AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Where’s Riley?” he asks, with a cruel tinge to his voice. I try to think who Riley could be, but the only people I ever recall seeing are Clara and my trainer.
“Where the fuck is she?” He launches at me, but before he can get to me, he’s blocked by the long, thick arm of the man they’re calling Screw, the man who I’m now certain was sent to protect me.
I trust him, and I trust the girl who smiles. The other men, I fear. I fear them all.
There’s a stare-off for what feels like a lifetime before the boy backs down and rests back on the bench seat he sprung from. I want to cry. I don’t know these people. If they are good, bad, or if they want to hurt me. All I know is that the man beside me saved me and that I want to be close to him again.
When he settles back down, I use all the strength I have to raise up his giant heavy arm and curl myself into the uninjured side of his body. There’s hesitation from him at first, an uncertainty, but when I look up at him through my lashes, silently pleading him with my eyes, he relaxes again, his arm wrapping me up and pulling me in tighter, and slowly we both start to breathe a little easier.
“I know you ain’t a big fan of the words, Screw, but you're gonna have to explain what the fuck went on back there,” the driver calls out, and I see his eyes for the first time when I look up at the rearview mirror that he’s staring through. Screw doesn’t answer him, just turns his head to look in a different direction. “That money was all we had to get Riley back. You could have lost it all back there. Then what would we have done? Not to mention the shit this is gonna cause with Verretti if he finds out that we’re behind this.”
I’m so confused but too mentally exhausted to try to piece things together.
“Maybe we’ll get some answers when we get back to the club, and he’s got his brother to speak for him,” the younger guy spits his words out like venom, but Screw doesn’t react to them.
I want to ask him if he’s okay, but my tongue feels trapped. There’s a lot of blood, and yet he isn’t moaning or even flinching at the pain. Maybe I’m dreaming. Maybe I hit my head at some point when my new master struck me. When I wake up, I’m going to be back in that room with him holding my chain. The same chain that I’m still holding to my chest now, my hands shaking and making it rattle.
The looks I'm getting from Storm are savage. I don’t know what the scrawny prick thinks he’s gonna do about it, but the fact I got this girl clinging to me so tight is the only reason I ain’t schooling him on some goddamn respect.
I get that he’s hurting, but Riley wasn't at that fucking auction. There was nothing I could do for her, nothing any of us could have done. But I could help this girl, the one who's holding on to me like I’m her fucking lifeline right now.
The others seem disturbed by her need to be close to me, hell, I'm fucking disturbed by it too. I’ve never held anyone this way before, never instinctively wanted to make someone feel as safe as I do her. Not since Beth, anyway.
My heart had shattered in my chest when she’d held out that chain for me to take. She views herself as property and assumed I’d become her new keeper. I vowed there and then that the first thing I was gonna do, before figuring any of this shit out, was get that fucking thing from around her throat.
Prez is pissed with me. I understand that too. I could have cost the club a lot of money tonight if the auction had gone my way, but it didn’t. The money is secure, and if Verretti does find out who took this girl, I’ll bear the consequences for it.
I can make this up to my club over time. I’m one of their best soldiers, always the first man into a fight and the last man out. But right now, my priority is making sure the girl feels safe. Maddy and Alex will work their magic. They’ll find her family, and everything can go back to how it was.
The cage pulls to a stop when we reach the compound, and Prez shakes his head at me as he gets out.
“This is going to be interesting.” Maddy smiles at the girl before her, and a disappointed-looking, Storm hops out after him.
I shuffle the girl toward the door, nodding to her and assuring her she’s okay. She grips my hand tight and looks timidly over my shoulder. There’s that fear in her eyes again, the fear I feel an overwhelming urge to distinguish, and so I keep my eyes fixed on hers as I slowly guide her out of the cage. She trusts me enough to follow but still looks petrified as she steps out into the yard.
I should tell her everything will be okay, but I need to use my fuckin’ voice to do that. I’d managed it back at the auction house before I’d lifted her up and carried her out of there. I’d had to. I couldn’t have the girl see what I’d done to the guards. I’d searched the halls, checked each room, and killed anyone who tried to stop me when instinct told me the scream I’d heard belonged to her.
Those painful sounds beckoned to my soul, like her cry for help was meant only for my ears.
I shake the memory away and prepare myself to assure the girl she’s safe, by using actual words again.
“This is a strange circumstance for you, but I promise no one here will hurt you.” Maddy beats me to it. “Maybe I should take her back up to our cabin while you sort things out down here.” Maddy looks to Jessie, who looks far too fucking angry right now to even hear that his old lady is talking.
The girl glances up at me, looking panicked. She’s waiting for me to say something, and when I don't, she looks back at Maddy and shakes her head, her sweaty palm clutching tighter at mine. Her other hand holds my jacket tightly around her as her eyes fall to the ground again.
“No one will hurt you,” Maddy repeats her promise.
“Can’t say the same for the hero of the fuckin’ hour,” Jessie speaks under his breath as he shoulder-barges past me into the club.
I ignore him, keeping the girl's hand in mine and the bloody shirt pressed into my side as I lead us into the club and prepare myself for the wrath that’s coming.
The girl looks around nervously as I walk us through the foyer and into the bar room. She freezes when she sees the room packed full of people.
“Riley,” Shaniya, Troj's old lady, greets the girl with the warmest smile, throwing her arms around her neck and embracing her like an old friend. The unexpected gesture knocks the girl backward, and my arm reaches out to stop her from falling. I notice Maddy shake a warning at Shaniya from the corner of my eye, but the other old ladies are already swarming to us, all preparing to make ‘Storm’s sister’ feel welcome.
“It ain’t Riley.” Jessie drops the bomb in that harsh tone he reserves for when he’s real fucking pissed, before marching straight to the bar and leaving everyone in the room with blank stares directed at the girl.
Suddenly I realize how exposed she is. She’s only got my jacket covering her naked top half and the skimpy lace panties between her legs. I should have told her to go with Maddy. She doesn’t belong down here. Things are gonna turn nasty, and I need to shield her from any more anguish.
