by Paula Cox
“You can use me to keep them in line,” she meekly offered. “I think ---”
“You don’t think anymore, slut. You get your ass on my bike and make like the dirty whore you are.”
Lena nodded her head, her body shuddering as he touched her. Jax went wild, clawing at the earth and tried to reach her. But Eric beat him to the punch and hoisted her off the ground. Lena’s legs lightly kicked against his chopper, but she forced her body to go limp and he pushed her to the back of his bike and roughly kissed her mouth. Lena felt sure she would vomit around the foul taste of his tongue, but she accepted and endured the feel of his spit swimming in her hair as he pulled on the flushed flesh of her cheek.
“What’s to stop him from coming after you?” Eric asked. “Making all kinds of trouble for me.”
Lena searched his mind for an answer that he might even half-believe, and when she saw Jax writhing and still reaching for her, she felt that her cause was lost, that Jax would get himself killed in this moment and leave her to languish in Eric Stiles’ hands.
“I’ll keep him in line.”
As Milo spoke, he tossed his gun to the side and stamped his boot down on Jax’s back as he glared at his rival.
“Last thing we want is more trouble,” he insisted. “Never asked for these two clowns to knock on our door.”
“But they still gave you all kinds of ideas, right?”
Milo nodded and kicked past Jax, daring to take another step closer to Eric’s side.
“Can’t blame a man for seeing where it might lead. Monroes never were anything but trouble. Once Aggie’s in the ground, this one takes the next plot.”
“Take it she ain’t too long for this world?” Eric asked, his eyes gleaming around the question.
“Might already be gone right now.”
And that’s when she knew. Aggie would die one day, but this was not that night. He was playing into Eric’s ego, and Lena trusted him with Jax’s life as Eric pressed his body to the bike, holstering his gun.
“Dig the holes deep,” Eric suggested. “And just keep on steering clear of Deerfield.”
Eric roughly patted her thigh, and Lena prayed the glass would stay in place. Seeing that it did, she quivered as Eric ordered her arms around his waist.
“Or fall off for all I care,” he scoffed. “Don’t give a fuck about your face. Just keep that cunt sweet.”
Lena did as she was told, swallowing hard as she cast a final glance at Jax. His moans hit her soul, and Lena struggled to convey everything swirling around her heart with just one look.
I love you, Jax. I know you’ll find a way… just please hurry.
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Are you fucking out of your mind?” Jax screamed as he regained all of his senses and pushed away from the feel of Viv icing his neck.
“Shouldn’t you be taking care of my mother?” he spat.
“Aggie’s okay,” she assured him. “Resting now. But you don’t look so---”
“Get the fuck away from me!”
Milo moved to challenge him when he pushed her off, but to the room’s surprise, Artie stumbled forward, his battered arm resting in a makeshift sling as he took hold of Viv’s shoulder.
“Kid, she didn’t do a damn thing. Don’t take it out on her.”
“Why the hell not? You sweet on her now?”
“Like you’re the only one who thinks he has a heart.”
Every other man in the room save for Milo hung their heads and shuffled their feet. Jax could care less if Viv as the nursemaid tickled Artie’s balls, but he missed the ice as soon as it left his neck.
“Watch it, cue ball,” Milo cautioned, adopting Aggie’s long forgotten pet name as Viv took hold of Artie’s arm.
“Be on my best behavior,” Artie promised. “Now what about Lena?”
Lena.
Jax rubbed his hands across his face and pictured her body shaking on the back of Eric’s bike. He got it – why she laid herself on the line in a bid to protect the others. But that didn’t change the fact that every second took her farther and farther away from him. He could cling to nothing but the length of the ride. Because when it stopped, when Eric could no longer contain himself, Jax felt sure that he would push her sweet body into the grass and hike up her skirt. The idea that he would tear into her soft flesh and slap her sobbing face, maybe do so much worse, filled his heart with dread.
“I never should have let her go,” Jax lamented. “I’m supposed to take care of her.”
He felt as if he would weep, not caring about the many eyes on his shaking form when Milo gripped the back of his neck.
“And she’s taking care of all of us,” he said. “Ever stop to think that there’s more to life than this one girl. Shit, she gets it.”
“And she wants me to come after her.”
“I get that, too” Milo said as he released Jax and sighed heavily. “Might do the same thing if it was one of my…”
His weary gaze settled on Viv as Artie brought her closer to his side under the strength of his good arm. Easy for Milo to make that claim now. Old man or not, his sister had protection. Lena was out there all alone, and Jax shook his head fast and knelt before the Silver Horses’ chief.
“Then let me try to find her,” he said. “I can’t just stay here like this. Going all kinds of crazy.”
