cheek. I shuddered and pulled away, jumping to my feet. I swayed unsteadily. Spots danced in front of my eyes. I grabbed the ATM on the wall to steady myself.
“Now don’t be rude to ole Ed. What’s your name?” he asked, licking his lips and adjusting the stained crotch of his once khaki pants.
“Um…nice meeting you, Ed,” I said as confidently as I could. “But I gotta go.” I tried to sidestep him, but he stepped in front of me, blocking my only exit.
“Why don’t you stay here and dry off for a while.” His eyes roamed down my body. His toothless smile grew bolder. “Although I like a woman who’s all wet.” He clucked his tongue against the roof of his mouth.
“Um, no thanks. I’m just waiting for my friend to pick me up,” I lied, wishing it were true. I made a move to side-step him again, but this time he grabbed my arm. I tried to shake him loose, but even a child was stronger than me at that point. “Get off me!”
“Now, you listen here. You came into my house. Now, you’re going to stay and see how hospitable I can be.”
Ed yanked my wrist, turning me around until my back was flush up against him. He held my hands captive in front of me. His cock twitched against my thigh, and I gagged. If I’d had anything in my stomach, it would have come up right there.
I stomped on Ed’s booted foot with my bare one, sharp pain exploding in from my foot to my hip, hurting me more than him, but it was just enough to momentarily stun him. I broke free from his grip.
I’d only made it a few steps when I was yanked backwards by my hair, sending me flying onto my back, smashing the back of my head into the concrete. For the second time in twenty-four hours, the wind was knocked out of me. My windpipe wouldn’t open. My lungs struggled inside of my body, painfully asking for air. My vision became hazier and hazier.
This was the very reason why I was seeking protection from a biker. At that moment I wished that Bear had just taken me to his place instead of sending me to King.
But then, I remembered my renewed promise to her.
I had to protect her. At all costs.
And I wasn’t going down without one hell of a fight.
When Ed tried to drag my legs down and pry them apart, I kicked out wildly until my foot connected with his face. Blood spurted from his nose, and the heel of my foot felt like it was on fire.
“You’re gonna pay for that, bitch!” Ed hissed.
Rearing back, he punched me square in the jaw. My head twisted to the side and fell onto the concrete with a thud. My mouth filled with warm coppery liquid.
Ed held something cold and sharp at the base of my throat. “Try to fight me, cunt, and I’ll slit your fucking throat,” he warned through tight lips.
With an unsteady hand holding the knife, he ripped down my sweats and panties in one forceful yank. Each of my gasps elicited another sting from his knife.
I closed my eyes. This is what happens when you wish for death, right?
Sometimes, wishes come true.
I only hoped that he would kill me when he was done so I didn’t have to relive this moment for the rest of my life.
Not even a day had passed since I made my promise to protect her and I’d already failed.
Ed shuffled around with his pants, and I braced myself, coming to terms with the fact that I was going to die under a bank awning in a little town in the middle of nowhere.
As no one.
Then, Ed was gone. His weight suddenly disappeared.
There was a shuffle, then a loud explosion that echoed through my ears. A familiar sound.
I wanted to lift my head to see what was happening, but my neck wouldn’t cooperate, and my head felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
Strong arms reached around my back and under my knees, lifting me effortlessly into the air, cradling me against a hard chest. I tried to fight off whoever it was, but I couldn’t manage anything more than a wiggle.
“I got you,” a familiar deep voice murmured into my hair.
King.
“I thought you were letting me go.” I said, my thoughts all swimming around each other in my head, smashing into one another.
“I changed my mind.” King’s muscles barely tensed under my weight. He covered me with a leather jacket and wasn’t the least bit strained when he walked out into the rain.
The world around me grew fuzzy. “I thought my life was supposed to flash in front of my eyes?”
“Why would you think that?” he asked. In my weakened state, I didn’t know if the concern in his voice was genuine or something I was making up.
“Because that’s what happens when you’re dying,” I answered.
“You’re not dying.”
