After the Ride (Night Riders Motorcycle Club Book 2) (7 page)

“Boys are doing what they have to for you,” Callie said. “For us.”

“What does that mean?” Lauren asked. “Where are we going now?”

Callie filled a basin with water and flung a cloth over her shoulder. Grace took Lauren’s hand in hers as Callie stroked her face.

“Deep cover,” Callie said. “It happens.”

Lauren started to ask why when Grace beat her to the punch.

“So you’ve done this before?” Grace asked.

Callie’s face clouded over with a memory, and her voice sounded flat as she recounted a waking dream.

“Once,” Callie started. “Joe said that we needed to lay low when another crew started to close in.”

“Demon Dogs?” Lauren asked.

Callie shook her head sadly.

“Another crew,” Callie said. “Even rougher if you can believe it.”

Just the thought seemed impossible, and Lauren started to press the point when Callie stroked her face and shot her a sweet smile.

“Not now,” Callie said. “Let’s clean you up.”

“But I need to—”

“Right now you need to rest,” Callie continued. “And I need to bring this swelling down. Can’t have Blake’s girl looking anything less than pretty.”

Lauren relaxed into the feel of the cool damp cloth pressing against her flesh. Callie wiped around her bruise, and Lauren’s mind turned to the other parts of her body, her back, her breasts, her cunt. Maybe they hadn’t been completely violated, but she still trembled when she thought of unwanted hands pressing against her skin.

Into her flesh.

“Lauren?”

“I’m fine,” she said. Lied. Blake wouldn’t be surprised, and as she hung her head, Grace was at her side, her whisper warm against Lauren’s ear.

“You will be,” Grace promised.

Callie filled the cloth with a generous handful of ice. Tying the fabric off at the end, she crafted an ice pack and held it to Lauren’s cheek.

“Christ,” Lauren said through gritted teeth as the cold seemed to burn through the cloth as it assailed her sensitive skin. Grace held her hand tighter, and soon Lauren’s battered flesh acclimated to the cold, and there was no stinging. Just a soothing cool that nearly made her forget what had gone down and the mysterious destination lying ahead.

“Feels good, right?” Callie asked.

Lauren nodded, and Callie took her free hand and centered her fingers on the cold cloth.

“Can you hold that there for me?” Callie asked. “Just like that.”

“Sure,” Lauren said. “No problem.”

“That’s a good girl,” Callie said as she patted her leg. The stout redhead was suddenly on her feet, and Lauren watched with Grace at her side as Callie resumed what had obviously been an interrupted task. As Callie clumsily folded her clothes, basically stuffed them into two battered suitcases, Lauren strained her ear to the sounds of the breakdown just outside the tent. She heard Paul giving orders and various Night Riders answering him with affirmatives. But not one answer sounded like it came from Blake.

Where is he? What if he’s not coming back?

The thought of that brought a lump to her throat, and Lauren was about find her way to her feet. Injury or not, she would try to find him.

I have to…

Grace slipped closer to her side and spoke in a hushed, worried voice.

“Where did they take you?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” Lauren confessed. “Their clubhouse or whatever I guess.”

“They… they didn’t…”

As Grace’s voice trailed off, Lauren was quick to shake her head and reassure her.

“No,” she said. “Paul and Blake got to me time. For that I’m grateful.”

“You should be,” Callie said. “Last thing Blake needs is for you get yourself fucked up.”

Lauren narrowed her eyes as Callie zipped up one case and turned her attention to the other.

“Excuse me?” she asked. “Last thing he needs?”

“You heard me,” Callie said. “That poor boy’s been through enough.”

Even though she knew that there had to be a story attached to the marks on his back, Lauren pushed those thoughts aside and sprang to her feet.

“
He’s
been through enough?” she challenged. “What about what happened to me?”

“Haven’t heard you complaining,” Callie said. “Night after night, sounds like he’s keeping you pretty damn satisfied.”

Lauren blushed. Even after Grace had told her that everyone could hear her screaming every time Blake rode her to climax, Lauren couldn’t suppress her cries of ecstasy. No matter how hard she tried. But that didn’t mean…

“I’m still here against my will,” Lauren spat. “And it sounds like this whole cut and run thing is to make sure that I stay his captive. No matter what I want.”

