FOUND: A Motorcycle Club Romance Novel (15 page)

“We'll see, we'll see.” He paused, watching the phone light up. Then, with furious rage, he tossed the cell across the stone floor shattering it into uncountable shards of plastic. “See? Problem solved.”

“You think so? You really think smashing it makes the problem go away?”

“I don't care,” he answered dismissively.

“You should.”

“Woman, it's you who should be ding the caring. When I've got the keys to the car and this semi-automatic in my hand, you've got more to worry about than me. You got to remember there's nothing but desert surrounding this home for a lot further than you can walk.”

As much as I didn't want to admit it, he was right. There was nothing in the distance and in the heat of the desert no one could have walked for more than a few hours.

“Stare on girl. You ain't leaving this place until I say so.” He stood up and made for me. “Come on, we going downstairs.”

“Don't come near me!”

Jerome jumped forward quickly and had me by the arm again before I knew what was going on. “Cut it hoe! There's no food in the fucking refrigerator and I need to go get some. I ain't letting you sit up here all civilized while I'm out. I'm locking you up.”

He dragged me to the thin strip of corridor separating the kitchen and living area. Once I saw a black door opposite the bathroom, I understood that there was more to this house than I initially thought.

“Go on, get down.” He kicked the door open to reveal a long metal staircase.

“What the hell is down there?” The lights were off, but my bones told me something wasn't right. There was a bad feeling in the air.

He shoved me forward laughing. “Didn't I tell you? That's the sex dungeon where Virgil hosts his parties. He like a brother to me, but that nigga can't even talk about half the illegal shit that goes on up in here.”

“Like---”

“What?” He chucked to himself. “Fucking nasty shit. Use your imagination. I bet my nigga is willing to organize
anything
for them as long as they got the green.”

With a flick of the switch behind me, Jerome turned on the lights and we began walking down. Instantly, I knew what he meant. I'd always heard about the freaky things some get up to in the Hollywood hills, and it was all in front of my in pure technicolor. Red walls were covered in shelves of sex toys of every description. Gags, dildos, latex costumes – it had everything and more. On the black ceiling above chains hung, some even connected to – let god be my witness - meat hooks. Littering the room were larges devices meant for mounting and binding, which wouldn't have appeared out of place in a medieval dungeon. But the worst thing, the absolute worst, was what the center of the room accommodated. A drain for whatever bodily fluids may have been split. All of this was enough to make me vomit.

Jerome could tell what was on my mind, “You remember that movie we saw last summer? Virgil got high and swore to me the guy playing the superhero has been down here and locked in that swing. Fuck... he told me that dirty motherfucker got fucked by a pack of shemales. Funny shit.”

Of course, in the position I was in I didn't find it funny. What he planned concerned me more. “You're going to leave me down here then? With all this?”

“Yeah.” He waived the gun to the corner, guiding me forward. “Now get that chain around your neck.”

The leather strap on the floor was connected to the wall by a heavyweight ring chain and fastened around with an automatic locking mechanism. Like everything else in this borrowed holiday home it was built professional. If there was ever a premium BDSM standard this was it.

“You got the key for this? I'm not putting it on if you don't.” Only when he raised the gun did I listen. I placed it around my neck. It sealed in place tight. There was no way I was getting far from the wall.

“I don't know where it is, but I'll find upstairs I know it. That is...
in case you ever deserve to be out of it
. Now keep that fucking bitch mouth shut. I'm driving to get us food.”

Jerome walked up the metal stairs and out of my vision. Always the kind man, he turned off the overhead lamp on the way out. Though I suppose given the contents of the room it was a blessing.

I sat down against the wall absolutely wrecked from the past couple of nights. The previous anger and hatred that kept me motivated when dealing with him and the situation left me in the darkness. I held onto the chain and cried my eyes out. The emotions burst from me...

~ Chapter Sixteen ~

For hours I was left alone with my thoughts. Thinking back to what could have happened. What should have happened. Anything I could have done different so I wouldn't have ended up in this nightmare...

In the end it didn't make my situation any better. Out here no one could possibly hear me scream.
Literally
. That's why he brought me to this desert dungeon. I think, deep down, he knew he had lost me and this was his sick way of trying to keep me. At whatever the cost.

The first thing that alerted me to Jerome's return was the sound of the front door upstairs slamming. I tugged on the leather strap around my neck for the millionth time. It didn't budge an inch.

Above me the lights came on illuminating the room and Jerome's heavy steps banged down the stairs. He carried bottles full of water and bags containing fast food.

“The dark made your attitude any better?” He asked with a slight hint of spite that only someone who knew him for as long as I had would have caught. There was nothing to read in his expression. To someone else watching he might as well have been asking for the time.

I crossed my arms in silence and avoided his gaze. I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of a reply.

He shifted gears straight into anger. “Well fuck you then! You ain't getting nothing to eat if you ain't gonna talk... To think I got you something good... You going to play me like that? Shit, you lucky I don't beat you straight into next week.”

Play
you
? It seemed unbelievable how he could be this messed up. His world was upside down.

I lay into him frustrated. “Beat me straight? Look at this, you animal. Look what you've done!” Frantically I rubbed my face, making sure to get off all the thick foundation that still coated my black and blue eye. Each wipe agonized my swollen skin.

“Nah.” His eyes turned unable to see his handiwork.

“Look.
Look at me!
Look what you've done to me. This is the kind of man you are! Giving his woman a cheap shot for
not
agreeing to fuck other people! You know how fucked up that is?
Yeah
... You've been treated terribly!”

Jerome's eyes didn't keep with mine. He didn't want to look and face up to the reality of what he had done. Before me he was more a scared little boy than the so called tough man who punched me. He paced up and down the room before finally picking up a folding chair from the side of the basement and taking a seat. Minutes passed as he tapped his foot on the floor in thought. He took long and drawn out breaths from his smoke.

