I reach for her and she comes over, lays her head on me and cries. She cries for what happened to her, and cries for a loss I didn’t even know she had lost. I hold her. I hold her all day and night, and we don’t talk again until the next day.
“You need to go to the police,” I tell her.
“I did,” she says, reaching for the water I put in front of her. Tanika takes a sip and looks up at me. “They told me they would ‘look into it.’”
“We can go back.”
She visibly flinches at my words. “No, Blaze said he would handle it.”
“You don’t want to be involved with how they… a biker gang… will handle it,” I say, thinking of all the things I’ve read about them.
“You don’t know them. I was hoping you would see the good in them, but you don’t do you?” she asks, pushing up from the seat.
“You’ve been doing drugs with them, Tanika.” My hands go up in the air, incredulous. Anger radiates from me. How can she not see that they’re not good for her?
Walking over to the sink, she places her drink in it. “It’s my escape, okay? I need to escape. You don’t understand.”
I stand and walk to her, stopping her from going anywhere. “No, I don’t understand, having never been through this. But I will be here for you. Drugs are never a good escape. Tell me you get that, Tanika. Tell me you understand,” I say, on the verge of shaking her, but also with a tear falling down my cheek at the anguish and pain I am feeling for her.
She pushes past me, not caring, and reaches for her shoes that are on the floor. When she speaks, she doesn’t look back at me, “I can’t. I can’t deal with this right now. I’ll call you,” she says, heading outside. I hear a motorcycle, and when I look out to where she’s gone, Tanika’s placing on a helmet.
The rev of the motorcycle is so loud and deafening I wonder if she will be all right ever again.
Chapter Twelve
Rochelle
I try to call her all day the following day, but not once does she answer. I completely forget about Marcus coming to get me until I pull up in my driveway and he’s there, standing out the front, dressed in all black. Straight away my tummy starts to flutter at the sight of him.
Why is he so beautiful?
So fucking beautiful.
Dropping my head to the steering wheel, I take a deep breath. And before I can even sit back up, my door is flung open, and a hand is on me. I jump and scream. And a small smile tugs at his lips.
“You have everything?” Marcus asks as he looks around in the back of my car, then back to me. He keeps a hold on my arm as I get out.
“No, I have nothing. Because quite simply… I forgot,” I say, pulling my arm back from his grasp and tucking my hair behind my ear.
Marcus steps up, so my back hits the car and his front is pressed into me. My red hair falls back into my face, and this time, he reaches up to replace it with a brief touch of his fingers as he looks at me.
“I’ll make you forget your own name by the end of the night, and the only thing you will be calling me is God.”
I want to chuckle at his words. How idiotic they sound, but, somehow, I don’t think he’s lying.
“I need to get my things.”
“You really don’t need anything. I plan to keep you naked.”
“I have work tomorrow,” I say, as his body doesn’t leave mine.
“But do you?” he asks, as his hand runs over my lips and down my neck.
Marcus’ touch makes me breathless, and I almost give myself to him right now.
I need strong willpower around him.
“Tanika spoke to me yesterday, told me everything,” I say, and his hand drops away. His lips thin out. “And your brother told me to stay away.”
“Tanika needs more help than you can offer. My brother is an over-protective asshole.”
“I thought you were the older one.”
“I am. Can we go? My night isn’t planned to go this way. I don’t want to talk about my brother when I plan to fuck you.”
“I need to get my things.” Marcus steps away, and he waves his hand at my house as if for me to hurry up. Passing him, he doesn’t touch me again. Quickly, I move to my room and grab everything I think I’ll need, including toiletries. I stop one step from my front door and see him waiting out there for me.
What the fuck am I doing?
Sex. It’s simple. I want this man.
There’s no denying that. Even with his questionable morals and what he does for work. For some strange reason I still want him.
Stepping out, he looks up, and all my worries that I had disappear as he stares at me.
Marcus wants me. That in itself is a power trip.
He holds the truck door open and I look back at my own car.
“Will you bring me back for it?”
“In the morning.”
I nod and step to him. He takes my bag and waits for me to slide into his truck. I pause, second-guessing as my thoughts run rampant.
I should turn around and go back inside.
This isn’t a smart idea.
He’s not your forever.
He will only ever be a plaything.
Just as I take a deep breath and think about telling him to give me my bag back, he kisses me. It’s quick, efficient, and shuts my thoughts down fast. I lean into it, and I know right now, in this moment, that I will go anywhere he asks as long as he does that.
And thinking he has that power frightens me. It scares me so much.
“I can see your thoughts churning in that cute head of yours. Get in the truck, pretty girl.”
“I am,” I say, stepping up. He shuts the door behind me, gets in himself, and starts to drive. He’s not giving me another chance to escape.
“Where do you live?” I ask, realizing I should have asked that to begin with. Marcus keeps on driving through town and out onto the highway.
“Alone,” is all he replies.
Giving me nothing, he takes a turn along a gravel driveway while neither of us speaks.
I don’t see anything.
No houses.
Just bush.
I cringe thinking about the spiders and snakes that could be out here. I stay in the city because the likelihood of me seeing a snake is slim, unless I go to a museum. Spiders are multiplied in numbers further out. That’s Australia for you, I guess.
The lights from his truck shine on something and I see a house. It’s hidden all the way off the road, down the back of the property. Green grass surrounds it, and there’s a large pool as well. Finally, he comes to a stop and climbs out. I do the same. Marcus already has my backpack in his hands as he opens the large wooden French doors to his house and all the lights flick on automatically.
“This is your house?” I ask, surprised. It’s very large, and nice. Oh, and I should mention very pricey. I could never afford a house like this. This place is for the rich, and he’s obviously got loads of money to afford this rich person’s home. The large wooden door looks like it should be on a castle, and there are glass windows so large it gives it an almost whimsical look. I come from a humbler background. You know, not rich but comfortable.
“Yes.”
My hands run along the white walls as my heels, which I haven’t removed, click on the wooden timber floors. It’s bare, but beautiful. Only the essentials seem to be placed in various locations. The kitchen area has a massive glass door, which pulls back and leads out to an infinity pool that looks out over the bushland. I can only see a coffee machine on the countertop, other than that it’s bare. The kitchen is all stainless steel and white.