Rainer: An MC Savage Motorcycle Club Romance Novel (3 page)

Candace

You’re still alive because you told the truth.

Written on wrinkled paper, folded neatly around my license. The first thing I saw when I went to check if they stole any money from my purse. And to my surprise, they didn’t.

I read the note over and over trying my best to decipher it in any way, believing it meant something more. I wondered if there was some deeper subliminal message to it — like, maybe it was congratulatory, or maybe it was a threat. After a while, I came to the conclusion that the note probably didn’t have some kind of hidden agenda. The words didn’t carry any significant meaning, either. No, it was what it was: bare, unedited, and straight to the point.

Honesty was something I always practice, just not so much with myself. I knew who I was, and how I felt most of the time — or at least I thought I did. With time, I’ve learned to fake my emotions for the convenience of others. I was used to pretending that everything was all right. The time I spent blindfolded in that chair was probably the most honest I’d ever been with myself in years.
 

I didn’t leave my apartment for three days after the incident. To my own surprise, it wasn’t out of fear. For some reason I wasn’t worried that they’d come back for me. I guess the way Rainer treated me before dropping me off at that bus station gave me some form of comfort, but then again I do have the tendency to trust people too easily. I spent those three days reevaluating myself as a person. Was I being true to myself or have I been living a lie this whole time? Questions like this ran through my mind without any clear resolve. There was a longing I yearned for, and I couldn’t figure out what it was for the longest time.

I spent most of those three days lying in bed staring at the dark ceiling like a traveler with jet lag. I was looking for answers while trying to figure myself out. The only times I got up was to grab some water or use the bathroom. My apatite and will to do anything was gone, I only focused on myself in the darkness. It was probably how meditating felt like, but meditation wasn’t something I practiced so I’m not sure if I can exactly call it that.

The nights were long; I slept in increments of two to three hours at a time. The discomfort of my bed didn’t seem to bug me but I felt like I was starting to smell because I hadn’t showered since the day I got back.

Then it hit me — my life was plain, boring, monotonous, and every other word that can be used to describe someone who was average, or even less than average. I remember thinking there was nothing wrong with that, but after the whole kidnapping thing, I knew that I couldn’t settle living an average life anymore. That maybe the fact that I contemplated suicide all this time was because I lacked any real excitement. There was no thrill in my day-to-day life. My life was fixed on a routine: It was all work, eat, sleep, and occasionally hang with Mandy, my best and only friend.

In some strange way that I couldn’t understand, it seemed as though the kidnapping lit a fire inside of me. It made the world seem interesting again. It reminded me of the times where I’d actually be excited about something, the joy that came from new adventures and purpose. Maybe it was an adrenaline spike, or maybe I was just crazy, but I felt different… in a good way.

After I came to this realization, I finally answered Mandy’s continuous attempts to contact me. She called, texted, and messaged all my social media stuff like she always does, and eventually she invited herself over.

It wasn’t odd for her to show up unannounced. She can be annoyingly persistent. What surprised me most was how it took her three days to do it, she usually wasn’t that patient. She broke in with the key that I forgot I’d given her, which scared the shit out of me when I started hearing noises outside my room.

“Who died in here?” was the first thing she said when she came barging in. She found me sprawled across the bed and without asking me where I’d been, or if I was okay, all she said was, “Ew, you stink”.
 
She paced around my apartment while barking nonstop like some crazy dog trying to intimidate a skateboarder that happened to be riding by. At least that’s how she sounded for the first few minutes.

Mandy eventually asked me questions about where I was, and why was I ignoring her, and a bunch of other things that she didn’t really give me time to answer. She went on for at least half an hour after I showered, bombarding me with question after question.

Then, with a huge smile across her face, she finally stopped to look at me and said, “Let’s go, I’m kidnapping you today.”

***

Candace

“Okay, so let me get this straight… you, of all the people in the whole entire world, somehow managed to get freaking kidnapped?”

