His Obsession: A Dark Romance (Black Hearts MC Book 1) Read online

  His Obsession

  A Dark Romance

  by

  Violet Noir

  Chapter One

  Kade

  I flicked the end of the joint and watched the sparks dance across the pavement. Smoking up wasn’t something I usually did, but I had to have something to take the edge off. Popping any kind of pills and then walking into Bruno’s lair was a bad idea, so I’d settled for a toke. It took the edge off without making me stupid, as long as I didn’t smoke too much.

  The light turned green, and I hit the throttle slow and smooth. Getting pulled over by Five-0 wasn’t on my list of shit to get done that evening. I chuckled to myself about the irony as the drug started to take hold.

  There I was, smoking dope while riding to a Russian drug runner’s house, and I was worried about peeling out at a stoplight. I needed to pull myself the fuck together, but I hated going to his place. Everything about Bruno’s—from the smell of sex to the utter desperation that hung in the air—made me feel like someone was dragging steel wool over my nerve endings.

  I pulled onto his street and had to park two blocks away. There were lines of cars up and down both sides of Bruno’s street. Fucking great. He had a party going on, and that’s the last shit I wanted to deal with. How he didn’t have the cops on his doorstep constantly, I had no idea. Well, that’s a lie. I did have an idea. He probably had them on the payroll.

  Since I couldn’t park out front, I rolled my bike back a little and parked around the corner. I wanted it as out of sight as possible. My ability to exit any situation quickly and unencumbered was essential to not losing my mind.

  I doubted things would go wrong, but if I couldn’t have my bike right out front, then I wanted it somewhere I could get to it quickly and quietly. I’d been to Bruno’s house enough times that I had an escape route behind the houses and down the side street already planned out. Most people would call me paranoid, and they would be right.

  A block into my two-block walk, I could hear the music coming from Bruno’s house. I just shook my head and prayed I could get in and out quickly.

  Bruno had a bodyguard stationed at the front door. He gave me a nod and opened the door for me. The first few times I did business with Bruno, the guard radioed to checked in with his boss before letting me pass, but that was before he’d had the chance to get used to me. Now he knew me, and he knew exactly why I was there.

  The door closed behind me, and I was instantly overwhelmed by the smell of pussy and cigarette smoke. Off to my left sat an actor I recognized. He was sitting on a sofa with his arms stretched out over the back. His head was lulled back, and there was a platinum blonde on her knees between his legs, giving him head right there inside the front door.

  It reminded me how much I hated being there. There were drugged-up, half-naked women in every direction. Some of them were dancing, while others were either draped over older men or already on their knees. Some of them were really young. None of them looked like they were enjoying themselves.

  The fact that I had to do business with Bruno disgusted me. I wanted no part of drugged out hookers who were probably sold to Bruno after being taken from their homes back in Eastern Europe.

  But, I had to stay. Bruno was one of the most powerful men in the Los Angeles drug trade. My motorcycle club Black Hearts, needed access to a quantity of drugs that only Bruno could supply.

  I sat down, and almost immediately, a skinny redhead with huge hazel eyes and ghostly white skin was next to me. Her hand reached for my thigh, but I caught it before she could touch me.

  “Not interested, sweetheart,” I said, and let go of her wrist.

  “I can make you feel so good,” she slurred out in the faintest whisper.

  “Not interested.”

  Another man across the room was eyeball fucking her, and when the redhead saw him, she got up and left me alone. I was glad. I didn’t want her touching me, but I didn’t want to have to push her either. She had me ready to, though. The chick wasn’t my type, and it got under my skin that she didn’t go away the first time I told her I wasn’t interested.

  Thankfully, the rest of the women in the room got the picture, and none of them bothered me for the few minutes I continued to wait for Bruno. He finally strolled out of the back with two women practically hanging on him. Neither one of them looked legal.

  “Go play and let daddy do his business,” he said to them. My stomach lurched as they giggled and went off to find some other man to service.

  I stood up. “Bruno.” I reached out for his hand, and he shook it. The formality didn’t bother me, other than that I was showing fake respect to a man for whom I had zero respect.

  “Let’s go back to my office,” he said, in a barely noticeable Russian accent. “There is less distraction there.”

  I nodded my head and followed. I was thankful that we were getting out of the sex party, but there was no way I was going to thank him.

  We stepped into his office, and Bruno threw the lock on the door. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. I hated being locked in rooms, but I could not blow this deal by freaking out like a pansy

  I took a few deep breaths and tried to steady my nerves. Bruno walked around to the other side of his massive mahogany desk. It was clearly a showpiece because you could tell no one ever did any real work there. The wood still shone like new, and there was a phone and stack of papers that apparently served as props. They hadn’t moved once since I began working with Bruno.

  “Please, have a seat,” he said and gestured toward one of the chairs across from his desk.

  As soon as I sat, Bruno took his seat as well. He folded his hands and placed them in front of himself on the perfectly polished desk.

  “I assume we don’t have much to discuss,” Bruno said.

