by Bella Jewel
I smile through the burning that has now moved to my nostrils. “Maverick was good about it, I heard him sticking up for me.”
“He should have done more, he should have knocked Koda fair on his ass. I’m so angry. How dare he? Who the hell does he think he is? If he wants just pussy, he could get it from anywhere and he damn well knows it. He chose you, and he has the …” She clenches her fists. “Nerve. The nerve! To say something like that.”
“It’s okay. I’m just shocked, I guess. I didn’t realize it meant so little. But maybe that’s my own fault, maybe I shouldn’t have thought it was anything more than it was. Maybe I’m to blame.”
She spins around and stares at me. “Do not let me hear you say that again. Koda has a big stick up his ass. I don’t think he remembers how to be a decent human being anymore. We’ve all had a past, but he’s letting his control who he is now and everything he is going to be. He is making that choice, and it’s a bad one.”
She’s right about that, I can’t argue.
Everyone has something in their past that bothers them. Everyone. The problem is, it either guides your path and makes you a better person, or it puts cracks in it, and makes you trip your way along. Koda has chosen to trip, when really, he could stop, stare at the mess, and choose another path. I had a hard life, too. But I refuse to let it define me.
But Koda lives with a deep guilt, something he seems unable to let go of.
“Now I’m going to be stuck with him, alone out here, until you guys come back again.”
Scarlett purses her lips. “I could see if Maverick might let me stay. I mean, there is a bunch of stuff I could be doing on this ranch. I’m going back on tour in a few months, once we’re finished with this album, so it would be nice to have some time out, ride my horses, things like that.”
“I can’t ask you to do that. Besides, Maverick would miss you too much, and we both know they can’t risk being seen coming in and out all the time.”
She sighs. “Yeah, I know. And there is no chance I’ll get him away from the club at this point.”
I reach over and tap her hand. “Thank you, honestly, but you don’t want to get caught up in this. I have to just get over it and deal. Hopefully, with a plan in place, I won’t be stuck here with him much longer. There are two cabins. I’ll stay in one and avoid him as much as I can.”
She nods, holding my eyes. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. So … I do have something else to ask …”
“You want to know about Mason, right?”
Her eyes bug out and she puts up a hand. “Whoa, hold up. Mason? What has Mason got to do with this?”
Oh, boy.
I thought that might have been where she was going, and it wasn’t. So I just put my foot right in it.
“Ah, nothing. What were you going to ask?”
“No way, sister! Speak! What has Mason got to do with this?”
I bite my bottom lip and stare at her, then I just shake my head and blurt, “It just kind of happened. Last night, with me and him, and …” I clear my throat. “Koda.”
Her mouth drops open, and then she throws her head back and squeals. “Oh, my god! You had a threesome with Mason and Koda?”
I shrug and give her a sheepish look. “In my defense, I was half drunk, and it’s been so long since I’ve been with a man. And Mason and I … It started, and then Koda came in and before I knew it, there were two of them, and we were … I’m not a slut! I swear to god. That’s the first time I’ve ever done anything like that in my life.”
Scarlett grins. “Honey, chill out. No judgement here. My god, if anything I’m jealous. Two gorgeous men, all over you, those big hard bodies. Any woman would be envious of you right now.”
I blink and then hold her eyes. “You don’t think I’m a slut?”
“Absolutely not!”
I exhale. “Anyway, Koda and I … After Mason went to sleep, it happened again. On the swing chair outside. It was so intense …”
“Ew, gross, I sat on that today.” I laugh and she grins at me. “Seriously, I’m happy for you. With everything going on right now, I’m glad you had a moment to just enjoy yourself and forget everything going on around you.”
She’s right about that.
I did forget about it.
And it was damn nice.
“Yeah, you’re right …”
“You have to give me details, though, because I swear, I have wondered so many times what it would be like to be wrapped up between two men.”
I grin at her and then roll my eyes. “It wasn’t … I don’t know. Details are hard.”
She raises her brows. “They are not. Did you fuck both of them?”
I snort. “No, Koda got this big macho thing going on and told Mason he could do everything else but he couldn’t fuck me.”
Her eyes get so wide I laugh at the expression now planted on her face. “Are you serious! Oh, my god.”
“What?” I keep laughing, shaking my head.
“Men do not do things like that if they don’t have reason to. I thought maybe Koda was being a jerk, because he can simply be like that, but now I’m starting to think maybe he has other reasons for being a dick to you.”
“Like what?” I question. “Because I heard what I heard, and I’m telling you, he didn’t sound like he was simply ‘saying’ it because he didn’t want Maverick to know he had some underlying feelings for me.”
“Honey,” Scarlett says, “if you were just pussy, he would have let Mason have all of you. The fact that he didn’t means he had a reason not to.”
“Maybe he didn’t want to be there after Mason had been there …” I point out, and then scrunch my nose up, because that sounds really bad.
Scarlett snorts. “Then he would have simply insisted on going first. Tell me, when he said it, was it all broody sounding, like a little protective, or was it casual and easy going, like I’m having this vagina and I’m just greedy.”
