by Unknown
“Don’t think that I won’t kill you, bitch! I can’t handle him all wild and crazy again so soon. Reaper is like orgasms on tap and sometimes it’s too much,” Sarah said, looking smug while frightened, making Sammy double over. Her stomach hurt she was laughing so hard.
“You’re seriously complaining about orgasms?” Sammy managed to get out between puffs of laughter.
“You would too if you were getting enough to make you pass out. It’s fantastic, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes I wonder how many brain cells I’m losing each time Reaper blows my mind,” Sarah told her, that same odd look of fright and smugness on her face.
“I’m sure that’s not all he’s blowing,” Sammy said, earning a glare from her friend.
“How did this conversation become one about my love life when we are supposed to be talking about you?” Sarah demanded.
That sobered her and she stopped laughing. She didn’t want to talk about her issues, but it looked like Sarah wasn’t going to let it go.
“Look, I can’t talk about what happened, it’s too raw,” Sammy told her.
“Sammy, I know that whatever this asshole did was traumatic, I am not belittling that, but you have to talk about it or it will never go away.”
“Don’t you think I know that, Sarah? I just can’t! It’s too hard to talk about, not to mention embarrassing,” Sammy said, her voice almost sounding high-pitched because she couldn’t seem to contain the rage that burned inside her at the truth.
What he’d done to her was breaking her apart inside and she didn’t want to let it. She just couldn’t seem to let it go. She had a feeling until she could allow a man to tie her down again, she never would. Somehow the bastard had tied her self-worth into her sexual needs and now she didn’t know how to separate the two.
Tears filled her eyes and her hands shook when she placed them on the chair in front of her and she was crying again, damn it. She didn’t want to cry over what he’d done anymore. It made her feel as if she was a tragic case everyone felt sorry for. ‘Oh poor Sammy, she can’t get over her abuse. It’s so sad.’ She didn’t want to be that woman, the one people felt sorry for. She wanted to be the one that overcame the tragedy and grew stronger.
“Oh Sammy,” Sarah said, standing up and walking over to where she sobbed on the couch. “I’m so sorry, sweetie, so damned sorry that this happened to you,” she told her, rubbing her back. Sammy was still sobbing a few minutes later when the door swung open and Animal stormed in, looking grim. Sammy looked up, surprised that he was here. What the hell was he doing back so soon? He couldn’t have slept for more than thirty minutes.
Animal moved into the room grimly, moving to stand over Sarah, a dark scowl on his face and his hands clenched into fists at his sides.
“I think you need to leave,” he said gruffly to Sarah, shocking Sammy.
“Animal, I know you didn’t just tell me I should leave when my best friend is having a breakdown, did you?” Sarah asked coldly, eyeing him with a speculative look.
“She wouldn’t be having a breakdown if you weren’t pushing too hard, now would she?” he demanded, regarding her with such a dark glower on his face that for a moment Sammy worried for her safety.
Sammy couldn’t believe that she was hearing this conversation between her best friend and Animal, the standoffish man who ignored her except when he was demanding she eat.
“You aren’t helping her by babying her, Animal. She needs to get over this!” Sarah growled.
“We will agree to disagree on that point. She isn’t you. Now leave. I don’t want problems with your old man for carting your tiny ass to the curb, but I will,” Animal told Sarah, and Sammy knew that she’d stopped crying mostly because she was so shocked her mouth was hanging open. Animal was willing to risk getting a beating because Sarah was trying to help her. It made no sense.
“I think that maybe you should be asking me if you can cart her out of here. It’s my damned house by the way,” Sammy growled, getting upset for an entirely different reason now.
“Nope, she needs to go and you need to eat,” Animal informed her as he turned his brown eyes on her. They were dark and filled with a silent promise she didn’t understand. She shivered because the look brooked no argument. Damn it, why did her inner submissive always want to submit to him? She wasn’t happy about it.
