Barely Undercover (34 page)

“Fuck.” Levi lost his balance and stumbled back into the dresser. But he was quick. Before Lana reached the door, he grabbed her around the waist and threw her on the bed. Then he climbed on top of her, kneeling astride her hips, pinning her with his body.

“You never appreciated what I did for you.” Spittle flew from his lips as he shot out his words in a fury. “I took you away from that shit-hole town we grew up in and from a family who never gave a damn about you. I helped you escape. I gave you money, a place to live and a life you loved. We were good together.”

Once, she would have agreed with him just to avoid the inevitable confrontation and the consequences that flowed from it. But not now. Not after discovering there was something stronger than fear…

Don’t lose hope.

“That was when I believed in you,” she snapped. “After all those years of being ignored by my family, I had no self-esteem. I believed you when you said you loved me. I believed you when you said you were sorry when you hit me. I believed when you said you were going to make a success of your life. I just never realized your idea of success was running drugs and weapons for the Wolverines. I never realized your idea of love was handing me over to the Wolverines and laughing when they beat me.”

Levi’s lips curled into a snarl. “You were supposed to help me get ahead: give a few blow jobs, run the weapons, help with the deals. Do what old ladies are supposed to do. Instead, you kept trying to run away. If you’d kept your mouth shut and done what you were told, Fang wouldn’t have had to intervene. You were the only old lady he decided to mark.”

Lana shuddered. He was right. She had brought it on herself. The mark meant Levi’s discipline could be collectively enforced and that she would be returned to the Wolverines if she was caught running away. It had worked only too well.

“You could have stopped him,” she said. “You could have protected me.”

“Jesus Christ.” He raked his hand through his hair. “You still don’t understand. If I had refused to mark you, I never would have become a Wolverine.”

Furious, Lana struggled against the weight of his body. “You bought that membership with my blood and your soul. Was it worth it? Do you have all the money, power and glory you ever wanted? Do they treat you as a king, Levi? Because that’s what you were here. You were the Gray Skull’s leader. Everyone looked up to you. They respected you. Even me. And you gave it all up to lick Fang’s boots.”

“I fucking saved you,” Levi shouted, his face red and his lips white with rage. “I married you so you wouldn’t have to be the house pet. And what thanks did I get? Another fucking humiliation.”

Bile rose in Lana’s throat. Ten years worth of fear and anger coiled in her stomach. She clenched her fists above Levi’s hands clasped tight around her wrists and willed herself to stop talking. Every instinct told her to stop. She had pushed him too far, and now that he was blood patch, she was playing with her life. But the words kept coming. Words she’d bottled up since the day they’d walked into the Wolverine clubhouse. Words she had to say, even if they were the last ones she uttered.

“Why don’t you be honest for once? You married me so you didn’t have to share me. Not because you wanted to protect me. Not because you loved me. Because you’re weak and insecure, and you didn’t think I’d stay with you once I got a taste of someone else. You’ve always been insecure. You hit me at the beginning because you were worried I would leave you for someone else. You hit me in the middle because you couldn’t control me. And you hit me in the end because you knew you had lost me.”

“You know what your problem is, Roxie?” Holding her wrists over her head with one massive hand, Levi undid his belt buckle with the other and whipped the belt out of the loops in one long pull. “You have a big fucking mouth. You always talked too much. And you always thought you were better than me.”

He cracked the belt like a whip, the sound echoing in the tiny room. “I’m gonna put an end to that right now. I’m gonna teach you a lesson you’ll never forget. Then I’m gonna take my knife—the knife Fang gave me when I became full patch—and I’m gonna mark up that pretty face so no one will ever want you again. After that, you’ll be damn grateful for any attention I give you.”

His words had the desired effect. Terror burst from her chest and she screamed. Over and over. Until Hang Nail pounded on the door and warned Levi he was attracting unwanted attention.

