King (The King Series Book 1)
King: Chapter 4

Boom. Boom. Boom. Ba-boom.

It was hard to tell where the bass ended and my pulse began.

I wiped my palms on the tattered skirt I’d lifted from the Goodwill donation bin and maneuvered through a sea of bodies rhythmically writhing up against one another. A thick layer of smoke lay trapped under the low ceiling. Hauntingly robotic party goers danced and gyrated under the flickering lights on every available inch of floor space.

In the dark, with only the pulsing of the lights to guide me, I made my way up the stairs, and as Bear instructed, to the door at the very end of the hallway.

The door to my salvation.

The door to my hell.

I turned the handle, and the hinges shrieked. The only light in the room was courtesy of the dim and muted TV on the far wall. The heavy scent of pot wafted from the room.

“Hello?” I squeaked into the darkness, trying as hard as I could to make my voice sound as sexy as possible, but failing miserably.

A voice, deep and rough, broke through the silence, his words vibrating through to my very core. “Shut the fucking door.”

Snaking its way into every crevice of my already fragile mind and body, an entirely new feeling enveloped me, causing the hairs on the back of my neck to stand on end. I’d expected to feel hesitant, nervous, and even anxious.

But what I felt was far more than that.

It was fear.

Heart racing. Pulse pounding. Red alert. Fear.

The impulse to turn and run as fast as my trembling legs could carry me was overwhelming, but any thoughts of immediate escape were interrupted.

“Door,” the voice commanded again. I hadn’t moved an inch. As much as I wanted to run, my desperation propelled me forward.

I closed the door behind me and the chaos downstairs disappeared with a click of the latch, shutting out the noise as well as the possibility of anyone hearing my cries for help.

“Where are you?” I asked hesitantly.

“I’m here,” the voice said, offering no indication of where here really was. I took a deep, steadying breath and then a few steps toward the TV until I was close enough to make out the outline of a bed in the middle of the small room and a pair of long legs hanging over the edge.

“Ummm, welcome home? Bear sent me.” Maybe, talking would give my heart time to get a grip inside my body. But the realization of what I was about to do struck me stupid and left me standing paralyzed in front of the shadow.

Ignoring my pitiful attempt at conversation, he shuffled to the edge of the bed. Although I couldn’t make out his features, his shadowy frame was massive.

He sat up and reached out, I braced myself for his touch, but there was no contact. Instead, he grabbed a bottle off of the nightstand behind me. He tilted it up to his mouth, taking a long, slow pull. His swallows were loud in the silence of the little room.

Again, I wiped my palms on my skirt, hoping the darkness cloaked my nerves better than the perspiration on my hands.

“Do I make you nervous?” he asked, as if reading my mind. I could smell the fresh whiskey on his breath.

“No,” I answered breathlessly, the lie getting caught in my throat. A large hand grabbed my waist roughly, tugging me into the space between his legs. His fingers dug into my hips and I squealed in surprise.

“Don’t you lie to me, girl,” he growled, without a hint of playfulness. My blood ran cold. My heart raced. He took another swig from the bottle, reaching behind me again to set it down. This time when he trailed back, he did it slowly, rubbing his cheek against mine, his facial hair not long enough to be considered a beard but longer than stubble. Unexpected tingles danced down my spine, and I fought the urge to touch his face. “Do you always ignore people when they ask you a question?”

Yes, yes he made me nervous. He made me so fucking nervous I couldn’t replace my tongue. I didn’t expect this. I expected to spread my legs for some drunk horny asshole so he could have his way with me in a room that was too bright.

Instead, I stood in the dark, pressed between the thighs of a man I could barely see, but the feel of him alone sent shivers up my spine.

“I’ll take your silence to mean you want to skip the small talk.” He grabbed hold of my shoulders and shoved me down hard. I reached out to brace myself, my hands landing on rock hard thighs as my knees hit the carpet. “That’s better.”

You can do this. You can do this. You can do this.

“Suck me,” he ordered, leaning back on the bed, propping himself up on his elbows.

I ran my trembling hands up his thighs until I found his belt. I slowly unbuckled it, my fingertips brushed the heated skin of his stomach. His ab muscles clenched under my touch and he sucked in a breath through his teeth. I shook out my trembling hands, trying to regain some control. When I reached for his zipper, I hesitated.

Desperate people.

Desperate things.

I steadied my hands as much as possible and slowly I dragged his zipper down. I closed my eyes in an effort to calm my erratic breathing, fearful that I was going to pass out and fall into his lap. I was hoping that closing my eyes was going to bring me some sort of comfort knowing I could remove myself from what I was about to do.