Her eyes blazed over her throbbing cheek, and Callie looked up at her with what felt like a condescending stare.

“And what do you want?” Callie asked. “Rescued? Go home? Maybe spill the whole story and put us all at risk?”

“Yeah,” Lauren challenged. “Maybe I do. Maybe this crew and those other freaks and those sickos at the auction. Maybe I want to bring them all down.”

Callie seethed and started to speak when Grace rushed to her side.

“No please!” she cried as she gripped Lauren’s arm. “Please don’t do that!”

“Grace, you’re a prisoner here, too,” Lauren said. “And you want to stay?”

“I sure as hell don’t want to back to what I was,” Grace said, her voice growing stronger even as tears filled her eyes.

“You won’t have to,” Lauren assured her. “You can tell the cops about Andy. That he sold you. You can get some justice.”

“No,” Grace said as she sadly shook he head. “Justice is the last thing that I’ll get. If the law comes for you, I’m done.”

She started to step away, but Lauren seized her shoulders.

“How can you say that?” Lauren asked. “Why—?”

A ragged moan passed through Grace’s lips, and she hung her head when Callie sprang into action.

“Leave her alone,” Callie ordered.

“Why should I?” Lauren challenged. “She knows more than she’s saying.”

“She doesn’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s right” Grace said as she turned her eyes back to them, tears rolling down her cheeks. “But I don’t know how else I can make you understand.”

Grace fell back into the pillows, and she held her face in her hands.

“I… I told you that I was passed around,” Grace started.

Lauren nodded and tried to touch Grace when the girl shrank from her hold.

“But before that happened, there was someone else. Someone much worse than Andy.”

What could be worse than the man that was supposed to love and protect her using her like a sex toy for his friends and selling her for a song when he got bored or just wanted some extra pocket change? Lauren’s curiosity was piqued, but she held her breath as Grace struggled to speak.

“He didn’t pass me around,” Grace muttered. “He wanted me to all to himself. All night. Every night. I…”

Her voice started to crack, and Callie pulled a dusty bottle from a corner and poured a shot of what had to be vodka into a dirty glass.

“Here,” Callie said as she placed the glass in Grace’s trembling hand. Steadying her back as she tilted the glass towards her lip, Grace drank deeply and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. As Lauren watched her choke the bitter taste down with a shudder, Grace appeared to calm, and she steeled herself to continue.

“See… see, the thing is…”

Again she hesitated, and Callie wrapped her arm around Grace’s quaking shoulders.

“You don’t have to tell her,” Callie assured her. “If it’s too hard, you—”

“No,” Lauren said as she moved to her side and took Grace’s trembling hand. Maybe it was wrong; maybe she was pushing her too hard. But she had to find a way to shake Grace out of this. So what if Paul was good to her? Like her, she had to have a family desperate to find her. If she could just make her understand—

“Sweetie,” Callie started, her voice weary. “Isn’t it enough for one night? Can’t you see that—?”

“It can’t be as bad as she’s making it sound,” Lauren said. “And if someone else hurt her, she deserves the chance to face him in—”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that?” Grace asked in an anguished voice. “How am I supposed to face my father?”

With a gasp, Lauren pressed her fingers to her mouth, her body suddenly racked with horror.

“Your… your father?”

CHAPTER NINE

Grace took another sip of her drink before she nodded, and Lauren felt as if she would vomit. Her father? Bad enough that she had the misfortune to hook up with a boyfriend who abused her. But her father? Even in his most vile moments, Carter Nichols would never had done anything to her like that.

Her soul suddenly filled with a longing ache to see her father, hold him close, and tell him that she was sorry that she hadn’t been the child that he wanted and that she was grateful for the man that he was.

“It started when my mom died,” Grace muttered. “First it was just, come in bed with me. Let me hold you. Let me feel you close and safe. I thought he was lonely. Thought it was what my mother would have wanted.”

Tilting the bottle, Callie freshened her drink, and Grace took another gulp before she continued.

“Then it was touching,” she said. “Fondling. I was young.”

“How old were you?” Lauren asked.

“Eleven,” she whispered.

Eleven? What kind of sick bastard would do that to his daughter?

“First time he… he put it inside me… nothing ever hurt so much. Not even when Andy’s buddies were at their worst.”

