by Unknown
Trick’s speech about Charity not being right for him made the anger that had begun to slip away come roaring back. “Ha, we’ll never know now will we,” Travis snorted. “I’m good. We’ll see how things go when I get back.”
“I’ve missed you. I should have made more of an effort to come visit. To let you know that you weren’t alone. At first I didn’t know what to say when your mom passed and then I was pissed at you over kissing Katie. I know why you did it, but I sure as hell didn’t like it.”
Travis grinned. “I bet you didn’t but you were acting like a fool. You needed to see that others weren’t as stupid as you were and would bend over backwards to make that woman happy.”
Trick laughed, holding out his hand, which Travis clasped, and was brought closer for a manly hug and a few hard taps on his back. It felt like a beginning.
“Thanks for that, asshole!” Trick said, before he headed out the door after the other men. When the door shut behind him Travis stared at it, wondering what the hell had just happened.
He’d been put through his paces in the last hour. Now he had to get ready to go after a woman he didn’t even know. He stood for moment thinking before he rubbed his head again and then headed into his bedroom to start packing. Apparently, he had a woman to rescue.
Chapter 5
Raven felt the sting of the bruise on her face. Viper had just ripped the phone away from her. The only connection she had to anyone who could rescue her had just been ripped out of her hand with that phone and tossed against the wall. She was now being roughly pressed into the counter, her arm held painfully twisted behind her back, and apparently this was exciting for Viper because she could feel the hard press of his cock into her back. That was disgusting and she wanted to throw up, which seemed to be happening a lot tonight.
“Now I can see I shouldn’t have underestimated your backbone like I did. Did you know that I love to break a woman down, to mold her into what I want? To change who she is? I’ve done it, you know, several times. Women are so fun to play with,” Viper laughed into her ear, his tongue licking along the lobe, making her jerk beneath him where she was pressed into the counter. “Such a feisty little thing. I bet you’ll be hard to break. I can’t wait.”
What a pervert. He wasn’t even hiding his evilness now that she’d found out about who he really was. She’d be lucky if she made it out of this alive.
“Just let me go!” She cried out, screaming when he wrenched her arm harder behind her almost ripping it out of the socket.
He laughed darkly at her cry and the other men with him did too. She heard the old man yelling, “Leave her alone!” before she heard the sound of flesh hitting flesh and the old man moaned.
“Oh the fun we’re going to have, you and me, Raven. So much fun.” He licked along her face, making her cringe and struggle again to his delight. How was she going to get away from this asshole? She needed to figure it out because there was no way in hell she was going to allow this to be the way her life was from now on.
“Come on now, little bird.” Viper pulled her up and began dragging her towards the door. “Make sure the old dude doesn’t think to play hero and meet us outside.”
As Raven was heaved off the counter by her arm, her eyes scanned the room and landed on Blue-eyes who held the old man back with his hands on the older man’s arms. She felt terrible that she was the reason for him being hurt. Why hadn’t she hidden? That should have been her first priority, not the phone. Dang, why did she always manage to screw up?
“Need help with the old guy?” Raven heard the other prospect ask Blue-eyes, who laughed and replied ‘nah’. Then she was being dragged by her hair with a hard male arm wrapped around her upper chest towards the door.
As she was pulled towards the door she was looking at Blue-eyes and she could see that he wasn’t hitting the old man, he was hitting the floor beside him, which she thought was odd. He was holding the man down and pretending to beat him; how strange. Not that she wasn’t glad that the old man wasn’t being beaten half to death; it was just strange that a man who was with the Headhunters MC would have any compassion in his soul to pretend to instead of actually beating the man.
Raven didn’t get to ponder on this much as she was being half dragged, half carried out the door to the street and across to the parking lot of Mel’s Diner. She was put on the back of a bike moments later with her hands tied together and looped over Viper’s head to his waist. That hadn’t been an easy feat to accomplish as she was nearly a foot shorter than his six-foot-two frame. They’d nearly ripped her arms out of the sockets to get it done. Raven was glad they did it even though it had been painful because she really didn’t want to fall off the back of the bike no matter how much going with them abhorred her. The idea of falling on the hard asphalt and being skinned alive was more horrifying.
They waited for Blue-eyes and when he moved over to them climbing on his own bike, Viper asked, “You took care of the old guy?”
“Yeah, he won’t be playing hero anytime soon.” He laughed evilly making shivers of disgust run down her spine. She wondered if after they’d exited he’d done something to the old man. She didn’t know but as they roared away from the diner with wickedly evil laughter from the three men, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
Hours later when she was dragged off the bike she fell, nearly tearing her arms off because they were still attached to Viper and the ropes, which were digging into her arms, were too tight. Viper laughed and jerked on the rope harshly, making her cry out in pain. She wanted to scream at him to leave her alone, but she was too busy trying to get up because he’d begun dragging her along with him. She whimpered as her arms felt like they were being ripped off.
Blue-eyes jerked her to her feet and shoved her into Viper, laughing. She had a feeling as she slammed into Viper’s back that he’d actually done it to help her.
