Now I shuddered, recalling her desperate, tear-driven words to me. I’ll kill you myself before I let him touch you like that! Up to that point, Wildman had treated me like a meddlesome kid, lashing out at me whenever I was within reach. His mental abuse, the threats, had been far worse.
“Maddie, I didn’t tell you everything that Wildman did to Mom.” I hadn’t told her what he’d done to me. “I promised her that I wouldn’t. But I know this monster. He’s a killer.” She paled at my words, and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “If he gets wind that I have a sister, he’ll use you to draw me out, and then he’ll kill you in a horrible way. I know him, and I can’t keep myself safe if I’m worried about you.”
I had to get through to her, and I could see that she was thoughtfully weighing each of my words. I had no doubt that she believed what I was saying, but she had to convince herself that she was in danger. Her staring gaze finally lifted and focused on me.
“What about you? Shouldn’t the three of us go away together?”
My heart fell because I knew that Maddie was talking about her useless husband. It occurred to me that she might not know about our current situation with Dark Menace. Knowing Ronald, he’d come up with some lie about his severed fingers, and downplayed the seriousness of it.
“Maddie, did Ronald tell you why his fingers were cut off?”
Her brow furrowed and I knew that she was confused as to why I’d suddenly changed the subject. Slowly, she began to nod. “Some freak accident—”
I interrupted her. “You’ve heard of the local motorcycle club, Dark Menace?”
“Yes, who hasn’t?”
“He owes them a ton of money, sis. I was here the day they cut his fingers off.” She gasped, horrified, but I kept going. “They’ve given him a deadline to pay them back, and until then, I’m collateral. I’m staying at their clubhouse outside of town and working in their bar.”
“He didn’t tell me any of that,” she admitted in a low voice.
“I have to stay with Dark Menace until Ronald pays them back. They consider me their property, which means they will protect me from Wildman.”
“How much?” she asked simply, her tone defeated. I could see that she was fighting tears.
“Too much. Look, I’m not telling you this to make you feel bad. I’m okay at the club, they’re decent people.” My thoughts went to Stone as I gave her a couple of minutes to let it all sink in.
Would he protect me? Just because we’d had sex didn’t mean that he felt anything for me. He was a hard man to read unless he was angry. I recalled his muscles against my body, the strength in his arms. The unleashed power he just managed to contain.
“Where will I go?”
Good. I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Can you go to your dad’s for a while?” I could never refer to him as my dad, too, I didn’t know him. I had been three when he and my mom had divorced, and we’d never seen him again.
“He might not want Ronald there.”
I lost it, getting to my feet. “This isn’t about Ronald, sis!” Maddie knew how I felt about Ronald. “Why do you always worry about him? Do you think he was worried about you when he took money from Dark Menace? Was he worried about what they might do to you, just because you’re his wife? Is he worried about what they’ll do to me if he doesn’t pay them back? Ronald doesn’t worry about anyone but himself. I’ll never understand what you see in him. He’s a worthless, no-good asshole! For once will you just put yourself first?”
Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks, and I felt a moment of regret for my harsh words. I sat back down, ignoring my pounding heart and taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry, Maddie. It’s just that I’m so scared, and I feel like you need to leave as soon as possible. Like now.” Our eyes met and held while she wiped at her wet cheeks. “Please.” I didn’t know what else to say.
I couldn’t blame Maddie for her lack of urgency. She didn’t know Wildman, didn’t know what he was capable of. I couldn’t understand her concern for Ronald, but I supposed you couldn’t help who you fell in love with. We sat staring at each other for a few minutes. If I’d thought telling her the whole story would help, I would have.
“Okay,” she said after a while. “Let me call Ronald and tell him I’ll pick him up on the way out of town.”
God, what I was about to say wasn’t going to go over well. “Sis, Ronald has to stay here. If he leaves before paying Dark Menace back they’ll think he skipped out on them, and they’ll take it out on my hide. Probably hunt his ass down, too.”
