Raging Barons MC – Book Nine – Knuckles

-:- KNUCKLES -:-

Two of the muscle came into the room an hour ago and threw a thin small mattress into the cell. I settled Jo on it and as soon as she slept I moved to the side of the cage nearest my brothers, and put my head down as though resting.

“What do you think the club’s gonna do?” I ask, and see Wings settle against his cage nearest me from the edge of my vision.

“They’ll be lookin, but I think they’ll wait until the night the fights are held. They probably don’t know where we are,” Wings mumbles, keeping it low enough the camera feed if it has sound it won’t pick up we’re talking.

Meat is doing a series of push-ups, grunting in agreement with Wings. Turning his head, Meat looks me in the eye, then flicks them to Jo. “Brother will come.”

Meat doesn’t speak much and, according to Mia, needs a good woman who’ll make him speak, or she’ll learn to grunt too, which at the time had us all laughing and grunting at him in fun.

“We need to make sure Jo’s never alone, or that fucker will take her out of here, then we’ll not know where she is, because you can guarantee he’ll get out-of-town fast.” I rub my hands down my arms and flex my hands.

“Get some sleep and I’ll keep watch. If I hear anyone comin’, I’ll make sure you wake.” Wings bends his legs, resting his forearms on his knees and relaxing his body. I’ve seen all the ex-military in the club do this and when I asked Chaos about it, he said it’s their way of sleeping without closing their eyes. But this way they are spending no energy, then if they need to move fast they can.

Closing my eyes, I listen to Meat doing whatever other exercises he’s running through, but it doesn’t take long before I sleep.

“Knuckles, wake up, man.”

Opening my eyes, I jerk into a more upright position, and seeing Meat and Wings standing, I get on my feet. Watching the door open the same woman from earlier walks into the room, pushing a trolley with food wrapped on top.

The woman looks tired. Her clothes are pretty old and ragged. She’s way too thin, and by the look of her, it’s through lack of nutrition rather than her natural size. She has brown hair and eyes, and is around 5’ 4”.

Pushing the cart nearer the cages, she keeps looking behind her, and as she passes saran-wrapped food through the bars, she looks at me and whispers. “I’m trying to get a message to your club. The fight next week they are going to kill you unless you kill them first.”

Passing me two bottles of water, she walks over to the other cage and hands food over to Wings, but I can see she’s whispering to him too. Seems we have someone on our side!

Wings mumbles back to her, and she gives the slightest of nods, before handing him water and pushing the cart back towards the door.

Muscle steps inside and grabs her by the back of her neck, shoving her forward harshly, and I growl at him, making sure I’ll remember who he is, as when I get the chance he’s a dead man.

He roughly manhandles the woman out of the room, slamming and locking the door behind him. We all three grip the bars of the cage when we hear slapping and shouting outside the door. The bastard is hitting her, and as I turn to look at Wings and Meat, I can see they feel the same as I do. That fucker is goin’ down.

I wake Jo and we all eat the sandwiches we’d been given, but they were stale as shit. We ate them regardless and drank the water. When Jo needed to use the bucket, we all three turned and looked at the wall, giving her as much privacy as possible. I’d made sure the bucket was positioned, so she’d be behind me and the camera feed wouldn’t be able to see her either.

Guessing a couple of hours later, four muscle come into the room with Tommaso behind them. He’s grinning like the evil bastard he is, but we give him no reaction. Meat folds his arms over his chest and gives him the ‘fuck off, asshole’ look, and Wings looks amused by the five of them.

“One of you will come now, and if one of you doesn’t volunteer… well, let’s just say Jo will pay the price.” Taking a step back, he nods to the muscle behind him.

Stepping forward towards my cage, they wait for one of us to volunteer or for Tommaso’s command to open the cage. Sighing when he sees no reaction to his threat, he gives the order to open the cage and get Jo out.

Jo steps back, giving me the space as I’d asked her to do, and I’m pleased she’d taken me seriously as this will make it easier for me knowing she’s back as far as she can get in the cage.

