Night After Night (Night Riders Motorcycle Club Book 1) (4 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

“Oh we have a contest now!”

Tuning out the sound of the auctioneer’s voice, Lauren narrowed her eyes as a lean, shadowy figure stepped into view, and in spite of her naked, vulnerable state, Lauren knew what it was to hope again.

“What the fuck, Blake?” Eric seized the other man by his collar and tried to wrestle him back into the shadows. But Blake, if that was his name, was not budging an inch, and Lauren’s eyes locked on his.

He was tall and, even through his leather jacket, Lauren detected the muscles making up the better part of his frame. His face was long and sculpted, and, even in the dim light of the crowd, his blue pools sparkled as he focused on her. Maybe he was the good man in a throng of villains. He would outbid Eric and set her on the back on the road out of this nightmare.

Help me. Please…

“Where the fuck you get 25K for this cunt?” Eric challenged.

Blake turned to Eric and gritted his teeth. “Maybe I don’t waste my time on every slit on the block.”

The other men cheered and smacked their hands together. Yes. This man was discerning. Different.

Let him buy me. Let him save me. Let him…

“30K,” Eric challenged.

Lauren shuddered, but her fears were swiftly allayed when Blake rose to the challenge.

“35,” Blake challenged.

The room grew darker, and out of the corner of her eye, Lauren saw Silas salivating over the prospect of a supreme payday. Hate filled her heart, but Lauren held her tongue. Let him get his payday, and let Blake win. He would help her. He would…

“40!” Eric bellowed.

Looking away from Silas, Lauren trembled when she saw Blake pull back. Was he giving up just like that? Lauren was on the verge of screaming for him to make a higher bid when Blake made his play. “45 and that’s fucking final!”

Instead of charging forward and taking her into his arms, Blake grabbed Eric by his throat and pushed him back into the shadows. Sinking to her naked knees, Lauren craned her neck forward and gasped.

“Fucking final!”

Before Eric could get a word in edgewise, Blake formed a fist. He was about to land the fatal blow when Eric bobbed and weaved. “Fucking ass!” Eric lowered his head and drove it into Blake’s middle. He went flying, and when he stumbled to the ground, Lauren couldn’t think, she couldn’t breathe as Eric fell on top of him with a snarl. “Don’t you challenge me!” Eric said. “If I want her, I get her.”

Eric leered in her direction, and Lauren could no longer see any way out. Blake felt like her last chance, but Silas encouraged Eric to take his pound of flesh and run with it. “Go for 50!” Silas yelled. “Want a big payday for this one.”

Eric nodded, and when he pounded his fist into Blake’s face and found his way back to his feet, Lauren felt her body hauled back to the light. Eric crept close to the edge of the stage, and his hands started to run up her leg. With a wicked grin, Eric dragged his hands up towards her pussy, and Lauren whimpered as his hand grazed her cunt.

“Going once,” the auctioneer started. “Going twice…”

Lauren closed her eyes and wished that she could disappear and die before the final call. She still wanted to kick and run, but there were too many men to contend with, and she wouldn’t make it very far…

“Maybe I want her more!”

Lifting her lids, Lauren saw Blake back on his feet, and she hoped again when Blake grabbed Eric and pulled him away from Lauren’s side.

“So keep your fucking hands off!”

Blake crushed Eric into the ground, and he fell on top of him. Removing his jacket, Lauren saw the rage rippling down his back, and every vein in his arms pulsed as he started to beat Eric’s face to pulp.

“60 fucking K!” he screamed.

He was going to save her, after all, but suddenly Lauren feared that even he wasn’t the best option. Someone this rough would never be kind with her, would only turn his fists on her if given the chance…

Lauren tried to flee from the stage when Silas caught hold of her waist and glowered. “Don’t you run off now,” Silas threatened. “You’re about to bring me a huge chunk of change.”

Without thinking, Lauren started to slap Silas’ face and her body thrashed against his as he gripped her arms.

“Let me go!” Lauren screamed. “You can’t do this to me! You–”

“Damn fucking straight!”

