by Unknown
“See,” Raven said gleefully looking at Travis.
“Humor me and go get dressed, minx. We’ll wait to leave,” Travis told her looking exasperated.
“Fine, but you’d better be here when I get back,” Raven grumbled as she trudged up the stairs smiling. Secretly she liked that Travis was possessive. It made her feel special.
She threw on some shorts and a light top before heading back downstairs. Her brother was standing in the hall when she came to the bottom and she grinned at him.
Marcus hugged her, kissing her forehead. “How are you?” he asked quietly, staring intently into her eyes.
“I’m good, don’t worry so much, big brother,” she told him, laughing as she leaned forward and hugged him back.
“Are you happy with him, Raven?”
“More than I have ever been in my life, Marcus.” She knew that he was always looking out for her and that he cared enough to ask her this question made her feel warm and fuzzy inside. It was nice when the people you cared about wanted to make sure you were happy.
“Good. I didn’t want to have to kill him, but I would if he’d made you unhappy,” Marcus said as he let her go and turned, walking into the living room. Raven stared after him. She felt an arm slide around her waist and leaned back into Travis as his smell enveloped her.
“You know I’d wipe the floors with him, don’t you?” he asked against her ear making her giggle because after watching one of his fights with Ratchet, she’d already known that. She turned in his arms, wrapping hers around his neck.
“Yes, but he’s my big brother, let’s give him the illusion that he could protect me, shall we?” Raven asked rubbing his nose with hers. Travis let out a put-upon sigh and kissed the tip of her nose.
“Fine, but only because I love you. Otherwise his ego would be in pieces along with his body,” Travis whispered against her lips as she giggled again, then kissed him.
They stood like that for a long moment, his tongue plunging into her mouth, his hands possessively holding her ass, pressing together wantonly.
“Ugh. Must you do that now? Can’t we get on the road? I can’t stand to watch any more of this, it’s making my eyes bleed more than you in a bathrobe did,” Matt grumbled from behind them, making Travis let out a growl and pull away.
“I have to leave,” he told her, his forehead pressed against hers.
“If you’d listened to me and ignored the doorbell you wouldn’t have to, but nooo you had to be a hero.” Raven gave a loud mock sigh and was rewarded with another light kiss before he pulled away and turned to her brother and Matt who were standing at the door waiting.
“I love you. We’ll be back before nightfall. Be good today,” he said, leaning down for one last kiss. Only just before their lips touched, he was jerked away from her by Matt and Marcus who began dragging him out the door, whining.
“I can’t take any more of this, it’s horrible. Bye Raven, see you latter,” Matt was saying.
“Jeez, dude, she’ll be here when you get home and I won’t have to kill you because you’re molesting my sister because I won’t be here. Discretion! It’s not just a word asshole!” her brother was saying as they dragged him out the door to the sound of Raven’s laughter.
Raven looked at the clock again, Travis was an hour late and she was tired. She decided to head up to bed. She knew he’d wake her when he got home. She turned out the living room light and headed up the stairs to their bedroom. She flicked on the light and took off her shorts and grabbed one of Travis’s shirts. She took off her shirt and pulled his over her head.
Lifting the hem she inhaled, smelling Travis and sandalwood from the aftershave he used. She sighed contentedly. She crawled into bed on his side and pushed her face into his pillow. She missed him. It wasn’t long before she’d fallen into a deep sleep.
Raven felt something biting hard into her wrists. She pulled at it only to realize she was restrained. At first she thought it was a nightmare, they always seemed so real, but the pain as she jerked on her wrists made her realize that she wasn’t dreaming.
She opened her eyes, panic making her pulse speed up, and she felt the heavy weight on top of her. She almost stopped breathing when she saw the face hovering above hers.
Viper was sitting on top of her grinning gleefully. “Ah, finally awake I see. So nice of you to join me, Doll.” Raven felt fear flooding through her veins. She couldn’t help it, she screamed. Viper slapped her across the face hard. Her eye began to throb and she fought against the ties that held her wrists in place.
