Chapter 14
Valentina
I stood in front of the mirror in the bedroom the next morning. I was already ready and waiting for Jesus to pick me up for Church. I’d gone shopping the previous evening after he left and bought a yellow dress for the occasion. I wanted to look my best for Jesus, and now I twirled in front of the mirror now; marveling at the way the wide skirt moved around my hips.
I’d bought new shoes too, simple black pumps and a new coral lipstick to go with the look. I’d spent fifteen minutes brushing my hair already, which meant that it now glistened and shone in the mirror, falling delicately in gentle waves on my shoulders. I was happy with the way I looked, even the bruise on my jaw from the punch Juan had landed on me, was beginning to fade. With enough makeup, it was well hidden from my face now, and I looked brand new.
In fact, I seemed happy. I didn’t think I could look happy again. Not since I left Connecticut and even there, I was just about getting by. Somehow convincing myself that was the life I wanted to lead. The truth was that I always wanted to come back home and I had always harbored hopes of building a life with Jesus again…King…I needed to remind myself to call him King now since that was the name he went by these days.
I blinked at myself in the mirror. I was a new person now. I wasn’t a scared teenager running away from home anymore. I was an adult and in a relationship with the man of my dreams. More importantly, I belonged to a different gang.
Finally, I felt like this could be a place where I could do good work. Like I belonged somewhere where I wasn’t just somebody’s daughter. I was somebody’s partner. I made a mental note to speak to King about getting involved with the work that the other women in the MC were doing with the kids. After seeing what the Muerte Viviente did to them, I knew I had to help. I had experience with children as a teacher, and I knew I could be of service. Just like King, I wanted to help the children and make that my priority.
I had spent my whole life in the shadow of Muerte Viviente hanging over my head, but now it was the Rogue Rebels that I was a part of, and suddenly, it made me feel powerful. I knew the MC was stronger that Muerte Viviente, and I smiled at myself in the mirror. Neither my father nor Juan could ever touch me again. Not when I had the support of the Rogue Rebels behind me. Not as long as I had King by my side.
I had spent so much time running away from the memory of him, that I hadn’t even realized that my destiny was with him. That there was no reason for me to have even left the town. I should have just stayed with him here, built a life with him here. He would have taken care of me, in the same way, that he was taking care of me now.
The sound of a revving motorcycle alerted me, and I walked over to the window and pulled the curtains aside. King was on a bike on the street, looking up at the window and I smiled. Right on time!
I rushed out of the apartment, locking the door behind me as I went, and ran down the steps till I was out in the sun now. King remained on his bike, straddling it in position and I could see his eyes roaming over my body, drinking me in.
He looked handsome and strong as he held the bike. His leather jacket was old and looked worn, as did his jeans and the black t-shirt he was wearing underneath. But, it didn’t matter. King was handsome. His hair was in a ponytail and now lay on his right shoulder. His dark eyes glimmered in the morning sun; his thin lips were stretching in a hint of a smile. His face was chiseled and angular, and his skin shone like bronze. King oozed sex, and I knew I wasn’t the first woman to notice it.
“This is new,” I said cheerily as I walked towards him, and I gave him a twirl of my dress as well.
King smiled and nodded his head.
“I didn’t notice because I was busy staring at your face,” he said, and I walked over to him to kiss him. The kiss was sweet and slow, ebbing with promises of what more was to come later in the day. I couldn’t wait, I couldn’t control myself around him. Even just a kiss made my stomach clench, my pussy throb with desire for his mouth, his fingers…his cock.
“I’ve decided to call you King from now,” I said, easing my lips away from him. Somehow it felt wrong to have such thoughts about his body just minutes before walking into a church. Wasn’t it supposed to be blasphemous or something? King grinned at me and nodded his head.
“You can call me whatever you want, Valentina. It’s all music to my ears,” he said, and it made me blush. Nobody else could make me blush the way he did.
He gave me his hand, and I took it to ease myself on his bike, and then I wrapped my arms around his waist.
“Hold tight, baby,” he said when he kicked the accelerator in motion, and I squealed with joy when the bike took off. I could barely control the complete abandon that had taken over my body and soul. I was free at last!
xxx
King was sitting beside me on one of the church pews up front, and I kept trying to remember when the last time was that I had been inside a church. This one was beautiful, and my gaze kept drifting to the light filtering in through the stained-glass windows on the sides and the beautiful architecture above us.