“I think you should go home, Animal,” Sammy coldly uttered as she stood shoving at his chest with a single finger that he looked at like it was a pesky fly, not budging.
“Not leaving till you eat.”
“You aren’t the boss of me,” she snapped, glaring at him.
“We’ll see,” he replied, turning back to Sarah. “Leave,” he grunted at her, not bothering to be polite.
Sarah glared at him and Sammy was glad that she wasn’t immediately complying.
“No, I’m not leaving, Animal. But if you’d like to, then by all means see yourself out,” Sarah told him, her hands on her hips and fire burning in her eyes. Sammy knew that her friend wasn’t likely to take Animal’s crap. She also knew that Animal would do exactly what he said he would and any issues it created with Reaper be damned.
“Look, why don’t we just head to the store so that you can go about your day, Sarah,” Sammy said, trying to make peace between them.
“No, you haven’t eaten and you need to before you try to go traipsing all over town.” Animal glared at her, his eyes narrowed to slits. She ignored it but it made her feel a trill of desire along her spine. It shocked her a bit. She knew it was the trill a submissive got when she defied her Dom so he would punish her.
Only Animal wasn’t her Dom and she shouldn’t be feeling any sexual trills in regards to him because she didn’t want to. He wasn’t for her, despite his dominant tendencies and the excitement his mere presence sent shifting through her.
“I will go wherever the hell I want to and you can’t stop me,” she told him, meeting his dark brown eyes with her blue ones. He took a menacing step forward and she stepped back, her lips parting in a breathless release of air. Not because she was frightened but because she was suddenly turned on.
“Stop, enough! Sammy, go grab something to eat. He’s right, you should have something before we go.” Sarah shoved her in the direction of the kitchen before turning back to Animal. “As for you, you need to stop with the domination crap. And as for your insistence that I leave her alone because I am pushing too hard, it’s none of your damned business. Sammy can take care of herself and you need to get over yourself.” Sammy watched Sarah poke him in the chest several times as she made her point.
She grabbed a banana from the fruit bowl to eat as she watched them, almost laughing at the expression on Animal’s face when Sarah basically told him to mind his own business. She’d bet a thousand credits he’d never been pushed around by a woman before.
“Just so you know,” Sarah said when he glared down at her. “When you head out there you need to tell whichever of those two idiots called you to stay out of this because next time I will be shooting the one responsible in the nuts.” Sammy watched Animal turn to her. She shook the banana at him and he scowled at her.
“That’s hardly breakfast. You need to eat more.” He moved into the kitchen. “I’ll make you some eggs. Then you two can head to the store and I can sleep.” He walked into the kitchen and began taking things out of the refrigerator. Sammy looked to Sarah, who shrugged, letting her know she agreed that she needed to eat more. Sammy sighed, realizing they would gang up on her over this. She was apparently having eggs for breakfast.
Chapter 3
Animal sighed a few hours later when he finally got to sink down on his bed at the clubhouse. He was damned grateful to be able to close his eyes at last. He’d left Sammy’s this morning planning on coming back here to sleep. Only Iron had called him about the time he’d pulled into the lot and told him that Sarah was lighting into Sammy over something and he had turned around and headed back to her apartment.
&nb
sp; When he had walked in to the sounds of her sobbing, his guts had been shredded. He immediately became aggressive and angry with Sarah for making her cry like that. She needed a friend who wouldn’t push her for more than she was ready for. Sarah needed to back off and let Sammy handle whatever had happened to her in her own good time, not force her.
Of course, it didn’t really surprise him that Sarah was the aggressive get-over-it type of person. He knew a little about how Sarah was raised. She was the take no prisoners type just like Reaper, but Sammy wasn’t like that.
Sammy was softer. Not weaker, but definitely gentler than Sarah.
Sarah was the type to shove a gun in your face and expect you to give her whatever the hell she wanted and what you wanted be damned. Sammy on the other hand was a submissive. She wanted to be led. Not that she was a pushover that a man could walk all over, no, she wasn’t like that.
