Tickety Tock, page 21
While I hate the thought, I have to tell him, “Jack used to torment her when she was a child. It’s just as likely he’s just a cruel asshole who gets his kicks from seeing her suffer.”
“She’s been successful in her life while he’s been in and out of jail,” Metalhead puts in. “Fucker like that would be likely to blame anyone other than himself. He’s probably jealous of her.”
Interesting as this psychoanalysis of Jack is, it’s getting us no closer to Raven, and every word is making dread settle in my heart. Every comment paints a picture of a man who wants to hurt her. Could I have lost her before I really have a chance to have her?
As my anger boils over, I repeat my earlier action, standing and slamming my fists on the table. “So where is this motherfucker now? Where’s Raven? And what the fuck is he doing to her?” Silence reigns. Shaking my head, I spit out, “I’m going to San Francisco.”
“What the fuck for?” Toad blasts at me. “Sit the fuck down, Dwarf. What the hell do you think you’re going to do in the Golden City? We’ve got to get a bead on Jack before we tear off trying to find Raven.”
That takes the wind out of my sails, and I do sit the fuck down. He’s spoken the truth. All I know is that I can’t just sit here doing nothing. My hands rake back through my short hair, my fingernails digging into my scalp. I can’t stand the thought of Raven suffering.
Scalpel leans forward. “I’m a medic, not a psychiatrist, but there’s one place he could take Raven too.” My eyes shoot to him immediately. “The place that’s so important to him. The cabin.”
“That’s if he’s not killed her already,” Stumpy unhelpfully puts in. “Be a lot easier just to get rid of her body then claim her inheritance.”
My heart stops beating.
“Nah,” Bonkers taps his head. “Maybe it takes crazy to know crazy, but if that’s what he was going to do, why the fuck did he not just ambush her at the cabin? Why set it all up to drive her out of her mind? He wants to punish, torture her.” His shoulders rise and fall. “Sure, in the end he’ll probably off her, but first he’ll want to have some fun.”
“And what better fuckin’ place than where it all started?” Raider slams his fist down.
Toad waves a hand. “Not sure about putting all our eggs in one basket, but I do think the cabin’s the place we should start. Dwarf, you want to head out there with,” he looks around, “Metalhead, Scalpel, Bonkers, Midnight and Crumb? At least check it out? Cloud, you and the rest of us will stay here and see if we can get more info on Jack.”
I’m torn. One half of me wants to leap to my feet, get on my bike and ride there right now, but the other half asks, what if we’re wrong and she’s somewhere else?
“I’m in.” Metalhead raises his chin toward me.
“Me too.”
All the others Prez has named confirm they’re game.
“Dwarf?”
It’s got to be better doing something, but there’s only flimsy evidence that’s where he’s taken her. She could be anywhere. She could already be dead.
Cloud raises his chin toward me. “We’ll keep looking, Brother. We won’t give up until we find her.”
Not knowing what to do for the best, but knowing I’ll go crazy if I do nothing at all, I throw up my hands. “Okay, I’ll go to the cabin. At least we’ll be able to cross that off the list if she’s not there.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Raven
Though I try to struggle, Jack’s got the upper hand, and he half pushes, half drags me through the door. As soon as we’re over the threshold and into the cabin, Jack’s fingers tighten on my shoulder, and he pulls me back.
“It fuckin’ worked.”
He sounds almost in awe as he views the bookcase lying smashed, and when he turns his body, I know he’s spied the remnants of the crockery broken and scattered across the kitchen floor. He drags me over to one of the bedrooms and examines the door.
“It fuckin’ worked,” he repeats. Turning me to face him, he shakes me until my teeth rattle. “You fuckin’ see this?”
“What?” I ask, innocently.
“The doors flying open, the bookcase falling…” He breaks off, examining my face, presumably wondering how the hell I witnessed what he’d set up, and kept my sanity.
Suddenly I don’t want to give him the upper hand or give him the satisfaction of knowing just how much he scared me. I decide to play dumb. “It was like this when I arrived. I just thought an animal had gotten in or something.”
