“Was that supposed to be reassuring?”
“Don’t want to lie to you, and telling you that you’re safe isn’t true. You’re safe as long as you hold up your end of the bargain, and play nice.”
“Why are you being nice to me?”
“Easiest way to get what we want out of you. You never gave the info the Russian Mob wanted out of you, and you’ve lived a life of hell since your escape. I know you were tortured by them and managed to get away. The only reason you’re accepting our offer now is because you’ll take on a new identity and never be Ice again. You’re saying goodbye to her. We’d never have gotten anything out of you by torturing you.”
The Russian Mafia hadn’t gotten information from me because I didn’t have it to give them. Other than that bit, though, he was right, but it bothered me he could see into me so easily. “You sound so sure.”
“Am I wrong?”
Instead of answering him, I asked, “Are you saying you’d be interested in me if I wasn’t your enemy?”
“I’m hoping you can eventually become a friend of the club. It’ll take a while to build trust, but I’d rather have you on our side than our enemy’s, in the future.”
He hadn’t answered my question. I was quiet a few moments, trying to come up with a different strategy for moving to my side of the bed, when he said, “I don’t date much. I mean, I fuck a lot, but it’s been ages since I had a relationship. Five minutes of talking and I want to either put a ball gag in her mouth, or toss her out on her ass. You? I could talk to for hours. You aren’t just a genius — you have good common sense, too. But, you aren’t all mental, and you keep yourself in shape because you respect your body as much as your mind. Not many people could evade me for a day, much less a week. So, yeah, I’ll beat off while imagining what you’re like in bed, but it doesn’t mean I’m gonna take what isn’t offered. Now, stop trying to figure out how to get away from me and go the fuck to sleep.”
I had no idea if he was telling the truth or feeding me a line to make me trust him. For whatever reason, I trusted I was safe from him as far as sex went, and I had to admit how good it felt to be nestled against him, safe for the moment, at least. So, I let myself drift back off to sleep.
Chapter Eleven
Brain
Brain jumped out of bed as if something woke him out of the blue, and I jerked awake in time to see him sliding into his jeans. I panicked for a moment, worried something had happened.
“Duke’ll be here in a few minutes. Is it safe for me to let you use your toothbrush, or is there a knife hidden in the handle?”
I breathed easier, and rolled my eyes at him as I said, “Like I’d tell you if I’d turned it into a weapon.”
He sighed. “Just answer the question, Grace. Is your toothbrush a weapon?”
I shook my head no, and started to ask if he had a built-in lie detector, but didn’t want to bring up the whole nonsensical werewolf thing I’d read in the Atlanta gang unit’s notes. Of course, I also had to wonder how he knew Duke would be here soon, but surely there was a logical explanation.
He opened a closet, rummaged through my backpack, and produced my toothbrush. “I have a comb you can use. Come on, let’s brush our teeth — may as well do it together.”
Brain closed the bathroom door, locked it, and said, “I’ve gotta pee. Go ahead and get started with your teeth and hair.” He looked over my toothbrush before handing it over, and my stomach dropped to my knees as I was reminded once again how smart my captor was. I didn’t have any escape tools hidden on or in it, but if I had, he’d have figured it out.
Apparently, he wasn’t the least bit bashful, because he whipped his cock out and peed with no hesitation. Of course, his back was to me, and I didn’t turn around to see if I could get a peek of his ass. I turned the water on and started brushing my teeth. I hated the way my eye looked without a contact to cover it, so I didn’t look at myself in the mirror.
Brain and I shared the sink as he brushed his teeth, and then I combed my hair, tousled it in the right general direction, and handed him his comb. He kept his back turned as I peed, and I wondered if they planned to make me wait until I started my period to give me the panties Bash had supposedly bought. It was too humiliating to ask for them, though, so I didn’t.
I’d heard the motorcycle arrive as I combed my hair, and now I heard Bash talking to someone, so I assumed Duke was here.
Before we left the bathroom, Brain’s eyes were dark as he told me, “I’m not in charge anymore. Duke’ll take my advice into consideration, but he’s calling the shots now that he’s here.” He’d left the water on, and put his mouth to my ear to talk, and once again the whole werewolf thing came into my mind.
Ridiculous, really, how it’d only taken the hint of a suggestion to get my imagination running rampant. Werewolves didn’t exist, and if they did, they weren’t holding me captive in a remote mountain cabin.
Duke looked pretty much the way I expected, though I was surprised to see him in his RTMC vest. Seeing the President patch reminded me who he was, though, and I smiled and looked down, unsure how to address him.
“Duke, meet Grace. I haven’t had a shower because I didn’t want to leave her alone with Bash again. I’ll let the two of you get to know each other while I clean up.”
Duke motioned towards the sofa and said, “Have a seat, Grace.”
I didn’t argue when he zip-tied my ankles together, but I was glad he sat in a chair across from me, and not beside me. Bash was sprawled out on the sofa, but I ignored him.
“Brain tells me we’ve reached an agreement?”
I nodded, and he said, “This’ll go faster if you use your words, Grace.”
