Deceived (4 page)

Chapter Eight

The sun shone bright the next day, and rays of light filtered through the trees at the cemetery. Club members and bar patrons who knew Krank attended his burial service. Big Daddy sat in a chair that someone had brought, as he was too weak to stand. Eli said a few words as well as Blaze. Big Daddy declined to speak, his voice too low for the group to hear anyway.

Lexi stood by Alice and the other old ladies. She hadn’t known Krank, but Eli asked that she come. She didn’t want to intrude on the club’s grief, but she couldn’t say no to him.

When the service ended, Eli asked Lexi if she would accompany him to take his father home and see that he was okay until the nurse arrived. Eli had hired a nurse to come and check on his dad a few times a week, but his health was declining rapidly so he hired 24-hour care for him.

Once home, Big Daddy wanted to go to bed. He hadn’t spoken all the way home and only nodded to Lexi when Eli introduced them. His dad was in bad shape. He knew that Krank’s death was hastening his father’s death as well and it broke his heart.

He helped his father to bed and pulled the covers over him. It didn’t take long for him to drift off to sleep. Eli emerged from the bedroom looking defeated.

“I know this is all so hard for you,” Lexi said. “I’m so sorry you’re going through this.”

Eli walked over to where she stood and took her in his arms. They hugged each other tight. It felt right, as if they had held one another before, their bodies curving into one another like a perfect fit.

A knock at the door drew them apart. The nurse was here. Eli gave her instructions and told her someone from the Tavern would bring dinner by for her and his Dad. They got on the Harley and headed for Lexi’s apartment.

****

Lexi’s apartment was modern with light grey walls, marble counter tops in the kitchen, and hardwood flooring throughout the space. Fresh flowers and couch pillows provided punches of color ranging from bright reds to glowing yellows dotting the rooms. This was Lexi, a modern chick whose taste was reflected in her surroundings. A part of her didn’t want to let go of this, but another part wanted to embrace the wildness that she had barely tasted.

Eli didn’t seem taken aback by the eclectic taste. In fact, he made himself at home by lounging on the sofa. He had too much on his mind to be concerned about décor. Lexi was glad. Any of her old suitors would have remarked on her taste, and Eli didn’t give a shit. That’s what she liked/loved about him.

“Come sit with me and get my mind off of things,” Eli said as he patted the sofa cushion next to him.

“You don’t have to ask me twice,” Lexi said as she slid into his waiting arms.

It didn’t take long for the kisses and wandering hands to take up where they left off the night before. Eli had his shirt off within seconds, his washboard abs and broad shoulders causing threads of desire to run through Lexi’s body. When she felt his hot lips suck her now bare nipples, she felt her body drift as though she were weightless. Eli unzipped her pants and pulled them down along with her panties. His hot breath traveled down her stomach to her sex. He pushed her legs apart to have full access. His mouth consumed her tender area, his tongue playing with her joy button.

Lexi’s heart pounded in her chest as desire consumed her entire being. Feeling him pleasuring her down there in her most personal area was giving way to a climax she had never felt in her life. As he stuck his tongue deep inside her, she felt the rush as it built and built until it exploded like fireworks reaching down her legs and up in her stomach and chest. She let out a long moan while her body rocked from the orgasm. She pulled Eli up and grabbed his manhood to insert within her body. She needed to feel him inside her. At that moment, it was the only important thing in her life.

Eli was entranced by Lexi’s gorgeous body, but more than that, he felt comfortable and free with her. He wanted her to feel good, to hear her moan, and watch her body rock to the rhythm of his wandering hands and tongue. When she came, it made him burn with desire to feel himself inside her. He moved his erect manhood, now throbbing, into her sex, moving gently at first and then faster. Lexi moaned under him and he could feel himself climbing gradually towards his own climax. His orgasm blasted through his body as he let out a gasp and then a moan as he finally collapsed on top of Lexi.

Eli moved over to her side and held her tight in his arms. The lovemaking was the release he needed after a stressful few days, and laying here with Lexi in his arms felt right. He didn’t want to let go or move. This was the only place he felt at peace the last few days. Lexi too was content to lay here in the arms of a man she was falling deeply in love with. The decision to move on with her life in a very new direction was becoming easier by the second.

They fell asleep on the couch in each other’s arms, exhausted by the previous day and today’s events. At approximately 7am, Eli’s cell phone rang. Lexi stretched as Eli grabbed his cell phone from his pants lying on the floor.

“Yeah,” he answered. “What--Fuck! I’ll be right there.” He hung up the phone and started pulling on his clothes.

“What’s wrong?” Lexi asked with concern in her voice.

“More fucking trouble at the club,” he answered. He leaned over to give her a long sensuous kiss. “I’ll give you a call later.”

With that, he was out the door and roaring off on his bike. Lexi sat naked on the sofa. She knew if this was the life she chose she better get use to him taking off in a flash.

Chapter Nine

It was Blaze who made the call to Eli. One of the prospects, Lucky, came to him early that morning to tell him about the occurrences from the evening before. After the burial service for Krank, DD grabbed two of the prospects, him and Rick. DD wasn’t done with the Hell Hounds. He wanted a pound of flesh for Krank and himself.

