Venom: Dark Riders Motorcycle Club (5 page)

"What?" Anger seeped into Asher's voice. The muscles in his neck tensed, growing larger. "What did those bastards want with you? Did they hurt you? If they did, I'll-"

"No," I said. "They didn't hurt me. I don't even know
what
they wanted."

The lie stung, but I tried to ignore it.

"First, they burned down the toy store, then they took you. I can't wait to get my hands on those assholes," Asher said. He bared his teeth and deepened his voice. "I'll-"

"Wait," I said. "Tell me what happened. All I remember is a boom and everything going black."

That calmed him down a little.

"Well, you remember the fire," Asher said. "We're pretty sure it was the Tarantulas. It
had
to be. And then we got outside. That boom you heard was a gun.

"Someone shot me in the arm. I went down. I lost so much blood that I didn't wake up until the guys brought me back here. They patched me up."

"Wait, you didn't go to a hospital?"

"And have an official record? Yeah, right."

I jumped up and started to unwrap the bandages. It looked like they hadn't done anything to clean it. The wound was still full of dirt. The skin around it was red and angry.

"Don't
any
of you know basic first aid?" I said. "Give me your kerchief."

Asher handed it to me and I doused it with one of the bottles of vodka he had hanging around.
 

"This is going to hurt," I said.

"Yeah, right," Asher said. "Not more than the bullet!"

Still, when I rubbed the wound, Asher cursed.

"Shit!"

I laughed. "I told you. You big baby."

Asher smiled, laughing with me. It was the first time in the conversation I'd seen him look, well,
happy
. Something about the way his smile reached his eyes melted my heart. Did I
deserve
to be looked at that way?

When I finished patching him up, Asher continued his story.

"Mav was the first person I saw. He told me everything."

"Mav. What was his official name, again?" I asked.

"Curtis Maypole," Asher said. "Why?"

"Oh, nothing.In case I ever need to look him up, that's all!" I said.

Asher looked at me a while, but continued.

"Anyway, all I knew when I woke up was that you had disappeared. I looked
everywhere
. I don't even know how many days I got on the bike, steering the thing with one hand just so that I could find you."

So he
did
try to save me. My heart felt heavy.

"Then everything went crazy. It felt like people were turning against me. Joel had all these new 'ideas…'"

Asher paused, dropping his head in his hands. His hair fell forward, covering his face. He shook his head one last time, and then peered up at me. Those eyes stared straight at me, piercing my heart.

"But you're safe," Asher said. "That's all that matters."

He turned to me and put his hand on my cheek.

"You have no idea how happy I was when I saw you standing at the door."

Asher pulled me in. He tilted his head down and pressed his lips softly against mine. Just a single kiss.

Then he pulled back, looking at me as if he was trying to resist something. If he was, Asher only lasted a moment, because his lips came crashing back onto mine.

After that, it felt like someone had pressed fast forward. I grabbed his jacket, ripping it off of him and throwing it to the floor. Asher pulled off his own shirt, exposing his muscles underneath.
 

There were so many things I wanted to do at once. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to touch him. I wanted to feel my skin against his.

Asher pulled my top off. His hands slid under my bra, gliding over my nipples and teasing them before he unhooked the simple fabric.
 

I watched his face as he looked at me. Asher's eyes widened and his breath stopped for a moment. A smile broke out across his lips. It made my cheeks burn.

I tried to pull off his tight jeans, but no matter how much I jerked them, they didn't come off Asher's hips. In a flash, he pulled them off himself and tugged mine off me.
 

Asher slipped my panties off my hips and started to spread my legs, but I pushed him down.
 

I didn't know what to do. It was obvious what Asher wanted. What
I
wanted.
 

The feeling of Asher's body pressing against mine, wrapping me in his strength was almost enough to make me forget why I was there.
Almost
. In the back of my mind, it still bothered me.

I was a spy.
I was sent there to bring down the club.

