Checking the corridor for other residents and finding the area empty. I placed my helmet on the floor dropped my left shoulder, took three paces back and with as much force as I could muster I ran at the door. Much to my anger I bounced off and fell on my ass. Fuck! I got up and did it again. Same thing. Please God! Third time I rammed the door and there was a loud crack as the door flew open and hit the opposite wall with such a force it knocked a huge hole in it.
I ran inside calling out her name. There was food in grocery bags on the kitchen counter tops. I kicked my way through the door to the bedroom and bathroom. No sign of her. Fuck it! Was I too late? Or was she okay and out for a walk? Was I going to have some serious explaining to do when she turned up to find my stalker ways were back with a vengeance? I kind of hoped so. At least that way she would be okay.
Back in the living room I spotted two wine glasses and an open bottle. One of the glasses was almost empty and there was a lipstick mark on the rim. I lifted the glass and held it up to the light. A gritty residue floated around the bottom of the glass.
Jeez he drugged her!
Okay now things had gotten very, very bad. Where the fuck was she? What had the bastard done with her? I gripped the strands of my hair and dropped my head back as I shouted expletives at the ceiling.
After securing her door as best I could, I went back to the club and explained to Colt exactly what had happened.
He rubbed his eyes and shook his head groaning. “Awww fuck no. Just when everything seemed okay. Fuck! You kids are going to send me to an early grave!” He grabbed his cell from his pocket and hit dial as he walked away. “Dee, get the guy a fucking drink!” He called as he stomped toward the small office in back on the ground floor.
“Anybody'd think the dick was sixty or something,” I chuntered as I watched him retreat.
Dee handed me a double whiskey. “She'll be okay, Six. Try not to worry, 'kay?”
“How the fuck do you know that, Dee? You've seen what those bastards are capable of! They could have killed her for all I know!” I snapped, immediately regretting my attitude toward her and hoping I was completely wrong. “Fuck, I'm sorry. I didn't mean—”
She held up her hand. “Hey. Stop. It's okay. No apology needed.” She walked around and sat beside me at the bar. “I went to see Cain like you suggested.”
I turned my head to look at her, aware she was changing the subject to calm me down. “You did?”
She nodded. “Told him I was sorry and that I was moving on. That I would probably always love him, but that I accepted he didn't love me.”
I smiled at the poor girl. “Good for you, Dee. I think it needed to be done. What'd he say?”
“Just that he was sorry he didn't feel the same about me. And that he was sorry for the way he spoke to me.”
Reaching out I squeezed her shoulder. “See, he's a good guy.” I closed my eyes as I realized just how much I was missing my best friend. “I wish he was fit right now. I could use his help to find out where Chloe is. If those bastards have laid a single finger on her...” I shook my head as my mind conjured up unwelcome violent images to torture me.
“I know, Six. I know.”
Chapter Forty
Chloe
I must have dozed off as I was suddenly aware of voices whispering. Keeping my eyes firmly closed to feign sleep, I listened to the hushed conversation which sounded like it was happening right outside the door to the room I was being kept in.
“You gotta let her go if you love her, Zak. That's what happens. I heard a saying... If you love someone... you gotta...um... you don't gotta... Aww shit... what I mean is you don't kidnap someone and keep them against their will, bro.” Tyler's insistent tone eased my worries. I had planted a seed and it had begun to take root.
I heard muted, mocking laughter. “Oh yeah, I heard that saying too. Reckon it was on a fucking Hallmark card, you dick.”
A loud crack occurred and Tyler protested. “Dude! What the hell was that for?”
“Because you're a dumb-ass, little brother. And for your information I don't love her. I just wanna fuck her.”
Tyler gasped. “You told me you loved her, man. You lied to me. That's so not cool.”
“Yeah? Well don't go getting any stupid ideas about letting her go, you hear me? She's mine to do with as I see fit. So you do not let her go. You do and I kill you. Capiche?”
“What are you Spanish now?”
