TORTURE ME: The Bandits MC Page 23

  “You’re right,” Fiona said, feeling the sick heat of shame burn its way up the back of her neck as she thought about Gage. “It isn’t fair to you at all. It isn’t fair to either of us.”

  “What are you saying?” Carl asked, his forehead wrinkled with confusion and fear.

  “I’m not going to be coming back here,” Fiona said. “I’ll drop your car back off in the lot out back, but I can’t come back. You don’t know me. You don’t know me at all, and the parts that you do know, you don’t like. It’s not fair to either of us to keep up the charade just for convenience’s sake. We’re finished. Goodbye.”

  She began to walk around him, grabbing his car keys off the top of the dresser and heading for the door before he stopped her with a hand on her elbow. “Hey, Fiona, wait. Stop. Just think about this. You really want to give me up, just like that? You really want to give up our life together?”

  There was a part of her that wanted to say no, if she was being honest with herself. That little part was small and scared and shrunken-in on itself, hiding from the world, and Fiona understood it well, but she couldn’t afford to keep listening to it anymore. “That’s just it, Carl. It’s not our life. It’s your life. It’s not mine.”

  “So, what? This is about your ex, Gage, or whatever his name is? You’re giving me up for him?”

  Fiona shook her head and smiled sadly, but she felt a little spark of pride flash to life in her chest. “No, Carl. I’m giving you up for me.” She slipped the diamond ring off her finger and handed it to Carl, who reluctantly accepted it into his palm. “I’ll bring the car back before tomorrow, I promise. Have a good life, okay? You deserve it.”

  And with that, she walked out back into the cold night, back into the city that had raised her, that had shaped her, and that had given her life.

  She quickly ran to Carl’s car in the back lot of the hotel, sticking the key into the ignition and mentally calculating the directions to her destination. She knew where she had to go. There was a feeling in her gut that she should have listened to from the beginning. If she was right, she could have stopped the killer a long time ago. It was the only thing she had to go on, but it was enough, for now.

  “Candy apples, huh?” she said out loud as she pulled out of the lot and onto the busy city street in front of the hotel, thinking about what Tori had told her about the man who’d kidnapped her. “I know who you are, fucker. I’m coming for you.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Gage struggled to control his breathing as he walked faster and faster away from Carl’s hotel. He knew that if he hesitated for a single second, he wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation to turn around and catch a final glimpse of Fiona before he lost her forever. He needed to keep going, to push himself as hard as possible until he was far away from Fiona. It was the only right thing to do, the only way to protect Fiona from the danger he’d gotten her into.

  He finally made it to the subway station, getting on the first car that would take him back in the general direction of his house, clenching his fists hard the whole ride over to focus his attention on anything other than Fiona. But it didn’t work. No matter how he tried to shake them off, her eyes, angry and sad, lingered in his mind like two burning spotlights. He knew he had to let her go eventually, but as the subway rolled to a stop in front of his house, he decided to stop trying to fight it. He would hold Fiona’s image in his mind like a candle, letting it light his way until he got the killer. Afterwards, he would consider moving on.

  For now, he had to get supplies. Other than the fact that the killer’s phone call originated within the Bandits’ clubhouse, he didn’t have any solid leads to go off of. So instead he decided to camp around the clubhouse to look for the killer, observing the clubhouse’s surroundings rather than tearing it up from the inside out. Once inside his apartment, Gage quickly grabbed a couple of outfits, some water bottles, and plenty of dry food to tide him over for a few days while he camped out in the woods behind the compound. Based on what Tori had told them in the hospital, the killer had to have the ability to come and go easily during the day. That meant he was keeping his captives somewhere close to the clubhouse, so he could sneak in and out during the day without arousing any suspicion. Besides, Tori’s house, which was also near the compound, was close enough to the killer’s hideout that she was able to run home after breaking out. It had to be in the woods. That was the only way the killer would be able to torture the girls without attracting unwanted attention from neighboring houses.

  Still, Gage was aware it was a long shot. There was no way of knowing that the killer hadn’t already disposed of his last captive, successfully finishing whatever perverted religious ritual he was performing. Gage’s only hope was that Tori’s disappearance might have knocked off the rhythm of the ritual. He got the sense, especially from Fiona’s analysis, that the killer was someone who followed strict rules, conducting himself according to stringent standards in order to please his deity. It was likely that he chose a specific number of girls to kill, and one of them had already gotten away, which meant that the killer would probably try to kidnap at least one other girl to complete the ritual, giving Gage some time to work with.

  For about an hour and a half, Gage crept quietly through the woods behind the compound, searching for any sign of a multi-story building that the killer could be using. But so far, he had no luck. There was no sign of anyone in the area at all, actually. In fact, there weren’t even any animals that he could see. It was an incredibly lonely place, with tall, bare trees that provided very minimal cover for Gage as he walked from one area to the next, attempting to find a path without attracting any attention. He thought about the girls, trapped in the basement of the killer’s hideout. I bet they couldn’t even hear the sounds of any birds during the day or crickets at night over the sound of the highway behind the woods, Gage thought. He wondered if that was what it was like for Abby, if she even forgot that wild animals existed during her captivity. She used to love animals, preferring their company to being around other people. In the end, she had neither. She just had darkness. Just like Fiona.

