Monster: A Dark Arranged Marriage Romance

by Vanessa Waltz

I remained silent, seething. I wanted him to know that he would never see Evie again, but clearly, Jett didn’t give a flying fuck. A flicker of remorse wrinkled his brow as he hiked up his pants.

  He didn’t care.

  I grappled with the urge to fire between his legs, but he’d bleed out before I got anything useful out of him. I promised myself I wouldn’t kill him, so I compromised. I pistol-whipped his jaw.

  His bearded face twisted with agony, and he fell out of the chair. As he flailed on the floor and cried, I stared through the blinds in the parking lot. Six Harleys rolled up. Six leather- and denim- clad figures jumped off their bikes, running toward the entrance.

  I was numb to the danger, emotionally depleted. I had nothing left. I was tired. So fucking tired. I just wanted it to end.

  “Guess they figured out that you’re going to jail. I wonder how long it’ll take for someone to shank you in the chow line? Oh well, not my problem.”

  Jett gaped at me, his neck flushing. “You snitched on me?”

  I was well aware of the code of honor against talking to the police, but I’d stopped caring about that bullshit years ago.

  I shrugged. “What can I say? Dad raised me to be an upstanding citizen.”

  His lip curled. “You won’t outlive the weekend!”

  “Well, you gave it your best effort, and I’m still here.”

  “Evie will never forgive you!”

  Would she?

  I wasn’t sure. I had a hard time thinking at the moment.

  “Cops will be here any minute, but first I have to clarify a few things.” I backed away from the window and faced him. “Where is Evie’s mother?”

  Jett paled. “What?”

  “I know you trafficked her.”

  I’d suspected it since Evie told me that story about her mother. Then I found out a week ago. One of Knox’s genius innovations had been an algorithm used by law enforcement to match women’s faces to images and videos online. I hadn’t told Evie what I’d found. Evie didn’t need the guilt of her mother’s disappearance on top of everything else.

  I knelt beside him, searching for regret in those fathomless black eyes that reminded me so much of my wife. My stomach turned. “Who did you sell her to? Please, God, tell me it wasn’t K.”

  “I never sold her. I gave her to him.”

  Rage rippled through me, and I swung my arm.

  My gun caught Jett’s nose, shattering it. He spasmed, clutching his face as it streamed with blood. He rocked on the floor and moaned.

  “Why?” I bellowed, my voice breaking. “Is nothing sacred to you? How the fuck do you do that to your child?”

  “I love my daughter,” he groaned. “Vicky—she wanted to take off with my kid!”

  “You made her a slave.”

  “I had to get rid of her. He promised me he wouldn’t kill her, and that I’d never see her again.” He raised his palm as I aimed the gun at him. “Don’t. Please.”

  He’d condemned her to slavery because she dared to dream of a better life. These fucking people. How long before Evie would’ve pissed him off and he’d done the same to her?

  “Did you arrange to have Evie trafficked?”

  “Are you crazy? She’s my daughter!”

  “Since when has that meant anything to you?”

  Kill him.

  I really wanted to, but it wouldn’t do Evie any justice. Or her poor mother. Thinking of them shattered my rage. I holstered my gun as red and blue lights flashed into the office.

  Numb, I left, descending into the club still pulsing with rock music. Cops swarmed the interior, tearing the place apart. Detective Cobane, a man in his late forties with a wide jaw, nodded at me. I stood by my car as cops rounded up everyone in a leather cut.

  Evie would’ve been grateful for the lack of violence. She always brought joy to every moment. A sick yearning assaulted me. I missed her already. Why the hell had I sent her away? I should’ve felt good about doing the right thing, but it made me physically ill. I couldn’t breathe without my lungs aching.

  This was a mistake.

  I needed her more than ever.

  “Tony.”

  Cainan clasped my shoulder, peering at me. His blatant otherness stalled me. He wore a polo and khakis, his auburn hair sparking under the dying sun. All the cars had vanished. The cops had disappeared, and I hadn’t even noticed.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “You wouldn’t answer your phone. I got worried.”

  I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

  “You don’t look well, T.”

  I must’ve looked like shit. “I’m all right.”

