Hard Rider

“You filled her head with bullshit.”

“What?”

“You made her hate me,” he snarled.

“You did a damn good job of that before I ever showed up,” I smiled grimly. “All I did was try to keep her safe.”

“We were just on the rocks! Taking a little break!”

“She’s in the back of your fucking trunk!” I shouted, reminding him with a wave of my gun. “You had to take her away to have her! Kate doesn’t want you anywhere near her.”

“You think you’re such hot shit, huh? Think can just walk right in like a damn two-dollar note and take what don’t belong to you?” Mudflap roared. His eyes were white with fury. “Could’ve just walked away and let sleeping dogs lie, but then you’ve gotta be some chicken-shit wannabe hero!”

My eyes slid over to the trunk of his car. Kate was still trapped in there, and there was no telling what he was going to do with her after all of this…

“You’re a goddamn coward, Mudflap.”

“I’m a fucking hero,” he held his arms open, the knife still clasped hard in his fist.

“You’re a dangerous fucking psychopath. You’re a punk with a tantrum who thinks he’s a big boy. All because he’s in some piece-of-shit, backwater biker gang that nobody’s fucking heard of.”

“They’ll hear about us soon enough. Once we kill the legendary Devil’s Dragons, everyone will fucking know who we are…”

“Kill the Devil’s Dragons?” I roared with laughter. “You have any idea how many people want us dead? You’re gonna have to get in fucking line.”

“We got somethin’ they don’t,” he chuckled like a stupid fucking idiot.

“Yeah, you do,” I snarled, ready to end this, once and for all. “You’ve got something the others didn’t: my undivided fucking attention… and the others were destroyed with less than that.”

I could see him quake at those words.

You’re not fit to be a biker,” I told him. “You’re just a disgusting coward and a lunatic, Mark. Nobody will ever know who you are… and nobody will care.”

Something twisted in his face, and he lunged forward with the knife held high…

A bullet pierced the night, and wood splintered behind him.

“FUCK!!”

I stepped aside as Mark dropped to the water, clutching his arm. The knife flew uselessly to the grass behind me, rolling to the edge of the water.

Two bullets left…

“You… bastard!!”

I pitied the sad fuck.

I honestly did.

And maybe, I thought to myself, it was better that I put this rabid dog down now, before he ever hurt anybody else.

He clutched his wounded arm, bleeding into the ditch. The hollow point round certainly did some damage. Mark glanced up from his spot on his knees, cradling the broken limb. That arm was probably just shy of useless, and he’d be feeling that bullet for a long time.

“Nobody had to die today,” I snarled. “Nobody had to be hurt. All of you fuckers could’ve walked. Could’ve licked your wounds and moved on with your fucking lives. But you’ve pushed me too far.”

I held the gun up, pointed between his eyes. One little flick of the trigger…

“D-don’t,” he whimpered.

“I can’t hear you, Mark.”

“D-don’t k-k-kill me,” he began to stammer, his tough shell cracking on the ground in front of me. “I d-d-don’t want to die…”

There was no satisfaction in my stare.

“Promise me, then,” I replied.

“P-promise you w-what?”

“Promise me that you will never, ever seek out Kate again… that you’ll accept this gift I offer you and never darken us with your presence for the rest of your life…”

“Ok-okay.”

I put a boot on his shoulder, still holding the gun against him. “Not good enough, Mark. I want to hear the words.”

“Y-yes sir… I p-promise…”

This wasn’t going to stick, I realized. In order for him to never come after us again, I had to wound him deeper.

And with just a little intimidation…

“I need more than that,” I decided, pushing the barrel harder against his head.

“W-w-what?”

“Your name,” I told him gravely.

“My… my n-name?”

“Yes, Mudflap,” I answered. “I need your name. You’re unfit to call yourself a fucking biker, so I’m gonna take your name away.”

“Y-you can’t d-do that…”

“I have beaten you, and I outrank you,” I answered darkly. Of course, that last part had nothing to do with it, but he didn’t need to know that. “So, I am going to ask you one time, and one time only… and you’ll want to answer this correctly… what is your name?”

I pushed down on the gun harder.

Whatever was left of this hard-ass Mudflap identity died in his eyes when he quivered under my livid gaze. He had tried so hard to take everything from me… so I would punish him appropriately.

I would let him live.

But I would take everything away.

“M-M-Mark,” he answered.

“Repeat it.”

“My name is M-M-Mark F-Ferguson…”

“Good,” I replied, pulling the boot back as I lowered the gun. My eyes caught the telltale sign of flashing red and blue lights on the trees behind him. “And there’s a silver lining here, even if you don’t see it that way.”

“W-what’s that?”

The police cruisers pulled to a stop above and behind us. I heard the sounds of officers assembling while a K-9 unit growled.

“Should have no trouble making good on that promise with some years behind bars to think on your fucking mistakes…”

Kate

When the trunk door flew open, it wasn’t Grizz’s face that I saw, but the face of a confused but relieved police officer.

“Ma’am? You’re safe now,” he reassured me. “The name’s Officer Macready. Give me a moment, we’ll get you right out of here.”

I glanced out into the night. The bright, flashing cruiser lights showed that there was another officer here, along with a dog.

After he helped me out from the car, I stepped into ditch water and suddenly gasped. Grizz, barefoot and shirtless besides his jacket, was on his knees in the muck. Mark, on the other hand…

“Wait – no!” I shouted, staring at Grizz. He glanced up with a small smile. “He’s innocent! What’s going on?”

“This one’s wounded,” Macready replied. His partner continued to administer aid to what looked like a bad gunshot through the arm. “He was shot by this bigger fellow.”

Mark couldn’t bring himself to even look at me, let alone tell his side of things.

The officer scoffed. “You know, we don’t usually see this kind of activity out here… so, if you’re feelin’ up to it, mind shedding some light on what the hell is going on?”

I told Macready everything.

Well… not quite everything.

I told the cops about my abusive ex-boyfriend, his asshole motorcycle club, and that I’d been kidnapped… I told them how Mark had chased us, taken me from our motel, and bolted into the night with me locked up in the back.

“Wait, this happened in Metairie?”

I paused. “Yeah, why?”

The officers looked among themselves with a knowing glance.

“Officers responded to some shots fired. Found a building full of tear gas and a meth lab, along with a biker club and a whole pile of illegal weapons… You telling me that this guy’s one of ‘em?”

I glanced over at Mark.

He looked completely defeated, even before finding out that his entire operation had been thrown behind bars. He looked at me for the first time since I’d been freed from the trunk. Desperation stained his eyes.

It wasn’t a good look for him.

“Check his vest. He’s one of the Bayou Boys.”

Macready turned to his partner, lightly scratching his chin. “Ted, what did you say that biker gang was called?”

“Bayou Boys, I reckon.”

“Well, slap my ass and call me Debbie. We got us here a renegade Bayou Boy, split from the pack!”

The ambulance finally arrived right then and there, wailing all the while. Mark looked crushed as he was pulled to his feet and led to the back of the vehicle, clutching at his wound.

“What do we need to do about this one?” Officer Macready asked me, glancing suspiciously at Grizz.

“He’s not one of them,” I crossed my arms. “He saved me from that asshole… Pin a medal on him.”

“Not really my jurisdiction,” the officer chuckled. “But he’s gonna have to answer some questions.”