It was a lovely airy room with a large altar, and in it, the priest’s voice boomed. Every time I looked over, I saw King’s face bent over the little Bible he had in his hands. I saw that he was reading the verses that the priest was using as quotes in his mass. I had always known that King stood strongly for his religious beliefs. Even at the lowest points in his life, when I had witnessed his body and soul beaten, he had held strongly on to his beliefs. Now, he looked like he was at peace while the priest’s voice sunk into our hearts.
I couldn’t take my eyes off the man sitting beside me. The man who was keeping me safe, the man who loved me…who I wanted to be the father of my children. My mind whirled with the thought; the realization had never struck me before. I didn’t even know I wanted children, especially after the kind of childhood I had been through myself.
A sudden shuffling of feet alerted me, and I realized that everyone was standing up. Mass was over. King had stood up too, and he was speaking in a gentle, hushed whisper with the older man beside him. I stood up with a jerk, not quite accustomed to the procedures yet.
The old man was holding King’s hand now, pressing his frail ones into King’s larger bronzer hands. Then he looked over at me and smiled, before turning and walking away.
“You seem like you know each other,” I told King when he finally turned to me. He had a fresh, excited look in his eyes, and I could now see the full effect that church had on him. It was like a soul cleansing experience for him, and if I could ever be religious, I knew that I would respect him for his faith.
“I’ve known Patrick for fifteen years. He knew me when I was a kid, and we’ve always sat together here for Sunday mass, every week without fail,” King said, and the smile on his face right then was genuine and far reaching. I touched his shoulder lightly and squeezed.
“You seem happy here, King, and that makes me happy,” I said, and it looked almost like a blush rose up on his face. But he was too masculine to blush! That look disappeared within a second, and he grabbed my hand and was pulling me towards the altar.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked him, as he kept walking. The others in the church had already started pouring out. The priest had positioned himself at the main doors to talk to the members of his parish.
“I want you to see the place, I know every corner here,” King was saying and I looked around me, taking some more time to admire the architecture of the room.
We stood for a few moments at the altar and gazed up at the ceiling. I was turning in circles on my feet, my hair tumbling backward…the beauty of the architecture was overwhelming, and I could feel myself getting calmer by the second. I could see the appeal the church had on King and suddenly, I sensed the shadow of his head fall over mine. He was kissing me.
I yanked myself away from him, clamping a hand on my mouth.
“You’re kissing me in church!” I hissed at him, trying to stifle the smile that was erupting on my face. King was smiling too, in fact, I could sense the familiar look of desire in his eyes too. Was he turned on? My eyes shot over to the front doors where I had seen the priest earlier, and I let out a slight sigh of relief when I realized we were alone.
“So?” he said flatly and grabbed me by my waist, he pulled me to himself with force. I landed on his chest, and he covered my face with kisses again. I tried to wrestle out of his grip, jerking my head around to the doors of the church. Nobody had seen us yet. Everyone had gathered around the priest who was speaking to the ones remaining.
“King! They’re going to banish you from church!” I scolded him, at the same time trying to not burst into laughter. The thrill of the taboo was too much to bear. I had an uncontrollable urge to giggle like a giddy teenager.
“They definitely won’t. My donations are what keeps this place going!” he said and kissed me some more.
I slipped out of his arms and still giggling, still feeling high on adrenaline; I ran away from him, around the altar and towards the wooden doorways at the back. King followed me through, and the sound of our footsteps were the only noises that I could hear.
The hallway was dark and seemed never ending. I didn’t even know where I was headed. King was behind me, fast on my heels and I ran, my laughter echoing in the narrow confines of the hallway.
At that moment, I was completely carefree; I was worried about nothing…and that was the happiest I had ever been. I knew it was absurd and childish, to be running down an abandoned dark hallway inside a church, but I didn’t care. And it seemed like neither did King.
“In here,” I heard him say, and his hand was suddenly on my elbow, and he had yanked me into a room. Before I even knew what, he was doing, he had bolted the door shut. I was breathing heavily, my breasts heaving as I looked around me.
The room seemed like it was straight out of a medieval church, with stone walls and candelabras on the wall. Rows and rows of cloaks and cassocks were hanging from trolleys.
“Is this the laundry room?” I squealed, breaking into another fit of giggles.
