Turning Point: BBW Motorcycle Club Erotic Romance (12 page)

During their lovemaking, Snake had figured out a way to channel his pent up rage. The blame for all this lay with the Cult Castaways. It was their Prospect that had come into his hangout. Rob was their responsibility, and so they would take the punishment. He had to show his brothers he was strong. And they had been thirsting for blood for some months now. The club rivalry had come close to war for some time, yet Snake had always backed away from it.

Well now, he was in the mood for violence. He would get all of his men together, and go pay them a visit.

He’d gone. She could still feel the heat from his body, almost imagine he was still inside her, but Snake was no longer there. He had made her come, endless sensations filling her body, taking over her senses until she thought she would never come to her senses. It had been his way of leaving a part of him with her, a part that would ruin her for any other man. She accepted that, it had been his right, his last way of challenging her decision. And it had worked.

The emptiness of her room, as soon as he had left, mirrored the emptiness her life now she had banished him from it. Only now did she see how much she was fooling herself that getting away from all this was the right thing to do. It was simply the cowardly thing to do.

Her body erupted into big heaving sobs. The trauma of what Rob had put her through mixing in with the betrayal she had felt. Misguided betrayal. Snake had been trying to work out what her game was, and she could see why he was suspicious.

She had promised to tell him, and she should have told him the truth, but she had kept it to herself. To a man such as Snake, that couldn’t be left alone. He lived by some ridiculous biker code, and she hadn’t seen how much it meant to him.

In his world the kind of betrayal Stan and Rob had put her though simply wasn’t acceptable. Brothers stick together.

For a long time she lay in bed, unable to process anything. She was numb, her emotions stretched too thin, and she wished she could go back to how she was before all this. To that innocent girl, but she was gone. Faith had to grow up and act like an adult.

First, she had to decide what she was going to do. She had to phone Bernard and tell him she would not be in to work, and that took her straight to the first decision she had to make. Was she going to quit, or stay?

Grabbing a robe, she padded out to the phone, and dialled the number of the store.

“Hello, Bernard. I’m really sorry, but I feel terrible today, I won’t be able to make it in.” Her hoarse voice would make her story all the more believable.

“You sound awful. So you were coming down with something yesterday. The flu?”

“I think it might be. I don’t like to let you down, but I don’t think I’ll be in for a couple of days.”

“No. Don’t worry, Faith. You take your time and get better. I know a couple of the girls could do with the extra hours.”

“As long as I’m not dropping you in it,” she croaked.

“Faith, you’ve never let me down before. Please, don’t worry.”

“Why don’t I take that annual leave you’ve been badgering me about? If you can cover me, I’ll take the week off.”

Bernard had been telling her to take the days she was owed, and now it fitted in perfectly. His voice brightened. “Sure, that makes sense. Have a good rest, and give me a call if you need anything.”

“Thank you so much Bernard. I will.”

She hung up, and slumped back into the chair. One less thing to worry about, she had bought herself some time. Now she was going to fall back into bed and sleep for a day, without thinking about her future, and certainly not about Snake.

***

It was dark outside when the phone rang. She lay still for a second, not knowing whether she could be bothered to get up and answer it. If her body had ached before, that was nothing to how much it hurt now. Her throat was dry, and she doubted she could talk even if she got to it before it stopped ringing.

Whoever it was, they were persistent. It rang and rang, irritating her already sensitive nerves. She had just decided to get up and answer it, when it stopped. Before she had a chance to slump back down it started again.

“Shit,” she said, and moved more purposely towards it, grabbing it and whispering, “Hello.”

“Faith.” It was Stan.

“When I said get out, I meant out of my life. I don’t want to talk to you.”

“Wait. I’m in trouble.”

“I don’t want to hear it, Stan. I don’t care.”

“You should, because they’re coming for you.”

Her heart stopped beating for a second. When she could force words out she asked, “Who’s coming for me?”

“The Castaways. Seems they’re pissed about what happened to Rob.”

“What do you mean? He’s the one that tried to hurt me.”