“Always the gentleman…huh, Burner,” Viper asked snidely.
“Nah, just wanted to shut up her whining. It was getting fucking annoying.”
“You’re all heart, Burner. Always doing nice shit cause you want people to stop whimpering. Me, I like it when they scream,” said another man who’d come up. He was scary; his face was covered in scars, one of his eyes was just an empty socket, and his lips were twisted into a sickening smile that made her want to run. That wasn’t an option though, so instead she just attempted to keep herself upright while Viper walked.
“Ghost back yet?” Viper asked the man.
“No, he called and said they’d be back tomorrow.” The one-eyed man looked at her with his one good eye. Grinning, he revealed nasty yellow teeth that looked rotted. “She’s a pretty little thing. She going to be trained like Marta?”
“Yep, might take a while,” Viper chuckled darkly. “She’s a fighter.”
“Well once she’s trained I want a go at her when you’re done playing with her,” the man said, making her want to scream at him that she wasn’t going to be here for that horrifying scenario. She held it in just barely. She needed to not panic and work out a way to escape before she was trained like Marta. Whatever the hell that meant. Dang, there went the cussing again.
Viper nodded before he took her arms, jerking them up and over his head again, making her cry out as her already throbbing arms were wrenched again. She moaned when he finally dropped them. The relief didn’t last long as he was then jerking on her arms as he began dragging her along with him again by the rope tied around her wrists.
She saw that she was being tugged towards one of the buildings that lined the lane. They looked like small sheds and there were five of them, made from concrete blocks with a flat roof and only a small window that was covered in bars and high up, almost at the six-foot ceilings. What the heck were those little sheds for? And did she really want to know?
She was going to find out apparently, as the door was thrust open and she was roughly shoved inside. Viper laughed cruelly when she landed on her right shoulder, crying out ag
ain as pain radiated down her arm. She pushed herself up onto her knees trying to stand.
“Now, be a good little doll and I’ll untie you.” Viper stepped forward, his hands going to the knots at her wrists. He untied her hands, looking down at her on her knees. “Hmm…I like you in this position, Raven. With my cock near your pretty little mouth, if you want to play nice I can go easy on you. Make the training gentle.” He pushed his hand into her hair, pulling tightly.
Raven was horrified. No way in heaven or hell was she letting him put his dick anywhere near her mouth. Well, at least not unless he wanted it bitten off.
“If you don’t want to keep your dick attached, sure. I’d be happy to bite that nasty appendage off for you!” Raven roared.
“Bitch!” Viper scolded before his hand slammed into her face so hard she thought her jaw might be broken. She fell to the ground, crying out in pain as her injured shoulder again slammed into the unforgiving dirt floor under her. “Just for that you get to stay in here for three days with no water or food. You really should have agreed to play nice, little bitch.”
With that parting remark, Viper slammed the door so hard it rattled on its hinges and she heard a loud clicking that was likely the lock on the door. Well, that hadn’t been smart, she thought, her hand resting on her burning cheek. Her shoulder throbbed painfully and she wondered if she’d be alive when her brother showed up to rescue her.
Of course, that was assuming that he could find her. She hadn’t told him much more than route nine, and she knew that it stretched from Red Devil territory to Skin Riders territory. The Skin Riders MC were along the coast and five other MC clubs were between them all along route nine. And that she knew that proved she’d adjusted much better to life outside the wall than she’d ever believed she would.
Sitting here in the tiny little room on a dirt floor with her cheek burning and her shoulder throbbing, she wondered if she’d make it out of this dirty hovel alive. Trying to help with the soreness, she tried to shrug her shoulders, rolling the one that throbbed. It felt like it was being ripped from its socket again so she stopped. Moaning in pain, her hands tightened into fists at her sides. In the darkness she couldn’t make out much other than a small window and the shape of the door off to her left. She rubbed at her rope-burned wrists, wondering what she could do to get out of this mess.
Getting to her feet, she went to the window. It was small and if she stood on her tiptoes she could just barely see out into the darkness. She could just make out figures in the dark standing around a bonfire that was lit in the middle of the yard.
Men in Headhunter cuts were loitering around and she could see women who looked like they were wearing collars and very little clothing. As she watched, she saw a man push a woman in chains towards the fire. She heard the woman shrieking and the men laughing. Thankfully the woman managed not to fall into the raging fire, but it had been a near miss.
This wasn’t going to end well and her chances of living through this weren’t looking good. She shivered and decided that she didn’t want to see more. She moved from the window back into the dark. Her eyes adjusted slowly, and when they did she moved away from the window. She could just barely make out the small pallet that was on the dirt floor near the wall on the other side. She went over to it, sitting down on the pallet with her back to the wall.
As she sat this way with her arms around herself to ward off the slight chill, she hoped that her brother got here quickly because she didn’t know how long she’d be able to handle this mess. She didn’t want to die in a hovel with dirt caked under her nails. Nor did she want to be ‘trained’.
