The Devil's Due (5 page)

“Oh, goddammit!” I shrieked, spinning to run my swelling palm under the sink.

“Don’t you be taking the Lord’s name in vain!” Darryl yelled. He grabbed the soft flesh behind my arm and pinched, twisting my skin under his gnarled fingers. “What has gotten into you, girl? You got some evil in you this morning.”

I looked at him defiantly, ready to lash out, but he twisted my skin harder and I fell back with a cry. He smiled, satisfied that he had won as I rubbed my arm with my burned palm.

I hated him. I hated him more than anything in the world. I would kill him if I had to.

My eyes turned to the butcher knife that lay across the magnetic strip on the wall. I started calculating where I would bury it in his body.

T
he distant rumble of engines grew louder and louder until it was nearly ear-splitting. Darryl and I abandoned our staring contest to look at the door. I froze, half in hope, half in fear.

Darryl made the first move. Stepping to the screen door, he swung it open.

Spread out over the trailer park was the entire chapter of the Devil’s Due MC. They sat proudly atop their idling engines, shaking the flimsy walls of the trailers with the occasional burst of the throttle. I saw curtains flicker and frightened faces peer out.

Darryl stepped out onto our concrete stoop in nothing more than his dirty underwear.

“The fuck you doing on my property?” he yelled indignantly. He was trying to sound imposing, but I could hear the squeak of fear in his voice and it made me smile.

A biker surged forward, bringing his bike right up to the stoop, tapping the step with his front wheel and making Darryl hop nervously backward. When the biker removed his helmet and let his long blonde hair fall free, my heart leapt.

Cade.

He surveyed the scene with the usual fury, but when those piercing blue eyes met mine, he softened. He looked me up and down as I stood there, freshly scrubbed and sweet-looking.

“You look different.” A slow smile spread across his face, like the sun peeking out from behind a storm cloud. “I like it.”

I blushed and stepped forward to him, but Darryl blocked my way.

“The fuck is going on?” he whined, trying to sound tough and failing miserably.

Cade stood up from his bike and stepped forward. He was so tall he could look Darryl straight in the eye. My stepfather shuffled nervously on the stoop, clearly terrified.

“I’ve come to claim what’s mine.” Cade voice was low and even as he stared down at Darryl. Then he looked away dismissively, not even bothering to pay attention to the useless little man who stood in his way. He looked at where I stood in the doorway. “You got anything you want?”

“No!” I shouted. I launched myself from the doorway and leapt straight into his waiting arms. The sweetness flooded my mouth once more as he kissed me deeply. He stroked my damp hair away from my face.

“Okay then. Hang on.”

He swung his long leg over his massive bike. I jumped up and squirmed forward until my arms could reach around his waist. I clung to him, my head against his broad, warm back and inhaled deeply.

He kicked the bike into gear and we surged forward away from the trailer. As the rest of the Devil’s Due Motorcycle Club roared into place behind us, heading out to the open road, I allowed myself one glance backwards.

I could see Darryl standing open-mouthed on the stoop, his baggy underwear rippling in the backwash of the passing bikes. Then he disappeared from my sight as Cade rounded the corner and we hit the highway. I screamed aloud in joy as the wind whipped my hair and I tasted freedom for the first time in my life.

W
e were out of Flint Springs before I could blink. The open highway shimmered in the distance, beckoning to me as I wrapped my arms tighter around Cade’s rippled torso.

I was free. I was finally free. Never again would my stepfather lay a hand on me. I was riding with the Devil’s Due now, and no one could ever hurt me again.

The desert scrub shot by in a blur. We were open, unprotected, without the safety of metal surrounding us. I felt like I was one with the road. The feeling of speed was so much greater on the back of Cade’s bike; so much greater than I had ever experienced bouncing along dirt roads in our broken, beat up pickup truck. Fear fought with ecstasy, until I finally gave in to the thrill.

Clenching my thighs around the seat, I cautiously unwrapped my viselike grip on Cade and tentatively lifted my arms. When I didn’t instantly go tumbling to my death, I grew bolder. With a shriek, I lifted them high over my head and sat tall. Wind rushed in my ears and I laughed, tendrils of my hair whipping wildly. I had never felt anything like this. I was alive for the first time in nineteen years.

My excitement made me daring. I rocked forward and backward, bouncing like a little child. Then I gasped when I found the position that allowed the throaty vibrations of the roaring bike to send shockwaves up to my core.

I laughed wildly and rocked back and forth some more, thrilling as the vibrations shot through me. I felt a sudden downward rush and my stomach dropped low. I squirmed again. I felt a pressure begin to build inside of me and ground myself down into the seat in earnest.

Cade felt me squirming and arching behind him. He shot an amused look over his shoulder and grabbed my arm so that my whole body was rocked forward against the seat. Pinning me against his back with one hand, he twisted the throttle down sending us surging ahead of the rest of the gang.

