HAMMER (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 16) Read online

  The bar girl sneered and turned her back on them and Molly threw her head back and laughed before she held up her palm and slapped Shelby a high-five.

  “See, this is what I’m talking about,” she grinned.

  “I know exactly what you mean,” Shelby agreed. “Let’s enjoy ourselves, we deserve it.”

  After an hour, they had both relaxed and the pressure for them to act prim and proper was long gone. The girls swigged their beers and chatted away in the dirty little bar, not even caring who saw or heard them. The bartender came over and kept the drinks flowing, not allowing them to be dry for one moment, even though the look on her face suggested she couldn’t wait for them to leave. Shelby was instantly grateful that they had chosen somewhere quiet and unassuming for their first drinks, even if it had kind of been by accident.

  “I never thought you’d come tonight, you know,” Molly admitted. “I’m proud of you.”

  “You didn’t?” Shelby was almost confused. “But why?”

  “I could just tell you were dreading it, almost as if you were slipping back into how you felt when we were growing up. Too afraid to go anywhere and worried of what might happen if the wrong person in town saw you.”

  Shelby shrugged. Molly wasn’t wrong, but they had both grown up a lot since then, and Shelby was a woman now, not a girl.

  “It’s strange being back here, I can’t lie,” Shelby admitted. “But it feels good, you know? I’m back in my hometown, but I’m independent. I guess it would be worse if I were back at the family home.”

  “Your dad’s so good,” Molly smiled. “I mean, that apartment… It’s insane, Shelby. You’re so lucky.”

  Shelby smiled shyly. She knew she was lucky, but it felt weird to admit it. Sometimes, she just liked to ignore all the things she had. She hadn’t worked for them or earned them, so why should she show them off or brag about them? It didn’t feel right and she didn’t want to act like a spoiled little princess.

  “I’m also very grateful,” she said sincerely. “And I am very lucky to also have a best friend like you.”

  Molly beamed and raised her bottle of beer toward Shelby’s.

  “To best friends,” she grinned. “And to the night of our lives. To embracing who we are and having fun, no matter what!”

  “No matter what,” Shelby agreed as they chinked bottles and swigged their drinks.

  “Can I get you girls another?” the bartender asked aggressively as she leaned over to sweep away their empties.

  “No thanks,” Shelby said as she jumped off the stool and to her feet. “Come on, let’s go somewhere with a bit of music.”

  “Woo!” Molly cheered as she clapped her hands and followed Shelby toward the front door. “That’s more like it!”

  The girl behind the bar rolled her eyes and gave them both dirty looks as they made their way to the doorway. And as the door swung closed behind them, she reached down and picked up her cell phone from under the counter. She scrolled down to a number and pressed dial before she held the phone to her ear.

  “It’s me,” she said coldly. “Rich bitches on their way down Main Street. Blonde and brunette, both in little black dresses, you can’t miss them. And yes, you can thank me later…”

  She smirked and hung up the phone before she sighed and turned back around to continue watching the TV.

  If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was entitled little girls like them out on daddy’s money. But at least they hadn’t been quiet about it… bragging about their amazing apartments and their easy, wonderful lives. And now, they were about to find out that Iron Hill wasn’t the kind of place that stood for people like them.

  “Yes, you go and have the night of your life, girls,” she smirked with a wicked grin before she lit a cigarette and tapped her long, sharp nails on the top of the bar. The room around her alone and empty, just like her soul.

  Shelby and Molly walked down Main Street and laughed a little too loud as they tottered along. They hadn’t been drinking long, but it didn’t take much for them to let their guards down and start to act like fools. It was almost as if Shelby had forgotten where she was. In her head, she was still roaming around campus, dancing on the tops of tables, and not having to worry about who may see or hear her. She had been determined that, when she went home, she wouldn’t succumb to old fears, and so far, she was doing a good job. But since they had left the bar, she had a strange feeling.

  It was like she could sense they weren’t alone.

  Molly was giggling and tottering along on her heels as they looked from one side of the street to the next.

  “That place sucks,” she said as she pointed to a building with a warm orange glow and country music coming from the inside. “It’s for old men and loose women,” she raised her eyebrows. “We need somewhere for people our age, something a bit more fun.”

  “What happened to that bar that used to look all dark and dangerous on the outside but was actually really nice inside? Remember, it was like something out of a horror movie but we loved it anyway and always wanted to go inside! All red velvet and black walls! We never would have known what it looked like if it hadn’t been for Facebook pages, remember?”

  “Haha,” Molly laughed. “Oh my god, I do! But I’m pretty sure it closed down last year… Not many people in this town crave such dark decadence,” she scrunched up her face in disappointment and looked from one side of town to the other. “I’m sure it was over there…” she pointed to the corner of an intersection and squinted.

  The building on the corner was boarded up and dark, and Shelby felt her small bout of enthusiasm instantly shrivel and die. All she wanted to do was go home, take off her high heels and slip into her soft warm bed.

  “Come on,” Molly said. “There’s plenty of places, just pick one. One that actually still exists, anyway!”

