HAWK: MC ROMANCE (Forsaken Riders MC Romance Book 5) Page 3

  She pulled into an almost full parking lot opposite the grocery store and turned off the engine. She sat for a moment and just breathed. It felt so good to be out on her own and she wanted to savor every moment. She reached for her purse and opened the truck door. As she stepped out onto the hot tarmac she felt a streak of cool air hit her from a juggernaut as it flew past.

  “There they go…” she said to herself as she slammed the truck door and locked it with the key.

  As she walked through town she kept her head low. Even though no one tended to bother her there, she still didn’t like the idea of getting dragged into a conversation with some of the town’s folk. The Iron Riders didn’t have such a good reputation with the people of Ironhill, and being out there on her own made her feel slightly vulnerable. She crossed the street and stopped outside one of the gift stores. Through the window she could see that it was practically empty in there and she would love to go in and have a look around, but her anxiety started to creep up on her and she shook her head and moved on.

  Destiny couldn’t remember the last time she had gone shopping freely and bought herself something she really wanted. Whilst she had been undercover in Slate Springs working at Red X she had enjoyed her time speaking to the girls and looking at all of the jewelry and make-up that they came in wearing, it was almost as if she could live through them and experience things she was being denied back home with Lev. That was one of the reasons she felt so guilty. She felt as if she had made real friends there, and as if she had started to live a real life. Even though she didn’t like the strip club environment, she had made a good friend in Candy, one of the other girls, and she dreaded to think what she would think of her now…

  Destiny felt guilt start to twist at her insides and she stopped and turned back to go to the grocery store. It didn’t matter how liberating it felt to be out and away from the club house, she still couldn’t relax. She was always beating herself up for what had happened in her past and what she could never take back.

  She walked through the automatic doors and picked up a basket. The air conditioning was especially cold and she shivered as she made her way to the refrigerators.

  She walked up and down the aisles slowly, not even really sure what she was looking for, and she found herself sloping off into a daze. The lights were bright and her mind was wandering, she was stopping and picking up items and placing them in the basket without even really looking at what they were. She stopped and looked down, without even realizing it she’d put in bread and milk, and now she was looking at cheese. She rubbed her eyes and shook her head, trying to wake herself up. Lev had taken it out of her and she felt suddenly as if she needed to rest. She carried on and was about to turn around the corner and step into another aisle when something caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked up quickly at the man who had been walking behind her, his eyes were fixed on her, but as soon as she turned to him he looked quickly away.

  He was wearing a trucker’s cap and it was pulled down over his eyes, obscuring her view of him… but there was something about him that wasn’t just a bit shifty, he was also strangely familiar.

  Destiny waited a moment to see if he would look back up to her, but he had turned to the side and all she could really see was the back of his head. He reached down and picked up some eggs before he placed them in his own basket and then he turned even further away and reached for something on the other side of the aisle.

  She was being paranoid. She shook her head and carried on around the corner. She was so used to being on high alert and expecting something bad to happen, that it was consuming her every moment. She had to snap out of it, she had to get her life back on track.

  She continued around the rest of the store and she picked up two whole chickens that she could roast later that day for the men at the house. She’d baste them and cook them with veg and potatoes and hope that they would appreciate it for once rather than complaining that it wouldn’t have been what they would choose.

  She could never win.

  They were all impossible to please.

  After she paid the girl at the register and loaded up her bags, she made her way out of the store and around the corner, into an alley that led to the parking lot. It was strange for the middle of the day, but it was unnaturally quiet down there and the way the buildings on either side of the street were angled meant that the sun didn’t reach down to the walkway and she was in virtual shadows.

  She felt a cool blast of air coming from behind her and then she heard the engine… She wouldn’t normally have turned to look, but she had been so unnerved that day that she almost did it automatically. She stopped and turned to see a huge, blacked out van flying down the alleyway towards her. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, but it was so fast she didn’t even take a breath.

  The van screeched to a halt beside her and the back door slid open. Two men wearing balaclavas jumped out and lunged at her, her shopping bags smashing to the ground and the milk bursting and gushing around their feet. She was so stunned, she didn’t make a sound. The men had hold of her by the arms and they were pulling her, dragging her, forcing her into the back of the van.

  She didn’t stand a chance. There was no way she could fight them off. They bundled her into the back and the driver was flooring it and speeding out of there before the back door was even fully closed.

  Whoever they were, they had taken her.

  Destiny had been kidnapped.

  5.

  She held her breath. The van bounced over the bumpy potholes down the alleyway and swerved out onto the main road of Ironhill. Destiny’s heart was in her mouth, she couldn’t focus on anything, none of it seemed like it could be real.

  But it was.

