Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (23 page)

“Uh, oh,” I heard Rip say as he
looked to Shark.

Shark looked slightly uneasy. “Keep
moving. Keep your head down.”

As we walked out, myself sandwiched
between them, I glanced up to see if the men were from another gang or if they
were another chapter of the Marquis Devils. The minute I lifted my head, I was
met with the most familiar green eyes I never thought I’d see again in my life.

“Red!” I yelled out at the top of
my lungs.

Red was in his own world, but
quickly turned towards the sound of my voice. He squinted, as if I looked
familiar to him, and scratched his curly red hair. I remembered then that I was
no longer blonde, which wasn’t helping things.

“Red! It’s me, Mia!” I called out
to him. I knew he had no reason to care about me or want to help me given how
our last interaction went, but at that point he was the only hope I had in the
entire world.

I felt a sharp blow to the back of
my head and immediately fell to my knees. By the time I reached my hand up to
comfort the throbbing pain in the back of my skull, everything went black.

By the time I came to, I tasted the
tacky, sticky glue of what could only be duct tape across my mouth.
My lips were covered by a strip of it
, and I was breathing
heavily out of my nose.

“
Mmm
,” I
said through the muffle of the tape. I wanted them to know I was awake. I could
see the soft pink glow of sunrise filling the sky, which told me we’d been driving
all night. I’d been out for hours.

“Look who’s up,” Rip snorted.

Shark flipped around and shot me
the most evil look he’d ever mustered yet.

“You like that tape on your mouth,
you little bitch?” he said. “I knew it. I knew you just couldn’t keep your
mouth shut.
You cost us two hundred bucks
,
you little whore
. How you
gonna
get that back for us now?”

“Not to mention we had to
reconfigure our plans,” he said. “You blew our cover.”

Shark nudged him in the rib cage as
if to tell him to shut the fuck up.

“You think you had it coming to
ya
last night,” Shark heaved. “Tonight’s going to be even
worse for you. I’m talking at least two to three men an hour for six hours.
That pussy’s taking a pounding. It’s only fair.”

My eyes burned hot as tears began
to flow. I knew they were serious. I knew I had pissed them off, but I didn’t
regret it. Not yet. Yelling at Red was my only opportunity to get away from
them. It may have backfired on me, but I would have kicked myself had I not at
least tried.

I thought about how Raze had thrown
away his phone. Even if Red wanted to get a hold of Raze, and I was sure he
wouldn’t want to, he’d have no way to do so. Red probably hated me anyway. He
probably figured I had moved on to another MC. He never saw me as anything
besides a common biker slut wannabe. He owed me nothing.

We drove for a few more hours
before stopping at a rest stop just off the interstate. It was completely
vacant. Not another car was parked anywhere near us, though I could still hear
the whirring of all the other vehicles as they passed us by on the interstate.

“I’m
gonna
take a piss,” Shark said. “Rip, don’t let her
out for any reason, you hear?”

“Got it,” Rip said as he turned his
body around to face me.

Shark climbed out of the truck, turning
to look at us before turning back and heading inside the rest stop.

I reached my hand up to peel off
the duct tape but soon realized my wrists were also bound together. I looked up
at Rip, begging and pleading with my eyes to un-restrain me. I hoped he had an
ounce of humanity in him, though my instincts told me I was wrong.

“I can’t undo
ya
,”
he said. “Shark would kill me. You know that.”

I wiped my tear stained cheeks on
my shoulder as they had begun to make my cheeks itch as they dried. I glanced
around to see if there was a sign of any sort, telling me where we were. I saw
a green sign with the Nevada state flag on it, and I wondered if we were
heading closer to Raze. Maybe they’d put a ransom on me? Maybe they’d contacted
Raze and were going to meet up with him? Maybe we’d run into him somehow? A
million thoughts raced through my mind as I had suddenly gotten back an ounce
of the hope I’d completely lost earlier.

Shark climbed back in the truck a
few minutes later, and I saw him look back to make sure I was still gagged and
bound. I rolled my eyes at him the moment he turned back around.

“My turn,” Rip said as he climbed
out and ran for the bathroom. I’d never noticed before, but he sort of had a
waddle about him. Sort of ironic for someone who was in some
bad-ass
biker gang. He seemed so harmless sometimes, but I knew better. His worst
quality was that he did whatever he was told. He didn’t think for himself. He
was nothing but a minion. An evil minion that did whatever he was told without
question.

Shark reached back around and
ripped the duct tape off my mouth without any sort of notice. I swore it pulled
out every tiny, downy soft hair on my face.

“Ouch!” I cried out, though I was
beyond grateful to have that thing off my face. I liked my lips a little, which
were dry and sticky at the same time, and tried to wipe them off on my
shoulder.

“Now,” he said. “Did you learn your
lesson?”

I nodded slowly. I wanted him to
think I was a good, obedient little girl. I didn’t want the duct tape on my
mouth again.

“You make one more outburst like
that again, and you’ll be sorry,” he said. He didn’t get into specifics, but
knowing him, I was better off not knowing anyway. He was capable of anything.
He was a monster.

Coward, I called him in my head.
Pathetic coward.

“What the fuck’s taking Rip so
long?” he said to himself as he peered around the parking lot.

A red minivan carrying a family
pulled up right next to us. One by one, the members of the family started
piling out. They had at least three kids, maybe four. They looked like such a
happy clan. They all stood around and stretched their legs, and the little boy
who was maybe no older than five, jumped and ran around the empty parking space
beside them.

