Well, at least she used my name. The red outfit they talked about was a red bra under a fishnet-style top and red high-waist shorts. To bring it all together, a pair of red thigh-high boots would add at least five inches to my height.
“You can’t be serious,” I scoffed at Janet. The outfit felt thin and cheap between my fingertips.
“Get dressed. You don’t keep Jack waiting, I don’t care how good in bed you are.”
The women filed out without another word, leaving me to get ready on my own. Half my body would be on display in the clothes they wanted me to wear, and I wasn’t so sure the absent Jasmin would like me in her shit. But with no one to ask, I had no choice. I showered and decided to wet my hair so it curled a bit more and fell around my shoulders in a wavy mess. The best way to get back at assholes was to kill them at their own game. I’d walk out in that outfit and out do every woman in the bar.
Twenty minutes later, I exited the back room and headed for the bar. I had no makeup, but the rest of the getup came together nicely. I knew where the bar could be found, so I headed there to find Janet.
“I’m ready,” I said to her.
“Yeah, I see. Walk the club and make sure no one has an empty beer.”
She didn’t even look at me when she spoke, but I did as she instructed. No use arguing with her in the middle of a packed bar where her place was secure. I may have belonged to Jack, but she knew the lay of the land. I almost missed Lana, though. At least she’d been a bitch from the moment I met her and I knew where I stood.
“Can I get you anything?” I asked at the first table I came to.
“Damn, ain’t you fine? You Jack’s new thing?” a biker asked. His beard covered most of his mouth, and his hair was cropped close on the side but long on the top. He was handsome in a rugged way.
“I’m Melody, yes.”
“Come over here and let me look at you.”
I froze, not sure what to do. And I didn’t want anyone to touch me. I knew I had a job to do, and after the time in the woods, I knew pushing Jack again wouldn’t be a good idea. Still, I didn’t trust the members of the club.
“Come here. I won’t bite. Not unless you ask me to.”
I forced my feet to move until I stood a few steps away.
“Those girls are probably spitting fire right now looking at you. Don’t let them get to you too much. Not every day a Honey comes in with a claim stamped on her. They want what you got, remember that.”
“Rex, those clothes are Jasmin’s and—”
“Shut up, Gary. Everyone has their trial here. This is hers,” the biker in front of me told the other at the table.
Gary shrugged. “Her funeral.”
My what? Who’s this Jasmin?
“Bring us two Buds and tequila chasers,” Rex ordered.
“Okay.”
Shell-shocked and nervous, I put his order in. Table after table I met with the same sly jokes and inspection from the bikers. Not exactly nasty, their perusal bordered on hazing. They all knew a secret I didn’t, and it rubbed me wrong. I didn’t understand this world, what I could ever be to Jack, or where I fit in. The urge to run, to get out—damn the consequences—rose higher as the night wore on. Janet and the others didn’t speak to me. When I came with orders, they slammed them on the bar and kept going. I didn’t see Jack anywhere in the bar, and with more liquor flowing, the men got more aggressive. No one touched me, but I felt the threat just on the edge.
I didn’t want to be there, but I knew escaping would only get me caught and maybe dead. Tired, I went back to the bar to rest my feet for a minute. I waited to give my order to Janet so I could sit for a bit longer.
“Hey, Janet? I’ve got an order.”
“Jasmin, there she is,” Janet said. A cruel smile grew on her face as a tall, dark-haired vixen pushed away from the bar. Her thick hair was pulled up into a messy knot on top of her head, her striking features pronounced by the style. Angular and heart-shaped, her face could have belonged to a model. Most women, including me, were plain and ordinary standing next to her. She had on a micro-mini leather skirt and corset. Her legs were covered in sheer black stockings with skulls and bones stitched into them.
“Why are you in my clothes?”
Her scrunched up face told me all I needed to know. “They told me to put these on, so I did.”
“And you think you can just waltz in here and wear clothes that don’t belong to you without asking? You should have found your biker and told him about the trouble, then he would have sorted it out.” She clenched her fists at her sides.
“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I did what I was told, and I can’t find Jack right now. I can go change.”