  “You’re not. Let me give you a lift home.”

  Cainan guided me to his BMW. He opened the passenger-side door, which struck me as strangely courteous until I slid into the seat.

  And stared into a loaded barrel.

  Thirty-One

  Evie

  I’m grateful that he underestimates how stubborn I can be.

  I would not leave my husband.

  Tony might’ve convinced himself he was monstrous, but he had yet to prove it to me. He didn’t even know about the baby. I could’ve said something, but I worried he’d push me away even more. He barely let me get a word in before he shoved me toward the guards.

  Why the fuck was he doing this?

  Did he think I was a shrinking violet after growing up in the MC?

  I shoved clothes into a bag I had no intention of bringing. I made coffee. I stalled, ignoring the guards’ vicious side-eye as I flopped onto the couch and thumbed through TV reruns. Tony’s hired security planted themselves in front of the door and wouldn’t budge. Strangely, they didn’t seem to give a shit that I’d stopped “packing” an hour ago.

  More frustrating were my unanswered texts.

  Me: Look. I’m not going anywhere.

  I took a picture of myself sprawled on the cushions and sent it.

  Me: See? If you want me out of your life, you’ll have to come here and do it yourself.

  Me: I have something very important to tell you.

  Me: I just found out I’m

  A knock hammered the door.

  I abandoned the unfinished text as I sprang upright. The guard stepped aside and opened the door.

  I dashed across the floor, growling with relief.

  “About freaking t—”

  A tall, pale-skinned man stepped into the foyer with an air of superiority that made me want to punch him, despite his great looks. He wore a dark blazer over charcoal pants, immaculate in a way that shouldn’t be allowed. Not one strand strayed from his perfectly coiffed waves, which sparked like copper fire in the light. Two black hooded eyes under a prominent eyebrow bridge. Shadows ran along the corner of his mouth to his high cheekbones, and they curved wildly when his full mouth tipped in a smile.

  “Hello, Evie.”

  His musical voice pitted my stomach with nausea. Sweat broke over my body as he approached, close enough for me to count the freckles dotting his wrists.

  I frowned at the security guys, arms crossed. “I didn’t say you could let him in.”

  “They actually follow my orders.” He offered me a disarming smile, so light and innocuous it raised my hackles. “My name is Cainan. I’m here to help you.”

  “I don’t want your help.”

  “I think you do.”

  My stomach hardened as the click of a penlight echoed in my mind, dragging forth images of me bound, helpless, and shoved on an auction block. “You were with Tony. That night.”

  Judging by his rapidly cooling demeanor, that was extremely unwelcome.

  “You would do well to forget the events of that night,” he said, his gaze clinical. “And my part in it.”

  “Then why did you come?”

  “I had to see what all the fuss was about. Meet the girl that ruined everything.”

  A chill skated down my spine. “Ruined?”

  “Yeah, you fucked up my plans. Eve
r since he met you, he’s been distracted. Sloppy.” Cainan sighed heavily and strolled away from me. “I don’t get it. You’re nothing special—no more than a pretty girl with a nice rack.”

  Who was this man and why was he in my house? “Go fuck yourself.”

  “And not very good at banter, either.”

  “Do you know where my husband is?”

  “You don’t have to worry about him anymore. He’s been captured. He’s at the MC.”

  Oh my God.

  I grabbed my purse and shot toward the elevator. Cainan grabbed my shoulder and held me still.

  “You’re staying here.”

  “Like fuck I am!”

  “It’s what Tony wants. Besides, it’s not safe for you at the MC.”

  Shit. He was right.

  My pulse shot to the stratosphere. “Can you help him?”

  Cainan shook his head slowly, pained. “I tried. I did what I could, but…he’s not getting out of this.”

  “Then let me help him!” I shouted brokenly, trembling. “He’s my husband. I can’t sit here and wait for him to die.”

  “He wouldn’t want me to put you at risk.”

  I seized his blazer and yanked, but it was like pulling on a wall. “I don’t give a shit about what he wants! You’ll take me to him right now!”

  A flicker of amusement danced in his ebony gaze before it hardened. “I’m trying to do right by him.”