  Shelby rolled her eyes and felt a little bit of anger rise within her. Molly was drunk and it was clear that after they had left the first bar, neither of them had a clue where they should go next, but Molly wasn’t about to admit it.

  “Can I help you girls?” a man’s voice cut in from behind them and when Shelby turned around and saw the group standing behind her, she knew they were in trouble.

  Molly’s drunken lack of judgement led her to wave the men away dismissively, but Shelby instantly braced herself and reached out to grab hold of Molly’s arm.

  “That’s not very polite,” one of the men said as he took another step forward and emerged from the dark shadows of the alleyway and into the light. He was dirty and rough looking, and Shelby was sure she saw the flash of a gold tooth as he grinned. She took a step backward and gripped Molly tightly.

  “We’re not interested,” Molly barked as she turned her back on them brattily and began to try and walk away.

  “Molly,” Shelby hissed. “Don’t…”

  But it was too late, as soon as Molly took another step, the group of men spread out and circled around them and began to back the two girls out of the light on Main Street and into the darkness of the alleyway.

  “Not very polite for two little rich girls,” one of the men said as he jabbed Molly in the back and the men stepped closer, tightening the circle and moving them expertly further away from Main Street and into the dark and deserted back alleyway.

  “She’s sorry,” Shelby said calmly. “It was just a misunderstanding, she’s had a little too much to drink.”

  She could feel Molly’s fingernails gripping into her wrist, and it was obvious she had realized her terrible mistake.

  “Hand over your purses,” the man who had spoken first said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife with a switch blade. Shelby jumped as he opened it and pointed it at them both. She gripped Molly with one hand and the strap of her purse with the other, but she knew what she had to do. She couldn’t fight this or try and run her way out of it.

  She had been taught, many times, how to handle this kind of situation, and even though
she didn’t want to give in to their demands, she knew that was exactly what she had to do.

  “Here,” Shelby said quickly as she handed her purse over and the man snatched it from her hands.

  “No!” Molly said. “You can’t have them!” She tried to push backwards and free herself from the circle as she wriggled out of Shelby’s grip, but she was just pushed back into the center by two men who started laughing and jabbing her with the tips of their fingers. There must have been six of them in total crowding around them, and Shelby knew there was no way they were going to be able to outrun them, even though Molly was still crying and trying to push her way through the small gaps to freedom.

  The men continued to grab her and push her back and the man with the knife looked as if he was rapidly about to run out of patience.

  “The purse!” he bellowed as he jabbed the knife toward Molly and she cried and fell to her knees.

  Shelby fought back the tears but she stayed standing tall and tried to be strong. Breaking down and crying wasn’t going to do either of them any favors. She had to keep focused and make sure they both got out of this.

  But that was easier said than done.

  One of the men grabbed Molly by the hair and pulled her head backward as he forced her to her feet. She screamed in pain and wailed as she threw her arms around and Shelby instinctively moved forward and reached out for her, but this only resulted in her suffering the same fate. One of the men grabbed her long blonde hair and pulled her backward so that she was right up against him and he held her tightly with his other arm wrapped around her chest.

  “Fucking little bitches,” he spat in her ear and Shelby realized she was trembling.

  “We should cut both of them up,” another of the men said menacingly. “See how far they get without their pretty faces.”

  Shelby closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, half expecting the knife to slash across her face at any moment.

  She heard a thump and Molly gasp before it sounded as if she had slumped to the floor. She still didn’t open her eyes, but it could only have been a matter of seconds later before a heavy, tight fist pummeled into her own stomach, knocking the air out of her and sending her crashing down onto the slippery wet pavement beneath her feet.

  She clutched her stomach and gasped for air, the whole world spinning around her as she heard the men all running away, laughing and cheering and shouting threats back over their shoulders as they disappeared into the night. Shelby gasped again and felt hot and raw inside, as if she would never find her breath, and then she went dizzy and heavy, and the whole world quickly went black.

  3.

  The darkness clung to her and didn’t want to let her go. In her dreams, she could see the flashes of knives and hear the bravado of men taking what wasn’t theirs. She had to outrun it, but there was nowhere for her to go, and she still couldn’t move.

  She groaned as she tried to roll onto her side, but she realized quickly that she wasn’t in a familiar place. She was on a mattress, but it wasn’t her bed, and there were bars up at the side, holding her in place and to stop her from rolling out. She rubbed her hands against them before she reached up and rubbed her eyes and dared herself to open them.

  There were noises all around her and she could hear beeps and distant voices.

  She swallowed and her throat felt like it had been grated. She winced and moaned.

  “Shelby?” a voice came from across the room. A man’s voice. A voice she didn’t recognize.

  She opened her eyes slowly and her vision was blurred, but she could make out the outline of a person standing against a wall about six foot away from her. He looked tall and muscular, but he was all mixed up and she couldn’t see any of his features.

  “Where am I?” she croaked as she closed her eyes again.

  She felt woozy and sick, and she didn’t want to try and move.

