Burn: Outlaw Romance (Hotter Than Hell Book 3) (11 page)

She takes a long breath and lays her cards on the table. “Carmen and I stayed friends and I made sure Fox stayed off her tail. He vowed to kill her and I have no doubt he would have if given the chance. I owed Carmen and her daughter that peace of mind.”

Red reaches up and touches one of the bandages on her cheek. She gazes at me again. “My friendship with Sofia started when she was around eight. Carmen called me off and on through the years. The first time I spoke with Sofia, Carmen was high as a kite and passed out. Sofia picked up the phone. The saddest part… Sofia was only a little girl but her mother sprawled out and unconscious was a way of life. It barely fazed her. I had Sofia write down my number and told her to call me if Carmen wasn’t awake the next morning. I didn’t hear from either of them for six months. When Carmen called again, she had just received Sofia back from Social Services and swore she was off drugs for good. Sofia was in and out of foster care her entire childhood. Carmen never completely kicked her habit and Sofia found her dead of an overdose about a year ago.

Red’s expression changes and anger tightens her lips. “Sofia hated Fox. He killed her unborn siblings, which is something that tortured her. She’s told me for years she would kill Fox one day. In this one way, she’s just like him. She never forgets.” Red zeros in on me again. “Telling her Fox was dead wasn’t a betrayal to this club, it was a celebration. Sofia deserved to be free of that man for good. I don’t know why she pulled the gun on you. I do know she has a temper and street fights to work out her issues and support herself. Her life has never been easy. I don’t care what you do to me, but Sofia is no danger to this club. I told her a week ago about what Fox had planned for Kiley.”

Red bites her lip and I can tell she was in the same quandary as many of us. I let her finish her story.

“Sofia was furious and I think that’s what finally took her over the edge. Just like you, Dagger. Somehow we all needed to draw a line. Sofia drew hers.” Red lifts her hands from the table, sits back, and crosses her arms.

She’s done with her story.

AJ looks at me and I give him a nod.

“Why did Fox keep you around?” he questions.

Red keeps her eyes on the table. “When Fox got out of prison for beating Carmen, the club needed whores. I was clean but still had friends who weren’t particular about what they did to obtain their drugs.” She shrugs. “Fox liked new meat. I guess I just made his life simpler in the long run because I could provide what he wanted.”

I have the strangest feeling that Red’s lying. I have no idea why, but I’ll keep the thought to myself. An idea occurs to me. Curly watches Red closely and everyone knows he has the hots for her. To Fox, the whores were not old ladies, they were nothing more than a hole if you needed to get your rocks off. Curly couldn’t claim Red while Fox had the power. Things are different now and it could solve our problem if Curly claimed her.

“If one of the men takes you on as an old lady, will you have a problem with it?”

Red thinks about it for a moment. “I’m sure this is your way to keep me in line. I don’t like not having a choice. That said, if it’s Curly, I won’t complain.” Red stands and looks at me. “If you give me the chance, I’ll be loyal to you. Never felt that way about Fox.”

I nod and she walks out.

The men are silent for several minutes. “That’s fucked up shit,” Johns says.

I push back a bit in my chair. “We have a chance to turn this club around. Killing women isn’t the way we do it.”

“If we let that girl leave, the brothers will revolt,” AJ says.

He’s right. None of us wants to go back to prison and she knows a secret that could jeopardize the entire club. “I think Curly will claim Red. That leaves it to one of us to claim Sofia.” Yeah my dick jumps at the thought. Her wanting to be claimed could be a problem, though.

Skull laughs and breaks some of the tension in the room. “You want her, just admit it and make this easier for everyone at this table.” He’s not stupid. He saw my hard dick before I rubbed one out. She’s a load of trouble. Maybe even more trouble than I can handle or want to handle with all the other shit I need to worry about right now. “Yeah,” I answer honestly. “I want her.” I glance at AJ.

“The brothers won’t like it,” he says.

“Can they live with it, though?”

He doesn’t mince words. “Yesterday this was an all-white club. You’ve tied us in with Moon’s organization and no one knows if that’s good or bad. Now you’re bringing a Mexican chick in who pointed a gun at you. You tell me.”

Fuck-all disaster is what he’s saying. “When we walk through those doors, do you have my back?” I ask him.

He nods and I glance at each man in turn.

One by one they look me in the eyes and answer, “Yes.”

AJ snickers. “She’s a street fighter. You’ll have your work cut out for you. I saw the guns on that chick,” he says as he laughs. “If she slits your throat in the middle of the night, it’s on you. I’ve got your back with the brothers, Prez. But you better keep her in line. She’s stuck with this club for the foreseeable future. It’ll take a lot before the brothers trust her.”

Relief slowly sinks in. I did it. With a lot of help from Red and now both women have another shot. I have no doubt Red meant what she said about following my lead—Sofia will be an entirely different story. I’ll keep them apart for a few days and let things calm down before the brothers see them together.

“Now that the problem with the women is settled, we need to move on to other important shit. We have a shipment arriving Friday night. I don’t like it, but it’s too late to stop the buy now without starting a war we don’t need. If we’re lucky, they’ll choose not to deal with us when they learn Fox is out of the picture.”

We discuss the hazards of the pending buy and discuss how we’ll end our relationship with the suppliers. My mind is only half on the discussion.

Sofia is mine for now, she just doesn’t know it yet. At least the guys can’t see my dick growing hard as I picture the coming explosion.

Sofia

I’M DESPERATE TO PEE
. Thirst, hunger, and aching arms don’t make the list right now because my bladder comes first at this point. When they kill me, it will serve them right when I piss all over the floor. Fuck, they’re probably accustomed to it.

