I smiled, feeling the stubble on his face all over the cleavage of my breasts.
“Creed,” I giggled, loving the feel of him against me.
“I need to check her heart rate,” someone said, bringing my attention to the man holding a small monitor in his hands.
“What?” I replied but no one responded. When I looked back in front of me Creed was gone, no longer above me, loving on me. He was standing in the corner of the room with the same worry in his eyes when I last saw him. Sinking further and further away until he was gone. “What’s going on? Where am I?”
I was talking but no one could hear me. My lips weren’t moving, there were no sounds coming from my mouth, yet I could hear myself. Were those my thoughts?
“Mia, babe, you’re gonna be alright, so is our baby. I promise,” Noah said, standing above me.
“Noah?” I shook my head, looking up at his face. Peering from him to Creed. Squinting my eyes, everything was so bright. Where was that light coming from?
There were so many people in the room. Why was everyone shouting?
“I don’t feel anything abnormal anymore,” the same man from my left said, pressing on my stomach. “Don’t touch me! Get your hands off me!” I screamed, repeatedly thrashing around, but still, no one heard me. Still, no one sees me fighting.
No one does anything.
Not Creed.
Not Noah.
Not anyone.
And then they were gone. No one was with me. I was alone. Scared and cold. So damn tired. My eyes inadvertently shut, taking me under. Spiraling into the dark corners of my mind.
“You nervous, Mia?” Creed murmured in my ear, making me smile again.
I opened my eyes and he was hovering above me, exactly the way he was before. “Yes…” I whispered as if nothing had happened.
“Why?”
“Because it’s you,” I simply stated.
“I make you nervous?”
“Sometimes.”
“Why do ya think that is?”
“I don’t know.”
“Yes, you fuckin’ do,” he growled, his lips were on mine before he got the last word out, attacking every last fiber in my being. Feeling his love. His protection. His warmth all over me.
The hard, jagged footsteps descending down the hall startled me awake. Boots pounding onto the wood floors, vibrated through the space between us, getting louder and louder with each passing minute. I looked over my shoulder slightly, peering around the room that was now pitch black. I couldn’t even see an inch in front of me. Nightfall had taken over. It took me a moment to remember where I was and what had happened.
My mind was still groggy and filled with unanswered questions which never seemed to stop. I grabbed the scissors from the back of my jeans, clutching them tightly in my grasp, almost to the point of pain. Bringing them close to my chest. My hand was shaking uncontrollably as I thought about the consequences of what this would bring. What did I have to lose at this point? Nothing.
I waited, steadying my quivering breath. Praying he didn’t hear my heart that was beating out of my chest. I felt it ringing through my ears, hammering against my skin. I tightly shut my eyes when I heard the lock on the door click over, opening mere seconds later.
I just laid there on my side facing the window in a state of shock, trying not to think about what I was about to do. In the forefront of my mind, I kept contemplating that maybe this wasn’t a good idea, but each time the thought circled back around, I pushed it away. Knowing this would be my only chance to get free, I wouldn’t be able to catch him by surprise again.
It was now…
Or never.
The soft translucent lighting from the hallway entered the room, but it wasn’t enough to see more than a few inches in front of you. I silently prayed he wouldn’t turn on the light. He would just leave it somewhat dark not wanting to wake me. He obviously cared enough to close the curtains earlier in the day. I figured this was the same concept.
I pretended as best as I could to be asleep, having years of practice with my parents coming in my room. Making sure I wasn’t up when I was supposed to be sleeping. The thought of my parents made my heart ache, thinking of what they must be going through made my eyes well up with tears. I knew they’d be searching for me. I knew they would never give up till they found me.
Dead.
Or alive.
I pushed away those thoughts as well, knowing it wouldn’t do me any good to think about things I couldn’t change. I needed to stay in the here and now. In the present so I could have a future.
His footsteps got closer and closer to my bed until there were no more steps for him to take. Until he was standing right next to me, hovering above my side. Waiting, like I was waiting for him.
