Rycks, page 3
“Look. I can’t stay here past tonight. But if I go back with something that looks important, you could control the information I’m giving them.” Was it my imagination or did he look disappointed?
“I don’t like it. I’d have to discuss it with Thorn, and he’d have to decide what you tell them, but it’s not something I want to risk.”
“It’s the only option I have.”
“Why?”
“I’m sorry?”
“Why do you have to go back, Lyric. You’re here with me now. You’re safe.”
“All you need to know is that I have to go back. I want to go back.” If the look on his face was any indication, I’d just thoroughly pissed Rycks off.
“You’re staying. End of discussion. You want to go back, you tell me why.”
“It’s personal. That’s all I’m saying so don’t ask again.”
Rycks sighed and reached for me to pull me onto his lap, straddling his hips. He stood up and turned to sit in the same chair he’d plucked me out of. Those strong hands held me still. Like I’d dare move.
“Are you telling me you want to go back to that lot? They’ll use you until there’s nothing left. I’m surprised they haven’t already. You’ll die in that place if you go back. You have to know that.”
“No. I don’t know that. Dangling information from someone high in rank at Black Reign would keep them off me. Plus, they need me working at my job in the city. It’s the only way they’re able to get their information.”
I tried to ignore how good it felt to be in his arms again. Rycks was my first lover. He’d made me feel special despite his refusal to keep me. Even that had been because he’d thought any danger I faced wasn’t anything like what I’d face with him. I had no idea if he’d been right, but I knew where I was now was as deadly dangerous.
“You’re a damned fool,” he snapped. Then he did something unexpected. He slid his hand into the hair at the back of my head and pulled me to him. “Girl, I’m surprised they let you leave at all. Surprised they haven’t already made you a whore in the most violent way possible. It would be Rat Man who’d start with you. You know that, right?”
I shivered. Rat Man. Even saying his name gave me the creeps. The man knew no depravity he didn’t indulge in. If there was a repugnant sex act out there, chances are he’d done it.
“Yes. I can see you do know. I can also see you’re afraid.” He sighed, loosening his grip on my hair, but not letting me pull away from him. “I suppose that’s something.” With a sigh, he pulled me to him until my head rested on his shoulder. “You’re going to be a problem, I can see. Not sure the word brat even covers you.”
“Why would you call me a brat?” Maybe I was, but it was only because, for some reason, I felt safe to let that side of myself out when I was with him. Sure, he tried to come across gruff and dangerous -- and I was sure he was under the right circumstances -- but I knew in my heart he wasn’t like anyone at Kiss of Death. He was a protector first. A killer only when someone he was responsible for was threatened.
“Because you’re testing me when you should be following orders.”
“Never been much good at following orders.”
“I can see that. Also,” he said, taking a deep breath, “you’ve got to tell me why your family went missing from Ismay. And why you’re the only one of them ever to turn back up.”
Chapter Three
Rycks
If Lyric truly thought I was letting her go back to Kiss of Death, she was either not as smart as I’d first thought, or braver than I gave her credit for. To my question about her family, she let go a bark of laughter before pressing her fingers to her mouth to keep in her amusement. She tried to pull away from me, but I wouldn’t let her. It felt too good to hold her. Thing was, cuddling had never been something I was fond of. I liked my own space. Women were pleasant in bed, but I didn’t linger after sex. With this girl, I could see myself wrapped around her lithe body throughout the night.
No. She wasn’t going back to that fucking club. Even if I had to tie her to my bed and lock her in my room. And that wasn’t something I could do here, at the Salvation’s Bane compound. I needed to get her back to Black Reign. It would put her in the most secure environment and lead the danger our way. Bane was perfectly capable of handling Kiss of Death, but Reign could do more than handle that fucking club. We’d annihilate them.
“You don’t give up, do you?”
“Not in my vocabulary. I have to know your past before you left here. You want to go back? This is part of what you have to do.” I stroked her back up and down because I couldn’t help myself. I think she might have enjoyed it too because she arched into my touch ever so slightly.