“Oh, good. Because I don’t have a life to flash in front of my eyes. I thought whatever higher power exists up there was just showing me you instead.”
“Why would you see me if you were dying?” he asked. When I didn’t answer immediately King shook me and said something about trying to stay awake, but I couldn’t listen. I believe what I said next was very similar to, “Cause you might be all angry and stuff, but you’re really pretty to look at.” I yawned. “Why did you come back for me?”
I used all the energy I had left to open an eye and glance around King’s shoulder. Ed was slumped against the ATM, staring blankly ahead.
A bullet hole between his eyes.
King held me tighter and lowered his mouth to my ear.
“Because you’re mine.”
Chapter Ten
Doe
I awoke submerged in warm water. Every ache and bruise and sore throbbed in the healing heat. When I opened my eyes, King was hovering over the edge of the tub, washcloth in hand.
I gasped and sat up quickly, sloshing water over the side and onto the floor. I scooted to the far edge, crossing my arms over my breasts. King forcefully grabbed my wrist and pulled, removing the only protection I had against his gaze. With his other hand, he trailed his calloused fingertips from my collarbone to my breast. When he made it to my nipple, he pinched.
HARD.
I yelped.
“I’ve already seen them, pup. No need to hide them from me now.” King was shirtless, his ab muscles rippled and his tattoos became animated with his every movement.
“You killed Ed,” I blurted out. The events from the night before tumbled over each other into my mind, one horrific detail after another.
“Ed?” King asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“The guy last night,” I clarified. “The one you…”
“Killed,” King finished. “I didn’t realize you two had gotten to know one another.” King raised the washcloth. I flinched. “I’m just wiping off the mud.”
“You don’t sound very remorseful. You seem fully convinced that you have the right to be judge, jury, and executioner.” I said.
“A simple ‘Thank you, King, for saving my life.’ would do.” King said. “But what you should know, and what Ed found out, is that if you fuck with me and what’s mine than yes, I am the judge. I am the jury. And sometimes, when the situation calls for it, I am the motherfucking executioner.” My stomach flipped.
“But why do you give a shit if he hurt me or not?”
“Because you’re mine.”
“Why do you keep saying that?”
“Because it’s true.”
“I never agreed to be yours, whatever that means.”
“It’s not something you need to agree to. This isn’t a negotiation. Would you rather I’d let Ed do whatever it is he planned to do to you?”
“No, that’s not what I’m saying.” Even in the warm water, my skin turned to gooseflesh when I thought of what would have happened if King hadn’t saved me.
I would be dead.
Was I upset that Ed was dead? No. It was a him or me situation, and I was glad I’d come out on the other side with my life.
“This is why I needed a biker,” I mumbled.
“What was that?” King asked.
 
; “Nothing,” I said. Not realizing I’d said that last part out loud.
“No, you said that’s why you needed a biker. What the fuck exactly does that mean?”
“For protection!” I snapped. “You don’t know what it’s like out there on the streets. There is an Ed on every fucking corner just waiting for you to fall asleep or not pay attention or wander into the wrong alleyway. It’s not like it was my first choice, but I didn’t know what else to do. Nikki said there would be bikers at your party. That if one liked me that he could protect me.”
“You came to the party to whore yourself out to a biker?” He sounded angry and disappointed and for some stupid reason, I really hated the idea that I’d somehow disappointed him. Almost as much as I hated the fact that I’d disappointed myself.
Or her.
“Yes,” I answered honestly. “At least for a little while. But I realize now how stupid that idea was. That’s not what I want anymore.” I didn’t realize how embarrassed I was until I spoke the words out loud.
“At least, it all makes a lot more sense now. Here lean back,” King ordered.
I tilted my chin back and he supported my neck with one hand. He grabbed a cup off the floor and scooped up water, slowly pouring it over my hair.
“You killed your mom,” I whispered. As nice as the bath was, I was still completely unable to get a hold of my mouth and stop the words before they poured out like water from King’s cup.