If I’m being completely honest, it was definitely said in the broody, protective way. He wasn’t backing down, and he wasn’t allowing Mason to argue. He simply wasn’t going to let Mason have sex with me.
“Well, it was definitely broody sounding, but that doesn’t mean anything …”
Scarlett smiles. “It does. Trust me, it does.”
I shake my head. “This is one of those scenarios where my friend tells me the guy likes me, but he really doesn’t, and I make a fool out of myself thinking he does, only to find out he really, really doesn’t …”
She laughs. “It is not one of those scenarios. Don’t get me wrong, I’m pissed at Koda for saying what he said this morning, but everyone has noticed there is something there when he looks at you. I’m not honestly sure what it is, but him being bossy and not allowing another man to sleep with you only confirms it. You know, you could just test it out …”
I raise my brows. “How so?”
“I don’t know. Flirt with Mason, ask Malakai right in front of Koda if Mason can stay for protection too, see if he has any reaction. Men are complicated, and yet they say we’re the complicated species. If he’s going to act like he doesn’t care, and play his little game, then, honey, you play yours, too.”
“That’s kind of childish,” I point out. “But I like it!”
She grins. “Me too. But, first … do you care about him?”
Nobody has directly asked me that. Hell, I haven’t even directly asked myself that. I don’t know Koda that well, that’s the honest to god truth. And the time I’ve spent with him, he’s driven me crazy most of the time. But yes, there is something there, maybe it is as simple as an understanding, two souls that get each other, but I feel safe around him, I feel like he gets me, and mostly, last night, I felt a deep-rooted grip when I was with him, one that begged me to keep trying because I might just find what I need.
“I’m honestly not sure what it is I feel for him, I haven’t spent much time getting to know him, but if I’m being honest, then yes, I do feel something. I’m drawn
to him in a way I’ve never been drawn to anyone before.”
Scarlett smiles. “I know that feeling. And I also know it can be daunting when it happens with a stranger. Maverick was a stranger to me, but I felt something when I was around him. Trust your gut, it won’t lead you wrong.” She pats my hand, then grins. “In the meantime, don’t let that man get away with treating you the way he did. You play right back, honey.”
Oh.
I intend to.
Koda can play hard.
But me? I can play harder.
~*~*~*~
THEN – CHARLIE
“Please. Please, don’t leave me here.”
I stare at the woman, chained up and on her knees before me. My hands are shaking, my knees are about to buckle, and everything inside me is screaming to help her, to save her, to get her out of here. I glance behind me at the door. I’m still doing my father’s dirty work, even now I’m seventeen, even now I’m old enough to be able to run.
I’d tried, a few times.
He found me, and he made me wish I was never born.
Just like he promised he would.
Running isn’t an option. Right now, I don’t know what my options are except to keep doing what I’m told until one day I can find a way out. It’ll take brains, and a lot of work but, eventually, I’ll find it. And I’ll use it. And I’ll watch him burn.
“I can’t help you,” I say softly to the girl.
I didn’t mean to find her. I went to the toilet when my boyfriend, who is actually someone my father set me up with to keep his filthy show running, came to a large mansion to visit a man that works for my father, but who he is sure is double crossing him. Because of that, he wants us to find what we can. This particular man is my boyfriend’s uncle, so coming into the house wasn’t a hard task.
Neither was me sneaking off while Carl, my boyfriend, is looking over information with his uncle.
I know the house fairly well; I’ve been here a couple of times. Carl has no idea I’m snooping for my father, he has no idea my father suspects his uncle, I simply told him my stomach was upset and I needed the bathroom. He won’t check on me. You have to give a shit about someone to check on them. Carl doesn’t give a shit about me. He uses me for sex, and for power. He wants in with my father, and my father thinks he has great potential, so it was basically a forced match.
I rarely go against my father—I wouldn’t dare.
It’s not worth it.
Still, Carl has no clue my father is already using his connection with him to dig deep into his family. He thinks getting in with my father would be the best thing in the world. He’d be so incredibly wrong. It would be the worst thing that could ever happen. After all, my father couldn’t give two shits about him, not really. He’ll use him, of course, hell he’ll probably even let him in, but Carl will never know how involved my father really is.
Like the fact his daughter is snooping through his uncle’s house, trying to find some information to prove he’s double crossing my father. The two of them have been working together for a while, probably two years, another reason Carl has a foot in the door. But lately things have been going wrong, very wrong, and my father suspects Carl’s uncle is behind it. Of course, Carl’s uncle has no idea my father suspects him.
The idiot.
After snooping through the basic areas and finding nothing, I found a door in the master bedroom that led down to a basement. It was a big risk coming down here, because let’s face it, I could have walked into anything. I expected it to be locked, but it wasn’t. It is, however, very well hidden. Anyone not looking wouldn’t know this was here.
And inside the basement, I found a girl, chained up on the ground to big chains connecting to a wall. The stench down here is out of this world. She’s covered in her own urine and god knows what else. She’s naked and has nothing more than a pot on the ground and a worn-out mattress on the floor. Judging by the marks on her body, she’s been used for sex. Fingerprint marks, not beatings.
