Bound (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 3)

by Michelle Betham

  He raises an eyebrow and takes another draw on his cigarette. “You think you might be wrong? ‘Cause a minute ago you seemed very sure she was the worst kinda rat.”

  “I don’t know.” I throw back my head and sigh heavily. “I don’t fucking know, Mack.”

  He’s about to say something when his cell rings out, and he looks at the caller ID and he barely leaves a beat before answering. “Cole? What’s going on? Where the fuck are you?”

  Skye

  He leans against the wall and holds the phone to his ear, but all the time he keeps his eyes fixed on me.

  “Tell the kid I had those suspicions, too. But she ain’t no FBI informant… You know me, Mack. If I had even the slightest reason to doubt her she’d be dealt with, no matter how pretty she is… No, she’s nothing more than some smart-mouthed club girl who just needs to know her place, so you tell our boy there that he been worrying over nothing. Everything’s still happening, as planned, so you better get your asses in gear and get moving. Don’t wanna fuck this thing up so close to the end now, do we?”

  He hangs up and shoves his cell back into his pocket, throwing me a smirk that makes me sick to my stomach.

  “You lied to them.”

  “Of course I lied to ‘em, darlin’. Don’t want that kid thinking bad of you when he’s all alone in his cold, dark cell. Much rather he just remember you as that pretty girl he couldn’t have.”

  “They’re still going ahead with the plan? To spring Dom?”

  “They are. But they’re gonna find out too late that they’re on their own; that my brothers are safe and sound, nowhere near all that crap, while Mack and his men – they’re gonna be exposed to everything your law enforcement friends are gonna throw at them. They’re gonna be brought to their knees, and you helped do that, darlin’. You helped make that happen.”

  He hasn’t got me tied up. He hasn’t restrained my hands or made sure I can’t move. I’m sitting on a battered old couch in a rundown room in a house some place I don’t recognize, and I’m free to walk about, which confuses me. But I don’t question it. I know when not to push something, and whatever Cole has planned, I think it’s best I just let him run with it. Gabriel will find me soon, that’s all I can cling onto for now. But I’m scared. I’m fucking terrified.

  “What if they still suspect, huh?”

  Cole narrows his eyes as I ask that question. But he doesn’t respond.

  “What if they still think something’s wrong? What if they suspect enough to pull out of the plan, to let it go…?”

  “They ain’t gonna do that.”

  “You know that for sure?”

  “I know Mack Slayer.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question.”

  He walks toward me, resting his hand on the arm of the couch as he leans right into me. “You’re gonna keep that mouth shut from now on, darlin’, y’hear me? I lied to them to make sure this shit went ahead ‘cause I could see that boy was starting to over think everything. And I know he ain’t stupid. He was always gonna start piecing shit together, and I can’t risk that happening. So I lied to them to make sure everything stayed on track ‘cause you nearly blew that outta the water. You opened that mouth of yours when I told you to keep it shut. You told your FBI boyfriend everything I told you not to, and now – now you need to be dealt with. I ain’t a fan of rats, no matter how beautiful they are. So you sit tight, and I’ll be back. I ain’t going nowhere yet. And neither are you.”

  I watch as he leaves the room, but he has two of his men outside, making sure I go nowhere.

  I’m alone now. And I sit back and draw my knees to my chest; I close my eyes, and I pray.

  I pray that Theo doesn’t get hurt.

  I pray that Mack Slayer never finds out the truth.

  I pray that Gabriel finds me. Soon…

  Gabriel

  “What the…? Skye? Jesus…!”

  The back door’s been kicked in, windows are smashed, and I know he got to her first. That bastard got to her before me.

  I pull out my phone and call Phil.

  “Is nobody watching this fucking house?”

  “Gabriel, calm down…”

  “He’s got her.”

  “Rockwell?”

  “Windows are smashed, the door’s been kicked in, and there’s no sign of her. Has there been any audio?”

