Venom: Dark Riders Motorcycle Club (2 page)

"How's your hunger strike going, girly?"

One of the tarantulas yelled. He only looked into the room to laugh at me, but I couldn't even get angry. I couldn't feel anything, except exhausted.

The headaches got worse. I started to see strange black and white dots floating past my eyes in the half-lit room. It was just like snow. But when I reached out my hand to touch it, there was nothing there.

I twisted the ring on my finger again. This time Asher was there. He had gauze wrapped around his shoulder, but he seemed fine.

Asher's lips were warm as they pressed against mine. My whole body heated up at his touch. It seemed like everything grew brighter, nicer, happier. He took me in his arms.

"Let's get you out of here," he said.

For a moment I thought it was real. Just a moment. I thought Asher had finally come to save me. And then I saw it again. My tiny, dirt-floored, cage. Tears came to my eyes and once I started, I couldn't stop crying.

After that, it was hard to stay awake. I just wanted to sleep. I would look around the room and before I knew it my eyes closed and I laid on the floor. The thoughts seemed to slip out of my grasp before I could hold onto them.

Just one stayed behind.

Lilly, you're going to die
.

It was strange, how real the thought seemed. Just as real as the thirst choking my throat.

If you keep this up, you're going to die.

At first, I didn't even have energy to care. Fine. So what if I died? It wasn't until an image of my mom, all alone, flashed in my mind that my thoughts changed.

Screw this. I was going to save myself.

It took every ounce of energy that I had to get up on two feet. I wobbled over to the large locked door and pounded it with my fists. Even though my throat was cracked, I screamed.

"Food!" I yelled. "Anyone, someone. Give me food!"

I beat the door until I couldn't stand anymore and slumped down on my knees. My body was so weak that any moment I could have simply fallen over and passed out. But finally, the door opened.

"So, you changed your mind?"

Venom stood in the doorway, smiling down at me. He held a bag that was transparent from oil and he waved it in front of my face.

"You lasted longer than I thought you would. A whole week," he said. "No
wonder
Wild likes you."

I wanted to punch his nose in and tell him not to talk about Asher, but I
needed
that food. The smell of fat dipped french fries was driving me crazy.

"Now," Venom said, "No more trouble?"

I nodded my head. Just give me the damn fries already.

"Good girl."

Venom threw the bag at me and I ripped it open. The smell hit me first. Charred meat, warm bread, hot fries. I stuffed the junk food into my face, not caring about the grease that smeared across my lips.

"So, will I be taking over now?"

Venom had stepped out of the room while I stuffed my face. The door was cracked open, so I could see him talking to someone with the same leather jacket he had.
 

"No," Venom said. He licked his lips and paused. "I'll supervise this one personally, Keg."

"Are you sure? You don't normally," Keg said.

"Yes, I'm
very
interested in Wild's little floozy."

My head snapped up at that. I looked straight at him and Venom must have noticed, because he came walking toward me.

"You heard right," he said. "We'll be spending a lot of time together from now on."

Venom made me stand up and pressed me against the wall, holding me down by my wrists. His body pushed into mine, radiating warmth into my skin.

"What do you think about that?" he asked. Then he brought his head low enough to whisper into my ear. "
Lilly
?'

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up and I felt my cheeks flood with warmth, but I didn't say anything. I tried to pull away, but Venom held me fast. He leaned deeper into me and his hardness poked against my body.

"You feel that, don't you?" Venom said. He didn't wait for my answer.
 

"I'm not like Wild, Lilly. I'm not a bad boy with a heart of gold," he said. "I'm just bad."

When he finally let me go, I felt like I had been holding my breath the entire time. I let out a sigh.

"Remember that."

Venom turned to leave. Before he did, he called Keg to his side.

"Get her cleaned up and move her out of here," he said.

"Where should I put her?"

"In one of the club rooms," he said. He turned and looked straight at me with those gray eyes. "She won't give you any trouble."

T
HE
NEW
ROOM
WAS
much nicer than the cell I had been in, but then again anything would have been better. In the room I had a bed, a table, and even my own bathroom. After the other place, it felt like I was in a hotel. Not a nice one, but still.

The only things that disturbed me about the room were the skimpy tank top and hot shorts laying on the bed when I arrived. I picked up the tiny pair of pants and looked at them.
 

Two large spiders were printed on each cheek and the word "Tarantulas" curved over the entire thing. The tank top wasn't much better, and wasn't even long enough to cover my stomach. I threw the clothes off the bed and kicked them to the side. I wasn't going to be needing
them
.

I jumped into the bed, happy to feel something besides cold, wet earth on my skin. After a long warm bath and some more food, I felt nearly human again. If I closed my eyes and didn't think about it, I could almost forget I had been abducted by a rival MC.

The door opened and someone entered without knocking. I looked up from underneath the bed covers.
 

"Is that any way to treat gifts?" he asked. He picked up the clothes and placed them in my lap. "And after we picked them out for you."

"Gifts? I don't need any gifts from you," I said. "What do you want from me anyway?"

"Don't worry about it," Venom said. "Have fun! You wanted to know what life with a motorcycle club was like, didn't you?"

He pushed my chin up with his fingers, making me look him in the eye. I wanted to spit at him again, but I remembered his threat. Just how
real
was it?

"And you
will
wear that," Venom said.

"Why should I?"

"Because starting today you're going to be a waitress at our bar," he said. "I want to see just how well you do at being a good girl and taking orders."

Venom let me go and started to walk towards the door. He opened it, but before he left, he turned around.

"You've got five minutes," he said. "So you might want to step up your pace?"

The door shut behind him before I had time to respond. I looked down at the clothes he had placed in my lap. Five minutes? And I had to waitress in
that
?

Whatever. I didn't have time to worry about it. I just needed to play along enough to get myself out of there.

