“You dirty little pervert! Don’t you ever touch me!” she snarled, kicking out again and catching him upside his head.
Her victory was short lived, though and the sheriff made his presence known behind her. His meaty hands were around her neck again, and she knew this time he wouldn’t stop. She sent out a silent apology to Bo. She was sorry she wasn’t able to stay alive for him, but at least he would know that she went down fighting. The hands around her neck tightened and agony raced outward like fire through her oxygen-deprived body. Lights danced around her for a moment, and then she surrendered to the blessed darkness.
Chapter Sixteen
They rode high into the mountains, but the usual breathtaking view was lost on Bo. He couldn’t get there fast enough. He knew logically that if he went off half-cocked, it would put Layla in worse danger than she was already in, but it took all his years of training to keep his cool.
Smokey took point, leading the way. When he turned off the main road onto a narrow dirt road, Bo knew they were getting close. They brought their bikes to a stop and climbed off.
“We’re walking from here,” Smokey explained. They all nodded and got moving.
The old logging road was overgrown and nearly impassable. They had been hiking for less than twenty minutes when Doc put up a hand to call them all to a halt.
“What?” Reb mouthed, not wanting to give away their position. Bo had been impressed by the man’s ability to move through the woods nearly as well as his trained friends.
Doc pointed to his ear and they all listened closely. Sure enough, the sound of someone moving through the woods could be heard. Several someones if Bo wasn’t mistaken. Wordlessly they all faded into the woods. He had spent years practicing the art of waiting. The group that burst through the underbrush was the last thing Bo expected to see.
“Glory!” Smokey cried, as he burst from behind the concealing brush. Within a matter of heartbeats, he had his love in his embrace.
Gloria was followed by a small group of women and children. They all wore ragged clothes, all far too big and colorless. Several of the children clung to the women, while others clung to each other. Altogether, there were three women and eleven children.
As they all exited the thick woods, Bo waited eagerly for Layla to appear. As if sensing his questioning gaze, Gloria shook her head. “I’m sorry, Bo. They took her. She made me promise if I could get away and bring help I would. I didn’t want to leave her.” She added the last with a sob, tears coursing down her pretty face. “She made me promise.”
He closed his eyes for a second. There was no need to take his anguish out on poor Gloria. She had done exactly what she was supposed to do, and knowing Gloria’s mothering nature, he could only imagine how hard it must have been for her to leave her friend behind. Opening his eyes, he smiled weakly at the woman. “It’s okay, sweetheart. You did the right thing. Do you have any idea where they took her?”
“They took her to the training room,” one of the women whispered so softly that for a second Bo almost doubted he had heard anything.
He took a step toward her, only to have her cower away.
“Shh…easy.” He held up his hands pleadingly. “Don’t worry, no one here will hurt you.” He turned back to Gloria for confirmation.
She nodded. “The lady they took today, he’s her man. We have to help him find her.” She turned back to Bo. “This is Sarah. She and her husband brought their family to live in The Community.”
“The city was getting so bad. Thieves broke into our neighbors’ house and killed them all. We just wanted the children to be safe,” the woman explained. She lovingly stroked the soft golden hair of the two children clinging to her. “My husband got sick last year and Pastor Thompson told us all to pray. We all prayed so hard, but nothing helped.” She bit her lip and Bo knew that her story didn’t have a happy ending.
The other two women each had similar stories. They were circumspect due to the children’s presence, but he understood.
Bo’s eyes went to the two youngsters that clung to each other. Following his gaze, Gloria shook her head. “Their parents are gone,” she whispered, and Bo felt his heart twist. As if he didn’t have enough cause to kill this bastard before. He wanted to shout at the injustice, but instead he steeled himself. He was going to put a serious hurt on this little fucker. His eyes roamed the group and he could tell there would be long line. Jake wore an expression of cold fury. Ghost’s face was filled with horror, but it was Reb’s face that caught his attention. The man’s normally laid-back expression had been replaced with one of pure rage as his eyes landed on the tiny gild. Bo realized he was thinking about his own daughter. Yep, there was going to be a long line of people waiting to hurt this fucker.