I didn’t know what to say, but didn’t want to piss him off, so I said, “Okay, Mr. Duke.” I looked at Bash, then to Duke. “Does he have to be here?”
“Did he hurt you?”
I nodded. “My shoulders and jaw still hurt, from the way he tied me and left me, but that isn’t why…” I threw the blanket over my lap and pulled my legs to my chest, keeping them inside of Brain’s shirt, and pulled it down so I wouldn’t flash them if the blanket came off. I wrapped my arms around my legs over the top of the blanket, so Duke could see my hands, and I felt a little better, as if I were hiding from him at least a little. “I just don’t want him around.”
“Brain’s let me know a little of your history, and you and I both know what he did wasn’t completely out of line since you’d already made an escape attempt, and were so hard to catch in the first place. He’s here for now, at least, but he won’t lay a hand on you unless I tell him to.” He motioned towards Brain’s laptop on the coffee table. “Brain tells me the two of you worked on what you’ll want the plastic surgeon to do. Show me what ya’ll came up with.”
Brain had kept me from seeing his password, though I had a feeling Duke would know it and be able to get me in. I didn’t want to break Brain’s trust, but I also didn’t want to piss Duke off. I hedged my bets, and told him, “I know you’re in charge, but Brain doesn’t want me on electronics, and I don’t want to do anything to… can you maybe double-check with him, make sure he’s good with it, before I show you?”
He looked at me a few seconds before saying, “We’ll wait until he’s out of the shower and check with him. Tell me what you know about the Disciples.”
I told him what I’d told Brain, and when I finished, he said, “And you have more information you’re going to dole out slowly? One piece of information a week?”
I nodded, and he looked at me a handful of heartbeats before asking, “Will you give me your word nothing you’re holding back will put my men in danger?”
“Without a crystal ball, I’m afraid I can’t do that, Mr. Duke. I can tell you it’s information you’re going to want, and I don’t think any of it is material you need to stay safe in the immediate future, but… I have no way of knowing for sure. I think you can understand why I want insurance, though.”
Ba
sh looked cocky as he adjusted himself on the sofa, and Duke’s gaze met his before coming back to mine. “I’m gonna need all the information you have on them in three days. You’ll need to come up with another form of insurance.”
Brain told me he’d go to Duke with my deal, and apparently Duke wasn’t approving it.
He’d also told me he’d made it to second in command with strategy. Duke had to be smart, or Brain wouldn’t respect him. Plus, he’d made it to president, and he ran a successful, profitable, MC. I instinctively knew trying to manage him would be a bad idea, but if I could get Bash to stop manipulating the situation against me, I thought I’d be okay. Meanwhile, Duke needed an answer, so I told him, “I understand. Thanks for giving me a few days.”
He nodded and changed the conversation. “Brain tells me you intend to live off the money you’ve already accumulated until you figure out what you want to do with your life. Are you really prepared to walk away from your former identity?”
Assuming the slight chance they were werewolves was correct, Duke would know if I didn’t tell the truth, so I needed to figure out how to answer the question without telling an actual lie. “I’ll need to take it on long enough to gather the funds I’ve accumulated. If I live frugally, I can probably be okay never working again, but if I want to rejoin the rest of the planet as a consumer, it’ll only last fifteen or twenty years. Either way, I’ll have to launder it into my new identity, so I’ll have to do some kind of work, or the IRS will start asking questions.”
He smiled. “You didn’t answer my question.”
Yeah, smart. I told him the unvarnished truth, taking Brain’s advice not to lie even if it was something I really didn’t want to tell him. “If I have to take it on, I’ll travel somewhere incognito, using cash only, going in disguise partway there, and won’t do anything to point back to myself. At this time I have no specific plans to keep up the life, but I won’t make promises I can’t keep. I can only promise I won’t do anything to jeopardize my new identity.”
“What research have you done on the club?”
“Once I realized it must be the MC after me, I read a good bit of what I hacked off your servers.”
“Anything else?”
“Yes.”
“What?”
“I looked through the Atlanta PD’s gang task force’s files on the Atlanta RTMC chapter.”
His look was appraising, and he asked, “Why Atlanta and not Chattanooga?”
“I hacked into the Atlanta PD years ago, and wrote myself a back door so I could get back in. They’ve compartmentalized some things since then, and I couldn’t get to some of the more official records without spending some time, but the gang unit has what amounts to an online whiteboard, so they can share information and collaborate without having physical meetings. It’s surprisingly organized.”
“What did you learn about us?”
“I’ll tell Brain how to get in later,” I hedged, “so you can read it for yourself.”
“I appreciate that, but I’m asking what stuck out in your mind, what you learned that made your highly illegal jaunt worthwhile.”
