Malice's Possession (18 page)
Two weeks later
It had only been fourteen days, and Adrianna felt strangely right at home at the cabin, but she also missed Malice. It might have been very fast that her feelings for him had escalated to this point, but she knew better than anyone that life could be snuffed out faster than she could blink. If she truly wanted him—which she did—she needed to embrace that and just go with it. Her physical wounds were already healed, and she loved being at the cabin and helping the other girls not only with domestic things, but also talking with them. Strangely she had a lot in common with them with bad childhoods, abusive relationships, and then finally finding her way to The Brothers of Menace cabin. These women might have been former prostitutes, and might even go back to doing that line of work when they decided they wanted to leave River Run, but Adrianna didn’t judge. In fact she found that they had so much strength, were loving toward each other, and only wanted to survive in this world.
Adrianna wiped off the kitchen counter
one last time. Everyone was gone for the evening. The women had taken Kendra into town, and she had heard from Tatum that they were all going to meet up at the clubhouse for a surprise and impromptu birthday party. Adrianna was spending the evening with Malice and his son, maybe even spending the night, but she planned on seeing Kendra on her birthday sometime tonight. No way would she miss that sweet girl’s birthday. She closed her eyes and breathed out deeply. She may have only known the women a couple of weeks, but she considered them her family. They were women that had faced a lot of horrors: born from crack addicted mothers, sold to random men their fathers knew, and finally becoming the only thing they knew about. They were survivors;
she
was a survivor, and she reminded herself of that every day. They were furthering their education and living in a home provided to them by an outlaw motorcycle club. Her nerves were causing her hands to shake and her palms to sweat. She had yet to meet Dakota, and she did worry that the little boy wouldn’t like her. Adrianna wasn’t accustomed to being around children, and for that she was thankful, because the life she had been subjected to shouldn’t have children involved anyway.
She looked at the clock and saw that
Malice would be there to pick her up any minute, so she quickly put the cleaning supplies away and went to the foyer. The house was so still and silent with no one in it, empty in not just the literal sense. Working at the cabin allowed her to earn some money, and she was proud to have it saved away in a small bank account in town. Malice had even helped her get the five hundred dollars she had in the Fairview bank. Now she had a nice little nest egg, nothing extravagant, but enough that she felt somewhat secure knowing she had that back-up. Next on her list was getting herself a car, and maybe one day a home for herself, but to be honest she was thinking about Malice, and what it would be like to stay with him. Of course he had broached the subject of her moving in with him. It wasn’t like they kept what they had a secret. Everyone knew their relationship started off complicated, but she wasn’t going anywhere, and she knew in her heart that neither was Malice. He had said as much, and even though it had only been two weeks, being with him felt right on every single level.
This
wasn’t just a sexual relationship with Malice, although just thinking about his big, hard body over hers, cradling her, protecting her, and bringing her to the brink of death with the pleasure he gave her had her entire body heating. She was like a fiend for him, because it wasn’t that he made her feel so incredibly good. It was the way he held her, talked to her and made sure she was okay, that made the experience more intimate.
She opened the front door
, and something on the porch caught her attention. She glanced down, saw a piece of paper under a rock by the door, and bent down to pick it up. It was some kind of church pamphlet. “The Church of the Good and Only,” she read out loud. The name sounded a little narrow-minded and pretentious. She turned and tossed the paper on the table by the door and stepped out and onto the patio. She shut the front door just as she heard Malice’s Harley coming closer. Ruin and Rock had left about twenty minutes ago since they were the ones that took the ladies to town, but Pierce had stayed behind just until Malice showed up. Pierce came out of the small cabin to the side of the main one. It was for the guys to sleep when they were staying over and watching things. He waved to her just as Malice pulled his bike to a stop in front of her. She moved toward Malice and couldn’t help but smile. God, she missed him.
“You ready, baby?” He grinned at her
and reached out to pull her close. He kissed her long, hard, and slow. He was thorough as he kissed her, and she felt herself grow warm and wet, and so ready for him. She didn’t even care that Pierce could see them.
“I’m more than ready.” Molly was dropping Dakota off at Malice’s house for a few hours. They’d have dinner, maybe watch a movie, and she’d have to try to win the little guy over.
Malice
grinned and held out a helmet for her. Once she had it on and was straddling the powerful machine beneath her, she breathed in deeply. She wrapped her arms around his waist, and rested her cheek on his back. This was what freedom felt like, and it was the best damn feeling in the world. He went to pull away from the cabin, and she looked over to see Pierce doing the same thing, but then it was like time stilled. The massive explosion that destroyed the bikers’ cabin had a pulse of energy moving outward. She was thrown off the back of the bike, and landed on the ground hard enough that stars danced in front of her vision. There was this loud ringing that filled her head, and when a large piece of debris landed right beside her she covered her head, despite having the helmet on. It seemed like forever that pieces of wood, metal, and other debris spilled out around her, and when she felt it was safe enough to move she looked up. Malice was moving toward her with angry, determined strides. He knelt beside her, black smudges on his face, and lifted his hands to remove his helmet.
“
Baby, are you okay?”
She pushed herself up into a sitting position and nodded. “Yeah, just a little dizzy.”