  “You’re in the hospital,” the stranger told her.

  His voice was deep and gruff. It was strong and masculine, like something dark and intimidating, and she felt her skin chill.

  And then she heard the tapping of keys and the sound of the man walking from one side of the room to the other.

  “She’s awake, Sir,” he said and Shelby was even more confused.

  What the hell is going on? she thought as she tried to fight her eyes open again.

  She heard the sound of a door opening and closing, and of muffled voices, and then she forced herself to try and sit upright and see what was happening. She pushed her palms down into the mattress beneath her and tried to lever herself up against the pillows behind her. She managed but the room was still spinning and she held her hands up to her head to stop it from feeling as if it were about to come off her shoulders.

  “Ow,” she said.

  She wasn’t so much in agony but the dizziness was making her disorientated, and she had a throbbing pain in her stomach and sides.

  “Shelby!” her father’s voice boomed from across the room as the door flung open and she heard him clatter inside. “You’re awake!”

  He rushed over to her and swept her into his arms and hugged her tightly before she even had a chance to open her eyes, and she gasped out in pain.

  “Dad!” she howled as she clutched her ribs.

  “Oh God! I’m so sorry,” he said as he sat down next to her and held her hand over the side of the railings.

  She opened her eyes and squinted as the stark light in the room made her wince. She tried to focus on what was around her, everything still swimming and her father’s face flashing in and out of focus.

  “What the hell?” she croaked as she tried to get her bearings. “What’s happening?”

  Her father looked at her with half gloom and half anger, and she could tell she was in trouble. Rapidly, as her mind awoke, she caught flashes of the last thing she could remember.

  The drinking…

  The men…

  The alleyway…

  The hard fist in the stomach.

  “Oh no,” she whispered as she rubbed her forehead.

  She was starting to ache all over and she just wanted to be left alone, but she could tell from the look in her father’s eye, that was likely to never happen again.

  “What have I always told you, Shelby?” her dad said as he looked at her sternly. “You can’t roam around Iron Hill and act the fool.”

  “I wasn’t,” she interjected, but he held his hand up to silence her.

  “You were mugged and assaulted,” he said. “You were lucky it wasn’t much worse.”

  His face was becoming red and furious, but she didn’t know whether he was more angry with her or what had happened to her. He had always tried to teach her so well, and now, they were finally experiencing something they had all feared.

  Shelby had been attacked in her own town. Someone had stolen her purse and her money. And her father looked as if he were ready to kill.

  “Dad,” she whispered gently. “It was just an accident. We weren’t acting out. We were just unlucky. I don’t think they knew who I was…”

  “You can’t afford to be unlucky,” her father snapped as he cut off her sentence. “You could have been killed.”

  “But I wasn’t,” she gasped with exasperation, but her father looked even madder than he had seconds before.

  “You’re not at college now, Shelby,” he said. “You’re back here in our town and people know you’re my daughter. Luckily for us, tonight, it appears as if the men who mugged you weren’t aware of that fact. But it won’t be long before word gets around, especially after I’ve had them dealt with.”

  Shelby lowered her gaze and felt tears welling up behind her eyes.

  “What do you mean, have them dealt with?” she whispered.

  Her father snorted and crossed his arms over his chest.

  “It would send a pretty weak message if I didn’t retaliate to some two-bit little gang targeting my daughter,” he said. “Of course, I’m going to have to deal with them.
”

  Shelby closed her eyes. She really didn’t want to know.

  “It was all just a misunderstanding,” she said. “We were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “Well, you won’t be again,” he said sternly as he rose to his feet. “I’m glad you’re home, Shelby, but I can’t risk having you in danger like that. I’m surprised you even went out late at night around here. Are you forgetting everything I’ve ever told you about this town and how it operates?”

  He was glaring at her now with so much anger that she wanted to scream, but he was right. It was all her fault.

  “You won’t go back to the apartment,” he said. “I want you back at home, for now, and I’m going to make sure you’re looked after while you get better, okay?”

  “Get better?” she half laughed. “I’m fine. I’m just a bit battered and bruised. Not to mention, dizzy! What the hell kind of sedative did the doctors give me?” she rubbed her head again and her father glowered at her.

  “This isn’t a game,” he said. “You’ve only been back in town for a few weeks and I’ve done everything to give you what you wanted. I got you the apartment, I didn’t try and warn you about how to behave. I mean, hell, I thought you would have known, by now, what was right and wrong. But clearly not. Drunk and on Main Street late at night, wandering from bar to bar, and dressed like a hooker!”

  “Dad!” she screamed, but he held up his hand.

  “Enough!” he shouted. His voice was so loud it bellowed around the room and made her jump.

  “Please…” she sobbed. “Honestly, it was just a mistake.”

  He shook his head and breathed out deeply through both of his nostrils. His face was so red he looked as if he were about to explode with anger.

  “I shouldn’t have to tell you what this could mean,” he said sternly as he looked her in the eye. “From now on, I need to know you’re not going to put yourself in harm’s way. It’s only because I care.”