CHAINED: A Motorcycle Club Romance (2 page)

She looked like she was in her middle twenties, he guessed, although it was hard to say for certain. Her mess of hair was full of dirt and mats, but he played his light over her and guessed that it might be a reddish blonde if she cleaned all the grime out of it.

The woman didn't respond at his touch. Cain turned her head to the side, looking at the profile of her face.

She wasn't beautiful, not quite, he thought. Each of her features, on its own, wasn't particularly appealing. But they all came together somehow in a way that worked, that became more than the sum of its parts, that made her seem like, if she smiled, she might be attractive, in her own sort of way.

A shadow on her neck caught Cain's eye. He trailed his light downward.

She wasn't wearing much in terms of clothing, he observed, not making much of it. Unlike some of the other men who occasionally crashed in his house, he wasn't driven by his libido. She had on a torn half shirt and a pair of cloth shorts, little more than boxers. It was clear from how the drenched clothing lay against her skin that she wore no underwear beneath.

But visible all over her skin, across most of her body, were dark marks, blue and black and purple. Bruises. Whatever this woman had been through before she'd collapsed down on Cain's front hall, it had been hell for her.

Cain felt his throat tightening, a low growl slipping out of his lips as he noted the pattern of dark bruises on the woman's neck. They formed four lines in one direction, one line in another. Just to check, he held his hand a fraction of an inch from her neck, aligning it with those dark marks.

Sure enough, it fit. Someone had been strangling her, tightly enough to leave deep bruises beneath her skin.

Cain rose up from his crouch, still staring down at this woman. He wasn't some charity case, he thought to himself. He didn't take in strays. He ran his house, his brothers came by and went at their leisure, but they knew better than to drop off some runaway for him, as if he would care for her out of the goodness of his heart.

Cain rarely thought about his heart, but he suspected that the organ had mostly withered away to a black husk.

But something about that pattern of bruises on the woman's neck made him pause. And besides, what else could he do? He considered just dumping her back outside, but judging from her current condition, the woman would likely be dead by morning.

Then, he considered with a grunt of distaste, he'd have to get rid of the body. And that involved digging a hole, finding some place on his property that wasn't likely to be disturbed. That sounded like a lot of work.

He came to a decision. Turning his head, he aimed the flashlight back down the hall.

"Cheery!" he bellowed, using his big lungs to project the shout down towards the doors at the far end of the hall.

After a moment, one of the doors opened, and a woman stuck her head and shoulders out. "What the hell?" she called back, blinking sleep out of her eyes.

Cain just waited. After another minute, the woman sighed, opened the door, and padded down towards him. She wore only a pair of black panties, more lace than actual fabric, and she made no effort to cover up her tits.

"God, Cain, you know that it's, like, midnight, don't you?" the woman complained as she drew closer. "And besides, Tommy's in with me. If you woke him up, I'm gonna have to spread my legs for him again, and he's been at me twice already tonight-"

The big man didn't bother trying to interrupt Cheery's flow of complaints. After another minute or so, she finally paused for breath, and he gestured downward at the prone body at his feet.

Cheery cut off her stream of complaints mid-word and looked down, surprised. "Who's this?" she asked.

Cain shrugged his shoulders. "Dunno. Just found her here. She stumbled in, must have collapsed."

"No one dropped her off?" Cheery squatted down, brushing back her blonde hair. Her dye job was starting to wear off at the roots, revealing her hair's original dark color, but Cain doubted the woman would care if anyone pointed it out. "I thought you don't take in strays?"

"Look at her throat."

Just as it had taken Cain a moment, Cheery had to peer at the unconscious woman's throat for a moment before the dark lines made sense. She hissed, drawing back a little. "Someone's been rough with her," she commented.

Cain nodded.

Cheery kept on running her eyes down, examining the rest of the unconscious woman's body. Most of it was visible through her wimpy clothing, revealing many more bruises. "Very rough," she went on, shaking her head. "And this doesn't look like the kind of bruises that come from consensual things."

She glanced up at Cain, who pointed with one finger at the woman's legs. He raised his eyebrows in unspoken question.

Cheery immediately grasped his meaning. She hissed. "You think she was-"

Cain shrugged his shoulders. "Think you can find a place for her?" he asked.

For a moment, the nearly naked woman frowned, reaching up and running a hand back through her hair and fluffing it up. "Tommy's not gonna be happy about me kicking him out," she commented.

"Tell him to take it up with me."

That comment made Cheery grin a little wider. "I'd love to see Tommy try to challenge you," she said. "I bet he'd get seven kinds of hell beat out of him before he gave up and called it defeat."

Cain just shrugged again. He really didn't care about the hotheaded younger biker. Tommy might have a bit of a mouth on him, love to play around with some of the women who called Cain's house their semi-permanent residence, but he knew better than to challenge Cain about it.

Cheery's grin shifted a little, and she leaned closer to Cain. She pushed out her chest a bit as she leaned up against the man's arm, rubbing her tits on him. "You know, you never come down and pay me a visit," she murmured, sliding one hand along his chest, feeling through his tee shirt. "I'm sure that you'd blow any of Tommy's efforts out of the water."

Maybe, if he was younger, he might have responded to Cheery's nearly naked body pressed up against him, her fingers now wandering down towards his belt buckle. But Cain just grasped her hand and firmly pulled it away. "I don't think so," he said. "Just put her away. Maybe try and get her name or something out of her if she wakes up, so we can figure out where to get rid of her."

The whore shook her head as she pulled her hands off of Cain. "You really are made of ice, aren't you?" she remarked, bending down to lift up the unconscious woman from the floor. "Wow, she weighs next to nothing - she must be little more than skin and bones!"