“But he’s my husband, Rachel, I can’t just leave him.”
“You have to.” I could see that she was pulling away. “Look, it’s not forever. Only until the threat of Wildman is gone.”
“Can I tell him what’s going on?”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, in case he slips up and says something that he shouldn’t. You know the kind of people who hang around tattoo shops, and how small towns are. Just tell him your dad’s sick or something and that you have to go to him.” I watched a range of emotions run across her face. “Sis, we’re wasting time. You need to get gone from here.”
She released a resigned breath and asked, “Will you help me pack?”
“Yes.”
“Let me just make a brief call to Ronald first.”
I was so happy that she’d agreed to leave that I kept my mouth shut about Ronald. While Maddie phoned him I walked back to their bedroom. I knew where she kept their suitcases, and I was going to start throwing things into them. The quicker she got out of town, the faster I could get back to the club. In the meantime, I’d have to come up with some story that made sense and kept Stone pacified.
Chapter 11
RACHEL
I watched Maddie drive around the corner and disappear, a feeling of deep dread settling in my stomach. At the last minute I’d made her take the truck, because I knew her old car would never make the trip through the mountains of upstate New York, where our dad lived. He’d divorced Maddie’s mother after she went to prison for insurance and check fraud, and according to her, he was working his way through wife number three. Why she’d ever kept in touch with him I didn’t know. As far as I was concerned, he was a loser, going through life making children he would later abandon.
I climbed into Maddie’s car, reluctant to head back to the club, but knowing that I had to. Stone was going to be pissed when he found out what I’d done, but wouldn’t he have done the same if it were his family? No, something told me his solution would have been to meet the problem head-on and extinguish it without thought of what was legal. He didn’t strike me as the kind of man who wasted words, actions, or anything else when it came to protecting those he cared about.
Oh, shit! I came to a red light and stopped, my gaze focused on the three Dark Mencase bikers that were directly across from me and headed in my direction. I recognized Stone immediately as he braced his feet on the ground. I felt my heart rate speed up, fighting the urge to duck. He was talking to the two men flanking him and even from where I watched I could tell from his body language that he was tense, his expression set like concrete, and I wondered if it was because of me.
As he glanced around I held my breath, and then relaxed a little when I remembered that I was in Maddie’s car. All I had to do was make it through the light, but luck was on Stone’s side. It turned green, and as I pulled forward his eyes met mine through the windshield. We continued past each other, and I kept my head straight, seeing his turn my way out of the corner of my eye. Fuck! I glanced up in my rearview mirror in time to see him raise his arm and make a circular motion to his men.
They were turning around! And I was in trouble, maybe even dead. I pushed down on the gas, but Maddie’s car had serious problems, and getting past forty was one of them. Within minutes Stone was driving up to my window, his men pulling up close behind my car. I reluctantly glanced over at him, meeting his stony gaze.
His lips pulle
d back in a sneer. “Get your ass back to the club!”
God, he was pissed. I didn’t bother telling him that that was where I was going. I just nodded and turned my attention back to the road, wondering what my punishment would be. There was no denying the pleasure he delivered when he touched me, but I sensed his hands could be just as ruthless in delivering pain. Or perhaps he would have one of his men do it. I shook my head. No sense in letting my imagination run wild, I was probably worrying for nothing.
The clubhouse was located just outside of town. In order to get there we had to drive through a section of town that was even poorer than Maddie’s, with a huge abandoned industrial park filled with crumbling buildings and railroad tracks. As the clubhouse came into view the urge to slow down was strong, but I didn’t give in to it. All I could do was suck it up and face whatever Stone had planned for me.
I pulled the car into an empty spot and sat there for a minute, vaguely conscious of Stone and the others backing up against the building. Opening the car door, I got out just in time to see him slide his leg over his bike, take his helmet off, and throw it down. I was halfway to the door when he intercepted me, grabbing me by the upper arm.