“Fucking Preppy.” King shook his head. “He shouldn’t have said anything. It’s none of your fucking business,” he spat. I’d hit a nerve. “It’s none of anyone’s fucking business.” After a moment or two of silence, his breathing again evened out and the vein in his neck stopped pulsing. He finished rinsing my hair. “You know I was in prison then, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you know how long I was locked up for?”
“Three years,” I said, recalling what Preppy had told me.
“Yeah, three years. You know anyone that gets three years for murder?”
I don’t know why I didn’t think of it before. It didn’t make any sense. I shook my head.
“There’s a lot more to that story. But, I’m not in a story-telling mood tonight.”
“But you killed Nikki,” I cursed myself for not being able to keep my trap shut. Much to my surprise, King laughed. An actual laugh as if I told a joke. I didn’t think the man was capable.
“No,” he countered. “I didn’t.”
“Yes, you did,” I argued. “I heard you tell Preppy you killed her. Why would you deny it?”
“Think about it. Did you actually hear me say that I killed her?”
He was right. I didn’t hear him say the actual words.
“I only said she was dead. I’m sorry, pup, but she is. I found her with a needle in her arm in a shitty motel a town over.”
King wiped a wayward tear from under my eye with the pad of his thumb.
“She shot you. Does she really deserve that tear?” He surprised me by sucking it off his thumb.
“She didn’t shoot me,” I defended. “She was trying to escape. She shot me by accident. She was aiming at you. She was desperate. We both were. Desperate people do desperate things.”
It was then I realized that I missed her. As fucked up as our relationship was, she was all I had.
And now she was gone.
“Pup, on purpose or not, the bitch shot you. To be honest, if I’d found her alive and she drew that gun again, she’d be dead now anyway.”
“My life seems to be a bunch of questions piled on top of a bunch of questions, and frankly, I’m ready to add some fucking answers into the mix before my brain explodes and leaks out of my ears.”
“How…graphic of you.”
“I’m serious. Why did you look for me? Why did you even bother bringing me back here?”
“When I let you go, it was a momentary lapse in judgment. The reason why I let you go doesn’t matter. The fact is that your friend is dead, and you still owe me. You’re my property, and you will be mine until I decide otherwise.”
He ran the washcloth down my legs and brushed over the wound on my foot. I cried out, and he scowled. “You’re pretty banged up.”
“I guess that’s what happens when you’re left in the woods to rot and then walk miles barefoot in the blazing sun,” I spat. I expected him to argue with me, fight with me, but he surprised me.
“I’m sorry about that. As I said, momentary lapse in judgment.”
“Did you just apologize to me?”
“No, I said I was sorry about having a momentary lapse in judgment. I didn’t say I was sorry to you.”
“How exactly am I supposed to pay you?” I asked hesitantly. “We’ve been through this. I don’t have anything to give you,” I sighed. “I don’t have anything at all.”
“In whatever way I want, pup.”
“What if I don’t want to be yours?”
King didn’t hesitate. “Then, I’ll let Preppy have his way with you. He may seem nice, but you’ll learn that kid is a sick fuck who will smash your back door in without warning. He likes it when they scream. He likes it when they’re passed out. He likes it even better when they say no. Or maybe, I’ll loan you out to Bear’s crew. I hear Harris and Mono have a fetish for knife play.”
There was no humor in his voice.
“But if you cooperate, you’ll be mine and mine alone. You’ll be under my protection. When I’m tired of you and I feel your debt has been paid, you will be free to go.”
“Protection,” I repeated. The very thing I’d been looking for. “What happens if you don’t get tired of me?”
King chuckled. “Oh, It will happen. Always does. But until then, you’ll do what I say. You’ll live in my house.” His eyes narrowed to the space between my legs. “You’ll sleep in my bed.”
“You’re going to rape me?” My heart hammered in my chest. “Because it’s one thing to sell myself. It’s another thing entirely to have the decision taken from me. If that’s your plan, you can just shove my head under the water and get this over with now.”
“You may be weak in body, but it doesn’t seem that mouth of yours got the message.” Adrenaline sprung to life inside me, coursing through my veins, readying my body for another fight for my life.
