by Brook Wilder
“He is,” Christian said with a derisive snort. “And, yeah, he’s the vice president of the Devil’s. He’s also my father.”
Chapter 5
Melody looked at him in surprise.
His father? Then what is he doing out here helping me, when it could get him in trouble?
But she didn’t have an answer to that question, or to the other one that kept circling around her thoughts like a vulture. How the hell was she going to get out of this mess?
But she didn’t say any of that out loud, as Christian bent his head, dabbing some ointment onto her shoulder with the gentlest touch.
It was hard to believe that this man was Hub’s son. The older gang member had seemed about as cold as they come and snake mean. Melody should know. She’d seen the type before, more times than she cared to count.
Christian, though… there was something different about him. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew it was there. And then, in a moment of clarity, it hit her. She wasn’t afraid of him.
She’d been terrified of the others, had seen the awful intent in their eyes and the utter disdain and doubt in Hub’s. But not Christian’s. His blue eyes had looked at her and just seen a person who needed help. Not someone to use. Not someone to hurt.
Even now, as vulnerable as she was, tied up and chained to a damned post, she wasn’t afraid of him.
Melody shook her head, chastising herself for being foolish.
Anyone can hurt you, and they will if it helps themselves.
She knew that was just the simple truth. She’d thought she could trust Enrique, and it hadn’t been until it was too late that she learned what kind of man he really was.
She knew better than to trust. She should have learned that lesson long ago. But like some pathetic little girl, she kept going back to those that hurt her. Over and over. She should know by now that she was better off alone. She was the only one who would ever care about her, look out for her. Melody had herself and no one else. She needed to remember that.
Melody licked her lips nervously, trying to look as helpless as possible.
“My name’s Melody,” she whispered softly, looking away as if embarrassed. “Look, Christian, I… uh… I need some… um… privacy.”
He gave her a look of confusion and she nearly rolled her eyes.
“I have to go to the bathroom.”
His blue gaze widened in concern and he looked nearly as scared as she’d felt earlier, being captured and kidnapped by the bikers.
“Oh. Um, oh. I see. Uh…”
He looked around the empty barn as if hoping help would come and rescue him, and she nearly took pity on him. But first she needed to help herself. No one else was going to, however kind Christian seemed. Enrique had seemed kind at first, too.
“I can just go outside,” Melody said hastily. “You could untie me and I’ll go…”
“I can’t untie you,” he broke in, shaking his head.
“Well, if you could unchain me from the pole, then you could still hold the end of the chain while I, um, go.”
Christian looked uncertain for a long moment and she was afraid he would say no again. But finally he reached around her and unlocked the padlock that was keeping the chain secured to the post.
Melody gave Christian a relieved smile as they both stood and she followed him silently outside. She huddled in one herself, tried to make herself seem as small and vulnerable as possible, which at the present moment wasn’t all that much of a stretch.
She didn’t know what the hell she was doing. She didn’t have a plan. All she knew was that she had to try and escape. She had to try and fight. Melody would rather take her chances in the desert than with the notoriously violent biker gang.
“You can just go over there, behind those bushes, and I’ll wait here for you,” Christian whispered nervously as he pointed to a spot a few feet away.
It wasn’t much as privacy went, but it would conceal her enough.
Melody nodded and hurried by the bushes. She turned her back towards Christian and worked feverishly to slide off the already loosened chain around her wrists. She choked back a cry as the cold metal bit hard into her tender skin, leaving bloody scrapes behind as it fell to the ground with a loud clink.
“Melody?” Christian started to ask, obviously hearing the noise.
But she sure as hell wasn’t going to stick around to answer him. Barefoot, Melody took off, sprinting as fast as she could for the highway.
Her only hope was that she could catch him by surprise and out run him, get to the safety of the road and pray that he gave up the chase.
For one bright, shining moment, Melody thought she would make it. She could just make out the ridge of the highway in the distance in front of her and there was a semi-truck barreling closer by the second. If she could just make it a little farther… If she could wave the driver down, get his attention somehow…
She had just raised her arms in the air to wave the driver down when something hard and big and incredibly male crashed into her from behind. Melody had just enough time to spin around and let one right hook fly.
They both went toppling to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs, finally coming to a halt with Christian sprawled out on top her. There was a scowl in his blue eyes that reminded her for a second of Hub’s expression earlier, and suddenly she could see the resemblance.
Christian may seem kind and gentle on the outside, but there was core of steel inside him that she hadn’t seen at first.