“They’ve been spoiling for a fight for months. They don’t care about Rob; he’s nothing to them, nothing but a reason to start a war.”

“Then why me? I told Snake I never want to see him again, you tell them this is nothing to do with me.”

“Castaways won't listen to me. They think I betrayed them, I’m getting out of here for a while.”

“You’re running away. Leaving me.”

“I’ve warned you haven’t I, what more do you want?”

“You are such an asshole. If it wasn’t for you I would never have got mixed up in this.”

“I am not arguing with you. It’s wasting my time. That tattoo on your shoulder says you’re Snake’s woman. That’s who you need to ask for help; you belong to him in the same way I belong to the Castaways.”

“You don’t belong to them.”

“Yes. I guess that’s your fault too, if you hadn’t done what Rob asked then none of this would have happened.”

“You’re blaming me!”

“If you hadn’t done it they wouldn’t have made us Prospects,”

“If Rob hadn’t made me do it then you wouldn’t be Prospects. Just tell them you don’t want to be in their little gang.”

He laughed, but it contained no humour, chilling Faith to the bone. “You don’t just tell the Castaways you’ve changed your mind. Not if you want to live. And let’s face it; you never took much persuading where Rob was concerned. Thinking back on it now I bet you wished you’d never been saved from Rob.”

“How can you think that, you saw what he did to me?”

“A little bit of rough, that’s what girls like. You went after Rob for years, I suppose you got cold feet when he suddenly showed an interest.”

“Showed an interest! He kidnapped me; he was going to rape me. What happened to the brother who wanted to save me, protect me?”

“I’ll tell you what happened, he suddenly realised he had to protect his own skin first. Go to the Dread Cult. I’m leaving.”

The line went dead, but Faith still sat with her phone to her ear, too stunned by what Stan had said, to do anything but stare into space, with her mouth open. If her decisions before had seemed hard enough, this new threat was inconceivable. A few days ago, she had been a nobody, now she was at the centre of a war between two rival motorcycle clubs.

Her first reaction was to flee to Snake, beg him for protection. She had to acknowledge that some of that was due to the desire she harboured to simply be in his arms. There again, she could always stay in her apartment until the whole thing had blown over, if tensions were that high surely they would get it over and done with soon.

In her mind, she pictured a gun being pulled, and Snake being shot. If that happened, she would not be able to bear it. She got up and headed for the shower; she would wash and dress before heading over to the bar. There she would find Snake, warn him, and beg him to be careful.

Although really she wanted to beg him to take her away from here. For them both to climb on his bike and go somewhere else, to start a new life, just the two of them.

Within an hour, she was heading over to the hangout on the bus. She tried to stay around other people, and constantly kept an eye out for anyone in a vest with the Castaways’ colours. So far, nothing, and she began to wonder if Stan had made the whole thing up. Was he being a drama queen, or was this a set up?

Snake might have asked him to phone her, to get her to come to him, to give herself to him. On the other hand, Stan might be still part of the Castaways, and this was their plan to flush her out into the open. Whichever way it was, she suspected it would not end well.

Getting off the bus, she stood and got her bearings. Their bar was in a part of town she didn’t know too well. When she had come here with Rob, it had been dark. Now it looked so different she wasn’t sure which way to go.

Worse, there were hardly any people about, and she felt exposed out on the street like this. As she stood, hesitating, in the distance a low rumble told her there was a bike coming. Her choices were to run and hide, or stop them and hope this was one of Snake’s men, who could take her to him.

Faith figured she’d had enough of running, so she stood her ground, and waited. A biker came into view, coming straight towards her. The rapid beating of her heart filled her ears, this was dangerous, these men were dangerous, and they probably did horrible things to people. People like her.

Too late to run, she tried to look confident, as though she belonged there, although Faith knew she belonged nowhere. The bike slowed, and one look told it was not Snake, and her disappointment was immense.

“Hello, Faith,” the rider said.

