by Vivian Lux
He held up a finger to stop me. “Please hand it to me. I don’t want it spilled.”
Reluctantly, I walked to him. He didn’t reach for it; didn’t move a muscle at all. I was forced to extend my hand to him.
Slim fingers encircled my wrist. They were much stronger than they looked. He squeezed tightly, grinding into my small bones.
I squeaked a small shriek of pain and tried to pull back, but he was much stronger than me in spite of being so slight. Terror rose into my throat as I stared wildly into his flat eyes.
“Hey!” I yelled.
He loosened his grip incrementally, one finger at a time. When it was loose enough to free myself, I yanked my wrist away and cradled it to my chest. Rubbing the tender spot where his fingers had dug in, I could tell that it was going to leave a bruise.
“I like how you fight,” he said softly and sipped his water. My heart was beating in my throat. I wanted to lash out and smack him, then run away. But I didn’t know where Cade was, and I didn’t see any of the bikers I knew. I looked feverishly for the bouncers, waiting for them to swoop down and remove this little creep for laying a hand on me.
But when I saw them, my heart sank to my toes. They were watching. The giant bouncer on the stool by the door had his eyes fixed on me, alert and ready. He must have seen the whole thing.
And he hadn’t moved a muscle.
Whoever this man was, I was going to have to deal with him alone.
“You haven’t seen me in a real fight,” I spat back at him.
“Are you different?”
“I’m just saying that wasn’t a real fight, you surprised me.”
“I bet you,” he leaned in and once more trapped me in his gaze, “that in a real fight, you would give up.”
“The fuck are you talking about?”
“I can tell these things.”
My anger was bringing hot tears to my eyes, and the last thing I wanted was to let this creeper make me cry. “Fuck off, asshole,” I hissed, “before I hurt you.”
He sipped his water and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. He looked like we had finished arguing and he had won.
“Okay. But remember our bet.”
I blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall and turned on my heel. Trying to keep my dignity intact, I headed for the far corner of the bar, as far from the small man as I could go.
I crouched down in the corner like I was looking at the stores under the counter and hugged my knees. With my face hidden in the shelves, I inhaled deeply and wiped my eyes. He had rattled me right down to my bones. My stomach was in knots, and I couldn’t shake the magnetic pull of his inhuman eyes.
Cade hadn’t come. The bouncer hadn’t come. Zyz had disappeared. There was no one I could run to for safety. No one had come to my rescue.
Chapter 21
Anger fought with revulsion inside of my head, and below all that beat a deep, unnamed terror.
Without standing up from my huddled crouch, I lifted my hands to the tap and turned it on. Cool water ran over my palms and I dabbed my face. I was hot; anger and fear making me break out in a sweat.
I was also deadly tired. I hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours. This time yesterday, I was fighting for my life in an alleyway. And yet somehow, this man grabbing my wrist had shaken me harder and more thoroughly than coming close to death.
“Lainey-girl?”
Cade’s voice broke through the tidal wave of emotions and I looked up eagerly. He was standing on the other side of the bar, peering down at me with a concerned expression.
“You all right?”
I hauled myself back up to my feet. I had been crouching so long that pins and needles had set in and I stumbled slightly. Cade’s hand shot out and caught me and he righted me gently.
“Whoa, okay, let’s get you to bed.”
I looked fearfully over my shoulder, but the small man had disappeared. He couldn’t have been a biker—he had no patches, and if he were a patron, Cade probably wouldn’t know him.
And I was too tired to ask. Cade would probably go looking for him, maybe fight him, maybe kill him if I asked. While that thought was immensely comforting, it would take too long, and would mean Cade wouldn’t take me to a place I could sleep. And that was the most important thing right now.
Cade hopped over the bar gracefully, landing like a cat on the balls of his feet. “Can you ride, do you think?” he asked, slinging an arm around my waist to prop me up.
“Just stop and pick me up if I fall off?” I joked sleepily.