Surprisingly, even caught as she had been trying to run away, with Christian’s much larger body stretched out on top of hers, Melody still didn’t feel afraid. She waited for the terror to come, the paralyzing fear that made her heart pound like a bass drum and her chest hurt because she couldn’t draw a breath. But it never did.
“What the hell were you thinking, Melody?”
Christian’s whisper was ragged against her cheek and he was still scowling down at her. She just raised one eye brow in response.
“A girl’s got to try, right?” she whispered back. She would much rather face Christian’s wrath than Hub’s, or that of any of the other men who had captured her earlier in the night. “What did you expect. For me to be a good little prisoner?”
Christian shifted, still not letting her up, as he rubbed along his jaw. A small smile crawled across his lips, growing wider until he finally let out a surprised chuckle.
“Damn, you sure do have one hell of a punch.”
Melody was just as surprised to find an answering urge to laugh trying to bubble up from inside her.
What the hell is wrong with me?
This man was a member of a biker gang that wanted Enrique to pay for his debts, and they weren’t afraid to use her if they had to.
After a moment, Christian sobered again and got to his feet, pulling her effortlessly up with him.
“You know, you could just let me go,” Melody tried one more time, even though he was already pulling her back towards the barn.
“What, just let you wander around the middle of the desert until you starve or die of dehydration? I wasn’t kidding. We’re miles away from anything out here.” He gave her a sideways look. “You never did say how you ended up out here, alone.”
There was an obvious question in his words, but Melody just shrugged it off. She didn’t want to answer. She didn’t want to admit the truth. It was too painful to say out loud.
He seemed content to let her keep her silence, because he didn’t question her again as he walked her back to the barn, stopping to scoop up the chain on the way.
Christian didn’t let go of her as he locked her inside once more, pulling her back to the post in the middle.
“Give me your hands,” he said.
She had no real choice but to obey. Melody felt a moment of despair and she didn’t notice the way he gasped when he saw the bloody gashes on the backs of her hands, or the gentleness of his touch as he cleaned and bandaged them bef
ore re-chaining her back where she’d begun.
He turned to leave, but she couldn’t face the darkness alone. Not yet.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Melody asked, even though she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer.
Christian stopped and turned back to face her, his expression growing so serious that it made her heart stutter in panic.
“Honestly, Hub could… he could decide to do anything. He’s… not exactly what anyone would call merciful and your man…”
“Enrique isn’t my anything,” Melody cut in suddenly. “Not anymore.”
“Does Enrique know that?” Christian asked softly.
Melody didn’t respond. Enrique thought he owned her, body and soul. He’d never accept anything else.
“Look, maybe if I…”
Christian’s words trailed off into nothing for a long moment, then his startling blue eyes widened as if a sudden idea had occurred to him.
“You could marry me.”
Melody was so shocked that the bark of laughter flew from her lips before she could stop it.
“Excuse me?”
She must have heard him wrong. Maybe the stress was finally getting to her. Making her hallucinate and hear things. That was it. It had to be. He couldn’t have just said…
“You could marry me.” Christian took a step towards her and she flinched away. He noticed and drew up to halt. “It would insult Enrique, making Hub happy, and it would protect you. I could keep you safe.”
“That’s absolutely insane,” Melody said after a long moment, shaking her head in refusal. “I’m not… No. I won’t marry you. I wouldn’t marry a stranger. Hell, I don’t even know you! You don’t know me!”
Christian stared at her, his face partially in shadow, making him look even more enigmatic and serious.
“Think about it, Melody. I don’t know how else to save you from what’s coming.”
“What’s coming?” she demanded.
But she was talking to air. He’d already turned and walked away, leaving her in the barn alone and chained up.
Her voice was a whisper when she asked again.
“What’s coming, Christian?”
Chapter 6
The beam of sunlight cut like a blade, straight between two rotting slats in the side of the barn, stabbing her eyelids. Melody finally blinked them open. For several moments she just lay there, trying to clear her muddy thoughts, trying to figure out where the hell she was and what she was doing there.
And then it all came back in a rush, the force of it knocking the breath clear from her lungs as if someone had just kicked her square in the chest.
Like a movie, it played out in her mind’s eye.
Going to that seedy bar out in the middle of the desert with Enrique. Wearing the dress he’d bought her that was too short and too tight and the heels that were too tall. Sitting across from Lucas as Enrique made a drug deal with the Grim Riders, another notorious biker gang in the area.
Then that moment. That awful moment when the gang member had asked Enrique to give her to them for a night to sweeten the deal.
Melody almost gagged at the thought, but it wasn’t the worst thing that had happened last night. Not even close.
