Biker's Virgin (An MC Romance) by Claire Adams (13)

Chapter Thirty-One

Zack

 

The table slammed against the wall, and I saw a piece of wood splintering off. I felt a tiny moment of satisfaction before it was replaced by frustration once more. Justin and Bones were with me, and they stared at the table like they were mourning a friend.

“What?” I demanded of them.

“Nothing,” Justin said, holding up his hands as though I had turned a gun on him.

“You need to calm down,” Bones said.

“Fuck that,” I spat. “I’ve been calm for two full fucking days… ever since they took her. Now it’s time to panic.”

“We’re still looking,” Bones pointed out.

“And we haven’t been able to find a damn thing,” I said. “Wherever he’s taken her, it’s somewhere off the grid. Which means she’ll have to find a way to let us know where she is… otherwise—”

“She could also escape?” Justin said.

“On her own?” Bones said, looking at Justin as though he were crazy.

“Why the fuck not?” Justin asked. “She’s a strong fighter, and she’s smart. You’re both underestimating her. Trust me, I did too, if you recall, and she broke my nose for it.”

“This is different,” I said angrily. “Walter Black is not a boy with mediocre skill.”

Justin bristled at that. “I’m not a fucking boy… and my skill is not mediocre.”

Bones put a hand on Justin’s shoulder as though to get him to stand down. He turned to me with sympathetic eyes. “We’re all worried, Zack,” he said. “We all care about Mila, too.”

I knew this was true, but it still didn’t feel the same. It felt like losing Mila had turned my world upside down. Knowing she was no longer with us was one thing. Knowing she was in the hands of an enemy was a completely different thing altogether. I was starting to grow desperate in the face of the knowledge that I was powerless in this situation.

“Zack—”

“Fuck!” I yelled. “The man’s a fucking psychopath. He could be doing anything to her right now. She could be dead for all we know.”

“She’s not dead,” Bones said confidently.

“How do you know that?”

“Because if she were dead, then we would know about it,” Bones said. “This guy… Godwin’s second… he’s trying to prove a point. He’s trying to claim he’s stronger than the Angels so that when he takes power, he’ll be unstoppable. He’s challenging you, which means that anything he does to Mila… you’ll find out about it.”

“So what you’re saying is that I have no choice but to sit and wait for her body to come back?” I demanded. “Is that his fucking challenge?”

“I’m guessing here,” Bones said quickly. “But it’s not like we’re not doing anything about this. We’re out there actively searching for her.”

I turned on Bones and looked him in the eye. “We searched for this fucker for months while Mila was with us,” I reminded him. “Months, and we found nothing; no one tipped us off… we didn’t even know who he was for the longest time. One thing I know for sure about this guy is that he’s good at hiding. What makes you think that we can find him and Mila if he doesn’t want to be found?”

That stumped Bones, and his open mouth fell slack in the next moment.

“Exactly,” I nodded. “So excuse me for being worried.”

I clenched my hands into fists and then resolve started to form inside me and I knew I had to do something that was unprecedented in MC history…. at least in our MC history. But since Mila’s life hung in the balance, I was willing to do anything—and I meant anything—to get her out of this mess. I had sworn to protect her, and I had failed miserably. I needed to right that wrong, and I needed to do everything in my power to do so.

I walked out of the house, leaving Bones and Justin behind without an explanation. I could feel the two of them at my back, wondering what I was going to destroy next. I got on my bike and started up the engine.

“Wait for us,” Bones said. “We’ll come with you.”

They assumed I was going on the hunt again. “No,” I said. “Stay here… I need to do this alone.”

Bones and Justin exchanged a glance. “What exactly are you going to do?” Bones asked, and I sensed concern in his voice.

“I’m turning to the last resort,” I said. “The police.”

I saw the shock flit across their faces, but I didn’t care. I knew where we stood with the cops, but the Angels had never had a bad encounter with them. We had stayed clean for as long as I could remember, so there was no reason for me to be afraid to approach them. We’d just earned a bad reputation because of all the shit that the Knights pulled on a daily basis. We had enjoyed independence because of that, but the downside is that we’d also been cast with the same brush.

It was a reputation that had suited us all this time, however, and its convenience was welcomed. But now things had changed, and I was willing to work with whomever I needed to…. including the police. If Godwin wouldn’t—or couldn’t—help us, then fuck him; I would find someone who could.

“You’re going to the fucking police?” Bones said incredulously.

“Yes.”

“Are you insane?”

“Most likely,” I nodded. “But a little insanity is necessary sometimes.”

“Zack, wait,” Bones said. “We have to talk about this.”

“There’s nothing to talk about.”

“What makes you think the cops will even listen to you, much less help us out?” Justin asked. “They hate the MC clubs. We’re nothing but law-breaking gangs to them.”

“We’ve never had a face-to-face run-in with the cops,” I pointed out. “We’ve kept to ourselves mostly.”

“Mostly,” Bones said, repeating the word. “If the cops get involved, they’ll screw everything up like they always do.”

“We’re not getting anywhere on our own,” I pointed out. “Every second that ticks by is a second Ghost is using to do God knows what to Mila. We have to think of her first now.”

I heard both Justin and Bones start to talk, but I was done listening. I rode my motorbike out of there, kicking up a fog of dust in the process. I rode fast until I got to the station, then I parked quickly and headed inside.

There were a couple of cops lounging about behind desks when I walked in, and all of them sat up straight when they caught sight of me. I understood how intimidating a presence I was, but combine that with my motorcycle jacket, which clearly indicated who I was, I could almost understand the nervous looks on their faces.

“I need to speak to someone in charge,” I said to the whole room.

The cop that approached me was a short woman with blond hair that she had tired back in a tight knot at the back of her head. She was the only one who didn’t look like she was about to shit her pants.

“Is the sheriff here?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “But—”

“I want to speak to him. Now.”

She paused for a moment. “I’ll see if he’s available.”

She disappeared through a door, and she was gone for almost three minutes that seemed to stretch on forever. The remaining three cops that I was left with didn’t take their eyes off me even for a second. One of the younger cops kept his hand on his gun the whole time, as though he were trying to give me a silent warning. It almost made me smile. I could draw my weapon a lot faster than he could draw his. But given that I had come here for help, I had opted to leave my gun at home. I had a license to carry, and it was my second amendment right to do so, but I didn’t want to push my luck.

The female officer appeared at the same door and gestured for me to follow her. I walked through the door, which led to another huge room with desks set up every way. She walked me to a closed-off cubicle at the end of the room. The man sitting inside was skinny and tall with light stubble and sharp brown eyes.

“Come in,” he said, as the policewoman opened the door.

When I walked in, she closed the door and left me with her sheriff.

“You can sit down,” he said.

I sat down and nodded my thanks. “I need your help,” I said bluntly.

The sheriff regarded me coolly for a minute. Then, he leaned back in his seat. “What is your name?”

“Zack Robinson,” I replied.

“Any relation to John Robinson?”

“He was my father.”

“I see,” the sheriff nodded. “That would make you… the Fallen Angels’ leader.”

“President,” I corrected. “And yes.”

“I didn’t realize Motorcycle clubs worked like a dynasty.”

“They don’t,” I said. “I was elected.”

“You must have done something to impress the men.”

I was growing impatient. I had come here for a specific reason, and the sheriff seemed more interested in prying into my personal business. I knew that I had to be polite and patient, however, if I was going to get their help.

“I did,” I nodded.

The sheriff cocked his head to the side as though he were trying to figure me out with one look. “Your kind don’t usually walk into the station like this.”

“My kind?” I asked, with raised eyebrows.

“The outlaws and rule breakers,” the sheriff replied. “The gangs.”

“We’re not a gang,” I said. “We’re a club.”

“Is there a difference?”

I knew he didn’t like me, and my instinct was to mistrust him too. But I had to stay focused and convince him to give me what I had come here for.

“Someone has been abducted,” I said, ignoring his previous question.

“We decided a long time ago that we were not going to involve ourselves in the affairs of the gangs in this town. You want to work by your own rules, fine, but then you don’t fall under our protection. One of you get shot, it’s not our business. One of you get killed, it’s not our business. One of you get abducted, it’s not our fucking business.”

“Then why are so many of your men in bed with the Knights?” I demanded, as my anger surged to the surface.

The sheriff sat forward. “That’s hearsay.”

“Bullshit,” I shot at him. “It’s true. If it hadn’t been then I wouldn’t have needed to get involved in protecting Mila.”

That got his attention.

“Mila Mikalson,” I said. “She is a civilian… she was under your protection. When this fucker, Walter Black, tried to strangle her to death, she drugged him, got the hell out of his apartment, and came straight here to report the assault. She was questioned by one of your men; she was kept waiting for hours only to be told that Walter Black had disappeared, and nothing could be done about it.

“She was terrified for her life, and because she was desperate she called her brother. She wasn’t even close to him, but he was part of my gang, as you call us, and she felt that if the cops couldn’t help her, then maybe we would.”

The sheriff stared at me for a second. “Who was the cop that spoke to her?”

“Officer Stallone,” I replied.

The sheriff nodded. “How long has the girl been missing?”

“She was taken two days ago,” I replied.

I saw the sheriff’s jaw clench, and he nodded. “We’ll help you,” he nodded. “But now that we’re involved, we’re doing this my way. You need to stay calm… that means not doing anything stupid.”

I had expected as much, but I wasn’t willing to give in to too many concessions either, nor was I willing to lie. “That depends,” I said. “On whether we find Mila or not.”

 

 

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Chapter Thirty-Two

Mila

 

I heard the door creak open, but I no longer held my breath anymore. It felt like I had been in this room for eternity, and some of my fear had abated slightly. It took too much energy to be scared all the time.

The old man walked in with the usual tray of food. There was three pieces of stale bread, a few pieces of meat, and a glass of water. He set it in the same place he always did and then he turned to me.

“Do you need to use the bathroom?”

We had a routine set up now. He would enter the room three times a day for meals. After he set the food down, he would ask me if I needed to use the bathroom, and I would nod. Then he would call in two meaty guys, both of whom were carrying guns, and one would escort me into the bathroom, while one would stand outside the door.

The large bald man, who escorted me into the bathroom, would remove my cuffs and leave so that I could use the toilet. The door was never fully shut however, and every once in a while, one of them would peek inside to make sure I wasn’t up to anything. It was one of the most humiliating experiences of my life, but after that first day, I had grown detached from the whole experience. I no longer cared that the door was open. I no longer cared that they watched me. It didn’t matter.

The bathroom was well and truly sealed. There were no windows and no source of natural light, much like the room I was in. It was perpetually dark, and there was only a vent in the roof that sucked up all the circulating air. I suspected that the room I was in was underground, which was why there were no windows anywhere. I was probably being held in the basement of a house in the middle of nowhere.

When I was finished, and the moment I flushed, the big beefy bald guy would re-enter and take me back to the bed where he would attach me to the headboard once again, leaving my right hand free so that I could eat, and then they would both leave. Only the old man would remain long enough to give me a small nod before he too disappeared.

I had refused to eat anything the first day, but hunger had got the best of me, and I realized that refusing to eat was just making me weak. I needed to keep my strength up. After that, I would even ask for more food sometimes. The old man seemed a little reluctant at first, but he always brought back more food, which told me he was making the decision on his own. I almost liked him now; he was the only face I saw with some small level of sympathy.

“Girl?”

“What?”

“Do you need to use the bathroom?”

“Oh… not now,” I said. “Maybe after I eat.”

He nodded. “I’ll tell them,” he said, as he came forward to free my right hand.

“Uh… I’ll eat with my left hand today,” I said.

The old man frowned at me.

“This is not a trick,” I said. “My wrists have been rubbed raw by those cursed cuffs, and I want to give my left hand a chance to breathe.”

He stared at me for a second and then nodded with sympathy before releasing my left hand. I felt the sting of cuts that had formed around my wrist, but I tried to detach myself from the pain.

“My name is Mila by the way,” I told him.

He turned around and nodded.

“What’s your name?” I asked, realizing that he wasn’t going to return the favor and tell me his name.

He paused for a moment, wondering if he should be sharing that information with me. “Steven,” he replied, at last. And I realized he was only telling me his name because he was sure I wouldn’t make it out of this alive. The thought made me sad rather than scared, and I wondered if there was such a thing as preparing yourself to be murdered.

“Steven,” I replied. “Why are you doing all this?”

“It’s my job,” he said shortly.

“Your job?” I repeated. “He pays you to keep women hostage so that he can torture and kill them later?”

