Dark Menace MC: Stone (12 page)

I couldn’t blame Maddie for her lack of
urgency. She didn’t know Wildman, didn’t know what he was capable
of. I couldn’t understand her concern for Ronald, but I supposed
you couldn’t help who you fell in love with. We sat staring at each
other for a few minutes. If I’d thought telling her the whole story
would help, I would have.

“Okay,” she said after a while. “Let me call
Ronald and tell him I’ll pick him up on the way out of town.”

God, what I was about to say wasn’t going to
go over well. “Sis, Ronald has to stay here. If he leaves before
paying Dark Menace back they’ll think he skipped out on them, and
they’ll take it out on my hide. Probably hunt his ass down,
too.”

“But he’s my husband, Rachel, I can’t just
leave him.”

“You have to.” I could see that she was
pulling away. “Look, it’s not forever. Only until the threat of
Wildman is gone.”

“Can I tell him what’s going on?”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, in case he
slips up and says something that he shouldn’t. You know the kind of
people who hang around tattoo shops, and how small towns are. Just
tell him your dad’s sick or something and that you have to go to
him.” I watched a range of emotions run across her face. “Sis,
we’re wasting time. You need to get gone from here.”

She released a resigned breath and asked,
“Will you help me pack?”

“Yes.”

“Let me just make a brief call to Ronald
first.”

I was so happy that she’d agreed to leave
that I kept my mouth shut about Ronald. While Maddie phoned him I
walked back to their bedroom. I knew where she kept their
suitcases, and I was going to start throwing things into them. The
quicker she got out of town, the faster I could get back to the
club. In the meantime, I’d have to come up with some story that
made sense and kept Stone pacified.

RACHEL

I watched Maddie drive around the corner and
disappear, a feeling of deep dread settling in my stomach. At the
last minute I’d made her take the truck, because I knew her old car
would never make the trip through the mountains of upstate New
York, where our dad lived. He’d divorced Maddie’s mother after she
went to prison for insurance and check fraud, and according to her,
he was working his way through wife number three. Why she’d ever
kept in touch with him I didn’t know. As far as I was concerned, he
was a loser, going through life making children he would later
abandon.

I climbed into Maddie’s car, reluctant to
head back to the club, but knowing that I had to. Stone was going
to be pissed when he found out what I’d done, but wouldn’t he have
done the same if it were his family? No, something told me his
solution would have been to meet the problem head-on and extinguish
it without thought of what was legal. He didn’t strike me as the
kind of man who wasted words, actions, or anything else when it
came to protecting those he cared about.

Oh, shit!
I came to a red light and
stopped, my gaze focused on the three Dark Mencase bikers that were
directly across from me and headed in my direction. I recognized
Stone immediately as he braced his feet on the ground. I felt my
heart rate speed up, fighting the urge to duck. He was talking to
the two men flanking him and even from where I watched I could tell
from his body language that he was tense, his expression set like
concrete, and I wondered if it was because of me.

As he glanced around I held my breath, and
then relaxed a little when I remembered that I was in Maddie’s car.
All I had to do was make it through the light, but luck was on
Stone’s side. It turned green, and as I pulled forward his eyes met
mine through the windshield. We continued past each other, and I
kept my head straight, seeing his turn my way out of the corner of
my eye.
Fuck!
I glanced up in my rearview mirror in time to
see him raise his arm and make a circular motion to his men.

They were turning around! And I was in
trouble, maybe even dead. I pushed down on the gas, but Maddie’s
car had serious problems, and getting past forty was one of them.
Within minutes Stone was driving up to my window, his men pulling
up close behind my car. I reluctantly glanced over at him, meeting
his stony gaze.

His lips pulled back in a sneer. “Get your
ass back to the club!”

God, he was pissed.
I didn’t bother
telling him that that was where I was going. I just nodded and
turned my attention back to the road, wondering what my punishment
would be. There was no denying the pleasure he delivered when he
touched me, but I sensed his hands could be just as ruthless in
delivering pain. Or perhaps he would have one of his men do it. I
shook my head. No sense in letting my imagination run wild, I was
probably worrying for nothing.

