Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 40484 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 202(@200wpm)___ 162(@250wpm)___ 135(@300wpm)
“So, the little birdie wants to fly away again, huh?” rumbled a low voice El instantly recognized. It was Tooth, the club president himself.
“I’m no one’s fucking prisoner!” El growled and lashed out with his elbow, aiming under the giant’s ribs, but it got him a humiliating smack on the head.
“Says who? You’re not going anywhere before you and I have a chat,” Tooth said and twisted El’s arms back. El tried to withstand the force, but he couldn’t have made Tooth’s grip budge no matter how hard he tried. The ease at which this guy managed to manhandle him was already sending his anxiety into overdrive.
“Milk, cuff him.”
“I had him,” protested the big-nosed man, but Tooth only sighed as cold metal rolled against El’s skin.
“The fuck is this? I didn’t ask for any of this!” El writhed in the hold, but it was like trying to topple a tree with his bare hands.
Tooth let out a low hum that froze El for half a second with its menace. “You’re not telling us everything we need to know, and I don’t appreciate that. I just got some interesting information from our cleaners about the identity of your trash.”
El stiffened as if his blood had suddenly ran cold. Before he could have come up with a retort, Tooth ducked, grabbed him around the knees, and threw El’s body over his shoulder.
“You will be sorry for dragging the club into this,” Milk said, scooting behind Tooth to glare at El, whose head was still spinning in confusion. He brought a roll of tape to his lips and broke away a piece with his teeth. El choked and twisted in an attempt to get away, but the sticky plastic blocked his mouth before he remembered to scream for help.
Tooth held his legs tightly when El tried to wiggle to the ground by kicking about. “We’ll go talk where no one can hear you scream,” he said, walking off with his lieutenant right behind him.
El had no doubt that the words were a scare tactic, but they worked. Coffin Nails were known to be dangerous people, and Trig had proved that tonight by the proficiency with which he sent three men to meet their maker.
El was fucked.
He roared into the tape, but nobody would hear him over the loud music, and since Tooth purposefully walked in the shadow, away from the lights illuminating the front of the clubhouse, none of the partying members or their friends would notice what was going on a dozen yards away.
El’s nose was blocked from being hung upside down, and he frantically sucked in what little air he could get as the massive biker carried him along the side of the concrete building, and then inside, to a corridor with walls thick enough to block out most of the loud music.
This was fate playing a cruel joke on him. He’d tried to kill himself to avoid torture by a cartel, only to end up in the paws of brutal bikers. Right now, he wished he hadn’t left Trig’s side. But hadn’t that been the point? He was supposed to grow up and take care of himself instead of relying on others for protection.
When Milk opened an unassuming door with a heavy lock, and El saw stairs going down between Tooth’s feet, his animal instincts kicked in, and he bucked like a madman.
He’d die there.
He’d die in some dingy cellar, and no one would ever know. If he wiggled ferociously enough, maybe he could at least take Tooth with him, and break both their necks.
“Stop thrashing. You’re not covered in maggots yet,” Tooth said and delivered a sharp slap to El’s ass, rendering him speechless enough to stop the struggle. They wouldn’t… rape him, would they?
The light went on, but El could see nothing beyond the bare concrete stairs and Tooth’s polished boots taking step after careful step down the abyss that would take El’s life. What would they tell Trig? Would they lie to him by saying that El had run away, or would they be truthful and expect him to just accept whatever fate Tooth had in mind for El?
While the escape attempt made sense at the time, El already regretted parting on such a bad note. El’s shitty attitude would be the last thing Trig remembered about him. If it wasn’t for El’s snappy mouth, maybe they could have talked, come to terms about being different people now and said their goodbyes in peace, letting each other go. But no. El had to cause Trig yet more grief.
Milk shut another door behind them once the stairs were replaced by a tiled floor, and followed like the overly eager minion of his demonic overlord. “There’s no lying to Tooth, I can tell you that much. I don’t know if Trig told you, but Tooth is short for Tooth fairy. Which is kinda funny with him being gay and all—”