All the events that came after seemed to snowball in her mind, whirling faster and faster until she had to close her eyes, trying to squeeze out the images. Her fight with Enrique. The violent, jealous rage. Being abandoned on the side of the road in the middle of the Texas desert, miles and miles from anywhere.
Stumbling upon the shack and what she realized now must be one of the Devil’s Martyrs’ safehouses. Being captured and chained up in the old barn.
Christian.
Her mind stuttered to a stop when she got to him. All night she’d been filled with a deep, twisted fear, imaging all the terrible things that could happen to her. All the terrible things that Hub could decide as her fate with just a single word, on a whim, if he so chose.
Melody was so tired of not being in control of her own life. It had been so long since she’d made her own decisions and her own choices that she almost couldn’t remember what it felt like.
But then Christian had showed up. He’d given her food and water. He’d cleaned her wounds and bandaged her up like… like she was worth something.
Melody choked back a sob at the depressing thought.
I am worth something.
But even in her own head she had a hard time believing it. Living on the streets hadn’t done much to improve her self-confidence and the last year with Enrique had gone a long way to destroying it completely.
She threw her shoulders back in determination not to let them beat her but instantly regretted it as her aching body protested. She was still groggy from lack of sleep and her muscles were stiff from being tied up and her falling asleep in an awkward position.
Melody tried to adjust herself, but the chains made it impossible to move more than a few inches. After a moment she gave up, leaning back against the beam with a huff of frustration.
Fear still gnawed at the back of her mind like a rabid dog held just out of reach, and she knew she couldn’t give in to the panic. If her life had taught her anything, it was that there would always be those that preyed on the weak. She couldn’t be weak now. She had to stay strong no matter what. It might be the only chance she had at getting out of there unscathed.
You could always just marry Christian.
Melody let out a hoarse chuckle at the thought as his ‘proposal’ came back to her. What had he been thinking? Did he really think she would jump at the chance to marry him, a complete stranger?
What if it saves your life?
But Melody shook it off. She had to stay focused, keep her mind on the important things, like getting out of that barn alive and intact.
She started to shift again but froze as the sound of footsteps drawing closer reached her ears. Melody strained, listening to the boots crunch across gravel, sand, and sparse grass in the early morning air.
Melody tensed, her sore muscles protesting, but she ignored them. Every sense was trained on the sound of the footsteps getting closer and closer. They seemed to be coming around the back of the barn. Suddenly a voice spoke, soft and warm as the morning sunlight.
“Hey there, Bandit. How are you doing this morning?”
Melody’s body relaxed instinctively before her mind even made the connection. And, when she finally did, she let out the pent-up breath she’d been holding tight in her lungs. It was Christian.
Melody let her head loll back against the beam and her eyes slide shut as she listened. It took her another moment to realize whom he was talking to. A soft, happy bark answered him and she was bemused by the image of him outside, chatting with a bunch of dogs.
It suited him, she decided, then didn’t let herself think anymore. She just sat there with her eyes closed, letting the sound of Christian’s voice wash over her. Something about it soothed her.
She hadn’t been wrong, the night before. There was a kindness in him, in everything he did, in the way he treated others, even the animals, and it had a sudden lump forming in her throat.
Enrique had never spoken to her as kindly as Christian spoke to his dogs and the realization made her want to cry. Hell, he’d treated her worse than a dog. And, like a dumb animal, she went back to him again and again.
You didn’t have a choice.
The old refrain fluttered through her mind, but Melody pushed it away. She didn’t have the energy to face her demons. Not now. Not there, chained up in a barn, her dress stained with dirt and grass and who knew what else, her makeup smeared and her hair hanging in a tangled knot.
Still, Melody couldn’t help but wonder about Christian. About his offer the night before. She hated that she was tempted for even a moment. She knew it would solve some of her problems, but it would create even more. And there was no way she would marry a complete stranger. Especially one who had helped capture her.
You
might not have a choice in this either.
She could hear the ring of truth in the thought but shoved it back into the back corner of her mind. She was too worn-out and too tired to deal with it right then. But it looked like she wasn’t going to have that choice either.
Just then, she heard footsteps moving around the barn, walking closer to the front door and jangling the deadbolt that had locked her in the night before. Melody let her eyes slide shut, wishing she could just go back to sleep and pretend none of this was happening.
“Look, Christian, if you’re back here wanting to talk about last night, you can just forget it, okay?” Melody said, her tone snarky. “You can just leave me alone, alright? I’m not going to...”
