Chapter Seven

Torch

“I don’t like this, Ky. Not one fucking bit.” The crazy woman wanted to go to a goddamn carnival. Filled with people, many of them strangers from out of town and most of the carnies were working under aliases. It was a fucking impossible task to track these people, run background checks with any kind of certainty. Never mind the thick crush of people, so dense I could barely see a few feet ahead of me despite my above average height.

Kyla’s arm had been wrapped around my waist since we entered the damn carnival grounds and now her plump tits pressed against my arm, my chest as she whispered in my ear. “If you were trying to kill me, wouldn’t this be a great place?”

“It’s goddamn perfect, that’s why I don’t like it. This is where I’d do it to make a clean getaway.” I didn’t want to scare her, but getting her out here so she could see for herself was the only way to show her how dangerous her situation was. “And don’t fucking talk about me trying to kill you.”

Big green eyes stared up at me all wounded and shit. This was why I didn’t get involved, not really. I’d spent too much time in the pits of hell, and I couldn’t do soft and gentle. Not in the way a woman like Kyla deserved. “I didn’t mean you, Torch.”

“If anything looks out of place to you, someone staring too long or frowning your way, say something.”

“See something, say something,” she muttered before erupting in a fit of giggle. “Sorry. I get a little goofy when I’m nervous.”

“Good. Being nervous means you’re not completely out of your fucking mind, babe.”

She only grinned in that lighthearted way she had of responding to what she called my grumpiness. “Let’s just enjoy being out and about, smelling cotton candy and funnel cakes. We can’t get on any carnival rides, but maybe you can win me a big ol’ teddy bear?” She pouted over the rides, but I had to draw the line and Darlington agreed.

“We’re sitting ducks on those rides, Ky, but I will buy you a funnel cake.”

“You just want to hear me moan,” she joked, licking her full lips and leaving them wet so all I could think about was that mouth wrapped around my cock. “I’ll let you tell me how a guy with your background ended up in CAOS.”

“Fine.” I hated talking about myself, and women seemed to be programmed to want to talk. All the fucking time. But we had nothing better to do, and she seemed genuinely interested. I told her all about my sordid background that included wealthy parents. “Mom was a blue blood from back east, and Dad was a slickster. And a real son of a bitch who preferred to use his fists instead of his words behind closed doors.”

“Sounds like an asshole. Sorry…” She smacked a hand over her mouth, eyes wide with shock.

“Don’t be. You’re right. He was a rotten bastard who got a kick out of knocking us around. Around sixteen I grew about six inches in one summer and started street fighting.”

“And fighting back.”

A small smile teased the edges of my mouth at her confidently spoken words. “Yeah, and fighting back. He stayed gone more and more after that, but eventually I joined the military because I knew if I kept street fighting I’d end up dead.”

She let out a sharp, bitter laugh. “And you thought serving in the military for a country always at war was safer?”

I shrugged because, honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought. “I knew if I got locked up for fighting I wouldn’t be there to protect my brother and sister. I spent a lot of time out of the country, but Dad knew it would only take one word about the abuse and his entire future would be ruined.” Some might call it blackmail, but I called it setting shit right.

“That explains why you’re so tough but regimented. What a fucker!”

I laughed because no one, not even my own family, had defended me or been so angry on my behalf. She was so full of venom I just wanted to pull her into my lap and hold her close. My little kitten could be fierce when she wanted to be. “Tell me about it.”

She frowned as she worked through some of the details. “Why didn’t he just disown you?”

“Because he’s a son of a bitch? I assumed he did until a lawyer contacted me to let me know I’d been named executor of his estate. If I didn’t take my trust fund, my brother and sister didn’t get theirs. He owed us at least that much.”

Kyla laid her hand on top of mine, caressed it, so full of sympathy I just wanted to find a dark corner and fuck her slow and hard. “Is it wrong to be happy he’s dead?”

“Hell no. I was happy too.” Hell, every time I touched my trust fund, which wasn’t often, I felt a thrill he wasn’t there. Sometimes I bought shit I knew he’d hate with the money just because I could. It meant I still had a lot of unresolved anger, but I was okay with it.

“If you have, you know—money—how come you’re in a biker gang?”

“Motorcycle club,” I corrected automatically. “I didn’t join to make money. I was at loose ends after the military, and I didn’t want to go back to fighting. Fuck, I was so disillusioned and angry I probably would’ve killed someone. But I still went to fights. That’s where I met Roddick and Magnus. They invited me to town for a few days to check out the clubhouse which was much smaller back then, and I dug it. Two years later I got my cut.”

She nodded, that soft sexy smile on her lips that said she was happy. “They’re your family now.”

It shocked me how someone so sheltered, so good, seemed to know me so well after just a few weeks. But she did. “Yep.” And I had a feeling I was already in too deep where the sheriff’s daughter was concerned.