He grinned. “I need to teach you to tuck and roll if you keep doing that.”
I rested my head on his shoulder and allowed him to steer me through the bar and out into the sunshine. He slung his leg over the bike and I settled into position behind him. As always, a little thrill went through me to wrap my hands around his muscled torso.
I let my hands wander slowly across his chest as he kicked the hog to life. His muscles bulged under my hands as I smoothed over them and down to his rippling abs.
“You feel good,” I yelled into his ear over the noise of the bike.
“You do too, Lainey-girl,” he yelled back. But the note in his voice was strange. It was like he was saying goodbye.
The noise of the bike drowned out further conversation as we roared into the road. The morning sun was high in the sky and I guessed it was close to noon.
We turned away from the strip club and took the road straight out of the city. I settled my head onto Cade’s warm back and closed my eyes, letting the roar of the bike and the wind in my ears lull me.
I opened my eyes when the note of the bike’s roar changed. We were winding our way up a hill. I looked out over the valley below, marveling at the coiled mass of highways and overpasses that blanketed the landscape below us.
Puerto de Fuego was miles away, glimmering like glass. Up here in the hills it was cooler, and I saw tall pine trees. The scent of their resin snapped at my nose and I sniffed hungrily.
The higher we went, the bigger the houses got. They huddled on the cliffs like fortresses. Cade slowed further and turned off the main drag. A stone wall stood at the entrance of the side road. The words, “Grandview Place” were spelled out in tasteful white script across the stone.
I wrinkled my brow in confusion. Where was Cade taking me?
We rolled up to a gate. A guard lazed back in his chair with his feet up on the desk of his tiny guard shack. But when he saw us, he snapped to attention. With an obedient nod, he pressed a button on the panel in front of him and the guard-arm lifted to let us pass.
I was floored to see that we were in one of the neighborhoods I had spied from the highway, those lush white houses with the rolling lawns. I wondered if Cade was messing with me. I was expecting to be taken to the house of a rough and tumble MC president, not to the house of a successful lawyer.
As we rode higher on the hill, I started seeing “For Sale” signs in the lawns in front of the houses. The signs multiplied as we wound our way slowly up the hill toward the grandest mansion of them all.
It was a white-columned palace with a broad walkway that at one point must have been lined with potted urns. Each had been methodically smashed and the clumps of black earth were strewn across the pitted lawn. The houses on either side were dark, abandoned by the looks of them, their owners having fled their new neighbors long ago.
“He lives here?”
Cade nodded darkly, “It was news to me, too.” His jaw muscle worked and I saw a throbbing vein beat at his temple. But he swung his leg over and deftly lifted me from my seat.
I stumbled after him, my exhaustion blurring the world around me. We stepped up on to the brick porch and Cade nodded at the huge biker who slumped in the doorway. “You new?”
“Gave him his due while you was hiding in the hills, Turner,” the big guard spat.
Cade’s jaw clenched furiously and I saw his fists ball at his sides. “Who says I was hiding? Who are you
?”
“I’m Moloch’s man. They call me Tiny.” I smirked, and Tiny shot me a furious look. “This is your new prized pussy, huh?”
“Fuck off and get out of my way.” Cade’s voice was low and threatening, and I saw Tiny’s arrogant smirk fade quickly.
“Watch yourself, Turner,” he mumbled, but stepped aside.
Cade stepped through the wide doorway into the foyer. I hesitated before following him. It took more strength than should have been necessary to lift my leg and step through that door. I finally closed my eyes and walked blindly after Cade.
I opened my eyes. The place was as immaculate inside as it was trashed outside. I gaped at the luxury of the white furnishings and Persian carpets.
Overhead, a sparking chandelier twinkled in the entryway. A grand staircase loomed ahead of us, swooping down from the second level in an elegant curve of polished wood. I felt like I was inside the pages of a magazine... until I noticed the bars on the windows.