“Where the fuck did you go?” he growled, slinging the door open and pushing me roughly inside.
I decided to tell him as much of the truth as I could. “To see my sister.” The first thing my eyes landed on was a crying Trudy sitting at the bar, being consoled by Lulu. Ty was also there, behind the bar. When we walked into the room everyone glanced our way. I turned sharply to Stone. “This is all on me, Trudy had nothing to do with it.”
“Save it,” he gritted between his teeth. “Tell Ripper we’re back!” He shouted to no one in particular.
I mouthed ‘I’m sorry’ to Trudy as Stone guided me through the room. “What’s going to happen to her?” I asked as he dragged me down a hallway I’d never been in before.
“You should be more worried about what’s going to happen to you.” His tone was hard, flat, without emotion. It matched the dead look in his eyes.
“I just went to see my sister,” I reminded him, trying to pull away from his claw-like grip. Downplaying the fact that I’d taken a truck and left Trudy behind, hadn’t told anyone where I was going, and then had given that truck away, I said, “And I was coming back! Jesus, how much trouble can I get into for that? Don’t you think that you’re overreacting?”
I could feel the anger rolling off of him, and got the sense that something else was wrong. He couldn’t be this mad at me for just going to visit my sister. Fuck, did it have something to do with Wildman? Had he found out about my connection with him? No, that was impossible.
I refused to even consider it.
Without warning he yanked me to a stop, felt the wall for something, and then right before my eyes a secret panel opened up, revealing a steel door. He unlocked it and threw me into the room ahead of him. I spun around to face him, and for the first time our eyes connected and I began to realize how really angry he was.
“I don’t like liars,” he snapped with a thunderous expression.
“I’m not a liar,” I insisted, backing up farther away from him. “I told Trudy—”
The burning fury in his gaze swept over me. “Fuck what you told Trudy, where did you really go?”
I could only stare at Stone, stunned.
His laugh was dry and cynical and worried me even more than his anger did. “You stole a truck and went where?”
“I didn’t steal it, I went to town to see my sister—”
“Then why did you leave without Trudy after she told you that none of the girls fuckin’ leaves here alone?”
“I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”
“First, you’re not one of the girls. You’re collateral, sweetheart, worth thirty grand to the club. So you don’t get to go anywhere.” He took a step closer to me. “The fact that you slipped out of here like a snake tells me that you’re hiding something. So, where did you really go?”
I shook my head. What did he want me to say? I’d told him the truth. As angry as Stone was, as frightened as I was getting, I made myself stand still when all I really wanted to do was run. His hands curled around my upper arms and he jerked me against him. As our bodies collided, the seed of awareness that I always felt whenever he was around took root, and I hated that, because I wanted to hate him at that moment.
“I want the fuckin’ truth, Rachel, and maybe we’ll go easy on you.”
What? Before I could digest the meaning of his words, he tossed me backwards against the cold, steel wall. I hit it hard enough to cry out in pain. There was no regret on Stone’s face, and I truly sensed that the man standing before me now was the cold, hard-decision-making bastard of a ruthless motorcycle club president.
“There’s nothing to tell, Stone.”
Someone walked into the room, and my gaze shifted behind Stone. He didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t like the way the man who’d joined us shut the door. The look on his scared face sent a chill through me, and I glanced back to Stone when the realization of why I was there washed over me.
There was a cot against the far wall, a chair close to it. But what really freaked me out was the ceiling hoist in the center of the room, and the chain and hook hanging from it. Directly below it was a floor grate like the kind you would see in a shower. The walls were steel, and despite that, the room had a sterile feel to it.
“I’m not lying. There’s nothing to tell you. Call my sister—”
Stone reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, then looked at me expectantly. I rattled off Maddie’s number. He dialed, and after a few minutes said what I already knew was coming.
“No answer, sweetheart.”
The man who’d entered the room moved around Stone towards me. I didn’t take my gaze off Stone. “What are you going to do?”
