Integrity Has No Bounds (13 page)

She didn’t know how to answer him, “Mr., we
all seen what shape you’ve been sending the brothers back in. Willy
boy wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed to begin with, now his
momma says he started lickin’ his lips all the time, an’ she says
between the way he already had a stutter, the lip lickin’ is even
more brain damage. The clubhouse is beginning to look like the
medical clinic.”

She looked over to Candle’s body still lying
where it’d dropped. “I had to do somethin’, nobody else would lift
a finger to help him, Donnie Lee I mean. They’d let you kill him
before they would turn this piece of shit over, it ain’t right.
That’s all, it just ain’t right.”

She looked up when the big man pulled his
t-shit off and handed it to her. The material was still warm as she
fumbled her arms inside and pulled her head through the neck. The
feeling was returning to her hands and Lord they stung. “Thank
you.”

“Mr.? What happens now?” He had a bottle of
water to his lips and she could see him swallow as he drained the
plastic container within a minute or so. “I, are you satisfied now,
I mean enough to let Donnie come home?”

John looked at the woman, still sitting where
she’d crawled to against the wall. She was a mess, there was no two
ways about it, and he couldn’t let her stay alone to face the shit
when the Rats figured out she had been here tonight. He wondered
what Baron would have to say about taking on a woman with the
reputation for breaking the code, but at least he could give her a
place to stay until she decided what to do or where she would go if
she didn’t stay with the Breed.

He nodded his head and walked over to help
her up off the planked floor. “Are you in any shape to drive?” She
licked her lips and nodded, so he didn’t bother to try to coddle
her. She needed to get some miles put between her and the Swamp
Kings.

“Is that your car out there with the backseat
filled with boxes and trash bags?”

Tonda shook her head no. “The car belongs to
the club, I was just gonna use it to transport Candle and exchange
him for Donnie, that way he’d have a way to make it home.”

He reached into his front pocket and pulled
out a small wad of money. She shook her head when he tried to hand
her a hundred dollar bill, so he peeled off a couple of twenties
and she hesitated a few seconds before taking it. “I’m only taking
this ‘cause I think the car’s gonna need gas.”

He shrugged his shoulders, “Up to you what
you spend it on, you look like you could use a meal, but wearing my
shirt isn’t gonna get you into any fast food place that I know of.
When you get to the club, look me up or talk to Baron, he’ll know
what you’re there for, I have something I need to take care of so I
might not be there.”

He handed her the dead man’s wallet and she
hesitated before taking it from his hands. She opened the wide
leather and took the few bills that had been left. She glanced at
her rescuer, and looked to every corner of the run down shack. She
smiled, knowing what she was going to do. The Swamp Kings would
never know what happened, she would be long gone, and so would the
Breed.

She walked over to the propane burner and
turned it on, once it lit she glanced behind her and smiled at the
man that was shaking his head no. She began to laugh, and told him,
“Mr., you did me a favor and I’m going to do this part of the world
a big favor too. I know I won’t be back here again so let’s just
call this payback.” She turned the next burner on and stood back
far enough to watch the flames. Then walked toward where John stood
in the open doorway. “You might want to get a move on it, I got the
oven on and the pilot light off, It’s gonna blow this place to
hell, and take that poison shit with it.”

She grinned at him through her bloody split
lips, lifted her hand to wave to him and did her best to run for
the car.

John took a page from the white trash
handbook and ran as fast as he could through the trees to get back
to his scoot. His arms were tired and his thighs felt like rubber,
but he got the Harley out of the trees in record time and he left
the track at the same time the cabin blew. From the sound of the
explosion, they must have had a large operation going there, but
right now he was in no mood to be seen in the area. Hurting men was
one thing, but destroying a money making operation was entirely a
different thing.

He was going to have to put some miles
between him and Arkansas tonight, or the Swamp Kings would have
recourse. His hunt was over.

