MadisonFrom Melina’s stories, Fernandez is obsessed with his appearance. She told me he showers and washes his hands constantly. He insists that each item of clothes he wears is starched and ironed. The gold chains he displays his wealth with are absent today, but his dark chest hair shows in the open vee at his throat surrounding the rolls of fat at his neck. Add his small, dark beady eyes and I want to puke.When I don’t immediately respond to his threat about removing my clothes, he waves the knife in front of my face to gain my attention. I glance down at my dripping wet skirt and blouse. The blouse and my bra are too sheer to offer cover now that they’re wet. Losing my clothes might make Fernandez think I’m more defenseless and he’ll be wrong. I’m more than willing to lose this small battle if it gives me a mental edge. I need to see Cori alive with my own eyes before I fight back.I pull the shirt over my head, which isn’t easy because it’s sticking to my skin. With perfect acc
MoonCurrent day…I stare at the men around the table. Since opening the box, my head has realigned and I’m thinking halfway clearly. Fire burns from my toes to the tips of my fingers. I flex those fingers now. This rage is worse than hunting for the men who killed my mother and father. It doesn’t matter that the finger inside the box didn’t belong to Madison. I need to unleash everything I’m feeling on Fernandez.He’s taken the one thing I value more than any other. The void inside me at having Madison in his hands is almost indescribable. It’s an absence of logical thought and an animalistic need to draw blood. I will kill anyone who stands in my way.Alex, who is barely holding onto his sanity, will look for someone to beat to death with his fists. It won’t need to be Fernandez, just one of his lackeys, and Alex will gain a semblance of control even if only temporarily. I’ll gladly hand him the first son of a bitch we find who can lead us to my wife and allow Alex to work his blood
MadisonI don’t sleep. Every time I’m almost out, Cori whimpers. It’s been roughly eight hours according to my internal clock since I was dumped into this room with her. She’s running a slight temperature and she threw up bile earlier. We’ve had no food or water and I had to bring Cori tap water from my hands and cajole her until she drank it. I’m lying on the scratchy mattress without benefit of a sheet. I grimace at the ceiling, which I can see clearly because the light above us never turns off. The damn switch by the door doesn’t work. If my only complaint was a scratchy mattress to sleep on and a bright light, I’d be in good shape.Another groan from Cori makes me roll over and face her. From the sound of her slow, shallow breathing, she’s asleep and I don’t plan to wake her. I stand up and walk to the metal cabinet, ignoring the blood on top again. I’ve already searched it but can’t stop myself from doing it again. Nothing is inside but a metal shelf. I would slam the damn door s
FernandezThe tick in my fucking eye stops for a split second and I slam my hand against the table. “If you know what’s good for you,” I say, looking at the two idiots in the room, “you’ll get some fucking answers to my questions.” Goose and Lucas stare at me like the dumbasses they are. I have no idea what kind of name Goose is, but all I cared about when I brought him on was his willingness to take on Moon’s organization. He also has no problem with killing women and seems to enjoy it. He looks like a Goose if that’s possible. Tall, thin, a pimply face, crackhead teeth, and a neck too damn long for his body. Lucas, on the other hand, packs on the pounds mostly around his fat midsection. His body odor is more than displeasing and he needs to brush his fucking teeth once in a while. Both men are scum and right now, I need scum.A bigger problem is that Lucas is not keen on killing women. I strangled the last whore after sharing her with both men and Lucas freaked out. I swear the fuck
MoonIt’s 3 in the morning, fourteen hours since Fernandez took Madison. I can’t sleep, but I can probably drum up the energy to knock Alex on his ass. He’s silently pacing the living room while I stare at my phone. Dax and his crew are on the streets hitting bars to test the wind and see if any information is floating around about someone wanting girls and those girls never returning. I should have thought of searching the prostitute route for Fernandez before Madison went missing. I snap my mind closed on the thought. Blaming myself won’t help find my wife.“Let’s go for a drive,” I tell Alex. I can’t sit still either. Usually I would be charging full steam ahead knowing the likelihood of someone kidnapped and returning alive was extremely low. The plan would be pure vengeance—find and destroy. But this is Madison and I cannot allow my mind to think that way or I’ll fall down a hole where I can’t return from. I’m living in a void where darkness fills every square inch.I can’t lose
MadisonI’ve barely shut my eyes, when the bedroom door opens. Cori is out for the count and doesn’t stir. Fernandez walks to my bed and kicks it. “Come with me,” he says abruptly.The two men from the car are with him. The driver heads to Cori and grabs her arms. She comes awake with a scream. The younger man begins unzipping his pants and Cori starts fighting. I strike out at Fernandez, miss, and receive a backhand to the face.“You can watch them fuck your friend another time. We’re finding some privacy.” I strike out with my feet again, but he dodges and slams his fist into the side of my head, making the room spin.“Fuck you,” I say with ringing ears. The knife pressed to my neck stops me from my next comment.“That’s what I have planned.” He pulls my arm and jerks me from the bed. Cori’s scream makes me look in her direction. The driver holds her arms while the younger guy positions himself on top of her with his pants shoved down. Fernandez holds the knife to my throat and drag
