AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My nails dig into sore, red palms.I am not a child!I cringe at Zep witnessing my humiliation. I squeeze my eyes closed, hoping it might erase this nightmare.
“Come with me.”
The air seems to still. Did Zep really say that? Surely, it’s my cowardly imagination running away with itself again - I mean, it's not as if I’d actually leave with a relative stranger.
I open my eyes just as Zep lowers the helmet back onto my head.
I gasp. “No, I?—"
“This is bullshit,” he says. “That woman is off her tree.”
I can’t argue with that. I look back at Trudy, who is still issuing demands and threats from the balcony. My arms and legs feel made of iron, too heavy and clumsy to lift. I can taste the sour stench of my aunt’s vitriol entwining with the rapidly drying milkshake and I just want the ground to open up and swallow me whole.
Instead, I find myself being led back to the motorbike. Zep swings onto the seat and kick starts the engine, drowning out Trudy’s protests. He looks at me and nods for me to get on.
Fuck it.
Chapter 3
My mind is a hurricane of noise and thoughts without anchors, as the bike roars away from my aunt’s house in the inner suburbs. What have I done? What am I getting myself into, and who the hell is Zep? My aunt and uncle are sure to make good on their threat to keep me from my inheritance now.
Maybe I’m in shock at my quest for freedom. Maybe I’m frightened that I’ve just made the biggest mistake of my life. But by the time I begin to take notice of our surroundings, we appear to be in the middle of nowhere. The occasional tree breaks up the barren looking paddocks on either side of the dirt road we are on. There are no houses and it certainly isn’t farming country. I have no clue where we were.
The bike slows as an enormous corrugated iron fence comes into view. The skull with wings is crudely painted on the front of the red gate that is being dragged open from the inside. I look up and notice two men standing in some kind of look-out post overhead. What the hell is this place?
Zep rides through the gate and at least one of my earlier questions is answered. He is clearly part of an outlaw motorcycle gang.
Motorbikes and pick-up trucks are parked around what looks like a warehouse. A couple of guys are working on their bikes, beers at the ready. Zep pulls up and cuts the engine. I quickly scurry off the bike, grabbing the back of the seat to steady myself. I start to shrug out of the heavy vest. Somehow, I don't think the other bikers would appreciate me wearing this.
“Leave it,” says Zep, coming to stand beside me. “If you’re wearing my cut, no one will mess with you.”
I open my mouth to speak but all my questions collide into each other, leaving me gasping like a fish out of water. He unbuckles the strap and removes the helmet from my head.
“Come on.” He takes my hand and pulls me into step beside him. “This is The Devils clubhouse. It’s where I live.”
“Oh,” is all I can muster by way of response.
A few heads nod as we stride towards a narrow doorway. As soon as we step inside, I’m plunged into darkness and trip over my own feet. Zep pulls me against him to stop me crashing onto the floor.
“Jesus, you two smell like a dead cow’s tit.” The booming voice comes from somewhere in front of us.
My eyes adjust as a ridiculously tall and well-built man with long, dirty blonde hair, crazy eyes and plenty of tattoos looms before us.
“Settle down, Luci,” says Zep, his shoulders straightening. “We’re just on our way to get cleaned up.”
We are?I don’t have anything to get changed into. Because I rode off into the sunset with a complete stranger!
The tall man looks me up and down while pushing his tongue across his teeth as though he has stored food in them. “Is this one for sharing?”
Zep drops my hand and steps into the tall man’s space. “No, she’s not.”
The man chuckles. “Two months ago, you wouldn’t have had any say in the matter.” He pushes Zep aside, holding out his hand to me. “Name’s Shane Riley, but you can call me Lucifer.”
Is he for real?Then again, I can see why they call him Lucifer. He does look like the devil, or the grim reaper or something just as evil.
“Um, Becca,” I mumble, shaking his hand with my fingertips as my heart tries to hack its way out of my chest. My legs threaten to give out from under me.
“She doesn’t need to call you anything,Luci.” Zep places his hands on my shoulders and guides me away from the giant of a man.