I’d just gotten his zipper down and was reaching into his jeans when his voice boomed over me like a cannon shot at close range. I jumped back in surprise, falling ass first onto the carpet.

“What the FUCK?” he roared. With my eyes closed, I hadn’t seen him turn on the side lamp, but when I looked up from the floor, I found myself staring into a beautiful pair of hate-filled green eyes, boring into me like I was the reason for everything wrong with the world.

Familiar eyes.

He pushed my hands away from his fly and grabbed me by the wrists. He stood and yanked me up to my feet, his hard chest pressed up against mine. “I walked in on you earlier, you were having sex with some girl.” I blurted, instantly regretting it. Fuck me and my speak-before-I-think disease.

His tight black wife-beater showcased the ripples of his impressive muscular frame. A myriad of colorful tattoos decorated one side of his neck, chest and shoulders, continuing all the way down both arms to the backs of his hands and knuckles. He wore bracelets that weren’t actually bracelets at all, but leather belts with metal studs wrapped around his wrists and forearms. Dark hair cropped close to his head, a black stud in each ear. A white scar through his right eyebrow. Stubble on his square jaw that was more than a few days past needing a shave.

I thought he was large when he was relentlessly pounding into the girl on the table. Even when he was only a shadow I knew he was big, but in all reality I’d had no concept of the wall of man who stood before me.

This guy didn’t look like he hung with the wrong crowd.

This guy was the wrong crowd.

“You?” he asked. His nostrils flaring as he glared down at me. I don’t know what I did to make him so angry, but getting a look at him in the light made me more fearful than I ever was of him in the dark, and I wished I’d just listened to my instincts earlier and ran when I had the chance.

“Obviously you don’t know shit because if you did you would know that what you saw wasn’t sex.”

“I know what I saw.” I argued.

“No, you don’t because you would know that I wasn’t having sex with her. I was fucking her.” The way he said the word fucking sent a flush of wetness into my panties.

You stupid girl. Your brain must really be damaged, because this is not someone who warrants that type of reaction. “Who are you?” he demanded.

“I’m no one,” I answered, truthfully. My heart ached at hearing the words spoken out loud from my own mouth.

“You’re no fucking biker whore,” he stated flatly. He cocked his head to the side as he stared down at me. Running over my features as if he were trying to figure me out. His gaze lingering on my lips, his tongue darted out to wet his own.

“You don’t know who I am.” I spat. I tried to take a step back but he held me firmly in place.

“No, but biker whores typically don’t tremble and practically hyperventilate when they’re about to suck cock.” He squeezed my wrists tightly and pain shot up my arms.

“Let me go!” I jerked my wrists unsuccessfully from his grip. I needed to get out of there, but he held me even tighter, forcing me backwards until the back of my head hit a wall.

“So you’re saying you do this all the time then? That you know what a guy like me wants? That you know how to suck and fuck like a pro?” He ran his index finger down the side of my cheek and I tried to ignore the heat that lingered in their wake. “You think you can take care of me, little pup? Fine. We can start back up right where we left off.” He guided one of my hands to the front of his pants and held my open palm to the bulging erection threatening to spring from his open jeans. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. “Aren’t you going to show me how you can make me come?” he taunted, his words a warm whisper against my ear, although the words themselves were cold. Terrifying. I could hear my blood coursing through my veins as my heart beat faster and faster. “You already made me come once tonight.” I looked at him and furrowed my brows.

“That’s a lie. I barely touched you.”

“No, not now. When you saw me earlier, with that girl. You stood in the doorway and you watched us. Did you like what you saw? Did you like watching me come for you?”

“You give yourself way too much credit. I didn’t stay to watch you. I was just surprised. You were practically strangling her, why would I stay to watch that?”

He moved his hands to my throat and squeezed hard, leaving me with just enough airway so I could still breath. “You mean like this?” He asked, looking into my eyes as I tried to hide the terror alarms going off in my body. He was feeding off my fear.

“Fuck you,” I spat, mustering all the courage I could manage. He was toying with me, and I may have been afraid, but I was no fucking pushover.

“I know that you wanted to be that girl. You wanted it to be you who my cock was slamming into. I saw the way you looked at me and it made me explode. I see the way you look at me now and behind the fear you want me, maybe even because of it.”

“You’re wrong. That’s not how I’m looking at you.”

“No? Then tell me what you are really thinking when you look at me. Right now. What’s going through that pretty head of yours?”

“I was thinking about what a shame it was that good looks are wasted on someone like you.” He smiled out of the corner of his mouth and squeezed my throat tighter, leaning in so that his cheek was flush with mine and I could hear his words vibrate off my skin.

“How old are you, pup?”

