“Boo, what the fuck are you doing?”
In answer, I drop to my knees and attempt to reach into his sweatpants, only to be stopped when he grabs my wrists.
“No, Boo,” he snaps, his voice husky and deep. “As much as I love the sight of you before me, this isn’t how I want you.”
His rejection hits me like a punch to the gut. I’ve never willingly gone to my knees for any man, and the first time I do, he rejects me. Why am I not good enough? Does he see me as unclean? Damaged goods?
Priest had witnessed my degradation firsthand. The thought of that humiliation brings about my doubt and self-loathing. “I just wanted to thank you.”
“I’m not that fucker, Angel. I don’t need you to suck me off to thank me.”
Releasing my wrists, he moves toward the door. My heart hammers against my chest as panic sets in. I’ve messed up. Priest doesn’t want me. He’s disgusted by me.
His hand is on the doorknob when he peers over his shoulder at me, still on my knees. “You deserve better than this. The life you knew in that clubhouse is gone, and in the past now. We take care of people here. We don’t take sexual favors in return.”
I just stare at him, not knowing what to say. My heart aches at the shame I’m feeling right now. “Are you leaving me?”
Priest’s expression goes from defensive to intense as he meets my eyes. “No, Angel. I’ve got some business to tend to with the others, but I’ll be back. I’m not leaving you. Not until you want me to.”
With that, he steps out the door, leaving it open.
Open doors. No locks. His message is clear: this place isn’t my prison. He’s not my enemy. He may not want me, but he’s not them. He’s not my captor.
PRIEST
“All right,”Judge grunts, settling into his seat at the head of the table. “Looks like we’re all here, so let’s get started.”
“Where’s Hash?” GP asks, pointing toward his empty seat.
“Hashtag’s working on a lead.”
Judge doesn’t elaborate on what that lead may be, but I can only hope Hash is on to wherever the Screwballs took off to when the club raided them the other day.
“How’s the girl?” Judge asks, his gaze aimed at me.
I settle back in my seat. “Sore. Confused. Those fuckers have put her through hell, and it was going on long before they took me.”
Judge nods, his jaw set in a hard line. “They’ll get theirs. But we still don’t know if we can trust her.” He plucks a sheet of paper off the table and skims the writing. “Doc says she’s on the mend. Her STD tests came back negative, and her wounds are healing.”
I narrow my eyes, not liking the way he’s talking about Boo, as if she’s some sort of threat. She’s not. She’s a victim here.
“We need to talk to her, Priest,” he advises, placing the paper back on the table. “We need to find out what she knows.”
“Not now.” This isn’t the first time we’ve had this discussion, but this is the first time he’s brought it up in church.
“It’s not a request. I get the girl is roughed up, but we need answers if we’re going to find these bastards. She may be the key to bringing them down.”
I know he’s right, but there’s no way in hell Boo is ready for that kind of inquisition. “I said not now.”
Judge studies me, his eyes hard and assessing. “You fuckin’ her?”
His question hits me like a slap in the face. “No,” I growl. “And if I were, it wouldn’t be any of the club’s business.”
TK reaches over and places a hand on my shoulder. “Chill, man. Nobody’s attacking you.”
Standing from my chair, I shake him off, my body screaming in pain at the sudden movement, but I’m too pissed off to care. “They rape those women,” I say to the men in the room, looking each one of them in the eye. “They buy them, keep them in shitty conditions, barely feed them, and they fucking use them like their personal sex toys. One of them raped Boo right in front of me. I saw it in her eyes when he fucking broke her, and now you want to barge in there and ask her to tell you all about it? I don’t fucking think so.”
The silence in the room is so loud, you can hear a pin drop.