Sweet Queen

by Luna Maye

  By the time he reached day 2,136, Cal was completely exhausted. He’d hit the boxing bag no less than five hundred times and wept more than once. He sat surrounded by a pile of snotty tissues with red-rimmed eyes and sore, busted knuckles when he turned the page and Shelli finally met Mina.

  25

  Day 2,136

  Shelli stumbled slightly over her thick, black platform heels. She caught herself against Sting slightly, the bulky HHMC prospect roughly standing her upright while continuing to clasp her wrist in an iron grip. She giggled a little, tottering along beside him and trying to pull down the cropped black cami they’d given her to wear for the night. It’d gotten rucked up against Sting’s cut and she was trying to avoid the serious underboob it was exposing.

  Shifting her high cut denim shorts further down, she caught her stride and tried to force herself to examine the room around her. She hadn’t left the back part of the compound where the women were kept in months, maybe a year? Time was beginning to pass funnily here, it was probably something to do with the sedatives they kept pumping into her.

  Tonight, however was a big enough party to warrant Demon bringing out all of the girls, even her, his poor pitiful little punching bag. She snorted at that, trying to picture Demon taking pity on anyone or anything. The man would sell out his own mother for a buck.

  Her eyes felt fuzzy and pleasantly unfocused, her skin buzzing, each nerve ending alight with whatever pills she’d been forced to swallow and wash down with tepid tap water earlier. Since it didn’t feel like the normal sedatives and they hadn’t used needles, it was probably ecstasy for the party, which was an uncommon gift.

  As Sting swung her into the large open room the club used for parties, he roughly sat her down on a couch and clasped the cuff on her wrist to a steel hook embedded in the arm of the couch. Even for parties like these, she couldn’t move around with her hands unbound. But one hand cuffed was certainly preferable to two, especially since it looked like she was about to be fed to the wolves. There were roughly double as may men as usual in the open room. The bar was packed with throngs of people and alongside most of the other girls she knew from the dorm, there were some women in attendance she didn’t know, which was very abnormal. All of the unfamiliar men shooting pool, getting drinks and partaking of the other bound women offered up by the Heathens, were wearing the same black cuts and they all read Cheap Tricks MC.

  Shelli sighed, relaxing a little. As long as it wasn’t the Silent Sinners from up in Reno, she shuddered every time she thought about the last time they’d brought men down. Becky, one of the younger, more recent additions to the dorm at the time had been chosen by their club president for the night and her screams of pain and terror were so loud, Shelli thought her eardrums would burst. The next morning Becky’s stuff was removed from her bunk and none of them ever saw her again.

  “You sit here and try to look interested. No one gets to touch you unless they’ve paid first so you get the nod from one of the full members before you start shit. Alright?”

  Shelli nodded, Sting wasn’t as strict as some of the other members and he didn’t require a verbal answer. She leaned back against the scratched-up pleather of the couch as he grumpily stomped away, off to transport another girl no doubt. Sighing, she turned her head to survey the room. One of the Cheap Tricks was pounding into poor Clara at the bar, but few of the other girls were being whored out yet. The party was still ramping up, and most of the Tricks seemed to be focused on the women they brought with them.

  On the pool table across the room, one of the Tricks had a woman face down, ass up, fully on the center of the table, pool balls scattered to the sides. Her knees were up under her hips and she leaned forward on her elbows as the handsome man with sandy blonde hair pounded into her from behind. His hands were deeply imbedded in her beautiful thick black curls and he was slamming into her hard enough for it to really hurt, Shelli knew from experience. The woman’s tight leather halter dress had been hastily pushed up her waist and her dark lipstick looked a bit smeared, but the striking thing about the scene to Shelli wasn’t the rough sex, the beautiful woman or her sensual outfit, it was how completely and utterly bored she looked. Here she was at a wild MC rager of a party getting pounded on a table and her face looked like she couldn’t be bothered to give a damn.