I stood up, splashing more water onto the tile floor, my nakedness on full display. I didn’t bother to cover myself.
King surprised me by standing up and stepping into the tub, soaking his jeans up to his shins. I held my clenched fists out in front of me like I was going to box him. He laughed and wrapped both arms around my waist, hauling me into his colorful, bare chest.
“You’ll find out that I’m a lot of things, but I’m no fucking rapist. Before I fuck you—and I will fuck you, pup—you’ll be begging me for it,” he whispered against my neck.
I clenched my thighs together to try and ease the ache he created there. The adrenaline surge I was ready to use for combat changed into something else entirely. I was still ready for him. Only in a completely different way.
Traitorous body.
“But first, you need to heal. Your feet are all sliced up and your ear is bleeding again.” King stepped from the tub and lifted me out with him, setting me onto the cold tile my teeth started to chatter. He opened the cabinet under the sink and wrapped me in a soft towel large enough to double as a blanket. “And there are a few other things I need you to tell me.”
“Like what?”
“Preppy told me what you’d told him, what happened to you. But how is it that someone like you is missing in the world?”
“Someone like me?”
“There has got to be someone out there who misses these beautiful eyes.” He locked his fingers into my wet hair and tilted my head back.
“I tried to find someone who knows me,” I said with my teeth still clacking together. King dried me with the towel, treading carefully over my injuries. “The police tried, too, but there was n
o missing persons report that matched my description. My fingerprints aren’t on file anywhere. No paper trail.”
King unbuttoned his jeans and stripped them off, hanging the wet fabric off of the shower rod to dry. All that was left of his clothes were his black boxer briefs, his enormous erection straining against the stretchy fabric. He noticed me looking and made no move to make an excuse for his arousal. He didn’t make any move to cover himself. He smiled out of the corner of his mouth, took a few steps toward me. He lifted me up into his arms as if he were cradling a baby and carried me out into his bedroom where he set me on the bed.
The cuffs from the night before still hung from the headboard.
“So that’s it? I’m your prisoner? You’re just going to keep me cuffed to the bed?”
King shook his head. “No, pup. You’re not my prisoner. I don’t think we need these anymore.” He gestured to the cuffs. His well-built, highly-tattooed, muscular physique gleamed under the light of the moon shining through the window. My mouth went dry, and I again had to press my thighs together to quell the building ache that was starting to overshadow my other injuries.
He may have been the devil, but his body was sculpted like a god.
I scrambled to form my question. “Then, what am I?” I whispered. My exhaustion beginning to take hold.
“I told you before.” King leaned in close stripped the towel away, letting his gaze linger on my body before covering me with the bed sheets. With one knee on the mattress, King leaned over and sucked my bottom lip into his mouth. A tingling sensation started in my belly. He released my lip with a pop. “You’re not my prisoner. You’re mine.”
Chapter Eleven
King
Against my better judgment, I’d brought her back to my house. I fed her. I bathed her. I put her to bed, and she didn’t bother to fight me off when I climbed in beside her and held her close while she cried herself to sleep. She was here against her will and I was one fucked up motherfucker.
Because I’d never been happier.
It was the kiss that fucked everything up. I hadn’t meant to kiss her in the woods, but I couldn’t ignore the overwhelming urge to take her mouth. At first, I thought it was just a sick part of me that needed to kiss a girl who was struggling underneath me. But then, she opened her mouth to me, and all the sense I’d ever had was lost in that kiss.
Her taste, her tongue, the pull I’d felt toward her when she was first in my bed had exploded into something I couldn’t reign in. I lost myself in her for a good minute before I came to my senses. Stopping was the hardest thing I’d ever done even though the idea of taking my revenge out on her body made every part of me turn rock hard.
I wasn’t going to go after her. But the entire night I lay awake and stared at the ceiling fan. I didn’t even fucking know the girl and I was worried about her. What was she doing? Did she make it out of the woods? Then, I spent hours hoping she went in the right direction, because if she went toward Coral Pines,