  “Please, Cainan. I love him. I’ll do anything for him. Anything. Don’t rip my family apart before it’s barely started.” I sank to my knees as the tears burning my eyes burst free. “I’m having his baby! I can’t do this on my own! I need him. God, I need him.”

  A benign smile staggered across his face as he drank in my kneeling position, his hand hovering over my head. He lightly brushed my hair.

  “He does have a chance of surviving if you go…but you might not make it out alive.”

  Something wasn’t right.

  I called Vinn Costa before we left, locking myself in the bathroom and running the faucets so Cainan couldn’t hear me beg him for help. Vinn’s callous “not my fucking problem” and the abrupt end of our phone call shattered my hope, until Cainan’s black Audi rolled up beside a familiar, chain-linked fence.

  The club has Tony.

  It was strangely deserted. The few men wearing leather cuts packed their SUVs. People’s expressions seemed drawn and tight. I clawed at my cheeks as I pictured the scene inside the clubhouse, trying like hell not to despair. If anybody could talk the club out of murdering Tony, it’d be me.

  Cainan stepped out like a king in the desert, frowning. His guards followed at the rear as we stepped onto the dirt path. Steel chimes jangled from a mobile home. A dampening chill wrapped my limbs as people stepped outside their homes to gawk at me. Eyes fell on Cainan; nothing of his specter-like, immaculate appearance belonged here. A chicken clucked, and Cainan stared at Martha’s birds, their golden feathers ruffled as they preened themselves.

  “Charming,” he noted, not sounding charmed at all. “This reminds me of post-Soviet villages in Hungary.”

  I ignored him, making a beeline for the clubhouse.

  People stared as I headed for the brick building. A door flew open, and a blonde woman stepped out. Jennesy stood on her porch in rubber boots. Her cotton-candy hair streamed as she ran toward me. “Evie! Evie, they have him. He’s inside.”

  “I know. Is he okay?”

  “Nobody’s allowed in.” Jennesy yanked me into a fierce hug. “And I heard about your dad. I’m so sorry.”

  My dad?

  I shoved that aside. “I need to get Tony.”

  I disengaged from her and left her, concern written all over her features. I joined Cainan, whose hand suddenly sailed up my back. It seemed like a protective, if oddly possessive gesture. When we got to the clubhouse, I shrank from his touch, but Cainan didn’t seem to take the hint. His fingers bit into the back of my neck. He squeezed, hard.

  “You will do everything I say,” he seethed. “You’ll obey me without question, or you won’t come out alive.”

  I’d never heard a voice darker than my husband’s, until Cainan spoke with that awful gravel.

  My flesh crawled. “The only man I obey is my old man, and you sure as shit aren’t him.”

  “Well, then. I guess hell is getting two souls tonight.”

  Cainan’s fingers bit into my neck as he marched me into the clubhouse. We strode through the bar and into the back, where a prospect peeled back a rubber mat and revealed a trapdoor. Cold sank into my bones as we followed the stairs to a door with a keypad. The air compressed as we stepped through, or perhaps it just seemed that way because this wasn’t the club I’d grown up in. This had to be an entrance to another world. This couldn’t be where I’d celebrated a thousand birthdays.

  Rock music pulsed above a dark chamber rich with the scent of blood. Male laughter rebounded off cement whose wall sconces illuminated the space in an eerie glow. A straight-backed man with shoulder-length hair faced a hunched over figure. Chains dangling from the ceiling led to shackles at his wrists. He was shirtless and beautiful, glaring like a vengeful God. He stood dazedly, reeling from a blow. He hissed like an animal. Crazed, he hurled himself at them but missed by several feet. Light bounced off his tanned skin, revealing the ruined flesh, the table of tools they’d used on him.

  A lump wedged in my throat.

  I knew he would be hurt, but I wasn’t prepared for how it’d make me feel. My legs trembled as Tony transformed into a beast, thrashing at his restraints, throwing himself against the wall, spitting mad like a wildcat. He tore at the bindings with his fingers.

  Ghost gleamed from the back of a man’s leather cut. He scratched his head, grinning. “I think we broke his fucking brain.”

