Highway to Home, page 1
BERZERKERS MC Book 2
By Linny Lawless
Copyright 2021 by Linny Lawless
All rights reserved.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, brands, and incidents are the product of my imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments, is solely coincidental.
This book contains mature content and is intended for adults 18+ only.
Cover Model: Joe Adams
Photography: Golden Czermak, FuriousFotog
Cover Design: Golden Czermak
Editing and Proofreading: Julie JA Lafrance
Personal Assistant: Mikki Thomas
Rubik
I left my club and went Nomad to help dull the pain of losing my sister, but I can’t figure out how to move on. My best friend and club president, Stryker, calls me home to fight a battle with a rival club. We killed them all, and I planned on riding the open road again. But I meet Izzy’s pregnant sister, Marie, and she captivates me. She’s naïve and innocent, but she’s brave and beautiful too. Coming home is hard since the standing VP in my club isn’t giving back my patch without a fight. And the more I try to get close to Marie, the demons in my head haunt me. But I won’t leave my club brothers again, and I’ll never let go of Marie. I’ll ride through Hell to stay and make her mine.
Author’s Note
This story’s setting is in the mid-1980s, before cell phones, texting, the internet, social media, and flat-screen TVs. The world changed with MTV when music was listened to on cassette tapes, and pagers and payphones were the quickest way to communicate, other than handwritten letters. The decade when bikers rode Shovelheads, Panheads, and Knuckleheads. The decade when mainstream society saw the man with long hair, covered in tattoos, and riding a Harley as the one percenter, the outlaw.
Berserk— Noun
1: an ancient Scandinavian warrior frenzied in battle and held to be invulnerable
2: one whose actions are recklessly defiant
Merriam Webster Dictionary
BERZERKERS MC
Baltimore Chapter (Mother Chapter)
Stryker – President
Rubik – Vice President
Ajax – Acting VP
Squatch – Sergeant at Arms
Tug – Treasurer
Richmond Chapter
Diezel – President
Jagger – Vice President
Mace – Sergeant at Arms
Petersburg Chapter (Patched over from Hellion MC)
Cain – President
Rex – Vice President
Bear – Sergeant at Arms
SONG LIST
Leather and Lace – Stevie Nicks and Don Henley
Outlaw – The Cult
Heavy Metal Soundtrack
Heavy Metal – Sammy Hagar
Heartbeat – Riggs
Working In The Coal Mine – Devo
Veterans of the Psychic Wars – Blue Oyster Cult
Reach Out – Cheap Trick
Heavy Metal (Take A Ride) – Don Felder
Crazy – Nazareth
Radar Rider – Riggs
Open Arms – Journey
The Mob Rules – Black Sabbath
Blue Lamp – Stevie Nicks
Love Bites – Def Leppard
Hysteria – Def Leppard
“Give to me your leather. Take from me my lace.”
Stevie Nicks
PROLOGUE
RUBIK
“I can't look,” my sister, Sadie said as she looked away from the fight and buried her face into my cut.
I wrapped my arm around Sadie but didn’t remind her like I always did a hundred times before – that Kage was the Prez of my club and this was the life that he chose as a Berzerker.
Stryker, Kage’s younger brother, and the club’s VP stood beside me in front of the fighting pit. We watched as Kage pounded his fists into the bloody face of the opponent he was sitting on top of.
I remembered how Kage and Sadie looked at each other one night at a club party over a year before the night of the fight. I tried to talk her out of being with Kage. It was too dangerous for Sadie to be around the club, and especially with the President. But there was no way I could convince her to do anything she did or didn’t want to do. When we were kids, Sadie could kick my scrawny ass on a weekly basis. Then things changed when she grew from being a tom-boy to a pretty young woman and I grew up to be a six-foot, four-inch, two-hundred-fifty-pound criminal.
“I’m going to be sick.” Sadie groaned, then she leaned over and threw up on the ground.
