Renegade (Devil’s Boneyard MC 6) Page 2

With one last look at the woman on the bed, I carried the girl from the room. She made a strange noise similar to a whimper but not quite, and held out a hand to her mom, clearly not wanting to leave the room. I pulled the door mostly shut, enough that we couldn’t see inside, but we could hear everything going on. It felt like Chansy took forever, but he finally stepped from the room.

  “I left the pills on the bedside table. She’ll need to take the antibiotic once a day, and the pain reliever every six hours as needed.” Dr. Chansy glanced at the girl in my arms. “Are you hurt too?”

  Her arms just tightened, but she wouldn’t answer. I’d have to ask Clarity to come check her over. Surely she wouldn’t be afraid of the VP’s old lady. Hadn’t met a sweeter woman in all my life. Well, except maybe Meg, Cinder’s old lady, but since their son wasn’t very old I didn’t want to disturb them.

  “I don’t think she’ll let you examine her, doc.”

  The man seemed resigned as he headed out, not even speaking another word to me. The way he walked, his shoulders drooped, it was like the weight of the world was pressing down on him. I didn’t know anything about him outside of the help he offered the club, and he never volunteered information. His reaction to Fawn and the woman had me wondering what his story was, and whether or not anyone in the club knew his background.

  I was about to pull my phone from my pocket when the front door opened again. Clarity and Scratch came in, their two boys trailing behind them. Caleb was Scratch’s adopted son, and was already six years old and in first grade. The youngest, Noah, was only three and a half. Seeing the two boys must have eased the girl’s fears because her hold on me slackened and I set her back down. The moment her feet touched the floor, she seemed hesitant, but the boys approached slowly, both smiling.

  “I’m Caleb and this is my little brother Noah,” he said.

  She pressed her lips tight together and didn’t respond. Caleb looked up at me, but I shrugged. I didn’t have a clue why she wouldn’t talk, and I didn’t know her name. I’d thought maybe the kids would draw her out, but that didn’t seem to be happening. Was she just scared or was it something more?

  Clarity came forward and knelt in front of her. “My name is Clarity and I’m their mom. I brought over a clean set of clothes I got from the mom of a little girl and thought you might like a bath? I can help, if that’s all right.”

  The little girl looked up at me and I gave her a nod, letting her know that it was safe to go with Clarity. She slowly reached for Clarity’s hand and let my VP’s woman lead her down the hall to the bathroom.

  “Clothes came from Jackal and Josie, so don’t worry about us dressing her in a stranger’s things. They were too small for Allegra, but you know Josie doesn’t like to throw things out,” Scratch said. “What’s the story on these two?”

  “Not sure. The girl won’t speak, and the mom is pretty rough. She hasn’t woken, but Chansy treated her wounds, stitched a few that were deeper, and left some meds for her. I don’t know who they are or where they came from. For all I know, I was supposed to find them.” My brow furrowed. “I still feel like I know the mom, but she’s so young I can’t imagine where I’d have seen her.”

  “Since when do you believe in that cosmic shit like Fate? Thought it was all bullshit?” he asked. “Maybe you met her through Nikki. Are they close in age?”

  “I don’t believe in that crap. I was thinking more along the lines of them being a Trojan horse. Though now that you mention it, it’s quite possible she went to school with Nikki.”

  Scratch rubbed a hand down his face and sighed heavily. “Boy, when are you going to learn that sometimes the surprises in life can be a gift? If Clarity hadn’t tripped the alarm at the shop that day, if I hadn’t gone to check it out, I’d never have found the best thing in my life.”

  “I’m not you, VP. I’m not the settling down type.”

  He grinned. “We’ll see. I have a feeling those two were put in your path for a reason, and it wasn’t to detonate like a damn bomb.”

  I seriously hoped he was wrong. A bomb I could handle. A woman and kid living in my home? That scared the shit out of me. My parents had an awesome marriage, from what I could tell, and were the perfect example of how a family should act. It was the idea of having something special like that, then losing it that terrified me.

  Clarity and the little girl stepped out of the bathroom. Caleb and Noah started to move forward, but Scratch reached out to tug them back. The girl’s wet hair hung down her back, and now that she was clean, I could see a few bruises along her arms and one on her face. The jeans Clarity had brought for her hid her legs from view, but the look on Clarity’s face told me the girl was in rough shape. I pushed open the mom’s door and let the little girl go inside. Clarity sagged against Scratch and spoke in a near whisper.

