by Bella Rose
She looked at him. He could not decipher what the look on her face might mean, but he knew he wanted to.
Then she shrugged. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I can find something to smile about now.”
Chapter Four
Lena gazed around her and tried not to sob in horror. Rocko hadn’t been kidding when he’d said they had some mobile homes out in the desert. The cluster of single wide, sixties and seventies style trailers were clustered together in a haphazard fashion that showed absolutely no attempt to make a neighborhood or anything approaching an organized settlement.
Lena swallowed back her apprehension and tried to remember that if nothing else, she was at least a “guest” of the gang leader. That had to count for something. Right? Unfortunately, it didn’t make her feel any better when she saw several men and a few women spilling out of the trailers. There had to be more than thirty people gathered here. Did they all share space in those things? Would she be expected to sleep in some mobile home style dormitory or something? The thought was not a good one.
Rocko parked his truck in front of one of the smallest trailers. A scrubby tree with no leaves half hung over the thing as though it were about to fall right on top of it. There was a motorcycle parked out front, and a Pit Bull Terrier barked at them from behind a falling down chain link fence.
“You can get out.” Rocko gestured to the structure in front of them. “This is my place.”
“You uh—” She swallowed back the bile that threatened to overtake her. “—you have your own place?”
“Sort of.” He shrugged. “Stone lives at one end. I live at the other.”
“Oh.”
Her stomach nearly revolted. She had no interest in sharing living space with Stone. In fact, the idea made her want to change her mind about this whole thing. She had been foolish to think this would ever work. What was wrong with her?
“Well, come on.” Rocko shooed her out of the vehicle before exiting himself.
There were people milling around the truck, pressing as close as they could get. The women openly gawked at her as she got out with her duffle bag held protectively in front of her chest.
“Lena.”
She whirled around. Rocko was standing in front of the truck with a disgruntled expression on his face. She edged her way closer to him. It felt like she needed space. She couldn’t breathe. These people were in her personal space with their thick, unkempt beards, ratty clothing, and gap-toothed, leering grins. Why were they crowding her?
Then she felt a sharp pain on her ass.
Lena jumped. Someone had pinched her! She turned around, but couldn’t tell who had done it.
She hurried around the front of the vehicle.
“Come on,” Rocko said. “Let’s go inside. We’ll have a little more privacy.”
As she followed him, the weight of every stare was heavy upon her shoulders. Rocko opened the gate, and she went through after him. The dog lunged at her, stopped only by a chain attached to his collar. Lena quickly skittered past him and heard the laughter of everybody watching. Great. They all thought she was a coward now. Just perfect.
Rocko’s boots were heavy on the rickety wood steps leading to the trailer’s front door. He grabbed the handle and shoved it open. The door stuck and then finally gave with a groaning noise. He disappeared inside the structure, and Lena hurried behind. She didn’t care what might be waiting for her inside. She was too busy wanting to be away from everyone outside to care.
“I see you brought your little piece of ass.” Stone’s voice was the first thing Lena heard as her eyes adjusted to the cramped trailer’s dim interior.
Rocko shouldered his way past Stone into the living area. “Shut up or I’ll give you another black eye to go with the first one.”
That was when Lena noticed that Stone looked as if he had been beaten to within an inch of his life. His nose was crooked. One eye was black and blue, the lid ominously swollen shut. The bruising on his jaw looked deep purple with angry red patches where the contusions had probably gone all the way to the bone. His breathing sounded labored, and he looked meaner than ever.
This did not bode well for her.
***
Rocko had hoped that Stone would have the sense to stay out of the way when Lena first came to the trailer. Of course, Rocko’s first mistake had been to think Stone would have any sense at all. The hardheaded man just wasn’t wired that way. It was too tempting for him to stick his nose in things that were none of his business.
“Back off,” Rocko growled. “I’m not kidding, Stone.”
“Fine.” Stone glared at Rocko with his good eye. “I’ll be in my room. Let me know when supper is ready.” He passed a significant look toward Lena. “You better be a damn good cook, girl.”
Rocko ignored the jab. There was no reason to pick a fight over something so minimal. Although when he glanced at Lena, the horrified expression on her face suggested it wasn’t necessarily nothing.
“I’m not much of a cook,” Lena whispered. “We never had a kitchen for me to learn. I can do some stuff, but I don’t do meal planning or that sort of thing.”
Rocko sighed. Apparently the possibility of keeping Stone off his back with that incentive was never going to work. He would just have to come up with something else. “If you can’t cook, you can’t. Can you read?”
“Yes.” She looked confused.
“Then I guess you better read some recipes or something and learn.”
Lena reared back in surprise. “Learn?”
“To cook.” What? Was she deaf or something? Rubbing his hands down his face, he gestured to the bedroom. “You can put your stuff in my room.”
“Your room?” She shifted uneasily and started to back toward the entrance doorway. “I think this was a bad idea.”
“But it was your idea,” he reminded her. “So let’s go talk, and we’ll get a few things straight.”
“O—okay.”
He could hear her soft steps behind him as she followed. He waited for her to enter his small bedroom and then closed the paper thin door. It was more of a visual barrier than anything else. Would it be enough to keep Stone away from Lena during her stay here?