“Keep that shit. I don’t want to smell like whore and snitch. A washing machine won’t get that funk out of it.”
My hackles rose; I’d had enough. “Fuck you. I’ve done what you all wanted all night without a fucking complaint. You won’t answer questions, you won’t help me, and when I ask for anything, I’m ignored. What did you expect me to do? Being nice won’t unfreeze that Ice Bitch mask of yours.”
The bar fell silent, and a ripple of violence skated across my skin. Jasmin stood taller, her mouth twitching.
“Who do you think you’re talking to? Where’s Jack?” she asked.
“Gary, go get the boys. It’s about to get nasty,” someone called out.
“I asked you a question. Who do you think you’re talking to?” Jasmin continued.
“Jasmin. The woman I borrowed clothes from, tried to apologize to, and got bitched out by for it. Does that cover it?”
“No, little girl. Not even by a mile,” she said.
A side door to the bar swung open and slammed into the wall. It echoed through the room as a young man with brown hair strolled into the room. His cut had a patch for President on it, along with his name—Samuel. If Jack was violence contained and measured, Samuel wore his like armor. His shoulders weren’t as broad, and he didn’t have the same height as Jack, but he commanded the room’s respect with his piercing dark gaze. When his stare rested on Jasmin, he smiled.
“Issues, love?”
Love? Who was she? Jack stepped out from behind Samuel and shook his head before exhaling roughly.
“What is happening here?” His cold glare sent chills up my spine as he came toward me.
“She wore my clothes without asking, and then mouthed off at me,” Jasmin said.
“Is this true?” Samuel asked me, but I only had eyes for Jack. His eyes were narrowed at me, his hands hard as he jerked me to his side.
“Consequences,” he whispered in my ear, and my stomach dropped.
“I didn’t know. They told me to wear her clothes, and I did. When I tried to apologize, she went off on me.”
“Some battles, Melody, are not worth fighting,” he said quietly. “I told you this and you didn’t listen.” He looked up at Samuel. “She offended your Old Lady, Pres, and I’m sorry. It won’t happen again and I’ll make sure she knows the rules.”
I sucked in a deep breath at Jasmin’s satisfied smirk. The President’s Old Lady. Far from a Honey. Even without knowing all their rules I knew I’d overstepped some bounds I couldn’t fix with an apology. Well, fuck Jack. He should have told me, gave me more rules to follow more than to just obey him.
“Not good enough, Sergeant,” Samuel said. His gaze raked over my form with a frank appraisal, making my skin crawl.
“Of course not. I offer her to service you, Samuel, with a lap dance. It’ll be good fun for everyone watching, Jasmin will get her bit of humiliation out of Melody, and I’ll have paid you back.”
Jasmin scoffed. “Some little lap dance isn’t—”
“Done,” Samuel said. “It’s always nice to try out the new meat. Too bad she’s not completely on the table.”
“Yeah!” a biker called from somewhere as the room erupted into catcalls and whoops.
“Samuel!” Jasmin yelled.
“You allowed Jane
t and the rest of them to wrangle you into this, and you know it. Put your girls in place and make sure they dress her properly in the future. She belongs to Jack and they should respect that. Only women who outrank her are Rex’s wife and you. They know better. The punishment evens out both crimes.”
Rex, the man who’d checked me out earlier. He ranked in the club and I hadn’t even known. A muscle in Jack’s jaw worked, but he said nothing. He wouldn’t save me. Consequences, he’d said. For every action there was an equal reaction, and I had to learn my lesson. I couldn’t just roll over and let things go, I didn’t know how to ever since I’d kicked drugs, but this world threw me back into shackles. Belonging to the Diamond Eaters was like prison, and I didn’t know where I fit into the pecking order.
“Put on something slow and sexy, Jack. I want to make sure I get a good time out of this,” Samuel said. Jack left my side; his heat drifting away left me cold and alone. He was silent as he pressed on the screen of a modern jukebox, searching for a song for me to dance to. With another man. A throbbing beat pushed through the speakers, a song about fucking like an animal I knew so well.
