Page 2 of Avenging Devil: Part 1

Believe me, I’ve tried to escape, more times than I can count. Always I’m caught and dragged back, screaming and kicking. I always get punished. Still, I try. Freedom is worth the risks that I take, though the penalty worsens each time. A few weeks back, I’d tried again. When I’d gotten no further than just beyond the fence of the compound, Duke had dragged me back. Being a master of torture, he’d left me to languish for a couple of days alone in a room at the back of the clubhouse. When he’d next appeared, he’d taken me violently, then while I was still catching my breath, he’d taken a baseball bat to both of my legs, then had laughed when he left me incapable of moving.That will stop you escaping again,he’d callously told me.

At least he’d lost interest in using me while my legs were in casts. Apparently annoying to have around, I’d been left in that room, isolated with only the prospects to care for me, with them being issued with strict instructions not to engage in conversation, and only to provide the minimum of care.

Painful though it had been, those weeks had been like a vacation. For Duke, I’d ceased to exist. I was more often cold and hungry, but it had been a break I cherished, a distance from the man I hate with everything that I am. He never visited me, and I never asked to see him.

I dreamed he was dead.But when I was healed, it was only to find I was still living my nightmare.

The prospects had obeyed him blindly, seemingly immune to the helpless state I was in, doing the bare minimum to keep me alive.

All except for Jude.

Jude, the newest prospect who retained an element of humanity about him, and who was even then becoming uncertain about his place in the MC. Jude and I had become friends. No funny business, I’m almost old enough to be his mother, but when he was sure he wouldn’t be missed, he’d stay with me longer than he was strictly allowed.

We’d talked, at first my voice, unused, was rusty. During our brief conversations, I’d found he was trapped as much as myself. Despite the promise that prospecting goes both ways, a chance to get to know the club, and for the club to vet their prospective new member, Jude had discovered no one gets away from the Crazy Wolves. Not once they’ve got you in their clutches. The only ways out are to become a member or die.

Jude could do nothing other than do as instructed, and work to gain his patch. At least he had that way to improve his lot, unlike me. As no woman becomes a member, and Duke’s made it clear he’ll never let me go, only death will end the torture of being Duke’s old lady. I half dread, half long for it every day.

Jude fucked up though. Duke has eyes and ears everywhere, and somehow he learned that Jude gave solace to me. My gut churns as I’m forced to watch the scene play out. Unless hell has iced over and I’m mistaken, Jude’s going to end his career with the Crazy Wolves tonight. Whatever sympathies I have for the prospect-come-friend, there’s nothing I can do to prevent it. Any interference would make it worse not just on him, but also on me.If it has to happen, make it quick,I plead in my head, while knowing here any prayers go unanswered.

As so often is the case, silence stretching out needs to be broken.

“I’ll fix the scratch.” Jude breaks first, his eyes urgently searching the men surrounding him for any sign of compassion or an indication they’ll spring to his defence. They won’t. They’ll likely all know how Duke’s bike got scratched and that it wasn’t his fault, but none of them will say a word to help the unlucky prospect. As bad as their VP, they’ll more likely be chomping for blood. Their nostrils are already flaring as though they can already smell it.

Duke growls, a tone I know to interpret as a warning. “You? You’re gonna fix nothing. You’ll never again touch my fuckin’ bike. Or any of myproperty.” He stresses the last word with a quick glance toward me. Then to Slit, he instructs, “Hold him.”

It happens so fast. It’s not in the slightest bit fair. Given no chance with his hands pulled tightly behind him, Jude doesn’t get an option to fight back. Duke, a big muscular man, lets his fists fly. As blow after blow rains down on the prospect, Duke barely pauses to draw breath. When Jude slumps, Slit drops him, and Duke uses his feet. The sounds of flesh being pulped merge with the cracking of bones.

What had been a man a few minutes ago, quickly becomes an unrecognisable corpse on the floor. Duke continues long after he must have killed him, only stopping at the point when he gets bored.

He’s breathing heavily when he issues his next instruction. “Prospects! Take the fuckin’ trash out!”

Jude.Knowing I must, I’d sat stoically, trying to divorce my senses from reality as though what I was watching was a film. But hardened as I am to Duke’s excesses, Jude’s painful and so unnecessary demise is too much, and a sob escapes me. Part of me wishes I’d spoken up, though nothing I could have done would have prevented the senseless killing that had just taken place. If I had tried to defend him, there’d probably now be two dead bodies on the floor.

If I were braver, maybe I would have said something and allowed death to be my escape. Maybe it would be easier than existing like this, day after day, week after week, year after year until I can’t remember who I was before I met Duke. That Sapphire wouldn’t have watched on as a man had his life beaten out of him. That woman would have spoken up.

That woman has since learned.

Chapter Two

Saffie

With my head in my hands, my view of them dealing with what remains of the prospect I’d taken a liking to is hidden. Covering my ears also blocks some of the sounds of his body being dragged across the floor. Shrunken into myself, I miss the approach of my man.

The first sign that he’s in front of me is when he wrenches my hands away from my face and cruelly grabs my jaw.

“Enjoy the fuckin’ show?” he snarls, his tone showing me his rage hasn’t abated. “What’s this I see? A tear for that fuckin’ sorry excuse of a man?” Wrenching my head up, he turns it this way and that, as if checking on me.

My hands grow sweaty and my heart thumps hard, but I try to keep my voice steady. “Just let me go, please, Duke.” My eyes plead with him. “I feel sick.”

“You feel sick, huh?” Suddenly he lurches forward. “Sick with fuckin’ fear, I hope. Jude’s been eye fuckin’ you for weeks, ever since you were laid up. Makes me wonder what you did to encourage him.”

He might be just guessing; he wouldn’t care if the facts matched the truth or not. I’m damned whatever I do. If I defend myself, protest any conversation between us was innocent, which it most definitely was, he’ll still believe whatever he wants. If I stay quiet, my silence might damn me.Jude’s gone,I reason.He can’t get hurt anymore.No words of mine would make his life easier. As for my life, I’m not sure I still want it.

“Your little boy toy’s gone now,” he sneers. “Along with any plans the two of you were hatching.” My horror-filled eyes watch his hands go to his belt which he starts to unbuckle, taking his time about it. “And you,baby,have some fuckin’ amends to make. Starting with sucking my cock.”

He’s going to treat me like a whore.

In the scheme of things, it could be worse, and it’s not like it hasn’t happened before. Hell, he’s even fucked me over the pool table in view of everybody to make a point. For a serious infraction, he’s even let the other members fuck me.

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