Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (18 page)

“You can barely stay awake,” Raze
whispered. “I’ll let you catch some sleep. I’m going to jump in the shower.”

I dragged myself up and threw on a
pair of yellow pajama pants and a thin, white tank top. I flicked off the
lights so that the room was pitch black except for the light escaping around
the cracks of the bathroom door. I crawled underneath he cool sheets and rested
my weary head on the flat, hotel pillow. Within seconds I was out cold, which
was why I was startled to be awoken shortly after with someone’s hand covering
my mouth.

I tried to scream, but
any sounds I attempted to make were muffled by the salty, hairy
hand of the heathen that was attempting to pull me out of bed
. I flailed
my arms and kicked my legs, but I was powerless. This guy was huge. He was a
brute. And he was quickly overpowering my small frame.

With his hand covering my mouth and
part of my nose, I could hardly breathe at all. I was sure I was going to pass
out if I continued fighting any harder, but my instincts refused to let me give
up.

It all seemed like a blur. One
minute I was sound asleep in the bed, and the next minute I was out in the
hallway with this guy being drug down the carpet against my will. I hoped and
prayed with every fiber of my being that Raze would emerge from the shower
within seconds, see the bed empty, and go looking for me, but I knew it was a
long stretch. If only life operated that way.

The guy finished dragging me down
the hall until we got to an exit door that
lead
outside to the parking lot. It was the back lot, one that seemed to be seldom
used, and waiting just mere steps away was a rusted, blue pickup truck with
another man sitting in the driver’s seat. The passenger door was already open,
and the other guy kicked it wide once he saw us. My kidnapper flipped the seat
forward and threw me in the back seat.

“Lay down, bitch!” he yelled.

For the first time, he wasn’t
behind me anymore and I could see his face. It was the blonde biker. The one
who had attacked Raze, and the one who we were pretty sure we’d seen in the
diner the night before.

I glanced around the backseat of
the truck. There were no doors or windows. There was no way I could escape.

The second the blonde biker hoisted
his big, burly body inside the truck, we peeled off and out of the parking lot.
I’ll never forget the piercing sound of squealing tires and the smell of
burning rubber. They couldn’t have gotten out of there any faster.

“
Whoo
hoo
!” the driver yelled with a huge grin on his face. “We
did it, Shark!”

Shark must have been the blonde
one’s name.

They were dressed in jeans and
flannel this time. They must have traded in their cuts and leather chaps in
order to blend in a bit more. I wondered how the hell they found us all the way
in Reno, and I’d determined they must have been much smarter than we assumed.

“What are you doing with me?” I
asked. I tried to sound strong, but I knew they could hear the shaking in my
voice.

“Don’t worry about it, pretty
lady,” Shark said. “You’ll see soon enough.”

I felt a sick, twisted feeling in
the pit of my stomach. I knew this wasn’t going to end up good for me. I
remembered
Raze’s
comment about his mom being a
trophy for a rival gang because of his dad’s position of power, and I hoped
this was nothing like that. My mind began wandering and envisioning being
tortured by these men, but I put a stop to it as soon as I could. I didn’t want
to panic yet. I didn’t want to play all my good cards and let them know I was
scared. I had to be smart about this and hope that Raze would get to me in
time. I refused to give up hope. Not yet.

We drove. And drove. And drove. I
tried to check the clock on the dash as much as possible, but every time I’d
peek my head up, I’d get yelled at.

“Knock that off, you dumb bitch!”
Shark would
yell
as he’d reach his arm back and smack
me across the side of my head. “I told you to keep down!”

It took everything I had to keep my
composure. All I wanted to do was curl into a circle and bawl my eyes out. I
wanted to be anywhere but there. I glanced around on the floor of the
backseat,
looking for some sort of tool I could bash them
over the back of the head with. I remembered my dad always kept tools in the
back of his truck. But the truck was clean. There was nothing back there. Not a
wrench. Not a soda can or beer bottle. Nothing.

I laid back and closed my eyes,
pretending to be on a warm, sandy beach with Raze by my side. It seemed
completely ridiculous to think about that given the circumstances, but I had to
keep calm.

The last time I looked at the
clock, it read 12:15am. I remembered it being a little past ten when I’d first
looked at it. If I had to guess, I’d say we were in California by now, that is,
if we were headed west. I didn’t know which way we were headed to be honest.

“Let’s pull off over here,” Shark
said to the other biker.

I was trying to stay awake as every
once in a while they’d talk to each other, but it was getting harder and
harder. At first the jolt of adrenaline coursing through my veins had kept me
wired and alert, but now my body just wanted to surrender to the soft drum of
the truck engine and the sound of the wheels against the pavement below me. It
was lulling me to sleep, and there was nothing I could do about it.

By the time I awoke, the sun was
out. It was the next morning. That was the only thing I knew. We had driven all
night long, and the sound of crunching gravel beneath the tires told me we were
coming to a stop.

“Wait here,” Shark said as he
climbed out of the truck.

“Don’t you do anything stupid now,
girl,” the driver said. “Stay down until we tell you to move.”

I said nothing.

We waited for what felt like
forever before Shark climbed back in the truck.

“Got us a room for later tonight,”
he said. “Two beds. Check in is at three.”

I saw him wink at the other guy as
he nudged back at me, and I wanted to puke.