“Looks like it,” King said and lunged at me.
xxx
We were kissing. King had me pressed up against the wall, and I could feel my back grazing roughly against the stone. He was kissing me deeply, his tongue thrusting into my mouth and keeping me in position. I kissed him back with equal force, my hands fumbling the buttons on his shirt at the same time.
A crazy adrenaline rush had taken over my body. The threat of being caught, the possibility of having sex inside a church…everything was powerful, overwhelming my body and mind.
“This is insane,” I mumbled when he pulled his lips away from me, leaving a wet trail down my neck, till his mouth reached the front of my dress.
“You shouldn’t have worn this dress, Valentina. This is insane,” he said and stepped back for a moment to admire me. My cheeks flushed under his gaze as I watched him looking at me. His eyes flitted over my body, drinking in the size and shape of my breasts, looking at the way my dress fell away from my hips.
He grabbed me again, and I gasped when he lifted me up in his arms. My legs dangled for a second, till he guided my knees around him. I held his biceps, and they were taut and thick as he held me in position. My legs were wrapped around his waist now.
“You gorgeous, beautiful woman,” he mumbled in a deep voice, as he looked at me. His breath was falling heavily on my skin, my face, my arms. It was like he was trying to memorize every cell in my body.
With one hand, he started pulling my panties down, and I watched as they flew to the floor. We were both fully dressed still, other than my panties which were on the ground now.
“King…what if…” I began to say, but he shushed me. His eyes were sparkling, dark and on fire.
“It doesn’t matter. You’re with me now, Valentina. Nothing matters,” he said, and I heard the sound of his buckle coming off, the zip on his jeans being pulled down. My breath constricted in my throat, for a second, I thought I was going to pass out from the desire and excitement.
“Tell me again, King,” I whispered, and he smiled as he held me, his face inches away from mine. I could almost taste him…I could kiss him if I wanted to, but I needed to hear his voice.
“You’re with me, Valentina. Nothing is going to happen to you here. I’m going to keep you safe,” his voice was hoarse and relaxed at the same time. And in the same breath, I felt his cock slide into me. I gasped and bobbed up in his arms.
He was big and strong, and his cock had smoothly pushed through my wet folds and was buried deep inside me. I could feel my eyes glazing over; only his voice was stuck in my head. All I could hear was him.
I whimpered as I dug my nails into his biceps, holding him tighter. He moved his hips, pulling his cock out of me and then sliding it inside me right after.
“Look at me while I fuck you, Valentina. I want you to look me in the eye. Tell me you trust me,” he was speaking firmly like it was a command…and I obeyed. I turned my eyes to him. He looked strong and masculine and like he meant every word he was telling me.
I parted my lips, still in a daze. His cock was deep inside me, sliding in and out with smooth thrusts.
“I trust you, King. You are the only one I’ve ever trusted,” I said, and his nostrils flared. He pushed his cock into me with a sudden force, and I gasped again.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I can’t control myself,” he said, knocking his forehead against mine. Our breathings were heavy and labored. I could hear my heart beating as I gave myself up to him.
“You’re not hurting me. I want this,” I cried, and my orgasm came pouring down on me. I gritted my teeth, and my eyes rolled back. I could feel myself shaking in his arms as I came. King shot his seed into me too. He groaned and shook as he came, burying himself deep inside me. I could feel myself soaring.
By the end of our orgasms, we were both laughing.
This could easily have been the happiest day of my life. The first time, ten years ago, when he first made love to me, took my virginity…I’d felt something similar, but nothing like this. Now, I was free of my father and the gang, and I could give myself to King completely.
He picked my panties up and handed it to me. I pulled it back on, and the whole time, he was watching me from under his heavy lids.
“Are you trying to memorize this moment?” I asked him with a smile, as I smoothened my hair with my hands.
“I don’t have to because this is just the first of many,” he said and grabbed my wrist, he pulled me to himself again. We kissed and left the church’s laundry room with my arm linked in his.
Our feet scraped against the stone floor of the hallway as we walked back towards the altar.
“What do we do if the priest sees us now? He’ll know that we were alone in here,” I said in a whisper, the color rising in my cheeks again.
“It’ll be our little secret then. Just between the three of us,” he said, as we walked out into an empty altar. The priest and the rest of the parish were long gone, and I laughed aloud openly once again.
xxx
I decided to walk back to Moira’s place. King told me that he had some stuff to take care of and I decided that I needed the fresh air, even though he insisted on calling me a cab. After some convincing, King finally relented and let me walk back home.