Was he fishing about the werewolf thing? Surely not. I took a breath and dove into something that didn’t seem incendiary. “There’s a good deal of discord about how to deal with you amongst the ranks of the task force. Some want to spend a lot of time investigating you, others feel their time is better spent elsewhere. The upper brass seems to have told everyone to back off, and I got the idea that…” I paused and tried to explain in as few words as possible, because Duke seemed like the kind of guy who got impatient with long-winded explanations. “Teachers nowadays have to teach to the standardized tests, because they get graded by how well their students do on them. In much the same way, police departments are graded on their crime numbers, so anything that brings the numbers down is seen as good to the people in charge. Apparently, the bad guys are afraid to do bad shit in your territory, so the numbers look good without having to use police manpower. So, the upper brass seems to have a hands-off approach to the Atlanta Chapter, as long as they aren’t doing anything to increase those numbers.”
Duke sat back a little more, crossed his ankles and his arms, and said, “Anything else? Something you maybe want to ask us?”
“Nothing that’s any of my business,” I hedged.
“Ask anyway.”
No way in hell was I asking if they were werewolves. I needed some misdirection. I threw my arms up and exclaimed, “Ya’ll do bad shit. You’re pimps, or they are, anyway, and you used to be part of them. I saw pictures of people after ya’ll beat them up. You’re bad, and yet… most of what you’ve been arrested for, I approve of. The men who gang-raped the teacher? I loved seeing the pics of them after ya’ll were done with them, and sad some of the men responsible saw jail time for it. Some of the members did really bad shit before joining the MC — bank robberies, home invasions, car theft — but it seems they straighten up once they join you? It doesn’t make sense!”
“What else do you want to know?”
I shook my head. “If there’s something specific you have in mind, perhaps you can give me a clue. Like I said, I can tell Brain how to get in, so you can read it for yourself.” I looked towards the back corner of the room and remembered my ordeal in the damned cage, with my jaw stretched open until it spasmed, and my arms behind my back so my shoulders hurt. I rubbed my jaw, and then wrapped my arms even tighter around my legs as I remembered how bad I’d hurt during the hours I waited for Brain to return — unable to move to relieve the strained muscles.
Duke watched me, and then looked to Bash. “I rode your bike up. Why don’t you head on home.”
He shook his head. “You’ll need help moving her.”
I squeezed my legs tighter, remembered my humiliation in the cage, and put my head on my knees. I didn’t know if they could truly smell emotions, but I figured it couldn’t hurt.
“I think the two of us can handle moving her. Head home, Bash.”
I could feel Bash’s glare as he walked by me, but he went into the bedroom he’d been using, and came out with a duffel. He left without saying anything else.
“Thank you,” I told Duke as Bash roared away.
“Lotta my guys are gonna feel the same as him, and you’ll have two men on you for at least another week. I’ll put the word out they aren’t to treat you as he did, but if you’re down to one man and need to be left alone in a room for any reason, you’ll find yourself naked and in a cage, bound in some way so we’re sure you can’t get out. The dog crate can be escaped from, so he was right to restrict use of your arms. There was no call to put you in the exact position he did, but I’m not going to apologize for him. You’re responsible for his best friend getting hurt, almost killed.”
Duke paused and looked at me, his eyes boring into me as he asked, “You ever killed anyone?”
Chapter Twelve
Brain
I’d been out of the shower long enough to hear a good part of the conversation, but at this question, I finally stepped into the room.
“Yeah,” Grace said, her voice so low I might not have heard it without my werewolf hearing. I could smell the fury emanating from every pore of her body. She’d been pushed to do it, and was still pissed she’d had to, but wasn’t in the least bit sorry about it. Whatever situation he’d been in, she’d kill again if she were back in it and it was the only way out.
“One of the Russians, would be my guess,” I said as I stepped into the room enough to get her attention. “We know you escaped, and the bounty on your head tripled.”
She nodded and said, “He’d been one of the men who’d tortured me, and when I had an opportunity to go, the only way out was through him. I should’ve been happy to kill him, to make him hurt, but…” she shook her head and put her forehead back on her knees. “His death wasn’t satisfying. It didn’t take away any of my pain. It kept any more from happening, but if there’d been a way for me to get away with
out killing them, I would’ve.”
Them. She’d killed more than one person to escape.
“Why did you keep the Ice persona?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to create a new hacker identity, so you wouldn’t have to be constantly looking over your shoulder for them?”
“Ice could charge ten times more than a new identity. Everyone but the Russians thought I was a man, and for some reason they never put the truth out, so there wasn’t too much danger except when I was actually online, or when I needed to surface long enough to be paid.” She shrugged. “I knew how to hide online, and I was careful about how I was paid. No one found me until you.”
I smelled the lie, and figured it was time I let her know exactly how much I knew about her. I stayed on the other side of the sofa and kept my voice soft. “Because Putin is in bed with the Russian Mafia, he told our government some stuff about you, to put them on your trail. You haven’t just been running from the Russians, but from the NSA and Homeland Security.”
Her head snapped to me in surprise — I’d found out way more about her than she’d expected. I gave a tight smile as I told her, “I know what we’re getting into by helping you.” I looked at Duke. “She was right. I told her I didn’t want her laying a single finger on any electronics until I gave the okay. She seems to be trying to earn some trust with us.”
“Did you know she’s read through the Atlanta gang force’s notes on us?”
I shook my head. “No, seems you still get the award for knowing which questions to ask.”
Brain Page 6