The sweeping view across the valley was broken up by strong iron bars that were bolted onto the windows like an afterthought. I swallowed, wondering what their presence meant.
A huge man stepped down the stairs, walking lightly for a man his size. I shrank behind Cade, but he was even bigger than my massive biker. When he stood in front of us, I withered further, pressing against Cade in fear. He was an absolute mountain of a man, at least seven feet tall, with a shaved bald head that accentuated the cut-from-stone set of his jaw.
“This is her,” Cade said grimly, pulling me around from my hiding place.
“Your little arm decoration?” the huge man rumbled, sneering at Cade mockingly.
“Just do what needs to be done,” Cade gritted through his teeth.
“She can go upstairs. Second room on the right. Wait ‘til it’s time.”
Cade turned to me. “Lainey, I... ”
But instead of finishing, he crushed me to him, nearly knocking the wind out of me. His lips slammed into mine, but the passion and fervor wasn’t there. It seemed more like a farewell.
He pulled away and stalked back over the threshold. His shoulders were hunched and he was deliberately not looking behind him, avoiding my stare at his retreating form. The doorway framed him as he strode down the walkway and back to his bike. It looked like a picture frame that contained my entire world.
The guard shut the door just as he started the bike and drove off, leaving me wondering if I would ever see him again.
I felt a hand on my arm and I jumped. The president was unmoved by our farewell.
“Second door on the right,” he repeated, a bored note in his voice. He pointed up the grand staircase.
I nodded, shaking like a leaf. He looked like he could use me as a toy. Of all the rough treatment I’d endured in the past two days, he was by far the roughest looking biker I had ever seen.
I slowly mounted the staircase, feeling his eyes bore into my back. When I got to the top, I looked back down at him, wondering why he wasn’t following. But he merely stood there with his arms folded, watching me, his mouth inscrutable.
I turned to the right at the landing and pushed open the second door. I had been tense, ready for something to jump out at me, but all the room contained was a huge, fluffy, white four-poster bed. It was huge and cloudlike and the most welcoming thing I could have hoped for in my state.
The room was light and airy, with sun streaming in through the blinds. I went to the window and looked out to the impressive view of the valley below. I saw the gleaming towers of Puerta de Fuego glinting in the late morning sunshine. Then I snapped the blinds shut, blocking out the light and fell headlong into the bed. I didn’t even take off my shoes.
I slept like a dead person. At one point, I felt a gentle hand propping up my head and a glass of water brought to my lips. The water tasted strange on my tongue, but I swallowed eagerly, then fell back into the pillow limply.
Whenever I tried to rouse myself, I found that my limbs wouldn’t respond to my brain. I opened my eyes, but couldn’t summon the strength to move. I felt like I was underwater, deep water, looking up through the depths at myself on the surface. The hazy, shimmery feeling of nothing really being real persisted. I hovered there, dazed and confused for what felt like days. My whole life was in that bed.
When the haze finally started to lift and I regained mastery of my limbs, I suddenly found that I could no longer move them for a different reason. As I swam up from my stupor, I tried to scratch myself, but my hand wouldn’t come all the way. I yanked again.
Flailing, I tried to sit up, but my legs were held fast too. I was tied down fast, spread-eagled across the now bare bed.
And I was completely naked.
Chapter 22
The room was in shadow. The high windows glowed faintly in the twilight and all was silent in the cavernous house. The only sound was that of my heart as it pounded wildly in my chest while pain throbbed behind my eyes. I squinted, confused and disoriented.
I shook my head. The pounding headache clinched it: I had been drugged. And during my drug-induced coma, someone had come in and stripped me naked and tied me to the bed. And I had laid here, unknowing and unresisting for the whole day. Or maybe it had been two days. I had no way of knowing if the faint light at the windows was sunrise or sunset.
My breath came in gasps as my fear took over. Panic rose to my throat and I tasted bile.
“Hey!” I shouted. “Let me go!” I yanked at my bonds and felt the bite of the leather straps as they pulled tighter into my flesh. I kicked my feet, but the same straps held my ankles fast.
