by Dark, Raven
She turns on her heel and walks out.
“You okay?” Pip’s voice is flat as he examines my head and jaw. I can’t tell if there’s sympathy in his eyes, but there is annoyance. With Dee for putting him on Spider’s bad side.
“I’m okay.” I shake off the throbbing in my head and jaw.
Monica comes up behind him, slipping her arms around his waist and resting her chin on his shoulder. “She’s fine, baby. She can handle a few knocks. Can’t you, sticky fingers?”
Pip shakes her off and examines my head. “You look okay. Finish your breakfast.”
I finish eating in silence, but I don’t taste any of it, casting long looks at the door. Monica disappears, and everyone else goes back to their business. Pip flops into a seat at a table and doesn’t take his eyes off me.
Tequila was right. I have no friends here. Spider isn’t the only danger I have to worry about in this place. I’m on my own.
I need to get out of here. Soon.
* * *
Over the next hour, Tequila puts me to work serving drinks. It’s easy work, a job I’m used to, which unfortunately leaves me with plenty of time to think.
Keeping my mind on the need to escape, I drink as much water as I can between serving, trying to make it look like I’m just thirsty, not like a woman storing fluid for a long run through a hot desert. If Tequila or Pip notice, they give no sign. Once, I take a bathroom break, checking that window in Spider’s bathroom. Men work out back fixing bikes, so it’s a no-go.
There’s nothing to do but wait for the right time.
According to what Pip said earlier, Spider should have been back before now, but he still hasn’t returned. I hate that part of me wishes he would walk through the door. Why, when I’d only have to deal with him?
No one says a word to me except Tequila, and only when she has to. Dee emerges from that office only once to talk to the girls about a party happening that night. She doesn’t even look at me.
Monica doesn’t appear again, thank God.
I’m wiping down the tables when the door opens. I lift my head and my heart immediately skips a beat.
Spider marches into the tavern with three other guys. He’s as sinfully gorgeous as he was last night. The sunlight from outside makes his slicked back hair look like spun gold. Whatever is keeping it back is losing its hold, because a few stray strands fall into his eyes. He and the one I remember as Striker carry a large crate between them, and Spider’s tattooed muscles bunch and flex with the weight of it.
The two men behind him, the silver-haired one with the patch over his eye whom he called Cap, carries one end of another box, Reaper carrying the opposite end. Both men set the crates down beside the bar.
Bent over a table, frozen in place, I watch Spider through my lashes. He stalks to the bar, his huge shoulders tight. Anger pounds off of him. A shiver races up my spine.
“Tequila, where’s Dragon?” he growls.
Tequila furrows her brows with worry and hands a guy at the bar a beer slowly. “He’s not back yet. Is everything okay?”
“No. When will he be back?”
“He went to see Penny in the hospital. She took a turn for the worse a couple of hours ago.”
“Fuck. A shitty day all around. Is she okay?”
Tequila pours Spider and the other men glasses of water and hands them out. All of them look worn out and sweaty. “Don’t know. Haven’t heard anything back yet.”
Spider’s shoulders fall and he drops his head in what looks like regret for Penny. He takes out his phone and types a message. “Fucking hospitals. I’ll be lucky if he gets the message before he leaves there.” He pockets the phone.
Catching myself staring like a dolt, I drop my head and finish wiping the table, moving onto the one Pip is sitting at.
For all that I’d been hoping Spider would return, now that he’s there, I pray he doesn’t notice me. Everything about that man is dangerous. I don’t want to know what he’s like when he’s angry.
To keep myself from watching Spider, I put my back to him while he talks to Tequila. For some reason, Pip is watching me with amusement. I pause, raising a brow at him, but he just shakes his head.
I move onto the table beside him.
While I’m bent over the table, Spider is silent, and I swear I feel his eyes on me, his gaze burning into my back. I hear someone swallowing. Probably him, gulping down the water Tequila gave him.
“Pip, help the men get those crates into storage,” Spider says.
Pip gets up and I hear him grunting with effort, moving the crates toward the back of the bar with the Striker, Reaper, and Cap.
I noticed there was a hall at the back that led to another part of the clubhouse, and they disappear down it, their voices fading.
Maybe I imagined the feel of Spider watching me. He seems to be ignoring me now, and for some reason, the feeling causes loneliness to wrap around me like a shroud.
“And how is my little thief doing?” Spider says to my back. “Haven’t been giving Pip any trouble, have you?”
I bristle, the cloth stilling on the table, any desire to be acknowledged tricking out of me.
Little thief. That’s still all I am to him. Guilt and hopelessness stab at me, and I straighten, drawing a deep breath to calm my rising anger.
“Feel free to keep wiping that table,” he adds. “I like the view.”
Tequila giggles.
My cheeks flame. If only I could disappear into the floor. Straightening, I blow my curls out of my face and force myself to look at him.
Spider leans against the bar on his elbow, watching me through hooded eyes. He’s so beautiful, it hurts. His eyes blaze, devouring me.
Dear lord. My skin heats when I remember what I’m wearing, the almost non-existent halter and the slip of a skirt. I was bent over in that thing. No doubt he got an eyeful.