Cain said nothing. He just watched as Cheery carried the unconscious woman back to her room. Tommy might make a fuss, but he wouldn't say no to Cheery, especially not after she'd given herself to him for most of the night.

After the whore had disappeared back into her room, Cain rubbed one hand over his face. He turned to head back upstairs, but he suspected that now, with this new arrival weighing on his mind, sleep would not be quick in coming.

Chapter three

Sure enough, just as Cheery had suspected, Tommy was grumpy and annoyed at being woken up and told that he had to get out of her bed.

"Aww, come on, Cheery," the man complained, propping himself up on those big biceps that Cheery liked so much when they curled protectively around her after one of their fucking sessions. "I'm already here, already asleep - can't I just stick around?"

Cheery carefully deposited the unconscious woman in her arms down on the side of the bed before responding. "Listen, Cain said so," she told Tommy, crossing her arms beneath her breasts.

Of course, the young man's eyes immediately shot to how her tits stuck out. He was naked beneath the bedsheet, of course, and Cheery saw his cock stiffening already beneath the thin cover. She momentarily had to push down a little amused smile. Tommy had already shot his load twice tonight, and he was still perking up for another session? God, this young man was almost too much, even for Cheery!

But she held her gaze firm, and Tommy caved after another minute. "Fine, fine, if Cain says so," he grunted, rolling over and fumbling for where his boxers had landed on the floor. Finding them, he hitched them up his legs to his ass, and glanced over at the unconscious woman. "So, who's she?"

"No idea," Cheery replied, shrugging. "Someone dumped her here, I guess. Cain told me to take care of her for now, at least until the morning. Then we'll figure out how to get rid of her."

Tommy ran his eyes over the unconscious woman, but didn't look too interested. "Too skinny," he dismissed her. He stood up, bending over to grab his shirt and treating Cheery to a brief but glorious view of his muscled ass and backside.

Once he'd pulled most of his clothing back on, the young biker grinned at Cheery, stepping up to her and looping one arm around her waist to pull the whore's naked form up against his body. "See you tomorrow?" he asked, as his hand dropped down to grope the woman's ass through her lacy panties.

"I might need a couple days to recover, Tommy," Cheery replied, unable to keep from giggling a little as the man leaned in to kiss hungrily at her cheek. "You're enthusiastic, but god, you leave me sore as hell the morning after!"

That put a grin on the man's face, just as Cheery had known that it would. "Eh, maybe I'll go see one of your sisters," he remarked. "Maybe one of them can better handle a good fuck!"

Cheery just managed to wait until he'd left her room before she smirked. Tommy might talk about visiting one of the other girls in the house, but she knew he'd be back to her as soon as she beckoned to him. The kid was basically driven by his dick, and Cheery knew just how to wrap her lips around it to make him moan as he blasted out his load-

She shook her head, pushing down the fantasy. No point in getting herself worked up with thoughts of the young man riding her, having his way with her. Not after she'd just kicked him out.

Maybe she could have given him one more ride, or at least a quick suck before he left...

Still forcing those thoughts down, Cheery turned her attention to the young woman lying unconscious on the side of her bed. Her smile shifted to a frown of annoyance. Why did Cain have to pass this crap off onto her?

Well, it was probably because she'd been around the longest, she reflected ruefully as she clicked on the light overhead. She'd been one of the first to rent a room from the biker, and although the man was prickly and permanently grouchy, he slowly warmed up to her. He'd never tried her body, although she'd offered herself up to him plenty of times, but his interactions with her slowly but surely grew less confrontational.

And besides, if he ever did try and kick her out, she'd fucked enough of his fellow Iron Skulls to earn favors from most of the whole gang. Cain would find find a lot of his fellow bikers, including some of the other officers, angry with him if he tried to push her out.

Grinning a little at the thought of how the grouchy older biker would struggle to deal with that can of worms, Cheery turned her attention to the woman on the bed. She checked the girl's pulse first, and found it slow but steady. Surprising, especially considering all the bruises and other signs of abuse on her body.

First, Cheery decided, she had to get these soaking wet fragments of clothing off of the girl's body. They were a size too small, and after a couple unsuccessful attempts, the whore ended up finding a pair of scissors and carefully cutting them off. They really weren't good for anything but rags, anyway.

With the girl naked, Cheery examined her body more closely before putting her in some cleaner, drier clothing. Sure enough, just as she'd observed earlier, the girl's whole body seemed to be covered in bruises. There were some small, round scars on her stomach and arms, which Cheery recognized as cigarette burns. The whore's frown grew deeper and deeper. Whatever torture this poor girl had been through, it was enough to make even Cheery's stomach churn.

Almost fearing what she'd find, Cheery nudged the girl's legs apart, taking a look inside with clinical detachment. But even that inner calm shook a bit as she saw the signs of abuse on the girl's inner thighs.

Someone, at least one person, had been raping this girl regularly.

Cheery was familiar with a lot of sin, as came from anyone who hung around with the Iron Skulls. But although she knew that the bikers would happily cross many boundaries, rape was most definitely not one of them. She'd personally promised to slide a knife between the ribs of any of the bikers she caught pulling shit like that, and this wasn't an idle threat.

Carefully, as tenderly as she could manage, Cheery pulled a shirt and a pair of clean, dry sweatpants onto the girl's thin body. She really was little more than skin and bones, she thought, with a surprising and uncharacteristic surge of affection. This woman had definitely been through hell.

As the warm clothing slid up the girl's thin body, she let out a soft noise and curled up, almost instinctively cringing away. That little sound made Cheery sigh, and she patted the girl on her back.

"I don't know who you are, but don't worry," she murmured down to the girl. "You're safe now, and I won't let anyone touch you."