Say Yes, Senator

ke sure that I didn’t try running away.

The three Muerte Viviente guys stood around me, and I looked ahead, breathing hard, sweat trickling down my forehead. I could see the kids being prepared to be thrown into the ring. I knew what was going to happen. I hadn’t seen a fight like this before, but I had heard of it. I knew Jesus used to be one of these kids; he was forced by Papi into doing exactly this. It made my stomach turn.

“Valentina…you are as beautiful as always,” I heard a voice behind me, and I whipped around in my chair to look. It was Juan. He looked older now. I knew him well when I was growing up. He used to be one of the teenagers in the fighting ring like Jesus, but apparently, he had taken over the gang since Papi fell sick.

“Juan, what are you doing to me!” I screeched, but my voice was drowned by the loud music and other people’s voices. Some of the biker guys turned to look in our direction, but they were not going to help me. The only reason they had even looked at me earlier was because I was a woman. I was nothing but a walking-talking pair of tits and a pussy to them.

“Calm yourself, sweetheart, you know exactly what is happening to you,” Juan walked around in front of me, and then reached out to stroke my hair. I yanked myself away from him, my chair toppled a little, and one of the guys pushed me forward again. They all laughed, including Juan.

“Your Papi owes us money, he borrowed more than he could repay,” Juan said, with the smile still on his face.

“He’s sick!” I screamed at him, trying to spit the words out but it didn’t affect Juan. He just smiled and stepped back.

The fight was about to start behind him; the kids had been led on to the ring. A bell went off somewhere, and everyone turned to pay attention. I was breathing hard through my nose as Juan came over to stand beside me. He placed a hand on my shoulder. A slimy cold hand that turned my body to ice. He was going to use me. He was going to hurt me. I knew he was.

I gasped, crying out in terror when I saw the kids lunge at each other. They couldn’t have been older than fifteen…sixteen maybe, and they weren’t wearing gloves, they didn’t even look like they had eaten in days. I heard Juan laugh, and the others clapped and cheered as the boys took punches.

I was screaming, even though I couldn’t hear my own voice. I saw the blood pouring down the kid's foreheads, wounds slashing open on their bodies as they tried to knock each other out. The kid who won the fight would be the one getting food tonight, and a paycheck worth a few bucks. Both of them were as desperate for blood. It was natural human instinct, fight to survive.

My throat ran dry; I couldn’t scream anymore.

That was when I realized that my wrists weren’t tied anymore. One of the men had untied me at some point, confident that I wouldn’t be able to escape in a place like this, surrounded by hundreds of my enemies.

Trying to even my breath, I gulped, and my eyes fell on the cell phone sticking out of Juan’s pocket. His crotch was at level with my face as he stood beside me. I looked up at him; Juan was grinning manically at the ring, cheering on for the kid he had placed his bets on. None of them were staring at me anymore.

I reached for the cell phone, repeating Papi’s phone number over and over again in my head. All I needed to do was warn him. To let him know that I was kidnapped and that they were going to come for him.

When my hands touched the phone, I looked up at Juan again. He hadn’t noticed. I tried to slide it out, and he still hadn’t moved. I was so close if I could have it for just a few seconds. Just enough to send a text.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing!” one of the other guys had seen me. I felt all the blood drain from my face.

I screamed when he grabbed a fistful of my hair and yanked me back in my chair. Juan was alerted now, and he glared at me with his nostrils flaring.

“Valentina, that was a big mistake, my girl,” he said and grabbed my shoulders and lifted me off the chair. I screamed and struggled in his grip as he plonked me down forcefully on the ground.

None of the other men in that warehouse batted an eyelid. They didn’t turn to see what was happening to me.

Nobody except the Muerte Viviente men saw the punch that Juan landed on my jaw, throwing me back a few feet with force. I slumped on the floor, tasting the metallic flavor of blood in my mouth. I could feel my limbs aching and tears gushing down my cheeks. But I was glad I tried. I would try again if I had the chance. These men were not going to break me so easily.

Chapter 5

King

I remembered the warehouse well. I was standing exactly where I was standing the last time we were here, except this time, it was more than just the three of us. Elwood had sent twenty-six of the Club members with my brothers and us, and I was armed and ready to invade.

I never went in for a war without saying a prayer, and my brothers respected me for it. So now, I stood with my eyes closed and my head hanging down as I said a silent prayer to my God. The kids needed to be rescued, and my brothers needed to walk out of there with their lives intact.

From inside the warehouse, we could hear sounds of the ongoing fight. By day, this place wouldn’t have caught anybody’s attention. It looked like any other derelict, abandoned warehouse from the area, but right now, it was thumping with metal music and the loud cheers of people inside, with every punch that a kid took.

I clenched my fists, gritted my teeth and tipped my head at Commando. Elwood had given me the order to lead the raid, and so I took the first step.

We burst into the warehouse, our guns clicking in the air. A quick survey of the place told me that at least eighty percent of the Black Skulls were in the place and there were also some faces that I didn’t recognize. Ahead, in the clearing, the ring had been set up as before, and two kids were lunging at each other. Blood was coursing down their faces, turning them unrecognizable.

The Black Skulls turned to us, while I stood at the head of my Club. The music continued playing in the background, but the cheers had died down. Despite the fact that the Black Skulls outnumbered us, we had the element of surprise on our side. A lot of them, I was hoping, would not be armed or prepared for the bloodbath I was going to rain on them.

I fired the first shot into the crowd, and the men growled.

Commando, Girth, and Slade were by my side as we plunged ourselves into the depths of the Black Skulls. We fired as much as we could, there were wounded men on the floor before my gun was knocked out of my hands. One of them had come up from behind, wound his arm around my neck and was in the process of crushing my windpipe. I clawed at his arm, elbowing his gut till his grip weakened. He was pulled away from me, and when I whipped around, I saw Girth standing there, grinning.