answers you want, but just trust me. Please. Just this once.”
I’m not sure if he’s making me a promise or a threat, but regardless, there’s a lot more going on in this place and with Percy than I’ve suspected. He’s suddenly become a more complicated character in this terrible story. I’m more than a little curious to find out what motivations are behind his new role.
Also, how can I promise to keep away from Mindy when I’ve just found her again? When, regardless of what he says, she could still be in danger?
“Stop.” Percy opens the door. “Don’t even think what you’re thinking, Mickey.”
I cross my arms stubbornly over my chest. “You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
His smile is sad. “I do. It’s written all over your face…and it’s gonna fucking get you killed.”
4
Pike
“Machine Head” by Bush blares through my truck speakers, fueling me forward. I lower it as I turn down a back road that runs parallel to the one that houses the compound of The Fourth Reich. I keep my headlights on until I find the path I need to turn onto that will take me through the field. I flip the lights off as my truck tires leave the pavement. I bump along the path, then kill the engine when I’ve gotten as far as I can unnoticed. I keep the key in the ignition, so the music keeps playing, but lower it even more. I don’t need to. It’s not like they’d be able to hear the music from my truck over the screaming and scratching blaring through their speakers that punches at my chest with every beat.
It’s garbage music, but it fits the Reich perfectly.
Because just like them, it has no rhythm, no rhyming, and no fucking reason.
It’s like they’re all a bunch of fucking kids rebelling against their parents.
I’m all about being the rebel, but there’s a difference between fighting against a true enemy and fighting against one you gotta create in order to win.
These bitches are so weak, they pick battles with people that don’t even know there’s a war.
It’s fucking laughable. What’s next, picking a fight with grandma over what kind of tea she serves? It’s ridiculous and just as pointless.
I’m not the smartest man in the world, but even I can see there’s no fucking logic behind their shit. Just a bunch of misguided fucking kids finding the wrong purpose. Screaming for attention, trying to be heard over all the fucking noise.
The smell from the bonfire permeates the air. A scent I’m naming hickory, hicks, and hate.
I watch the crowd for a while, and just when I think I’m not going to see her, there she is. Mickey appears, wandering around the party, staying mostly on the outside of the crowd.
My chest tightens, and my cock leaps with fucking delight.
Talk about no logic. My dick doesn’t seem to have any.
“Down boy, she could be a bad girl,” I mutter.
It doesn’t listen.
“Not that kind of bad girl,” I grumble, white-knuckling the steering wheel.
Although, the image of tying her to my bed right now, naked and spread before me, punishing her, isn’t exactly an unwelcome one.
She’s wearing a denim skirt and a black tank top, showing off the brand on her shoulder she spent the entire time at my place trying to hide. Not anymore. Now, it’s proudly on display. A mark that proves to the Reich that she’s one of them.
It makes my stomach turn to think of her as one of them. As sick as the thought is, and as probable as it is, I don’t want to believe it’s true. All that time in the alley caring for fucking cats? It gives me hope that she can’t possibly hold the kind of hate in her heart needed to associate with these fucks.
But that’s why I’m here. To find out the truth.
I’ll give her fucking credit though. Whatever side she’s manipulating, she’s good at it. There’s no doubt about that. It’s almost funny how you can make someone believe something that they want to see. And also to her credit, Mickey is fucking brave. The brand. The way she stood up to me when I had her locked up in my fucking garage? She’s capable of anything, and it both terrifies me and turns me the fuck on.
I see Percy, chugging a beer with a big, burly guy who then crushes the can against his forehead as Mickey watches. The big guy gives a victorious yell, then wobbles from foot to