  Cainan marched me into the thick of the action, disgust layering his voice. “You weren’t supposed to mark his skin.”

  “Relax, man. It’s a couple scratches.”

  “My buyers expect a blank canvas.”

  Ghost pointed at his misaligned nose. “I had to pay him back for what he did to my fucking face.”

  I elbowed Cainan, whose grip loosened on my neck.

  “Tony!”

  He stiffened as I ran to him. I collided with his chest and wrapped my arms around his neck, kissing his battered cheeks, his forehead, his mute lips. A blast of air hit my lips with his surprised gasp. His glassy stare skipped over me.

  “Evie…Evie, why are you here?”

  “I’ll get you out of here. I promise.”

  “No,” he moaned, his chest hitching. “No, I don’t want you here. Evie…You can’t be here.”

  Tears choked my voice as I stroked the cowlick from his face. “I love you.”

  His eyes were wild with terror, begging me to run—to save myself.

  I wouldn’t.

  I couldn’t.

  A rough grip ripped me from Tony, whose outstretched hands stopped short of grabbing me. He snarled, yanked back by the chains.

  A mouth whispered in my ear.

  “Been waiting for you, Evie.” Ghost’s ruined face broadened with a predatory grin as his hands curled around my stomach. “So convenient of you to show up in a skirt. Let’s see if you’re wearing panties.”

  His touch splayed over my thigh.

  Tony hurled himself against his restraints.

  I huddled against the wall, speechless.

  Ghost’s thunderous expression and the menacing presence of the other bikers hinted they were beyond playful banter.

  I had one option.

  Fight.

  “Stop it,” I demanded, my heart in my throat. “My dad will destroy you.”

  “Your dad is in jail. Along with half the fucking club. Nobody’s coming to the rescue.” His smile was without malice, almost apologetic. “You have a debt to pay before I turn you into my wife—if I decide the money you’ll inherit when Costa is dead is worth it.”

  “I don’t
know,” the man behind me croaked. “After Costa dipped his dick in that?”

  “Hmm. You might be right, Diesel.” Ghost’s head cocked as he peered at me. “Let’s rip off that shirt and see what’s underneath.”

  My stomach clenched tight as they closed in, my only way out blocked by Cainan. Panic quaked through my limbs as he lifted my shirt, my fragile control cracked by one careless movement.

  I swallowed hard. “I’m already married.”

  “You’ll be widowed before long, and rich as hell.”

  “I’m not marrying you.”

  "So you'll be our plaything?" Ghost shrugged, exchanging glances with the other men. "Fine by me."

  “Let me out, now.” My gaze jumped from man to man, searching for a frailty, one weakness I could exploit. “You can’t do this to one of your own. I grew up in the club!”

  “I gave you a chance. You sicced Costa on me.” Ghost pressed his mouth to my neck, his voice smoothing like butter on toast. “So now you’ll put that sharp tongue to a sweeter use.”

  I couldn’t push him off.

  Ghost’s chest resisted my hands like an iron wall. My fists flew at him, and he absorbed every blow with a raised brow, revealing nothing but a vague amusement. He turned at the waist, flashing a get-a-load-of-this grin at the others.

  They laughed.

  Sons of bitches.

  I lashed out like a cornered animal, beating him until acid ate my muscles and my fists were flayed meat. A vivid heat shot up my third knuckle to my elbow.

  I gritted my teeth as Ghost balled my hands, pinning them over my head. His fingers were like zip ties. The utter dominance of my body gnawed at my sanity.

  I’d never felt so out of control.

  Helpless.

  Tony thrashed at his restraints, bellowing a wounded sound over and over. A raw grief gripped my throat as Ghost stopped my escape with a fierce pinch of my injured wrist. There was nothing I could do—nothing against three adult men.

  “Gentlemen,” growled Cainan in a low warning. “Until my buyers arrive and we make the trade, the girl belongs to me. Hands off.”

  What was his angle?

  Would he save us?

  The ceiling rattled as Tony lunged at him, once again ripped back. Ghost’s low chuckle filled the space as he addressed the others in a playful tone.