“Alright this is what we’re gonna do. We’ll ride out to the motel, me and Sack in the van, and rush the place. Tig, you Chibs and Sack secure the building and me and Op will go in. We get McKayla out and take her back to the club house and I’ll take care of the son of a bitch.” I said to the guys.

We were all sitting around my kitchen table. Clay had joined us and gave me permission to do the rescue. Him and Bobby were staying back at the club in case something happens when we’re there. Gemma had taken the baby back to the club house to wait for McKayla. Thankfully, we had the night on our side so we had the element of surprise. As I rode out to the garage to get the van, all I could think about was getting McKayla home. We were so close now. We knew where she was and all I had to do was go in and get her. There was no way this guy would be able to take all five of us on. This should be a piece of cake.

Sack was quiet on the ride to the motel. I looked over and he was looking into his hands.

“What?” I asked him.

He took a deep breath and turned to face me.

“Jax, I’m sorry. If I wouldn’t have brought her to the party, maybe this wouldn’t have happened.” He said quietly.

I glanced at him and shook my head.

“It’s not your fault Sack. None of this is. Right now, we gotta focus on getting her back. Okay?” I said to him.

I saw him nod and I nodded back. I parked the van a couple blocks away from the motel. That way, if he was looking out a window he wouldn’t be able to see us. The rest of the guys lined up behind me and we started to the motel. There was a man sitting behind the desk in the lobby. This place was an absolute dump. It was dark and smelt like mildew. My skin started to crawl when I walked inside. I cleared my throat and but the guy didn’t even flinch. He was in his 30s and balding but what hair he did have was black and greasy. He was fat and wearing a sweat stained tank top on. I wanted to vomit.

“How long?” He asked me without looking up.

I shook my head and tapped my gun on the glass.

“Holy shit! Please, take whatever you want!” He shouted as he jumped back.

I pounded the glass with my fists and leaned close to it.

“We’re not here to rob the place, I’m looking for someone. Have you seen this guy?” I asked.

Unser had given me a copy of Derek’s driver’s license photo and I held it up to the glass. The man swallowed hard and looked at the picture.

“Yeah, yeah! He checked in here this morning for two days.” He said nervously.

I nodded and put the picture away.

“Good, is he here now?” I asked.

He slowly nodded and sank back into his chair.

“Yes. He’s the only customer I have. Room 232, it’s on the second floor the corner room.” He said.

He was shaking and sweating even more. I could smell his stench from behind the glass. I nodded and waved for the guys to follow. We went outside and swiftly climbed the metal stairs to the second floor rooms. The room was on the other side of the stairs. I had Chibs, Tig and Sack go around the back of the floor and Opie and I advanced to the room. My heart was pounding like a jackhammer and it felt like the hall kept getting longer and longer.

“You stupid slut. Did you really think I wouldn’t be able to find you? God, you’re dumber than I thought!”

I could hear him yelling at McKayla. Without thinking, I ran the rest of the way to the room and kicked the door down. There she was. She was all I could see in the room. McKayla was strapped up to the wall somehow with her hands above her head and she was beaten and bloodied and her shirt was torn.

“Jax!” She shouted at me.

The sound of running footsteps snapped me back into reality. I didn’t even have a chance to react before a big guy in a cut threw me into the wall and hit me over the head.

~ ~

“So this is who you’ve been shacking up with, huh?” A distant voice said.

I groaned and slowly opened my eyes. I tried to bring my hands up to my head, but they were tied tightly behind my back. I looked around the room but didn’t see any of my guys.

“Shit.” I said out loud.

McKayla’s head snapped to me and she looked relieved. Derek spun on his heel and faced me.

“Well, it’s about time. I thought someone like you could take a hit.” He said to me.

Derek wasn’t exactly what I pictured him to be. He was about 250lbs of muscle and he had about 6 inches on me. Great. I guess this wasn’t going to be as easy as I planned, especially since I was by myself now.

“Well, it was a cheap shot now wasn’t it?” I said back.

This made him chuckle a bit. McKayla closed her eyes and looked away from me. I tried to listen for sounds outside, but I couldn’t hear a thing.

“It was you that put the hit on us.” I said.

Derek rolled his eyes and ripped a strip of duct tape off a roll.

“Not on you, you egotistical dick. On her.” He said as he slapped the tape onto McKayla’s mouth.

I winced and yanked at my bonds. She didn’t make a sound. A single tear rolled down her face, but she was completely silent.

“This isn’t about you. It has nothing to do with you or your little motorcycle club. You just happened to get in the way.” He said.

I rolled my eyes and twisted my hands to try and loosen the ropes. They were tied so tightly that they were cutting my skin.

“Yeah well, you messed with the wrong club asshole.” I said with a smirk.

Derek faced me and looked at me with a wicked grin.

“I’m sorry, does it look like you have any power over me? You are weaponless, your backup is gone and you’re tied up on the floor. Please, tell me what I should be afraid of?” He said.

My lip was twitching up into a snarl and he just laughed. He was right though. The only thing I could do was keep him distracted until I thought of a plan. I could do nothing but watch as he circled McKayla like a lion circling its prey. She squeezed her eyes shut and he traced her face with his finger.

