Hostile Saint (Steel Stallions MC Book 1) Read online

  As soon as I was close enough, I shoved him back, then dropped to my knees. “Lace!” My hands, though desperate to touch, were unsure how to not cause more harm. “Lace.” No bones looked out of place. There were just scrapes and gashes on her perfect skin; even with all the old scars from our brothers, to me, she was flawless. Sweatpants and a sweatshirt are how some of her arms, hips, and legs were spared from the dirt and pebbles that tore at the rest of her. Gently, I scooped up the upper part of her limp body and held her. “Pretty Girl, open your eyes.”

  Like a pack of hungry hyenas, they surrounded me and my girl. That is when I stopped asking her to wake. I no longer wanted her waking. Why should she have to witness what else was to come?

  Mercy. The angels had offered mercy… Who was I to deny such a gift?

  I peered up to see four sets of sinister eyes studying me. My affections were showing the brothers a new way to cause me agony. Up until this point, only fear and pain had fed their endless cravings.

  Cradling Lacey, I asked one very simple question. “Why?”

  Crow wiped his mouth as if salivating on himself. “Besides reasons you won’t live long enough to know, it feels so fucking good.”

  The other three nodded, eyes fastened to the physical connection between me and Lace as if they could see the love threads we had created long ago. They stared as if severing those cords would bring immense gratification to them all.

  Sensing evil all around me, my fear shifted into terror. I could literally feel the grim moments—possibly hours—to come. I didn’t want one more second of Lacey suffering as she already had, definitely not for so long.

  In a last attempt to spare her, my mind searched for a plan. My last one had worked for some time, saving her… Now I had to conjure another one. Even under all the pressure of hungry stares and the time restraint, I did. An idea presented itself to me. It was an awful one, but I was left with little choice.

  Forcing myself to gain composure, I tried to do the unthinkable. “Want to see me cut her?”

  All eyebrows lifted in surprise and amusement.

  Jarod asked, “Why would you want to cut her?”

  I shrugged. “You guys seem to find it fun. Maybe I’d like it, too.”

  Damien’s head tilted. I tried to look him in the eye, but they were so inquisitive I was concerned he would see through my lie.

  Shaking, I supported Lace with one arm and lifted the other. “Give me a knife. Let’s see. I want to know what I’ve been missing out on.”

  Jake chuckled, pulling the blade from his back pocket that I knew he had. They all did. Blades were a favorite punishment for them. All my scars could attest to that.

  The lingering knife was so close to my hand, I thought I was actually fooling them until Damien said, “Stop.”

  Regrettably, Jake pulled the weapon back. My ruse had been detected.

  Damien squatted in my line of sight. He licked his teeth before finally asking, “How long,” he regarded Lacey, “has this been going on?” When I refused to answer, he grinned. “For some time now, you’ve been more than willing to cause a fight with us.” He shook his head as it all made sense. “You have been extra ornery.” A finger lazily pointed to Lace in my arms. “Because of her, right? Us getting off on you made us not need her.”

  I still didn’t answer. There was nothing left to say. I had failed Lace yet again.

  He pulled out his own knife and studied it. “Which vein of hers would you have gone for?”

  Tears fell from my tired eyes as I sadly admitted, “Jugular.”

  He peered at Lace’s exposed neck. “Wow.” He lazily shrugged. “I mean, after what happened last night, it’s clear you’d do anything for her, but killing her just to prevent her any more pain? Damn.”

  Slicing her neck would’ve been the beginning of my impending death, but that is what unconditional love is. No conditions—no lengths—exist when it comes to what you would do for the one who owns your heart and soul.

  “Gotta say,” Damien added, “that’s ballsy.”

  We both knew what he was referring to, and what he was telling me. His meaning sent a shiver wracking through my whole body.

  After a wink, Damien finally stood, inhaling deeply. “Boys, it seems Tate needs one final lesson before his departure.” His eyes scanned our surroundings. Then, he pointed to a tree off the side of the desolate dirt road. “Take them over there. I think we’re in for our biggest high yet.”

