Devil’s Vengeance (Devil’s Disciples MC #6)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

MARIAH

“Are you sure you’re ready to go back?”

I bit back a sigh. We’d been over this at least a dozen times. My answer hadn’t changed. “Yes. I’m sure. I can’t let one awful experience make me lock myself away from the world. It happened. I won’t make the same mistake twice. It’s fine.”

I understood why she was worried. Not many librarians could say they were kidnapped and almost sold into sex trafficking and survived to tell the tale. If it wasn’t for that kickass stripper and her biker friends, the story would’ve had a much different ending. I still wanted to thank them personally, but I also had a sense of self-preservation. Those bikers were notoriously dangerous. I wasn’t going to be stupid enough to just walk up to them without an invitation.

Still, it’d been a few weeks, and it was time to return to my regularly scheduled programming. Aside from a night in the hospital to make sure we were okay, most of us who were taken were released the very next day with a clean bill of health. There was nothing wrong with me. I took time off mostly for my mother’s sake because once she heard what happened, she completely freaked out.

“Do you have that app on? Is there mace in your purse?”

“Yes, and yes,” I answered distractedly while gathering my sweater and keys. Living in the desert meant brutal heat and freezing AC, no matter where you went. I always brought a sweater with me to work but never wore it outside, because I’d swelter before I got there.

“Maybe we should buy you a taser. Or a gun. Something better to protect yourself,” she insisted.

“Mom…” I groaned. “I’m fine. I don’t need a gun. And they aren’t even allowed in the library anyway. Just relax. I’ll text you when I get home tonight, so you’ll know I’m safe.”

Of course, that just reminded her of her other crusade. I really needed to learn to keep my mouth shut. “You could always move back in with us. You don’t need to waste money on that apartment when you can stay here for free.”

Don’t engage. Don’t engage. Don’t engage.

If I kept responding to her, she’d never stop. It was better to pretend I didn’t hear her. “I’m going to be late. I’ll talk to you later. Bye, Mom!”

It would’ve been easier to leave if my dad was home. He was the calm one. He knew how to get his wife under control. Unfortunately, he was a long-distance truck driver and was gone a lot. My mom bordered on Karen tendencies sometimes and it was frustrating being the focus of her attention when he wasn’t around to deal with her. Normally, she focused on my little sister, who had a tendency towards stupidity and recklessness, and came home crying when she got in trouble for it. I was the unassuming one, the one who skipped her teenage rebellion in favor of reading every book I could get ahold of. My Kindle library was massive. If I bought paperbacks of every book I read, I’d have enough to make my own library. But that also meant when things got hard for me, my family thought I couldn’t handle it. Just because I was a librarian didn't make me shy and weak.

I studiously ignored my mom wringing her hands in her doorway. She’d be fine once things got back to normal. Meanwhile, I had to check my purse every time I visited to make sure she didn’t sneak a gun in there for my safety. I’d get fired if I had one on me.

While at a stop light, a small group of bikers pulled up going in the opposite direction, and my eyes immediately scanned for the one I was familiar with. Chase. Even with a bullet in his shoulder, and losing a lot of blood, he fought off an attacker easily and got us all to safety. After that, I may or may not have developed a small crush on the man. Who wouldn’t ?

Unfortunately, it didn’t look like Chase was part of the group who drove past. Not that it would matter if he was. I wasn’t about to turn around and chase him down. I could just foolishly hope that I’d run into him someday. The town wasn’t that big.

I arrived at the library on time, like I always did, and parked under the light closest to the front door. It wasn’t on now, but if I ever needed to leave late again, I wasn’t taking stupid chances. I hesitated opening my door, my eyes scanning the empty parking lot. It was close to nine in the morning, fully daylight, and still, my nerves kicked up a little. I drew a deep breath and let it out, forcing myself out of the car.

“I’m fine,” I muttered to myself. “Stop freaking out.”

“Glad to hear it.”

Jumping nearly a foot in the air, I spun around, putting my hand against my chest. “Regina! You scared the crap out of me.”

My boss and the only other librarian in our tiny town smirked at me. There was an undertone of concern, she’d been worried about me since the attack, but she wasn’t the type to hover like my mom. She tipped her head, giving me a cursory look to make sure I was okay, then nodded towards the front door.

“Come on. You’ll relax after the monotony kicks in.”

Snorting, I followed her into the library. It was the only library in town, next door to the elementary school and middle school so the kids could walk for library day. It was open to the public six days a week, with computers along one wall, and a single floor of books of all kinds. The reception desk was right up front, next to the door, and had a direct view of both the computers on the left and the room with the kids' books on the right. I made sure littles didn’t go wandering without supervision and adults weren’t doing anything shady online.

The library itself was fine, it wasn’t like I was attacked inside. It was the parking lot that was the problem, and would be a lot harder to face at the end of the day. I just needed to get used to it again.

“So, how are you feeling?” Regina asked, sitting next to me behind the desk. She was a no-nonsense kind of woman, her brown hair streaked with gray always pulled back into a tight bun, and half-moon glasses sitting low on her nose. If you looked up a stereotypical librarian on the internet, her picture would pop up. Meanwhile, I wore bright colors, had a nose piercing, and Regina wasn’t aware of it, but I had a tattoo on my upper thigh, too. A cartoon dragon curled around a hoard of books, because I was twenty-one and a little tipsy and I thought it was cute.

Hoping to avoid rehashing the same conversation I had with my mom, I figured I’d cover all my bases at once. “I’m good. I had a few nights of struggling to sleep, but the doctors say that’s normal, and it went away after a while. I have the phone number of a therapist if I feel I need it, and a plan to be more careful if I have to leave here after dark again. I’m fine.”

The corners of her mouth tipped up for just a second as she asked, “I’m guessing you had this conversation often?”

I sighed dramatically. “You have no idea. My dad, my mom, my college best friend who doesn’t even live in the state anymore. They all mean well, but I’m getting a little tired of repeating myself. It was scary, but in the end, I only got a couple of bruises and a hell of a scare. I’m fine.”

The kidnappers were dead anyway. I watched Chase and the stripper kill them. And I doubted any that worked for them lived long either. From what it sounded like when they were loading us up to take us to the hospital, the entire gang of bikers was going to wait for the traffickers to come back to handle them. I read enough romantic suspense to know what that meant.

She nodded in understanding. “Well, I won’t pester you about it anymore, but I am getting a silent alarm installed. Not just for your peace of mind, but for mine as well. This town is a little rough around the edges, and it makes me feel better knowing we can contact help without alerting to any trouble.”

Well, I couldn’t complain about that. If it made her feel better, I’d deal with it. “Sure. When?”

“An electrician will be showing up later in the week to set it up. Sam was the name I was given. I’ll be doing story time with the kindergarteners during the appointment, but I’m sure you can handle it. We also need to look at hiring someone to fix the computers. Two of them are acting up and I’ve gotten a few complaints. ”

“Considering how old the computers are, I’m not surprised. I’ll call around, get some quotes after I put back all the returns.”

And for the first time since I was attacked, I was left alone. Regina didn't hover, and I could get my work done with no issues. I put the returns back, cleaned up the kids room, sent out some emails about late books, and just went about my day. It was nice. And eventually, my shoulders came down and the last of the stress slipped away. I was a librarian. The job wasn’t dangerous. I had no reason to freak out or for anyone to hover.

I was fine.