Oh God, where was Travis. Was he dead? Was that why he wasn’t home yet? Had Viper killed him? Those thoughts flew through her mind as she stared up at the very real nightmare who was sitting on her stomach. Her cheek was throbbing and she watched as Viper brought a blade up to her neck holding it against her. She stilled, not wanting him to cut her with the knife.
“Scream again and I cut your fucking tongue out, bitch!” Viper growled, his hand holding her jaw painfully tight. Raven whimpered and stared up at him with wild eyes.
Viper smiled, “That’s better, Doll. So pretty. You know when you left I was very upset. You see, I don’t like when people deprive me of my pets before I really get to play with them.” His eyes were trained on the knife, which slid across her lips and down her chest where he’d already cut her shirt off, she realized in horror.
“I saw you fucking him, you know. You were so hot.” He leaned forward running his tongue over her ear making her jerk away. Viper laughed wickedly. “I wonder if you’ll get that hot when I fuck you. I can’t wait. I bet you’re tight as a fucking glove. That Devil bastard seemed to think you were.” He let out a mocking grunt and said evilly, “Oh yeah, so tight, Princess, so tight.”
Oh God, he had been watching them, she thought horrified. He’d watched them making love on the patio when Travis had given her his patch. She suddenly felt dirty again thinking of Viper in the woods behind the house watching them.
“You know, I thought he’d never leave you alone, but he did, didn’t he, little doll. And now we get to play a bit.” Viper laughed wickedly, his hands cupping her bared breasts. Raven tried to buck him off, jerking at her bonds.
“You bastard!” she screamed at him.
“I really wish I’d brought the boys. They could have held you down while I cut your pretty skin. Think pretty boy will still want you when you’re all cut up? And what about when I take you back to your home, Raven. Will he come for you again.” Viper laughed as he cut her across the breast. The cut was shallow but it stung. Raven was racking her brain for a way out of this. She had to get away from him before he could take her again. There was no way she was going back to that compound without one heck of a fight.
“Such a shame that we didn’t get to play more, Raven. I would have these breasts covered in my marks by now.” He cut her again, this time on her other breast. She cried out.
“But we should go, I think. Don’t want lover boy to crash our party now, do we, Doll.” His wicked laugh was enough to send chills down her spine but if Viper was worried about Travis coming back, it meant that he wasn’t dead, thank God.
“No, maybe I should fuck you in his bed before we go though. Find out how hot I can make that pussy of yours. I bet you’re hot already, I saw how much you wanted it.” He was laughing and pressing his cock between her legs as her struggles became frantic. She didn’t want him to touch her and him rubbing against her made her want to vomit. The thought of his penis anywhere near her was horrifying. He laid the knife on the table beside the bed and reached for his belt buckle. She began to scream then and he laughed above her with an evil look in his eyes.
Chapter 22
Travis coasted into the drive because he noticed that the lights were off and he didn’t want to wake Raven. She’d likely been up late waiting on him to come home and he wanted her to get some rest tonight with the trip to Titus tomorrow. He had left her brother and Matt back at the head of the drive. Today h
ad been a cluster fuck and he was glad he’d gone with them. Somehow the man they’d gone to talk to had found out they were with the Devils and tried to kill them.
If he hadn’t been there, Marcus or Matt might have ended up dead and that would have been bad for him. He was now hoping to take a quick shower and crawl into bed with Raven and hold her. He’d been thinking about her all day and even with the crazy run around they’d had to give the four men chasing them after they’d killed the two inside the bar, he’d wondered what she was doing. He was hooked on that woman like an addict needing his next fix. Only she was much more potent than any drug and she was his, he thought with a sickeningly sweet grin.
He put the stand down on the bike and started walking towards the house. He was almost inside when he felt a chill go down his spine and he knew without a doubt that something was wrong. He pulled his gun, moving to the door. He tested the knob and was upset to find it unlocked. He knew Raven, ever since her ordeal she was obsessive about locking up every part of the house. She wouldn’t have left the door unlocked.