“For Fuck Sake!” Stryker barked, stepping back when some of Sadie’s puke landed on his boot.
Men roared and cheered as Kage stood up from his unconscious opponent, his wrapped knuckles all bloody. Stryker stepped into the pit, raising Kage’s sweaty arm shouting that he was the winner of the fight. Some men groaned and cussed realizing they placed their bets on the wrong man that night.
Sadie disappeared, moving through the clouds of smoke, and dirty sweaty bikers. I followed close behind and out of the warehouse to find her leaning against her car with her arms folded over her stomach.
I thought it strange that she got sick watching Kage or me or any of the Berzerkers getting bloody in the fight pit. And she didn’t do any liquor shots or smoke any weed that night.
“Kage won the fight like he always does,” I said. It was dark out, but I could see the wet tears on her cheeks. “What the fuck are you crying about Sis –“
“I’m pregnant you big stupid jackass!” She shouted, her eyes glaring at me.
I blinked. “Does Kage know?”
“Not yet. I just found out this morning and wanted to tell him earlier today. But he’s just as much a jackass as you and was all worked up to win this fight tonight.”
There was a ton of money in the warehouse riding on the fight between Kage and Bulldog Bronson who worked as muscle for some crime family up in Philly.
She shook her head and stared off at the bikes parked only a few yards away. “Kage is not going to be happy about this. Not one bit. But I’m not getting an abortion. I’ll take care of the baby with or without him.”
I just stood there, not knowing what to say. Then she started crying again so I stepped up and put my arms around her. “You don’t know that, Sadie. I’ve seen Kage and his brother Stryker do some crazy shit. The Donovan brothers’ rep is well known around Baltimore. But ever since Kage set his eyes on you, he’s changed. He’s my President. He leads the Berzerkers. They are my brothers. Just go back in there and tell him.”
The moment Sadie told Kage that night, everything changed for them. Kage didn’t want to fight anymore.
CHAPTER 1
RUBIK
I followed Stryker as we rode our bikes at break-neck speed on our way to his cabin. Marie and Izzy were in danger and members of the Sinister Creed MC – Syko and Rook were on their way to their to kill them both. When I followed Stryker into his cabin, the image of Sadie lying on the hardwood floor in a pool of blood flashed through my mind. Then it disappeared, and I was brought back to that very moment to Marie lying on the same floor screaming in pain. There was blood all over the front of Marie’s nightdress. I thought at first it was a bullet wound but realized she was in labor and would’ve had that baby right then and there.
Izzy was passed out cold laying beside Marie as she sobbed holding her round belly. “I’m going to die! My baby is going to die!”
I rushed over and knelt beside Marie while Stryker picked up Izzy and carried her to the couch.
I took Marie by the arms. “Look at me, Marie!” She opened her dark eyes wet with tears “You’re not going to die and neither is your baby! Now put your arms around my neck and hold on to me.”
She whimpered wrapping her arms around my shoulders as I lifted her. She was so small and light as a feather.
I carried her out of Stryker’s cabin and hurried over to the parked van that Syko and Rook stole. I opened the passenger door and set Marie in the passenger seat, then shut it came around the van and climbed into the driver’s seat. I would’ve busted the steering column and hotwired it, but luckily, the keys were left in the ignition.
Marie cried hugging her round belly while I drove the backroads as fast as I could to the local hospital, even passing other cars over the yellow line.
What if I didn’t get her to the hospital in time?
What if she had the baby right there in the passenger seat?
I gripped the steering wheel so hard, my knuckles were white.
“I'm scared Rubik! This hurts so bad!” Marie whaled.
I looked over at her. Her face was a pale as my knuckles. “It’s okay to be scared babe! I’m scared too.”
Marie stopped crying for a moment and hiccupped. She stared back at me. “You’re scared too?”
“Fuck yeah I’m scared.” I’d never said that to anyone, not even to my Berzerker brothers.
