Rolling over, I pull myself up to my feet and Curt watches me warily. Tal is the stronger one out of the prospects and he’s the one I have a problem with. Curt is a no one and will most likely be turned down for the patch.
Ignoring him and Leo, I head back inside to find some ice for my knuckles and to see what the plan is for Harper.
I hear a woman’s sob before I turn the corner to get to the kitchen and hold back when I hear Cas.
“From the moment you laid eyes on her, the events that followed were bound to you. I hope she is worth it, because you’ll be lucky if she doesn’t cost you your life.”
Cas looks to the Crow whore, whose name I can’t remember, and scrunches up his nose at her.
“Start praying that I allow him to walk out of here with breath in his body.”
Another sob escapes her and I round the corner like I haven’t been standing around listening to their conversation.
I pass by them all and feel Niall’s eyes burn into my back. Tal won’t be the only one dying if Harper doesn’t come home alive.
Harper
The van is slowing and for around five minutes or so, the guy behind the wheel drives at a decent speed. I imagine it’s because he doesn’t want to be pulled over and have me found.
There is nothing around me, apart from the second guy who hasn’t taken his eyes off me since they got me.
My shoulder hits the side of the van as the force of taking a corner hits us and I hear one of them chuckle as I groan.
“Get her ready,” the driver orders from the front and the second guy moves towards me.
There’s nowhere for me to back away to and I tense, my muscles are wound so tight I think they could snap.
“When we stop, I’m going to open the door. If you try to run or scream for help, I’ll slit your fucking throat. Do you understand?”
His voice is raspy but tinged with an excitement that shouldn’t be there when talking about throat slitting.
I nod quickly, and he grins.
“Good girl.”
Cringing, I look away from him and hang my head. I should’ve listened to Tal and got out of the truck back at the club. Why did I have to lie and force him to take me with them? I should’ve listened, climbed out the truck in a mood and sulked for the rest of the day. I get now why the club goes on lockdowns. Why did I think I knew better?
The van comes to a stop and both me and the guy in the back lurch forward. He spits out a curse and I keep my mouth closed.
My fight or flight instincts aren’t telling me anything. My gut is telling me to keep my mouth shut and don’t antagonize these men.
Tal and Curt would’ve noticed I’m not there by now and will be on their toes to find me. I just have to keep quiet, do as I’m told and wait for my uncle to find me.
The driver jumps out and slides open the side door while the guy next to me grabs onto my arm in a death grip, causing a bruise for sure.
The sun is shining brightly, and I squint against the glare before I’m ushered through the door a handful of feet away from the van. The guy literally parked as close as he could. We’re at a motel but I can’t see which one we’re at. Once I have one foot through the door, my body is flying across the room, and pain shoots up my back from the shove.
I land in a heap tripping over my own feet, landing on the disgustingly dirty carpet. I dread to think what these stains are from.
Pulling myself up onto my knees, I scramble forward, only to be caught around my waist and pulled up and thrown onto the bed.
“There ain’t nowhere for you to run in here.”
I ignore him and back up to the headboard. The masked driver from the van stands by the door and throws over a bunch of cable ties. The second guy is quick to reach out for them and grab my wrists. He makes quick work of tying me to the headboard and sits beside me.
He’s way too close for me to be comfortable and the driver still doesn’t move. He watches as his friend, or whatever, runs his finger across my cheek.
My first reaction is to shy away and this angers him. His hand slides around the back of my neck and his thumb rests on my chin.
“You really are pretty.”
I wish I wasn’t if it means I wouldn’t have him this close. When he leans in and sniffs my hair, the first tear falls.
“Leave her alone, Lim.”
My eyes shoot to the driver and he looks away, choosing to see what the time is rather than see me held here.
For my sake, the driver seems to be the dominant one here and creepy eyes moves away from me and goes into the bathroom.
The driver doesn’t move an inch as I pull my legs up to my chest and curl up as close as my restraints will allow.
“Why am I here?” I dare to ask, sounding pathetically weak.
“Shut up.”
He struts across the room and bangs on the bathroom door. “Hurry up in there, we’ll wait outside.”
The door opens almost instantly, and creepy eyes follows the driver outside slamming the door after them.
I relax partially now that I’m alone, but not fully, not when I don’t know who we’re waiting on, or why I’m here.
Come on, Uncle Slade. I wonder if JJ will care if I’m missing? Of course he will, just because he done a one-eighty on me last night, his feelings can’t vanish in the blink of an eye. It dawns on me that I have very few people who actually care about me. Sure I have Lily, but she isn’t anything to write home about unless she has everything she wants. My cousins are more interested in themselves, and my aunt is always working in her store. Slade is the only one who asks how I’m doing or if I need anything.
I was starting to believe JJ and then all hopes of anything happening between us were killed last night.
Moving to Willow’s Peak was meant to be a fresh start after the shit that happened back home, but I’m starting to think I need another fresh start. It couldn’t hurt anymore than being here.
