Burnt Rubber: Adults Only Motorcycle Club Romance: Roadrunners MC
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Authors: Selena Black
Burnt Rubber
Selena Black
Marion lifted the camera out of the bag at her feet to load the film cartridge in it. She rolled her eyes when she heard the quiet laugh of the man sitting in the driver seat of the car.
“Go on,” she let out as she checked her equipment was ready for the work she was about to do. “Say it then.”
“What?” protested her boss, Harold Taylor. “I wasn’t going to…”
She interrupted his comment with a mockingly bad impression of his voice.
“The world has gone digital, Marion.”
“I do not sound like that,” Harold complained.
“Yes, you do,” she teased him. “And it’s exactly what you say whenever you see one of the cameras I use that isn’t digital.”
“Well,” he said and shook his head. “Who works with film these days?”
“Me… that’s who,” Marion replied immediately and laughed. “Can I help it if I like the smell of the developing chemicals?”
“Yeah… I think you might have been sniffing them a bit too much if you ask me,” her boss replied in a droll voice. “I think it’s affecting your brain.”
Marion grinned as she placed the camera in her lap then gathered her long hair at the back of her head and secured it in a loose ponytail. She removed her glasses and brought them close to her mouth to breathe on the lenses before using the hem of her shirt to clean some specs of dust away. It was only when she put them on again that she turned to look at her boss and spoke.
“For your information, this camera has one of the best low-light settings around,” she informed him. “And the film is specifically made for those conditions. It captures details that other cameras would miss, so it’s perfect for night shots of the city.”
“Little miss technical,” Harold joked and grinned.
“That’s why you employ me,” she shot back. “You know I’ll get the job done and bring you the pictures you need.”
“Are you sure you’re OK with doing this?’ he asked as his voice turned serious.
“Don’t worry,” Marion told him. “I’m twenty-five years old and a grown up girl now.”
“Do you want me to stick around?” Harold went on.
Marion shook her head to show that he didn’t need to. She preferred working alone and didn’t want him around to slow her down or influence the shots she took.
“I’ll be fine,” she assured him. “I know what I’m doing.”
She ducked her head down to put the strap of the camera around her neck then opened the door to get out of the car.
“Be careful,” Harold cautioned her.
“Yes, dad,” she teased him when she ducked her head down to look inside the vehicle.
“I mean it,” he went on. “We need a few good pictures for this story of the darker side of the city, but I don’t want you doing anything stupid or risky to get them.”
“Sure, and thanks for the ride,” Marion said to end the conversation and swung the door to close it.
She watched for a few seconds as her boss’s car pulled away from the sidewalk and disappeared into the traffic. A glance at her watch showed that it was now just after ten in the evening, and she reckoned that a couple of hours should get her the pictures she wanted. She already knew what she was looking for, but there was no rush to get started, so she went on the hunt for something to eat first.
The small coffee shop she eventually stopped at was busy with customers, although not overly crowded. It made it easy to find a table on the sidewalk at the front of the place after being served her order of coffee and a sandwich at the counter. As she sat eating, she kept her eyes open for any photo opportunities. The area around her was bustling with people, however, and it wasn’t really what she wanted, so she saw no point in wasting any film. It was seedier, more secluded locations she needed for the story about the underbelly of the city, and she went in search of them when she finished eating.
It brought her to quieter backstreets where she began taking photos of the dilapidated buildings as well as the down and outs she saw sitting drinking and smoking. She continued walking away from the more crowded streets until she started to get slightly nervous about her surroundings. The memory of her boss telling her to be careful sprang to mind, and she decided it was time to make her way towards a more populated and safer area.
She had stopped to get her bearings and decide the best way to walk when she was sure she heard the faint sound of raised voices. A frown creased her brow as she held her breath and listened. Nothing stirred in the next few seconds, and she began to think her mind was playing tricks on her. She was about to start walking when the sound came to her again, and she knew it wasn’t just her imagination. It was the thought of getting some grittier pictures that convinced her to walk towards, rather than away from, what she was hearing.
The voices grew louder as she got nearer and it allowed her to hone in on their exact location. She kept close to the walls of the buildings she was passing to remain in the shadows and stepped as lightly as she could to deaden the sound of her footsteps. The thought that she was doing something risky and stupid flashed through her mind, and while the sensible girl in her wanted to walk in the other direction, the photographer in her was convinced there were some great shots close by that she couldn’t pass up. She eventually got to a junction with a smaller alley and was conscious of the fact that she didn’t really know where she was. A glance towards the opposite side of the street showed a sign with the name Hooper Boulevard on it. The sound of the voices made her certain that whoever was having the disagreement was just around the corner, and a quick glance revealed she was right. A man was pinned up against the wall by another, with a third person looking on who seemed to be doing most of the talking.
The argument seemed to be about money, from what she was hearing, but she tuned out from it as she checked her camera to see there were seven shots. It was enough to get what she wanted and leave before she got herself in trouble. She sneaked a look and saw the men were in their own little world and paying no attention to anything else. It gave her a chance to point her camera at them and zoom in. Only the face of the person trapped against the wall was visible, so she snapped a few photos then waited to see what happened.
