Dark Menace MC: Stone (11 page)

“Come on, baby. You know I make you feel
good. I know how you like it. No one else will satisfy you like I
do.” Leaning in close, she ran the tips of her tits against me.
“One last time?”

Desperation filled her eyes when I didn’t
react. If she’d done that shit a week ago I’d have grab her, thrown
her against the wall, and fucked her brains out.

My cock didn’t even twitch.

I pushed her back. “Not. Now.”

“Maybe later?” she cooed hopefully.

Christ, the bitch didn’t let up. Later I’d
remind her what a sweetbutt’s role was in the club. Now all I
wanted to do was get the hell away from her. “Later.” Some of the
brothers were heading toward the office for church. They looked our
way, smirked a little, but knew enough not to say a word.

We had shit to sort out, women were the least
of my problems.

RACHEL

Fuck, where is she?
I felt a headache
coming on. Since Stone had taken off I’d tried to get a hold of
Maddie half a dozen times. When I gave up on her cell, I tried her
job, a couple of her friends that I knew, and even her rotten
husband. Ronald answered his phone but wasn’t any help. He wasn’t
concerned and said it wasn’t unusual for her to turn her phone off
at work. I called her boss only to find out that Maddie was off for
the next two days.

On top of the killer headache I felt total
helplessness. Until I spoke to her and knew that she was okay, the
worst-case scenario was at the forefront of my brain. Wildman
wouldn’t hesitate to use her to get to me. Maddie had been the
lucky one. We shared the same father, but had different mothers.
She hadn’t come into my life until after my mom and I had escaped
him, and she didn’t know the horrors and beatings we’d been put
through. All she knew was that we’d run away from an abusive
relationship.

Abusive relationship hardly defined the life
we’d had with Wildman. The man was a monster, like Jekyll and Hyde.
He’d caught my mother at a desperate time in her life, wooing her
with false words and promises of love and protection. Maybe mom had
been a little too eager, too naive, but she’d done what she’d
thought was best at the time, not understanding until it was too
late the hell that awaited us. She’d tolerated her mistake until
Wildman had made it known that he wanted me.

Escape had come at a price, but the benefits
had far outweighed the cost. Knowing what part of New York that my
father’s family came from, she’d hunted him down, explaining our
situation and hoping that he could help. Of course he couldn’t, he
was dealing with his own shit with another broken marriage, and a
young teenage daughter he didn’t know how to deal with. He hadn’t
seemed to care or comprehend the danger that we were in, and,
knowing how vulnerable my mother was at the time, had begged her to
take Maddie until he got right.

Got right?

What did that even mean?

He was a poor excuse of a human being, and
even worse as a father. He never once asked about me. We’d ended up
helping
him
, and Maddie had arrived on our doorstep within a
week. We’d both been beyond happy to discover that we each had a
sister. There’d been no more running after that, and no sign of
Wildman, and over time we’d adjusted to our new lives as a little
family.

Still poor.

Still struggling.

But as happy as we could be together, until
now.

I had to get a hold of her. Just sitting
there in the room made me all kinds of antsy. I couldn’t even go
out and look for her, warn her about Wildman. I was totally at the
mercy of Stone and his club. I needed a vehicle. Pacing around
Stone’s room like a caged tiger, high on adrenaline, was making me
crazy.

There was a light tap on the door. Before I
could say enter the door opened and Trudy’s smiling face
appeared.

“What’s wrong?” I guess my expression gave my
inner turmoil away. Her smile disappeared and she opened the door
enough to slip inside the room. “Is it Rita? I ran into her earlier
and she was in a foul mood.”

I wished. I could handle Rita. I shook my
head. “It’s my sister.”

“Oh, no.” I was surprised when she took my
hand and pulled me down on the bed next to her. “What
happened?”

“I, um, haven’t been able to get in touch
with her. She’s younger than me, and I’m worried about her. I need
to find some way to get to town.”

“That’s easy, honey. I can take you into
town.”

I hesitated. I didn’t really want Trudy
around when I talked to Maddie. Would she let me borrow the car? I
wasn’t sure if it was hers, or if it belonged to the club. I would
have to think of a way to leave her behind, but first I had to get
into the car. “Are you sure?”