“Fine. I was taken, OK?”
I tried not to pause in my movements, wanting to keep her as relaxed as possible. If I gained her trust, I’d have control of the situation. Of the flow of information from her. “What do you mean, taken?”
“I mean, shortly after I got that driving permit when I was fourteen and a half, someone came to my house, killed my parents, and took me with them.”
“Kiss of Death?”
“His name was Gremlin. I’d met him at a football game a few nights before. He was older than me by quite a bit but kept following me around, trying to get me to leave with him to go to a bar.”
“But you wouldn’t go.”
“No. I finally went to my dad and he got the attention of a cop at the game. There was always one with the local ambulance service at every game in case they were needed. Gremlin took off, but I knew that wasn’t the end of it. You could see it in his eyes. He wasn’t one to let something like that go. Had I just ignored him, he might have. But by calling the attention of the cops to him, that wasn’t something he was going to forgive.”
“What happened then?”
She shrugged. “Less than a week later, he and a few of his buddies broke into our house, killed my parents, and kidnapped me. They tied me up, shot me up with a drug that made me sleep, then shoved me in the trunk of their car. Next thing I know, I’m in Nashville, Tennessee.”
“This fucking club is in a bad need of putting down,” I muttered. It was more for myself, but she readily agreed.
“I thought they had been. Gremlin and his father, their president, were both killed several months later. I thought I might be able to escape. Several of the women and kids being held did. But either they kept me dosed higher than everyone else, or I was just more susceptible to it. I could never get my wits about me long enough to form a plan.”
She snuggled closer to me. Maybe for comfort, I don’t know. But her little hand curled into my shirt, and I was fucking lost. Lyric was no stray I’d picked up. No kid in need of my protection. She wasn’t even penance for my failures long ago. No. This girl… No. She wasn’t a girl. She was a young woman. And she was fucking mine.
I cleared my throat. “How did you end up here?”
“Came with the club. Rat Man came in and took over. Couple of the older members objected. He shot them. He had a couple men with him who were loyal, and they helped convince the rest of the club Rat Man was the guy for the job. He promised them they’d all be rich, and the club did seem to be bringing in more money than ever before. So they let him take over.”
“How did you keep from being raped all that time?”
She shivered, her hands tightening even more in my shirt. “At first, I didn’t think I could. Gremlin wanted me bad, but his father wouldn’t let him. Slash was his name. He wanted to find the right buyer for me. He said the only way to get top dollar for me was for me to remain a virgin. Gremlin snuck into the room they held me in several times. Almost managed to get what he wanted a couple of times. Then Slash moved me into his room.”
“I take it by the tone of your voice that wasn’t much better?”
“Well, I knew I wasn’t safe. And I always felt threatened, like, if I did one thing wrong, he would let Gremlin have his way with me. Also, I had to watch him fuck woman after woman. Some of them weren’t much older than me. Some were younger.” She stopped a moment, a hitch in her voice. “Those times, I was grateful he kept me drugged. I tried to keep my head down, my mouth shut, and just do as I was told.”
“Where in there did you meet me?” She flinched back, trying to pull away but I wouldn’t let her. “You’re fine where you are, Lyric. Tell me.”
“I was supposed to get you to sleep with me.”
“Which I did. Six years ago.”
“Yeah. They’d been looking for you. Rat Man said you were the key to controlling some guy name El Diablo. Said you were his muscle, and if he could control you, he could bring El Diablo to heel.”
“He had bad information if he thought that. Go on.”
“They found you in El Paso.”
“Where we met.”
“Yes,” she buried her face in my chest and gave a heavy sigh. I thought I’d have to prompt her, but she continued on her own. “They had me ‘meet’ you at that bar. Told me to just be friendly and let nature take its course.”
“It did,” I said, remembering all kinds of things about those two fucking days. “So, why did you leave when you did?”
