Free Guns & Burning Rubber: The Iron Brotherhood series by Samantha Westlake

breasts.
    Kara cracked her eyes open a fraction, trying to see past the redness coming from the pain radiating out from the side of her head.  She was still down in the basement, she saw; she could see the edges of a couple nearby crates, sitting on top of the stained concrete floor of the basement. 
    Kara tried not to think about what had caused those faded stains.
    Her ears caught the sound of other voices, and she hurriedly let her eyes droop back shut again.  She listened intently, trying to focus on the voices instead of thinking about holding still.  She knew from training and experience that over-thinking the act of playing “dead” would ruin the illusion.
    “So what are you going to do with her?” 
    That was a female voice - and Kara recognized it!  She had heard it before, and she remembered where.  It also answered the question of who had betrayed her.  She could hear the sneer in the tone, clear as day.
    Alicia had double-crossed her.  The bitch.
    “Dunno.  Plenty of places where she can disappear.”  That was Savage, still sounding monotone, almost bored.  He might be a villainous asshole, but he definitely had control.
    There was a slight scraping sound of boots on the floor in front of Kara, and she had to struggle not to flinch as a hand reached out, feeling up her chest and giving one of her breasts a rough squeeze.  Okay, maybe he didn’t have full control, Kara amended her previous thought - perhaps he was just a sick freak who liked his women unconscious.
    In fact, that particular thought raised another disquieting question.  Had the man…?
    A short mental exploration of the feedback coming from the muscles of the rest of her body revealed that, although she definitely hadn’t been gently handled when she was strung up with these handcuffs, Savage hadn’t yet done anything worse to her.  Despite his clear attraction to her, and her lack of suitable clothing, he hadn’t chosen to violate her.
    Of course, he could always do it at any point, now, whenever he felt the urge.
    That thought didn’t do much to comfort Kara.
    “Hey.  Wake up.”  Savage’s voice came from right in front of her, and the man’s hand slapped at her cheek.  He must be kneeling right in front of her still.
    Savage turned slightly, his boots scraping on the floor.  “Alicia, go and get some water.”
    “Get it yourself, ass,” the woman returned, sounding disinterested in the whole thing.
    Savage grumbled wordlessly in warning, but Kara let her eyes flutter open, as if she was only now just returning back to consciousness.  “Hello?” she muttered, making sure her voice sounded groggy and disoriented.  It wasn’t too far off from the truth.
    As her eyes opened, Kara quickly scanned around the environment, trying to assess her situation.  As she’d predicted, she was still in the basement of the Hellraisers’ house, surrounded by large, bulky wooden crates.  A few of them had leaked some of the sawdust and straw from inside their wooden slats out onto the concrete floor.  She must have been moved deeper into the basement, she realized, as the stairs leading back up to the main level were no longer visible.
    Just as she had guessed, Savage was squatting down in front of her, looking at her with a mixture of lust, disgust, and annoyance on his face.  A few steps away, Alicia was doing her best to appear as if she wasn’t paying attention, leaning against one of the basement’s stone walls and smoking a thin cigarette.
    After the quick scan of her surroundings, Kara focused on Savage’s face.  “What are you doing?” she asked, pretending that she didn’t know the man was onto her.  Maybe, if he didn’t trust Alicia…
    Without changing a single muscle on his face, Savage reached out and slapped her again - hard.  It wasn’t enough to knock her out, but Kara had to bite down on a cry of pain, as her whole head rang from the blow.
    “Who do you work for?” the man asked.  He reached