No one came, but I shouted on until my throat grew hoarse. The room darkened, and I realized it was nightfall. The darkness only increased my terror. I gulped and closed my eyes, mentally forcing myself to take slow, deep breaths and calm my rapid heartbeat.
I was just starting to get things under control when a light flooded the room, blinding me. I heard a soft voice come from the corner.
“Oh, no, please keep struggling. Your skin gets so nice and pink when you’re panicked.”
I twisted my head as far as it would go. I could barely see him perched in the corner like something from a nightmare.
“What are you doing here?” I croaked, my words catching in my throat.
His flat, doll-like eyes scanned my body and I somehow felt even more naked under his gaze. I squirmed as he slid forward and his eyes widened.
“Yes, keep doing that. Fear makes you beautiful.”
Revulsion made me shiver. “I’m not afraid,” I lied.
“Yes you are.” He slid to the edge of the bed and ran his finger along my cheek. I bit back a scream at his touch. “You should be.”
He let the finger trail down to my breast. I sucked in as hard as I could, trying to pull away from him, but he grasped my nipple between his thumb and forefinger.
“You’re wondering to yourself,” he oiled on, rolling my nipple absently under his finger, “‘how can I make him like me? What does he want?’”
“Why,” I gritted, as he yanked my nipple, “would I want you to like me?”
He moved his face close to mine and twisted my nipple savagely. I screamed in spite of myself, and he laughed.
“Because I’m the one that decides your fate, little girl. Cade brought you here for my approval.”
My stomach dropped. “You’re Moloch?”
He pulled back and stood straighter. “Well, yes.”
It made a sudden, terrible sense. That’s why the bouncer hadn’t moved back at the bar. That’s why Zyz had disappeared. Because this small, slight man was feared by them all.
And Cade had left me at his doorstep and turned his back.
I screamed and pulled wildly against the straps. I pulled so hard the heavy wooden bed rocked back and forth. I thrashed like a wildcat until I was exhausted. Moloch stood and watched me the whole time.
“Do you remember our bet?” he asked softly.
“Fuck off.”
“Do you remember?”
“It was your bet. I never agreed.”
“Doesn’t much matter now, does it, Lainey?”
I cringed to hear my name on his lips. Somehow, it hurt me all the more that he knew my name. That meant he had talked to Cade. They had discussed me. Cade had agreed to this. The bitter taste of betrayal flooded my mouth and I blinked hard to hold back the tears brimming at the corners of my eyes.
I pressed my lips together, determined not to utter another word to this man. I wouldn’t give him any more information than my name.
But Moloch was no longer interested in conversation. I could tell by the outline of his cock as it pressed against the tight black fabric of his pants.
“I bet you,” he said gently as he turned his back to me. “That you would give in.”
Chapter 23
He turned back with a smile. In his hands lay a length of glinting silver chain. I pressed my lips tighter to hold back the scream/
The metal flowed like liquid through his fingers as he held it out for me to see. Four separate chains were linked together in the center, each end tipped with a vicious looking clamp. I bit my lip.
Moloch’s flat, dead eyes remained expressionless, but the little quiver of the corner of his mouth betrayed him. He was excited.
“So, little Lainey,” he breathed softly in that sinuous voice. “Here’s the first test.”
He opened one of the silver clamps, then let it snap shut, making sure I could see the power of its grip. Then he extended it to my foot.
I shuffled and kicked. I pulled my foot as far away from him as the leather strap would allow. “Still fighting, I see,” he whispered encouragingly. “You’re winning our bet so far.”
Then he closed the clamp around the top of my big toe.
“Ow!” I shouted. The pain shot up my leg as the cold metal bit into my flesh. I shook my foot in a frenzy, trying to shake it off. When that didn’t work, I tried to reach it with my other foot. But the leather straps held me firm. I squeezed my eyes shut against the hot pain.