His smile didn’t hold a trace of humor. “I’m not going to do anything but watch. Ripper here, it’s his job to make the enemy talk.”
Enemy!
Ohmygod what had happened between the time I’d driven off and now?
Ripper grabbed me away from the wall, quickly binding my wrists together with rope. He wasn’t easy on me, either. I bit down on my bottom lip to keep from gasping out at his roughness. He seemed to be avoiding my eyes, and I held on to the hope that he didn’t really want to do this.
“I don’t know what you want me to say.” It was the truth.
The next thing I knew, Ripper pulled me to the center of the room, picked me up by my arms, and I felt the cold iron of the hook catch me between my bound wrists. This time I gasped out sharply, because there was no denying when the sharp end of the hook cut into the fleshy part of my palm. The seriousness of my situation imploded through me and I began to feel desperate.
“Stone—”
“Save the tears, they won’t work on me.” He crossed his arms over his wide chest and leaned back against the wall.
I saw something flicker in his eyes when they fell upon the blood dripping down my arm, but he remained cold and indifferent, crossing his legs at the ankle. Ripper silently circled me, his gaze roaming up and down my body. He stopped directly in front of me, and slowly his gaze lifted to mine.
“You know why I’m called Ripper?” I shook my head. A sharp gasp escaped me when he removed the long knife from a belt at his side. My gaze flew back to Stone, but then I felt a rough finger beneath my chin, forcing me back to Ripper. “Don’t look at him, honey. He won’t interfere with my methods because they work.” He brought the knife up and carefully caressed my cheek with it. “They call me Ripper because first I start with the clothes.” With that, he grabbed a hold of my t-shirt at the neck and sliced downward, cutting it in two. “And then I move on to the flesh.”
I shuddered. I know I did. Who wouldn’t with that bloody vision? I wanted to be strong, remain calm. When I felt Ripper pull the edges of my shirt apart, exposing my bra and torso, I glared at Stone, damning
him with my eyes as anger rose up inside me like an erupting volcano.
“You bastard!” I hissed at him, drawing his gaze up from where they were focused on my breasts. “You wouldn’t know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face.”
“She’s going to fight us, brother,” Ripper smiled. “Maybe we’re askin’ her the wrong questions.”
Stone remained silent for a second, before saying, “Okay, let’s say I believe you went to see your sister. Why? What was the urgency?”
“Why are you so damned suspicious?” I was looking at Stone for the answer.
He shrugged. “I have to be, sweetheart. I trust no one but my brothers. If you had done things the right way we wouldn’t be having this little, ah, discussion. But your high tailing it out of here tells a different story.”
“That’s really sad, Stone.”
“Let’s cut to the chase,” he said in a hard tone. “If you went to your sister’s, I want to know why, and where is my truck?”
I closed my eyes. I was going to have to tell him about Wildman because nothing else would make sense, and besides, I couldn’t think right now. The headache that had started earlier had never really gone away, and all I wanted to do was lie down in a dark room somewhere. I had to believe that Stone wouldn’t really let Ripper hurt me, because I’d convinced myself that something had clicked between us, but at the same time I didn’t want to take any unnecessary chances. I knew how he felt about the club.
I would tell him the truth, all of it, and hope my confession didn’t get me killed anyway. My eyes bolted open at the feel of a cold blade against my skin. I looked straight into the eyes of a killer. If I’d thought earlier that Ripper hadn’t met my eyes because he didn’t want to do this, I was mistaken.
“You won’t like the reason,” I said, pinning my gaze on Stone. “I did go to my sister, to warn her that she needed to leave town and not come back until she heard from me. I gave her the truck because I knew her car would never make the long mountainous trip to our dad’s place in New York. Also,” I hesitated at this because I knew once I said it there was no taking it back, and I would have to explain everything, “I knew that no one would be looking for her in a truck.”
Dark Menace MC: Stone Page 9
