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My heart was heavy in my chest the rest of the day, and I missed my mom and pop even more. There were times like this when all I wanted was for my mom to hold me and tell me that everything was going to be okay.
The days were long in the summer and the sun didn’t go down until 9:00 p.m. It was also closing time, and I began the routine of straightening out shelves and closing out the cash register. Pops hired a cleaning crew that came in twice a week, which was a relief for me as I handled the store business while they were away.
I pulled out my boom box hidden underneath the counter and pushed the play button. I listened to the new Hall & Oats cassette tape I bought a week ago from Jimmy at the record store. The song “Man Eater” came through the speakers as I counted the cash in the register. The hair on the back of my neck suddenly began to rise when I heard thunder, but there was no storm. It was the sound of pipes, as two men rode up on their motorcycles and parked in front of the store. They wore rags like my brother—but they weren’t Berzerkers.
I was alone. Panic and fear set in. I came around the counter hoping to get to the door first to lock it, but the men climbed off their bikes and were quicker. They cackled like hyenas as they came through the door, and one of them came after me. I turned and hurried back to get the revolver Pops kept hidden in a drawer behind the counter. But he grabbed me around the waist and clamped a hand over my mouth. His breath reeked of liquor and weed.
The next instant, a large buck knife was held to my throat. “You’re going to give me all the money in that register. And anything else I want.” He licked my cheek with his tongue. I almost puked.
“Dawg, man, Axel told us to bring the sister to him first before the club gets to fuck her,” the other man said from the other side of the counter.
“Shut your pie hole, Toker, and go check the back door.”
Toker cackled at a high pitch as he trotted down the candy and snack aisle, knocking things off shelves.
My head was shoved forward and my cheek was pressed against the counter. I shut my eyes and screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Shut up, bitch!” Dawg barked and jerked my stirrup pants down. He began to breathe fast as he fumbled with his jeans, his hand pressed firmly against the side of my face.
I cried out and begged him to stop, but he was so strong. With one hard thrust, he rammed himself inside me. I screamed at the white-hot pain I had never imagined. Bile started to rise in my throat, and I was about to vomit.
Then cool air. A loud thunderous boom of a gunshot. Then silence.
I pushed off the counter and spun around. Dawg’s body was on the floor, his eyes open, staring up at me. Blood pooled around his dark, greasy hair.
My eyes steered upward to see Bear. I collided into his huge chest and sobbed. He reached down, pulled my pants up, then wrapped his massive tattooed arms around me. I smelled leather and blood.
“Shh. You’re safe now, Holly.” His deep voice rumbled in his chest.
He knew my name.
I gripped his leather rags tightly, and hiccupped, still in shock.
Bear tilted my chin up, and his calloused thumb swiped away tears from my cheek. “My bike is parked out in the back. I’m taking you to your brother, Diezel. But first, I need to lock the front and turn out the lights in here.”
I don’t remember much else, except wrapping my arms around Bear’s waist and holding on tightly as he twisted the throttle on his bike and peeled out from behind the store.
Chapter 4
Bear
Theclubmeetingwiththe Berzerkers MC was a go that night. I rode with Cain and Rex to the same spot I met with Mace a few nights before. But when we were right outside the city limits of Richmond, a sudden attack of heartburn hit me like an acidic burn in the middle of my chest, and then images of Holly flooded my mind. When we planted our boots down at a stoplight, I hollered over to Cain and Rex telling them there was something I had to do and that I’d catch up with them at the river.
My instincts rang true as they always did when I saw two bikes parked out front of McCrae’s as I rode around to the back of the store. I climbed off my bike and pulled my buck knife, just when one of the Cutthroats walked out the back door. I was on him, slitting his throat before he even knew he was dead as he collapsed onto the pavement.
I stepped over him and walked in through the door and heard Holly scream. Hot blood full of rage pumped through my veins at the sight of Holly being raped by the Cutthroat on the store counter. In a matter of seconds, I stepped up behind the Cutthroat, raised my revolver to the back of his head. I pulled the trigger and shot a bullet right through the back of his skull as blood, brain, and bone splattered on Holly. She turned around, her eyes wide with shock, and collapsed into my arms. I reached down and pulled up her pants.
I shoved the gun into the back of my jeans and wrapped my arms around her. “Shh. You’re safe now, Holly.”
I locked the front door and turned out the lights, then took her hand, leading her through the stock room and out the back door. She yelped then clamped her hand over her mouth when she saw the other cutthroat lying dead on the pavement in a puddle of blood. She kept a firm hold on my hand, and I tugged her along as we both stepped over the body.
I handed her my shades and snapped my helmet on her. When she climbed on my shovelhead, she wrapped her arms tightly around me. I opened the throttle and hauled ass.
I pulled up next to the other bikes by the river and planted my feet down. Cain, Rex, and the Berzerkers walked toward us, but Holly didn’t move, her arms still gripping the front of my rags. I reached down, touching her cold hands. “Hop off, darlin’. I gotta kick the stand down.”
She let go and climbed off just as Cain, Rex, and the Berzerkers were close enough to see us in the dark.
“Holly? What the fuck!” Diezel roared.
