Seven

I came to naked and strapped to a chair. Fear clawed my insides, but I forced back the panic threatening my vision. I worked my mouth around the cloth gag, but it wouldn't move.

Footsteps rattled the wood floor behind me. I was in an old house of some kind. Moonlight poured through big cracks in the ceiling. I tugged on the thick rope coiling beneath my bared breasts and securing my wrists behind me.

“Why'd you bring her here?” I gasped. That voice. Shock settled in my bones like super glue. A cold steel blade settled at my throat. “Not that I mind the scenery.”

“The puta's gotta learn some respect. If she survives, she'll bring in a few dollars. I have a couple people who'll waste their money on a worthless whore like her.” The short Mexican Mafia dude grabbed my face and squeezed hard. He spat in my face.

My stomach heaved, but I fought the urge to puke and glared up at him.

“Consider her a test,” the man commented. “She is a pet of your club, si?”

Blade stroked the blade across my shoulder, then angled down toward my breast. “The local chapter's been amusing themselves with her. Good pussies are hard to come by in a small town, and she's young. Tight. A good fuck who gets off on anything, the more depraved the better. Isn't that right, Harmony?”

His coal black gaze settled on me. I shuddered in revulsion. What the hell was the national President of the Penetrators doing here with the Mexican Mafia? Fear kept me still beneath the cold blade's scrape along the swell of my breast.

“Roberto told me what you did down in Guadalajara, how you scraped the girl's skin clean off her titties without blinking.” The man cupped one of my tits. “You'll do this to her, prove what you say is true.”

Blade studied my tits with a disinterested glance. He shrugged. “She's not worth the hassle, but if you're not man enough to stop playing games, I'll play along.”

“What did you say?” The man got into Blade's personal space.

He was almost a full two feet shorter. The two other men approached, hands on their weapons.

“Step back, Omar.” Malevolence hung in the warning. “You don't trust me, then I'll walk away and we'll keep fighting, killing each other's men for no reason. This gash's mom hauled off one load of your money. She took the local chapter for a ride and they'll pay for it with their blood. That I promise you.”

No.

Fear and anger surged in me. I tugged harder on my restraints.

“You may get your rocks off gutting and skinning worthless sluts, but I don't. Clean her up and she'll get at least a quarter of your money back on an auction block. Or we kill her now. Your call.” He settled the knife against my jugular without looking back. “I'm not your whore to order around, Omar. Either way, we're done with this shit tonight.”

I closed my eyes and willed myself awake. This was a fucked up dream, a nightmare. I had to get away, warn Ray and Max. They'd know what to do. Then I'd pack and go. Run far, far away.

“Do I need to go over your head?” Blade growled.

The man cursed in Spanish. He barked at the other two men, who opened the door and headed outside. Fear crawled within me.

“The next run comes in three days. You have until then to clean house. I want them all gone.” Omar glanced down at me. “Leave us. I'll teach the puta a lesson before you rape her with the knife.”

“She's not the one who's getting my blade.”

The man's eyes widened. Blade wrapped an arm around Omar's neck. Blood spilled on the floor between them. I screamed against my gag, because seriously, it was a lot of fucking blood. Blade shoved the man aside, swiping his bloodied knife against Omar's suit as he did.

I was trapped.

I rocked the chair back and forth, then left and right. Blade caught it before I tumbled to the ground. He smirked at me.

Smirked.

At.

Me.

What the ever living fuck was going on?

I narrowed my gaze, channeling the rage into an unspoken warning. If he killed me, I'd haunt his ass. I'd make Poltergeist look like Caspar.

“Fuck, you throw attitude. No wonder you've got my boys so twisted up.” He reached around me. Cold steel grazed my skin. I jumped.

I bashed my head into him. Hard.

I ignored his curses and the pain rushing through me and positioned to do it again.

The ropes holding my hands disappeared.

Frozen, I looked up at Blade as he sheathed the massive blade. The smirk returned as he undid my gag and yanked on the thick knot between my breasts. The ropes fell away.

