novelxo Knuckles: Chapter 16
-:- KNUCKLES -:-
The days have been passing, and it’s getting near the fight event. Wings and Meat have been taken out of their cage on a daily basis and have been killing the men being put up against them. I can see it’s wearing on them both and I’m hoping it’s not going to kick start Meat’s PTSD into a mode we can’t deal with when we get back to the clubhouse, and we will get back, I’m positive.
Hearing Jo talking quietly, I look over at her and see she’s sitting cross-legged speaking with Meat. He’s on our side of his cage and although not speaking I can see he’s listening to what she’s saying.
Wings keeps looking over at me, and I can see he’s worried about Meat, but there is nothing any of us can do but keep going until our brothers get to us.
“What fuckin’ day is it?” I ask anyone that’ll answer.
“Thursday. The fight is tomorrow. Cocksucker that is taking us back and forth to their practice ring was crowing about how badly we were goin’ down, blah, blah, fuck ’em, we’ll do what we have to do. The good thing is we are all alive and kickin’, and Jo has been kept safe. Without us, I’m not sure what they would have done to you Knuckles to get her away from you.” Wings leans on the bars of the cage, brings his knees up and rests his forearms on them. Looking for all the world like he doesn’t have a care.
“I’m worried tomorrow we’ll get split, and that’s when they’ll make their move to get Jo. I know they’ve got a fight lined up for me, but that means I’ve got to step away from Jo. I hope the brothers will make a move before that happens.” Looking up as Jo stands and walks over to me before sitting between my legs and leaning on my chest with her back.
“We’ll do what we have to, as you said, Knuckles. Lincoln won’t sit back and let this happen to me. I know him and I trust him. He’s been the best brother I ever could have asked for. He put his life on hold to look after me when all he wanted was to join the service.”
Grunts from Meat have all three of us turning and looking his way. He stands and rolls his shoulders before looking at Jo. “We’ll get you out.” He says no more, but I wish I knew how we were going to do that.
The door opens and the woman from before pushes her cart into the room. Muscle standing behind her, sneering. What shocks me is the state of her. She has obviously been beaten. She has a black eye, bruising down her jaw and a nasty split lip. Her right arm she’s keeping against her body and she’s handing bottled water to Wings with her other.
I can see Wings is furious. He has a tick in his jaw and as he turns to glare at the muscle; I see a look on his face I’ve never seen before. If I had to put money on it, that’s the look that your death looks like.
Meat mumbles something to the woman and she gives the slightest of nods of her head. But she never once lifts her eyes to any of us, passing us food and water before pushing her cart back out the door.
Once the door closes, I look at Wings and Meat and they are feeling the same as I am. Someone has to cull these fuckers; they are not worth the air they are breathing. Hearing a sniffle, I look at Jo and see she’s quietly crying. Quickly setting our food and drinks down, I wrap Jo in my arms and hug her tightly to me, kiss the top of her head and give her what comfort I can.
Nobody fetches Meat and Wings today, and how they can rest on the bare floor, I don’t know. But neither of them has complained about the conditions. A bucket and a mattress are all we have and we both are smelling ripe, but we can do nothing about it at this point.
The hours drag by and we settle to sleep, knowing tomorrow we’ll be fighting and hopefully getting the fuck out of here. Jo cries in her sleep and I note Wings and Meat look over now and again with anger crossing their faces.
Morning arrives and four come into the room with tasers in hand. Stepping over to Meat and Wings, they stand giving them a look before one speaks. “You’re gonna walk out and head to the showers. Clean up and then wear the fresh clothes given. You’ll be fighting this afternoon.”
Meat grins and it’s so full of intent that all four of the fuckers step back, although he’s still inside the cage. When he starts bouncing on his toes, keeping his body relaxed I have to work at keeping my amusement fastened down.
Wings steps to the door of the cage and gives them an evil grin, which only adds to the anxiety you can see on their faces. “Well, open the fuckin’ door then, and let’s get on with it. We don’t have all day. We’ve got fights to fight later.” Wings high-fives Meat, who’s looking less sane as the minutes tick by.
