when they spot either vehicle. Call me, and I will come. We go over some communications orders and set out for our areas. It’s daunting and kind of a needle in the haystack deal but it’s all we have at this point.

  Days pass and it will soon be a week. Some of the guys are giving up but no one stops. In between our searches, we are harassing everyone in the Family, as well as some of the regular townspeople. I sometimes worry Faith is far, far away and I will never see her again. They could be in Canada, or Mexico, or any place, for that matter. Nothing I have tried has led me to find her. I am out of ideas but I know I can’t stop looking.