by Cox, Carrie;
Chad grinned. “No, I think he’s a little more than that.”
Tom chuckled in response to his brother’s comment.
Obviously, they hadn’t seen Nick chatting up the blonde at the bar.
They were still looking at me questioningly. “I’m just getting some fresh air,” I said. “What are you two doing out here? I thought you’d be inside drinking your bodyweight in beer.”
Chad grinned. “It’s a big gathering tonight. We’ve got people coming from all over the area. People who are under Victor’s jurisdiction. That could make us a target for other crews.”
“Competitors,” Tom clarified when I frowned. “Victor has a lot of power in these parts, and he manages to make a lot of money from it, so obviously he has enemies. Tonight would be a good time to exploit any potential weaknesses in Victor’s crew, so we have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“So you are on security guard duty while everyone else is having fun?”
“Something like that,” Tom said. “But don’t worry about us. We’ll be getting our fun later.”
“You look cold,” Chad said in a gruff voice. “Why don’t you get back inside and have something to drink? Enjoy the party.”
I resisted rolling my eyes again. How was I supposed to have fun when I had this meeting with Victor hanging over my head?
“It’s kind of hard to have fun when you’re being held captive,” I said pointedly. “And did you ever find my purse? I had makeup and things in there.”
Chad shook his head. “We didn’t find your purse.”
I shrugged. I guessed it didn’t matter anyway. After I had met Victor tonight, he would realize it was a misunderstanding, and I would be on my way out of here. I could just replace everything when I got home.
I walked back into the bar with Chad and Tom. They clearly weren’t going to leave me alone until they saw me safely escorted inside, so they could get back to their security detail. I’d only taken a couple of steps when I came face-to-face with Nick.
When he saw the look on my face, he said, “What’s wrong?”
“Ella needed some fresh air,” Chad said with a sarcastic smile. “We were just making sure she got inside safely.”
I rolled my eyes. I didn’t even have the energy to make a snarky comment.
“Later,” Chad said as he and Tom made their way outside again.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Nick said. He gave me a sexy grin that sent butterflies floating around my stomach.
He hadn’t seemed to be too concerned about finding me earlier when I’d seen him with the blonde girl.
“We should probably keep away from each other anyway,” I said refusing to meet his gaze.
He put a hand on my shoulder. “What are you talking about? Why?”
I didn’t answer straightaway. I wasn’t sure if I should tell him what I overheard between Nancy and Damien. It wasn’t as if I could trust him. I couldn’t trust anyone here.
I could feel the weight of his gaze so finally I said, “I heard Damien telling Nancy that she should find a way to keep you away from me.”
I glanced up at him and saw his eyes narrow. “What else did he say?”
I flushed. I didn’t want to tell him the part about Damien thinking he was interested in me. “Not much. That was it really. But you should probably get back to your drinking buddies. Damien had better not find you talking to me.”
“I’m not worried about Damien.” Nick practically growled the words.
“You were the one who told me he was dangerous.”
“He is dangerous to you, Ella. I need to keep you safe, and you getting Damien angry didn’t make it easy for me.”
“But Damien said…”
“Now that we’re back in Blackthorne, it doesn’t matter what Damien says. It’s Victor who holds all the power here.”
“And Damien doesn’t get along with his brother?” I said the words aloud, but really, I was just trying to make sense of things.
Nick cocked his head to the side and studied me carefully. “Who told you that?”
I shook my head. “No one. It’s just something I heard Nancy say. Why doesn’t Damien like Victor?”
Nick looked over his shoulder to make sure no one could overhear our conversation. “Envy. Plain and simple. There’s been a feud between the brothers for a long time. Damien was an outcast for years, but now he’s back in the crew, and he doesn’t like the fact that other people have taken his place among the men Victor keeps close to him. He thinks his brother should keep it in the family and not trust outsiders.”
“Do those outsiders include you?”
Nick nodded. “How did you guess?” He grinned at me.
“And Victor trusts you?”
Nick shrugged. “Victor doesn’t really trust anyone. But things are complicated, Ella.” He blew out a breath. “You don’t need to know this stuff. It’s better if you don’t ask questions.”
“Well, I wouldn’t be asking you all these questions if you had just let me go home.”
Nick’s gaze flickered away from my face, as something behind me caught his attention. I turned to see a girl standing beside me.
She smiled then said, “I’m Teresa. Nancy said you’d lost all your makeup, and I just wondered if you wanted to borrow some.”
Immediately, I guessed that Nancy had sent Teresa over to interrupt our conversation. Even when I thought we were unobserved, clearly someone was watching.
4
As mad as I was at Nick, I didn’t want to get myself in any trouble. And I knew one thing for certain; Damien Blackthorne was trouble with a capital T.
I left Nick’s side without bothering to look back, and followed Teresa out of the bar. We walked back in the direction of the room I was staying in, but before we reached my room, she opened the door to a much larger room with four single beds in it. There were eight girls inside in various states of getting ready. One girl was still wrapped in a towel with curlers in her hair. Another was using straighteners to get her black hair lush and poker straight.