MadisonSlowly, as I’m able to breathe again, absolute clarity enters my consciousness. I’ve been stupid since the moment I walked outside and stepped into Fernandez’s vehicle. My one thought has been that Moon will come for me. He’ll save me. He’ll kill Fernandez. The old me, the one before Moon dominated my life, would never think this way. Cori and I can’t wait for my husband. To do that will get us killed. I need to kill Fernandez with my own two hands and feel the life drain from his body. As soon as this conclusion settles in my brain, a sense of calm rolls through me. I calmly stand and walk toward Fernandez, who’s at the end of Cori’s bed with his fat hanging jowls, dead animal eyes, and absent soul. He’s ready to strike me and pulls his fist back. I rest my hand on the top of the cart already covered in Cori’s dried blood. I look into his eyes, swearing to myself that he will not win. Even if Cori and I die, Moon will eventually find him. Fernandez is a dead man walking and h
MadisonHair moving off my face startles me awake. I pull the punch I intended to give when Cori’s sweat-soaked brow comes into view. Her sloppily wrapped hand rests on the bed beside me and she’s using her uninjured hand to move my hair aside.“We need to wrap your hand,” I say in a throaty voice I don’t recognize as my own. The throb in my head is almost debilitating. Every part of me hurts.“No, Mak, you need to let me go and worry about you.” She rests the palm of her good hand on my cheek. “He’s taken everything, and I’ll never work again. I don’t want to live this way and there’s nothing more he can do to me that will make it better or worse.”Her gloomy conviction scares me and I cover the hand on my cheek, feeling the dreaded warmth of her skin. She’s running a temperature. “Don’t let that monster win,” I tell her. “He’ll eventually start cutting me up too, but we’ll both survive. I won’t give up and I refuse to let you give up.”Tears slide down her face. She jerks her hand o
I rolled over and yawned, my arms coming from beneath the soft white cotton of the bedding and bumped the hard body next to me. Moon’s hand went into my hair and he moved his leg between mine and something very hard hit my belly making me smile. The smile lasted a few seconds before I covered my hand and jumped from the bed trying to get to the toilet before I lost the contents of my stomach. Yep, that was sexy. This time the hand in my hair pulled it back away from my face while I heaved my guts. He didn’t say anything and just waited for me to finish. It was horrible and at the same time endearing because I loved him so much. I stood and leaned back against his body. “Crawl back into bed and I’ll grab tea and crackers,” Moon said gently. I wanted to bitch and moan about the morning sickness but held it in. When I had my shoulder injury that took me from my career as a cop, I had a small amount of control. I could do my physical therapy and ice as needed and it worked. There was
Duke The wedding night was at the cabin and our honeymoon at the property. We had a week to ourselves. Cori laughed when I carried her over the threshold and straight to my bed. “Do not touch that dress,” I typed into my phone before checking the house was secure and I could fuck my wife for the first time. Her laughter followed me. When I walked back into the room, she was waiting exactly where I left her, smart woman. She opened her legs wide, the stilettos going to either side of the bed. A bit of red showed. The dress was fucking perfect. I crawled between her legs and pushed the yards of black lace up higher in the bed and snagged the red G-string with a finger. The garter wasn’t in my way. Cori sat up suddenly and stopped my exploration. “You spoke your vows.” I smiled even though my dick throbbed. “Thank you,” she added and lay back. I planned to fuck her until she couldn’t walk or talk. I didn’t remove the red nothing lace. I lazily fingered her, then took a long, slo
CoriIf I weren’t lying down, I would have fallen. Of all the things she could say, it was the last I expected and I couldn’t hide my shock.“No, I’m not pregnant yet but we’ve decided to try. We’re leaving and starting a family. Alex and Celina are taking over Moon’s operation.” She turned to Celina. “I’ll call it Alex’s operation eventually.”“Are you sure?” I asked softly.I was having trouble processing.“I’m absolutely positive. I thought I never wanted children but when Moon brought it up, I knew I was wrong. I want Moon’s babies.”“As in multiple?” I asked in horror.Children wasn’t something I ever wanted. I was not a rug rat fan and could tolerate Sofia’s rug rats for a limited time only. I thought Mak and I were on the same page.“We’ll decide if we want another after the first.”“Congratulations,” I offered, my voice uncertain.Melina started laughing.“You’re taking it how I did. The last thing needed in this world is a mini Austin.”I could most definitely second that.“O