Thanks to the clock on the nightstand, I watch every minute pass and an hour after I was left alone, the door opens, and I can’t breathe. I can’t think straight, the thoughts are trying to burst from my mind as I try to make sense of what I’m seeing, yet they’re all conflicting with each other.
“Ellis? What are you doing here?”
One look at him and I know he isn’t here to save me. Dressed in a leather cut, very similar to Slade’s and JJ’s, and every other Lost Souls cut, Ellis’s patch reads, President of the Black Crows. I didn’t pay much attention to club talk while working behind the bar, but I heard enough to know the Lost Souls and the Black Crows are trying to kill each other.
He isn’t my friend who sat and listened to me talk for hours on end at Blue Waters. His smile has gone from love inducing to fear inflicting.
“Sorry I had to rearrange our meeting place.” I stay quiet and watch his every move. He pulls out a flick knife from his pocket and I tense.
“You should see the look on your face right now,” he chuckles darkly. “It was all too easy to get you, you know. You should be more careful, you never know who’s lurking in the shadows.”
He cuts my ties and my arms fall heavily into my lap. I daren’t rub my wrists yet, the blood rushing around is hurting enough.
“Why, Ellis?”
Is that even his name?
“Because as soon as I saw you, I knew I had to have you and I wanted to test the Lost Souls, see how far I could go. I walked into the middle of their clubhouse yesterday and no one had a clue who I was.”
Leaning in, his lips sweep across my neck. “I could’ve done anything before they realised who I was,” he proudly boasts.
I wish I knew more about the clubs, something I could use to help myself. Instead, I beg.
“Please, Ellis. Let me go home.”
“I’ll let you leave by the end of the day, but first, you have a few choices to make before I can let you go.”
He takes my hand in his and pulls it to his lips. I refrain from blatantly crin
ging and angering him as he presses his cheek to my skin.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you for so long, and now I have you here, I still can’t take what I want yet. When I first saw you standing by the edge of the road the night before you tried to end your life, I fell for you in that one, passing moment.”
I think back to that night and I vaguely remember a bunch of bikers, who weren’t from my uncle’s club, riding past me. This doesn’t make sense.
“How did you get a job at the clinic if you’re not…”
I pause because I’m not sure if I really want to know, or how to finish my question.
“Quite easy, money and threats. Dr Willis has a daughter she didn’t want kidnapped and hurt.”
Who is this guy?
“None of it was real,” I whisper to myself.
Why would it be? It’s not like I’ve ever had a true friend, whether a male or female. I have to get used to the idea that everyone are liars and out for themselves.
“The job wasn’t real, but my feelings for you are. So, I propose that you come home with me. You’ll be my old lady and you can have anything you want. I’ll look after you, I’ll make sure you’re never alone to make silly decisions.”
His light touch skims over one of my scars and I shiver.
“Be mine, Harper, and I’ll let your uncle and cousin live when I bring down the Lost Souls. I’ll even let them patch in as Crows.”
Like I’ve said before, I don’t know much about the club, but I do know my uncle would rather die than give up his patch or wear another.
“Slade would never join you, nor Zachery.”
He sighs. “Yeah, I figured as much.” He looks up at me and I want to crawl inside of myself. “You can still stay with me.”
He doesn’t make me feel safe and calm anymore. He makes me feel anything but calm.
“You were my friend.”
Now, he’s had me kidnapped and tied up in a grotty motel room. I tread carefully not to anger him but somehow, I don’t think I’m going to achieve it.
“I can give you so much more, Harper, if you let me. No one in your life will love you like I will.”
Love?
He can’t love me, he’s only known me for a couple of months and it was all based on lies.
My mouth opens to, I don’t know what, lie, make out I can be with him just to save myself until I can get away, but he takes my hesitation as a refusal.
“I’ll take that as a no.”
I don’t know what happens to me next, or why it’s this moment I find a voice, but my mind bursts and anger replaces the rational part of me to survive.
“Take it as a never. I can’t be with you after you have lied to me and had me tied up. You’re out of your fucking mind.”
My breath comes fast, and the rush rides me hard. His mood doesn’t change. His calmness is eerie and it floats around the room like a false blanket of protection.
“I was hoping for a different answer, but I’m ready for it to be done this way.”
Ready? What way?
“I have a message for you to take back to Cas.”
“A message?” I repeat.
He stands and shrugs out of his cut, whipping his tee off shortly after. I gasp, his chest is covered in tattoos and a huge crow takes up most of his back. He lays his clothes on the end of the bed and smooths them out.
“It’s a shame you don’t like what you see, I would’ve been good to you.”
Four steps is all it takes for him to be standing next to me and to lean over and run his hand over my hair.
“So fucking smooth.”
Before he finishes speaking, he’s gripping onto my hair and is yanking my head back. I scream out and glee flashes in his eyes. He likes it, the sick asshole is getting off on my pain. How could I have not noticed this side of him lurking in the shadows?
“Tell the club they will burn before me by the time I’m done with them, and that cunt Leo Jackson is going to die first.”
“I’m sure you could’ve text this to Cas.”