I knew he was staring at me, contemplating what to do next. He pulled back the comforter and sheets from my body, taking away my false security. I felt the edge of the bed dip. His knee touching my back.
Was he getting into bed with me?
He leaned forward, brushing the hair away from my face. Letting his fingers linger for what felt like forever. I resisted the urge to throw up, bile rose in the back of my throat. My rapid, erratic heartbeat ready to betray me. The flats of his fingers glided from my cheek down to my neck, gripping onto my shoulder. He started to turn me onto my back as I used his same momentum against him. Whipping around, I slightly opened my eyes, stabbing the scissors as hard and as deep as I could into his thigh.
“Fuck!” he groaned out in pain and I sprang into action.
I hauled ass off the bed, ignoring the unsteadiness of my body and mind, and rushed out of the room. Slamming the door behind me, peering down to see if there was a lock on the outside to lock him in with.
“Shit!” I panicked. I needed a key.
He still had the damn key.
So I ran. I ran as fast as I could down the narrow hallway, my bare feet pounding into the floor. Hoping it would lead to the front door or anywhere else I could escape from.
“HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME! PLEASE!” I screamed through the sting of my already burning throat. “HELP!” I ran as fast as I could through the vaguely lit hallway, only stopping to check the few doors that lined the walls. Trying the handles, banging my fists, hoping with some sort of miracle, one would open. Freeing me. “HELP! PLEASE, PLEASE HELP ME!”
I heard the door to the room I was being held in open down the hall, and the sound of boots dragging on the wood. He was coming for me. Panic set in again, and I took off running, looking back, making sure he wasn’t behind me, not paying attention to where I was going. Before I knew it, I slammed into what felt like a brick wall, abruptly falling to the ground with a hard thud. My body collided with the hardwood, knocking the wind completely out of me.
I wheezed for air, urgently trying to get to my knees, crawling away from the tall muscular frame that was looming over me.
“Mia!” he called out, catching me by surprise.
I immediately looked up, recognizing the tone of voice.
Never in a million years expecting to see the person who was standing above me.
FOUR
*Creed*
“Mia!” I called out again, desperately waiting to hear her voice, assuring me she was okay. Terrified when I realized the basement was silent.
No screaming.
No crying.
Blood.
“The fuck…”
I thought I had experienced every loss I could in my life. Felt every form of pain, every form of agony and hurt known to fucking man. I was wrong. Nothing could compare to the moment I walked back to where I left my girl safely.
Where I left Mia…
And she wasn’t fucking there.
“MIA!” I growled, searching for her all over the basement. Not giving a fuck that I was knocking over boxes, which I knew held Luke’s belongings.
I needed to find her. Silently praying for the first time, in I don’t know how long, that she was just hid
ing. Cowering in a crevice of the murky concrete cellar. Scared, and in shock from everything that just went down. I never wanted her to see this part of my life. I never meant for any of this to happen.
The last thing I ever wanted to do was fuck up her life by bringing her into mine.
“MIA! BABY, PLEASE!” I pleaded, tearing apart the basement like a rabid fucking dog, leaving no box unturned no door unopened.
I wouldn’t stop till I knew she was safe. Till she was in my arms where she always belonged. It tore my fucking heart out hearing her pleas to not leave her down there earlier.
“Creed… please… Don’t leave me… please… please, I need you!” Her words would forever be etched into my conscience.
I would have given my soul to the devil to find her, to see her smiling face, to hear her laughing. To feel her brush up against me in the way only Mia ever could. It was as if she was there in spirit. Exactly where she had been since the moment she handed me her first patch.
“Baby, please give me a sign. Please…” I crouched down, ignoring the pain in my leg where I had been shot in the crossfire. Letting the blood drip onto the ground, mixing with Mia’s. Running my hands roughly through my hair.
On the verge of rage.
Hanging on by a fucking thread.
