Filthy Devil (Dark Horse MC #6)

Chapter 6

CHAPTER

SIX

NASH

“You need clothes,” I announce.

James’s fork is suspended in the air, her eyes wide as she stares across the counter at me. “And a hairbrush,” she states.

It’s my turn for my eyes to widen. Her hair is messy, but it doesn’t look bad, not that I know a fucking thing about women’s hair.

“And a hairbrush,” I mutter.

“Am I on some kind of lockdown or something?”

“Why?” I ask.

I would fucking love nothing more than to keep her locked away in a bedroom, naked. One taste of her was clearly not enough. I’m already jonesing for more.

“Because it seems like this is all some big elaborate thing, and I’m confused as to why I’m here, specifically why I’m in a strip club.”

Watching her for a long moment, I try to think of how to answer her. “I’ve already told you, James. Dark Horse wanted you protected away from Pineville and Shreveport. I brought you here because if anyone came looking for you, this wouldn’t be one of the places they showed up.”

“Who would come looking for me?” she asks.

It’s cute. The way she pretends as if she has no clue who would be looking for her. Leaning forward, I place my forearms on the cool countertop, my eyes focused on hers and looking nowhere else.

“Sweetheart, those men that had you, that have likely already sold you, they’re going to come looking to collect. They want their payday, and the buyer wants his prize.”

Her eyes widen, then she presses her lips together and rolls them a few times, an expression and movement that I’ve come to notice is one she often uses when she’s thinking about something and trying to figure out what she’s going to actually say to me.

“I agreed to their terms,” she whispers.

Humming, I reach out and touch her wrist that is resting on the counter. She flicks her gaze down to my hand resting against her skin, then slowly lifts her eyes to meet mine.

“You agreed to their terms, but did you even know what you were signing? Plus, that shit is illegal as fuck. You are only bound to them in the underworld. Out on top, they can’t do a fucking thing.”

“But this is the underworld, too, isn’t it?” she asks, lifting her hand and twirling her finger around.

Jerking my chin with a smirk, I clear my throat. “Yeah, which is why it’s up to me to keep you safe until you’re out on top and living whatever life you choose for yourself.”

She pulls her hand away from mine and stands, abandoning half of her food and turning her back to me. I watch as she makes her way over to the small window that looks out at the ocean. I know that’s what it looks over because I stood there a million times while we were remodeling and then rebuilding this place.

“You should have just left me there,” she whispers. “I’m nothing, nobody special. There is literally no reason to have taken me like that. I’m not going to change the world out here, and nobody will even miss me.”

Instead of telling her that she’s full of shit, I push away from the counter and move toward her. Her back is still to me, and I stop when I’m close enough to touch her but far enough away that I’m not in her space.

“Not leaving you somewhere to be used, abused, and thrown away like trash,” I grind out.

Her spine straightens at my words. I don’t expect her to spin around and tilt her head back. I’m not sure what I expect to see when she looks up at me, but it’s not complete fucking torture.

“Except that’s what is going to happen to me. I have nothing. I have no purpose and no education. And college isn’t something I’m interested in. The only hope I have is that someone will marry me and take care of me. If that doesn’t happen, I’m destined to be a whore like my biological mother.”

I wince at the mention of Vixen and her whore status. I could tell James that she wasn’t that, but it would be a lie because she was. She’s also dead and was discarded like the fucking traitor she was.

However, I can’t tell her any of it because then she would think she is predestined to the same fate as her mother, and that’s just not true. At least it doesn’t have to be. Until she completely panicked and lost herself, Vixen was a good woman.

“So don’t let yourself be that. You’re only twenty. You have a whole life ahead of you.”

She shrugs a shoulder and places her palm against the center of my chest. Her touch is warm, her eyes putting off that doe-in-headlights thing. I’m sure it’s an act of self-preservation and all that shit, but still, I know exactly what she’s doing.

Am I the fucking asshole for taking her up on her offer even though I know exactly what she’s doing and how she’s doing it? She wants to secure her place here with me. She thinks that giving me her body is going to do that.

It won’t.

I’m too fucking old and set in my ways to have her manipulate me with her cunt, no matter how good it is.

I wrap my fingers around her wrist and squeeze gently. “Sweetheart, if this is your way to try and secure yourself, you’re barking up the wrong tree. I brought you here to protect you, but I’m not going to make you my old lady.”

Her eyes widen, and I watch as she pulls her hand away, dropping it to her side. Her fingers ball into a fist as she stands in front of me. Goddamn, she looks good. She presses her lips together, pursing them as she narrows her gaze on me.

I didn’t give her the answer she was looking for, which is fine. She’s not always going to get what she wants, especially not on this path she’s chosen to go down. But I’m going to keep her safe, and hopefully, together, we’ll figure out where she belongs.

“I’m not going to be my mother,” she hisses. “I refuse.”

