“That means we won,” Romero pointed out.
If this was what winning looked like, I’d really fucking hate to be on the losing team.
CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR
I’d done and would continue to do a lot of wrong fucked up shit in my life. Cali was one thing I did right.
I looked over at her every so often, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she slept and clutched a pack of peanuts in her hand. The girl was so unmistakably human and in a way it rubbed off on me. Not a lot, but nonetheless it did.
I saw her as I had in the beginning but with a little more flare.
She reminded me of a lioness, stunning and fierce as fuck, now leader of the pride. She looked like a goddess, but she was a maleficent queen. And she was the mother of my child.
There were lots of nice words I could dress up for her but I knew from experience that words were often empty. I planned to show her all the shit I couldn’t say as soon as this was over.
She told me she wouldn’t do anything purposely reckless that could hurt our baby before reminding me that being pregnant didn’t mean she couldn’t kill anyone who fucked with her. Her bloodlust made my dick hard, and I fell for her a little fucking more.
I turned onto the temporary last leg of our trip and prepared myself to see a face I had left behind years ago to build up the Savages.
The truck ahead of me pulled to the side of the road when I turned off again, moving to an area that would cover my jeep.
My front end dipped down and came right back up, moving smoothly out of a ditch, forcing thick leaves to part as I drove into a small clearing.
Cobra followed right behind me, stopping when we were fender to bumper. I slid out, making sure I didn’t wake Cali. Grimm shifted in the backseat, careful not to wake Arlen, whose legs were stretched across his lap.
“Didn’t think we’d ever come back here.” He waved his hands to the woods we’d be walking through once we formed a mini huddle.
“You two assholes remember to keep your mouths shut,” Cobra directed at Bryce and Dhal.
“You have nothing to worry about on my end. I’m here to keep her safe if things go haywire, not give a history lesson,” Bryce replied indignantly.
I wasn’t real worried about him.
He’d been closer to us than anyone else had for the past two years. It was Dhal I expected to fuck up and tell Cali things I didn’t want her to know.
I had enough to bullshit to deal with. I’d never handled her with kid gloves, never needed to. That didn’t mean I wouldn’t shield her from shit sure enough to fuck up her already fucked up head.
Hearing car doors slam on the other side of the clearing was my queue to get shit moving.
“Let’s get them up.”
It was time to take a step back into my sordid past.
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
If there was anything I’d learned in life, it was that traipsing through the woods usually led me right into a shitty situation.
At least those times had been partially my fault. Since Romero was the one leading us like a good little duck and ignoring me when I asked where we were going, if anything went wrong, I was blaming him.
“You get used to it,” Cobra snickered when he caught me side-eyeing one of the acolytes walking on my left.
“Right,” I said slowly. Being followed by someone in a long black robe and satanic mask wasn’t really something I saw myself adjusting to, but I was sucking it up.
Arlen walked on our right with Grimm. A triangular formation of acolytes was behind us and there was one on each outer ring of our little group.
“Hey, I need you to know that I wasn’t trying to leave you behind on the bridge. I thought I could divert the attention off the car.”
“No hard feelings C, you’d know if there were.” I smiled at him, watching as once again, his eyes flickered to Bryce.
I couldn’t blame him for that. Bryce wasn’t overly tall and he had only a few tattoos, the inverted cross being one of them. But he was well built, his face could make a few panties drop, and he seemed the most normal out of all of us—aside from Dhal, who was so sweet I legit couldn’t stand it.
“I like puss––”
“You don’t have to explain it to me. Ever. Don’t forget that I’m in the same boat.” I swiftly cut him off. I didn’t want him justifying his sexuality to me of all people. I didn’t care if he wanted to suck off Adam on Thursday and ride Eve on Friday. That was his prerogative.
He nodded, letting my words sink in. “You’re a pretty cool chick, sis.”
“I know, right?”
We walked a little further, following a well worn path through the woods. Soon enough, the sound of voices met my ears as the trees began to flare out in a circle and a clearing came into view.
“We’re going to a trailer park?” Arlen asked incredulously.
“We’re going back to where we grew up.” Grimm answered.
Grew up? The closer we got, the more I wondered how that was remotely possible.
If they left The Order and ended up here, did that mean Rome’s dad was around?
“I didn’t know meeting O.G Grimm was on today’s task list,” Arlen muttered, wiping chocolate tendrils off her sweaty forehead.
Romero abruptly stopped walking, making me run into his back. Without turning around, he slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me into his side. His mouth was on mine before I could ask what he wanted.
Like a puppet with its string being pulled, I responded without a second thought. I wrapped my arms around his neck, happily accepting his hungry kiss. Suddenly desperate to feel his body, I molded against him. He shamelessly grabbed my ass, pressing his hard dick into my lower stomach. Neither of us gave a shit about having an audience. This man turned me into a nymphomaniac.
“Well, damn,” Arlen sighed wistfully.
Someone laughed. It sounded like Grimm.
Romero pulled away just as Cobra told everyone we would catch up. I grinned up at him, keeping my arms around his neck.
“What was that about?” I asked, clearing my throat when I heard how breathless I sounded.
