Wounded (Dogs of War MC Book One) (8 page)

Finally, one hand slipped out from the loop, sore and bloody but free. Sidney’s eyes darted to the woman. Had she seen her? No, she was still focused on her phone. Thank God for modern technology.

Sidney waited just a moment, she knew what she was going to do, she just had to work up the courage to do it. She’d never hit anyone before and definitely not hard enough to knock them out. She also didn’t want to accidentally kill anyone, but erring on the side of ‘too hard’ might be the better path towards wisdom. Keeping her eyes on the woman she leaned over and grabbed the small iron skillet that hung from a nail in the wall beside the fireplace. Making herself still and quiet again she waited a few moments, making sure she hadn’t been noticed, before acting.

Leaping out of her seating position with an unintentional yell, she ran right for the woman, paused a moment to take in the look of shocked anger that passed over her victims face before using all her strength to strike her across the side of the head. The blow landed across her ear and jaw with a sickening crack that made Sidney’s blood run cold. The woman crumpled, falling with a thud onto the floor. Another thud followed, the iron skillet falling out of Sidney’s hand.

She bent over the woman’s still form and felt for a pulse, and the stomach that she didn’t know had been clenched, released in relief. She was still breathing and still had a pulse. Sidney sent up a silent prayer of thanks, she wanted to get away but she didn’t want to murder anyone in the process.

Feeling relieved, she began searching for a weapon, something lighter and a little more intimidating than a frying pan. The woman’s purse was the first place she looked because, why would you leave someone unarmed to guard a hostage, but all she found was a nail file and a five hour energy shot. Hangnails weren’t her biggest concern at the moment and she had enough adrenaline pumping through her that any extra caffeine would probably cause her to have a stroke. After searching for anything that might give her an advantage and coming up empty handed she went the door and cracked it open, the time she was taking to search was worth more than any weapon. Maybe she wouldn’t even need a weapon if she could just get out without anyone seeing her.

No one was in the next room, a tiny makeshift kitchen that only had enough space for a refrigerator and a sink.  No windows either. Whoever built this place must have been allergic to sunlight. But there was a knife sitting on the edge of the sink. It wasn’t the semi-automatic handgun she wanted but it’d have to do. Entering the room she went straight for the knife and then the door, hoping that it led outside, but before she could open it to look out she heard raised voices. Arguing. She couldn’t make out what they were saying but the tone sounded serious. Good, she thought, maybe they’ll all just beat each other to death and won’t even realize I’m gone.

Her hand grasped the door handle and she turned it as slowly as she possibly could.  A shot rang out and she let go of the handle and jumped back. Then all hell broke loose outside, snarls and popping and the sound of things being broken.  Her heart beat in her throat, she didn’t want to go out in that, didn’t want to get caught by anyone’s crossfire, but staying inside wasn’t even an option. She had no idea what her kidnappers had planned for her but she assumed it would be less than pleasant.

Closing her eyes she took several deep breaths, trying to hold all of her fear at bay. This was not a situation she was prepared for, fighting back against a snarky bitch at a cocktail party, yes, she was prepared for that. Escaping being kidnapped by a gang of mullet wearing, gun toting hooligans, that she wasn’t prepared for.  She grabbed the door handle again, this time opening it quickly and without hesitation, it was now or never. All she had to do was look out, find a path, and make a run for it. She turned her so that she could see outside.

Sidney stood in shock. The yard was covered in the bodies of injured animals. Injured
wolves.
And the ones who weren’t injured were still fighting, ripping savagely at each other with teeth and claws. They were everywhere. There was easy path that didn’t lead straight through or near a pair of wolves locked in battle.

Shutting the door she leaned against the wall again, planning to weigh her options, but they were more limited than she had known because the woman she’d left with a crushed jaw in the next room was standing there staring at her, covered in blood and mad as hell.

“Wrong thing to do bitch,” the woman drawled, moving her shoulders like she was stretching after a long day at the office.

Sidney wasn’t sure how it was possible, she was sure she’d broken the trashy lady’s jaw if nothing else.  “Listen, I just want to leave. I didn’t want to hurt you I just want to leave.”

The woman growled deep  in her throat and her skin seemed to shimmer, there was that popping sound, that old leather slapping and cracking, and instead of looking at a woman with a hairdo that might have been lifted from an episode of
Married with Children,
she was looking at a huge snarling wolf, teeth bared and hackles raised.

Eyes wide and frozen in place all she could think of was whether or not she’d left her straightening iron on at home. What kind of thing was that to think about when death was staring her in the face?

The wolf launched itself at her and a shriek of terror ripped from Sidney’s throat. Knocked to the ground she instinctively put her hands up to the wolf’s throat, trying to keep those sharp teeth as far away from her own throat as possible. Then she realized she was still holding the knife. The blade slid in almost too easily, without effort or thought. It should have been harder, she should have had to use all her strength, but it was like poking a hot fork into ice cream. It just slid in. The teeth were still snapping at her so she stabbed it again, and again, until there was no more movement from the wolf at all.

The door burst open and there stood Red, naked, bruised, cut, and blood spattered. She felt the weight of the heavy animal lift off of her chest.

“Hey now,” he eyed her warily, “put the knife down… you’re ok.”

Sidney looked at her hand and realized she was still gripping the knife so hard that her knuckles were white, and that she was covered in blood herself. From her elbow down looked like she had dipped her entire arm into a vat of it.

