by Eve R. Hart
I think at some point I grunted in response to her statement.
“I will find her,” I said, for the both of us. She needed to hear it and I needed to believe it.
She was crying again, her body shaking as I held her. Maybe mentioning the whole ‘find her’ part wasn’t the smartest move. The only thing it seemed to do was remind Cami that her sister was missing. I held her tighter wishing I could do something more.
And that was how Brand found us. I was sure I was in for an ass-whooping. After all, I did have my arms around his woman. A very upset woman, I might add. And I was sure his first thoughts were much like mine would have been had I walked in with him comforting my woman so closely.
But he surprised me. I mean, his eyes did go hard and bore into me like lasers for half a second. Then they went soft. He obviously wasn’t as hotheaded as me. Thank fuck, because I did not want to deal with that on top of everything else.
“Cami,” I said taking a step back. “Brand is here.”
She sniffed a few times and then tried her best to blink away the tears.
“I-I’m sorry,” she stuttered out.
“It’s okay, baby. If his big arms are better than mine right now, I can, um, just go back to work.” Brand said the statement with a slight smile. As Cami choked out a laugh, I knew it was just the thing she needed.
She shook her head as she walked over to him and collapsed in his arms.
He held his mess of a woman and sent me a chin jerk letting me know that we were cool. Cami didn’t cry anymore but she did let Brand hold her for a good long minute.
“Okay,” she said pulling back and stretching up to place a sweet kiss on his lips. “I’m under control now.”
“What’s going on?” Brand asked looking down at her.
“I wanted to set this room up for Laurel, for when she comes back.”
Brand flicked his gaze to me clearly catching on to what I had before. With a hard swallow, he nodded.
“We got this,” I said walking over to the bed frame and pulling it away from its tucked away space. “You can go back to the shop if you want.”
I wasn’t trying to be an asshole. I kind of got the feeling like Cami didn’t want to break down in front of him for some reason. Maybe she just needed to do this without him around. It wasn’t like I was going to sit around and try to get her to talk out her feelings. If she wanted to talk, I’d sure as hell listen. But I wasn’t about to pull them out of her. Which I suspected Brand would do because he cared about her so deeply.
“I’ll come by when we’re done,” Cami said and then gave him another kiss.
“Okay,” Brand said in a tone that let me know he understood. “Call me if you need anything.”
She nodded. He pinned me with a look and I nodded as well. I would call him if she had another meltdown because I had a feeling she would definitely need him then.
After he took off, we worked silently. She unpacked the boxes while I got the furniture set up again. I went through and wiped it all off. It wasn’t like it was dirty but there was a thin layer of dust that had settled on everything. And when Cami seemed at a loss on where to put things, I made little suggestions as I remembered where it had been set up in Laurel’s apartment before.
Since there wasn’t much, it didn’t take us any longer than a couple of hours to get it all set up.
Then I ran her over to the shop so she could be with Brand and get some love from Blade’s ugly mutt, Biscuit. Damn, that dog was not cute. I didn’t know where the hell he got her. But I couldn’t deny that her little doggy kisses did make things a little better.
Sad as it was, I went back to the compound, back to that room, and sat on Laurel’s bed for a long time just staring at everything.
I wasn’t sure why. Maybe a part of me needed to be close to her in some way. I couldn’t really see her here like I had back in her apartment. There were no memories to play in my head because though the stuff was the same, the place wasn’t.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Laurel
I was on a time limit.
And time was almost up.
Whoever was the one running this show had said he was done waiting. I knew it was coming but I had no idea when. Each second that ticked on felt like one less breath that I had left. I tried not to cry. The truth was, I wasn’t even sure what was going to happen to me. Something worse? I did my best not to imagine what that could be.
“Fucking useless bitch,” my captor said as he came into the room and slammed the door behind him.
He paced like a wild animal in front of me. For a second, I was glad I was in a cage and that there were bars between us. He was clearly losing it. Only thing was, he had the key to get in and once he chose to use that, there would be no escape for me. I supposed I should have found some comfort in that he hadn’t opened the cage door as of yet. He never tried to touch me.
“Whore,” he said and his wild eyes jerked to meet mine. “You’re all just worthless whores. You were supposed to wound him. Hurt him. Taking you should have done something. I wanted him to come and find you so that I could take something away from them like they did me.”
His voice was vibrating just like his body. He was seething. I was a little lost as to all the things he was ranting about and I had a good feeling I didn’t really want to know.
“A whore. Just like her. Doesn’t matter how old you are, you are born a whore. Now you’ll die like one.”
I blinked, and then his arm punched through the space between the bars. Before I knew what was going on, he had a tight grip on my hair. My nails went to his hand, scratching and clawing in an attempt to set myself free. But it was no use. With a quick yank, my head hit the bars and he continued to pull like he could somehow yank me out through the side of the cage. I screamed. I screamed so loud it pierced my ears and made my throat feel scratchy. Tears filled my eyes but I didn’t stop trying to get away.
