She wriggled her pants off and dropped them over the edge of the bed, hiding herself under the t-shirt.
“Where you from, little Cherry?”
“Here. Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
“I was born here, lived with my GiGi until I was about 12, then I went to live with my Aunt Ella up in Jasper. Just moved back here.”
“How old are you?”
“Eighteen?”
“Tiny little thing. Why’d you come back to this shithole?”
“It isn’t! I… I loved growing up here. GiGi died when I was 16. She left me her little trailer. I came back as soon as I could after I graduated. As soon as I turned 18.”
“Those hearing aids. You all the way deaf or mostly?”
“Mostly.”
“All your life, or…?”
“Since I was three. I… had an ear infection. My dad was high and I wouldn’t quit crying, had a high fever. He reasoned that boiling water would cure an ear infection.”
“Jesus fuck,” he breathed.
“Neighbor finally called the police when I wouldn’t quit screaming. They found him passed out and me with my ears all burned. They called GiGi and I never saw him again.”
“Your ma?”
She shrugged and looked away, her face red.
“So you’ve been deaf since then?”
“Not right away, I had about a 30% loss, then gradually it got worse and worse and worse. Now I am at about 90/75, favoring my right ear.”
He reached over and turned her face slightly, then traced a finger over the edge of her ear softly and down to her jaw before turning her back to him. “Why don’t you come over here,” he asked, patting the bed right next to him.
She shook her head. “N-no thanks.”
“I’ll keep you warm. Show you why girls always want to come back to my bed.”
“No! No thank you… please, I just want to go home!”
“Easy, little Cherry. Calm down. Come over here a little closer,” he whispered, pulling her against him. “Better, yeah? You don’t want to fuck, how about you suck my cock?”
“No!”
“No?” he asked, leaning close and sliding a hand into her curls. “What, you don’t think I’m hot enough?”
“It’s nothing like that! I don’t want to! I don’t even know you and…”
“And?”
“I’ve never been with a man.”
He laughed, biting her jaw gently. “Sure you haven’t, Cherry. All the chicks who come on here claim that. Some claim it the second and third times they come in.”
“I’m not lying!”
“Right. Come suck my cock, Cherry,” he purred, his lips against her earlobe.
“No! I… I’ve never done that either.”
“I’ll teach you, come on.”
“No!”
“I don’t like no, Cherry. Come on, I need a good fuck,” he groaned, moving over her and shoving his knee between her legs to part them.
She cried out and broke down in tears. “Please! Please don’t! I’m saving myself!”
“Right baby. Enough with that shit, I fucking hate liars.”
“I’m not lying!”
He moved back, anger dancing in his eyes as the hand in her hair made a fist. “Then how about this, Cherry,” he said angrily. “I will fucking check. If you’re not lying, I will turn over and leave you alone the rest of the night. If you ARE lying, you will lick my cock clean after I am done fucking you in the ass,” he snarled, his hand moving down to jerk his shirt up out of the way.
He shoved her legs wider with his knee as he slid his fingers into her panties and pressed his head to hers as he watched her angrily, working his finger down and in as she trembled and cried.
He went still, then laughed low in his throat as he pulled his hand away. He moved back, still looking down at her, his eyes hooded. He slid his finger into his mouth and sucked on it, staring her in the eye as he did. After, he leaned down and kissed her on the lips.
He turned over with another chuckle and turned off the lamp, then moved his pillow to go to sleep.
She slipped her hearing aids off and set them on the shelf before curling up on the other side of the bed to sleep.
He woke her up in the morning, rolling her to face him as he smirked down at her. He grabbed her face and kissed her and she pulled back. He laughed and took hold of her hair, holding her in place as he kissed her again, forcing her mouth open as he moved closer and ground his hard cock into her leg.
She cried out and shook her head. “Please! You promised!” she wailed, struggling feebly away from him.
He bit her earlobe gently. “That was yesterday. I said I would leave you alone and not fuck you last night. I made no promises about today,” he laughed, then let her go as she struggled to reach her hearing aids.
She put them in hurriedly, tears in her eyes as he leaned on an elbow and held on to her thigh to keep her from getting up.
“I said that was only last night, little Cherry,” he repeated. “Today is a new day and a new deal. Get up. I have plans.”