“Stand back,” I warned. I stood. The world spun like I was on an acid trip.

Blade grabbed me and did some complicated maneuver my dizzy brain couldn't follow. I was pinned against him, my back to his front. He held my hands together in front of me with one of his. I pushed, twisted, yanked and shoved. Each move tightened the bastard's steely grip.

“You keep rubbing this sweet body against me, I'll take it as an invitation.”

Self-preservation finally kicked in. The traitorous bitch took off way too often now, but she was here, keeping me from slugging the asshole.

Okay, Blade had me pinned. I couldn't punch his face in. I'd let Ray and them handle it, assuming I figured a way out of this mess. I couldn't buy a fucking break, even if I had the money.

I forced myself to relax in his hold, but the rage in me built. Every thought rattling around in my brain punched a hole through the mental defenses I'd constructed to get through Mom's latest bullshit. Adrenaline seeped from me.

Blade pulled the gag off. Tears tracked down my face. I cried. Ugly, fat tears tumbled.

“Fuck,” he muttered against my hair. The grip on me loosened as he spun me to face him. “You're okay, girl. Calm down.”

I didn't know what okay meant. I'd never had okay, not with Mom's bullshit constantly rearing its head. But I was naked in a fucking shack in the middle of nowhere. That wasn't okay.

A blissful numbness settled in my bones, fanned outward until my trembling stopped. Everything stopped. My brain shut down all thought and I stood there in Blade's arms not giving a single shit what happened next.

I. Was. Done.

“Harmony. Look at me.” I heard the words, but they were too far away, at the other end of a long, winding tunnel I'd somehow navigated. I didn't want to go back there. Where everything hurt. Too much danger and not enough…

I shrugged off the thought and wrapped my arms around myself as the steely grip around me disappeared. A masculine voice rumbled behind me, but I didn't pay attention to the words. I sat. Arms wrapped around my knees, I rocked back and forth.

Warmth settled around me, a cocoon of leather softness. I inhaled musky oak and emitted a deep sigh and snuggled deeper into the scent. Strong. Powerful.

“Look at me, Harmony.”

I ignored the order. Exhaustion plagued me.

“Harmony. Fucking look at me, or I'll beat your ass.” Firm fingers clenched my chin. A gentle caress ran across my cheek, as if stroking me into compliance. “Come back to me, sweetheart. Let me see that you're okay, and then you can sleep all you want.”

I knew that voice. Something deep inside me untwisted. I blinked to awareness and stared into Chief's intense gaze. I could drown in there easily.

“There's our sweet girl.” He stroked my hair. “You had me pretty scared.”

Terror struck. I grabbed his shirt and dragged him close until our breaths mingled. I was in his lap, so this didn't take much effort. “It's not safe here. Blade…he…gotta tell Ray.”

I shivered. The icy sensation spread through me until my teeth chattered and my entire body trembled in Chief's embrace. I'd nearly died. Again.

“I didn't want to call you, but she wouldn't come around for me.” Boots slid across the floor beside me. I shrank deeper into Chief's body. “She okay?”

“What the fuck do you think?” Chief asked.

Chief Tony Reyes never pulled punches. It was one of the ten thousand two hundred and twelve things I'd found so utterly fascinating. Then my hormonal teenage crush gave way to the realities of my adult self and I realized he was too good for the likes of me.

I'd bathed in Mom's shit so long a permanent stench settled beneath the skin. That had to be why I attracted all the chaos. The danger. The fucked up shit that was my existence every single day.

I was tired.

Sick of being used by Mom.

By everyone.

I needed to get away, become someone else and forget Pecan Grove and everyone in it. I'd be better off alone. Somewhere north, far away from the Mexican Mafia. Canada. They had cute cops in red uniforms. On horses.

“You'd be a sexy Mountie,” I whispered to Chief. “Would you let me feed your horse?”

“What the fuck?” Blade asked.

“He's bad,” I whispered to Tony. “Keep him away, please.”

“You're okay. No one's gonna hurt you. We've taken care of it.” Chief forced my gaze to lock with his. “I need you to focus, Harmony. Did anyone see them bring you here?”