Steven looked distinctly uncomfortable. “I do what I’m told,” he said. “I’m paid to look after the house and whatever else I’m asked to do.”

“Does he pay you enough?” I asked.

Steven paused again. “It’s enough to support my wife, my daughter, and her kids.”

“You’re a grandfather,” I said.

“I have two grandchildren: a girl and a boy.”

“What are their names?”

“Betsy and little Steve.”

I smiled. “Your daughter named her son after you.”

“Yes,” Steven nodded. “It was before the accident.”

“What accident?”

“She was involved in a car crash,” Steven told me. “It left her paralyzed from the waist down. She lost most of the function in her arms too, and she can’t speak very well. My wife and I… we take care of her and her kids. Betsy is five and Stevie is three.”

I felt my heart go out to him, and suddenly I couldn’t hate him anymore, nor could I judge him anymore for doing what he was doing. He was just another victim. Walter had chosen him because Steven couldn’t afford to say no. He was a desperate man with a family to feed, and so his loyalty would always be absolute because he counted on the money he got from Walter every month. He would protect Walter because he had to, not because he wanted to.

I nodded. “Thanks for talking to me,” I said.

Steven nodded and walked out of the room. I lay there, with my hands aching and my heart on fire, and wondered what I was going to do. My resolve felt weak. The fight had gone out of me somewhat. Every hour I spent in this room felt like a defeat, and I wondered if I was just going to waste away within these four walls.

An hour after I had eaten, I heard footsteps again, and I figured Steven was back to collect my empty tray and ask if I wanted to use the bathroom. But when the door opened, it wasn’t Steven who walked into the room. It was the man who had haunted my nightmares for the last several months. He looked just as I remembered him: tall, powerful, and extremely dangerous.

He was wearing a sinister smile, and I felt my fear come rushing back to encapsulate my body. He walked into the room alone and slammed the door. It was just the two of us, and instinct told me to scream, but I clamped my mouth shut. Screaming was pointless… no one could hear me. At least no one who could help me would be able to hear me.

“Well, well,” Walter said, and the sound of his voice made my skin crawl. “Mila… we meet again.”

“Walter,” I said, trying to make my tone ice. I didn’t want him to sense or see fear. I wondered if he could smell it on me.

“That was never my name.”

“It’s the name I know you by,” I replied. “You’ll always be Walter to me.”

“How romantic.”

“Is that how it sounded to you?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him. “Strange.”

He looked at curiously, as though he was surprised by how I was reacting to him. I knew instantly that he had expected a quaking, quivering woman who was scared shitless and ready to beg for her life. Instead, he had me chained to a bed, staring at him defiantly, and refusing to turn from his gaze. I wasn’t nearly as confident as I looked or sounded, but my pride was the one thing still left to me, and I was going to cling to it until my last breath.

“You’re different,” he said, as he walked over and sat down on the edge of the bed.

I moved my feet so that there were still a few inches separating us. I didn’t want him to touch me, and for the moment, he didn’t make an attempt to.

“Am I?”

“You’re not as… docile as I remember.”

“Docile?” I repeated. “That’s a word people use to describe animals.”

“I don’t see much of a distinction here,” Walter shrugged. “We’re all just animals at the end of the day, aren’t we?”

“Some more than others,” I bit back.

He smiled, and something about that smile told me he was impressed by my biting tone.

“You look different too,” he said.

I just bit my lip and stayed silent. I hated this; what was the point of unimportant small talk? He had abducted me and kept me as his prisoner for three days. Now he expected to walk in and have a conversation with me. It struck me that a psychopath had very little logic governing his behavior. It was all about dominance and power. It was all about control.

“What the fuck do you want with me?” I demanded, cutting to the chase.

He paused for a moment, and though the smile stayed on his face, I saw a flash of anger flit through his eyes. So there was a line then. He enjoyed my attitude to an extent, but he didn’t like me talking back to him or being overly rude.

“What do I want with you?” he asked, feigning calm. “I think you know. So instead, I’m going to tell you what I’m going to do. I’m sure you’re curious to find out.”

I just stared at him in response.

“I’m going to teach you a lesson,” Walter continued. “And then… then I’m going to punish you.”

“Punish me?” I repeated, in disgust. “Punish me for leaving you?”

“You were mine,” he said. “My possession and my property.”

“You are insane,” I said, shaking my head at him.

“I was good to you,” Walter said. “I treated you well, and all I expected in return was loyalty.”

He was definitely insane. I knew that much now, and I was floored that I hadn’t seen this side of him before. Had I actually thought this man was charming once?

“You were good to me?” I asked incredulously. “Have you forgotten the part where you tried to kill me?”

“Kill you?” Walter repeated, frowning as though he really didn’t remember.

I was gobsmacked for a moment. “You put your hands around my neck and tried to choke me.”

“Oh,” Walter said. “I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

“I couldn’t breathe.”

He chuckled under his breath, and then his face got deadly very suddenly. “You were asking for it.”

“What are—”

“You refused to fuck me.”

“So you decided to try and choke the life out of me?”

“It was just another lesson that needed to be learned,” Walter said with a shrug. “No one says no to me… I had been patient for far too long.”

I shook my head at him. “You’re insane.”

He reached out and touched the side of my face. I cringed back from him in disgust, and he withdrew his hand. “The Angels are scurrying all over town trying to find you.”

“Zack will find me,” I said immediately. “He’ll come after you.”

“Zack,” Walter repeated. “Yes, he seems to be the most determined of the lot.”

Suddenly, Walter leaned in and sniffed me like a dog. I tried to lean as far away from him as my cuffs would allow, but I caught a whiff of his musky scent, and I felt instantly nauseous. One hand was still free, and I thought about slapping him for a moment, but I repressed the urge. I would pay dearly if I slapped him. I had to be smart, just like Steven had told me to be.

“I can smell him on you,” Walter said.

“What are you talking about?”

“You fucked him… but not me?”

I thought about denying it, but the more rebellious part of me that had been born out of my months with the Angels surfaced suddenly. “He’s twice the man you are.”

Walter stared at me for a moment, and then he smiled. For a second, I thought he was going to get off the bed, but then his arm slashed through the air and slapped me so hard my neck snapped back, and my eyes began to water.

“Don’t worry now,” Walter said, getting off the bed and heading towards the door. “Before long, you’ll learn how to be a good possession. You’ll learn to be my faithful and obedient bitch.”

I fought back my tears and willed my voice to keep steady when I spoke. “What are you planning on doing with me?”

“Oh, you’ll see,” he replied. “We’re going on a little trip tomorrow… just you and me. I think it’s going to be a bonding experience.”

With that, he turned and left the room. The door slammed a second later, and I felt the tears fall freely. I was unable to keep control of my calm façade any longer. I had pinned all my hopes on Devon and Zack, but I had to face the facts now. It had been three days already. If they’d known where I was, they’d have come for me by now.

Now Walter was taking me somewhere else to teach me a lesson, to punish me. He had all the power, and I had none. He was the hungry, vengeful wolf, and I was nothing more than the lamb he was taking to slaughter.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Zack

 

“Zack?”

I rushed downstairs, sensing the urgency in Justin’s tone. “What is it?” I asked. “Did you guys find out anything?”

“No,” Justin replied. “But there’s someone here to see you.”

Frowning, I looked towards the door and saw the tall, willowy waitress that I’d spoken to the other day. She was dressed less conspicuously today. She was wearing jeans and an oversized shirt, and I noticed there was a hat in her hand too.

“What are you doing here?” I asked.

“I asked around and found out where you lived,” she replied. “You came to my bar asking questioning about someone named Walter Black?”

“Yes?”

“Well… I came across some information and… I knew I needed to tell you.”

“What have you found out?” I asked urgently.

She took a step into the house and looked around wearily. Apart from me, Justin, Lonny, and Bones were the only ones in the living room, but she looked distinctly uncomfortable, and I knew that she hadn’t wanted to involve herself in all this, but her conscience hadn’t been able to keep her away.

“Last night… two guys came into the bar,” she said. “They were dressed normally, and they weren’t wearing MC jackets or anything… but I’ve lived in this town long enough to recognize an MC member when I see one. They’d never come in before, and I think they were just trying to avoid being seen. They were talking about a woman being held captive… they said she was being locked in a room and that someone called Ghost was going to make her regret the day she left him.”

I leaned in. “What else did they say?”

“One of the guys mentioned a Walter Black, and I knew it had to be the same one you had told me about… I think it’s an alias though.”

“It is,” I nodded impatiently.

“From what I heard both men seem to feel that this guy… Walter Black is deranged. They were only concerned with getting out of town…”

“They were planning to leave?”

“In a few days,” she nodded. “I wanted to tell you before they left… They didn’t mention where Walter Black was keeping this woman. But if you were to track them down before they left town…”

“We can find Mila,” I finished the sentence.

She nodded. “I’ve been in an abusive relationship myself. I wasn’t about to sit on that information.”

“Can you tell me anything about the two men that came in last night?”

“I heard both their names… Bryan and Clint. They both looked like they were in their early thirties. Bryan has a scar on his left cheek, tattoos down his right arm and he was missing a tooth. Clint was blue-eyed and blond… he had a beard and a tattoo on his neck that looked like some sort of bird.”

“They must be Knights,” Justin piped up. “Who else could they be?”

“Of course they’re Knights,” Lonny nodded. “I recognize the descriptions.”

“You do?” I asked optimistically.

“Particularly the one with the scar on his face,” Lonny replied. “He was part of the group that came here to abduct Mila.”

“Can you give us anything more?” I asked, clenching my jaw as I turned back to her.

“That’s all I know,” she replied. “I should be going.”

I walked her out of the house and towards the gate. She didn’t make eye contact with me, nor did she attempt conversation. She just seemed keen to get out as fast as she could. Just before she left, she turned to me.

“I hope you find your girl,” she said to me.

“Thank you for helping me,” I said.

She gave me a short nod and headed off towards the car that was parked to the side. She was almost at her car when I realized I didn’t even know her name.

“Hey,” I called out. “What’s your name?”

“Sarah,” she replied.

“I’m Zack,” I told her.

She smiled. “I know.”

“If you ever need help with anything, Sarah… you can count on the Angels,” I said.

Her smiled deepened slightly. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she nodded.

The moment her car had disappeared around the bend, I ran back and got on my motorbike. The boys were there too, and all three jumped on their bikes as well.

“What’s the plan?” Justin asked.

“If they’re planning on skipping town, they’d not be going to go back to their clubhouse,” I said. “This is a small enough town. We’ll be able to find them if we split up. I want one of you to send an alert to all the boys. We’re going to scour this town until we find either Bryan or Clint.”

“Understood,” Justin nodded.

“I’m going to start the search at the pub stretch. Bones, you take the other part of town. Lonny and Justin, make sure the other men are out there searching too. The moment one of you strike gold, let me know immediately.”

With my instructions given, I headed towards the pub stretch to look for one or both of the men fitting Sarah’s description. I went into every single place that men like me might decide to visit, but I got nothing. Two hours later, and I was still searching and starting to get frustrated and angry when I got a call.

I almost dropped my phone I was in such a rush to answer the call. It was Red.

“Red?”

“We found one,” he said.

“Fuck yes!” I said, punching the air with joy. “Where are you?”

“East end of Lake and Pine. There’s a broad alleyway between two of the apartment buildings.”

“I know the one,” I said. “I’ll be there in five.”

I hung up and sped towards the location Red had mentioned. I got there in four minutes, parked my bike next to Red’s and headed towards the alleyway. Red was there with Vincent and Michael, and they surrounded a man with a noticeable scar on his face and a missing front tooth.

“Jackpot,” I said, walking over to them.

“What the fuck do you motherfuckers want?” he yelled.

He was bleeding from the nose and from a wound just above his left eyebrow. He was also on the floor, leaning against the wall, while the boys surrounded him casually, without a care in the world. They moved aside so that I could pass. I knelt down right in front of Bryan and gave him a friendly smile.

“You must be Bryan?”

“How do you know my name?”

“This is a small town, Bryan, and people notice things.”

“What do you want?” he asked again.

“Oh, I think you know,” I said as my tone turned deadly. “You crashed my house the other day, and you took something from me.”

Bryan’s face turned pale, and he realized he couldn’t claim not to have been there. “I was… I was just following orders.”

“By Ghost?”

“I… yes,” he said.

“And why aren’t you with the boss now?” I asked.

Bryan spat out a little blood and turned to me. “The man’s not right in the head. The Knights have never run from a fight, but we don’t go looking for one either. Ghost told us that the Angels were planning an attack. He said that you were trying to instigate another war.”

“What did Mila have to do with anything?” I demanded.