Lauren was stunned when a pair of strong hands pulled her away from Silas. Whipping her head over her shoulder, she saw nothing but Blake, and before she could protest, he pushed her behind his back.

“Stay still,” Blake hissed.

Listening even as she no longer trusted him, Lauren hung back and waited, desperate to cover her body with her arms, as Blake reached into his pocket and tossed a pile of bills in Silas’ face.

“Your services are no longer needed,” Blake said.

Silas crouched down to collect the bills, and as he counted out the amount, a frown crossed his face.

“This is it?” Silas asked. “Come fucking on, man. Eric would give me–”

“It ain’t Eric’s show anymore,” Blake said.

“But I brought you new meat!” Silas whined. “And I should–”

“You should take your fucking finder’s fee and get the hell out!”

As Lauren cowered behind Blake’s back, she saw the man that had seemed liked her savior fall to the ground and pocket the stray bills. Crawling back to Tim’s side, the men argued, but Silas ordered his friend to let it lie, that they would find a better way to a larger pay day. A small piece of Lauren’s soul smiled as her abductors slunk away, but that feeling swiftly subsided when the mustached auctioneer pulled her arm over her head and paraded her before the crowd, their collective voices rising to attention yet again.

“So it’s a surprise winner!” the auctioneer cried. “Mr. Blake Bell!”

The crowd cheered, and when she looked back at Blake he sniffed towards his feet. Lauren had no way of knowing what he would do with her if given the chance, and before she could demand an answer, her body was pulled away from the stage.

“Now sit and wait like a good little girl.”

The auctioneer smirked, and strange hands enveloped Lauren’s shaking arms. As she was led down the staircase, she saw the rows of bound girls, and she struggled as a new cloth met her eyes.

“Don’t!” Lauren screamed. “You can’t–”

Her cries were silenced by a swift punch to the gut. The shackles returned to her wrists, and Lauren moaned as her body hit the wall. Holding her hooded head in her hands, Lauren fought to suppress the tears darting out of her eyes, and she started when a soft hand met her back.

“Hang in there, honey. The worst is over.”

But even at the sound of the strange woman’s voice, Lauren wasn’t sure of anything, and she blindly gripped her arm and managed to press her lips to the friendly ear.

“I… I don’t know,” Lauren started.

“Honey, Eric’ll get bored,” she said. “And you’ll get used to the block. You’ll–”

“No!” Lauren screamed. “You don’t–”

“Kid, this is your life now,” the woman said. “Best to get used to it.”

She could never do that. Lauren would never accept her fate as a slave and simply languish to the point where she was fit for nothing but to give advice to new girls as they were lured into the web. But at this moment, she couldn’t dread the months, the years that might mean this life and nothing else. There was only one name on her mind, and she pulled the woman in for a whisper. “Tell me about Blake Bell,” she begged.

Lauren felt the woman start to back away, but Lauren held her close and repeated her question.

“Blake Bell bought you?” she asked.

Muttering yes, Lauren held her breath and waited for an answer. When the woman stayed silent, Lauren’s heart froze, and she pressed her fingers into the woman’s hand and weakly pleaded for something, anything, that might put her mind at ease.

“Man’s a mystery,” the woman said.

Those words did nothing to put Lauren’s mind at ease, but she kept her hand on the woman’s arm and asked for more.

“Nothing much to tell,” she said. “He’s a Night Rider, but he’s out of the mix. He keeps to himself, and he’s never come to the dance.”

But tonight was different. Blake had leapt into action and pounded his fists into another man to win her. But to what end? Someone that could be so rough had to have a reason to take his first step, and Lauren wanted him to be her hero. But what if he sensed her raw terror as soon as he saw her? Maybe he wanted her under his power so that he could torment her in new ways, and with no road map to follow, Lauren quivered.

“Don’t be scared,” the hidden woman cooed as she held her. “What I don’t know can’t hurt you. It–”

At that moment, Lauren heard a door swing open, and she lost the woman and any hope of comfort as her body was dragged away from the room of chains.

CHAPTER SIX

Her feet banged against the floor, and Lauren didn’t have a chance to catch her breath. Having to take the steps two at a time, she knew that she was back close to the crowd. She cringed at the sounds of hoots and hollers, and she moaned when her body was flung to a mattress, and she heard the sound of a door locking behind her.

