Sharing Freedom (16 page)

Just want to fucking die
, Freedom thought. She was close, the pain wasn’t even there anymore because her
brain refused even to register anything she was feeling, there was too much of it.

“Come on, cunt, tell me what I need to know,” the man said now. He was getting desperate.
He was finally realizing that she really didn’t have the information he needed, and
he was going to be in deep shit with the big man. She heard them whispering about
it when they took their last break.

She was ready to stop the pain, her heart was broken, her body was broken. There
was nothing left for her.

“She is useless,” someone said.

“Fuck,” another said. “Dose her, and maybe tomorrow she will be drugged up enough
to fucking tell us what we want to know.”

“Can I fuck her then?” one of them laughed.

“Yeah, just make sure that she’s ready by morning, don’t care what you do,” the man
snapped and she heard shuffling.

“What’s that?” one of them asked.

“Guys out doing target practice probably,” another said.

"Go out and tell them to stop, we need no attention drawn to us here," she heard the
man in the corner order.

Then thankfully, the blanket of darkness claimed her again. She was dying, and she
hoped it was before they had the opportunity to rape her.

*****

Covered in the blood of several Diablos, Easy and Poke kicked in the door of the warehouse
just as a gangbanger was stepping out. Before the man could move Easy reached for
him, wrapping his arm around his neck, immobilizing him, then with his other hand,
he grabbed under his chin and in one swift move snapped his neck, bringing instant
death. He threw the body out of the way and he and his other Warriors MC brothers
poured into the room.

"What the fuck? Easy said, looking around seeing cages that held women, and by the
looks of them they were drugged.

"Where is she, Easy? Poke asked, turning his head trying to find Freedom.

After fighting their way inside the warehouse the Diablos were running out of, the
Warriors MC would have thought the hardest part was over. They couldn’t have been
more wrong, because what they were seeing, made them sick. The few men that were
unlucky enough not to have gotten out were easily taken care of by the Warriors and
just as the fights were ending, heard "Freedom" as it echoed off the walls. Easy
and Poke had found her lying on the table, barely alive, her clothes in shredded opened
and she was covered in blood from the wounds she had. The sight before them, broke
their hearts.

Easy and Poke completely lost it, taking eight men, four each to hold the them back.

"No one touch her, I am calling and ambulance," Creed said, cell phone already in
hand making the call. Freedom looked so broken, he didn’t want anyone moving her
and making it worse.

Creed hung up the phone and looked around, his crew was good, they were already taking
care of business. He could hear the sirens in the distance,
wouldn't be long now
.

The MC had been fast moving. They found the trucks that were already loaded with
guns they had stolen and moved them quickly. They left the drugs, not wanting anything
to do with meth. The women who were in the cages were in a bad way. All of them
had been there for more than a few days, and the effects of the drug they were instantly
addicted to had varied.

The local police had never seen anything like it. Authorities were called in to help
the police cope with the devastation surrounding them. It was
not
going to be an easy case for them to rap up.

The ambulance pulled up and the EMTs went in to action, closely watched by the Warriors
as they worked on Freedom. In less than twenty minutes she was being loaded on the
stretcher and placed in the ambulance for transport to the hospital.

The ambulance lights and siren blared as it pulled back onto the road and the men
from the Warriors MC watched it until its tail lights were specks in the distance.

*****

Shady followed by the other Bitches entered the emergency room just as the doctor
stepped out to inform the group that was gathered on Freedom's condition. They were
told the trauma to her body had been extensive, she had gone into shock from the blood
loss and would be watched closely for the next forty-eight hours, those would be the
critical time on whether she was strong enough to pull through or not. They had performed
surgery on her and removed her spleen, then repaired the damage done to her hand.
The other wounds had been brutal as well but on the outside. She didn't have an inch
of skin that was not bruised, cut, or burned by the sadistic bastards. The doctors
had been shocked she survived,
Twice in the first twenty-four hours the group watched as the medical team rushed
into Freedom's room as she flat lined. Each time it happened the eight men jumped
up to hold on to Easy and Poke as they became enraged, trying to get to Freedom.
Their Freedom.