  “Not for a while… I just thought, seeing as she was back at the house, that she’d taken the wire off while she waited for you. But someone should’ve still been watching the house, was nobody out front when you got there?”

  “Shit!” I lean back against the wall and take a deep breath, I’ve got to try and stay calm now. “He’s taken her out the back way. Same way he got in… Are we really that fucking stupid, Phil? Why was nobody out back, too? After what she just told us… Shit! I’m gonna go knock on a few doors, see if anyone saw or heard anything.”

  “Are we still going ahead with everything, Gabriel?”

  “Of course we fucking are. But we’re gonna need another team now, to find Skye, because if he knows she’s an informant, and he’s got her… Make sure this doesn’t turn to shit, Phil, y’hear me?”

  “You’re gonna help look for her?”

  “Yes, I’m gonna help look for her. You can take charge of the operation, can’t you? You can do that, right?”

  “You know I can.”

  “Then you worry about that, and get another team out there looking for Rockwell and Skye. Let’s try not to fuck everything up. When I’m done here I’m going back to the office, see what can be done from there. We need to find her, and fast, before he does something I don’t even want to think about.”

  I end the call and run outside, and despite the fact it’s after eleven at night I knock on every door in the street, because I need to know if anyone saw or heard anything, anything at all, I just need something I can give to the team, but all anyone can tell me – all anyone saw was a plain, dark colored van with no plates driving off at high speed, heading north.

  I’ve got shit.

  Cole Rockwell knows what Skye is.

  And I need to find her, because if I don’t…

  If I can’t…

  Theo

  “You were wrong.”

  Mack looks at me, and I don’t know whether I feel better about that or not, the fact I was wrong. If I was wrong. But maybe all this shit really is just making me paranoid. Maybe I just read a little too much into something, I don’t know. I don’t know anything anymore.

  “Believe me, if Cole Rockwell had any idea she could be an informant… I’ve seen how he deals with rats, Theo. Jesus, I’ve dealt with rats myself, so if he thought she was one…”

  “So, everything’s still going ahead?”

  “Yeah. It’s going ahead. And we need to get moving if we’re gonna be there on time. You got everything you need?”

  “Mack, does Cole – does he know where Skye is?”

  “Why the hell would he know where she is? I told her to go home, so that’s where she’ll be. And if she ain’t… right now I don’t give a fuck where she is. She almost caused all this to turn to shit so quit thinking about her and get in the van.”

  “Do you really trust him, Mack? I mean…”

  “Get in the fucking van, Theo. I ain’t debating this no more, we’re done with that crap. It’s time to go, son.”

  I take a quick look around the compound, although I don’t know why. I’m not gonna miss this place. The only thing I’m gonna miss is Skye. Maybe I was wrong about her, maybe it really was just my paranoia taking over. Maybe I was just pissed because she didn’t feel the same way about me as I did about her. As I do, about her.

  But she’s gone now.

  And I’m going, too.

  But that uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach, that isn’t going anywhere…

  Chapter Fifteen

  Skye

  “Eat.”

  He holds out a plate containing what looks lik
e a ham and cheese sandwich. “I’m not hungry.”

  “I said, eat.”

  I take the plate from him, and he leans into me and he gives me that nausea-inducing smirk, another match dangling from the corner of his mouth.

  “’Cause you’re gonna need the energy, darlin’. Besides, I like my women with some meat on their bones, and you – you’re verging on way too skinny for my tastes.”

  “You fucking bastard piece of shit.”

  He laughs, but I need to at least make myself believe that I can handle this. Even if, deep down, I’m not sure that I can. “You keep talking to me like that, sweetheart, and you’re gonna find out just how much of a bastard I can really be.”

  I put the plate down on the couch beside me and I watch him as he walks across the room, over to the window. The view outside gives nothing away. I’m not familiar enough with this part of the country to have even the slightest clue as to where we are. The only thing I know is that we didn’t seem to drive for all that long. I’d say it took less than twenty minutes to get to wherever we are.

