Chapter 5
Winter
I saw the doctor come through the front door with a man wearing a Slayers’ cut.
He was almost a foot taller than she was.
She had one arm curled around him and smiled up at him like he hung the moon.
It was a cute couple’s pose that made me envious.
She’d found love with her hot biker. She was smartly dressed in a pantsuit, and her sleek blonde hair was pulled into a tight French bun on the back of her head.
She stood out from every other woman in the room, me included.
She didn’t seem to belong in a place like this, but she moved around with casual ease, smiling and happy. She looked younger than I’d imagined a doctor would be.
The man beside her carried two large medical duffle bags, one in each hand.
He was not only tall and broad, but his arms were also thickly muscled, like Fuse’s.
This biker’s head was shaved down to the skin around the bottom of his head, and the top was pulled back into a long ponytail that hung down the back of his head.
He wasn’t exactly smiley, but I could tell he was happy with his lot in life.
They moved towards the back of the clubhouse and disappeared through a door behind the bar.
I realized Fuse was watching me watch them.
“That’s Dr. Cassandra Harper,” he said quietly.
“And she’s a real doctor?” I asked, keeping my voice low and respectful.
He nodded once. “Yeah. If you’re finished eating, we should head back and see her. She’s a busy woman. We shouldn’t make her wait.”
I looked down at my plate and felt heat creep into my face. I’d nearly cleared my plate.
“I’m broke. Will she let me pay later?” I asked, staring worriedly at the back door they went through.
Fuse shook his head. “No need to worry about money. Cass doesn’t charge brothers or old ladies.”
I quickly realized that I wasn’t either of those things. I didn’t belong in whatever category earned kindness in this place. I didn’t point that out. It was safer to keep my thoughts to myself. Being with Viper those few days had taught me that much.
When he pushed the door in the back open, he explained, “The chapel. She sets up here when she sees someone.”
Dr. Harper bent over one of the duffle bags, pulling supplies out and arranging them neatly on a small table.
The biker with the ponytail stood nearby, proudly watching her.
He murmured something I couldn’t understand and she laughed.
Some women lived a charmed life. I wish I did.
but that apparently wasn’t my lot in life.
“That’s Ace,” Fuse stated unnecessarily, because who else would he be?
“You’re taking him with you, right?”
“He’ll stand outside the back door. I’ll be outside the front one to make sure no one interrupts the exam.”
I nodded, even though some small part of my brain didn’t fully believe him. In my world, men always made promises and didn’t keep them. First my dad, then Viper, and now Fuse. They were all the same. It wasn’t a matter of if they would go back on their word, just a matter of when.
Ace stepped out first without saying a word. Fuse lingered a second longer, his eyes meeting mine. “You’ll be alright,” he said quietly. “Just talk to Dr. Harper like you would any other doctor.”
I gave a small nod, pretending it was all going to be okay.
The door closed behind him, leaving me alone with her.
She stood with a stethoscope in her hand and smiled at me. I could hardly believe how warm and open her expression was.
“I’m Dr. Cassandra Harper.” She shrugged with one shoulder and continued, “You can call me Cassandra. Everyone does.”
I didn’t know quite what to make of her, but I came forward anyway, because I needed answers.
“How can you be with them?” I asked before I could stop myself. The question came out sharper than I intended. “Knowing what they do.”
She didn’t get angry or defensive. She simply picked up a blood pressure cuff and stepped closer. “Sit,” she said calmly. “Let’s make sure you’re alright and we can talk about the Dark Slayers as we go.”
I sat because I had this thing on my chest that needed to be looked at.
“The Slayers aren’t what you think,” she said as she wrapped the cuff around my arm, her fingers gentle and efficient.
“They bought me,” I said quietly. “That’s human trafficking. Don’t think that because I’m young, I’m stupid. I know what this is.”
Her hands paused for just a second before she pumped up the blood pressure cuff. “Not everything is what it seems with this club.”
I didn’t argue. I just watched her face, looking for signs that she might be fibbing to me.
She finished checking my vitals and wrote something down before looking at me again. “You don’t have to be here. You know that, right?”
I swallowed thickly, thinking about how my plan on the way to the clubhouse was to run at the very first chance I got.