CoriLife slowly returned to normal, though my new normal was much different than the old one. Things changed more after the cast came off and Duke could ride again. That’s when I became a true biker bitch.I blinged the shit out of my newly purchased black wardrobe and made that shit look good. I had standing orders from the other old ladies too. The club whores and I had a talk and we seemed to be on good terms. My end of that conversation was short.“Keep your hands off my man and we won’t have a problem. Touch him, even when I’m not around, and you’ll lose a fucking nipple, we clear?”They were fine with it. I understood their world. Respect was key. I had no problem with their choices as long as they respected me and my man.Dax’s club was a community of misfits and I fit in like I never thought I could. They didn’t care that I arrived in five-inch stilettos, looking like I was heading to a ritzy club. They accepted me as Duke’s old lady.Duke spoke to Dax and arranged a week off
Cori“How is Mr. Grumpy today?” Mak asked. She had her overprotective Pitbull at her side. I hadn’t seen Two-dogs since I arrived with Duke. I contained myself to the kitchen and Duke’s room. Two-dogs stayed out of Gabriella’s domain because the two of them stayed at war over what was permissible and what was not. I secretly thought Gabriella slipped the dog treats when no one watched but I had no way to prove it. I guess her new kindness made me think she was something other than Attila the Hun. I needed to watch those stupid fantasies.With assistance, Duke had made it downstairs for this morning’s physical therapy. He refused pain meds afterward and fell asleep exhausted. It gave me time to do something normal. I’d quietly left the room and gone to the outside patio to escape. The heat, even with the water misters, would make it too hot to stay for long but it was nice to be outside.I blinked at Mak who carried a towel. She took the lounge chair beside mine.“He’s sleeping. I’m es
DukeMy biggest problem was boredom. It almost went hand in hand with people poking and prodding constantly. I didn’t live at the clubhouse for a reason. If it weren’t for Cori, I would have found a way to escape Moon’s place the first day. Maybe. I was fooling myself. The ability to lift a spoon to my lips was pushing things.I remembered little about what happened at Wild Fur. Between blood loss and the damage to my stomach, I should have died in oblivion. Things were foggy since waking too. I remembered telling Cori I loved her. It just came out. I hadn’t practiced speaking in years. It was something I did when younger when no one was around. I never felt comfortable with the sound of my voice and eventually decided it wasn’t necessary. That was true until Cori. There were things she needed to hear. Cori hadn’t asked me to speak since it happened. I doubted she even understood what I’d said.My grandfather took me in when my dad went to prison for almost killing me. They were the b
CoriThe air in the room was soft if that were even a thing. There were four rows of chairs. There was a podium at the front. No crucified Jesus hung from the wall, only a large framed needlepoint with writing.“Enter in peace and leave your sorrow.”I sat in the front row and bowed my head. My prayer was to Jesus.“I’ve never asked for anything.”Tears gathered in my eyes and turned to sobs. I couldn’t go on and fell apart. So many thoughts tumbled through my head. I was the whore of Babylon. If there were a man who would hear me, it would be Jesus.“Please,” was all I managed the next time I tried.The quiet settled over me and I inhaled in and out slowly. Within a few minutes, I wiped my tears. The room, like Duke with his silence, gave me peace. It also gave me strength.I went back to ICU and held his hand again. He wouldn’t die because I wouldn’t let him. I spoke to him quietly and assured him all would be okay. I spoke of silly things. I had to keep the connection so he knew I
CoriIt took us more than three hours to get back to the city and another hour through rush-hour traffic to get to Wild Fur. Moon sent his men in first and stayed with me in the SUV. Alex and Austin were with the other women at his compound. Moon didn’t want them here. He’d also left a vehicle behind with four men on Duke’s property to dispose of the bodies.The men cleared inside the Wild Fur quickly. There were two female employees cleaning and handling inventory. The place didn’t open until eight at night. They weren’t harmed and they were assured they could leave after we found Duke. The men hadn’t located him when they cleared the building. Moon and I entered and were shown the entrance to the basement.A light had been turned on. It looked no better than the club upstairs. I saw a rat scurry along the wall. Moon found the hidden door within a few minutes. He pried it open and we entered the dark room.The smell of excrement and death hit us.Death.I couldn’t breathe.In the sha
CoriDuke never left my thoughts. If he was dead, so was I. My life changed that fast. We hadn’t known each other long and it didn’t matter. He was everything I wanted and most of all he was someone who loved me for who I was. I knew he loved me. He shared his silent world and refused to take advantage when he could have. From the time his arms wrapped around me in the car after my escape from Fernandez, we belonged together.My past didn’t matter to him because he lived in a world where endurance and hard work were part of life. Duke and the men like him respected survival.Moon brought more firepower than required and the guns we’d pulled from the cave weren’t exactly needed. I decided to stick with Duke’s weapons because he made sure I was familiar with them. A piece of him was with me.Our plan had been to ambush the vehicles a mile before the entrance to the property. Alex moved the attack to the house. I wasn’t worried about Cartwright’s men knowing the location. None would leav