I wondered what he meant by “done”, but I knew I was better off not even asking. I was pretty sure I already knew what he meant anyway.
“Molly, I need you to give me your word,” he said.
“I promise, Blaze,” I said with the most sincere smile I could muster. “I’m not going anywhere. You went to all this trouble bringing me here. I just want to see if we can make this work.”
“We WILL make this work,” he said as he looked at me with crazy eyes.
He pulled his knife from his pocket once again and cut me free. I massaged my wrists and shook them a bit to try to get some of the feeling back. Then, as much as I hated to, I curled up next to him, the way a girlfriend would do.
He slipped his arm down around me.
“I’m cold,” I said as I snuggled in close. I also hoped it’d remind him that I was still pretty much naked, but I was sure he knew.
He channel surfed a bit, passing several shows I would’ve loved to have watched, and he eventually settled on some biker documentary.
“How real is that stuff?” I asked.
“Real,” he said. “This is a documentary.”
“I’m sure you’ve seen some pretty fucked up things, huh?” I asked.
“Yep,” he replied, never taking his eyes off the screen.
“What’s the worst thing you’ve ever seen?” I didn’t know why I was asking that. I guess I was trying to get him to open up a bit more.
“Can you stop talking for one second?” he seemed annoyed at me.
I instantly zipped my lips. Annoying him was the last thing I wanted to do. I’d already come so far in just a few short hours.
We finished watching the biker documentary in complete silence. He stood up off the bed for a second and stretched. I glanced over at the alarm clock on the bedside table and saw that it was almost nine o’clock at night. That entire day had vanished in almost an instant.
“Wow, almost time for bed,” I remarked as I stretched my arms up and yawned.
Blaze let out a laugh and ran his fingers through his hair. “Oh, no.”
“No, what?” I asked. I was confused.
“The night is young, baby,” he said with a smirk. “We’re going out. I’m introducing you to the gang.”
“I thought we weren’t quite there yet,” I said, still confused. “Don’t you want to wait to introduce me until we figure out what we are?”
“Oh, we’re there,” he said as he looked me up and down. “The decision’s been made.”
He wasn’t making any sense. I don’t know how you can declare someone your Old Lady when she didn’t even want to be your Old Lady, but regardless, I played along.
“Oh, okay,” I said. “I guess you’re right.”
“Go get dressed,” he said as he pointed towards the bathroom where my suitcase was still lying open on the floor. “Pick out something sexy. I want to show you off tonight.”
The naïve me loved that he wanted to show me off, but the logical me was utterly creeped out by it. It wasn’t right. It wasn’t normal.
I sauntered up with a smile on my face and made my way to the bathroom. I slipped on a pair of tight, dark skinny jeans and a low cut tank top covered in shiny sequins. I touched up my makeup, applying a shade of red to my lips, and fluffed up my hair. He had thrown in my tallest pair of nude pumps, so I slipped those on as well.
“Looking good,” he said with a grin as he stood in the doorway of the bathroom watching me. He was always fucking watching me.
“Thanks,” I said as I spritzed on some perfume. “I just want the guys to be jealous of you.”
Those words made me sick to say, but I had to play his twisted little game.
“Oh, yeah, they will,” he agreed. “Believe me. They’re all going to want a piece of you.”
His words struck me as a bit bizarre, but I brushed them off.
CHAPTER 16
I followed him out to his truck, his arm clenched onto my arm the entire time, and he forced me to sit in the backseat. He said it was for my own safety, but I knew better. There were no doors back there. No doors meant I couldn’t escape even if I wanted to. I played dumb and went along with it.
A short drive across town brought us back to the scene of the crime – the bar across from the motel where we first met.
“Look familiar?” he asked as he pulled up and slammed the truck in park.
I looked at the faded and cracked brick exterior and the line of bikes parked up and down the sides of the building. I cringed. This was where I made the worst decision of my life. The decision that brought me back here against my will.
“Oh, yeah,” I said. I forced myself to sound chipper. “This is where we met. How sweet.”