Barely breathing, Lauren listened as Grace recounted seven long years of having lay at her father’s side as he raped her repeatedly and brought her so low that she took off with Andy when he did little more than flash her a smile and promised that he would take care of her.

“Guess I’m not the best judge of character,” Grace said with a mirthless laugh.

“Wait,” Lauren finally blurted out. “Why didn’t you tell someone what your dad was doing? Go to the cops or—”

“Like his own squad was going to take my word over his,” Grace said.

Lauren’s heart thudded rapidly in her chest as she started to connect the dots in her mind.

“You mean… you…”

“For Christ’s sake!” Callie cried. “Yes. She couldn’t go to the law because her old man
was
the law. This world ain’t the black and white picture that you’ve spent your whole life staring at, never once realizing that it’s a lie. So don’t pretend that you know what you’re talking about.”

Nodding, Lauren let the reality of Grace’s confession seep into her veins, and as she peered down at Grace, she fought to blink back the tears brimming in her eyes. This girl’s entire life had been a horror show, and Lauren felt a stab of guilt penetrate her heart. She had fled because she was bored, restless. Compared to Grace’s lot, it was nothing that she should have ever felt the need to run away from.

“I’m so sorry,” Lauren whispered as she lightly touched her shoulder.

“Thanks,” Grace said. “It is what it is. I can’t change it. Any of it.”

Grace finished her second drink and asked for another when Callie gathered her in her arms and whispered into her neck.

“I think that’s enough for now,” she said as she patted her hair. “Okay?”

“Okay,” Grace answered. Callie stepped from their side, and Grace turned her gaze to Lauren.

“So you get it now, right?” she asked in a pleading voice. “If you’re found, and the cops start poking around, I’ll be right back with him. He’ll probably lock me up, and I’ll never see the light of day again. Just… him. I can’t… that can’t happen.”

Lauren started to speak when Callie quickly cut her off.

“It’s not happening,” Callie assured her. “Not on Paul’s watch, and not on mine. Oh, honey.”

Callie knelt before Grace again and cupped her face with her hands. “You’re one of us now,” she said. “You belong here. You’re safe here.”

“Promise?” Grace asked.

“Cross my heart.”

Callie kissed her head, and Grace sank into her shoulders. Her shoulders heaved as she cried. Lauren surveyed the scene, and a feeling of gratitude swirled around her heart. No one would ever believe that an outlaw gang in the desert was the safest place for this girl to be.

But given the alternatives…

Grace lifted her eyes and focused her stare on Lauren.

“You’re safe, too,” Grace said. “Blake will keep you safe.”

Her mind drifted towards how he must have felt when he found her gone, when he raced after her into the night with his back bare. How had he felt when he saw her strung up, Nate ready to strip the skin from her bare back with his belt? Pulling away from the others, she folded his jacket over her arms and started back into the night.

“Hold up,” Callie said as she stopped her at the entrance of the tent. “Where do you think you’re going?”

“He must be cold,” Lauren said as she stroked the leather. “He should really have this.”

Again she started to leave, but Callie held her back. “I think you’ve done enough running around for one night. Now why don’t you just get back to icing that bruise?”

Callie tugged on her sleeve, but Lauren held her ground. “I just want to talk to him.” She clutched the folds of the tent in her fingers.

“Blake doesn’t talk,” Callie said. “But I guess you already figured that one out.”

With a nod, Lauren smiled sadly. “I’m learning,” she said. “Quite the education.”

“And yet you don’t know the first thing about threading a needle.”

Callie patted her back and brought her back into the tent. The chill of the desert night along with the shaking in light of Grace’s revelation caused her to wrap her body in his jacket again. Settling into his scent, she spied the dusty bottle and asked for a swig.

“Why not,” Callie shrugged. “Here.”

Lauren drank directly from the bottle, and as the warmth swirled around her, she sat at Grace’s side. Looking at her small, crushed form, she took her hand.

“I won’t go to the cops,” Lauren promised.

A wave of hope washed across Grace’s face. “You won’t?” she asked. “You promise?”

“I—”

“Is that a fact?”