I heard the click of the lock and I knew he had opened the door. Then his free hand was around my throat and I was being dragged out of the cage. My back hit the floor so hard it rattled my teeth. He was on me, the weight of his body pressing down on my chest as he sat on me. His knees pinned my arms to the floor.
“Please,” I begged. “Please. I don’t want to die like this.”
“You should have thought about that before you spread your legs for a filthy Steel Paragon member.”
“I-I didn’t know. I’m sorry.” I couldn’t tell you why I was apologizing.
“He doesn’t even care about you. Left you in that crackhead apartment building. Only fucked your desperate cunt when no one was around. He didn’t even care about you enough to bring you around his brothers.”
Everything he was saying were things I had thought before. Maybe not so crudely. But the same ideas and views had been there at one point or another. I hated to admit that this crazy psycho was right but maybe he was to a certain degree. In a way, I only had myself to blame. It was my fault for giving in and wanting someone that I knew I never should have had. That one bad choice had ended me up here.
“It was a mistake,” I said and tried not to choke on the words as they left my throat. “I see that now. I’ll never… I’ll never go near him again.”
“It’s too late. Don’t you see? You were supposed to be the beginning of the payback, but you’re just a worthless whore.”
He shook his head like he was disappointed that I hadn’t fulfilled his plan like he hoped I would.
“It doesn’t matter how young they are. It was all her fault, too,” he went on and I tried to follow along for some reason. “Her little body made him do it. Made me do it. And it wasn’t our fault she cried so hard. It wasn’t my fault that I covered her face too long when I tried to quiet her. No, it was all hers, because she was a whore and she wanted something she couldn’t handle.”
My head snapped to the side as his fist collided with my cheek. A whimper escaped me and I hated it. I didn’t want to let him know
that he had gotten to me. I hated that he could see that I was terrified.
“It was all her fault and they killed him for it. It wasn’t bad enough that they kicked him out because he gave those whores what they deserved, then they took the law into their own hands when they found out about my sister. They killed him, you know? Killed him because she was a little whore.”
This was it for me.
I could feel it.
And though this guy wasn’t all that big, he definitely overpowered me.
I had never felt so weak.
So ready to let go and give in.
Because I knew to try and fight him was futile.
I screwed my eyes closed tight. Even still, I knew what was going on because there was the distinct sound of a zipper being lowered. I tried, I really did. I kicked and tried to buck him off of my chest, but all it managed to do was wear me out.
“Fuck!” he roared, causing me to flinch and my eyes to open.
There he was, his limp dick just inches away from my face. He tugged at it and even slapped it a few times but it wouldn’t come to life. There was something seriously wrong here. I mean, more than what was already going on. I couldn’t help it, I looked up into his eyes. The frustration was so apparent in his face.
Part of my insecurities started to kick in. You know, those thoughts. I wasn’t pretty enough. I was too skinny. My hair was too boring. Yes, those self-deprecating thoughts that always kept a person down.
Only, I pushed them away as quickly as they came. Because for once, it wasn’t me and I knew it. It was his sick, twisted brain. It became more obvious the longer the seconds ticked on and nothing happened.
“You can’t, can you?” I said boldly.
“Shut the fuck up!”
“I’m too old for you, aren’t I? You sick freak!”
“I said shut the fuck up, bitch!”
“You raped your own sister, you disgusting monster,” I said and all but attempted to spit on him. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure that was what he was trying to confess in his insane rant, but I felt like I was pretty much right.
“You can’t rape whores,” he said and there was an odd, eerie calmness in his tone. “But you can kill them.”
Pain radiated through my head as he struck my face again.
“Since he didn’t come for you, I’ll just have to bring you to him.”
With everything I had left in me, I fought. I managed to get one of my arms unpinned but it did nothing to stop him. His fingers were in my hair again, gripping so tightly I could feel the roots pulling free. My head bounced off of the hard floor. And again. When I screamed, his nasty hand covered my mouth in an attempt to muffle the shrill sound.
Lines of light shot through my vision and I swore I was seeing stars. I felt the urge to vomit and I didn’t care if I did. I couldn’t think.
Then I went limp, figuring that it was best to let him think that I had passed out or lost consciousness or something. Maybe then he would put me back in the cage and leave me alone. Something. Just anything but this.
Suddenly, there was a noise in the distance. Like a banging but I couldn’t place where it was coming from. And a voice followed. I barely heard it over the ringing in my ears. It sounded like someone was calling out, telling him to open the door.
Just like that, he released me and stood. I could hear his heavy breaths but I didn’t move.
“Fucking shit.” His voice was mostly calm, but I could hear the slight irritation in his tone. “Yeah, hold the fuck on!”
There was a rustling and the sound of a zipper again right before his footsteps crossed the room toward the door.
I waited a good long minute after the door opened and closed. There was muffled talking somewhere in the house. As the voices began to rise and sounded like they were getting angrier with every word, I decided that it was now or never.
