by Raven Dark
I titled my head back and he squeezed two drops into each eye. I blinked, my eyes watering. He dabbed the excess liquid that dripped from the sides of my eyes.
“I use these to hide my eye-color, too. I’ll show you how to do this yourself next time. Just be warned, they’ll make your eyes sensitive to light, so you’ll have to wear sunglasses.” He pulled out a pair of sunglasses from the front of his cut and slipped the black shades on my face. Then he handed me a helmet. I put it on, and he swung onto the bike. Not that I’d admit it to him now, but it gave me a special rush that he wanted my arms around him while we rode.
Pretty Boy scowled at Hawk when he saw us together, but he made no move to take me with him, just swung into his seat.
“Still not getting along, I see?” I said in Hawk’s ear, rubbing his shoulders. “Are you two going to be surly with each other all the way to Delta, then, Master?”
“He’ll get his head out of his ass eventually. I can’t blame him. He loves you, and I hurt you. I’d want to kill me too.”
My jaw dropped. Pretty Boy loved me? Where did he get that idea? And it sounded a lot like what Sheriff had said about the other three at the well. Did Hawk and Sheriff see something I didn’t? My belly fluttered at the idea that any of the Four felt something so strong for me. As T-Man had reminded me, the Dark Legion’s men were pirates. They wouldn’t love a slave. Besides, Pretty Boy had told me he’d been hurt before by a woman. He’d never let himself be so vulnerable again.
I swung onto the bike behind Hawk and was about to tell him he was wrong about Pretty Boy, when Crash dismounted his bike and crushed Cherry to him, catching my attention.
“You don’t have to go, baby,” she said softly into his neck.
“I do. You and I both know I was meant to be more than a cook. This is my chance to prove myself.”
“Get off him, Cherry,” Steel growled. “He’ll be back before you know it, and then you can pester him all you like.”
I snickered into Hawk’s back. Until I noticed T-Man sitting on his bike beside Steel, watching Cherry and Crash with a scowl.
Wow. Possession poured off him, almost predatory. His fist strangled the handle of his bike so hard I wondered how it didn’t leave an imprint. Cherry didn’t notice. Thank the Maker, considering she was terrified of him.
Cherry slipped a chain off of her neck and put it over Crash’s head. The ring—the one I assumed he’d given her yesterday—hung from the chain, resting between his pecs.
“To remind you of me,” she said. “Come back to me, okay?”
He nodded, pressed the ring to his lips, and then laid a long, hot kiss on her mouth.
“All right, that’s enough, boy,” Sheriff said, swaggering into the room. “Mount up or get left behind.”
I stared at him. So that’s what the General of the Dark Legion looked like when he rode. His left shoulder had a metallic plate strapped to it, armor drawn with a flaming skull. Overlapping steel scales covered his arm, finishing in an articulated steel glove. Bulging with muscles and rippling with power, he looked gorgeous as ever, even with a mask of metal covering the upper half of his face, except for an eye slit, leaving bare a strong jaw and his delicious mouth. The leader of the Dark Legion was the perfect mix of hot and darkly frightening.
For an instant, Sheriff’s gaze locked on me. Amusement and lust swirled in that gaze, and it went right through me, even though I couldn’t tell if he liked what he saw. Possession radiated off him, but also something darker.
Determination.
“Boy,” Sheriff barked when Crash didn’t move fast enough.
“Yes, General.” He released Cherry with a final squeeze of her hand and swung onto a strange contraption. It had two wheels in the back and one in the front, with a large enclosed compartment on each side. Doc rode a second one like it, both men near the back of the line. Even the club’s young recruiter, Pup, rode in front of them.
“Where are the other two?” the General demanded, looking around at the men. I was about to ask Hawk what he meant when Diamond and Emmy walked in.
“We’re here, General.” Diamond gave me a nod and sashayed over to Pup, swinging onto his bike. Emmy climbed on the back of a bike driven by a man I’d never seen before. He had an earring that looked like a key in his ear and a thick scar that ran from under his eye to his jaw. Both of the women were dressed like me, in leather and studs, knee-high boots, only they whooped and held the men, moving like women accustomed to their roles.