“Where are we?” I looked around. We weren’t inside anymore. I’d somehow gotten outside. Confusion unsettled the warm security his presence offered. “I didn't see where they took me.”

“It's okay. Do you remember them taking you?”

“Clutch and Amber dropped me off. I went into my place and…” Tears burned my eyes. I looked down at my lap. I tugged the blanket tighter around me and fast-forwarded through the nightmare, to what mattered. “Blade's gonna hurt Ray and the club. You've gotta warn them.”

“Fuck.” The fierce biker crouched beside me and pulled on my hair until I turned to face him.

Why was Chief not arresting him? Oh God, was Tony in on whatever this was? No. He was too honest. Too clean. Too not like me.

I was the dirty one, not Chief.

“I'm not gonna hurt Ray, Max, or any of my men. I said what Omar needed to hear to end this bullshit. He's gone. The Mafia isn't going to hurt you. He and his men brought you here and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it if I wanted to keep us both breathing.” Blade caressed my cheek. “I'm sorry it went so far, sweetheart. They shouldn't have gotten to you. But we had to let it play out.”

“You're lying. I heard you. You're gonna k-kill them all.” I sniffled, then buried my head against Tony's neck.

Blade grabbed my face, forced my gaze. I punched at him, but Tony held my wrists.

“Listen to him, Harmony,” Chief ordered. “You're safe.”

I was?

“Ray, Max and the other local Penetrators are safe. I'd cut my own dick off before I hurt them,” Blade said. “Omar was acting alone, but I couldn't confirm that until earlier today. By the time I did, he'd already gotten you. I did the only thing I could and got here quick, saying what he needed to here so he'd let me close enough to end this shit and get you safe.”

“He…he said you…”

“Don't go there, Harmony,” Blade growled. “The shit I do for the club, for the men I owe favors to, doesn't touch the women. That's my rule. For me. For everyone in the club.”

“We'll have fallout from this,” Chief said.

“No shit. You think I don’t know that?” Blade rose and looked back at the house. “Fuck, I’m sorry I couldn’t save her, Harmony. I didn’t know they had her.”

Her. I tracked his regretful gaze to the house.

No.

I vaulted before Blade and Chief knew my intent. I raced toward the interior. My bare feet slapped across the blood-saturated floor. I froze as my gaze latched onto something in the corner. Tension settled in my bones as I blinked, my mind too startled to believe what my eyes saw.

Mom.

Her hair was ratty. Bruises formed along her wide, vacant eye sockets. Dried blood coated her chin. Her mouth hung open, toothless. Teeth sat on a small table near her, alongside bloodied pliers. Needles protruded from both her arms.

I puked.

Doubled over, I purged my stomach. Tears tumbled down my face as Blade and Chief both swore. The two men maneuvered me out of the building, but I'd seen what they'd been too busy to recall.

Mom.

The word tumbled from me. Dead. How long? I should've done more to keep her safe. I should've been nicer to the Mafia dude. Maybe he would've kept her breathing if I'd…

“Harmony.” Chief's voice thundered through my grief. I blinked, looked in his general direction.

His warmth seeped into my skin where he touched, but I was cold. So, so cold. Mom's death seeped into me, enshrouded me with the guilt I couldn't ignore. I'd always been her strength. I'd failed her. The club. Jolie. Chief.

I'd failed them all.

Mom was dead.

The Mafia bastard was, too.

I should be thankful he was dead, but I was too numb to care. Mom was dead. I'd always kept the possibility in the back of my thoughts. I'd run the what-if scenarios over the years, but I never expected the day would come. She'd always clawed her way out of whatever cesspit she'd dug. I'd always hauled her out, cleaned her up and kept her going.

If you'd focused on finding her instead of fucking the Penetrators, she'd still be alive.

No. The Mafia would've killed us both.

At least you would've tried.

I screamed. My breath quickened. My vision tunneled. I welcomed the panic, the chaos in my body. For once, I wanted it dragging me under.