“Get down,” Shark
growled
as he must have remembered I was sitting upright in
the back. I hadn’t even realized I had sat myself up. Usually I knew better. I
guess he didn’t realize it either.

“They’ve already seen me. Wouldn’t
it be weird if I suddenly laid down and disappeared?” I asked. I knew I had a
good point.

Shark sighed. “Yeah, whatever. Just
don’t make eye contact with them. Face away.”

Rip finally returned after several
long minutes and climbed back in the truck, starting it up.

“What the fuck took you so long?”
Shark asked as he swapped him over the head.

“Ouch, geez,” Rip replied. “I had
to shit. Since you just have to know.”

“Come on. Let’s go,” Shark replied
as he nodded towards the interstate. “We’re wasting time.”

I tried to be as quiet and
unnoticeable as possible in the back seat, something I’d become very good at
lately, as I hoped they wouldn’t make me lay down again. I felt paralyzed much
of the time as I felt like Shark would reach back at any moment and cram my
head down on the back seat.

My eyes danced around as much as
possible, trying to figure out where we were headed. I saw signs that said Reno
was just an hour away, and I assumed that’s where we were headed. My stomach
ruffled a bit with butterflies as I hoped and prayed Raze was still there.
Knowing him, however, he was probably on his hog, wind at his back, trying to
find me. He had probably left Reno days ago when he first saw that I’d been
taken.

Deep down, I wondered if he thought
maybe I’d left on my own accord. I hoped and prayed that he knew me better than
that. My purse and all my belongings were still in the room. He was smart. I
had to believe he’d know that I’d never leave him.

I looked up at the clock on the
radio as my stomach began to growl. It was almost eleven now, and we’d been
driving for hours. I wanted to ask for food so badly, but knowing how I screwed
up their horrific
money-making
scheme the night
before, I knew I didn’t have a leg to stand on.

My eyes focused on the bottle of
soda resting in the console in the front. I had never been a huge soda drinker,
but in that moment I was parched and wanted nothing more but to feel the cold,
sweet, sugary wetness filling my mouth and dripping down my throat. I’d have
given anything for a sip, just one sip, but I knew it was out of the question.

As we drove off, I realized I, too,
had to pee.
I had missed my chance though
,
I just knew it
. I squeezed my legs together, terrified to
ask them to let me relieve myself, and tried to ignore the burning sensation.
Each bump in the road sent my bladder reeling, though, and I wasn’t sure how
much longer I could hold it.

“Guys,” I said softly. “I really
have to go to the bathroom.”

“We just left a rest stop!” Rip
said. “Are you kidding me?”

“Ha, you had your chance,” Shark
snickered.

“I didn’t think you’d let me go,” I
said. “And I didn’t realize I had to go so bad until a little bit ago. Please.”

They were silent, and I could tell
Shark was particularly annoyed with me.

“Pull off over there,” Shark said
to
Rip
as he pointed towards an exit sign that led to
a highway.

Rip took the exit and turned right
onto a dusty highway. They drove for a bit until they spotted a gravel road. My
bladder was about to burst, so I squeezed my legs tighter and tighter. It was
all I could do to not piss myself in the truck.

“Over there,” Shark said as he
pointed to a seemingly secluded yet
wide open
area.
Nothing but cacti, sand, and rocks surrounded us.

Rip pulled the truck onto the side
of the road, and Shark hopped out.

“Don’t try anything stupid,” he
said as he let me out.

I climbed out and took my time
stretching out my cramped legs.
That backseat was painfully
small, and I’d been crammed back there for pretty much half a day.

“Hurry up,” Shark huffed as he took
in our surroundings. He seemed to be looking over his shoulder. I prayed right
then and there that someone would drive by and I could flag
them
down, but I knew the likelihood of that was slim to none.

I walked around to the back of the
truck and my fingers fumbled to undo my jeans. I turned my face only to be met
with Shark standing right in front of me with his arms crossed, staring.

“You’re going to fucking watch me?”
I snorted. “Can’t a girl get any privacy?”

“I’ve got to make sure you don’t do
anything stupid,” he said, his eyes burning into mine. “Trust me, watching you
piss doesn’t do a damn thing for me. Don’t flatter yourself.”

By that point I didn’t have time to
keep arguing with him. I slid my jeans down and popped a squat, bracing myself
against the truck and spreading my legs wide as to avoid any splatter. This was
the only good thing about the crotch-less teddy I still had on.

I peed for what felt like minutes,
and soon a sweet relief poured over me. I felt normal again for a split second,
aside from everything that was going on. I felt slightly human.

“Come on, get back in the truck,”
Shark said as I took my time pulling up my jeans. I think he could tell it was
deliberate, but I didn’t care.

I walked slowly back towards the
passenger door, kicking the rocks all the while. They felt hard and rumbly
under my feet and reminded me of the night I followed Raze to his hotel room
when I was about to be initiated for the first time with his dad and uncle.

Shark opened the door and shoved
his hand onto the back of my head, forcing me in.

“Ouch,” I said as I rubbed the back
of my head. His fingers had been tangled in my messy hair, and I was pretty
sure he’d ripped out a small fistful when he did that.

“Shut up,” Shark said before
turning to
Rip
and huffing. “I’m getting so sick of
this bitch.”