by Brook Wilder
“I don’t really think the gun is necessary. After all, I’m unarmed.”
Ruiz went over to the kitchen table and looked around the small safe house.
“Quite the dump you have here,” he said.
“Enough bullshit,” I growled. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want,” Ruiz said reasonably. “I’m willing to forgive the GRMC and you for all your transgressions. There’s plenty of room in the desert for all of us.”
I eyed the man. My thoughts went to Khloe and her girls.
“Yeah, we all know how good your word is.”
“You aren’t seriously pissed about those whores I put down, are you? They’re just playthings. Hell, I probably did them a favor, putting an end to their miserable lives.”
Ruiz shrugged and sighed.
“Besides, if Khloe hadn’t jerked me around, that wouldn’t have happened. I have to set an example. You, more than anyone, must understand that.”
I did. I hated how much I did understand that. It sometimes took a firm hand to control the people that were drawn to this trade. Unfortunately, Ruiz was one of the worst of those people.
A noise from behind me made me curse under my breath.
Ruiz smiled broadly over at Cassie, who looked between the man and me several times. Her face was set in a grim line.
“I know what you’re here for, Ruiz, and the answer is still no.”
I put my gun back in its holster, but I didn’t snap the holster closed. I wanted to be able to get the gun out quickly if I needed to. Cassie kept me between her and Ruiz.
Ruiz nodded.
“I figured you might say that. It’s a shame really. This could all have ended right here.”
“We both know that’s not true,” I assured Ruiz. “You never let people stand up to you and get away with it. It just wouldn’t look good. You see, I do understand how you think. So, the answer is still no.”
A smile crossed Ruiz’s face.
“Such a pity... Oh well, you’re probably right. The bastard that I am, I’ll probably kill all of you. Hell, I might even keep a few of you to play with.”
“Get out,” I said in a low growl.
If Ruiz was concerned about the gun at my side, he certainly didn’t let on. Perhaps the man was mentally unstable.
The thought crossed my mind that I should waste him right then and there, but the man had come here to negotiate. If word got out that I’d killed someone under such circumstances, then my reputation among the clubs and other underground denizens would be ruined. I gritted my teeth and knew the man had to leave alive.
Ruiz turned to go. As he opened the front door, he stopped and looked over at me.
“Odd how things happen sometimes, isn’t it? Who would have thought that, when you set her car up to fail, we’d all end up here?”
The man gave me a smile before he slipped out the door.
I shook my head and turned around.
The look on Cassie’s face stopped me cold. She was staring at me as if she had never seen me before. No. She was staring at me the way she’d stared at me the night I’d bought her. Like I was some kind of monster.
Her voice was barely a whisper.
“Is that true?”
“Cassie,” I began, but the look on her face stopped me.
I nodded. “Yeah. What he said was true.”
She nodded slowly as if letting the words sink in.
“It wasn’t just dumb luck. You did this to me.”
“You knew that already,” I said, shaking my head. “Don’t let him get under your skin, Cassie. That’s what he’s trying to do.”
Cassie bit her lip and nodded again.
“Yeah. I know.”
“You know what I am and who I am. You’ve known that from the start. I’ve never lied to you.” I sighed. “You act like I tricked you, but I never did.”
She pushed some strands of hair behind her ear.
“You’re right. You’ve always been honest about what you are. I’m the one who keeps trying to paint you in different colors.” Cassie took a deep breath. “How long do you think he’s known where we are?”
“Not long, I’d wager,” I said as I walked back to the bedroom. “We’ll leave first thing and go to another safehouse that no one outside the GRMC knows about. I can’t risk anyone who might have been compromised. It must have been Khloe who told Ruiz where we were. Get a couple of hours sleep, then we’ll head out. I need to let Diesel know what’s going on.”
Cassie didn’t bother to respond in words. She merely nodded and headed into the bedroom in a stupor. I didn’t much blame her. The last few days had worn me down as well.
I collapsed in a chair. I might not like it, but maybe Ruiz had just done me a favor by reminding Cassie of what kind of man I really was. It definitely didn’t mean I had to like it.
And I didn’t like it. Not one bit.
Chapter 14
Cassie
Mason woke me and we made our escape from the safehouse under cover of night. The whole time, the thought of Ruiz and his men hiding just out of sight in the darkness plagued me. If Mason shared such worries, he didn’t let on. His confidence made me feel better.
“Get on,” he whispered.
The words brought me out of my thoughts, and I scrambled to get on the back of the motorcycle. Where it had once been a fantasy of mine to cling to the tall man, I now hesitated to wrap my arms around him. If Mason noticed my hesitancy, he didn’t let on.
