Marek (Knights Corruption MC #1) (10 page)

His wild eyes found mine, his steps never faltering while he practically ran at me. “Get in your room, Sully. Lock and barricade the door and don’t come out until I come and get you,” he demanded, gripping my arm so tight I winced in pain. “Do you hear me?” he shouted.

“Yes,” I whispered. He shoved me backward and once he saw me retreat down the long hallway toward my room, he ran for the front of the clubhouse, shouting for his men to get their guns ready.

There was so much commotion, so many people yelling indiscernible commands, it was hard to hear what was really going on. The only thing I knew was there was some kind of accident outside. It could have been deliberate or not. The men of our club were not the brightest bulbs, some of them downright stupid. While we were guarded by a tall, heavy fence, the men guarding it sometimes were so drunk off their asses, or coked out of their minds, they were utterly useless. On a sober day, they were ruthless and cunning, but get a little bit of poison in their veins and they were easy targets, making the entire place an easy target as well.

Once I’d successfully locked myself inside my room, I pushed a small dresser in front of the door. It was the only piece of furniture I could move myself, so I hoped it worked. I crouched in the corner, turning off the light so I was bathed in darkness. Shivering in fear of what was happening outside, I prayed to make it through unscathed. I was in mid-promise to God when I heard an endless spray of gunshots.

Reminding myself that I’d lived through this type of thing many times before, I tried my best to slow my thumping heart and calm myself with deep breaths, but nothing worked. Men continued to scream between unrelenting gunfire.

Minutes after bullets were discharged, I heard heavy footsteps coming down the hallway, commands being given to the men barreling toward my room. I didn’t recognize their voices. They weren’t coming from any of the evil beasts who normally resided behind our club walls. No, these deep, dark voices came from whoever had just invaded the Savage Reapers’ lair.

And the only club daring enough to pull off such a thing was the Knights Corruption.

Our biggest enemy.

“Back here!” I heard one of them shout. I prayed they were looking for someone or something else, but my hopes were dashed when the handle to my bedroom jiggled. As soon as they realized it was locked, someone started pounding on the door, so hard it was a wonder they didn’t split the wood down the middle.

More shouts.

More pounding.

All of a sudden, the frame splintered and a small sliver of light from the hallway filtered into the room. From where I was hiding, I couldn’t see who was out there, but I could certainly hear them.

“She has to be in here,” I heard one of the intruders yell. “There’s no way they would leave her out of their sight.” The second comment came from a different man, one whose voice was more gravelly and deeper than the first man. It was then I realized who they were talking about. They wouldn’t be busting down the door for some common club whore.

No, they were coming for me.

Dreadful thoughts rampantly flitted through my mind. Thoughts of what they would do to me if they hauled me out of my room, and ugly thoughts of what my own club would do to me if they ever got me back.

Either way, I would be dead, but instead of welcoming the sweet lick of death to stroke my body, something I’d prayed for since I could remember, an innate need to survive kicked in from out of nowhere. Adrenaline pumped through me in waves, blurring my vision and hiccupping my breaths with each and every pound of the door, every shout directed toward and about me, and every gunshot that sliced through the thickening night air.

The room flooded with the hallway light, the door ripped from its hinges while I still tried to loose myself inside the small space. My room held no security for me, but as long as my ears were covered I could only hear muffled sounds, and stifled sounds were better than listening to what they were actually saying, what they had planned for me.

A loud crash jolted me back into the reality of the situation. I waited for more gunfire, but all that followed the toppling dresser was harsh, ragged breathing. I wasn’t sure if the sounds were my own or from those who had just entered the room.

Then one of them spoke.

The man with the deep, gravelly voice. A voice which sent shivers of fear and fascination deep into my soul. The mixture of feelings confused me, but I had no time to delve into what they really meant. The only focus in the forefront of my disheveled mind was to figure out how to survive.

Would I beg for my life? Would I appear weak in the face of the enemy? I couldn’t answer with certainty, and that alone was disarming. I had no idea what to do, what to say or how to feel.

Luckily, the decision was stolen from me the instant my eyes found him.

A tall, broad man stalked forward, every step closer deciding my fate. My head had instinctually risen so I could see who was coming for me, and what I saw stopped my heart. While my soon-to-be captor was covered in blood, no doubt from his up-close-and-personal bloodshed of my fellow Savages, his prowess shined through. His pale blue eyes pinned me defenseless, his hair short and cropped to his head, a trimmed beard covering his sharp jawline. Blood dripped from his cheeks, and I instantly wondered if he’d been hurt.

The man who had come to kidnap me was the most handsome man I’d ever laid eyes on. But I vowed then and there to never fall prey to his charms, if ever he decided to enchant me with them. Although I hated my club, my father and Vex, I wasn’t a traitor. And falling for the enemy was the worst kind of sin to be committed in our ruthless, deadly world.

Shit, as far as I knew, he could be the Devil’s nephew, just as brutal and evil as my father and Vex.

Reaching forward, his hand was suddenly thrust into my personal space.
Maybe if I close my eyes they’ll all go away. Maybe it’ll all be an awful dream, a nightmare I’ll soon wake up from.
Shutting my lids tight, I squeezed my hands over my ears and drowned out the sounds in hope everything would return back to
normal
.