“He said that you had taken his woman and he needed to get her back to assert his dominance to gain control,” Bryan replied. “He said that when you came looking for her, we could take you out.”

“So that was the plan?”

“The plan changed,” Bryan said, and he looked sick suddenly.

“What do you mean?”

“He was going to leave clues so that he could lead you to the girl and then ambush you lot,” Bryan continued. “Then he decided it would be more fun to send you back the girl… in parts.”

My hands balled into fists. “And what did you cowardly motherfuckers do?”

“Joel told him that he wasn’t going to be involved in a civilian murder; if this was about club-on-club dominance, that was a different thing. If we needed to protect our interests or our land or our businesses, then that was understood. But murdering for sport was not what we did. Ghost walked up to Joel, punched him in the face, and then when he was down, he kept punching until there was nothing left of Joel’s face but blood and bone and skin. He didn’t even look like a person anymore…”

I could tell that this incident had been the deciding factor for Bryan and probably a few other Knights who had joined Ghost too. There was a line that had been crossed. Some men would stay with Ghost out of respect, others would stay out of fear, but there were a few who would try and get out before this escalated into a full-scale bloodbath.

Even the Knights knew that if they continued on this route, the cops would have to get involved, and then it would be a whole different ballgame.

“You know where he’s keeping her?” I asked.

“I… he’ll kill me if he knows I told you anything,” Bryan said desperately.

“I’m not going to give you away,” I said.

“How do I know that?”

“Because the Fallen Angels keep their fucking word,” I spat. “And because if you don’t tell me right now, I will do to you what Ghost did to your friend Joel…. understood?”

Bryan swallowed hard. “It’s too late…”

“What is too late?” I demanded.

“He was planning on taking her away… to Gordon’s Run—”

“The field half an hour from here?”

“Yes,” Bryan nodded. “It’s miles from anything… No one will hear her scream.”

I wanted to scream and roar, but I willed myself to keep calm. “When is he planning on taking her there?”

“He’s already gone,” Bryan said fearfully. “This morning at seven. I left shortly after he left with her.”

I looked down at the time. It was almost noon. Five fucking hours. It had been five fucking hours since he’d taken her. He could have killed her a thousand times over. I felt my stomach fall, but I knew I had to try.

I jumped to my feet. “I’m heading over there,” I shouted orders to the boys remaining. “Get some answers out of him,” I told Red, who followed me to my bike. “Get him to tell you where Ghost was keeping Mila all this time.”

“I’ll come with you—”

“Send back up,” I told him. “You know where to come… Make sure you get the answers first.”

I whirled my bike around, revved the engine, and headed down the road. I was conscious of Red still talking, but I was done talking. It was time for action. I was probably already too late, but I wasn’t going to give up until I saw a body.

 

Chapter Thirty-Four

Mila

 

The door opened, and I felt my heart jump in my chest. It was almost painful, like something heavy had just fallen right on top of me. Walter walked into the room and gave me a smile full of promise and excitement. I could see that he was looking forward to this so-called trip he had planned. It was just another exercise in mental torture, so I was determined not to let my fear break through my calm exterior.

“Are you ready?” he asked.

“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” I replied, giving him a condescending glance that did not betray my fast beating heart.

“One of you get in here and un-cuff her,” Walter ordered.

One of the bigger men walked into the room with the tiny key and released me from the cuffs. For a giddy moment, I wanted to sing out loud. Having my hands free from the painful grip of the restraints was so beautiful that for a moment, I actually felt lucky. I had cuts all around my wrists. The skin there was red and throbbing, revealing little pockets of flesh where the skin had been rubbed away by the cuffs.

Before I could really examine them, the big man grabbed me by the arm and dragged me off the bed. My legs gave way, and I sunk to the floor, but he lifted me as easily as though I weighed a couple of pounds.

“Come now, Mila,” Walter said as his smile grew wider. “Do you want to walk out of here or be carried out of here?”

I didn’t let his tone or his expression get to me. Let him think I was weak… that suited me just fine. I actually wanted him to think I was weak; maybe that would work to my advantage.

I was dragged out of the room, and I made sure to pay attention to where I was. I had been right all along. I had been kept in a basement. We had to walk up a short flight of stairs before reaching the first floor of the house, which turned out to be a pretty ordinary one. It almost looked like a happy family might have lived here at one time. I wondered how Walter had gained control of it. There was no sign of Steven, and I felt sad that I couldn’t say goodbye to him. There was a very good possibility that I wasn’t coming back.

I didn’t let myself think about what that really meant. I had to stay calm, and I had to stay focused. Otherwise, there was no point. I might as well just lie down now and let Walter kill me. But I had spent the last few hours thinking hard, and I had decided that since there was no guarantee about how this was going to turn out, the only thing I could do was try my best to fight back.

Even if I didn’t get myself out of this mess, then at least I died trying. I added ‘literally’ to the end of that sentence, and it almost made me laugh.

There were a few men standing outside where a car had been parked. Everyone looked towards me as I appeared at the entrance, but I didn’t make eye contact. What was the point? They were the ones that had kidnapped me; they weren’t about to offer me help now. I turned my attention to my surroundings, and I felt my breath catch when I realized that we were still in the heart of town, surrounded by suburban homes with well-kept lawns and minivans parked in the drive.

This particular house was hidden behind a red brick wall that had vines growing on it so that no one could see inside very clearly, and Walter’s men could come and go without people getting too suspicious about what they were up to. He had been hiding in plain sight this whole time. I had to admit; it had been a smart move.

I looked towards his men standing to the side, and then I turned to Walter. “Quite the entourage you’ve got there,” I said. “Are they all coming?”

“I like an audience when I play,” Walter smirked at me.

I felt panic choking me, but I had promised myself to try and manipulate the situation to my advantage. I needed to get my way without allowing Walter to know what I was up to. “Of course you do,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Typical.”

He rose to the bait. “Excuse me?” he asked. “What is fucking typical?”

I shrugged. “Nothing… it’s just you’re supposed to be this big scary gang leader, and you can’t even torture a defenseless woman without having back up.”

“I don’t need back up,” he snapped.

“Right,” I replied sarcastically. “Hence the entourage.”

“I told you… I like an audience.”

“Is that really it?” I asked. “Or do you just want to humiliate me?”

“Both,” Walter nodded, taking the second bit of bait.

“Of course you do,” I nodded. “Silly of me to ask. I’ll bet it’s stuff like this is that makes you feel like a man, huh? I’m sure your men will be so impressed.”

Walter’s eyes narrowed, and I knew what was coming next. He snapped his head up. “You lot can do whatever. I’m going alone.”

The men exchanged anxious glances, but I noticed a few of them looked relieved. They dispersed almost immediately, and Walter opened the passenger side door of the car in front of us and pushed me inside roughly. Then he got behind the wheel, and we left the house, heading away from town. We drove in silence for almost ten minutes, and during that time, I could only seem to think about all the ways Walter was going to try and make me scream.

I wondered if he could hear my heartbeat, and I decided that he couldn’t; that was just the fear talking.

“So… what was it like living in a house full of men?” Walter asked, breaking the long silence. “Did they pass you around? Did they leave a tip after they were done fucking you?”

“Not all men are animals, Walter,” I replied calmly. “Not all men are like you.”

“Yes, they are,” Walter disagreed. “All men are just different versions of me.”

I turned my attention to the window and refused to look at him, but Walter was not done talking. He was going to insist on making this car ride as awful as possible.

“Did he fuck you?”

I ignored him the first time, but he repeated himself again. When I ignored him the second time, his hand shot out like lightened and made contact with the side of my face. It wasn’t as hard as the first punch I’d received when I’d lost consciousness in the van, but the force of it made me slam into the window, and I saw stars for a second before my vision cleared again.

“When I ask you a question,” Walter said with exaggerated calm. “I expect a fucking answer; do you understand me?”

I pushed back the tears and nodded. “Yes,” I said, in a small voice.

“Good,” Walter nodded, and he sounded satisfied that he’d managed to get his point across. “Now let’s try that again: did he fuck you?”

“Who?” I asked, pretending as though I didn’t know.

“Zack,” Walter replied, and his tone dripped with hatred.

I thought about simply denying it, but a part of me… the newly rebellious part of me that had emerged in the last few months wanted to piss him off. And the only way to do that was to be truthful.

“Yes, he fucked me,” I replied. “And I enjoyed it.”

I saw Walter’s jaw clench dangerously, but the satisfaction I felt was completely worth it.

“Of course you did,” Walter said, but I noticed his tone shook when he spoke. “Because you’re a dirty little slut.”

“I’ll be anything he wants me to be,” I replied calmly.

“You fucked him… and not me?” Walter asked, unable to keep away from that question.

“He’s a real man,” I said. “And you’re just a sorry excuse for one.”

There was a split second of total silence, and I thought he was going to punch me again. “You’re going to regret saying that to me,” he said a moment later.

I had no doubt, but for right now I clung to the belief that perhaps I had a chance to escape this psychopath… especially now that I’d managed to manipulate him into leaving his men behind. I had no doubt that Walter underestimated me. He would find it almost laughable to think that I’d be able to defend myself now.

“Why are you doing this?” I asked, feeling the suddenly strong urge to ask the question.

“Because… it makes life interesting,” Walter replied.

“You must know that this will just start a war with the Angels.”

“Oh, I’m counting on it.”

“Why?”

“Because once Godwin is dead, I’ll be the leader of the Lucifer’s Knights,” Walter explained. “And I want complete control. I won’t stand for a rival MC gang roaming my town.”

“Your town?” I repeated incredulously. “This is not your town.”

“Not just yet,” Walter nodded. “But watch me take it.”

He turned down a lonely country road that narrowed the further down we drove, and then he stopped the car in the middle of a tiny clearing surrounded by trees.

“Get down,” he ordered me.

I got down, but I didn’t bother trying to run. He was taller and stronger than me, and I knew he could outrun me easily. If I ran, that would only give him the satisfaction of catching me, and I wasn’t going to play the coward this time. I wasn’t going to allow myself to become the victim. I was going to take control and fight to free myself. I had been taught well. I had been taught for this very specific purpose, and I wasn’t about to throw all that hard work down the drain.

We stood, staring at each other in front of the car. Walter still had that sinister smile playing across his face.

“What are you going to do to me?” I asked.

“First… I’m going to take what you refused to give me.”

I frowned. “And what is that?”

“Your body,” Walter replied.

I went cold as I realized what he was going to do. He was going to rape me out here in the middle of nowhere. That was probably just act one on his twisted agenda.

I shook my head at him. “What is the point of this?” I asked. “Why force yourself on me?”

“Because it’s time you learned who I am,” Walter said, licking his lips and taking a step towards me. “It’s time you learned respect and obedience. It’s time you learned who you really belong to.”

“You really are insane,” I said, looking at him with pity in my eyes.

“You really should think twice about what you say to me, bitch.”

I thought about all the times I had trained with Zack and all the things he had taught me. This was what I had been working towards. This was the moment I proved to myself that I wasn’t the helpless victim that ended up as another headline in the morning papers. I was going to wipe that ugly smile off this fucker’s face.

“You’ve got it wrong, Walter,” I said, standing my ground. “The only bitch here that I can see is you.”

I uttered a silent prayer for strength, and then… I charged at him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Five

Zack

 

My phone was vibrating again. I had ignored it the first three times, but this time I picked up. “What?” I demanded.

“Have you found her yet?”

“If I had fucking found her,” I said, unsure whom I was even talking to, “I would have fucking called.”

“He hasn’t found her yet,” he told the others, and I recognized the voice as Red’s.

“Who is with you?” I asked.

“Devon, Lonny, Bones, and Justin,” Red replied. “The others stayed behind to sort out shit with the cops.”

“The cops,” I groaned.

I had completely forgotten about that part of the equation. A part of me almost regretted getting them involved in the first place. Now if we managed to settle this situation, we wouldn’t just be able to slink back to our lives. They would insist on dragging everything out into the open again. Cops took ages to get anything fucking done. And even when things were done, they never knew when it was over.

“Austin is fielding questions from the sheriff,” Red explained. “He wasn’t too happy though. He wanted to talk to you.”

I had several more questions, but I was on high alert, and Red was just breaking my concentration. I didn’t care what the cops wanted or what they were doing. I just wanted to find Mila. The area was larger than I had expected. There were trees everywhere, and even though there were tiny roads I could ride through, I knew it would take a while to scour the place.

“Where are you guys?”

“Driving towards you,” Red replied. “We should be there in ten minutes—fifteen minutes tops.”