“Get over here and let me see you.”
I mash my lips together. Does the man have to make me feel objectified twenty-four-seven?
Stupid question. After last night, it’s clear that’s how he sees me. Tequila totally called it. I’m nothing but “a piece of ass” to him.
The hunger in his eyes makes it clear he’s not calling me over for a friendly chat.
Pip and the others return and take seats at the table, watching us along with everyone else in the room. This would be so much easier if I didn’t have so many eyes on me. It does no good to fight him on this.
I sigh and walk over to him, willing myself to be strong.
As soon as I’m within reach, he hauls me against him. Spider pushes my hair back.
His fingers still on the back of my head. His eyes linger on my jaw, and the fire in them cools a little.
“What happened here?” His voice is low and dangerous as he runs his fingers over the bruise Dee’s fist must have left behind.
I wince at the sting.
It’s as difficult to meet his eyes as ever, and as soon as I drag my gaze to his, my pulse jumps. There’s a hardness in them that I’ve never seen in a man before. I don’t understand the meaning in it, but it feels almost predatory.
“It’s nothing,” I mutter.
He grips my jaw, jerking my face up to his. “Don’t lie to me.”
His fingers deliberately press into the bruise until I hiss in pain.
There’s something in his tone, something in the sheer authority in it that sends my mind careening back to the countless times men in the church talked like that when I’d done something that went against them.
Seth’s voice rings in my head.
Don’t lie to me, girl. Your father’s status won’t save you from a whipping if you lie.
A reasonless bone-deep fear grips me, dozens of memories of girls being led out to the Circle of Retribution for their sins slamming into me at once. It’s as if Spider’s tone or his words trigger something, and I’m the girl I was then. Incapable of resistance. I drop my head and fold my hands primly in front
of me, focusing on his boots.
“Who hit you?” Spider’s tone is guttural, a serrated edge. “Whoever laid a hand on you, I’ll break his fingers.”
His.
My eyes snap to his, the reversion back to the brainwashed Colony robot vanishing as protectiveness for Dee slams into me. Spider thinks a man hit me. Violence hammers off of him like energy. Will he still hurt the person responsible if he realizes it was her?
“It… It…I can’t…” The words are stuck in my throat.
My heart beats like a rabbit, and I can’t get my eyes to lift past his beard, but this time it’s not the Colony’s hold over me that keeps them there.
It’s a sticky situation I’m in here. The smartest thing would be to tell him the truth. If stealing resulted in a night of humiliation, holding back will likely have a price I don’t want to pay. But telling him that Dee was responsible feels like another betrayal, somehow. Besides, I can’t stand the idea that I need Spider to fight my battles for me.
The simple necessity of holding back what he wants keeps my eyes fixed on his throat.
“Look at me. Tell me who hit you.”
My eyes go instantly to his, but somehow, I have the wherewithal to tamp down the answer he wants.
“Really, it was nothing, sir.”
Ugh. That address slipped out. There’s something about him when he gets forceful like this that compels me to call him that, making calling him by name feels like a sin.
His brows knit. His calculating stare as he processes my words makes me nervous. The momentary flash of approval in his eyes confuses me, especially when it turns to annoyance.
Taking a deep breath, I try again. “It wasn’t a man. I’m fine.”
Some of the tension goes out of him. Spider throws a look over his shoulder at the other women in the room. They’re watching this exchange. He looks at Tequila, who wipes an already dry glass and says nothing, then at the other girls again.
Monica crosses her arms. Waiting to see if I’ll talk. When had she come back in? She’s standing with Sassy, eyes sparkling with satisfaction.
“Which one of you hit her?” Spider snaps.
No one says anything.
Spider makes a frustrated noise in his throat and drops his hand from my face as he shakes his head at me. “If you won’t tell me who did it, I can’t help you.”
“I don’t need you to help me. I can handle my own problems.”
He rolls his head back. He was already worked up by whatever happened while he was out, and I’m only fanning the flame.
Spider pins me against him. His fist yanks my head back until I wince. “I’ll get out of you later in bed.” He licks my ear and my sex clenches. “No one gets to hurt you but me.”
My heart stops. Did he really just say that? A shiver wracks me, hearing the anticipation in his tone. He relishes the idea of causing me pain.
The door opens again, catching my attention.
My eyes widen. Two men have just walked in, but it’s the one in front that has me gawking.
With a half a foot on a towering Spider, the man is a colossus. Blue-black hair parted in the middle with flecks of grey make his electric blue eyes look even more striking. The thick, dark beard does nothing to hide the hardness of his features. There’s something about him that instantly makes me nervous.
“Spider,” he says, squeezing his shoulder.
“Dragon. Sorry about Penny, man.”
The two embrace in a tight, brotherly hug.
The other man who came in with Dragon gives Spider the same hug.
“How you holding up, Diesel?” Spider squeezes his nape.
“I can deal. I never should have left that woman, man.”
“Aw, don’t do that to yourself. This isn’t your fault, pal.”
“When I find that fucker, Gary’s going to wish he never laid a hand on her.”
“We’ll find him,” both Spider and Dragon say at once.
“And when we do, we’ll hold him while you have a go,” Spider adds.
