One of the other men whistled and they all looked at me. “Who’s the bitch, Navy?”
I opened my mouth to say something, but Jackson’s arm snapped out and grabbed my waist. He dragged me into his lap, wrapped my thighs around him so that I was straddling him, and then slammed his mouth into mine. I was so shocked that I just sat there.
His hands gripped my ass and squeezed as he rocked me against his body in a raunchy way. His mouth tasted like whiskey and mints as he slipped his tongue into my mouth.
My body reacted to the rough treatment and I vowed that when everything was over and done, I’d find a nice man to have sex with. Clearly, I needed it if being mauled in front of a table full of men was doing it for me.
He slid his mouth down my jaw and sank his teeth into my neck. When I cried out, he captured my mouth again and then stood up with me clinging to him. His mouth moved to my ear. “Keep your mouth shut.”
His friends cheered as he walked me to a door marked “Private.” I locked my legs around his waist and held on with my arms wrapped around his neck. I kept my mouth away from his, afraid that he’d kiss me again and I’d like it again. It didn’t make any sense. I didn’t know why he was kissing me, but I knew it wasn’t because he liked me.
The door opened and he walked me through it, pausing to pin me to a wall as people walked by. His fingers dipped lower on my ass, dangerously close to my denim-clad core. His mouth skimmed my throat and then he released a rough breath into my ear. “You’ve lost your fucking mind showing up here.”
A man walked by and slapped Jackson on the shoulder. “Give it to her, Navy. Bitch looks hot for you.”
I snarled but Jackson ate the sound with his mouth, kissing me harder as one of his hands came up and grabbed the back of my hair. He wrapped it around his fist and tugged my head backwards. I blinked up at him and bit my lower lip. “What are you doing?”
He carried me into a small room and kicked the door shut. A worn leather couch sat against a wall and it was the only furniture in the room. He tossed me down on it and stood over me, glaring. Some of the intensity was lost when I couldn’t help but notice that his jeans were strained with an erection.
“What are you doing here?”
I stood up and moved to the farthest corner. “I need help.”
“Clearly.”
“I need help getting someone out of the Wolves.”
He growled and stepped closer to me. “Keep your fucking voice down.”
I shoved my hand through my hair and tried to remain calm. “I need help, Jackson.”
He shrugged. “You’re not my problem. Call Thad if you need something.”
“I can’t! I don’t know him.”
“You don’t know me either.”
My chest tightened painfully. “He’s twelve, Jackson. Just a kid. I thought he got out. I thought he made it. They must’ve found him, though. He’s not cut out for that place. He needs help. You may hate me, but surely you can help a kid.”
Jackson’s eyes flashed and then he had me pinned to the wall. His mouth was hot on my ear as he spoke in a low voice. “I’m not in this fucking club for my pleasure. I’m working, Cammie. I can’t just run out of here to help some fucking kid.”
I looked up at him, noticing the flecks of color hidden in the dark depths of his eyes. From that close, he wasn’t so scary looking. “I don’t know what to do, Jackson. I have to get him out of there. I’m not going to abandon him.”
“Call Thad.”
I shook my head. “I can’t. I… One of them came after me. He found me and he was going to kill my friends. I shot him. I can’t go to the police.”
Jackson swore and tugged a hand down his face. “You killed him?”
Tears filled my eyes and I blinked them away just as fast. I wasn’t going to cry. Coke deserved it. “Yes.”
More swearing. “Thad can help.”
The door behind him opened and a drunk guy stood in the doorway, leering. “You going to fuck her or just look at her?”
Jackson turned around and shoved the guy out before slamming the door shut. “Call Thad. I can’t help you.”
I stared up at him and shook my head. “You hate me that much still?”
He glared at me. “Go home.”
“Sure. And where is that?” I moved past him, towards the door, and scowled. “I hope that you’re happy. You get to hold onto whatever it is you have against me. It’s only possibly going to cost a kid his life. Probably worth it to you.”
I strolled out of the room, anger and hurt chewing at me. I’d figure out a way to do it myself. I was smart. I could do it.
One of the guys that’d been sitting at Jackson’s table caught my arm and grinned at me. “Leaving already, honey? Why not make it a double?”
I pulled my arm back to my side and shook my head. “No thanks. One disappointment is all I can take in a day.”
His other friends laughed but I didn’t stick around to hear how it ended. I hurried out of the bar and got into the car. I sped away from them, only to pull over a few miles down the road and break down in tears. I was horrified that I wouldn’t be able to get Micah. It was hard not to be negative.
I gave myself a few minutes to cry and then I headed back to the highway. I was headed back towards the Wolves MC, despite the fear telling me to run the other way.
*
I’d been sitting outside of the MC for close to ten hours. I parked a mile from the dirt turn-off for the clubhouse, behind a set of thick bushes, and hiked to the tree line at the back of the property. I’d been sitting and watching, trying to figure out a way to get in without getting caught. I had nothing so far.
