7
Chapter 7
Haylee
My heart was pounding through my chest and was positive I may die from an early heart attack when Lucian locked the bedroom door.
Sex I could do. Sex was meaningless. But an honest conversation. Fuck. Someone save me!
I took a sharp breath in and sat down on the couch in front of the television. I wasn’t sure what Lucian’s getting to know me meant. Did it involve actually talking because honestly, I’d rather fuck.
I watched him light a cigarette and hold it between his teeth. He looked at me like I was piece of art he was finally understanding.
He then took the cigarette out and extended it to me.
I looked at it and knew my cravings were going to go into overdrive after a small puff. I had withdrawn from them the best I could, but I was still taking every chance I could get to get second-hand smoke.
I inhaled the cigarette and closed my eyes, letting the smoke come out of my nose. Fuck, I needed that.
I was going to take another hit of the tobacco and marijuana cigarette.
My eyes opened when a soft kiss brushed across my lips. And then he was pulling me to him on the couch. My legs went on either side of his thighs, straddling him, still holding the cigarette.
Holding the cigarette to his lips, he in haled and then he brought my lips to his and he blew the smoke into my mouth. I exhaled it upwards, out of both our faces. He kissed me again, this time biting my bottom lip before withdrawing. We continued the pattern—kiss, smoke inhale, smoke exchange, smoke exhale.
As we both begun to get high from the mixture of blends, our kisses got more intense, deeper. Just as we finished the last cigarette in the packet and I butted the cigarette out in the ashtray, he flipped me to my back.
I think the whole getting-to-know-me thing had disappeared. He just wanted to explore my body and it was his to explore.
He planted a kiss on my rib cage. “What does this mean?”
I clenched my mouth shut, unsure if really wanted the answer.
“Haylee,” he growled, and I nodded my head.
“It’s means I was there for the Vegas Slaughter.” I looked down at the snake on a sword. “Those who survived got the tattoo.”
“This one.” His finger ran over the tattoo under my belly button.
“Um, it stands for the gang I was in.”
“Was in?”
“I’ve been in a few. I should have that one blacked out,” I admitted. “Should have burnt it off.”
His head snapped up and he looked up at me.
“What, have you never had a tattoo burnt off?” I frowned. Surely, he had. “In my way of life, everyone has had at least one gang mark removed.”
“Normally girls don’t experience that,” he gritted out. “Which one did you get burnt out?”
“Thigh . . . it was just initials.”
He pushed my skirt up, looking for the ruined tattoo, and sure enough he found it. The glare I got when he found it made me wish I hadn’t revealed that to him.
“What do you have on your back?”
“Nothing,” I answered. “My back is going to be clean of ink. I don’t see the point in getting tattoos where I can’t see them.”
A knock on the door scored his attention and he climbed off me. Answering it, Dash stood at the door with a dominant look on his face. His eyes ran up and down me, then a smirk spread across his face. Lucian then gave him a firm shove in the chest and pushed him out of the room, following him out.
Lucian’s phone buzzing on the coffee table scored my attention, and I saw a number I never thought I would see again.
My brother’s.
Lucian walked back in, and I didn’t mention the fact that my brother had called. Or that I knew my brother had called. I could come to two conclusions.
One, Lucian was using me as a pawn with Harley trying to get something in exchange for me.
Two, Harley had found me and had just called to threaten Lucian.
But the question that was on my mind was should I say I knew that number. Then I suppose I didn’t have to because either way, Lucian would know that I knew Harley’s number.
8
Chapter 8
Harley
Sitting at the hospital, my eyes were on the small girl who was nursing a broken arm.
“Did you call Lucian?” Angeline snapped at Imogen.
“I did,” I spoke for my fiancée. “Imogen is feeling emotional enough without coping a spray from ya dropkick of a sperm donor.”
I was furious and frustrated. I was meant to be hunting for Haylee, but instead I was at the hospital because Imogen had let her niece climb a tree, and she slipped and broke her arm.
Imogen called me, and fucked if I knew what to do. So here we were at the hospital while the ten-year-old got a cast on her arm.
“Did you leave a message?” Angeline, who was the biggest bitch of a person I had ever met, snapped at me.
“Yeah, I did when I got here.” I glared at her. “Believe it or not, Angeline, I am capable of leaving a voice message.”
Just as I said that, the doors to the hallway slammed open and they bounced off the walls.
I looked at the man as he came storming towards us, looking furious and as frustrated as me. Doubt he has lost his sister to a bunch of wild cavemen. I gritted my teeth. It seemed like everyone’s problems seemed small compared to mine. I had to find Haylee, but I didn’t fucking know where to start.
“Where is she?” he bit out, his blue eyes slicing at me. God. All I had done was leave a message on his voice mail.
Imogen said no one really knew about Lucian—apart from the fact that he fathered Massie. He wasn’t in the picture, and Angeline kept what happened between the two very private. Apparently, she went off the rails and a short, unhealthy marriage had been the result, along with a child.
