Chapter 9 #4
I tried to track what was happening but within seconds, my mother’s arms had pushed me hard enough that I wavered forward, and I was running directly into someone’s chest.
A gruff laugh escaped the man’s chest, his fingers were on my upper arms and then his whiskey breath, laced with weed covered my face.
“Who the fuck do we have here?” He laughed, so did a few men around him, and then my mother smiled, and I realized what had just happened. She’d found a way to secure herself a useful position in the club.
While her looks were fading, her hair thinning and her hips diminishing—She was becoming irrelevant, and I was her ticket to remaining flush with drugs.
“This is my daughter, Natty.” She spoke loud and proud as if she were truly a mother. As if she was the one who had helped me when I’d gotten my first period, or who shopped for my first bra. Like she was the one who helped me learn to read, or how to write.
Sasha was fuming behind me, and I knew she was going to fight my mom again. She’d done it before, punching her square between the eyes when she caught her trying to hand me off to someone who wanted to touch me as payment for the drugs she craved so badly.
This was no different except I was bigger, and Sasha had less ability to control what happened to me, and Silas wasn’t here.
Pain radiated up my arms as the man holding me squeezed, forcing my eyes up.
I knew who the president of the club was. I had been watching him from afar my entire life, but I had managed to escape his attention for sixteen long years. Now, unfortunately it seemed my mother had effectively ended that as Dirk seemed to stare with vicious intent.
Sasha stepped up next to me, gently pushing me to the side, and I knew in that moment as Dirk’s hands left my arms, that Sasha would do anything for me.
She would die for me, take a bullet, but I also knew beyond a shadow of a doubt this wasn’t about me, it was for her son.
She knew Silas was attached to me, in some capacity…
I was his favorite thing about life right now and while I knew it would pass, his mother would do anything to keep me from falling to pieces.
I was a glorified teddy bear to her, and merely a golden egg to my mother.
There was no one that wanted me to stay in one piece simply because I was me, and it was the right thing to do, except for maybe Silas.
I didn’t hear what Sasha had promised Dirk, or the way she had flirted, nor did I pay attention to the way my mother pinched the back of my arms, hissing threats in my ears.
Within mere minutes, Sasha was walking us into the night air, the stars hanging overhead as if there wasn’t a whole house full of sinners just existing right below it. A crater in the dirt, full of raiders who worshiped death.
“What just happened?” I was breathless as fear clung to every syllable I managed to get past my teeth.
Sasha didn’t reply until we had crossed the club yard, the garage and a few spare houses. Not until we were pushing through her front door.
“Dirk knows you exist, Natty. That’s what just happened.”
Sasha kept the lights off, flipping only the one above the microwave on. I cradled my arms to my chest, unsure of what this meant exactly.
“He’s known about me…I’ve been in the club, around here—”
Sasha shook her head and I noticed her hands were shaking. “No, you don’t understand. He wants you, Natty.”
“You’re right, I don’t understand…” My voice shook.
“I’ll break it down for you. You have big tits, a tiny waist, and golden—silky hair that touches your ass. You’re beautiful, Natty. More than that…you’re sexy…and Dirk likes to have first dibs on anyone in the club that looks as good as you do.”
My eyes burned, fingers trembling. “I’m only sixteen…he wouldn’t…he can’t.”
Sasha glared; her jaw tensed as she let out a heavy sigh.
She didn’t have to say anything more. There were angels and demons that danced along a minuscule line in these motorcycle clubs. So far I’d veered toward the safe side of things, for the most part…but Dirk was a bad man. Someone who wanted to hurt me, and now if he knew I was here…
“Will he come for me?” I gripped the back of the chair until my nails sunk into the wood.
Sasha’s trembling fingers came up to her hair as she tucked a few pieces behind her ear.
“I’ll do everything I can to protect you, Natty…but I need you to promise me you’ll stay away from the club. Do not go over there, no matter what. Do you understand?”
I nodded and when I saw Sasha grab a beer and start to leave, I turned toward the hall only to stop mid step and spin back toward her.
“I don’t think we should tell Silas about this.”
Sasha took a sip, and I might have been mistaken, but tears were gathered in her eyes when she shook her head. “No, I don’t think we can. He’ll try to murder Dirk and get himself killed in the process.”
That was my concern as well. Silas was protective of me in a way that made him forget logic and act first. I gave her one last nod, agreeing that this thing would stay between us and then I turned and slipped back into the only room I had ever felt wanted in.