HANNAH
“Grab your shit. You’re moving into my apartment,” Carter announced from my doorway. His eyes were still bloodshot, and from the way he ran his fat hand over his swollen belly I got the impression he wasn’t feeling all that great. His drinks may have been a little strong the night before.
“What’s wrong with my room?” I stopped brushing my hair to glare at him. It had been two days since he announced to the club that I was now his old lady and no one was to touch me. Two days that I had to keep myself out of his eyesight and keep his drinks flowing enough to ensure he’d be too drunk to get his dick hard.
“It’s all the way over here, and I’m all the way over there.” He pointed down the hall. “When I want a fuck, I don't want to have to go find you. Now get your shit.” He covered his mouth as his cheeks puffed, then let out a long breath. “Fuck. No more of those mixed drinks.” Then he left.
I looked around the room at the few things I owned. My clothes, makeup, and shoes. That about covered it. I had sold everything after mom died to pay for the funeral and hospital expenses. All so I could start over here in this town, with a new life. I shook my head at my own stupidity.
“Hey, Carter said you needed a hand.” Martin appeared in my doorway.
“No, I’m fine. I can handle it.” I sat on the bed and looked over at my cell. Brandon hadn’t texted me yet, and I wasn't sure if we were meeting again. The short visit we had at the diner the other day had left me more confused than ever. Physically everything was fucking great. I’d never thought cable ties could be used for so many fun things. It was the after part that left me worried. The more time we spent together, the more time we wanted to spend together. Carter would eventually find out, and someone was going to get hurt.
“Look, kid.” Martin pushed away from the doorway and stepped into my room. “I know this isn’t what you want. I know you want out of here. But you can’t keep getting him drunk like that. He’s going to eventually notice. And he’s gonna notice you disappearing in the afternoons.”
I snapped my eyes to him and he grinned. “I’m not as stupid as Carter.” He looked over his shoulder before he continued. “I see you. I see the way you flush when Brandon walks in the club. The way his eyes are always on you. It’s dangerous.” He spoke in a hushed anger. “You are going to get yourself killed.” He pointed a finger at me.
“Geez, Martin. I didn’t think you cared.” My snide remark wasn’t fair. Martin had done plenty for me. He’d run interference for me constantly, keeping the members away as much as he could. He never took advantage, and he managed to keep peace between Carter and me. If I needed anything, he did his best to procure it for me. Hell, I had a meeting coming up with a counselor at the junior college to get enrolled in the nursing program. That had been all Martin’s doing.
“I can’t save you from this if he finds out,” Martin bit out at me.
“I don't need saving.” I threw my hands in the air. “Why do all of you biker men think that because I’m a woman, I automatically need your help. Maybe I can save myself. Maybe I can figure a way out of this mess all on my own.” Even I knew I was blowing smoke.
Martin looked at me with a narrowed expression. A muscle in the side of his neck began to pulsate. Not a good sign. “I know you got a bullshit deal. Lisa never should have brought you here. She knew what kind of man Carter is. She knew it and she took advantage.”
“Wait. What?”
He took a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face. “You think it was just a coincidence you coming here and Carter talking to you the way he did? You think Lisa didn’t know what would happen if Carter gave you safe haven?”
“Lisa was an old friend. She was just being nice, giving me a place to crash. She couldn’t have known.” I shook my head. Warding off even the idea that she had anything to do with the mess I ended up in.
“When she left here she didn’t even wake you up, she snuck out the back, leaving you behind. Why do you think that was?” His voice got lower, more menacing, as he continued to lay out the doubt for me.
I had wondered the same thing at the time she ran away. She’d left me, hadn’t even told me she was leaving. But when they found her body the next day, I was too scared and shocked to wonder about that. “Are you saying she knew Carter would want me for himself? That doesn’t make any sense. He didn’t want me. He handed me off to anyone who would pay him enough money,” I pointed out.
Martin laughed and shook his head. “How many members actually came in here for a fuck?” His crude question would have made me blush months ago, now, it merely came with my day to day conversations. “How many, Hannah?” he pushed on.
I thought back. “Only a handful. Most of them just wanted…” I waved my hand, hoping he’d just fill in the blank. I may have been turned into a whore over the past several months, but I still hadn’t gotten my head to wrap itself around the idea.
“Exactly. If Carter wanted you to be the club whore, he would have thrown your ass out back with the other girls. He didn’t. He let only a select few use what he thought was his.” The entire conversation made my stomach turn.
“Why? To break me in?” I scoffed.
“No. To break you down. Think about it. Except for Brandon, he’s never let anyone come in here twice except for a blowjob. He just wanted you to come down a bit, lower yourself to his standards, and then he’d snatch you up. But you want out. You’ve been trying to actually pay him back this make believe debt.”
“Make believe?” I stared at him with a new dawning. Everything I’d been doing for the past months were for nothing. Carter was never going to let me go. “She brought me here as payment for something?”
Martin ran the back of his hand along his jaw. “Possible recruit, I think. She was supposed to bring him a new girl for the house out back. Next thing I knew, you were here. Carter must have taken a liking to you, though. He gave you a room in the club, made nice for a while.”
I had called an old friend for help, and she sold me to the MC? If Carter hadn’t liked what he saw the night I walked in, what would have happened? I would be living out back with the other girls, fucking in stalls and sucking dick behind a screen? “Why kill Lisa?”
Martin looked behind him again then shook his head. “I’m not going there with you. I have a life I’d like to keep, too. But understand this. Some women don’t get that club business stays club business. Sometimes they shoot their mouth off when they see their old man getting his dick sucked by some other girl and start making threats to open their traps to the wrong people.”
My face chilled at his words. Lisa knew something about the club and was going to expose them. “Those girls out back…” I said more to myself than to him. “Most of them…they didn’t show up looking for work, did they?” I put a hand up in the air between us. “No. Don’t answer that. I don’t need you to.”
“Stay away from Brandon. He’s just like any other biker out there. He’ll take you in, fuck you ‘til he’s bored, then he’ll stash you away and move on. In the meantime, you’ll have Carter chasing you down. Because he doesn’t know what you do or don’t know, and he won’t take your rejection lightly.”
I didn’t answer him, just nodded numbly. It didn't seem to matter which way I turned, another roadblock popped up. “So what, I just stay with him forever? I don’t love him, Martin. I can barely stand him. When he touches me, I literally have to keep myself from puking.”
Martin’s forehead tightened, his eyes wrinkled around the edges. He understood but was helpless to do anything about it. “I know, but, for now, it’s all you can do.”
“Is there an out?”
“Not yet,” Martin admitted. “Give him what he wants, maybe he’ll get bored with you. You are a little more straight-laced than he likes.”
I laughed a short laugh. “What normally bores guys about me is exotic to him?”
“For now. It will probably pass.”
“Then what? He throws me in the back?”
“I don't think he would. I think he’d just toss you out. Unless you piss him off,” he pointed out. “Just lay low, Hannah. And stay the fuck away from the Riders.”
“Okay, Martin. I got it.” I pulled out my suitcase from under the bed and unzipped it. “Thanks, Martin.” I said when he turned to leave.
“Thank me when you’re in that rust bucket headed for out of town.” He gave me a wink at the door then walked away, whistling his way down the hall.