Sammy was a woman who knew what she wanted from a man. She needed to be caught, tamed. It was why she went to the club to act out. She was just begging for a man to take her, to own her. Animal knew that he should walk away from this situation with Sammy because if he wasn’t careful, the beast he struggled to keep in check was going to break free and it was going to want to own her in every way.
It wasn’t a good idea for him to own anyone, not after what had happened years ago. He could push the limits as long as he had control, but without it he could end up hurting someone like he had before. He wasn’t ever going to allow something like that to happen again. He should walk away from her but somehow he just couldn’t seem to force the beast to back off. She was the first woman to threaten his control in years and he knew how dangerous that was better than anyone.
His actions in the past still haunted him. It didn’t matter that when it happened he’d been taking Juice, a designer drug that brought on a sense of euphoria and freed you from your inhibitions. He’d been the one to hurt her. He was the one who’d been out of control.
He sighed, his hands beneath his head as he stared at his ceiling wondering what the hell he was doing. He really needed to just stop this thing with Sammy. The rushing to her rescue, the need to be near her that ate at him when she wasn’t nearby, and the crazy possessive feelings he was struggling to control. The whole thing was a recipe for disaster.
He closed his eyes and fell asleep, only to be awakened an hour later by his phone. Grumbling, he lifted it to his ear. “Yeah,” he growled.
“We have another shipment. We’re leaving in ten,” Pansy told him.
Animal sat up, wiping sleep from his eyes. Damn, he needed at least another hour of sleep but it didn’t look like he’d be getting it. The club had found out about another shipment of girls the Headhunters were taking to the Cut Throats MC that they needed to intercept. He climbed out of the bed, walking into the bathroom to take a quick shower to wake up. This wasn’t going to be his day, he’d bet. It had already gotten off to a shitty start.
Animal crouched in the brush beside Iron and Pansy. They were watching the back of the group, who seemed to be partying with two of the girls they’d stolen. At the moment they were only drinking and taunting the two girls who were tied together. Their clothes were ripped and one girl’s breasts were showing. The other was dirty like she’d been shoved down and she looked like she had been smacked across the face. Animal wanted to act right away but he knew they had to wait until the others were in position.
The two girls couldn’t be a day over seventeen and it sickened Animal that these men were such perverts. Who the fuck did this shit to a fucking child? Having almost been a part of their club, he couldn’t believe how much they’d sunk into the mud. Most of the Headhunters were now just as sick as the four fucks he was looking at.
It made Animal wonder if he’d stayed with them four years ago if he’d be just as depraved as they were. He couldn’t imagine ever being okay with stealing children and taking them to men who’d abuse them, but when he’d been with them he’d been in a dark place. He had just started using Juice and it seemed to make men into monsters.
Animal had seen several good men turn into crazed demented psychos after being on that drug for more than a year. Prolonged use permanently damaged the part of the brain that kept your darker impulses in check. It made him glad he’d walked away from that room on route nine and never touched that drug again. If he had continued using, he might have ended up just like these sick bastards. Disgusted with this train of thought, he turned to look at Iron.
Iron signaled four minutes after looking at his phone and Animal nodded, glad that they could break this up soon. He didn’t want to have to watch these sick sons of bitches hurt those girls. Pansy met his eyes with his own and Animal knew he was thinking the same thing. They watched as one man pulled his pecker out of his pants and cringed because they didn’t want to see that happening. Only he didn’t try to rape one of the girls but instead wagged his tiny dick around while drinking whiskey straight from the bottle. He rubbed his dick on one of the girl’s faces and the girl flinched away. Her eyes filled with tears and her lips were trembling.
Animal heard Iron growl, “I don’t know. We may need to move before they get into position. This isn’t happening right here in front of us.”
Animal nodded. He was down with going in and cutting that fucker’s pecker off because there was no way in hell he was going to let him rape a child. That wasn’t happening when he could prevent it. Reaper might be pissed off that they moved early but once they told him why, he would understand. He didn’t condone this kind of shit either. None of the Bandits did. It was why they’d been trying to break up this flesh ring for over a year now.
