“What secret?”
She looked around the room, hoping no one else was nearby. They weren’t.
“I—I—” she stuttered out.
“Oh, come on, don’t play weak. What the fuck could Sabbath have on you that would make you betray me like this, Ramona?”
She clutched her belly, almost like it was giving her physical pain. It was when she looked up and I saw the vacancy in her eyes that I felt that familiar pang of emptiness.
“I was carrying Leppard’s baby when he died,” she whispered. “He forced himself on me when I first got here, and when I found out I was pregnant, he made me terminate the pregnancy.”
“Why is that a secret?”
“B—because that’s not the only secret I was carrying.”
The vulnerability and shame in her eyes were heartbreaking. This girl was holding onto some serious pain. Pain I couldn’t even touch when she dropped the biggest bomb of them all.
Her eyes misted with tears as a single one dripped down her cheek. “I’m a lesbian,” she whispered. “I was never supposed to get tangled up in this club or the men here, but Leppard picked me up one night when I was walking home and brought me here. I was only eighteen. Once he got me here, he wouldn’t let me leave. Said I belonged to him and the club. I haven’t seen my family in over four years. I’ve basically been held a prisoner here.”
“Ramona… I—I had no idea.”
She shrugged. “I’ve gotten used to it. But Sabbath knows that if anyone found out about the baby or my sexual preference, they would eat me alive. It doesn’t help that I was forced to stay here against my will. It’s bad enough that I have to block out the bile rising up my throat every time a man touches me. But I’ve gotten really good at faking it.”
Her cheek was reddened with my handprint, and every time another tear dripped down her cheek, it highlighted the angry mark, making it brighter.
“I’ll help you get out of here,” I informed her, hoping my cry of assistance would rouse her from her despair.
“It’s too late.”
“How so?”
She lifted her shirt, showing me the growing bulge beneath it. “I’m carrying one of their kids. If I leave, they’ll kill me.”
“How? When everyone’s supposed to stay on birth control?”
“Someone switched out my prescription without me knowing. I think it was Rose, but I don’t know for sure. That bitch has had it out for both of us since Leppard died.”
It was well known that Rose was one of Leppard’s favorite girls, but I had no idea she’d been holding onto such a grudge.
“Is it…” I gulped. “Is it…”
She shook her head. “It’s not Sabbath’s baby. But it is someone in the club, I do know that. Honestly, I think it’s Axl’s.”
“Axl? Really? How do you know?”
She shrugged in indifference. “He has taken a liking to me.”
“So, what are you going to do?”
“I don’t know. I really don’t want to get rid of another baby because I know this might be my only chance at having one. But I also don’t want to raise him or her here.”
I grimaced. The thought of bringing up a baby in this hell hole of a club was frightening. Nothing about being here was safe, and this was no place for a child.
“I want to leave,” Ramona whispered. “I just don’t have the strength to run and stay hidden. Once you’re property of the Lewd Outlaws MC, your property for life.”
She showed me her arm, the familiar brand of the club was scarred into her skin, as it was on all the club sweet butts. The white scar made a perfect circle, and inside was a large L and tiny O. A mark of owning because the Outlaws branded their bitches.
“So, Sabbath knows you’re pregnant. That’s why he forced you to fuck him?”