  Sometimes, he wondered if that was why he loved Fiona so much—because she was the only one who could understand what happened to Abby. But it was deeper than that, he knew. Some part of him, no matter how irrational, believed that Fiona was the only one who could heal him, the only one who could fix all his broken parts and put him back together again. It was absurd, Gage knew. Fiona was broken enough herself. She couldn’t even put herself back together, let alone another person. We were doomed from the start, Gage thought. Two damaged people acting like it was okay to be who we were. It was never going to work.

  Crunch. The sound of a heavy foot pressing down on a pile of leaves tore Gage away from his inner monologue. His entire body stiffened with anxiety and anticipation as he quickly moved behind a thick, tall tree that was wide enough to hide his form from anybody walking from the other side of the woods. Crunch, crunch, crunch. Whoever was coming had accelerated their pace, coming straight towards him. Beads of sweat began to course down Gage’s neck, disappearing under the neckline of his shirt.

  “You’re never going to get away with this, you know,” a low, feminine voice hissed.

  “Shut the fuck up,” a male voice said. “Shut. Up.”

  “Or what? You’ll kill me faster?” the woman whispered before laughing loudly, the sound of her bitter cackle ringing out in the empty spaces between the trees.

  That sound was so familiar… Gage knew that noise. He’d had that laugh directed at him a thousand times before. It always felt like it was cutting him in two every time he heard it. It always meant that Fiona was mad at him…

  Fiona!

  Gage peeked around the edge of the tree to see Fiona being dragged across the woods in a man’s arms, a blindfold wrapped around her head and a large sharp knife pressed against her neck. The man’s face was turned away from Gage, but the shape of the man’s body was familiar, too.
But it wasn’t until the man spoke again that it clicked.

  “You’re going to taste so good. Bitches always taste the best,” the man growled into Fiona’s neck.

  That’s when it hit him.

  Cash Malone was the killer.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Fiona was well-aware that this whole mess was her fault. Confronting Cash was a bad idea by itself, but doing it alone was even worse. After she figured out that the killer had to be a chef, she’d cornered him in the kitchen of the Bandits’ compound, but before she could even get two words out, Cash turned a knife on her, covering her eyes with a blindfold then dragging her out to the woods. And now he was taking her into a cabin surrounded by trees, which she could just barely make out through the blindfold if she squinted as hard as she could.

  So I’m going to die here, she thought, the words feeling distant and faded in her mind, like her thoughts had to fight through a layer of fog to be heard. She felt weirdly calm, like some part of her always knew that this was going to happen. She was always going to end up here, back in the darkness, back in a man’s arms, a sharp knife pressed against her throat.

  It felt so easy to just accept it, to lean back into Cash’s arms and let him slice her up into meat. That’s what she was, right? That’s what she always was. It was always going to come back to this. Her whole life was one long, protracted prologue leading up to this hopeless moment where she was revealed to be as weak as ever. She was a victim, and she would always be a victim. Trying to be a hero only made it more inevitable.

  No. No, no, no! Some voice rose from deep inside Fiona’s heart, starting out softly and then building into an internal scream. I am not a fucking victim. I am not just a piece of meat. I’m not just a hunk of useless flesh. I am strong. I am powerful. I do not die like this. Not like this.

  Fiona bent her spine backwards, elbowing Cash in the stomach, causing him to drop the knife from her neck. She took the opportunity to blindly turn around and knee Cash in the crotch as hard as she could, making him groan out and clutch his balls for a second. “Help! Help me!” she screamed, trying to kick him again but missing this time. Cash quickly recovered, picking the knife off the ground and digging it deeper into Fiona’s neck, breaking her skin a little bit so that a line of blood dripped down onto her shirt.

  “Stupid fucking bitch. You thought you could come here and interfere in God’s work?”

  “You’re not God. You’re just a tiny little man with an inferiority complex,” Fiona said before spitting in Cash’s direction.

  Cash hesitated for just one moment before smacking her across the face. Hard. Her cheek stung like it had been burned by the force of the impact. But she refused to show Cash that he’d caused her pain, instead grinning at him as wide as she could. “You’re going to fucking pay for this, you know,” she said.

  “I’m going to be rewarded,” Cash said before pushing at her shoulders, shoving her closer to the cabin nestled within the trees. “God will grant me good things for wiping the earth clean of dirty bitches like you.”

  “That’s what it’s about, isn’t it? Hurting women? Making them smaller so you can feel big? That’s what the whole thing has been about this entire time?” Fiona said, and tears burned her eyes, but it wasn’t out of fear or sadness or resignation. They were angry tears that got hotter and hotter as she thought about all the young women who’d paid so this man could preserve his fragile ego.