Pill had received a broken leg, and his bike had been trashed, but he was alive and
pissed off he had let Freedom be taken from him. His old lady and the older members
of the club were taking care of him and letting him know what was going on. All of
the Warriors had been up to see him except for Poke and Easy who refused to move from
outside the room in ICU where Freedom had been taken to when she was finished in the
ER.

The two day passed and Easy and Poke were stilling waiting on Freedom to wake up.
They had a lot of explaining to do and no idea how to go about it. Each still trying
to wrap their head around the fact that three day ago they had gone to their friends,
ready to claim Freedom as their own. Both men knew the guys weren’t sure if she was
strong enough for their life, and neither were they, which is why they came to the
decision they had, she needed more time. Yes, she was a Bitch, but she was going
to be their old lady too. Shady had planned to take her to get the tat for the Bitches
for weeks, but they had put her off. They wanted her to have the club tat as well
as their mark like the other old ladies had. They wanted her to get them at the same
time. However, until she proved to them she understood exactly what this life entailed,
they waited. They were going to explain all of this to her, Easy and Poke talked
late into the night about how they would explain.

Then shit had fallen apart. Fork had discovered the Devils were pissed, Freedom had
been promised to their VP as payment, and they wanted to collect. They also found
out that Trick was involved with a lot more shit than they had originally thought,
but it wasn’t until the morning they traced Trick’s call they discovered just how
deep she was.

Trick had opened the gates for the Diablos to put the head of Freedom’s father on
display, she even had told them about the mining business and the best time they could
hit the shipments of gold coming out.

They were planning to blow up the Warrior’s clubhouse the following day when Trick
had called them, in one of the trucks had been enough C-4 to blow the town up and
leave a crater. However, Trick had called so they postponed their attack until they
had Freedom in their grasp, the fucking greedy asshole wasn’t going to tell his boss
about the mine.

The other people Freedom’s father owed money to had been paid off and silently faded
back into the woodwork, so the only thing they had to deal with was the Diablos and
the Devils.

The Devils
’
problem sorted itself out since one of the women they had discovered in the cages
had belonged to them. They had taken her back and agreed to allow Easy and Poke to
pay the money they were owed. They were having problems with the Diablos as well,
and in the next few weeks they were talking about having a meeting and hashing out
the bad blood between the clubs. They were going to have to work together, because
the word on the street was the Diablos were preparing to come after them full force,
they were pissed about losing the men and product in the raid. They blamed the Warriors
for their loss.

The Devils were still losing shipments, which is what led to the tentative peace between
the clubs. They lived too close together not to help each other because one way or
another, the Diablos were coming into the area, and both of them stood to lose if
that happened.

Shady and the other Bitches had locked up Trick in the shed on the property and were
planning to deal with her later. Shady wanted to keep her alive and let her sit around
to wonder what they were going to do to her and when. Mental torture before the good
stuff started is what Shady told them. As soon as the women heard about Freedom they
had rushed to the hospital to be there for her. None of the Warriors had left the
waiting room, other than to get food, or visit Pill since they had arrived. The Prospects
had been in charge of making sure Trick was fed and hosed down three times a day.

So here the men sat on the ending to the forty-hours critical period and still Freedom
had not woken.

Finally, on the third day she woke up, the only reason the club knew was when suddenly
the hallway was filled with doctors and nurses rushing around. Easy and Poke stood
and ran into the room, only to be pushed back out when Freedom caught sight of them
and became hysterical.

Once again, security was called when it took eight men to hold the two men back from
getting in the room. After an hour, one of the doctors came out of the room and addressed
the group who was all pacing.

He walked out and held up his hand when Shady almost jumped at him. “I am assuming
you are all here for Freedom Stands? Wait, that must be a typo.”

Shady rolled her eyes and said, “Nope not a typo that’s her name, its old news move
on.”