“It was time. I was only supposed to stay one night, but you kept me in that motel room for thirty-six hours.”
“Loved everything about you. Never had a woman satisfy me like you did.” I took a breath. I had to ask the next question, but everything in me tried to hold it back. “That why you got beat up?”
She gasped and looked up at me. “You knew about that?”
“Baby, I looked for you the night you left. At first, I tried to tell myself it didn’t matter. I’d told you you couldn’t stay with me. Figured you’d just gotten mad and left. Then I’d met up with a guy who was selling Fentanyl for us. He’s a paramedic in El Paso. While I was doing business with him, he and his partner got paged out to a young woman, late teens, found walking on the side of the road. Facial and head trauma.” The memory still brought on a visceral reaction. I broke out in a sweat and had to fight to keep my breathing even. “Anyway, I told the guy I’d give him a fix of Fentanyl for free if he’d get the name of the girl, a picture, and tell me the hospital he took her to. He readily agreed, and I went back to my room to wait.
“An hour later, when he finally sent me the information I wanted, I sat there and stared at your lovely face, swollen and beaten until you were unrecognizable. The only thing that helped me identify you was the two little freckles on your top lip.” I brushed my thumb over those two little dark spots on her mouth. “I remembered tracing them with my tongue and how you surrendered to me when I did.”
“If you found me, why didn’t you come for me?” I hated the hurt in her voice. It fucking gutted me.
“I did. But you’d already gone. I bribed one of the hospital security staff into showing me camera footage of you leaving. I took the footage back to El Diablo, and he put his best people on it. We identified a guy called Pretty Boy and Butcher.”
“Yes. Pretty Boy is the one who messed up my face. He left me with one of the prospects -- I can’t remember his name, but he’s dead -- and the guy dropped me off a few miles away from the club and told me to get lost before Rat Man killed me. He was trying to be nice, but I was so out of it all I could do was put one foot in front of the other. The cops eventually saw me and stopped. Everyone was trying to help, but no one could. Rat Man had Pretty Boy beat me because I was late. He was OK with me staying the extra twenty-four hours, but I hadn’t checked in and gotten permission. Even though I was doing what I was supposed to do, he still had to make an example of me.”
“I could have helped you,” I muttered. “That picture of you he sent me haunted me, Lyric. You tried to tell me.”
“I didn’t tell you what I was facing. I just felt you out. When you weren’t interested, I moved on.”
She was killing me. All this was like a raw, gaping wound that she’d just rubbed salt into. How much worse could this get? Needing to put all that out of my mind for a while, I changed the subject. “So the club moved to Palm Springs.”
“Yes. That was after Gremlin and Slash were gone. Rat Man moved us here. I think it was because he knew you’d settled here. It’s why he sent me back. To see if you’d bite again. If not you, he wanted me to get as high as I could in the ranks of either Salvation’s Bane or Black Reign.”
“Well, you’ve made it as high as you’re likely to go in either club.”
She pulled back. “Rycks, I honestly don’t care how high up the ladder I go with this. I didn’t want to come here in the first place. I just knew that if I didn’t, Rat Man would make my life worse than it already is. I’m not trying to sleep my way to the top of a club to get all the president’s secrets. I’m just… I don’t know…” She foundered for an explanation. She didn’t have to put it into words. I knew exactly what she meant.
“Trying to survive?”
With a sigh, she dropped her head, looking as ashamed as anyone I’d ever seen. “Yeah. I guess.”
“Look at me, Lyric.” I waited until she reluctantly lifted her head. “I don’t blame you for this. No one here or at Reign would. This isn’t your fault. You’re caught in a bad situation between some really violent people, myself included.” I waited to see if she’d say anything. She didn’t. “I’m also aware that you’re exactly the type of woman Kiss of Death would send to me. You could just as easily be my downfall as I could be yours. So what’s going to happen is this. We’re going to trust each other. Do you think you can do that?”