He pushed it in slipping in the crack, hoping that whoever was here didn’t hear the slight creak it made as it opened. He did a quick glance around the room seeking the reason for his suddenly intense focus. He was halfway to the stairs when he heard a sound that curdled his blood.
Raven screamed and he was no longer looking around the room, he was taking the stairs two at a time to get to her. She was still screaming when he moved through the slightly open door. He saw that Raven was on the bed with her wrists tied and a man was sitting on her doing something with his pants while laughing. He didn’t think, he just pulled the trigger. The man pitched forward onto a still screaming Raven and he dove forward towards her, thrusting the man off her.
Raven was thrashing on the bed still trying to get away from Viper, sobbing and screaming her head off. Viper had his pants almost undone and she was only making burns on her wrists with the rope but she wasn’t giving up. Maybe if she screamed loud enough someone would hear, or the ropes would give. Viper was laughing wickedly, looking down at her with an evil grin, when suddenly his head exploded splattering her with blood as he pitched forward onto the bed and she was screaming for an entirely different reason.
Viper was thrust off her and the man who was just a figure in the darkness cut the ropes off her wrists. He leaned towards her and she saw it was Travis before she screamed again and jumped into his arms still sobbing. She was hysterical but she couldn’t help it. She’d thought she was going to be raped and then the man’s head had been blown off.
She clung to Travis’s shoulders still screaming. Thunderous footsteps were suddenly on the stairs and Travis turned with her still held in his arms with the gun trained on the doorway. She was wrapped around him like a monkey, her legs wrapped around his waist and her arms around his neck with her face buried in his shoulder.
“What the fuck are you doing to my sister— oh fuck. What the hell happened? Who is that?” Marcus said, taking in the scene as Travis lowered the gun.
“I don’t know but help me take care of this. I need to get her cleaned up and calmed the fuck down. I didn’t think. I saw that fucker on her and I shot him. She is freaking out and I need to get her taken care of,” Travis was saying. Raven wanted to tell him that it was Viper who was making her freak out like this, not that he shot him, but she was still unable to talk. Okay, so maybe it was a little bit about his head exploding all over her face, she thought, rubbing against Travis hoping to remove the blood.
“Damn, go, we’ll take care of this,” Marcus told him and Travis carried her into the bathroom, throwing his gun on the dresser as they went by.
He set her on the counter. “Let go, Princess. I need to start the shower.” She forced herself to let go, watching him start the water. She was only wearing her panties because Viper had cut Travis’s shirt off her so he didn’t have much to remove from her.
“Shhh, its okay, Princess. Just let me start the water so we can get you cleaned up.” He brushed her hair off her face and pulled her underwear off her legs as she watched, then he tested the water in the shower. He stripped his own clothes off before lifting her again and setting her in the shower. She was hiccupping and had finally stopped crying but now she was shaking uncontrollably.
He began cleaning her face and washing her hair. His hands smoothed over her body as he whispered to her that she was okay, that she was going to be fine. When he had her clean, he washed himself as she leaned against the wall watching silently. Then he helped her out and took one of the fluffy towels and began wiping the water off her.
He set her down on the toilet as he wrapped a towel around his own waist. He kissed her forehead, holding her for a moment. She wrapped her arms around his waist and clung to him, her face buried in his stomach.
“I need to get us some clothes and make sure everything’s cleaned up, okay? I’ll be right back.” Raven nodded. Travis moved to the door, glancing back to see her pulling her legs up to her chest to hold herself. He hurried out of the room and to his dresser.
“Is she okay?” Marcus asked, a worried frown across his face.
Travis glanced at him wearily. “I don’t know, man. I should have got him off her before I shot him. I fucked up, but hearing her screaming like that I just--”
Marcus interrupted. “Yeah, I know man. We were the same. I heard her screaming and we didn’t hesitate. We thought you were hurting her,” Marcus said sheepishly.