  Too real.

  The driver swerved again and Destiny slid across the floor in the back of the van and slammed up against the opposite wall. When she looked up all she could see were the two men who had grabbed her looking down at her with dark eyes glinting out from the holes in their balaclavas.

  Her heart pounded inside her ribcage.

  She dug her heels into the floor and bit her bottom lip. She was determined not to scream or cry.

  After a few moments one of the men pulled the balaclava off over his head and sighed. She recognized him instantly as the guy from the store. Now he wasn’t wearing the cap, she could tell who he was and why he was so familiar to her.

  Her eyes flicked across to the next mystery man and she waited for him to reveal himself too…

  He pulled the woolen mask from his face and looked at her dead in the eye.

  It was King… She was sure of it…

  King, one of the leaders of the Forsaken Riders of Slate Springs.

  Even though she knew that they were going to be coming for her at some point, she still felt the disbelief and shock hit her as she locked eyes with him.

  Her past had caught up with her, and now she was going to pay the price.

  Her lip started to quiver.

  She looked at the man from the store and tried to remember his name… She knew she had met him several times, and she was even certain that he had dated one of the girls from Red X. She willed herself to remember.

  Knowledge is power, she told herself. The more you can remember, the more of an advantage you’ll have with them…

  The more minutes that went by, the more the tension in the back of the van was mounting. King was boring holes into her with his stern gaze and there was only so much more she could take before she would crack. She wanted to tell him everything, she wanted to explain it all… she wanted him to know that she hadn’t had a choice. She was forced into it… She was on their side, not the Iron Riders…

  But would they listen?

  “P-please,” she stammered. “K-King…”

  He shook his head before she could finish and he clicked his teeth. She could see how angry he was, how much rage was flowing through him each time his eyes locked with hers. It was as if they we
re age old enemies and this was about to be their final showdown.

  But she was just a girl who had got mixed up in the wrong world, at the wrong time… She didn’t deserve this…

  She felt the tears start to spring from her eyes and her lip quivered. She knew they would have guns. She knew that they could kill her right there and then if they wanted to… And she was frightened. She had seen how loyal the men of Slate Springs were. Their motorcycle club was everything to them, and the Forsaken Riders would fight to the very end.

  Was she about to become a victim of a feud that she had no power of stopping? She was so weak compared to them… So lost…

  “This bitch,” King said finally. “Is the reason Tanner is dead.”

  She swallowed hard and the tears dripped down her cheeks.

  “King,” she sobbed, “I couldn’t… I didn’t…”

  “Save it,” he snarled. “We’re not interested in what you’ve got to say.”

  She nodded in agreement and looked down to the floor. The van was still bumping along, and each time they went over another pothole or dip in the road Destiny was flung up into the air slightly and came crashing down onto the metal frame of the van.

  King and the other guy were sat on the long bench seat in front of her and they looked down at her with such contempt she really believed that if looks could kill, then she would be dead.

  The man next to King bent forward as he reached into his back pocket for a pack of cigarettes and as the light from the back window hit his face Destiny remembered where she knew him from…

  He was Steel… the biker Candy had gotten involved with whilst they were working together at the club.

  Candy…

  She had been such a good friend to Destiny… Maybe if Steel was there then she would be too, and maybe then Destiny would stand a chance of getting through this. Even after everything that had happened, she couldn’t see that Candy would want anything bad to happen to her. They had formed such a close bond and she had been like a sister to her whilst they worked those long night shifts with that pervert Marv. She had taught Destiny everything and made her feel at home and at ease. Even when she had to get up on stage and undress in front of a room full of men and shake her ass like her life depended on it.

  It was ironic that it had led her here.

  To the back of a van. Kidnapped by two lawless men and being taken to her fate.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered as the van bounced over another pothole.

  But neither of them heard.

  She closed her eyes and dug her fingertips into the floor. She didn’t know for sure where they were taking her, but she had a pretty good idea. If they weren’t going to take her out into the middle of the desert, shoot her and bury her in a shallow grave, then there was only one place that she would be going…

  The Forsaken Riders’ Club House…

  Destiny prayed with all of her might that it would be there. She needed to explain everything. She needed them to understand.

  ***

  The drive seemed to take an eternity and the heat in the back of the van was intensifying. Destiny mopped her brow with the back of her hand and wrist and kept her gaze directed at the floor. She could feel their eyes on her, and the last thing she wanted to do was anger them.

  As the van began to slow and the road became bumpier, King leaned forward with a length of rope and a straw bag.

  “Give me your hands,” he said sternly.

  Destiny knew there was no point in fighting him. She would do better by going along with everything that they said and asked for. She had to get them on her side. She had to explain what she had been put through.