“What the hell is it to you?” I seethed through gritted teeth.

“I just want to know if you’re illegal.” He pulled back and his gaze roamed over my body with one long slow sweep. He released my throat and pinned both my wrists above my head with one hand. He dipped a calloused finger into the low neckline of my tank top, slowly tracing the rounded flesh of my breasts. Goosebumps rose on the flesh of my arms.

I inhaled sharply.

“I’ve seen all the shit going on out there.” I said, tilting my head toward the door. “Like you really give a shit about illegal,” my breath shallow and quick.

“I don’t give a shit,” he said with a deep chuckle, “As a matter of fact, I’m hoping you are illegal.” He pressed his forearms against the wall on both sides of my head, caging me in with his massive frame, pressing his erection up against my stomach. “Cause I do illegal real fucking well.”

I gasped and my lungs felt heavy in my chest. I squirmed in his grip and couldn’t decide if I wanted to rub up against him to replace the friction I now craved or slap the living shit out of him. He must have sensed my indecision because he looked me in the eyes and shook his head.

“Go ahead, pup. But I wouldn’t if I were you.” His expression stern, his eyes dark and dangerous, glimmering with a trace of amusement. He pressed his forehead to mine and sighed. “You and I could’ve had a lot of fun, Pup.” He shook his head and for the first time I noticed the dark circles under his eyes and the redness of his eye lids.

He looked tired. And not the kind of tired you feel after a long day, but the kind of tired that lingers no matter how much sleep you get or how much coffee you ingest. The kind of tired that is less about rest and more about unrest.

I knew this because I was the same kind of tired.

He released me and stepped back. The second his intimidating presence was gone from my personal space I felt the coldness of his absence.

He grabbed the bottle from the nightstand and headed for the door.

I was still frozen to the wall. My jaw firmly affixed to the floor.

What the hell just happened?

“You’re leaving?” I asked. My relief warring with some fucked-up misplaced sense of disappointment.

He cracked the door open and paused with his hand on the handle. The music filtered in through the opening, penetrating the silence, each heavy beat taking another footstep inside. “It’s been a long fucking day and you’ve caught me at a really weird time. As much as the innocent thing you’ve got going on makes my cock hard, I don’t do gentle, so you should be happy I’m walking away.” He took a swig from the bottle and cast one last confused glance toward me, taking in my body that was still pressed up against the wall. “Three years ago I would have fucked you into the middle of next week without thinking twice.”

Then he was gone.

What the fuck did that mean?

My stomach interrupted my thought by growling loudly. The twisting pain threatening to topple me over. I hugged myself in an attempt to soothe the ache. I’d looked around for some sort of food when I’d first arrived, but all the tables downstairs were covered with beer and liquor bottles. The coffee table had nothing on it but a mirror and a mound of blow, which was being cut into lines with a credit card by a man who looked old enough to be a grandfather.

A knock at the window made me jump. “Let me in, bitch!” Came a high-pitched voice from outside.

Nikki.

I scrambled over to the window to lift the latch. Nikki leapt up and stumbled into the room, falling onto the floor. Her greasy red hair was plastered to her forehead with sweat, her old faux-fur shawl that may have once been white, but was now an off gray color, was draped haphazardly over one shoulder.

“How did you know where I was?” I asked. I hadn’t seen Nikki since she took off on me hours ago when we first got to the party.

“That Bear guy told me. I totally wanted to sit on his face but he just took off on his bike with some Tyra Banks looking chick.”

There goes that option.

I helped Nikki up off the floor. “So how was it? How was he? I saw him downstairs earlier and holy hot man.” She adjusted the strap of her bag across her shoulder. “Did you do that thing with your tongue I told you to do?” She asked me with the same excitement as if she was asking if I rode the Ferris wheel at the carnival. “Did you make him come? Did he make you come? Tell me everything.”

I sighed, both defeated and relieved. “No. No one made anyone do anything. He just…left.”

Nikki looked me up and down, her expression turned from elation to annoyance. “No wonder he left. Have you seen what the fuck you look like? I should’ve never let you come up here looking like that.”

I looked down at the plain gray tank top that I’d tied in the back to make it appear more formfitting and the tattered, sequined skirt that was missing most of the sequins. I knew I didn’t look great, but I didn’t have the resources to look great.

Or even good.

Nikki shook her head, gesturing wildly with her hands up and down at my body. “You look like a kid fresh off the playground whose been playing with her mama’s old clothes.”

She sniffled and adjusted her own denim skirt that barely covered her ass cheeks. Her green tank top had a bleach stain over her right boob.