Gloria dropped to her knees and beckoned the children over. They hesitated, their little feet dragging shyly. “It’s all right, sweetie. We won’t hurt you. We promise,” Gloria soothed in the gentle way that only she could. “What are your names?”
The girl was the oldest of the pair. Her long hair was a tangle of carrot-red curls. Bo thought he caught a decent batch of freckles underneath the thick layer of dirt. She looked to be about seven years old, but it was so hard to tell because she was painfully thin, and he wasn’t exactly an expert on children. Her eyes nervously flickered back and forth between Smokey and Gloria. She scooted closer to Gloria. “My name’s Cassie, and this is my little brother, Michael.” She drew the boy protectively close, and the child hid his face in the crook of his big sister’s arm. She stood up straighter, holding him protectively. “He don’t like that mean man. He knocked Michael in the head real hard.”
Sarah stepped up behind the children. “The pastor used to holler at them something fierce, and if they got in his way, he’d knock them around. I’ve been trying to keep them tucked away with mine. The pastor doesn’t have much patience for children.” She shook her head and smiled sadly. “At least he isn’t like some men, you know, the kind who like them young?” she whispered softly.
Bo was glad he wouldn’t have to kill the man twice.
Smokey got down on his knees so that he was at the little girls’ level. “Don’t you worry, little princess. That mean man isn’t going to hurt you or your brother anymore. I promise.” He held out his hand and patiently waited.
She eyed the big biker suspiciously for several seconds, but then in that innate way a child could, she seemed to recognize who she could trust. Hesitantly, she placed her hand in his. Gloria scooped up little Michael, and held him close.
“How did you get free?” Doc asked, ever the soldier.
“I was trying to pick the lock with this,” Gloria explained, pulling the small pocketknife from her pocket. She laughed wryly. “I had just about given up when the door opened. It was Sarah.”
“I couldn’t let them hurt the lady. I felt bad that I was too scared to save the other one.” She hung her head in shame.
“You did fine. We’ll save Layla. You have my eternal gratitude,” Smokey told her solemnly.
Bo could almost agree, except his heart was aching for his lady. “Smokey, can you and Gloria take the children back to the main road? Call Willa and see if she can get a few cars up here. Take them all over to the hospital and have them checked out. Sarah, can you stay behind for a second though?”
She glanced at her children, reluctantly, but the other women stepped up.
“We’ll take care of the young ones. You help them save their friend, Sarah. You are the brave one among us.”
“I think you’re all pretty brave,” Ghost told them with an encouraging smile. He had always been the sensitive one out of the squad.
She chewed her lip indecisively for a bit, before she nodded. She nudged her children toward her friends. “You go on with Ms. Lizie and Ms. Angela. I’ll be along in a few minutes. I promise.” She kissed each tousled head in turn.
“Can you tell us how to get back into the compound? Draw us a map to where they would have taken Layla?�
�� Jake asked when the children had moved a few feet away.
Sarah nodded. “I can do that.” The woman dropped to her knees and grabbed a stick and began drawing in the dirt. “Along the back wall of the compound there is a spot where the brick wall is crumbling. That’s how we got out. The place is old and the pastor and his lazy son don’t like to work. They always had us women do it. There are two more families that stayed behind. They still believe in the pastor. You’ll have to watch out for them. Their men are still healthy, and all four are zealots.”
“Still healthy?” Bo questioned suspiciously.
“We have our suspicions, but no way to prove it. The Pastor likes to be the only cock in the henhouse. As long as none of the men challenge him, then they are okay. My Roger took exception to the pastor getting handsy with me. Pastor said he was being punished for the sin of pride.” She took a deep breath, as if willing herself to be strong. After several seconds she went on to explain the layout of the main building. “The women will be down in the kitchen preparing dinner, the men will be in the gardens working. It’s when the men are out of the house that the pastor and his evil little son like to corner the women.”