Jack ensured he punished me, too.
Pretty fucking cunt. Not that she should have belonged to him. The bastard should have been run off long ago, right with his snitching-ass father. But did they see it? Fuck no. He took his beatings like a good bitch, did whatever they asked, and never made a mistake. Until her. She’s the fucking Trojan horse. I’ll use her, pull the world down from around his ears, and watch him go down in flames.
I’ll fuck her on his charred remains while I’m at it.
6
Jack
I rolled my tense shoulders as I sat down to watch Melody. Her eyes were wide as she bit on her lip. I met her gaze but didn’t save her. I couldn’t. She didn’t understand my world, and I knew the blame for that fell on my shoulders. I should have made sure she was clothed properly and smoothed things out. Instead of fucking her in the middle of the forest, I should have spent that time with a much better-suited endeavor.
But I wanted to fuck her.
Just like I did right now as she swayed to the music in front of a seated Samuel. Her eyes were on me, and I wanted to bend her over the fucking bar and claim her where everyone could see. Her hair was darker under the low lights in the bar, contrasted to the bright-red and her pale skin. She dipped and rolled her hips, and I bit the inside of my cheek. Fuck, that should be me experiencing what Samuel was. His nasty gaze was all over her. Did he see the marks I left on her ass? Did he know she belonged to me?
Yeah, he did, the bastard, and that was why he enjoyed it.
His gaze met mine and he smiled. I forced myself not to curl my hands into fists. His smirk stayed plastered on his face as he gripped her hips and pulled her onto his lap. She squeaked and froze.
Samuel smacked her ass. “Get moving, baby. A lap dance isn’t a lap dance unless I can feel you.”
She looked at me, and God help me I wanted to tell her to stop, to come to me and I’d make it all better. Instead, I lifted one brow and waited for her to continue. She swallowed and circled her hips, but I couldn’t ignore the tears in her eyes. She didn’t let them fall as she grinded against him to the music. No, she just watched me, anger seeping into her gaze. For all the steps we may have taken forward, this one act tore us back to the beginning. I could see it in her tense muscles, the way she clenched her jaw and glared. She would run again. As sure as I was sitting here, if Samuel didn’t have a grip on her hips, she’d run away.
My jaw ticked in time with the beat of the music as I counted the seconds silently. She rolled and moved, pressed, and threw her arms up into the air. She gave the performance of her life, slaying me with her eyes. I could taste her hatred, her humiliation. The Honeys smirked at her as the club members hooted and catcalled, but she ignored them all. I was the one who’d betrayed her and yet there was nothing I could do. There were rules, and she’d broken them. Whether or not we both hated it, I couldn’t allow disrespect to pass when it came to any member of the club. She didn’t realize I’d saved her life making her pay this way. There were more ways to die than a bullet in the head.
Like losing your soul in blood and pain because your father destroyed the very foundation of what you’d ever learned.
I swallowed and pushed away the memories of my past.
As the song came to an end, I rose to my feet.
“What’s the rush, Jack? She can handle a dance or two more,” Samuel teased. He wrapped one arm around her waist and kept her on his lap.
Jasmin stomped toward him. “You got me for that, baby. Get rid of the stick and I’ll show you a real dance.”
I didn’t give a shit if Jasmin fucked him in the middle of the floor; I just wanted to make sure Melody was by my side.
“I’ve had your dance before, Jasmin. Fresh meat is my prerogative.”
I wrapped my fingers around Melody’s wrist and tugged her into my arms. She fell against me and buried her face into my chest.
“I hate you,” she whispered.
Her words ripped through me, but I showed no outward reaction. “We’ve got a few things to do in my room, Pres. She’ll be acting right from here on out.”
“No rush. I’m looking forward to her fuck ups.”
Samuel smirked and licked his lips. I wanted to pound his face into the ground. Jasmin perched on his lap, her narrowed eyes locked on Melody’s back, her lips set into a firm line.
“Shape her up, Jack, or I will,” she said.