“So what the fuck are we going to
do all day?” the driver asked.

“Chill out, Rip,” he said. “We’ll
figure it out. Boss wants us to stick around here for a bit anyway.”

“Why?” Rip, the driver, asked.
“What the hell for? I thought we was supposed to go to Maynard with the girl
next?”

“Who the hell knows with him,”
Shark said. “We just
gotta
do what we’re told.”

Rip sighed. “Well I know one thing.
I’m
fuckin
’
starvin
’.”

The truck peeled out of the parking
lot of what was apparently a motel and made a
bee line
for a local McDonald’s. As we approached the drive thru, I could smell the
fresh coffee, eggs, and pancakes wafting through the windows. I didn’t know how
I could eat at a time like that, but my stomach was rumbling loud. I knew I
needed to eat something.

“Yeah, I’ll take a number one with
a coffee,” Rip said. “What do you want, Shark?”

“Give me a number four,” Shark
said. “With an orange juice.”

“And a number four with an O.J.,”
Rip said.

“Will that complete your order?”
the employee asked.

“Yep, that’ll be it,” Rip yelled
out.

I couldn’t believe they weren’t
going to feed me.

“What if I wanted something,” I
piped up from the back seat. I had hoped maybe they’d just forgotten about me.

Rip let out a loud cackle and
exchanged glances with Shark.

“Oh, honey, we don’t have enough
money for you,” he said. “You’re going to have to make some money tonight if
you want to eat.”

“What are you talking about?” I
asked.

“You didn’t think we wouldn’t put
ya
to work, did
ya
?” Rip asked as
he turned around. “You have to earn your keep if you’re going to be tagging
along with us. We don’t have enough money to go around, baby doll.”

They pulled up and got their food,
throwing a
ten dollar
bill at the window server. The
car immediately filled with the sweet and savory scent of fast food breakfast,
and my stomach gurgled even louder. I watched them devour their sandwiches and
shove their hash browns into their greasy mouths, slurping their drinks loudly
and laughing.

“I’m so full,” Shark lamented as he
patted his belly a short time later.

“That was so good,” Rip replied.
“Man that was good.”

I was pretty sure they were just
saying that to torture me. These men were a lot smarter than they looked, and I
knew they were up to something.

I laid my head
down,
hoping the smell of their food would soon leave the air, and tried to ignore my
hunger pangs. I tried not to think about my empty stomach or the fact that I
was completely and utterly powerless. I tried not to think about what they were
going to do with me that night or what I’d have to do to “earn my keep”. I
closed my eyes tight and thought about Raze. I thought about everything I’d
been willing to do to be with him, and I hadn’t come this far to give up now. I
was a fighter. I was going to keep fighting. I was going to do whatever I had
to do to get back with him, even if it damn near killed me.

I was startled awake when the truck
came to an abrupt halt. Apparently I’d fallen asleep again. Extreme stress
tended to wear me out like that. I immediately kicked myself for allowing that
to happen. I was trying so hard to pay attention to where we were going, pick
up little clues, and listen to what the guys were saying to each other.

“Wake up, princess,” Rip sneered.
“We’re home. At least, this is going to be home for you for a little bit.”

We must have been back at the motel
that Shark reserved earlier, which was good to know. I must not have been
asleep for that long, and we must not have left town. A wave of relief shot
over me as I began to sit up. Pain shot down my back as I had been on my side
for hours. My leg was almost numb and my hands were imprinted with the pattern
from the upholstery.

I smacked my mouth a little, which
was parched, and dreamed about how amazing it would feel to have a toothbrush
in that moment. Given the circumstances, I had no idea why I was thinking about
something as trivial as brushing my teeth and not thinking about how to get the
hell out of there.

Shark hopped out of the truck, but
not before turning back to me and waving his finger in my face.

“Don’t do anything stupid,
ya
hear?” he said. There was a command in his voice that
shook me to my very core. Shark was pure evil, and I knew not to try anything.

He came back a few minutes later,
climbed in, and pointed to a more secluded area of the parking lot surrounded
by trees and away from the street. Rip pulled up, shoved the truck in park, and
climbed out to stretch. Shark hopped out, flipped the seat up, and grabbed a
roll of duct tape from the front seat.

He reached back and wrapped my
wrists together behind my back using the tape. There was no escaping that bind.
He threw a jacket around my shoulders to disguise the fact that I was
restrained, and slipped his heavy arm around my shoulders.

“Keep your trap shut, you little
bitch,” he whispered in my ear as he escorted us to our motel room. “One crazy
idea and I blow your brains out.”

He patted his front jeans pocket to
indicate that he was serious. I couldn’t tell if there really was a gun in
there or not, but I knew better than to test him.

We approached our room, and I was
sure to make a mental note that it was room 23B on the second floor. I didn’t
know if it would even come in handy for me later, but I had to take in as much
as I possibly could just in case.

Shark unlocked the door and flung
it open, shoving me inside. I nearly tripped over my own feet, not having my
hands to keep my balance, and landed face down on one of the queen beds. The
room smelled musty, like an old 70s camper, and the carpet was a putrid shade
of shaggy green.

“Oh, look, she wants to start the
party early,” Rip laughed as he followed us in and shut the door behind him. I
heard the click of the deadbolt and the clink of the chain lock, and my heart
sunk.