They both calmly walk out of the room; Wings gives me a wink as he passes and the door is slammed behind them as they leave. Turning to Jo, I can see she’s pretty stunned.
“Why are they so calm?”
“They are both crazy fuckers and love this kind of shit. You can bet they already have a plan worked out for later today to get us all out of here. They’ll not speak of it to us because of the camera. Have you heard them murmuring during the night because I’ve heard them but can’t tell what they are saying?”
“Yes, I’ve heard them too. I couldn’t hear what they were actually saying, though. I’ll do whatever you tell me to do and don’t leave me behind when you make your move.”
“Jo, you are mine. I’d never leave you behind. We’re gonna be a couple. I’m gonna get us out of here, one way or another.” Jo wraps her arms around me and looks up at me with such a trusting look that I feel myself harden to anything that’ll stop me from getting her out safely. Leaning down, I place my lips over hers gently, and when she relaxes against me I deepen the kiss, letting her feel the sincerity and the desire I have for her.
“Awe. Isn’t that sweet?”
I spin around and push Jo behind me gently, coming face to face with Tommaso and his henchmen. I cross my arms over my chest and spread my legs, letting them see how fuckin’ big I really am. Let them come, I think to myself and give a small lift of the top lip to show my disdain for them all.
“We need you out of the cage and get showered and ready for your fight later today. You’ll have to leave Jolene where she is, I’m afraid.” Tommaso steps to the side so one of his henchmen can open the door to the cage. I’m fuckin’ ready if any of them try to step inside, because I’m not leaving Jo on her own here.
Jo is gently holding the back of my Henley, and although I can sense her panic, she stays still and quiet behind me.
“Nope, not happenin’.” That is all I say, maintaining my relaxed body language, for Jo’s sake. The door of the cage opens and one of the henchmen takes a step inside, but before he can move forward, I step into him and bump my chest against his, which has him stepping back a pace.
The door to the cage is clear once more, but the man bellows and surges forward. I say nothing, but as he storms forward, I sidestep, grab his bicep, spin him around fast, grab the back of his neck, and slam his face into the bars.
Trying to shake his head, I slam his head once more, before he starts to go down on his knees. I grab a hold of his jacket and throw him out of the cage, standing on my side of the cage door, eyeing the other three and Tommaso. I calmly cross my arms over my chest once more and wait.
Giggling behind me has me quickly turning my head to see Jo standing with her hands over her mouth, eyes sparkling with laughter. I know I can’t take my eyes off these fuckers, so I turn back and keep my attention on them. I can’t help the smirk when Jo calls out to me.
“That was awesome. You’ll have to teach me those moves when we get home.”
“I will. I’ll teach you more than that, and the others can teach you too.” I can see our small conversation is annoying Tommaso, but that’s my end game.
Bustling behind Tommaso has him and his men turning and that’s when I see Wings and Meat being brought back. It’s pretty obvious they’ve both had a shower and have clean clothes on, but I’m grinning as I see them both have their own clothing folded under their arms.
“Put one of them in with the woman, and let’s get this one cleaned up. If they won’t oblige, then he’ll have to fight as he is.” Tommaso growls and looks pretty smug with himself, thinking he has a solution.
“I’m not goin’ in there with his woman. Fuck you, asshole.” Wings snarls, and steps over to his cage, stepping in and giving Meat a chin lift to shift his ass. Meat, however, gives each of the fuckers a nasty look before stepping into the cage and closing the door behind him.
Tommaso shouts at his men in frustration and when one of them tries to taser me, I step back far enough that he’ll miss. They know they can’t get in the cage without facing me, but I notice Jo has taken her shoe off again and is standing, holding it as though she has a weapon of mass destruction. It’s pretty amusing or would be if this wasn’t so serious.
They all storm out of the room behind Tommaso and it seems I’ll not be having a shower after all. My beard needs some attention and I sit next to Jo, running my fingers through it, making sure I don’t get knots in it because if I have to shave it off there will be hell to pay.