“It doesn’t matter now. He’s gone,” I said bitterly. “Let’s get out of here.” I had to clear my head and come up with a new plan.

Which included getting away from Nikki.

“Not so fast, little one. What’s your hurry?” Nikki took a turn around the room and when she reached the door she turned the lock. “Let’s see what we can replace in here,” she said playfully, opening the drawers of a dresser one by one, searching the contents, pushing aside socks and t-shirts.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked. “We need to leave and leave now. You didn’t see the look on the guys face before, because if you did we would already be halfway across the state by now.”

“Oh shush, you’re so fucking dramatic. What’s your hurry? Besides, this place has air conditioning,” Nikki said, fanning her pits. She picked up a photo with a thin plastic frame and turned it to me. “Sweet looking kid huh?” She ran her fingers over the picture of a little blond girl with curls smiling into the camera. For the first time since I’d met Nikki I saw her smile, although there was a lingering sadness behind it. She shook her head, set down the picture, and opened the bottom drawer, shuffling through some paperwork.

“Motherfucking BINGO!” She shouted. When she lifted her hand from the drawer, she produced a huge stack of bills tied together with purple bands. She waved it in the air and my stomach flipped at the sight. That money could buy a lot of food.

It could buy the start of a whole new life.

The thought went out just as fast as it had come in, because there was no fucking way I was about to steal it.

There is no way I am stealing from HIM.

I was desperate, not suicidal.

There was a loud bang followed by the rattling of the doorknob. “What the fuck?” A voice on the other end of the door shouted. “Why is this locked?”

“We gotta go!” I shouted. Nikki grabbed another stack of bills from the drawer and darted for the window, shoving me aside before I could offer for her to go first, losing a few bills along the way.

Nikki barely had one leg out the window when the door flew off its hinges, sending the door frame splintering into a million little wooden pieces throughout the room. Bear, the man who’d sent me up here, stood in the doorway. We locked eyes for a split-second before he noticed the empty drawer, the loose bills on the floor, and the open window where Nikki was already halfway out.

Bear took one step into the room. Nikki reached into her purse and produced a small handgun I didn’t know she had.

“Stay where you are!” she shouted, aiming the gun at his chest. He stopped, raising an eyebrow at Nikki.

“Are you sure you want to do that?” he asked with no sign of fear in his voice, if anything he sounded like he was taunting her. Teasing her. He made it seem as if it was old hat to him to have a gun pointed directly at him.

The green-eyed shadow man appeared in the doorway and instantly my heart restricted in my chest. When he saw Nikki and the state of the room his lip curled up on one side. He took slow confident steps toward her, passing Bear. “Don’t fucking move, or I’ll fucking shoot!” Her voice wavered as he approached.

“So shoot,” he dared, each step toward her a challenge.

Nikki turned toward me, the gun shaking in her hand, an unreadable emotion flashing in her teary eyes. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

She squeezed the trigger.

There was a loud echoing crack in my left ear, like a pick being hammered into a block of ice, followed by a disorienting ringing sensation.

I don’t know how I ended up on the ground, but I found myself lying on the carpet on my side, holding my knees up to my chest. My eyes closed. My hands covered my ears, and I just laid their willing the ringing to stop. Just as it had started to subside, strong hands flipped me flat onto my back. My head thunked against the ground like a dead weight.

“Redhead’s gone.” Bear said, tapping the screen of his phone with his thumb. “I sent Cash and Tank to replace her and put the word out to the locals. Towns too small for her to get too far without someone noticing. We’ll catch up to her sooner or later.”

The green eyed man glowered down at me from only inches above my face. A vein pulsed in his neck. “Seems I was wrong. You are a whore. A thieving little whore,” He must have taken my confused look for not being able to hear because he ripped my hands away from my ears. “Listen you little cunt bitch…” He paused mid sentence and looked down to where his hands held mine, and my gaze followed. Sticky red coated my palms. He grabbed my chin, turning my head one way and then the other. When he touched a spot over my ear, pain sliced down my neck, and I cried out.

“Fuck,” he said, his fingers were now coated in the same red as my hand.

Is that blood?

Bear stood off to the side with his arms folded across his chest. I opened my mouth to ask him what had happened, but nothing came out.

The two men exchanged some words I couldn’t make sense of. A black halo formed around the room and it’s contents, and as the seconds ticked by everything faded further and further into the expanding dark tunnel. My fear of the dark caused my pulse to race, but a sudden eerie sense of calm took over and I concentrated on the beautiful face of the angry man hovering above me.

“I don’t even know your name,” I whispered.

I managed to stay conscious long enough to hear his answer.

“They call me King.”

Then the blackness surrounded me and swallowed me whole.