He was passing the state line when he saw the
Olds getting on the highway behind him a half a mile or so back,
and figured the woman must have stopped for fuel and was heading
for the clubhouse. He would be at his house when she arrived, but
he had to clean up before he showed up at the club. It was gonna
take a hell of a lot of soap to wash the stink of the swamp from
his body and clothes.

The first thing he did when he parked the
bike was to hose as much mud and road film off it as he could. He
left it in the carport and went inside to shower.

As the hot water sluiced down his chest, he
thought of Stevie and his dick got hard. He was going to enjoy
baring her ass and turning it red as a beet. He made a mental note
to stop at the toy store Baron and Gunner owned up by the highway,
and pick up a few things she might like.

Washing his hard prick led to the need to
drain the damn thing and he groaned, imagining it was her mouth
surrounding his flesh as he ran his dick through his fingers,
spewing his cum through the soapy palm of his hand.

His cell was ringing as he stepped from the
steamy bathroom, and listened to Hightits telling him to get his
ass over there pronto.

The message was short and to the point.
“Baron just left to meet you at the club, and that woman you called
about earlier is here.”

*****

She drove most of the night to get here
without attracting the cops, and was thankful that she made it
before her right eye swelled shut like the left one had done less
than an hour ago. The handsome young men at the gate had taken one
look at her and waved her through even as he began punching numbers
into a cell phone.

She had to wait in her car for another half
an hour until another man rode his bike into the space next to her
car. He looked at her and the backseat, and waited for her to
speak.

“Mr. uh, the big guy with the dark hair and,
I forgot to ask his name like a dummy, well he said to come here
and look him up or a guy name of Baron.”

The handsome smiling man opened her car door.
She knew he was looking at her wrists, and tried to bring them down
to her sides.

He saw her bare legs and the marks on her
wrists where the rope had cut in, but didn’t say anything. His hand
slowly reached for hers, and she reluctantly gave it to him,
allowing herself to be helped from the vehicle.

“Do you want to bring in a change of clothes,
we have a room that you can take a shower and change into something
warmer if you like. No one will disturb you and there’s a lock on
the door if you want to use it.”

He kept staring at her and when she realized
he was waiting for her to introduce herself, she nodded as well as
her neck would allow and told him. “I’m pleased to meet you. I’m
Tonda.”

“Well, Tonda, they call me Leech, let’s see
if we can get you comfortable, and as soon as John gets here and
sorts this all out, we can offer you some refreshment and some sort
of breakfast while you wait.”

So now she was still in the room they’d been
allowing her to use, and was afraid they might have forgotten her.
That good looking bastard had told her they’d come get her once
John got there, but it seemed to have been hours since he’d left
her. She was startled when the knock on the door finally sounded,
and called for the person to come in.

The rumors were fact. He was a big mother.
Dark hair with tats running down his arms from neck to wrists, she
knew for a fact those tats didn’t stop at his shoulders. They
decorated his back and part of his chest too. She could see why Mel
kept sayin’ that he and Willie didn’t have a hope in hell of taking
this guy down. There was something attractive about him, but she
was too fuckin’ tired to worry about that now.

“I’ve been waitin’ for long enough, Mr.
Unless you already killed him, but I would know, I think, if he was
dead. I’m tired, and I need to see Donnie this last time before he
goes home. Mr., I’m begging you for this one favor, and we’ll be
outta your way.”

The woman was beaten to hell and bruised
until both of her eyes were almost swollen completely shut, but she
had come for her man. She knew no club would allow a rat to stay
within the group, but she’d braved shunning to save the Swamp
Rat.

Leech told him it looked like she had
everything she owned in the backseat of her car, and when John
found Candle at the shack, he saw the garbage bags and cardboard
boxes for himself. He made a decision and nodded at Leech who was
right behind him.

Leech and Burger would move her shit out of
the vehicle to the room here, and she could have time to heal or
decide to stay. The choice would be hers, the woman had heart, and
she had courage. Both were qualities the men admired. Donnie Lee
Dean was a dumb bastard who had no idea what he would be throwing
away when he left here without her.