“Don’t try and find me,” I told him. “Just spread out and start looking for Mila.”

“Got it.”

I hung up and parked my bike next to a random tree. I didn’t want the sound of my motorcycle alerting Ghost to my presence. I ran around the area, trying to figure out where Ghost might take her. It had to be further in, away from the main road so that passersby wouldn’t hear anything suspicious. I moved further in following a line of trees.

The whole time I searched for her, my mind was going crazy with worry. I had never experienced this kind of thing before. I had lost my mother to illness and my father in a fight, but I had still never experienced emotions quite like this. It felt like someone had crashed a truck into me and now the truck was on top of me, and I couldn’t quite breathe, but I was still clinging on to life anyhow.

The worst thing about all this was that I had promised Mila I would keep her safe. I had brought her to my home because I had been so confident that cocooned within our walls, no one would be able to get to her. I had been overly confident, and I had been cocky. I had assumed we were dealing with Godwin and I had calculated accordingly.

Godwin may have been power hungry and greedy in his day before his illness seemed to have robbed him of those ambitions, but he was smart. He was not the type of man to initiate a war he had little chance of winning. He had miscalculated once before, and he had lost a son for it. He had become overly cautious since then, and I should have known at that point that he wasn’t involved in this plot.

But I had been so dead set on my own revenge that I had read the situation to my advantage. I had been looking for a fight in all the wrong places, and those mistakes had finally caught up with me now…at Mila’s expense. I had allowed this to happen. I was the reason that Ghost had been able to send his men in after her. I had not prepared for his boldness and his recklessness. I had predicted the situation that best suited me.

I realized how blinded I had been from the very beginning. I realized how foolish and immature I had been. I had been elected leader of the Fallen Angels, but I had fallen short of the mantel. And now Mila was gone, in the hands of a madman with no sense of fear.

I came upon a fork that veered off into two different roads. One was extremely narrow, and the other one was broader. I realized there were tire tracks on the broader road and immediately I started running down the road, following the tracks. He had brought her here in a car. I listened intently as I ran, but I wasn’t sure I would hear anything.

It had been five hours since Ghost and Mila had left that morning. A lot could have happened in that time. I came to a little clearing, and I froze in place. The car had definitely been through here, but there was no sign of it anymore. The car was gone, and that meant Ghost was gone too. I walked in a little further, and I noticed blood dotting the sand and dirt underneath my feet.

My body went cold, and a feeling of dread overtook me. It had been five hours. Mila’s body had probably been cold for four. No, I told myself sternly. I wasn’t going to go there. Until I saw a body, I wasn’t going to let myself think that. She wasn’t dead… this could not be how it ended.

I felt rage thrash around inside me, and if I had happened across Walter Black or any of his henchman now, I knew that I would have murdered them all with my bare hands. As it stood, all I could do was follow the trail of blood. The ground was too hard to reveal any prints, but the blood helped to an extent. I followed the trail to a rock several feet into the trees, and I realized that Mila had stopped here for a few seconds at least to catch her breath before trying to flee from Ghost.

There was dried blood on the rock and a few dots of blood leading away from it. I tried to follow the trail again, but it dried up soon after, and I was left staring at trees with no idea which direction to head to next.

“Fuck,” I cursed furiously. “Fuck me.”

I picked up my phone and called the sheriff in desperation. “Sheriff?”

“Mr. Robinson!” he sounded angry. “I thought I told you not to do anything stupid.”

“I haven’t.”

“You are not law enforcement,” Sheriff replied hotly. “You do not have the right to conduct searches or set your men on anyone else.”

I frowned. “Who did I set my men on?”

“A Bryan Donavan,” the sheriff replied. “I believe he once belonged to the Lucifer’s Knights. He claims not to be a part of the gang anymore.”

So apparently Red and the others had turned him over to the cops now… I wondered if they’d done so willingly. I didn’t care either way, but I did hope the cops had gotten something out of him. As though in answer to my question, I heard police sirens in the distance, and I paused.

“You’re here?”

“Where’s that?”

“Gordon’s Run.”

“My men should be there by now.”

“Fuck,” I said. “Took you long enough.”

“Mr. Robinson, you need to leave this up to us now,” he said. “After all, you are the one that asked us to get involved.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m leaving everything up to you,” I said. “He’s had Mila out here for five hours now. Anything could have happened.”

“We have his license plate number,” the sheriff told me. “Bryan Donovan was very chatty once he knew that his co-operation would help reduce his time.”

“Have your men fan out and search for her, then—”

“Mr. Robinson,” the sheriff interrupted me again. “This is not up to you anymore. Go home and wait for me to get back to you. If we find your girlfriend, I will inform you immediately.”

He had said ‘if,’ and I didn’t know what to do with that. I knew that I needed to prepare mentally for the possibility that even if we did find Mila, she would be nothing more than a broken body. But I cringed away from that possibility because it made me want to send a bullet through my brain.

I hung up rudely and put my phone away. The cops were here now… my men were probably here now too. Someone would find her, wouldn’t they? I kept walking in a straight line, searching for clues, anything that might help me find her. There were areas that looked disturbed somehow, as though someone large had passed through, but it could have been anyone.

I couldn’t see blood anymore, and I hoped that meant that Mila wasn’t hurt too badly. Maybe she had managed to escape him and hide somewhere. I recalled all the training she had been through in the last several months, and I prayed that it had been enough to make a difference. Still, I knew that fear could cripple you, no matter how prepared you thought you were.

I stumbled into another little clearing where the trees had grown far apart, allowing patches of sunlight to filter in and leave large spotlights on the ground in front of me. I turned and noticed blood by some rocks in the corner, and I knew instinctively that I was getting close. I stepped through the trees where it was cooler and darker and walked through until I heard a noise that made me freeze in place. My instincts were on high alert, and I sensed that I was not alone. Someone was here too, and I balled my hands into fists and prepared myself for a fight.

If Ghost were stupid enough to show his face to me now, I would end him before the cops showed up. I heard the noise again, and I turned. There was definitely someone moving behind the trees. I tried to walk silently, but the crunch of leaves underneath my boots gave me away. Then, I saw a beautiful auburn color that was almost red, and I felt hope blossom inside me instantly.

“Mila?”

There was silence for a second, and then suddenly she emerged, like an angel out of a dream. All I saw were her eyes and her perfect face, and then I saw the rest. Her clothes were partly ripped, she was bruised and bloodied, and she seemed to be leaning against the tree for support. I looked down and saw that her right leg looked broken.

I rushed to her and grabbed her before she fell. I held her as she buried her face in my chest and started sobbing uncontrollably, devastating sobs that were a mixture of pain and relief. She didn’t say anything, and I didn’t either. I just let her sob until silence flooded around us again and Mila was still against my body.

“Mila,” I whispered her name.

“Zack,” she said, and her voice trembled when she spoke. “Is it really you?”

“Of course it’s me,” I assured her. “I’m here… I’m so sorry Mila—”

“I thought I was going to die… I almost—”

She trailed off, and I felt her grip me a little harder.

“You don’t have to worry,” I told her. “The cops are here too… they’ll find the bastard.”

Mila looked up at me. “He’s gone, Zack,” she said shakily.

“Don’t worry,” I assured her. “They have his license plate number… they’ll track him down.”

“No,” Mila said, shaking her head.

I frowned.

“No,” Mila said again. “He’s gone… he’s… he’s dead.”

“Dead?” I repeated.

Mila nodded. “I think I killed him.”

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Six

Mila

 

Music helped a lot. I just lay on my bed in my room and listened to different kinds of music. If the music was loud enough, it drowned out my thoughts to an extent, but it didn’t help the memories from flooding me every now and then.

It was strange how memory worked in the first place. Some things came back in spotty recollections that seemed aged somehow. And other moments were so vividly detailed that it amazed me how much I’d managed to retain in such tensely frightening moments.

Like that moment just after Walter had ordered me out of the car. We had faced one another, and he had just promised me that he was going to rape me first. That was when my resolve had first formed. I wasn’t sure I could beat him, but I was not going to just lie down and let him humiliate me. If I did that, I would be stripping myself of any power I had, and I refused to make it easy for him.

I had charged at him, and that charge had gone in slow motion for me. I saw the shock in Walter’s eyes when he realized that I was actually trying to fight him. Then I’d seen the amusement follow straight after. He was amused that I thought I had a chance of taking him on. If anything, that just made me want to fight harder.

He was so cocky that he didn’t even bother to move. He just stood there, which gave me a great advantage. I aimed the punch for his stomach, and I hit him with such beautiful precision that I knew Zack would have been proud of me. Walter was not expecting the force and strength of that punch. He grunted forward, and then I swirled around and kicked him in the face, sending him straight to the ground.

I saw the amusement drop from his face, and my confidence soared to new heights. He had just realized that I was not some helpless girl he could use and discard. He had just realized that I hadn’t just been hiding these past few months. I had been preparing.

“Huh,” Walter had said, as he got to his feet. “The bitch has learned to bite.”

“I can do more than just bite.”

“Remember that the only reason you managed to make a hit in the first place was that I was unprepared,” Walter said. “It won’t happen again.”

I clenched my fists and refused to let him get inside my head. I knew he didn’t have a gun on him, but there was a knife hidden behind the waistband of his jeans, and my next goal had been to get my hands on it somehow. The second time, Walter was the one who lunged at me. I moved deftly to the side and felt a little burst of triumph when Walter stumbled to the side without managing to touch me.

He may have had strength on his side, but I had speed. Zack had also taught me how to fight an opponent who was larger and stronger than I was. I had never managed to bring Zack down, but I had succeeded with several of the other guys. Walter was closer to Zack’s size and build, but he wasn’t as smart or as skilled, and I knew I had to use that to my advantage.

He wasn’t smiling when he rounded on me the second time. He was angry. He hadn’t counted on me fighting back. He had expected to humiliate me, and not once had he ever considered the possibility that I might be the one humiliating him. I decided to try and goad him into losing focus. It was just another way to distract him so that he would make mistakes when he attacked me.

“You should really thank me,” I said as we circled each other.

“Why the fuck should I thank you?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes at me.

“You wanted to bring an audience, remember?” I reminded him. “If you had, they would have watched a woman beat your ass. That would have been embarrassing.”

He had actually growled at me, and I knew my plan was working. He tried to grab me again, but I managed to wriggle away from his grasp and throw a backhanded kick his way. He didn’t stumble this time. He held his ground and grabbed my arm with a vice grip that I couldn’t break from.

I felt a moment of panic as he pulled me towards him and head butted me so hard that I collapsed on the ground in front of him. Then he sent a kick straight to my chest, and I fell flat on my back as pain whizzed through my body. I found it hard to breathe, but I knew that I couldn’t let myself be so blinded by the pain that I stopped fighting.

“Is that all you’ve got?” Walter asked, circling me.

He was smiling again, and I could tell that he thought it would be easy for him now. He thought he had defeated me. He thought he had reduced me to a broken and helpless victim once more and now all he had to do was reap the spoils.

“Are you ready for my cock?” he asked, as he started to unbuckle his trousers.

I thought about the knife attached to his trousers, and I watched him pull down his zipper. I put on an act for his benefit, allowing my eyes to roll back in my head to make it seem like I was struggling to remain conscious. The truth was the pain from his hits had already become background noise to me. I was ready for the next move.

He was about to lower himself down onto me when my eyes flashed open, and I slammed my knee up into his groin. My aim was slightly off, but I still made an impact. He yelled in pain and keeled over; exposing the knife I had my eye on. I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed it, but it was hooked into his waistband, and I had to disentangle it. That gave him enough time to realize what I was doing and push back.

I managed to get the knife, but now that he knew what I was after, he tried to gain possession of the knife again. We ended up on the dirty ground together, rolling around, trying to get possession of the knife. I managed to get the blade out of the holster, and without stopping to think, I brought the blade down on part of him. In the heat of the moment, I didn’t even know what part of him it was.

All I knew was that he was all over, and I needed to get him off me somehow. He screamed, loud and guttural, and I managed to push him off me and get to my feet. He was lying there, bleeding from the stab wound I’d managed to make in his leg. It was on his upper thigh, but the fabric of his trousers had managed to protect him somewhat. He looked more furious than ever, as he got to his feet and came at me with a slight limp.

I still had the knife, and I planned to use it, but I was also aware of the fact that Walter had just upped his game. He had finally realized that I was going to put up a good fight, and he wasn’t thinking of entertaining himself anymore. He just wanted to end me.