She sat up and looked him over fearfully. “Why are you so horrible and mean? Why do you all do what you do? Doesn’t it bother you that you are hurting people and stealing from them?”
“Stealing?” he laughed. “Nah, Cherry, you have it wrong. We offer protection to businesses. We don’t shake down, they come to us. We do favors for people, once again, they come to us. We offer loans and they come to us. They know what they are getting into when they sign the dotted line.”
“But you hurt people! You kidnapped me!”
“Eh, there you might actually have me. Never once have I ever run into someone who was truly an innocent, not like you. Always there was something. I never brought an innocent bystander in before. But look at you, Cherry, how could I resist? And the way Alonso was so protective of you. Didn’t know he had that in him, he usually doesn’t give a fuck about his girls.”
“He told me his first daughter was born deaf before she died of leukemia,” she answered softly.
“For what it’s worth,” he grinned. “I don’t plan on hurting you.”
He pulled her down to the restroom, then told Gail, one of the live-ins to find her some clean clothes for after her shower.
She was returned to him, red faced, with a little sundress that had been pinned at the straps so it wouldn’t hang on her so badly. It was still too big.
“Val!” he yelled, bangin on her door.
“Yeah?”
“Find my Cherry some clothes today! Make sure they fit her!”
“On it!” she yelled back.
He pulled her out to the clubhouse and stopped at the bar where one of the other girls was serving out breakfast.
“Hey boss!” she said quickly, her eyes bright and dreamy as she looked up at him.
“Hey Molly, you are looking exceptionally cute this morning.”
“Thank you!” she breathed, leaning across the bar so he could see down her shirt.
Not that there was anything at all left to the imagination, Amelia thought.
“Got your eye on one of my boys?”
“Maybe!” she blushed with a coy smile.
“He’s a lucky bastard. Thanks for the eggs, babe. See you later. C’mon, Cherry.”
As soon as he had her outside, she looked up at him. “What’s a Cherry?”
He smirked. “A girl who wasn’t born into this, who doesn’t know anything about us that we plan on busting wide open. Make her one of us or make her run.”
“I thought I was a hostage,” she said as he mounted his bike and pulled her on behind him.
“Yeah. Doesn’t mean I’m not gonna bust your cherry,” he laughed as he made the double entendre and started his bike.
She grabbed him tight and hid her face again and he grinned as he pulled away.
Finally, about twenty minutes into the ride on the smooth highway, she moved enough to peek out. He reached his free hand back and put it on her bare thigh. He took her up on an old trail, all the way up to a high overlook, then parked his bike and killed it.
“Where are we?” she asked.
“Wanted to show you something,” he told her, grabbing her hand and pulling her out to the edge of the huge cliff.
She pulled back, afraid of letting him pull her closer.
“Come on,” he coaxed, tugging.
“I will, let me go.”
He laughed and let her hand go, going to the edge to look down.
She stood a moment, watching him and appreciating the view as the wind caught his hair and whipped it around him. He looked like something out of a music video, or a poster girls put on their walls. He was beautiful.
She moved closer and looked down into the canyon.
He sat down and patted the ground next to him. “See all those old burned out trailers?”
“Yeah?”
“Decade ago they weren’t all burnt out and meth labs like they are now. I lived down there. They were still shitty, broke down places, but me, my family, a group of us, we all lived down there. I hated it. We were piss poor, I had nothing at all. No toys, no school, no books, no TV, no nothing. Just an old man who was always drunk and a mom who was never home. Worked two jobs and still hardly brought home enough food to keep all of us from starving. All I had to do all day was run and climb. So I climbed. I climbed more and more every day until every day I would be sitting right here in this spot, looking down. I vowed at 13 that I would never stop climbing, I would climb my way out of that hellhole and never look back and I would climb until I was on top. I took off. Started running for the club. Errands, little things. Learned to fix bikes, learned everything. Per took me in like a son. Taught me everything. By fifteen, I was patched even though I couldn’t ride legal. I kept climbing. I made council by 18. I kept climbing. VP by 22 and when Per had to stop riding, I took over. Youngest to ever lead a club at 24. Now we’re sitting on more income than we’ve ever had before and I am still not done climbing.”