“And when do you tell me what to do, Jasmin?” I asked. She outranked Melody in the scheme of things, but she would never outrank me. I answered to Samuel alone. Unless she could bend him to her will, what she said didn’t matter a fucking wit to me.
“We’ll see.” She glared at Melody as I pulled her from the room.
That woman could give Melody more trouble than she was worth. We’d have to prepare for that. As soon as we were in the hallway, Melody pushed away from me.
“That was ridiculous. What sort of people are you? Cavemen? A lap dance because those things played a game with me?”
Even in her angered state, she was breathtaking. Her dark hair was wild around her shoulders, and she smelled of rage, liquor, and need. I pressed her until she was against the wall, her soft body trapped by my larger frame. She turned from me, but I gripped her chin and forced her gaze to mine.
“There are rules for everything, Melody. I warned you, but you didn’t listen.”
“I didn’t know what to do, Jack. Am I supposed to just let them walk all over me?”
“I told you to learn to bend. Learn to fight battles you can win and leave the others alone.”
“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? Why didn’t you stop it?”
I shook my head. “I’m going to make sure you learn.”
She sighed and let her head fall back against the dark wood. “I can’t do this with you, Jack. I can’t. I’m not made to be controlled, to live this sort of life.”
I palmed her cheeks and brought her mouth under mine. “You don’t have a choice. What makes you think I’m going to let you go?”
She exhaled, her warmth breath trickling over my lips. I tasted her across my tongue. “I’ve kicked one addiction before,” she whispered.
I frowned at her, unsure of what she meant. “What?”
But she didn’t answer. Instead, she closed her mouth and dropped her gaze. I hated it. How could she deny me anything? Refuse me what I demanded? I would show her she belonged to me.
“You are mine. I will navigate you through this world, but you can forget about leaving.”
“Someone will come looking for me.”
“And the fact you said someone instead of anyone specific tells me you’re lying.”
I pulled away from her and dragged her down the hall. She stumbled behind me as we entered my room. When I closed the door, the silence was deafening. The outside world disappeared as I watched
her tremble in her red getup. I’d burn the fucking outfit after this. I didn’t want a thing Jasmin ever wore touching her curves. Fuck, I’d buy her a new wardrobe to put the rest of those women to shame. But first …
“Get on your knees,” I demanded.
She turned and glared at me. “No.”
I stalked to her and wrapped her hair around my fist, pulled her head back, and then lowered my hand, steering her toward the ground. She tried to fight it, but after a while she let out a cry and fell to her knees. I released her with a pointed look and then took my leather off. It fell heavy on top of my desk before I lifted my shirt over my head. God, she looked like a pagan sycophant worshiping me as her gaze roamed over my chest and stomach. The red of her lipstick blazed against her pale skin. I wanted to see how far down my dick she could go, leaving an impression of her lips. How it would look with her blood-red lipstick all over my chest as I fucked her.
I was losing my mind.
“Read the tattoos,” I told her.
“What?”
I gripped her hair again and shook her head. “Read them.”
She frowned and looked over my stomach. “‘Failure to pay his dues according to the section dealing with the paying of dues.’ What is this?”
“Keep going, Melody.”
“‘No use of needles in any form other than what a doctor has prescribed for you. No narcotics burn. If you sell, don’t wear your colors or club t-shirts. You are not representing the club. Members cannot belong to any other club. Each Old Lady will be verified through the Gauntlet.’ Jack, I don’t understand. What is a Gauntlet?”
“There are rules. Every single one of the club’s is on my body. When you are finished reading them, you will trace them with that pretty little tongue of yours until you memorize them.”
“You can’t be—”
I hauled her up from the floor and released her before I removed my boots, pants, and underwear. “We’ve got all night. You’d rather learn like this than learn with beatings.”
“Beatings? Who—”
She stopped talking as her gaze dropped to my stomach. I knew what she saw, the scars from whips and cigarette burns. The left-over trail from older members of the club who wanted to make sure I was nothing like my father. She swallowed and lifted a shaking hand to her mouth, but I ignored it. This wasn’t a life for the weak. I’d survived, and I would make sure she did, too.
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