Hard Roads (9 page)

I had nothing to say to her. When she was out of my hands, the club was out of my life. Every fucking debt I had left to be repaid was gone once she was with Gunner. I wouldn’t even have to return to Washington if I hadn’t left my bike there. As soon as I had it and the few possessions I had in my room, I was out of that state heading for the east coast just to get as far away as possible. This life wasn’t what I wanted anymore. The only thing it would ever get me was killed, just like it had my father.

“It’s not my problem, Munch.” The words hurt to force out, but I said them anyway. She wasn’t a bad girl. A little mouthy, maybe, but not the typical bitch you met in the clubs.

“So, you’re just going to hand me over knowing they’ll probably rape and torture me. You don’t seem like the type that wouldn’t be bothered by something like that.”

“We aren’t friends, Munch. You made that perfectly clear last night, remember?” She flinched at my words, but probably because I was practically growling them. I didn’t want to feel bad for her and the more she talked, the more my stomach twisted in knots. She wasn’t responsible for the shit her dad had pulled, but I was positive she’d be the one to pay the price. I did the only thing I could at that moment: I lied to her and desperately attempted to make myself believe the lie. It was the only way I could alleviate the guilt.

“So, you gonna tell me who Diablo is?” In my peripheral vision, I could see her turn to look at me, her eyes burning holes into the sides of my head. I kept my focus on the road, not daring to look over and see the pain I knew existed in her expression.

Clearing my throat, I vacillated between withholding the information and telling her. Realizing that she might need the information to survive, I finally said, “Diablo is one of our suppliers. Fucker is kingpin in a large Mexican cartel and he runs anything from pot to cocaine, sometimes dabbling in heroine from what I hear. He’s a crazy sonofabitch. So if I were you, I’d be on my best behavior while you’re at his place. Gunner is supposed to escort you back to Washington from there.”

“So, you’re just going to leave me with a psycho drug lord? What the fuck is wrong with you? I’ve done nothing to you or to Hell’s Rebellion. Do you assholes not care about what could happen to me?” Her voice shook with contempt and disbelief. I felt for her and to be honest, I couldn’t stand the thought of leaving her anywhere near Diablo, but I was under strict instructions and I knew that failure to follow through would only result in bad things for me. I’d spent too many years of my life attempting to pay off my debt to Big John. I wasn’t about to fuck it up now.

“It ain’t my thing, Munch. I’m under orders. You, of all people, should know how it is. If Big John wants you there, I take you there. It’s that simple.” I continued staring at the road ahead, refusing to meet the colorless eyes that I knew were spearing me with daggers. She was pissed and I could feel the heat of her anger wafting over from where she sat.

After a few minutes, the ride grew quiet, her eyes now looking out over the desert as we drove. Every once in a while we would pass a rundown gas station or some other type of dilapidated store. I wasn’t surprised that Diablo had chosen to build his compound out in the middle of nowhere. I assumed that without buildings around to block his path, he could see the trail of dirt kicked up from my tires while I was still a half hour away. There was nothing around here but flat land and rocks and it was the perfect place for him to run his operation.

The silence between Holly and I was uncomfortable and it suffocated me along with the dry heat that still managed to seep inside the vehicle despite the a/c being on high. I missed my bike and the feeling of the wind colliding into me. I hated the cramped feeling of being inside the truck. I passed the time thinking about how good it would feel to finally leave the MC behind me. I hated what I had to do to achieve it, but Holly wasn’t my problem.

Every once in a while she would shift in her seat and after a few times, I stopped paying attention to her movement. I knew her skin was sticking to the leather interior because I could hear it every time she moved and would have to unglue herself from the seat. What happened next, however, caught me completely off guard and if it hadn’t been for the truck door being locked, I’m sure there would have been a much different outcome.