“Yeah,” I said as I took a sip of coffee. “I don’t know why you have to say it like that, but yes, that’s exactly what happened.”

Mandy took me to one of those intentionally-hipster cafes near her apartment in Downtown LA. She loved going to these hip and up-and-coming places because she had a fascination with trying new things. In reality, I think she just wanted to update all her social media stuff with pictures to show how awesome and cool she was.

It would have been fine and all if it weren’t for the fact that she was hardly ever prepared for what they served on the menu. I usually avoided spots like these because their target audience made me anxious. I always felt like the people who go to these places were constantly judging my every move, so I always worried about what to order because I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.

Mandy, on the other hand, did not worry about that stuff at all. It’s not like she didn’t care, it was more about the fact that she was oblivious of what people thought of her. As embarrassing as she was at times, I admired it and wished that I, too, could someday be that confident.

When we got to the cafe, she managed to hold the line up for five minutes by asking about every single item on the menu. The only reason we were seated at a table was because the barista offered us a free drink for sitting down, and Mandy wasn’t one to decline free drinks. It was obvious to me that this wasn’t a normal occurrence, it was something they probably do for troublesome customers, but Mandy had absolutely no idea. Without even looking, I could still sense the angry glares looking in our direction.

I’m the type that wouldn’t make a big deal about finding a stray eyelash in my food, while Mandy would let the entire restaurant know if she found someone else’s hair in her meal.

 
I didn’t have much of a family growing up; no siblings and my parents were always busy so I spent a lot of time alone growing up. It wasn't like my parents were bad or anything, they wanted me to succeed. But in a way, they felt more like my teachers instead of family. I never developed a close connection with them.

Mandy came into my life because she thought I looked weird but in a cute way, like it was supposed to be some kind of compliment or something. She sat by me on the first day of class in high school, even though there was no one else in the room yet. That’s all it took and she’s been in my life ever since.

She doesn’t know it, but Mandy was the only other person on this earth that’s kept me alive all these years. I probably wouldn’t be here if she weren’t around, but I can’t tell her that because I know she’ll rub it in my face. Enough to make me want to die, which would pretty much render her useless.

Mandy had a way about her that made me happy, even through the darkest times. She knew how to make the most serious situations feel lighter than they were. She had a lot of ditzy moments, which I always thought was strange considering she’s a nurse, but she was smarter than she looked. Mandy was the type of person one would consider book smart, but really bad at everything else. Her garrulous nature would drive most people insane, but for some reason I found it comforting and somewhat adorable. A nice contrast to myself.

Mandy knew how to make things that weren’t exciting, well, exciting. We were complete opposites. She had all the stuff I lacked, while I had all the stuff she lacked. The two of us needed each other, which was why I couldn’t bring myself to leave her alone in this world.

She considered me her go-to girl for whenever she needed to talk about her problems — which seemed to be all the time — but now I finally had a story of my own to tell her.

“And then your kidnappers just… let you go?” she said with furrowed brows. She blew her straight bangs away from her face but they fell right back to where they were.
 
She did this a total of eight times now; I’d been counting. “Like, they straight up said bye bye, you can leave now. Sorry about the kidnapping and all that. Have a nice day?”

“Not really, but I kind of.”

“Kind of?” she said. “Hold that thought, I think I want some waffles with my coffee.” She waved the waiter over by flaring her arms, making it impossible for anyone to ignore her. I already felt bad for the waiter before he got to our table.

“Hello, ma’am. How’s everything?”

“Good, but the coffee is kind of bitter. Can you bring us some sugar and creamer?”

I heard a gasp, but it was probably in my head. If there’s anything I know about these places, it’s that they hate when people dilute their pure black and exotic imported coffee with outside ingredients. It was like blasphemy or murder to them.

“I’m okay,” I said as the barista looked in my direction.

I watched his fake smile closely to see if I’d be able to notice some look of disgust. “Sure, I can get that for you in a second, is there anything else I can help you two with.” This guy’s good. He’s either mastered the art of faking a smile or maybe I was wrong all along.