“Seriously, Ty? You think Capiche is Spanish? I see it did a whole lot of good sending you to fucking college, little brother.”
Someone appeared beside me but I kept my eyes closed in the hope that whomever it was would leave me alone.
No such luck.
“Hey doll face. Time to wake up. Got to put your make-up on. Got to make sure you're pretty for the photo we're sending to the Sinners.”
I fluttered my eyes open and was greeted by the piercing eyes of Zak sitting a little too close for comfort. His rancid breath on my face did nothing to settle my already roiling stomach. I retched as I stared up at him, hoping that he realized how repulsive he had become to me in every single way.
He gripped my body and yanked me to a sitting position. “I think we can unfasten your blouse. Let's give the guys something to get excited about, huh? Ty! Bring that girlie shit in here.” He reached toward me and began unfastening the buttons on my once white cotton top, but I turned my face away, unable to look him in the eyes.
Tyler appeared at the door holding a pink make-up bag. Where the hell has that come from? It's not mine. This thought was rapidly followed by another. On second thoughts I don't want to know.
“Come on little bro. You're the artistic one. You can paint her face and make it all pretty. But don't go ogling at her tits now, you hear me? She's mine.” The sick grin on Zak's face made my stomach attempt once more to eject the minimal food it contained.
Tyler silently crouched before me and began to apply make-up to my face with an apologetic look in his eyes.
Six
The hours we had spent riding around the whole damned area had brought up no sign of Chloe. The longer it was taking the heavier the knot of dread became in my stomach. Our attempts to reach out to Loki's Legion had proved fruitless too. They denied all knowledge of being involved in Chloe's disappearance. But why would they admit it? I was dumb if I expected anything else from that set of low-life, scum-sucking bastards.
I checked her apartment again on the off chance that they had realized their mistake and brought her home. Of course that didn't happen either. Cain was still in hospital and for that I was now grateful. Knowing what he could be like in situations like this, I imagined he would have gone over to the Legion, all guns blazing—literally—to seek his own unique form of revenge. My approach was going to have to be subtler. Especially considering the information I had received about Zak from former Legion girl, Sondra.
She chewed on her nail and her eyes darted around the coffee shop as if she was waiting for someone to jump out of the shadows. “He was...I don't know...unhinged. One minute he would be all normal and kinda sweet. The next it was as if something had...I don't know, possessed him. He'd get all aggressive and shit. I had to refuse to be with him after he broke my cheekbone. In fact, it was that incident that made me leave the club all together. I ain't there to be anybody's punching bag.” She had told me.
Every single time I thought about Chloe at the hands of this twisted son of a bitch, I wanted to rip him limb from limb. Tear his fucking heart out and hand it to him while it was still beating. I had never been eaten up by so much hate and that was saying something.
After another day of searching I laid in bed in the darkness of the end room upstairs at the club. Eyes closed but feeling anything but relaxed. Images of Chloe's last beautiful dance for me played in my mind. Her long legs and pointed toes, arched back and pert breasts pushed out toward me. I wanted to feel her against me again. Hold her. Keep her safe. But I felt that the possibilities of all t
hat were slipping between my fingers and there wasn't a damn thing I could do about it. I rolled over and punched the mattress as hard as I could as I yelled into my pillow.
Chloe
I was losing track of days. But it felt like I'd been holed up in the pigsty forever. The stench of sweaty bodies—including my own now—was enough to burn the nostril hair from anyone.
My one attempt at escape had gotten me as far as the window. Staring out at the eerily familiar location just before Zak knocked me out again was yet another blow to any hope of me finding something good in Zak. It turned out I was being held in the little tumble down shack close to the place he had brought me for a picnic. He'd clearly been planning this for a while. Knowing it wasn't something that happened on the spur of the moment terrified me even more.
My mind replayed the sick photo session I'd been subjected to. Made up like a bad transvestite with my tits on show and my hands still tethered behind me. Creepy bastard. I was just thankful that he hadn't attempted to assault me sexually. But I was plagued with the fear that it could happen at any given moment.
