by Penny Dee
I nodded.
“And with my boys?” he asked, his breath warm in my ear as his fingers found their way inside my panties.
I looked at the other three Kings of Mayhem bikers. Irish and Jacob were handsome like Isaac. Well built, with big, muscular arms covered in tattoos and tight t-shirts over broad chests. While Tex was older, maybe by ten years, with a beard and longish hair. I didn’t really find him attractive, but I wanted to make Isaac happy.
When I nodded, I felt his lips curl into a smile against my jaw. “That’s my girl.”
The pride in his voice.
The smile in those beautiful eyes.
I would do anything for him.
Because I was his girl.
I stopped reading, but I didn’t look up. I squeezed my eyes shut, and tried to block out the image of Talia trying to impress a disinterested Isaac.
“I don’t want to read anymore,” I whispered.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t up to me.
“Read,” Elias demanded.
I looked up and the tears in my eyes finally broke free and ran down my cheeks. Elias crouched down in front of me, his usually warm eyes were now cold and angry as he glared across at me.
“Don’t make me tell you again,” he warned.
I did as I was told and looked down at the diary in my hands. I ran a shaky finger across the page of handwritten words, my heart bleeding for Talia because of what she had endured. I exhaled deeply and began reading again, but my voice trembled as I tried to keep my fear at bay.
“It started with kissing. First Isaac. Then Irish. Then Jacob. When I climbed off Jacob’s lap and onto Tex’s, Isaac pulled his dick out and began stroking it. Irish did the same. But Jacob wasn’t into it. He stood up and left the room, mumbling something about it not being his scene. But Tex was into it. He was really into it.
“Show them, baby,” Isaac said. “Show them what you can do with your mouth.”
So I did it, diary. For him. I took their dicks in my mouth and let them come on my tongue and down my throat. I let them stroke themselves to hardness again as they watched Isaac open and penetrate me. I let them fuck me, one in the mouth while another pounded into me from behind. I let three cocks violate and use me . . . for him. Isaac Calley. Just so he would see just how much I love him and how far I would go to please him.
And I felt like a Queen.
Sexy.
Fueled by their moans.
Their mumbled words and aroused groans like sweet nectar.
Because he would see. He would see how good I would be for him.
But when it was over, Isaac didn’t take me to his bed. He didn’t look at me with that familiar gleam of affection in his beautiful eyes. No. His beautiful smiling eyes no longer smiled. They were cold, disinterested … empty. And when I wrapped my arms around his neck, he unwound them and pushed me away like I was nothing. He wanted a lady, he said, not a club skank who sucked cock for attention.
How could he not see that I had done it for him?
I begged him. Pleaded with him. But he had met someone else, he said.
That was the moment my heart stopped beating.
When my will to live ended.
Her name is Cherry.
She is away at college, but when she gets back he is going to make her his girl.
His girl!
The page was crumpled. Like it had been clutched in a moment of pain, and then smoothed out afterwards. Tiny creases spread like cobwebs across the paper. And I could see Talia, sobbing as she poured her heartbreak out onto those pages, and then scrunching it as the pain of her broken teenage heart overwhelmed her. As if she was going to rip it from her journal and screw it up.
So here I am. Broken. Used. My heart hurting like it has been squashed. I know what you are thinking—he told you he wasn’t interested in anything right now. He was busy with the club. He didn’t have the time to commit to a relationship. Yes. He told me those things. Told me he didn’t have time. But he still messaged me. Still took me to his bed when I visited. Still made love to me. So I had believed I could change his mind. If he just gave me the chance, he would see that he wanted me as his old lady.
Now I don’t know how I am going to breathe after tonight because my pain is unbearable, and I can’t imagine how I am going to go on knowing that he doesn’t want me. I don’t know what is worse, his cruelty, or the fact that I still love him after all he has done to me.
I’m going to take a walk. I’m going to my water tower.”
