Hailey watched as a potbellied man sauntered into the dimly lit room that she and Becca had been thrown in. He pushed past the tall man from before, but not before giving him an appreciative pat on the shoulder.
“Good job, Rocco. I didn’t think that you could pull it off without making things messy.”
Rocco shrugged and shoved his hands into his pockets. “I don’t know, I wasn’t planning on grabbing the bombshell that was with her. I’m sure that we could figure something out, Meish.”
Meish shrugged and redirected his attention towards Hailey and Becca. “Which one is the Pythons’ President’s daughter?”
Rocco jerked his thumb at Hailey and said, “That one. She’s feisty, I’m not sure what you’ll want to do with her.”
Are you kidding me? A motorcycle club kidnapped me? Hailey had made a strong effort to stay out of her father’s affairs when it came down to the Pythons. Although she’d been raised around men that had accomplished plenty of good while working with the Pythons, Hailey had never been a fan of motorcycle clubs or the kind of men that joined them.
“I don’t know anything about my Dad’s club. Why don’t you let me and Becca go? He doesn’t have to know about any of this.”
Rocco exchanged a glance with Meish, and the corners of his lips curled into a smile. He cleared his throat and said, “We’re going to be the ones making the decisions.”
Hailey scowled while Rocco ran his eyes over her body suggestively. The top of her left breast was visible from her stretched t-shirt. These guys are always such pigs.
Rocco turned to Meish and said, “Can you believe that she’s this mouthy? I thought that she was going to be the stuck up princess type. She actually spat in Greg’s face.”
Meish chuckled and eased into an armchair that was a few feet from where Rocco stood. He ran his fingers underneath his chin, and turned his head towards Rocco, “So, where do you want to go from here?”
“I thought that I’d let you decide that. I did my part.”
Meish nodded and said, “How about we introduce them to the rest of the team?”
Rocco flicked on the light switch and the rest of the lounge room became visible to Hailey and Becca. There was a set of maroon colored love seats on the edge of the room. The space was bigger than she initially thought, it was obviously designed to hold at least thirty people. Oil paintings of motorcycles clung to the wall, and there were photos of the Chasing Spirits motorcycle club on the wall beside them.
“I’ll go and grab the rest of the team. Be back in a bit,” Rocco said, and pulled the door open. The sound of rowdy chatter floated into the lounge room. Hailey’s heart thumped against her chest, and she narrowed her eyes before saying, “What’s your goal here? Do you want me to tell my Dad to stop competing with you guys? I’m not involved with the motorcycle club at all.”
Her words fell on deaf ears. Meish turned his head towards the door as it swung open. A line of men filed into the room, each one was more hulking than the last. Becca wriggled about beside Hailey, and said, “What do you think they’re going to do with us?”
Hailey took in the lewd expressions on every other man’s face, she scowled at the way they bit their lips and ran their eyes over her like a lion approaching its prey.
She swallowed a lump in her throat and whispered, “I don’t know, but it’s going to be fine.”
Meish turned towards the rest of his brood and said, “What do you think, boys? Don’t they look fresh?”
“I bet they taste fresh too!” One rider hollered, and his buddies that stood beside him raised their hands above their heads for a high five.
Hailey ripped her eyes away from the perverted gaze of a rider that stood beside Meish. A small collection of sweat gathered underneath the ropes that bound her. It’s going to be fine. They’re not going to hurt us. We’re no good to them if we’re dead or traumatized.
Meish smirked and said, “Now, now. We can’t get too crazy. Not yet.” He took a couple of steps towards Hailey and knelt in front of her. Hailey turned her head to the right to avoid his gaze but Meish clenched her chin in his powerful hand and said, “Look. If you’re good, nothing too terrible will happen to you. Besides, I’m sure that once your Daddy hears that he needs to have a conversation with myself and my assistants, that he’ll come running to keep you from being sold off.”
“Sold off?!” Hailey repeated, and Meish nodded.
“If he decides that he’s too good to play nice with us, then I’ve got more than a few friends that would agree that you’re a piece of product that’s too good to pass up.”
Hailey stared into Meish’s eyes, looking for a crack in his armor, or any sign that this was nothing more than a bluff. Meish released her, and rose to his feet. He moved past a few of his men, and headed to the other end of the room. He leaned out of the open doorway and said, “Rocco! Get your finger out of your ass and get her out of here!”
Rocco’s footsteps pounded against the wood floors, and he appeared in the doorway. He strolled past Meish and walked through the crowd of riders as if they were invisible. He wrapped his fingers around Hailey’s arm and pulled her to her feet.
“Get your hands off of me!” She shouted.
Rocco rolled his eyes and pulled her towards the door. “I was hoping that you would have figured out that we’re calling the shots.” He shook his head and said, “You’ll have plenty of time to learn.”