He had cooked up a plan wherein he and the prospects would lure several of the Hell Hounds out along Route 68 and then off a side road into the hollers of the outskirts of the county. The plan was Lucky would shoot up several of their bikes while they drank at their favorite watering hole. DD didn’t want the entire gang so they waited until only three were left. Lucky was to shoot up the bikes, but not the tires, so they remained ride-able. Once the Hounds came roaring out of the bar, Lucky would lead them on a merry chase into the darkness of the hollers where Rick and DD lay in wait. They stretched a cord across the roadway that would catapult the Hounds off their bikes, leaving them powerless to respond. Lucky knew where they hung the cord and when to duck. The cord should catch the rider’s at chest level.

Everything was going to plan he told Blaze. Lucky shot up the bikes, being careful not to hit gas tanks or tires. The three Hounds came tearing out of the bar and Lucky made sure they knew it was he that did the shooting. The chase was on.

Lucky led them easily down the freeway and onto the side road. Up and down the hillsides they rode. Lucky had a good lead on them, but he didn’t want to lose them either. Then he felt the whoosh of a bullet slide past his cheek. Shit! Well they hadn’t lost him that’s for sure.

Up ahead he could make out the light from DD’s flashlight. He was glad they decided to shine it because the hollers were all looking the same in the dead of night. Lucky ducked down as the cord dusted past the top of his thick hair. The three Hounds rode up over the crest of the last hill before descending towards the cord stretched across the road.

The first guy hit the cord and he tumbled off his ride, sending the bike on a collision course with a tree. The next one hit four seconds later, almost replicating the first one’s crash. The third saw what happened and started to duck, but he wasn’t fast enough. The cord caught him around the neck. It didn’t decapitate him, but it may as well have. He was dead before he hit the ground.

It was difficult to make out much in the dark, and DD had only his flashlight to see. The lights from the motorcycles jutted a mystical swath in various directions. One headlight shot straight up and another pointed into the woods. The first motorcycle, which took a header into a tree, had busted its front light.

DD and Rick approached the Hounds that were still alive and moaning on the pavement. DD took out his gun and shot the one nearest to him in the head. By this point, Lucky had turned his motorcycle around and was driving back to the carnage. He watched as DD pointed the gun at the guy lying on the road and saw the flash as the pistol discharged. Then he saw another flash, but this one came from the road. The remaining Hound had gotten to his gun and fired it, hitting DD in the eye. Rick turned and watched as DD staggered backwards. He started to pull his own gun but it was too late, the Hound had fired again, hitting Rick in the chest. By that time Lucky jumped off his bike, drawn his weapon, and unloaded it into the Hound.

He stood there for several minutes, listening to the dogs barking off in the distance. He then pulled the bodies off the road as well as the bikes, and cut the cord. The sun was coming up in a few hours and the bloodbath needed removed. He couldn’t get a signal on his cell this far out, so he rode his bike to the freeway where he called Blaze. In 30 minutes, Blaze and a few other club members on bikes and a large moving truck showed up. Lucky directed them to the spot where he hid the bodies and moved the  bikes. The members wrapped the bodies and loaded them along with their bikes into the moving truck. The group then headed back to the Tavern where they parked the truck inside the warehouse. That was where Eli found them when he showed up that morning.

****

Eli looked inside the moving truck. This was exactly what he didn’t want to happen, but despite his best efforts, it had. Now three of the Hell Hounds were dead and two of his own, not including Krank.

“What the fuck were you thinking?” Eli shouted at Lucky.

“I don’t know--me and Rick--we just thought we better follow DD’s command,” Lucky answered.

“Why? Because it was such a fucking great plan?” Eli was beside himself. He’d been keeping it in, hiding all his rage and grief in a dark place and now it was flooding out with no way to contain it.

He walked up to Lucky and clocked him across the jaw. Lucky went staggering back and Eli continued to pound him until Blaze pulled him off.

“Get out!” Eli yelled. “You’re out as a prospect. You come around here again and I’ll kill you!”

Lucky scattered out the door as Eli hit the side of the truck with his hand. He looked down at the floor and then over to the rest of his club.

“Take them to the Forestry and bury them deep.”

“All of them?” Blaze asked.

“Yes, all of them. Put them in the same damn hole for all I care! But put them deep where no animals can dig them up and bring their bones to the surface.”

“You got it Eli,” Blaze said. He got five guys along with shovels and headed out.

Eli walked into the Tavern, took a bottle of whiskey off the shelf, and poured himself a drink. He knew DD was a hothead but he never imagined he’d cook up this type of scheme. Krank’s death was pulling his club apart and he didn’t know how this was going to pan out with the Hell Hounds. He could reach out to Zane, leader of the Hounds, or keep quiet. Zane acted as if he didn’t know anything about Krank’s death. Eli thought, Well,
I could do the same when he comes looking for answers regarding his missing men.

At that moment, his cell phone rang. He didn’t want to answer it, but when he saw it was his Dad’s house number he punched the button. It was the nurse. His father was failing fast. Big Daddy hadn’t wanted to be taken to the hospital when the end was near, just let him die in his own bed he told Eli. But if Eli wanted to say goodbye, he better hurry. As Eli ran to his bike, he called Lexi to meet him there.