It took her a few seconds to calm, but as soon as she felt secure in her forced solitude, Lauren lifted her hands to her eyes, and she stripped the blindfold away. Blinking hard against the harsh light, she twisted at the ropes around her wrists and peered up in terror mixed with untold anticipation.

“Glad we get some alone time,” he said.

Blake Bell. The man that had purchased her for God knew what. No. No she knew what; Lauren just didn’t want to think about it, and she trembled in her nakedness as his eyes lingered on her bare breasts.

“You look good,” he said. “Especially up close.”

Blake’s groan matched the slight pulse in his pants, and Lauren bowed her head, the long brown strands of her hair hiding her flushed face. She wanted to be anywhere else but here. Or at least be invisible. If he couldn’t see her, didn’t see her, maybe he would look elsewhere and give her the chance to escape. It wouldn’t be easy; naked and with a room of bikers, every cock hard, waiting just above. She could still hear their screams as the next girl found her way onto the block. But she couldn’t worry about some stranger’s fate.

Lauren had to find a way out of her own mess.

“Hey?” Blake said. “Don’t turn away from me.”

She bristled when his fingers pressed under her chin, and Lauren suddenly had no choice but to stare right into his eyes. Blue. Steel blue. Cold blue. His face was a collection of sharp lines, and if he had gotten close to her by any other means, she would have thought him handsome. No. No he was handsome. But his hard hands, his flowing cash was only in a place like this because he wanted a… a…

“What do you want to say to me?” Blake asked. “Who do you want me to be?”

The fact that he could somehow read her thoughts intrigued and terrified her in equal measures. Lauren swallowed hard and lifted her arm to conceal her breasts. “Not what you are,” Lauren choked out. “Not this.”

“Well there’s no magic,” he whispered slowly as he pushed Lauren’s arm from her breasts. Reluctantly, she let her arm fall away, and even as she shivered, she held her breath as he grazed his fingers against, around her hard nipples, and he sighed, the stench of tobacco and whiskey wafting off his breath.

“So let’s get a few things straight,” he said.

Lauren forced her body to still as she peered into his eyes, glared into his stare.

“You won’t hide anything from me,” he started. “Ever.”

Longing to crack her palm into his smug, certain face, she held back and bowed her head in a weak nod.

“So you follow?” Blake asked.

“Yes… sir.” She had to be careful about this. Play along until she found a real chance to get away. Because it wasn’t right now, and she nodded again as she lowered her voice. “You… you can look at me,” she murmured.

Out of the corner of her eyes, Lauren saw Blake smirk, and she fought the urge to lash out and run as he pressed one of her nipples between her fingers.

“I’m gonna do a lot more than look.”

Of that she had no doubt. She pictured her body bound and ravaged and destroyed to the point where no one would ever recognize her. But as she fixed her eyes on his, her mind turned back to a suddenly familiar thought.

Under any other circumstances…

“Stand up,” Blake ordered.

Hesitating for all of a second, Lauren watched him stress to his full height, and she obeyed his orders, her shaking arms hanging at her sides as his eyes washed over her.

“Really nice,” Blake said as he circled around her, and Lauren clenched her fists and her cunt when he stopped behind her. She felt his eyes lingering on her ass, and Lauren nearly turned back, intending to ask him exactly what he wanted when he suddenly pulled her close to his chest and moaned into her fallen hair.

“Last place you expected to be tonight?” he asked. Blake pressed his fingers deeper into her torso, and she could not suppress a moan as he ran his hands up and down her leg, his fingers stopping at her knee. “But here you are,” he continued. “And I won.”

Even as Lauren knew what that meant, what it had to entail, she whipped her head over her shoulder, and she peered at him carefully. “And now… now you’re going to do with me what you will?” she asked.

Blake’s face was like slate as his lips set into a cold frown. “That’s about the long and short or it.”