I’d never wished for my life more than I did right then, which was probably the saddest revelation I’d ever had.

While I rocked back and forth in my self-induced delirium, the man’s hand gripped my wrist, the warmth of his skin setting me ablaze. My eyes flew open and before I could utter a single word, I was pulled to my feet so fast I tumbled forward. I would have fallen directly on my face had it not been for the man holding me upright.

His other hand shot to my side, stabilizing me so I wouldn’t topple over and trip him up in the process, even though there was no way I would ever cause him to fall. His strength emanated off him in waves, and it was both frightening and intriguing. Caught in a whirlwind of unfamiliar emotions, I was utterly confused beyond my simple scope of reality. No words were exchanged between us. In fact, the other two men in the room never spoke either, watching intently to see what was going to take place between their fellow brother and the woman shaking in fear.

I started to tremble, cursing myself for being weak yet again. Luckily, my legs remained strong, and as soon as I found an opportunity I was going to put them to good use.

“Look at me,” the man growled. I refused, keeping my head low. His impatience with me was evident, expletives falling freely from his lips as he shook me in frustration. “Fuckin’ look at me,” he repeated.

Very slowly, I found his eyes again, waiting for what he was going to do or say next.

“Are you the infamous daughter of the Savage Reapers?” His tone was mocking, the manner of his voice spurring me to defend myself, but I was indeed helpless. What could I do to protect myself? Fight? Argue with him? Plead for him to release me and pretend he’d never found me? I knew deep inside that whatever path I chose wouldn’t matter. These men obviously had their minds made up, and the only thing I could do would be to follow suit. At least until I figured out my next move.

“Well, are you?” he gritted, his jaw pulsing with the weight of his impatience. It was then I reflected on his absurd question.
The infamous daughter of the Savage Reapers?
What an odd question. I was neither infamous nor the proclaimed daughter of the entire club. Still reeling in my confusion, he wrenched me forward until I was flush with his blood-soaked chest. “Answer me, woman!” he shouted. “Are you fuckin’ Psych’s daughter?”
Now,
there’s
a question which makes sense to me, even though I wish it wasn’t true.

“Yes,” I whispered, although I wasn’t sure why I hadn’t chosen to lie. I should have denied it, declaring to be just another club whore. But then, why would a common whore be barricaded in one of the back rooms?

“She’s even more beautiful up close,” one of the men standing near the door announced.

“Sure is,” the man in front of me assured, holding me tighter against him. Turning his head to face his men, he asked a question I was curious about myself. “Have you found her father yet? And that crazy-ass fucker who’s always attached to her?”

Vex. They were talking about Vex. I almost offered up the detail that he was gone, had been gone for the past four days, but I forced my lips to stay closed, my confession resting heavy in my throat.

Even though I hated Vex with every fiber of my being, he was familiar to me.

He was the devil I’d been accustomed to.

“Not yet, but we will. Then we’ll burn every last motherfucker in here,” the tall, blond-haired man pronounced.

“Until then . . . ,” my captor said, pulling me toward the other two men blocking the entrance to the room. I wasn’t quite sure what happened, but all of a sudden I flew into a rage, years of feeling helpless finally unleashing their grip, unbridled strength spilling forth which I had no idea was even nestled inside me. His grip on my wrists wasn’t tight, so I was able to shrug free of him rather easily. Taking a step back, I startled him when I threw my tiny fist in the air and connected with his jaw. The look on his stupidly handsome face was most telling. He was stunned . . . and pissed. Taking advantage of his shock, I ran around his looming body and fled toward the bathroom.

My escape was futile, though. A large arm wrapped around my waist and hoisted me into the air, all the breath pushed from my lungs from the force. Stars danced in my eyes as I tried to regain some kind of footing, but it was useless. He tossed me over his shoulder before I could recover and rushed from the room behind his two men.

Now what the hell am I going to do?

Marek

Never before had a woman attempted to strike me, and that the first time it
did
happen was from the tiny spit-fire we’d abducted turned me inside out. Barging into her room hadn’t prepared me for what or who I was going to find. Our main objective was to pay those fuckers back for all they’d done. Tripp was the final straw and we all knew it, even though I’d initially proclaimed I wanted to wait.

Well, four days was long enough this time around.

The goal was to destroy the Savage Reapers from the inside out, but because we weren’t one hundred percent prepared, we’d only managed to wipe out half of the members present. Still a good hit, but it wasn’t enough. We needed to wipe out Psych, take out his VP, Rabid, then destroy Vex, one of the most volatile members of the club. His crazy ass needed to be buried simply because he was one psychotic, soulless motherfucker.

I remembered hearing someone speak of Psych’s daughter, her strange name something I’d never heard before. Her beauty was often whispered about, but then again I couldn’t take stock in what a bunch of horny men said. Any pussy with a pair of tits and they would fall prey to their
beauty
.

There wasn’t much information on her, always hidden away from the world, protected from the likes of rival clubs. To entice a woman from a rival club into your own was a big no-no. It was the epitome of insults to integrate them into your way of life, although it wasn’t much different from their own, the biggest difference being the Savage Reapers were a den of devils. As far as dirty dealings, the Knights weren’t much better, per se, but as far as morals and human decency went, we were ten times the men they were.