She stood shakily, the knife skittered to the ground and she had a hard time not following it. All the adrenaline that had been pumping through her body had suddenly dried up.  She was too weak to fight when Red gathered her in his arms and carried her out to the van, the same van she’d been abducted in. He patted her arm and rubbed her shoulder while someone she’d never seen before drove them back to town. He was trying to comfort her. All she really wanted was to be out of the damn van and safe in her own house. But she tried to be rational, her brain trying to latch on to anything to keep from thinking about the events of the last few hours. But all she could think of was the stupid van and how scared she’d been when she’d been shoved inside.  She might never want to ride in another van again but at least it had symmetry, the same van she’d been kidnapped in would now return her, just a little worse for the wear. 

The Clubhouse was crowded and busy, people were running around trying to bandage wounds that hadn’t healed yet, women were carrying food and water to those who needed it, men were cursing loudly and boasting about how many men they’d killed or taken out of the fight. Red walked through the hectic scene with Sidney in his arms, wishing he had a quiet place where she could recover in peace, but it didn’t look like that was going to be an option.

“You bring her on in here and let me get her cleaned up,” his mother instructed him from the kitchen door, “And go find something for her to wear.”

Sidney’s dress was torn and several parts of her he’d enjoy ogling under normal circumstance were on display for everyone to see. Which would probably bother her more than it did anyone else in the club. He was still fully nude, as were several of the other club members, male and female alike, and nobody seemed to mind. But Sidney was from a different kind than he was, he had to keep remembering that. She was currently in shock, and though she’d stopped screaming, she still had a glassy look around her eyes that made him a little bit worried. But when she came to terms with what had happened she’d be happy for a clean body and clean clothes.  His mom might be a lot of things, but stupid wasn’t one of them.

“Just prop her up there and I’ll take real good care of her,” his mom motioned to a chair at the table, “Look at you, they did a number on that face but we’ll fix you up, don’t you worry none.” Glory moved the hair out of Sidney’s eyes and patted her on the unbruised side of the face before turning her attention to Red. “You ok?”

“Yeah, Ma, I’m alright. I’m almost completely healed already.”

She nodded, shifting her attention to the pile of towels and washcloths she’d assembled on the counter beside the sink, “Good, now go wash yourself up too. And don’t forget to bring me them clothes for her.”

Red left Sidney in his mother’s hands, there wasn’t anywhere he could think of at the moment that would be safer.

His room wasn’t far away and he grabbed a fresh set of clothes before heading to the communal bathroom.

The shower would be nice, if he could he’d have washed the whole day away and forget it ever happened that would be even better.  The warm water helped but his nerves were still jumping.  He ran his hands over his face and through his hair, aware of just how differently the situation could have ended.

When he’d realized that Sidney had been taken by the Hellhounds he’d immediately called an emergency meeting with all the voting members of the club. It had seemed to take them forever to all get there, it was a Friday night and people had things to do, but they’d all finally shown up even if they were disgruntled about it.

“What the fuck is this all about?” BillCo had demanded.

“Yeah man, I had to leave a game I had money on to come to this bullshit,” Trainz chimed in.

Big Dog held up his hand before anyone else could voice their complaints, “I’m sure he’ll tell us if you’ll shut the fuck up for a few minutes and let him talk.”

Red had explained how he found Sidney missing and how he knew it was the Hellhounds, trying to convey the urgency he felt about needing to move immediately before anything could happen to her without sounding as panicked as he felt.

“How can you be sure it was Hellhounds that you smelled?” one of the older members, Jakes, asked. 

Before Red could explain, more questions were being asked.

“If they took her in one of those motorized cages, and not on a hog, how are we ever going to track them?”

“You said the door hadn’t been broke down, maybe she left with them willingly. Maybe fucking mutts is her thing,” some around the table chuckled and Red tried to hold back the growing rage inside his chest.

“We can’t pin it on the Hellhounds even if Red says he recognized their scent. That’s not a lot to go on. Anyone could have taken her. Do we even know if she’s got any enemies?”

“She’s a vet for Christ’s sake, who could be her enemy. Did she accidentally neuter someone’s cat the wrong way?”

“Why did they decide to take her and not one of our wives or daughters?”

“That’s easy dumbass, she’s not a shifter nor one of the Dogs, it’s a lot easier to take a female who can’t defend herself than it is fight a woman who can either shoot you with the sawed off she’s got by the door or turn into a raging she-bitch that will take a chunk out of your ass,” Donny- O seemed to be getting fed up with the questions on Red’s behalf.

“That’s right, she’s not family.”

“Yeah, why do we even care if the Hellhounds have this bitch? It’s not like she’s one of ours or nothing anyway.”

“She’s mine,” Red said from the corner of the room. 

The simple statement caused the table to fall silent. Red had claimed her. It had been years since an outsider had been claimed by anyone in their community, much less a member of the Dogs. It was irreversible even if the relationship didn’t work out, from that point on Sidney was one of them. Claiming normally happened at engagement parties, or adoptions, or more rarely in the case of someone who didn’t have anyone else to depend on.  It was a joyous occasion, parties were planned months in advance, and everyone knew what was involved. No one at the table could remember any time in history when someone had been claimed without their prior knowledge, or having known them for less than a week. It was a huge commitment, on both sides. The person claimed was a part of the family whether the group agreed with it or not, but most, no one had any complaints because there was a relationship, a history to build on. It meant they owed Sidney the same loyalty that they had to every other member of the group, but it also meant that Sidney had to return that same loyalty. But more than anything, and most importantly to Red, it meant no one could touch her without retribution.