He lunged again, but his movements were slower because of the stab wound to his leg. I ducked and tried to whirl away from his grasp, but his hand sped out and grabbed me by the hair. He pulled hard, and I hit the ground, but he didn’t let go of my hair. He started dragging me towards the car, and I realized that I’d completely forgot about how we’d gotten here.

I felt pain like I’d never experienced before surge through my body. And it was only then that I realized he was kicking me. And a second later, another realization hit me. He was prepared to kick me to death… like a dog.

“Mila?”

The sound of Zack’s voice pulled me back to the present, and I sat up and turned off the radio. The room descended into silence, and I went to unlock the door so that Zack could come in.

“Hi,” he said when I opened the door. He was looking at me with obvious concern.

“Hi.”

“Can I come in?”

“Sure,” I nodded, as I held the door open for him.

We sat down next to each other on my bed, and Zack turned to me. “How are you?”

“Better,” I told him.

And I really was doing better. I had spent two days in the hospital, and I had been released only this morning. I had spent most of that morning hiding up in my room with the music on. I hadn’t spoken to anyone apart from Devon and Zack, and even then, I still hadn’t gone over the details of what happened between Walter and me at Gordon’s Run.

“Mila… I know this is really soon… but the cops want to talk to you,” Zack told me.

“Now?”

“As soon as possible,” Zack sighed.

“I’ll have to go down to the station?”

“Yes… I can come with you if you want?”

I nodded. “I’d like that.”

Zack stayed silent, and I knew it was because he wasn’t sure where my head was. He didn’t want to do or say anything to upset me. I put my hand over his, and he turned to meet my gaze.

“You saved me, you know,” I told him.

He frowned. “Saved you?” he asked, in confusion. “I failed you.”

“No, you didn’t,” I said emphatically. “You were the reason I got out of there.”

“How?”

“At one point, Walter had me on the ground, and he was kicking the living shit out of me,” I explained. I felt Zack’s hand tighten under mine, but I kept going anyway.

“For a second there, I thought I was going to die. And then I remembered everything you’d taught me. You had taught me to protect myself… and this was the moment I made you proud. So I rolled out from under him and sent a kick at his legs. He fell, and I limped as fast as I could to the car. He had left the car keys in the ignition, and I locked the door and started the engine again.

“Before I could start driving, he was at my window, screaming obscenities at me. He was about to break the window when I started driving. I almost hit a couple of trees, but I managed to drive off… only to lose myself in one of the narrower paths. I was so flustered and panicked that I had no idea where I was going. I must have just been driving in circles, but I knew that Walter was after me, and he wouldn’t rest until he found me. And then I saw him—probably at the same time he saw me. He had murder in his eyes, and I knew then that if I didn’t kill him, he would definitely kill me. So….”

I trailed off as I relived the memory, and I felt a shiver pass through my body. It was not an easy thing to take a life… no matter how unworthy that life may be.

“Mila?”

“I drove the car right into him.”

Zack nodded. “I know.”

“You saw his body?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“He’s really dead?”

“He’s really dead,” Zack confirmed. “You’re safe.”

I leaned into Zack, and he wrapped his arms around me. “Thank you,” I whispered to him.

“No, I’m the one who should be thanking you,” Zack replied.

So many different things were flashing through my mind that it didn’t really register, and it was only later that I wondered what he was thanking me for.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Zack

 

“Morning, Sheriff,” I greeted, as he passed by me ready to climb the steps to the station.

He turned around in surprise and caught sight of me next to my Harley. I walked over to him, and he gave me a curt nod that was not unfriendly.

“I heard you took Godwin in for questioning yesterday.”

The sheriff looked resigned to the fact that I probably knew more than I should have. “We did,” he nodded. “But he’s not in our custody anymore.”

“He’s dying,” I said, unsure why I volunteered the information. Was it possible that after years of hate, I had actually developed the capacity to feel sympathy for a man I had considered my enemy?

“I’m aware,” the sheriff replied. “Which is one of the main reasons he’s walking around today. There’s no point in convicting a dead man. He’s got a mark on his back as it is.”

“Did you have enough to convict him in the first place?”

“His boys were all eager to flap their gums once they knew that we had them in our sights,” the sheriff continued. “The Lucifer’s Knights were involved in money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms dealing.”

“Ah,” I said, even though none of this was news to me.

“The thing is… Godwin seemed to have lost interest in all his ventures once he received his diagnosis. He had stopped conducting business, and he had lost half of his clients as well as some of his men.”

“He lost them to Ghost,” I pointed out.

“Because as usual, the mindless need someone they perceive to be strong to follow.”

“Not all who follow are mindless,” I interjected, thinking of my own men.

The sheriff understood what I meant by that, and he smiled. “His real name was Hiram Stanley.”

“Whose?”

“The man you call Ghost,” The sheriff replied. “He was born Hiram Stanley. Ghost was just a nickname he concocted to inspire fear.”

“And Walter Black?”

“A stolen identity,” the sheriff replied. “Turns out he was a seventy-year-old man from Louisiana who died three years ago. Turns out that Hiram Stanley was wanted in three different states.”

I nodded. “Makes sense. And Mila?”

“Her story was consistent with what we found at the crime scene,” the sheriff told me. “She killed him in self-defense… so she’s free and clear. I would recommend that she see a therapist though. She might suffer from post-traumatic stress for a while. When I spoke to her, she seemed a little fragile.”

“She’s not,” I said immediately. “She’s stronger than she looks.”

“I have no doubt,” the sheriff responded. “But even the strongest of us have weaknesses sometimes. You need to take care of her.”

I felt a little stir deep inside myself, and I wondered if I would even have the option of looking after her. After all, everyone knew that the moment Ghost was found, Mila would leave. She was recuperating with us at the house for the moment, but I knew it was only a matter of time before she decided she needed to move on with her life. The big question was if it was possible for me to move on with mine without her?

“What about the Knights?” I asked without addressing his previous statement.

“There’s a handful of them left now,” the sheriff replied. “And all of them know that they’ll be closely watched from now on. Gone are the days when the police turned a blind eye simply because it was more convenient that way. I’m not going to do what my predecessor did and look the other way.”

“You might have a hard job of that,” I pointed out.

“Why? Because I have men in my department that are loyal to the Knights?” the sheriff asked. “Not anymore.”

I raised my eyebrows, understanding what he was saying. “I see.”

“Now that the weak links are gone, maybe we can re-establish some laws around this town. If the gangs here expect to be left alone, then they’ll have to follow the fucking law and behave themselves.”

I smiled at the less than subtle warning in the sheriff’s tone. For all my mistrust of the police force, I had started to like this man. He was blunt and rough around the edges, and he didn’t inspire a lot of trust from the start, but he had the sort of personality that grew on you.

“In any case,” the sheriff continued. “With Ghost gone, the men loyal to him who were involved in Mila’s abduction have been put away. Some have managed to get out of town, and the rest are still loyal to Godwin. Once he’s gone, there’s not going to be much of a club left.”

“There’s always someone ready to step into the leader’s shoes,” I pointed out.

“As long as they abide by my rules, we won’t have a problem.”

I nodded. “Understood.”

“How is Mila?” the sheriff asked, taking me by surprise.

Apparently, she had made an impression when she had come in for questioning. Even though I had come with her, I had been forced to sit outside for almost two hours while she spoke to the cops.

“She’s… holding up,” I said. “She told me what happened once, and now she says she doesn’t want to talk about it again.”

“She feels guilty,” the sheriff said. “For killing him.”

I gritted my teeth together. “I don’t know why,” I said. “He had it coming. He would have raped and murdered her if she hadn’t killed him first.”

“You forget she’s not like you,” the sheriff told me. “This is not her life. And sometimes when you’ve lived this way for long enough, you forget that it should be a hard thing to take another man’s life… whether or not he deserves it.”

I knew he was right, and I understood that Mila was processing through this in her own way. But sometimes I felt helpless, and that made me impatient.

“I came here to thank you,” I said awkwardly. “For your help.”

“I didn’t do it as a favor to you,” the sheriff told me. “I did it because there was an innocent civilian who had got caught up in your mess. I questioned some of your boys too.”

“I’m aware.”

“I found nothing concrete enough to hold any of them,” the sheriff told me. “But if I do, nothing will stop me from bringing them in.”

I nodded. “I wouldn’t expect anything less from you.”

He looked at me calmly for a second, and then he stretched out his hand to me. “We can work together, Zack,” he said. “We can co-exist peacefully.”

“I agree,” I nodded, shaking his hand.

I left the station moments later and drove back to the clubhouse. The boys were scattered around the place, but I wasn’t interested in talking to any of them. I just wanted to get upstairs and check on Mila, but Devon cornered me just before I was about to go upstairs.

“Hey, I wanted to speak to you about something,” Devon said.

Sighing inwardly, I turned to him. “What about?”

“You want to sit down first?” he asked, noticing how impatient I was.

I suppressed my frustration and sat down in the living room. Red and Bones left the room surreptitiously, giving us a little privacy, and I knew they suspected what Devon wanted to talk to me about.

“So… about Mila?”

“What about Mila?” I asked, hating this conversation already.

“I found this little town in Maine—”

“What?” I interrupted harshly.

“What?” Devon asked, in confusion.

“Why the fuck are you trying to send Mila to Maine?” I asked. “The fucker’s dead, and there’s no threat to her life anymore. There’s no reason for her to leave town.”

“I know that,” Devon nodded. “All I suggested to her was that I try and look for an apartment for her since she gave up her old one. But she wasn’t interested.”

I frowned. “What do you mean?”

“She seemed keen to leave town still,” Devon said, with a shrug. “She told me she wants a fresh start. She wants to put all this behind her and start anew somewhere else.”

I felt my heart sink as I realized that perhaps this experience had changed her for good. She had finally had enough of this lifestyle, and she wanted a change of pace. She wanted to be as far away from my lifestyle as possible. We hadn’t spoken about the future at all since she came back to the house. She had been unusually quiet, and I had assumed she was just processing. But maybe what she had been doing was planning for her new beginning.

“She told you that?” I asked.

“I… yes,” Devon nodded. “So anyway… this town I found, it’s similar to this one except crime rates are low, and they have a close-knit community that she might enjoy.”

“Did you read some fruity brochure or something?”

“Living expenses are cheap there too,” Devon continued, as though I hadn’t spoken. “And she’ll be able to get back on her feet soon. I have a few other options that she said she’d look at.”

“And she’s ok with moving so far away?”

“She seems to be.”

I nodded and averted my gaze, unsure of how to deal with the complex blaze of emotions I was feeling at the moment. I had assumed she was just going to be moving out of the clubhouse, and I had a hard enough time of wrapping my head around that. Now that I knew she wanted to move to another state, I had no idea how to deal with that.

“Zack?”

“What?” I asked.

“If she wants to go, you need to let her go,” Devon told me. “I know how much you care about her—that much has been evident in the last few weeks—but staying here with us might not be what’s best for her.”

“I know that,” I said. “I don’t need a fucking lecture from you.”

Devon sighed. “Fine… well, the reason I’m telling you all this is because if she is moving, I’d like to go with her. Just for a few weeks to make sure she settles in alright.”

“Oh, fine,” I nodded dismissively.

“You’re ok with that?”

“Take as much time as you need,” I said, as I stood up and headed towards the stairs. “I’m not going to stop you from doing what you want.”

I headed upstairs and paused outside my door. I had wanted to give Mila some space, but in light of the new information I’d just received from Devon, I couldn’t bring myself to pass by Mila’s room. I knocked once and waited for her to answer.

The door opened, and Mila stood there in a white dress that made her look like some sort of ethereal angel. Her auburn hair hung loosely around her shoulders, and her perfect blue eyes were bright enough that I could almost believe she was happy.

“Can we talk for a second?” I asked.

“Of course,” Mila nodded, giving me a smile.

I walked in, and Mila closed the door behind me. I saw a couple of papers with Devon’s handwriting on them, and I realized she had been going through the information he’d given her about different towns around the US. She was trying to figure out where to move to, and I felt my mood decline even further.

I made a decision at that moment. I resolve never to let her see how badly this was affecting me. If this was what she wanted, then who was I to stand in her way? I wiped my expression clean and gestured towards the papers.

“Going somewhere?” I asked.

“Well… yes,” Mila nodded. “I suppose I am soon. I can’t stay here forever.”

She was looking at me intently, and I managed to give her a small smile. “No, I suppose not. That was never the plan anyway.”

Mila nodded, and that sent a dagger straight through my chest. “Exactly,” she said sadly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Mila

 

The conversation I’d had with the cops had helped somewhat. I suppose in some strange way, it was closure. I knew that Walter Black or Ghost or whoever he was, was really and truly gone. I remembered the moment I’d smashed into him. His body had felt like a boulder in my path, and even though I’d seen him collapse, even though I believed he had died, I hadn’t hung around long enough to find out.