  “You can see her ribs, and there are so many bruises. I didn’t see any cuts, but it’s apparent someone beat that poor girl and starved her.” Clarity rubbed her face against Scratch’s cut. “We have to help them. Whoever did that, they can’t be allowed to get their hands on either of them again.”

  I knew Clarity had lived on the streets and had suffered abuse. Even if she hadn’t, she was tenderhearted and wanted everyone to have a happy-ever-after. Scratch had been that for her and Caleb, but I didn’t think I was the right man to save that woman and her kid. Getting them here was one thing. Taking care of them? I’d never been responsible for someone else. The state hadn’t awarded me custody of Nikki when our parents died. Even though I’d been there for her as much as possible, she’d been raised by a foster family. They’d been nice, and hadn’t abused her. She’d been one of the lucky ones. Or maybe it was me lurking over her shoulder with the weight of Devil’s Boneyard at my back that had made them toe the line.

  “They’re safe here,” Scratch promised his wife. “And Renegade is going to make sure of it.”

  My jaw tightened. “Is that an order?”

  The smile Scratch gave me would have scared a lesser man. “You’re damn right it is.”

  It felt like someone was driving nails into my coffin, sealing me inside to be buried alive. The thought of that woman and her kid depending on me? It was the stuff of nightmares. If I failed them, I wasn’t sure I could live with myself. This was the one time I definitely couldn’t fuck shit up. The fact I was hard didn’t help. The moment I’d lifted that woman into my arms, my cock had taken an interest. It was sick and made me feel like the worst sort of man. She was beaten and bloody, but something about her weight in my arms, the curves of her pressed against me, had made something inside me stir and come to life.

  After they left, I made sure the kid was asleep on the couch and her mom was still resting. I went into my room and shut the door, twisting the lock to keep them out of my space. I quickly stripped off my clothes and went to take a shower. The hot water should have relieved the tension, but the fact my dick was hard as fucking steel didn’t help matters. What kind of sick bastard got hard over an unconscious woman?

  I slammed my eyes shut in hopes of thinking of anyone else. The blonde at the clubhouse who always wanted in my pants, the raven-haired beauty at the coffee shop, but nothing worked. I grabbed the lube off the top shelf of the shower and slicked my palm before gripping my cock. Stroking it hard and fast, I wanted to banish the demons, to chase away the image of the woman down the hall. In my mind she was healthy and whole, smiling up at me as she knelt at my feet. I groaned as I pictured her taking my cock into her mouth, sucking me off. I jerked my dick faster, the images in my mind shifting to her lying on her back, legs spread and begging me to fuck her. I’d drive my cock into her wet pussy and fuck her until neither of us could walk.

  I came with a groan, my cum splattering the shower wall, but it wasn’t enough. My dick was still hard and I stared down at it in annoyance. What the ever loving fuck? It hadn’t shown interest in anyone in months, and now I wanted some nameless woman who’d been left for dead?

  I was one sick
fuck.

  I finished showering and went to bed. After tossing and turning, I ended up tugging one out twice more, and still couldn’t fucking sleep. I had the horrible suspicion that my life had just changed and not in a way that I wanted.

  Maybe she’d wake up and tell me to fuck off, to keep away from her. Or maybe she’d be a royal bitch and my dick would stop getting hard just thinking about her.

  Even I didn’t believe that. I snorted. I was fucked. Well and truly fucked, and not in the fun way.

  Chapter Two

  Darby

  Pain. That was the first thing I noticed. Lots of pain. It hurt to breathe, and my head pounded like someone was beating on it with a sledgehammer. I struggled to open my eyes and wondered if the bastards would succeed in killing me next time. Fawn! My eyes flew open and I immediately regretted it. Spikes of pain shot through my head and I groaned, fighting back nausea.

  “Easy,” said a soft voice. “You’re safe.”

  Safe? There was no such thing. Not with the Mayhem Riders MC. At least, not with the Nomads. The ones belonging to actual chapters seemed decent enough, from what little I’d witnessed, but if I’d ever breathed a word of what Fawn and I suffered at the hands of their brothers, it would have meant a death sentence for us. I couldn’t risk it.