As I imagined Six, Colt and the others looking at the photos of me like that, my lip began to tremble and my eyes stung. What would they think of me?
I just wanted to go home.
I wanted to see my mom.
But most of all I wanted to see Six. To tell him I had made a huge, incredibly stupid mistake. To ask his forgiveness. Even if all he could accept from me was friendship after I dumped him so awfully after spending that mind blowing time with him. I just wanted to see his smile. Hear his deep rumbling laugh and watch his eyes crinkle at the corners. Feel his thick arms enveloping me, protecting me. But the chance of that ever happening again was so slim and it broke my heart thinking of what I'd done. How I had made the one man I truly cared for give up on me. I did that. Not Six. Me.
Tyler hadn't been in to speak to me since he had painted my face and I began to think that Zak had gotten wise to my plans to get him on side. I feared for Tyler's safety now as well as my own.
The situation was becoming more and more unbearable. And any hopes I had of getting out of this hell hole alive were dwindling fast.
I dreaded meal times. Dry bread, sometimes mouldy, and a glass of what I think may have been rainwater, twice a day was all that I had to sustain me. I was, in the true essence of the word, a prisoner. I was weak, making any attempts to escape completely futile. Where the hell would I go? I knew how far away from everywhere this place was. Clearly the reason Zak had chosen it. And I knew that I would simply be caught and brought back...or worse. And if there was a light at the end of the very long, dark tunnel that my life had become then I guessed someone had switched it off.
Chapter Forty-One
Six
I sat at the bar listening to Colt tell the crew about his plans for Cain and Rosa. There would be a funeral. A fucking funeral. The pain in my knotted stomach worsened as I imagined standing by an empty grave to say goodbye to someone I'd loved like a brother for most of my life. And to see my little blue haired angel leave for good brought a sadness over me that weighed me down and hunched my shoulders. The only saving grace in all of it would be that neither of them would actually be in the ground. Instead, they'd be miles away from here on another continent.
My world was turning to shit.
The plans were being put into place within the next twenty-four hours so Loki's Legion would believe Cain and Rosa were dead. But selfishly, all I wanted to do was get out of the fucking compound and look for Chloe. It had been a week with no word. No sign. Nothing. I couldn't eat and it turned out that sleep was no longer my friend. The crippling emptiness inside of me wasn't only due to the lack of food though.
The MC had been patrolling the area day and night in search of anything suspicious but I was beginning to think that maybe the prick had taken Chloe out of Utah. He'd had plenty of time to do so and the thought sickened me. If I was right how the hell would I ever find her? Was she even still alive?
Fuck! That kind of thinking doesn't help, asshole.
I was laying in bed, wide awake yet again, when I heard a commotion downstairs. It sounded like furniture had been kicked over and so I jumped up from the bed and pulled on my jeans. Poking my head out of the door, I could hear whispered ranting coming from the bar area. I made my way down the hall to the stairs and peered down into the dimly lit space.
Colt had a hold of someone by the scruff of his neck and had him pinned against the wall, fist at the ready.
I ran down the stairs, my bare feet slapping against the wood as Colt's voice cut through the air. “Six, that you, buddy?” I arrived beside him but he didn't take his eyes of his hostage.
Slightly out of breath I replied, “Yeah, it's me. What's going on?”
“Go get the others. We have ourselves an interloper. Oh and flick on the lights while you're at it.”
Obliging my Prez, I jogged over and flicked on the main lights and went banging on doors. When I returned to the main bar area I immediately recognized who Colt was pinning to the wall.
My fists clenched. “The fuck?”
A glint of terror was clear in the guy’s eyes. “I'm not here to cause trouble. I swear it. I'm here to help you. Please...please listen to me.” Tyler, begged in a whimper.
“Yeah? How the hell do we know that you little scum-sucker?” Colt spat.
I grabbed Colt's arm knowing that this may be our only hope. “Hey, let him go, dude. Let's hear what he has to say, huh?”