She was fully gagged when I found her, and for a few moments, I stood in shock, just staring at her, then I rushed over and pulled her gag off. There was so much crying and begging, and she finally told me that she was taken on vacation a year ago and kept as a sex slave down here. My heart sunk, and everything in the room started spinning. Carl’s uncle is buying sex slaves and using them? Is she the only one, or are there more?
Is he selling them, too?
“What’s your name?” I ask the girl after she’s begged me, yet again, to get her out of here.
“My name is Ellie, Ellie Peterson. Please, you have to let me out. Don’t let him come back down here and hurt me again. Please.”
My heart feels like it’s going to fall out of my chest. I know better than anyone that if I try to get her out now, I’ll get caught, my father will find out, and everything will blow up. Which also means I’ll suffer severe consequences. Severe. But at the same time, I can’t leave this poor girl down here alone in the hands of a monster.
“I can’t get you out now. If I do, I’ll probably never leave this house either.”
A very real possibility.
“Please,” she begs. “Please, don’t leave me here.”
“I’ll get help, okay. I’ll find a way. I promise. But I can’t do it now. I can’t …”
She starts crying, deep, heavy sobs, and my whole body aches. I want to find a way to get these chains off her and get her out, but I know I can’t. I know this more than I can even begin to explain. Still, that doesn’t make it any easier. It means, because of the monster I live with, that I have to walk out of here and know that this girl will spend more time being abused and tortured.
Any normal person would just call the police right now.
But I’m not normal.
And I know the risks that would bring.
For the first time, I feel as big of a monster as the man who raised me.
A heartless, cruel monster.
“I’ll find help, I have to go,” I whisper, and turn and rush out.
I run out of the basement, careful to leave everything just the way it was, and then rush out of the main bedroom and back down the halls and into the living room where Carl and his Uncle are chatting closely about something. They both look up when I walk in.
“That took ages,” Carl mutters.
“Sorry,” I whisper. “I told you my stomach was upset.”
“Take that girl home,” his uncle snaps. “I don’t need to be getting sick. And tell your father to contact me, as soon as possible, will you?”
I nod. “Yes, sir.”
“Get her out of here, boy.”
Carl stands, shooting me an angry glare, like it’s all my fault that whatever they were just doing was interrupted. If I was actually sick, I’d feel a whole lot worse now.
“Don’t come near me if you’re sick,” Carl growls, walking past me.
I turn and glance at his uncle, and for a moment, our eyes lock. And I could swear, he knows that I know. Does he? I move my eyes away from his after a few moments when Carl snaps my name, and I turn and rush out.
If he knows, will that girl survive another night?
Or will he remove her, just in case?
Was that my only chance to free Ellie Peterson?
And did I run out without even trying?
Guilt swarms my chest as I walk out the front door.
But even then, I don’t turn back.
More fearful for myself than for the poor innocent girl in the basement.
Monster.
Just like him.
Just like he always wanted.
-17-
NOW – CHARLIE
“We found the address and matched it to the description you gave us for Slater,” Malakai tells me when I get back to the cabin after my talk with Scarlett.
“You did?” I ask, heart pounding.
If I’m wrong about this, if Slater isn’t really against my father, then I could end up dead, becau
se the clubs involvement will become clear and everyone could go down, including me. And these people, they’ve become somewhat like family to me. The idea of losing them because of incorrect information makes me more than anxious.
Hell, Slater might not even have anything to do with my father anymore. He might have finally broken free and gotten away, though I’m guessing that isn’t the case. He worked too closely to it all. I don’t see it being something that he could just walk away from. Hell, nobody just walks away from Benjamin Masters. Once you’re in with him, even behind bars, he makes sure you stay that way.
“Okay,” I say, rubbing my arms and avoiding Koda, who is staring right at me. His eyes intense. I don’t know what he’s trying to see but he’s not going to get any further answers from me.
He wants them. I know he does. They all do.
The further they dig, the more they want to know about my father and the operation he runs. I’ll give them what they need to know.
But to Koda, I won’t give a thing.
Not right now.
Not until he shows me something in return.
“You sure you’re okay to come?” Malakai asks, studying me.
I swallow, because I’m nervous. Like I said, if I’m wrong and Slater actually is loyal to my father, he’s going to likely give information and they’ll find me a whole lot quicker. That scares me. So bad. But, it’s the only chance we have, and I’m not going to live in fear like this forever.
And the club doesn’t deserve to, either.
“Yes. If I’m right, I’ll be the only one he would even consider speaking to. I know the kind of business my father runs, I know what the consequences are if Slater was to get caught. I have to ask, and I’m sure he will, too. What’s in it for him?”
Malakai looks to Koda, then to Maverick, and then to me. “Freedom. I’ll make sure of it.”
I smile, warmly. “That’s kind. Thank you.”
“He helps us, we help him. That’s how we roll. Speakin’ of rollin’, let’s get goin’. We need to go and speak to him.”
“The disguise,” Scarlett says, coming out of the cabin with a bag in her hand. “I have all kinds of things that I use on tour. All kinds. Here.” She pulls out a brunette wig and hands it to me. I stare at it, then at her.