I stripped, pulling off my clothes and squeezing into the new ones. I could feel them clinging to my body, the thin polyester barely concealing anything. Great. I was going to serve surly, drunken bikers in
this
outfit? My cheeks burned.
 

Even when I tried to pull the stretchy fabric down, it resisted. It just jumped back into place, leaving my skin exposed for all to see.

The door swung open so forcefully that it hit the wall behind it. I jumped at the noise.

"Lets go," Keg said.

He grabbed my arm, pulling me out of the door and down the stairs. I expected to be blindfolded again, but this time I wasn't. The clubhouse seemed larger than I thought it would be. As we walked down the stairs, there wasn't just one room in the basement but an endless corridor lined with doors. What were they keeping there?

I thought of my old cell and my heart clenched. Were there
other
girls? My head turned as we walked past a door that was slightly open. Two men were in there and it looked like they were stacking huge plastic wrapped bags filled with white material.

Keg jerked me, tugging on my arm so hard it hurt.

"Keep your eyes ahead and mind your business," he said.

Finally, we reached a large set of wooden double doors. Keg pushed them open and dragged me in behind him.

As I stepped inside, I blinked in the darkness. The hallway had been flooded with fluorescent lights, but the bar had nothing but dim candlelight and a few tiny bulbs. It was hard to see, and I tripped over chair legs, but Keg dragged me along anyway.

He took me to the bar and brought me around the back. A woman with bright red hair piled on top of her head was washing glasses.

"Cam, I've got a new girl for you," Keg said. "She's servin' tonight."

Cam started talking before she turned around.

"Keg, why do you always have to bother me when I'm busy…"

Her voice stopped when she spotted me. Cam's eyes scanned my body and a smile came to her face. She waved off Keg with one hand and brought me near her.

"Oh, aren't you cute? Who's your man? Is it Dago? He always liked the cute ones."

"She's not one of ours, " Keg interrupted. "She's one of the Dark Rider's bitches."

Cam frowned and turned to him.
 

"Go back to whatever you were doing, Keg! This is women's business. She's
my
responsibility now."

She stood in front of him with her hands on her hips. Cam looked up at Keg, setting her jaw and planting her feet wide. I saw Keg's muscles tense and my stomach dropped. What was she
doing
? I didn't want to see Keg's reaction.

I closed my eyes and waited, but nothing happened. When I opened my eyes, Keg had Cam in his arms and was fondling her breasts underneath the thin tank top. My cheeks burned and I turned away.

After a few moments, a felt a soft hand on my shoulder.

"Well, you really are cute," Cam said. "But you certainly aren't like any biker chicks I know."

I looked down, avoiding her gaze. How was I supposed to tell her everything that happened? Everything about
Asher
?

She squeezed my shoulder gently.

"Don't worry about it, sugar," she said and paused. "Actually, I don't know your name."

"Lilly."

"Lilly…Yeah that sounds just right."

Cam took my hand in hers and brought me back to the sink.

"I know they want you out there, but you just got here! So how about this?" She pointed at the dirty mountain of plates and cups. "You know how to wash dishes, right?"

I was so relieved that I couldn't help but burst out laughing. It had been a while since someone was simply nice to me. Cam laughed too.

"Okay, I'll take that as a yes."

Cam left me on my own, but it was okay. It meant I had time to observe my surroundings. Now that my eyes had adjusted to the dark, I was able to see what the bar really looked like.
 

That's when I noticed the diamond shaped placards with "1%" printed in the middle of them. There was one on every wall. I didn't know what it meant, but I figured it wasn't good.

The bar was full of women. They all wore a uniform like mine, but some of them also had leather jackets. Written across the back of them in curving letters was "Property of Tarantulas MC."

But they weren't all waitresses. Some of the women were up on a platform, stripping off their clothes in front of a crowd of bikers. It wasn't a hands-off show. The men grabbed at them, smacking their asses and laughing when the women screamed.

Well, at least I wasn't
there
. I imagined Venom ordering me to strip and the thought sent a shiver down my spine. No way.

I couldn't tell how many years of dried and sticky beer was on the floor, but there must've been just as much cigarette ash hiding in the corners of the room. The whole place was filled with grey clouds of curling smoke.

When Cam came back, she pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed.

"I don't know what's wrong with these men!"

She threw her hands up in the air.

"I told them to leave you alone, but they kept demanding you serve them a beer."

Cam took me over to the bar and gave a serving plate. She held my hand as she filled four huge steins and placed them on the platter as if she had done it a million times before.

"Now don't be nervous. Hold it like this and just take it to table number one," she said. Cam pointed out to the distance, and I tried to make out the table. "It's right over there."

My heart started to race as she pushed me out from behind the counter. The platter was heavier than I expected, and I didn't want to find out what would happen if I dropped it.

I took a few deep breaths and started to walk. I had to avoid drunken bikers, table legs, and cans of beer strewn on the floor, but I managed to make it closer to the table. Soon I was able to hear their voices.

"How long do you think it will take?"

"It doesn't matter. We just have to set it up, and it'll happen."

"I can't wait to see the look on their fuckin' faces!"

I slowed my steps. There was too much noise for me to identify the voices, but I didn't like the way their conversation sounded. I had no idea what they were talking about, but I wanted to find out.

"It'll be easy."

"The drugs, yeah. All we gotta do is plant 'em."

"But what about the murder?"

"Yeah, how are we going to stick the Dark Riders with
that
?"

As soon as I heard the words, my heart stopped. I stumbled backwards and the beers fell to the ground. The steins shattered with a cloud crack and sent shards flying everywhere.

Drugs? Murder?
What the were they planning? My mind raced, but I didn't have time for that. I knelt down, trying to pick up the pieces without hurting myself, and one of the men from the table came toward me.