Colt gave the kid one last shove in the chest before stepping back and dragging him over to a chair. The other guys and their old ladies gathered around, muttering and chuntering about the Loki's Legion shit-head in our presence. Some of them baying for blood.
Colt shoved Tyler down and gripped the arm rests until his knuckles turned white. He stood and grabbed the gun from the back of his waistband and pointed it at the middle of the kid's forehead. “Okay you little prick. What you got that we could possibly want?”
Tyler held up his hands. “P-please...please don't shoot. It's C-Chloe...Chloe. I-I know where she is.”
Hearing her name ripped at my heart and I slammed Colt out of the way, making him drop his gun and hurl abuse at me.
But it was my turn to interrogate the fucker. “If that's true you'd better prove it,” I growled.
His eyes widened further and his breathing accelerated. “I...I need to reach into my pocket.”
I shook my head. “Uh-uh. No you don't. Which pocket is it and I'll do the fucking reaching.”
He swallowed hard and nodded down. “L-left jacket pocket. I swear I'm not armed. Like I said, I came here to help you.”
I reached down into the left pocket of his jacket and pulled out a crumpled photograph. I stepped back to examine it and my stomach flipped. Chloe sat there with a ton of badly applied make-up on, her shirt open, legs wide, her bra pulled down beneath her tits and a deadness in her eyes.
Fuck.
A red mist descended over me and I spun around and smashed my fist into the wall with a feral cry of aggression. Everyone around me flinched. And then I was on the kid again.
I grabbed him by the throat. “I swear to God I will fucking cut you if anything has happened to her.”
With his hands still held up in surrender he pressed himself further into the back of the chair and yelled. “N-no! No! I swear she's okay. Scared, hungry, yes but, but not harmed. Not physically harmed, dude. I swear!”
His fear filled voice dragged me back to reality and I released his throat. “You'd better start talking real fast. My patience is wearing thin and I'm warning you, if you think the fucking Hulk has a bad attitude, you ain't seen nothing yet”
Chloe
Zak sat beside me, brushing my hair and talking about the future we were apparently going to have. “Eventually when you realize you do love me, we can make it official. You will realize it, Chloe. I'll make sure of that.”
I stared into space tryin
g to extract myself from the situation as best I could. A kind of numbness had set in...almost.
I turned to face him. “I heard you telling Tyler that you don't love me. So how can you expect me to love you back?” My voice was small and weak but the fact that I hadn't responded to him for so long really got his attention.
He huffed. “Like I'd tell that little douche how I feel. He doesn't need to know shit.”
I smiled as sweetly as I could manage, considering the contempt knotting my insides. “Well it doesn't matter anyway. I will never...ever love you, Zak. You hearing me?” My lip trembled and tears welled in my eyes as I used his own words back at him. “Ne-ver. You're a delusional asshole if you think that I will ever think anything good about you after what you've put me through.”
His brow creased and he shook his head. “Jeez, someone's pissy this morning.” He leaned in and nibbled on my earlobe. “I reckon you need a good fucking. That'd cheer you up. Relax you. Give you that sweet glow that only a good orgasm can.”
I clenched my jaw. “Don't you dare touch me. You make me sick. You twisted, sleazy bastard.” I pulled my head away and lurched forward, crashing my skull into his face as hard as my minimal energy would allow. The resulting cracking sound alerted me to the fact that I had broken his nose.
“Fucking bitch!” He slapped me hard across my face, making my head rip sharply to the left and adding to the pain I had caused myself.
But I turned to face him again and smiled as the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. “Truth hurts does it?”
He snarled at me like a rabid dog complete with foam and grabbed my face in his hand. “You need putting in your place, bitch. I was waiting until you begged me to fuck you, like you know you wanna. Like the slut you are, with your tiny bikinis and your legs wrapped around a fucking pole. I know how many men you've had. But maybe it's my turn, huh? I think maybe I should just take what I want.”
Six: Company of Sinners MC #2 Page 22