“I’d never,” Travis growled.
“I know that or I wouldn’t have left her with you, but when I heard her screaming I didn’t think either. I was just headed up those stairs to kill you.” Marcus laid a hand on his shoulder. “I don’t think I would have waited either if I’d walked in on that, so don’t be too hard on yourself about it, okay. She’s strong, stronger than you know. She’ll get over this.”
“I know. I just never want her to experience something like that again. What are you guys doing here anyway? Last I knew you were headed back to your girl,” Travis asked the other man.
“We forgot to get Matt’s phone from you when we left and he wanted to come back for it. A chick’s supposed to be calling him tomorrow.” Marcus grinned at that for a second before he continued. “We were headed inside to get your keys and we heard Raven start screaming and we ran in here.”
“I see. I don’t get why this happened. Wasn’t what those fucking Headhunters did to her enough? Who the fuck was that guy?” Travis growled.
“It was Viper. He is the Headhunter who took her in the first place.”
“Fuck, no wonder she was screaming so loud. Her wrists are tore to pieces. We need to get Doc over here to look at them. No wonder she was freaking out,” Travis growled. He heard a groan from near the bed and looked over to where Matt had been pulling the sheets off the bed.
“Bad news, boys, the blood soaked into the bed.”
“It’s fine, we’re not sleeping in here tonight. Hell, maybe never again. It depends on how Raven feels about it. We’ll sleep in the guest room.” Travis pulled out a pair of jeans, some of her underwear and one of his shirts before turning back to the two men. “Just carry the damned thing out back for now and I’ll burn it tomorrow.” He saw the blood on the white wall behind the cherrywood bed he’d loved. “Shit, looks like the wall needs to be painted too, but don’t worry about that tonight. Call Doc and get him out here to look at her wrists,” he told them and headed back into the bathroom to check on Raven.
She was standing up beside the counter. She’d washed the blood off the edge and hidden the clothes in the hamper and was at the sink cleaning his cut. She looked up at him, her eyes deep blue pools of storm-tossed seas.
“It won’t come out. I tried, but the blood’s in the seams.” Travis nodded. He didn’t want to tell her that it wasn’t Viper’s blood in the seams of his cut. She didn’t need to know about that.
“It’s okay, Princess,” he told her, taking it from her to set it do
wn on the counter. “Let’s get you dressed and you can lay down in the guest room until Doc gets here. Okay?”
“Okay,” Raven said, still feeling a bit numb as she let Travis pull the shirt over her head. He dropped the towel and put on his jeans, then lifted her and carried her into the bedroom.
Raven knew she was in shock but she didn’t know how to break herself out of it and it made her feel weak. She saw that they’d removed the body and the mattress. There was still blood on the wall and she shivered at the sight.
“It’s okay. You’re safe,” Travis whispered.
“I know,” she told him, resting on his shoulder as he carried her into the guest room. Her brother stuck his head into the room as Travis laid her on the bed.
“Doc should be here in about ten minutes and we handled the other mess. We’ll be downstairs waiting on Doc.”
“Okay, send him up when he gets here. I’m going to lay with her a bit,” Travis said, already crawling into the bed behind her. His arms slid around her pulling her close. She rolled over pressing her face into his chest, inhaling his scent. Her brother nodded and exited, headed downstairs to wait on Doc.
“Do you want to talk about it?” he asked, his voice breaking a bit on the last word.
Raven shook her head; she couldn’t, not yet. She still felt numb and a bit out of it. She wanted to just be in his arms and remember that Viper was dead. Because that was the one thing that made her feel safe with Travis’s arms around her and the fact that he was dead and he’d never be able to bother her ever again. Travis holding her and rubbing her back must have lulled her into sleep because Doc was in the room and Travis was showing him her wrists when she opened her eyes.
“Well, I think I can seal these and give you a shot of antibiotics that will keep it from getting infected.” He knelt beside the bed and she let him run the sealer over the wounds closing them. When he was about halfway done he met her eyes with his.