Steel

by Jeanne St. James

  That’s what he had injected her with. Had he done the same with Slade? She had no idea what happened to him.

  “Is Slade okay?” she asked as he began to saw at the plastic zip ties used to bind her ankles.

  She watched him carefully as he did so, anticipating her freedom.

  “Who?”

  “The biker. Is he okay? Did you hurt him?”

  “I’m sure he’s fine.”

  He finished cutting through the thick plastic band and her legs were finally free.

  Fucking free!

  All she had to do was plan. He still held the taser. She needed to kick that out of his hand and then knock him down and out.

  But she needed her hands free first.

  “Go,” he said, jabbing the taser against her thigh. Even though it wasn’t engaged, Kat still flinched.

  “I can’t go without the use of my hands.”

  “I’ll help you.”

  What?

  Fuck!

  “Henry, I need privacy—”

  “You’ll get what I give you, Katheryn!” he barked impatiently.

  Kat rolled off the bed to her feet, feeling a bit light-headed as she stood. She gathered her wits and turned until her bound hands were in his direction. “Cut my hands free. You can bind me again afterward.”

  “No, Katheryn.”

  “Please.” She had to convince him somehow, someway. “Henry, I’ll make a deal with you.” She glanced over her shoulder to see him studying her hands. “You cut me free, I’ll go to the bathroom and then take a shower and scrub myself clean from... from him. Then I will be fresh and ready to be yours. Deal?”

  “You’re not on any kind of birth control, are you?” His cheeks were flushed and his eyes beginning to gleam at her suggestion, which creeped her the fuck out.

  She needed to do something to get out of this situation.

  Whatever it took.

  She needed to do it.

  She would grin and bear whatever it was.

  She inhaled a deep breath and bolstered herself. “No.”

  His face turned hard for a moment. “You’re not with child? With him?”

  Kat’s heart skipped a beat.

  “Because that would be even more disappointing, Katheryn. Because he can’t have you. No one else can.”

  “I’m not pregnant. No.”

  Then the fucker smiled. “When was your last cycle?”

  WHAT?

  “When was your last cycle?” he screamed when she didn’t answer fast enough.

  “I... I...” She couldn’t tell him that she had irregular cycles due to the amount she worked out. She simply had to lie. “I think I’m fertile right now.”

  Anything, anything to get out of this situation, she reminded herself.

  Henry hissed out a breath and then a smile once again filled his face.

  A horrifying smile that Kat wanted to wipe off his face. With her fist. Or her knee.

  “Katheryn,” he whispered in a way that made her want to vomit.

  “Henry, I can’t wait any longer,” she reminded him gently. “Then I will shower and scrub him away. There will be nothing but us left, I promise. That’s what you want, right? Just us? And babies? The family you’ve always wanted?”

  “Yes. That’s what I want. You. Me. Our lovely children. Two at least. Maybe three. We can start making them tonight once you’re clean.”

  Cold, invisible fingers slid down her spine.

  “I’ll be clean,” she promised, turning her back again to him. “As soon as you cut me free so I can do that for you. The sooner you do that, the sooner you can make me yours. All yours. I’ll want no one but you. But I can’t be happy bound like this and filthy from his touches. I need to come to you clean and pure. Help me do that.”

  “Katheryn,” Henry groaned, leaning forward and brushing his nose along her hair. “I want you so badly.”

  Kat did her best not to shudder and pull away. Instead, she fought her instinct and leaned back into him. “I want you so badly, too. But not like this. Henry, I’m ready to start a family. It’s what I always wanted, too, but could never find the right man.”

  “Then why did you stand me up?”

  “Because I didn’t know how strong you were until today. You’ve proven yourself to me with your dominance. That’s something I need in my life. You have what I need, Henry. I see it now. I was wrong and you were right.”

  He inhaled deeply, his hands now gripping her shoulders, holding her against him. Her bound hands were pinned below his waist and pressed against his erection.