  Even though I was petrified, there was no point in fighting them. I was outnumbered, outsmarted, and now I would be my own worst enemy. Fuel had been presented. These hyenas had every intention of feasting. All I could do was hope Lacey would stay unconscious for it all.

  Trying not to wake her, I stood and carried Lace to where I was being led, all the while relishing in holding her one more time.

  Under the tree, Damien pointed to the ground. “Lay her down.”

  Feeling like I was offering her as some sort of sick sacrifice, I tried to protect her one last time. After setting her on the ground, I kissed her forehead to purposely goad them. Damien was correct. Once I figured out how to protect her a couple of years ago, I did my best to hold their attention.

  Succeeding, yet again, I earned a kick to the gut.

  After rolling, holding my stomach, I quickly struggled to my feet and turned to face them all, thinking their attack would be swift, but they hadn’t followed my taunt, like usual. They were no longer falling for my past ruses to pull attention from Lace. Now they stayed by her side, all watching me as they hovered, a knife in Damien’s hand.

  My pained reactions are what they were wanting, so I tried not to give them any, but as the blade was lowered toward her defenseless form, I began to quiver. I begged my mouth to stay shut, but it was like trying to muzzle a waking bear. I growled, “You better stop.”

  Damien smirked. The knife lowered even more.

  I took a step forward, even though I was demanding my body to not fall for their trickery. “I mean it.”

  Crow made a sarcastic expression of fear. “Ewww, we better listen to him.”

  The twins laughed.

  Damien lowered the blade.

  As the tip sunk into Lace’s left shoulder, I somewhat blacked out in rage and forged forward for revenge. It was useless, yes, but try and explain that to a young naïve man who loves an angel of a young woman.

  Crow and the twins happily blocked me, all three slamming into my body and driving me backward, but I kept fighting. I was spitting mad, cursing them all and promising vengeance, all the while swinging and punching.

  “Lay him next to us!” demanded the fucking ringleader I wanted to murder.

  Restrained by three of our older brothers, I was slammed to the ground at Lace’s left side, about five feet away. I was growling like a deranged animal, trying to break free of the hold they had on me.

  Damien, squatting over Lacey, grinned. “As entertaining as your anger is, I want more.” Confident I couldn’t reach it, he laid his knife at her side. His now free hands slowly reached for the tie on the rim of Lace’s sweatpants.

  I instantly stopped struggling.

  Lacey had confided in me that there was also sexual abuse happening with the brothers. As soon as I could, I did everything possible to keep those assaults from happening again. I did the same last night. That’s why this last ‘lesson’ was going to shake me to the core.

  Horror blanketed my expression they were vigorously reading.

  Damien groaned, his eyes sliding shut. “There is the pain I need.”

  Demented hyena laughter erupted around me, sounding like there were so many more than three guys holding me down. The sound bounced off the trees, making me question my sanity, if there was any left to question at all. “But, Damien, last night—” He ignored me. “Please. Wait,” I begged. “She’s not even awake. She won’t know what you are doing—”

  My eldest brother’s eyes glided open and were full of gratification. “B
ut, you will. Last night was all for nothing.”

  The blood… The gore… The violence… All for nothing.

  My mind fought to compartmentalize his torment. My mind battled to prioritize thoughts so that I could focus. I needed to protect Lacey.

  From the ground, I struggled, trying to break free of the brothers holding me down. “Please—” Her pants and panties slowly being pulled down to her calves caused my mind to scream for mercy. “Wait!” Through all the abuse during my life, I had never felt so betrayed and defenseless as I did that night under the tree. And, I no longer had a plan that would work, no solution to save my girl. Ultimate desperation had me barely able to get any air in my lungs. “Stop!”

  Her thighs were spread apart.

  Damien lowered his jeans, an erection popping free.

  My heart thundered. I was desperate. “D-Don’t do this.”

  A condom was rolled on by Damien’s trembling hands, but I knew his shaking wasn’t out of fear, like mine. He was elated for the rape to come. “Don’t need any traces of me left in case your bodies are found.” He knelt between her thighs…

  I roared, “Noooooooooo!” but there was no way for me to help my Lacey now.