“You did the right thing, I know it probably
doesn’t seem like it, but looking at you right now, you must know
that you saved more women from that fucker. You’re brave, and if
that little fucker doesn’t appreciate you, then it’s his loss. This
room is yours for as long as you need it, and from what I can see,
it’s gonna take at least a week before you will be able to see
again, so you’re in a good place to rest and heal.”

“I’ll bring the Swamp Rat to you, he can take
your car back to where he came from, and we’ll call it even. You
don’t have to go back and catch a bunch of shit.”

He turned and left the room.

Donnie Lee was lying on his back thinking
about home. When he became the prez, he was gonna make the Swamp
Kings into a group that was respected by other bikers. He knew the
Breed were some evil mothers, but they hadn’t touched him. The
other two men still screamed in the middle of the night, but even
their cries had slowed down to once or twice a night.

The door opened and that cold fucker walked
into his cell. The dark-haired son-of-a-bitch was with him.

It was the big fucker who reached down and
grabbed him by the front of his shirt, pulled him to his feet, and
slammed him against the wall. It didn’t hurt much, the only damage
he felt was done to his pride, but Leech grabbed his ankles and
snapped the shackles on. The leash was removed, but they still
hadn’t said anything, and that worried him a bit. Had they gotten
tired of waiting? Was it his turn to suffer like his brothers in
the other cells? A bag was placed over his head, and he tried to
struggle, but the two men let him wear himself out before one of
them pulled him down a long hallway and up some stairs.

He was so confused that nothing made sense.
He had been led outside, and then inside another building, until
his captor stopped. The hood was taken from his head, and the
shackles released from his legs. The last thing to be removed was
the cuffs, but no one made a move to release his hands.

John enjoyed the fear he saw on the younger
man’s face, but he worried about the girl in the room in front of
them.

“You are one lucky son-of-a-bitch, someone is
about to learn what an ungrateful fuck Pappy D raised, but you
don’t deserve loyalty and the courage I saw today. I doubt if
she’ll think you’re worth the sacrifice when you come out of the
room.”

The door was opened, and he was shoved into
the room. The door shut behind him, and before he could wonder what
the fucker was talking about, he saw Tonda sitting on a small bed
in the corner of the room. He had to look closer to be sure it was
her. Seeing the way she’d been beat on enraged him.

“Who the fuck did that?” She whimpered and
made a sobbing noise, before moving as if she was in pain to stand
next to the bed. She held out her hand and he knew, she was here
for more than just to say hello. “What did you do, Tonda? Tell me
you didn’t find a way to bring Candle here, tell me you didn’t
betray the Kings.”

She was crying and trying to talk. Nothing
came out of her throat, so she swallowed again. “Candle did this to
me, and I was worried about you. Donnie Lee, I had to try to help
you, don’t you see that? They said the Breed snatched you right off
the side of the road. With all of the damage this guy did to the
other men, I worried that he’d kill you. I know how bad your temper
can get.”

She sat back down when Donnie didn’t approach
her, she took a deep breath and told him of her plan. “Things
didn’t go like I planned, he was so fucked up on that poison shit,
he went wild on me. If someone hadn’t helped me, I’d be dead by
now, and he’d be feedin’ my ass to those gators.”

She hung her head, tired of talking, just
bone weary of the whole damn subject. “Donnie Lee, I’ve loved you
since you picked me up off the ground when I was in high school. I
know I was always a charity case for you. After school, I was just
another whore you brought to the club to play your games with.”

She leaned back against the wall behind her.
Talked out. She knew he’d be like this when she planned to abduct
Candle and exchange him for Donnie. Somewhere in the back of her
mind, yeah, buried deep, but somewhere, she pictured them being
together forever. It was what kept her bending over and allowing
herself to be used by anyone who wanted her, Donnie wanted her to
and so she did.

He almost shit his pants when he saw her
sitting on that bed, and he knew then and there she was the reason
he was free from his cell. She had to know she couldn’t go back to
the group with him, and damned her, it wasn’t her place to be
rescuing him. He could understand why she did it, she was a woman
and a split tail didn’t live by the biker code like men of honor
did.