by Unknown
“I’m not worried about that, I can handle that part.”
“Huh, guess they didn’t call you Slick for nothing then,” Reaper grinned. “Only I thought you were out of their club. Even thought for a time you might join the Bandits.”
“I did consider it, but even after all these years I couldn’t give up on family. You know how that is,” Travis spoke quietly, his expression stark in the dark room, lit with only a lamp behind the desk.
“Yeah, I do get it. They making you work for your due or they giving you what you’ve earned?”
“They’re doing right by me, don’t worry so much, mom.” Travis grinned at the younger man who glowered at him.
“Smart ass. You know, I get why Death did what he did, but I still think it’s kind of shitty that that’s the way it has to be. If it wouldn’t cause a riot in the ranks you could have been with them all along.” Reaper shook his head before taking another puff on his cigar. Travis had always liked the man. He was a great source of information and he was always reasonable.
“Yeah, but we both know that for the lower ranks and the patched over clubs it’s all about power. If a leader’s perceived as weak, then the wolves would be at the door so to speak.”
“Still, it’s shitty,” Reaper grumbled, leaning back in his chair to puff smoke rings into the air.
“I hate to cut this short but can I get the info on that compound because I need to hit the road. This is an urgent mission.”
“Well, you’re not going to like where the compound is then.” He paused, taking in Travis’s questioning look before continuing. “It’s a twelve day ride away from here even if you’re going flat out,” Reaper muttered grimly.
“Fuck.” Travis didn’t want to hear that. That meant there wasn’t a chance in hell that he’d make it back in two weeks like he’d told Raven’s brother when he’d called him.
“That pretty much sums it up, my friend. Because even if they have her now, she’ll most likely be sold by the end of the week and then who knows if she’ll ever be the same. The women they sell to the Cut Throats rarely are when we get them free. Those assholes are bad news.”
Travis didn’t need Reaper to tell him that, he’d already known it. But hearing it out loud made it seem so much worse for some reason. Fuck, what was he going to do now? If Raven had been sold to the Cut Throats she was as good as dead.
“Do you know a shorter route?” Travis asked, knowing that if there was the man would have already told him, but he had to ask.
“That is going the shorter route, T-Bone,” Reaper said shaking his head with disappointment.
“Damn, guess I better get a move on it then.”
“Yep, I’ll draw you a map. Hope that you get to her in time, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
“Yeah, no shit. Fuck, how am I going to tell her brother?” Travis slammed his hands down on the arms of the chair, pissed off that he’d likely find the man’s sister dead or a shell of her former self at the end of this trip. It sucked when your mission was to save a corpse.
“If you’re smart, you’ll just tell him how long it will take to find her because telling him that she’s likely already dead isn’t a good plan.”
“No fucking shit, man!”
Travis walked out of the Blue Bird with the map that would get him to the compound. He was sure that he’d be able to shave a day off the ride by skipping a bit of sleep but a day was the best he was going to be able to do because there wasn’t any other choice. Fuck, sometimes being an errand boy sucked. He wasn’t looking forward to finding a broken bird or a woman’s corpse at the end of this trip.
Raven lay on the floor of the little room sweating. She felt like she was melting and her mouth felt so dry that she thought perhaps she’d die from the parched feelings. It felt like she’d swallowed sand paper; her tongue was thick and her throat burned. She’d been in the hovel with nothing to cool her down and no water for a day and a half. Yesterday hadn’t started off that badly as it had been an overcast day, but today the sun was shining brightly into the window, which meant it was beating down on the little hut and it increased the temperature to at least a thousand degrees in here.
She’d begun to wonder if sucking the man’s cock wouldn’t have been better than melting in this darned sweatbox. Then she remembered that he was a jerk who’d thought nothing of selling children and she knew that no matter the suffering she went through in this little hovel or out of it, she wouldn’t be willingly doing anything with that man.
She could see that the sun was going down finally and she almost began to cry because perhaps the temperature in the room would drop. At least she prayed it did. Her head was pounding like a sore thumb and she must have passed out for a while because when she woke, it was to hear one of the little panels sliding open.
Raven waited fearfully for Viper’s snide voice to break the silence by asking if she was ready to play nice. Only it never came. What did come from the small panel in the bottom of the door surprised her. A bottle of cold water had rolled into the room through the opening.
Unable to help herself even though she realized the water could be drugged, she moved towards the bottle. She was too thirsty to care at this point. She dove toward the bottle which rested just inside the little opening and jerked it up. After opening it, she began to gulp down huge swallows of the water, almost moaning in relief. She was almost a quarter of the way through when a voice hissed quietly, “Slow down, Raven.”
She recognized the voice was that of the blue-eyed man who’d held the door for her at the diner. The same man who may have pretended to beat an old man to save him. She didn’t know what to think. She was still chugging the water because she was so thirsty she couldn’t stop. She felt like her throat, which was still burning, was never going to be satisfied.
“You need to slow down! If you keep sucking it down that fast you’ll end up throwing it back up,” he hissed again.
