by Vivian Lux
Cade did this. My brain was trying to absorb that fact. Everything in my body was fighting the truth, but how could I deny it when it was sitting right here in front of me, sobbing in the dark?
Pauline Cornwell, brought back from the dead, somehow hidden away from the world for five months since the hold-up. The hold-up that I now realized had been committed by Cade himself.
I swallowed. “Two people dead. Hostages held for four days,” I repeated mechanically.
My only reply was her muffled sobbing against the back of her hand.
“Okay, Pauline,” I whispered. “Okay. You’re going to get out. I’m going to help you. We’re going to get out together, you’ll see.”
Her huge, terrified eyes flashed in the moonlight. “How can you help me? He has you too now!”
And with a start, I realized she was right. The bars on the windows. The huge guard downstairs. The strap around my wrist.
As much as Pauline was a captive, I was too.
Chapter 25
The desert moon rose high above the white house on the hill. Shafts of pale light pierced through the gaps in the bedroom curtains, illuminating the whole room like daylight.
But I didn’t need the light to see how much trouble I was in.
Pauline Cornwell, the girl from the news shows, famously missing for five months, was lying on the white coverlet next to me. Heavy, wracking sobs shook through her, reminding me that she was real. She was alive and well, just like I had always hoped.
She was alive, anyway. “Well” was too strong a word to describe her condition. She was alive, but broken—broken at the hands of Moloch, a man whose magnetic sadism I had just experienced firsthand. She had been held here by the MC president and used for his pleasure ever since she was brought here, full of hope, by the man she loved.
A man named Cade Turner.
The twisting, turning swirl of my thoughts always came back to rest right there on that terrible hurt. Because I had fallen in love with Cade. I had left my town, left my life behind. I had fantasized of life as his old lady.
He’d told me there was just one more step.
And then he’d delivered me into the hands of Moloch. He kissed me goodbye and left me on the doorstep of evil itself, like a deliveryman would dump off a package.
Hot tears rolled down my own face as I tried to soothe Pauline’s sobs.
She laid next to me in the big bed, curled in a fetal position, her back to me. My halfhearted pats seemed to be doing nothing to stem the tide of tears.
Without any other idea of what to do, I slid closer. Pressing myself against her back, I flung an arm around her and pulled her close, cradling her like a frightened child. I stroked back her brown hair, pulling it back from where it hung in her face.
“Pauline,” I whispered, trying to mask the sound of sorrow in my own voice. “Pauline, we’re going to get out.”
She took a deep, hitching breath, but didn’t respond.
“Pauline,” I tried again. Taking a deep breath, I tried to recall the events of the past few days. I remembered some of the things Cade had told me. Back when I loved him. “Pauline, there’s a war coming.”
I didn’t know if my words were giving the poor captive any comfort, but they were helping me. I kept talking for my own sake.
“The truce with the Rat Kings has been broken.”
Pauline’s whole body jerked when I mentioned the rival MC.
“Shh,” I soothed. “It’ll be okay. I did it. I wandered into their territory and Cade had to break the truce to rescue me from... from...”
I inhaled deeply, remembering my near-rape in the alleyway by the Rats. The memory of Cade leaping towards me, all tawny gold like a mountain lion scenting his prey would never leave me. He had saved my life twice in just twenty-four hours.
“To rescue me from some punks,” I finished lamely. “They’re coming after the Devils now. Cade told me.”
Pauline’s breathing slowed and I could tell she was listening intently.
“All we have to do now,” I continued, “is stay alive.”
“You said...” she croaked, then cleared her throat. “You said the Rat Kings are coming?”
I nodded. “War is coming.”
She shifted and rolled onto her back. As she stared at the ceiling, I watched her eyes dart back and forth as if she were reading something only she could see. Her fawn-like eyes were massive in the moonlight, and her skin shown with a blue haze that made her look ethereal.
