Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8

Isla

T hat asshole. He'd seriously left me here. Tied up again. I glared at the floor imagining all the ways I was going to kill him. I'd hesitated. Again. What the hell was wrong with me? I never hesitated. It was those stupid hazel eyes of his that just drew me in and left me feeling confused and out of sorts. And that smug grin that made me want to smack it off his face almost as much as kiss him.

I sighed. Being a woman was massively inconvenient sometimes. So were feelings. Not that I had them for the overgrown ape. Nope. I wasn't going down that road.

All this was over just as soon as I figured out how to get out of here. He left hours ago and I was stuck in this damn room with nothing to do. I was going out of my mind.

The door slowly creaked open and I stared at it, willing Butcher to walk through. Instead, deja vu overtook me.

Four heads appeared, peeking around the doorway. Except this time, it wasn't the kids. It was adult women, then there was some jostling and four more heads appeared. They paused for a brief moment, watching me, then eight women piled into the room all at once, getting stuck and unstuck on each other in the doorway. Their smiles ranged from sweet, to encouraging, to amused. And they all started speaking at the same time.

My head jerked back as I recoiled from the sound and the sudden onslaught of people in my space. I wasn't used to having so many people—especially women—around me unless I was purposely losing myself in a crowd for a kill. Even then, no one noticed me. This was new, and awful.

"Girls! She can't hear us." They all quieted down. "Hi, I'm Seek," the woman said. "Butcher asked us to check on you." My eyes dropped down to where the two dogs were stationed on either side of her legs, staring at me with unblinking dark eyes. They'd slithered into the room amongst all the commotion.

"Great," I muttered when they all stared at me with expectant looks on their faces. "Did he ask you to let me go?"

"No," she replied with a laugh.

" Will you let me go?" I tried.

She shook her head. Now all their smiles turned apologetic.

"What's your name?" The bartender from last night asked.

"Isla." It didn't matter that I was giving them my real name now. Not since I'd already given it to Butcher.

"That's pretty," another woman with an accent said. "I'm Eva," she added.

"That's Sloane, Jenny, Dani, Jordan, Kit," the bartender smiled at me when she was introduced, "and Gwen," Seek said, pointing at each of them.

"You're all with one of the bikers," I told her, nodding.

"How do you know that?" Jordan asked, frowning.

"Oh, uh..."

"Are you hungry?" Sloane asked, stepping forward.

"Um, sure. "

She smiled and hurried from the room, taking Eva with her. The curly-haired woman, Jenny, narrowed her eyes on me. "Uh oh."

"What?" I asked, paranoid about the way she was looking at me. Like a bug under a microscope. I stilled, wondering why worry was constricting my chest. Why would I care if these women realized why I was here? I didn't even know any of them. So what if they seemed nice? I mentally smacked myself, trying to get my emotions with the program. Butcher had done something to me. That had to be it. Poisoned me with orgasms. Why else would I be concerned that these women would be disappointed once they found out I was trying to kill him? Ugh, if this was what being near other women got you, I'd been right to avoid them for most of my life.

I didn't have friends. Or boyfriends. Or...anyone really. I just kept to myself. Well, I had Ms. Mittens. My cat was the only creature that truly understood me. At least, she had been, until now.

No. Stop that. Butcher doesn't get you. He's not yours, idiot. You're going to kill him and be done with it. My background thoughts chose that moment to surface, and argue. Get another round of earth shattering orgasms, then kill him.

My introspection cut off when Jenny moved closer to me. She wiped a finger over my cheek—ignoring my look of shock and disgust—and then popped it into her mouth.

"What is it?" Seek asked.

"She's sticky. Yup. Tastes like candy. Strawberry." Jenny looked over her shoulder at the group of women. "My girls have been here."

Groans and snickers burst out of the women. Butcher had barely given me time to finish peeing, let alone wash my hands or face. So I was stuck with whatever was on my face for a while.

"Why am I not surprised the hellions were here first?" Seek quipped.

"Those kids belong to you?" I asked, amazed. She had this soft, kind look to her. And those girls...well...they definitely had a mischievous side.

"They do," Jenny said with a happy sigh. She licked her thumb and descended on me .

"No! No, don't-" I broke off with a grimace as she scrubbed her thumb over the sticky spot on my cheek. Yeah, she was a mom alright.

I'd been fucked to within an inch of my life, terrorized by children, snapped at by dogs, and now I was spit covered. This is not how a professional assassin conducted her business.

"How did you meet Butcher?" Jordan asked. None of them seemed the least bit concerned that Jenny had cleaned me off like I was one of her unruly children.

"She was in the Bunker last night," Kit responded before I had a chance. "Butcher couldn't take his eyes off her."