“Do I know you?” she asked. She could read the name Dread Cult on his vest, so he was one of Snake’s brothers.

“You don’t remember? I guess you were too caught up with Snake to take much notice of anyone else in the room.”

She looked closer; it was Crag, Snake’s VP. He was the one who had got the information on her brother and Rob. “I’m sorry, Crag, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “What do you want here, Faith? Snake is pretty cut up about you, but he’s gonna stay away, because you asked. Now I find you here. I have to wonder what game you’re playing.”

“I wanted to warn him. To warn all of you, the Cult Castaways are coming for you.”

Crag laughed. “You’ve come to warn us. OK, I’ll buy that, but the real question is how do you know? Inside information. Are you playing Snake, Faith?”

“No. No, I wouldn’t. My brother phoned, he said they were after me.”

“Ahh, there’s the truth, self preservation.”

“No. It’s not like that.”

“So out of the goodness of your heart you’ve come to warn us.”

“Yes. I was worried Snake would get hurt.” That sounded like the single stupidest thing she had ever said. The thought of Snake getting hurt. How much had he gone through to get to be the club President in the first place?

Crag did not laugh though. “Hell, you’re telling the truth.” He paused for a moment, considering. “Now you give me a dilemma. You see I think Snake would be better off without you as his old lady. You’re not cut out for this life. On the other hand, I know how much he’s fallen for you. Too hard, in my opinion.”

“Then leave me here, just go and warn him.”

“Self sacrifice, that doesn’t buy you any favour with me.”

“It’s not meant to. I’ll go home, or go away somewhere. If you think I’m that bad for Snake, then I’ll leave. He’ll get over me. I don’t even know what he sees in me, so I’m sure it won’t take him long.”

Crag sat still, and Faith grew uncomfortable standing there in front of him, so she turned and began to walk away. She got some way down the road before she heard the bike rev up, and she figured he was going to drive away and leave her to fend for herself. Instead, the bike grew closer, and then the sound of its engine filled her ears and she had to stop because it was in front of her.

“Get on.”

“What? I thought you wanted me to go.”

“I do. But this isn’t my decision, it’s Snake’s. But I am warning you, if you double cross us, or do anything to Snake, I will hunt you down.”

The same threat from any other man would have seemed hollow and false, but from Crag, she had no doubt it was real. This man was capable of that and more. She imagined he would enjoy hurting her, and for the first time she wondered what kind of man Snake was.

He was a great lover, and she was totally enraptured by him. However, she had no idea what the real man was like, what he was capable of. As she got on the back of Crag’s bike, she knew she was about to find out. The war between the Dread Cult and the Cult Castaways was going to teach her everything she needed to know about the man she loved.

Spoiling for a fight in no way described the mood he was in. It had taken every bit of his strength to walk out that door and leave her. It was so against everything he stood for, women did not tell you what they wanted, and they toed the line. However, where Faith was concerned he was a different man.

When he had arrived, back at the bar he’d got all the men together, and told them they were going to attack the Cult Castaways. For the first time in days, he felt like his old self, there was nothing like a little violence to put you back in your stride. In fact, the day looked very promising.

“Are all the men here?”

“Most, Mike and Ron are in a meeting, couple of others in transit,” Mike said.

“Good. Guns?”

“Everything you asked for.”

Snake patted Mike on the back. “Go get yourself a drink. We can wait another few minutes.”

“Were going in the daylight?”

“Yep.”

“Sure it wouldn’t be better to wait?”

“Nope. Lose the element of surprise.”

“They ain't the only ones who are going to be surprised by a daytime raid. The cops are going to be all over this; no way we can keep something like this quiet.”

“Get a drink, Mike, and let me do the worrying.”

Mike shuffled off, and Snake knew his sergeant at arms wasn’t happy. He also knew he would follow orders, he was loyal to Snake.

Calls from outside told him someone else was here. He opened the door and went out to find Crag parking his bike. There was a woman on behind him. Snake did not need to see her face to recognise her. The full curvy figure told him who it was, and his heart lurched.