I still couldn’t believe it was her—the girl from the pictures on the news; the teller at the scene of the most infamous hold-up in years. And here she was lying next to me, breathing and speaking.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to ask. “Pauline, I’m sorry, but I have to know. What happened in the bank?”
She closed her huge eyes, and for a moment, I thought she would ignore me. When she opened them, tears no longer sparkled. They were dry, and they were angry.
“Two bikers came in with guns. One of them was tweaked out on something, the other didn’t look like he wanted to be there at all. That one was Cade.” She closed her eyes at the memory. “When everything started going wrong all at once, I could see them fighting. The tweaked out one wanted to kill us, but Cade wanted to try to leave without the money. They kept me in the office.”
She breathed in, and seemed about to continue, but then she thought better of it.
“By the end of it, Cade and I were in love. But my brother...” She paused and swallowed. “My brother is a Rat King.”
I looked at her, shocked. “He is?”
“My parents disowned him a long time ago, but he and I still kept in touch.” She rolled over and looked at me, her eyes inches from my own. I watched her lips as she continued, the story pouring out of her like a flood.
“They call him Dawg, or something like that now, but I still call him Matty. He’s my little brother, you know? He thought I was crazy trying to take a real job. Kept telling me that he could hook me up with whatever the Rats were into and make me so much money that I’d never have to work again.
“But I wanted to be legitimate. I wanted to be a real grown-up who goes to work every day. I had the bank job for like, three whole months before the hold-up!” A short, hysterical laugh escaped her lips and I brushed my hand along her shoulder. She snapped back to the story.
“When Cade and I... connected, I found out he was a Devil. I knew if we ever got free, even if we escaped the cops, Matty would find him and kill him for putting me at risk. Not only were they Devils on Rats’ territory, but they had mixed with a sister of a Rat.”
Her eyes blazed with fury at herself. “So I told him I would go with him. Keep him safe. I was so in love with him that I never even thought it through. I was ready to set aside the awfulness of the hold-up and ride with him and be his old-lady and let go of all my dreams of a normal, grown-up life.”
I inhaled sharply. “I know what you mean.”
She barked a short, rueful laugh. “And look where we are. It wasn’t like this then. Back when his dad was prez.”
I startled. “His dad?”
She looked at me. “You didn’t know?”
“No, I guess not.” I looked down. “I only met him a few days ago.”
She gave that barking laugh again. “Cade’s father was the president of the club. When he came back from Porter Crossing with me on his bike, none of the other guys blinked an eye. But something about me set the old man off.
“Not three days after we showed up, he had a massive heart attack and died. Cade should have been the prez. Everyone was ready to reswear to him and to each other when Moloch stepped in.”
She shook her head. “I still don’t know how he did it. Cade just fell apart and let it happen. Suddenly there were all these new members and new rules. And one of the rules was about old ladies. Moloch needed to approve them.”
“And Cade went along with this?”
Pauline nodded, the tears shin
ing in her eyes once more. “He went along with it and he let me go. And I’ve been trapped here ever since.”
I shook my head slowly as the pieces clicked into place. Cade’s rage at me when I wanted to join him. His constant warnings that he was no good for me. His fierce protectiveness of the strippers—of me.
I couldn’t reconcile the two different men in my mind: the strong man I knew with the one who would just hand his woman over to a man like Moloch.
“Did he know?”
Pauline’s eyes snapped in my direction. “Know what?”
“Did he know what Moloch was like?”
She sighed. “No one did. You know the story of the frog in the pot?”
“What?”
“You put a frog in a pot of water on a stove. Then you turn it on low. See, the frog will jump out of a pot of boiling water, no question. But if you start the water cold, then the change comes gradually. The frog sits there and doesn’t even notice that he’s slowly getting cooked alive.”
I nodded in understanding.
“He stepped in, and now the club’s divided—the ones who kiss Moloch’s ass, and the ones who don’t.”