My lips twitch into a smirk. “Sweetheart, your mother chose the life she wanted, and she lived it. The men at the clubhouse loved her, not just for her body, but because, for all intents and purposes, she was a good woman…” My words trail off.

“Until she wasn’t?” she guesses.

I hum before I inhale a deep breath, then let it out slowly, my eyes finding hers and keeping her attention. There is nobody else I want to look at right now. There is just James, and I know it’s fucking wrong.

“Until she made a mistake too big to apologize for with words. She knew that. She accepted it, and she was good with it as long as she knew we had your back.”

“Are you telling me that she’s dead?” she asks.

Reaching out, I wrap my fingers around her waist, squeezing her there. “I’m not telling you a fuckin’ thing, James. But know that she wasn’t a piece of shit, and she wasn’t just some whore. At the same time, she always wanted better for you.”

I take a step backward but don’t turn around and walk away as much as I want to. Instead, I do what I promised Atomic and King I would do. I protect her. Holding out my hand, my palm facing upward, I wait for her to slip her fingers inside.

She does it almost as if it’s an instinctual thing.

She hasn’t thought about it.

My hand is offered, and her body takes that offer.

I could take advantage, but I think I’ve already done enough of that.

“Go upstairs, get ready, and we’ll go shopping. The rest of the shit, we’ll figure it out as we go.”

JAMES

Wearing my jean shorts and Nash’s T-shirt, my brown hair thrown up into a messy bun, I wrap my arms around this man as his bike moves through the streets. I don’t even know where I am. What city we are in. I know I’m near the ocean, so I assume it’s on the Gulf Coast somewhere.

The bike pulls onto a dirt road and then glides through a gated area. The gate is open, and the guard is nowhere to be seen. We stop when we reach a building. I’m not sure what is going on. We aren’t at a store or a mall. It’s just a big square concrete block building.

Nash kills the bike’s engine, then he lifts his leg, disengages from the bike, and stands to the side, holding out his hand for me. I slip my fingers in his. He grips them, wrapping his hand around me tightly as he waits for me to climb off his bike as well.

When he takes a step forward, I tug on his hand. He stops and turns his head to look over his shoulder at me. Sinking my teeth into my bottom lip, I worry it for a moment, then let out a heavy breath.

“Where are we going?” I chance asking.

He gives me a smirk, then clears his throat. “Shopping, but we can’t do that on the bike.”

And without another word, he tugs on me, and together, we move toward the building, but before we walk inside, he diverts us to the left and toward an old pickup truck. It doesn’t look beat up and ghetto, though.

Instead, it looks vintage. Like he’s had it since day one, or maybe he just bought it and has taken care of it. I’m not sure, and I’m not sure it matters. He stops at the passenger door, then opens it and waits for me to climb inside.

“Why are you going to buy me things?” I ask before I climb inside.

He tips his chin slightly, his eyes searching mine before he releases my hand. Lifting his finger to my chin, he tips my head backward. His eyes find mine. They hold them, and my breath hitches.

Then he shifts forward, and his lips almost touch mine, but unfortunately, they don’t. I can’t deny that I want his mouth to touch mine. I want him to consume me and fuck me like he did earlier today.

I ache between my thighs just thinking about him there. I know I set out to manipulate him, but the way I want him to slide back inside of me, I can’t help but wonder if he’s the one with all of the control.

“Nash,” I exhale when he doesn’t answer me.

Then he slides his hand to my cheek, cupping me there as his gaze searches mine. My entire body trembles as his thumb slides across my bottom lip. His eyes darken. It’s sexy, beautiful even.

“You have nothing with you, James. You need clothes and all the shit that comes with that. Even if we don’t know where you’re going to be sent or what you’re going to be doing, you still need something to wear and something to wash your hair with.”

I really do need both of those things, along with makeup and shoes. I need everything. I’ve never started completely from scratch before, not even when I decided to leave my parents’ home. This is beyond anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m not quite sure how to handle it.

“I have nothing to give you to pay you back,” I whisper.

He snorts. “Yeah, sweetheart. I know. Don’t worry about that shit yet.”

I would like to not worry about that shit, except that’s all I can worry about. I have nothing. I am nothing. And there is nothing I can contribute to this man, let alone society, except for what I can offer from between my legs.

“Nash,” I call out.

His eyes find mine. They hold my gaze for a moment in silence, and then I speak. “I don’t mean to try and manipulate you. I’m just scared.”

He hums and dips his chin, his mouth touching mine before he speaks. “I know you are, sweetheart. I got you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you that you don’t agree with or want. This isn’t about your mother. This is about the club. I was tasked with protecting you, and that’s what the fuck I’m going to do.”

He lifts his head, then, without saying another word, he releases me and walks around the front of the truck to the driver’s side. I watch him for a moment before I climb inside and buckle myself in.

This whole thing is so confusing, but I can’t deny that I want everything he’s offering. I want to be protected. I want to make my own decisions. I want a lot, but at the same time, I’m scared shitless.