Rough Justice (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #1)(66)

“Um.” She tensed in his arms as he neared the front entrance. “How are we going to get upstairs without anyone seeing us?”

Jagger kicked the door open and stepped inside. “We won’t.”





FIFTEEN

Every member of the Sinner’s Tribe MC must ride an American bike.

The nightmare tormented her. Lucid dreaming, imprisoning her between sleep and wakefulness. Her heart pounded wildly as she tried to rouse herself, but her body was pinned to the bed, a heavy weight on top of her.

Can’t move. Can’t breathe. She heard a scream and realized it was her.

“Arianne.”

The weight disappeared. Free. She rolled out of bed, her stomach heaving. In the back of her mind, she knew that voice. Safe. Warm. Not Leo’s voice. But still she needed to get away.

Goose bumps pricked her skin, and she grabbed a blanket and wrapped it around her, quickly crossing the room until she reached the window. With one shove, she pushed it open and leaned out, breathing in the cool, crisp air.

“What’s wrong?” Jagger followed her to the window, pulling his shirt over his head.

“Just a nightmare.”

He brushed his hand over her cheek. “I was holding you. Was I holding too tight?”

She raised her gaze to meet his. “No. It’s not a big deal. Same nightmare I have all the time. I’ll be fine.”

“Tell me about it.”

Arianne bit her bottom lip. “I can’t.”

Hands on her shoulders, he turned her to face him. “I can’t help you if you don’t let me in.”

Her tension eased under his firm grip. “I don’t need your help.”

“Talk to me, Arianne. Trust me.”

Warmth spread through her body. No one had ever wanted to help her, Viper’s daughter. Not when the risks of incurring his wrath were so high. But Jagger neither feared nor cared about Viper’s wrath, and that made him a man to be reckoned with. A man she could trust. And she wanted to tell him. The only person who knew the story was Dawn, and Arianne had given her the version with the worst parts left out.

“When I turned sixteen, Viper threw me a birthday party.” A shiver slid down her spine, and Jagger turned to close the window, then pulled her into his arms.

“Keep going. I’m here.”

She buried her face in his chest and wrapped her arms around his waist, holding on as if the past might carry her away. “I hadn’t had a party since my mother died. I was beyond excited. I thought it meant maybe Viper cared after all.” Even now she couldn’t believe she’d been so stupid, so naive, so trusting of a man who had done nothing to earn her trust.

“After the party,” she continued, “he told me my present was waiting for me in my bedroom. I ran upstairs. He’d never bought me a present before.” She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to pull away as the memories assailed her. “This is pathetic. I’m not looking for sympathy, Jagger, and I’m not looking for solutions. I’m over it.”

“Apparently not, or we’d be f*cking in the bed instead of freezing by the window.”

She glanced up to see if he was joking, and her heart melted at his warm smile. “Fine. Okay. Well … Leo was there. He closed the door and told me he’d been waiting for me since I turned twelve.”

Jagger jerked, his body going rigid in her arms. She wondered if he’d already guessed, but if he had, he wasn’t letting on.

“He’d done something for Viper in the past. Something that indebted Viper to him. I don’t know what it was, but it must have been pretty big, because Viper never puts himself in the position of owing anyone anything. Anyway, he said I was the reward. My virginity. All those years, I’d thought Viper was being a semi-normal dad, keeping the boys away, but in fact, he was just making sure Leo got what he was promised.”

Jagger’s hands clenched into fists against her back. She could feel his heart pounding against his ribs.

“What happened?”

“I couldn’t believe that I had been given over like a piece of property, and the only thing I truly owned, the one thing I had thought I would save for the person I loved, was going to be taken from me. And I had trusted Leo. He was only twenty-two or twenty-three, and he was an outrageous flirt. I’d had a crush on him for years. I was so shocked I don’t think I really understood what he was saying, so when he kissed me, I kissed him back.” Bile rose in her throat at the memory of his cold, hard lips.

“He took that as a sign to go ahead, and he started pulling off my clothes. I pushed him away, told him I wasn’t ready. He got angry. Threw me on the bed. He said I was his to do with as he pleased, and although the deal was only for a night, he would make it so I would want more.”

A growl started low in Jagger’s chest, rising until it became a bark of anger, but his arms around her were tender, and the lips that brushed her forehead were soft and reassuring.

“I screamed and fought,” she said. “God, did I fight. I punched and scratched and kicked and bit. And I hurt him. Very badly. So he kneeled over me and pulled off his belt and wrapped it around my wrists, and then he tied them to the bed with my scarf. My legs were free and I kept kicking him and then he hit me so hard, I lost my breath. I thought that was it … and then Jeff burst into the room.” She held on to Jagger as years of anguish spilled out, her body shaking in his arms as he pressed his lips to her temple and murmured soothing words in her ear.