Brave or stupid? I don’t know which I am. However, at this point, after everything I’ve been through, I don’t care anymore.
“Oh no, darling. This message has to be delivered with a personal touch. I had hoped to have you at my side, but like I said, I have a backup plan.”
This doesn’t sound good. Bile begins to creep up my throat at the thought of what he’s going to do next.
“Now, you can deliver it while you bleed.”
Shoving my head back, my scalp tingles as he releases my hair. He stands tall over me, and all kindness he’s ever shown me, real or fake, vanishes. The devil is taking his place and now I’m truly scared.
For a brief moment, I don’t recognise him at all. Gone is the all American good-looking guy, and in his place is a dark, violent man.
With my restraints on the floor in a pile of shredded plastic, I jump off the bed and fall straight to the floor. My legs are numb, and I feel like I’m in one of those nightmares where you can’t scream out or run to safety, no matter how hard you try.
His heavy breath is on me before I can turn around and he puts his whole weight on me as he sits on my back and pulls my head back.
“You should have chosen me,” he whispers coldly and smashes my head down against the floor.
“Don’t worry, baby, you’ll still be able to walk home when I’m done with you.”
For forty-eight minutes he throws me around the room, slapping me, punching and kicking me like I’m a ragdoll that weighs nothing. He even has the audacity to take two breaks to catch his breath. If this is what he does to people he loves, I’m scared for the Lost Souls. I’m scared for JJ and it’s his face that is the last thing I can focus on before nothing hits me.
JJ
The last time I was in the main house, Leo and I had stolen a big ass bottle of tequila and got wasted right under our father’s noses. We were twelve or thirteen years old and got away with it because we were hidden away in the house no one seemed to use anymore. I pace the living room, keeping my eye on the window, waiting for any action outside and try to breathe through this building anger and frustrating sense of being powerless.
It’s obvious the Crows got to Harper and all I can do is fucking wait around. They could be doing anything to her and here I am, pacing. I came over here because I couldn’t take being watched like a hawk by my dad. I’ll have to go back into the bar soon, I need an update. Fuck it, I’ll go now.
I jog across the short space and throw open the bar door and find everyone keeping close to Cas as he sits at his table with my dad.
“Have they called yet?”
“Have you heard the fuckin’ phone ring?” Cas snaps back, unaware that I haven’t been around to fucking hear it or not.
It’s driving me crazy not knowing where she is or what’s happening to her and Cas is making it worse.
My hands shake and my nostrils flare as I tense my jaw and fail to inhale a deep breath.
“Go and take a shot, it’ll calm your nerves. This isn’t our first rodeo, son, you need to cool it.”
I’m not interested in a drink. If I have one, I won’t stop.
“Don’t push him away when he’s the only one who’s acting like he cares where my daughter is.”
Everyone stops and looks at Lily. I’ve heard two tones from her, the party woman hollering while she’s been drinking and the dumbass whining when she doesn’t get her way.
Standing before Cas’s table, she’s holding her own and she sounds strong.
“I care where she is,” Cas growls.
“I don’t think you care enough, I think you’re going through the motions because she’s Slade’s niece and because the men who took her are your fight, not hers.”
Cas slowly stands but Lily doesn’t even flinch. I’ve never seen anyone rise against Cas, and by the looks of most of the brothers, nor have they.
“Don’t tell me what I feel. I’ll bring her home to you, I
give you my word.”
“Your word means nothing to me. You’re an arrogant asshole and if I were to trust you with her, I would’ve trusted you a long time ago.”
“Lily!” Slade roars, coming up beside his sister. “There’s no need for this, we’ll get Harper back and whoever took her will pay.”
“Hang on. What do you mean, you would’ve trusted me a long time ago?”
Cas walks around the table and stops in front of Lily, even Slade is interested in what she has to say.
“I’ve watched you since I came back to town, you’re the loyal husband and the doting daddy, an all-round good guy, but that wasn’t always the case, was it, Cas?”
If a pin was to drop, it would echo all around the bar. I can even hear my breath exhaling. It takes a beat but Cas pales and then he’s backing away from her.
“I would say for you to work out the dates, but you were so self-absorbed back then you probably don’t even remember our night together. I’ve kept this secret for twenty-five years and I would’ve kept it till the day I died, but I reckon you need a lot more incentive to bring my daughter home, or should I say, our daughter.”
Fuck-In-Hell.
She did not just come out with Cas is the daddy like she’s on a chat show in front of everyone. No one moves. No one says a word. I’m glued to see what she says next and how Cas is going to react.
“You’re lying.”
Luca is the first one to speak up and all eyes fall on him. He’s barely muttered a word since his girl skipped town on him and if it’s possible, his eyes are even colder now than they usually are.
“My dad would know if he had a daughter out there.”
“Son,” Cas chokes out. “Leave it.” Then he turns on everyone. “Everyone out, now”
It’s an order from the president but not one body moves from their place.
“Now!” he roars and then the place is clearing out.
I begrudgingly follow Leo, who isn’t interested in staying and finding out what’s going on and hook my arm around Luca’s neck as I pass by him.