Wings laughs. “You think these fuckers are goin’ to get past him? You know she’s his woman, don’t you? You’ll find out why we’re called ‘RAGING’ Barons.” He emphasizes the raging and we all know that means we’re going into berserker mode to protect our own.

Flexing my hands, I fist them ready. I’m excellent at boxing, wrestling, and have a good few martial arts moves, too. I’m not worried they’ll get past me and as they have to come at me one at a time, it’s their disadvantage, not mine.

“Get in and get her out!” Tommaso growls as he pushes the nearest one to him towards the cage door. I can’t help but notice the fucker looks worried. Well, he should be because this will not be a good day for him.

Opening the door, the fucker tries to rush me, but I punch him in the gut, and hearing the air rush out of his lungs I grasp each side of his head as he bends from my punch and I twist hard and fast, cracking his neck. Throwing him out the door, I wiggle my fingers to invite the next one to get inside to Jo.

“YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN ANIMAL,” Tommaso shouts and I grin when I hear Wings clapping and hooting with glee.

“Yes, but he is my animal,” Jo states from behind me, and she steps to my side, but at the ready to move back again if needed.

“I’ll go with you,” Wings volunteers and I look at him out of the corner of my eye. Shrugging as though this is a Sunday meeting of some sort, he grins slapping Meat on the shoulder. “You can go after me, brother.” Meat growls but steps back so Wings is nearest the cage door.

Tommaso scowls. “Lock the door.” He points at our cell and turns to Wings. “You come quietly or you’ll regret it.”

Wings shrugs as though he doesn’t give a damn, and steps out when they open the cage. Meat is watching everything closely from the back of the cage and never moves a muscle as they close and lock the cage once more.

Wings saunters out of the room, giving me a wink as he passes. We all watch as they drag the dead man out before slamming and locking the door once more.

Jo walks over and sits cross-legged on the mattress, patting her hand for me to sit next to her. Once I get my back settled against the cage bars next to Jo, she leans over and rests her head on my shoulder.

“Will he be alright?” Jo asks and when Meat chuckles we look over at him.

“He’ll be fine. He’s getting us information.”

“Do you know where we are?” I ask because up to this point, I’d never thought to ask. When you’re locked in a cage, it doesn’t matter where that cage is.

“Paper mill. We’re underground one level. I think these could have been offices.”

I knew we were not too far down because of the window, but I’m surprised we’re at the old paper mill. Shit, this place has been left derelict for years and I’m not sure how long it’ll take for the brothers to figure out we’re here.

Jo and I nap for a while, not sure how long as the fuckers took our watches. I’ll remember that when I get the chance later. Eventually, I have to stand as my back is stiffening up with all the sitting.

Meat has me smirking when he encourages Jo to do some star jumps, touching her toes, and other exercises to keep her from stiffening and she happily goes along with his instruction. For all this man is, he’s majorly protective of the women, and the women all love him dearly for it.

When we hear whistling and laughing, we recognize Wings. He’s on his way back and he sounds pretty happy with himself, too. The door opens and Wings walks in, grinning like a fool.

Seven men push through the door, all pointing a weapon or taser at Wings. I’m not sure what the fuck has gone on, but they see him as a major threat now.

“Open the door, boys, I think I earned a nap.” Walking over to the cage door, he gives Meat a look I can’t define, but Meat steps to the back of the cage and leans on the bars. Once he’s done that, one of the muscle opens the door, but jumps back out of the way of Wings. Interesting!

Tommaso walks in as four of the muscle step outside. “You think you’re so good, but you’ll be up against far worse on Friday. You’ll need plenty of rest to face what is to come.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Wings yawns, sits on the hard floor and leans against the bars, closes his eyes, and that enrages Tommaso.

“You think you will survive, don’t be so sure. I have plans for all of you and you’ll never see it coming, so be ready to die.” We can all see Tommaso is losing it, and it wouldn’t take much to push him over the edge.