His face blackens. I can almost read the thoughts going through his head. The only conclusion he can probably reach is that his arrangements had gone off prematurely.
He scowls. “You always did have the luck of the fuckin’ Devil.”
Suddenly rage goes through me. “Luck? Luck?” It gives me the strength to pull out of his arms. “You think my childhood was lucky? With you as a brother, and being raped by my father? Seeing my father shot at my grandaddy’s hands?”
“You’re the reason our dad died,” he roars. “If you weren’t such a stupid bitch, he’d still be alive. But you went running to Pops—”
I don’t know why I have to correct him. “I didn’t. He came in and saw. He saw what Daddy was doing and how wrong it was—”
“Wrong?” He looks apoplectic. “You were ours.”
Ours?
His lungs are heaving with anger, and my own breaths are coming fast. I know he’s going to hurt me. I’d tried running moments before, it hadn’t worked.
I don’t know what to do. I just want to survive. I know if I get out of here still breathing, I’m going to call Dwarf. Hell, I’ll sell my business, move to be here with him. I was too cautious before. I should have taken what he was offering. I’ve been a fool, and in doing so, ended up in this predicament. Alone, in this cabin, with Jack.
As I try to mentally work through any of my very limited options, Jack’s face transforms in front of me. His lips slowly part, and his eyes flare with something that’s almost unnatural. His fists unclench, and he starts reaching for me just as he had before.
He looks just like my daddy.
Before fear can freeze me to the spot, I step back smartly.
“Tickety tock!” he suddenly shouts.
And oh God, those words, in that voice… It’s exactly like my father’s.
“Tickety tock. Tickety, tickety tock.”
It’s Jack, I tell myself. My brother not my daddy. But on some visceral level, I find it hard to believe.
Jack’s face seems to morph again as he continues to repeat the words, his calculating look seeing exactly what he’s doing to me.
Stand my ground.
I refuse to give in. But a whimper rises to my throat as he stalks toward me.
The next rendition of tickety tock gets my feet moving, but it’s not with an adult’s calculation of an attempt at an escape route. This time, it’s a child’s blind impulse to run. I flee, as I have so many times before, up the stairs toward the one place I should have been safe, but which had never offered me sanctuary. The room I’d avoided on my first visit.
Footsteps stomp behind me.
“Tickety tock. Tickety fuckin’ tock. I’m coming for you, little mouse.”
Blindly, I rush down the hallway and straight into my childhood bedroom. For a moment, I’m stunned that nothing’s here that I remember from my childhood. The room’s been emptied, as if I’d never lived here. There’s not even a bed nor a rotting carpet on the floor.
Belatedly, it snaps me into reality. I’m twenty-six, not a child anymore. And it’s not my daddy running up behind me.
Like someone’s suddenly slammed sense into me, fear turns into anger once more.
Jack might be bigger than me, but he expects me to be cowed and scared, and behave as I had with my daddy, as a young child who had no recourse but to submit to an adult’s perverse desires.
My sudden onslaught takes him by surprise. I kick, punch, get in a hit to his stomach which has him bending over, and for a moment, have the upper hand as he didn’t expect to be faced with a whirling dervish. I push him back down the hall, hoping my momentum will get him to the stairs. Already I’m sensing victory, seeing a vision of him toppling down them… planning to get his car keys and leave this place of horrors.
But even as my escape firms up in my mind, Jack turns the tables and launches himself, kicking out, sweeping my legs from under me, then taking advantage when I’m on the ground. His heavy body falls to cover me.
“Fight me,” he says, grinding his hard cock into me. “Fight me. I think I like it better like this. I’m going to have you, Raven. Then I’m going to fuckin’ kill you, you little bitch. Living the high life when I was left here to rot with that evil bastard.”
My grandaddy might have been a lot of things, misguided perhaps, but those two words were things he definitely was not. As if I didn’t have enough reasons to battle Jack for myself, his threats and insults fuel the flames.