  Shelli, for the first time in what felt like years, laughed. Her mouth pulled up at the corners in a wry grin and all she could think was same, girl, same. Every woman in the place knew that feeling where they just wanted to be anywhere else, but none of them were bold enough to show it on their faces so openly.

  At that moment, the woman looked up and made eye contact with her, giving her a little wink in solidarity as she was roughly pushed forward and flattened against the table so the man behind her could finish on her back. Her eyes narrowed with sharp focus, not on Shelli herself now, but on her wrist chained to the couch. Most of the other girls the Heathens provided were bound in ways that made them look like they were participating in kink play rather than prisoners, just to give the illusion they were participating willingly. But Shelli, well Demon didn’t take chances on her anymore, and so her wrist was encased in a police grade cuff snapped into a steel chain with links at least two inches thick. It looked overkill on her tiny wrist and unfortunately someone had noticed. She sighed, shrugging her shoulders at the concerned woman across the room. “What can I do?” she wanted to say, helplessly.

  After the man zipped up his fly and shimmied the dress back over the woman’s ass, he leaned down to her to say something. They looked comfortable with each other if not overly affectionate and he seemed to at least appreciate her willingness to please him. The woman leaned up to whisper something in his ear and his face became a mixture of annoyance and concern. His head came swiftly up to meet Shelli’s gaze and she lowered her eyes quickly, lest he think she was interested. When she looked up again, the man was talking to Sting at the bar, handing him a wad of cash and the woman was headed in her direction.

  She was tall and lithe with proportionate curves all over and a swell to her hips thanks to her Latin heritage that Shelli would have envied in her previous life. Her black halter dress hugged her curves and as she walked across the room with purpose and poise, she swiveled many heads from both of the clubs present.

  When she drew nearer to Shelli, she pressed her hair behind her ears and knelt down at Shelli’s feet, reaching out and putting both her hands on Shelli’s knees.

  “Hi, I’m Mina. What’s your name?” Her odd grey eyes were bright and bold, just like the rest of her and Shelli desperately wished she still had some of that light left in her, that fire for life. How long had it been since she cared about something? Anything?

  “I’m Michelle.”

  “Alright, Shelli, we have to do this fast because Zach will be back over here after he’s done paying for you. I had to buy some time with you so we can talk okay?”

  Shelli nodded, unsure where the other was going with this, and dually positive that Mina and Zach hadn’t paid for her just to talk.

  “Okay, here’s how the game is going to work. These guys told us on our way in that the women aren’t supposed to talk to each other, but I convinced them that I wanted to buy time with you for other things.” She paused to wiggle her eyebrows suggestively. Shelli thought they were both a little old, and used, to be speaking innuendos, but she let it slide because she was intrigued.

  “So we’re going to have to put on a little girl on girl show for them alright? And we gotta make it good or else they’ll take me out of here. I’ll ask you questions as we go. If the answer is no, touch the left side of my body, if it’s yes touch the right, okay?”

  Shelli wasn’t one hundred percent sure what the question and answer game would be about, but she was positive that she’d rather spend thirty minutes with Mina than any man in the room tonight and so she quickly agreed, nodding her head vigorously.

  Mina looked at her trying to read something in her eye
s as she drew herself a little closer. “I’m going to have to touch you, is that okay?”

  “Better you than any of them.” Shelli spoke the words quietly, not wanting any of the Heathens to see her talking. They all got on edge when the girls got too chatty with guests.

  “Alright then, looks like our time starts now,” Mina said as she looked over Shelli’s shoulder to get a nod from one of the club members. Zach came and sat down next to Shelli on the couch, spreading his knees out wide and folding both his hands behind his head in a relaxed gesture.

  “Thanks for this, Zach.” Mina patted him on the knee, not moving her attention from Shelli. She could feel the other woman piecing her apart like a puzzle and trying to figure out what to ask, what to do.

  “Just make it worth my while, Mina. This one must be one of their favorites because she was damn expensive.” Mina’s head came up quickly to meet Zach’s eyes as he spoke, her anger written across her flushed cheeks and petite nose like a badge.

