Rod (26 page)

“Alright, great.
 
Any idea where Boris
Cardov
,
Lester Samson and Ken Clayton are now?” he asks.

“No clue,” I lie.
 

“Then how did you know that Mr.
Cardov
wasn’t home tonight?”

For a moment I panic, thinking I’ve been
caught in my
lie
, but manage to quickly conjure up a
response.
 
“Rodney and I watched him
leave the place.”

“Oh, alright.
 
Okay, well we will be in touch with you and your
family soon.
 
This will probably go to
the prosecutor’s office and you all will have to testify in front of a jury.”

“That’s alright by me,” I say.

Officer Ghent makes his way to Rodney and
I look on as he questions him about tonight’s events.
 
I pull out my cell phone to text him: “The
officer thinks we watched Boris leave – he asked how we knew he wasn’t
home.
 
I told him we don’t know where
those guys are.
 
Play along.”

He grins from afar after checking the
message and talks to the officer for a short while before he heads back my
way.
 
The police cars and the ambulance
all disperse and I hold Rodney tightly.

“Why did you tell them that you didn’t
know where Boris and Ken were?” he asks as he breaks away from our embrace.

“Because they’re all waiting at the club
for us so we can all dish out our own punishment before the cops get there to
arrest them.”

“Got it.
 
I can’t say that I blame you.
 
They have all done some pretty horrible shit to your family.”

“You’ve got that right,” I say.
 
“Alright, can we get out of here and get my
bike so we can head back to the Lair?”

“Sure babe.”

I pull my cell phone from my pocket and
call my dad.

“Hey dad,” I tell him.

“What’s up Trish?” he asks.

“I called Missy for Sasha and she came and
took her home,” I tell him.

“Okay, well I need to see her, so I’ll
call Missy,” he says.

“Alright.
 
Rodney is going to take me to get my bike and then we’ll be on our way
to the Lair to say our piece.”

“Good, see you then.”

We disconnect the call and I look to
Rodney.

“I’m ready to roll,” I tell him.
 
He walks over to his bike on the side of
Boris’ house and hops on it.
 
He revs it
up and rides it slowly to me.
 
Steadying
it, I hop on the back and hold on tight.

A short while later, we find ourselves at
the gas station where my bike is hidden.
 
I get off of his bike and walk around to the back where I get on and rev
it up.
 
I’m eager to get back to the Lair
and show Boris and Ken what we’re all made of.

“I’ll be right behind you,” I tell
Rodney.
 
I put my helmet on and speed off
behind him as we take the paved streets back to the comfort of the dirt roads
that surround our little slice of heaven.

We arrive at the Dragon’s Lair and see the
accumulated motorcycles parked out front.
 
Before we can dismount from our bikes, I see Missy’s car rapidly
approaching.

She parks and Sasha gets out and runs to
me.
 
She is cleaner now and has a clean
pair of pants on and a bright pink shirt.
 
Her hair is no longer knotted up and filthy.
 
The sight of her like this immediately warms
my heart.

Missy exits the car, but I stop her in her
tracks.

“I’m sorry, but with the exception of
Sasha, this is club business,” I tell her.
 
She looks angry, but heads back to her car and sits in the driver’s
seat.

“Let’s go inside, dad wants to see you,” I
look down and tell Sasha.

“Alright.”

“Wait, before we go in, I just wanted to
tell you that two of the men are inside here with dad and the rest of the club
guys.
 
They can’t hurt you here, but you
need to know so that you can be strong.”

“Can I kick the fat one?” she asks.

Smiling, I tell her, “Of course you can.”

We walk inside with Rodney right behind
us.
 
The club members are happy to see
me, but astonishment strikes their faces when they see Sasha next to me.
 
Most of the members begin clapping to find
Sasha safe and sound.
 
I scan the room
until my eyes meet Boris and Ken and I see them join in on the clapping.

“Sasha, honey!” Dad exclaims and she runs
to his arms and holds him tightly.

A few minutes pass and my dad whispers in
her ear.
 
She gives him a thumbs up and I
wonder what they have up their sleeves.

“Sasha is going to tell everyone what
happened to her while she was away.”

A nervous twitch crosses Boris’ face and
Ken tries to appear unaffected.

“Are you ready sweetheart?” he asks her
before the conglomeration of club members.

She smiles at him and walks to the middle
of the club.
 

“I was walking to school one day and this
old guy pulls up in a white van,” she says as I continually scan the room.
 
Most of the members are paying close
attention, but beads of sweat pile up on Boris’ forehead.
 

“So, he tells me that he’s my grandfather
and that my mom hates him so I’m not allowed to see him.
 
I feel bad, but he told me that my dad would
come and get me.
 
His name is Lester and
he’s a total creep.”

Some of the members give off a hint of a
smile at her description.
 
She goes on to
say, “The other guy in the white van was this fat jerk right here.”

She walks over to Boris and pushes her
finger into his giant belly.
 
Anger
begins to emerge from the other members’ faces as she continues.
 
Ken looks paler by the minute and I wonder if
he’s going to be sick or have a heart attack.

“He drove me to Lester’s house and it was
pretty stinky in there, like old people.
 