I exhaled deeply. That was where Talia’s story ended. A few hours later she was dead and broken at the bottom of the water tower.
I pressed my fingers to my swollen and burned lips. What Talia had endured was terrible, even with the words written on the page in front of me, I couldn’t fathom what she had felt. And my heart ached for her. But it also ached for Isaac, Tex, Irish and Jacob, and it ached for Freebird who would never know about the incident that had contributed to his death. And for Mirabella. Beautiful, pure Mirabella.
My chin trembled and I fought back tears.
It was no excuse, but Isaac had been young—nineteen and stupid—and the boy Talia described in her diary was not the man he had grown up to be. He didn’t deserve to die for his stupidity and acts of juvenile cruelty. Everyone involved had been young and stupid.
This was all such bullshit.
I looked at Elias.
If he thought I was going down without a fight, then he had another thing coming.
CADE
“Think!” I snapped at Davey. “Is this even the goddamn road?”
We were in the Custom Chopper van driving on one of the sparse and lonely roads leading out to the watermelon fields. In the van were me, Davey, and Bull. And in the car following were Maverick, Caleb, and Grunt. The moment I realized Davey might have an idea of where Indy was, I wanted to climb on my bike and tear off after her. But Bull had stopped me. If Elias heard us coming he might panic and that could mean bad things for Indy.
Heavy, wooded areas fringed the pale dusty road we travelled down, and every now and again we would pass a firebreak in the trees and see a farmhouse or an old home, but none of them looked familiar to Davey. I was beginning to lose my mind.
He looked at me grimly. “I dunno, man. I just don’t know.”
Sometimes the thought that we were too late crept into my mind and it took all my mental strength to cast it aside. I would not give up on finding Indy alive. I’d lose my mind if I did.
The other thought was that we were walking into a trap. For that reason Bull had brought the others along. Elias was ex-military and it was more than likely he knew a thing or two about booby traps. Grunt was also ex-military and we were hoping he knew more.
Maverick and Caleb came along for the extra firepower if we needed it.
“There!” Davey pointed to an old billboard on the side of the road. It was faded, the image weathered and neglected by time, but you could just make out the smiling faces of two children eating watermelon pieces and the words declaring, Juicy Watermelons Ahead. Visit Fassbender Farms.
“I remember Elias pointing it out when we drove past. Said he and his sister used to sneak out at night and climb the billboard to smoke pot.”
Hope flared in my chest. We were close. Davey was looking around him, and judging by the expression on his face, things were looking familiar.
I thought of my queen and I prayed she was still alive.
I’m coming for you, baby. Just hold on. Please, hold on.
INDY
Elias rose to his feet and towered above me as he continued on with his craziness.
“You’re probably feeling sorry for her right now,” he said as he began to pace again. “But in the end, Talia got exactly what she had coming to her.”
He stopped pacing and a look of disgust swept across his face.
“She was my twin. But she was a slut. Do you know why we moved to Destiny?” He looked at me and his eyes were bright
with madness. “Because my slutty sister got herself in trouble back in Alabama. Messed around with a teacher at our high school. There were photos. An abortion. And it was a huge shit storm of bullshit, I’ll tell you. So we moved to Georgia for a fresh start, and things were good until the story caught up with us again. The photos, they were circulated throughout the high school, and I’ll tell you, Indy, kids can be assholes. They were cruel. Brutal. Not just to Talia, but to me, as well. We were socially ostracized. Bullied. And it got so bad that we had to up and move again to another town in another state. It didn’t matter that I had met a girl who saw me for something other than the twin brother of Talia Bennett. It didn’t matter that leaving her was like ripping my heart out of my chest. Nothing mattered but Talia, Talia, Talia!” He sucked in a deep breath to calm himself. “So we came to Destiny, and after a while it felt like we had finally found a place we could settle down. But then she had to go and ruin it again. After what she did …” He ran a hand through his hair. “Everyone would know. It would be all through school and I would be forever known as the brother of the town bike. Again. Can you imagine what that that felt like to an eighteen-year-old boy? What it felt like when we had finally found a place where we could lay down some roots. The selfish little bitch. I couldn’t let her ruin everything.” Spit flecked his lips. Sweat formed on his temples and dribbled in rivulets down the side of his shiny face as his emotions got the better of him. “Why did she get to ruin everything because she couldn’t control herself?”