I buck my hips, trying to dislodge him, hating it puts me closer to his dick. Unbalancing him, I manage to roll us over. I draw up my knee, hoping to have a shot at his balls, but he’s too fast, too strong. Ripping my shirt in the process, he soon has me over on my back. With his knee, he pushes my legs apart and starts dry humping me, making vomit rise into my mouth.
His fetid breath doesn’t help at all as he lowers his lips to my face. Doing the only thing I can, I bite him when he tries to force his tongue into my mouth.
“Bitch!” I get backhanded across my face. Another bruise to add to my collection.
I struggle, do what I can, but I’m going to lose this war, that’s a certainty. Gradually, Jack’s managing to counter any attack I make on him, overpowering me so I can’t do it again. When he wraps his hand around my hair and pulls back on my scalp, his other hand encircling my wrists and his legs encasing mine, I’m trapped completely.
As if he realises, Jack chuckles quietly. “Tickety tock.”
I’m not going to freeze. I’m not going to lie here and take it. I let myself relax, knowing Jack can’t do what he wants to me while I’m still fully clothed, and to get access, he’ll have to release me to remove my jeans. I’ll bide my time. As soon as my hands are free, I’ll gouge out his eyes. I’d rather he killed me than raped me.
“What the fuck’s that?” Jack’s head jerks up, his hand tightening in my hair, automatically making me wince.
But the pain is nothing to the sense of elation I feel hearing the sound of numerous motorcycles pulling up outside the cabin.
“That’s the cabin’s purchasers,” I tell him, trying to keep the triumph from my voice, thanking God I carried on with selling the cabin. “They’ll be here to do a survey or something.”
“Fuckin’ trespassers,” he growls. “This place is mine. It’s not for fuckin’ sale.” He starts getting to his feet, pulling me up by my hair.
Finding it a useful handle, he pulls me to the stairs and down them, my arms floundering to stop myself from falling. Once he’s reached the bottom, he reaches into the bag he’d brought in with him and extracts a gun.
“Jack! Jack! Stop.” I try to get through to him as he pulls me toward the door. “This is a motorcycle club, not a bunch of happy-go-lucky riders.” I’m worried about becoming collateral damage in a hail of bullets. If Jack starts shooting, then the bikers are going to shoot back.
I think I’ve gotten through to him, but perhaps not in the way that I want, as he pushes me in front of him. “You open the door and tell them to get the fuck out of here. I’ve got a gun on you, Raven.”
I hadn’t thought through him using me as a human shield. For a second, doubt goes through me that I’m right about it being the Wicked Warriors. What if it’s just a bunch of random bikers come to shoot the place up? Or even if it is Dwarf’s club, it might be some I haven’t met. As far as the bikers are concerned, the cabin as good as belongs to them.
With his gun pressed tight to my back, Jack slings his arm over my shoulder as he walks us both out. He keeps the door open behind him.
My eyes widen and I feel like fist pumping the air when I see it’s not only Dwarf’s club but Dwarf himself. He’s off his bike and is checking out the car Jack drove us here in. I recognise the others that are with him.
Dwarf’s attention is caught, and I catch the narrowing of his eyes when he spies first that my shirt is torn, then they become slits as he notices the bruises on my face.
“Hey, fellas,” Jack calls out confidently. “This is private property.”
After a glance toward me with narrowed eyes, Metalhead casually takes out a packet of cigarettes, taps one out and lights it. He steps up offering the pack to Dwarf, who I know doesn’t smoke. I think it gives him the opportunity to say something under his breath.
Turning back to look in our direction, Metalhead exhales a plume of blue smoke. “Heard this place was for sale.”
“It is,” I say, jerking forward at the jab of the gun in my back.
“It is not,” Jack snarls from behind me. “Get off my property before I call the cops.”
“Your property?” Scalpel now swings his leg off his bike. “Strange that. The real estate agent said a woman was selling it.”
Jack stiffens behind me, and whispers, “This is all your fault, bitch. Set them right. Tell them it’s mine to do what I want with it.”