The clubhouse was located just outside of
town. In order to get there we had to drive through a section of
town that was even poorer than Maddie’s, with a huge abandoned
industrial park filled with crumbling buildings and railroad
tracks. As the clubhouse came into view the urge to slow down was
strong, but I didn’t give in to it. All I could do was suck it up
and face whatever Stone had planned for me.

I pulled the car into an empty spot and sat
there for a minute, vaguely conscious of Stone and the others
backing up against the building. Opening the car door, I got out
just in time to see him slide his leg over his bike, take his
helmet off, and throw it down. I was halfway to the door when he
intercepted me, grabbing me by the upper arm.

“Where the fuck did you go?” he growled,
slinging the door open and pushing me roughly inside.

I decided to tell him as much of the truth as
I could. “To see my sister.” The first thing my eyes landed on was
a crying Trudy sitting at the bar, being consoled by Lulu. Ty was
also there, behind the bar. When we walked into the room everyone
glanced our way. I turned sharply to Stone. “This is all on me,
Trudy had nothing to do with it.”

“Save it,” he gritted between his teeth.
“Tell Ripper we’re back!” He shouted to no one in particular.

I mouthed
‘I’m sorry’
to Trudy as
Stone guided me through the room. “What’s going to happen to her?”
I asked as he dragged me down a hallway I’d never been in
before.

“You should be more worried about what’s
going to happen to you.” His tone was hard, flat, without emotion.
It matched the dead look in his eyes.

“I just went to see my sister,” I reminded
him, trying to pull away from his claw-like grip. Downplaying the
fact that I’d taken a truck and left Trudy behind, hadn’t told
anyone where I was going, and then had given that truck away, I
said, “And I was coming back! Jesus, how much trouble can I get
into for that? Don’t you think that you’re overreacting?”

I could feel the anger rolling off of him,
and got the sense that something else was wrong. He couldn’t be
this mad at me for just going to visit my sister. Fuck, did it have
something to do with Wildman? Had he found out about my connection
with him? No, that was impossible.

I refused to even consider it.

Without warning he yanked me to a stop, felt
the wall for something, and then right before my eyes a secret
panel opened up, revealing a steel door. He unlocked it and threw
me into the room ahead of him. I spun around to face him, and for
the first time our eyes connected and I began to realize how really
angry he was.

“I don’t like liars,” he snapped with a
thunderous expression.

“I’m not a liar,” I insisted, backing up
farther away from him. “I told Trudy—”

The burning fury in his gaze swept over me.
“Fuck what you told Trudy, where did you really go?”

I could only stare at Stone, stunned.

His laugh was dry and cynical and worried me
even more than his anger did. “You stole a truck and went
where?”

“I didn’t steal it, I went to town to see my
sister—”

“Then why did you leave without Trudy after
she told you that none of the girls fuckin’ leaves here alone?”

“I didn’t think it would be a big deal.”

“First, you’re not one of the girls. You’re
collateral, sweetheart, worth thirty grand to the club. So you
don’t get to go anywhere.” He took a step closer to me. “The fact
that you slipped out of here like a snake tells me that you’re
hiding something. So, where did you really go?”

I shook my head. What did he want me to say?
I’d told him the truth. As angry as Stone was, as frightened as I
was getting, I made myself stand still when all I really wanted to
do was run. His hands curled around my upper arms and he jerked me
against him. As our bodies collided, the seed of awareness that I
always felt whenever he was around took root, and I hated that,
because I wanted to hate him at that moment.

“I want the fuckin’ truth, Rachel, and maybe
we’ll go easy on you.”

What?
Before I could digest the
meaning of his words, he tossed me backwards against the cold,
steel wall. I hit it hard enough to cry out in pain. There was no
regret on Stone’s face, and I truly sensed that the man standing
before me now was the cold, hard-decision-making bastard of a
ruthless motorcycle club president.

“There’s nothing to tell, Stone.”

Someone walked into the room, and my gaze
shifted behind Stone. He didn’t move a muscle. I didn’t like the
way the man who’d joined us shut the door. The look on his scared
face sent a chill through me, and I glanced back to Stone when the
realization of why I was there washed over me.