“What did you do to her?” I asked.
“I saw her leave the house that night. Saw her flee in tears. So I went to her room. I knew she kept a diary, knew she wrote down all her stupid thoughts and feelings. She had left it sitting on her desk, so I opened it and started reading her last entry. Read all the things she let them do to her. Read all the things they did to my sister.” His face twisted with disgust. “I knew it would be all over school come Monday morning. It was going to be Alabama and Georgia all over again.”
“You went to the water tower?”
“Of course, I did.”
When he confirmed it, I knew what was coming.
“I confronted her. Asked her what she’d done. She told me to go away, told me I didn’t want to know what happened. But I already knew what she’d been up to in that cesspit of a clubhouse with those bikers. Knew what she had let them do to her. It was going to be hell for us again. People would look at us like the white trash we had been back in Alabama. Because of her. Because she couldn’t keep her panties on.”
“She was a young girl, Elias. She thought she was in love. Young girls, they make mistakes.”
“She was a slut!” he yelled and looked at me like a man at the end of his emotional tether, his eyes wide, his face flushed. “She let them do things to her that no girl should ever let a man do to her.”
“. . . she made a mistake, Elias. She didn’t deserve to die. She deserved your empathy, not your judgment.”
He looked at me coldly.
“She let three men fuck her, Indy,” he said my name with spite. “She let them defile her. Showed them what white trash she was.” He stood up abruptly. “And who do you think would have paid for that mistake?”
Goosebumps rippled across my skin as I looked at him in disbelief.
“You pushed her off the water tower,” I whispered.
His head jerked toward me. “Of course, I pushed her off the water tower! What else was I going to do? Let her live so she could keep doing this? Let her ruin my life . . . over and over and over again?”
“She didn’t deserve to die!”
“She would have kept doing it, don’t you see? Everywhere we went she would’ve dropped her panties for the next guy with a motorbike and a cut on his back. And I would’ve been the brother of the town whore, again and again.” He was still for a moment. Then he straightened. “You know what I felt when I watched her go over the edge and plummet to the ground?”
When I looked away in disgust, he answered, “Relief. I felt an overwhelming sense of goddamn relief. It was finally over. I wasn’t the brother of the town bike anymore. I was the brother of the dead girl.” He gave me a pointed look. “And I’ll tell you what, that gets you laid more times than being the brother of the town slut, that’s for sure. Thank God for sympathy fucking!” He grinned like a madman. “Because God knows it got me laid a ridiculous amount of times.”
“You’re crazy,” I breathed.
He laughed evilly. “No. I’m not crazy, Indy. Just fed up with her behavior and having to pack up and start over because my sister couldn’t keep her legs closed.”
His maniacal smile faded and he scoffed, shaking his head.
“It’s ironic, really, seeing that we moved away anyway. My mama had difficulty getting over her death, so we moved back to Sweetwater, Alabama. Straight from one hellhole and right into another. You see, my mama got a boyfriend and he was brutal. Strong. Overpowering.” Elias’s eyes glazed over as he recalled the dark memories. He was still for a moment. Trapped in the past. The muscle in his jaw ticking as his mind took him back to the terrible times he had endured. “He did things to me that just ain’t right. And you know what got me through the nights when he decided to brutalize me? While he was ramming his cock into me I would think about setting fire to that stinking mobile trailer we called a home with him inside it.” He inhaled deeply to push the memories back. “And that’s exactly what I did when he came home drunk one night and decided he wanted to rape me again. I was waiting. Anticipating his every move. So, I set that trailer ablaze with him passed out on the floor. And it felt so freeing. Making him pay. Making him die. The relief was a rush.” He looked up, pleased with what he had done. “In that moment, I knew I had to make the Kings of Mayhem pay. I had to exact my revenge on everyone who had fucked up my life.”