I, of course, am going to do nothing of the sort. I keep my mouth shut. For a moment, it’s a standoff until one of the bikers, Crumb, I remember his name, starts to walk around to the side of the cabin.
“Where’s he going? Tell him to come back where I can see him. No one’s fuckin’ walking around this place.” Jack sounds panicked.
“He’s going for a piss.” Bonkers explains his absence, casually flicking ash off the end of his cigarette.
Dwarf looks surprised as if he was expecting me to run into his arms, but I can’t tell him why I can’t. Why I allow this beast of my brother to keep me anchored to him. I try to signal with my eyes that I’m trapped, but apparently, I’m not that good a mime artist.
Or so I believe. More attuned to me than I expected, Dwarf suddenly walks closer. Again, that gun gets stabbed into me, causing another bruise to add to the rest of my collection.
My man stares at me. Now, his act is worthy of an Oscar, as he looks dispassionately, and lifts his gaze to Jack over my shoulder.
“How much are you selling the place for?”
“Too much for you,” Jack sneers. “And it’s not for sale. It’s my family home.”
It’s mine, not his, but I leave that thought in my head.
“Oh, come on, man. Anything’s for sale at the right price.” Metalhead steps forward and joins Dwarf.
“Where’s the other one of you?” Jack appears agitated, and his head twists for a second in the direction Crumb had gone.
“Probably taking a crap,” Bonkers calls out. “Man’s got a sensitive ass if you get my meaning. Best you stay upwind of him when you go out back.”
Scalpel snorts and fist bumps Bonk. They seem so relaxed, Jack’s tension eases.
“How much?” Metalhead prompts again.
I might not be able to see Jack’s smirk, but I can hear it in his voice as he replies, “Two million dollars.”
Metalhead emits a sudden surprised bark. “What the fuck do you think this is? A fuckin’ gold mine?”
Jack stumbles backward, taking me with him. “How the fuck do you know?” he rasps, hoarsely. “Now get out of here.” Showing his hand, he adds, “Or I shoot the bitch.”
Something in Metalhead’s casual words have thrown a switch in Jack. He was starting to relax and thought he was going to get out of this.
Now I can feel his body quivering.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dwarf
When I turned to see Raven alive, I nearly collapsed to my knees with relief. It had taken all my acting ability to keep the rage off my face, and every ounce of my control not to charge in and rip her from the other man’s hands, especially seeing the state of her. Her face is a mass of bruises, and her shirt is torn.
If she was free to move, I know she’d run to me. She looks strong, angry, not cowered and weak, so I assume that Jack, as that’s who it has to be, has a weapon trained on her.
The thought of a bullet or knife doing damage to her is the only thing stopping me from throwing myself forward and tearing him apart with my bare hands.
Metalhead had made the same conjecture, as he’d imparted when he’d whispered to me.
Although I saw recognition and relief in her eyes when she’d noticed me, that she hadn’t shouted my name wasn’t a mystery. Clever girl. She’s playing for time.
She’s trusting me to get her out of this.
Jack seems perfectly content to hide behind a woman who he’s obviously beaten and attacked, and I suspect that’s because we’re bikers. Most of the civilian world think we treat our woman like shit, and little better than animals. He’s going to soon find out that neither I nor my brothers condone violence to the fairer sex, but for now it works in our favour and I’m not going to warn him.
I know two things he doesn’t. One, despite Bonk’s reference to Crumb’s bathroom habits, he’s not disappeared to empty his bowels. Nah, he’ll first be calling Prez to update him, then will be looking for a back way into the cabin. The other is that my brothers are on board with handling this carefully, and nothing takes priority over Raven’s safety. Hence, why Metalhead picked up on my cue to see if we could get Jack talking by offering him money for the cabin which we know he doesn’t own.
But when he asks for two million, like my brother, I think that’s fishy, but his reaction to the comment about it being a gold mine was what really got all my instincts to come online.
It’s also made Jack trigger happy, revealing the weapon he’s used to control Raven. As soon as he showed his, both Metal’s and my guns are in our hands.