“Oh well,” the doctor said a little flustered.

“Yeah, about Freedom—your patient,” Shady said slowly.

“Yes, Freedom. She is awake, and in a lot of pain right now. She is also suffering
from extreme PTSD, she had to be sedated after seeing these men,” the doctor announced.

“She needs to know we are here, she needs to know we came for her,” Poke yelled.

“Uh,” the doctor said and then backed up a step when he saw the intense look on Easy’s
face.

“Doc,” Creed stepped up calmly, and glared at Easy and Poke until they got it under
control. “We understand PTSD. We know what she is going through. But the situation
is a bit difficult to explain. Freedom is alone in this world and we are her only
family. She is going to push us away; we know that, because we all did the same thing
when we got out of the military. We had the same issues. But none of us are going
to give up on her, and she needs to hear that.”

“While I appreciate what you are saying, none of you are legal family members of Freedom,
and she is an adult. She has expressed to the staff that no visitors be allowed unless
it is the police and they have questions. Anyone else, she had declined to put on
the list. This is the ICU and a locked ward, and so unless you have permission to
be in a patient’s room or on this floor, I am going to have to ask you to leave and
let her heal. We have a therapist who will be seeing her when she is well enough,
but considering her wounds, it will be at least a week before she is removed from
the floor. Then we will have to see what the plan will be, she woke up frightened
and scared. Freedom is my priority,” he said firmly.

“That is where you are wrong,” Shady said calmly, obviously trying to bluff the doctor.
“She is my sister.”

“What?” the doctor said. “According to the records she doesn’t have a sister. Unless
I have proof, you can’t go in. Now, please go quietly.”

“I am not leaving,” Easy roared.

*****

Freedom heard Easy’s roar and she flinched and cried. They sent her away, took everything
away from her that she fought and cared for. Now, even though she was alive—she didn’t
want to be. Her heart hurt too bad to think.

Three weeks Freedom had been in the hospital, and three weeks it had been since any
of the Warriors saw her. After waking up the morning after coming out of her coma,
she allowed the police department to come in. She explained what happened that she
knew of, and asked for help keeping the MC out of her room. They had agreed, mostly
because the threat wasn’t gone.

Freedom had to be sedated once again when she heard the men who tortured her were
dead, but not the leaders of the group. They put guards on her door in order to protect
her while they were building a case against the Diablos. And when the time came to
leave the hospital, they arranged for her protection through the District Attorney’s
office. They were putting her up in a hotel until she found a place. With little
or no money, they declared her indigent.

Not that she cared, these days she didn’t care about anything. The therapist she
had spoken to tried to get her to open up about what happened but Freedom didn’t talk
to her, she couldn’t. It didn’t matter, none of it did. She just wanted to go to
her hotel, lie on the bed, and block everything out. If she didn’t think, she wouldn’t
feel. Maybe someday she would move on—alone. It had been her biggest hurdle in the
hospital—remembering she was on her own now, with no one to lean on.

She walked out the door with her head bent down, not looking around, she didn’t care
if the Diablos were waiting for her. Let them end her; it would probably be for the
best anyway.

“Ma’am,” the guard said and held his hand out to the large SUV that was waiting for
her. Freedom nodded and got in the vehicle, put her head back on the seat and closed
her eyes.
She would not cry
, she thought, she had no more tears.

*****

She felt the SUV stop and she opened her eyes.
This wasn’t where she was supposed to be
, she thought frantically and looked at the men in the car.

“Take me to the hotel,” she screeched.

The man sitting in the front seat frowned and turned. “The District Attorney is right
there, ma’am,” he said and pointed out the side window to the man she had met only
once.

Freedom was pissed, she didn’t want to be here, and damn it she was here. She had
told them specifically that she wanted no contact with these people or she would leave
and not testify. This was fucked up, Freedom moved as quickly as her still sore body
would allow and flung open the door. Apparently, it shocked the man because he jumped
forward to help her.