“I wouldn’t have offered if I wasn’t sure,”
she responded. “We can go right now.”

We both got to our feet, and I couldn’t help
but worry about what I was going to say if we ran into Stone. “I
don’t suppose I could borrow a vehicle and go on my own? I
appreciate your offer, but I’m not sure where to begin looking for
her. It might take some time.” I hoped my tone sounded casual and
indifferent to what her answer might be.

“Oh, honey, I would let you if it were up to
me, but we’d have to okay it with one of the officers and they’re
in church right now and no one interrupts church. None of the girls
leave the clubhouse alone.”

“Are you prisoners here?” I snapped, feeling
my frustration grow.

She laughed. “No, it’s for safety reasons.
We’re Dark Menace girls, considered their property. They take care
of us.”

She went behind the bar, reached under the
counter, and then held up a set of keys. “Looks like we’ll be
taking the black truck today.” She tossed me the keys, giving me a
knowing look. “Let me run and get my purse. If you want, pull up
and wait for me outside the door.”

Just like that, Trudy took off. I stood
there, stunned, wondering what had just happened. Was this her way
of giving me the opportunity to go alone? She had made a point of
telling me what we’d be driving. Deciding not to over think it, I
swung around and headed straight for the door. Once outside, I
scanned the parking lot until my gaze landed on a black truck. It
was bigger than I was expecting.

As I walked toward it, I tried not to bring
attention to myself. I could see several men working in the garage.
One of them gave me a wolf whistle, but I ignored him and opened
the truck door. The lot around the club was full of bikes, clearly
identified as Dark Menace MC by the logos on their tanks. Wings of
fire framed a horned devil’s head, and the letters “Dark Menace MC”
were arched above the head, the same flaming color as the
wings.

The truck’s engine roared to life. I slowed
down by the door to the club, wondering if Trudy planned on showing
up. A minute later I was pulling out of the lot and heading for
town, trying not to think about Stone’s reaction when he discovered
that I was gone. I hoped this didn’t get Trudy into trouble. I
liked her.

I decided to start looking for Maddie at her
house. It was a good call, because when I rounded the corner to her
street I saw her car in the driveway. Thank God! I’d no sooner
pulled in behind her vehicle and turned off the ignition than the
front door swung open. She ran out to meet me.

“Hey, sis, I was hoping it was you.” Her gaze
moved over the truck. “Is this yours?”

I ignored her question. “Damnit, Maddie, I’ve
been trying to reach you for hours, your phone must be off!” I
hadn’t meant to snap at her, but the whole situation and my worry
over not being able to reach her had given me such a pounding
headache that I could barely see. “Maddie,” I forced myself to calm
down. “You’ve got to leave here.”

She frowned, taken aback. “What? But
why?”

I glanced around. Most of her neighbors were
either elderly or unemployed and had nothing better to do than
stick their big ears into other peoples’ problems. “Let’s talk
inside.”

“You’re scaring me,” she said, closing the
front door behind us.

“Good. You need to be scared.” We sat down at
the same table where they’d cut Ronald’s fingers off. “You remember
that man I told you about a long time ago? The one mom and I ran
away from?”

She nodded slowly. “The one in Georgia?”

I nodded. “Yes. Only…,” I hesitated from
saying what I had to because I knew that it would freak her out,
and I still wasn’t positive that the Wildman affiliated with Dark
Menace was the same Wildman that had terrorized my mother and me
when I was a child. Still, better to be safe than sorry.

“What?” Maddie asked impatiently.

I reached across the table and took her
hands. “I think he’s here, Maddie.”

Her eyes grew big. “Has he contacted
you?”

I shook my head. No need to tell her that he
wouldn’t contact me. If Wildman knew where I was he’d simply show
up and do what Wildman does. I may or may not survive. “No, because
he hasn’t found me yet.” I gave her a serious look, hoping to get
it through to her that this was a dangerous situation. “You need to
go somewhere and hide out for a little while. This man won’t think
twice of using you to get to me.”

