Vulnerable (Barons of Sodom) (16 page)

DET. RAMIREZ:
So, getting back to this 'race for your
virtue': we know how it ended. But what happened to you at the camp, while you
waited for the men to return? Here was another opportunity to escape...

BRIDIE:
Except I was tied up!

DET. RAMIREZ:
Okay, okay. Why don't you just tell us
all what happened, from your point of view. What were
you
thinking,
while the Barons were away from camp?

BRIDIE:
Right about then, I'd lost my faith. From the
smug, angry look in Cannon's eyes to the ruthless way all the Barons stepped
over their fallen comrade, I kind of figured it was end-of-days-country. I
couldn't cry, though. Mostly, I didn't want those fuckers to see me weak.

I'd spent the whole last night entertaining all these
preposterous visions of my future life with Tucker LaRouche. The two of us on
barstools, bantering nights away by the jukebox. The two of us in a garage,
covered with oil and grease, puzzling over a broken engine. I imagined seeing
Texas—heck, the whole rest of the world—from the back of his motorcycle, the
two of us making everyone we met sick with envy because we were so beautiful
and so happy. We'd fuck every evening, unless we felt like making love. I guess
now that this was dumb-ass kid stuff. Because really, what were the odds? I
thought of my aunt, and Mr. Reginald. Of all the ways love can just bite you in
the ass. In those moments, watching the boys prepare for the race, it seemed
better—more practical, even—to go it alone. Don't get attached. Everyone dies.
Minimize the fallout, minimize the pain.

Then Zuzu had to open her big fat mouth.

“It's always been like this, you know. Since the beginning
of time: it's always been harder for women.”

I just kind of nodded. From what I could gather, this lady's
ganja habit could kill Willie Nelson, so nobody on the compound seemed to take
Zu seriously. But then she stood up, and started to unbind my hands from around
the tree.

“What are you doing?”

“Shut-up, pee-wee.” She winked one lazy, heavily mascaraed
eye. “Now, I'm going to tell you all about love.”

The sun was at high noon. The Barons were nowhere in sight,
the whole camp was quiet. My love was in jeopardy. My life was in jeopardy. And
so, I sat under a tree drinking sweet lemonade and let an old woman tell me all
about love.

The first thing Tuck knew when he woke up was that he
couldn't move; the second thing he knew was pain. Not just the typical pain of
brawl wounds, road rash, and blinding hangovers—this was something deeper and
more horrible than he'd ever known. He craned his crusty eyes to survey his
body's lower half, and realized his legs were a mass of blood. Certainly bones
were broken. He opened cracked lips and let out a wail.

“Shut up, motherfucker! You want all of Texas to hear you?!”
Then came the bracing slap of a glass of cold water, poured all over his face.
Tuck felt the cool liquid move down and over his mouth, and felt a tiny bit of
relief mingling with his surprise.

“Athena?”

“Try
Zeus
. You're never going to have enough money to
pay me back for this particular life-saving effort.” His fussy little best
friend was moving around a tiny, dark space lit by stubby candles.

“Where are we? How did—?”

“Hey, big guy. Shut up for a minute, okay? You need to
conserve your strength.”

In the low light, Athena was bent over Tuck's bloody legs.
In spite of her candor, the Rider detected worry in her face.

“What's the damage?”

“You've lost a lot of blood. Your right shinbone may or may
not be broken in three places. Everything else is just bruising.”

“Awesome.”

“Could have been a lot worse, T.” Athena's voice was
suddenly gentle. “Found you in a meadow, way off the road. You must've flew,
for a minute there.”

“Man's greatest dream.”

“Smart-ass.”

As the mechanic daubed his wounds with some stinging potion,
Tuck took stock of the gloomy hideaway.

“Are we in a cave?” the Rider ventured.

“Bet your stupid ass. They didn't look for you long, once
they saw that you'd crashed. Cannon wanted to leave you for dead. The whole
gang turned back with him.”

Dim memories of the race were flooding back in a confusing
tumble of images. Someone's bloody mass on the highway. The grinning, maniacal
face of Officer C.

“God is dead?”

“That, I would've thought you'd remember. You smeared old
man guts all over the roadside. He's for the buzzards, now.”

Tuck felt a sudden lurch in his stomach. “What about Bridie?
Is she safe? Did you bring her with you?”

“Thought you'd never ask, Mr. Bad-Ass,” the voice that spoke
was new yet familiar; sweet, soft and strong all at once. Tuck lurched up, and
flicked his eyes across the cave walls—but he felt shooting pain along his
spine, and firm hands pressing on his shoulders.