“That’s cool. There’s a whole bunch of you, but it’s just me and Daddy.” She seemed sad, but the flicker in those green eyes told me there was something else on her mind now.

“What?” Instantly I was on alert, head on a swivel to see what had grabbed her attention.

“A guy has been leaning against that coil race game since we sat down. He’s not doing anything but staring.”

“Maybe he’s just checking you out, Ky. You are hot as shit.”

She grinned and shook her head. “I know when I’m being checked out and guys, even tough ones like you, have sex in their eyes. This guy looks dangerous and angry and…murder-y.”

“Murder-y?” The fucking woman was certifiable. “Let’s get up and start walking again, see if he follows. Don’t obviously look for him, just be on watch, yeah?” She nodded, and I clasped our hands together tightly like we were something I hadn’t been a part of in more than a decade. A couple.

Thank fuck we made it home without incident.

***

“Just give us the girl, asshole, and you might get to live.” I groaned at the fuckwad’s cheesy line that belonged in the 80’s and turned to face two guys whose combined weight couldn’t be more than my nutsack.

I pushed Kyla behind me, regretting now that we’d waited so long to leave. “Now, boys, you should really fucking consider your next move because this woman is mine, and I protect what’s mine. At all costs.” Though it was just a line, I knew it to be the goddamn truth because she wanted to go to the movies tonight so we’d gone. No arguments or compromises. And when she chose a shoot’em up movie, hell I about proposed to her then and there. We didn’t see much of the movie though because my little kitten wanted to make out in a dark corner of the theater.

“You hear this shit, dude? This fucker thinks he can take us both.” The greasy blond grinned at his blue-haired companion before pulling out a five-inch blade. “You feeling lucky today, old man?”

I grinned because I couldn’t wait to take this fucker down. “I feel lucky every motherfucking day, asshole, not that I need it to handle a couple of tweakers.” Blond asshole lunged at me with the knife raised above his head like a goddamn amateur. All it took was a bone crushing punch to his face to stop him.

He fell to his knees, blood rushing out like a waterfall. “You broke my fucking nose,” he cried like a little bitch.

I turned my attention to Blue Hair. “Left or right?”

“What the fuck are you talking about, dude?” He rolled his eyes like I was the one bothering them.

“Which hand do you beat off with, left or right?”

“None of your fucking business, dickhead. Just hand the bitch over, and we’re outta here.”

I shrugged and moved forward. “I guess your hearing is as fucked up as your arms.”

“My what? Fuck this shit.” Blue Hair came at me with a flying punch. I took a step to the side and smashed his face with a punch that stopped his forward momentum, and he fell to a heap at my feet. He got up and threw another punch which I easily dodged and grabbed his arm.

“Left or right asshole?”

“Fuck you,” he spat, squirming to get out of my grasp and not realizing how useless it was. I was bigger and stronger and faster. “Aaaah!” The fucker screamed like a girl when I twisted his arm until it snapped.

“Let’s try an easier question,” I challenged, arm still twisted behind him. “Who sent you, and don’t fucking say Stash or I’ll break your other arm just for shits and giggles.” Sirens sounded in the distance. Probably some good citizen had called on their way out of the parking lot.

“Dude, that’s all I fucking know! His name is Stash.”

“Wrong answer.” I pulled his arm just a little more, and he burst out in tears, sobbing like a fucking brokenhearted thirteen-year-old-girl. “How will you get paid?”

“Cold hard cash,” he whimpered.

“How will you let him know the job is done?”

His breaths came in short and fast, and I knew the asshole was close to hyperventilating. “Phone. Left back pocket.”

I dug inside the pocket and tossed the phone to a pissed off looking Kyla. “Anything else?”

“No. I swear, man. Shit!”

“Good.” I twisted his other arm until a pop sounded, drawing a satisfied breath at the sound of his pain.

“Motherfucker! You said you wouldn’t break it!”

“I didn’t. It’s just dislocated. You’re welcome.” I pushed him away and let him fall to the ground beside his friend as a patrol car came to a stop a few feet away. They dealt with the tweakers while I turned to Kyla, running my hands over her smooth bare shoulders.

“You okay?” she asked, cupping my jaw with a saucy grin.

“Most fun I had since my fingers were buried inside your tight little cunt.”

“Then I’ll be sure to top it. Later.”

“I’m holding you to that, sweetheart, because we’ll be giving statements for hours. Then I’m gonna get you on your knees and fuck that sexy pink mouth of yours.” My cock had already woken up at just the thought of being buried inside that wet, eager mouth. Shit, I’d never had such an enthusiastic blowjob in all my life. The harder I fucked her mouth, the wetter she got.

Kyla sucked in a breath at my words, at the press of my denim covered cock against her belly. “As good as that sounds, I have something better in mind.” I knew I’d like it based on the gleam in her eye.

But I spent the next two hours surrounded by cops—her father in particular—and all I could think about was what the fuck she had in mind for later.

Later couldn’t come soon enough.