They had taken a big leap in that direction thanks to Burner, who wasn’t the same kid who’d left them ten months ago. He was changed since his return from the Headhunters, reserved and a little darker than he’d been when he’d left. Burner had always been a jokester and had taken nothing seriously but when he came back he was almost a different man entirely.
Animal knew that was because he’d had to immerse himself into a sick group of men like the ones he was staring at. It was bound to change any good man into a cynical bastard who hated these men more than anything. That seemed to be what had happened to Burner. He was systematically taking them down. Animal had a feeling that it was because he felt he had to in order to atone for his sins while he was with them.
Animal could understand that; it was part of the reason he asked to be in on every raid that involved the Headhunters. He was trying to atone for his own sins just as Burner seemed to be trying to atone for his.
His hands clenched as he stared out at the Headhunters. Animal felt his insides tighten when one of the men reached out and grabbed one of the young girls’ tits and that was it. It was like a switch was flipped he couldn’t stay still any longer. He was up and moving before he could think about it. He heard the curses behind him and knew that he was going to catch hell later. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t able to handle watching another second of this atrocity.
He shot the man who’d been standing near the truck while he heard another shot ring out and he knew that Pansy or Iron had followed to cover his ass. Animal didn’t look to see which man was there, he just moved to the man who currently had the girl on the ground and was ripping at her clothes. The fucker hadn’t even realized he was dead yet.
Animal grabbed his shoulder jerking him away from the girl on the ground. She was screaming with tears streaking down her face as she tried to fight him off. Animal saw the man next to him fall to the ground after he turned around at the gunshots. His forehead bloomed with blood from the bullet someone had just put in his brain.
Animal’s focus was on the Headhunter he was jerking away from the girl so he didn’t pay much attention to the dead man. He slammed the man into a nearby tree. He shoved his gun back into his holster before he grabbed his arm, jerking him back and slamming his head into the tree repeatedly. He kicked the man’s legs from beneath him and ripped down
his pants to grab him by the balls, jerking hard on the disgusting bits of flesh. Then he pulled his knife.
Behind him he heard Iron groan. “Damn, not again, Animal. Fuck. I get it but do you have to castrate them while they’re still able to scream? It’s fucking annoying.”
“Yes,” Animal replied flatly. He knew this was why they called him Animal. When he first rode with them, it had been to the site of a man who’d raped a club member’s sister. They’d walked inside and the man had told them that he felt no remorse and that the bitch had wanted it. Animal hadn’t spoken, he just moved toward the man. He was pulling the man to the floor and cutting his dick off the next moment. No one had tried to stop him. They had left him in a puddle of his own blood and since that day he’d been Animal.
Reaper had come to him the next day to ask if they would have issues with this kind of thing often. Animal had looked at Reaper with dead eyes and told him if it involved rape, then yes. It was the one act that he couldn’t stomach. He was a dominant, a protector, and you never took a woman by force ever. It wasn’t okay if she said no beforehand or uttered the safe word during; that was it.
Reaper had accepted this with only a nod. Animal was surprised because he thought he’d been out after that but somehow instead he’d found a place to just be. It was the first time he’d accepted that he was going to stay here with the Blue Bandits.
Finishing his task, he stood up, blood dripping off the knife he held and his hands covered in the gore. Hearing the screams as the man bled out, he stared at him dispassionately. The two girls had been taken away by Iron when he realized what Animal was doing. They didn’t need any more nightmares. He stood back, the haze seeming to clear from his mind as he looked around seeing several bodies on the ground and Pansy standing nearby. Using the guy’s shirt to wipe the blood off his hands and knife, he put it away.
“You’re going to get reamed by Reaper for this, you know. We moved three minutes early,” Pansy told him, not looking concerned about the fact that Animal had lost his shit over the attempted rape.