Knowing he was right, she forced herself to stop guzzling the water down. Her brain had already told her to slow down but her desperately dry throat screamed at her to keep drinking. She recapped the water and lay on the ground near the door, her head resting on her arm, pressing her forehead to the cool bottle. She didn’t care about the dirt that was surely covering her face as she lay there resting. She was too hot and parched to care.
She could understand why those women out there had broken if this was the treatment they’d gotten for days, or weeks, or even months on end. Being in this little room with hardly any light and the heat or the cold in the winter was enough to make anyone balk. She’d bet that the cold was worse than the heat. At least the heat didn’t make parts of your body turn black and fall off.
She was close to the opening in the door and she felt a slight breeze enter through the sliding panel. Feeling it caress her hot skin, she sighed. That felt so good against her sweaty skin.
“Wait a moment, then take a few more sips, then you need to give the bottle back. If they catch you with it, they’re going to find out I’m not who they think I am and that can’t happen.”
“Who are you?” Raven asked, wondering why he was helping her if he was part of the Headhunters MC.
“That’s not something I can talk about. Just know that I am a friend and leave it at that. I’ll be back in two days, that’s when I am to guard you again. I’ll bring food next time. Now get another drink and pass the bottle back. I need to stand back up before someone comes over to see why I’m not on guard at my post. Right now I’m acting like I’m taking a break but that can’t last much longer.”
Raven didn’t want to give the water bottle back but he’d said that he’d be back and it looked like she’d have to trust him. She didn’t have much of a choice at this point really.
Taking another long swallow from the bottle, she forced herself to slide it back out the opening. She wanted to cry the moment it was out of sight. She was still so hot and thirsty. Desperate even. Lying there on the floor, she felt her
head throbbing and the light breeze that brushed against her forehead again, soothing some of the sweat from her brow. Then she heard the little door sliding and cried out, “Wait, don’t close it yet, please.”
It fell on deaf ears though because he didn’t even stop for a second. The sound of the door clicking shut made tears form in her eyes. They didn’t fall, likely because her body didn’t think it could spare the water.
Chapter 7
Travis had been traveling for two days and he was getting closer to the compound. He wanted to get there as soon as he could but he’d stopped tonight to get some sleep and call Raven’s brother. He hadn’t stopped since he’d left the Blue Bird and he was sure that Marcus was going to be rabid by now. He just didn’t know how to tell the man that his sister was going to be with the Headhunters, or the Cut Throats if they’d sold her, for at least twelve days.
It seemed to him that wasn’t something anyone would want to know about someone they loved. He sure as hell didn’t want to think about it and he didn’t even know Raven as anything other than a picture that Marcus had shown him of a beautiful young woman with an oval face, and sparkling deep blue eyes that almost pierced the soul. She was blonde and looked like a china doll complete with a tiny beauty mark that rested above her lips.
She’d looked like she’d be a pain in the ass. Most women who looked like her were. She wouldn’t be any different, he’d bet, which meant that she’d likely be broken from her ordeal when he finally managed to find her. Sighing, he rubbed a hand over his jaw feeling the stubble there. Damn, he needed to shave before he got some sleep. First things first though, he thought grimly, extracting his phone from his duffle.
Dialing, he waited and after two rings a snide voice answered coldly, “‘Bout fucking time you called, asshole. I guess you don’t know what every day is.”
“Well fuck, asswipe, tell me how you really feel,” Travis snapped. He was doing this man a favor and he should fucking appreciate it.
“You found my sister yet?” Marcus demanded.
“No, I have a lead, but--”
“No fucking buts, asshole! Find my damned sister,” Marcus cut him off in a roar.
“Idiot, I am. Only she’s likely at the Headhunter compound.”
“So go-fucking-get her,” Marcus said like Travis was too stupid to realize that’s what he needed to do. The man was beginning to piss him off royally.
“I am, jackass, but it’s a ten day ride, which is why I haven’t called you before now. Thought you’d rather me move my ass than stand around with my dick in my hand asking for your permission.” Travis didn’t bother to sugarcoat the words because he was fucking pissed. The sudden silence on the other end of the line was telling.
“Fuck, ten days? Why are you stopping to call me? Get your ass back on the road. My sister can’t be with those fuckers for fourteen days.”
Snorting, Travis moved into the bathroom of the motel room he’d rented. Looking at himself in the mirror, he realized that he looked ten years older than he was today. He’d been stressed ever since he’d discovered how long the poor woman was going to be staying with those monsters.
“I need some sleep and the faster we get off this bitch session, the faster I can get some sleep so I can head out in nine hours.”
“Get your ass on the road now! You can sleep later,” Marcus growled, angry that Travis wasn’t closing the gap between him and his sister faster. Only Travis knew he wouldn’t do her any good if he didn’t get some rest. Going until he dropped would not be smart and would be likely to get them both killed.
“You know as well as I do that if I don’t sleep, this whole trip would end badly for both myself and your sister. Going after her when I’m exhausted and my wits are slow would not be a good idea. These men aren’t stupid like the Jackals. They know what they’re doing and they normally don’t play games.”
