Prologue
Chelsea
Damn its cold. I can’t believe I got out of there alive. Why the hell did I let things go that far? I should have left so many times, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I thought I was smarter than this. I thought I knew the type of man not to choose after watching my mother’s attempts at picking her prince charming.
Shit, what am I doing? I don’t even know where I’m headed. Should I go to a shelter? Maybe I could call Emersen. Scratch that, I’m not dragging her into this mess. I can only imagine what I look like. I didn’t so much as get a look when I was running out of there with nothing.
Rock
Is that a woman? We’re all on our way back from visiting another club and tired as fuck. Who the hell walks down the interstate in the middle of the fucking night? The closer I get to the moving figure I notice the limp in her walk and the way her clothes are hanging from her body.
I signal my brothers to slow down so we can stop. I pull up next to her. She tries walking faster, but there’s no way that her legs can go faster than my Harley Fatboy. I ride up ahead about twenty feet and park my bike. I get off and start walking up to her with my hands in front of my chest. She stops walking and clutches her clothes tight to her chest. The angel is must be scared out of her mind judging by her rigid stance and wide eyes. I would be too if a group of bikers surrounded me.
“It’s okay darling,” I say to the most beautifully broken creature I’ve ever laid eyes on. She’s a tiny thing, close to a foot shorter than my 6’5”. Her clothing does nothing to hide her curvaceous figure. And I know I’m going to hell for checking her out in the state she’s in, but fuck me running, I can’t help myself. She startles when my brothers Prince and Pres park on either side of her, while the others park behind her.
“Easy girl. We aren’t going to hurt you.”
She snorts. “Yeah. I’ve heard that one before.”
Standing in front of her, I do my best to contain the rage coursing through me. The last thing I want to do is scare her off. Now that I’m in front of her I can clearly see her bruised body. Without thinking, I reach up and rub my knuckles against her purple cheek, barely touching her soft skin. I expect it, but when she flinches from my touch, it kills a part of me. Who would dare to hurt this beauty?
“Who did this to you beautiful?”
She shakes her head vigorously. “I left. It doesn’t matter anymore.”
She’s so wrong, it matters more than she’ll ever realize. The bastard who did this to her will never have the chance to hurt someone else.
“Hey, babe. My name’s Prince. What’s yours?” My VP interrupts, sticking his hand out to shake hers. I’m seconds away from cutting his fucking hand off for daring to touch the woman who is going to be mine, when she takes care of it herself.
“I don’t have to tell you anything.” She hisses at him. She’s unyielding, but at least she’s not scared to stand her ground to a bunch of massive bikers.
Pres crosses his arms over his chest and looks down at her. “Look, honey. You’ll be safer with us than walking to wherever you’re going on your own in the middle of the night. We’ll give you a ride. You’ll get off the interstate faster, and we’ll feel better knowing we didn’t leave you out on your own. Now, pick a bike and get on. I’m ready to pass the fuck out.” Pres is a good man but he gets cranky when he’s tired.
“I can’t do that.” She grits out.
“Why’s that? We aren’t going to lay a hand on you. We’ll just drop you where you need us to and that will be the end of it.” I tell her, knowing it’s a lie as soon as it pops out of my mouth. There’s no way I’m leaving this woman alone. She’s got me pulled up tight, and I need to figure out why.
“I’m not sure where I’m going yet.” She levels with us.
I squint at her, wondering what her plan was before we showed up. From the looks of it, there wasn’t one. I look over at my Pres, and he nods his head. He knows I’m not going to give up on this. He knows my history, knows I don’t put up with beating on women or children. I pull my cell phone out of the inside of my cut and hand it to her, but she doesn’t take it.
“Is there someone you can call?”
She shakes her head and while I’m sad she has no one, I’m relieved she has to rely on me.
Tears fill her eyes, but she refuses to let them fall, putting up a front and showing us she’s stronger than she looks. Joke’s on her, she may be broken and bruised right now, but she got away. She’s stronger than most of the women I know.
“Okay, beautiful. My name is Harrison Jeffreys, but my friends call me Rock. Here’s my pocket knife,” I say, handing her one of the knives I always have on me.
She stares at it like it might bite her. Impatiently I grab her hand and put it in her palm, using my other hand to close her fingers around it.
“Look. We need to get going. You’ve got this to protect you now. You can ride behind Prince, Pres, or me. It’s not safe for you to be out here, especially at night. Just let us help you. We aren’t monsters, and we don’t want to hurt you.” I say with a growl, pissed that she’s unwilling to let us, scratch that, let me help her.
She stares at our still joined hands for a few beats, then looks up at me and nods.
“Who’s bike?” I ask while praying for everyone’s safety she chooses mine. While I’ll let her decide if she doesn’t pick mine, I’m going to flip my shit. She belongs on the back of my bike, and no one else’s.
“I’d like to ride yours Rock.” She says low, so only I can hear. Shit, this woman is in so much trouble. I’ll never be able to let her go.