HANNAH
If I thought my ass hurt after the little bit of spanking Brandon had given me the last time I’d seen him, it was only because I hadn’t ridden on the back of a motorcycle down back roads and dirt roads for five hours with Lacy at the bars. By the time Lacy circled round back of the diner and headed for the garage, I was ready to jump off the mechanical horse, parked or not.
“Not much of a biker, are you?” Lacy kicked down the kickstand with her booted heal.
“Not much of a driver, are you?” I shot back at her with a grin, more of a grimace, but she got the idea. Her laugh echoed in the courtyard and the door to the garage flew open. Brandon and Shark marched out, both looking ready to spit nails.
“Not now, Shark. I have to pee.” She waved him off and headed toward the diner with Shark close on her heals.
“You hurt?” Brandon’s gruff voice asked. He looked like he was still debating between kissing me and yelling at me, but my stiff movements stilled him. He looked me over, assessing me. “You’re wearing jeans.” He walked up to me, hooking his fingers into my belt loops, turning me one way then the other.
“Yeah, riding in a dress isn’t very practical.” I tried to smile, but I wasn’t sure if he was mad at me yet or not.
“Hard ride?” His hands wandered up my torso, until he reached my face.
“Yeah.” I nodded. “Those back roads are a bitch.”
He laughed. A loud laugh that rumbled through his chest. He cupped my face and kissed me, a hard, unyielding kiss. “The only one who's teaching you to use a gun is me, you got that?” He kept his forehead pressed against mine as he growled at me.
“It doesn’t really matter. I’m never touching one again,” I whispered. I’d killed a man. Good or bad, that had to sit in my memory for the rest of my life.
He must have seen the guilt in my eyes, because he tilted my chin back, forcing me to look at him. “That shit up there, that wasn’t your doing.”
“If I had been aiming for him, I would have missed.” I tried to joke, to play it off like it wasn’t tearing me apart that I’d killed. Good life or bad life, I’d stolen it.
“Hunter doesn’t play games, Hannah. If he was sent up there to get you, he wasn’t playing. He would have hurt or killed Lacy and taken you back with him, but not before he had his fun.”
“I know.” I yanked my chin from his grasp. “I have lived in his clubhouse for the past several months. I am aware of what shit he’s capable of doing.” I knew my mouth was irritating him; it wasn’t his fault, this person I slowly turned into. But he was the only one there to take the heat I need to get rid of. “So what’s the big plan now?” I kicked a pebble with my toe. “More shuffling around?”
“Hannah. I know you had a shit day—”
“A shit day? Brandon, I killed someone. Killed. His body is buried under a pile of leaves, because I couldn’t dig a fucking hole fast enough to bury him in before we left. Someone’s going to find him, and I’m going to go to jail.” I hadn’t realized I was yelling until I noticed Shark and Lacy staring at us from the corner of my eye.
“You are not going to go to jail.” Brandon gritted his teeth. I knew he meant it, he’d probably confess to the murder himself to keep me from going to prison. His protection wasn’t the issue. It was that I needed so fucking much of it.
“I’m leaving.” I put up my hand to stop him from another of his growls. “Brandon. I can’t do this. I don’t want to do this anymore. This shit, this isn’t my life. I’m going down to the bus station, getting on the first one that’s leaving town and going.”
“Hannah, you can’t.” Lacy stepped up to me, her hand tugging on my arm. “You can’t just go off on your own. Carter is still looking for you.”
“Yeah. And he keeps finding me, so being here isn’t helping, and going up to yet another cabin won’t work either. Fuck, look at your cheek, Lacy. He’s hurt you, turned me in a killer—and fuck, I killed his brother! You think he’s going to stop now? I have to get out of this town. If not for myself then for you. I won’t be the reason you get hurt again, or Shark or Brandon.”
“I don't need your protection.” Brandon didn’t step toward me. His eyes fixated on me, as though he could glue me to the spot with his glare. “If you go, I can’t protect you.”
“I don't need your protection either. If you stay and I go, you can deal with all the shit going on with a clear head. Get it straightened out. If you’re here, Carter will think I’m still in town, or nearby.”
“How long do you think you can hide?” His voice hardened, the dark emptiness of his eyes sent a shiver through me.
“Forever.” I shrugged, fighting like hell to pretend it didn’t hurt so fucking much to say the words. “I’m not coming back.” He let a harsh breath and shook his head. “I still have the money Carly gave me to get out of town; it should get me a few states over at least.” I wanted to reach out to him, to touch his cheek, feel the warmth of his skin beneath my hand, but he shut down. The cold stare he gave me warned me off.
I turned to Lacy, hugging her quickly and forcing a smile. “Thanks for the ride back.”
“You’re an idiot, you know that,” Lacy whispered.
“I was, yeah. This is the right thing to do. I promise.” I didn’t look back at Brandon. I could feel the tension in his body. He wouldn’t accept that I was right, not yet anyway. But once I was gone, once his life returned to normal, he’d see. My leaving was best for both of us. Even if it made me feel like I was being gutted to walk away from him.
“You know, you talk big, Hannah.” The words were spoken low and soft. Dangerous. “You say you didn’t have choice in all this. Carter made decisions for you, I made decisions for you, but you’re doing the same damn thing right now. I’m telling you to stay. Let me get through this one patch and I’m out. A clean break. Of my choosing.”
“And I’m telling you how I’m handling this,” I shot back at him. “We never laid a claim on each other.” I said the words, but knew they were a lie. He marked me the first time he put his hands on me, the first kiss sealed us together. I could still feel his lips against my mouth.
“You’re handling it,” he sneered. “You’re doing what you do when you get scared, you run. You ran after your mom died and you didn’t know what to do with yourself, and you’re running now.”
“Brandon!” Lacy stepped toward him, but Shark pulled her back, telling her stay out of it.
My breath hitched, and I felt the blood damn near boiling in my veins. Scared. Fuck that, I was terrified. And I was running. I wouldn’t argue that point, but it was to benefit us both. I didn’t respond, didn’t even look at him, I just turned and started to walk toward the street.
I heard Lacy argue with Shark, then the rumbling of an engine starting up. Shark rolled up next to me. “Get on.” He jerked his head. “I’m not fuckin around. I’ll get you to the bus station, get on.”
Seeing as Lacy pushed him into it, and Carter could be riding toward us at any second, I slid onto the bike behind him, tossing the strap from my bag around me. The bike lurched forward and I held on as Shark drove away. I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. Even if I did, the tears welling up in my eyes wouldn’t have given me a clear view of Brandon anyway.
But worse, what if I looked back and he wasn’t there? What if my leaving had been easier for him than it had been for me? What if he really didn’t care at all?