I dared a glance at her, but quickly diverted my eyes back to the bikers. “No, ma’am. No hospitals, please.”
“All right. Why don’t you come with us? We’ll take you over to Stars and Strips and get you looked at there,” the smaller biker spoke up.
“A strip club?”
The smaller biker nodded. “What other options do you have, kid? We could leave you here, but the Hell’s Artillery could be right around the corner, waiting for us to leave so they can finish the job. We don’t kill people, but the Hell’s Artillery doesn’t have that same rule. The only laws they follow are the ones they make in their own club.”
“Come on, let’s get you looked at,” Zodiac added, nodding toward the other biker. “Tobias, call Archer and get him to meet us at Stars and Strips. We need someone with medical experience to look at this kid.”
“I have a name, you know?”
The woman shot me a warm smile. Her face softened as the intense fear I was feeling burned a hole in my chest. In this moment of darkness, she was like a beacon of light, doing her best to calm me. “Well, why don’t you tell us your name, so we can use it instead of calling you kid all the time?”
Cautiously, I stood up, groaning when a sharp pain ricocheted through my chest. I felt a gentle hand go around my shoulder and looked up to see the smaller biker helping me.
Wrenching out of his grasp, I took a few steps away. “My name is Dillon.”
Zodiac smiled. “Dillon, do you have someone we can call to let them know what happened to you?”
A jolt of pain went up my arm the second I tried to move it, and the other felt like lead as I raised it up to feel another bump forming on the back of my skull. The only person I could call was Joey, and she just fed me to the wolves. My own sister.
“No. It’s just me.”
Zodiac and the biker he called Tobias looked at each other as they started walking back to a car parked a few meters away.
“I’ll tell you what,” Zodiac started, glancing back over his shoulder. “When we get to the club, we’ll get you fixed up, then I’ll have one of my brothers drop you off wherever you’re staying.”
I stopped abruptly, knowing there was nowhere safe I could stay. The Artillery would be looking for me, and the second I left the strip club, I was as good as dead. “That’s not necessary. I’m sure I’ll be fine getting home on my own.”
“I insist,” Zodiac asserted. “You’re hurt. No need to walk when your body is so broken. They really did a number on you.”
Bruises, old and new, were forming along my arms, and I still couldn’t move my right arm to save my life. “Honestly, I’ve had worse.” It was only a half truth. This was the worst I had ever been beaten, but nothing is as scary as someone forcing themselves on you in the process.
Bile rose up my throat again as I tried to fight back the images of what Nathan Kennedy did to me in that home.
“So, you gonna tell us why they were after you?” Zodiac asked.
I scowled. “Let’s just say it was a business deal gone wrong.”
“You shouldn’t do business with the Hell’s Artillery,” Tobias jumped in. “They’re notorious for cheating, wheeling, and dealing.”
“Yeah, I got the broken arm to prove that one,” I exclaimed, attempting to move my arm that was cradled to my side. It barely twitched, and I already had to close my eyes, trying to fight the pain numbing my arm. “Okay, I guess getting looked at by someone couldn’t hurt.”
Zodiac and Tobias grinned.
“Just don’t run away when you see who your nurse will be,” Tobias said with a laugh.
“What do you mean?”
Tobias winked. “You’ll see. Come on, kid, let’s get you fixed up.”
Chapter Eleven
There was a sliver of hesitation when I got to the strip club that plagued me. I knew there wasn’t much they could do to me in a public establishment. But that didn’t change the fact that I was leery of entering a building that belonged to a bunch of bikers. That feeling of dread intensified when I saw who was standing near the door. The Artillery.
What the fuck were they doing here? Was this a trap? I was ready to run, but I was suddenly surrounded. Tobias was standing behind me while Zodiac stood in front, shielding me from the Artillery. If they noticed me, I didn’t know, so I kept my head down, doing my best to keep my face hidden. They weren’t guys I recognized from the club, but they still wore the colors of the Artillery, and that meant they were deadly.
The big, tall man from the bike rally was set up near the door, his eyes never leaving the unwanted guests standing nearby.
