Marek (Knights Corruption MC #1) (33 page)

Rising from the bed, I walked toward the window, moonlight slicing through and adding to the barest of light already encasing the room. I knew in my heart there was no escape from this.

Like a Band-Aid. Right off.

With my back toward him, I finished my story as quickly as I could. “Vex had gone on a bender for a few days, shoving so much coke up his nose I’m surprised he was still alive. Never mind whatever else he’d ingested to help him fight off his demons. I was tucked away inside our bedroom, keeping to myself, but for some reason he thought I was messing around on him. His paranoia strangled him and no matter how much I pleaded, trying to make him see reason, he was convinced I’d been with someone else. Of course I wasn’t, but there was no getting through to him.

“During one of his rants, he attacked me, smacking my head against the wall before shoving me onto the bed. My head was killing me, preventing me from trying to protect myself, but in the end I guess it didn’t really matter. He always got what he wanted, no matter how much I fought in the beginning. Screaming at me that he was gonna make me pay for fucking around, he tied me to the bed, the rope so tight it cut into my skin whenever I tried to move.” My shoulders trembled, but I steeled my reserve as best I could before continuing. “He raped me over and over. Violently. He left me tied up for two days, and when I’d made a mess because he refused to let me use the bathroom, he . . . he. . . .” I hiccupped, not thinking I could finish. Thankfully, Cole kept his distance, otherwise, I would have refused to continue. I needed the space. It was just easier that way. Well . . . ‘easier’ was probably the wrong choice of word.

“When his body was depleted, he raped me with anything he could find. His beer bottle. An old baseball bat he had in the closet. It went on for what seemed like forever, and no matter how much I begged and screamed, he never relented. I knew my father was aware something was going on because I heard them talking outside our bedroom, Vex telling him he was teaching me a lesson. I tried to call for help, but I was too beaten and broken.” The horrific details rushed over me, prickling my flesh like the sharpest of blades.

Tears streamed down my face, my memories like a plague on my soul.

“He left me to bleed like an animal for a whole day, tied to the bed.” Turning to face Cole, I needed to see his reaction. I knew he was going to be angry, infuriated even, but I had no idea how much rage one person could muster inside them.

His eyes turned dark, his skin heating like he was on fire from the inside. He stood before me a man ready to kill and right then, I knew he would never let anything bad ever happen to me again. Although he’d forced me to relive one of the worst things to ever happen to me, it made me realize I was no longer in danger, that the man before me would do whatever it took to keep me safe.

Closing the short distance between us, he took me in his arms and vowed to end the men who’d kept me a prisoner my entire life, beating and degrading me for their own amusement, suffocating whatever life burned inside me until they all but snuffed out my essence.

Marek

A month had passed since Sully told me what Vex had done to her. It had taken everything in me not to gather my men and hunt him down like the animal he was in that time.

Realizing I
was
gonna kill him one day—probably sooner than later—gave me solace. It wasn’t much, but it was something I could cling to until the day arrived.

“Let’s go!” I shouted from the living room. “We’re gonna be late, goddamn it!” Not that I should care, but I was a stickler for punctuality, and the fact that the club cookout had started forty-five minutes ago and I was still waiting for Sully to finish getting ready was grating on me.

When I wasn’t involved with the club, I spent every available second with my wife, ravaging her and making her scream out my name. She’d finally become comfortable with me, laughing when I playfully teased her, as well as dishing out her own form of medicine. I’d opened up a bit more about my past, as she did hers. I knew she still kept things from me, but I vowed not to push her anymore. Not until she was ready.

That the woman was still alive and going strong was a testament to how strong she was, having faced the Devil and spit in his face.

Every day that passed was one step closer to happiness. I hadn’t realized when I snatched her from the pits of Hell that she would change me. It’d been a long time since I’d had a purpose in life, other than plotting the downfall of my enemy and taking my club legit. And while both things drove me each day, they were nothing compared to the woman I’d forced to marry me, thinking at the time it was just the perfect ‘fuck you’ to the Savage Reapers.

It was the first time in my life I felt whole, if that made any sense. My need to protect and watch over her was sometimes suffocating, probably because I’d never possessed such a need before. Yes, I strived to keep all my brothers alive, watching their backs as they did mine. But they didn’t play on a loop in my head, wondering if they were happy, if someone was going to come and snatch them from my life. They were all adults, knew the risk involved, a risk which would hopefully diminish to nothing once we were out from underneath the cartel.

“Woman, if you don’t show yourself in the next two seconds, I’m comin’ in there and draggin’ you out as you are. I don’t care if your half-naked or not.” I tried to be patient, but it just wasn’t in me. I had a temper, and Sully had witnessed it on more than one occasion. Lately, she paid me no attention when I started spouting off at the mouth, our comfort level with each other rivaling those who’d been together for years. It was odd, thinking I’d only known her for a short time, yet I felt as if she’d always been with me.

