"I know all of that." I nodded. "You think I should leave her be? Let her be old lady to that asshole? Would you leave Massy there?"
"Massy is different. She knows the life. This girl, Mason, she got looped in there. Lucas was telling me about her. She was a friend of one of Sting's girls. Her mom had died a bit ago and she was trying to get on her feet. She knew that friend from high school or something. Anyway, somehow she ends up at the club, free room and board, but she doesn't know Jayson. He doesn't play that way. Not with a hot chick like her."
"I know all of this already," I growled.
"Then you know that Jayson and Sting killed that girl, her friend. Those assholes don't just let the girls go if they don't want them to go." His eyes bored into me with frustration.
"I know what you're telling me, what you're trying to warn me from, but I'm telling you, I'm not leaving that girl back there. You're right. She has no fucking business in this life. She has no idea what those guys or any other club can do to her, not really." I shoved away from the table and started to pace the kitchen. "I know that getting her free of them will put a mark on me, and her, and my mom."
"Your mom?" Tick glared up at me.
"Jayson told her that if she doesn't back off he'd go after my mom and me."
"That fucking pussy. Did you say something to Marcus?"
"Fuck no. I don't trust him right now. Something's going on with him and this cartel thing. I get that it's bringing in a lot of cash to the club, but there's something more. Something he's not telling us. Besides, he told me to stay away from Lucy, remember?"
"Man, you really know how to get tangled up in shit."
I pulled out my phone after it buzzed and grinned at the screen. Lucy.
He's letting me out tomorrow afternoon for "coffee" with my friend.
"I know, but you'd do the same for Massy," I countered again while I typed my reply.
I'll stash my bike in the garage at the diner. Meet me there.
Tick stared off into the kitchen where Massy was mixing together pasta and her homemade
sauce. "I'd do pretty much anything for that woman." He shrugged and left me sitting with my phone in my hand while he went to her, wrapped his arms around her middle. and kissed her neck.
Don't be late, I texted. I was counting down the minutes until I'd have that girl in my arms again.
CHAPTER TWENTY
LUCY
"Grab your shit. You're moving into my apartment," Jayson announced from my doorway. His eyes were still bloodshot, and from the way he ran his fat hand over his swollen belly I got the impression he wasn't feeling all that great. His drinks may have been a little strong the night before.
"What's wrong with my room?" I stopped brushing my hair to glare at him. It had been two days since he announced to the club that I was now his old lady and no one was to touch me. Two days that I had to keep myself out of his eyesight and keep his drinks flowing enough to ensure he'd be too drunk to get his dick hard.
"It's all the way over here, and I'm all the way over there." He pointed down the hall. "When I want a fuck, I don't want to have to go find you. Now get your shit." He covered his mouth as his cheeks puffed, then let out a long breath. "Fuck. No more of those mixed drinks." Then he left. I looked around the room at the few things I owned. My clothes, makeup, and shoes. That about covered it. I had sold everything after mom died to pay for the funeral and hospital expenses. All so I could start over here in this town, with a new life. I shook my head at my own stupidity.
"Hey, Jayson said you needed a hand." Lucas appeared in my doorway.
"No, I'm fine. I can handle it." I sat on the bed and looked over at my cell. Mason hadn't texted me yet, and I wasn't sure if we were meeting again. The short visit we had at the diner the other day, in the garage, had left me more confused than ever. Physically everything was fucking great. I'd never thought cable ties could be used for so many fun things. It was the after part that left me worried. The more time we spent together the more time we wanted to spend. Jayson would eventually find out, and someone was going to get hurt.
"Look, kid." Lucas pushed away from the doorway and stepped into my room. "I know this isn't what you want. I know you want out of here. But you can't keep getting him drunk like that. He's going to eventually notice. And he's gonna notice you disappearing in the afternoons."
I snapped my eyes to him and he grinned.
"I'm not as stupid as Jayson." He looked over his shoulder before he continued. "I see you. I see the way you flush when Mason walks in the club. The way his eyes are always on you. It's dangerous." He spoke in a hushed anger. "You are going to get yourself killed." He pointed a finger at me.
"Geez, Lucas. I didn't think you cared." My snide remark wasn't fair. Lucas had done plenty for me. He'd run interference for me constantly, keeping the members away as much as he could. He never took advantage, and he managed to keep peace between Jayson and me. If I needed anything, he did his best to procure it for me. Hell, I had a meeting coming up with a counselor at the junior college to get enrolled in the nursing program. That had been all Lucas's doing.
"I can't save you from this if he finds out," Lucas bit out at me.
"I don't need saving." I threw my hands in the air. "Why do all of you biker men think that because I'm a woman, I automatically need your help. Maybe I can save myself. Maybe I can figure a way out of this mess all on my own." Even I knew I was blowing smoke.
Lucas looked at me with a narrowed expression. A muscle in the side of his neck began to pulsate. Not a good sign. "I know you got a bullshit deal. Kerri never should have brought you here. She knew what kind of man Jayson is. She knew it and she took advantage."
"Wait. What?"
He took a deep breath and rubbed his hand over his face. "You think it was just a coincidence you coming here and Jayson talking to you the way he did? You think Kerri didn't know what would happen if Jayson gave you safe haven?"
"Kerri was an old friend. She was just being nice, giving me a place to crash. She couldn't have known." I shook my head. Warding off even the idea that she had anything to do with the mess I ended up in.
"When she left here she didn't even wake you up, she snuck out the back, leaving you behind. Why do you think that was?" His voice got lower, more menacing, as he continued to lay out the doubt for me.
I had wondered the same thing at the time she ran away. She'd left me, hadn't even told me she was leaving. But when they found her body the next day, I was too scared and shocked to wonder about that. "Are you saying she knew Jayson would want me for himself? That doesn't make any sense. He didn't want me. He handed me off to anyone who would pay him enough money," I pointed out.
Lucas laughed and shook his head. "How many members actually came in here for a fuck?"
His crude question would have made me blush months ago, now, it merely came with my day to day conversations. "How many, Lucy?" he pushed on.
I thought back. "Only a handful. Most of them just wanted … " I waved my hand, hoping he'd just fill in the blank. I may have been turned into a whore over the past several months, but I still hadn't gotten my head to wrap itself around the idea.
"Exactly. If Jayson wanted you to be the club whore, he would have thrown your ass out back with the other girls. He didn't. He let only a select few use what he thought was his." The entire conversation made my stomach turn.
"Why? To break me in?" I scoffed.
"No. To break you down. Think about it. Except for Mason, he's never let anyone come in here twice except for a blowjob. He just wanted you to come down a bit, lower yourself to his standards, and then he'd snatch you up. But you want out. You've been trying to actually pay him back this make believe debt."
"Make believe?" I stared at him with a new dawning. Everything I'd been doing for the past months were for nothing. Jayson was never going to let me go. "She brought me here as payment for something?"
Lucas ran the back of his hand along his jaw. "Possible recruit, I think. She was supposed to bring him a new girl for the house out back. Next thing I knew, you were here. Jayson must have taken a liking to you, though. He gave you a room in the club, made nice for a while."