Chapter 10
We get to the diner and take a seat in a booth in the back. The waitress comes to take our order and we all order coffee. Once she leaves, Hawk turns toward Emma and says, "Why don't you start from the beginning?"
"Ok, let me think for a minute." Emma takes a deep breath and then continues, "Rebel and I had just gotten back from the grocery store. No, wait—I need to go back a little further. At the grocery store, there was a man there with a devil tattoo on the back of his neck that seemed to be hovering around me. I actually bumped into him, and when Rebel came up and asked me what was wrong, the man was gone. I told Rebel about it, and when we left we saw a Harley in the parking lot. He asked me to watch the bike as we left to make sure it stayed parked. It did. When we got back to the house, we started to unload groceries."
Hawk interrupts her and asks, "Did anything look out of the ordinary when you got back to the house?"
"No, nothing that I noticed."
Looking disappointed, he says, "Ok, go on."
"So, Rebel was going into the house as I was coming out. I got to the car and started to grab a couple of bags, then everything went dark. The next thing I remember is being in a dark room, tied to a bed." She stops and I can see that she is getting uncomfortable. Grayson must have done a number on her for her to hesitate like this.
Hawk senses it too and reaches for her arm. Laying his hand on her arm, he says, "Emma, I can only imagine what you have experienced during this ordeal. But, sweetheart, I really need to know everything. If we are ever going to find out what's happened to Ice, you need to tell me everything."
She nods and continues. "As I said, I woke up in a very dark room, naked and tied to a bed. Mark was there, and for the longest time, he would not speak to me. He only laughed. His laugh sounded as if it came from Satan himself. It terrified me, and I don't think I will ever forget it. I was really scared and the only thing that kept me sane was the hope that Caden or the club would find me. But nobody ever came."
"Emma, did Mark rape you?" Hawk asks the question that I wanted to ask her but couldn't.
Oh God, please say no.
She shakes her head. "No, he didn't. He tried, but when I refused to fight back it made him angry. So angry that he stopped and left the room."
"Oh thank God!" The words come out of my mouth before I can think. I am so relieved that he didn't, for her sake as well as for Ice's—if he is still alive.
"I'm thankful that he didn't rape you. You're gonna have enough scars from this ordeal to handle, you don't need any more on your plate," Hawk says. He then adds, "I assume the bruises on your face are from him?"
"Yes, he hit me in the face several times. I tried very hard to remain coherent, but it was difficult. I believe over the course of the time that I was there, which I am guessing was a little over 24 hours, that I went in and out of consciousness several times."
"Did he give you any reasons as to why he was doing this?"
"Yes," she replies. "He was very calculated in his reason, mentioning that he had Brianne worked over because she was threatening to tell me everything about him. He never went into details as to what that was, so I don't know what he didn't want me to know, but that he wanted to teach her a lesson." She stops as if she is trying to remember, then adds, "He also said that when I ran to Caden for help it only moved his plan along faster. When I asked him what plan, he said that he wanted to take back from Caden all that Caden took from him. None of that made any sense to me. I didn't have any clue what he was talking about—for all I knew, they had never met. I'm afraid that this was all my fault."
"Did he say anything else?" Hawk asks.
"He said that he was going to break me; that he was going to use me over and over again and then send me back to Caden and the club that rejected him. I didn't get the impression from him that he'd had Brianne killed, so I think she is still alive. If this is all my fault, Hawk, I'm so sorry."
Hawk asks, "Do you know what it was that he was trying to hide from you?"
Emma shakes her head and says, "No, I have no idea. He never said any more about it and when I asked he would just tell me to shut up."
Hawk then asks, "Can you remember anything else?"
"Yes, he said that he knew about my relationship with Caden longer than he had known me. I really didn't think about it much then, but looking back now, I find that very odd. Caden and I grew up together. How would Mark know anything about my childhood?"
"Not so odd, Emma. Based on what you have said, I think there is more to this than just a jealous boyfriend who lost his girl to the big bad biker. I believe there is a past connection between Ice and Mark that we don't know about. It could be the driving force for all of this. You and Brianne just got caught in the middle. So, please, stop blaming yourself. I believe we'll find out more once we get to where you were being held." He pauses briefly then adds, "Anything else?"
"He showed me a video that was recorded the other night."
"A video?" he asks.
"Yes, it was a video of a party at your clubhouse. Caden was with another woman. Mark said that he wanted me to see what kind of man I was involved with." She looks at me warily and adds, "I think it may have been you dressed up as me, but Mark never said anything to that effect. He just wanted me to think that Caden was cheating on me."
Suddenly I feel bad. She was never supposed to find out about that and I know it will break Ice's heart to know that she has. "It was me, but I was just a decoy, Emma. The club wanted the Satans to think that you were at the clubhouse. They didn't want them to know that Ice had sent you away. I promise, nothing happened."
"I know, Honey, but thanks for saying it. At first, I felt that Caden had abandoned me. I felt that I had nothing left and that if I got out alive, I still would have nothing ‘cause I had lost Cade to another woman. I was praying that Mark would just get it over with, ‘cause at that point, I was sure he was going to rape me and then kill me. I had given up. I think that is what saved me. I went completely still; I was lifeless and had stopped crying. I had no more fight in me. When I just laid there, silent, not even crying anymore, that's when Mark got angry and stormed out of the room. He left that video on and I watched it over and over. After viewing it several times, I realized that it was you with Caden." She glances over at me and shrugs. "Eventually I fell asleep or lost consciousness, I am not really sure which. When I came to, I heard talking out in the hallway, but the only voice I heard was Mark's. I realized he was talking to himself, but not just in the normal way people talk to themselves. No, Mark was actually arguing with himself. It was very creepy and I had never seen him do that before. He stormed into the room, still talking. He untied me and threw my clothes at me. He ordered me to get dressed and get out."
"That's it?" I ask, shocked that he would just let her go.