Bo nodded. They’d have to find a way to get rid of the two men working in the garden. If they were as fanatical as Sarah believed, they’d fight and fight hard. He’d learned that first hand in the Middle East. A man fueled by religious fanaticism was a very dangerous thing.
“Bo!” Gloria called running back into the clearing. “One thing, their Pastor, it’s Sheriff Thompson. I didn’t want to say any more in front of the children. They are already skittish. I don’t want them associating him with authority.”
Grinding his teeth, Bo cursed violently. “Explains why the fucker never found any clues!”
“Always knew that asshole was dirty,” Jake said with a growl. “But I never could get any proof.”
“Well we have it now. Of course that assumes I leave anything for them to arrest. Let’s head out,” Bo said, spinning on his booted heel.
They melted back into the woods, moving silently. Jake and Reb might not have actual military experience, but years of hunting taught them how to move through the woods like a true predator, silent and deadly.
The back of the compound soon came into view. The security wall was old, the mortar cracking between the smooth gray stones. The crumbled hidden entrance was just where Sarah said it would be.
Doc motioned to his left and pointed to himself and Bo. He then pointed to the right and then to Ghost and Reb, and finally to Jake, straight up the middle.
They all nodded. They knew the plan. Ghost and Reb would take out the men in the garden. Jake would have to handle the women in the kitchen without Smokey. Bo and Doc would find Layla and take the sheriff and whoever else was with him out.
* * * *
Layla floated happily. The blackness was sweet and warm. It was like sleeping in Bo’s arms. She sighed, wanting to stay there forever.
Then the cold hit. It was like she’d been dropped into an icy winter lake. The scream was ripped from her lips, filled with agony and rage. She wanted to stay in the warm place. She didn’t want to wake up. She couldn’t quite remember why. She had a vague memory of pain, lots of it. The cold hit again, and she heard that voice. It was a voice from nightmares.
“Wake up, bitch!” the voice growled, but she didn’t want to.
The cold came again. Her skin burned and froze all at the same time. It was as if she was being stabbed by a thousand knives. She screamed again, the sound animalistic even to her own ears, and it hurt. Why did her throat hurt so bad? It was the thought of getting away from the cold forced her to obey the voice. Her eyelids were so heavy, but finally she managed to lift them. As the room came into focus, the last few hours came back to her.
She sobbed. Why couldn’t they just let her die? She’d been dreaming. She’d been with Bo. She’d been happy. She’d been safe.
“Wake up, whore!” Her eyes followed the sound of the voice and landed on the sheriff.
“Fuck you!” she rasped. Her throat was raw and it came out in a hoarse croak. Her arms were numb and she realized that she still dangled from the hook in the ceiling. She narrowed her gaze on her torturer. He was the kind of man who enjoyed taking advantage of those weaker than himself. She knew that type. She raised her chin stubbornly and met his gaze head-on. “Fuck you!” she repeated.
Fire exploded through her, sizzling up and down her spine and out to each extremity. She twitched violently before sagging as the fire eased.
It was the man who’d taken her from the hospital, Ukaria. He appeared in front of her, wagging a handheld Taser before her. Shit, she cursed to herself. How could she forget about him? She took great pleasure in the swollen crooked angle of his nose. She was pretty sure she was going to pay for that, but if she was going down, it wasn’t going to be without a fight.
“Bits. No o igh an mighy now are ou?” he snapped, the words mumbled by his broken nose, which was stuffed full of cotton gauze.
Temper flaring, she tried to lift her legs to kick out at him again, only to realize she couldn’t move them. Looking down, she realized that each limb had been tightly bound to heavy cinder blocks. She was well and truly fucked. Any movement raked the soft flesh on the side of the foot over the rough surface.