The streaks of moonlight had been traveling across the room as she talked. Now the windows glowed with the watery light of just before dawn. We had lain like this for most of the night, entwined together by accident as I listened to her story. My mind was reeling as I tried to put two and two together.
“You mean,” I ventured, “that there are Devils who aren’t loyal to Moloch?”
She nodded. “I think so. The ass-kissers have meetings here and I hear them talking about them. They call them the dissenters.”
“If only we could find out who they were. They might help us get away.”
Her laugh sounded more like a grunt. “Fat chance. I’ve run away more times than I could count. Someone always brings me back.”
My stomach dropped. “You’ve gotten out?”
“I’ve made it as far as the bus station. I was begging people for fare and these two bikers just snatched me back up again like I was a lost suitcase. I’ve given up now. I don’t care anymore. If you keep him happy and do what he wants, Moloch can be okay. I’ve learned how to keep my head down and just do what he says.”
Her face was right in front of mine, filling my field of vision with her haunted eyes. The sorrow and anger that I saw there made her seem older than her young age. Deep lines furrowed her pale forehead.
I needed to touch her. I reached up to the strap that tethered my wrist to the bedpost. I took a deep breath and set myself free.
Chapter 26
I lightly brushed my newly freed hand across her forehead, wishing I could smooth those deep worry lines away. I had no more questions, and she looked exhausted from telling the story.
“You should sleep,” I whispered. “It’s almost dawn,”
She closed her eyes. My touch seemed to startle, then relax her. A soft sigh escaped her lips.
“What?” I asked, worried that I had crossed a line.
She chuckled. “I was thinking when the last time someone touched me like that was. And I couldn’t remember.”
“Like this?” I smoothed my fingers across her brow again. A faint memory stirred in me, of my mother doing this to help me sleep. Before Darryl came into our lives and ruined everything. When it was just the two of us against the world.
I brushed along Pauline’s forehead, and then trailed my fingers down her cheek.
Her tense shoulders moved down from her ears as she exhaled. I smoothed my hand across her eyes, closing them lightly under my fingertips.
“Shh,” I whispered. “It’s okay, Pauline. It’s okay.”
I fell into a rhythm, chanting the words so they were almost a little song. Her breathing grew heavier and heavier. I was absorbed with studying her face, watching her relax minute, by minute. I was transfixed to the point where the sound of my own voice sounded as if it were coming from outside of me.
“Shh... it’s okay...”
She was nearly asleep when a shadow fell across the bed.
“That was heartwarming.”
His hard voice made us both jump. Pauline gasped a little shriek.
How much had he heard? How much did he know? Adrenaline coursed through my body to see his dull, black eyes wash over the two of us in bed together. The tip of his blood-red tongue poked ominously from the corner of his mouth.
“I see you two have met,” he declared.
I pressed my lips together and sought Pauline’s hand underneath the covers and folded it into my own. Her huge eyes were even wider with fright.
“My two favorites,” he continued, walking around to stand over Pauline’s side. She shrank closer to me. “I was going to introduce you, but I see you’re already well-acquainted enough to share a bed.”
I swallowed. I didn’t like where this was going.
“You do look so lovely all nuzzled up like this,” Moloch murmured. “Pauline, why don’t you give Lainey a little kiss?”
I watched her face change instantly. The fire, the bitter humor that she had showed as we talked—it all drained away as quickly as if he had pulled a drain plug. She blinked, and her wide eyes went just as dull and flat as his.
He nodded. “That’s right, there’s a good girl. Just lean over and kiss her right on her pretty little mouth. It’ll be nice.”
She turned to me blankly. All traces of the woman I had been confiding in were gone. She looked hollowed out now. She was a shell; a puppet with Pauline’s face.
And when her mouth moved automatically to mine, I shrank away from this sudden stranger at my side.
“Now, now, Lainey. You remember how good it feels to give in?”