  “You just sit there and shut up.” She hissed the words through clenched teeth, her eyes flashing at him. “You get to watch, but you don’t get to talk, I don’t want you scaring her.” Zach held his hands up in a universal ‘back off’ gesture and the mimed zipping his lips and throwing away the key before his hands returned to the back of his head as if nothing had happened.

  “Okay, Shells. Here we go.” And that was the only warning she got before Mina climbed up onto the couch with her, one thigh on each side of one of her own so she was sitting halfway on her lap. Mina’s skirt pushed up her hips and Shelli could feel the smooth, damp skin of the other woman’s core against her leg.

  “Yep, sorry about that. We’re about to get to know each other really well, Shells. We’re either going to walk away from this lifelong friends or you’re gonna feel real awkward around me from now on.” Mina whispered the words against Shelli’s left ear while her hands brushed back her hair and skated down along the sides of her temples, to her cheeks to her chin. She tipped up Shelli’s chin and suddenly brought her face down for a kiss. It was gentle and sweet, no tongue, just a brush of lips while Mina let her hair fall in a curtain around them. Her breath was minty fresh, a light perfume emanating from her neck and Shelli sank into her tender touch. Mina bobbed her head softly, no doubt for dramatic effect for their viewers and pulled away enough to whisper against Shelli’s skin.

  “Alright, Shells, are you held here against you will?” Shelli immediately brought her chained hand up, touching the right side of Mina’s face and pulling her back down for another kiss. This time, however she went all in. Maybe it was the ecstasy pumping through her veins or maybe it was gratitude for Mina’s touch, the first comforting one she’d felt since her abduction, that made her want to give as good as she got tonight.

  “Good, Shells, that’s good.” Mina ground down on Shelli’s leg, her smooth skin light and warm against her, but much moister than before. Shelli raised an eyebrow as Mina reached out and palmed Shelli’s boobs through her thin tank. Mina rolled her eyes in response. “Oh shut it, you know this is hot. Plus, these are nice. I’ve never felt another woman’s boobs before. No wonder guys are so obsessed.” Her words were whispered softly before she ground down on Shelli’s thigh again and leaned in for another question and faux kiss. “Have you been here a long time?”

  Shelli leaned to the right, putting her hand on Mina’s bare leg up close to her hip and then spreading out all five fingers and slowly putting pressure on the tip of each one.

  “Months?” Mina asked a little breathlessly against Shelli’s ear. This was really working them both up. Shell reached out to trail her fingers up Mina’s left thigh instead. No.

  “Years.” She moved her palm up, brushing it lightly against Mina’s right breast, giving it a light, testing squeeze. Okay, she was right. They did feel nice.

  The other woman sucked in deep breath and not in a ‘wow that feels nice’ sexy way, instead in a ‘oh you poor thing,’ kind of way. Her questions continued in much of the same vein.

  “Do they hurt you?” Yes.

  “Force you?” Yes.

  “Drugs?” Yes.

  “Do you get enough to eat?” No.

  “How many more women?” At least ten.

  Toward the end of their time, Zach started to get restless with all of their soft touches, light grinding and kisses. It was sensual and sweet — an interaction that filled Shelli’s deep deficit for human kindness and decency — but it wasn’t enough to satiate the sexual nature of a hardened one-percenter. He roughly stood, unzipping the fly of his pants and startling Shelli, who’d forgotten he was beside them all along.

  “Stay there,” he gruffly ordered Mina. “Stick your ass up, I wanna fuck you while you’re still on her.”

  “Sorry about this, I was afraid he wouldn’t be patient.” Mina whispered as she hitched up her skirt a little higher, getting ready for him.

  “This is, by far, the best night at one of these parties that I’ve ever had, so I’ll allow it.” Shelli smiled wryly at her newfound friend who jolted a little bit as the man behind her rammed into her with little warning. Mina grunted a little, and then rallied herself and leaned closer to Shelli to whisper in her ear. “I’ll come back for you, I promise.”

