Going Under

by LeTeisha Newton

“I’m on it, Fix.”

  Fix smiled and sauntered off to the next big rig we had on our work list. As the resident diesel mechanics, Fix and I worked on vehicles from the public during our normal work hours and the club’s transport vehicles at night when the shop was closed to customers. Just a couple miles from the club headquarters and owned by the DE, it made it easier for me to leave if I had to handle any situations.

  Today, though, I hoped the hard labor would take my mind off my shitty dream and Melody. I needed to keep my head clear when I dealt with her. Her life with me would be simple enough as long as she followed the rules, and I would maintain control over the situation if I remembered to keep my head —the one on my shoulders, for that matter. The one between my legs wanted inside of her as soon as possible. The night before had ended too quickly with Melody passed out and me holding my dick.

  For now, I’d keep her in my room until I could have her on the floor with the Honeys and properly trained. I’d made sure to have one of the girls take her jeans and a t-shirt to wear since her dress had been destroyed. After watching her get dressed and locking her back up, I left for work. There were enough club members there during the day to keep her from escaping. I made sure the radiator shutters were open on the rig I was working on before I started it back up. Then I checked to see if they had closed and they hadn’t.

  “Problem,” I called to Fix.

  “We’ll put it on the checklist. How good was she?” he asked.

  The question threw me off and I banged my knee on a support beam. “What?”

  “Melody. The new Honey. All yours and stuffed into your room. Remember her? How was it?”

  “Why would I tell you?”

  “Because you always tell me,” Fix quipped. He leaned back from the front of the rig he was tinkering with, waggling his eyebrows at me.

  “Shaved or trimmed? She’s shaved, isn’t she? I bet she is. All sweet, pink, and glistening. She looks like the kind.”

  I froze, shards of ice traveling through my blood stream. Oil and grease stained my overalls, and the odor of hot metal was in the air. Tools clanked and banged as techs worked on their pieces, but I ignored all of it. The only sensory input that mattered were my ears, and I knew sure as fuck they worked right. So why the hell did I hear Fix ask about my woman’s pussy?

  Straightening my body in measured inches, I locked my gaze on Fix. I wiped my hands on a rag hanging off the truck’s frame and flashed a lopsided smile. My jaw muscles shifted, my cheeks pulling up tight on the right. Each sense filtered necessary information at rapid speed, tossing away unnecessary bullshit and keeping what mattered. Like where Fix’s pulse points were located, and how if I tipped a certain lever I could watch Fix’s chest cavity cave in.

  “Jack?”

  My nostrils flared as I scented the air. Fear. I could always smell fear and nervousness. The emotions wept from Fix’s pores as he watched me advance on him.

  “I didn’t mean anything by it, man, seriously,” he explained.

  “Did I say she was mine?”

  “Yeah, but she’s a Honey.”

  I stepped closer into Fix’s personal space as he swallowed hard. “Did. I. Say. She. Was. Mine?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then you’ll wipe that fucking thought about her pussy from your head before I rip out your brain through your nose, get me?”

  “Shit, Jack, it was just a question, man. If she’s your Old Lady, you should have told me. I never would have disrespected her like that.”

  The statement made me pause. Shit. I’d never intended to make Melody my Old Lady. I couldn’t tell any of the club members I needed to keep a close eye on her, or explain my ridiculous urge to claim her despite the danger. But my reaction to questions about her stood on par with other brothers who took offense to their wives or partners referred to the same way Honeys were.

  “We’re good, Fix, but she’s off limits to talk like that.”

  “Yeah, I think I got the picture. You going to get her a patch then?”

  “She’s not my Old Lady, Fix. But you know me, I don’t like to share, and what’s mine is mine.” I forced myself to smile to lighten the mood. Leading the brothers to believe she was an Old Lady meant commitment, a wife, and I wasn’t in the market for any of that.

  “You know, you’re one scary fucker when you get that smile on your face.”

  “I practiced it in the mirror until I pissed myself.”