The woman brings us water again later, and she looks worn out, dirty and ready to give up on life. I don’t know her story, but if we can get her out with us, we damn well will.
Not much later, the door opens once more and Tommaso enters; he has a dozen men behind him by the looks. Can’t be sure, as most are in the hallway behind him.
“We’re moving now to the fight location. I want no trouble or we’ll kill the woman. Jolene is more important to you than to any of us. I want her, but I can find another woman easily enough. She’s not irreplaceable.
“You’ll move along, get into the vehicle and cause no issue. You do anything you’re not told to do and Jolene will be shot, then you all three will follow her to hell.” Tommaso is looking smug, and I’d love to crack his neck, but at this moment we can do nothing but what we are told.
Stepping out of the cage once Wings and Meat have been let out of the room, Jo sticks to my side like glue. I don’t want her behind me where I can’t see what’s happening, but I know she can’t stay at my side all the way either. I pull her to the front of me and keep one hand on her shoulder so she knows where I am.
Stepping outside, the glare has all of us squinting because it’s such a shock to the eyes after being underground with the one small light all this time. It’s the paper mill, and there are quite a few men scattered around. No chance of getting away at this point, but it’s good to know how many Tommaso has following his mad scheme.
Climbing into the van, I sit next to the door and press Jo into the seat beside me, where she leans against my side. Opposite us, Meat and Wings are sitting calmly, looking at Jo, assessing how she is coping, I imagine.
The van has bars behind the driver and passenger so we can’t make an attempt to stop the van by taking them out, and the back doors have a set of caged doors which have been closed and locked before the van doors were slammed in our faces.
I look at Wings and he winks. “Not long now.” He mumbles and I can see both him and Meat are looking less stressed now we are out of the room we’d been held in.
Reaching the location of the fights, I see it’s the old mall, the one closed down because it was too far out of town. We are bustled into the building and into a room that has cages along one wall. Once more we are caged and left, but turning to look at Wings he’s smiling.
“What the fuck, Wings? Why are you smiling?”
“We’ll be home tonight, brother. If we have to fight, we do as we have, we take them out quick and clean. Make sure you don’t get hurt by any fight lasting more than a few minutes. The longer the fight, the more likely you will get an injury.” Wings states and I nod in agreement, but I don’t have the same set of skills as these two. They are both high-level fighting machines, where I’ve always been a brawler by necessity. I have honed my skills with them over the time they’ve been with us, and Chaos has spent many hours with me, cleaning up my style.
Sitting on the bench on one side of the cage, Jo sits next to me. She looks exhausted, filthy and stressed, but she keeps smiling at us, trying to show she’s holding up okay.
We can hear people arriving as the noise level is increasing all the time. Hours pass and we know it has to be after lunch now, so the fights will be starting soon.
The door flies open and muscles steps inside, turning to speak to whoever is behind him. “Don’t speak to these people. Over by the wall is where you can change for your fights. No fighting in here. You wait until you’re in the ring.” He leans against a wall and crosses his arms as though this is a daily occurrence.
When Colton, Buzz, and Fist walk into the room I remain relaxed next to Jo and give her a slight squeeze. She places her hand on my thigh and squeezes in return. Jo leans against me and closes her eyes to rest, but I watch my brothers as they calmly get ready to fight.
When Colton looks up and winks while keeping his back to the asshole near the door, I know they have something planned to get us out of here. My main concern is getting Jo out without her getting hurt in any way. But if these three are here, I’m positive other brothers will be, and Lincoln will be ready to do his part too, because no way would Jo’s brother not be involved in her rescue.
All I can do now is sit and wait, but it’s the waiting that is the hardest. I rest my cheek on the top of Jo’s head and close my eyes for a few minutes, needing a respite from it all for a moment. Knowing I have brothers outside of the cage has given me the opportunity to drop my guard for a short while. Even with my eyes closed I can hear everything going on and I’ll be ready whenever we need to make our move.