“Isn’t she beautiful? The first time I saw her, I knew I had to have her.” He said.

Anger flooded my veins. I wanted to rip this bastards heart out of his chest. I yanked and pulled and twisted to try and loosen the ropes so hard that I could feel the blood oozing down to my hands.

“It took me a long time too. She just did not want to give herself to me. But I knew all I had to do was tell her I was in love with her and she would be mine. That’s all she really wants, you know. She wants to be loved. Don’t you pet?”

McKayla slowly opened her eyes and looked straight at him.

“Yes sir.” She croaked out.

Derek smiled a sick smile of approval and he turned back to me.

“It was easy really. After she told me about how her parents didn’t love her and kicked her out when she was 16 I knew that was my way in. That first time I got her into bed was, alright. I mean she’s a good fuck sure, but it’s not about that. It’s about the control. The power you have over the bitch. It’s indescribable,”

I glanced at McKayla, who was silently crying as Derek spoke.

“I think you know what I’m talking about. You seem like the hardass type, I’m sure you get a power trip when you bully your way around town. You can’t tell me it doesn’t make you feel good.” He said to me.

I shrugged and leaned against the end table beside the bed.

“You’re right, it does. I don’t think it makes me feel good enough to beat and rape women though.” I said with a hint of cockiness.

His smile faltered. I struck a nerve. In my back pocket I had a small knife. As I leaned against the nightstand, I tried to grab it.

“So tell me something Derek, do you torture women to compensate for something? Are you coming up a little short between the legs?” I asked him.

The smirk on my face grew and he lost it. He stormed over to me and wacked me on the side of the head with the gun and knocked me over. I laughed and pulled myself upright. What Derek didn’t know was when I fell, my knife slid further out of my pocket and I could almost grab it.

“I’ll take that as a yes then.” I said.

Blood was dripping down my face and into my eye. McKayla looked at me alarmed and struggled with her bonds. For good measure, Derek planted a firm kick to my chest. I wheezed hard and smiled up at him.

“I could say the same thing about you. Do you act like a tough guy and ride around on that motorcycle of yours and blow up crank houses to make up for your short comings?” He said in his smart ass tone.

I laughed at him and shook my head.

“Nah man, ask McKayla I’m definitely packing heat.” I said with a wink.

I struck another nerve. He bent down and started punching me in the face. McKayla was screaming but it came out as mumbles because of the tape across her mouth. When he finished, my head was spinning and I was coughing up blood. I had to finish this quickly, I couldn’t take much more beating.

“God only knows why the little slut ran to you.” He muttered to himself.

I shook my head to clear it and tried for the knife again. Derek seemed to ignore me completely now. He was focused on McKayla.

“You know my favorite thing about this slut? She always did what she was told and never complained. That is so hard to come by, you know? Even when I was tearing her up, even when I had her chained up like this for two days and her hands lost all feeling, even when I beat her so badly she couldn’t walk for a week, this bitch never complained.”

That son of a bitch. With a final stretch of my arm I managed to grip the knife. To mask the noise of the blade coming out I yelled and kicked the bed. Derek laughed tucked the gun into the back of his pants.

“You’re dead you know that? I’m going to kill you myself. I’m going to rip your heart out with my bare hands.” I said calmly.

An evil grin broke out across Derek’s face. He chuckled at me shrugged.

“We’ll see about that. First though, I need to take care of my slut.”

I stopped breathing. He was going to kill McKayla right in front of me. His back was turned to me and I sawed at the ropes. They were thick and my knife wasn’t that sharp. Damn it, this was going to take a while.

“Now slut, what are the rules?” He asked her like a teacher would as his students.

Derek ripped the tape from McKayla’s mouth and she didn’t utter a sound. I worked feverishly on my ropes and felt they were almost cut all the way through.

“Number one!” He shouted as he struck her face.

“N-never speak unless spoken to.” She whispered.

I slid the knife back into my pocket and gripped the frayed ropes. All it would take was one pull and I would be free. My eyes met McKayla’s and I nodded slowly to her. She swallowed hard and blinked once and I knew she understood.

“Number two!” He hit her again. Harder this time and she cried out.

“Always answer with ‘Yes Sir’.”

She was shaking now. I could see she was scared for her life. On the floor just under the bed was my gun. It must have fallen when they knocked me out. Derek was whispering something to her and it made her cry. As he was talking I broke the rope and crawled over to grab the gun. McKayla looked at me one more time and I nodded to her.

Everything seemed to stop in the room. The only thing I could hear was the sound of my pounding heart. I was about to make a move when McKayla kneed Derek right in the crotch. He cried out in pain and backed away from her.

“You’re dead!” He shouted as he lunged for her.

McKayla screamed and Derek froze. I shot him in the stomach and he dropped to the ground.

“You son of a bitch.” He groaned as he rolled around in pain.

I stomped over to him and beat him over and over in the face with my gun. When he was out, I rolled him over and took the gun from him and tossed it on the bed. I heard running coming from outside. I sighed and cocked my gun.

“Now what?” I said to myself as I checked out the window.

“Finally.”

Chibs and Tig were running towards the room from one side and Opie and Sack from the other. I opened the door for them and went over to McKayla.

“It’s okay baby, it’s over. It’s all over now.”