Truth and Lies: Chapter 10

Waking up in the park, I don’t know how long we’ve been sleeping. Sitting up, I wake Peter and tell him we need to eat; I’m hungry now.

‘Peter, you need to wake up now,’ I say gently.

‘I’m awake. Are you okay?’ he asks, rubbing his hands over his eyes.

‘Yes, but I’m hungry. Let’s go find something to eat.’ I say, standing and putting my backpack on.

‘Don’t have any money, Zara. We can find something in a trash can behind the drive-through, I have money in an account, but we would need to go to the bank,’ he tells me. Oh yuck, that’s not happening. I’m not eating out the trash.

‘No, Peter, we’re going to have some dinner, come on, I’ve got some money, I can buy us dinner. You need to tell me where we’re going to sleep tonight.’ I don’t wait for him to argue as I start walking out of the park, looking at the shops for somewhere we can buy food.

‘Zara, come with me if you have some money, we can buy some food from the food cart as it’s cheaper and good.’ and as he turns to walk the other way, I follow, no idea where I am, but somehow I trust Peter. As we’re walking, I slide my hand into Peter’s, and he looks down at me, then smiles, and I smile back.

The food cart smells great, the man serving smiles and says hello to Peter, and we order large burgers, fries, and onion rings. As we walk away, I run back and get us a can of soda each, and the man serving only takes the money from me for one, to which I give him my biggest smile.

We sit on the grass in front of someone’s house and eat quickly. We were both starving. After we’ve had our drinks, we make sure we take our cans and used napkins to the garbage bin at the side of the food cart and walk away.

‘Peter, where are we going to sleep tonight? I need the toilet.’ I say, looking up at him.

‘You’re coming with me. I’ll make sure you’re safe. We’re going where I sleep most nights.’ he tells me, and I follow wherever he is taking me.

A couple of streets away, Peter goes into a house and leads me to the bathroom, telling me not to take too long as it’s going to get dark soon.

Once I’ve washed my hands, I find Peter, and he has a pile of blankets on the floor and nods to get on them. As I get settled, Peter closes the door and wedges it closed with a wooden block and a chair, now no one can get in.

‘Why do you live here?’ I ask him, surprised he doesn’t have a real home.

‘I was in the military as I told you, and when I’d served my time, I didn’t know where to go or what to do. So I just bummed around a bit, and now I’m still bumming around,’ he tells me.

‘When I find Miriam, I want her to come home with me, but I want you to come home with me too, Peter,’ I tell him.

‘I can’t go home with you,’ he tells me, looking at me as though I’m a bit odd.

‘Yes, you can. You can come home and be a prospect. Then when you do a year, you can be a full brother.’ I tell him, I know that as I’ve seen them being patched in.

Peter is studying my face, not sure what he is seeing as it’s getting a bit darker now. ‘Do you come from a home of bikers? A motorcycle club?’

‘Yes, you’ll love it, Peter, you can be a brother too,’ I tell him excitedly. ‘Do you have a different name, Peter? My dad’s called Gunner, and our Pres is Sharp. We have Crack, Trip, Zip, and others.’

Peter studies me again for a minute, ‘I was called Target, ’cause I never missed my target.’ he rubs his hand over his face and neck, ‘My unit of brothers all died, except one, and I was injured but survived. I couldn’t do it anymore, not without my team, so I left.’

‘That’s sad. I’m sorry you lost your friends. You can make new friends when you come with me. I’m going to call you Target so you know I’m your friend, your sister, I can’t be a brother as I’m not a boy.’ and I giggle, then wrap my arms around Target, look up and say, ‘Thank you for looking after me.’

‘You’re welcome. I’ll watch and make sure you’re safe. We need to find your friend as soon as we can.’ Target tells me, ‘Now, let’s get to sleep.’

Mia

Turning my head, a headache hits me. Lifting my hand, I rub my forehead and slowly crack my eyes open. As soon as my vision clears, I start to panic. Where the fuck am I?

Looking around the room, I’m in a bedroom, not one I recognize. I slowly pull myself into a sitting position and twist so my legs are off the bed.