They all turned to look at me as I entered the room, but there wasn’t any animosity there. They were just curious, and all returned my smiles.
“Here you go,” Teresa said, pointing out her makeup bag on a large dressing table. “Help yourself.”
I guessed it wasn’t terribly hygienic, sharing makeup, but I thought a little powder wouldn’t hurt. It was really nice of Teresa to offer, even if Nancy had persuaded her to do it.
“Thanks.” I smiled as my fingers clasped a compact of bronzing powder.
I applied the powder and was glad to see it made me look a little better. The atmosphere in the room felt almost like a college dorm.
“So what do you guys do here?” I asked Teresa, expecting her to tell me that they worked behind the bar.
It seemed as if, in that moment, everyone stopped talking and looked at me.
Teresa smiled. “We are performers,” she said simply. “Dancers mostly. Although, Tabatha over there…” She pointed out a statuesque redhead. “Performs with a python.”
“A python? Like an actual snake?”
Teresa nodded her head, and Tabatha pointed out a glass enclosure on the floor that held an albino python. How had I missed that? I swallowed hard.
The girl with the long dark hair who’d been using the straighteners gave a deep throaty chuckle. “Performers? Don’t try to dress it up Teresa. I’m not ashamed of what I do. We are strippers, and some of us accept money for extras.” She stared hard at me as if daring me to ask what those extras were, but I had a pretty good idea.
I looked around the room at the girls, and a horrible thought struck me. They seemed so happy getting ready for this party, but were they here under the same circumstances as me? Had the bikers stopped them from leaving?
“How long have you been here?” I was looking at the girl with the long dark hair, but I was really addressing them all.
“Eighteen months,” s
he said. “It’s a good gig. Pays well.”
“When can you leave?”
“Whenever I want. What kind of question is that?”
“I just…” I guess that must have seemed like a strange question. I could tell them everything. Spill my guts and hope one of them would help me and lend me a cell phone. But in the short time I’d been held captive, I’d learned to be careful whom I trusted.
“Most of us are from Dorset Town. It’s the closest city to Blackthorne,” Teresa said kindly, taking pity on me. “Like Maria said, the club pays well. It’s off the radar, and the local law enforcement turns a blind eye when Victor puts money in their pocket. It’s a little cutoff here, but most of us get down to the city at least once a month.”
I felt a spark of hope. Even if Victor didn’t let me go straight away, there was a chance I could get to the city with one of these girls.
I spent the next hour or so with Teresa. We finished getting ready and then went to the bar for drinks. At first, I refused anything alcoholic because I wanted to keep a straight head when I spoke to Victor, but as the evening drew on, and he didn’t even appear, I decided a drink was a good idea to calm my nerves.
There was music on a sound system but the stage was empty tonight, apart from three large chairs.
“What are they for?” I asked Teresa looking at the stage.
“The chairs are set aside for Victor.”
“Then where is he?”
“He’ll be here soon,” Teresa said and passed me another drink.
It was another half an hour before Victor arrived. Before I’d even seen him, I knew. The atmosphere in the bar changed as the buzz died away, and people turned to look. The air was electric, and I held my breath.
I almost dropped my drink when I got my first sight of Victor. How could he be related to Damien?
The only similarity between the brothers was the dark, bushy eyebrows. Victor had dark, spiky hair that made him look younger, and in a strange way, far more attractive. He definitely had the dark, dangerous look going on. He was a large man, although nowhere near the size of Chad or Tom. As he turned to survey the room, I saw he had a large scar running down his right cheek.
This was the man who held my future in his hands.
I set my drink on the bar and moved away from Teresa, heading straight for Victor. Before I could reach him, my path was blocked by a tall Nordic-looking man.
“No, you don’t, honey. Victor’s busy tonight.”
I looked up at his face, ready to give him hell. I’d been waiting long enough to see Victor, and I wasn’t going to wait any longer. But as my eyes reached his face, the words I’d been about to say trailed away.
His intense blue eyes looked down at me, and a trace of a smile played on his lips. His features were so even and perfect, he looked like he had been carved from marble.
“You don’t understand,” I stammered. “I’ve been waiting to see him for days.”
He raised an eyebrow. “I’m sure he’s been looking forward to seeing you, too. But he’s got business to attend to.”
The way he looked at me told me he thought I was just one of the girls at the bar who had some kind of designs on Victor. His hot gaze traveled down my body, slowly drinking in my curves.
I flushed and took a step back. I had to keep in control of this situation.
“You don’t understand,” I said again. “I’m not who you think I am.”
He leaned close to me, so close I could smell the scent of his cologne. My heart was racing in my chest.
“I know exactly who you are, Ella.”
He laughed at my shocked reaction.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Jackson, honey. Victor’s second-in-command.” He winked at me. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Suddenly, Nick was between us. His hands rested on my shoulders, possessively. It seemed as if every muscle in his body was tense as he glared at Jackson.
Jackson’s blue eyes glittered coldly as he surveyed Nick. “Steel.”
Nick inclined his head slightly. “Jackson.”