“Ms. Stands,” he said and grabbed her arm as she flung herself out of the car. She
didn’t look at the bikers who were also standing there watching because if she would
have, she would have seen Easy and Poke start to move forward and Shady grab their
arms and hold them back.

“Mr. Fuckhead D.A. or whatever your name is, it seems we are having a communication
issue. I told you specifically I did not want to have any contact whatsoever with
anyone from this group of people,” she yelled.

“I know, but…” he stuttered.

“Oh hell no, there is no
but
involved in this conversation. Take me back to the hospital, I will call a cab,
because I am so out of here,” she yelled and turned back to get into the SUV when
the arm came around her waist, halting her.

“Don’t think so, baby girl,” Poke whispered in her ear. “You are right where you
belong—home.”

“Fuck you,” she screeched and fought him as he lifted her up and cradled her against
his chest.

“That will happen soon enough,” Poke murmured but she heard him and began to yell
louder.

“This is kidnapping. I thought you were a man of the law. This is illegal. I am
calling the police and reporting you right now. Give me a damn-fucking phone. I
will not stay here,” she yelled, thrashing her legs.

The DA looked a little worried as he stared at Freedom fighting, and then Creed stepped
up. “Fish,” he said, addressing the DA. “Thank you for bringing her home.”

“Just make sure she doesn’t actually call the cops, I like the job I have.” The man
laughed and shook Creed’s hand.

“You have got to be fucking kidding me,” Freedom screamed. “You bought the DA?”

“Nah,” Creed laughed. “Fish is a member from way back, we just don’t broadcast it.”

“You muther fuckers,” Freedom said and she felt a hand on her ass.

“Babe, settle down. You are here and there's nothing you can do about it, so just
let Poke carry you inside, then we will calmly sit down and talk about everything,”
Easy said.

“Go to hell, Easy,” she said but stopped moving and crossed her arms.

“Been there, babe. When you were laying in the hospital not talking to any of us,
we were all there,” he whispered and Freedom felt the tears in her eyes. She would
not respond to him, or feel sorry for not letting them come in even though the staff
told her at least ten of the members of the club were in the lounge downstairs at
any given time. They refused to leave. Tough shit, they kicked her out, and she
was staying the fuck out.

*****

Freedom was silent while Poke carried her into the clubhouse and sat her down on the
sectional closest to their stairs. She refused to look at any of them and Poke refused
to let her ignore them, he sat down next to her, and smiled.

“You look good, baby girl,” Poke said quietly.

Freedom flinched but didn’t respond. He hadn’t lied, she did look good, even if she
still had some fading bruises and he could see the marks that would probably turn
to scars on her arms and legs. His lips tightened when he saw the round cigarette
burns on the top of her breasts that were showing. They knew what she had gone through,
and if he could, Poke would raise the bastard who did this from the dead, then kill
him again.

Easy sat on her other side and tried to take her hand but Freedom refused to allow
him to do so. The two struggled silently until Easy was left holding her fist in
his large hand.

“Babe, you are going to have to talk to us sometime,” Easy teased and Freedom just
stared at the table in front of them.

“We just want to explain,” Poke tried to talk to her. The rest of the club was sitting
back and watching their interaction. All of them felt like shit because they had
sent her away that day. The leaders all acknowledged they should have sent more people
than just Meat and Pill, they had only thought about getting her out of town.

However, Shady finally came and plopped down on the table in front of Freedom. Of
course, she was wearing her leather pants and leather halter top today, which made
her look a little menacing with her long black hair. She straddled Freedom's legs
with her own and frowned. She had struggled a lot over the last few weeks, she and
Freedom had a bond, and Shady didn’t bond with anyone, but she had been drawn to Freedom.

Shady just stared at the top of Freedom’s head and waited. Freedom shifted a little,
but Shady closed her legs a little and halted the movement.