  “Here,” she whispered as she held them out and King snatched them closer and began to bind them together tightly with the rough rope.

  Destiny winced as the rope cut into her skin and burned against her wrists. King knelt down in front of her and steadied himself against the bench whilst he quickly and smoothly pulled the bag down over her head.

  The hot dark made her pulse quicken and her panic began to rise. After spending months suffering from crippling anxiety, this was one of the worst things that could be happening to her. She was being shut away, kept in the dark, her claustrophobia started to ripple along her insides and she had to resist the urge to scream and cry out for mercy.

  They haven’t even done anything to you yet, she coached herself. It could all get a lot worse. Just breathe. Stay calm.

  King and Steel pulled her up onto the bench and held her between them. She could smell the familiar scent of gasoline and cigarettes and for the briefest moment a fond smile flickered across her lips. Apart from the stress she had gone through, working at Red X had given her some of the best memories of her life… and some of the worst. She would be forever grateful to the people of the town for welcoming her and letting her become one of them.

  She took in a lungful of air and tried to make out shapes through the blurred vision the straw sack was giving her, but all she could see was darkness and the odd crack of light. Steel tightened his grip on her elbow and she could feel the anger bouncing off him. He was probably more angry than King. Tanner must have been someone close to him and she knew that she would have her work cut out trying to persuade them to listen to her so that she could explain what had happened.

  Candy, she remembered. Candy. Candy. Candy.

  The van swerved again and both King and Steel seemed to dig their nails into the thin skin on Destiny’s arms. She winced as they secured her between them, and then as she felt the van grind to a halt, she found herself having to fight back the tears once more.

  Wherever they were going, they had arrived.

  She heard the sound of a door opening up front and steps scuffing along the ground as the driver walked around to the back of the van. With a surge of movement the heavy sliding door was pulled open and sunlight flooded the darkened cab. Even through the bag over her head, Destiny could see how bright the sun was. It flooded her vision and made her crinkle her eyes together, unable to stand the brightness.

  “Come on,” King said as he pulled her forwards.

  They dragged her roughly out of the back of the van and one of them held onto her tightly as they walked with her quickly. She looked down and could see out of the bottom of the sack the dusty desert sand.

  Please let us be at the club house, she thought.

  She could hear the sounds of eagles cawing overhead and the wind rattled around them. The remnants of the storm were still evident there, the ground was dusty and damp in parts and she could feel the cold breaking in front of the sun.

  “Here,” King said and he pulled her sharply to the right.

  They stopped and then she heard the sound of a lock being undone and then the slow creak of what sounded like metal doors.

  One of the men heaved her up over his shoulder and carried her back into darkness. She could sense and hear that they were going down some stone stairs and she bit her lip, willing that wherever they were going was not going to be the end for her. She just needed some time. She needed them to listen to her. She had to explain.

  “Put her over there,” King’s voice came again.

  Steel pulled her down off his shoulder and roughly dropped her onto a lumpy mattress on the ground. She gasped as her knee caught against a wire spring and she bit back the sobs that were desperate to break free.

  “Undo her hands,” King ordered. He sounded far away, as if he was standing back outside and observing her and Steel from his vantage point.

  “We’ll be back for you later,” he said.

  Her hands were free but they left the bag covering her, and she waited as she listened to Steel’s footsteps get quieter and quieter. He climbed the stairs and then with a creak of iron, the doors were slammed closed behind them.

  She was alone. They had gone.

  With trepidation she reached up and slowly began to remove the sack from her head… She didn’t want to see where she was, but she als
o knew she had to or she wouldn’t stand a chance…

  6.

  As she opened her eyes, her first thoughts were that she was in a basement. She sat up straight and threw the sack to the ground, her eyes darting left and right, trying to take in the scene in front of her and get her bearings.

  She was on a dirty old mattress, and the air was cold and stark down there. It was musty and damp, and she could see an old furnace in the corner that looked like it hadn’t been used for some time. Pipes ran along the walls and up to the ceiling, which bowed under someone’s weight above as they walked across it. She couldn’t hear their footsteps but she could see little flecks of dust falling in order as if someone had walked the full length of a room and she was hidden below them. She shivered. Even though she didn’t have any concrete proof, she knew that she was at the Forsaken Rider’s Clubhouse. And that meant that there would be a lot of people very close by at that precise moment that wanted her dead. She wiped a tear from her eye and huddled against the mattress and the cool, damp wall. She wrapped her arms around her legs and pulled her knees up to her chest. It was almost as if she thought that by making herself smaller, she would become invisible.

  There were two staircases in the basement. One which looked as if it led up to the main body of the house, and the other which was smaller and looked as if it led to the outside world.