  “They’ll find me. The FBI. They’ll find me. They’ll know you have me, and they’ll find me.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, darlin’. If it makes you feel better.”

  He checks his watch.

  “What time is it?”

  “Ain’t no concern of yours what time it is.”

  “What are you gonna do with me?”

  He turns to face me, and his mouth twists up into an ugly sneer. “What am I gonna do with you? Oh, I ain’t decided yet, sugar.”

  I look down at my hands grasping my knees, and I rest my chin on them, and I feel that emptiness and fear swamp me again.

  “Is it time? At least tell me that.”

  He’s back now, right up in my face, and he smells of cigarettes and whiskey and when he’s this close it’s suffocating. “Hey, I don’t owe you nothin’, sweetheart, and you gotta remember that. You’re here ‘cause you ain’t nothing more than a low-down grass who got herself into some trouble, and then took a way out that she really, really shouldn’ta taken. So me? I owe you shit, darlin’.”

  He moves away and I breathe out, but there’s nothing fresh about the air in here. It’s cloying and damp and I can’t lose that sick feeling, it’s overwhelming.

  “Your knight in shining armor, baby girl… he ain’t coming for you. So you better just sit back and take your fate, ‘cause you may be one of the prettier rats we’ve had to deal with, but you’re still a rat. And you’re gonna be dealt with.”

  I raise my head and I look at him, and he’s got that smirk on his face again, that match still dangling from the corner of his mouth.

  “I’m just gonna have me some fun first, is all.”

  Theo

  I look at my watch. Almost a quarter to midnight. And my stomach’s churning so fast it’s all I can do not to throw up.

  “We’ve checked the area again and we can’t find nothing suspicious.” Mack climbs back into the truck. “Looks like you really were worrying about shit.”

  “So where’s Cole, huh?”

  “Jesus, do you ever stop asking fucking questions?”

  “It was my job, at one time, remember? And it’s gonna be my job again, if we can pull this off. If we can get of here alive.”

  Mack looks at me out the corner of his eye, and I can see the frustration on his face but I’m still feeling uneasy, about all of this. I won’t feel safe or believe for one minute that all I was was a little bit paranoid, not until me and Dom are on that plane.

  If we ever get on that plane.

  Because I’m still not sure that’s gonna happen…

  Gabriel

  We’ve got shit. A plain, dark-colored van narrows nothing down, besides, they could’ve ditched that and picked up another vehicle, we aren’t dealing with amateurs here. These are dangerous but clever criminals. And I’m all too aware of what they do to people like Skye.

  I check my watch. Ten to midnight. It should all be kicking off now, and I wait for word from Phil. If we can bring Mack Slayer in he might be able to give us something on Cole, have some idea where he might’ve taken Skye. Some shit needs to go right tonight because, so far, it’s a fucking mess.

  “You look like you could do with this.”

  I look up as Lydia, one of my colleagues on this case, hands me a mug of coffee and I take it, throwing her a thin smile. “Thanks. Its gonna be a long night. Maybe we should just be drip-fed this stuff for the next few hours, huh?”

  She smiles too and leans back against the desk beside me. “How you doing? Since Erin left?”

  I sigh quietly and drop my gaze. Everyone seems to think me and Erin could have been saved, but they didn’t know the truth; that she just needed something – someone to cling onto. Me? I didn’t really need her at all. We were both selfish, in our own ways, but to the outside world we obviously hid every problem we had a little too well, to the point where we actually seemed to believe we were that couple everyone thought we were.

  “I’m doing fine.”

  “You seem tired.”

  “I think we’re all tired, Lydia. It’s been a long day.”

  “It’s not easy, Gabriel. Being on your own.”

  I look at her, and I wish she’d leave this alone. I don’t want to talk about this, I want to find Skye. Right now, that’s all I want. “It wasn’t working out, OK? Me and Erin, it’d dragged on for far too long, and sometimes you’ve just got to end something before it completely destroys you. Both of you.”

