by AJ Adams
“That’s her,” someone said in a loud whisper. “She’s that girl that got raped.”
Bloody insensitive, right? I was talking over the bugger immediately. “No problem, Rex. By the way, Nita, awesome taco rolls. Best I ever had. Seriously.”
“Thanks.”
“Actually, I’m thanking you. You’re a kitchen goddess.”
Amazingly, Rex softened. “Lacy, I’ve got to close in fifteen minutes and then I’m clear. Make me a cuppa? I won’t be long.”
They wandered off, with Nita saying, “Your girlfriend is sweet.”
His reply was inaudible, but I bet it was snarky. I didn’t care because that dented cheekbone had reminded me how safe I was at Perdition. In the films, the bad guy grabs the girl out of the crowd, but with the Disciples on the gate, I wasn’t worried. There was no way in hell Jason and his biker pals could get to me.
I spotted Fred outside the kitchen door, on guard with two mates, both burly tough guys. Unlike the other times, he wasn’t smiling. “Rex isn’t here.”
“He will be in a minute. I’m putting the kettle on. Want a cuppa?”
“No.” His flat tone got through to me. “Rex is a good man, Lacy. Whatever you’re playing at, this isn’t right.”
He knew about the blackmail. It was unlikely Rex had fessed up, but Viper had probably blabbed to all of Bonnington. I liked Fred, and I wanted to explain, but he stomped off before I got the words together.
Going down the narrow steps and into the big cavernous kitchen, I got another nasty surprise: the executive were back. They looked tired, and by the scraped knuckles and grazes, they’d been in a fight. I wasn’t happy to see them, and the way they clocked me told me they weren’t fans of mine, either.
Crush, hairy and feral as ever, paused and then turned to Kraken, bristling with ink, “We reach out tomorrow. They’ll need a few hours to cool down and assess their situation.”
“The way we left it, they may not be conscious by then.”
I didn’t want to know, so I went to make tea. With the massive stove rattling away, you’d think you’d be nicely insulated from chatter, but with the room being so big, it was like a church, with the walls funnelling all the sound right to me.
“The Horde have picked up a battalion’s worth of rent-a-thugs. They mean business,” Kraken worried. “A truce is out.”
“I agree,” Crush rumbled. “But we pretend it’s cool. We use the time to plan our response.”
Dad’s friends got drunk and rampaged, no thought involved beyond the excitement of a barney. The Disciples were in a different league. They were hard as nails, organised and cunning. It sounded as if the Disciples and the Horde were getting into a war. I blessed myself that I wasn’t involved.
As the kettle boiled, I thought that the trouble might concentrate Rex’s mind on fixing Jason. As my problem was a small one compared to gang warfare, it made sense to get it out of the way. Maybe Rex could ride over to Lincoln. A tough bastard like him would sort out Jason in two seconds flat and then I’d go back to my happy life.
I was smiling as I poured tea and entirely unconcerned when the door banged open, and Rex blasted in.
“Do you take milk?” I asked. And then I was backing up rapidly. “Oh, fuck.”
There were three of them, dressed in black leathers and stinking of petrol fumes and acrid smoke. Their cuts were emblazoned with red devils holding pitchforks. The Horde had arrived in Perdition.
For a second I thought they’d go for the Disciples, but then I saw their attention was focussed on me.
The leader was huge, with a nasty leer. “Well now, look at you,” he sniggered. “We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“M-m-me?”
“Didn’t you know? Jason Barrows has asked us to have a word with you.”
That’s when my bubble burst. Jason wasn’t angry and avoiding me in order to push for negotiation. He was ghosting me because he’d put out a hit on me.
I was dead, and I hadn’t known it.
Chapter Eight
Rex
“Well now, look at you,” Pig chortled.
Lacy was wide-eyed and backing away from him. The loud in-your-face don’t give a fuck girl had vanished. Frankly, I was happy to see it. The bitch had ruined my day. Not content with setting off the Perdition alarm system, her constant yammering had disrupted my work. Then, to cap it all, she’d threatened me, delaying the start of the music fest. I was fuming, and so this turnabout was sweet.