He turned away and began to flip the knife in his hand. Bile rose in my throat. His revelations were drawing to an end, meaning any minute now, he would try to kill me.
“They didn’t fuck up your life,” I said, delirious with fear and dehydration. Sweat trickled from my temple to my jaw. “You left town because she died. And she died because of you.”
He swung back to me. “And I killed her because of them.”
There was no point trying to rationalize with him. He was insane. His thoughts and motives were all twisted up into a giant knot in this brain.
“And now?” I was afraid to ask.
“Now?” Elias grinned evilly. “Now, I finish with you.”
Fear tore up my spine.
“They will kill you.”
“Oh, I don’t doubt that they’ll come after me.” His eyes hit mine. “But by the time they find you, I’ll be long gone.”
“You’re a fucking coward,” I said as he walked toward me. The knife in his hand glinted in the morning light. “You say this is payback for what they did, yet you couldn’t even confront them man to man. You crept about like a little church mouse only making your move when you knew no one was watching. You’re not a man, you’re a weakling.”
Anger shimmered across his face, so I knew my words had stung his pride.
“I was going to make this painless. Quick. But now I think I might take my time with you.”
My heart pounded in my chest. I had to make a break for it. If I could get to a window, I could dive out of it into the street and he was less likely to make a scene in public. It was the only chance I had left. So, I launched up from the chair and pushed past him, racing for the open window across the room.
I ran as fast as I could, but he tackled me and we both crashed to the ground. Pain shot through my womb and up my spine. As we struggled, he got me on my back and quickly overpowered me. He forced my legs open and pressed his pelvis into mine, reaching between us to undo his belt buckle. He was hard and I realized he’d probably been aroused the entire time.
“Now, I’m not a rapist by nature,” he panted. “But when Cade finds you, I want him to
know exactly what you went through.”
He lowered his zipper and released his erection, and I quickly ramped up my struggle for freedom.
“No!” I yelled.
It’s amazing the strength you can summon when you’re fighting for your life. But even so, I was no match for Elias’s power.
He went for my panties and I screamed at him, but that only seemed to excite him more.
“And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t looking forward to getting a taste of the tight little pussy that has Cade so fucking whipped.” He tried to get his fingers into my panties but I was thrashing about too much. Again, this only seemed to fuel his amusement and excitement. “Yeah, I knew you’d be a screamer. You like it rough, baby. You better believe that’s how you’re going to get it.”
His mouth went to the curve of my neck and his tongue slid along my throat to my ear.
“I’m going to enjoy this,” he said hoarsely, his erection pressing into my thigh. “To think if Cade hadn’t volunteered to go to Kansas in my place, I was just going to shoot you. Just like Mirabella. But him leaving gave me time. With you.”
That was when I got one arm free and shoved my fingers into his left eye. And I didn’t hold back, either. I dug them right in there and gouged it.
Elias growled and rolled off me, thrusting his palm up to his eye. I took advantage and scurried backwards, my mind frantically searching for a survival plan. Elias climbed to his feet, unsteadily, and I shakily rose to mine. Not wasting a moment longer, I closed the space between us and slammed my knee into his groin. With a cry, he fell to his knees, his exposed erection going limp from the pain in his balls.
“You goddamn fucking bitch!” he roared.
And because he was a murdering, raping, sonofabitch, while he nursed his aching balls, I kicked him in the jaw, dropping his murderous ass to the floor.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have the energy for any more, and I began to see stars. And despite the adrenaline powering through my veins, I felt woozy and stumbled on my feet. I slumped against the wall.