Thorn
Dorian jumped to his feet when I walked into the hotel room, looking exhausted, as though he'd been up all night waiting for me to return. “Where the hell have you been?” he snapped, striding over to me and pulling me into his arms.
I collapsed a little against him and then pulled away. He continued to eye me critically, looking for signs of injury. “Dorian, I'm exhausted. Can we just sleep on it and leave the story-telling for tomorrow?” I grimaced. “I need a shower too. Jail cells are not the cleanest places in the world.”
“You were in jail?” Dorian snapped, catching my arm as I made to walk past him. “What happened? Who paid your bail?”
“There was no bail,” I said wearily. “I was only in jail because I was in the wrong place at the wrong time when the feds showed up. But Gabi got everything straightened out for me and let me go.”
Suddenly, there was a noise from the doorway of the bathroom. The next thing I knew, Jess was flinging herself into my arms. “I thought for sure that you were going to jail,” she sobbed into my shoulder. “Or if not, I thought that Katia was going to find some way to kill you after all. What happened? I left right as the FBI were swarming, but they were so focused on all of you that I had time to get out.”
I sighed, just reveling in the feeling of having her close to me again for a moment. I could see Dorian raising his eyebrows at me from over her shoulder, but I chose not to respond to that.
“I need a shower and a nap,” I told both of them. “Everything's going to be fine, and I'll tell you all about it when I've revived myself a little. But I need a shower and a nap before I'll say anything else.”
“Of course,” Jess said immediately, pulling back away from me. She leaned up shyly to kiss me, though, glancing over at Dorian and blushing a little when she was done. “Sorry,” she said. “I've just missed you.”
I pulled her back into my arms and kissed her resoundingly, sucking at her lips and forcing my tongue into her mouth, claiming her as mine. Even though I had no intention of starting anything right now — not when I was so tired, and not in front of Dorian — I cupped her firm asscheeks with my hands and pulled her in close so she was pressed against me.
Finally, we broke apart, both of us panting for air. I couldn't stop myself from leaning down and gently kissing her forehead, a tender gesture that I would never normally have allowed myself. Knowing that she was safe and that she was here ... it was all a bit surreal.
I broke away from her and went to shower.
Later that afternoon, we all sat down together for lunch. “Gabi was a federal agent the whole time,” I told the other two. “And I suspect that Rian was as well ... I don't think they were really sisters, I think that Gabi was trying to get her free because they needed her information in the case they were building against Silas. And that explains why Katia was so dead-set on not letting her go.”
“Hmm,” Dorian said. “But how did Katia find out that she was a double agent?”
“I don't know,” I admitted. “There's a lot that still doesn't make sense to me about this. All I know is that...” I glanced over at Jess. “Well, we're free. As far as I'm concerned, the packages were all delivered, I upheld my end of the bargain I made with Gabi, and Jess is safe. I'll have nothing more to do with the Sigma Saints.”
Dorian frowned at me. “What about when the organization is under new leadership?” he asked. “I have a meeting already set up with—”
“No,” I said, holding up my hands. “I don't want to hear anything more about it. My days of belonging to a biker gang are over.” I grimaced a little. “I guess you could say that I've lost any feelings of immortality that I ever entertained.”
Dorian smiled a little at that. “Well, that at least is a benefit from all of this.”
“What are you going to do instead?” Jess asked. I couldn't read her expression, but there was something in her voice that I responded to.
I shrugged at her. “I haven't decided yet,” I told her evenly. “I'm keeping my options open.”
The thing was, I didn't really want to be separated from her. After everything that had happened, I realized I had developed some very real feelings for her, and having nearly lost her to Silas and everything else had really cemented those feelings for me. I had no idea what she was thinking, though. She had her nice, ordinary life to go back to. I doubted she wanted me to have any part in her future, not with all the mayhem I had caused in her life over the past couple weeks.