  Fix laughed, but the sound rang awkward and unsure. I placed a hand on his shoulder. “Really, man, I’m sorry. The shit with Michael has me on edge”

  “Michael hurt the club, he deserved it.” Fix bent back over the engine he’d been working on.

  “Not the killing him part. What he did is what I meant. I’ve been a bit overzealous since Hitch died and Jacob had to stop riding.”

  “I’ll drink to that.”

  “Good. I’ll buy you a few. Get you nice and saucy and then have Lana take a load off.”

  “That woman has a mouth like you wouldn’t believe,” Fix commented. His expression when he looked over his shoulder relieved me. I wouldn’t want to lose my best friend over my reaction to Melody.

  “I do know, Fix. Most of the club knows, that’s why she’s spoiled.”

  “I ain’t marrying the girl, so who gives a shit?”

  No one did. Lana had her uses and kept a cool head when shit got rough at the bar. Couldn’t complain about that. But I cared less about the club chick and more about the woman I’d left in my room. She stayed on my mind, no matter how hard I worked. My muscles ached, and I wished I could lie in bed the rest of the day. Well, maybe not lie in bed all day. Melody had her uses, and I needed some personal attention. That thought firmly in hand, I headed back to the clubhouse with all the intentions to get into some trouble with my little captive.

  Until I found my bed broken, cuffs gone, and my window busted.

  I wanted to kill that fucking woman myself.

  If anyone from the club found her outside on the property, she would be sentenced as a risk. They would shoot her and be done with it. Then I’d never find out who was sniffing around club business, and I needed to. The fact that I wanted to stick my cock in her didn’t factor … much.

  “I’m going to strangle her.”

  I tossed my overalls off to the side and changed into dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt. My cut rested on my shoulder, the leather warm and soft. Determination leaked into me as I strolled from the room after locking the door. I didn’t stop to converse with anyone, as I didn’t want to give them a chance to talk about Melody.

  I had her ID, knew where she lived. My hunch? If she were smart, she’d run to the nearest main road and try to hitch a ride, or she’d get stupid and go to the police. My Harley thundered to life between my legs and I kicked it into gear. How long had she been gone? How much of a head start did she have? I couldn’t be sure of the answers, but I knew these roads better than most. For a time I’d served as Road Captain, planning all routes the club took on missions or deals. The roads with the most coverage were 65 and 35. If she made it all the way to 59, which I highly doubted, there would be trouble. A busy cross fare, it would be more likely she’d find someone not on payroll on that road.

  I sped up the road, flicking dust behind me as the sun set, burning the sky with red and orange. The open air was crisp and just on the outside of cool. With just her jeans and t-shirt, she wouldn’t have enough coverage when it got cold later.

  “I oughta hogtie her outside and leave her there. That will teach her.”

  I scanned the horizon on either side of the road, searching the sparse woods for her form. Catching the tail end of blue jeans for a second, I pulled my bike off the main road. I drove into the woods a bit, away from prying eyes or ears, before I turned it off and got up. Crickets chirped, an owl hooted somewhere off to my left, and the foliage was thick and damp. I moved fast through the woods toward where I’d seen her.

  “I’m tired of
chasing you, Melody. You aren’t going to get away. Keep running and I’ll bury you out here. You won’t give me any other choice.”

  I hated to say the words. They tasted like bile on my tongue, but I had no choice. If she pushed me too far, I’d have to make good on my promise. Come out, Firecracker. I respect your fight, but some battles you just lose. I’d learned the hard way.

  “You’re going to kill me anyway.” Her voice filtered through the trees, distorted and soft.

  “Rules. We all have to live by rules. Your old life is over. You belong to me. You live and die by that. It doesn’t have to be like this unless you make it.”

  “So I’m supposed to just roll over and show you my belly.”

  I crunched through the woods, not worried about masking my presence any longer as I followed her voice. She sounded so forlorn I wanted to pick her up, protect her from her pain. But how could I protect her from me?

  “No. Never bow, Melody. You only get stomped into the ground when you do. Learn to bend. Do what you must in order to survive. I can’t give you back your old life, but I can keep you alive in your new one.”

  I couldn’t see her behind the tree, but she was close enough I could tell which one she used for cover.