Massie was a sweet kid and we seemed to spend the most time with her. As Angeline was sleeping her way to the top of the food chain at her accountant firm, and her father . . . well, fucked knows what he did for a living. He wasn’t in the picture. Don’t even know why I had to call him.
“I’ve got to go, Imogen.” I kissed her on the head. She was still in tears. Angeline was telling Lucian what happened, and just as she mentioned Imogen’s involvement, she went stiff. Lucian was glaring at her.
“Why the fuck was Massie with her?” he spat, still glaring at my fiancée.
Fuck. I was known as a rude bastard, but he was a fucking prick of a man! Rude. Fucking piece of trash better keep his words to himself. I could tell just from his eyes what he was thinking wasn’t nice towards Imogen.
“Maybe the question is, where were you?” I spoke directly at him, and his glare intensified. “Not here with ya daughter, or ya wife—”
“Ex-wife,” he corrected me then stepped in front of me, blocking my view to Massie through the glass windows. “I look after my family,” his lip twitched up, “unlike some.”
My expression dropped.
“Yeah, heard about ya sister.” His mouth went to my ear. “How do you feel, mate, letting down the only person who you were responsible for. How do you feel, knowing a woman paid for your debts?” He gripped my neck, his voice thick with disgust. “Ya a pussy, Harley, for letting her take the fall. She’s too good for you.”
Thanks to my presence, the security had already been hovering nearby. But as soon as Lucian appeared, extra security followed him.
When he grabbed my neck and yelled in my ear, the security started to break us up. But when my fist connected with his eye, the security pounced on me, dragging me out, screaming questions at him like how the fuck he knew about Haylee!
9
Chapter 9
Haylee
I was flicking through the television channels, wondering what the hell was going on. Harley had left a message, that much I knew. But what it said, I had no idea. Lucina left as soon as he heard it and I was beginning to think that he
wasn’t coming back or the next person who walked through that door would be Harley and Lucian.
My heart skipped a beat when the door cracked open.
“Fuck, are you okay?” I abandoned the television remote and my thoughts of seeing Harley on the couch and rushed to Lucian.
“Gee, whoever got you, got you good,” I said without thought.
“Fuck off!” He wracked my hand off his face. “Don’t need ya fucking help.”
I bit my tongue. He needed to ice his eye, if he didn’t it would swell shut.
“Who did that to you?” My eyes dropped to the ground. Now was the moment I’d be testing if Lucian was going to be honest with me like I had been trying with him. But I supposed if he wasn’t, it didn’t mean anything. He didn’t love me. I was his property, that was it.
I didn’t say anything when he adverted his eyes. Then I froze, my hand on the door handle. I clenched my eyes shut. As submissive as I wanted to be, I couldn’t not acknowledge this. I took a steady breath in. “I know it was Harley,” I said clearly, then opened the door and walked out, heading to the kitchen for ice.
* * *
“Didn’t expect you to come back.” That was the first thing I heard when I walked back into Lucian’s bedroom. “Thought ya would have taken the chance to run.”
I moved towards him, then applied the ice to his eye. He hissed in pain from the ice.
“And what would that achieve?” I spoke softly and looked into his non-covered eye. “I am repaying my debt to the club. You did me a favour when you claimed me. You didn’t have to . . ..” I moved on my knees closer to him. “I’m yours now, Lucian, I’m not leaving.”
Possession covered his eyes. “Where did you want your next tattoo?”
I frowned. Okay . . . that was a random question. “I do them on impulse. I don’t have another one planned.”
“Well, start giving it some thought, sweetheart.” He kissed my forehead before he got up and moved around the couch.
I blinked a few times in shock. He had called me sweetheart and kissed me as if I was more than just some thing he had to look after.
10
Chapter 10
Haylee
I was behind the bar, cleaning again. I had never cleaned before I came here. Now it was all I did to fill the time. There was another meeting going on behind those double black doors. What was going on, I didn’t know.
I kept to myself until the door cracked open and my name was called.
It felt like a hundred bees were in my body, stinging and biting me, as I walked towards the doors.
“Yes?” I spoke the one word clearly.
“Need ya information,” Dash spoke from the right side of Lucian, who was at the head of the table. The doors closed behind me and I frowned, not understanding what they were talking about.
And then I saw a man standing in the corner. That killed the bees in my stomach. I didn’t think twice, just reached into the enforcer vest, the man stood there stunned and I unclipping his gun from his belt, and pointing it at Declan.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” I hissed at him, and the men were alert now as there were two guns in the room. The enforcers—who always carried a gun to their church meetings to reinforce the laws and keep organised chaos—and Declan seemed to have not given up his gun or got it past the members.
“Haylee. So happy to see you as well,” Declan said mockingly. “I forgot to tell the boys that you and I go way back.”
I rarely cried. Rarely did tears drop unless I was an emotional wreck from no sleep.
But the memory of Declan forcing himself on me—on my birthday—was a memory I wished I could forget.
“Now the boys use you for what you’re good for,” he added. “You’re just a hole. Don’t worry, boys, I’ve been there.” He winked. “Took her virginity. Let’s just say it was a one-sided pleasure experience.”