The words Ruiz had said had had their desired effect. I held onto Mason’s reluctantly, for safety’s sake. I’d almost made myself forget the kind of man he was, and how exactly I’d ended up in this situation. Yes, Mason might be the best of a bad situation, but I’d never have been in this situation to begin with had it not been for him.
I stared out across the desert as we drove further away from Eden and anything that resembled civilization.
There were very few markers out on the desert roads, and I’d no idea where I was – or even in what direction Eden lay – by the time Mason slowed and turned off onto a road that was little more than a trail. I braced myself as best I could as the bike hit hole after hole in the dirt track.
If you ever wanted to get lost and never be seen again, then this road looked like just the ticket. I glanced up at the clear sky overhead. The stars twinkled back at me as if they were chuckling at my situation. To be honest, if it hadn’t all been happening to me, I might have been laughing too.
The safehouse loomed up as we crested the top of a small hill. It had been completely hidden in a shallow valley on the desert floor. It seemed the perfect hideout to me. I certainly wouldn’t have found it in a million years.
Mason pulled up beside the house and waited for me to dismount. I slid to the ground and tugged my jacket around me. It was too big. I’d found at the last safehouse, and I was sure the owner had probably met a horrible fate.
“I’ll stow the bike,” Mason said as he got off the motorcycle and pushed it around the house.
I stood in the dark. As soon as Mason was out of sight, I looked around. The night sounds seemed louder.
Mason came back from around the back of the house. I followed him to the door and gratefully stepped inside once he had the door unlocked.
The lights came on and I felt relief wash over me to be out of the dark.
“That’s better,” I said as I looked around.
The living room and kitchen was open-plan. There were a couple of doors off the main room.
Well, I definitely won’t get lost in here, I mused.
Mason stretched the stiffness from his muscles.
“Go get some sleep,” he said. “Damn sure could use it myself.”
Mason waved at the door on the right as he pulled his phone out. I didn’t know how he could have any damn service. This had to be the middle of nowhere. Then again, his phone had worked that night I had broken down too. That thought made me frown as I opened the bedroo
m door.
The room was empty apart from a dresser and a bed. I flipped the switch and the light came on with a reluctant flicker. I eyed the bed dubiously. It was made up at least. At that moment, I could probably have slept on the floor. I was so weary from the road that I dropped down onto the bed and found it luxurious, despite the staleness of the sheets.
When Mason came to bed, I edged over to the other side to allow him room. He dropped onto the bed fully clothed, and before long the fatigue had my eyelids fluttering closed.
A hand on my bare arm made my eyes come open. Mason’s hand lay on top of my arm. I instinctively drew away and rolled over to present my back to him.
If Mason noticed, then I never knew it. I fell asleep quickly after that. The moment I got into a comfortable position my eyelids grew so heavy I could do nothing to keep them open, even if I’d been inclined.
***
Cassie didn’t fool me. I could tell that Ruiz’s words had brought up old feelings again. She looked at me like I was a monster. The worst part was that she treated me like one too. When I tried to touch her, she withered back from my touch like I was going to hurt her.
The truth is I’d already hurt her. And the very fact she was here made it inevitable that she’d get hurt again. Not only could Ruiz get her, but I’d also hurt her by being exactly the monster she thought I was. After all, I had in fact done all those horrible things she accused me of.
I sat at the kitchen table with my head in my hands. I stared for a long while at the pattern of the wood below my face. If it held any answers, it wasn’t going to share them with me. Just like Cassie.
How fucking dare she judge me?
The frown on my face deepened. This was why letting bitches in was a wrong move. I’d made too many wrong moves lately. Why had I not just let Ruiz have the girl? Why had I put the GRMC in jeopardy because of her? Granted, the Ghost Riders had been on a collision course with Ruiz for a long while, but there had been no need to force the issue, even though the boys had stood behind my decision.
I lowered my face to the cool wooden surface. Its cheap veneer felt solid and strong under my head. But I knew that, if I pushed it just a little too hard, it would crack. That’s exactly how I felt about Cassie and myself. I had to handle things gently. If I showed her too much of the bastard I really am, she’d probably run for the hills.
Well, you know what? Maybe that would be the fucking best thing. Let her run. Ruiz might have done me a favor.
So, why did it all feel like a stab to the gut? I sighed and closed my eyes against the feeling.
Fuck this. The only thing Cassie offered was a gaping wound that someone could exploit.
Ruiz was just the man to do that. And I’d just held open the invitation for him to do so.
***
I don’t know how I ended up standing over Cassie as she slept. But there I was, shaking the girl awake.