“But this man doesn’t even know about me,”
she began, “I—”

“Maddie, please, I know what I’m talking
about. He’s not . . .” I struggled to find the correct words,
wishing now that I’d told her everything years ago. As it stood she
knew very little. “He’s not normal. The people he associates with
are vicious criminals, and trust me when I say that you don’t want
to be around them. This man likes pain, he likes inflicting it. You
saw the burns on my mom…”

She shuddered. I didn’t want to bring up
those memories. Mom had suffered so much at the hands of that
monster. The burns and mental abuse were just a fraction of what
Wildman had put her through the years that we were his captives.
Mom had passed away from cancer three years ago, and for the first
time I was glad that she was gone. It had been so hard getting her
to leave Wildman, she was that afraid of what he’d do if he caught
up to us. But once she knew what his intentions were regarding me,
she had made it her mission to escape.

Now I shuddered, recalling her desperate,
tear-driven words to me.
I’ll kill you myself before I let him
touch you like that!
Up to that point, Wildman had treated me
like a meddlesome kid, lashing out at me whenever I was within
reach. His mental abuse, the threats, had been far worse.

“Maddie, I didn’t tell you everything that
Wildman did to Mom.”
I hadn’t told her what he’d done to me.
“I promised her that I wouldn’t. But I know this monster. He’s a
killer.” She paled at my words, and her eyes nearly bugged out of
her head. “If he gets wind that I have a sister, he’ll use you to
draw me out, and then he’ll kill you in a horrible way. I know him,
and I can’t keep myself safe if I’m worried about you.”

I had to get through to her, and I could see
that she was thoughtfully weighing each of my words. I had no doubt
that she believed what I was saying, but she had to convince
herself that she was in danger. Her staring gaze finally lifted and
focused on me.

“What about you? Shouldn’t the three of us go
away together?”

My heart fell because I knew that Maddie was
talking about her useless husband. It occurred to me that she might
not know about our current situation with Dark Menace. Knowing
Ronald, he’d come up with some lie about his severed fingers, and
downplayed the seriousness of it.

“Maddie, did Ronald tell you why his fingers
were cut off?”

Her brow furrowed and I knew that she was
confused as to why I’d suddenly changed the subject. Slowly, she
began to nod. “Some freak accident—”

I interrupted her. “You’ve heard of the local
motorcycle club, Dark Menace?”

“Yes, who hasn’t?”

“He owes them a ton of money, sis. I was here
the day they cut his fingers off.” She gasped, horrified, but I
kept going. “They’ve given him a deadline to pay them back, and
until then, I’m collateral. I’m staying at their clubhouse outside
of town and working in their bar.”

“He didn’t tell me any of that,” she admitted
in a low voice.

“I have to stay with Dark Menace until Ronald
pays them back. They consider me their property, which means they
will protect me from Wildman.”

“How much?” she asked simply, her tone
defeated. I could see that she was fighting tears.

“Too much. Look, I’m not telling you this to
make you feel bad. I’m okay at the club, they’re decent people.” My
thoughts went to Stone as I gave her a couple of minutes to let it
all sink in.

Would he protect me? Just because we’d had
sex didn’t mean that he felt anything for me. He was a hard man to
read unless he was angry. I recalled his muscles against my body,
the strength in his arms. The unleashed power he just managed to
contain.

“Where will I go?”

Good. I breathed a sigh of relief.

“Can you go to your dad’s for a while?” I
could never refer to him as my dad, too, I didn’t know him. I had
been three when he and my mom had divorced, and we’d never seen him
again.

“He might not want Ronald there.”

I lost it, getting to my feet. “This isn’t
about Ronald, sis!” Maddie knew how I felt about Ronald. “Why do
you always worry about him? Do you think he was worried about you
when he took money from Dark Menace? Was he worried about what they
might do to you, just because you’re his wife? Is he worried about
what they’ll do to me if he doesn’t pay them back? Ronald doesn’t
worry about anyone but himself. I’ll never understand what you see
in him. He’s a worthless, no-good asshole! For once will you just
put yourself first?”

Tears were flowing freely down her cheeks,
and I felt a moment of regret for my harsh words. I sat back down,
ignoring my pounding heart and taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry,
Maddie. It’s just that I’m so scared, and I feel like you need to
leave as soon as possible. Like
now.”
Our eyes met and held
while she wiped at her wet cheeks. “Please.” I didn’t know what
else to say.