Library
Home / Pound of Flesh / Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

Raider

My beautiful doll has been in the bathroom too long.

I heard her sniffling in the shower, and it made me crazy. She confuses me as much as she entices. One moment, she’s snuggling into my chest, the next her little nose is red and she’s upset. I don’t think I handled it well, either. No, if I had, I think she would still be tucked into my lap. Right where I need her. Or maybe she’d be spreading her legs again, offering up her cunt for more seed.

My cock throbs, the length of it tenting the front of my boxers. I reach in and start to stroke myself, but the pain and guilt I’m feeling over making Delilah cry forces me to stop and I slump myself down onto the bed. I continue to stare at the bathroom door, willing it to open so I can try speaking to her in a quieter voice.

What will I say, though? She nearly called me on my deception. It’s only a matter of time before she realizes her guess was correct. I don’t give a shit about the money Roger owes me. I never expected him to have it ready. Hell, I was counting on him being an irresponsible asshole so I would have an excuse to take Delilah instead. The sweet blonde I’d been burning for since watching her ride in circles on her bike three years ago. God knows I never could have charmed her into coming with me willingly. I don’t have an ounce of charm in my body.

Then again…I could be wrong. Delilah didn’t say she wants to leave me, right? Only that she wanted to see her brother from time to time. A conversation is what she asked me for. And I panicked. I panicked because I don’t know the right words to make her understand I’ve been waiting to be with her so long, I want to run down anyone who might remind her I’m not worthy.

Only, Delilah thinks I’m worthy. Maybe I need to trust her, because that’s the only way she’ll trust me in return.

When is she going to come out of the bathroom? I miss her. She felt so good sitting between my legs, and now I’m just empty. Regret over shouting at her and slamming the table is making it so I can’t even sit up straight. I need to cuddle her.

“Delilah?”

No answer.

My throat burns.

We need to leave the motel soon so I can meet the buyer I just spoke to on the phone about my Pontiac. I’ve got important things to worry about now, like making Delilah happy. Providing for her and our child, when the time comes. Until the garage is running and cash is coming in, I need the money the sale of my classic car will bank. After putting this particular buyer off for years, I’m finally going to let him take her—my Pontiac—off my hands.

Too restless to sit still and wait anymore, I stand up and knock on the bathroom door. “Delilah?” I swallow hard. “I’m sorry.”

Again, there’s no answer. A buzzsaw starts spinning inside my skull. The silent treatment doesn’t really seem like her style. No, she’s a passionate little thing. More the type to continue the argument or come flying out of the bathroom into my arms. Quietly moping doesn’t fit.

As soon as the certainty occurs, I raise my fist and bash it down on the doorknob, ripping the brass piece of shit clear out of both sides. When the door sways open to reveal an empty bathroom, I can barely believe what I’m seeing. She…ran away? No. NO. I-I didn’t mean to yell. The whole argument started and ended so fast…I can’t. I lost her? She left me?

A savage pain slices into my chest, stealing my breath and doubling me over. My knees threaten to lose power and send me crashing to the ground, but fear keeps me standing. My beautiful doll is out there somewhere on her own. Last time she ran away, a man tried to do something despicable to her. What if I’m not there to save her this time? She’ll be hurt or worse. Oh fuck. My vision goes black, clears, goes black again. Clears. She’s gone. She’s gone.

“DELILAH!”

My stomping feet carry me into the bathroom, my hands wrenching the open window right out of the frame, tossing it onto the floor. Stooping down to peer out into the daylight, the scene in front of me is a nightmare.

Delilah is mere yards away, looking at me worriedly over her shoulder. Her brother is idling at the curb in his tricked-out Mercedes, flipping me the bird. Two of his bonehead friends are sitting in the back, one of them helping my doll into the car—and I memorize their faces so I can find and kill them for touching what’s mine.

“Delilah, no!” I roar, bashing my hand into the bathroom wall, sending plaster spraying everywhere. “Come back.”

But the car door is already closing behind her. An unholy sound rips through my teeth when she presses her hand to the window, a sad expression on her face. Like she doesn’t want to leave…but I’ve given her no choice because I’m a selfish monster who didn’t listen or understand. Until it was too late.

No, it’s not too late. I’ll move mountains to get my beautiful doll back in my arms. Three years behind bars didn’t keep me away from her. Nothing and no one can.

I don’t even bother putting on clothes, walking out of the motel in my boxers in peeling out of the parking lot in my van, groaning in pain when Delilah’s smell drifts toward me from every corner.

It only takes me five minutes to catch up with the Mercedes.

*     *     *

Delilah

I don’t feelso hot.