Milo cracked open a beer and kicked away the glass still left on the ground as he flopped into an armchair and chugged hard.
“You seem so sure,” Milo said.
“Damn straight. I can… I’m going to get her back. I’ll bring her here or take her far away if that’s what you---”
“No reason you can’t be among friends. We friends now, Jax?”
Wasn’t quite the right definition of the word, but compared to Eric or Mitch…
“Sure we are,” Jax said. “So can I go for her?”
He smoothed his fingers down his chin as he sipped his beer again. Milo’s eyes appeared to dance with all kinds of possibilities as he crunched his toes to the bits of glass beneath his feet and pulled a smoke from his pocket.
“What happens if you don’t come back?” he asked.
Jax’s mind raced for an explanation, but Artie charged forward, Viv still clinging to his arm.
“That ain’t happening,” Artie said. “I’ve seen the lengths he’ll go for this girl. He’ll be back.”
Viv smiled into his face as Milo whistled all eyes in the room back to the space of his stare.
“Your man is sure,” he said. “Viv?”
The girl took a soft step to her brother’s side and looked at Milo through wide eyes.
“These two to be believed?” he asked.
“Milo, I… you never ask me about these kinds of---”
“Point taken. But I’m asking you now.”
Viv looked from her brother to Artie. He gave her a quick smile, and Jax felt his heart lighten ever so slightly at the sight. But then her gaze pierced his eyes. Jax tensed and thought it strange that any chance of saving Lena rested on the slim shoulders of this fragile girl, and his soul started to sink to pit of his stomach when Viv tossed her head back and bared her teeth in bold grin.
“I saw the way he looked at her, too” Viv said. “Milo, you have to let him try.”
Jax fought the urge to leap to his feet and pull her into an embrace as she stepped back to Artie’s side and fell into his shoulder. His gaze turned to Milo, and the man took another drag as he nodded his head.
“So says Viv,” he puffed. “Always found it hard to go against the wishes of my little sister.”
Jax was up and asking for his gun. Milo started to push the piece into his hands when he held Jax at arm’s length.
“But if I let you do this and you fail, whole new kind of trouble coming to this door.”
“I’m telling you I won’t---”
“Hey, I almost buy what you’re selling, Kid. But a little incentive, no?”
“Incentive, I---”
>
“If you… when you come back all bathed in glory with the girl on your arm, you give all of it to me. Make it all my turf.”
“That ain’t what he came here for,” Artie said, but Jax waved him off.
His mind flashed back to his father.
That’s my boy, Jax! Can’t wait to hand you the reins one of these days.
To go back on that was betrayal, and he drifted away from the others, Lena’s unknown fate filling his thoughts as he peered through an open door and spied his mother sleeping peacefully below a thin blanket. What would she say if she was up and coaching him to make the right move? Would she ask if Lena were worth this trouble, tell him to cut her loose? Something told him she understood even in the space of her slumber, and he wanted nothing more than to give Lena the chance to speak for herself.
“Fine,” he said in a steely voice as he took the gun from Milo’s hand and pushed it into his pants. “It’s all yours – even if I get back.”
Jax started to leave the house, his eyes on his bike and the way out when Milo gripped his arms and turned Jax around.
“When, Kid,” Milo said. “Wouldn’t ask this much if I didn’t think you could make it happen.”
Chapter Thirty-Six
The ride was long and hard. Every time Lena tried to relinquish any of her hold, hardly caring if she would fall, Eric seized her hands and forced them back to his chest. She endured the push of his fingers under his shirt, and his heaving flesh caused her to shudder. Eric had to feel it; he forced her hand under his belt, ignoring her squirms and giving her no choice but to touch his hardening cock.
“All for you, girl,” he said. “Last time was nothing compared to what I’m going to do you now.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Lena hoped she had made the right call. She pictured Jax rallying the Silver Horses to his cause. Maybe the whole crew would be at her back in a moment flat, and she thought of nothing but falling into his arms and savoring his warm embrace. When she saw no one racing the length of the distance between Eric’s chopper and the farmhouse, Lena started to sink into despair.
Stop that. He will come. You just have to…
“I need to take a leak.”
As Eric dismounted, he kept Lena close to his side. Unzipping his fly, he drained his cock into the air and made her touch his vile length as he shook his flesh dry.
“Bet you missed this,” he said. “I sure as shit missed you.”
His lips were slimy against her cheek, and Lena tried hard not to struggle as he reached under her blouse and roughly fondled her breasts.
“What about it, Lena?” he asked. “You have to feel the same.”
The Black Legion surrounded her, each soldier unzipping as they leered and waited their turn. Taking Eric on again was one thing, but she died inside at the thought that every man would have a chance to rip her apart before Jax reappeared.
