Free Ruthless (Dark MC Romance) by Vanessa Waltz

he was beating the shit out of me every day.”
    He gave me a harsh laugh and dug his cigarette into the bar counter. “So?”
    My hand shook with the pool cue and I imagined myself beating him with it. Fucking see how you like it.
    The tall, blonde man stepped between us. “Crash, I’ll claim her as my old lady. I’ll be responsible for her. She’ll toe the line, or she’ll have her head cut off.”
    My whole body shivered as Cain looked at me from across the room and smiled. He would enjoy it, too. I don’t want to be your old lady. But it was either that or death.
    Crash gave him a shrewd grin. “You planned all this, didn’t you?”
    He lifted his shoulder. “When I want something, I take it.”
    The words rolled strangely out of his mouth. They almost sounded like a threat, but the rest of the club looked relaxed as if Cain said nothing out of the ordinary. I stiffened as my new master made a beeline for me and grabbed my arm in a vice grip.
    “Fine,” Crash barked. “But if this bitch takes one step out of line, both of you will be held responsible.”
    The prospect, Spike, kept glancing at me. His eyes burned into the back of my skull as Cain swept me out of the club, past the dumbstruck club whores and the bikers.
    Cain's pale face was completely blank when I finally looked at him. He looked whiter than usual, and I wondered if a part of him still felt fear.
    Why did he do that for me?
    I breathed in the night air with a shuddering sigh of relief. It was strange. The moment my filthy, broken heels passed over the threshold, the sweet air of freedom hit me and my nausea suddenly appeared with a violent reckoning. I pulled away from Cain, my stomach clenching horribly.
    “What are you—”?
    I almost got my head blown open.
    Halfway between sobbing, green bile rose with a vengeance in my throat and burned my lips as I hunched on the dirt and spat it out. Adrenaline still coursed my veins like a speedball, jacking up my heart rate. Pissing, stinking fear held back until my brain sensed that I was safe. Now that I was fine, it slammed into me. I hugged my knees and cried, Cain's jacket flapping in the cooling summer breeze.
    His fingers lightly stroked the top of my head and I was overcome with a bizarre urge to grab his leg and hold on to him. Sadistic bastard or no, he saved my ass.
    “Come,” Cain said in what he probably thought was a gentle voice. It was the same voice he used all the time, only lower.
    Bryan’s gone.
    It hit me all of a sudden. My blouse was dark red and crusted with my husband’s remains. I didn’t love him, but he loved me and he would have treated me well. He was the last person on Earth who I could say that about.
    I’m alone.
    Cain was going to use me—chew me up and spit me out before he ate all the meat off my bones, but at least he wanted me alive—for now. At least he was someone to hold onto. So I did. I took his hand and followed him to his bike.
    * * *
    The surprisingly clean apartment calmed my nerves a little. It was so different from the McMansion I left in Los Angeles, but similarly Spartan. There was nothing on the walls or countertops. No decoration whatsoever. It was completely devoid of personality. Expressionless.
    Cain shut the door and locked it, removing his jacket and hanging it on the wall.
    I’m his old lady . Another wave of dizziness struck me. He owns me.
    His gray eyes sought mine and his head gestured towards the bathroom. “You can get cleaned up. Then you can eat something.”
    I clutched my filthy blouse to my chest. “But—what about clothes?”
    “I got some for you already,” he said as he walked to the bathroom. “C’mon.”
    I’m going to pass out. I tried to imagine him in a mall shopping for women’s clothes and a small laugh escaped me.
    Cain narrowed his eyes. “What?”
    I blanched and shook my head, remembering that he offered to decapitate me unless I toed the line. What the hell is wrong with me?
    Inside the sparkling