The man behind the wheel gets out, and I take a deep breath, preparing myself to act when the moment is right, but the slight chuckle from the other side of the van steals my attention. Geno rises from his seat, having to crouch to not smash his head on the roof, as he pulls something from his pocket. The back doors open, allowing light from the parking lot to flood in, and my eyes widen at the needle coming right for me. Rough hands grab my arms and hold me in place. I fight against them, terror gripping my heart like a fist as I watch Geno get closer and closer to my neck with the needle.
No.
No.
No.
I can’t let him inject me with whatever that is, or I’ll never make it out of here. Rocking my shoulders against the other man’s iron hold, I kick my legs out in front of me, hoping to catch Geno where I know it’ll hurt. But the bastard is nimbler than I thought he’d be, and he manages to pin my legs down and straddle them. With a firm grip, he holds my jaw in his hand and turns my face away from him. Tears sting my eyes, and I fight as hard as I can, but between the two of them, I’m barely moving.
“No,” I cry out as the thin needle pierces my neck, and a single tear streaks down my cheek as I let the fear I was hiding before rush forward. My vision swims as Geno releases my jaw and stands over me, that awful fucking smile on his face. The world around me starts to spin, and panic grips my heart as I fight the drugs with everything I have, but I only last a few precious moments before my world plunges into darkness once again.
CHAPTER SIX
Falcon
Almost all of the snow from the blizzard a couple of weeks ago is finally gone. I kind of expected it to melt off quicker than it did, but it lasted for a while. We had a couple of small flurries between now and then, but they didn’t affect us at all.
The roads aren’t icy, and there isn’t any call for freezing rain or snow today, so I head out into the garage and open up one of the bays. Hermoine’s been coming across my mind a bit, and I’ve had a feeling deep inside me like I should stop in The Java Zone and say hi. It’s been two days since I helped her with that entire window fiasco. Not only can I see her, but I can get a nice cup of coffee and maybe a warmed up pastry. It doesn’t seem like a bad idea, so I head over to my bike, put on my helmet, and then mount her. After a few moments, I start her up and pull out of the garage bay. One of the other brothers will make sure the garage door is shut behind me. We always do that for one another when one of us leaves, especially in the winter months.
The ride isn’t too cold since I have multiple layers on. Sure, I’ve got the essentials like a long-sleeve undershirt, boxers, and long Dickie socks, but I have jeans on as well, a long-sleeve shirt, a fleece-lined jacket, and my cut over the top of that. Not to mention my gloves, and I already had a face mask on. They sort of look like the type you’d try to rob a bank in, only showing part of your nose and your eyes. There’s an obvious chill as I’m riding around, but it isn’t too bad. Then again, I think if you complain about shit like this that you’re not an iron-clad biker. Instead, you’re just a pussy ass bitch.
I take the scenic route and then come up to The Java Zone, but the neon open sign Hermoine has on by now isn’t flashing. There’s been a few nasty colds and the winter flu going around, so maybe she’s sick. I hope she isn’t, but I bet that’s the only reason she’d be closed. The last time I saw her, I think she said a couple of her girls had the flu. I know where she lives, so maybe I’ll grab a couple of essentials and stop by her place. You know, tissues, chicken noodle soup, hot tea. I can’t grab all of that in this, though. It’s the one downside of motorcycles, not a lot of storage space, and I don’t have a cupholder attachment. Oh well, I was coming out for a ride, so maybe I’ll head back to the club and take my truck out. In fact, I think I will do that.
I turn my bike around and head back over to the clubhouse. The wind picks up, and I actually get cold on the way back. In my younger days, I would do rides like this all the time, sometimes even across state lines if I needed to. Nowadays, I’ll do it if I have to, but not because I get my rocks off doing it.
As I come back to the clubhouse, the garage bay door is still open, so I make a mental note of that as I pull inside and park my bike. I take off my helmet and pull off my face mask, then remove my gloves, tucking them safely inside my helmet. I have a knack for losing those sorts of things, anything small, really.
I press the button on the wall for the open garage door to close. I’m going to have to talk to whoever was in the club a little bit ago. They should’ve shut it behind me. It’s sort of an unspoken rule, but maybe it’s one I need to speak about again. Just as I’m heading to the door that attaches to the club, my phone begins to ring. I fish it out of my pocket and bring it to my ear without checking to see who it is.
“Hello?” I say into the receiver.
“Sweetie, I have a bit of a problem. It’s one of those where I know I’m going to need your help,” my mom starts off, and I wait for her to tell me what the problem is, but she doesn’t.
“Okay, yeah, Mom. What’s going on?”
“I think I have a burst water pipe, and I’m not sure what to do. Hardly anything is coming out of the water faucet in the kitchen, and when I flush the toilet, it isn’t refilling. I haven’t found a leak, but I think it might be in the basement, and I’m stressing out about it so badly. I debated calling you or not because you know I hate bothering you, but—”
I cut her off right here because I don’t want her to get upset, and the tone of her voice tells me she’s pretty damn close to crying. “Mom, it’s okay. I’ll come right over. Let me just grab some tools. In the meantime, I need you to shut off the water in the house. There should be a valve. I need you to turn that off, and I’ll be there with some help from the club as soon as possible. Okay?”
“Okay, thank you so much, sweetie. I’ll find that valve, shut it off, then wait for you to get here. I love you.”
“I love you too, Mom. Don’t stress about it. It’s something we’ll get handled for you today, okay?”
“All right. Thank you so much,” she says, and then we both hang up our phones.
I head straight into the main area of the clubhouse and immediately spot almost everyone in the club. “Hawk, I need you, Vader, and Horseman to come with me to my mom’s house. She thinks she has a burst water pipe, so we need to sort that out.”
“Aw, shit, man.” Hawk shakes his head, knowing these sorts of issues are never pleasant. At least we have the ability to fix it, so that’s all I’m concerned about.
“Do you know if your mom’s house has copper pipes or PVC? I can run out to the hardware store and get some supplies. We’ll at least need to patch it, but I’ll grab some Flex Seal as well. That shit never budges,” Horseman pipes up, and I don’t think he has a bad idea.
“She has PVC. The house originally had copper, but I had all of the plumbing redone for her a few years back.” As I say it, I have a hard time not clenching my fist. The plumbing was probably redone within the last five years, so why would we have an issue like this already?
“Okay, I’ll head out to the hardware store. You guys can call me if you need anything else,” Horseman says as he looks over to Hawk and me.