Boxed Set: Steel: Blacthorne MC Romance (7 page)

A
s 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,” she 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.”

N
ick

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?

I followed her. Because whatever happened, I had to protect her.

I’d almost caught up with her by the time she exited the bar, but I knew from the sickening yells that we were too late. Justice was swift out here.

Ella stopped dead as she came face-to-face with Darren who was clutching his wounded hand. Tom stood in front of them, cleaning off his blade.

“He was lucky,” Tom said to me. “It was a clean cut.”

Tom took pride in his work, but that wouldn’t be any comfort to Ella.

She turned and buried her face in my chest. I wrapped my arms around her tightly.

“What the hell are you doing, Steel?” Jackson stormed up to me. “I told you to keep her away.”

I glared back at him angrily. Why the hell was he so interested? He didn’t understand. I needed Ella to see this. I needed her to hate me. I needed her to despise the man I’d become, so she would push me away. That way I could put an end to all my pathetic hopes that we could be together. I needed her to turn me away because I knew I would never have the strength to do it.

E
lla

I was in shock. I’d learned enough in medical school to know that. I was shaking, and I felt freezing cold as I leaned into Nick’s warm body. While I wanted to forget what I’d seen, I knew I would never forget that sight as long as I lived.

“I’m sorry,” Nick murmured into my hair. “I’m so sorry, Ella.”

I didn’t know what he was apologizing for. For letting me see what happened to Darren? For refusing to do anything to help him?

“What for?”

The question seemed to surprise him, but after a moment, he said, “For letting you see the real me.”

I didn’t know what he meant, and I was too tired to try and work it out.

“Let’s get inside.” As Nick led me back into the bar, I was vaguely aware of Jackson staring at us.

Someone had put the music back on, but the mood was still subdued. Nick ordered drinks, and when he handed me mine I gulped it down.

The next hour or so passed in a blur. I kept drinking. I just wanted to forget everything, and the alcohol helped.

I was pretty wasted by the time Chad came up to us. “Are you okay, Ella? I guess that sort of thing is hard for outsiders to see.”

He wasn’t kidding.

“You got that right,” I said, and reached for my drink.

Chad frowned. “She’s drunk.”

“I am still here you know.” I took a large swallow of my drink to prove it.

“She just needs to blow off a little steam,” Nick said to Chad.

“Yeah, I’m just blowing off steam that’s all,” I said and then giggled.

“Aw, man. Victor’s told me to bring her to him. I can’t do that if she’s drunk.”

“So ask Victor to wait until tomorrow. Tell him she saw the thing with Darren and freaked out.”

“No!” I couldn’t believe I’d been so stupid. This was going to be my chance with Victor. I needed to be focused and clearheaded not drunk! Maybe it was more sensible to wait until tomorrow, but I’d been waiting for so long that I couldn’t miss this opportunity.

I did my best to act sober, which wasn’t easy. “I’m fine. I’m not that drunk. I was just a little shaken up. I want to see Victor. I have to see him.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ella,” Nick said, looking at me doubtfully.

“Please, Nick. Don’t stand in my way.”

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. “Are you sure you want to do this now?”

I nodded vigorously. “I’ve never been surer of anything.”

He held out his hand and pulled me down from the barstool. “Okay then, Ella. Let’s go.”