“Do you want to leave?” she asked. “If you do, we’ll take you out the back door right now. Where would you go?”
The question felt like the world falling out from under my feet. I stared at the floor, shaking my head without meaning to.
“I don’t have anywhere to go,” I admitted reluctantly. “If I want to go to any of my family they would just turn me over to my father. He would probably just traffic me back to Viper, since that worked out so well for him the first time.”
She nodded slowly, understanding without pushing. “There are women’s shelters. Places that can help you get back on your feet. The club will help you, but if you prefer not to be here then that’s another option.”
I thought about the locked suite upstairs that locked from the inside, the clean clothes, and the job offer.
That was hard to walk away from, just to stay at a women’s shelter.
I couldn’t be guaranteed of finding a job in the community and wouldn’t have any way to get back and forth.
Fuse promised that the job came without any conditions. Could I really believe him?
“They offered me a job. I might be able to stay,” I said rubbing my forehead.
When I looked up at Dr. Harper, her happy smile was nowhere to be found. “The real question is do you feel safe here?”
I hesitated, the truth caught somewhere between fear and uncertainty. “They gave me a private room. The locking door makes it feel safe. But am I, really?”
“The Dark Slayers are protective of women. I’ve never known one of them to hurt a woman.
But you’re right about there being no way to be certain.
All I can say is if anyone makes you uncomfortable, all you have to do is yell.
Brothers will come running. I’m certain they’ll make sure you’re safe, because they take things like that seriously,” she said firmly.
I nodded, “Alright, I trust your judgment.”
She put her equipment back into the bag. “You can always text me or the police if need be.”
“I don’t have a phone,” I admitted.
“We can fix that.” She picked up her phone and sent a text. “I’ll get Fuse to bring a burner phone for now. That way you can reach out if you ever need to.”
I tried to imagine what being given a totally free phone would look like. Would he be angry and think I was dipping my hand into his pocket? My dad hated buying things for me.
“So, now that we got that out of the way, let’s talk about your injuries. Do you want to strip out of your clothing or just tell me where you’re injured?”
Her smile told me she was joking but not really.
“I have the bruises on my face and arms, my lip was bleeding there for a minute, but the thing that worries me is this,” I said, pulling my sweater up and showing her the bandage covering a gash on my ribs. “It’s not all that large but it hurts.”
She pulled on fresh gloves and moved closer. Her expression was dead serious, as her fingers gently peeled back the bandage on my shoulder. “I tried to fix it up as best I could from a first aid kit I found under the sink in the bathroom, but I’m worried about it getting infected.”
“Do you mind if I ask how this happened?”
“I fell down at the rally and one of Viper’s crew kicked me. His boots were steel-toed.”
“I imagine it was pretty painful. I don’t think you’ve broken a rib, I might order an X-ray, though if it’s broken, then time is the best healer,” she told me calmly.
“Do what you need to do,” I told her. “I can take it.”
She scribbled some notes on a piece of paper, I guessed it might be a request for tests or something. I suddenly had a thought.
“Can I get birth control?” I stammered, feeling all kinds of humiliated. I don’t even know why asking this stranger for birth control made me feel so many emotions.
Her hands stilled briefly before continuing. “Yes,” she said gently. “Are you currently sexually active?”
“No. I’m just in a precarious situation here. If I were to get forced into having sex,” I whispered, “I don’t want to make things worse.”
She dropped down to her knees in front of me, careful not to touch anything with her freshly gloved hands.
“Look, I don’t know what you think this place is like, but Storm runs a tight ship.
Most of the men here are prior military and see themselves as protectors.
If anyone so much as touched a woman without her consent, then they’d be out the door. ”
“Their cut has a one percent patch.”
Dr. Harper frowned at me. “They might operate outside the law at times, but they don’t traffic people.”
Looking her in the eye, I deadpanned back, “Or they didn’t. You do know they bought me at a biker auction, right?”
Her frown deepened. “I think there must be more going on here than you or I know. If you want, I’ll talk to Storm and try to figure out why they did this.”
“Sure. You do that. Meanwhile, I’ll just hole up in my room behind that locked door and work my shifts until I have enough saved to afford a place of my own.”