With each passing second the lack of response infuriated me. “Well? Come on tough man. What have you got to say?”

He leaned forward and spoke into his hands. “I...
I had to
...”

“You had to?” My blood boiled while I tugged at the chain desperate to get at him. “You hit me and left me lying. Without any feeling. Without any remorse. Without a care in the goddamn world.
You had to
? Say that again. I fucking dare you.”

“Yeah,” he spoke up, louder this time. “I had to. I ain't having a woman tell me no –
to anything
. What would I be if I did that?”

“What's going on in your head you sick murdering psycho? Was asking me that some kind of fucking test? We were together for seven years. What games are you playing?”

“I ain't no punk ass nigga. This is how you've got to do it. How
I
have a relationship.”

I sighed disbelieving. “Are you
that
fucked up?”

He sunk back into his hands. His muted words crept over to me, “I don't want you to leave me... What you said about us being through... I don't want it.”

“Too bad.” I stood incredulous. “Ignoring what you did to that poor cop – snuffing him out like an ant... Ignoring what you've done in bringing me here... I've been your punchbag for... too long now. Too many painful years to count. Listen... Jerome. Not any longer. I don't care what your mind has planned, bring it on! At this point it doesn't matter. I don't care about you. What we had for a relationship. I don't even care about what you're going to do to me... We're done. And
nothing
will ever change that.”

Jerome's eyes welled with tears. “Cassie... Don't act like that... You're
my
woman... Please don't leave. We good together...”

Once, much earlier in our relationship, he had got like this. Begging and pleading for me to forgive him and stay after the first time he hit me.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It was our first major argument about a year in. I caught him texting a girl on his phone behind my back. He couldn't understand why I would be so upset. It was almost like he demanded total faithfulness from me, yet couldn't dream of holding himself to the same standards.

Then, I still had enough will power to tell him to shove the relationship up his ass. The second the words came out of my mouth he hit me. Full force and straight to the chin. His reasons? That I dare to pick his beeping phone up while he was in the bathroom.

I came to with him begging me on the verge of tears to take him back. He seemed so sorry. So honest. So authentic.

'
It was a one off, baby child. I'm not like that. I've never been like that. I'm in a crazy head space right now. You mean everything to me. My life and my world. I'll never do that again.
'

I'm sorry to say that I believed him.

Looking back on the time we spent together since, I've often thought he punished me for making him apologize. In his mind he viewed it as showing weakness. Being a '
punk ass nigga
', as he would say. I figured he lost power then and with it his ego took a body blow. From that day forward he was always too excessive in trying to break the fight from me. Reacting with violence quickly at any sign of dissent. Of course, now is different. I didn't fear him any longer. He held no power over me.

“Me and you are done!” I hissed at him like a banshee. “Think you can scare me by bringing me here? Think you can change my mind? Think again! I'm not worried at all... For all I care you could kill me right now! Death would be better than listening to your threats! All that matters is I can die happy knowing that you mean nothing to me.”

He pounced to his feet and tossed the chair across the room towards me. “Bitch! How dare you talk to me this way? I'm your fucking man. I picked you up from from that strip club and have given you all you got. You'd be worthless! You would be nothing without me! Can't you see that?”

“With you Jerome... I am nothing.”

He stood in front of me fixed to the spot. He breathed heavy with each of his fists gripping and releasing. He was livid. Unstable. On a knife edge and ready to slash out.

I sighed, resigned to what fate may bring, and sat down on the floor as calm as any Buddhist monk. “Come on... If you're going to do something, do it... There's no point in drawing it out.”

His gaze fell and he said something that wasn't audible.

“What's that? I can't hear you.”

“I'm... I'm in the right.” His bottom lip trembled. “Why-why couldn't you just listen?”

“Because... you're a fucked up low life who controlled me for so many years with fear.”

He didn't like what he heard.

Immediately he stormed at me and grabbed a handful of my hair pulling me upright. “What the fuck you call me?
Low life
? I ain't some thug. I'm
more
than that.”

“Get the fuck off me!” I raged and shoved him away from me. One show of force was all it took to make him back down.

“Cassie... I'm---”

“
I don't care
! Jerome, you're nothing but a bully. A messed up bully who can't even see what he's doing... Can't you see how stupid you're acting? One minute crying for forgiveness. The next lashing out because I call you a low life and not a somebody?”

He went from heartache to anger in a flash, and now he was back to heartache without understanding a word I said.

Jerome collapsed to the floor on his knees and appealed once again, “Why couldn't you just be the way I wanted you to be? We have it good, me and you. You're
my
woman. The world's treated me bad all these years, but we on the up.”

“Don't come near me!”

He pulled the envelope full of the motorcycle club's cash out of his back pocket and flicked it through his fingers for my benefit. “Look-
look how much we got
. We can start fresh with this. You and me. There's enough to move out somewhere new.”

“No... Nothing you say can change my mind... I don't care about the money. It's not about money or anything else. It's about you. Nothing can make me forget the past we've been through. What you've done... Even when you have a stack of Boyd's thousands.”

Boyd
...

The word made him livid. The crocodile tears that flowed from his manipulative eyes disappeared and were replaced with fury.

“Bitch! Bitch!” He jumped to his feet biting and lunged at me. He screamed and wrapped both hands around my neck. “
You worthless fucking whore
!”

But I didn't cower. The fight was on.

I dug my nails into his tense arms and kicked out at his shins possessed with the urgency of survival. I wrestled struggling to get free doing all I could, but, in the end, I was no match for him. For all I gave, for all I scratched, his hands wrapped harder and harder. There seemed to be no limit to his strength. Quickly my vision turned fuzzy and pinpointed. The world and everything in it became distant...