  She frowns slightly. “I had no idea things were so bad.”

  “Yeah, well, I’ve never really been the type to talk about my emotions, right?”

  She smiles slightly and she gives my shoulder a gentle squeeze. “We’re gonna win this one, Gabriel.”

  “Are we?”

  At what cost though?

  At what fucking cost…?

  Skye

  The door opens and Cole walks back into the room, followed by about a dozen of his men, all of them holding beers, their raucous laughter cutting through me as it ricochets off the walls. It’s a terrifying, almost chilling sound, to me.

  I lean back against the window ledge as they all throw themselves down onto the various chairs and couches spread out around the room, and I look up as Cole approaches me.

  “Time to earn your keep, baby girl.”

  His words chill me to the bone, and I cross my arms against my chest and keep them there, like some sort of pointless defensive shield.

  “What do you want from me, Cole?”

  He leans into me, his face right up in mine and again all I can smell is stale beer and cigarettes, with a hint of marijuana. Jesus, are these fuckers high?

  “You’re gonna give my boys here a show. Skye.” He reaches out and drags his fingers down over my cheek, and it makes my skin crawl and my stomach churn, I feel sick. “Such a pretty name. For a pretty girl. Just a shame you turned out to be everything we don’t tolerate. Rats need to be put down, you understand that, don’t you?”

  I don’t respond, I just hold his stare, but inside I am beyond terrified.

  He steps back, and that sneer on his face tells me this isn’t going to go away or get any better and I just hope to God my prayers are being answered, somewhere, because if Gabriel doesn’t find me…

  “I already seen you naked, darlin’, but my boys, they’re still waiting to see that hot little English body of yours.”

  “Go to hell,” I spit, but my words and my tone belie the fear I’m feeling. I don’t know if I’m going to get out of this alive so I’m playing it like I’ve got nothing to lose. Because, maybe, I haven’t. Maybe this is where it all ends, for me.

  He laughs, and he steps back toward me, and he pulls my arms away from me and runs his fingers down over the front of my dress, sliding his hand inside until he cups my breast and I just keep on holding his gaze, he can’t think he’s getting to me, even if he is. I need to stay strong
. And then he rips the dress from my body, the sound of the material tearing filling the room, along with cheers and whistles and jeers I can’t make out as I’m suddenly exposed to these animals.

  He drops a hand and slips his fingers into the sides of my panties, lightly tugging at them, and all the time his eyes remain fixed on mine.

  “I bet you wondered why I didn’t touch you, that other night.”

  I say nothing. I’m not responding. The only way I can get through this is to switch off, shut down. It’s the only way.

  “I wanted to, don’t get me wrong. I wanted to touch you, but I kinda wanted your FBI man to hear our new boy take you more. I wanted to fuck with his head, imagine how much it was killing him, knowing another man’s dick was inside you; listening in as another man made you come, and believe me, darlin’, you look kinda pretty, when you come.”

  With every word he utters that sick feeling in my gut intensifies until I can barely keep the nausea down, but I swallow it back and I try to stay calm. I’m shutting down, remember? As he rips my panties off I’m shutting down…

  “But now…” He rests his hand on my hip, but I’m still managing to stay calm, even though the touch of his fingers against my skin is terrifying. “Now I’m gonna have what I’ve been waiting way too long for.”

  He unzips himself, and I know what’s coming, and I know I can’t fight it, so I don’t. I hold his gaze and I shut right down so when he finally enters me I feel nothing. He isn’t there, this isn’t happening, I feel nothing.

  I’m vaguely aware of more jeers and whistles coming from his audience as he continues to fuck me, and I close my eyes and think of anything but what’s happening here, because if I let reality in it’s going to destroy me. So I think of nothing, I just let a dark void take over until he comes in a barrage of short, sharp spasms that last just seconds. It’s over, he’s done, but I keep that barrier up as he pulls out of me. I’m keeping it up, period.