I snatch up the bottles, remaining low to the ground behind a few bikes parked near the back wall as I take one last look around.
The coast is clear.
One more long breath, then I bolt across the sand for who knows where.
Running as fast as my legs will allow, I head straight for that hill and the tree atop it. The tree will provide a place to hide if I have to stop.
As soon as I reach the gnarled tree, I start around it. I don’t get the chance to touch the bark.
Someone steps out from behind the tree, but I see him too late. Crashing into a leather-clad frame, I go sprawling on the ground.
Standing with his huge arms crossed and his eyes dancing, Spider grins down at me. “Going somewhere, Wildcat?”
10
Head Games
It has to be over a hundred degrees out here, but despite the sweltering heat, every ounce of my blood chills in my veins.
Spider’s eyes gleam, icy blue spheres of triumph. He might be smiling, but it’s a twisted expression. Cruel.
It hits home what he was doing. He let me escape.
He let me make a run for it just so he could catch me.
My mind screams at me to run, but there’s no point. I wouldn’t get far before he caught me.
Spider steps back a pace. “Get up.”
I should be scrambling to my feet now, should be doing anything to placate the animal I can see behind his eyes, but I can’t make myself move.
“Where… How did you…” I can’t even voice the questions I’m trying to ask.
Spider grabs my elbow, hauling me to my feet. “How did I know you were running?” His voice is filled with mockery. He snatches up the two water bottles, which I must have dropped when I fell. Then he marches me back toward the clubhouse. “Next time you’re going to try to escape, don’t make it so obvious.”
Obvious? I wrack my brain for what I could have done while he was in his meeting that tipped him off, but except for taking those water bottles, I don’t remember doing anything that smacked of a captive looking to make a getaway. I’m pretty sure no one saw me take them. Clearly, I hadn’t been careful enough.
His fingers pinch my arm, but when I try to pull free, he only tightens his grip and walks faster, leaving me to stumble in his wake. He puts the water bottles in the inside pockets of his vest.
“What are you going to do to me?” My voice comes out way too high.
At a back door to the clubhouse, I expect him to march me inside. Instead, he spins me around and grabs my throat, slamming me against the wall.
The impact rattles me, and I cry out, but it’s more from fear than pain.
Pinned to the wall by his powerful frame, I struggle, but it’s useless. His huge hand collars my whole throat so that I can feel his fingers and thumb meeting at the back of my neck. His fingers squeeze until it’s hard to breathe. My chest rises and falls hard.
Lord, this man could snap my neck if he wanted to. He could choke the life out of me, and he wouldn’t care. He’d probably enjoy watching the life leave my eyes. The satisfaction in his gaze frightens me as much as his hold.
My head is starting to feel light.
“Spider…please. Can’t…can’t breathe.”
He watches me with cold eyes. Watches me panic. There’s no way out of this. If he chooses to end it now, it’s over. I squeeze my eyes shut, praying for a quick end. If there is a god, he’s not here with me now.
At last, his fingers loosen, but he keeps them around my throat. Spider runs the tip of his nose along the side of my face and breathes me in as if he likes the scent of my fear. When he speaks, his voice is a low, dark rasp.
“How far did you think you were going to get? How far did you think you’d make it before I found you?”
I force myself not to respond and rise to his bait. It wouldn’t do any good. He planned this. He set me up for a fall, and I walked into his trap. This is all a game to him. A sick, twisted game. There’s nothing to do but let it play out.
My eyes squeeze tighter, my nails digging into the brick wall at my back.
“I’m doing you a fucking favor, keeping you alive, thief. I own you.” When I jerk my head away, his tongue rakes across my cheek, hot, wet, and searing my skin. The feel of it should leave me repulsed. Instead, my sex tightens. “Try to escape again, and I’ll bend you over, punch you up your sweet little ass, and strangle you while I fill you with my come. Do you understand me?”
Why is it that every time this man talks about having sex with me, he has to make it sound so terrifying? And why do his words leave my body blazing?
He’s not bluffing. His hand around my throat tells me everything I need to know. This animal would get off on choking the life out of me while he takes me in a manner that’s so wrong, I can’t even bring myself to form the words in my head.
His fingers tighten again until I can barely get any air in. “Do you understand me?” he snarls. His grip loosens, allowing me to answer.
I give a jerky nod, my breathing ragged.
“Say it. I want to hear that you understand.”
“Yes,” I pant. “I understand.”
“Good girl. Now. When we get inside, you’re going to do exactly what I tell you. You’re going to take off every stitch of clothing. You’re going to wait in my bed, and when I come for you, you’re going to—”
“Spidy.”
Striker’s voice pierces my panic. Out of the corner of my eye, I see he’s poked his head out of the back door of the clubhouse.
“We gotta go,” he adds, and I can hear the amusement in his voice as he sees us.
“Give me a few minutes.” Spider grips my nape and marches me inside. “Guess I’ll have to deal with you later,” he adds in my ear. He pushes past Striker and strides down a long hall.
We pass the double doors that lead to the room where he had his meeting earlier—the room he called the chapel.
Why they call it a chapel, I can’t imagine. There’s no way men like these do anything Godly in there.
Several men walking by us in the hall smirk, watching Spider forcing me toward his room.
“Someone’s gonna get it good,” a young man around Pip’s age says.
Indignation heats my cheeks, but at least Spider’s not walking me through the main bar where half the club would see.
Spider ignores him and pushes me inside his bedroom. He shuts the door and spins me to face him. “Strip.”
This again? Expecting to end up on my knees like I did last night, I lift my chin, forcing myself to meet his eyes in silent refusal. When I left the Colony, I promised I wouldn’t just let things happen. I’d change them. Wouldn’t be a doormat anymore. I’d take a stand. If he’s going to humiliate me again, I won’t make it easy.
Spider seizes my hair, yanking my head back until I whimper. He angles my head so that I’m thrown off balance. “Don’t make this harder on yourself. You’re in enough trouble as it is. Clothes off and get on the bed, or when I come back, what happens to you will be a lot worse.”
Okay, so, fighting not a good idea. The idea of this man taking my body terrifies me, but there’s nothing else I can do. Whatever he’s got planned for me when he returns is probably already going to make me wish I had never been born. No need to make it worse.