There was a cot against the far wall, a chair
close to it. But what really freaked me out was the ceiling hoist
in the center of the room, and the chain and hook hanging from it.
Directly below it was a floor grate like the kind you would see in
a shower. The walls were steel, and despite that, the room had a
sterile feel to it.

“I’m not lying. There’s nothing to tell you.
Call my sister—”

Stone reached into his pocket and withdrew
his phone, then looked at me expectantly. I rattled off Maddie’s
number. He dialed, and after a few minutes said what I already knew
was coming.

“No answer, sweetheart.”

The man who’d entered the room moved around
Stone towards me. I didn’t take my gaze off Stone. “What are you
going to do?”

His smile didn’t hold a trace of humor.
“
I’m
not going to do anything but watch. Ripper here, it’s
his job to make the enemy talk.”

Enemy!

Ohmygod
what had happened between the
time I’d driven off and now?

Ripper grabbed me away from the wall, quickly
binding my wrists together with rope. He wasn’t easy on me, either.
I bit down on my bottom lip to keep from gasping out at his
roughness. He seemed to be avoiding my eyes, and I held on to the
hope that he didn’t really want to do this.

“I don’t know what you want me to say.” It
was the truth.

The next thing I knew, Ripper pulled me to
the center of the room, picked me up by my arms, and I felt the
cold iron of the hook catch me between my bound wrists. This time I
gasped out sharply, because there was no denying when the sharp end
of the hook cut into the fleshy part of my palm. The seriousness of
my situation imploded through me and I began to feel desperate.

“Stone—”

“Save the tears, they won’t work on me.” He
crossed his arms over his wide chest and leaned back against the
wall.

I saw something flicker in his eyes when they
fell upon the blood dripping down my arm, but he remained cold and
indifferent, crossing his legs at the ankle. Ripper silently
circled me, his gaze roaming up and down my body. He stopped
directly in front of me, and slowly his gaze lifted to mine.

“You know why I’m called Ripper?” I shook my
head. A sharp gasp escaped me when he removed the long knife from a
belt at his side. My gaze flew back to Stone, but then I felt a
rough finger beneath my chin, forcing me back to Ripper. “Don’t
look at him, honey. He won’t interfere with my methods because they
work.” He brought the knife up and carefully caressed my cheek with
it. “They call me Ripper because first I start with the clothes.”
With that, he grabbed a hold of my t-shirt at the neck and sliced
downward, cutting it in two. “And then I move on to the flesh.”

I shuddered. I know I did. Who wouldn’t with
that bloody vision? I wanted to be strong, remain calm. When I felt
Ripper pull the edges of my shirt apart, exposing my bra and torso,
I glared at Stone, damning him with my eyes as anger rose up inside
me like an erupting volcano.

“You bastard!” I hissed at him, drawing his
gaze up from where they were focused on my breasts. “You wouldn’t
know the truth if it came up and slapped you in the face.”

“She’s going to fight us, brother,” Ripper
smiled. “Maybe we’re askin’ her the wrong questions.”

Stone remained silent for a second, before
saying, “Okay, let’s say I believe you went to see your sister.
Why? What was the urgency?”

“Why are you so damned suspicious?” I was
looking at Stone for the answer.

He shrugged. “I have to be, sweetheart. I
trust no one but my brothers. If you had done things the right way
we wouldn’t be having this little, ah, discussion. But your high
tailing it out of here tells a different story.”

“That’s really sad, Stone.”

“Let’s cut to the chase,” he said in a hard
tone. “If you went to your sister’s, I want to know why, and where
is my truck?”

I closed my eyes. I was going to have to tell
him about Wildman because nothing else would make sense, and
besides, I couldn’t think right now. The headache that had started
earlier had never really gone away, and all I wanted to do was lie
down in a dark room somewhere. I had to believe that Stone wouldn’t
really let Ripper hurt me, because I’d convinced myself that
something had clicked between us, but at the same time I didn’t
want to take any unnecessary chances. I knew how he felt about the
club.