I didn’t know what to do. It all just seemed impossible. If I tried to sneak it and got caught, Micah wouldn’t have a chance at surviving. I didn’t even know where he was. I hoped that they didn’t have him in the basement. The thought turned my stomach.
The door to the kitchen opened and one of the brothers came out, a gun strapped to his chest. He looked around and then lit a cigarette. I shrank back into the woods.
I was considering going back to the car to find a motel for the night to think about what I could do when a hand clamped over my mouth. I tried to fight, but an arm banded around my arms and chest, holding me still.
“Don’t make a sound unless you want that man with the gun to come over here and find us.” Jackson’s rough voice growled in my ear. He let my mouth go, but kept his arm around my waist. “You going to be still?”
I nodded and sighed as he gently let me go. “You scared me.”
He gave me a look that said he questioned my sanity. “You shouldn’t be out here.”
“I didn’t know what else to do.”
He stared at the guy smoking a cigarette and shook his head. “This isn’t it. Come on.”
I followed him and lost my breath a quarter of the way back to the place I’d parked my car. A large truck was parked next to it and I leaned against it to catch my breath. His legs were freakishly long and he ate up the ground in strides that were so silent, they didn’t seem human.
“I called Thad.”
I straightened and narrowed my eyes. “I told you I didn’t want to involve the cops.”
He sighed. “He’s not a cop, Cammie. We’re both doing undercover work. We work for Crimson Security and we’re in the middle of an investigation, but here you are. In the fucking middle of it.”
“I don’t want to be in the middle of anything. I just need help getting Micah and then I’ll be gone. I have a place for us to go. I just…can’t get him without help. I sat out there for hours, trying to figure it out, but there isn’t a way that I do this alone that doesn’t end in me being caught and raped before dying. Which would just leave Micah trapped here, anyway.”
“Jesus. We’re going to help. Just stop talking.”
I turned away from him and walked to the other side of my car. Leaning in, I grabbed a bottle of water and took a big drink. When I looked up at him, he was watching me with all the intensity of a lion watching a gazelle. I pulled my hair into a bun and stared back at him. “What?”
“Thad will be here soon.” He shook his head at me and crossed his arms over his chest. “You seem different.”
“You knew me when I was a kid, practically a baby. Of course I’m different.”
“Just figured you’d end up like your mom.”
The insult was a nasty one and I had to work overtime to not rise to the bait. I nodded my head enough that I started to feel like a bobble head. “Okay. Yeah. I’m going to wait in my car.”
He said nothing as I got in the car and shut the door. I stared ahead into the dark and let my mind wander. Of course, it ended up on my childhood. Jackson was a direct reminder of how awful it’d been and I wasn’t the biggest fan of him because of it.
Life had been rough. Dad was addicted to drugs and Mom was a mess. A slutty mess, as Jackson seemed keen on remembering. When I was ten, Mom ran off and things just got worse. Alone with Dad, he would get high and come to my bed at night. I’d had to fight him off constantly.
I’d seen so much by ten that I was already mature enough to hang out with the older kids in the neighborhood. That meant smoking and experimenting with sex. I didn’t look ten. I developed early and learned from watching my mom how to make myself look even older. At ten, I was practically an adult already.
Jackson had always been there to knock me down a peg or two. He’d hated me so much. If he passed me on the street, he’d shove me and yell at me about what a joke I was. He had seemed to take pleasure in making me miserable. I never showed him just how much it hurt me, but it had. The other kids were tolerant of me, but he was like my father, always unhappy and taking it out on me.
For some reason, though, I’d never hated him. Everyone knew his mother was mean. He’d come out with bruises and black eyes all the time. I’d just felt sad for him. And for myself.
I shook the morose thoughts away and scrubbed at my face. I was even more exhausted than I’d thought. I didn’t know how much more I could do before I needed sleep.
The passenger side suddenly opened and Jackson stuck his head in. “Thad’s here.”
I nodded and got out of the car. I looked around and didn’t see Thad, but then he emerged from the woods, his clean-cut clothing exchanged for black cargo pants and a black T-shirt.
“You clean up well, Cammie.”
I nodded to his clothing. “So do you.”
Jackson grunted. “Can we get a fucking move on? Or if you two would like to continue exchanging pleasantries, I can wait in the truck.”
I cast a scowl his way. “You don’t have to be a jerk all the time, Jackson.”
“Oh, I don’t? That’s great to know.”
I rubbed my temples and looked to Thad. “Just tell me what to do. The sooner I get Micah out of there and get us both out of town, the better.”
“Describe the clubhouse to us in full detail, as much as you can. No detail is too much. All the exits, all the rooms. Everything.”
I nodded. “Okay. I can do that.”
Jackson rolled his eyes. “Great.”