Chapter 16

CHAPTER

SIXTEEN

CLINK

Sitting straight up, I cry out in pain like a little bitch. I’m not sure what woke me, but when I look to the side, I notice that whatever it is hasn’t woken King. He’s fucking snoring beside me.

Then I hear a loud banging on the door and realize it must be what woke me. Standing from the bed, I growl as the pain consumes me. I’m behind on my pain meds. I fucking need that shit because this hurts more than anything else I’ve ever had happen to me.

Moving toward the door, I gnash my teeth as I make my way toward it. I don’t bother looking through the peephole. If it's someone who wants to kill me, they can have me. Put me out of my goddamn misery right now. Right fucking now.

But the person standing on the other side of the door isn’t going to do that. In fact, she’s got tears in her eyes as she looks up at me.

“Vix, what the fuck?” I grind out, stepping to the side.

She waltzes into our room, although King doesn’t even flinch at the noises we’re making. He must have taken his meds before he went to sleep, unlike me. She stops a few feet away from me. Then she spins around.

“What the fuck is right,” she grinds out. “You’re sending my sister to strip?”

I almost laugh. Almost. And I might have if I didn’t know it would send me to my goddamn knees. Crossing my arms over my chest, I tip my chin slightly and look down at her for a moment before I respond.

“I am sending her to Nash. She’ll be safer there than anywhere else. His rules are his. I cannot help you there.”

Vixen presses her lips together in a straight line. “Fuck you, Clink. I didn’t try to get her saved to throw her to the wolves like that.”

Shaking my head, I clear my throat and take a step toward her. “You are fucking lucky. Your sister is fucking lucky. She should have no problem showing her gratitude by dancing naked for a free place to live, food, and safety.”

“Fuck you, Clink. Fuck all of you.”

My lips twitch into a smirk. “You already have, babe. And none of us here want to dip into that pool again.”

It’s petty. I know it is, but I can’t help myself. She’s pissing me off. We’re doing her a goddamn favor, and she has the balls to bitch about it?

Fuck her.

“I don’t want this anymore,” she says on a whisper.

I almost laugh in her face. “Now you don’t want this anymore? After three of us got stabbed saving your ass? Are you fucking kidding right now? You should be on your knees begging to suck our dicks.”

She shakes her head, pinching her eyes closed. I know I’m being a dick, but I can’t back down now. I have to ride that fucking asshole train until this argument is done. King’s bed rustles, but I don’t look away from Vixen. I’m focused on her and her bullshit.

I’m ready for a fight.

“You’re an asshole, Clink. My sister is not me. She is going to make something of herself. I’m saving her.”

“No,” I say because I’ve finally figured out why she’s so insistent on us saving her sister. “This has absolutely nothing to do with your sister. This is your attempt at saving yourself. You’ve been part of the club since you were a teenager, and you don’t want that for your sister, but she was doing the same thing, just a different way.”

It’s Vixen’s turn to cross her arms over her chest. She glares at me, but I know my assessment is correct.

“Yeah,” she says. “I didn’t want my sister being a whore. Is that so bad? I didn’t want her spreading her legs because a man tells her it’s his right. That she’s bought and paid for. You know all about that, don’t you?”

I know who and what she’s referring to, but I decide to ignore most of her words. “You gave your body to this club for food, a house, and safety. We’ve held to our end of the bargain. Yours was only to fuck and be fucked. It’s a small price to pay for the rewards you’ve reaped. Your sister wanted security, just like you.”

Vixen marches toward me, placing her palm on my chest once, then does it again and again. Hitting me harder and harder. I hear King’s voice in the background, but I ignore him. My focus is on this angry woman.

“You ain’t mad at me or at the club, Vix. You’re mad at yourself.”

“She was going to give them all of her, every piece of herself, and she wouldn’t have been able to walk away. Not ever.”

The rustling in King’s bed grows louder. Then I watch as he stands and shuffles toward us. He stops to the side of us, wraps his fingers around Vixen’s wrists, and tugs them off my body. I don’t need him to rescue me, but I’m in so much pain right now that I'm thankful he has.

“When we get together, you need to talk with your sister,” King murmurs. “If she wants to give herself to someone, that’s on her. And you need to respect her decisions. We’re sticking our dicks out for you, for this, and it will be the last fucking time.”

Vixen’s eyes water. Fuck me, but I do not do crying bitches. I look down at her, unsure of how to respond. Thankfully, she doesn’t try to hug me or some shit. Instead, she takes another step backward.

“I can’t do this anymore. I just can’t.”