“You can be pissed all you fucking want to, Free,” Shady said firmly. “The decision
was made because they thought you would be safer away from here. They didn’t know
one of the Bitches was betraying them or they wouldn’t have done it. People fuck
up.”

Freedom's head raised and she stared into Shady’s eyes, her face blank with no emotion
at all and she said flatly, “Yeah, well that fuck up didn’t fucking hurt you.”

“The hell you say,” Shady yelled. “It hurt all of us, you are our sister, and when
you are hurt we all are.”

Freedom snorted. “I didn’t know families could throw away their sisters so easily
when you are done with them. Must be nice to be able to do that, especially for pathetic
little people who thought they found something they never had before. I bet it was
easy since I wasn’t a member for long.”

“Damn it, Free,” Shady growled. “We weren’t getting rid of you. The guys wanted
you out of the way so they could deal with the fuck up your dad made. He owed a bunch
of people money. One of them was an MC club in the next town over, the ones who wanted
to claim you. So Easy and Poke did what they thought was best and sent you away.”

Freedom stiffened and then a flash of anger passed through her eyes and she said,
“Sent me away, fuck you, Shady, they said they were done with me. You all did. Don’t
make it sound like they had some ulterior motive that was filled with good intentions
and shit. All they had to do was fucking ask, I would have done whatever the fuck
they wanted, instead they told me they were done with me, and Creed said I didn’t
fit in. I don’t give a shit what their intentions were, they fucking sent me away
like a piece of fucking dirt they needed to clean up. What I don’t get, is why the
fuck any of you really care now. Is it because it all backfired and poor little Freedom
is hurt with nowhere to go, so you will take her back in until she is well enough
to live on her own and then we can kick her out again,” Freedom yelled and stood,
pushing and moving so no one was touching her. “I don’t need your fucking pity, and
I don’t need you. I am leaving this fucking shit behind.”

Easy and Poke started to protest and Freedom held up a hand and stopped them. “You
don’t get to tell me what the fuck I am doing, and you definitely don’t get to offer
an opinion of what my personal life is going to be. The only reason I am standing
here right now is that no matter what else happens, I want to see the fuckers who
did this to me burn. The fuckwad DA may be in your back pocket, but he is doing something
I believe in. I want my pound of flesh for what happened to me. After that, I am
gone. Nothing you can do or say will change my damn mind because when push came to
shove, I was still on my own in that fucking room. I don’t have a family, a husband,
a father, brother, sister, mother, and I don’t want one, it hurts to fucking bad when
they let you down.”

The men shifted in the room, all of them feeling more and more shitty about the decision
that was made. Shady stood and clapped her hands and the Bitches all came and surrounded
her.

“Fine, you want closure, I can give you that. Trick is the one who outted you to
the Diablos. She is in the shed being held until we decide what to do with her.
The Bitches voted, we were just waiting for you ‘cause we didn’t want to make it more
difficult for you to deal with. She betrayed the club, and you. She gets the same
thing that happened to you. Come on, let’s get it over with,” Shady said and held
out her arm.

Holding her head up high, Freedom followed as Treat led them to the back shed. The
place had been holding extra guns they were transporting, but since everything that
happened, it had turned into their holding cell. When Shady opened the door Freedom
saw Trick lying on a bed. There was nothing in the room but a bed and a toilet.
Trick stood, and Freedom saw the chain that was attached to her ankle. She wore dirty
clothes that looked like she had worn them for a long time, probably since she had
been in here. The faded t-shirt and sweat pants had been torn in a few places. The
place smelled of body order and urine, but Freedom didn’t care, she only had eyes
for Trick.

“Oh look, they brought the broken little doll,” Trick sneered and Freedom looked at
her in surprise. The woman was being held a prisoner, and she was being a cunt?

“You are too stupid for words,” Freedom muttered.

Trick shrugged, “Fuck you, I got what I wanted, you are broken. None of these guys
are gonna touch you again.”

Shady and the other girls had filed into the room with a chair and some other stuff
but Freedom never took her eyes off the woman who had arranged for her to be kidnapped.
No remorse, no fear, and no brains. The men were standing outside the shed waiting—for
what she didn’t know or care.