Levi’s eyes glittered fever-bright as he pulled the knife from his boot. “Looks like I’ll have to gag you. I haven’t even touched you and Hang Nail is beating down my door. Imagine how you’ll scream when I cut you. We can’t have someone calling the cops.”

She shook her head violently. No gag. No cutting off her air. No cutting off her words—the only weapon she had left.

“If you gag me, you can’t kiss me,” she whispered, fighting back the wave of nausea in her gut.

Levi scowled. “Kiss you? Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Maybe you’re right. Maybe there’s still something left of what we had together. Maybe it got lost in the excitement of joining the Wolverines and we drifted apart. But you knew in your heart it was still there. That’s really why you married me.”

His expression wavered between suspicion and longing. Finally he grunted. “Don’t think this will change my mind about cutting you. I can’t have you running away again ’cause if you do I’ll have to kill you or I’ll never live it down.”

Lana’s stomach clenched violently as she struggled to soften her voice. “You were my first, Levi. I’ve never forgotten that first time. Put down the knife and kiss me like you did that day by the lake.” She wiggled a little, testing his hold. His weight was like a boulder holding her down, his knees pinning her to the bed.

“You think I’m stupid?” he snorted. “I know you. The minute I put the knife down, you’ll stab me in the gut. The knife stays in my hand.”

Damn
. He did know her well.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers in a hard, bruising kiss. Wet and slimy. Tasting of ashes and stinking of death.

Lana shuddered and hid her revulsion by squeezing her eyes shut.

“I’ll beat you first,” he mused after he pulled away. “Then I’ll fuck you. Then cut you. Then fuck you again.”

She forced herself to be still, think her way out. But her mind blanked, weighted under silent screams of terror. Gritting her teeth, she shut off her frantic brain and let instinct take the lead. “Oh, Levi,” she breathed, opening her eyes to gaze up at him. “Kiss me again.”

He stared at her, weighing her words, and then he smiled, a stark baring of stained, yellow teeth beneath the thin red slash of his cruel lips.

She knew before he even moved that the next kiss was meant to harm. He leaned over and smashed his mouth against hers. Cruel and brutal. Teeth scraping, tongue plundering, lips bruising. She shuddered at the pain, but still she opened her mouth and let him in.

Then she bit him.

Her teeth sank through his bottom lip and he howled in pain, dropping the knife as he tried to pry her teeth away. The metallic tang of blood flowed over her tongue, making her gag. But still she held on, biting so hard her teeth scraped together through the soft flesh of his lip.

Levi screamed. He yanked her hair and punched and slapped at her head until she saw stars instead of the rage in his eyes. Only when he slid his hand around her throat and squeezed, cutting off her air, did she consider letting go. And only when her vision began to fade did she release him.

Levi shot back down the bed, clutching his torn, bleeding lip. Head still fuzzy from lack of oxygen, Lana lifted her legs to her chest and hammered them into his groin. Levi howled and fell backward off the bed.

“You’re gonna fucking die for that, Roxie.” He staggered to his feet and reached for the knife. “This marriage is fucking over.”

James slowed his motorcycle to a stop outside the tiny motel nestled at the foot of the mountain. Viking Dan pulled up on one side, Jackie clinging to his back, and Ryder pulled up on the other.

“Last one on the list,” Jackie said.

James scanned the parking lot and his heart dropped. No motorcycles. Just a few cars and a truck and trailer.
Damn it
. Where were they? Ryder’s gang and the local police had checked almost every hotel and motel along every route leading to the border and no one had reported seeing a group of bikers. Did they push on? Were they already in the US?
No.
He couldn’t consider failure. They had been riding longer than he had and he was already so stiff his feet were going numb. They had to have stopped somewhere.

Ryder returned from a quick reconnaissance. “Nothing. Desk clerk has only been here an hour and doesn’t report seeing any bikers. He didn’t have a number for the clerk who was here earlier.”