She brushes past me, walks out of the hotel room, and goes God knows where. Swinging my attention to King, I stare at him, my eyes no doubt as wide as saucers. He wraps his fingers around the back of his neck, rubbing for a moment before his gaze flicks to mine.

“Well, whatever the fuck that shit was, let’s get some sleep and deal with it tomorrow. I already had to deal with Shawn crying her eyes out. I can’t handle some bitch I’m not in love with.”

Chuckling, I press my hand to my side as I moan in pain. Instead of going straight to bed, I reach for the pain pills first. King is right. Whatever that shit was, we’ll deal with it in the morning.

We’ll deal with everything in the morning.

DILLION

My body is flying, or maybe it's floating. I’m not sure. But what I am sure of is that this is most definitely a dream because I’m tied to a bed. I don’t want to open my eyes and come back to reality, so I decide to just float.

“Time to wake up,” a deep voice rasps, waking me from my floaty dream state.

My entire body rejects that demand, but at the same time, my eyes pop open. The man standing in front of me is one who I know well. Very well. So well that I know what his body feels like naked against my own.

The only man I have ever slept with aside from Humble.

“Conrad,” I whisper.

It’s not a sexy whisper because there is nothing sexy about this man. I don’t know what to say, what to do. I just stare at him for a long, silent moment, then I look to the side and realize that not only am I not in that room any longer, but I’m also not tied down to a bed.

“What the hell is happening?” I ask, swinging my attention back to Conrad.

He is smiling. Clearly, he is loving all of this. And he would. Because that’s who he is. He absolutely loves to surprise someone, but not in a fun way. He likes to shock them, make them feel unsure and unstable. He loves to see people fumble and fall.

Conrad is an asshole.

I regret ever letting him touch me. But I wanted my virginity gone, and I’m pretty sure there was some kind of back door deal with him that my grandfather, father, or brother set up. I never asked. Honestly, I didn’t want to know. I wanted to lose that pesky thing and move on.

Now that I’m in this situation, looking at him sitting just a few feet away from me, I wish I’d never done it.

“You don’t seem happy to see me, sweetheart,” he murmurs.

I almost, almost laugh in his face, but I decide against it. “There are quite a few things I’m not happy about. Seeing you is just one of them.”

My words come out sharp, and I know I’m completely full of attitude, but I don’t think I care. He kidnapped me. Kid-napped me. He doesn’t deserve kindness, respect, or a tone that’s anything less than snarky.

“Were you mistreated in any way, Dillion?” he asks, his eyes narrowing to slits when he does.

I roll my eyes to the ceiling, then lower them to look directly across at him. “You’re kidding, right? I was kidnapped, Conrad. Am I supposed to be happy about that?”

“But you weren’t mistreated. Sure, you were tied down, but that was for your own protection.”

I almost laugh in his face, but I decide against it. “What is this about?” I ask with a heavy sigh.

His lips slowly curve up into a smile that consumes his entire face. “There are only two things it could be about, sweetheart. Money and sex. This is about both.”

I don’t respond to his words. I don’t give a shit about them. I want away from here and still don’t see how any of this involves me. I don’t have any real money, and I’m not having sex with him… ever again.

The only person I’m having sex with, apparently, is Humble. Something that I just found out recently. I’m not sure if it was today or yesterday. I don’t know how long I’ve been kept here. I know I’m dehydrated and hungry, but past that, I have no clue how long it’s really been.

“Enlighten me.”

He laughs, not because he thinks this is funny by any means, but because he thinks he’s beyond brilliant. Conrad is nothing other than a complete narcissist. He always has been and always will be.

“The Dark Horse MC has been a thorn in our sides for years. We sent your brother in to handle them, but then he became one of them, only betraying them when we threatened to take you out.”

Each word Conrad says causes my spine to straighten a little more. My heart begins beating a little faster, then harder as he continues, and then my breath hitches, and I suck it in deep, holding it.

I can’t breathe. I can’t make myself breathe. I just stare at him, holding my breath, unsure of what to think, what to say, what to do. I am frozen completely.

“They might have killed your brother, but I let it happen. Same with your grandfather. Now they answer to me. I played the long game, and it paid off. You were a part of that I hadn’t counted on, but I will not give them the satisfaction of taking you for themselves. You’re one of us, Dillion. You are not theirs. You will never be theirs.”

His words are everything I hated about my childhood, about my life. They cause my body to unfreeze, mainly out of anger and pure hatred. Because I do hate this asshole more than anything else in the whole world, and with every word, that hatred grows.

“I’m not yours either,” I say.

My voice is shaky, my body trembling, but I’m breathing again, and I’m ready to fight him, but also for myself. I will go down fighting because I refuse to be part of the Southern Mafia.

I hate them all.