I walked the whole way with a smile on my face, and I found myself humming a tune as well. I just couldn’t wrap my head around how well everything had worked out. I knew I would have to wait just some more time until King could sort out the trouble with the gang and after that, I could move in with him, and we could finally start living our lives together.
I saw the black Mercedes pulled up outside Moira’s building, the moment the avenue came into view. I squinted my eyes to see, but the windows were tinted. A sudden cold fear had gripped my belly the moment I saw the car; I knew something was wrong.
I looked over my shoulder and saw that I was completely alone and whoever was inside the car, would have seen me already. If they wanted to cause me any harm, all they would have to do would be to follow me down the street. I was on foot after all.
So, my best bet would have been to somehow make it past the car, into the building and to lock myself up in Moira’s apartment. Keeping my head down and my face turned away, I tried to pick up pace and rush towards the entrance.
I had crossed the car, and I fumbled with the lock on the door, and before I had even put the key in; I’d heard the sound of the car door opening.
“Valentina, where are you going sweetheart?” I heard a voice behind me, and immediately, I knew it was Juan. I would have recognized that voice anywhere. My hands shook as I tried to get the key in the lock, my body quivering with fear, and I heard his footsteps behind me.
A hand reached over my shoulder to keep the door shut and slowly, with my breath caught in my throat, I turned to look at him. He had a greasy smile pasted across his face, and he was looking down at me with accomplishment. I winced, as he brought a hand towards my face, tracing the faded and hidden outline of the bruise on my jaw.
“You’ve done a good job of covering it up, beautiful,” he said, and my skin crawled from his touch.
I yanked myself away from him, glaring deep into his eyes. I couldn’t believe that he’d found me.
“Get away from me, Juan! I’m under the protection of the Rogue Rebels now!” I barked at him, which only made him smile a little wider.
“Are you? Well, it doesn’t work that way, sweetheart. You belong to us. Your precious Papi gave you to us, and you shouldn’t have even tried to get away,” he said and reached for my wrist, he pulled me. I struggled against him, but Juan was much stronger, and he was dragging me down the steps, towards his parked car.
I didn’t stop screaming or calling for help, but nobody heard, I was all alone. Until I heard someone else’s cries. It was coming from the car. I looked up, and now saw through the open door, Paola sitting in the back seat. She was crying; her makeup was running in puddles down her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry, Valentina…they made me! I’m so sorry!” she was crying, and when I saw her, my body went limp. Now I knew how Juan had found me. Paola had either given up the information willingly or maybe they had her phone bugged. Either way, calling her had been a mistake, giving her my address had been an even bigger one.
I held her gaze, shooting darts at her through my eyes. Paola was shaking her head, hollering more.
“What are you going to do to her? Please, Juan…don't do this!” she wailed, as he shoved me into the backseat of the car with her.
“That is none of your business, bitch,” he hissed at her, sticking his head into the car.
I was lying on my side on the back seat, close enough to Paola to be able to smell her cheap perfume. How was this happening? Just when I thought everything was going to be all right, just minutes after I was so truly happy?
“Juan, you’re making a big mistake,” I said through gritted teeth, straightening myself up.
“Juan, please let her go,” Paola continued to wail, and instead of targeting me, Juan extended his hand past my shoulder and landed a cracking slap on Paola’s face. With enough force to jerk her face sideways. She cried out with pain, and another volley of tears poured down her cheeks.
“Stop battering her. Hit me if you have to!” I snapped at him. Juan turned to me with a smile and then reached for my face again. I was cold to his touch, my body slithering from his proximity.
“We wouldn’t want to ruin that pretty face of yours, would we? Besides, I have other plans for you, sweetheart,” he said and slammed the car door shut on us.
Paola was sniffling beside me, and I tried to calm myself as Juan sat down on the front seat beside the driver.
“Let’s go,” I heard him say, just as Paola wrapped her long cold arms around me and rested her head on my shoulder in solidarity. I wasn’t really in the mood for hugs, even though I forgave her. Whatever she had done or not done, this wasn’t her fault. All I needed to do, was figure out an escape plan or somehow get in touch with King.
Through the dark tinted glasses, I couldn’t see a thing outside, so I didn’t even know where they were taking me.