“We’ve been looking all over for you.”
“M-m-me?”
Pig, leader of the Lincoln chapter of the Horde, was famed for being vicious. He started his career with an Albanian mafia human trafficking ring, a very nasty business that few can stomach. When the gang was rounded up and jailed, Pig managed to escape the net. He joined the Horde, and his habit of carving up any opposition meant he quickly made his way to the top.
I put Lacy’s fear down to recognising a monster, but then Pig added, “Didn’t you know? Jason Barrows has asked us to have a word with you.”
Lacy swallowed and went white. She understood instantly, as did I. Jason Barrows wasn’t out boozing it up, he had cut contact so he’d have plausible deniability. Pig was on a mission: a punishment beating with all the trimmings of rape and disfigurement.
Pig looked Lacy over, grabbing his crotch suggestively, “Make her suffer, that’s what he said.”
Her eyes were dark with fear. She was frozen, and I thought she might faint, but then she locked her knees and stood tall. “Fuck you.”
I admit I was impressed. The girl had guts.
Pig leered. “Feisty.”
Lacy rolled her eyes, “Seriously, that line is so lame.” She paused for effect and drawled, “Bet your dick’s so small, you can screw a pasta strainer.”
I caught his fist an inch before it connected with her chin. It was thrust out, even though she was trembling. She really was reckless.
“Fucking bitch!” Pig snarled. “You’ll pay for that.”
I wasn’t having that. “Back off,” I shoved him out of the way and stood between them, shielding Lacy.
“Right, I’ll have you first!”
The moron. He took a swing, and all I had to do was grab his wrist and pull. He went crashing into the door, his momentum practically propelling him through the inch thick oak. “One more swing and you leave in a box,” I warned him.
The man got himself together, shaking his head. “Fucking hell, you’ve got some good moves.”
“You should see me on the dance floor. I’m awesome.”
As he laughed, the executive were watching. They looked like shit, grazes and bruises galore told me payback for the Durham and Skegness raids had been spectacular, but they were clocking his every move.
“You’re good,” Pig stood tall, eyeing me up, “but that bitch is mine.”
“Over your dead, cold body, mate.”
“Hey, Rex? Calm down, okay? She was asking for it,” Crush came in on cue, his timing perfect as always. “Pig, you came to say something?”
We’d done this a million times: two of us engaging the enemy, testing the boundaries, while the team observed. Me and Crush, we like good cop, bad cop.
“Like squeal uncle maybe?” Crush continued.
Okay, we also do bad cop, shithead cop.
His two mates growled with rage, but Pig shrugged it off. “Fuck you, wanker.”
“At least I can find mine without a microscope,” Crush retorted.
Pig’s jaw clenched, but he wasn’t falling for it. “Are we going to negotiate or would you rather continue with the sarcasm fest?”
“Either way suits me.”
Pig grinned and sat down at the table, “All right, let’s get to business.”
It was a bugger, but this man was nobody’s fool. I hadn’t expected him to be a moron because you don’t get to be an MC president without fighting off every other cunning bastard after the position. To lead, you need brains as well as br
awn. But as the way he went for Lacy was less than sensible, I had hoped he had a weakness we could exploit.
“Rex?” Lacy was holding out a mug to me. “Your tea.”
“Thanks.”
“I don’t like that man.” She was acting tough, but the quaver in her voice and shaking hands gave her away. “He lives down to his name.”
I knew she was terrified but being pissed off with her, I did nothing about it.
At the table, Pig was loud and jovial. “We made a mistake. The lads got drunk, and matters got out of hand.”
“In Durham and Skegness,” Crush said sceptically. “As we had our annual meet.”
“Complete coincidence,” Pig said smoothly.
It was rubbish, but Crush went with it. “Drunk, huh? So they’ll be offering compensation.”
Pig didn’t blink. “Definitely.”
“Then let’s talk.”
“I’ll tell you this right off, just so you know you have an ace,” Pig said seriously. “I want that girl.”