“I haven’t been inside you in hours. What if I told you I wanted to bend you over and fuck you right here with everyone we consider a friend just a few feet away?”
“Well, I would tell you that since we’re in the middle of the woods, you’d better make it dirty and fuck me hard enough that they hear me screaming your name.”
His midnight hues almost seemed to darken. He put his hands on my hips and forcefully walked me backward, already pushing down my jeggings.
Without warning, he spun me around and pushed my cheek against a tree. My pants were pulled down to just above the knee, and my feet were nudged apart.
At the unmistakable sound of his zipper going down my body elated with anticipated pleasure.
I whimpered and gripped the tree-trunk when he slid the smooth head of his cock up and down my lips, teasing me with his barbell.
“Fuck, Cali, your pussy is already soaking my dick.” He gathered a handful of my hair into a tight ponytail and drove into me, forcing me up onto my tiptoes.
The height difference made him feel incredibly deep. My legs attempted to spread further apart on their own, getting trapped by the fabric of my pants.
I curled my fingers into the rigid bark, feeling every thick inch of him sliding in and out of me, hitting the cushion at the end of my pussy.
“Jesus, Rome.” I tightened my grip just as he tightened his. The muscles in my legs burned fiercely and my cheek was starting to sting.
“You like it?”
“Yes!” I cried out, struggling to breathe around the moans building in my chest.
He leaned in, burying himself deeper with a grunt. His mouth found my shoulder and bit down. Not a second later, he pulled me away from the tree without a word and shoved me down to the dirt on all fours.
He bore down on me, easily sliding right back in, fingers d
igging into my hip so hard I knew I’d have a new bruise but I didn’t care. Sweat rolled off him and dripped onto me. My own perspiration had the dust settling on my skin.
Arousal slid down my inner thighs and formed a vacuum around his dick. I clawed at the dirt and tried to shift off the twig digging into my knee.
“Come for me, baby,” he cooed, letting go of my hip to assault my clit. His name spilled from my lungs and echoed across the treetops. I felt my pussy lock down on him like a vise, squeezing his come out as he came with me.
“I could overdose on you.” He nipped my ear and slowly pulled out.
When he stood, he took me with him. I leaned my head back on his chest as he righted his jeans and then mine. “Your cheek’s bleeding,” he said softly, stroking it with his thumb.
“Good.” I turned my head and kissed his palm.
“Come on.” He took my hand and led me forward. A few steps later, we were in the clearing, where a small crowd was waiting.
CHAPTER TWENTY SIX
Everyone at the camp would have heard me being fucked like a bitch in heat, and that had been his intention from the start.
Romero was a territorial beast.
I loved it.
Being told to sit on a wooden log serving as a bench by a fire pit while he went to talk with someone, however, I didn’t. Bryce stood a little ways back, keeping watch with two acolytes.
“Girl, that was hot as fuck,” Arlen whispered, glaring at a woman who kept doing double takes at us.
“It felt even better,” I sighed, still feeling my just fucked high.
“You know people are staring at us?”
“Kind of hard not to see them. It’s even harder to pretend I care.”
The looks on these people’s faces when they saw my boys (yes, my boys) again ranged from shocked to elated, and some even shed tears. Now that all three had slunk off together, me and Arlen were open season.
I ignored it and focused on our surroundings. There were trailers haphazardly placed everywhere. Some looked like they should have been junked decades ago. Others looked in their prime and had small flower beds in front of them.
In a section all its own, a group of kids played on a manmade jungle gym.
There was an awning across the property with two raggedy washing machines beneath it, but no dryer. The people clearly lived in poverty, but just a look at their faces showed they didn’t care.
Everyone who wasn’t gawking like they had no common sense was wearing a smile. I spotted a few that could use a good lesson in hygiene, and a couple of the women were wearing tops that exposed their tits completely, but all in all, everyone looked clean and well fed for the most part.
After studying them for a good ten minutes, something wiggled at the back of my mind. There was a scent in the air that smelled so familiar, but I couldn’t pinpoint what it was.
“You smell that?” Arlen asked, as if she’d heard the thought inside my head.
“Yeah, it kinda smells like…bacon?” No, these people could never afford such a commodity. That much was obvious. Maybe they had their own pigs somewhere.
We were still trying to figure it out when there was a soft thud behind us.
“Afternoon ladies, nice to have you here,” a tall man greeted, stepping past our log and dragging the body he’d just dropped by the ankle. There was a large knife with a curved, jagged blade strapped to his thigh.
Looking to the square-shaped pit and four posts evenly spaced around it, my brain quickly supplied why this whole scene had a similar feel to the one in the cannibal’s barn.
Arlen tensed beside me, going ramrod straight.
“Hey, now, you’re safe here. I wouldn’t touch Brock’s family.” He held his calloused hands up in an I-mean-you-no-harm sort of way.
Who the fuck was Brock? Shit. Romero grew up here. Was Brock his dad? Oh, hell no.
Don’t judge, Cali. I chastised myself just as Arlen hissed, “Not only are they psychopaths, they’re cannibals too.”