The man doing the talking seemed to be slowly building himself to a fury, and the sudden escalation to brutal violence came as a shock. Marion held her breath as she saw the head of the guy trapped against the wall snapping to the side as a hand crashed across his cheek. She was down to her last three shots. She silently waited for the man dishing out what was becoming a severe beating to turn towards her. The rush of fear was strong when he did and grew stronger when she caught the glint of something arcing through the darkness. She instinctively pressed the shutter to take the last three pictures before she ducked out of sight.
Her fear was because she recognized the man’s face and she knew she should run, but her instinct was to document what would be a sensational story. She quickly wound on the finished film to remove it from the camera. She slipped the cartridge in her pocket then got a fresh one to reload. As soon as she did, she glanced around the corner into the alley and her eyes opened wider. The victim of the beating was lying on the ground and her finger clicked on the shutter again as the man she recognized lashed out with a foot. Her heartbeat raced and she knew the smart thing to do was get away.
It was only at the last second that she sensed the presence coming up behind her, and the rush of panicked dread was intense. She spun around to see the smile on the face of a heavyset man, but there was nothing pleasant about it and it definitely wasn’t friendly.
“Hello, young lady,” he said before his expression hardened.
Marion knew it was too late to run. She’d made a mistake that put her in mortal danger, and her desperation welled up at the realization there was now no escape. Her squealing gasp was loud as her upper arm was grasped tightly, with the man’s fingers digging in her flesh. The pain shot through her and suddenly she wasn’t just watching the scene through a camera lens. She was slap bang in the middle of it. Harold’s words about not doing something risky and stupid to get the pictures flitted through her mind and she wished she’d listened to him. She grimaced as the camera was ripped from around her neck.
“Please,” she begged in a terrified voice as she was marched into the alley, but there was no escape from the grasp of the powerfully built man.
Fear gripped her as she was taken along to the others, and the frightening thought came to her that she was dead. The glint she saw in the darkness when she snapped the final three shots of the first film was a knife, and she was now getting a close up view of the blood dripping from it. A glance at the man on the ground showed it was more than a beating he’d suffered and the wound across his throat was ugly and jagged. Dark red bubbles wheezed between his lips and he seemed to be in the throes of taking his dying breaths.
“What the fuck is this?” Jake Fiori snarled.
Marion shrank back in horror as he stepped up to her. He was the man she recognized, and the reason for that was because he was the son of a Mob boss. She also knew of his fearsome reputation as a brutal man, to the point of being a psychopath, and she couldn’t stop the tears that began to slide down her cheeks.
“Caught her at the end of the alley, boss,” the heavyweight man said and held up the camera. “She was taking pictures.”
The expression of fury grew on Jake’s face as he grabbed the piece of photographic equipment and stared at it.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” he snarled.
Marion couldn’t get the words out as her voice failed her. She let out a terrified yelp as the camera was hurled down and smashed on the ground. Jake lifted his foot to stamp the heel of his boot down on the broken piece of equipment a few times then squatted down.
“Are you a fucking dinosaur? Where did you even find this old ass camera?” he snarled when he straightened up and an almost insane smile flashed across his face.
Marion understood what he meant when she saw the damaged cartridge in his hand and watched as he broke it beyond recognition. She shrieked when he threw it in her face, and her sobbing grew worse when he grabbed her hair. He moved closer until they were barely inches apart and his maniacal smile was chilling. It combined with the demented hatred in his eyes to bring it home to her that she was about to suffer the same fate as the man on the ground.
“Who are you working for, bitch?’ Jake hissed.
“A newspaper…” she blurted out. “I work for the
Bay Republic Newspaper.
”
“Well, I think your exclusive is fucked now, don’t you?” he went on and glanced down at the ruined camera before bringing his gaze up again. “Who else is here?”
“No… no one,” Marion stammered. “It’s just me. I’m trying to get pictures of the city.”
His angry gaze became suspicious, as if he didn’t believe what she was saying. Her legs almost gave out as the bloodied knife was brought up right in front of her face, but the heavyset man’s grip on her arm held her up. She closed her eyes and prayed, but stopped when she heard the loud gurgling sound of the man on the ground as he struggled for air. It made her open her eyes again almost instantly, and she saw Jake turn his head to look.
“This cheating, stealing bastard just doesn’t know when to die, does he?” he let out through clenched teeth and his two subordinates let out humorless snorts of laughter.
Marion was shaking badly as she watched him walk across and lash out with his foot. To her surprise, the man on the ground put on a show of superhuman strength to grab Jake’s leg and bring him crashing down to the tarmac. The explosion of savagery was brief as the two of them grappled for the knife, but to her utter disbelief it bought her a reprieve she wasn’t expecting when the heavyset man released the grip on her arm to go to the aid of his boss. She was stunned for a second as she watched the fight, before the sudden burst of adrenaline got her legs moving and she raced away from the scene towards the end of the alley.
“Fucking go and get her!” a harsh sounding voice shouted.