Rocko suddenly felt exhausted. He was sick and fucking tired of all this maneuvering. But that was the way a gang leader stayed on top of his game.
He plopped down on the bed and gestured for Lena to take the only chair in the room.
She set her duffle bag carefully on the floor and perched on the edge of his chair. The chair sat in the corner opposite his one nightstand. The queen sized bed dominated the space. There was a chest of drawers and then a door that led into his en suite bathroom. He and Stone were the only ones on the property that didn’t have to share a bathroom. It was considered a luxury of being at the top of the food chain. Until now anyway, since he would be sharing his bathroom with Lena.
“The bathroom is right through there.” He gestured to the doorway. “That’s just for you and me, so feel free to put your stuff on the other side of the sink.”
“Okay.”
“Is that the only word you know?” He was teasing, but she looked mortified.
“I don’t know what else to say.”
“Ah.” He bobbed his head, searching for the awkward words to say what had to be covered next. “We have rules in this camp, okay?” She gave the barest of nods and waited for him to continue. “If a man brings a woman into the camp, she is his responsibility. Unless someone else wants her.”
She sat even straighter in her chair, her voice coming out strained and a good octave too high. “Someone else?”
“Yes. But that won’t happen if the couple is fucking. It’s when they fight or break up and the woman stops fucking him that she could be claimed by another man.” Rocko personally thought these rules were obnoxious, but since the Rashers didn’t take female members, it kept the peace around camp.
“So we have to—” Her throat moved as she swallowed. “—we hav
e to be having sex?”
Rocko sighed. How much easier would it be if he just said yes? “There are a few ways we can get around that.”
“How?” She was certainly interested in getting out of it. That wasn’t flattering.
He chuckled. “The thing is, Lena, I don’t particularly want to be celibate. So how about I make you a deal?”
“What sort of deal?” The open suspicion in her tone was insulting. “I’m not having sex with your friends.”
“No, but you’re going to let me touch you, and you’re going to touch me.”
The tip of her pink tongue snaked out to wet her lips. “What are you talking about?”
He watched her green eyes dilate and realized that she was aroused. Interesting. She might not be as reluctant as he’d thought. Perhaps he could set things up to be a little more rewarding than he’d first expected.
“I’m talking about your hand on my cock. Or maybe those beautiful lips of yours. I haven’t decided,” he told her in a low voice. “Then I’m going to spread your legs and play with your pussy until you’re begging me to make you come. That way nobody will ever have a reason to doubt your status as my woman.”
“Your woman,” she whispered.
He could see her working it out in her head. Oh, she was fighting it all right, but he could see her folding. He could see the very minute her brain decided to let go and give way to her curiosity. He had no notion of how experienced or inexperienced she was, but that didn’t matter to him anyway. By the end of the night, Lena would be his and there would be no question in Stone’s mind about the validity of his claim.
Chapter Five
Lena couldn’t decide what terrified her more. The idea of being intimate with Rocko or the idea of not being intimate and having some other man—maybe even Stone—challenge Rocko for possession of her. Possession of a person! It was barbaric, and she should be outraged. Except for some reason she couldn’t feel anything but this horrible sense of curiosity.
She paced back and forth in the bedroom and wondered when this was all going to happen. There was a part of her that had wanted Rocko to just get it over with. This was her fate, right? She’d been somehow transported back to the freaking eighteen hundreds where men were in charge and women were property.
But Rocko had left to go and see about something with his men. She’d been ordered to stay right here in the bedroom and not to leave. Not that she would leave. Where would she go? They were miles outside of town, and it wasn’t exactly a pleasant walk back. Besides, wouldn’t Rocko just come and find her if she tried to run? Or worse, Rocko would find her father and make him pay in some horrible way for the missing rent money.
She could not let that happen.
Lena gritted her teeth. She would protect her father. She had to. There was nobody else to do. Even if it meant that she had to give her body to pay the debt, she was willing to do it.
Like that’s going to be such a hardship, a sly part of her whispered. Probably the same part of her that had come up with this crazy deal in the first place.
Suddenly the door slammed open. Stone stood there with a glower on his ruined face. “Hello there, girl,” he snarled. “You’re going to be damn sorry you ever turned me down when I get through with you.”
“I’m not having sex with you, Stone.” Lena tried to inject her voice with authority. “I belong to Rocko now.”
He smirked. “You mistake me, girl. I don’t want your skanky ass anymore. But I am going to take a pound of flesh for this beating I got because of you.”
Lena drew back. She pressed against the bedroom wall and wondered if there was anything she could use as a weapon.
Stone began to advance. The cruel smile on his face suggested he rather liked the chase. Feeling around behind her, Lena’s fingers brushed the lamp on the nightstand. She wrapped her hand around it and forced herself to be calm. Stone wasn’t quite close enough. Her reach was limited, but she was going to be trapped between the bed and the wall. She would have to dive onto the mattress and bolt for the door. It would be her only chance.
“Stupid bitch,” Stone slurred. Was he drunk? “You’re threatening my position. Mine! And you’re no better than some loser’s cum stain.”
