The gears click together in my brain, finally. I’ve seen Sons of Anarchy; this is a fucking biker gang. Sweet baby Jesus.
“You had to get involved,” Bane is muttering to himself. He bangs his forehead lightly against the door. “Biker with the heart of gold. Dipshit. Jesus fucking Christ. Now I’m a fucking babysitter.”
He turns, crosses his arms, and slides his eyes all over me. There’s something clinical and cold about the way he looks at me.
“You got a name?” He demands. “Or shall I just call you Red too?”
My heart is hammering again, this time in my throat. My bra and underwear do nothing to protect me from that all-seeing, assessing gaze of his. I can’t read his eyes.
“Great,” he says, throwing his hands up in the air. “And she’s dumb as a post. What the hell am I gonna do with you? I don’t like useless pets.”
He chuckles at that. The sound is startling and deep and sends a spike of sensation to my groin. My palms grow sweaty with confused panic, lust, and desperation.
“Well miss, we don’t really have a choice here do we. Outmaneuvered. You’re stuck—I’m stuck. We might as well make this pleasant if we can. I don’t bite. Unless you’re into that.”
Bane “the Beast” takes a step towards me.
Oh fuck.
What now? Unable to think, I scramble back toward the wall and feel my fingers close around something hard.
It’s the shotgun.
Chapter Seven
Bane laughs at me. “Just what do you think you’re going to do with that?”
In answer, I unlock the safety. It’s been like, never since I’ve shot a gun, but I’m willing to start now. I balance the barrel between my knees.
Bane reads the message of my eyes loud and clear. “Don’t be fucking stupid,” he warns. “I just might change my mind about helping you.”
“Helping me?!” The bitterness creeps into my voice against my will.
“Whoa, it speaks.” He pretends to jump in surprise, and then leans against the door with a mocking laugh. “You know, a little gratitude wouldn’t kill you! I just saved your sorry bony ass from a fate worse than death, and possibly including death. I’m your fucking knight in shining armor. You’re welcome.”
I glare at him. “Jury’s still out on that, thanks.” I bite out through chattering teeth.
His muscles are like a coiled spring ready to pounce as his gaze flits over the business end of the gun. “That so?” A predatory grin curls on his lips. “What’s your plan, princess?”
“I’ll shoot you if you come any closer.”
“Doubt it. You don’t have the balls.”
He thrusts his hips teasingly at me and I find myself staring at his cock again. Reddening, I blink away. He grins at me, obviously proud of himself. His casual ease and complete disregard for his own nakedness are jarring to my scrambled senses. My flaming cheeks are now uncomfortably hot, but I clutch the gun tighter. He grimaces.
“You’re not thinking,” Bane continues. “If you shoot me, then you’re not my property anymore and I can’t be your babysitter, can I? They’ll pass you off to someone else, someone who maybe isn’t as much of a gentleman as I am. Maybe someone like Jack.”
He registers my shudder and nods.
“Now I know you only just met Mr. Keller,” Bane elaborates, “But you maybe picked up on the fact that our boy Jack doesn’t share my scruples about human trafficking. Or consensual sex.”
I feel the blood drain from my face and hands. I’m just one large blob of adrenaline with a speeding heart rate.
“Gee,” I manage, “You’re a regular feminist aren’t you?”
Bane squints at me, eyes glittering. “Let me break it down to small parts so you can understand, princess. Without me you’ll wind up smack dab in the middle of the D.L. club chained to a fence or inside a cage with a one-way door. Is that what you want? Red?”
A long silence stretches out. The reality of my predicament is starting to sink in, as well as the fact that I’ve got nothing but some biker’s account of himself and his world to cling to for safety. He said he wouldn’t touch me with a ten-foot pole. He said he doesn’t do slaves.
Yet here I am.
So…why the hell should I believe him?
“Looks like you’re stuck with me,” he grunts, as if answering my thoughts. “Not the worst deal for you but fuck if I’m pleased.”
Something about the menacing way he says that coupled with the small step he takes in my direction freaks me out enough that my trigger finger twitches ever so slightly.
It’s enough. There’s a popping sound and I scream, but for some reason the shotgun doesn’t actually fire. Bane dives at me, swearing, his body slamming me backward and crashing my bones into the hard mattress.
“No!” I wail, thrashing.
“Fucking moron!” He bellows.
He’s on top of me, his naked skin pressed against mine, and he wrestles me until we are both sweating and breathless. I am pinned to the bed, completely prone beneath him.
“That wasn’t nice!” Bane barks. He wrestles the gun out of my hand and tosses it to the floor. I can smell the whiskey on his breath. “Thank god it wasn’t loaded or we’d both be in deep shit. Idiot! Did you not listen to what I just said?”
We are nose-to-nose, breathing each other’s air and tasting each other’s sweat.
“Fucking women,” he curses. “You make no god damn sense.”
“Well excuse me if I don’t accept being some skanky gangster man-whore’s property!” I growl. “Excuse me if I don’t fall all over myself with joy! You’re a criminal just like them, otherwise you’d let me go!”
“Easy with the name calling,” he shoots back. “Look princess, it’s complicated ok? We’re both up shit creek without a paddle here. I didn’t exactly write you down on my Christmas list.”
“How terrible for you,” I spit, thrashing. “Would you rather have had a different size or color woman? A boy? A blonde perhaps? Or two, since that’s your thing? Should I apologize to you for finding yourself in the terrible position of owning me?”
“You are really starting to piss me off lady,” he growls through clenched teeth. He tilts his head back to get a better look at me. “I didn’t ask for this. I sure as hell don’t want some frigid cager bitch dicking around with my Remington. I’ve got enough going on, myself. So if it were up to me, you’d still be shoving organic popsicles up your ass on the Upper East Side or wherever the fuck you came from. But clearly, that’s not happening. So accept it. I’m the best fucking thing that could have happened to you tonight, and you better get that through your thick head if you want my protection.”