The words hit me like a punch to the gut. Beads of sweat prickled at my hairline. I swallowed hard, remembering the cycling mix of pain and pleasure he had dealt me. I tried to hold on to the shards of my will, but they slipped through my fingers as Pauline’s lips brushed against mine.
I closed my eyes. The taste of her was sweet in spite of her tears. Her lips were soft, much softer than any man’s. My own mouth responded in curiosity to the unfamiliar lack of bristles against my skin.
She brushed them down, and caught my lower lip lightly between her teeth. When she sucked in gently, a soft moan escaped from my mouth before I could catch hold of it. I remembered Livvy at the strip club; remembered her smooth olive skin and ripe, full mouth.
It had never crossed my mind to kiss a woman before. I was enjoying it more than I realized I could.
I was enjoying it more than I wanted to. Even as Pauline’s tongue danced around mine, I could feel Moloch’s flat eyes on us. He was watching us perform for him. He was toying with us, toying with me, and yet once again, I hadn’t the strength to resist him.
“Pauline, my sweet. Lainey has lovely breasts, don’t you think?”
Like an eager dog quick to please its master, Pauline moved her mouth from mine. She slid her soft hand up my side to cup it around my breast.
I sucked in as her fingers brushed against my bruised and stretched nipple. The pain intensified the little jolts of pleasure she coaxed with her fingertips. She was touching me so gently. With all I had been through in the past couple of days at the hands of men, the soft touch of a woman came as a welcome respite.
But it wasn’t real. She was brainwashed, only going through the motions with me. I reached out to her face.
“Hey,” I whispered. Her eyes were unfocused, staring blankly. “Hey!” I repeated, brushing my hand across her forehead.
She shook her head, and for a moment, the light came back into her eyes. And in them I saw fear.
Quickly, she rolled on top of me and cupped my face in her hands. Her breasts brushed against mine through her tank top. She bent her head to my neck and pressed her lips close to my ear.
“Don’t fight him,” she breathed. Then she kissed me just up under the ear, sighing audibly so Moloch could hear her. “Just
go with it. Please.”
And just as quickly, she was gone again. The sparkle left her eyes and her movements became automatic. She had been down this road before. I wondered how badly he had hurt her for disobeying in the past. The last thing I wanted was to cause her more pain.
Shifting in the bed, I stretched out my neck to accommodate her kisses more easily. If that meant I had to perform as well, I would.
“Lainey, don’t just lie there. She’s doing all the work.” Moloch’s normally emotionless voice was strained. I saw his hand dart to his groin and grab it hungrily. He was getting off on this. He was enjoying this even more than he enjoyed forcing me to hurt myself.
I turned my head away from him in disgust. Directing us like a twisted puppet master was his real turn-on.
I swallowed. Pauline’s lips were on my tender, bruised nipple. She was rolling the hard bead around in her lips. When I didn’t react, she took it lightly in her teeth.
“Ah!” I squeaked and arched upwards automatically.
“That’s right.” Moloch’s voice came from above, below and all around. It filled my ears until there was nothing left to do but give in. “Now, show her how you want to be touched.”
I lifted Pauline’s tiny tank top to expose her small breasts. Her nipples hardened in the cool air, but her eyes were still unfocused. Good, I thought. It’s better if she goes away for this.
I squeezed the left one tentatively, feeling the difference between her breast and my own. It felt good in my hand; the weight and roundness were satisfying in some inexplicable way. I squeezed a little harder, running my thumb over the tip of the diamond-hard nipple. When she sucked in her breath, I bent my mouth to it and flicked my tongue over the tip.
Her soft moan egged me on. If I had to do this—if we had to perform for this madman—the least I could do was to make sure she enjoyed it. I thought back to what made me feel best.
I pressed my thighs together at the memory of Cade’s worship of my breasts. I remembered how much time he had spent there, lavishing attention on one and then the other. How he brought me to the brink of orgasm without even moving from my chest.