Mostly because I have a serious need to burst into tears, but I’m surrounded by my brother’s asshat friends and they’re all bragging about putting one over on Raider. If I broke down and sobbed in front of them, they would rib me about it the rest of my life. And I’m going to be seeing them the rest of my life, aren’t I? I’m headed right back to the beginning. Pretending I didn’t get kidnapped and claimed by a giant who may or may not want me dead.

“How did you come up with the money?” I ask Roger, to distract myself.

“We did a GoFundMe,” one of his friends jokes.

Roger snickers and shakes his head. “Ah, you let me worry about that, sis.”

Meaning he’d earned the money illegally. Not that I’m surprised. Large amounts of money don’t appear overnight the honest way. “How are you going to get the money to Raider?”

His eyes meet mine in the rearview, skating away fast. “We’ll get you somewhere safe, then call him with a drop site.” He shakes his head. “Saw the way he looked at you. Didn’t trust him to hand you over, even if I gave him the money.”

“Yeah, we heard you charmed the beast, cutie,” Roger’s other friend says, giving my legs a not-so-discreet look. “Understandable,” he murmurs for my ears alone. “I’m pretty charmed myself.”

My stomach roils. Traveling in the opposite direction of Raider seems wrong. Really wrong. The Stockholm syndrome theory I had before might have merit. Or I just fell for this big guy and I miss him, faults and all. Cramming my fingers against my mouth, I make a bitter sound. “I think he’d hand me over now, Roger. One day in my illustrious presence and he’s already planning to off me.”

“What?” My brother rears back in his seat. “Are you sure?”

I frown. “Why do you seem so skeptical?”

Roger hesitates. “Listen, I never told you this, but…Raider took the fall for the job when we got pinched.” Red climbs the back of his neck. “Never told me why, but when I saw him with you, I thought…”

“What?”

“I figured he might have taken that fall because of you. So you wouldn’t be fucking orphan.” His fist taps the steering wheel. “Just a theory I had.”

My heart starts to drum out of control. “How? I never met him until he kicked down our front door.”

To my right, Roger’s friend clears his throat. “Before he went away, he warned me to, uh, keep my hands off Delilah or he’d split me down the middle.”

“Same here,” admits Roger’s other friend. “His threat to me was more testicle-specific, though.”

“I-I don’t understand,” I whisper, my body cooling suddenly with the hyper-awareness that Raider’s arms aren’t around me. “Why wouldn’t he tell me?”

“Probably because he’s a freak,” spits the guy on my right. “Didn’t want you to know he had a sick little crush, so he worked us behind the scenes until he could get out and kidnap you. Otherwise you would have turned him down, being that you’re normal and all.”

Would I have turned Raider down? Before I got to know him? Probably, yes. My whole body aches with the realization. Had he really taken the fall for my brother so I wouldn’t be alone on the outside? How can I reconcile a man who would do something so noble…with the man who’d been casually plotting my death back in the motel room?

When the guy beside me shifts, cold metal brushes my side and the situation becomes clear. Too clear. “Why aren’t you taking Raider’s threats seriously anymore? You’re not even acting scared of him.” A far cry from cowering behind the couch as he’d done when Raider arrived at our home.

No one answers me, but sitting up in my seat, I look around the car and count four weapons. Some of them are beneath the seats, others are shoved in waistbands. My skin turns clammy.

“You’re not planning on giving him the money, are you?” I ask Roger. “Did you even come up with it?”

“Just let us handle this, Delilah,” he grits out, a second before his frame tenses. His knuckles turn white on the steering wheel, gaze locking on the rearview and I know Raider has already found me. “Whatever happens, sis, you stay down. It’s show time, boys.”

“No.” I smack the back of Roger’s headrest. “You can’t d-do this. You can’t hurt him. Didn’t you just say he took the blame for your crime?”

“Didn’t you just say he wanted to kill you?”

Had I? My heart still doesn’t want to believe it. “I-I don’t know. Just pull over and let me talk to him. I’ll straighten it out.”

“Talk to him?” Roger bursts out. “No fucking way. If we let him get close enough to talk, he’ll crush us all.”

Raider’s van pulls up alongside Roger’s Mercedes. My first glimpse of the wildness in Raider’s eyes expels the breath from my lungs. The guy on my right raises his gun and aims at Raider…and I don’t think, I grab his arm and jerk up, blasting a bullet hole into the ceiling. Raider’s bellow reaches me across the road, along with my brother’s much less powerful one, then suddenly the Mercedes is spinning, screeching, coming to a dead stop.

It takes me a second to gather my bearings, but as soon as my vision clears of spots, I search through the windows for Raider’s van, finding it parked a short distance behind the Mercedes. All three men begin to load their guns, faces intent, obviously preparing to shoot my giant.

