BRANDED

by April Lust

  The haunted look in Lucy’s eyes seemed pretty damn rainy to me.

  She had the place picked out within days of asking me for it. She’d probably been looking for longer than that, waiting to ask me until she had a good argument. I never mentioned to her that she didn’t need a good argument. It would have been my pleasure to give it to her no matter what.

  I was headed there now, going to meet her as she finished up the paperwork with the place, and as I drove towards the cabin, I decided I liked the idea. Not just because it was something Lucy really wanted, but because it was a good idea. A place in the hills, away from the streets and the city and the crime. A place where I could step away from the club for a minute and just be the guy Lucy needed.

  Sounded damn near perfect.

  As I drove, I considered the other things an isolated cabin might be good for. I thought of Lucy standing in the kitchen naked, unconcerned with who might be looking through the window, because there was no one. Just trees and forest. I thought of how I could come up behind her and fondle her breasts, pinching her nipples. I could slide my hands lower, too, slipping over her slim waist and belly until I found her clean-shaven mound. My hands could dip lower and slide between her thighs to find that sweet spot between her lips.

  And not just that. I could sit her on the porch without a care and let her sunbathe naked. I could fondle her until I was so damn hard that it hurt.

  I could fuck her on the porch if I wanted. I could drive myself inside her over and over again, each time receiving a piercing scream of pleasure that echoed through the trees, because dammit no one would hear it.

  Our lovemaking had always resulted in the kind of animalistic sounds that made our neighbors call in noise complaints and scared people into thinking I was murdering her.

  But she loved every minute of it, and I did, too.

  Out here, we could do that and no one would question or complain about it. I could have as much of her as I wanted.

  The thought made me harden and my balls ache. It caused the rest of the ride there to be a little uncomfortable, but I didn’t really care. I’d ride as hard and as far as I had to with thoughts of Lucy in my head to reach her.

  I pulled up the long driveway to the place not too much later. It was quiet and peaceful, I supposed, but there was something off about the whole thing. Not the cabin itself, but the way the air felt around it. I couldn’t say what it was until I stepped up to the porch and saw the man leaning there against the frame.

  “What took you so long?”

  I did a quick inventory of him, but I didn’t need to. I knew who he was. He wore the jacket marked with the Slayers’ logo, and I recognized him already as one of the men Blade had brought to the negotiations the other day. One of Blade’s lieutenants.

  Frowning, I said, “What are you doing here?” My hand had already begun to move around my back. I didn’t have to ask to know something was wrong. I desperately wanted to look around to find Lucy, but I didn’t dare take my eyes from the immediate threat right in front of me. Getting myself killed wouldn’t do her any good.

  The man grinned broadly, and for a second I thought he might be related to Blade with that same expression on his face. “I’m just here to give you a friendly message. You’d better start running girls, Riley, if you ever want to see your pretty little girlfriend again.” He took a step off the porch, closer to me. “Oh, and if you say no, I should tell you that you might see her after all. In a movie. The first little porn shoot Blade decides to film, staring none other than the Preacher’s Daughter. I’d watch that, wouldn’t you?”

  He was still grinning when I pulled the gun and put a bullet in his head.

  Chapter 19

  Lucy

  My head hurt. It throbbed and pulsed, the headache I was feeling worse than any hangover I’d had before in my life. I brought my hand up to the side of my head, pressing against it as though I might be able to ease some of the throbbing, but it was useless. It went on silently, pressure building in my ears and my sinuses.

  I swallowed heavily, then forced myself to sit up. The throbbing got worse, but I did my best to push it aside and ignore it.

  Taking a steadying breath, I looked around.

  Where am I?

  I didn’t recognize the place. It was dark and small, and with a quickening of my breath I realized there were bars surrounding me. I tried not to panic, but it was near to impossible. A quick search revealed the bars definitely had me completely caged in and the only door to them I spotted was closed.

  How did I get here?

  The thought was followed by memories of the cabin. It had been perfect, so beautiful my heart almost hurt. Everything I could have asked for and so much more. It was bigger than our place in the city, but not by much. There was a mud room, which added to the square footage, but it was mostly just this room in the back with tiling, a drain, and a haphazard shower. There wasn’t a garage, which I knew would irk Max, but he’d get used to it. Or maybe he’d get creative and build his own.

  I knew my mother would love it. She was so reluctant to leave the city, but once she saw the place, I just knew she’d want to spend all her time there. The prospect of it elated me.

  Of course, it wasn’t officially mine yet, but that was why I was there. The realtor had agreed for us to meet there to sign the remaining papers so we could get it taken care of and I could get a moment to look around. I hadn’t seen it in person before, having found it online.

  I was so eager to find a place since Max had said yes that I didn’t want to risk him changing his mind, so I did it the fastest way I knew how.

