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Michelle Woods Author page
Category:
Romance
Type: Fiction
Pages: 245
Copyright: March 25, 2015
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Raven Lancaster was only trying to have a little fun. Now she's being held against her will and waiting for someone to save her.
Travis Hoyt has been sent after a wayward woman who had the bad judgment to get herself kidnapped.
Raven Lancaster was only trying to have a little fun. Going off with her new boyfriend seemed like a good idea at the time, but when she discovered that he was part of the Headhunter MC she wasn't so sure anymore. When the white knight shows up she's more than ready to get home. Only he's acting like an ass, and she can't understand why every other woman thinks she's lucky for being rescued by him.
Travis Hoyt isn't too happy to be told that even though he was released from the Red Devils MC years ago he's now back in whether he likes it or not. Sent on a wild goose chase after a woman he doesn't even know, for a club he isn't even a part of makes him a little crankier than usual. Finding her was easy, keeping his heart from getting stomped on again, not so much.
Excerpt
Raven Lancaster stared in shock at the horrifying scene before her, trying not to react. Those were people they were loading into those trucks, people who were wearing chains. Well females, she couldn’t actually call them women because some of them looked young. Really young, like not a day over fifteen young. She shivered realizing that Viper, the man she’d run away with a week ago, was a part of this.
She wasn’t sure what she’d been thinking when he’d asked her to go with him. At the time it had seemed like it was a grand adventure to run off with him, right up until two days ago. That was when she discovered that he was part of the Headhunters MC.
She watched Viper, feeling her hands tremble. She squeezed them into fists behind her back trying to stay calm. Viper would likely put her on that truck in chains if she didn’t continue to play along like she didn’t think this was sick as fuck. Had she just cussed? Even in her head that was shocking.
She supposed her six months with the Red Devils MC had changed her. She’d known that and even liked the woman she’d become but now she wasn’t so sure, because she never would have been this spontaneous before she left the city to live with the Red Devils.
Today she was coming to the understanding that leaving with a man she barely knew, against her brother’s wishes, had been stupid. Marcus had told her several times before she’d left with Viper that she couldn’t go. Of course, that had made her more determined to do it. She was an adult, not a damned five year old!
Viper had told her he’d have her back in two weeks. Ha, it had been two and a half weeks already and she had a feeling after today that he wasn’t planning on taking her back at all. She was starting to panic even before she saw them loading women into a semi truck. She watched as Viper, who was talking to a man he’d called Cricket, looked over at her. She tried to smile, but from his expression she wasn’t sure he’d bought it.
Dang, what was she going to do now? She had to get away from him, but he’d been watching her constantly for the last week. She’d thought it was because he’d wanted her to have sex with him and she’d refused, telling him she needed more time. She wasn’t a virgin but she’d never jumped into any man’s bed. She was just horribly afraid that if she didn’t start sleeping with him soon she was going to end up on that truck in chains. Her fear made her feel shaky and her eyes stung. Brushing her hair out of her face when the wind picked it up and blew it into her eyes, she wondered what she was going to do.
Her brother had joined the Red Devils six months ago after an attack on their friend Matt had forced them from the city. Raven hadn’t really liked leaving her home but she did like living outside the walls. Those walls had felt confining in a way she’d never realized until she was outside the city. She’d thought for years that those walls protected them, so it was a shocking discovery that those walls had actually been pinning them in, keeping them all stagnant in their servitude. It had been very freeing exiting those walls to live with the Red Devils.
It had helped that her best friend Mia lived with the Devils too. Mia was almost like her sister, and she really loved that girl. Mia had managed to find love outside the city after almost getting caught by the guard. The privileged life she’d led inside had nearly gotten her killed by making her into a revolutionary for a brief time. Now, though, she was just a schoolteacher; a teacher who was deliriously happy with her ‘Old Man,’ a term that for the bikers amounted to marriage, and Raven was happy for her. Mia had been patched by Ratchet about seven months ago and the two of them were good together.
Raven had wanted to find her own prince charming among the bikers, only none of them had really shown interest in her, which had been disheartening. That was likely why she’d been thrilled when Viper wanted to date her. She almost snorted a laugh at that thought, but the somber scene before her stopped her. She glanced around, wondering if she ran how long it would take them to realize that she was running and catch her. Seeing a small crop of trees a few hundred yards away, she thought about making a dash for it, but saw one of the bikers eyeing her and planted her feet. It was too risky; they’d be on her too fast.
She knew that the Devils were not anything like the bikers she was currently staring at. No, the Devils were like night and day compared to the Headhunters. Had she known that Viper was part of this gang, she never would have gone anywhere with him.
She wasn’t stupid after all, and the Headhunters were part of a rival gang, the Jackals. They weren’t any better than the Headhunters; they might even be worse. Although she wasn’t sure which was worse, drugs or flesh peddling, because she had an awful feeling that was what these women were for. She watched them unload another group of women and pack them into the semi. Her heart aching, she wanted to scream at them, to rant that these were people and they should let them go, but she didn’t. She just watched in silence because as much as she wanted to help them, she wasn’t able to. The best she could hope for if she spoke up would be to end up in chains right along side them.
She was always finding trouble, she thought, sighing as she pressed her fists to her spine trying to calm herself. She followed the line of women with her eyes. She could see that several of them were only wearing bras and underwear. A shiver of distaste went down her spine because some of them were the younger girls. They looked dirty and a few of them even had bruises she could see from where she stood about forty feet away. That made this little event even more disturbing. What the hell were they going to do with these women?
She didn’t think she really wanted to know if they were selling the women into prostitution or something else, something worse. She had a feeling that whatever the Headhunters had in store for them, it wasn’t good.