“Don’t shoot!” I scream, my voice echoing in the car’s interior. “Don’t shoot him. You can’t. Please.”

“Stay out of it,” says Roger. “It’s for your own good, sis. I’m protecting you.”

“No, I don’t want this.”

There’s only one man blocking me from getting out, so I reach into his lap and twist his nuts in a fist. While he’s distracted by the pain and shock, I hurtle myself out through the back door with a shout of denial. I run as fast as I can, throwing myself at an approaching Raider. He hoists me up into his arms, cradling me close, his heart hammering a million beats per second beside my ear.

“Delilah,” Raider says raggedly. “The car…it spun…are you hurt?”

“No.”

He releases a relieved exhale. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. You can see your brother. Okay? If that’s what you need to be happy, I’ll try not to hide you away from anyone but me. Please come back to me. Don’t run away.”

Hot tears push at the backs of my eyelids. “You have to go, Raider. They’re going to kill you.”

His scoff vibrates my whole body. “Only way I’m going is if you come with me.”

“But I heard you on the phone.” Somehow what I overheard seems absurd now. I can feel his anguish over losing me. How could this same man want me harmed? “You said you’d changed your mind and wanted to get rid of me. I thought—”

His anguished huff shuts me up. “You’re back to you thinking I want to kill you, Delilah? Really?” There’s pain in his eyes when they connect with mine. “I was talking about selling my car. So I can provide for you—like you deserve—until I get the garage open.” He brushes a wayward blonde strand out of my face. “My whole life is about making sure you never feel an ounce of pain as long as you live. I could never hurt my beautiful doll.”

“I’m sorry,” I say, my insides puckering. “I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“I’m the one who hollered at you.” His eyes close. “I can’t stand thinking about your pretty nose getting red.”

“Step away from her, Raider,” Roger calls, appearing behind Raider’s shoulder, gun raised. “This is between us. Leave her out of it.”

“I don’t want the money,” Raider shouts back, his eyes back open and trained on me. Hungrily. “But nothing will stop me from keeping your sister.”

“Like hell. Pretty sure her climbing out of the bathroom window means she doesn’t want to be kept.” My brother spits on the ground. “Never had a problem with you, man. But you can’t just go around stealing people.”

Lord, all I can think about is kissing my giant and apologizing for doubting him until I’m blue in the face, but I force myself to focus on the problem at hand. “Roger, guys, put the guns down. I won’t let you hurt him.” I brush his scarred cheek with my thumb. “He won’t hurt me, either.”

“And if you fire a single shot while I’m holding her,” Raider adds coldly, “none of you are leaving alive. Do not test me on that.”

“Raider.” Deciding to get the situation under control, I frame his face with my hands. “Is it true you went to prison on behalf of my brother, so I wouldn’t be left with no one to care for me?”

Surprise slides into his expression. “Yes,” he says quietly, scrutinizing my face for a reaction. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you being put into a system. Somewhere I couldn’t find you when I got out.”

I heave a sigh of appreciation. “You big, sweet man.” My brother and his friends make choked noises when I lay slow kisses on Raider’s forehead, chin and cheeks. “How did you know I even existed?”

The motor inside his massive body is begging to hum. “Saw you outside one day…” His voice drops to an abrasive rasp, green eyes fogging. “Just a girl. A sweet, little teenager with her pussy pressed to a bike seat. But I needed you to be my woman one day. Knew it in my stomach you’d be mine. And I figured the only way to keep you with me so you couldn’t get away…was to take you.” Regret laces his heated tone. “I should be ashamed for taking you without giving you a choice, but you’re kissing my face now, my cock is where that bike seat used to touch, and I can’t be ashamed for nothing, doll. I’ll do better, though. Please. Just don’t run away.”

My heart gives a standing ovation, along with my nerve endings. My pulse. Uncaring about our audience, I kiss Raider’s mouth thoroughly, stopping only when wetness begins to spread between my legs. “Do I have your promise that I can visit my home whenever I want?” I ask, loud enough for my brother to hear. “And that we’ll make decisions together, instead of you telling me the way things are going to be?”

“Yes,” he answers gruffly, his eyes full of affection. “I promise. Now that I know you can actually feel something for me…all on your own…I’ll allow you anything. As long as I’m there to protect you.”

“Deal,” I breathe, tightening my legs around his huge waist. “Roger, I’m going home with my giant. I’ll call you when I’m ready to visit.”

“You can’t be serious,” my brother says. “Jesus, you are.”

When I look over, he’s got a bemused smile on his face. All three guns have been lowered. The men even look a little fascinated by what they’re witnessing.

And why wouldn’t they be?

This beauty just nabbed herself one gorgeous beast.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.