She smelled the sour stench of his breath and knew it was now or never. Lena lifted the lamp and smashed it across Stone’s face. He howled and grabbed his already broken nose. Lena had been counting on that. She dove to her left and bounced across Rocko’s mattress. As soon as her feet touched the floor she was sprinting for the door. The narrow hallway scraped her arms and she banged her shoulder, but she was almost there.
Then just as she thought she would somehow manage to find help, she felt a heavy hand grab her shoulder. Stone yanked, and she was flung backwards as though she’d hit a wall. Her butt hit the ground, and her head slammed down so hard she saw pinpricks of light dance before her eyes. The breath was knocked out of her, and she wheezed painfully as her lungs gasped for air.
“You’ll pay for that too!” Stone was on top of her in a second.
His big body crushed Lena’s. He pressed her into the thin carpet and put one forearm over her windpipe. She kicked out with her legs and tried to find something to help her get free. Then she put the soles of her feet flat on the ground and shoved upward as hard as she could with her hips.
The forearm on her windpipe faltered, and she managed to get enough air to scream. Stone’s hand slapped down on her mouth, and she bit him hard. He yanked his fingers away and drew back to slap her hard across the face. She used the opportunity to pull her foot up and plant it right in his chest. She kicked out once and got his sternum, but her second try got him right in the chin.
The force threw him off her body. She rolled to her knees and got moving. Faster! Faster! She had no time to lose. Grabbing the door, she kept screaming for help as she tried to yank it open. But there was a chain lock. It stuck, and she was left shouting at the top of her lungs through the tiny opening while she attempted to shut the door and remove the chain.
She heard Stone moving behind her. She had to get out of here before he recovered enough to realize what was going on. That or she was going to have to find a weapon and kill him. He had to die. She wasn’t going to let him “punish” her. She didn’t care what he thought he had a right to do.
“Get back here!” He yanked her away from the door, but she had already grabbed a baseball bat that was propped behind the front door.
Lena swung with all of her might. Her blow landed on Stone’s left shoulder. He groaned and lunged at her again. She smacked him in the knee. Then she just kept going. She was beating on him again and again, her blows becoming wild and completely irrational as he fell to the ground. She smashed his knees, his calves, his thighs, and his midsection until he was curling up in the fetal position and trying to get away from her.
Lena didn’t care. She was never going to let him touch her. Never. Then she drew back for one last swing, and Stone reared up from the floor and grabbed the bat. One good yank and he had it in his hand, and she was suddenly weaponless with a very pissed off man.
***
Rocko was nearly back to his trailer when he heard the sound of furniture being overturned, punctuated by a woman’s scream. He didn’t have to wonder what was going on. He already knew.
Sprinting the last few yards, he jumped the fence and avoided Cruiser’s enthusiastic barks. He headed up the stairs and slammed into the front door. Someone had slid the chain. He could see it. Putting his shoulder to the thin door, he popped the thing open and burst into the living room.
Lena was on the floor. Stone was on top of her. He was slowly strangling her with his forearm pressed against her windpipe. Fury filled Rocko with so much adrenaline that his body vibrated.
Rocko grabbed Stone and yanked him off of Lena. She immediately sat up and scooted away as far as she could go. Rocko didn’t spare her a glance. Not right now. He had something else to do. Stone was a mess. Lena had scratche
d his face and clawed at his arms. He was still black and blue from the beat down Rocko had given him hours earlier. It looked like Lena had used the bat on him a bit too. But the ass was still snarling and snapping as he fought to get free of Rocko’s grip.
Rocko shoved the front door of the trailer open and dragged Stone out onto the front porch. Heaving the other man up off the ground, Rocko grabbed him by his shirt and the back of his jeans. Then he launched Stone into the air. The throw sent Stone flying over the fence onto the other side of what Rocko considered his “property line.”
Other members of the Rashers had already gathered outside to gawk. They watched Stone hit the ground. Some immediately went to help. Others just watched in awe.
“I’m kicking you out, Stone,” Rocko snarled. “You no longer live here. You get what that means?”
“Who does then, boss?” A man name Lance was looking hopefully at Rocko’s trailer. “You gotta have a roommate!”
“I’m not dealing with this shit now,” Rocko said. “This fucking loser was beating my woman. Get him out of my sight and off our property. I don’t tolerate violence against a woman. Only a coward has to beat on a chick to prove he’s a man. He’s not a Rasher anymore.”
There was a gasp around the assembled gang members as they realized what Rocko was doing. Banishment was possible, but rare. Blood feuds were fueled by less. But as far as Rocko was concerned, Stone was done there in camp. He could not follow rules, therefore he could not be trusted.
With those last words, Rocko turned around and went back inside his trailer. He shut the door. Or at least he tried to close the door. It was going to need replacing. The thing was battered on both sides as though it had just come through a war. But Cruiser was outside. Nobody else was going to get into the house without Rocko knowing about it.
Lena was still where Rocko had left her a few moments ago. She was sitting on the floor with her arms wrapped around her knees. Stone had certainly managed to bang her up, but given the damage to him, she’d given as good as she had gotten.