I've Got This Friend

Chapter 24

This may be a bit dark/graphic for some. Just a warning.

--

Rat was the one to interrupt the planning in chapel and he was nearly knocked on his ass when Opie barreled out toward Mae. He explained every detail of the call that he had to the others while Opie tried to comfort Mae. She wanted to be strong, as strong and brave as the club was, but she was floundering.

"I don't wanna do it, Ope."

He cursed himself quietly as she looked up at him. "If we can do something before we will." Calling out across the main room Opie was eager for some break. "Juice, you're tracking the number?"

"Yup." He glanced back and nodded but it already didn't look good. "As soon we I get something I'll let you know."

--

Mae didn't know how she got from Opie's arms to the motel room bed, she was blank and terrified. The more she thought about it the more it hurt her that he was not yet there. She remembered the excitement as Juice found an address and most of the Sons rushed out of the clubhouse to put an end to Jude but what landed her tied to a bedpost was lost in her mind.

"Please." She whimpered as Jude hovered over her. "Please don't hurt me."

"Tell me the truth!" He barked in her face. "Tell me that you did it." As though he wasn't already being emphatically clear, Jude used a wire hanger and whipped Mae across the face.

"I did it!" She shrieked. "I ratted. I did it." The words turned into little sobs. "Please let me go now. I'm sorry, Jude. I'm sorry."

The false confession didn't thrill or overjoy him, it enraged him. Jude growled and began beating on her alternating his fists with other crude weapons.

"Do you know what prison was like?" Suddenly eerily calm, Jude crawled into bed with a bleeding Mae. "I was tortured, Mae, for no reason. The guards weren't even going to help. No one helped."

"I'm sorry." She wailed, her tears burning the wounds on her face. "Please, Jude let me go."

--

Opie and the others bolted across town and out of Charming to the address but they never arrived. A huge roadblock was arranged just a few blocks from the motel. It was then, as the red and blue lights splashed across their faces, Opie knew it was a trap.

"What is this?" Clay asked the officer.

"What's it look like?" He smirked. "We got a tip, we're stopping and searching all drivers. I'm going to have to ask you and your uhh... Friends to turn off your engines and have a seat by my squad car."

"Jax," Opie looked at his friend with terror on his face. "I can't fucking sit here. He's gonna get her."

"I know, brother." There was very little Jax could do but he tried desperately to think of a solution. "We gotta deal with this."

"I can't." As the other slowly, mockingly, climbed off their bikes Opie shook his head and revved his engine. "I'm sorry, brother."

Opie was already thinking of this out before they'd fully stopped. The jam up of traffic on the Saturday night wasn't bad but it was enough to allow him to get far enough away that it didn't matter, the officers wouldn't catch up.

"What is he doing?" Clay snapped as they watched Opie weave around cars on his get away.

"What any of us woulda done." Jax said sadly.

--

Mae began to drift but horrible flashes of what had happened, what she was trying to ignore, terrified her back to the terrible consciousness she was living.

"Jude." She whispered. "Please."

"Soon, my pretty bird." He opened the bathroom door and another man walked out. "Sometimes they'd watch, sometimes they'd take turns." The stranger gave Jude a wad of cash as he began to unbuckle his belt. "I told you, Mae, you were going to know what I felt."

--

The only other place Opie knew to look was the motel Jax had trashed the day before. He figured it was a long shot but he needed to be sure before he went on a panicked spree across town.

He paced slowly down the cement walkway until he hit room nine. Opie pressed his ear to the door but heard nothing. When he peeked quickly in the window Opie saw red, literally and figuratively. Jude was alone, counting cash, and a nearly unrecognizable Mae was lying in a pool of her own blood. She was beaten and battered, her entire body exposed raw and bloody, and Opie felt bile burn in the back of his throat at the sight of her.

"You fucking piece of shit." Opie roared as he burst in the room and tackled Jude.

"you don't want her anymore?" He sneered as they battled for a very short time.

Slamming the butt of his gun across Jude's temple made the man pliable as Opie began pummeling him repeatedly with his gloved hands. Blood spurted around the room, along Opie's chest and staining the off white walls. "What did you do?" He asked hysterically as he wrapped his large hands around Jude's neck and strangled what little life was left in him. As if snapping from the trance, Opie let go and stepped back from Jude.

"Oh God, Mae." He wobbled toward her, his hands trembling as he pulled off his gloves and kneeled on the edge of the bed. "Oh baby, I'm sorry."