Memories of our time together attacked my mind, one right after the other. Twisting and turning, not letting up, not giving a fuck she wasn’t there. That she had been taken, right from under me.
I couldn’t find her.
I didn’t save her.
This was my entire fucking fault.
“MIA!” I yelled out for the last time, destroying every corner of the dark, cold open space until there was nothing but destruction left in its wake.
I rushed back up the stairs, taking three of them at a time. Ignoring the blood gushing from the bullet hole in my thigh.
“Honey, you’ve been hit—”
I assaulted my baby brother before Ma could get another word out. Roughly gripping onto the front of his cut, slamming his back against the nearest wall, causing our childhood pictures to rattle and fall on the ground. Adding to the rest of the debris.
“Where the fuck is she?!” I seethed, barely holding onto the last bit of my temper.
All I could see was red.
Bright. Blinding. Fucking red.
“The fuck?” Noah jerked forward, trying to break loose from my tight hold.
I didn’t give him any leeway, I held him tighter. “Where. Is. She? Not gonna ask again, you little shit!” I shoved him into the wall with more force, jolting his body forward again. Not giving a flying fuck he was my blood.
“Creed! What’s gotten into you? Let go of him! He’s your brother!” Ma demanded with a shriek, grabbing ahold of my arm.
I pushed her away. I was a crazed man. No one would be able to stop me.
Not even my family.
“I’ve been with you, motherfucker! Fightin’ by your side. If Mia ain’t down there, it ain’t cuz of me. You took her to the basement! You left her down there! If she’s fuckin’ missin’, it’s on you,” he gritted out through a clenched jaw, trying to gain his bearings. Eyeing me up and down.
I let him go with a hard shove. Pacing the living room, kicking bullet shells around with my boots.
This house was a fucking disaster.
Reflecting how shitty my life had always been.
“Jesus Christ! You think I’d hurt my kid? You think I’d hurt my girl?”
I lunged at him, but Diesel held me back. “She ain’t your girl. You understand me? Don’t ever let me hear those words out of your goddamn mouth again. I’ll lay you the fuck out. Don’t give a shit who ya are to me!”
“Boys! Stop it! We need to find Mia! You fighting won’t make that happen any faster. We’re losing time!” Ma chimed in, looking back and forth between us.
I pushed Diesel off of me, glaring at him for holding me down.
He put his hands up in the air in a surrendering gesture. “Calm the fuck down. We’ll find her,” Diesel rasped. “But this don’t make any fuckin’ sense. Prez said we ain’t got beef with the Sinners no more. Who the fuck just started a war?” He pulled out his cellphone from his pocket, walking away. Needing to make the necessary phone calls, before I truly lost my shit.
I glared around the room with a primal regard, seeing all of my brothers standing around. Knowing they would have reacted the same, had it been one of their old ladies. Ignoring the same looming questions, I’d been asking myself since the first bullet rang out.
Ma breathed out a sigh of relief, stepping out in front of me. Peering down at the blood pooling at my feet. “Look at me.”
I did.
“We will find her. Now let me fix your leg before you get an infection.”
“I’m fine.”
“Creed, you’re no good to anyone hurt. Let alone dead. Let me—”
“I said I was fine!” I got up in her face, but she didn’t cower down. She was used to our tempers, having battled the Jameson men all her life.
“Goddamn it! You boys are so stubborn, just like your father.” She glanced around the living room, searching for the prick. “Speaking of him, where is he?”
I followed her stare, checking out all the faces. Noticing, he really was missing. Through my fury, I hadn’t realized that before. I knew he would’ve been here. No matter what, he would have fucking been here.
My eyes widened and my heart dropped. All the blood drained from my face. “Son of a bitch!” I snapped, running out the front door that was hanging on its hinges before I got the last word out.
“Creed! Creed! Wait up!” I heard some brothers say from behind me, but it was too late. I was already on my bike, speeding the fuck out of there as fast as the old girl could go. Leaving nothing but dust in my wake.