The sheriff walked up next to his son, a vicious smile on his face. “Shall we try this again, Miss Ross?” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “I think it’s time for you to understand how things are going to work for you from now on. You are now in our world, what we call The Community. Here we serve our Lord. We do not suffer sins of vanity among us. Sin must be purged through suffering.” He moved to a table to her left and lifted a black silk cloth. She swallowed hard at the things he revealed. She recognized some of them, the whips and paddles had always been a source of excitement to her. Now they struck fear in her that went right to her core. Apparently he saw her fear because he gave a low evil chuckle. “Ah, now that’s more the response I was looking for. Shall we begin?”
Her eyes widened as he selected an innocent enough looking riding crop. She’d felt the sting of a crop before, but somehow she didn’t think this would be the sweet pleasant sting she felt when Bo wielded it. She swallowed again as he walked a slow circuit around her.
The first blow landed on her right breast causing her to twist as it bit into her tender flesh. She bit down on her lip, refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream.
He hummed low under his breath. “Oh no, don’t think you can hold out on me. You will give me your screams.” He let loose with a long volley of blows. The crop seemed to land everywhere. It bit into her flesh like fingers of fire. She twisted and turned, trying to escape. She tasted blood in her mouth as she fought with everything in her to keep her lips sealed. When a particularly vicious blow caught the tender flesh just to the inside of her hip, she couldn’t take it anymore. She screamed. It was ripped from her very soul.
Breathing heavy, it took her several minutes to comprehend the fact that he’d stepped back and was observing her.
“Now we’re getting somewhere. Let your sin free. Your cries of suffering are sweet words of repentance to the Lord.”
She sagged, her head hanging. Her entire body was shaking and sweat poured from her. Dimly she heard him move and managed to look up as he set the crop aside and grabbed a long, vicious-looking whip. Her eyes widened as she realized he’d just been toying with her before. The crop hurt, but the whip would strip the skin from her bones. Her heart was in her throat, and her breath sawed in and out of her chest violently.
He laughed as if sensing her panic. “Yes, we are definitely getting somewhere. You will give your sin over to God. Through your suffering you will be purged.”
“Please,” she whimpered. They were far from civilization, and it was doubtful that any would hear her screams. He could do this to her forever, and no one would stop him.
“Ah, so very much better.
” He stepped up to her and traced a hand down her cheek, over her collarbone. “Please what?”
“P–please don’t hurt me anymore,” she whimpered, her eyes trained on the whip.
“Oh, you’ll hurt. That’s how you’ll be freed. Don’t worry. You’ll come to love the pain. You’ll embrace it.” He stepped back and turned to his son. “Undo her feet and bring the sawhorse. I’ll start with that ass she so vainly twitches to tempt men.”
“But Pa, what if she kicks me again?” he whined.
The whine stopped abruptly when the sheriff drew back his fist and clocked him upside the head. “You’ll do what you’re told boy or you’ll be the one feeling the whip. I know how much you hate the whip.”
Ukaria cowered before the man, scurrying to obey. He needn’t have worried though. There was no way she had the strength in her to strike out at him again. She heard the scrape of wood over the cold stone floor and then felt him at her ankles. She looked down and wanted to vomit. He was looking right up at her, his leering gaze eating up her bare pussy. She shuddered as his tongue snaked out and ran over his lips, as if imaging her taste.
“Get moving boy. I can see your lustful thoughts as plainly as I can see the sun in the sky.”
“Sorry, Pa.” He moved quickly, lifting her so that her abdomen rested on a worn sawhorse. The position pushed her ass into the air, and she hadn’t thought she could get more vulnerable feeling. He spread her legs and tied them to the legs of the sawhorse. The angle hid his wandering hands and she was mortified to feel them slide up and slip between the lips of her sex.
She screeched as he unceremoniously shoved a finger into her dry channel.
“What’s going on over there boy?” The Sheriff snapped.
She felt him quickly withdraw, and had to fight the urge to vomit as he walked around in front of her and pointedly slid his finger into his mouth.
Unaware of the by-play, the Sheriff wagged the whip before her. “Now we are ready to begin.” He smiled, his smile far more evil than the lecherous grin of his son, and she was truly afraid.
Breaking Hearts [Smoky Mountain Motorcycles 2] (Siren Publishing Allure) Page 12