She looked at me suspiciously. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, I’m going to trust you’re not using some elaborate mind fuck to set me up. In return, you’re going to trust me to keep you safe from anything to do with Kiss of Death, or anyone else out there who might want to hurt you. Even my own club.”
“Black Reign would want to hurt me?”
I didn’t pull any punches. I was serious about us trusting each other. More, I was trusting she wouldn’t figure out I was the vulnerable one. If she was giving me a song and dance, and she was intent on playing her part with Kiss of Death, I was fucked. Because the longer I spent in her presence, the more I realized I wanted her. Not for a night. For a very long time indeed.
“If they thought you were playing me to hurt the club, they wouldn’t hesitate to slit your throat right in front of me. I’m telling you now, they’d have to kill me for that to happen. So I’m all in. I need you to be, too. Do that, and I’ll see to it you’re free of Kiss of Death.”
“It’s not that simple, Rycks. I have to go back to them tomorrow. After that, you can come get me or whatever. But I have to go back.”
“Why?”
“Just as I’ll trust you to get me out, you’re going to have to trust me when I say I just can’t. Once you come charging to my rescue, you’ll know. For now, though, this is all I can give you safely.”
I stared at her, willing her to say more even as I knew she wouldn’t. Control. We grappled for it. Why did she need it so much? Somehow, I knew it was important. Just a gut feeling I had, but what the fuck was it?
“Fine. But tonight you’re mine, Lyric. We’re going to get used to each other again. I’m going to see your scars, and you’re going to see mine. Then we’re going to kiss and lick every single one. When we’re done, we’ll talk about this again.”
“I’m not opposed to that,” she said with a small smile. “But I’m still going back, and you’re still coming after me. If you’re successful, I’ll explain everything to you.”
“I guess that’s as good as I’m getting.” It was the best I was going to get. It’d have to do.
“What now?”
I grinned. “Now, I get to stake my claim on you in front of everyone. You think this mole in Salvation’s Bane is here tonight?”
She thought about that. Biting a fingernail, she looked away. “I’m not sure. If I had to guess, I’d say yes. It’s someone close, so if the whole club is at this party, the mole will be, too. I know there were several of us. Only one knew who everyone was. The rest of us were kept in the dark. Kind of like, if we don’t know who the others are we couldn’t give anyone up if we got interrogated. Kiss of Death wants to find a way into Black Reign as well. Never hurts to have too many options.”
“Makes sense.” I stood, urging her to wrap her legs around my waist. When she did, her denim-clad pussy came hard against my cock. I’d managed to calm myself down. Mostly. With that one touch, my cock grew by the second.
“Holy shit,” she whispered, her eyes wide and looking into mine. “I’m… I’m sorry.” She tried to wiggle free, but I wrapped one arm around her waist and smacked her ass with the other. She gave a startled yelp but jerked up straighter. “What was that for?” The little demand in her voice only made things worse.
“Keep squirming, baby. You’ll end up in that bed quicker than I’d planned.”
“What are you doing?” Her voice was a little husky, which told me she was more turned on, too.
I filled my hands with the globes of her ass. Those cutoffs were so short, I could feel the crease of her thigh. I squeezed. Hard. “Gettin’ you ready to show off,” I murmured. The flannel she wore was knotted under her breasts. I’d admired the lean muscles of her abdomen earlier, now I wanted to see if she really was braless. “Lose the shirt.”
Her eyes widened. “But --”
“Lose the fuckin’ shirt or I’ll lose if for you. Won’t be much left if I do.”
She nodded slightly, her eyes wide, glazing over as she undid the little buttons down the front and untied the tails. Her pale skin blushed becomingly. She was, indeed, braless. Her little breasts were still barely more than nipples on her chest jutting out for me to suck. If they seemed a little larger, it wasn’t much. I did notice a couple of veins that stood out more than I remembered, but it had been six years, and I’d only had her two days. I might have just missed those small details in my hunger for her.