With the car stalled and broken, I got out and ran in the opposite direction, praying that he was dead or at the very least unable to run after me. The cops had assured me that he was, in fact, dead and that there were no charges placed on me because of the fact that I had been acting in self-defense. It was really the best-case scenario considering the circumstances, and I was relieved.

But now that that particular hurdle was done with, my mind was free to think about the next decision I had to make. I couldn’t stay in the house anymore with the boys. Zack had offered me protection until Walter Black was dealt with. He hadn’t allowed me permanent residence though, nor did I expect it. This wasn’t my life… and the incident with Walter Black had made me realize that it never would be.

Zack had always been really honest about who he was and what he wanted. And now I knew I had to be honest with myself. Zack had been clear from the beginning: he was not a one-woman kind of guy. He was not big on long-term commitments. But the truth was that I was, and attempting to continue a relationship with him could only end in heartbreak… at least in my case.

I was self-aware enough to admit that I loved him. He was the first man I had ever felt so strongly about, but I knew that I couldn’t stay in this town anymore. It was too close to him. I would drive myself crazy. So my only real option was to leave. To start someplace new and hopefully with time I would learn to live without Zack.

It felt a daunting task, but it was my only option. I was thinking about that when Devon walked into the kitchen.

“Hi,” he said brightly. “You’re finally out of your room.”

“I just came to grab something to eat,” I said.

“At least your appetite is coming back.”

“Slowly,” I nodded.

“I know this is probably an annoying question, but how are you?”

I smiled. “I’m good… most of the time. I suppose I’m just preoccupied.”

“About… Walter?”

“No,” I said. “About my future… I’m thinking of leaving soon.”

“I can find you a small apartment close by,” Devon suggested.

“No,” I said. “I appreciate that but… I’m actually thinking about leaving town.”

“Oh,” Devon said, and I could tell he hadn’t expected that. “Really?”

“I think I need a fresh start,” I nodded. “Away from…all this.”

“Away from this lifestyle, you mean?” Devon asked.

“I don’t judge you, Devon,” I said. “Honestly, actually a part of me understands why you’ve chosen this life. There is a brotherhood here that’s hard to deny. But that’s exactly my point. It’s a brotherhood, and there’s no room for me here.”

“I’ll do some research for you,” Devon told me. “I’m sure there are tons of nice little towns you can settle in.”

“A town like this would be nice,” I said.

Devon gave me a wink and left. I put together a small plate of food and headed upstairs to my room. About an hour later, Devon appeared at my door with some information for me.

“Here you go,” he said, handing me the paper. “This might help you make your decision.”

I smiled and took the paper from him. “Thanks, Devon,” I said. “You know… I wish we had grown up together.”

He seemed unexpectedly touched by my words, and he lowered his eyes for a moment. “Me too,” he said quietly, before turning and walking down the stairs.

I turned on some music, settled on the bed, and started reading through the information that Devon had put together for me. Seeing my options there on paper made it all the more real, and I felt nervous and scared. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes the best things could come out of fear. I had never expected to be able to defend myself, but now I had confidence and strength. And those skills had helped save my life.

I was still trying to make a decision when I heard a knock on my door. I went to answer it and found Zack standing there with an unreadable expression on his face. His hazel eyes were obviously hooded, and his body language was slightly tense.

“Can we talk for a second?” he asked.

“Of course,” I nodded.

He walked into the room, and we sat down together on the edge of my bed. His eyes fell to the papers that Devon had given me only an hour ago, but I saw no emotion on his face.

“Going somewhere?” he asked.

“Well… yes,” I replied. “I suppose I am soon. I can’t stay here forever.”

One corner of his mouth went up in a tiny smile that might have been interpreted as sad. “No, I suppose not. That was never the plan anyway.”

“Exactly.”

“Any place in mind?” Zack asked.

“There are two places in Devon’s list that seem like they’ll be a good fit for me,” I said. “I haven’t decided yet.”

“You know there’s no real threat to you anymore,” Zack said, almost as an afterthought. “You don’t have to leave.”

“It would be hard for me to stay,” I admitted. “After…all this.”

I was being intentionally evasive, but Zack didn’t press me further. He nodded and got to his feet. I don’t know why, but I felt my throat constrict with panic, and I reached out and grabbed his hand. He turned and looked at me with raised eyebrows.

“Did I thank you?” I asked, trying to buy more time with him.

I was keenly aware that these were our last few days together, and suddenly I was selfish and greedy for his time.

“You did,” Zack nodded. “Even though it was unnecessary.”

“No, it wasn’t,” I said. “You’re the reason I won’t be looking over my shoulder anymore… you’ve given me peace of mind. That’s a pretty big gift, and you were a great teacher.”

“Was I?” Zack asked. “I thought you felt like I was too tough on you.”

“I did,” I admitted. “At first… but if you hadn’t been that tough on me, I wouldn’t have learned as fast as I did, and I would never have been able to get away from Walter.”

“You would have found a way,” Zack said.

I stood up and took a step towards him so that we were only inches apart. I wanted to tell him so much at that moment. I wanted to tell him that I loved him. I wanted to tell him that I would miss him more than words could express. I wanted to tell him that the thought of leaving him was more painful than anything Walter Black had done to me that day in Gordon’s Run.

But I knew that kind of sentiment would just make him awkward and uncomfortable. Just because I loved him didn’t mean he returned the feeling, and expressing how I felt would just create tension between us, and I didn’t want my last few days with him to be ruined that way.

So instead of telling him what I was really feeling, I swallowed the words and put my hand on his chest. I could feel the thud of his heart against his ribcage, and that told me that, at least for now, he was affected by my presence.

I leaned in and kissed him softly on the cheek. He didn’t return my kiss immediately, but a second later, I felt him give a little. Then his hands came around me, and I felt my body relax into his. We undressed each other slowly, taking our time, kissing passionately as we did so. His lips were soft and tender against my skin, and his hands were earnest as they ran up and down my body.

I pulled off my pants, and then I unzipped his. He undid my bra and threw it to the floor, and then his hands cupped my breasts and massaged them slowly, with the lightest of pressures. As his fingers encircled my nipples, I placed my hand on his erect cock and moved my hand back and forth.

We fell back onto my bed, and I was on top. So I scaled down and slipped his cock into my mouth. I sucked his penis hard, taking him as far in as I could handle without gagging. I felt his body shudder under my tongue, and I felt myself moisten uncomfortably. I felt my whole body tingle with anticipation, but it was anticipation that I was happy to postpone, because what came before was equally wonderful.

After a few minutes, Zack placed his hand on the back of my head and guided me up gently. Then he grabbed me by the waist and flipped me over so that now he was the one who was on top. Then he slipped down my body, kissing my neck, my breasts, and my stomach. He stopped between my legs and pushed them apart. His tongue against my wet pussy felt indescribably amazing, and within minutes, I could feel my orgasm coming fast and hard.

The moment my body stilled in the aftermath of my first orgasm, Zack pulled himself up once more and entered me gently. We fucked passionately… and as beautiful as it was, I felt so very sad that I thought I was going to start crying right then and there. I wanted to tell him, but I just couldn’t bring myself to admit that I’d fallen in love with him. He had told me from the beginning that that was not who he was; it would be naïve now to think I could just tell him how I felt and expect the answer I wanted from him.

As we came to climax together, I wrapped my arms around his body, and I felt my body shudder with relief as the orgasm rocked us both. I felt a single tear slip from my eye, but I managed to wipe it away against the sheets before Zack could notice.

Lying there in his arms, I stared up at the ceiling, and I realized how significant this moment was. We were two mismatched people who had come together unexpectedly and found solace and strength in one another’s company. And perhaps because we were so mismatched, it was hard to communicate sometimes. It was hard to be vulnerable, so when the time came, I knew we wouldn’t be able to say goodbye to one another.

But perhaps we had already done just that… the only way we knew how. We had expressed the significance of our relationship wordlessly, just now, with our bodies and our entwined limbs. It was the only way I knew to say goodbye.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Zack

 

“Where’s Mila?” I asked as I stepped into the house.

Devon and a few of the other guys were playing darts in the living room, and he looked up when he saw me. “Uh… I think she said she was going for a walk.”

I glanced at the staircase, and I noticed a bag there that I had seen in Mila’s room before. I knew I shouldn’t have asked, but I couldn’t help myself.

“Whose bag is that?” I asked.

“Mila’s,” Devon replied, turning his attention back to the dart game.

I wondered if he was being purposefully evasive, or if he was really just that involved in the dart game. I decided to leave it at that.

“Do you know where?” I asked instead.

“Where what?” Red asked.

I sighed in frustration. “Do you know where Mila went for her walk?”

“Just up the hill, I think,” Red replied.

I turned and headed in the direction of my childhood home. I was pretty sure that was where she was headed. It was nice and lonely; the boys didn’t often go down there out of respect for my parents’ memories, and it was a special spot for the both of us. We had formed a stronger connection while we had walked through the empty rooms of that house.

As I came up along the slightly slanting hill, I saw Mila at the top, staring down at the house. Again, I had the feeling that she was some ethereal being that didn’t really belong to this world, much less my world. She was wearing a subtle yellow dress with a flowing skirt that blew softly in the wind. It created a beautiful contrast against the brightness of her auburn hair that held bright streaks of red where the sunlight fell.

Her back was to me, so I couldn’t see her face, but I imagined she looked sad. That was how she had looked the last week after she had made her decision to move to Maine. She and Devon had planned everything between them, and they were planning on heading out early tomorrow morning. Devon would stay with Mila for a few weeks till she got settled in, and then he would head back.

Mila and I had spent the last week spending as much time together as possible. We had fucked often and passionately, and we had spent hours talking late into the night, but never about her impending departure. It was always about something unrelated, something safe and removed from the act of leaving.

Several times during the week, I had come close to telling her to just scrap her plans and stay here with me. It was completely out of character and strange for me to even think that I’d come to this point in my life, but I could no longer deny the fact that Mila had changed me. I was no longer the hardened man I used to be. I was no longer jaded and cynical and uninterested in long-term relationships. Suddenly, I wanted so much more than the life I was living.

That alone was hard for me to believe. I had never imagined I would ever reach a point when I was unhappy with my life. I had always thought of myself as lucky… to be free and independent and removed from the restraints and judgments of society. But now I realized that there were parts that were worth the fight, and it took Mila’s entrance into my life to make me see it.

Mila was so wrapped up in thought that she didn’t hear me coming until I came to stand beside her. She gave a start of surprise, then when she realized who it was, she smiled.

“I didn’t hear you coming.”

“You were busy thinking.”

“True,” Mila nodded. “Lots to think about.”

“Really?” I asked. “I thought everything was sorted out for you. You have your fresh start.”

“Right,” Mila nodded, but she seemed uncertain.

“Is something wrong?” I asked.

“No,” Mila replied, a little too quickly. “No… nothing’s wrong.”

“You’ve been a little… different all week,” I pointed out.

“Have I?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I could say the same thing about you.”

“Have I been different?” I asked, realizing she had turned the tables on me.

“I think so,” Mila nodded. “Almost like you wanted to tell me something all week that you’ve been holding back.”

It was on the tip of my tongue. I was about to tell her the truth and say, “I love you, Mila, just stay here with me. And if you don’t want to stay here with me… I’ll follow you wherever you want to go.”

The words didn’t sound so crazy in my head, and I contemplated saying them out loud for a moment. But then my courage stalled, and I turned my gaze away from her blue eyes. “No… I haven’t been holding anything back.”

“Oh,” Mila nodded, and she sounded disappointed. “Ok.”

I looked at her carefully, wondering if there was something important I was missing. “Mila?”

“Yes?”

“You’re sure this is what you want?” I asked. “I mean… the move and everything?”

“Oh… yes,” she nodded. “I think I need some distance from everything I’ve been through here.”

I nodded. “Right.”

She took a deep breath and turned to me. “I’ve decided to leave today, Zack,” she revealed, much to my dismay.

“What?” I asked. “You were supposed to leave tomorrow morning.”

“I know,” Mila nodded. “But I woke up today with the weirdest feeling in my gut. I knew I would have to leave tomorrow and… well, anyway, there’s nothing keeping me from leaving today.”

“But—”

“I don’t really want to do a whole big goodbye,” Mila interrupted me. “I kind of just want to leave without a whole big thing.”

“There’s no big thing.”