Cassie’s eyes came open. There was a flash of fright in them, which subsided when she saw it was me. I leaned over to kiss her, but Cassie turned her face away.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” I growled.
“Something has to be wrong with me because I don’t feel like fucking you right now?” Cassie sat up defiantly and glared at me.
Her tone, her whole body told me to fuck off, and it got right under my skin. I’d had quite enough of her smartass ways.
“Kissing isn’t fucking, and you didn’t used to mind it so much. Now, every time I raise an eyebrow in your direction, you look at me like I’m going to beat you.”
“Who can blame me? That’s what you do, Mason. Or have you talked yourself into forgetting what you are?”
Cassie practically snarled the words at me.
“You kidnapped me, just like you did all those other girls. Hell, you’ve probably kidnapped more since me. How would I know?”
I rubbed my face.
“Ruiz really has twisted you up.”
“No,” Cassie said defiantly as she stood up.
Her head might only have come up to my chin, but she poked me squarely in the chest before she continued speaking. That’s something most men I knew wouldn’t have the balls to do.
“Ruiz only reminded me of the truth. The truth is, Mason, this may be the best of a bad situation, but I wouldn’t even be in this situation if it hadn’t been for you. So, yeah, maybe I’m better off with you than Ruiz. But I’d be even better off if you were anywhere near a decent human being.”
Her words stung me. I wanted to recoil from them, but they were loaded with truth. I hadn’t been a decent human being in so long that what most people considered ‘decent’ just seemed like stupid naivety to me.
“Sorry that the real world isn’t all fluff and rainbows, sweetheart. Sorry you don’t get to live in your fairytale castle. You painted me into some kind of fantasy, then you complain when you actually get what you fantasized about.”
“I never wanted this!” Cassie yelled the words in my face. “I wish to hell I’d never seen your face!”
I shook my head. She really was sexy as hell when she was angry.
But I was also growing angry. I grabbed her by the hair.
“I think you should be a bit more respectful to me.”
She winced at the tug I gave her hair, but her eyes never left mine.
“Fuck you, Mason. You’re just mad because Ruiz reminded me that you’re as much a monster as he is. Hell, maybe you’re even more of a monster, because you can hide how fucked up you really are. At least, Ruiz is straight about his crazy.”
“I never hid what I was from you,” I ground out the words. “If you want out of our arrangement, then I’m sorry. I paid good money for you. I can be nice and kind, or I can be cruel. But you need to understand that, no matter what you’ve learned about me, I still own you.”
Cassie blinked.
“I thought you loved me.”
I tried to block out the look in her eyes as the tears welled up in them. I had been so afraid of hurting her… but there it was. There was the look of someone having their heart cut out. I’d let her in. This was my fault.
But that thought brought a surge of anger not just at myself but also at her.
How dare she fucking blame me?
“You don’t own me,” Cassie hissed. “You never did. What does that even mean? Is that a threat? After all, you’ve done to me, you think I’m still afraid of you?”
She held my eyes as she spoke through clenched teeth.
“You couldn’t own me if you tried.”
I heard the challenge in her voice, and I responded to it. God damn, she was beautiful when she was angry, and I couldn’t stop myself from crushing her mouth in a bruising kiss. The kiss was so hard that she whimpered as tried to get away from me, but she didn’t have a chance.
“I’ll show you what being property is, little girl.”
Cassie’s eyes widened as I spat the words. There was something about the way her breath caught in her throat. It sent a thrill of adrenaline through my system. I dragged her by the hair into the kitchen.
She struggled a bit, but her attempts to fight me off didn’t faze me. No. I had an aim in mind now, and I’d be damned if anything stopped me.
It was time I reminded her of the bastard I truly was. She’d gotten too comfortable challenging me. That stopped now.
Thoughts crowded into my mind, all urging me on and drowning out any reasoning that might have dissuaded me.
I threw the girl harshly into one of the wooden kitchen chairs. She landed with a loud crash.
She groaned.
“Shut up,” I snapped.
I quickly retrieved the rope I knew was in the bottom cabinet under the sink. Her eyes widened again as I turned around and she saw the rope in my hands.
Cassie pushed herself up nervously in the chair.
“What is that for?”
“Well, I thought you might want to experience what being truly owned is like,” I said with a vicious smile
.
Fear flashed across her face even as she tried to hide it.
So, she was still afraid of me.
“Please, don’t!” Cassie begged.
I tuned her out as I wrapped the rope around her legs. She tried to kick me, but I just laughed and held her legs still. She beat me across the shoulders with her arms. It was that fight in her that had first turned me on so much, and it did the same thing now.