I got us to the hospital and parked the van behind an ambulance, then carried Marie in through the sliding glass doors of the emergency room. The hospital staff looked at us with wide eyes and mouths agape when I stormed through. I laid Marie down on a bed with wheels that someone brought over to me. I held onto Marie’s hand as the hospital staff wheeled the bed down a long hallway.
Before they wheeled the bed through the double doors, one of the nurses told me I couldn’t go any further and that they would take care of her.
I released Marie’s hand
Marie grabbed my hand, and wouldn’t let go, her eyes full of fear.
“Don’t leave me, Rubik!” She pleaded.
I clenched my jaw but managed to smile. “I’m not going anywhere.”
A nurse showed me a room where I could sit and wait. I paced back and forth inside the small room feeling like a caged animal. There was so much fear and pain in Marie’s eyes that it tore my insides to pieces. I remembered the first time I met Marie with a large pregnant belly. She was just a teenager and I wondered how Marie could handle that extra weight with her small frame. I thought at first that Stryker got her pregnant but he told me Marie was raped by members of Sinister Creed MC. Marie was innocent with a naïve vibe to her, but she was also very fierce when it came to protecting her older sister, Izzy. I witnessed that seeing Marie and the gun lying on the floor next to her. The gun she used to kill Syko and Rook. A girl like her didn’t deserve the fucked up shit she’d been through. Men like me.
Criminals.
Killers.
I killed men and dealt out violence, But I never raped a woman. It just wasn’t right.
I remembered how her pretty dark eyes lit up while she sat on the couch in the cabin with me watching as worked a Rubik’s cube - matching the colors on all sides within sixty seconds – which I could do in my sleep. She clapped and laughed, asking me to do it again and again.
Just then a woman entered holding a clipboard and pen, pulling me out of my thoughts about Marie.
“What’s going on? How is Marie?” I asked her.
She stepped back, craning her neck to look up at me like most people did – with fear. “I’m Nurse Miller. Are you the baby’s father?”
“Yeah, I’m the father. Is Marie okay?”
“You’ll need to fill out some paperwork to admit her for the delivery. Your name is?”
“Rubik.”
“Is that your real name?” She said, offering me the clipboard.
I was ready to crack the fucking clipboard in half, but instead, I snatched and tossed it onto a chair. “Fuck all that! Tell me now how Marie is or I’m going in that room right fucking now!”
“Dr. Grant will be here shortly to speak with you.” She said, looking at me like I had three fucking heads, then hurried to leave the room.
I paced back and forth again and looked at the clock on the wall. It felt like I’d been in that small space for several hours. I turned when the door swung open again to see Stryker and Izzy enter.
Izzy rushed over to me, throwing her arms around my neck. “Thank you, for bringing Marie here, Rubik! You just saved her life – and her baby’s life too.”
When she pulled away, I saw the red marks on her cheek and neck. Syko must have hit her then tried to strangle her too. I was glad Marie shot and killed both Syko and Rook.
A man entered the room just then, dressed in blue hospital scrubs. He told us his name was Dr. Grant. He had that same look of fear in his eyes as the woman with the clipboard did. He said Marie’s baby was breached – whatever the fuck that meant – and that he was performing something to deliver her baby.
“Can I go see her?” Izzy asked, tears welling up in her eyes.
Dr. Grant smiled, placing his hand on Izzy’s shoulder. “Not yet. She’s under anesthesia. Don’t worry, Ms. Hawkins. We’ll take good care of her and the baby.”
When the doctor left the room Stryker lit a cigarette for himself and one for Izzy. When she took a drag, she went into a coughing frenzy and Stryker laughed.
Two hours later, I stood beside Stryker and Izzy staring through a glass window at a bunch of crying babies. They were tiny, wrapped up in pink or blue blankets, laying in small plastic bins. If one wasn’t crying, it was sleeping.
