Happy Lowman is the quintessential biker badass. He loves the biker lifestyle: drinking, carousing, and taking care of business. What happens when fate literally puts him in the path of a woman that has always lived a simpler life? Will he be able t...
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Josie pressed down hard on Elliott's thigh, trying to slow the bleeding. She was trying to keep herself under control but the sight of her brother lying unconscious on her kitchen floor with a bullet wound and Tom Reynolds calmly sitting at her kitchen table smoking a cigarette was about to send her over the edge.
"I need a fucking towel, Tom!"
The other man rolled his eyes and got up to throw a kitchen towel at her. "Don't be so melodramatic, Josephine. He'll live." He shrugged. "Maybe. Depends on how good of a triage nurse you are."
She shook her head as she stripped her t-shirt off and wrapped it around Elliott's leg as a tourniquet. "I don't understand any of this, Tom."
Tom chuckled as he twirled the handgun on his finger. "What don't you understand? I mean, you were always smart, Josephine. I'm sure if you think hard it will come to you."
"I never thought you would be capable of something like this."
Tom scoffed. "And I never thought you'd be capable of letting biker trash climb all over you, so I guess we were both wrong." He stood suddenly and grabbed Josie by the hair, yanking her to her feet as she screamed. He slapped her hard across the face. "Shut up! This is your own fault! If you would have looked at me even once like you look at your biker, you'd see that I love you, Josephine! I always have!" He started pulling her behind him, still holding onto her hair, as he walked into the hall toward the stairs. "Now, we're going upstairs and you're going to show me how sorry you are for always ignoring me!"
Josie knew that she had to keep control of the panic threatening to bubble to the surface. Her only chance at getting out of this alive was going to be to do what he said. If she could keep him happy, at least until she had a chance to get away, then maybe she and Elliott both would make it out alive. When they reached the top of the stairs, Tom swung her around in front of him and pushed her down the hall to her bedroom, shoving her down on the bed. His face was a mask of fury as he began hitting her, landing blows wherever her hands couldn't protect her.
"I loved you! Only you, but I wasn't good enough! No, first there was Jerry, and God how I hated him. I hated the thought of you laying with him, letting him touch you, letting him get you pregnant with that little brat that you were so proud of! Then he died and I thought, finally she'll see me, but no! You saved yourself for that biker! You gave yourself to trash before you'd let me touch you!" He punched her hard in the face and Josie saw stars for a moment before he grabbed her hair once again and dragged her off the bed. She grabbed at his arms, pulling at him until he stopped to look at her. "What's the matter, Josephine?"
She coughed once and covered her mouth, trying to pretend that she was going to be sick. She knew that Tom had always had an aversion to anyone being sick around him. He'd been that way since they were young. "I... I'm gonna be sick."
Tom's face screwed up in revulsion as he pushed her toward the bathroom door. "Go in there then. Hurry up!"
Josie ran into the bathroom and slammed the door behind herself, locking it for good measure. She started pulling drawers open, hoping that she would find something that she could use as a weapon. She hit paydirt with the last drawer, finding one of Jerry's old straight razors in the back of the drawer. She opened it, smiling for a moment at the glint of the steel in the overhead lighting. She tucked it in her pocket carefully before flushing the toilet and running the water in the sink for a moment.
When she walked out of the bathroom, she tried to put a contrite look on her face, hoping that it would calm him somewhat. "I'm sorry, Tom. You're right. I was so blind. I should have seen how you felt, but I wasn't paying attention."
Tom smiled at her like they weren't standing in the middle of a nightmare. "I should have told you, and that's my fault." He held his hands up and laid the gun on the dresser. "Clean slate. For both of us."
Josie nodded but frowned. "But what about Elliott? We have to get him some help."
Tom smiled as he stepped closer. "And we will, sweetheart. As soon as we're out of town, I'll call the police and tell them that he's here."
Josie shook her head even as she heard the distant rumble of thunder. "We're leaving?"
Tom chuckled and nodded as he took her arm in hand and pulled her closer. "Of course, darling. We can't stay here, not now. We'll start over wherever you'd like. Now, come here and let me love you."
Josie barely held back the shiver of disgust that wracked her body as he pulled her into a loving embrace. She let him lay his head on her shoulder as she put her hand behind her back and grasped the razor. As if in slow motion, she saw her arm come up and the glint of light off of the steel as she plunged the razor into Tom's neck.
Arterial spray drenched Josie in seconds as Tom went limp in her arms. As his body slid lifelessly down hers onto the floor, she heard feet thundering down the hall and Happy screaming her name. She stood staring straight ahead as Happy, Tig, and Jax came running into the room, stopping short at the sight in front of them. Happy quickly stepped around Tom's body and pulled Josie into his arms, ignoring the blood that was everywhere.
Josie felt her legs give out the second she felt Happy's arms around her. She looked up at him, shaking her head. "I had to, Hap. He was... he wanted to leave with me... I had to."
Happy shook his head as Jax and Tig stood looking down at the body on the floor. "It's okay, baby. You're okay now."
