Without Light (New Adult Biker Gang Romance) (Night Horses MC Book 2) (4 page)

“
My sister is Lupe. Come.”

I hesitated, but followed her down a maze of little hallways. I’d come this far, deciding to trust her.

If she’d wanted to turn me in, she could have just shoved me out into the melee.

Finally, she shooed me into a little room, even smaller than the bedroom I’d stolen the clothing from. There was a little cot on the floor, a high window letting in the first sunlight I’d seen in this terrifying place, and - a girl, clutching a backpack to herself.

Catalina had said that Lupe was thirteen, but she was so scrawny and big-eyed, she looked years younger.

My heart suddenly twisted, and some of my resentment of the other girl faded away.

“
Hello, Lupe,” I said. “I’m Megan. We’re going to run for it, right, Catalina?”

The older girl hesitated, but nodded.

“
Vamanos,” she said, leaning down and picking up a bag and sweeping the pictures on top of the small table in the room into it.

She zipped it up and threw it over her shoulder.

“
Listen, both of you,” she said. “We need a car. We have to go get the keys, okay? I know where el Jefe keeps them, and he should be in the fight.”

I nodded.

“
Can we just walk somewhere?” I asked. “Or call the cops?”

“
No,” she said flatly. “No cops, and we’re five miles from town. They’d catch us before we made it.”

“
Okay,” I said, meekly. Now that we had Lupe with us, I was a hell of a lot more inclined to trust her. The girl was looking at her older sister with trust and devotion, and I couldn’t imagine Catalina disappointing her.

Lupe and I followed Catalina back down the hallways to the kitchen, and darted into a better-kept door.

“
Oh no oh no oh no,” Catalina breathed, “Run, run, Lupe,
run!”

It was too late. El Jefe had slammed the door, trapping all three of us in the room with him.

He yelled something at Catalina in Spanish, flecks of angry spit flying at her.

“
No,” she said. “No, no.”

The man who had been torturing me slapped Lupe.

I was frozen with terror.

Hit him
, I told myself.
Hit him back
.
There are three of you, and he’s panting. He’s tired or hurt. You can do this.

I couldn’t.

I was too afraid.

He struck Catalina full on the face, and she dropped to her knees, sobbing, blood trickling from her split lip.

She looked up at him and said something pleading in Spanish, flinching when he raised his hand to her again.

Lupe backed up a few steps, and el Jefe grabbed her by the hair and flung her to the floor.

I cried out, but I was still stuck to the floor, as surely as if I’d been encased in concrete or frozen in ice.

I was the only one standing now.

He wasn’t that much taller than me or Catalina, but we were paralyzed before him. Something about his icy eyes drained us of our courage and defiance.

Fortunately, it wasn’t only up to us.

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The door on the other side of the desk burst open and slammed against the door, breaking the spell.

Catalina flung herself over Lupe and I flung myself at el Jefe, yanking at his hair and scratching at his eyes, yowling and fighting like an angry cat.

He tossed me aside with one sweep of his sinewy arm. It was like taking an iron bar to the gut, and I hit the wall, winded.

I’d only gotten one good scratch in, barely ruffled his hair.

It all happened so quickly, I wasn’t sure which of the men hit el Jefe with the butt of their shotgun, but he dropped like a stone.

I leaned on the wall, clutching my belly and gasping as the three bikers grinned at us like a little pack of avenging angels, all leather and long hair and feral smiles.

“
Thanks for distracting him, sweetheart,” Merle said. He was the youngest, the tallest, standing in between two bruisers - one with a black eye more spectacular than Merle’s own had been when we met, one with blood dripping from his nose.

I swallowed.

His eyes flicked to the girls on the floor and he reached out a hand to help them up.

They stood without his help, Catalina wary, Lupe flat-out scared.

Merle smiled at Lupe, but his face was hard as he eyed Catalina.

“
What should I do with you?” he asked. “You turned her in, didn’t you?”

Catalina’s chin rose proudly. She didn’t say anything.

“
Please,” Lupe said. “She hates el Jefe. She does. She only works with him because she’s afraid. If you let us go we’ll go back to Mexico and we’ll leave you alone. Please.”

Merle turned to Bloody Nose.

“
Take the girls back to our place. Don’t hurt them. Anyone lays a finger on them, I’ll fucking have their balls. If the older one tries to go anywhere, though, tie her the hell up and keep the little one away from her.”