“Watch what we do, Setora, and you’ll be fine,” Diamond said.
“Minus the lateness,” Sheriff said coolly. “Men don’t wait for pussy. Keep up or get back to your caves.”
For some reason, Emmy looked at me and snickered. When I glanced at Sheriff again, his lips pulled in a smirk. My stomach flip-flopped traitorously.
“Something happen between you and the General again, Kitten?” Hawk rumbled.
“Yes, Master. Can we not talk about it?”
“Oh, we will. Later, though.” Hawk slipped his helmet on, flipped the visor down, and got his bike going. The rumble of the engine felt good between my legs.
Cherry gave me a quick awkward hug. She put her lips to my ear. “I don’t know what’s going on between you and Sheriff, but he’d better get his head on straight soon. You deserve him.” She squeezed me hard. “Take care of yourself, Violet…uh…Onyx.” Before I could say anything, she stepped back and shouted over the dim, “Bring her back in one piece, you four.”
“We will. Enough of the sentimental shit. Stand clear.” Sheriff swung onto his bike and brought the engine to life.
When everyone was mounted, the men at the back of the line started backing out of the garage. I glanced behind me, watching them face their bikes outward, toward the exit to the Grotto.
Outside the garage, the wide path led up a slight hill to a tunnel that burrowed through one of the many high cliffs that walled the Grotto in from the rest of the world. The tunnel led out to the surrounding desert. To the outside world, beyond the protection of the Grotto that served as the Dark Legion’s home and sanctuary.
Nervousness ate at me, knowing I was about to be taken back out into the world that had brought me nothing but danger and loss my entire life.
With a few final goodbyes, we rode out of the cave and up the path, toward the dark tunnel ahead. The darkness of the tunnel soon swallowed us, giving way to glaring sunlight as we left the Grotto behind and headed into hot, dry, unforgiving desert.
What exactly lay ahead of us out here, I didn’t know, but as I wrapped my arms around Hawk and he rode right on Sheriff’s tail with Pretty Boy and Steel behind us, a sense of belonging unlike I’d ever felt before settled over me.
Out here, a world of danger awaited us, but whatever happened, I knew my masters, the Four, and the Dark Legion as a whole, would protect each other…and me.
Chapter 8
What Pirates Do
According to Pretty Boy, Glen Lars lived a three-hour ride away from the Grotto’s Zone Zero. He ran a steel refinery in the small city of Rafe, half a day’s ride outside of Zone 2. We’d stopped to let a couple of the men relieve themselves by the side of the road, and I’d heard my masters discussing the plan—they’d ride as far as a bar and grill near Rafe, leave a few of the men with me and the other two women, and then Steel, Pretty Boy, Hawk and Sheriff would ride out to Lars. T-Man, Pup, Crash, and Doc would watch over us.
Privately, I would have loved to see this Lars for myself. After all, this was the man who, according to the information Grizzle had given my masters, had been robbing the Dark Legion for months. Not to mention he was responsible for a failed assassination attempt on their General. Anyone who went against men with the reputation of the Dark Legion had to be an interesting individual. It didn’t surprise me the men wouldn’t let me or the other women near him for that very reason. There was no telling what kind of person they were dealing with.
The ride out toward Rafe was pleasa
ntly uneventful, if sweltering. The breeze was a hot, dry caress on my face, but it was also gentle enough that the desert sand didn’t leave that fine layer of irritating grit on my hair and skin.
We encountered few people, yet I couldn’t make myself relax. Being outside of the protection of the well-hidden Grotto, it was impossible to forget Damien still had his J’nai out hunting for me. True, my hair wasn’t the telltale lavender anymore, and my amethyst eyes were disguised, but I still couldn’t help the nagging fear that, if Damien’s men crossed our path, they’d somehow know who I was.
And the J’nai were far from the only danger out here.
There was a reason every zone was as well protected and fortified as Damien’s Zone 4, and it wasn’t always because zone captains were as paranoid as him.