I have no way to keep time. What seems like hours is most likely minutes. I’m really wishing I’d shot Dagger’s ass when I had the chance. I’ve been staring at the same cracks in the walls and connecting them to make pictures. Anything to take my mind off my cramping bladder.

When the door opens, my anger ratchets up ten notches. I turn my head and see a younger man with the prerequisite bald head that’s prevalent in this hairless, gorilla society. He pokes his head in, takes one look at me, and backs out.

“Don’t you dare close that door. I need to take a piss, you son of a bitch. If you make me wait another minute, I’ll piss right here.”

He closes the door anyway. I struggle against the rope holding my hands. Fire shoots into my shoulders along with more cramps in my bladder. I’m ready to start screaming my head off, when the door opens and Dagger walks in. He strides over, removes the knife from his hip, and slices through the rope in a matter of seconds. I know it’s not the brightest move I’ve ever made but I come out of the chair swinging. It’s not a calculated move. This is desperate rage and wanting to feel my fist slam into Dagger’s face. I don’t expect him to move as fast as he does. The palm of his hand strikes my chest, hard. Pain ignites and I wouldn’t be surprised if he stopped my heart. Fuck, it takes me a moment to collect my thoughts.

“I like you on your back, but I’m not into piss play, so if you really need to go, shut the fuck up, cool your jets, and do what the fuck you’re told,” he bites out.

I had the chance to kill him and I pulled the fucking gun like an idiot. “Fine,” I spit. That word should put the fear of God into him. I scramble off the bed and precede him from the room. He steers me two doors down, reaches in front of me, and opens a door to a bathroom. It’s a five by five room with nothing but a filthy toilet and cracked walls. Not even a fucking sink. I enter and try to close the door behind me. Dagger’s foot stops me.

“Door stays open,” he grits out.

“I’m not pissing with you watching me.”

His large hand grasps my arm and I’m halfway back to the room where he’s been keeping me before I realize he really doesn’t plan to allow me to pee.

“Fine. Stand and watch. If that’s how you get your jollies, who am I to stop you?” I hope to God he can’t hear the desperation in my voice.

He spins me around and shoves me back toward the bathroom. I waste no time pulling down my jeans and squatting on the toilet. As bad as I need to go, the stream takes a minute to start with him watching. This is so damn humiliating. Made worse by the lift of Dagger’s brow when I don’t pee right away. The relief is so great when my body finally cooperates that it’s hard not to groan. I’m sure he’d like that. I look around for toilet paper and find none.

“Seriously, there’s no paper?”

Dagger shrugs.

“What the hell would you do if I took a shit?” I stand and pull my jeans and panties up and do my best to disregard the fact that my panties are now wet. If I get my hands on his knife, I’m cutting off his dick and stuffing it down his throat, I promise myself. I walk back into my prison with a wet crotch and unwashed hands.

“If you promise to behave, I’ll leave you untied. The last thing you want to do is leave this room and run into the men. I’m in a meeting and need a bit more time. Finish up the bottled water and I’ll be back to feed you as soon as my meeting is over.” He actually sounds civil for a change.

“Thank you,” I say grudgingly and hope he leaves quickly before I lose my fight to contain my temper.

The door closes, the lock snaps in place, and I jump up and kick the cot. My foot is the only thing that hurts after the tantrum. It doesn’t help that I couldn’t scream when I did it. I’m sane enough to know I don’t need to draw attention to myself. Fucking moron, skinhead, asshole. I picture him with his cock in his mouth. It helps to keep me from kicking the cot again.

I drink the water and ignore my growling belly. Do motorcycle gangs feed someone before they kill them? I lie back on the cot and throw my arm over my eyes. I can’t look at another crack or I’ll go crazier than I already am.

I’m almost asleep when Dagger finally returns. “You hungry?”

I decide that silence is the best policy or I’ll get myself in trouble. I also don’t want another shot to the chest, so I keep my hands to myself. I roll on the cot, sit up, and place my feet on the floor. He steps back into the hallway and I’m guessing I won’t be eating in this room. He doesn’t seem concerned that I don’t have a shirt covering my sports bra. It’s one of my workout bras and along with a skimpy pair of shorts it’s all I usually wear. He’ll be sadly disappointed if he thinks it’ll bother me. I follow him down the hallway to a large room filled with ugly biker dudes. Maybe some women like the bald, shaggy facial hair type but not me. I like my men with a furless crotch and face along with nice hair I can hang onto when they go down on me.

The men who watch me don’t appear happy. That fact and that I’m being fed could mean I have time before they pull the plug. I see a few of the guys zero in on my tits. I straighten my back so they get a good look. Dagger notices and shakes his head like he can’t believe I’d use my scantily covered breasts to postpone the amount of time I keep breathing. He doesn’t know me well. He pulls a chair out at one of the tables and there’s a bowl in front of it. It looks like chili. I sit down, pick up the spoon poking from the bowl, and ignore the men. I’m starving.

The first bite has kick. With my heritage it’s not hard to eat the spicy chili. It surprises me that the lily-ass gringos can handle it.

“Fucking bullshit is what this is,” one of the men shouts. He comes out of his chair and shoves it back so hard, it tumbles across the floor.

I halt the spoon midway to my mouth and watch Dagger jump on the man, taking him down. He quickly has the guy by the throat.
Smooth move,
I’m thinking when Dagger growls, “It was a unanimous decision. You want to walk, you had your chance. If you want a six-foot hole, challenge me.”

The man gasps for air. “She fucking tried to kill you or have you forgotten?”