  “We don’t. I’m only here to confirm the details of the next shipment, but as far as I know, nothing has changed on our end. What about yours?” I asked in a clipped tone. I didn’t mean to be short with Bruno, but I wanted out of his house. It was taking all my strength not to put a bullet between his eyes. Gunrunning and drugs, those things didn’t bother me. This human trafficking shit was beyond the pale. There were too many women—beautiful bitches—willing to work for a dollar. I got the feeling that most of these sadistic fucks just got off on forcing a woman.

  “The shipment will arrive a month from today. You can be there, same time, same price. Tell your boss the price is good for the rest of the year.”

  “Sounds good,” I said and stood up. That’s how I liked my meetings. The shorter and more to the point, the better.

  “Wait a moment,” Bruno said as I started for the door.

  Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

  I’d been so close to freedom, and I had the sneaking suspicion that whatever Bruno wanted wasn’t going to make me happy. I doubted that he’d saved the best for last.

  “What is it?” I asked, without turning all the way back around. I stopped my hand from reaching for the gun hidden in my waistband.

  “I have something I want to show you,” he said, and I could hear the sinister smile in his voice. “Don’t worry. I believe you will be pleased.”

  “What is it?”

  “I have a special room I want to show you. It’s downstairs. You haven’t been before, but I think you will like what you see. You might even find a little something to take home with you. For the right price, of course.”

  I didn’t want to go into the basement, but Bruno’s voice had taken on an edge that told me he wasn’t really asking. He had too many guards around for me to try and bail, so I resigned myself to following him in
to the basement to see his special room.

  “Okay. Let’s see it.” I kept my voice as flat as possible. I didn’t want to betray any weakness or disrespect. I’d been sent there by my club because they trusted me to keep Bruno happy.

  We left his office, and he led me down the hall to another, darker hallway. At the end was a door with several locks on the outside.

  At the bottom of the concrete steps was what I could only describe as a dungeon. It’s possible that at one time the room could have been used as a kennel. The walks on either side of the long room were lined with metal cages. Each one held a woman.

  “Do you keep them chained all the time?” I asked. Every one of the women was chained either to her bed or to a ring on the wall.

  “Most of the time not, but I knew you were coming. Some of them don’t behave well. So I keep them chained. You can look without worrying about one of these kitties bearing her claws,” Bruno said.

  I felt obligated to walk up and down the aisle to look at the girls. I figured I’d do that, tell him no thanks, and then get the fuck out of there.

  I started down the aisle. None of the undernourished, filthy wretches Bruno had chained up in the basement caught my eye. Some of them looked even younger than the young ones upstairs. I wondered if he thought that’s what I liked. How he could have ever gotten that idea, I didn’t know. I liked real women, and I certainly didn’t want one that looked like she’d suck my cock just to get a meal.

  I walked from the base of the stairs slowly down the line of cages. For the most part, the women were a blur. When I got to the end, I turned to go back.

  That’s when I saw her. She was in the cage at the very end of the line. My back had been to her until I was ready to go back to Bruno.

  She was a fucking mess, but I could tell that, at one time, she’d been breathtakingly beautiful. Her skin was still soft, but it covered sunken cheeks and bones that were too close to the surface. Her hair was a matted mess, but it had been a gorgeous mane of flaxen waves. Her sapphire blue eyes were haunted, and I had to wonder if they’d ever held any light.

  The woman, if she was even old enough for you to call her that, was on her mattress with her knees pulled up under her chin and her skinny arms wrapped around her shins. Despite everything she had to have been through in life, the waif still looked young and innocent, a quality long lost in all the others.

  She needed to be fattened up a bit, but not too much. I could tell that even when she was healthy, she’d been slender. Part of me wished I could get a better look at her tits, but the other part of me hated myself for even thinking it. I just wanted to know if they were real. I hated fake tits.

  Her eyes met mine for a second, and then immediately fell back to the spot on the floor where she’d kept them focused almost the entire time I stood there. I couldn’t quite tell if she was afraid or submissive. My cock stirred at the thought of the latter, and a new rush of shame and self-hatred filled my chest.

  “You like her?” Bruno called down to me without moving from his spot. “She could be all yours, Kade. You don’t even have to pay today. You take her now, you pay me at our next meeting.”

  I did want her, but I didn’t want to owe Bruno. I could imagine how much it cost to buy a girl like her, and I didn’t have that kind of cash liquid on the spot. If I took her, I’d owe Bruno, even if I could afford her.

  “No,” I said matter-of-factly. “She’s disgusting. Too bad, too. I bet she was a looker when she took care of herself.”

  I said the words even though I didn’t mean them. Then, I turned around and walked away from her cage without looking back.

  “You sure, Kade?”

  “Thanks, Bruno, but no thanks.”

  I could see the fire of rage flash behind Bruno’s eyes, but it was gone in a split-second. I couldn’t help it. There were a lot of things I would do to make Bruno happy, but buying a girl wasn’t one of them.

  “Your loss.”

  I nodded my head in agreement. We went back upstairs, and he disappeared into another room with the two girls he’d come out with earlier.