Lauren felt as if her fate was all but sealed as he pulled her closer. Instinct caused her to squirm under his arms, but as soon as she started to thrash, Blake strengthened his hold, and he pressed his lips to her waiting ear. “Mine now,” he whispered. “My girl. And I want to…”

Blake’s fingers grazed against her bare pussy, and Lauren writhed. Then she stopped, paused. Her captor’s stroke teased her quivering flesh to a place where she was ready to forget exactly how he had come to have her alone, naked, in this dark dank room. Needing to hold onto that, Lauren separated her body from her mind and focused on the sensation alone. Blake’s fingers were as soft as they were sure. He carefully caressed each slippery fold, and when he pushed into her tense hole, his digit slid deeper with little effort. Should she kick herself for the fact that she had granted him such a quick, easy entry? Lauren couldn’t think about that right now; she could do nothing but feel him pushing deeper, and she couldn’t help but wonder what a cock, what
his
cock would feel like if it entered the same–

“And I want to do everything to you,” he moaned. “I want to play with you.”

Something in that word,
play
, set her skin on edge, and she turned back to him, her eyes wild and raging. “I’m not a toy,” she started. “Not your toy.”

Blake frowned, but Lauren didn’t care if he was sad. She was sad, scared, and terrified. And even if his face was sweet as the moonlight passed through the narrow windows, she was not about to let him off the hook. Maybe he hadn’t brought her here in the first place. Maybe he had saved her from Eric Shaller. But Blake still…

“I’m not a nameless face,” she started.

Keeping her close, Blake’s frown shifted into a small smile. “Not what I want,” he said. “Don’t know your name yet. But–”

“And you never will!” she screamed. Her mind flashed back to Drew and her parents. Her mother especially. In the end, they had parted, and Quinn would throw up every warning sign in search of her only child. “People… my people will come looking for me,” she said, as she stood taller.

“And what do you really think that they’ll find?” he challenged.

“I–“

“To hear Silas tell it, your car is gone. You’re like a bit of dust in the wind.”

Letting that thought sink in, Lauren flew into a rage. She slammed her desperate fists into his broad chest and tried to break free.

“What do you think you’re–?”

“Let me go!” Lauren screamed. “You don’t know what you’re–”

“I think I do,” Blake said. “And you need to chill!”

Lauren kicked and punched until Blake forced all of his body into hers, and he pushed her down to the mattress.

“No!”

Falling with a heavy thud, Lauren felt his body lying firm on top of hers. Blake absorbed her reign of blows for several seconds, but then he grabbed her wrists and held them tight over her head.

“I’m not letting you go,” he said. “So you better… shit!”

Crushing her foot into his side, Lauren heard his cry of pain, and she scrambled madly, trying to reach the door.

“Come back here!”

Blake grabbed her ankles, and he dragged her back to his chest, lifting her twisting face from the ground until she had no choice but to meet his eyes.

“I paid good money for you, and–”

“I am not your property!” Kicking at his legs, Lauren landed one strong blow, and when he fell away, she broke into a fresh run. Finding the door unlocked, she saw the balding form of the man that she had come to know as Eric Shaller sauntering down the steps, and as soon as he saw her naked, trembling body, he leaned in closer as he licked his lips.

“So you’re coming back for the real prize,” he said.

It wasn’t a question; it was a definitive decision, and as Lauren tried to turn back, Eric grabbed her trembling arms and pulled her close.

“I like your neck,” he drawled. “Let’s have taste.”

Pushing her hair from her flushed face, Eric moaned into her cheeks, and he pressed his hands between her quivering legs. “Feels good,” Eric said. “Let’s explore.” He pushed inside her, and Lauren groaned when his finger invaded her flesh.

“No!”

He was almost inside her, his rough hands piercing her tender skin, and as Lauren struggled to break free from his hold, Blake shambled forward from the other side of the room.

“Help–“

Lauren suddenly held her tongue and focused on his eyes. Blake’s dark stare filled her with a small shred of hope, but Blake seemed to look right past her, even as she was trapped in Eric’s harsh arms.

“Get off!” Blake said.

“Why?” Eric challenged.

Blake grunted through clenched teeth, and he steadied his gaze on her for all of a second before he looked back to Eric. “Because she’s mine.”