Nick pulled me back towards him. “I can take it from here,” he said.
Jackson gave us an amused smile. “I can see you have things under control. She can talk to Victor later. He has business to attend to first. In fact, you might want to get Ella out of here for the next half an hour. There’s a particularly nasty case coming up.”
Nick gave a short nod. “Fine.”
5
Nick
As soon as Victor had entered the room, I watched Ella head straight for him. No matter what I said, she didn’t trust me. Not that I could blame her. Jackson arrived out of nowhere to block her path. I didn’t trust him. He’d come too quickly up the ranks to take his place as Victor’s number two. Damien resented him, and so did most of the other men in the crew, but Jackson didn’t seem to care. He wasn’t out to make friends.
I didn’t like the way he looked at Ella, like a predator.
I had no right to feel jealous, but I barely managed to quench the fiery desire to knock Jackson out for looking at her that way.
I led Ella away from him as he watched us in the cool, calculating way he had.
“Nick, this is ridiculous. You said I was here to see Victor, and now you won’t even let me see him.”
I looked down at her. “I will. We just have to get out of here for a while.”
“I’m not leaving.” She folded her arms across her chest and looked so determined that for a moment I was at a loss for words.
“It’s for your own good.”
“My own good? I think I’ll decide that thank you very much.”
“It’s going to get heavy in here. It won’t be pleasant.”
I reached for her arm, but she pulled away from me.
“Why? What’s going to happen?”
Before I could answer, there was a loud cry from behind us. I wrapped my arms around Ella, pulling her back away from the men who were dragging someone into the bar.
It took three of them to hold him still. The scrawny figure wasn’t much to look at. He still had teenage spots, but I knew he was Darren Mills, and twenty-one years old. He worked at the gas station in Blackthorne, and he’d been brought here for justice.
Behind the group of men who were dragging Darren along, was an older man. I hadn’t seen him before, but I knew who he was. His name was Brian McManus, and he owned the gas station where Darren worked.
I felt Ella press her body against mine, and I could sense her fear. “What’s happening, Nick?”
I shouldn’t have told her. I should have kept her safe and protected from all of this, but perhaps if she knew the full story, she would realize how dangerous this lifestyle was and how bad I was for her. It could be the thing that turned her against me. That thought hurt, but if staying away from me kept Ella safe, that was how it had to be.
“The man they’ve brought in to see Victor, Darren Miller, raped a sixteen-year-old girl.” I nodded at Brian McManus, the old man stood behind them, his face plastered in misery. “That’s the girl’s father.”
Ella had grown pale. “What’s going to happen to him?”
“That’s up to Victor.”
Ella shivered against me. I pulled her closer and fought the overwhelming temptation to scoop her up and carry her out of there.
Victor had taken up his chair on the stage, ready to sit in judgment. The bar was silent, apart from the feeble sobs coming from Darren.
“We all know what happened here. Would anyone like to say a few words?”
Darren tried to rush forward, but the man holding his arms pulled him back. “I’m sorry, Mr. Blackthorne. Truly. It was just a bit of a misunderstanding… She led me on. You know how girls can be, right?” He tried to smile at Victor through the snot and tears covering his face.
Victor sneered at him and turned his attention to Brian McManus. “Anything you would like to say?”
Brian McManus took a step
forward. His whole body was shaking. “My Lizzie is a good girl. I welcomed that man into my home. I gave him a job. He ate dinner with my family. Lizzie won’t come out of her room anymore. She just lies on her bed and cries all day.” He turned to look at Darren and his bottom lip trembled. “I want him punished for what he’s done.”
There were a few shouts of support from people in the bar and then it fell silent again as everyone waited for Victor’s judgment.
Victor nodded. He turned to Jackson. They conferred for a moment and then Victor turned back to the crowd, “Darren Miller, I find you guilty, and your punishment will be to lose two fingers of your right hand.”
Ella gasped beside me. “What? They’re not really going to cut his fingers off are they?”
I looked down at her horrified face and wondered for a moment what it would be like to live back in a normal society where justice meant going to a police officer and attending a trial.
“Nick, you can’t let them do that. You have to do something.”
I hated the way she looked at me, as if I was some kind of hero. I would never meet her expectations. I wasn’t a good guy.
“Are you volunteering to be the one to go and tell Lizzie that Darren should go free and unpunished, Ella?”
She shook her head. “No, of course not, but they should go to the police and have him charged properly. Have him sent to prison. They can’t just cut his fingers off.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know the relevant statistics, Ella, but I’m pretty sure that most rape cases don’t make trial. Why should she have to live through that again? There was a witness. He forced himself on her while her little brother was in the house. Now he has to live with the punishment. You have to realize we do things differently around here.”
I felt my chest tighten as she looked at me in a way she never had before. Horror filled her eyes, and I realized for the first time she was seeing the real me.
She backed away from me, shaking her head. I wanted to reach out for her and tell her I was sorry. I would try to be a better person. But I didn’t.
She whirled around from me, heading for the exit. Jesus. Did she really think she was going to be able to make a difference? Did she think she could stop this from happening?