It was then the man on the ground’s head lolled and he looked up at me with hazy, unfocused eyes. He’d been drugged, and whatever he was given was some strong shit because he couldn’t lift any of his limbs.
The tall man went about his business, not looking the slightest bit offended at Arlen’s response. I hid my reaction, trying to process the fact Romero possibly ate human. Well, that possibly was a definitely if this was where he grew up. I could kill him for bringing us here and not giving a heads up about what this place was—a trailer park for cannibals.
The man prodded the coals and lit a fire before coming back to the grab what I assumed was his dinner. He stripped the man of his mud covered clothing and then stretched his arms out in a T.
“Might wanna take a step back,” he warned, pulling the knife out of its sheath.
I darted to the side, taking Arlen with me.
He cut the man straight from his neck to his ribcage, splitting him apart before making another slit a little lower from the navel to the man’s balls, digging deep and grunting loudly from the force it took to break the man’s pelvis.
Blood went everywhere, spreading over the dirt and spurting like a fountain. The man never had a chance in hell of fighting for himself. He didn’t even get to scream.
“Okay, let’s go.” I grabbed Arlen’s elbow and began leading her away just as the man started cracking apart the ribs.
Bryce trailed after me with the two acolytes that could have been mimes, and even he looked sickened by what he’d just seen.
Arlen clung to me like Velcro, unusually quiet. “Are you okay?” I asked once the fire pit was no longer in sight.
She opened her mouth to answer, snapping it shut when we turned a random corner.
What the hell?
There was a chain link fence in front of us, caging a small area in like an animal pen. Inside with chains around their necks were seven people.
None of them reacted to our sudden presence. They all continued staring aimlessly with gaunt expressions on their faces. I didn’t blame them. They had to be well aware of what was going to happen to them.
These were outliers. This is what they had to fear most: being snatched up and never seen again. Their families and friends wouldn’t bother looking for them after a day or so. Everyone knew the ways of the Badlands.
There were animals, too. A few goats and a few chickens were inside the pen with them.
“I don’t understand why people do this…it’s sick. Everyone struggles; we don’t all start eating human beings because of it. I…I need a sec.”
She bolted, disappearing around the side of a trailer. The acolytes followed after her, leaving me with Bryce.
“Well, what am I supposed to do about that?” Placing my hands on my hips, I debated for a minute or so and then went after her.
“Her reaction isn’t completely unfounded,” Bryce offered up quietly.
“I know that, but I don’t deal with things like this,” I huffed. She wouldn’t like my response if she asked for it. The cannibals were just another way of having a safety net for some people. They resorted to human meat because it was either that or starvation. Or, they were born into it.
I didn’t condone it. It was a rock bottom place to be, but I couldn’t stand and point a finger when I wanted to kill people for fun and they killed them for nourishment. Yes, it was fucked up, but this was the Badlands, the wonderland of hell.
I couldn’t find her, but I did find the missing links of our fucked up entourage.
I heard their low voices and found them behind a green trailer. Their conversation ceased when they all saw me.
Cobra was leaning against a picnic table, Grimm stood beside a man I barely looked at, and Dhal was standing way too close to Romero. If she got any closer, her tits would be smashing into his arms.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I went right up to him, shoving her away from his side. Unprepared for my assault, she stumbled backward, landing on her ass
.
Romero instantly wrapped an arm around me and pulled me flush with his chest. “Cali, I don’t have time for your jealous shit. We were having a private conversation.”
“Wow, things men shouldn’t say for dummies,” Arlen quipped with heavy sarcasm, walking around the corner like she hadn’t just stormed off.
“Grimm get her the fuck away from me,” Romero bit out.
With no objections, Grimm made a sound in his throat and moved towards her.
“Don’t fuckin touch me,” she growled at him.
“Move your ass.” He ignored her demand, roughly grabbing her arm and forcing her to walk away.
Dhal gracefully stood up and gave me a pitiful look, dusting her jeans off. “Look, Calista, you have nothing to be jealous of or worry––”
“He’s full of shit. I’m not jealous of you,” I scoffed. She fucking wished she could have that delightful honor. “And I’m not worried, either. It’s a matter of respect. You should get some before you become a casualty. You’re here because he thinks you can play midwife. You need to get your head out of your ass and stop pining for a man you can’t have.”
She swallowed but wisely kept her mouth shut. Pregnancy wouldn’t stop me from choking the shit out of her. I didn’t say the last part to be catty; she looked at my man like he hung the stars and moon. Sadly for her, I was the stars and moon, so she was shit out of luck.
Cobra made a cat fight sound, laughing when I flipped him off. “Come on, Dhal, let’s leave them to ‘talk’.” He winked at me on the last word.
By now, everyone knew how Romero and I handled our issues.
We argued, he sometimes degraded me, I called him a few derogatory names, and then we fucked like rabid rabbits and got on with our lives. Our love story was one of dysfunctional perfection.
I was stronger than all the men I knew, except for him. His cold, jaded eyes and Judas touch were my kryptonite, but that didn’t exclude him from pissing me the hell off.
“A private fucking conversation? Why are you still leaving me out of things? Goddamnit, you get on my nerves!”
Deviants Page 13