  Due to these insane male figures, my life had been one torture session after another. There was only one person who understood what I endured because she was facing the same daily gruesome acts. But, as damaged as Lacey was, due to those acts, she was perfection to me. She was the part of me that made my lungs dare to keep inhaling. She was literally why I kept breathing. Is there anything more significant than being the reason someone chooses to live or die?

  There had been so many times I wanted to die, but after Lacey came back into my life, we made a promise to live for each other. So, we did. We never broke that vow.

  I was now wishing we had.

  That night in the woods, as they violated her, I screamed. I bellowed. I fought… but none of it was enough.

  The brothers struggled with me as I brawled and screamed. “Stop it! Stop it!”

  Like a Tasmanian Devil, I tried to break free. “I will fucking kill you!”

  Trying not to slip into a shock of my own, I pleaded to anyone or anything that could help me, “Stop this madness. Please.”

  To say it was a horrific night is to downplay the grisliest night of my life. I wasn’t even allowed to close my eyes. When I tried, a knife was sunk into my stomach. I screamed in anguish, my eyes flying open to see Damien in my face. “Close them one more time and she gets the next stab.”

  I couldn’t even hold my stab wound to offer myself an ounce of comfort. My hands were still being held down. Immediately I surrendered, “No. Don’t hurt her.”

  Tears made the violence blurry. The violence made the night blurry. The blur made me confused and not as responsive as the brothers had hoped for with the next rapes, so the blade sank into my gut, over and over.

  The pain bringing me back to focus made for smiles and ejaculations.

  Soon, Lacey’s body was experiencing the fourth violent rape.

  When her eyes actually opened, I howled hopeless sorrow. “Close your eyes, baby!”

  They didn’t close, but I now recognized her shock. Thankfully, she was in a blessedly incoherent daze again.

  Because I wasn’t following the rules—and dared to warn Lace to close her eyes, a blade sunk into her side by Damien as Jake sexually abused her body.

  As I continued to sob in revulsion for my mistake and their crime, Damien warned me, “Do not tell her to close her eyes again.”

  Far beyond the point of despair, spit flew from my mouth as I angrily wept. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I don’t know your fucking rules! God help me!”

  It was eerie to watch Lacey’s sweatshirt fill with blood as cold steel leisurely sunk into my own skin. The pain, so intense, I vomited.

  “Oh fuck! That’s sick!” coldly complained one of the four brothers. I wasn’t able to keep track of who was inflicting what anymore. My mind was beginning to fade.

  Blinking, I tried to stay conscious for Lacey, even though my last seconds were present and demanding I die. It was crucial I deny and defy what nature wanted. I needed to see Lace through. I needed to witness her die before I could close my eyes for good.

  As if raping her wasn’t enough, and since my body was no longer able to fight back, the brothers started to slice at Lacey while assaulting her body. Dissonantly, her eyes never blinked. There was no reaction to what they were inflicting. She just laid there like a dead victim of callous vultures.

  That is until roars rumbled in the distance. They were loud and bold, like dragons searching for prey. Laying there, almost dead, I wished I could have been a dragon so I could set fire to the brothers who deserved to burn down to ashes.

  I wished for such power.

  Maybe my wishes were answered.

  Blinking to clear my fading mind, I suddenly noticed the brothers on their feet, all staring in the direction of the dragons. Damien snarled, “We need to get the fuck out of here.”

  Then, like the cowards I never realized them to be, the four fled. Before I could comprehend the torture was ending, I heard their footfalls beat against the ground supporting my expiring body.

  Peace… at last.

  Pulling air into my lungs was with difficulty, which I was thankful for. Death had never looked so appealing.

  The brothers’ car raced into the night as the dragons got closer.

  Dragons—I gasped with awareness when I realized there were no such things as dragons. They were motorcycles, in the middle of the night, on an abandoned dirt road. That couldn’t be good news. I instantly assumed they were part of a gang and would bring Lace more harm.