So, once I figure stuff out, they tied me up at Lester’s house and then
something really bad and gross happened.”

“Tell daddy what happened, honey,” my
father instructs her.

She walks over to Ken standing there
looking scared and she points her finger in his chest.
 
She tells everyone, “This guy covered my eyes
and mouth and when I had to pee, they gave be a white bucket.
 
The bad part is that this jerk watched me
pee.”

A hush falls over the group of people
encircling Boris and Ken and anger turns my father’s face completely red.
 

“Trish, why don’t you take your sister
outside to her mother?” he says, motioning for me to get her outside before a
fight erupts.
 

“Don’t start without me,” I tell him.

He nods in agreement and then I interrupt
him to say, “Oh wait, Sasha had something she wanted to do.”

He nods again and I whisper into her ear,
“Now is the time if you
wanna
kick ‘
em
!”

She smiles confidently as she walks over
to Boris and kicks him right in the crotch.
 
He doubles over and the club’s members erupt in a rally to get her to do
more.
 
She kicks him again, but this time
it’s in the kneecaps and she receives the same applause.

“Again!” they tell her, egging her
on.
 
“Get the other one!”

She walks to where Ken is standing and
kicks him hard and punches him in the nose.
 
“Take that, you jerk!” she screams at him.

I feel a sense of pride wash over me as
these cretins get exactly what they deserve.

Our father walks over to the middle of the
room and looks at Ken and Boris as they cower in fear over what’s going to
happen next.
 
He gives them a daunting
look and they quake with anxiety.
 
He
relishes in the moment and the other members cheer him on.

He raises a hand and says, “
Shhh
, I need these guys to hear what I’m about to tell
them.”

The room quiets and he looks at both of
them dead in the eyes, one by one.

“You both owe my sweet baby daughter an
apology,” he says pacing the floor between the two men.

They both look at her and I can tell that
they’re wondering if that’s the only thing that will keep them safe from the
impending crush of pain they’re going to feel soon.

Ken looks down at Sasha and tells her, “I
am so sorry from the bottom of my heart.
 
I never meant to hurt you.”

She looks up at him and says, “You watched
me pee, you pervert.”

“I’m really sorry.
 
I had to watch you.
 
They wanted to make sure you weren’t going
anywhere.
 
I didn’t want to.”

He quakes where he stands and Sasha moves
on to Boris.

“And you.
 
You helped that old man take me and then you tied me up.”

“I’m sorry, it’s not my fault,” he says.

“You didn’t feed me and then you gave me a
bucket to use as a toilet!” she yells at him and the sweat drips from his
face.
 

My father’s anger is apparent and I take
Sasha by the shoulder to usher her outside.
 
Her mother emerges from her car and I watch them both climb back inside.

“Take good care of her and don’t let her
out of your sight,” I tell Missy.

“I’ll be with her every possible moment,”
she assures me.

“Good.
 
My guess is that the cops have already arrested Lester Samson and are
probably going to be coming here for the other two goons.
 
She gave a statement to the police earlier,
but they’re probably going to summon her to court to testify when the time
comes.”

“Got it, we’ll be ready,” she says as she
backs the car up and leaves the parking area.

I walk back inside the club’s door and to
the back room where everyone waits.

My father, dominating the situation, tells
the other members to hold Boris and Ken.

“Make sure they can’t move,” he tells
them.
 
Two big and strong men surround
both Boris and Ken and they begin to squirm.
 

“Anything you want to say?” Dad asks
them.
 

I keep myself in the background and I see
Rodney making his way to me.
 
He reaches
me and holds me tightly as I prepare myself to watch what’s about to happen.

My father paces between them and presses
them further.
 
“So neither of you have
anything to say for yourselves?”

He listens to the echo of his voice as it
bounces off of the walls and throws a punch into Ken’s stomach.
 
He doubles over and my father looks to Boris
for an explanation.

“Lester Samson made us do it!” Boris shouts,
but it doesn’t stave off my father’s wrath.
 
He throws a swift, hard punch into Boris’ stomach, causing him to double
over.
 
As they both try to recover from
the blow my dad deals them, he paces the floor again.

“Lester Samson made you do what?
 
He made you kidnap my twelve-year-old
daughter?” he asks them angrily.

“Yes, it was all Lester’s idea,” Boris
admits.
 
My father looks at him like he
could kill him and not blink an eye.

“You’re telling me that old man Lester
Samson made you kidnap Sasha?
 
Did he
also make you both lie to my face?
 
I
gave you the chance to come clean when I asked everyone if they had any
information on her disappearance, neither of you stepped forward.
 
Cowards!” he yells.

“Lester told us that we’d both get rich
off of this.
 
He said she wouldn’t be
hurt and that we needed to help him if we knew what was good for us,” Ken says.

“You can’t tell me that Lester dreamed up
this whole thing all by himself,” my father tells them.

“He held us at gunpoint, he told us to
help him or die,” Boris says in his own defense.

“Try again,” my father yells, hitting them
once again, knocking them both to the floor.

They look up and see the anger register on
my dad’s face.
 
My father looks around
and gives a wave of his hand to the men around Ken and Boris.
 
The men around them begin kicking and
punching at Ken and Boris, leaving their faces bloody and them hugging the
floor.