  The plan had been a means to an end at the time, but I couldn’t have imagined that I would fall in love with the place, too. But I had. It was so perfect. I waited a long time to meet the realtor, but they never showed. Finally, I had to call her on my cell. I tried her twice before I got ahold of her.

  “Where are you?” I asked her, still smiling as I walked through the house for the thousandth time now. “Am I just really early?”

  My question seemed to have confused her. “Ms. Gilles? I’m not quite sure what you mean. I wasn’t aware we had an appointment?”

  I had frowned as I answered, “Of course we do. I called you yesterday to finish the paperwork…”

  She apologized and told me she must not have gotten the message and promptly blamed her new and inept secretary. She explained that she couldn’t meet me then, but would make room sometime next week.

  I agreed and we hung up, but I was disappointed that we couldn’t finish things right then. I was just about to head back out when I felt a hand clamp over my mouth. I didn’t even have the time to think about it, much less scream, before I grew dizzy. The room went black, and I remembered falling, but never hitting the ground.

  And then I woke up here.

  If I hadn’t been panicked before, I definitely was now. It took everything I had to keep from hyperventilating. Where was I? What happened? Whose hand had that been, and why did they do it?

  Questions I didn’t have answers for. I got up from the cot I had been lying on and went hurriedly to the door. I tried it, but I knew before my hands wrapped around it that it was a lost cause. It didn’t budge; locked.

  Doing my best to stay calm, I looked around, debating whether I should cry out for help. The thought disintegrated when I saw a figure in the corner on the other side of the bars. He was tall with a wicked, mad-looking smile. Scars crisscrossed his face, marring his features and making him look like Frankenstein’s monster.

  He was terrifying, and it was all the worse because I knew who he was and what that meant.

  I wasn’t getting out of there, not on my own. My only hope was Max, but there wasn’t a lot of hope in that because I realized the only way Max was going to get me out was to break me out—or to give this man whatever he wanted.

  I tried not to think what Blade wanted.

  Chapter 20

  Max

  I shoved down
the panic burning inside of me and tried to think. I had a dead man on the porch, one of Blade’s boys, a missing girlfriend, and a lieutenant who swore up and down that the Slayers were running girls.

  Things added up, but not in the way I wanted them to.

  Anger swelled within my chest and I gritted my teeth so hard that I was willing to bet an ounce of pressure more, and I’d start breaking a few of them.

  I sucked in a harsh breath, forced it out, and made myself be calm. I had to be calm.

  I reached for my cell phone and started dialing as I turned away from the little cabin that Lucy had been so in love with. It rang twice before there was a click as someone picked up.

  “Yeah, boss?” It was Bills. A week ago, I would have called him my biggest liability. I would have thought calling him was the biggest mistake I could have made in this situation and it probably would have cost me my life. Now, I knew better. He was one of the few men I knew I could trust.

  “I need you to take care of something for me.”

  The body had to go. I didn’t have any problems killing the sorry sack of shit. He threatened my girl and that was a line no one got to cross. But fact of the matter was, he was a body. And if the police started snooping around and found a dead man in connection with me, it didn’t matter what I said or did, I’d get my ass in a sling. Prison was a very real option.

  I didn’t need to give the police any reason to start looking at me.

  “You name it.”

  “You know cabin, the one Lucy was looking at?” I asked Bills as I walked towards my bike. Even as I spoke, my mind was whirling through necessities. What did I need to do? I needed to take care of the body. That was the first step, because me being in prison wasn’t going to do Lucy any good. The second step was a little less clear. I needed to get Lucy back, but going directly to the Slayers wasn’t a wise choice. They would be expecting me, but they probably had some clue that I wouldn’t take this lying down.

  Start running girls.

  I gripped the phone tightly in my hand, on the verge of breaking the hard plastic and all the electronic pieces within it.

  Bills hesitated, but ultimately said, “Yeah, I know about it.”

  “You got an address?” I asked him.

  Suddenly, he sounded nervous. “Look, boss, I know I came clean about working in with the Slayers, but I didn’t give them anything. I swear it. I’d never do anything that might hurt Lucy.”

  I stopped walking. For a long moment, I didn’t say anything. I hadn’t even jumped to that conclusion, that maybe Bills had been the one to give the Slayers the location of the cabin. Now that I thought about it, though, it would make sense. For a split second, I could even see it. Bills meeting with those asshole Slayers, talking, laughing, because what else could he do? And then he would keep talking, only now he’d be telling them important things. Essential things.

  I shook my head. It did make sense, but I knew in my heart it wasn’t right. Bills would do a lot of things, and there was even a chance that when it came right down to it, he’d hand me over to the Slayers to save himself. I knew how loyal he’d been to the Preacher, but the Preacher was dead, and now his loyalties were a bit muddled.