“Behind you, doofus.” It was Bridie. Tuck looked at her face—slightly
dewy, pale with worry, but still as perfect as it had appeared in every single
one of his daydreams. Her mouth was waiting and full. Her lips were parted
slightly. Her lovely hair—tangled and ratty, given the day they'd had—hung around
her heart-shaped face. He couldn't control himself. Despite the flood of pain,
Tuck reached a hand up to his girl's cool neck and brought her lips down to
his. She kissed him from above, and her mouth was salty and frantic. They
sucked on one another like drowning people, struggling for air.

When he came up for actual oxygen, Tuck saw that Bridie's
eyes were moist. She brushed the tears away a little angrily, and then held him
at an arm’s distance. “I thought you were all set to die on me, you know.
Asshole.”

“Oh, I'm the asshole? The guy who rode himself into
paralysis just to save your virtue?” The young girl socked Tuck lightly in the
shoulder, sending a small shock wave of pain down his arm.

“Yup,” Bridie chirped, looking mischievous again.

“Are you two finished being
disgusting
?” Athena
called across the cavern. “Because we actually have a lot to do before anyone
goes riding off into the sunset.”

“Speaking of which, how is the Triumph?” Tuck attempted once
more to launch himself up into a sitting position, despite the aches.

Athena and Bridie were silent for a beat. Tuck glanced
between their faces, then felt his stomach drop.

“Oh, don't say it's toast.”

“Okay. It's...not
not
toast.”

“So no more ride? What the fuck is a Rider supposed to do
without a ride?”

“Hey! Remember—this all could have ended with no more
life.
”

“Did you even try to save her? She's not still on the road,
is she?”

“Tuck!” Athena hollered. “Don't be such a fucking idiot! We
couldn't very well wander back onto the racecourse, grab your busted-up
hoop-dee and say 'we're just going to fix this, be back in a jiff!' Do you realize
what we had to do to get here? Zuzu helped Bridie sneak away during the race.
The second they realize she's missing they'll be looking for us. And not just
the Barons—probably all of Waco P.D.”

“That's the liability of dating me,” Bridie joked softly.
Then she looked at Tuck with her big, beautiful brown eyes. “I've put you two
in enough danger, you know. I could—I
should—
just go off on my own for a
while.”

Athena didn't even grant this suggestion a response, but
instead sniffed heavily and rolled her eyes as she replaced a bandage on Tuck's
wounded leg. Tuck reached up to kiss the girl again—softly this time.

“...still. You should never call a Triumph a
hoop-dee...
”

Athena punched her best friend in the other shoulder.

“Wait a second, both of you. Hush.” Bridie had turned toward
the mouth of the cave, which Tuck now saw gazed out at a quiet Texas night.
Cicadas thrummed in the tall grass. He couldn't hear any sounds from the road.

“You really think they'd look for us all the way out here?”
Tuck murmured.

“They're going to realize soon enough that you didn't leave
behind a body when you 'died.' I trust the po-po will connect the rest of the
dots. One of us had probably better sit lookout.” Athena shot Bridie a
meaningful look, but the young girl successfully averted her eyes.

After she'd left a lengthy explanation for the
minute-to-minute care of Tuck's wounds, Athena reluctantly trundled to the
mouth of the cave. Because of the cavernous echo, they couldn't hear or see her
from where they sat. The stubby candles began to dim.

“This would all be pretty romantic if you weren't broken
from head to toe,” Bridie murmured. She bent low over Athena's mechanic's bag,
the typical contents of which had been replaced with as many balms and medical
supplies as the women could find on short notice.

“You don't go for that whole wounded-soldier thing?” Tuck
jibed. But laughing hurt his bruised ribs. The lovers were silent for a minute.

“You know, if you'd told me two weeks ago that I'd be living
the outlaw life with a band of bad-ass MC members in this rough n' tumble
terrain, navigating a drug scandal and boinking a superior officer—I'd never
have believed you.”

“Probably because no one uses the word, 'boinking,'” Tuck
goofed again. Hell, it hurt his ribs, but he couldn't help it—it just felt so
good to be alive, in this room, with her. Beautiful, beautiful her.

“
Fucking
, then,” Bridie said. The word popped off her
lips. She caught his eyes in the low light. Her whole body seemed to shimmer in
his gaze, the way a long stretch of road will in bright summer heat.

“Come here,” Tuck commanded then. Some other desire was
beginning to trump the pain in his limbs.

“You need to recover, Tuck.”

“I said,
come here
.”

Bridie rose. Her dress had frayed during the day's events—it
looked worn and thin in the candlelight.

“Take off your clothes,” Tuck said. He'd pulled himself into
a sitting position, his muscular torso leaning against the cave wall. He licked
his lips. He felt his heart begin to race.

“Athena is right outside!”

As if in warning, the Rider placed a hand on his quickly
growing cock. He began to work his hand along the edge of his shaft, through
his jeans—slowly at first, then with mounting speed.