Her movement was quick and I realized that her previous bout of silence had been an opportunity for her to plot. Within seconds, Holly lifted her bound arms, forcing the t-shirt up and over her head before shifting to the left to undo her seatbelt. By the time, I registered what was happening, she’d twisted to her right, unlocking the truck door and pulling on the handle. It was that split second that it took her to unlock the door that gave me the opportunity to grab the tops of her shorts. With the passenger side door swinging wide open, she hurled herself out sideways, hanging from the truck. I was stretched across the seat, attempting to hold her weight while at the same time keeping the truck from sliding off the road.

My foot slammed down on the brake and the truck started to fishtail, the tires not able to gain enough traction with the sand that had been blown over the concrete road. She was like dead weight, her head, shoulders, arms and chest now completely hanging out of the truck as her legs came up to kick at me in an attempt to break my hold. I took blow for blow, not letting go of her shorts, the rage building up in me to a point of becoming a lethal inferno by the time I finally stopped the truck.

“Fuck!” Her foot caught me in the cheek and my vision blurred as my eye watered in response to the blow. Her body twisted and turned, eventually freeing her of the tenuous hold I had on her shorts. She tumbled out, immediately rolling to her feet and taking off across the desert.

“Fucking bitch!” Leaving the truck running, I bolted out the passenger side in pursuit of her. I didn’t know how she could stand the heat already permeating the desert sand with her bare feet, but the woman was running faster than I’d ever seen a person go. She didn’t appear to have a plan beyond getting the fuck away and within minutes she was leading me out to the middle of nowhere. With no place to hide, it was easy for me to keep an eye on her, but my breath was already labored from the run. I knew that when I caught up to her, it would take everything I had not to beat the shit out of her for this little stunt. Sweat was pouring down my body and dripping into my eyes, the salt stinging and obscuring my vision.

She didn’t look back to see if I was gaining on her, instead keeping her head set in the direction she ran. Every once in a while, she would trip on some small rock, but would catch herself and continue sprinting as fast as her feet would take her. Finally catching up to her, my boots pounded against the packed sand and I reached out, my fingers just brushing her shoulder when she bolted right so suddenly that it took me a second to turn and continue my pursuit. It was like chasing a wild animal and I could tell she knew she was running for her fucking life. I couldn’t blame her, but at the same time, I couldn’t allow her to continue fighting against me. She was chasing her freedom by running and I was chasing my ticket out of the club. This was a no-win situation for her because I wouldn’t stop until she was safely tucked away in Gunner’s arms, her fate, her life, her well-being no longer my concern.

Gaining on her again, I reached out, but the sweat covering her naked skin was slippery and it felt like I was attempting to snare a fish straight from the water. She would turn every time I got close and I’d turn with her, losing just a bit of my momentum with the movement.

Luck was on my side when she didn’t notice a larger rock in her path and her toes caught it in such a way, that she was airborne, launched over the dirt, landing hard and skidding to a stop at the base of an even larger rock. I was on her within seconds, straddling her stomach and blocking myself from her bound hands. Her knees slammed against my back, so I moved my legs over them to keep them glued to the ground.

“What the ever-loving FUCK was that?!” Slamming my hands down on her shoulders I caused a dust cloud to roll up into her face. She coughed, turning her head in an attempt to spit out the dirt in her mouth.

“Were you trying to get yourself killed? We were going 70 miles per hour, you would have split apart at that speed; you dumb bitch!” My chest was heaving as I tried to catch my breath and my words came out in short bursts of air. She didn’t respond, choosing to keep her head turned to the side, refusing to look up at me.

I was pissed. And not just normal pissed, I was violently pissed. So fucking pissed that the only reason my hands weren’t in fists was because they were flattened against her shoulders.

“Fucking answer me!” My voice echoed against the rock formations near us and I noticed the menace in my tone.

Her head finally turned, her eyes practically shut as she squinted against the sun. No words burst from her lips, not an apology or a plea. Nothing. She just stared at me, the little bit of her eyes that I could see glinting as they reflected the light behind me. When her lips finally puckered, I thought she would finally say something, but instead, she spit … in my face … and then smiled.

The small amount of control I had over my temper at that point was completely gone.

Using my shoulder and wiping the combination of spit and sweat from my eyes, I smiled back. Her expression instantly went blank, the flicker of confusion and fear mixed behind her glare.