“Damn, I know, but they have her and they’re doing God knows what to her. Now you’re telling me that she’s going to be with them for fourteen days. This is all my fault. I should have gone after them that first night,” Marcus said, showing the first signs of reason. That was likely why he’d earned a name for himself with the Red Devils over the past few months.
“You couldn’t have known who he was and it seems to me that she’s an adult. She should be allowed to make her own choices in life,” Travis told him.
“I know, but I knew something was off about him. I didn’t know what but I always trust my gut and the one time I didn’t, my sister ends up in the hands of a monster.”
Travis didn’t bother telling the man that she might not even be with the Headhunters anymore. He didn’t say what he was thinking, that she could even now be with men who were even worse than the Headhunters, because it just seemed cruel to share that information with him at this point. After a few more minutes, he hung up with the understanding that he’d call when he had Raven in his hands and not a minute before.
Not that he didn’t get that the man wanted to know what was going on but he needed to be able to keep moving and calling Marcus was pointless until he knew something. After he hung up, he looked at his reflection for a moment before he hopped into the shower.
Raven leaned against the wall in the back of the little hut. Her breathing was shallow and slow. She had stopped sweating this morning and yesterday when Blue-eyes was supposed to come back, he hadn’t. She was dying in this little hovel unless they fed her or gave her something to drink, she realized.
Her eyes burned and her head felt like it was going to explode, and she was at the point that it didn’t matter what she had to do. She was getting out of this hovel today. Two and a half days with only a few sips of water in a sweatbox was enough to convince her that playing nice with Viper was the better part of valor. It was an hour later when the top panel of the door was opened. She barely registered it she was so tired and thirsty.
“Ah, little doll, you are still alive. I’m amazed,” Viper chuckled at this. “Bet one of the men slipped you some water. They probably want a round or two with you once I have you trained. Are you ready to play nice yet?”
Raven barely got out a croaked, “Yes.”
Hearing Viper’s evil laugh would normally send chills down her spine but today she just concentrated on breathing because if he didn’t give her water today she was likely going to die.
The door to the hovel was opened and two men followed Viper into the room. One was slender with dark hair and the other was a blonde with cold eyes. She didn’t want either of them near her but she could barely move. They came forward, lifting her from the pallet, and since she didn’t have any energy, she didn’t fight them even though she wanted to.
“I knew you’d see reason. I hadn’t intended to be gone so long but we had a spot of trouble with the Bandits and I got tied up. Good thing someone liked you, otherwise it would have been such a waste. A beauty like you dying here because I didn’t leave instructions to keep you alive would have been a shame.” Viper was talking to her as the two men lifted her. They half carried her towards the door and she let them.
Raven wanted to scream at him, but she didn’t have the energy. She realized in that moment that he wouldn’t have felt anything other than a slight disappointment if he’d returned to find her dead. He would have shrugged and said ‘huh, well that sucks’ and then gone out to find another toy to play with. It was disgusting, but after three days in that hovel with little water and no food she didn’t care about anything but staying alive.
Limply hanging between the two men, they half carried, half dragged her towards the larger building she was assuming was the main clubhouse. It was a brick building with barred windows and small slits that she assumed were slid back to point guns out when they were under attack. This sight again reminded her that these men were nothing like the Red Devils. They were monsters while the Devils were just men who wanted to protect their families and were willing to do whatever was necessary to keep them safe.
She moaned when one of the men pulled her arm particularly hard because she wasn’t moving fast enough for him. She was so close to passing out that she didn’t know what was going on really. She barely registered that one of the men was feeling her up as she fell. His hand slid inside her shirt and his hand closed over her breast roughly, but she was barely able to hold her eyes open and she felt like she was feverish.
Her heart was pounding in her ears like a loud drum drowning out whatever Viper was saying to the other men. She wanted to just slip into oblivion but she didn’t want to die, and she was horribly afraid if she went to sleep she’d never wake up. The man with his hand down her shirt was saying something, she knew as she watched his lips move, but she had no idea what he was saying as she was dragged into the building.
A woman wearing a collar with a large ring and some weird chain that wrapped down her body to disappear into the almost see-through white pants she wore came towards them. Raven wanted to ask about the chain and the fact that she wasn’t wearing a top but she couldn’t seem to form words.
Viper must have given the woman an order because she was suddenly moving away. Quickly opening a door a little way down the hall, she entered it ahead of them. Raven was dragged into the room and she realized from the railed bed along one wall and IV bag stand that it was some kind of hospital room.
Considering how she currently felt as if she might pass out at any moment, being in a hospital room was likely a good thing. They placed her on the bed and she blinked owlishly at the woman who began hooking up an IV to her arm. Raven’s head was spinning and the room was becoming a kaleidoscope of whirling colors. She felt the light prick of a needle and suddenly she was slipping into darkness, hoping that whatever they did to her in this room kept her alive.
Raven blinked a few times to bring the room into focus. She saw a man’s shape in the corner of the room and when he stood, she shrank back on the bed.