Rage bubbled up inside of Hailey’s stomach, and she twisted her neck to look back at Becca. The group of riders weren’t sparing any of the gruesome details about what they’d like to do to her.
I can’t believe that I’ve been kidnapped by an asshole like this. Hailey’s eyes met with Becca’s tearful ones, and she shouted, “We’re going to be alright, Becca! I won’t let these assholes do anything to us!” boo
There was a sharp tug on her arm, and Rocco growled, “Come on.”
Hailey’s heart sank as Becca’s trembling form was swallowed up by Meish and the rest of the riders. She raised her head towards Rocco as he tugged on her arm and steered her down a dark stairwell.
I won’t let him do this to us.
***
Rocco exhaled and bounded up the steps. He slammed the door shut, and fell back against it. “Clyde, I did not think that she would have that mouth on her. I think I learned three new swear words on the way to the basement.”
Clyde’s hand glided across the paper that he was writing on before he raised his head in Rocco’s direction. He chuckled and said, “I’m not surprised. Women that look like that usually don’t take shit from anyone.”
Rocco lifted himself off of the door, and moved towards Clyde’s desk. “Yeah, if I could keep slap a muzzle on her, I bet that she’s a blast in bed.”
Clyde pushed his work to the side and said, “You’d fuck her?”
Rocco shrugged, “I like blondes. She’s got some pretty nice tits, and from what I felt when I was trying to keep her from kicking me, she works out a little too.”
“It’s too bad that your picture perfect romance won’t come to fruition, something tells me that she’s not going to be open to a couple of dates after this is over.”
Rocco chuckled. He imagined that once the Pythons’ President struck a deal with Meish, that he was probably going to lock his daughter away in a tower that was halfway across the country. “Who said anything about dates? I’d fuck her, show her a good time, but I’d rather cut my own balls off and preserve them in a glass jar before she got a chance to.”
Both men shared a laugh, and Meish tossed a quizzical glance towards either of them as he stepped out of the lounge room.
“What’s so funny? We’re still in the middle of our felony, I don’t think that we’ve got room to laugh yet.”
“Lighten up. She’s fine.”
Meish sighed and his eyes flickered towards the basement door. “Yeah, I know. Why don’t you keep an eye on her? I don’t want to give the Pythons’ President any more ammunition than he already has if this goes to shit.”
“Clyde can babysit.”
Clyde tossed a pen towards Rocco, and it collided against his chest before falling to the floor. “I already have a mountain of work.”
Meish pointed at Rocco and lowered his voice as he said, “This was your idea, Rocco. Don’t screw this up. Keep her in good shape, we don’t want the Pythons to think that we roughed her up too badly.”
Meish walked towards his office, and Rocco turned to Clyde. “Can you believe this? Does he want me to tuck her in every night, too?”
Rocco sighed and headed towards the kitchen. While Clyde made an effort to keep the area around the coffee machine immaculate, the rest of the kitchen had seen better days. Rocco wrapped his fingers around one of the wobbly handles on the worn down cabinet door, and pulled out a plate. He squinted and inspected it for stains before setting it down and moving towards the refrigerator.
He reached into the freezer and pulled out one of the frozen pieces that Clyde loaded the fridge with each week. Rocco leaned against the counter while he waited for the microwave to finish running.
Look at me, I never thought that I’d be making meals for a woman again. I don’t even know if you can call the burnt pasta that I served to Mariah a real meal. With a heavy sigh, Rocco opened the microwave and grabbed the pizza. He grabbed a can of cola out of the fridge and headed towards the basement.
When he reached the bottom of the stairs, he pushed the door open. Hailey had moved to a corner on the other side of the room. It was eight feet below the only window in the basement. The last few rays of sunlight fell onto Hailey’s face, and highlighted her perfect cheekbones.
She blinked, and she peered at him through wispy strands of her hair. Her eyes widened, and she asked, “What do you want?”
Rocco closed the distance between them and waved the can of cola in his hands. “Meish says that I shouldn’t let you starve.”
Hailey wrapped her arms around herself, and pulled her knees closer to her chest. “You shouldn’t kidnap people either.”
“Ah, it figures that you’d have answer to that. I bet that you’ve spent your whole life telling people off, huh?”
Hailey was silent as Rocco knelt in front of her and scooted the microwave pizza towards her. He set the can of cola on the cement and said, “You’ll want to eat that fast. These are so cheap that the flavor seeps out of them once they’ve gone cold.”
Hailey’s fingers trembled, and she shielded her face from him. Rocco rolled his eyes, and stood up. “Okay, fine.”
Rocco moved towards the wooden staircase, and when he set his hand on top of the railing, Hailey’s voice came out just above a whisper from behind him.
“Would you consider staying down here? With me?”