“You want to disrespect me like that? Is that your plan? You’re going to make me run through a hot as FUCK desert and then spit on me?”

I wanted to hit her. I wanted to beat her fucking face in, but I didn’t hit women, regardless if they deserved it. I had other methods and I was about to use them. “Alright, you want to act like a child, I’ll fucking treat you like one.”

I shifted my weight off of her body and when she immediately rolled and attempted to bolt, I reached out, grabbing her by her shorts and pulling her back to me. Laying her out over my lap, I reached beneath her with one arm and planted my other elbow in the center of her spine.

“You’re a rebellious little shit, so I think it’s time for you to see what happens to rebellious people.” I kept my voice calm knowing that it irritated her more that she wasn’t working me up to a point of screaming anymore. She hated to be humiliated, hated it when I talked down to her like she was nothing more than a little brat that meant nothing to me or anybody else. So that’s what she was getting.

Laughing, I easily ripped her shorts and underwear away from her kicking legs and I raised my hand in the air, ready to strike. With humor in my tone, I asked, “I’ll give you one more chance, Munch. Do you want to apologize for this little stunt?”

“Fuck you!”

Well, at least she was speaking to me now.

“Okay.”

My hand came down so hard on her ass that the sound of the slap mixed with the volume of her scream and rang out over the desert, bouncing off rocks and seemingly carried along further by the light breeze that blew across the expanse.

“How ‘bout now?”

Her head shook and I could feel her body stiffen in my hold. When her leg came up, her foot almost caught me in the temple, so I shifted again, holding her legs down with one of mine. I didn’t hesitate to slap her on the ass again, making sure to hit the same spot to make it hurt worse.

Once again, the high-pitched scream rolled across the desert floor, like a symphony of pain reaching out to alert the different animals and critters that a predator was in their midst. Looking down, I admired the angry red handprint on her ass, chuckling when she whimpered beneath me.

I couldn’t help myself from getting turned on and I wondered if she could feel my cock pushing up into her from where she was laid on top of me.

Leaning over, I placed my mouth near her ear and whispered, “Did you still want to fuck or would you like to keep fighting instead?”

Chapter Ten

~ Holly ~

If my screams weren’t embarrassing enough, the sound of his hand slapping across my ass echoing across the desert only added to my bitter humiliation. I’d been caught again, not quite fast enough to outrun my captor and not quite strong enough to fight for my own life. Growing up in hell hadn’t done me a bit of good. I wasn’t the tough bitch I thought myself to be; the girl who was too smart to allow herself to be used and thrown away by a dirty fucking biker.

No.

I wasn’t any stronger than the next asshole and all the excuses I’d told myself, the convincing little arguments that I’d made to make myself feel better about being born in a club, were wiped away clean. Nothing good had come of it, not even my own strength.

JD wasn’t playing around like the last time he spanked me. Every slap against my skin felt like fire and I could tell he was angry despite the way he laughed at my pain. I was glad I’d pissed him off because when I died, I could at least know that I’d fought as hard as I could. I hadn’t made it easy and I hadn’t just given myself away.

When my screams quieted because my throat felt torn and when those screams turned into muted whimpers and silent tears, he finally stopped. Nothing could be heard in the area anymore except the wind blowing softly across the desert. I was ashamed by the fact that I was crying. It hurt worse than being stripped naked – again – and laid out on J.D.’s lap. Nudity didn’t bother me. I always had my own little shield up that protected what I carried inside. But my tears, those were little bits of my spirit seeping out and sliding down to the arid dirt, eventually disappearing into the sand and leaving me just a bit more broken and empty than I was before.

He huffed out a breath above me and then released my legs and turned me over to look at him. His jeans against my butt burned, but I didn’t flinch at the sensation. I couldn’t move, didn’t have the strength to fight against him again or even attempt to run. When he’d caused me to cry, he’d broken me. It wasn’t permanent and I knew eventually I would find the strength once again. Given that he was about to deliver me to the next monster, I wasn’t sure who I’d be fighting against once my strength found me.