She watched Viper, who was now talking to another man who he’d referred to as Ghost. Viper glanced at her and she forced herself to wave at him. When she’d been introduced to Ghost yesterday, she hadn’t liked the way he looked at her. His eyes had been cold and a little frightening. She hadn’t wanted to be here then and now she really didn’t want to be here, and she certainly didn’t want to know what was happening to these women.
Raven didn’t really want to think about it. Horrible thoughts ran through her head about what these men could do to her, even as she tried to think of something else. Anything else really because she did not want to imagine what her life would be like if she ever got loaded into one of those trucks. Dear Lord, when was she going to learn to listen to her brother when he told her not to do something. He was, unfortunately, almost always right. This time she really wished he wasn’t.
She felt her head begin to pound as her heart rate picked up. She knew it was adrenaline pumping through her veins as she racked her brain for a way out of this mess. If she’d had her phone she could have called her brother or Mia for help, but that wasn’t possible. Two days into their trip her phone had fallen off the table in a diner they’d stopped at. Viper had said he’d accidently knocked it off the table while she was in the bathroom. It had shattered, and at the time she’d thought it was a simple mistake, but now she wondered if it was. She knew it was hard to break a cell phone since they were made from a durable plastic that was almost unbreakable.
Viper had claimed that he’d knocked it off the table and a waitress who was quite a bit overweight, at least three hundred pounds, had stepped on it before he could retrieve it. Having still been unaware that he was a part of the Headhunter MC, she’d not questioned it. He’d immediately offered to get her another one to make up for it so why would she. Raven wanted to shake her head at all the stupid things she’d thought were no big deal, only standing here now they seemed very big deal indeed. Heck, it really sucked when Marcus was right.
She saw one of the women stumble, falling to the ground. A man kicked her in the side, laughing. Raven cringed, watching as the woman behind her helped her to her feet. She wanted to get the heck out of here, but she knew she’d never make it more than a few yards before they were on her. She’d have to be smart about this if she wanted to escape. She was deathly afraid that Viper had known that she’d never leave with him if she’d known he was part of the Headhunters because he’d waited two weeks to tell her.
She really hoped this wasn’t about the war they were fighting with the Red Devils because if it was, then she was screwed. Not that she wasn’t screwed anyway after seeing this, but if he didn’t know of her connections to the Red Devils, she had a feeling that this would go better than if he did.
Viper turned from the man he was standing beside to walk towards her. She looked him over trying to figure out what she’d seen in the man, because after seeing this she didn’t have a damned clue.
He had sandy blonde hair cut short with the top spiked, and his thick arms and chest were chiseled and fit. He looked good in the tight jeans and white t-shirt with a leather cut covering it. He hadn’t been wearing his cut when she’d met him about ten weeks ago. That was why she hadn’t connected him to the Headhunters MC. It was also what made her worry that this was about more than just his wanting to have sex with her. It really might be that he wanted to get some payback on the Devils MC. If that was true, then this was going to go badly. Really, really badly.
As he neared, she watched him thinking it was too bad such a good-looking man was cursed with such an evil soul. That was the only type of man she could see doing something like this, and she really wished that she hadn’t decided to be spontaneous after years of playing it safe.
She really needed to remember that Marcus, who was annoyingly demanding when he told her things, was smarter than she gave him credit for. Her defiance against his demands always seemed to lead to her getting into trouble. Of course, this one was a doozy and she hoped that she didn’t end up dead, or worse, forced into slavery for this current lapse in judgment.
Viper was only a few feet away. She clenched her arms behind her back, her nails digging into her arm, reminding herself not to run. She needed to play along, at least for now. Viper wore a sly smile that had goose bumps popping up all over her body, and the really sad part was that she’d seen that smile before. She just hadn’t realized that it wasn’t an arrogant smile of a handsome man, but the sly smile of an evil one.
Shit, how did she always manage to end up knee-deep in trouble? Dang, she just cursed again; she really needed to stop that. Only she knew that before she got out of this mess, she’d likely do it again. Viper prowled closer, and she felt her skin crawl. His closeness after what she’d just witnessed made her feel sickened. She couldn’t let it show, at least not until she was able to escape. Trembling, she looked around again, wondering briefly if she could make it to that wooded area before one of them caught her.
Realizing that it was too risky, she stood her ground. It was at least two hundred yards away and the chances of her outrunning all eight of these men was slim, especially if one of them hopped on his bike to come after her. As Viper drew near with that creepy sly smile still twisting the corners of his mouth up, she wanted to vomit. Her stomach rolled, and she felt bile in the back of her throat.
“You ready, Doll?” Viper asked, now close enough to cup her elbow. She wanted to jerk away from the touch, but knew she couldn’t. Not if she wanted to stay out of that truck with those other women.
Trying a smile, she knew she only managed a slight grimace, but she replied in a relatively calm voice, “Sure. Where are we headed?”
“About fifteen miles up the road, there’s a diner there, so we can grab a bite,” he said, guiding her to his bike with his hand still cupping her elbow.
Getting on without hesitating even as her stomach threatened to empty at the thought of going anywhere with this man, she slid her arms around his waist. Her stomach twisted and she couldn’t help a slight whimper. Thankfully, the roar of the motor masked it as he cranked the bike. She managed to say in a fairly normal tone, “Sounds good, I am hungry.”
“Good. Hold on tight now,” he yelled over his shoulder and then the bike lurched, and they were flying down the road. Raven clutched her hands together on Viper’s stomach, wishing that she didn’t have to play this game. She really didn’t want to be on his bike headed anywhere with him. Nope, she wanted to be headed home, and somehow she was going to stay alive and make that happen. She just had to figure out how.
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