I hadn’t eaten in several hours, and I was beginning to feel weak. Instinctually, I continued to kick at the walls of the trunk, even though I knew that there was no escape. In those moments of utter terror, instead of thinking of Papi, only Jesus’ face floated in front of my eyes. Even though I hadn’t seen him in ten years, it was his face that I was reminded of. The guy who had made me feel safe, the one who had made me feel special. I felt like he was the only one who could save me now.
When they stopped at the motel and pulled me out of the trunk, I fell unconscious in their arms. After that, there was only darkness until I woke up on the motel bed.
Did Papi even know I was missing? How could he know? I hadn’t even told him I was coming. When I received the letter from him, telling me that he was very sick, I still couldn’t make up my mind if I wanted to come back here. I was still in shock that he had tracked me down after all those years.
At the last minute, just hours before the fight I eventually took, I decided that I couldn’t just let him die before saying our goodbyes. I hadn’t written to him or called to say that I was on my way. So, he didn’t know to expect me, which meant that he wouldn’t know that I had been kidnapped.
And now I wasn’t sure what would happen to him if I did manage to escape from here, even though the chances of that happening were minimal. Would they kill him if I left? They most certainly would.
As much as I was afraid of Papi, as much as I had hated him for the things I had seen him doing…he was still my father. I couldn’t just forget about all those years of my childhood when I had looked up to him before I had met Jesus, and Papi was the only man in my life. I had run away from home without leaving him a note, without keeping in touch…in my mind, he had already paid his dues to me. It was why I had returned.
I lay back down on the bed now, staring up at the ceiling blankly. What were these men going to do to me? How were they going to avenge Papi's debt? I had been away from the gang and MC world for so long, but it didn’t mean that I wasn’t aware of what they were capable of.
The fact that they had kidnapped me meant that they had something planned. The Muerte Viviente wasn't the kind of gang that would kidnap me just to scare my father. They were going to teach him a lesson. They were going to use me as bait, or make sure that Papi never got to see me again. Either one of those two options were bad news for me.
I shivered and tossed and turned on the bed, and every time I pressed my eyes closed, I thought of Jesus and where he might be. No other man had even come close to the young love that we had shared as teenagers. For all I knew, he had left the MC and gotten married and started a family. I smiled at the thought of Jesus with a wife, with a kid…was he happy?
I felt the tears trickling down my cheeks as I lay there. Even in the worst moments of my life, when I had no hope of getting out of this place alive, all I could think about was the man I ran away from.
Chapter 3
King
I was standing facing Elwood at Church. This meeting had been called to discuss our latest discovery that the Black Skulls were running a fighting ring, using kids. I had my fists clenched on either side as I stood glaring at him. They all knew how I felt about this issue, and a small buzz of voices had rung out in the bar around me.
“Quiet. We’ll give King his say. Continue…” Elwood called out, and the buzz died. My brothers did as they were told.
I didn’t need to clear my voice. I was already prepared for what I was going to say.
“I was one of them, Elwood. Till you helped me get out of there. Thankfully, I was still alive,” I said, through gritted teeth.
Not a day went by that I didn’t think of my life in those fighting rings. When we were pitted against each other. One kid against another. Poised to break jaws, jam fingernails into eyes with the crowd around us roaring wild. Blood spilling everywhere, making the crowd, even more, blood thirsty. Elwood’s eye twitched as he stared back at me. He knew exactly what I was talking about. He had saved me from it.
“There are too many to save now,” he replied, in a small thoughtful grumble. I sucked in a lungful of air before I spoke again.
“And each of them deserves to keep living. I was a street kid before the Muerte Viviente picked me up. I didn’t know any better. I thought that the pittance they were going to pay me to fight their fights in the ring, would pay for my mother’s medication. That finally, I would be able to provide for my family,” I said, and I could feel my blood boiling.
Elwood shifted in his seat and looked at the men standing behind me. Commando, Girth, Slade…all brothers, all men who were on my side. They knew every detail of my past because I had shared it with them and they knew how passionately I felt about the fighting rings.
“I know your story, King. I don’t need any reminders,” Elwood said, and I took a step towards him, and he arched his eyebrows.
“Elwood…you saved me,” my voice dropped by several decibels. I was willing to beg him if I had to. To get those boys out. I had an excellent idea what kind of life they were being forced to live. The lure of petty cash for a teenager would have seemed tempting enough, but once they joined the gang, they would have no way to escape. They would be forced to fight in the rings every day. Fight till their deaths, and then new boys would be recruited for the same pitiable lives. There was no escaping that circle. Unless we did something about it.
“And I am glad I did,” Elwood said and I shook my head.
“This was me ten years ago,” I countered passionately.
“And I know you feel bad for those boys. But I'm not sure if this is a risk worth taking. If we go in there and try to close a ring that the Black Skulls are running; it could mean that we lose our men,” Elwood growled, trying to put me back in my place but I wasn’t about to take no for an answer.
“Yes, that is a risk. But what the Black Skulls are running is against every code of our MC. No children or women. Remember? Isn’t that what you taught us?” I growled and could feel my shoulders heaving as I spoke.
Elwood was studying me, from head to toe. His gaze fell on the cross on the silver chain that always hung from my neck. It had escaped out of my shirt and was hanging loose on my chest now. He stared at it for a couple of moments and then blinked.
“Yes, that is what I taught you, and I stand by it,” he said, and I tipped my head once.
“Then we should make sure that we stand up for what we believe in, and rescue those boys,” I said, and a low buzz rang out in the bar again. Elwood looked around lazily, at his men…the men whose lives he was responsible for and then turned to me again.
“You have come a long way, King,” he said, and I clenched my jaws.