She trembled, wondering what that meant. She wasn’t an animal like the monkeys they trained in the city for the entertainment of the Hillies, the upper class of the city behind the wall. How could a person be trained? Or the better question was what were they trying to groom her for? Only the sinking pit in her stomach told her that she already knew what for from the way the man who asked if he could have a go after she was trained had looked at her.
Shivering, her arms wrapping tighter around her legs with her hands resting on her knees, she sat staring at the door for what seemed like hours but may have only been a short time before she was too exhausted to keep her eyes open and allowed herself to slip into a fitful sleep, all the while praying that the Red Devils hurried.
Chapter 6
Raven woke the next morning to the creak of a door opening. She jumped at the sound, staring towards the door, but it wasn’t open. That was when she noticed a panel at the top, which slid open and Viper’s evil smile appeared. Raven glared towards him, glad that there was little light in the room and he wouldn’t be able to see that she was giving him the evil eye. She knew after that slap yesterday that if he saw her glaring at him it likely wouldn’t go well for her.
“Little doll, I just wanted to ask one more time if you thought about playing nice?”
“No chance in hell,” Raven replied, and Viper roared out a laugh.
“Okay then, but it’s going to get hot in there and like I said, no water. Now you have a lovely day, little doll!” he cackled, sliding the little opening closed again. Raven waited for a long while in the darkened corner with her arms wrapped around her knees. She didn’t want to be anywhere near that door if he changed his mind and came back. Not that being on the other side of the room would stop him from coming in here to get her, it just made her feel safer.
After what seemed like an hour, but might have been less or more time because she had no way to tell in this little hovel, she braved going near the door. She was hoping to see something that might help her escape.
Maybe if she could find something to knock the pin out of the hinge she’d be able to escape. She saw to her dismay that whoever had put the door on had placed the hinge on the outside so that was out. She sighed but continued to look at the door. She noticed that there were two other little doors that slid back, one in the middle and one at floor level.
She’d bet that one on the floor was the one they’d shove food through. Of course, it didn’t sound like she was getting any food or water anytime soon. She moved back into the room noticing that the temperature had risen and sighed as she lay down on the pallet again. She needed to rest so that if she got the chance to escape she could. Grimly, she lay on the pallet with her head on her arm and wished she were anywhere but here.
Travis climbed off his bike at the Blue Bird Strip Club, pausing to stretch. He’d been riding for almost ten hours today, knowing that every minute counted for Raven. He’d been pissed to get this assignment and was still stewing about it, but he was going to save her. He’d never leave a woman in danger, it just wasn’t in his nature.
He moved to the door, seeing Hawk and Dozer standing near it. They both nodded to him and he returned the gesture before entering the club. He looked around at the naked girls dancing on stage, and then to the booths in the back where a man sat in the darkened corner. He headed towards him and when he was a few feet away, he found himself surrounded by three other men who moved to the table with him. It didn’t surprise him that these men who’d seemed bored or engaged in the show were suddenly there pinning him in. He’d expected it.
Standing at the edge of the booth, Travis waited for the man at the table to say something. The man nodded and waved the other men away. All of them left except for the man on his right who stayed.
“Reaper,” Travis said sliding into the booth with the man, who nodded in greeting. Reaper was part of the Blue Bandit MC and the go-to man for information in this area, which was why he was here.
“T-Bone,” Reaper grinned. “To what do I owe the honor? Last I heard you’d headed back to the south and the Devils.”
“Yeah, I did. I thought I’d come back for a short visit,” Travis told him, his eyes scanning the room around them.
“Ah, I see. How short?” Reaper had never been one to miss much. He had likely already figured out that Travis was here looking for information.
“Short.”
“Huh, well why don’t we go to my office and catch up. Lock, man the floor while T-Bone and I talk,” Reaper told the tall red haired man who’d hovered nearby when the others had disappeared. Lock was Reaper’s second in command and he nodded with a grunt of acceptance as Travis and Reaper slid from the booth and headed towards the man’s office.
Following Reaper inside, Travis watched as the man sat down at his desk and lifted the top on a wooden box, grabbing a cigar.
“Want one?” he asked, holding one out toward Travis.
“No, thanks.” Travis sat down across from the desk, his hands resting on the arms of the chair. He waited while Reaper lit the cigar, puffing a few times to get it started.
“I need information. The Headhunters have…let’s call her a friend and I need to get her back. Where would they take her?” Travis asked, not willing to waste time with idle chitchat when every second could mean Raven’s death.
“Ah, straight to the point. Must be a close friend.”
“I guess,” was Travis’s non-committal reply.
“So not your friend after all then. I wish I knew where they’d take her, but I don’t. They likely sold her already, you know.” Reaper took another puff on the cigar watching him.
“Yes, I’m hoping that isn’t the case.”
“It’s not very likely, but if they did still have her I suppose they’d take her to the compound. Although if you’re planning on looking there, I would advise against it. They have a pretty tight show. No gaps in their defenses that we’ve been able to find,” Reaper told him, watching Travis carefully.