“They’re all so damn small,” I grumbled. I’d never seen so many babies all in one place. “Which one is Marie’s?”
Izzy giggled, pointing at the window to one of the sleeping babies in pink “That’s her right there. Sleeping through all that noise.”
Izzy was able to visit Marie and left me and Stryker standing there by the window. A young couple walked over and I could tell they wanted to get a closer look at one of the babies but they were frightened of the two dirty-looking bikers.
“Let’s go back to that little room, Prez. I’ll roll us a joint. We’ll make the whole place smell like weed,” I said to Stryker.
He chuckled, slapping my shoulder then followed me back in there. I rolled a joint and gave it to Stryker asking him who was handling all the mess at the cabin.
Stryker lit the joint, took a hit, then passed it back to me. “Ajax, Bandit, and Grunt got there in good time. Grunt followed them driving his cage. They’ll clean up the place as if Syko and Rook never fuckin existed. Izzy was knocked out cold but Grunt looked her over and helped revive her. I didn’t know how bad she was hurt and wanted her to relax. She wasn’t going to listen to me even though I told her you got Marie to the hospital. She had to be here, so I rode her on the bike.”
Izzy returned with a big smile that lit up her face. “Marie is doing well. Marie is feeling some pain which is normal after a c-section, and still groggy from being under anesthesia. She has stitches and needs to stay here a few days. But she looks good considering what she had just been through.”
“That’s great news babe,” Stryker said, passing me the joint.
“What the hell are you two barbarians doing?” Izzy barked, anchoring her hands at her waist.
I took a long hit and held it trying not to laugh.
“Don’t get your panties in a bunch woman,” Stryker said back. “No one’s calling the damn law. We’re celebrating.”
Izzy rolled her eyes then sat down in a chair next to Stryker. “Marie named her baby Hope. Isn't that the sweetest name ever?”
Stryker slung his arm around her shoulders, and kissed her on the cheek, “Yes it is Izzy.”
****
Izzy and Stryker stayed at the hospital and I left finding the van right where I parked it. None of the hospital staff or guys dressed in security uniforms were going to touch it after seeing me storm through the doors carrying a bleeding woman who was having a baby.
I parked the van in front of the cabin to see Ajax, Bandit, and Grunt cleaning up around the place of blood, broken glass, and two dead bodies.
“How’s Izzy’s sister?” Grunt asked. He was the oldest brother in our club, having served in the Vietnam War and came back a bit deranged and unhinged – the kind of men that joined an MC like the Berzerkers.
“The doctors had to do something and give Marie some stitches, but she’s good. She had a baby girl.”
“That's good, brother.” Grunt said. I could barely see his grin underneath the grizzly mustache and long beard.
I climbed the steps, entered the cabin, and found Ajax and Bandit carrying out a body wrapped up in a bedsheet stained with blood.
Ajax dropped the end he was carrying and cracked his knuckles. “Well look who’s decided to come back.”
Bandit rolled his eyes, dropping the other end of the bloody bundle, and turned to leave. “I’m going to smoke a joint.”
I folded my arms over my chest. “Yeah, I’m back. You gotta a problem with it?
Ajax pointed at the VP patch on his cut, clenching his jaw and baring his teeth. “I’m still VP brother,” he sneered. “If you want this patch back, you’ll have to kill me first.”
“If that’s the way you want it brother, then that’s the way it’ll happen.
CHAPTER 2
MARIE
I sat in the rocking chair feeding my baby, Hope a bottle when I heard the sound of a motorcycle coming from outside the cabin. It didn’t sound like Stryker’s motorcycle. I held Hope and patted her tiny back. My sister Izzy looked out the curtained window in the kitchen to see who it was.
“It’s Rubik!” She said.
Hope burped and I giggled. “Good girl!”
I left the rocking chair, carrying Hope as Izzy walked to the front door and opened it. I stood behind her to see Rubik riding up and parking his motorcycle.