  It didn’t really matter to Shelli whether or not Mina returned. The sassy curly-haired spy had given her hope and that was a precious gift she hadn’t received in years. She felt lighter, softer already as if the very air around her had been altered by the interaction with her new friend. Tilting Mina’s head up as Zach continued to rail into her friend, almost unnoticed at this stage by either of them. She gently kissed Mina’s cheek, wetness building in the corners of her eyes as she realized they were about to have to say goodbye, maybe forever.

  “Now don’t you start that or we’ll both lose it.” Mina said, pulling Shelli closer into an embrace, careful of her bound wrist. And as Zach’s thrusts got harder, rougher, Shelli pushed her knee up to give Mina enough pressure to find some pleasure through the pain.

  26

  Cal

  Cal felt a surge of respect and awe for the Hellacious Honeys president. No wonder Mina and Shelli were so comfortable around one another. They were so clever, so bold in their actions even in the face of very dire circumstances. For the first time since starting the journal, he had some hope, and he could tell Shelli did as well.

  He propped open the journal and forced himself to read the last sixty pages. It was so hard to focus when he knew the end was in sight and apparently, Shelli had felt the same. Her writing was slanted and messy, her loopy script incomplete in places as if she gave up the thought before punctuating her sentences.

  Altogether, it was much more pleasant than the middle of her story. The Heathens were called out on a long run and Shelli got a much-needed break from the abuse. Her entries grew lighter, happier and more hopeful than before and Cal’s heart swelled with affection — for Shelli, who had so much optimism in the face of utterly atrocious circumstances and for Mina, who lent her a little strength and courage when she needed it to get through.

  On day 2,193, Cal sat up a little taller in his seat and bent his head further as if to focus harder. He cracked his neck and straightened his jeans, relieved to be looking at the final page. It was on a piece of stationary from the presidential suite at the valley’s resort.

  Mina came to buy Shelli back on her own, just a duffle bag full of $10,000 in cash and fifty members of the Cheap Tricks waiting secretly outside the compound. She offered Demon the money, sitting in his dirty, ramshackle office and watching the purely evil man across from her try to talk her into giving him more or picking a different girl. The sick fucker relished his hold over Shelli more than any other.

  By the time Mina convinced him to bring Shelli into the office, she was quickly losing her patience. Shelli took one look at the open duffle bag of cash on the table and Mina sitting across the desk from Demon and she was barely able to suppress her smile. Demon caught
the tail end of her expression and jumped up with the pistol from his desk drawer in his palm, having decided that if he couldn’t keep Shelli, it was better for no one to have her and Mina cut him down with a knife before he had a spare second to fire. She threw quickly and silently, nailing him to the wall by his throat with a thin silver blade.

  The two women hugged each other fiercely and Mina helped Shelli out of the compound, leaving the money on the desk behind them. As soon as they were outside the gates and out of sight, the members of Mina’s club met them with two motorcycles; Mina’s own retro Indian and a plain but classy vintage Harley softail for Shelli. Mina gave Zach a soft squeeze as he handed over the keys and Shelli quietly came up to them. Her words were whispered because she wasn’t sure who she could trust in the giant circle of men surrounding them.

  “What about all the other girls, Mina?”

  “Shelli, why do you think there’re fifty men out here? I may have told Demon I came to get you on my own, but the rest of them are here to get the others out and burn the club to the ground. It’s their final gift to me.”

  “But what about the money, Mina? If you never intended to pay them then why bring the cash?”

  Mina turned to her and looked her in the eye, her grey gaze narrowing, the firm set of her jaw telling Shelli that whatever was coming was serious, important.

  “I brought the money because I wanted you to see that even if we left them alive, which we won’t, they have no claim on you anymore. You’ve been paid for, Shelli, and now you’re free. Forever.”

  Cal laughed a little at Shelli’s description of her first solo motorcycle ride alongside Mina to the compound, as well as the derelict state of the property when they first arrived. The two decided to stay at the resort instead and took over the presidential suite, eating as much room service as they could order from the kitchens.