Dani let out a loud, happy sigh. "That's so romantic."

I thought about the fact that he'd fucked me on the floor not two feet from where they were standing. I wouldn't have exactly called him romantic. "I'm tied up," I pointed out to her.

She waved a hand and made a tsking sound. "That's just Butcher. He always does things...differently. It's romantic," she insisted. "Seriously, he's never liked a girl enough to keep her."

"Keep me?" I echoed.

The other women seemed to consider her words. "The fact that you're still here makes me think he may be smitten," Gwen said with a pretty smile.

They're insane. All of them. You walk into The Bunker and you leave reality at the door.

And they were all staring at me. Waiting for me to speak.

"He's. Holding. Me. Hostage," I replied, trying again to appeal to any kind of rational thinking.

"True," Seek said, "but if you knew Butcher better you'd understand. He doesn't show interest in women."

"Other than for a night. But he usually kicks them out long before morning comes," Kit added.

"Unless they've both passed out from the drinking," Jordan said, amending the previous statement.

I gave them all looks of disbelief. "And you think this guy is capable of being smitten?" I asked, hating to even use that word. One, it was a dumb word. It just sounded stupid. Two, I didn't want anyone to be smitten with me. Especially not the guy I was supposed to be killing.

"That's the thing," Kit said, "up until this morning we would have said no."

" I knew he was capable of it," Gwen argued. "He just hadn't found the right one yet. Same with Toxic," she added, sounding very sure of herself.

"Toxic loves women a little too much," Jordan said with a chuckle.

"But when the right one comes along, he's going to fall hard," Sloane predicted as she came back in through the door. "You wait and see."

Eva was right on her heels, carrying a tray with a couple glasses of water, two sandwiches, and a bag of chips. She set it on the bed, then frowned at me. "Should we untie her so she can eat?"

"Yes," I answered.

"No," Seek said at the same time. "Butcher gave direct orders not to let her loose."

One of the dogs growled and took a step toward me. All of the women's jaws dropped while Seek put a comforting hand on his head. "It's okay, Auron. Isla's a friend." Another, deeper, longer growl. Seek looked up from her dog and her eyes met mine. There was a spark of suspicion in her gaze now.

"I'm more of a cat person," I told her. My weak smile didn't seem to convince her.

"How's she going to eat if she isn't untied?" Dani asked.

Jenny plucked up a sandwich and held it in front of my mouth. "You're not allergic to peanuts are you?"

I sure hoped not because that sandwich was in my mouth before I had a chance to answer. Moms. The whole world is just broken into children of different heights to them. Breaking off the bite, I turned my head a little so I could chew without her shoving more into my mouth.

Sloane took the sandwich from her and shook her head. "You're going to choke her. "

I swallowed the bite and was grateful that Sloane allowed me to take the second rather than ramming it in my mouth like Jenny had. I wasn't sure who was more likely to be the death of me, these women, the girls, the dogs, or Butcher. Why was he keeping me here? Why had he asked these women to take care of me? And where the hell was he?

They sat there in shifts for most of the day, talking. My eyes were nearly crossing when they finally fed me dinner, then left me alone. A couple times during the day they'd dragged different men in to untie me—though the handcuffs never came off—so I could use the bathroom. I was in stimulation overload after a day of getting to know the women better. There were more kids here, a lot more, than just Jenny's four daughters. I got to hear all about them, and what the women did for work, and I hadn't even asked a single question.

I considered that for future missions, this might be the best way to gather intel. They simply couldn't stop talking. Of course, that would mean going through all of this again. Could I handle that?

They're actually kind of sweet.

That thought made me frown. It had come, unbidden, all on its own. What was happening to me? I really needed to get out of here. This place must do something to people. Like make them decent and kind. That wasn't me.

I froze as the door squeaked open, Sloane had only shut it part way when she left to put her baby to sleep. Apparently some woman named Sylvia had been watching the kids most of the day as the moms came and went from my room. Sucking in a breath, I waited as I saw one of the dogs as he stuck his head through the opening and gave me the evil eye. It was the older dog, Auron. He watched me, unblinking, for about thirty seconds, snorted out a sound, then disappeared. The sound of his toenails clacking on the wood floors got fainter and I finally exhaled.

Sure, my cat would probably eat my body if I died in my apartment at home in Dallas, but she wouldn't kill me. I wasn't so sure about those dogs. Everyone kept saying how sweet they usually were. And yet, they really didn't like me. It wasn't hard to see that .

I tipped my head back and studied the ceiling. The silence was a damn relief, but now I was back to where I'd been this morning, waiting on Butcher. He was going to pay for this. I wasn't sure how yet, but he would. I'd make sure of it. First, I just needed to find a way out of here.