It didn’t take long till I was pulling into the compound, engaging the kickstand, jumping off my bike before I even turned off the engine. In a blink of an eye, I was in the clubhouse.
“Creed, you—”
I grabbed a hold of my old man’s throat, slamming him up against the nearest wall, much like I had just done to Noah. He gasped, his hands latching onto my strangling grip.
“Only gonna ask you one fuckin’ time. Where is she?” I scoffed, loosening my hold enough for him to reply.
“Who?” Pops choked out, slowly grinning.
I was about to wipe the fucking smug look off his face when I felt the cool metal graze the back of my head. I didn’t have to turn around to know what it was.
“Ain’t that fuckin’ cute, you gotta guard dog,” I snarled, cocking my head to the side.
“Let him go,” the voice from behind me ordered in a tone I didn’t appreciate.
“Fuckin’ A,” I breathed out. In one swift, sudden motion I released my pop’s throat, sending him to the ground and had the gun out of the Prospect’s grasp in a matter of seconds. Drop kicking him to the floor, making him kneel in front of me in pain. “I’m your VP, you stupid fuck.”
“Shit! I’m sorry. I’m new, I didn’t—”
I pistol-whipped him in the side of his head, knocking him unconscious. His body went limp on the floor with a thud. He was lucky I didn’t put him to ground. I quickly turned back around, pointing the gun in the middle of pop’s forehead.
“Gonna answer my question? Or you wanna test the last bit of my fuckin’ patience,” I warned, narrowing my eyes at him.
“You’d shoot your old man for some goddamn pussy? The fuckin’ bitch is pregnant with your baby brother’s seed. Didn’t seem to give a fuck about you when she spread her legs for Rebel in your bed, now did she? She ain’t any better than the club whores around here. Fuckin’ easy lay if you ask me.”
I didn’t think twice about it, I lowered the gun to my side and I punched him in the face. Cold clocked him right in the nose. His body whooshed sideways, knocking him back into the wall from the unexpected blow.
“She ain’t nothin’ like the c
unts that parade their pussy around here. Call her a whore again, and I’ll put you to ground. That ain’t a threat, it’s a fuckin’ promise.”
He regained his footing, standing upright, shaking away the haze until we locked eyes. Blood flooded from his nose, drenching his white shirt. I aimed the gun to his leg and pulled the trigger.
“What the fuck?” he snarled, grabbing onto his leg with one hand. Almost falling to the floor. He wiped his crimson face with the back of his other, spitting blood on the ground.
“Next shot will be at your cock, you miserable fuck,” I warned through clenched teeth.
The sound of motorcycles, entering the compound, vibrated throughout the entire foyer where we were at a standoff. The house would soon be filled with brothers witnessing the Prez versus Vice Prez, father versus son altercation. I pushed the gun deeper into his forehead, my steady finger on the trigger.
He beamed, his eyes filled with pride. “I raised you right, boy. Defend what’s yours. It’s in the Jameson blood.”
“Cut the shit and tell me where she is! NOW!”
The brothers quickly filled the empty space, all shocked from the unexpected scene unfolding in front of them.
“Creed, drop—”
“Mind your fuckin’ business, Diesel.” I pulled the slide back, clutching the grip in one hand. Cocking the gun to the side.
Pops cunningly smiled, placing his hands up in the air in a mocking gesture. Arching an eyebrow, he stated, “She’s in your fuckin’ room. You’re welcome.”
I didn’t hesitate.
I pulled the fucking trigger.
Five
*Mia*
“Rebel?” I gasped, confused. Locking eyes with him while I was still on the ground. “What’s the meaning of all of this? You orchestrated this shit show?”
He shook his head no, reaching his hand down for me to take.
I knocked it away. “Fuck you!”
He didn’t pay me any mind. “Mia, it ain’t what it looks like,” he stated, grabbing my upper arm. Tugging me up to his chest, much to my disapproval.
I hastily shook off his hold and pushed him away. Placing my hand out in front of me, to stop him from coming any closer.