  “You’re so beautiful when you’re compliant. You don’t need to be hard. You don’t need to fight. You need to let your man fight your battles for you, solve all your problems. I’ll do that.”

  Jesus, it was her upbringing all over again.

  You need a husband. A man to take care of you.

  You need to get married and have children.

  Your purpose in life is to have a family. To serve them.

  She swallowed down the bile bubbling up. “You’re right. I need someone like you to provide for me and take care of me. I’ve been fighting it, but now I see the truth.”

  She wanted to puke, but she needed to play the game. To convince him she was cooperative and willing. Not a threat. Maybe then he’d cut the bindings on her wrists, giving her a chance to escape.

  Without warning, he jerked against her and grabbed her elbow, dragging her in the direction of the tiny bathroom at the back of the room. He shoved her inside without turning on the light, then cut the plastic cuffs from her wrists before shoving her forward, making her catch her balance. The door slammed shut with him on the outside.

  “I’ll be waiting out here, Katheryn. Do what you need to do. But don’t betray me. Or I won’t be so forgiving next time.”

  Kat released a shaky breath and felt around for the switch. Finding it, she flipped it on and wrinkled her nose at the condition of the puke green tiled bathroom. But that was the least of her problems.

  The bathroom had no window, so she had only one way out of there. Through Henry. Through Henry with a taser and possibly another syringe of Special K. And if she ended up knocked out again...

  She could easily end up knocked up against her will.

  She did the first thing she could no longer avoid. Emptying her bladder. Then she cupped handfuls of water and drank as much as she could since she was dehydrated. The water was awful, but it was something.

  She eyed the shower and the moldy shower curtain.

  “I don’t hear the shower running, Katheryn.”

  No shit.

  She rubbed a hand over her eyes, trying to keep herself together, then turned on the shower. She stared sightlessly at the falling water, the sound of it hitting the tub filling the tiny room, filling her head, calming her.

  She needed a plan.

  A better one than just kicking and punching the crap out of Henry, getting tased again and being knocked out with a drug.

  She needed to win this time. Not him.

  And she also needed to buy some time. She turned toward the door and saw it had a lock on the doorknob. She twisted it slowly, trying not to catch Henry’s attention. Then she stripped out of her clothes and took her time taking that lukewarm shower.

  To get her clean.

  Pure.

  Free of Steel’s touches.

  Just how Henry wanted her.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Walker slapped a palm against Steel’s chest. Whether it was in excitement or a sign for Steel to keep his shit together, he didn’t know, because he was too focused on the only vehicle in the lot—beside an old rusty Oldsmobile parked in front of the office—to care. The familiar army-green Jeep was parked in front of the room at the very end of the seedy motel.

  The first thing he noticed was that the license plate had been swapped out, which meant the fucker wasn’t dumb. If the cops had put out a BOLO, it would’ve been with Steel’s registration
.

  But his missing plate wasn’t important. Kat was.

  Mercy and Brick had turned off their vehicles’ lights once they had pulled off the road in the middle of Nowhere, Indiana. Ironically, Kat’s home state.

  A sliver of light escaped from between drawn drapes, so there was no doubt which room she was in.

  But what was in doubt was her current physical and mental status.

  He only hoped she was alive.

  Anything else could be and would be dealt with.

  It had taken an hour and fifty-three minutes to catch up to them. And once the Jeep had stopped moving in the tracking system, Steel had been beside himself.

  With worry. With anger.

  With thoughts that death for McGill would be too good for the bastard. Especially if he violated her in any way.

  No matter what, the man had signed his death warrant the second he had boarded a plane to Pittsburgh.

  As soon as Mercy stopped the vehicle, Steel jumped from it, sprinting across the narrow lot, his focus solely on his destination.

  He didn’t even waste time trying the doorknob. He lifted his boot and immediately kicked the door so hard, it splintered as it broke free. Even the chain lock snapped.

  He felt like Godzilla as he rammed his body through the remaining pieces of door and launched himself into the room, almost falling to his knees as his eyes landed on the bed.