  “Lace—” I coughed up blood. “Baby… f-find,” cough, “me.”

  Staring into the full tree limbs above her, Lace stayed motionless.

  I was seeing stars, too, but not the kind in the dark sky. “Lace, we’re,” cough, “in trouble.” Please God, let me stay awake for just a little longer. I knew I was in no shape to save myself but hoped she could. “I need you to,” cough, “run, baby.”

  Remarkably, Lace, in a numb state, reached down and pulled up her sweatpants.

  The bikes had parked down the road, but I felt I couldn’t take any chances of them finding her. No man in his right mind would sexually want anything to do with Lace in her horrendous condition, but my mind was far too shattered to comprehend that and had to assume the worst since it was all it knew.

  “Lace, get up,” cough, “Run. Find me later,” cough, “after they leave.” It took so much effort, but I reached my right hand out for her. I had to stop when more coughing took over.

  As soon as I could breathe again, I reached for that damn hand I wanted to hold while I died—

  “I’m here.”

  That soft voice… My eyes snapped to hers. “Lace?” Blood spurted from my mouth.

  Instantly crying at the sight of me, my Pretty Girl reached out. “I’m here. I’m here, Tate.” She looked pitiful and so unbelievably sad I wanted to hold her and lie—tell her I wasn’t dying. But there was no time. “You find me, okay?”

  Coughing, I couldn’t repeat, I need you to run and save yourself, but, somehow, in her shock, she had heard me say it. I don’t know if she knew that was why she was rolling to her side, her fingertips touching mine as she prepared to get up, but she was doing it, thankfully.

  Crying, she assured me, “Okay, Tate. I will. I promise.”

  Against my will, my body began to shut down. I prayed so hard for my eyes to stay open that I think they did. The last thing I saw was our palms finding one another, concreting our evermore.

  Scar to scar is how we were… when I died.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Finding Signs

  A hardy slap to the face and a firm order, “I said wake up!” are what had me coming to. The deep, commanding voice came from a man on his knee, at my right side, where I had last seen Lacey. My mind was so fogg
y I thought I was imagining his eye patch. That he didn’t have only one blue eye staring at me. “Welcome back, Nine Lives.” It felt like his wide shoulders were taking up all the space above me. That’s why I struggled to see past him when I looked for Lacey.

  Noticing it was still night, I was confused at how much time had passed.

  “Gone,” another voice told me from my left.

  My head felt like it weighed a thousand and one pounds as I slowly lolled it in the opposite direction. Tree limbs above passed my view before I found another man. He looked a tad younger than the man to my right, but I was confident his shoulders were even wider.

  My and Lace’s brothers had always felt big to me. Possibly because they were so dangerous. At least, that is how I had viewed them. Now, seeing truly hazardous—most certainly deadly—men, I wondered how my brothers had tricked me at all.

  The answer plowed into my stabbed gut. My mom and… Lacey!

  Frantically, I scanned beyond the large man also on a knee, inspecting me. He shook his head, his longer dirty blond hair moving as if in a shampoo commercial. “Whoever you’re lookin’ for, is she the one who screamed?”

  Screamed?

  Opening my mouth to speak felt foreign. It was full of blood. I think I was bleeding so much my brain was conserving the rest. It was deciding where I was permitted to spend energy. And my mouth had been denied since it already had its fill.

  The hair commercial model-man had inquisitive grey eyes as he placed a huge hand on my shoulder. “Easy, kid. I’m just trying to put the pieces together. You got some family we can call so they can come and help you? I don’t do the whole ‘call the cops’ thing. Feel me?”

  All I could ‘feel’ were stab wounds and aching in my heart when thinking of my only other family—my mother. I didn’t want to believe she wouldn’t search for me, but deep down, I knew my brother wasn’t lying, so, I did my best to shake my head no.

  “Shit,” he cursed. “The girl? She got someone we can call? These woods aren’t safe for her to be running around in. They need to search for her. And I’m not lookin’ to get involved. Capeesh?”