Taken By The Biker (Royal Bastards MC: Charleston, WV 6)

“Why are you doing this?”

“God damn, Hazel. Told you why I’m here. Told you how I feel, but you want to keep fighting me. Want me to be the bad guy here. So, buckle up, baby. Think I’d treat you like my whore? You want the big bad biker? You’ve got him. Let’s go.”

“I can’t just leave. I have a job. Friends. People who will look for me.”

He picks my purse up off the ground where I dropped it when I first came in. “Like that prick you were with earlier. The one who let you go to that asshole alone to nearly be raped? That who will come looking for you? Or how about Crystal who uses you to get men and sold you out at the first sign of a little cash. Bitch sang like a canary.”

“You may be right. I’ve never had anyone. No one to love me. A place where I belonged.”

“You had me,” he roars in my face. “I’ve loved you all my life.”

Tears skid down my cheeks. “You gave up on me. You let me go. You never came for me. You have no idea what I went through once you weren’t there.”

“I’m here now, Hazel. Doesn’t that count for anything with you? Was it all for nothing?”

“No,” I whisper, but he’s turned his back on me, leading me out the door cuffed and collared like a prized heifer. All that’s missing is a red ball gag shoved in my mouth in place of an apple.

Everything we went through. All the sacrifices were supposed to be for our escape.

Our beautiful life.

The one we never got to live.

He shoves me into a SUV and buckles me in. I could scream. I could fight but part of me doesn’t want to. The part of me that clings to the fantasy that Benicio would always come for me. He was going to rescue me, and the two of us would go out into the twisted world. We wouldn’t need anyone because we’d have each other. My bad boy. My best friend. He’d be the king of our domain, and I’d be his queen in our own fucked up fairytale.

Only that never happened. I was on my own. The world is a cruel and dark place for the forgotten and rejected. Forcing you to do terrible things to eat. To survive. If he knew some of the things I’ve done to get by, he’d forget all about me.

I glance at him. Hardened. A biker. All man. Tattooed. Sexy.

So sexy it kills me.

Then I look at the cuffs around my wrists.

What happened to the boy I once knew? The boy I loved.

The boy who swore to love me forever.

He’s an outlaw. A criminal.

I’ve been taken by the biker, but I don’t know if I want him to let me go.

Chapter Eleven

I always knew there was a darkness inside Benicio. Because it called to me. The chain attached to the collar around my neck is linked to a leather cuff on his wrist. What I won’t tell him is that a part of me enjoys it. It confuses and turns me on. He turns me on like no one ever has. We bonded in our trauma, and our connection runs deeper than his being my first love. What I’ve always felt for him goes beyond that.

The past twenty-four hours have been too much. He’s put a wall up, and I don’t know if I have the energy to break it down.

I stare at him as he drives wishing I could stop questioning everything. Strapped into the passenger side of an SUV I’m being taken against my will to Royal Road. Home to the Royal Bastards MC of Nashville, TN. I’ve heard rumors about them but never met them myself. Until now.

Holy rolls down the driver’s side window at a gate and gives some dude a fist bump before being given access. We park outside of what I’m assuming is their clubhouse. A former warehouse in the old industrial part of Nashville. Loud music blares from the large building. The first thing I notice is the two long rows of motorcycles parked on either side of the entrance.

“We get in here, you keep your mouth shut. We’re here as guests. That means you don’t show your ass. Don’t talk back to me.”

“I’m your pet. Got it.”

“Good. Because you embarrass me, and I promise you that I’ll tan your ass. It’ll be one uncomfortable ride for you riding bitch on my bike to West Virginia.”

I roll my eyes at his threats. “What are we doing here?”