AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hold on,” Tank grunted. He reached between us and fixed Capone’s jeans. “Now go.”
Capone swept me up the stairs as if I barely weighed a thing. My head was so fucking hazy. I laid it on his shoulder, relaxing into his hold.
I was a dominant man. But Capone had a way of breaking me down so easily to the point I relied on him.
CHAPTER 9
Smokey
Mornings were my favorite time of day—right when the sky lightened and chased away the dark. It showed me that no matter how dark life may get, something would come along and brighten it for me.
It’d kept me sane when I’d spentmonthsin captivity, being sold for men and women to play with as if I were nothing more than a toy on the shelf at a store. As if I weren’t a human being with a beating heart and feelings.
I pulled the blunt back up to my lips, taking a long drag, letting the smoke settle in my lungs. I heard the clubhouse door open, but I didn’t turn to see who was coming to sit with me. It was rare I got to be out here by myself, but I never minded the company, especially since I knew it would either be April or one of the men.
All of them were welcome to share in my silence with me.
I smiled at April when she appeared in front of me. Without a word, she straddled my hips and pulled the blunt from between my lips, taking a hit for herself. Humming “Bad Habits” by Nerv softly under my breath, I traced my palms up her bare thighs as I watched the smoke curl from between her parted lips. She was barely wearing anything. Honestly, if we let her, I firmly believed she’d walk around naked.
The April we’d known when she’d first come here would’ve never. Hell, that April preferred to be as clothed as possible. But she’d blossomed under our love and attention, and she’d grown into herself. Learned to accept herself and the love we showered her with.
“One of these days, someone is going to come onto this lot to speak to Capone or Tank, and you’re only going to be sitting here in just one of our t-shirts,” I rumbled, pressing a tender kiss beneath her ear. She shivered, and I could see her nipples pebbling beneath my plain white t-shirt. Sheneverslept in her own clothes. It hadn’t taken us long to learn the pajamas we’d purchased for her were nothing more than a waste of money.
Besides, seeing her in our clothes… wedefinitelyweren’t complaining.
She shrugged at me and held the blunt out to me after she took another hit. I watched as she let the smoke settle in her lungs before she slowly blew it out, letting it swirl around us. “I don’t care,” she told me, her voice a little raspy. “There’s seven of you. If someone’s stupid enough to do something, I know all seven of you will make them pay.”
She sure as fuck wasn’t wrong. I might have come from a bad background, but I protected those I loved. And I loved her and the six men that kept me safe. That had given me a home andloved me unconditionally despite all my trauma and me not being able to be with them physically.
I settled the blunt between my lips before tugging April even closer, smiling a little when her wet pussy settled against my abs, but I didn’t say anything. I just enjoyed the comfort of having her close to me.
Unlike the other guys here, I didn’t have a high sex drive. In fact, I barely even had one. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d gotten hard. I craved companionship—just spending my time with someone. The guys had never made me feel like shit for it. I enjoyed watching, kissing, touching. But the actual art of sex? It just…wasn’t my thing. Sometimes, I wondered if I was broken, but every time I opened up about that, the guys and April shut it down, promising there was nothing wrong with me.
April trailed her fingers down my chest, sliding her fingers through the hair on my chest. I shivered under her touch. My dick was still soft, but that didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy having her touch me and caress me. And she knew that. Ilovedjust having someone touch me like this. There was nothing expected of me. I could just soak it all in without any of them expecting something in return.
Capone had offered to put me through therapy in case my lack of a sex drive was trauma-related, but I declined the offer. I didn’t want to open up about what happened to me again. Not that the guys hadn’t been able to figure it out for themselves when they found me, but I’d told the club what happened to me about a year after I’d been rescued. I didn’t want to trauma-dump on a complete stranger, even if that was what they were there for. There was no sense in ripping open those wounds again. April only knew because I’d given Capone and Tank permission to tell her, and the only reason I had given that permission was becauseI didn’t think it was fair that she didn’t know why one of her men would probably never have sex with her.
Just as I knew what had happened to her and all the hell she went through, she deserved to know what happened to me, too.
I’d been a sixteen-year-old kid when Capone and Tank had taken down the sex-trafficking ring I’d been thrown into when I was twelve. It was bid night once again, and I was on the stage, my hands bound in front of me. I’d been on my knees, my head bowed in submission. I was completely naked, cum leaking out of my ass. The last man who’d purchased me had given me back just in time for me to be put on the stage again. Bruises were littering my body, and a chain was wrapped around my neck like a collar—just tight enough to hurt when I swallowed—and there was a bar on the front of it that named me five-six-two.
Tank had quickly gotten me off the stage as Capone and the rest of the club took out everyone in that room. I’d been shivering, terrified of the big, muscular, tattooed man that was carrying me out of the room. Tank had cradled me against his chest, but it didn’t stop my teeth from chattering. He’d done his best to soothe me, but it hadn’t really helped.
He brought me straight to the clubhouse and proceeded to get in the shower with me, bathing me until I managed to tell him I felt clean again. It wasn’t until I realized he truly didn’t mean me harm that I began to trust him a little bit. Without a single word, he’d tugged one of his shirts over my head after our shower and laid down with me in bed, holding me. I’d fallen in love with him that night.
It’d been the first time in four years that I’d felt safe. The first time in four years that a man touched me and didn’t want to hurtme. And when Tank realized weed calmed me, he’d name me Smokey because I refused to tell anyone my real name.
I didn’t want to remember it. Tank now knew it was Gage, but he agreed to keep it to himself.No oneelse knew. Not even Capone. It was the only thing Capone didn’t push for.
Tank and I had bonded that night, and even now, I was a little closer to him than I was with the other guys and even April. But none of them were upset over it. They understood.
Tank and I had formed a trauma bond. And that was much different than the bond I shared with everyone else.
“I lost you for a minute,” April murmured, trailing her lips over my jaw.
I turned my head, capturing her lips with mine. She smiled into the kiss. “Sorry, baby,” I whispered. Her tongue tangled with mine for a moment before I pulled back, pecking the tip of her nose. I brushed my hand up her back beneath the oversized shirt she was wearing, and she shivered, arching her back to press her breasts against my bare chest.
“I love it when you touch me like this,” she said softly.