  “And what do I have to do now?” she asked.

  I moved closer to the tree. “Come take your punishment like a good girl, and then we go home.”

  “Punishment?”

  “There are always consequences for every action, Firecracker.” I’d warned her about that already.

  “Stop calling me that ridiculous name.”

  “Sure, as soon as you bring your pretty ass out here, Firecracker.”

  The cuff locked onto her ankle struck bark with a warped ping as she got up and came toward me. Our gazes met, and I regretted what I knew I was going to do next. But rules were rules, and she had to abide. With deliberate slowness, I unbuckled my belt and pulled it from my belt loops. The warm leather was supple in my hand as I folded the material in half. Her eyes widened and she slowed down.

  “Oh, no, baby. I’m a man of my word. Don’t ever forget that.”

  She spun on her heels, but I didn’t let her get far. I was bigger, faster, and I caught her by her hair.

  “Ass in the air,” I demanded.

  5

  Melody

  Brown and gold leaves crunched under my palms as Jack positioned me on the ground. My ass in the air, jeans and underwear pulled down, I rested on my forearms and knees. Sounds amplified until my shaky breaths sounded like gales in my ears. My nose was pressed into moist earth, the heavy scent coating the back of my tongue. Jack made me feel lost, tore away my foundation, as he stood in the vacant spot daring me to hold on to him. Large, warm hands framed the globes of my ass, parting the cheeks to the cool air.

  “Pretty. So fucking pretty. But not red enough. Count them out. You have ten.”

  I sucked in a breath as he shifted, one hand leaving my ass. He’s going to hit me. Air whistled, the leaves shifted, and I screamed.

  “One!”

  Thwack.

  “Two.”

  Warmth spread through my ass, burning across nerve endings. It hurt. God, it ached and twisted me up inside. Counting a third strike, tears pooled in my eyes. I clenched my ass, tense for the next hit, but the movement only drove the fire deeper and pushed fog into my head.

  “Out loud, Firecracker. We’ll do that one again.”

  He moved, and his next hit swatted my lower bottom, under the cheeks. I sucked in a breath, unable to speak. Shock. Vertigo spun my world and then smashed it back into place too fast for me to process. Tremors spread over my limbs, and I moaned.

  “Jesus,” I whispered. A prayer. A lament. I wasn’t sure.

  Jack hit me again, this time in that sweet spot and the world went dim and the stars grow bright behind my closed eyelids. Stripped naked, torn from my cover of anger and escape, he anchored me to him on a dirty forest floor with a leather belt that made pleasure bleed through me. My juices trickled down my thighs, my pussy clenched, and I no longer gave a shit about punishments or running away. I wanted him to hit me again, right there, to drive me higher. Harder. I dug my nails into the dirt, hissing when a splinter burrowed into my forefinger. But even that didn’t stop me from arching my back.

  “Again,” I begged.

  My mind was foggy, drenched in achy need. Punishment. I needed punishment. As his belt struck, over and over, I held on, presenting my ass for him as I rode the wave. One slap for going into that alley looking for hell. Another because I ran from him. Each stroke exposed and absolved me of my sins. In that moment in the center of the woods—my body open to the elements and my captor behind me—I shouldn’t have sensed my soul unlock. There was no way he and I should have melded, but we did. God, we did, and it tore me to shreds. I relived each stick of the needle, every time I let Tony take me because I wanted to be high more than I valued my virtue, and those nights where I held the needle to my arm and fought my demons to not shoot up again.

  “Please.” I needed more, a push to take me over the edge.

  “Hold on, I’ve got you.”

  Fabric rustled, and then foil ripped. His cock pressed against my entrance, his entry eased by my wetness. As his fullness penetrated me in one long stroke, my throat worked as I swallowed hard. We didn’t make love—there were no such emotions brewing between us—but a connection stitched us together nonetheless. A new sort of addiction, where he became my drug and I was a fiend.