As we rode, memories of the road warrior crew that had found me outside of Hell’s Burning when I was six flooded back on me, and my arms around Hawk tightened. Poachers like those men who found Cherry and me long ago had no problem taking slaves from other road warriors and then stripping them of everything they had, leaving the warriors in the desert to die of thirst and starvation.
Before my masters dropped the rest of us off, the group stopped at a gate to a small village near Rafe around noon. The tall gate at the entrance to the village said Welcome to Salvage in large letters across the iron-spiked top. Two bikers with skeletal pirates on their cuts guarded the gate. Their crew name, The Blood Pirates, encircled the emblem. According to my masters, since Salvage existed outside a protected zone, the Blood Pirates watched over the city in exchange for protection money and resources.
Riding up to the gate, Sheriff signaled, and everyone quieted their engines to a low purr. Doc spoke to the guards, and they nodded their permission for us to enter.
“All right, here’s how it’s gonna be.” Sheriff lifted the steel mask that covered the upper half of his face. “T-Man, keep an eye on Onyx.” He nodded to me. People passed by coming in and out of the town’s open gate, close enough to hear him. “Don’t let her or the other women out of your sight.”
“Yes, sir.” T-Man nodded.
“Emmy, you ride with Doc. Diamond, stay with Pup, Onyx you ride with T-Man.”
Emmy and I dismounted and switched bikes, me climbing on behind T-Man while Sheriff continued to talk.
“Diamond, show Onyx the ropes. I don’t want another kidnapping on my hands.”
“Yes, sir.” Diamond gave me a reassuring glance over Pup’s shoulder.
“Latch, you’re coming with us.” Sheriff nodded to the man with the scar on his face and the key in his ear. “If Lars gives us any trouble, we’ll need you to get us past whatever fortification he’s got.”
Latch nodded his agreement.
Engines roared, and my masters rode off, disappearing into a cloud of sand and dust before the rest of us headed into the village.
Worry for my four masters nibbled at my insides as I held onto T-Man’s waist. It hadn’t abated five minutes later when we pulled up to The Wheel and Clutch.
T-Man helped me off of his bike. I looked forward to the chance to get inside, out of the heat. Until I noticed a dozen road warriors’ bikes parked in front of the small, rundown, one-story bar. Two or three of them bore the Blood Pirates’ emblem.
“There aren’t as many Blood Pirates here as usual,” T-Man said, taking off his helmet and setting it on his seat. “Must be something going on out of town, an event or fair.” He frowned around at the half empty streets, the occasional bike rumbling past. “This place won’t be as safe as it usually is, if that’s the case. Ladies, stay alert and stick close.”
Diamond pecked Pup on the cheek and swung off his bike, then came over to me.
“Come here, girl,” she said, turning me to face her properly. “So, here’s the deal.” She spoke low and took her time fixing my hair. “You can’t ask all those questions like you usually do once we get inside.” She nodded toward the bikes. Road warriors sat astride or stood next to some of them smoking and drinking. “Don’t speak without permission, don’t look any guys in the face.”
“Yeah,” Emmy said, coming to stand with us. “And make sure you sit yourself right down at T-Man’s feet when you get in there. These guys need to think he’s your master.”
“Wait, at his feet? You mean on the—”
“Yes, on the floor,” Diamond said quickly. “Unless you’re told to do otherwise.”
Before I could reply, she gave me a light push toward T-Man. He looked back to make sure we were following and then crossed the lot toward the doors.
Behind me, Emmy and Diamond’s footsteps clacked on the parking lot cement. Their footsteps speeded up before Diamond hissed in my ear.
“And stop walking so stiff!” When I looked back at her in confusion, she rolled her eyes. “You look too dignified. You’re not a fucking princess anymore, you’re a road rat.”
“How am I supposed to walk?” I gritted out.
“Walk like you’re a noodle.” T-Man rumbled over his shoulder. I scrunched my brows at him, then at the two women when they looked amused.
“You have hips, use them,” Emmy said, and I watched her sway her hips with her step.
“Put some swagger in your step,” Diamond added, doing the same.