Pointing at Jo, he screams, “BE READY BITCH, YOU’LL BE ON YOUR KNEES BY THE WEEKEND.”

Jo rushes past me, grips the bars, and shouts back at Tommaso, “YOU’LL BE DEAD BY THE WEEKEND, SO GET READY FOR YOUR OWN FUNERAL, ASSHOLE.”

Meat chuckles, and Wings whistles Chopin’s Funeral March. Me, I’m just taking in the fact Jo is becoming just like the ol’ ladies in the club. What happened to my quiet little mouse?

Tommaso rushes out with his men behind him. The door slams and locks and we all look over at Wings, who’s busy laughing while continuing to whistle his deathly tune.

“What happened? Are you alright?” Jo asks as she steps nearest to the side of the cages where Wings is sitting.

“I’m fine. Don’t you worry about me, Jo. They have a practice ring up there and put me in. One after another of his men came in and I just kept snapping necks until they sent three in at once. That was fun. Meat, if they do that to you, you’ll have a great time. Shame they had to die but hey, when you mix with the scum of the earth, you get taken out like scum of the earth.”

“What the hell is wrong with this man? He’s not right in the head. Have you noticed he keeps getting this weird glazed look in his eyes?” Jo turns to look at me when she says this.

“I’ve seen it. He’s a man wanting power and I think as a Capo he’s in a position now where he either becomes the Don or he’s dead.” I look over at Meat and he’s nodding in agreement.

“I saw that woman up there. They had her in the corner of the room we were in. She was tied to some pipes with a damn chain around her ankle. I don’t know who she is, but she’s not here willingly. Why she thinks she can get a message to the club I don’t know.” Wings rests the back of his head on the bars and closes his eyes.

Jo and I settle back down on the mattress and my mind is racing. I’ve got to keep her safe, but how do I do that if I can’t get us out of this cage?

The next couple of days I watch Meat, then Wings being taken out and brought back hours later. They are both killing anyone that goes up against them. Meat is the one we’re waiting to come back now and seeing how his PTSD is starting to kick in is having Wings start to worry.

“We need to keep him calm, give him a plan to work with. If we don’t, he’ll lose himself as he did before. When I was out last time, I asked what day it was and one of them told me Wednesday so not long now until we fight and can get the fuck out of here. The brothers will have something planned to get us out of here, I’m sure.

“Lincoln would never leave you, Jo. He’ll have to know now where we are, him and the club. They’ll have made a plan and we have to be ready to go with whatever happens. If you get the chance to run, take it. We can get ourselves out, Jo. It’s getting you out safely. That is the priority.” Wings looks at me to make sure I’m on board as he finishes speaking.

“I’m positive Lincoln will come for you Jo, we’ll get you out, then we’ll follow. But whatever happens, you get away and get to safety, even if you have to run and hide in fields, you get away.” I wrap an arm around her and she snuggles into my chest, giving me a small nod as she does.

I’ve been holding Jo in my arms a lot while we’ve been in this cell, and she holds my hand as often as she can. Every time she smiles at me, I feel the warmth in my chest growing. I’ve never been in a long-term relationship, so don’t know what one’s like, and our start hasn’t been a good one, yet we both cling to each other.

Meat is pushed through the door and I can see he has that wild look in his eye, and looking over at Wings, I can see he sees it too. Shit, we’ve got to get him out of here soon or he’s going to lose it and I don’t know if we’ll ever get him back.

Once Meat’s thrown back in the cage and they’ve left, we all three stare at him, wondering what’s going to happen. When Meat laughs I side-eye Wings, who’s staring at his brother, trying to see what’s happening, I’m sure.

“They sent five at me this time. Fuckers got my Viking when I shouted, ‘Odin, welcome them to Valhalla’. They nearly shit their pants.”

For the next half an hour we listen to Meat regale us with what he’d done and how many he’d made to suffer. But what I noticed was the more he talked, the less the wild look was in his eyes. Thank fuck he’s comin’ back to us and we’ve not lost him.