Rocco narrowed his eyes and turned his head towards her. Hailey’s piercing blue eyes were staring into his, and she said, “I know that this is… probably not what you do when you kidnap people.”
“I generally try to not be in the habit of it.”
“I’m really afraid. If something’s going to happen to me, I’d prefer to not have to be alone. In a basement.” Hailey nudged the plate of frozen pizza, the ceramic scraped against the cement floor. “With a plate of crappy pizza.”
“No—I can’t stay down here with you, obviously. I’m not a baby sitter.” Rocco replied.
Hailey winced as if she’d been struck across the face. She lowered her eyes and tore at the soggy crust of her microwave pizza.
Rocco watched as she peeled a piece off of the pizza, and placed it into her mouth as if she was trying an experimental drug. The squish of her teeth colliding with the pizza crust echoed in Rocco’s ears. A scowl fell over his face, and he commanded, “Get up.”
“What?”
Rocco turned around and snatched the plate of pizza off of the floor. “Get up, come on. I’m doing you a favor, here.”
Hailey pressed her palms against the brick wall behind her, and lifted herself off of the ground. She brushed a bit of dust off of her shorts and said, “Where are we going? I have a right to know where we’re going at least.”
An agitated sigh slid past Rocco’s lips, and the muscles in his jaw clicked loud enough for Hailey to hear in the quiet room.
“Let’s go,” he said, through clenched teeth.
Hailey lowered her eyes to the floor and followed him up the stairs. She wrapped her arms around herself and stepped into the lobby. Hailey braced herself for a round of jeers from the riders, but Clyde’s fingers connecting with the keyboard was the only sound that rang throughout the lobby.
Rocco led her down a hallway that she hadn’t noticed the first time that they walked through the lobby. Rocco stopped outside of a door at the end of the hall. Flecks of wine colored paint covered the floor in front of it. Rocco pulled a key out of his pocket and twisted it into the door, before pushing it open.
He reached behind him and pushed Hailey forward. Hailey brought her teeth down on her lower lip as she stepped forward. She smoothed out the creases in her eyebrows and wore a blank expression as Rocco stepped in behind her.
“See? Not alone. Don’t get used to making special requests, though.”
“Hailey? Hailey, thank God you’re alright!”
Hailey gasped as Becca came running forward. Her arms were extended wide, and she launched herself against Hailey.
“Becca, what did they do to you?” Hailey wrapped her arms around Becca, her pressed down on Becca’s bare shoulders. The enviable outfit that Becca had been wearing earlier had been discarded, and replaced with a black, leather bra and a snug pair of leather shorts.
“I’ll leave you guys alone, I’ve got things to do.” Rocco said, and stepped out of the room. Becca’s fingernails pressed into Hailey’s shoulders when the lock clicked on the door.
Hailey pulled away from her and gestured at Becca’s outfit, “Are you okay? What did they do to you?”
Becca waved her hands at Hailey. “It’s fine, so far, they’ve only asked me to change my clothes.” Becca took a couple of steps back. She moved over to the other side of the room, and eased onto the bed in the corner. Becca shrugged, “It’ll be fine. Right?” Becca wore a tight-lipped smile, and crossed her arms over her stomach.
Hailey nodded and knelt down, she snatched the can of cola off of the ground and scooped the plate into her hands. She walked over to the bed, and sat beside Becca. The bed frame creaked. Hailey set the pizza on the frayed beige blanket that covered the mattress.
“You should eat something, Becca.” She held up the can of cola, “We can share the soda.”
Becca’s humorless chuckle fell into the air between them. “You don’t need to take care of me, Hailey.”
Hailey ripped off another piece of the pizza crust and popped it into her mouth. “I’m not. I’m just saying that you should eat before all of this pizza is gone.”
Becca grinned, and replied, “That’s why I wanted to be friends again. You care so much for other people, and it’s effortless. I don’t think that you can even help yourself. I bet that you’d still go out of your way to stop the bleeding if that thug that put us in here passed out and bumped his head a minute ago.”
I can’t say that I would have helped him ten minutes ago. I can’t believe that he let Becca and I stay together because I was afraid.
“I’m sorry, Hailey. I’d never betray you that way again.”
Hailey shook her head. “It’s fine. Let’s put it behind us, because we’ve got bigger problems.” Hailey nudged the plate of pizza closer to Becca.
Becca’s eyes fell onto the plate before she let her eyes rest on Hailey. She ripped off a piece of crust from the other side of the pizza, and chewed on it.
Hailey put on what she hoped was her most convincing smile before she said, “We’ll need all of the strength we can muster for whatever they’ve got planned for us.” Hailey’s eyes came to rest on the leather shorts that squeezed her friend’s thighs until her skin was a bright pink color.
I just hope that whatever’s coming isn’t more than we can handle.