We had waited so long. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be, no matter how hard it was to stop.

Instead, I lowered myself down Asher's body. I hooked my fingers in the band of his underwear and slowly slid them off. He was already hard and standing at attention.

I took him in my hand, feeling the warmth and size of him. It felt like his heat would burn my palm. Asher groaned as I touched him.
 

I surrounded his hardness with my lips and took him all in. Asher slid in and out of my mouth, throbbing and getting even harder. I sucked at him as fast as I could.

Asher's eyes were closed. His hair clung to his face, damp with sweat. When he groaned and his hips started to jerk, he stopped me.

"No, Lilly," he said. "I want to be inside you for this."

I pulled away, not meeting his gaze.
 

"Oh…I'm sorry. Lilly, I thought…"

"It's fine!"

I said. I jumped up and started to pick up my clothes from around his room.

"What are you doing? It's okay. You don't have to go," Asher said.

"I do," I said. I paused, thinking of what to say. "I'm going back up north!"

"You are? Why? Do you want me to take you?"

I froze, my heart throbbing. "No! it's okay," I said. "It's no big deal. And Joel is taking me."

"Joel?"

"Yeah!"

I dressed as quickly as I could. When my shirt got stuck over my head, Asher pulled it down for me. He hugged me tight, stopping me from moving.

"Lilly," he said. "Are you sure everything is okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't it be?" I said and smiled.

I held up the kerchief I had used to treat him earlier. "So I don't forget you."

My chest clenched as I tucked it in my pocket. I slid the note I had written earlier out of my pants. Pulling Asher close, I pressed it in his hand. I stood up on my toes and kissed his cheek.

"I lo-" I paused. "I'll be back soon."

Then I turned. I burst out of Asher's door and ran down the stairs. With each step I took, my heart was racing. I only hoped he would read the note. It was important for him to know.

"
Joel lies."

M
Y
FEET
COULDN
'
T
TAKE
me out of that town fast enough. I had gotten what he wanted, and it hurt more than I had even expected. My heart lay in my chest, heavy as a weight. It was too much to carry.

My eyes were raw from the tears. They stung, burning with the salt of them. Still, no matter how many times I wiped them away with the palm of my hand, tears kept coming.

How many times would I cry before this was all over?

I made my way back to the space where Joel had dropped me. It was almost time, so I sat down in the dirt, pulling my legs to my chest. Just a few hours ago, I couldn't wait to go home. Now I couldn't wait to leave.

Burning exhaust filled the air and Joel finally appeared. He screeched to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dirt behind him.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked. "You look like shit."

I ignored him and walked over to the bike. Suddenly he sniffed the air.

"And you smell like cock."

I dug my fingernails into my palms and gritted my teeth. All I wanted to do was punch him in the face.

"Just shut up and put the blindfold on!" I said. "Let's go."

"All right, all right, bossy lady."

The darkness actually made things easier. I didn't think about my mom, who I had left behind. I didn't think of lying to Asher. I just felt the movement of my body on the road.

The rhythm soothed me. Even on the back of Joel's motorcycle, the road was the road. It swayed back and forth beneath us, taking us up and down hills. By now, I had made this blindfolded trip enough times that my body knew every twist and turn.

I let my mind drift off. It was too full of bad memories anyway. Better to let the road rock me gently.

Surprisingly, the lights were still on in the clubhouse when we arrived. Bikers were crowding the stairs, moving things in suspicious black boxes from room to room. No one looked at me as they walked past, and every time I seemed too interested Joel jerked me aside.

Venom called us into his office. His grey eyes seemed to have a peculiar sheen to them as they looked me over. He held out his hand, expectantly. I threw Asher's kerchief at him and turned around to leave.

Venom's hand shot out and caught mine. The grip was so tight that it hurt, crushing my wrist. He stood up slowly. I had almost forgotten just how
imposing
he was.