Crush nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
Behind me, Lacy gasped. As Crush and Pig talked, a cold slim hand pushed into mine. “Rex? For God’s sake, don’t let him take me,” Lacy’s breathy whisper was loaded with fear. “He’ll kill me.”
“And it would serve you right.”
Fuck me, but I deserved a boot in the balls. Only a coward abuses women or stands by as another man tries it. But the fact that she’d been pushing me about all day still smarted. So my head stayed firmly up my bum while I considered that Pig taking Lacy would solve all our problems.
Her threats would vanish along with her, and we could use the handover to force the Horde into retreat. A truce would be temporary, but it would give us a breathing space to prepare for war. By the time they came back, we’d be ready for them.
Also, if we stalled the feud just for a few weeks, I could pour my marina’s foundation. Once that was done, the contract would come into force, and David’s investment would be locked in.
I knew that once the money was in, I was safe. Despite his threats, David would not walk away from a twenty million pound investment. His uptight chairman Kennard Wilton might if every newspaper in the country reported on my getting into a gang war, but my connections would prevent that from ever happening.
So I was sanguine knowing that David talked tough, but in the end, profits would trump any sense of shame.
“We could have so much fun,” Lacy whispered. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
The huge, frightened eyes brought me back. She was a manipulative blackmailing bitch, and the cold analytical part of me knew that handing her over might be a sensible move, but I couldn’t do it. Yes, at the very last second, a remnant of decency surfaced.
I might still have saved myself but irrationally, doing the right thing made me angry. Instead of putting the blame where it belonged, on the vicious lunatics who would carve up a girl over a dispute, I blamed Lacy.
“Why the hell did you have to come here?” I snarled at her.
“Rope, whips, anything you like.” Lacy was desperate.
“Oh, for Christ’s sake.” Yes, that fucking arsehole was me.
Her hand was tight around mine. “I’m all yours, for however long you want.”
I wanted to hear what Pig and Crush were saying. “Yes, okay, but shut up.”
Instead of belting me, she was squeezing my hand gratefully. “You won’t regret it.”
At the table, Crush was punching home. “Some of your people were here yesterday, pretending to be new pledges.”
“Oh, that was a bet,” Pig replied smoothly. “Some of the lads wagered they could sneak in, and not get caught.”
“It was a bet? Really?”
“Yeah, you caught them all, so they lost.” Pig was totally relaxed, lying in his teeth. “You gave them a good going over, too. Serves the fuckers right.”
Crush nodded and smiled. It didn’t fool me. He didn’t like the Pig at all. Flash, DT, Zero, Total and Speed were silent. Even Kraken who’s never short on jokes and a smile was hard-eyed.
“Look, we’re neighbours,” Pig was trying to look sincere. “Trouble is bad for business. We should be friends.”
“I agree. But we need a roundtable meet to make a new peace,” Crush said.
“Right.” Pig got to his feet. “You’re busy the next few days, right? We can do this after.”
“Absolutely!” Crush was right with him, an arm around his shoulders. “It can wait.”
“We have a truce till then,” Pig assured him. “I’ll put a stop to all the crazy bets, promise.”
“Glad to hear it.”
Lacy was glued to my side. I could hear her sucking in air in frightened little gasps.
“Now, about the girl.” Pig’s eyes raked her shaking body. “I’ve got some business with her.”
“She’s staying here,” I told him.
Lacy held on to me, hands knotted in my shirt. The trembling was Richter scale. Pig spotted the shakes and licked his lips. We all knew he was as hard as oak. The sick bastard was turned on by her terror. He nodded at me, “Five hundred, cash.”
“No.”
“Seven fifty.”
“I said, no.”
“A thousand, and I’ll offer a replacement.”
The little hands clutching me were slick with sweat. “No.”
Pig was determined. “I want her.”
“She’s a pain in the arse,” Crush said. “But Rex has a hard-on for her. You can have her when he gets fed up.”
Pig was about to argue, and then he shrugged. “It can wait.”
“We’re all friends here,” Crush lied. “We’ll come to an agreement.”