  He fucked me hard and fast as his wet slaps against my ass echoed around us. Time stood still, giving us a few moments when we weren’t captor and captive, but man and woman. Ancient and new at the same time, my body absorbed his rhythm. I braced on the ground, slammed my hips back toward him, the pleasure building. My clit vibrated, my womb clenched, and I ground my teeth together until my jaw ached.

  Still, he fucked me.

  “Chest to the ground. I want to go deeper. So fucking deep.”

  He commanded me with words, but his large hand pushed the center of my back as well. My breasts, bra lost somewhere back in his room, rubbed against my t-shirt, barely shielded from the twigs and stones. But even that pain throbbed inside me. It sharpened the pleasure until my throat closed on a silent scream. The new angle drove him deeper, harder, until he smacked against my insides.

  “Come on my cock, Melody. Let me be your release.”

  I couldn’t deny him any more than I could succeed at running from him. My climax shot through me, every muscle locked hard, breath gone, and my head fuzzy. One pump, two, a third, and he gripped my hips like a vise before he slammed into me one last time. Jack came with a growl. As he pumped into me and filled the condom with his cum, I closed my eyes and shielded my face with my hair. Once an addict, always an addict; I learned that long ago when I stopped using. You’ve just traded one drug for another, Melody. Will you ever learn?

  Maybe this drug would set me free.

  My ass was sore, and the jeans I’d been given earlier chaffed between my legs as Jack walked me back into the clubhouse. The moon had risen while we rode back in silence, and the club’s boisterous noise slapped me in the face. A petite woman with platinum-blonde hair and wide, blue eyes stared at me as I walked in front of Jack. She wore small black shorts over ripped fishnets with a white tank top that only reached under her breasts. A shiny red jewel decorated her belly button.

  “Janet, get her cleaned up and dressed. Meet the new Honey. She’ll be working the bar with you from now on.”

  “You got it,” the girl answered. She waited with an expectant glance my way.

  “Go on. I’ve got business to take care of.”

  I followed Janet because I needed to get away from Jack, to assimilate what had happened between us and understand how we had changed.

  “Hey, you look like you wear a five maybe. Great set of tits for such a small frame. They’ll like that. You could probably do pretty good with the Prospects,” Janet told m
e. She smiled and waved for me to follow her down the hall in the opposite direction from Jack’s room. “All our clothes are over here. We’ll get you looking hot. Got your eye on any Prospects?”

  I shook my head. “Jack only wants me with him.”

  She stopped and turned. “You’re Melody?”

  “My reputation precedes me, I see.” I smiled. It would be good to have a friend.

  “Hmm.” Her smile disappeared and she sucked her teeth. “Whatever.”

  I tried to bring the nice side of her back. “What is a Honey anyway?”

  “Shouldn’t matter to you.”

  She didn’t say anymore as she threw open a door and stalked through it. Okay. I walked in after her and girls in different states of dress turned to look at me. The room look like some sort of dressing room, complete with tables and chairs in front of a row of mirrors. Along the opposite wall, outfits hung on metal poles.

  “Meet Jack’s special bitch,” Janet introduced me. She padded over to the first chair and sat down before she fiddled with her hair in the mirror.

  “Lucky her,” a brunette said. She didn’t even look up from applying bright-red lipstick to her lips.

  “Must be nice to not have to work hard,” another woman replied.

  “Well, I’m sure she works hard enough, just not on anyone else’s dick,” Janet said. She glanced over at me in the mirror and rolled her eyes.

  “Hey, fuck you, okay?” I spat to the entire room.

  Brunette spun around in her chair and glared at me. “She’s got balls.”

  “Yeah, well she can afford it with the Sergeant covering her. I don’t have shit for her to wear,” Janet said.

  “Me, either,” Brunette said.

  The women in the room turned to their mirrors and continued doing their makeup or fixing their hair. Not a single one would look at me. “Jasmin has got something perfect for her, though. That would work,” Janet said. I didn’t trust the light in her eyes, but I didn’t have the knowledge to argue.

  “Oh yeah, the red number. Don’t want Jack pissed at us,” Brunette added.

  “I’ll get it. For your hair and makeup, Melody, you’re on your own,” Janet told me.