"Tonight is not the time for you to be rude," he said. He squeezed my wrist even tighter and I groaned from the pain. "And that's not
all
you owe me."

"His name is Curtis!" I said. "Mav's name is Curtis Maypole!"

Venom dropped my hand. I expected him to say something, try something funny, but he didn't. When I stood there, confused, his eyes turned to me. They were hard.

"Leave!" he said.

I didn't need to be told twice. I left the office and headed back to my room. Unlike everywhere else, it was quiet. It wasn't until my head hit the pillow that I realized how tired I was. Sleep came over me almost instantly. I didn't even have time to get ready for bed.

By the time I woke up, everything seemed calmer. The clubhouse was silent. I would almost say it was even
peaceful
.

I laid in my bed, happy that no one had come to bother me. I could pretend it was a lazy weekend. Any moment, my mom would walk into the room. She would bring me pancakes with jam and maple syrup. We would watch Saturday morning cartoons, even though we were a couple of decades too old for them. It would be perfect.

The door burst open. Keg pushed his way into the room.

"The boss wants you," he said. "You need to be ready in…"

"Five minutes?"

"… Five minutes."

Well, there went my leisurely morning. I got ready as fast as I could. Before I left, I grabbed a scrap of paper and pencil and hurried downstairs. Just a few steps before the door, I could hear Joel's voice.

"They still don't suspect anything at all," he said.

Shit! Hadn't Asher read my note?

"I apologized and everything, so Wild thinks everything is fine. I actually couldn't believe that he bought it! That fucker's dumber than a sack of bricks!

"He even told me everything we needed to know. They're not going to be at the clubhouse tonight. So it's perfect. And I told them that I had a surprise for the whole club tomorrow."
 

Joel stopped and laughed.

"Of course, I didn't say
what kind
of surprise!" he said. "So all we have to do now, is plan it. I think that we should start…"

I pulled out the paper and pen. I had to write this down. Maybe somehow I could get it to Asher and they would see what I meant. My fingers moved quickly as I scribbled the words down.

Then I heard footsteps behind me. A hand grabbed mine and ripped the paper away.

"Looks like I can't trust you at all, huh?" Venom said.

He read the piece of paper and smiled.

"You make a pretty good stenographer, but too bad your boyfriend will never get to see this," he said. He ripped the paper up and threw it to the floor. "Silly me for trusting you with pen and paper."

Venom pushed me against the wall, holding my wrists above my head with one hand. The other circled around my throat.

"I really don't want to hurt you," he said. "Not yet anyway. I want to see the look on your face when the Riders go down."

Venom released my throat and I gasped for air. What exactly was he going to do to me? He dragged his hand over my body, pressing against my skin.

"Do you really think you can stop us with your little note?"

He said. His voice dropped lower. "Wild won't even want you once I'm done with you."

Venom cocked his head to the side and yelled.

"Joel!"

He scampered out of the room, looking like he was about to be eaten.
 

"Get Keg and Clay. Tell them to bring one of the bitches' cuts," he said. "We're riding."

"Y-Yes sir," Joel stuttered. He rushed off to find the others.

Venom turned back to me. One side of his lip curled up into a sneer.

"You wanted to be an old lady, right?" he said. "We'll turn you into an old lady."

He dragged me outside. Clay and Keg appeared. They were holding a small leather jacket. On the back it said, "Property of Tarantula MC."
 

They forced it over my arms before tying my hands behind my back.

"Let's go," Venom said.

M
AYBE
I
SHOULD
'
VE
KNOWN
what was up, but it wasn't until we got in front of the club house that I realized. The three bikes pulled up right in front of the doorstep.

"Wild!" Venom yelled. I could hear his voice echoing in the distance. "Come on out, Wild! You have a visitor!"

My heart started to race. What was he
doing
? How would it help him to expose me?

The Riders crowded around the mansion's big windows, but no one dared to come out. This was Asher's business.
He
had to deal with it.