“Speaking of busy, come tomorrow.” I dug three VIP tickets out of my back pocket. “As our guests.” Because, keep your enemies closer, right?
His hands were huge, scarred and rough with calluses. I was suddenly very glad that he wasn’t getting to Lacy. I held on to her, gentling the shivers.
Pig’s eyes narrowed, but he managed a smile. “Yeah, great.” He scooped up the tickets, hitched his leathers, and for a moment I thought he’d spit on my kitchen floor. He didn’t, but it was close. The pig.
“Let me walk you to the gate,” I wanted to make sure he was off my land.
“We’ll all come,” Crush was right with me.
I pried Lacy off. “Wait for me upstairs.”
Pig leered, “Time to pay the piper.”
Lacy didn’t answer. She turned on her heel and disappeared. I watched her slim form thinking of how she’d squealed that morning as I’d spanked her. She was a wild ride, but as I’d feared, she had brought me nothing but trouble. I wasn’t going to let Pig get his hands on her, but eddies of rage still washed through me. Part of me wanted to belt her. I know, I told you I’m a bastard.
As we stepped outside, it was dead quiet. The crowd had left, taking off for the hotels in Bonnington, or camping in the little woods down the road. The cleaning crew had swept through, picking up all the litter and closing up the stages and stalls. The grass was bouncing back, fed by a light sprinkling of rain. It was perfect. At least it would be once I got the Horde out.
Perdition was beautiful, and Pig was admiring it too. “Nice place you’ve got here,” he said. “You own all the land from here to the bay?”
“Yes.”
“Love the waterwheel. Does that stream connect to the sea?”
“No.”
“But you have a private road from the bay up to the house?”
“I use the public one.”
“I thought you might ride cross-country. You know, like in the old days.”
It was nonsense of course. Pig was interested in Perdition’s scope and defences. He kept it up, all the way to the gate, even though I deflected him.
At the gate, only three bikes were parked in the VIP area. They were Fireblades, compact but fast, ideal for raids. The Horde bought the best.
Pig
was fulsome as he wheeled out his ride. “I’m glad I came. We’re going to start a new chapter, an alliance between the Horde and the Disciples.”
“Absolutely,” Crush slapped him on the back. “See you tomorrow.”
We smiled and watched as he and his mates rode away. A minute later, Viper and Drew peeled off after them, escorting them out of Bonnington and making sure there were no detours or stop-offs.
“Clever man,” Crush sighed. “He talked a lot and said nothing.”
“He’s well named,” Kraken grumped. “He’s real scum.”
“Yeah, think it’ll be war?” Flash asked.
“Yes.”
“Yes.”
“Absolutely.”
Having seen Pig at close quarters, the executive had come to a unanimous decision.
Flash shrugged. “That’s the end of the Horde. We’ll cream them.”
He’s an optimist, Flash, but the way he grinned cheered us all up.
“Pig is smart, and the Horde have troops and a war chest,” I pointed out. “We shouldn’t underestimate them.”
“Pig’s got a weakness,” Crush said quietly.
“What?” Speed asked.
“The way he talked about Lacy. Did you see how desperate he was to get her?”
“He’s a pervert,” I agreed. “He got a boner from seeing her shake.”
“Sick fuck,” Kraken growled.
“It’s more than that,” Crush insisted. “Pig was contracted by Barrows, but he was in way too much of a rush. His haste might be due to a weakness. One that would give us leverage.”
“He would have been paid up front,” I mused.
“Sure, but he could easily stall,” Crush said. “Or simply hand it back and call it off.”
“Maybe he’d already spent it.”
“No way,” Kraken said. “A standard beating and rape commission doesn’t cost more than a couple of hundred quid. He offered way too much money for her.”
Kraken always surprises me. He’s a good bloke, but he knows some scary fucking facts.
DT rolled his eyes. “Fucking hell, Kraken. Where do you pick that shit up?”
“There’s a big market for revenge, from arseholes who sulk because their wives divorce them, to pimps who punish a girl for switching stables,” Kraken shrugged. “When it’s quiet in the club, the girls talk.”