Viking Dan sighed. “I guess we move on.”

“Wait.” James scrubbed his hands over his face. “There are no other motels for at least an hour. If it were me, this would be a good place to fuel up and lay low. It’s out of the way and their legs would be hurting something fierce by now. Let’s take a quick break and stretch. I’ll do another walk-around.”

He made a tour of the parking lot, peering into the few cars in the stalls, and then walked the perimeter of the motel, checking the grass and earth for prints. His mood darkened as he completed his circuit. Where the fuck was she? Had he totally misjudged the situation? Was Levi stupid enough to head straight to the border?

Waving at Viking Dan and Ryder to mount up, he crossed the picnic area and spotted something shiny in the grass. He picked it up and sighed. Tin foil. The remnants of someone’s lunch. He tossed it in the garbage can and another glint caught his eye.

Probably more garbage.

Ryder revved his engine and Viking Dan helped Jackie onto his bike. James took two steps toward them and stopped. He had always instructed his homicide team to leave no stone unturned. Even though he was giving up that life, he couldn’t turn his back on years of training. Taking a deep breath, he headed over to the shiny object just barely visible in the grass.

It was probably nothing.

“Back on the bed, bitch.”

Levi grabbed Lana as she reached for the door and threw her across the bed. Her head hit the headboard with a loud crack and for a moment she couldn’t move.

By the time her head cleared and sensation returned to her limbs, Levi was on top of her, his knife pressed against her throat. Blood dripped from his torn lip and splashed on her cheek, like a tear.

“I knew I shouldn’t fucking trust you,” he growled. “Someone betrays you once, they’ll betray you again. Once you lose trust, you can’t get it back.”

Not true.

The tip of Levi’s knife sliced across Lana’s neck. Her breath caught in her throat at the sharp pain, choking off her scream. Her body shook violently with the need to writhe and twist and push him away, but with the knife on her skin, she was afraid to move. Not that she could move. Levi held her hands tight over her head, one knee pressed against her chest, his other leg pinning her to the bed.

“Now for the cheeks.”

She barely heard the thud on the door for the pounding of blood in her ears.

“I fucking warned you,” Hang Nail shouted. “No noise.”

“Back off, Hang Nail. I’ve got her under control. When I’m done with her she won’t be giving us any more trouble. Ever.”

Levi’s gaze rested on Lana, focused, intent. She looked into eyes dark as night and empty as his soul, and knew in her heart she was about to die. She opened her mouth to scream, but her throat tightened and no sound came out.

Levi slid the blade to Lana’s cheek, brushing the cool steel over her heated skin. The tip of the blade cut deep and he dragged it along her cheekbone, parting her flesh with careful precision. The stinging pain brought tears to her eyes and blood trickled softly down the side of her face.

“Change of plans,” he murmured. “Mark you, fuck you and
then
kill you. No more problems. No more humiliation.” He drew the knife down the other side of her cheek, breaking the skin with a slow, careful stroke, drawing a strangled cry from her lips.

Her neck, her cheeks, her body—everything throbbed and burned and ached. Pain was everywhere, endless, blinding in its intensity. Hatred flared fierce inside her. And anger. Anger at what he’d taken from her as a romantic young teenager, and what he was going to take from her now—love and life and a chance at happiness.

Don’t give up hope.

She clung to James’s words as she clung to her life.
Run.
Her brain willed her body to move, but something else held her to the bed. Her limbs were heavy and unresponsive. Her breaths slow. And she was tired.

So tired.

No. She wouldn’t die like this. Not as a victim. Not without hope. She pulled in the last of her energy, drew in a breath and spat in Levi’s face.

“Do you never fucking give up?” he growled.

A thud on the door rattled the windows. Outside, a groan. A sob. Hushed words.

Levi’s eyes glazed over and he pressed the knife tight against her throat. “That’s the last time you ever humiliate me, Roxie. The. Very. Last. Time.”