He is coming. I know he is.
Playing it cool, she patted Eric’s cheek and smiled into his eyes.
“Maybe you don’t want to share me. I mean… not just yet.”
Hoping against hope that he would believe her, Lena’s heart crumbled in her chest when he backhanded her and sent her spinning to the ground. She pulled her skirt over her knees. Somehow the glass was still in place, and she gave thanks for that as Eric hovered above her.
“Look at her,” Eric started. “Trying to curry favor when she knows she’s in the wrong.”
Lena peered through her shaking fingers and saw Eric lick his lips as he stroked his length, his moans hitting her ears as he tucked his cock away and looked back to the others.
“But I get the first taste,” he threatened. “As for the rest of you---”
“Now hold up!”
Mitch stepped into her view and snickered as he ran his boot up her leg. For a second, she feared that he had found the hidden glass, and she sighed in relief when he backed away and gripped Eric’s arm.
“I didn’t come all this way with you to be left out in the cold.”
“Now, Mitch, you---”
“If you’re gonna fuck this bitch, I deserve a taste before the rest of this sorry lot.”
Lena saw the rest of the club seethe at the insult. Would that serve her well at some point? But she couldn’t focus on that when Eric laughed and slapped Mitch on the back.
“I still go first,” he said. “Only fair, no?”
“Sure thing, Boss,” Mitch said. “I’ll wait for her ass.”
Curling her arms around her breasts, her fingers barely touching the edge of the glass, Lena watched with a kind of relief as Eric sent the rest of the Black Legion on their way.
“Keep the beer cold and the pool table hot.”
He leered at Lena as he collapsed on top of her.
“Want to grind you into the felt,” he threatened. “Rack all kind of balls around your sweet cunt.”
Lena laid still as Eric’s hands pushed up her skirt. He laughed as soon as he caught sight of her soft hairs without any other cover.
“Guess someone knew I was coming.”
Hating the fact that she made it too easy for him, Lena tried to steel her body for the assault. She’d lived through it once before, and another time was nothing, not when Jax was bound to appear at any second. But as she kept looking and he failed to appear, Lena’s heart seized in her throat at the thought that he was suddenly being held against his own will. Or maybe he just didn’t want to come after her. Brutus had labeled her trouble. Was Jax suddenly of that same mind?
One way or the other…
“Get the fuck away from me, you prick!”
Lifting the glass from her skirt, she slashed at the air, the tip of her new weapon barely hitting his cheek as she scrambled away on the back of her free hand and held the glass before her like the world’s sharpest sword.
“Did you know she had a piece on her?” Mitch asked as he helped Eric to his feet and glared at Lena.
“Thought something might be up,” Eric confessed. “Just look at her, Mitch.”
The men peered down at her, and Lena clutched the glass tighter, the jagged edges piercing her palm and she struggled to steady her gaze on Eric’s amused eyes.
“Lena, you didn’t have to bring your own piece to the party,” he said. “You want to get cut.”
He reached into his boot and revealed a long knife. Lena couldn’t help but squeal at the thought of the blade tearing into her flesh, but she still kept the glass in her hand, backing deeper into the grass until her back met the trunk of a tree, and she had nowhere else left to run.
“If you just wanted a little alone time with me, all you had to do was ask.”
“I’m sorry,” she muttered. “I didn’t mean to make you mad.”
Eric laughed as he sank to his knees and twisted his fingers under her eyes.
“Then hand it over,” he said. “And we’ll have no hard feelings.”
She was reluctant to make the move, but still she gave the glass over.
“Better, bitch.”
He tossed her intended weapon aside like it was nothing of any consequence, and Lena’s eyes were mournful as she saw the shard sparkling just a few feet away.
“Let’s see what else you got under there.”
She felt powerless as his fingers pressed into her thighs, his cold hand stroking her cunt as he started to probe her soft flesh. Lena gasped out loud and turned her head to the grass when he reached under her back, his reeking breath covering her face.
“Everyone’s heard the stories, Lena,” he said. “You tease like a little bitch. Like you didn’t want those boys in the bathroom.”
A fresh wave of shame washed over her, and Lena started to object when Eric pressed his hand to her mouth, granting her nothing but a few whimpers as she had no choice but to stare up into his eyes.
“But you like leading Jax around by the nose more,” he said.
Lena tried to shake her head when his hand pressed harder against her mouth, and her lu
ngs started to burn in her chest.
“Sort of why I had to put you in your place. Show you both the error of you ways.”
He kissed her again, and Lena started to thrash under his body when something cold and sharp hit her fingers.