The Devil's Due (15 page)

A small, slight man slid into the barstool in front of me and gave me a little signal with a flick of his hand.

I
leaned forward to listen to his order, and when I did I caught a rough, burning smell, like a campfire or a barbeque pit. His dark eyes were so black I couldn’t make out the pupils in the dim light, giving him the disconcerting look of a doll. His jet back hair was combed straight back, held in place with a greasy slick of oil or pomade and curling back around his neck.

I could tell he groomed it meticulously. It was nearly as long as Cade’s mane, but was arranged so carefully it was almost elegant.

His black beard was trimmed neatly and came to a crisp point at the edge of his chin. I immediately thought of a European count or some sort of 17th century pirate from the storybooks at school. If ever a man looked out of place in a tattooed, muscular biker bar, it was him.

His voice didn’t belong, either. It was soft and sibilant as he hissed in my ear. “I’ve never seen you before.”

His voice was low and soft, and he played it like an instrument. I was caught off my guard.

“Uh, no, I’m new,” I ventured, not wanting to reveal too much. Despite his small size and soft voice, there was an aura of something sinister swirling around him.

“You must be new to town, too.”

“Uh, no?”

“Yes you are.”

“Why do you say that?”

He leaned in closer. HIs flat, dead eyes fixed on me and he flicked a blood-red tongue across his lips.

I flinched as he reached out a hand to touch my hair, but his touch was soft and his hands were as smooth and soft as his voice.

“You smell new,” he said, staring at my flaxen waves. Light seemed to disappear into his eyes, like they were a pair of black holes puncturing his face.

Everything about him made me want to run away. I bounced on my toes in agitation, but without Cade around, there was no one I could run to for comfort.

I swallowed and tried to remember the fearless Lainey I had been for one shining moment as Cade and I made love in the storeroom. I grasped hold of that fearlessness and stared straight into the small man’s flat, black eyes.

“You smell like fire,” I replied.

“Do I?” He arched a black eyebrow.

“Have you been camping recently?”

The corner of his mouth quirked in amusement and he spun one of the paper coasters lazily in his fingers. “Not exactly.”

“Huh,” I grunted. He didn’t seem interested in making conversation. I wished he would direct those black eyes away from me. I kept falling back into the pull of his gaze and I didn’t like what I saw in the abyss. “Can I get you a drink?”

“Just a water, please.”

I tossed my head. “You must not be a biker. I’ve never seen them drink water.”

“It’s good for the body.”

I shifted uncomfortably. No matter what tactic I tried, he wasn’t revealing a single thing about himself.

I thought of asking Zyz for the water, but the old man had waddled back into the storeroom and left me all alone.

I grabbed a clean glass from the rack and filled it from the tap. I didn’t know if I should charge him or not. I couldn’t see any patches anywhere on his tight black clothes. But water was usually free at bars, from what I knew, so I made to slide it to him.

He held up a finger to stop me. “Please hand it to me. I don’t want it spilled.”

Reluctantly, I walked to him. He didn’t reach for it; didn’t move a muscle at all. I was forced to extend my hand to him.

Slim fingers encircled my wrist. They were much stronger than they looked. He squeezed tightly, grinding into my small bones.

I squeaked a small shriek of pain and tried to pull back, but he was much stronger than me in spite of being so slight. Terror rose into my throat as I stared wildly into his flat eyes.

“Hey!” I yelled.

He loosened his grip incrementally, one finger at a time. When it was loose enough to free myself, I yanked my wrist away and cradled it to my chest. Rubbing the tender spot where his fingers had dug in, I could tell that it was going to leave a bruise.

“I like how you fight,” he said softly and sipped his water. My heart was beating in my throat. I wanted to lash out and smack him, then run away. But I didn’t know where Cade was, and I didn’t see any of the bikers I knew. I looked feverishly for the bouncers, waiting for them to swoop down and remove this little creep for laying a hand on me.

But when I saw them, my heart sank to my toes. They were watching. The giant bouncer on the stool by the door had his eyes fixed on me, alert and ready. He must have seen the whole thing.

And he hadn’t moved a muscle.

Whoever this man was, I was going to have to deal with him alone.

“You haven’t seen me in a real fight,” I spat back at him.

“Are you different?”

“I’m just saying that wasn’t a real fight, you surprised me.”

“I bet you,” he leaned in and once more trapped me in his gaze, “that in a real fight, you would give up.”

“The fuck are you talking about?”

“I can tell these things.”

My anger was bringing hot tears to my eyes, and the last thing I wanted was to let this creeper make me cry. “Fuck off, asshole,” I hissed, “before I hurt you.”

He sipped his water and leaned back in his chair with a satisfied smirk. He looked like we had finished arguing and he had won.

“Okay. But remember our bet.”

I blinked back the tears that were threatening to fall and turned on my heel. Trying to keep my dignity intact, I headed for the far corner of the bar, as far from the small man as I could go.

I crouched down in the corner like I was looking at the stores under the counter and hugged my knees. With my face hidden in the shelves, I inhaled deeply and wiped my eyes. He had rattled me right down to my bones. My stomach was in knots, and I couldn’t shake the magnetic pull of his inhuman eyes.

Cade hadn’t come. The bouncer hadn’t come. Zyz had disappeared. There was no one I could run to for safety. No one had come to my rescue.