“Tuck,” Bridie said in limp protest—though
she was already walking toward him, as if she was being led.

“I told you to take off your dress.”

“I don't –”

“The world could end tomorrow, baby.”

“The world could always end tomorrow,
Baby
.” But
Bridie was smiling now. She towered at his heels. With an effortless motion the
girl peeled the damp straps of her dress away from her rounded shoulders. With a
soft rustle, the fabric fell to the cave floor.

“I love you. Now, get down on your knees.”

“I love
you
. But I
don't
take orders anymore.”

Instead, Bridie straddled Tuck's body, with one foot placed
on either side of his hips. Slowly, she eased herself down on to all fours, so
none of her weight rested on his weakened frame. She craned her lovely head,
and kissed the lieutenant hard on the mouth.

Tuck, his member now throbbing, reached a weak hand forward
to cradle his lover's naked breast. She was soft. So soft. He pushed the pad of
his grimy thumb against her soft pink nipple, and felt Bridie shiver with
pleasure above him. With the other hand he reached down to cup the swell of her
ass. She was taut below a thin skin of sky blue panties. He slipped a finger
below the elastic, and pressed forward until his hand was flat against her
tight, waiting cherry.

“Tuck!” Bridie cried in mock protest, but the Rider was
already lunging for her body. He craved every inch of her. Pressing her
upwards, Tuck buried his face in his lover's cleavage and began to suck
ferociously at the heavy, pert mounds of her breasts. He flicked his tongue
against each erect nipple, enjoying the feel of her body bucking above his. His
other hand, burrowing deeper into her sweet base, grew moist and hot as Bridie
grew wet.

“Please fuck me,” she whispered in his waiting ear, as his
fingers continued to make circles on her clit. “Oh please, baby. I want you inside
of me.”

“Wait,” Tuck said—not least because his weakened body was
cause for worry. He gazed into the young girl's eyes, which ached with passion
and innocence at the same time. “You know I wasn't kidding, when I said...what
I said just now. I love you. I've never loved anyone before.”

Bridie blinked. She began to grind her hips against his
flicking finger, bucking so Tuck's hand was flush with her clit. She stared
straight into his eyes and said, without a waver, “I love you too, Tucker
LaRouche. And I've never loved anyone before, either.”

He moved his fingers harder and faster against her mound,
gently rising to push one digit into her dripping, hot pussy. Bridie cried out—so
loud that she instinctively clamped a hand across her mouth. Tuck pressed harder.
His own throbbing cock thrust against the denim of his jeans. He slid a second
finger inside, and began to move his own body in tandem with her thrusts. His
other hand reached back around to Bridie's ass. He slid one timid finger toward
the entrance of her ass and began to press against her tight button.

“Come inside,” Bridie whimpered, barely able to keep quiet.
“Oh please, come inside.” So he pushed a single finger slowly into her ass, as
his other hand pressed hard against her G Spot. Bridie's entire body seemed to
contract with the force of her sudden orgasm. Her sweetness dripped down his
fingers. With a small shock, Tuck realized that he was also on the brink of
coming. Bridie, sensing this, leaned her breasts forward. She pressed his head
into the damp cleavage, and with a burst, Tuck came.

“Sweet fucking Jesus...”

They rested for a moment, panting, until Bridie arched an
eyebrow at her lover. She rotated her body, pivoting her hips so her back was
facing Tuck. He pressed a sweaty brow into the smooth, pale skin between her
shoulders, before reaching his hands around to cup her breasts. Bridie lifted
herself slightly, so she could fumble with the clasps of Tuck's jeans. After an
awkward moment or two, the girl had lifted Tuck's still throbbing cock from the
mess of his pants.

She began to stroke along the shaft—gently at first, so as
to keep her weight off his frail body. But as Tuck watched himself grow harder
and harder in her tiny hand, he guided her fingers towards a faster stroke.
Soon, he was rod-like in her grip. Tuck kept his eyes clamped on Bridie, who
craned over one shoulder. As the girl eased her muscular hips over and down the
dripping tip of his cock, her face was a mask of ecstasy.

They moved slowly at first. Tuck eased the full swell of his
erection into her waiting lips as Bridie slowly lowered herself down over his
shaft. She arched her back and bit her lip at his size, the slightest flash of
pain moving across her features. But her jaw slackened once she felt the whole
of him filling her up. She rose slowly again, and lowered herself in time.

But then Tuck gripped her hips. He pushed her down, hard,
until their pubic bones met. Bridie began to push against his cock with
rhythmic thrusts, her pussy still dripping with pleasure. Tuck watched their
union in his lap. He watched her raven hair flip forward and back as their
strokes came faster and faster. The air in the cave felt close.