“I was looking for your stash,” he says indifferently. I dig in my pocket, throwing a baggie at him before helmeting up.
“Steel,” he flicks his chin at my backpack. “Lose it. We’re travelling light and we’ll be back soon enough.”
“Easy.” I drop it to my feet before kicking it down the corner of the clubhouse. It’s a fucking gamble riding off leaving my phone behind but the look in his eyes has me being as amenable as possible.
He smokes the rest of my joint before flicking the end my way. Everything seems like either a taunt or a test tonight. And the way he rides through the night, powering through dead ass towns has the dread in my gut getting worse because a paranoid Rex is bad enough, but an excited one spells trouble.
Chapter
Forty-Eight
TRISTAN
The sound of rumbling from miles away makes me alert. And the small flash of adrenaline after hearing it sends blood and fear pumping through my system. Every part of me is screaming at me to go, to run but all I can do is whimper in hopeless desperation.
The only good thing to happen was me managing to topple the chair so I’m no longer spread out like a Christmas Ham. But that was hours ago, and since then I’ve jumped at every noise. I’ve felt things crawling over my skin, I’ve cried until I have no tears left to give. And I’ve tried so damn hard not to believe this is where my life comes to a screeching end.
I understand fear erodes hope but it doesn’t change the fact that’s exactly what happened. I’ve been here too long, I’m too far away, and no one is coming.
My ears prick up again when I hear the rumbling again. But it’s not rumbling like thunder, the noise of a bike is so distinctive I feel like a failure for not hearing it for what it was the first time.
The flash of light on the barn is unnecessary, because the closer they rode the clearer it was I had company. And as obvious as their arrival is, so is the fact it’s not King, or my pack because they’d be rushing in here, untying me from the chair.
There’s no noise except for the tick of their cooling engines, and I should feel relieved it’s only two bikes and not a whole gang of them, but I don’t because they bring with them a malicious energy. I feel it crawling over my skin and it gets worse the longer they stay in the shadows without saying a word.
The longer they don’t move or speak the deeper void of fear I sink into. All my hopes of getting out alive, of seeing my pack and King again burn to ash. I don’t know how I keep breathing.
“Who the fuck is that, Rex?”
God, my heart sinks. Rex is here. Rex who I know is a complete asshole is here.
But the very next moment, the hope I had starts to ignite again, because somehow Steel is here. It was him who spoke. And it’s really hard not to move a muscle or make a sound when every part of me wants to.
Rex laughs. It fills the night and it confirms what I already know, he’s an asshole. The noise he makes isn’t because he’s happy, or he thinks Steel is funny. The sound echoes who he is—sinister, evil, and malicious. All the hairs on the back of my neck stand up in warning.
“That is our message,” Rex says, chuckling. I feel each step he takes on his way over, it vibrates through the floor, reverberating down my spine along with wave after wave of panic.
He stands over the top of me, watching me before he kicks the chair I’m tied to.
“Wakey, wakey…”
There doesn’t seem much point twisting around to face him but at the same time I don’t want to wind him up either. Turning slightly, I go to look up at him but he squats down to stroke my face. His hand trails over my cheek and I somehow repress the shudder that courses through my body at another Alpha touching me. His touch is not gentle or nice, it’s demanding and hurts.
I don’t get the chance to even look at him before he flicks my hair over my face. A second later he makes a hocking noise and then I feel his actual spit hit me, his hand scratching over my throat a second later.
“Would you fucking look at that,” he marvels, before he swipes his hand over my claim again, harder. And only for the intention of hurting me.
He stands, pulling my chair up with him, and he uses the edge of his shirt to swipe over my throat until I’m sure every skerrick of makeup is gone.
“Those stupid fucking bitches didn’t even realise, did they? Fresh too.” He talks to himself before he finally looks at me in the face for the first time. “Who’s your Alpha?”
I snap my jaw, shutting away my secret, hoping by doing so I’ll keep them all safe. And the chuckle he makes deep in his throat lets me know how much he’s enjoying himself.
“Steel, look at this.”
It’s not a request, it’s a bark of obedience. And Steel moves, the second his shadow falls over my face I can feel him recoil. Steel is not acting, he is as stunned and as shocked as I am. I don’t have to look at my reluctant Alpha to know how dangerous this subterfuge just became, it’s painfully obvious what direction Rex would take the current situation if he knew whose mouth had been on my neck.
“Who the fuck is it, Rex? What have you done?” Steel asks carefully, taking a step away from me.