Mila smiled. “I just came up here to take a moment for myself before going.”

“Were you even going to tell me?”

“Of course I was,” Mila sounded stunned that I would even ask her that. “Of course I was going to tell you before I left. I just didn’t want it to be a big scene.”

“Why would it be?” I asked, without thinking.

She raised her eyebrows for a moment and nodded. “You’re right,” she said. “Why would it be?”

“I’ll be seeing you, Zack,” she said. Then she leaned in abruptly and kissed me gently on the cheek before she started off down the hill towards the house.

I watched her go, knowing that she didn’t want me to follow her. It was the hardest thing I ever had to do… I just watched her walk away from me knowing that I might never see her again. It was odd how the world felt shaky underneath my feet all of a sudden. I watched from a distance as Devon came out of the house, followed by the rest of the guys.

I saw Mila give each one a hug. I saw Devon load up the trunk of the car. I saw Mila wave to the boys before getting into the passenger’s seat. She rolled down the window and smiled at the boys. At the last minute, her head turned in my direction, and her eyes found me. I couldn’t see her expression very clearly, and I didn’t really want to. I turned my back on the moving car, but my ears followed the sound until it had vanished into the distance.

Then, I turned back towards the house and just like that… she was gone, and my life had gone back to normal. Except nothing about it felt normal. I certainly didn’t feel normal. In fact, I felt sick to my stomach. For a second, I actually felt the need to throw up. Pushing down the urge, I went down to the house and walked into the living room. The boys were all lounging around, doing different things, but everyone looked up at me at the same moment.

“What?” I demanded, hating the scrutiny.

“Mila just left with Devon,” Red said.

“I know,” I nodded. “She told me she was leaving early.”

“Did she say goodbye to you?” Lonny asked.

“Yes,” I said shortly, trying to get up to my room so that I wouldn’t have to deal with their stares.

Bones was leaning against the stairwell, blocking my path.

“Excuse me?” I said. “Would you mind letting me through?”

Bones ignored me. Instead, he shook his head at me in disbelief.

“What?” I demanded angrily.

“You may be our president,” Bones said. “But you’re a fucking idiot.”

I frowned. “What—”

“I can’t believe you let her go,” Bones said before I could finish.

“I…”

I opened my mouth and then closed it again. As I looked around at the rest of the boys, I realized they were all thinking the same thing. I knew that everyone was aware of my strange relationship with Mila, but I had never suspected they realized just how deep it went. It was odd to be standing there, faced with all my men—my brothers—and to know that I hadn’t fooled anyone one bit. I had tried to hide my feelings from Mila and even from myself, but they had seen right through me.

“She wants to go,” I said, by way of a defense.

“Bullshit,” Bones said. “She was looking for a reason to stay. You refused to give her one.”

“She wouldn’t be happy with this life.”

Bones shrugged. “Then the answer is pretty simple, isn’t it?” he said. “Give her the life she will be happy with. That’s the only way you’re going to be happy.”

I stared at Bones for a second, and then everything came together in my head. All my pride fell away, and I realized that he was completely right. I was just being a stubborn fool who was clinging onto to the life I had prepared for. But life had thrown me a curve ball, and now everything had changed. I was no longer going to be happy with my life the way it was before Mila.

Without giving anyone an explanation, I turned around, ran outside, jumped on my bike and sped away from the house. If I rode fast, I would be able to catch up with them. It would only take a couple of minutes. I knew the route that Devon was taking, and I was confident that I’d catch them before they reached the highway.

The whole time, I wondered what Mila would say. Would she be happy or shocked? Would she jump into my arms or would she turn me down with a kiss and a goodbye? I didn’t know, and at the moment, I didn’t care. I just needed to stop them from leaving town. A couple of minutes later, I caught sight of the car down the lonely stretch of road that would take them towards the main roads.

I sped up and caught up with them. Devon saw me first, and his eyes bulged with shock, but he pulled over immediately and jumped out of the car.

“What the fuck man?” he asked. “What happened? Is something wrong?”

A second later, Mila jumped out of the car too, and she looked panicked. “Zack,” she said breathlessly. “Is everything alright?”

I spoke only to her. “No, actually it’s not.”

She ran to me. “What is it?”

“I just realized something,” I said. “And I had to come and tell you.”

Mila raised her eyebrows, but she didn’t press me for details.

“I just realized that I can’t let you leave town.”

She looked even more surprised by that. “Why not?”

“Because… I don’t think I can live without you.”

I wasn’t trying to be romantic. I was very aware that this was like a scene pulled straight out of a movie, but I didn’t care. This was our reality, and there was something magical about it.

Mila stared at me for a moment. and then her face broke into a brilliant and beautiful smile. “You’re serious?”

“More serious than I’ve ever been about anything else in my life,” I said. “I love you, Mila.”

She smiled and breathed a sigh of relief. “I love you too, Zack.”

I was vaguely aware of Devon, standing in the background watching us, but I didn’t care. He would have to get used to this. I grabbed Mila and kissed her hard on the lips. She returned my passion with equal fervor. When we finally broke apart, we both laughed together.

“So… Will you stay with me?” I asked.

Mila nodded. “What do you think?”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Epilogue

Mila

 

Five Years Later

 

I was washing dishes in the sink, looking out onto the gently sloping hill that preceded the clubhouse. It was a beautiful view, and five years in, I still couldn’t get enough of it. The house was no longer a ruin of lost opportunity. It was now bright and vibrant and full of life.

We had spent the better part of six months renovating it so that it was livable once more. It had been a labor of love, and Zack and I had been very involved in all the new changes. I had actually painted the kitchen walls myself, and Zack had laid the tile. It had been another bonding experience that had brought us closer, and in fact, I actually felt that it had helped Zack find a new relationship with his parents, even after their deaths.

Everywhere I looked, there was a new memory that rushed to mind, and I realized how lucky I was to have that at all. My life had gone from ordinary to nightmarish to extraordinary in a matter of months, and I had Zack to thank for that.

“Mommy!”

I turned to the little girl at the kitchen door. She had my auburn hair and Zack’s hazel eyes. It was a perfect combination because she was beautiful, and I didn’t feel like I was biased in saying that. I remembered the day I had found out I was pregnant with her. Zack and I had been together officially for almost a year, and we had settled into the newly renovated house only months before.

We had just established a rhythm that suited us both, and I was intent on enjoying that part without planning for the future. Of course, my desire to avoid planning was completely obliterated the moment I saw that pregnancy test. My first instinct had been joy, and my second instinct had been panic. What would Zack say?

As it turned out, I didn’t have to worry at all. Zack was nothing but a pillar of strength for me. He was at every doctor’s appointment. He read every book I bought on pregnancy and childbirth, and he insisted on being as involved as possible with everything to do with the baby. It was just another experienced that proved that as unlikely as our connection had been, it worked.

“Yes, darling?” I said, turning to her.

“I’m hungry.”

“That’s because you didn’t finish all your veggies during lunch,” I told her.

“I hate veggies.”

“Hate is a strong word.”

“I don’t like veggies,” she corrected.

“Sit down,” I said. “I’ll get you a snack.”

“Can I have Cocoa Pops?”

“No,” I said firmly.

“Daddy eats them for breakfast,” she pointed out.

“Alice,” I sighed.

“But he does,” she said.

She and her father were best friends. They had been since the moment Alice was born. Sometimes, I was almost jealous of their bond. Even as a baby, Zack would pick her up, and she would stop crying immediately, even though I had been trying to calm her down for hours. When she was sick, she ran to Zack first. When she had a story to tell, she waited till her father got home before she shared a word with me.

If I hadn’t been so in love with Zack myself, I might have felt a little insecure. But as it stood, I recognized what an amazing and patient father he was, and I was nothing but glad that Alice had someone like him in her life. I thought about my own lonely childhood, and I felt such relief to know that my child would escape that kind of isolation. She would never have to grow up craving the love and attention of a father figure. She would grow up surrounded by people who loved her… her parents, her uncle, and all her surrogate uncles who lived over the hill in the big house.

It was an odd setup, but to Alice, it was nothing but normal. She was even proud of the fact that her father was president of a biker gang, as she called it.

“Here’s some carrot sticks,” I said, placing a plate in front of her.

“Urgh… I don’t want that,” Alice said, turning up her nose at the snack I’d just given her.

“Alice, it’s good for you.”

“I want cookies.”

“Well you can’t have cookies,” I said. “You had two cookies yesterday.”

“That was yesterday.”

Sometimes I had to remind myself that she was only three… well, three and three quarters. She would be four in a matter of months, and I could hardly believe it. I was about to argue further with my almost-four-year-old when we heard the sound of a motorbike riding up to the house.

“Daddy’s home!” Alice all but screamed, as she jumped off her chair and ran to the front door.

Shaking my head, I followed behind her and saw Zack get off his Harley and turn to Alice just as she jumped into his arms. He spun her around and then placed her gently on the ground before kissing her forehead. They put their heads together… and whispered their little secrets to one another. I watched from afar, not wanting to intrude.

Then Zack took Alice’s hand, and they walked towards the house together. “Hey, you,” I said, leaning in to kiss him as he walked through the door.

“Hey, beautiful,” he replied.

“Daddy,” Alice interrupted. “I want a cookie… I’m hungry.”

Zack turned to me. “Did she eat all her veggies?”

“She did not,” I said, and Alice hung her head down.

“I don’t like veggies,” she said in a small voice.

“Alice… we’ve talked about this,” Zack said. “Will you be a good girl and just eat whatever snack your Mom has given you, please?”

“Ok,” Alice nodded without so much as a pout.

Zack gave her a wink, and Alice flew off to the kitchen to do as her father said. I turned to him and shook my head in amazement. “That’s really annoying, you know.”

Zack laughed. “At least something works.”

“Because she loves you more than me.”

“Not true,” Zack assured me as he pulled me to his chest and hugged me close. “She’s just a daddy’s girl.”

“I feel left out,” I said, pretending to pout.

Zack kissed the top of my head. “Isn’t the whole point of family that no one is left out?”

I rolled my eyes. “I have a plan though,” I revealed.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yup,” I nodded. “I’ll just have another baby… that way I’ll have some company while you and Alice are off playing your secret games.”

Zack laughed and shook his head at me. He didn’t suspect a thing obviously, but I was having fun. “That’s the plan, huh?” he asked. “You’re just going to have another baby.”

“I think it’s a great plan, don’t you?”

Zack looked thoughtful. “Are we having a serious conversation about the possibility of a second child?” he asked.

I paused. “I don’t really think we can have a conversation about it at this point,” I said, ironing out my expression into seriousness. “The decision’s been taken out of our hands.”

I saw Zack’s forehead wrinkle as he tried to figure out what I had just said. Then I saw realization dawn. “Wait… are you pregnant?” he asked.

I bit my lip and smiled. “Sort of.”

“Sort of?” Zack repeated incredulously.

I laughed. “I went to the doctor’s this morning,” I revealed. “I left Alice with Devon and went in to see Doctor Samson. He confirmed what I already suspected… I’m pregnant.”

Zack stared at me for a moment and then he shook his head in disbelief. “We seem to be good at making babies without really planning to.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I wondered out loud.

“No,” Zack assured me, pulling me close. “Not with you.”

“Alice is going to be four soon,” I said. “I miss having a baby on my hip.”

“You know what?” Zack said. “Me too.”

“Does Devon know?” Zack asked.

“That he’s going to be an uncle again?” I laughed. “No… I wanted to tell you first.”

“He bet me the second one would be a boy,” Zack told me.

I laughed. “When was this bet made?” I asked.

“Right after Alice was born,” Zack revealed. “I took the bet.”

“Another girl?” I asked, with raised eyebrows. “I thought you would have liked to have a boy.”

“I thought so too,” Zack nodded. “But after Alice… I don’t know… girls are pretty awesome.”

I smiled. “True.”

“Guess this means our sparring sessions will have to be put on hold until after the baby’s born,” Zack said.

“Yes,” I nodded. “I won’t be able to fight you anymore. You’ll have to make do with the boys.”

“Urgh,” Zack complained. “How boring that will be.”

I kissed him softly on the lips. After years together, he still managed to get me all hot and bothered with nothing more than a kiss. Zack’s hand slipped up my shirt, and I pushed his hand away playfully.

“Hey.”

“I should have known you were pregnant,” Zack teased. “Your boobs have gotten bigger.”

I smirked at him. “Alice is in the next room.”

“Which is why I’m trying to feel you up.”

His hand slipped up my shirt again when Alice called out to us. “Daddy! Mommy!”