He turned back to me.

“
Megan,” he said, relief all over his face.

He reached out a hand to me and let it drop.

"I'm so sorry," he said. "I'm so fucking sorry."

I just stared at him.

"This never would have happened to you if you hadn't met me," he continued.

I shrugged. I was still wearing the dress I'd stolen from the brothel. I didn't know if I could say anything else, anything at all.

I'd dreamed of him sweeping in to rescue me, but fuck, he was right. I was so angry at him.

Before I'd met him, I was just a teenage girl worried about prom.

Now I'd been kidnapped and tortured.

Merle was hot, and funny, and kind, and I loved being around him... but he wasn't worth this. I was so numb. I just kept staring at him.

I swallowed.

"I got out," I said, lamely.

Catalina snorted.

"If el Jefe weren't distracted by the raid, you wouldn't have made it to the end of the hallway," she said. "You'd have been tossed back in there to starve for a few days. Don't act like you weren't lucky as hell."

Merle turned to Bloody Nose.

"I thought I told you to get them out of here," he said.

"Come on, girls," the giant man rumbled.

He took each of them by the upper arm, gently, and led them away. Catalina shook his hand off of her, but Lupe allowed herself to be steered carefully around the desk.

As they left the room, I saw Catalina shoot a worried glance at her sister.

I didn't know what to make of her. Was she the scared victim her sister thought, or the conspirator Merle clearly assumed her to be?

Would she have led me to freedom, or straight back to el Jefe?

I was sort of glad I'd never know.

Merle turned to Black Eye.

"Take over here," he said, tersely. "Make sure he," he prodded el Jefe with his toe, "and the rest of his gang understand that  you don't fucking touch women or children. They're not part of the business."

The giant of a man nodded.

"Taking her back?" he asked.

Merle nodded.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" he asked.

"Past," I whispered.

I still didn't move. Now that I wasn't immediately under the threat of el Jefe, now that I wasn't concentrating every fiber of my being on willing myself to keep moving, to escape, to get out of his hellhole, I was frozen.

He reached out and took my hand. He still felt warm and alive, and when he squeezed my fingers, I thought about smiling.

"Let's go," he said, softly, looking into my eyes. "Come with me, okay? Don't look around. Just look at me. I'm gonna take you out of here, follow me and look at my jacket."

I nodded.

"Can you stand up?" he asked.

I nodded, and pushed away from the wall.

"Good girl," he murmured.

He let go of my hand and turned away, looking over his shoulder.

"Follow me," he said. "Just look at my patches. They're awesome, aren't they?"

I nodded.

He started walking slowly, telling me about how he'd gotten different patches and bars on his leather jacket.

I did as he said and kept looking at the jacket.

Once, I looked away as we were in a hallway.

I saw a figure slumped over a chair. There was a shiny dark pool underneath it, gleaming wetly.

"Look at my jacket," Merle repeated. "Look at me. Keep walking."

I hadn't realize I'd stopped.

I listened to Merle and I kept walking as he led me out of the club that had become a warzone. I couldn't tell if it had gone silent or if I'd just stopped listening to anything but Merle's voice.

Finally, Merle stopped. He turned, and I blinked.

He took my hand again, and brushed my hair away from my eyes with his other hand.

“
I’ve got you,” he said, softly. “We’re going outside now, and we’re getting in the car, and you’ll never fucking come back here as long as you live.”

I nodded.

“
That okay?” he asked.

I nodded.

“
I want you to be careful,” he said.

I didn’t understand why until he opened the door. It was so bright. I hadn’t really seen the sun in days, and the noon light beat down on me.

I followed Merle to the car, my eyes streaming with tears from the shock of the glare.

Finally buckled into the shotgun seat, I had no idea where we were going. I didn’t care. I pulled my feet up onto the seat and basked in the light like a lizard as we peeled out of the parking lot and headed away.

With every mile, I started to cry harder. Soon, I was sobbing, great, heaving silent gasps.

Merle took a hand off the wheel to stroke my hair.

A gentle touch, a sign of affection, was harder to take, and I could no longer even pretend to cry quietly.

He handed me one of the red-checked handkerchiefs that he seemed to always have, and I clutched it as the trees rolled past.

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