Page 9 of Obey

“So you’re waking me up to talk to me, and you’re using this opportunity to talk shit about the men?” I asked, testing.

If she was an ally, if she was going to be my friend, she’d see it for the joke it was.

If this was some sort of trick, some trap Devil was setting for me, she wouldn’t see that joke as very funny.

She snorted, but suppressed it quickly, like she was afraid someone might hear her. “Hey, I have to talk shit about them to someone, and no one else is willing to listen. I figured you might have the same opinion I do, given your current situation.”

I grinned, relieved. Friend, then. And someone who didn’t sound like she liked Devil and his crew any more than I did. “I definitely have the same opinion as you. I’m Saraya.”

“I know. Devil’s old lady.”

“Devil’s former old lady,” I corrected. “I’m with Knight, now.”

She made a face. “And I’m guessing that’s exactly why you’re here.”

I returned the face. “I’m guessing you’re right. And you are...?”

She stuck out a hand and shook mine in something that felt way too formal for a middle-of-the-night, hissed and secret conversation. “Nicole. Though most people here call me Sioux.”

That seemed... weird. “Why?”

Her face turned cold and hard. “Devil. He claims I look Native American. I don’t. But he gave me the name and you know how his men are.”

“Once he tells them to do something, they have no choice but to do it,” I filled in for her. “Though, I don’t exactly remember them arguing with him, even if he’s asking them to do something they shouldn’t be doing.”

She gave me a long, considering look that told me she knew exactly what I was talking about, and what I’d been through. I might not remember her, but she remembered me. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

“So, you had something specific you wanted to say?” I asked, changing the subject.

She nodded, allowing me to redirect the conversation. “I’m on your side. I would have told you earlier, but the men were watching me like fucking hawks. They’re paranoid they’re going to lose you.”

“And you’re in charge of making sure they don’t?” I asked, confused.

Something passed across her face, then, but I couldn’t read what it was in the darkness, and before I could ask, she’d moved on to new subject.

“I don’t like him any more than you do, you know.”

This was all incredibly confusing. This woman had just yanked me out of sleep and now seemed to be incapable of following any logic in her conversation. “Who?”

“Devil.”

Well, that didn’t come as a big surprise. If she’d known him for any time at all, she knew how evil he was. But I wondered what he’d done to her—and why she was still here if she hated him so much. “Why?”

Her eyes turned glassy in the darkness. “I used to be engaged to Tinker.”

Oh.

Oh.

“Used to be?” I whispered.

She nodded slowly. “Before, when Knight and Devil ran the Banshees together. Tinker is the one who found me and brought me into the club, and he was everything to me. A protector. A lover. I was his girl, and we were going to get married. Then, the day everything went sideways, I got lost. There were so many people, so many bikes, and Devil found me and told me that Tinker had told him to get me. He said that Tinker was coming with him to start the new club, that he was sick of Knight’s shit and couldn’t wait to be rid of him. And I... I believed him.”

“Devil stole you,” I said, voicing my realization out loud.

“Yes. And once I was here, he wouldn’t let me go. He kept me trapped, told me he’d kill me if I left. Told me Tinker would never want me back, never accept me again, and I...”

“You believed him.”