I stood, my legs so shaky I thought I was going to go down again. I stumbled as quietly as possible over to the window in the corner. It was covered with a thick curtain that made the room mostly dark even in the middle of the day. Instead of pulling it back, I slid in behind it.
I blinked at the bright light and waited for my eyes to adjust. My fingers fumbled for the lock and I flicked without another thought. But as I tried to push the window open I realized that it wasn’t budging even a little. It looked like it had been painted shut.
No.
This couldn’t be the end.
I refused to believe that it was.
My eyes scanned the outside area to see if there was anyone around. There were houses. It was some kind of older neighborhood but I couldn’t place which one. Maybe I wasn’t even in the same town anymore. That didn’t matter. I just had to get out.
I tried the window again, pushing up on the top of the bottom pane until the wood cut into my palms so hard it burned. It let out a low groan as it inched its way up. Then it wouldn’t move again. There was barely enough room for me to stick my hand out let alone my whole body.
No matter what angle I tried, I couldn’t get it to lift anymore.
I was about ready to give up and cry. Then I remembered the metal folding chair that he sat in as he watched me. As quietly as I could, I ran over and grabbed it. I saw his phone sitting right there on the tiny table next to the chair. I didn’t hesitate to grab that too. I folded the chair up as I made my way back over to the window.
I shoved as much of the chair in the tiny crack as I could. I held onto the opposite end and tossed all the body weight that I could without toppling over onto the other side.
The high-pitched squeal let me know that it had worked. I cringed, because there was no way that the sound wasn’t heard, even over the shouting in the other room.
I knew when the shouting abruptly stopped that I had been right.
Not caring that I was going to make some more noise, I threw my body on the bottom of the chair again. Now there was just enough space for me to fit my body through. I snatched up the phone and jumped out of the window as I heard footsteps pounding against the floor, growing closer to the door by the second. I prayed that neither one of them were smart enough to run around the house until after I was able to get a good head start.
Gripping the phone as tightly as I could, I got to my feet ready to take off running. Only I collided with something hard.
“No,” I whimpered out as I tried to steady myself.
“Miss?” I didn’t recognize that voice. “Miss, are you alright?”
I was naked, dirty, and clearly beaten. So obviously I was not alright.
“Help,” I managed to say as I met the strangers deep brown eyes.
Then I collapsed into his arms.
I didn’t pass out but my body was too weak for me to keep my eyes open any longer. But I could tell that he had scooped me up in his arms as he took off running. I bounced around like a rag doll and every movement shot a lightning bolt of pain through my body.
“Stay with me,” the new stranger said as he lowered me down.
By the feeling of the plush cushion beneath me, I would have guessed I was in a seat of a car. It was too small to be a couch and too low to be a chair. A moment later when the sound of an engine starting up filled my ears, I knew I had been right.
“Drive, Marcella.”
We were moving, or the car was, rather, but I couldn’t get my eyes to open. A second later, there was something soft thrown around my body and I would have guessed it was a blanket of some sort.
“I’m taking you to the hospital. Can you tell me your name?”
There was a thickness to his voice and some kind of accent. But it wasn’t like the guy that had been arguing with my captor. I wanted to say Russian, but I wasn’t all that positive about it.
“No,” I moaned out. “P-Paragons.” It was all I could do to push the word out. My mouth was so dry and my tongue felt swollen.
“Did she just—” a woman asked only to be cut off by the other guy.
“Yeah
.”
I tried to say the Steel Paragons so he knew that was what I mean but my mouth just fell open and a dry wheeze came out.
That was honestly the last place I wanted to go right now. Truthfully, I wanted to be alone and as far away from Bryan as I could get. But I knew what danger was out there and I knew it was targeting them. Even though my head was a dizzy mess, I knew I had to warn them.
I thought of all the good men that belonged to that club. I thought about everything they had done for Cami and me. I thought of how my sister was tied to the club. And Chris. I couldn’t let them get hurt. I couldn’t let them be blindsided by some crazy guy with a vendetta for something that happened in the past.
I tried not to think about his words but no matter what, it seemed I couldn’t help it. Had they done what he said? By the sound of it, they did the world a favor.
Suddenly, I was aware of the violence that followed the club. At one point, it had been the only thing I could see. I had to admit when Cami first told me about Brand and that he belonged to a motorcycle club, all I could think of was violent criminals. Then I met him—Brand—and I knew he was a good man. I could see the love for my sister right away. And when I felt lost and alone, they had shown up to help me move without asking for anything. I wasn’t dumb, I knew there was a side of danger with the club. Possibly even illegal activity. Only it wasn’t so out in the open and it sure wasn’t talked about.
Had I been so blind? Had I let myself get lost in how they treated each other like family? Had I only seen that they took me in even if I kept myself on the outside? Did I completely miss the danger that surrounded the club?
“What’s your name?”
“L-Laurel.”
“Oh, shit.” There was a pause and I had no idea what his shock meant. “I found the girl.”