I tried to internalize what I saw the women do, swaying my hips, but I probably looked like I had two left feet. By the way Emmy chuckled and cleared her throat, I was right. I didn’t have time to correct my walk, anyway, because we’d entered the bar.
About six tables and four booths were filled with more bikers from at least three different clubs whose patches I didn’t recognize. A few torches on the walls provided minimal lighting, probably to avoid adding more heat to what the desert already brought. Windows at the back and along the same wall as the booths let the sunlight bathe the common room. A single bartender served drinks, and two serving men carried food and drinks on trays.
Here and there, some of the customers glanced at us. No wonder. A group of men couldn’t walk into any establishment with three women and not be noticed when women were so rare that most large road warrior crews didn’t have one female. Nervousness spiked in me, even with four Legion men penning us between them, but as soon as the other patrons saw the Dark Legion emblem on the backs of our men’s cuts, they quickly went back to their food and drinks.
T-Man led me over to a round, empty table near a back window, Pup, Doc, and Crash following behind with Diamond and Emmy. Once the men were seated around the table, the two women went to their knees, Diamond in front of Pup, Emmy in front of Doc, both of them leaning on the men’s legs. Diamond draped her arm on Pup’s knee as if he was the only man in the world, then looked quickly but pointedly at me. Waiting for me to do the same.
Silence and lack of eye-contact I was familiar with. I’d been trained to please a man all my life, and being on my knees in front of men was hardly new to me. But a marble palace this was not, and this floor wasn’t covered with the fine carpet Damien would have expected. Plus, this was not the sort of thing I ever had to do in the Grotto. I’d only been with the Dark Legion a month or so, and things had never been like this.
I copied Diamond and Emmy, sitting in front of T-Man and leaning on his leg, all my focus on him. An unexpected bolt of awkwardness squirmed in my belly at the idea of even pretending to fawn over T-Man. It felt strangely like I was sitting in a place meant for someone else—a certain scarred and fiery redhead.
That thought made no sense. Never mind that Cherry was afraid of T-Man, she was also with Crash, with whom she had a strictly exclusive courtship, but there it was.
Twice, I opened my mouth to ask the many questions swirling in my head. How long would my masters be gone? What would happen if this Lars wouldn’t let them in? Would there be a fight? Both times, all I needed was to look at the rough and rowdy men seated all around us to keep my silence.
Maker, Steel was right, I was way too inquisitive for my own good.
I didn’t miss that only one of the other crews seemed to have a female, a group of six men in a booth, but she was pinned on one of their laps, squirming none too cooperatively.
“Having trouble keeping your mouth shut, slave?” T-Man said, cradling my chin in his hand. It felt strange having a man who wasn’t my master touching my face, even if T-Man reminded me a lot of Pretty Boy. He could have been his older brother, one with curly hair instead of straight, and who smoked a pipe. T-Man’s smile teased, but there was none of the hunger in his eyes my masters would have had. This was an act.
Well, sort of. I had the feeling he was trying to help me keep quiet.
“Sorry, sir.” I jerked my eyes down to keep from looking at his face.
“Are you hungry?” His voice was different than I’d ever heard it sound in the Grotto, more sultry, commanding, more alpha male. I had to admire his acting skills, and I could easily see a woman longing to sit exactly where I was now.
My stomach rumbled, answering for me. I nodded.
He signaled one of the bar’s servers and ordered a beer and a burger with fries. “And a plate of whatever scraps you have for our girls, with water for them, too.”
The server wrote the order down. Pup, Doc and Crash ordered their own plates and he left.
Scraps? My thoughts raced darkly. Like a dog would eat? I wanted to say something to Emmy and Diamond, or at least look at them, anything to express my disbelief, but I knew better than to risk the attention, so I kept my eyes on T-Man’s lap. Unfortunately, looking at him sparked its own set of questions I somehow kept myself from asking.
A short time later, the server dropped off the food. He set plates of burgers and fries and mugs of beer down for the men. Then before he departed, he wordlessly dropped a plate of scraps on the floor right at my feet for me, Diamond, and Emmy to share.
At my feet, probably because I was closest to him.