  Where Kat was.

  Where Henry was.

  Kat’s eyes were shut, and she didn’t even react to his arrival.

  But Henry did.

  His hand which was wrapped around his dick ceased its movements and his eyes were wide behind black plastic rimmed glasses.

  It took a fraction of a second for Steel to assess the situation.

  It took a fraction of a second to see nothing else but his target.

  The naked man who was kneeling above Kat’s similarly naked body sprawled lifeless over a dingy bedspread.

  She wore nothing but black panties and those were marked with blotches of what Steel knew were cum.

  The same which marked her bare chest and breasts.

  McGill had ejaculated all over her and was attempting to do it again.

  Before he could unglue his feet, his team was at his back and Mercy stepped beside him, aiming his Sig Sauer at the center of McGill’s melon.

  That melon was twisted so McGill could see them all. And it did not go unnoticed that the fucker had a massive bruise on one cheek, a black, swollen eye and blood crusting one nostril.

  Kat did not go down easy.

  Thank fuck.

  Ryder pushed past him, hooked McGill around the neck with his arm and yanked him right off the bed into a heap on the floor. He used his boot to smash his glasses where they landed.

  Brick rushed forward to throw his jacket over Kat’s chest and when he turned, he drop-kicked McGill right in the ribs, causing the fucker to cry out and curl up into a ball, groaning.

  “That’s nothin’, fucker,” Ryder leaned over and shouted in his face. “That’s fuckin’ NOTHIN’!” He stepped away, his nostrils flared, his fists clenched.

  The tension in the room between the six of them was thick, the air crackled. And Steel could do nothing but stare at Kat. On that bed.

  Vulnerable. Violated.

  But alive.

  Thank fuck. Thank fuck. Thank fuck.

  “Take care of your woman,” Mercy ordered, tucking his gun back into its holster and moving toward McGill.

  That spurred Steel into action. “Don’t you take him. He’s mine.”

  “Steel.” Mercy jerked his chin toward Kat. “Take care of your woman.”

  “I’m about to by taking care of that motherfucker,” Steel growled.

  Their eyes met and Mercy gave him a single nod. “Do what you do best. We’ll get your woman out of here.”

  Walker stood with his feet spread, hands on his hips, looking down at McGill, who was now strangely quiet.

  He knew his time was limited. It was written all over his pale face.

  “I’ll grab her clothes,” Hunter said, searching the room and ending up in the bathroom, coming out seconds later with them. He jerked his head toward Brick. “Grab towels and a couple of wet washcloths. She’s going to need them.”

  Brick nodded, his jaw tight, as he pushed past Hunter into the bathroom.

  Steel watched, completely detached, as if viewing everything from above, when Mercy tucked Brick’s jacket around Kat more securely and picked her limp body up in his arms.

  Steel’s eyes followed her as Mercy moved past him, then his gaze landed back on the sick fuck who was still on the floor in a ball, now crying silently.

  Yep, McGill knew what the fuck was coming. If it wasn’t for the fact that he wanted to get Kat out of there ASAP, he’d take his time and make the man suffer slowly.

  “Did she cry? Did you make her cry?” Steel asked him.

  No answer.

  “Want me to stay?” Ryder asked next to him.

  Steel looked at his best friend and shook his head. “No. I got this.”

  Ryder squeezed his shoulder. “We’ll come back in to clean up afterward.”

  Steel didn’t bother to respond as Ryder followed the rest of the Shadows outside and stood guard with Hunter, blocking the doorway.

  Just in case there were any curious eyes nearby.

  Steel took a step closer to McGill who cringed and pulled himself into a tighter ball with his arms wrapped around his knees.

  “She beg for you to let her go?”

  “No,” came the shaky answer.

  “Did she want to be drugged and stripped naked? Did she ask for you to come all over her?”

  Again, McGill didn’t answer and he wouldn’t meet Steel’s eyes.

  Steel stood with the tips of his boots just inches from McGill’s face. “Did you fuck her?”