Turning her head to the open flap, she saw Blake, his eyes flickering in the dim light. As soon as their eyes met, Lauren felt warm inside, renewed, and she rose to meet him, stripping off his jacket and holding it out as her eyes ran up and down the length of his broad arms.

“Yes,” she said. “I wouldn’t lie to Grace.”

As she eased his arms into his jacket, her fingers trailed down the leather sleeves until her light touch met his palms. She could sense that he wanted to clasp her hands in his, but he held back and stepped past her to address Callie.

“We’re good for tonight,” Blake told her. “Paul says we’ll finish up in the morning.” His eyes turned to Grace. “I’ll walk you back to his rack,” he said. “That okay with you?”

Grace muttered her assent, and she stood to take his arm. As he walked her past Lauren, Blake arched his eyebrow.

“Will you wait this time?” he asked.

Part of her wanted to throw her arms in the air and tell him that he could trust her, remind him that she had already given her word. But she stopped short when she saw how anxious Grace was to return to Paul’s side.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said.

“We’ll see.”

He disappeared with Grace, and as Lauren smoothed her hands down her face, she reached for the bottle and took another swig.

“Easy,” Callie cautioned. “Easy.”

Her body started to numb, and as she sat on the edge of Callie’s bed, she stared up into her eyes.

“How long did you know?” Lauren asked.

“About Grace? For a while now. Paul is really another breed, you know.”

“What do you mean?” Lauren asked.

“I mean he could tell that she was, you know, damaged. And when she finally told him what had happened—”

“She told him?”

“She trusts him, Lauren. Don’t you trust Blake?”

She wasn’t sure how to answer that question. He saved at the auction; he was her hero again tonight. But there was something buried deep in his heart that he wasn’t sharing with her.

Like I should talk. Lots of things he doesn’t know about me.

“I don’t know,” Lauren admitted. Callie let the comment side and finished packing her final suitcase.

“Well Paul asked me to talk to her,” Callie continued. “Wanted to know if I thought he was taking advantage of her.”

“So she told you,” Lauren said.

“The whole gory mess,” Callie said. “Enough to make you sick, right?”

“Disgusting doesn’t even describe it.”

“But she told me that she liked it here. That she liked being with Paul. My opinion? He’s the first man to treat her like a person in the sad span of her life.”

“You’ll get no argument from me,” Lauren said.

***

Stepping towards the flap, Lauren’s eyes searched for Blake. The camp already resembled a ghost town. The activity in the tent reserved for meals told her that the bulk of the crew was hunkering down there for the night. Callie’s status as something of a den mother granted her the privacy of her tent, and Grace would be allowed the privacy of Paul’s bed.

And Blake…

“Callie?” Lauren asked as stepped back inside and smoothed her hands down the sides of her skirt. As she tied her hair over her shoulders, Callie paused and waited for Lauren to finish her thought.

“What happened to him?” she asked. “Why is he so… I don’t know.”

“Spit it out,” Callie challenged. “Say what’s on your mind.”

Lauren took a deep breath “Why is he so hard? I mean, sometimes, like he’s sweet, and—”

“He came after you tonight,” Callie reminded her. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

Given what might have happened, it counted for everything.

“But he turns on a dime,” Lauren said. “What makes him act that way? Why—?”

“Ask him,” Callie said. “Not me.”

“I’ve tried. He shuts me out. Maybe… maybe that’s why I went after him tonight. I want to know him. Like really know him.”

Callie patted her face and smiled softly.

“Then don’t run off again, and maybe you’ll get your answer.”

It was far from the answer that she wanted, but Lauren resigned herself to waiting, and she paced the sand, her eyes continuously turning towards the flap as she hoped for his return. How long did it take to give Grace back to Paul? Maybe they were strategizing, putting the finishing touches on the morning plans. But even that didn’t feel like it should take this long. Grace was spent before she even left, and Paul would see that and want to hold her, just hold her, as he eased her into sleep. As the seconds ticked by, Lauren had to wonder if Blake was playing with her. What if he was never coming back, and was this a test to see if she would simply curl up on Callie’s piled of pillows and slip into a restless sleep? Could he be so cruel, so cold?

He most definitely could. But would he really do that to me after everything that had happened?

She pulled open the flap to Callie’s tent and stepped into the desert.

“Hey!” Callie cried. “What do you think you’re doing?”