“Yeah,” Mandy said. “Can I have some waffles? I want, like, four.”

“I’m sorry, we don’t serve waffles here. How about biscotti?”

“What do you mean you don’t serve waffles?” said Mandy, but before he could answer, she continued talking. “I love biscuits! I want one that’s flaky and has honey on top!”

I shrugged when the server looked in my direction. I wanted to help him, but it was more fun to sit silently and watch.

“Ma’am, I’m sorry but we don’t serve biscuits. We do have biscotti, which will complement your selected brew just fine.”

“Well okay, just make sure it has honey!” she said.

The barista walked away and I saw the other worker at the counter shake his head at him. From the looks we were getting, it was clear that everyone in this place hated us.
 

“That biscotti flavored biscuit better taste good,” she said as she looked at me. “Anyways, what were you saying? Oh yeah, what did you mean ‘kind of’?”

“Well, after some crazy stuff happened, this guy named Rainer drove me back to the bus stop where the two of his friends abducted me earlier in the day.”

“Rainer? Does he like rain or something?” she asked, laughing to herself. Mandy always laughed at her own jokes. “How’d you even know his name?”

“One of the guys said it, probably on accident or—“

“Was he hot?” she said.

“I don’t know! I couldn’t really see…”

“What do you mean you couldn’t see? Did you forget to put on your contacts again?”

“No,” I said, glaring at her. “Remember? I told you I was blindfolded!”
 

“Oh yeah,” Mandy wiggled her eyebrows. “I didn’t know you were so kinky—’

“Anyways, he didn’t really talk much during the ride, but when we were alone, he did apologize about the mishap.”

“He better have apologized!”

“Yeah. Then at the stop, he stayed inside while his three accomplices led me out of the vehicle and had me sit on the bench facing the opposite direction of the road. Apparently the three of them had their guns pointed at me. Or at least that’s what they told me, I didn’t want to prove them wrong by checking.”

“Oh, so his friends came too? Cock blockers.”

“After that, they took the blindfold off and were all like, ‘keep your eyes shut and don’t turn around until you can’t hear us anymore.’ They also said that if I were to turn around before they were gone, or if I tried to contact the cops, they had someone watching nearby ready to kill me.”
 

“That’s like super creepy!”

“Yeah, I kept my eyes closed the whole time. It was scary but I was more relieved than anything to be free. I probably looked like an idiot sitting there with my eyes closed. I hope no one saw me.”

“So how did you get home? Did you take the bus?”

“No, it was actually pretty late already. I used one of those apps that sends a driver to pick you up.”

“So you still had your phone?” she said. “Hold on,” her face looked angry, “Excuse me, can we get those creamers and sugars please!”

I sunk down as far as I could but it was too late, everyone was looking at us again.

“Anyways, I’m surprised they let you keep your phone? Did you bring anything else?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I brought my purse with me and they took it away for a while but they gave it back before leaving. Rainer specifically yelled at them to ‘leave it’ and that’s when I heard the sound of my stuff land on the bench beside me.”

“Good! It’s such a hassle to get new ID’s and all that stuff, I would be more mad about that than anything.”

“Of course you would, Mandy.”

“And all the makeup and stuff, oh my god, I’d be so mad!”

“Yeah yeah, anyways… after they drove off, there were like three tire marks on the road and they weren’t exactly straight or anything so I think Rainer’s friends were riding motorcycles.”

“Are you sure you didn’t just dream this up or watch this in one of those crazy movies you always watch? You have quite an imagination.”

“No, for real’s! I swear it happened, like, it actually happened.”

“Gosh, aren’t you like, traumatized or something then? Why didn’t you go to the cops?”

“Well, they told me not too—”

“Sorry for the wait, here’s your creamer and sugar,” said the barista. “Can I help you with anything else?”

Mandy shook the packets like they were maracas, “The honey biscuit-cotti’s, please.”