  I managed to open my eyes, and blinked as I tried to remember where I’d been taken. Nothing seemed familiar. Slowly, I turned my head and met the gray gaze of a beautiful raven-haired woman. She smiled softly, and all I saw was genuine kindness in her eyes. There was something familiar about her, but I didn’t know why.

  “My name is Nikki. Nikki Adams. My brother found your daughter in an alley, and then discovered you in a dumpster. He brought you to his home and had a doctor treat you. There’s medication you need to take, but you should probably eat something first.”

  I wasn’t sure what to say to all that. It was hard to process all the words, but I made somewhat sense of them. Nikki Adams. I remembered someone at school by that name, but she’d been older than me. Could it be the same person? It was her coloring and her eyes that made memories surface, but otherwise she looked different from the girl I remembered.

  “Where…” My throat felt like sandpaper.

  “My brother, Renegade, is part of the Devil’s Boneyard MC. You’re at his home inside the compound. Whoever did this to you and your daughter, they won’t reach you here.”

  Instead of her words inspiring a sense of safety, they only scared me more. I hadn’t heard good things of the crew her brother ran with, and I didn’t know if they hurt women or not. I remembered seeing her with a man around town and at the school. I hadn’t known for sure if it was her brother, even though there had been whispers about it. Scandalous with him being a biker. Honestly, I’d thought he was hot, even though he’d been a lot older than me. Nikki seemed happy enough, but for all I knew it was a ruse to lull me into a false sense of security. I’d learned the hard way that I couldn’t trust anyone. It had been drilled into my head since the day the Nomads had taken me. I’d only been fifteen at the time, and they’d managed to get me pregnant almost immediately. I didn’t even know the father of my child, not with certainty though I had my suspicions, and was grateful she looked like me and hadn’t inherited their mean-spiritedness.

  “Who did this to you?” Nikki asked.

  “Mayhem Riders,” I croaked and I immediately wished I hadn’t said anything. What if they were allies to this club? What if they gave us back to Boomer?

  Nikki frowned and her mouth opened and shut, then she shot up out of the chair she’d been sitting on and rushed from the room. Only a minute or two seemed to pass before a tall, broad-shouldered man came inside, a glass of water in his hand. He handed it to me. When his gaze locked with mine, I remembered him. I’d seen him several times when he’d been hanging out with Nikki at the local burger place, and I’d had a huge crush on him. He’d been too old for me, but even as a teen I’d noticed how sexy he was, and he was still mouthwatering.

  “Sip it so you don’t get sick,” he ordered.

  I took a few small drinks, then held it out for him to take, even though I really wanted to chug the entire thing. I glanced around wondering where Fawn was hiding. Nikki said that her brother had found both of us. They hadn’t hurt my baby, had they?

  “Fawn?” I asked.

  His brow furrowed. “Your daughter? Her name is Fawn?”

  I nodded.

  “She’s in the living room watching cartoons,” he said. “I haven’t been able to get her to say a word. My sister, Nikki, tried too, and so did my VP’s wife, Clarity. She’s been bathed, by Clarity, and has clean clothes on.”

  My heart ached for my baby girl. She’d been through so much. I didn’t know how much I could trust the men with this MC. While I knew that not all of the Mayhem Riders were bad, I had only ever heard of the exploits of the Devil’s Boneyard. None of it good, but also none of it as horrible as abusing women and kids. Just because the woman, Nikki, had seemed nice, didn’t mean we were truly safe here. I might have gone to the same school as her, but people changed over time, and we’d never exactly been friends. I’d just known of her and seen her around.

  Nikki came in with a plate. Two slices of lightly buttered toast were lying on it. I accepted the plate, my stomach rumbling. I was starving, couldn’t even remember the last time I’d eaten something. Glancing at the toast, I wondered if they’d fed my daughter.

  “Fawn. Did she eat?” I asked, my voice still raspy.

  “She had some eggs, toast, and bacon,” the man said. “And I fed her pasta last night. I hope she doesn’t have any food allergies.”

