Page 29 of Outlaw
“You’re not letting me go, and you won’t discuss it?”
No answer.
His silence isn’t horribly surprising, but he can at least try to give me something to work with, like a groan, or body language, something. What, now that we had sex I’m supposed to elevate to the level of mind reader?
“Seriously, Silas?”
There’s no one in the hallway.
He’s gone again.
Ready to give him another piece of my mind, I tuck the t-shirt into the sweatpants, pull my hair into a bun and walk out the open door, looking each way down the corridor to see where he went. No one’s around. Only a half-opened door across the hall.
An eerie calm prickles at the base of my spine. My brow furrows. Something is off. There isn’t that sense of overwhelming heat in the air like when Silas comes around—and part of me doubts that he’d leave me alone with the door unlocked, knowing that I’ve repeatedly asked to go. I feel my hair falling out of the bun I just made, and consider going back to the room to find a bandana or something I can use in his dresser.
“Silas?” I say his name in a question in the direction of the stairs, but not too loudly, just in case this is my one shot at getting the hell out of here.
No.
It can’t be this easy.
Can it?
Of course, it can’t. As I turn to go back to the bedroom, my foot catches mid-pivot when a hand yanks me by the throat. It pulls me backward, slamming my stunned head against the wall and causing that weird, dizzying ricochet effect as it bounces back.
“What the fuck?” I manage to gurgle, clawing at the strangely feminine hand wrapped around my throat. “Who. The. Hell. Are. You?”
Sharp bursts of pain cloud my vision. My whole upper body sings with pinpricks of agony while my mind desperately makes an effort to catch up to the random ambush from an unknown hell-bitch. My instincts kick in right away, my hands reaching up to rip away her forearms. I know I’m making a dent through the other woman’s flesh, maybe drawing blood as well. But the woman doesn’t budge. Not an inch. I sneak a painful sideways glance and see the looming brunette stranger leering at me, showing pearly whites behind her blood-red lipstick.
She presses more firmly into my personal space and tightens her grip around my neck.
“Here’s how this is going to go down, sweetie,” she sneers. “You’re gonna stay away from Silas for the rest of your short stay, and that way I can leave your pretty eyes inside your skull. He’smine. Got it?”
“You’re confused, lady. I don’t want him.”
“Shut your fucking mouth, slut.” She brings her lips to mere inches from my ear. “I worked way too hard and far too long in this club to have a princess like you show up and wreck all my building blocks. You didn’t put in the time. You’re nothing. Not to me, and sure as shit not to him. So, do yourself a favor. Let me keep my freshly done manicure. Save your skull a beating, and leave the big boys to the big girls. I won’t ask you again.”
She hammers her point home by shoving her palm into my forehead, bouncing the back of my skull against the wooden wall again.
“We can’t settle this with a civil conversation, can we, you crazy bitch!” I half shove the woman off, fighting for air.
“Aww, isn’t that cute. She thinks she has permission to speak.” The woman cocks her head and pouts as her syrupy brown eyes glaze over with malice. “Shut your trap and open your ears, princess, or we’re gonna have a bigger problem.”
She steps around and tightens her fingers around my windpipe. Instinct kicks in and I stomp my bare foot on the top of her arch. I swipe a hand across the slut’s breast, punching her with all the force I can drum up. I grab a breast in the process, twisting it with everything I have. It’s fighting dirty, but what choice do I have? The deranged bitch set the terms with her sneak attack. The brunette cries out, and her hand finally falls away from my throat to clasp at her own chest. Now, the chick is wearing a look of shocked horror. One I desperately wish I could take a picture of to have as a keepsake. I guess she didn’t realize who the fuck she was dealing with.
“You don’t know me or my intentions!” I point out, choking out the strained words through my painfully sore throat, thanks to her. “If I were you, I’d back the hell off before you find out what I can do with a loaded gun and some fishing wire.” I rub at my throat, taking two steps forward despite the dizziness coming on from the temporary lack of air and the searing pain in my neck. “I have friends where it counts. Touch me again and they’ll be lining up to kick your pathetic, cheap ass.”
The brunette measures me with a suspicious look. She must see some truth behind my glare, because she takes a few steps backward, crossing her arms over her chest. “Stay the fuck away from him.”
“Go fuck yourself.” I can’t leave the hallway until the woman knows her place. It doesn’t matter that I don’t know heads or tails about the brunette. She has to be some crazy stalker chick, because I’d never be inside this clubhouse if Silas didn’t want me there. That means I have some position, but I don’t give a shit about some two-bit, slut-faced whore from an outlaw motorcycle club. I have to hold my ground because if I don’t, this bitch will try this again and again for the duration of my hopefully short stay.
Shoving that thought to the back of my brain, I remember all the convenient items hanging on the walls on the way from the main stairs to Silas’s bedroom. I can fight with my hands and kick with my legs if I really want too, but this woman needs a message that’s as clear as day. I take four giant steps down the hall and pull down the baseball bat I’d seen.
It’s probably a collector’s item.
Maybe rare too.
Fuck it.