Dragon casts a look down at me. His blue eyes are quizzical, but I can’t read the expression beyond the amusement that flickers there. One of his eyes is bruised, but it doesn’t take away from his magnetism at all.
There’s a patch on his vest that reads President.
It’s not a surprise he holds the title of a leader. Everything about him screams of command.
Dragon turns his attention to Spider. “Call a meeting. If we have a war on our hands, we need to get in front of this now.”
War? My blood runs cold. I get the feeling he didn’t say the words lightly. Images of the very bloody gunfights the Colony warned us about fill my head. Images of the streets running red with blood, the air filled with the flashes and sounds of gunfire.
That stuff’s not real; they were stories meant to keep us compliant. He must be speaking figuratively. Right?
Spider gives Dragon a nod. “Consider it done, Prez.”
While Dragon heads for the hall at the back, Spider walks toward the hall that leads to the bedrooms.
“Snake!” He roars out a few other unfamiliar names. “Meeting in the chapel!”
Doors open down the hall to the bedrooms. The door to the office opens and the man with the silver ponytail steps out with his arm around Dee. He gives her a deep, probing kiss and then playfully shoves her into a chair at a table.
So that must be Snake.
Spider returns to me and grabs my nape, pulling me to him. “I still have your panties in my pocket, Wildcat.” His hot breath tickles my ear. The hum that rumbles from his throat is pure, predatory hunger. “I’ve been thinking about fucking you all day. I’ll be back shortly. When my meeting is over, I expect you to be naked, waiting in my bed.”
The complacency in his tone galls me, but it’s the threat in his voice that fills me with real fear. He speaks as if he owns me, as if I don’t have a choice.
Oh, heaven help me. I’ve never had sex with a man before. The closest I’ve come is what he did to me last night. And if I don’t please him, he’s going to kill me?
My heartbeat fills my head. The man scares the life out of me.
I stiffen in his grip. “You can’t just—”
He puts his fingertips to my lips and brings his face close enough to mine that I can feel the heat of his lips. His skin is hot where his chest melds with mine, and his eyes burn with lust.
He’s like an animal after a fight, driven by a need to mate that threatens to reduce him to a mindless beast. An urge he intends for me to satisfy whether I want to or not.
“Shh. Take it easy, Wildcat. Be good to me. Don’t give me a reason to kill you.”
My eyes go wide and my heart batters my chest. My breathing comes in quick pants, but he either doesn’t notice, or he doesn’t care.
Spider turns and follows Dragon toward the back of the bar. On the way, he passes Pip sitting at his table. Pip stands up, opening his mouth as if to say something. Spider punches him right in the face.
Pip goes flying and slams into the table behind him. “Fuck, Spider I only took my eyes off of her for a second.” He wipes blood from his nose. “I—”
Spider ignores him, stalking to the end of the hall, where he, Snake, and a group of other men are disappearing through double doors at the end of it. The doors close, and Spider is gone without a look back.
Don’t give me a reason to kill you.
I close my eyes, my chest rising and falling fast at the thought of what he’ll do to me when that meeting is over. And what will happen if I don’t comply.
Forget soon. I need to get out of here now.
9
Last Chance
As soon as Spider leaves, I mean to hightail it to his bathroom and make a run for it, but no one gives me a chance to slip away. By the time Spider disappears into that room at the end of the hall, it’s going on noon. Casper’s is getting busier with the lunch hour rush, and Tequila and the other women keep me hopping.
/> To make matters worse, the room is now packed with bikers having their midday meals, and a lot of the men are armed. I see holsters on hips or hanging down against their sides when those leather vests move aside. Some carry blades in sheaths at their waists, or hilts stick up from the tops of boots.
I move between the tables, bringing trays of food and drink and keeping the place clean along with Sassy and a couple of other girls, all the while trying not to notice the firearms. That, or the danger that seems to pulse all around me just under the surface of friendly banter and joking around. Every time a man reaches for his gun or his knife, I tense, even when he’s only setting the pistol or blade on a table.
It shouldn’t bother me to see so many men carrying. The pastors have what they call soldiers standing at all entrances and doors to off-limit areas on the Colony grounds at all times, sometimes with shotguns in hand. But this is different.
In the Colony, although the threat of deadly force is very real, only the soldiers are armed, a small number of men trained to use them as a last resort. The actual use of the weapons is exceedingly rare. And for someone like me who knows no other life, the soldiers become part of the background, like statues we tend to forget about until someone gives them cause to remind us.
Here, nearly every man is armed with one deadly weapon or another, and some look like they wouldn’t need much provocation to use them.
It stands to reason that all of the bikers here know I’m being held here against my will. If I do anything to tip my hand, Spider will hear about it. If he does, I have no doubt that a repeat of last night will be the least of my problems. It’ll be curtains for me.
Twenty minutes pass while Spider and the others are still in that room, and every moment, I feel like I’m balanced on a knife’s edge. I keep my eyes peeled for an opening, the smallest chance to sneak off to Spider’s room, but no opening presents itself. Someone’s attention is always on me. Especially Pip, who watches me every second. Apparently, he’s not about to risk Spider’s anger again.