A
nger fought with revulsion inside of my head, and below all that beat a deep, unnamed terror.

Without standing up from my huddled crouch, I lifted my hands to the tap and turned it on. Cool water ran over my palms and I dabbed my face. I was hot; anger and fear making me break out in a sweat.

I was also deadly tired. I hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours. This time yesterday, I was fighting for my life in an alleyway. And yet somehow, this man grabbing my wrist had shaken me harder and more thoroughly than coming close to death.

“Lainey-girl?”

Cade’s voice broke through the tidal wave of emotions and I looked up eagerly. He was standing on the other side of the bar, peering down at me with a concerned expression.

“You all right?”

I hauled myself back up to my feet. I had been crouching so long that pins and needles had set in and I stumbled slightly. Cade’s hand shot out and caught me and he righted me gently.

“Whoa, okay, let’s get you to bed.”

I looked fearfully over my shoulder, but the small man had disappeared. He couldn’t have been a biker—he had no patches, and if he were a patron, Cade probably wouldn’t know him.

And I was too tired to ask. Cade would probably go looking for him, maybe fight him, maybe kill him if I asked. While that thought was immensely comforting, it would take too long, and would mean Cade wouldn’t take me to a place I could sleep. And that was the most important thing right now.

Cade hopped over the bar gracefully, landing like a cat on the balls of his feet. “Can you ride, do you think?” he asked, slinging an arm around my waist to prop me up.

“Just stop and pick me up if I fall off?” I joked sleepily.

He grinned. “I need to teach you to tuck and roll if you keep doing that.”

I rested my head on his shoulder and allowed him to steer me through the bar and out into the sunshine. He slung his leg over the bike and I settled into position behind him. As always, a little thrill went through me to wrap my hands around his muscled torso.

I let my hands wander slowly across his chest as he kicked the hog to life. His muscles bulged under my hands as I smoothed over them and down to his rippling abs.

“You feel good,” I yelled into his ear over the noise of the bike.

“You do too, Lainey-girl,” he yelled back. But the note in his voice was strange. It was like he was saying goodbye.

The noise of the bike drowned out further conversation as we roared into the road. The morning sun was high in the sky and I guessed it was close to noon.

We turned away from the strip club and took the road straight out of the city. I settled my head onto Cade’s warm back and closed my eyes, letting the roar of the bike and the wind in my ears lull me.

I opened my eyes when the note of the bike’s roar changed. We were winding our way up a hill. I looked out over the valley below, marveling at the coiled mass of highways and overpasses that blanketed the landscape below us.

Puerto de Fuego was miles away, glimmering like glass. Up here in the hills it was cooler, and I saw tall pine trees. The scent of their resin snapped at my nose and I sniffed hungrily.

The higher we went, the bigger the houses got. They huddled on the cliffs like fortresses. Cade slowed further and turned off the main drag. A stone wall stood at the entrance of the side road. The words, “Grandview Place” were spelled out in tasteful white script across the stone.

I wrinkled my brow in confusion. Where was Cade taking me?

We rolled up to a gate. A guard lazed back in his chair with his feet up on the desk of his tiny guard shack. But when he saw us, he snapped to attention. With an obedient nod, he pressed a button on the panel in front of him and the guard-arm lifted to let us pass.

I was floored to see that we were in one of the neighborhoods I had spied from the highway, those lush white houses with the rolling lawns. I wondered if Cade was messing with me. I was expecting to be taken to the house of a rough and tumble MC president, not to the house of a successful lawyer.

As we rode higher on the hill, I started seeing “For Sale” signs in the lawns in front of the houses. The signs multiplied as we wound our way slowly up the hill toward the grandest mansion of them all.

It was a white-columned palace with a broad walkway that at one point must have been lined with potted urns. Each had been methodically smashed and the clumps of black earth were strewn across the pitted lawn. The houses on either side were dark, abandoned by the looks of them, their owners having fled their new neighbors long ago.

“He lives here?”

Cade nodded darkly, “It was news to me, too.” His jaw muscle worked and I saw a throbbing vein beat at his temple. But he swung his leg over and deftly lifted me from my seat.

I stumbled after him, my exhaustion blurring the world around me. We stepped up on to the brick porch and Cade nodded at the huge biker who slumped in the doorway. “You new?”

“Gave him his due while you was hiding in the hills, Turner,” the big guard spat.

Cade’s jaw clenched furiously and I saw his fists ball at his sides. “Who says I was hiding? Who are you?”

“I’m Moloch’s man. They call me Tiny.” I smirked, and Tiny shot me a furious look. “This is your new prized pussy, huh?”

“Fuck off and get out of my way.” Cade’s voice was low and threatening, and I saw Tiny’s arrogant smirk fade quickly.

“Watch yourself, Turner,” he mumbled, but stepped aside.

Cade stepped through the wide doorway into the foyer. I hesitated before following him. It took more strength than should have been necessary to lift my leg and step through that door. I finally closed my eyes and walked blindly after Cade.

I opened my eyes. The place was as immaculate inside as it was trashed outside. I gaped at the luxury of the white furnishings and Persian carpets.

Overhead, a sparking chandelier twinkled in the entryway. A grand staircase loomed ahead of us, swooping down from the second level in an elegant curve of polished wood. I felt like I was inside the pages of a magazine... until I noticed the bars on the windows.