Like I’d always been waiting for her.

“Don’t get your panties in a bunch, Marek,” she teased, appearing on the threshold of the living room, a sultry smile lighting up her face. She called me by the name she knew before she was aware of my given name during those times when she was either upset with me, or trying to ruffle my feathers. Like now.

“Oh, hell no!” I shouted, already crushing the distance between us and shoving her back toward our room. Her look of surprise was apparent, but I never gave her an opportunity to question me until she was planted in the middle of our bedroom.

“I thought you were yelling at me to hurry up. Well . . . I’m done.” With her hands on her hips, she asked, “Why are you making us even more late?” She had to know there was no way I was letting her out of the house dressed in that skimpy-ass outfit.

She’d told me about how she was forced to dress when she was with Vex, always wearing baggy clothes for fear he would beat her for wearing something that actually fit. I never wanted to stifle her and make her feel as if she couldn’t express herself, and the majority of the time, I didn’t have much of a problem with the clothes she wore, dragging many a bag through the front door after a shopping trip with Adelaide. One of my men always accompanied them on their outings and while they complained, Sully knew I was protecting her, still not having heard a peep from the Savage Reapers. Every passing day only put me on guard that much more.

“Are you kidding me with what you have on right now?” I asked, feeling a mixture of incredulity and irritation. Her plain white tank top dipped in the front, showing off the cups of her bra, which were fucking purple. Every bastard’s eyes would be ogling her tits, therefore forcing me to mess somebody up.

Her shorts were short, like
really
short, and because she’d thrown on sandals with a huge heel—I think she called them wedges or some shit like that—they made her legs look long . . . and her shorts minuscule.

I could only handle one thing at a time.

Taking a quick once-over of her reflection, spinning around to make sure she wasn’t missing anything, she asked, “What’s wrong with what I have on? It’s hot outside, Cole. I’ll probably still be dying in what I have on.” It
was
rather hot outside, the California summer kicking it up with record highs. Her hair was pulled up into a messy bun resting on top of her head, no doubt preparing as much as she could for the stifling temperatures.

“I can’t do it,” I said, rifling through the closet to find her something else to put on. “You know I wouldn’t normally tell you what to wear, but this is too tempting, Sully. The guys are gonna be drinking, and if any one of them looks at you too long, I’m gonna end up punching them the hell out.”

“Oh, you’re just overreacting,” she admonished, moving to walk away from me. “Come on, let’s go. Everything will be fine.” When I didn’t budge, she turned around and raised her brows at me, waiting for me to come to my senses and follow behind her.

“I’m not budging, woman,” I gritted, reaching into one of her shopping bags and pulling out a thin strapped dress which still had the tags on it. While it was short, it was much better than what she was prancing around in. The dress was a cream color with a thick red stripe in the middle. It was nice. She’d obviously liked it if she bought it. Well, technically, I’d given her money to buy it, but who’s fussing over logistics? “Here, put this on?”

The Sully who was forced into the Knights Corruption would have never said a word, taken the dress and changed immediately. But the longer she was with me, the more comfortable she was in expressing her thoughts and opinions, which was a good thing.

Most of the time.

But it was times like this when her newly formed strong will was a pain in my ass. And even though she tried my patience now and again, when it boiled down to it, I was her man, her husband, and as such had the final word. Most times I let her go, but when I felt strongly about something, whatever I deemed was law.

And this was one such time.

She stalked forward, stopping when she was a few feet away from me. “Are you serious?”

“Very.”

We stared at each other, a battle of wills passing between us. But I wasn’t relenting. After twenty tense seconds, she snatched the dress from my hand and stomped toward the bathroom, cursing under her breath the entire time.

“You can change out here, sweetheart,” I teased. She slammed the door behind her before I could say anything else.

I thought it was the quickest she’d ever changed, emerging two minutes later. She was trying not to smile, but her sexy lips twitched while she watched for my reaction.

“Motherfucker!” I cursed. “That’s almost as bad,” I confessed, running my eyes up and down her seductive body. I had no idea the top of the dress was so form-fitting, and while the fabric flared out at her waist, it only came down to mid-thigh, those same damn sandals making her legs look like they went on for miles.

She looked beautiful. Too beautiful to be hanging around a bunch of horny bastards.

“I’m not changing again, Cole. There’s nothing wrong with this dress and you know it.”

Glancing at the clock, I mumbled under my breath as I took her arm and guided her out the door.

I’m gonna kill someone today. I just know it.

“How long before you decide it’s time, Prez?” Zip drunkenly shouted, his body swaying into Hawke, who’d been standing next to him to hold him upright.