Once again, rubbing my forehead as this headache is pounding, then I remember someone grabbing me, placing a hand over my mouth, and the pinch in my neck. Some fucker drugged me, I realize.

Someone’s taken my shoes off. Where are they? I need to get the fuck out of here before they come back. Seeing my shoes next to a chair under the window, I grab them, then I start to slip them on, holding the window sill as I do, and that’s when I look out and see men in kuttes.

Panic hits. Who the fuck are they? This is not Gunner’s MC as I don’t recognize the place, so why would another MC grab me? Well, I’m not waiting around to find out.

Searching around, I see my backpack and rush over and pick it up, then walk to the door and turn the handle, which thankfully opens. What I didn’t want to find was a man sitting opposite my door on guard.

He looks over and takes out a cell, obviously to report to someone that I’m awake. While he’s texting, I make a run for it down the hall, lunging at the door at the end and thankfully finding a set of stairs. I take the stairs as fast as I can because I still feel a little dizzy, and the headache is worse now I’m getting worked up.

I can hear the man behind me but don’t slow to see how close he is to me. He keeps calling for me to stop. At the bottom of the stairs, I run down a hallway and into a large room where twenty men must be sitting around.

As I start to run through, one of the men jumps up and stands in front of me. The man who had been sitting across from my room is telling me to calm down.

More men start to stand until they’ve blocked my path to what I think is the main door to the outside. Taking a deep breath, I drop my backpack and bend, taking my blade that’s strapped to my calf, and stand waiting, twisting now and again to check no one is coming up behind me.

I quickly decide I need my back to the wall, so I step back gently until I’m positioned with a wall behind and a table on each side of me. This gives me a fighting chance, but I know I’m in a no-win position.

Standing and waiting, I spin my blade in my right hand. One of my tells that I’m nervous, but these assholes don’t know that.

A man walks forward, and I notice he’s the one from the diner, Axel, President of this club, I presume. He’s intimidating as hell, over six feet, built like a brick shithouse, and if I’m truthful, I don’t think I can take him down, but I’ll try if I have to.

‘You can put your blade away Miriam, we don’t want to hurt you,’ he says, coming to a stop in front of me but staying far enough back I couldn’t reach him if I tried.

‘What the fuck do you want with me? Why am I here?’ I snarl at him. If he thinks I’m going to play nice, he can take a long walk off a short pier.

‘Answers, I want answers,’ he states calmly.

‘Answers to what?’ I ask, watching one of the men moving closer to me on my right, and I turn my right arm out more, still holding the blade, and glance at him so he knows I’ve noticed.

‘Answers to what happened to have you sent to prison for something I don’t think you did,’ he responds.

Turning to look at Axel, I cannot understand why he would want to know about that after nearly six years.

‘Why, what difference does it make to you. It’s done, I’ve served my time, and I’m moving on with my life,’ I state, ‘My name is Mia now. Miriam doesn’t exist anymore. That person died the day they locked her up.’

‘Our club often helps women that need someone in their corner. When I heard what happened to you all that time ago, it just never rang true, but no one was talking, and I mean no one,’ he says, then sits at the table to my left.

‘Seeing you at the diner triggered a memory, and I wasn’t sure if it was you, but after looking into your prison records and the newspaper reports, we knew it was you, but we also knew something wasn’t right. So here you are, and I want to know what the fuck happened.’

‘Well, bully for you, I don’t want to go through it all again. I want to leave and move on. I’m heading as far away from here as I can get.’ I say, turning once again to point my blade at this one on my right.

‘No, you’re not, not until I get my answers.’ Axel states, then lunges forward and grabs the arm with the blade.

Disarmed, I have no way to get out of here, so I do the next best thing and close my mouth. I’m not saying another fucking word.

Axel asks me various questions, including do I want a drink or anything to eat, but I don’t respond. I stare at a spot over his shoulder and remain quiet.

Half an hour later, Axel has obviously lost patience and tells my jailer as I think of him to take me back to the bedroom. Taking my arm, he leads me back, and when he closes the door, I hear the lock turn.

Well fuck, now what am I going to do.