The RPMs made me gasp and then moan. The thrill of our speed, the smell of his sun warmed back and baking skin, the leather, the whiskey, the sweat and the oil and the sweet, sweet taste of freedom on my tongue combined with the vibrations and overwhelmed me.

With a whoop, I shouted out the orgasm that ripped through my body. The rest of the club drowned out my cries of ecstasy as they rumbled into place around us.

When my spasms died away, Cade released his hold on me and I rocked back in the seat, completely sated. I laid my head against his back and nuzzled him, thanking him for knowing what I needed.

Turning my head so my cheek pressed against the soft leather, I closed my eyes in bliss. I had made it. I had done it. Everything I had just been through was worth it. It was worth all of the shame of my naked body on display in front of the whole club, men jumping on and off of me as if I were the town horse. I had survived, and now I was riding with Cade. I was his “old lady,” claimed by him to be his riding companion. I was riding with the Devil’s Due, just like I had always dreamed.

I tried to hold on to these thoughts as we rode on into the afternoon, but they grew fuzzy with fatigue. The hot sun simmered my unprotected scalp and I felt the prickles of sweat on my brow in spite of the rushing wind. Cade’s jacket grew too hot to lean on and I sat back to cool myself.

The hot sun overhead made me squint. It was high in the sky now, baking the blacktop of the highway. Ripples of heat swirled up from the road, which combined with the warmth of the engine we straddled.

I blinked hard, shaking my head, but I was starting to feel dizzy. I squeezed my eyes open and closed, trying to keep the edges of my sight from blurring. I swallowed, but my throat was dust. The roaring in my head was starting to drown out the roaring of the engines. I felt my grip on Cade start to slip.

The last thing I heard was a shout loud enough to carry over the wind.

M
y eyes didn’t want to open. They were scratchy and dry and stuck together as I struggled to raise my lids. I had no idea where I was.

I sat up, rubbing them furiously, and blinked as a room came into view. The walls were wood-paneled and the drapes were the most hideous mustard color. They were drawn, but by the angle of the golden light that streamed through the gap in the center, I could tell it was late in the afternoon.

I rolled over and realized I was naked and recently bathed. My hair was damp and the sweat had been washed from my skin.

On the nightstand next to me sat a glass of fresh water, beads of condensation forming on its bowed surface in the heat that the rattling, gasping A/C unit couldn’t dissipate.

I was in a hotel room—or, more likely, a motel room. I pulled the scratchy sheets up to my chin, suddenly frightened. I had no idea how I got here. The last thing I remembered was a shout.

Spying movement out of the corner of my eye, I turned to see a full-length mirror bolted to the wall. Cade’s warped reflection appeared, and the sight made me sit up in wonder.

He was standing by the bathroom sink, completely unaware that I could see him. And completely naked, too. For the first time, I could fully see the man with whom I was now inextricably linked.

He was tall—that much I already knew—bordering on huge. His torso was deeply tanned, golden brown like the hide of a mountain lion and his mane of sandy brown hair was shot through with gilt streaks from a life lived out in the sun. His chest, which had looked hairless upon our first meeting, I could now see was covered in wiry hairs that glinted in the afternoon light.

Across his chest was that devil’s skull tattoo, huge and imposing and richly detailed. I realized it was a much more intricate version of the demon I had seen on the club’s patches.

Smaller, less detailed tattoos dotted his narrow waist and rippling stomach. There were names, dates, and little symbols that were full of mysterious meaning. I wanted to inspect them, run my hands over them and know the story behind each one, but my eyes couldn’t rest on them for long.

Instead, they were drawn inexorably downward. The gilded hairs of his torso lead me to a wiry thatch from which dangled his thick, massive cock. Even now, in its resting state, it was imposing. I hadn’t seen it this morning when he’d had me against the side of the building. I had been too anxious to have it inside of me.

I licked my lips at the memory. He had pressed me up against the bricks, my whole body supported by those strong arms. He had taken me silently, thoroughly, and expertly. My whole world had changed since he had made me his.

He turned from the sink and lifted the toilet lid, giving me a perfect view of his sculpted buttocks and broad, muscled back. Across his shoulders, tattooed in imposing Gothic script, were letters large enough that I could read them from the bed, in spite of them being backwards in the mirror.

“Give The Devil His Due,” it read. I shivered slightly, a chill running up my spine. This was a dangerous man. I wondered why I hadn’t realized that until just now.

I shook my head to clear it and reached for the glass of water. I took a slow sip, feeling the coolness slide down my throat and hit my empty belly. My stomach rumbled in response. I was really hungry.

I set the glass back down on the table and Cade turned his head at the sound. He walked out of the bathroom, still completely naked. He made no effort to cover himself as he stood before me. I felt a blush spread slowly up my cheeks and he quirked a smile, amused by my discomfort.

I swallowed and reached for the water glass again to disguise my blush. He continued to stand there, watching me. His expression was neutral, his eyes fixated on my every move. I saw mirth in those blue depths, along with anger, irritation, and underneath all of that, a strong, almost animalistic desire.