  “Not that I know,” I said, grateful they’d taken such good care of Fawn. I nibbled the toast until I managed to eat both pieces, then drank more water. Renegade handed me some pills, and I stared at them, not sure if I should take them or not. Was he trying to drug me? That’s how I’d gotten into this mess in the first place.

  “Dr. Chansy left those for you. One is to keep your wounds from getting infected, and the other is a pain pill. You can take the pain one every six hours as needed. He couldn’t call in a prescription since we didn’t know who you are. These are samples that were delivered to his office in town,” Renegade said.

  “Darby. My name is Darby Gillis.”

  “It’s nice to meet you, Darby, though I wish it were under other circumstances. Although, you seem familiar to me. I don’t remember ever meeting a Darby, though.” Renegade paused. “Do you know how you came to be inside that dumpster?”

  Nikki gasped and as I looked at her, I saw her pale. “Darby?”

  I nodded.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered. “You’ve been missing for five years!”

  I licked my lips. Should I tell him the truth? I still didn’t know if his club was an ally of the Mayhem Riders. Would I be returned to the Nomads? Even if I had to go back, if someone would just keep Fawn safe, then I could endure anything. I tried to see through the open bedroom doorway, wondering how far she was. He’d said she was watching cartoons. I could hear a TV from what seemed to be a few rooms away, or the volume was just turned down.

  “Nikki, bring Fawn in to see her mom,” Renegade said. “Then maybe you can take her over to the playground while Darby fills me in on their situation.”

  Nikki hurried off and returned a moment later with Fawn. My precious baby raced toward me and clambered onto the bed. I hugged her, not caring how much it hurt the bruises I was sure covered most of me. She smelled sweet and the clothes she was wearing were nicer than anything she’d owned, even though they didn’t appear to be new. The fact they’d kept her safe, fed, and clothed meant a lot to me.

  She patted my face, then pointed to Renegade.

  “You told him where I was?” I asked.

  She nodded, and I kissed her soft cheek. “Thank you, sweetheart. Go with Nikki for a little bit. Renegade said something about a playground. Won’t that be fun?”

  “It
’s inside the compound,” Nikki said. “She’ll be safe the entire time. No one is coming inside without approval from Cinder or Scratch.”

  I didn’t know who Scratch or Cinder were, and since I didn’t know if the Mayhem Riders were welcome, it didn’t exactly make me feel confident that Fawn would be safe here. So far, they’d taken good care of her, but what if Boomer showed up and laid claim to us? Would they just hand us over to them?

  “Take your phone, just in case,” Renegade told his sister. She patted his shoulder, then held out her hand for Fawn. She clambered off the bed and went to Nikki without any hesitation, which meant she trusted these people.

  “Go easy on her,” Nikki said. “She’s one of the girls who went missing at my school all those years ago. You remember the ones? The police searched for a few weeks, but no one came forward with information. They gave up after a while. I have a feeling she’s been through hell, Renegade.”

  Nikki left with Fawn. Once we heard the front door open and shut, Renegade focused his gaze on me.

  “So, now we need to talk,” he said. “It’s obvious that someone did this to you, and there were countless bruises on Fawn as well. Who dumped you in that alley? Nikki said the Mayhem Riders had hurt you, but the ones I know would never condone this shit. If you’ve been missing for five years, where have you been?”

  “I’m not lying,” I said. “The Nomads kidnapped me five years ago. They got me pregnant, kept me caged or tied up until I gave birth, then they made sure I knew if I dared to defy them or tried to run, that Fawn would pay the price.”

  “Is that how she got bruised?” Renegade asked.

  “Boomer doesn’t like it when she gets in the way. He smacks her around.” I felt like a horrible mom admitting what else he’d done to her. “He choked her one time until she passed out, squeezed so hard it must have damaged something. She hasn’t been able to speak since then. Occasionally she can make some raspy noises, but she can’t say words.”

  “I’ll ask Dr. Chansy to take a look at her, but she was scared of him last night. He’d never hurt her, or you, but she didn’t know that.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I didn’t realize there were any Mayhem Riders in the immediate area. You said they were Nomads, so it’s possible they’re just passing through, but I’ll ask my Pres if he knows anything about it. If they hurt you, they won’t be allowed inside these gates. We don’t condone violence against women and kids. You said they kidnapped you?”