Chapter Ten

Lexi was waiting in the driveway in her car when Eli arrived at his father’s house. She jumped out when she saw him driving up on his motorcycle.

“I wanted you to be here with me…I don’t think I can face this without you,” Eli said with tears in his eyes.

“Of course I’ll be here Eli,” Lexi said. “You can lean on me.”

They walked into the house together. Eli dreaded this even though he knew it was coming. You think you can prepare for it, but when the end comes, there’s never enough preparation. The nurse came out of the bedroom.

“Go ahead in,” she said. “He’s resting comfortably.” She'd given him morphine for the pain and Big Daddy lay with his head on the pillow, staring out the window. Eli walked over to the bed and stooped down so his father could see him. Lexi remained in the doorway so as not to intrude on this most personal of experiences, but making sure Eli knew she was near in case he needed her.

Eli took his father’s hand in his and said, “Hey Pop, how you feeling?”

“Tired,” his father answered. “I can feel myself slipping away, but its okay.”

Tears slipped from Eli’s eyes, leaving streams down his face.

Big Daddy continued to look out the window at the huge maple tree in the front yard.

“Do you remember the swing Krank made for you and hung from that tree when you were little?”

Eli nodded. Big Daddy was gone a lot on club business back then so Krank filled in as a father figure when he could.

Finally, Big Daddy looked at Eli and said, “I wanted to take this to my grave, but I know I can’t. Just understand me son that I had my reasons. I had Krank killed.”

Eli felt like a ton of bricks just fell on his chest. His dad was delusional--it was the morphine, it had to be.

“Pop, you’re confused. You didn’t kill Krank; we’re not sure who did at this point.”

“No son,” Big Daddy said wearily. “I hired four men to take Krank to the Madison Forestry and string him up on a maple tree. I told them to make sure it was a hard maple, not some hickory or walnut tree. Then I told them to hang the poster around his neck and send his helmet and a map to you.”

Lexi listened and her heart broke for Eli to hear these words coming from his father’s lips. His death was bad enough, but now to hear he also orchestrated the death of a man he also considered a father figure. My God, when does the suffering end?

“But why Pop? Why would you do that?” Eli’s voice hitched, trying to stifle the sobs that were rising up from his chest.

Big Daddy looked away from his son and back out the window.

“Two weeks ago Krank wanted to talk to me alone. He and I both knew the chemo wasn’t working and I’d be gone soon. So he decided to unburden himself before I left this world.”

Big Daddy began to choke on his own saliva and Eli thought he would die right then, but he finally coughed it free. He lay in the bed, gathering his strength and breath to go on.

“Can you tell me what he said Pop?” Eli pleaded.

Eventually Big Daddy answered slowly. “He told me that he and your mother had an affair for several years. I was gone a lot on club business and he decided to take advantage of it. That’s not how he put it, but that’s the way I took it. The son of a bitch took advantage of your mother. She was a young thing, naïve in the way men are. I trusted Krank, thought he would look after her and you while I was gone. I never thought my ‘brother’ would stab me in the back.”

Big Daddy struggled to continue, but he was determined to be heard.

“Here I was, sick from chemo, dying, and he decides to unburden himself of this awful truth, so he can feel better. I went from loving this man to hating him in an instant. How dare he back stab me like this, take my old lady for his own! I knew then and there, I would have to end his life before I left this earth. So I called another charter and got hooked up with people who could do the job.”

“But Pop, why the poster and the cryptic message. It sounded like it came from a rival gang.” Eli was trying to make sense out of what was coming from his father’s deathbed confession.

“The Hell Hounds will take over Carmel one of these days if you don’t take care of them first son. I thought I could kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. I thought if I pointed Krank’s death towards the Hounds, it would be enough for you to take revenge. But you were too smart and I failed in my attempt to get rid of the Hounds. I’m sorry to be laying all this on you my son, but I felt you had a right to know.”

Eli’s head was spinning. So much death all because of an affair that occurred a long time ago. If only his mother hadn’t been so weak--if only Krank hadn’t confessed to his father--if only his father could have forgiven him. So many if’s; and it was all too late to make a difference now. What was done was done and Eli couldn’t fix it, only hide another secret that could eventually blow up in his face some day.

Big Daddy never spoke to his son again. He fell into a restless slumber while his son and Lexi sat in chairs next to his bed listening to his ratcheted breath as it became weaker and weaker. Eventually his breathing stopped altogether. Eli got up from his chair and walked over to the bed. He bent over and gave his father a kiss on the cheek. Lexi stood up and walked with him out of the room.

The nurse was still there. Eli told her to call the funeral home to come and take his father’s body. Lexi and Eli walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

Lexi reached over, grabbed Eli’s hands, and kissed them. He looked so defeated, and how could he not after hearing such devastating news and then watching his father die.

“I’m so glad you’re here Lexi. Please don’t leave me.”

Lexi had made her decision earlier as she watched a father and son in their last precious moments.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she answered.