He helped her remove her helmet, and she started coughing as the thick, dark smoke started to billow around them. She stared at the burning cabin. “Oh my God. Pierce—”
Malice shook his head, stopping her from finishing. “He’s scraped up, but alive.”
She looked over his shoulder and saw Pierce moving toward them. He was slumping, but he was speaking in a clipped, hard tone to someone on the phone. Thank God he was alive. Thank God all of them were alive. Malice helped her up, and they moved farther away from the fire. The sound of sirens in the distance drowned out some of the crackling, popping wood as the fire licked at the building. The structure crumbled, and she screamed from surprise. Malice covered her body with his, and she felt him kiss the top of her head.
“Tuck said the girls are safe, and Lucien and the boys are coming out
,” Pierce said, and although he was clearly trying to be strong, she saw the strained look on his face, saw the way he held his side, and saw the line of blood making a slow path down his temple.
“Pierce, you’re bleeding
,” she said.
“Man, sit down and take it easy
,” Malice said and helped the prospect down to the ground.
“This was no accident, Malice
,” Pierce said with a hard tone. “That explosion was done by those fucking fanatics.” Pierce exhaled roughly and closed his eyes. “My fucking head is killing me.”
“
Man, just relax. The ambulance will be here, and you can get you checked out, brother.”
Pierce nodded. The ambulance and a few cop cars pulled up about fifteen minutes later, and then the rest of The Brothers of Menace were pulling in also. The police kept everyone back and away f
rom the fire as it was trying to be put out, and then for the next twenty minutes the cops were asking them questions.
Adrianna was checked over by the paramedics, as was Pierce, and when he refused to go to the hospital all of the bikers gathered together.
“The women are at the clubhouse with Tuck and Ruin, so they are all okay, but fuck,” Lucien said and looked at the building. The flames were slowly being extinguished, and even from the distance she could still feel the heat as if she was right in the thick of it.
“It was that fucking cult
,” Pierce said. “It has to be.” He had a bandage on his head. “They dropped off those damn papers at the clubhouse, and then had the balls to come here a couple of weeks ago, and now this shit. This isn’t a coincidence.”
“Pierce is right,” Malice said and pulled her close. He kissed her on the top of the head again. “
No way this shit just happened, but why did they wait two damn weeks?”
“I don’t think people that are fucking insane like that have any reasoning for why they do the shit they do
,” Lucien said on a growl, and she could tell he was barely hanging on to his control as it was. All of the guys seemed like they were ready to murder someone.
“It doesn’t fucking matter though, because no one messes with the club and gets away with it.”
Lucien turned and stared at each of the guys.
“And we all know that once someone fucks with us or anyone that we consider under our protection, we won’t let
them walk away alive.” Malice was the one to speak now.
All the guys murmured in agreement.
A shiver worked through her body at the lethalness that came from all of the bikers. “I did find a church paper on the porch right before Malice showed up.” She looked up at Malice. “I think it was from The Church of the Good and Right, or Only, or Holy. I don’t know. It was something like that.”
There was a
chorus of curses from the bikers.
“This is fucked up, and we need to retaliate
,” Rock said on a growl.
Lucien held up his hand. “I agree, but we need to think this through. I don’t want the cops
getting involved with this, because we don’t need any more heat,” Lucien said and glanced at the building again. “But I want to make sure it was the cult, even if I’d bet my fucking life on it.” Lucien looked back at them, and the look on his face was deadly calm. “We are going to demolish that fucking cult and the one they call a leader.”
They all murmured their agreement, and then Lucien,
Ruin, and Rock headed back to their bikes. Malice tuned her around, cupped her face with his hands, and stared into her eyes.
“God, baby, for a moment there as I saw you lying there,” he shook his head. “I thought I lost you.” This pinched expression covered his face, and she lifted her hand and smoothed her fingers between his eyes.
“I’m glad everyone came out of it okay.”
He leaned down and kissed her hard, and she could feel the possession in it. “I love you.
Christ
, I love you, baby.” He tightened his hands on her face, and rested his forehead on hers.
“I love you
, too, Malice.”
He pulled back and looked into her face. “God, I would fucking do anything in my power to make sure you’re protected, and to make you happy, baby.”
She smiled and rested her head on his chest again.
“And I am going to fucking kill the ones that even dared to put you in danger.”
She wrapped her arms around him, still resting her head on his chest, and closed her eyes.
“If something happened
to you…” He held her tightly, and she heard the pain in his voice.
“Let’s not think or talk about it.”
“Okay, baby.” He pulled back and kissed her again. “But this shit with that fucking cult isn’t over with. They followed us up here, probably knowing we had the girls from Fairview with us, and wanted to make their deranged ideals known.” He shook his head and clenched his jaw. “And when you mess with the fucking Brothers of Menace, you better be prepared to fall hard.” He kissed her yet again, as if cementing his words as a decree.
Adrianna didn’t doubt him for one minute, but she knew that as long as she had Malice with her, the women that had become her family
, and The Brothers of Menace, she could handle anything. She had already been to hell and back, had even survived this far, and she wasn’t about to be a victim again. No, she was a survivor, and that was how she wanted it to stay.
The End
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