My mouth started to tremble and my vision blurred until I blinked back the tears.
I watched Lucian get up with a smile on his face. “Put the gun down, Haylee,” he said to me. How could he expect that after what Declan had just said? How could he expect me to back down? “Sweetheart, put the gun down.” His voice was softer and with less authority. I knew then I didn’t have to worry about paying Declan back because Lucian was going to do it for me.
But then, I could be wrong.
I lowered my gun and handed it back to the enforcer. He snatched it from me, slightly pissed off.
Declan chuckled and put his gun away. “Guessing Lucian’s been there. She’s tight, but I had tried to make sure she wasn’t when I was through with her.” He smirked confidently that Lucian would trash talk me as well, and by the expression on Lucian’s face, I was beginning to think he was going to.
Lucina laughed and looked around the hall, a few of the other members weren’t sure how to react. There was a slight smile on their faces, but that was it.
Lucian threw an arm around Declan’s neck. “Trust me, mate, I’ve been in her, but she is tight as fuck, which that makes me think,” Lucian faked a confused look, “that you have one tiny dick.” Lucian tightened his grip around Declan’s neck, putting him in a head look. “You just disrespected my woman and on top of that, you admitted to raping her. So I’m going to make sure your virginity is taken as well.”
Declan eyes were going red from the pressure of Lucian’s arm around his neck, squeezing him tightly.
“I want him raped.” Lucian threw Declan to the ground, who was gasping for air. “Make sure it happens, Dash. Get someone fresh out of prison.” Lucian locked eyes with me. “Haylee, leave. I’ll be with you in a minute.”
I was so startled by what was happening, I didn’t even realise I was being pushed out of the room until the door closed behind me.
11
Chapter 11
Haylee
I looked at him, unsure I had heard him correctly. “You want me on the back of the bike?” I said the words slowly. “Your bike?”
He looked at me like I was stupid. “Did I speak fucking gibberish when I talked a moment ago?” He handed me his helmet. “Come on, sweetheart, ya acting like you’ve never been on the back of one before.” He even winked at me. I think he was trying to lighten the mood between us by being playful.
“I haven’t. I’m normally the one in control.” I shallowed sharply. “How can I get on the back when I don’t even know what type of rider you are?” He could be flat out and crazy, or normal. I highly doubted he was normal, though. Bikers loved speed.
“I guess ya going have to trust me.” He looked at me, and you would think by his expression that he had just asked me to love him. I smiled faintly.
“Guess I’m going to have too.” I took the helmet and climbed on.
“Hold on tight, sweetheart,” he said firmly, then grabbed my arms and pulled me into his back, wrapping my arms around him tightly.
He took off causing me to go straight into his back, and I held on for dear life. He chuckled and his hand ran up my bare leg.
“Sweetheart, I’m not gunna kill you. Now let’s get you some clothes.” He had amusement in his voice. Hearing that charming tone to his voice sent my heart pumping faster.
* * *
We had done a short trip into town, and now that we were here, I was apparently shopping. I hated shopping and didn’t put much thought to what I purchased. I dumped the warm clothes on the counter, in which I got directly told that Lucian didn’t like what I had picked.
I was now on my third lot of choices, and he finally agreed.
Everyone was avoiding us as we walked down the busy shopping centre, but I didn’t care. I was so focused on trying not to trip over all the bags I was carrying. I was thankful that Lucian had ordered a van to pick up my shopping.
I was walking past a lingerie shop when I grabbed Lucina’s hand. This is was the first time I had touched him without being silently told to by his eyes. I hoped it was okay, but I was too nervous to look b
ack to see if I’d crossed a line. Instead, I dragged him into the lingerie shop.
I felt his other hand move onto my waist and I inhaled sharply. “Now these you have to try on,” he said huskily in my ear. “We’re buying the whole store.”
I blushed. “Guess you’ll have to unwrap me every night to see what I’m wearing.” I pushed out of his grasp and started to head for the outfits.
“Or I’ll just have you walk around in them,” he said loudly, scoring the attention of the assistants.
My expression dropped. I wouldn’t put it past him.
* * *
We had handed over the last of the shopping bags over half an hour ago, and I was wondering why we were still at the mall.
Then we came to a stop outside a tattoo shop.
“Didn’t want this tattoo to be like all your others . . . done outside of a shop.” He paused and my expression dropped. “You know why you’re here?”
I looked at the tattoo shop. “Yes.”
“You know what you’re getting?”
“A property tattoo?” I looked back at him and he nodded his head.
“I’m letting you decide where you want it.” He pushed open the door for me, and I walked in while a huge part of me—the me that felt free for a few hours—remained outside because as I sat in the tattooist chair. I knew this sealed my fate.
12
Chapter 12
Haylee
The code called it a black wedding, which was the day when you get a property mark from your owner. It was basically their version of a wedding. Once you have the property mark, you are expected to stay with the man that gave it to you till death do us part.
Property of Lucian Page 4