  “She wanted to bear my children.”

  His palms began to itch. “She told you that?”

  “Yes.”

  His fingers began to twitch. “Before or after you stole her from me?”

  McGill lifted his head. The tears had stopped. Now he looked defiant. Steel had touched a nerve.

  “She was never yours,” McGill hissed. “She was always mine. We were meant to be together. She scrubbed herself clean of you so she could give herself to me free and clear.”

  “She was never yours, motherfucker. You made her mine. Do you want to know how?” Steel didn’t wait for an answer. “It was your bullshit. You stalking her, unable to let her go, is what brought me into her life. You gave her to me. It was all you, McGill. Your psycho tendencies put me in her path. I never would have met her if it wasn’t for you. So, I have to thank you for giving her to me. Because of that, she’s mine. Not yours. You’ll never have her. Unlike you, I never had to force her.”

  “I didn’t have to force her.”

  “No?” His eyes moved to the taser and the empty syringe on the chipped nightstand. “Funny, when she asked me... no, begged me to fuck her, I didn’t need a taser or a sedative. She came to me willingly. You can’t say the same.”

  “From the moment I saw her, I knew it was destiny. I loved her.”

  Steel squeezed his eyes shut, absorbed those words, then spit them back out, knowing each word McGill had uttered was the same for him. “From the moment I saw her, I knew it was destiny.”

  “But you don’t love her like I do!” McGill shouted.

  “You’re right.” Steel opened his eyes. “I love her more.”

  McGill’s gaze finally met his. “We’ll have to agree to disagree. But I will never willingly let you have her.”

  One side of Steel’s mouth lifted. “You’ll have no choice.”

  McGill inhaled a shaky breath. “What are you going to do to me?”

  “Put you to sleep like you did to Kat with whatever you had in that fucking syringe.”

  Only, unlike Kat, McGill would never wake up.

  Steel t
ilted his head as he considered the monster at his feet. “Why don’t you fucking beg me to let you go like Kat probably did with you.”

  “Her name is Katheryn, not Kat. And if I can’t have her, I don’t want to live.”

  “Then I’ll be glad to accommodate you.”

  He glanced over his shoulder to make sure Ryder and Hunter still stood guard, then he reached down and snagged McGill by the throat, lifting him to his feet. Once they were eye to eye, Steel said, “She would’ve beaten the fuck out of you if you didn’t have an unfair advantage. And I would’ve paid to see it.”

  Releasing the man’s throat, he quickly repositioned his hands and, with one clean jerk, snapped the man’s neck. He let McGill go, letting him crumple to the ground. Once Steel confirmed the man was no longer breathing, he wiped his hands off on his cargo pants.

  He sneered at a lifeless McGill, fighting the urge to do so much more to the body.

  But it was pointless. And Kat needed help.

  Lingering would just feed his anger and waste time.

  When he turned, Ryder and Hunter were already stepping back inside the small room, their eyes glued on McGill.

  Ryder spoke first. “We’ll stay with Brick and do cleanup. You go with Mercy and Walker and get Kat out of here. She’ll probably be out for a while yet. Just keep her on her side in case she vomits.”

  “Did he...” Hunter began, not needing to finish the question. A question that was on all their minds.

  “I don’t know. He didn’t answer that question.”

  “She wouldn’t remember if he did,” Ryder said softly. “Maybe head to the nearest ER and get a rape kit done.”

  Steel closed his eyes and took a sharp inhale through his nostrils. He wanted to say no, it wasn’t needed. But he couldn’t say that. Because it very well may be needed. However, if they did that, the cops would get involved. And if it had happened, McGill’s DNA would be detected and they would be searching for him.

  Jesus, they were fucked if they did, fucked if they didn’t.

  “We take her there, cops will get involved. Then this cleanup might not be so... clean.”

  Ryder jerked the bill of his baseball cap lower.

  Hunter scrubbed a hand over his hair. “Do you want to know?” He shook his head. “Forget you. Don’t you think Kat would want to know?”