  But there was one thing I did know for certain: he’d never hurt Lucy.

  Letting out a slow breath, I answered, “I know. I’m not asking because I think you ratted.”

  I heard Bills release a relieved breath. His voice sounded less strained as he said, “What did you need?”

  “I got a body on my hands here at the cabin,” I said, quickly telling him it was a Slayer. “I need it taken care of.”

  Bills swore. “The hell, boss? What happened?”

  I shook my head, though he couldn’t see me, and answered, “No time for the details. Just get it taken care of. And I want everyone—and I mean everyone—meeting in two hours. No exceptions. Once you’re done with the body, you catch up to us.”

  “Done,” Bills answered.

  I hung up the phone and got to my bike. I put on my helmet, revved up the motorcycle, and took the road at a fast pace until I hit the major streets, determined to get to the city as quickly as possible.

  Start running girls.

  That wasn’t an option. I would do it to save Lucy, but I knew it would mean I’d lose her. Even more than that, it was no guarantee it would keep her safe in the end. I knew guys like Blade. They’d make demands and, then, when you met those demands, the stakes would get higher. Suddenly they’d want more.

  And they wouldn’t let Lucy go until they had everything they wanted, which would never happen. She was the only thing they could hold on to that would keep me doing whatever they wanted and it meant they couldn’t ever afford to let her go.

  Which meant I couldn’t afford to get in.

  When I pulled up outside the shop, people were already starting to show up. The shop had been closed, despite the protests of several potential customers, and the Sin Reapers were gathering inside. I saw six at least already.

  Counting their bikes parked outside made me start considering numbers. Numbers like how many Sin Reapers there actually were versus how many Slayers. I knew already which number was smaller. It was the whole reason I’d been willing to break bread with the Slayers in the first place.

  We didn’t have the numbers to win a war against them.

  I dug into my pocket for my cell phone again. As I walked in and the phone rang, I motioned for several of the guys to make sure everyone got in and was accounted for. I knew we were still missing people, but I wanted them to keep their eyes open for who was coming up next.

  The phone clicked after a moment and a deep, gruff voice answered. “The hell do you want, Max boy? Hell, I only just talked to you, didn’t I?”

  Blackbird was being ornery, but it was mostly just an act. Secretly, I suspected that he was feeling a little lonely these days, missing the comradery that had made being part of the motorcycle club so appealing to him in the first place. I hoped he’d kept in touch with his old club, even if he didn’t ride with them anymore.

  “I need a favor,” I said and something must have showed through in my tone, because I could almost hear him straighten up through the phone.

  “What do you need?” he asked. He must have known how much it took me to ask what I was about to ask.

  “I need a meeting with the Vultures, and I need it today.”

  # # #

  Blackbird got me my meeting, right after I finished with my own group. I told them we were officially at war with the Slayers. I told them there was now a price on Blade's head and it wasn’t contingent on whether he was dead or alive. I didn’t tell them about Lucy, though the club liked her enough that it would probably have been like pouring gasoline onto a fire, causing it to burn so hot that the whole city would crumble in its wake.

  But I didn’t want anyone to know about Lucy. If I didn’t get there in time...

  I shook my head forcefully. I promised myself I would, but if I didn’t, I didn’t want her to have to deal with the looks she might get from a bunch of guys who wouldn’t understand what had happened. Who wouldn’t forgive her, even though it hadn’t been her fault.

  No, I didn’t want that. I didn’t want any of this, in fact. “I’ll get there in time,” I muttered.

  Most of the guys had left at this point. I’d told them to actively search out the Slayers wherever they might find them. They needed to go to town and do whatever they felt they had to, even though I knew it meant there would be casualties, not to mention a hell of a lot of attention directed our way.

  It was probably deplorable, but I didn’t care. I’d go to hell happily if it meant I could take Blade with me.

  I was waiting in the office in the back—the one Lucy spent most of her time in, so much so it smelled like her—until Blackbird and the Vultures would show up. I knew getting them mobilized and down in the area this quickly was quite the feat, so I didn’t begrudge them too much time. Even so, I was impatient. />
  This needed to get taken care of immediately.

  When Billy Woods, leader of the Vultures, showed up finally, six guys in tow— “The rest are on their way,” he promised me when he saw the scowl on my face—I felt something close to relief begin to settle. Maybe, just maybe, we could pull this off.

  Blackbird walked off to the side of the Vultures men, but still slightly behind Billy, like he still respected the man who had once led them. He probably did, in all fairness. That was the kind of man Blackbird was.

  We wasted precious seconds on pleasantries, before I dove into the fray. “The Slayers have been edging into my territory as of late, and there have been a few resulting scuffles,” I began, needing to explain the situation.