“Well, if you need buddies to ride with sometimes, you know where to find me,” Dorian said, smiling a little. I had a feeling he knew exactly where my thoughts were turned, what I'd like to do with my future. But he was nice enough not to blurt it out. Jess and I would need to have a serious talk at some point, but the lunch table wasn't the place to do it.
“So what did Gabi say about the box of explosives anyway?”
I shrugged. “She called it vigilante justice and didn't say anything more about it. The more I think about it, the more all of it seems strange to me. Katia clearly didn't use the guns in her escape from prison, and—”
“Well, she couldn't have used the guns,” Gabi said, slipping into a seat at the table with us. She shrugged at my surprise. “I knew I needed to talk to you a little more before you left town, but not in the interrogation room, where anyone could hear. So I had you tailed back to the hotel.”
I rolled my eyes. “Okay. But what do you mean Katia couldn't have used the guns? You delivered the packages, didn't you? All the pieces were there.”
“When I took the packages from you, yes, all the pieces were there. But mysteriously enough, when they ended up in Katia's possession, the parts necessary to actually fire the guns were missing. Basically, all she got were some little toy guns. I doubt you would even have been able to use them as water guns.”
I stared at her. “How did you…”
“But how did Katia escape, then?” Dorian asked, a look of consternation on her face. “And why didn't she come after you? She must have known you had something to do with it.”
“I think she suspected Thorn had done it, given his earlier moral qualms about the mission,” Gabi said, shrugging. “That's why she was so keen to make a deal with you in exchange for Jess's life.”
“But how did she escape, then?”
“Easy,” Gabi said with a little shrug. “She picked ten of the most brutish guys that she could find, armed them all with what everyone thought were real guns, and overpowered the guards at the gate. Unfortunately, most of the others died in the escape attempt.” Her face twisted into a sneer. “Katia didn't care, though. All she cared about was getting herself out of there and back to safety.”
“So what was the whole point of your ... mission?” Jess asked suddenly.
“Silas Eaves,” Gabi said grimly. “He got away with murder and whatever else when we managed to put Katia behind bars. I'm still not sure how he walked away from that one. But this time, he won't be so lucky. Not after everything with Rian.” She cocked her head to the side, staring at Jess. “You could testify as well. Get him locked up for even longer.”
Jess laughed a little, shaking her head. “And then I'd have a whole host of Sigma Saints loyalists coming after me,” she said.
“We might be able to arrange something for you,” Gabi said. “You've heard of the witness protection program, I'm sure...”
“Sure,” Jess said, sounding a little surprised. “But would you really extend that to me, after everything that...”
“If you testified against Silas, yes,” Gabi said firmly. “You'd have to leave behind your family and everything that you've ever known, though.”
Jess winced and shook her head. “I couldn't do that,” she said. “My brother Brent...”
I reached over and put a hand over hers, sensing her distress. “That's not an option,” I said, as though I had any right to have a say in this.
Gabi shrugged a little. “It was worth a try,” she said. She narrowed her eyes at me. “I'm holding you at your word, though, Thorn Riley. You aren't a member of the Sigma Saints anymore. Don't get caught up in another scheme with them or we'll have no choice but to prosecute you.”
I nodded at her, and she turned to Dorian. “And Dorian Barrows, you'd better make sure that this new organization of the Sigma Saints quits causing us so many problems, do you hear?”
I stared at Dorian. “You guys know one another?” I asked. “Have you been working together on this all along?”
Dorian shrugged. “That's part of being in a leadership position in one of the most well-known gangs in the country,” he said. “You have to know who to pay off.”
I shook my head, wondering just how long he'd been planning this overthrow. But I didn't really want to know that.
In fact, I didn't really want anything to do with any of this anymore. I stood up and held out my hand to Jess. “Let's go upstairs,” I said to her, even though I had only picked at my lunch. I had other things on my mind.
She grinned up at me and stood as well. “You'll have to excuse us,” she said to Dorian and Gabi. “Have a nice afternoon.” Then, she followed me giggling upstairs.