Page 18 of Sold to the Bikers

“I’m not on drugs!” I blurt out. “I drink decaf after noon, sheesh.”

“Then how the fuck did you get a hundred grand in debt with those assholes?” Quickshot asks roughly.

I shy away. I must seem like such a screw up.

“Give her a fucking break.” Animal puts a hand just above my knee and gives me a squeeze that I think is supposed to be reassuring.

Quickshot shakes his head and fixes me with a cool, blue stare. “We paid a lot of fucking money for you. Remember that when I offer you this deal.”

A deal? I’m in no position to negotiate, but if there’s a chance at getting back to my old life, I’ll take what I can get. “What kind of a deal?”

“We’ll let you go—”

My sharp gasp of surprise cuts him off. I sit straight up, pulling out of Badass’s embrace. “Let me go? You’ll let me go?” My eyes are probably a little wild as I look between the three of them. The hope that wells up inside threatens to overwhelm me. “Thank—thank you. I don’t know what to—”

“It’s not quite that simple.” Animal gives my knee another squeeze. “Like he said, we paid twenty-five k for you.”

I should’ve seen it coming. Expecting to get away for free was obviously too much to ask.

“Right. To have sex with me, right? I… I guess I’m ready.” The excitement and eagerness I’d built up in myself earlier isn’t quite there yet, but maybe I can build myself up again.

Capturing the bottom of Quickshot’s T-shirt that’s way too big for me, I start to pull it up. Three sets of male eyes flare with heated interest, and even just that is enough to spark a hint of the fire that’s smoldering in my core. Maybe this will be okay, after all.

But Animal and Badass stop my hands, keeping me from undressing. How is this going to work, if they keep stopping me? “Are you going to pimp me out instead?” I ask in a tiny, terrified whisper.

“What the fuck? No!” Animal rears back like I slapped him.

“Then just tell me! I do owe them money because of drugs, but it’s not because I’m on them. I… um… I was dealing, and… uh, lost the drugs.” It’s what I sort of imagine happened with Sandra anyway, before rehab, but there’s no point in dragging her into this

“You?” they say together.

“Yeah?”

Quickshot snorts. “Fine. Keep your secrets. As long as they don’t fuck with us, it doesn’t really matter. The Unwanted have a hold on you. Whatever it is, we’ll make it disappear. All you have to do is be what you already are. Ours.”

“Forever?”

“Three months.” Animal’s expression is all business for a change.

“Months!? I thought—”

Badass cuts me off with a laugh. “Don’t take this the wrong way, honey, but I don’t think you’ve been doing a lot of that lately or you wouldn’t be sitting here with us negotiating for your freedom. Maybe it’ll be a little faster, maybe slower, but three months should give us time to get our business with the Unwanted cleaned up. We’re not gonna hold a gun to your head, but you got two choices right now: either we let you go and you take your chances with them again, or you stick with us until it’s safe. I think I know which you’d prefer.”

“You think I want to be with the three of you?”

Quickshot steps forwards and puts his fingers under my chin, slowly raising my head until I find myself standing and looking up at him. God, all it takes is a single finger and suddenly my belly is all butterflies. Why am I like this? Why do they make me feel this way so easily?

He leans in as if to kiss me, and my stupid traitor body sways towards him. The other two men are right behind me, I can feel it in every bone of my body, and heat pools between my legs. He chuckles, the sound rich and dark with cocky promise. “Don’t you? If not, you’re a good fucking actress, but that’s all we need. Make everyone believe you belong to us. When it’s over, you can walk away, your cherries still intact.”

“We don’t have to—you know—for real?”

“Have to? Nobody’s going to fucking force you, but we’re no saints. Baby, if you keep offering, don’t be surprised when we take you up on it. Personally, by the time we’re done, I think you’ll be fucking begging for it.”

11

NATALIE

“So, what do you think?”asks Jewel, the club girl assigned to get me ready.