  “Come here, little ones,” he said and patted his thighs like they were dogs. “Daddy needs some sugar.”

  The night air hit my face as I left his house, and I swear it had never been so cool or sweet. I walked to my bike, thinking I couldn’t wait to get out of there.

  I threw my leg over the seat, started the bike, but then just sat there. The thought of leaving the blue-eyed goddess behind made my stomach clench. I leaned over because I thought I was going to puke, but nothing came up.

  Before I could do something stupid, I put the bike in gear and sped off. I needed to put as much distance as I could between myself and Bruno’s house. If I didn’t get away, I’d go back for her.

  Ten minutes into my ride, my pulse was thundering in my brain. My breathing had become short, choppy, and if I didn’t slow it down, I would hyperventilate. Despite the fact that I was racing down the highway on my bike, it felt like I was still trapped in that basement.

  Only it wasn’t me.

  It was her.

  My brain couldn’t stop imagining what it was like to be trapped in that cage… with no hope. I’d been there before.

  I pulled the bike over to the side of the road. Panic washed over me and I took off, walking into the tall grass that lined the side of the highway. As long as I kept moving I’d be alright. If I didn’t let anything box me in, I could get through the anxiety attack.

  The long grass brushed against my fingertips, and I focused on the feeling. I turned my head to the sky and took deep breaths while gazing at the stars. I could see so many out there in the open, and it helped me relax a little.

  When I was calm enough to ride, I got back on my bike. My nerves were better, but somewhere deep inside, I already knew the only thing that could set me free was back at Bruno’s place.

  Locked in a cage.

  Chapter Two

  Elise

  I hadn’t eaten for two days. This time it wasn’t because I refused. I’d pretty much learned my lesson about refusing to eat.

  This time I was starving because they hadn’t fed me. I knew what that meant. Men were coming to window-shop.

  Bruno didn’t like the way some of us behaved, so he drugged our food before they arrived. I’d caught on and tried to starve myself a couple of times. That earned me beatings.

  But beatings took manpower. It was easier just to starve me so that I’d gobble down whatever food they brought. I told myself that I’d resist, but when you’re hungry enough, you can’t. Your survival instincts take over.

  I swore this time, I’d resist. I needed the beatings. Not because I got off on it, but because it was my only chance to die. If I could provoke one of Bruno’s goons enough, they’d lose their minds with rage and deal me the death blow that I so desperately craved.

  It was hard for me to tell what time of day it was in the cage. The basement didn’t have any windows, so the only way I had of knowing an approximate time was paying attention to when they fed us and the guard duty shift changes. I’d tried to keep track, even over the two days that no one brought any food. I was pretty sure there were two guard patrolling during the day and only one at night.

  A while after the second guard left for the day, the woman who brought our meals showed up at the end of the hallway. She always brought a cart, so I assumed there were stairs on one end and an elevator or dumbwaiter on the other.

  She wheeled the cart in front of my cage and opened the metal door that concealed the food. It looked like the type of cart they used to deliver meals at hospitals. At least, it’s what they used on television. I’d never been to a real hospital. If something ever happened to me or one of the other girls, our owners would bring in a doctor on their payroll. If whatever was wrong was something the doctor couldn’t fix, they took the girl away and she didn’t come back.

  I counted them as the lucky ones. I was never fortunate enough to get an inc
urable disease or injury. If anything, I was too damn healthy, no matter how hard I tried to get sick or good and injured. My body was a fighter, even if my mind had given up long ago.

  “Something special for you,” the woman said as she slid the tray into my cell. “Boss says to show him how grateful you are and maybe you can finally get out of here.”

  She waited a moment for me to say something. I supposed she wanted me to thank her, but that wasn’t going to happen. I couldn’t believe women would help men do this to other women. I should have accepted that already. It was a woman that my father sold me to when I was thirteen. Her name was Tamara, and she’d owned a brothel of underage girls.

  When I turned eighteen, Auntie Tamara sold me to a man. He kept me for a while, but eventually he sold me to another. That one kept me for a few months, until he sold me to Bruno. I wanted this cage to be my last stop. I was twenty-one, and completely done with everything.

  And I would not thank that bitch for the food. I wasn’t going to eat it anyway. I had to stay strong.

  She smiled at me in a way that looked almost like a sneer and then turned to the cage across from me. The smell of the food hit my nose and my stomach rumbled audibly. That made her laugh.

  I did everything I could not to look at or think about the food, but it smelled so good. I could tell without even looking under the tray’s lid that it was pot roast, mashed potatoes, and fresh bread.

  Tamara used to serve it to the girls on Christmas. Out of the entire year, it was the only day we were allowed to take off, and it was the only gift she ever gave us. Bruno must have known. I guessed it was entirely possible that he knew Tamara. They were in the same business, after all.

  My chest ached with want, and I hated him for it. I was starved, not only for the food but also for the little bit of comfort it might bring.

  “Fuck you,” I whispered to the tray.

  “What’s that?” The woman whirled around. She glared at me for another minute, but when I didn’t speak again, she moved on.