Zack cupped my breast for a second longer, then he kissed me hard on the lips and pulled me into the kitchen behind him. “Yes, my little lady?”

“I finished my carrot sticks.”

“Carrot sticks?” Zack said. “Eww.”

I hit him on the arm. “Don’t make it worse.”

Zack laughed and pulled Alice onto his lap. “What did you do today?” he asked.

“I played on Uncle Dev’s bike,” Alice replied. “He let me ride it.”

“Did he now?” I asked.

“Uh-huh,” Alice said, and she sounded pride of herself. “He sat behind, and I took him for a ride. Daddy… can we go for a ride on your bike?”

“Sure,” Zack nodded. “Just around the house though.”

“Yay!”

“First, you have to put away your toys though,” I said firmly.

“Aww…”

“Listen to your mother,” Zack said, and as usual, he didn’t have to ask twice. Alice scurried off to do as Zack had told her, and we were left alone once more.

“I’m going to be hard-pressed to keep her away from motorbikes,” I sighed.

“Don’t worry; I’ll teach her how to ride one safely.”

“Not before she’s sixteen though, please,” I said.

“Ah… that might be difficult,” Zack said. “She’s surrounded by them here.”

I sighed. “I know… I may be fighting a losing battle there.”

Zack reached out and placed his hand on mine. “You know what might be a nice thing to do?”

“What?” I asked.

“Get married.”

I hadn’t been expecting that, and I looked at him in shock. “What?”

Zack smiled. “Alice has already started asking questions; we’re going to have another baby… we’re committed to one another… it might be a nice thing to do.”

“Get married?”

“Yes.”

“But… I thought that wasn’t something you were interested in?”

“People can change their minds, right?”

I smiled. “They can… I just never expected you to.”

“It might be nice to do for the kids,” Zack said. “It might mean something to us too.”

I smiled. “Five years, a house and two kids later, you’re finally asking me to marry you,” I said, shaking my head at him.

“Is it too late?”

“For you?” I replied. “Never.”

That’s the end of the Biker’s Virgin. Below I included 4 of my previous books to read as a free bonus.

 

YOUR FREE BONUS BOOKS

 

FIREFIGHTER’S VIRGIN

By Claire Adams

 

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.

 

Copyright © 2018 Claire Adams

 

 

Chapter One

Phil

 

I woke up a little groggy and looked around my apartment. I sat up with a start when I realized I wasn’t even in my bedroom. It appeared I had just passed out on my couch…again. Groaning, I raised myself to a sitting position, realizing that I had slept on my arm funny and it would probably irritate me for the rest of the day.

I looked at the clock on my kitchen wall. It was six in the evening. My shift had finished at noon, and I had hightailed it home to get some rest after my exhausting night. The plan had been to wolf down the leftover macaroni in the fridge, have a quick shower, and then sleep away the last shift. But as usual, the best-laid plans fell to the wayside in light of my severe exhaustion. My body was still tired, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to go back to sleep now.

I tried to stretch away the knots in my back as I walked to the kitchen to finish off the leftover macaroni. My stomach growled with hunger, and I ended up just eating straight from the serving bowl without even heating it up first. While I was eating, I realized that I had messages on my answering machine. I pressed the little button on the side after putting a huge spoonful of macaroni into my mouth.

“Hi Phil, it’s Kendrick. Sarge changed the roster for tomorrow morning. Our next shift starts two hours early, okay? You’ll need to report at four a.m. See you tomorrow.”

The machine beeped, and the next message began to play.

“Yo, dude,” Brent’s voice sounded slurred, almost as though he had been drinking. “What’s happening? I tried calling your cell, but you weren’t picking up. I figured you were out there saving fires and putting out lives.”

I heard him guffaw with laughter at his own slip. “Ha…did you hear that? I said… I said…saving fires…and putting…putting out lives. That’s fucking hilarious. Anyway, come over tonight, kay? We’ll just hang out. And bring my jacket; I left it behind the last time I was over. I have beer at my place, so we’re sorted. Maybe if you’re up for it, we can go out and do something. Okay…see you soon. Don’t forget my jacket.”

I shook my head and then looked around the apartment for Brent’s jacket. It was lying behind the couch, having obviously fallen. I picked it up and put it by the door so that I would remember to take it when I left.

Since I was up, I figured a visit to Brent’s place wouldn’t hurt. The guy was crazy, but no one could accuse him of being boring. I didn’t really hang out with him as much as I used to. Since becoming a firefighter, my social life had been forced into the backseat. Most of my other friends understood, but Brent had never been the understanding type.

I finished the macaroni, had a quick shower, and headed off to Brent’s. I was halfway there when a police siren started flashing behind me. I groaned as I pulled over, wondering what I had done. I rolled down my window and waited for the police officer to appear at my window.

“Phil?” The voice was familiar.

I looked up. “Officer Manolo,” I said, recognizing his face from work. “How are you?”

“Oh, you know, not too bad.”

“I didn’t realize this was your area.”

“Has been for a year now,” Manolo replied. “They keep shifting us around.”

“Right.” I nodded.

“So, do you know why I pulled you over?”

“You wanted to say hi?” I asked.

“You have a broken taillight.”

“Fuck,” I groaned. “The right one?”

“That’s the one.”

“Fuck,” I said again. “Sorry, I’ve been meaning to get it fixed. It’s just… Things have been so busy at the station.”

“Hey, I understand—personal business takes a back seat,” Manolo replied.

“Exactly.”

“License and registration, please?”

Cursing inwardly, I opened the glove compartment on the passenger’s side where I kept my documents and pulled them out. My hand knocked over Brent’s jacket, and something fell out of the breast pocket. The package was concealed in brown paper, but I could make out something suspiciously green from a tear in the paper. Feeling nauseous suddenly, I prayed that Manolo hadn’t noticed.

The moment he disappeared from my window to walk back to his car with my information, I grabbed the package and stuck it back into Brent’s coat. A few seconds later, Manolo appeared again at my window and passed me my documents.

“There you go,” he said. “Listen, I don’t want to have to give you a ticket. You do a great service to our community, and it seems to me community could cut you a break here.”

I smiled. “You’re not going to write me a ticket?”

“I’ll let you off this one time,” Manolo said. “But you’re going to need to get that light fixed—as soon as possible.”

“It’s done,” I said.

“Good to see you, Phil.”

“Great to see you, Manolo,” I said, as I waved him off. “And thanks for doing me this solid.”

“Take care of yourself, Phil. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.”

“Yep.”

The moment Manolo’s car had driven away, I scrambled for Brent’s coat and pulled out the package that had fallen out earlier. It felt light in my hand and instinct was telling me what I had. I pulled the package out of the brown paper and stared at the bag of pot.

“That fucking idiot,” I hissed under my breath.

If Manolo had caught this on me, I was pretty certain he wouldn’t have turned a blind eye. My whole sordid past came up in front of me, and I saw the work it had taken to distance myself from that kind of life. I knew that Brent wasn’t necessarily on the same path that I was, but I assumed he had at least a little common sense. He hadn’t even told me that he had pot in his jacket.

I hid the pot and started driving again. The whole way there, I kept thinking back to my childhood. I remembered staring down towards the living room from the staircase after dad had stumbled in from a night out with his friends. I saw her silhouette in the far corner of my memory, but she had long dissolved into shadows that no longer had any real shape or features.

Sometimes when I concentrated really hard, I could recall Paul sitting next to me on the staircase. But more often than not, I was the only one watching, a confused five-year-old boy who didn’t understand why everyone in his life was so unhappy.

I pulled up outside Brent’s apartment and headed inside, making sure to take his coat with me. As I walked down the hallway to his apartment, I transferred the bag of pot from his jacket pocket to mine. I knocked twice when I reached his door.

“Come in!” Brent yelled from inside. “It’s open.”

I walked inside where he was lying on his couch with both his legs kicked up on the table in front of him. He had a beer in hand and no shirt on.

“You brought my coat?” he asked immediately.

“It’s right here,” I said, throwing it over to him. “Excuse me for a second. Need to pee.”

I disappeared into his bathroom and got out the bag of pot, which I proceeded to throw down the toilet. I was just about to flush when I heard Brent outside the bathroom door.

“Hey, Phil?” he called.

“Yeah?”

“Uh…did you…was there…something in my jacket that you maybe left behind?”

I rolled my eyes and flushed. Then I walked back outside and fixed him with a glare. “You mean the bag of pot in your front pocket?”

“Fuck,” he said, smiling at me with a half-assed expression of guilt on his face. “Found it, did you?”

“Yeah, I found it,” I said, unable to keep the irritation from my voice. “I found it at the perfect time, too…just when I had been pulled over by a cop.”

“Fuck!” Brent said, his eyes going wide. “They took my pot?”

“Is that all you’re concerned about?” I asked. “Seriously?”

“What do you mean?” he asked, sounding clueless.

“I could have been arrested, you realize,” I said. “I’m a fucking firefighter. I could be fired if I’m brought up on charges of drug possession.”

“It was just pot,” Brent said flippantly.

“Still a drug, numbskull,” I said, pushing him out of my way as I headed over to the couch. “And still illegal. I can’t believe you’re still using.”

“It’s purely recreational, to relax from time to time,” he said, as though that made a world of difference. “I don’t do anything hardcore.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing that Brent was a good liar when he wanted to be. “Then why was there so much of it?”

Brent smiled sheepishly. “I need to relax a lot.”

“That’s exactly what I mean,” I said. “It’s a slippery slope.”

“Ugh,” he moaned. “You’ve become so preachy lately.”

“Because I’m trying to make something of my life,” I snapped. “And it doesn’t help when my friend leaves drugs lying around my apartment. You could have at least told me.”

“You wouldn’t have brought my jacket back then.”

“Didn’t I just bring your jacket back?”

“Without the drugs,” he said, fixing me with an accusing glare.

“Oh…oops.”

“Fuck you, man,” he said. “Where’s my pot?”

“Must have misplaced it.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “You flushed it, didn’t you?”

“You’re smart for a drug-addled idiot.”

Brent groaned and threw his hands in the air. “That was high-quality pot,” he complained. “The best there is.”

“I wish I could muster up the strength to care,” I said, collapsing onto his sofa.

“Geez…it was something fun we could have done together,” he said, sitting down next to me and reaching for his beer.

“You expect me to light up with you?” I asked.

“Why not?”

“What part of ‘new start’ do you not understand?”

Brent rolled his eyes. “It’s not like you were a drug addict or anything.”

“You don’t have to be,” I said. “Doing drugs leads to bad decision making, and I’m not about to waste away my life. I want to do something important. I want to be someone important.”

“You’re such a choir boy,” he said sarcastically.

I turned to him without humor in my eyes. “You wanna fuck up your life, go ahead. But don’t involve me, okay? And don’t you ever bring drugs to my apartment again.”

He sighed. “Fine.” He nodded. “We’re even.”

“Excuse me?” I asked incredulously. “How are we even?”

“I used you as a drug mule, and you flushed down my pot,” Brent said, with a shrug. “Even.”

I almost laughed. “Fucking idiot.”

He laughed and punched me lightly on the arm. “We’re cool.”

I pushed down my annoyance and nodded. “We’re cool.”

“Good,” he said, clapping his hands together. “How about a beer? You still drink, don’t you?”

I smirked. “I still drink.”

As he was getting me a beer from the fridge, I noticed a small suitcase in the corner next to the couch. I realized that there was also a woman’s coat by the door and a couple of books on the table that definitely didn’t belong to Brent.

“Have you shacked up with a girl?” I asked. “I thought you and Carly broke up?”

“Fuck yeah, that break up is definitely sticking. She was fucking crazy,” Brent said.

I looked through the pile of books on the table, and then I held up one with a title that read Business in the Modern World.

“Then who does this belong to?” I asked. “Because you’re definitely not smart enough to be reading something like this.”

“Hey, I’m not going to pretend like I am smart enough for shit like that,” Brent said. “And even if I was, I’d be bored sick. Nah, it’s no one special…just Megan.”

“Megan?”

“My little sister,” Brent replied.

“Oh. I thought she lived in Virginia.”

“She was studying there,” he replied. “But she moved into town a couple of days ago and needed a place to crash.”

“Oh.” I nodded.

“What?”

I smiled. “Nothing…just somehow can’t imagine you with a younger sister.”

“I’m sure there’s an insulting reason why you think that,” he said. “So I don’t want to know.”

I burst out laughing. Brent might not have been the most responsible person I knew, but he was good for a few laughs. We didn’t exactly have a huge amount in common, either, but apart from the men I worked with at the station, he was the only friend I had.

And lately…I needed a friend.