Page 35 of Tinsel & Chrome

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Trixie

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I wake up with a pounding headache. I go to touch my face, and I realize my hands are tied with zip ties. Shit. I’m tied to a wooden chair. It all comes crashing back to me.Billy. He did this to me. Slowly opening one eye at a time, I see him sitting across the room. He’s twirling a knife with his finger. “It’s about fucking time you woke up. You are getting weak. You pass out after just one hit now.”

“Yeah, I don’t get used as a punching bag anymore.” I pause and look at him. “I’m actually respected where I am now.”

“You’re respected for being a club whore? That’s real fucking respectful.” He scoffs and walks over to me. He spits on my tattoo. “This makes you their property. You seem to forget that you were my property first.” He takes his knife and proceeds to cut the tattoo off. The searing pain as the blade goes in is horrendous. He’s having a hard time grabbing the top of theskin because the blood is making it slippery. I scream out, which earns me a punch in the face. “Scream again and this blade will eviscerate you,” he replies as he wipes the blood from the knife on my shirt.

He stands in front of me, holding my skin he just cut off in his hands. He admires his handiwork, then throws it in the ashtray and sets it on fire. My arm feels like it’s burning. This asshole just took the one thing that gave me pride about myself, and all I could do is sit here and take his abuse.

Looking around, I see he’s still in our crappy little apartment. Figures. He never has had any aspirations to better himself. “Okay. You’ve had your fun, now take these ties off.” My arm is still throbbing. It reminds me of a quote my mom used to say about pain. She would sayit smarts. I never realized what that meant, but today I completely get it. My arm smarts.

He turns around, and there’s a dead look in his eyes. “Darling, I’m not finished with you. You belong to me. You need that pounded through your hard fucking head.”

I’m used to him hitting me, but I’m not ready for this version of him. He’s out of control. I wonder what Ezekial is doing. I miss him so much. Billy walks over to me and cuts the zip ties from my wrists. I think he’s finally letting me go, but seconds later, I realize I’m so, so wrong. He has two more zip ties, and he uses them to tie my hand to the arm rests of the chair I’m in. He continues to do the same on the other side. I’m so frustrated, I start to cry. He just sneers at me. I know I’m in trouble. I let my mind wander and think about being in Ezekial’s arms. I know Billy will kill me. At least, for a short time, I was happier than I’ve ever been.

Billy walks over to me with a nail gun in his hand. “Straighten your hands out,” he mutters.

I refuse and ball my hands into fists. That’s when he strikes me again. I start to fade off until I feel the most agonizing pain ever...

He nailed my hand to the armrest.

Then, he proceeds to do the other. I scream bloody murder when he hits me again. I feel like I’m going to vomit.

“Stop hitting me!” I try to get through to him.

“Don’t tell me what to do, bitch. You wanted the ties off of your hands. You got what you asked for.”

I look down and see he removed the ties now that both of my hands are nailed to the wooden armrests. I know he plans to torture me until he kills me. I’ve resigned myself to the inevitable.

Chapter Seven

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Ezekial

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The store was reluctant to give up their video of the parking lot, but they did allow Chaos to view it. He saw the car and license plate. I called my guy in the police force and asked him to run the plate. It only took seconds to get a name and address.

Billy Everson. It’s Trixie’s ex. She doesn’t talk about him at all, but I know he did bad things to her. She was a frightened little bird when she arrived here. Jess wrapped her arms around her and took her in. Now, she is a confident woman.Mywoman.

And I’m going to get her back.

Chaos volunteers to go with me, and while putting my helmet on, I notice there’s many others coming as well. Trixie is one of us, and we take offense to anyone touching what’s ours. Grabbing our equipment, we head out.

We pull up to the apartment building, and I strap my helmet to my handle bars. We storm the apartment, and the first thing I see is Trixie covered in blood, her face black and blue. This motherfucker beat her. I turn around for a moment and see the man struggling to get away from Chaos and Dredge. Not so fucking fast. I walk over to him and punch him in the face. One of his teeth falls out, making him drool bright red blood.

I look at Chaos and nod. He knows I want him to take out the trash. I hear the thud of fists pummeling Billy. My only focus is Trixie. I walk over to her and drop on my knees to cradle her face. She has tears streaming down her cheeks. “Shhh. It’s okay baby, I’m here.” She nods her head, too worn out to say anything.

I finally take all of her in, and then I see the nails. This motherfucker nailed her hands down to the chair. I turn my head back, and shout, “Chaos, I need a hammer!” I touch her hands tenderly. She flinches, but stays strong. Fuck, I want to tear him apart, but I need to focus on Trixie.

Chaos finds a hammer with a claw on the back. “This is going to hurt, baby. I need to get these nails out.” She nods in understanding, and I start from the bottom so I can hit the nail upward; this will allow for wiggle room and let me adjust the claw under the head of the nail. Her screams echo through the apartment as I work. I manage to get both nails out, but she’s covered in blood. I ask, “Do you think you can ride on my bike?” She nods her reply, and I pick her up from the chair, then turn around to see Chaos with the nail gun.

“I’m taking her home. Call the cleaners when you’re done.” I carry her out the front doors and to my waiting bike. I hand her the helmet, but she’s too weak, so I slide it over her head and adjust it for her. “Are you sure you can hold on?” I look at her frail hands.

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