  “It’s about making bitches like you pay,” Cash said before kicking Fiona, sending her tumbling to the cold, hard ground, bruising her chin in the process. He pressed his foot down on her back, keeping her down on the ground for a long second, making her feel like her spine was about to snap in half. “Stay down,” he hissed at her, leaning down to grab her hair in his fist, yanking her head up while pressing her back down.

  “Never,” she grunted out, digging her fingers into the dirt beneath her body to brace herself as she pushed up, knocking Cash’s foot temporarily off her back as she crawled forward on her hands and knees. I’m going to die here, she thought again, but this time, her inner voice wasn’t defeated. It was strong. I’m going to die here but not on my knees. And not on his terms.

  Fiona rolled over onto her back, catching Cash’s foot with her hands before he could stomp on her face and pushing him backwards, causing him to fall over, giving her time to scramble to her feet and run towards the nearest opening she could make out through the blindfold. She was going to die on her feet, with air in her lungs and blood in her veins. She was going to die like a woman.

  “Fucking bitch!” Cash screamed behind her, his steps coming hard and heavy as he pursued her, and Fiona just ran toward the light, knowing one way or another, it would take her home…

  There was a loud noise behind her, some kind of scuffle on top of the leaves. There was someone there, someone else besides Cash. It sounded like the two people were wrestling, both men groaning as they punched each other, loud smacking noises filling the air, but Fiona couldn’t see what was going on. “Fiona, run!” a voice shouted, and it took Fiona a second before she realized it belonged to Gage. Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, please, she silently begged, stopping in her tracks. Not him. Anyone but him. Anyone but Gage. She couldn’t leave him, even if it meant getting away, even if it meant survival. She couldn’t leave him behind.

  “Fiona, go!” Gage screamed before yelling in pain as Cash punched him again, but Fiona just shook her head.

  “Not without you!” she yelled. “Gage! Gage! I want you to know! I need you to know. I…”

  Suddenly the scuffling noises stopped, and loud panting sounds replaced them. Somebody slowly got to their feet and stumbled toward Fiona, the footsteps pressing down heavily as he came forward. Fiona just closed her eyes and breathed, saying a silent prayer for what she assumed would be the last time in her entire life…

  But then, gentle fingers brushed against her skin, carefully removing the blindfold from her face. Fiona blinked her eyes open, tears falling down her cheeks as Gage’s face appeared before her. “Oh, Gage, Gage, I—” She cut herself off as Gage’s arms wrapped around her, crushing her body into his.

  “It’s okay. It’s okay, honey. I got you. Everything’s going to be alright,” Gage whispered, running a hand down the back of Fiona’s hair.

  “Cash?” Fiona asked, unable to come up with more than a single word at the moment.

  “He’s knocked out and tied up,” Gage explained, holding Fiona’s face gently between his two hands. “I brought rope with me. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay. I called the MC as soon as I saw him take you through the woods, and they’re going to alert the police. They’re on their way. It’s over, baby. It’s over.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “The girl…the last girl that he took,” Fiona stuttered out as soon as soon as the ability to speak returned to her. She felt her heart pound in her throat like it was trying to speak, too, attempting to scream its pulse out into the dim dusk of the woods.

  “We’ll get her. We’ll get her, baby. Jack and the other MC members will be here in a second, and they’ll go into the cabin to find her. We’ll take care of it. You don’t have to worry about it,” Gage said.

  But Fiona shook her head and cleared her throat, finally gathering the strength to speak coherently. “No, no. I want to go in. I need to go in and see her. I have to…” She didn’t know if she could explain why it was so important to visit the literal scene of the crime, but somehow, she knew that she didn’t have to justify herself to Gage. He just nodded at her, looking at her with a warmth in his eyes that soaked into her skin, seeping into her very bones.

  Gage leaned in and pressed their lips together, softly, gently, breathing life back into her worn-out lungs. “Okay. Let me go with you, okay? I should see it, too.”

  They waited until the MC showed up and surrounded Cash, sticking their guns in his face in case he woke up before the police arrived. Fiona and Gage knew that the MC wouldn’t let Cash out
of their sight, so they walked towards the cabin, surprised to find the front door unlocked. It was almost like he wanted to be caught. Fiona figured that made some kind of sense. Cash was doing this whole thing as a ritual, proving his worth to a misogynistic god. He wanted people to view it and appreciate it and understand it.

  Fiona and Gage slowly stepped inside. The first level was normal-looking, just a studio apartment with a bed and a kitchen area, but there was a closet on the other side of the room that opened out to a stairway. Fiona grasped at Gage’s hand as they stepped down the creaky steps, clutching onto him as hard as she’d ever held anything in her whole life. She knew that if she let go, she would be lost. But he wouldn’t let go of her. He would keep her safe. He would keep her grounded, no matter what she saw in the basement.