At that moment, Freedom knew the club was offering her something she was never going
to get otherwise, vengeance. She also realized that if she asked, they would let
Trick go, because they had waited for her to make the final decision; her vengeance
was what mattered.

She had changed
, she thought. The Freedom who had been the naïve little waif who first walked into
the strip club was dead, and the woman who was standing there in the make shift prison
was stronger, she had survived, and would survive, no matter what her life held, she
was going to live. It was how she was going to live was the choice in front of her.
She could go back to her solitary life as a nobody, or she could truly become a member
of the Bitches.

For the last few weeks she had been lonely, she had missed Shady, and all of the guys.
Even in her head she knew what Shady had said was true in the clubhouse, about them
sending her away to protect her, it was still how they did it that pissed her off.
If something like this happened again, would they do the same thing?
Would she let them
, she thought that was the question, because she realized she had given them the choice
to send her away by making the statement she had. She should have told them to fuck
off and not run with her tail between her legs, but she hadn’t thought of it then,
she had been to hurt.

The Freedom who showed on the first day here and the woman standing in the room, was
not the same person, she had faced death, had her heart broken, and was now harder
than she had ever thought possible. She smelled cigarette smoke, and out of the corner
of her eye, she saw a few of the guys had lit up. Shady and the other women had grabbed
Trick and were strapping her into a chair. This was the moment of truth,
who had woken up in the hospital that day
, Freedom thought.

Trick had been yelling at the girls, telling them that whatever they did it wouldn’t
change the fact that she had broken Freedom.

“You can’t bring sweet little bitches in this life, Shady. You know that, I did what
had to be done because she would never have worked here. She was making us weaker.
So if you want to beat me or whatever it is not going to change the fact with her
here, you are all weak,” Trick yelled.

Freedom felt something inside her snap, her decision was made. A cold steel door
shut off her heart, because Trick was right, the old Freedom had been weak, but the
new one was so much more than what she thought, and she had the scars to prove it.
No more feeling sorry for herself, no more letting people hurt her. If she wanted
something, she was going to fight for it; no one was going to make choices about her
life anymore.

She was in control.

She stepped out into the sun, snapped the cigarette out of Rock’s lips, and then stepped
back into the room. Slowly, Freedom walked to the struggling woman who was smirking
at her and taunting her now.

“Oh look, the sweet little doll is smoking now. What are you gonna do next, doll,
steal some liquor and get drunk in your closet. Go forty miles an hour in a thirty
mile an hour zone, you are such a rebel,” she spat the words at her.

Freedom never said a word to the woman; her breath would have been wasted. Once she
was standing in front of her, the woman laughed at the look on her face and Freedom
still didn’t respond. Instead, she lifted the cigarette to her lips and she sucked
in the burning tar and made the tip glow. She blew out the smoke into the woman’s
face instead of inhaling because she wasn’t stupid. Trick laughed and shook her head.

Freedom flicked the end of the cigarette so the ashes fell to the ground and then
blew on the end again, lighting the tip. Without a blinking an eye, she pushed the
cigarette into the side of Trick's neck, creating a sizzling noise that was covered
up by the woman screaming. She smelled the burning flesh smell again for the second
time in her life, and this time, it didn’t faze her. With an emotionless stare, she
flicked the now extinguished smoke on the floor and then slapped Trick across the
face so hard the woman's head snapped to the side.

For the first time since she had stepped into the room, she felt the woman’s fear,
it was the same feeling she had when she was tied to the table. “You deserve everything
they do to you.”

Freedom turned and walked out of the room, not looking at any of the club members.
As the door swung shut behind her she heard the scream of pain echoing through the
air—she kept walking.

“Think she is strong enough now?” Creed said sadly to the guys who were standing there.
Easy and Poke nodded their heads and followed their woman, knowing they had a long
road to ride to reach forgiveness.