Page 27 of Micro
“I just wanna ride, man, I just wanted a place to hang, some free drugs, that kinda thing.”
“Boy did you pick the wrong club, but if you run now and disappear, I’ll let you live.” The prospect tossed his shitty prospect cut on the ground and legged it, while I turned to face the other.
“Why don’t I get that option?” He whined, casting his panicked eyes around him, like he thought someone would save him. Honestly, I wasn’t even completely sure there weren’t more of them around here, because we’d only seen Reaper and his prospects on these visits, but if more were here, my life was almost at an end. Getting Sophie out was the only priority now.
“You’re threatening the woman I love, fuckhead,” I ignored her shocked gasp, and kept my eyes on his, “Nobody survives that, but you let her go unharmed, and I’ll make it quick. You don’t have to die slowly like that cunt.” I pointed at the no longer breathing, or attempting to, fucker on the ground.
“Fuck! This wasn’t supposed to happen, why the fuck is this happening?”
“They don’t really value their prospects at your club, but then I guess most clubs treat them like shit. It’s all part of making you men.” Jesus, I sounded like my fucking father. “Look, kid, you did wrong, and you have to die, but you don’t even have to feel it, I swear. You had no chance, and you’d never have made the cut, pun intended. You’re weak. Almost as weak as the pussy trying to run to the next county on foot. He won’t survive running out on his club.”
The prospect shoved Soph away from him, and I reached for her as she staggered a few paces, before she caught her balance and dodged my grasp. I could tell I’d lost her already, so I dug her keys out of my pocket, and passed them to her.
“Babe, feel free to run from me, and I promise I won’t follow you home. Be careful with that wrist though. Take it slow, and ice it when you get back. I’m sorry about everything, but you’re not the only one I need to say that to. I-” I saw the prospect turn and run, and I headed past her to get to him, but she caught my arm, and slowed me down.
“If you want me to give you a chance to explain all this, you’ll let him go too.” Fuck. Did he know what Reaper had told me? Would he report that to the club? How long would we have before they arrived at her farm as a group, and butchered us both?
“He’ll tell them,” I hissed at her, trying to make her understand how completely fucked we were.
“Let. Him. Go. I’m leaving now, and you’ll either be in the van with me, or you’ll never see me again.” She marched her sassy ass away without a second glance, and I gazed helplessly down the lane the two prospects had disappeared down, and turned to look at Reaper’s corpse. I grabbed the prospect’s cut and stared at it for a moment, wondering how any worthwhile prospect could just toss it on the ground like that. I took it with me, for reasons unknown, and got in the van with Sophie. A reckoning was coming, but I had no idea how it would play out, or who’d survive it, if anyone did.
Seventeen
Somuchhadjusthappened that I was trembling, and my heart was thudding in my chest, and I hated that Lowell,Micro, saw that.
“Babe, please, at least let me drive us. You shouldn’t overwork that wrist anyway,” he practically begged, but I needed to be in some form of control right now, even if it was downright dangerous.
“I promise I’ll get you home safe, babe, just let me drive,” he tried again as I drove awkwardly down the country lanes, and back in the direction of home.
“Shut it,” I finally hissed, because I was managing, and I didn’t need him diminishing this small achievement for me right now.
He sucked in a deep breath, and turned to stare out of the window as I drove us home, and the whole journey, I just kept wondering if I should be heading for the police station instead. He was a killer. He wasn’t just violent, but he’d literally killed Reaper right in front of me! And Reaper had said Micro was a killer already, and a… and a rapist! Why the hell was I putting myself at risk by being in the car with him?
“Babe? Jesus, Soph, breathe. Please pull over and breathe for me.” I found myself doing exactly that, because I was really starting to panic about how little air I could get in, and it reminded me of the pained wheezing sounds Reaper had made as he died.
“Can you take a deep breath for me?” Micro touched my hand and I gasped, pulling away from him, fighting the panicked gasps that were making me lightheaded.
“Jesus, I deserve your fear, and your disgust and hatred, Soph, but I promise I’d never hurt you. Just let me get you home, then I can leave, if that’s what you want.”
I should want that, and I should want him to face retribution for his acts, but the man speaking to me now didn’t seem capable of those horrors, and he was right, somehow I knew he wouldn’t hurt me. I could feel it. I took a deep breath at last and nodded.
“Yes, please drive us home, Micro, but when we get there, I need to know everything. You owe me that. The truth. All of it.” I watched the colour drain from his face as he absorbed my words, but he nodded, almost to himself, as he seemed to put a mile of distance between us without even moving.
We drove home in silence, and I let Micro help me inside, and settle me in a chair, resting my arm, with ice and painkillers, and a hot sweet cuppa, which he said I’d definitely need, and then he sat back for a moment, watching me closely.
“I don’t really know where to start, or how to even talk about this stuff, but it’s a whole lot of bad shit, and I was the perpetrator of things I can’t even believe I did now. I feel like the man you brought back is a different person, and I’m not saying that so you’ll forgive me. I don’t expect or deserve that. Fuck… I guess it all started with my dad.” He stared at his hands for a moment, and I swear his bottom lip trembled a little. He shook off the fake cut he’d been wearing and lifted off his t-shirt, pointing to the faded Godless Warriors tattoo on his chest.
“This was his club, he was President, and I was raised by him, right there in that clubhouse. Jesus. He was… I mean now, looking back, I can tell you he was a fucking asshole who shouldn’t have been allowed to raise a kid. I used to wonder why my mum never came for me, to get me out of there, but…” he swallowed hard, glaring down at his chest, at the tattoo he probably couldn’t quite focus on from there, digging his nails into his flesh, like he wanted to tear the ink from it.
“Micro, just take your time. I’m not going anywhere, so you don’t have to rush this.” I’d realised that there was a lot to this story, and he was struggling to verbalise it. “Would it help if you sat beside me, so I can offer you strength?”
His eyes lifted, and I saw such torment in them. “Strength. The one thing my dad always swore I never had. I was weak. Pathetic. Useless. A waste of oxygen. Yeah, no, I don’t want to be too close to you, this is a lot of ugly shit, and I don’t want it anywhere near you.Ishouldn’t be anywhere near you.”
Damn. I hated his father already. I could respect his need for distance though, and if he lost that infamous temper of his, I was safer further away, right?
“I didn’t even know my mother, but it turns out I met her once. Just that one time, the night he killed her right in front of me. She…” he trailed off at my horrified gasp and nodded, “it gets worse, babe. The night I met her and watched her die, he and two of his guys were screwing her, and I tried to stop them, because she was begging them to stop. They made…” he made a ragged sound, almost like a sob, but there were no tears, not yet at least, “they made me touch her fucking tit, while they choked her to death.”Oh my god.
He watched his mother die in such a brutal way, and they made him touch her like that. They made him molest his own mother. That was horrific, and I stayed quiet while he made another ragged sound and got up, leaving the room. I heard the bathroom door slam, and left him to compose himself. He’d come back when he was ready.
