“I can help you help her, sweetheart. All you have to is tell me what I need to know.”
“What do you need to know?” I asked.
* * *
Eagle looked happy. He thought he’d cracked me. Maybe he thought all he had to do was mention my grandmother combined with a few hours of isolation, and that would do the trick.
“I need to know everything you know about the Iron Thunder MC. I’ve been watching the clubhouse. I’ve been watching you. You’ve gotten close to Ghost.”
I gulped but said nothing, just stared at him and let him continue.
“Tell me what you know about their plans,” he said.
“I don’t know anything about their plans.”
“You’ve been around them. You’re spending time with Ghost. You must have overheard something,” he insisted.
I shook my head.
After everything I’d witnessed, after seeing the condition Crash was in, and the bruises on the other girls at Teasers, I knew exactly what Eagle was capable of. I didn’t trust him for a second, and he was completely mistaken in thinking that I would comply. I wasn’t on his team. Never was.
He clenched his jaw but continued.
“Have they been talking about me? How much do they know about me?” he said.
“Why did you kill him?” I asked instead.
“What the fuck you talking about?”
“Roddick. The Iron Thunder prospect on the porch at Ghost’s cabin. Why did you kill him?” I explained.
Eagle’s eyes were narrowed at first, but then he shook his head.
“What the fuck does it matter?”
“You killed a man just because you wanted some information from me?”
He laughed then.
“What was I supposed to do? Just knock on the door and hope you’d invite me in for some coffee and a chat?”
I remembered the way Roddick was lying in his blood on the porch. Again, I wondered if there was anything I could have done for him, if I could have saved him. What else was Eagle capable of?
“Anyway, we’re not here to discuss some lazy ass prospect. I want you to tell me what they’re saying about me.”
“I know you got Crash hooked on heroin,” I said.
I wanted him to know I was aware of exactly who he was.
Eagle’s eyes relaxed. He looked even more sheepish now.
“I didn’t give him anything he wasn’t asking for.”
“But he was your President. You pledged your loyalty to him. Didn’t you?”
A smile curled his lips. “Look at you! An expert at MCs.”
“I’m just stating the obvious. You were his Vice President, supposed to be watching his back.”
“I don’t have to defend myself.”
“It’s just a simple question. Why did you do it? So you could become President? So you could hurt him? Did you hate him?” I bombarded him with questions and now Eagle looked annoyed.
“I’m the one supposed to be asking you the fuckin’ questions! Shut the fuck up, bitch!” he raged.
I sat very still, watching him closely. Good. I wanted to tip him over the edge, wanted to remind him he wasn’t the one in control. I may have been an inexperienced stripper and he may have controlled me once, but not anymore.
I was tired of being pushed around.
* * *
“Tell me exactly what the clubhouse looks like from the inside. How many rooms? Where is Drax’s office? How many bedrooms upstairs?” Eagle was focused on me with his eyes narrowed and dark. When he talked, spittle flew out of his mouth and landed on my face. That was how close he was standing over me now.
I tried not to shudder or curl, didn’t want him to see how afraid I really was. The truth was I was crumbling on the inside. I didn’t know if anybody was going to come to rescue me. I didn’t know what Eagle would do once he realized I wasn’t about to tell him anything. I didn’t know if I was going to die here today.
He’d killed Roddick without a second thought. I didn’t matter to him either.
“I don’t remember the interiors. It was very dark and I just stayed in the main room. Where the bar was. That was where we slept and ate,” I lied.
Eagle was eyeing me closely. Maybe he could tell I was lying. For a second, I thought he was actually going to spit on me, but he didn’t. He grumbled under his breath and moved away.
“Where are the girls?”
“At the clubhouse,” I replied.
“I fuckin’ know that already. Where are they being held? At the bar? There’s no fuckin’ way they’ve fit all those whores in there.”
I tried not to flinch with every word he was saying.
“I know you spoke to them privately. To Ghost. To Drax. To that bitch Mary-Beth. Why else did he take you to his cabin? What were you doing there? He gave you protection. Why would he do that?”
Eagle was onto something, like a light-bulb moment for him. He came stomping back to stand over me. I kept my head down, didn’t want him looking at me too closely.
“What is going on between you and Ghost? What kind of deal have you made with the Iron Thunders?” he growled.
“Nothing.”
“Why were you selected to live in his cabin?”
“I don’t know.”
“You fucking lying bitch!” he growled and his slap came out of nowhere, catching me in the jaw. My face cracked to the side from the force of his slap. I knew my lip split open because I could taste the metallic blood. I breathed heavily, and my head felt heavy. Was this just the start of the physical brutality I would have to face now?
“Tell me what you know!” Eagle shouted, snarling like a wild animal as he stood over me.
“No,” I said, forcing myself to look back at him.
“You should have said goodbye to your grandmother,” he said.
13
Ghost
I rode back to Fifth Gear like the storm, the only thought in my head about Mercy, about where she could have disappeared
