Jenna
As Garrett’s breath slowed and his heart calmed behind me, I couldn’t help but think I’d just made things worse by sleeping with him again. I couldn’t get a handle on him. Here was this big tough outlaw biker who talked a big game and wanted everyone to be afraid of him. But he turned to putty in my hands. I wasn’t complaining, though. It felt good to be desired, especially by someone as passionate as Garrett.
Confident that he was asleep, I slid out from underneath his arm and started grabbing my clothes. I stood up next to the bed as I dressed and looked at his naked body. He was an example of male perfection. His body was a work of art, a living sculpture, each muscle painstakingly detailed by the masterful hands that crafted him.
I could still feel his masterful hands on my body as I pulled my jeans up from the floor and slid my bra on over where he’d gripped my breasts. I pulled my tank top down over my head. He hadn’t budged. I ran my hands through my hair, which had fallen from its ponytail during sex. I thought about looking for the tie I’d used to hold it up but figured it was probably underneath the beautiful man sleeping peacefully in the bed. And the last thing I wanted to do was to disturb him.
I crept out of the room, carefully watching my step on the floor to be sure hardwood didn’t creak under my weight. I unlocked the door as quietly as I could and slipped out of the room, into the hallway. Once there, I released my breath and started walking at my normal pace, heading downstairs to the basement.
I wasn’t feeling any better about what Garrett and his men had done to Dima, but I felt it wasn’t my place to argue with it. I was there to do a job, and that job did not include policing the actions of the members of Crowns of Satan. My sole responsibility was to get information from him.
I still hadn’t said anything to Garrett about what Dima had actually told me that morning. I didn’t know if I would until I had more to tell him. My silence weighed on me, though. I knew if he found out what I was keeping from him before I had more to tell him, it wouldn’t look good. It would only confirm his suspicions that I was holding out on him. But the thing was I really wasn’t. I just didn’t have enough information for it to amount to anything.
When I walked into the dark room in the basement, I could see immediately that Dima was feeling better. He sat upright and even smiled at me as I entered the room.
“Welcome back, Dr. Dunn,” he greeted me. “I’m glad to see you didn’t leave.”
“No, I didn’t leave.” I pulled the empty chair back and sat down across from him. “Garrett can be very persuasive when he wants to be,” I added.
His face lit up with revelation. “You fucked him!” He tilted his head back and cackled. “You had sex with Garrett!”
My cheeks flared as I blushed, giving myself away. “I don’t think that has anything to do with our conversation,” I told him, struggling to find the right words. I didn’t want to come right out and tell him he was right.
“So, how does it feel to be another notch on his bedpost?” he teased. “Though I must say you don’t really fit in with the women I’ve seen on Garrett’s arm before.”
“I’m not here to talk about that,” I told him, trying to change the subject. “I want to talk about you.”
“And I want to talk about Garrett getting a piece of that sweet little tart you’ve got there,” he said, lewdly eyeing me.
I was painfully aware I didn’t look like any of the girls I’d seen with the other guys. I didn’t need Dima, or anyone else for that matter, to remind me. They all looked their part, with the tattoos, the leather, dark clothes, dark hair, and their dark eyes. They all had hardened faces, as if they’d seen things out there on the street, even though I was sure many of them were just putting up a front so the right bad boy would find them attractive. I knew that wasn’t me.
I didn’t have any tattoos. I didn’t dye my hair black or red so it would look right with me on the back of a motorcycle. I didn’t wear leather, and other than a few tank tops and evening dresses, I didn’t have a lot of black in my wardrobe. Most of my clothes were picked out with my job in mind, which also didn’t require a whole lot of makeup either. I didn’t have to pretty myself up for work, so long as I just kept it professional.
Dima shook his head. “Don’t sweat it,” he said. “You’ll be out of the picture soon enough.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked him. He seemed to know a lot about Garrett’s love life. I wondered just how much history these two actually had.
“Just that you don’t mean anything to him. I’ve seen it, Dr. Dunn. He’s just using sex to make you work for him. That’s all. He’s going to get what he wants out of you and toss you aside when he’s done,” he said nonchalantly.
“I think we need to talk more about what you told me earlier,” I urged him. “I need to know more about Igor’s big drug deal.”
Dima leaned forward as far as he could with the ropes tied around his chest. “Listen to me very carefully, Dr. Dunn,” he said, dropping the taunting tone from his voice. “You need to leave. You need to get away from Garrett Norton. As far away as you can,” he warned in a serious tone.
“You’ve tried to convince me to help you escape before,” I replied. “How is this any different?” I sat back and crossed my arms, wondering how he would respond to me.
“If you are letting him pull you in that close, your life could be in danger.”
He didn’t have his normal, confrontational look in his eyes. His voice didn’t have its usual defiant tone. Still, I felt like anything he said could just be a ploy to get me out of the way.
I laughed, trying to sound dismissive. “Why should I listen to anything you have to say, Dima? You know that if you get me out of the way, no one else will try to actually make you talk. And furthermore, they’ll just beat the shit out of you instead of trying to listen. I’m your only chance out of here as far as I see it.” It was my turn to use some leverage.
“Your life may depend on listening to me,” he said plainly.
I conceded, rolling my eyes. “Fine, Dima. Please enlighten me. How does my life depend on listening to you?” I finally asked him.
“First, tell me, can you imagine Garrett with an actual girlfriend?” he asked.
I tried to imagine it, and I was sure there had to have been someone at one point in his life who’d managed to get inside, past the walls he put up around himself.
Dima laughed. “I can see you struggling to conjure up the image of Garrett with a girlfriend, a permanent girl by his side.”
I permitted myself to laugh with him. “Yeah, he’s not exactly the boyfriend type, you know?”
“Oh, I know. But let me assure you, it happened. He had a girlfriend a while back. I’ve only seen him with one, though. All the other girls just came and went, but it was pretty obvious this one girl was it.”
“Why are you telling me this, Dima?” I was beginning to feel like he was just pulling my leg.
“You need to know what happened to her.”
My heart sank. This wasn’t fun anymore. I wanted to get up and leave, but I was glued to my seat. I was in too deep, in too many ways, to just get up and walk out at this point. “What happened?” I asked cautiously, knowing that I didn’t want to hear the answer. Not really. I already knew enough.
“There was a deal. Igor wasn’t part of it, so I wasn’t there. But there was a deal that went south in a big way, and he ended up putting her in harm’s way so that he could get out. He killed her to save himself and make the whole thing look like an accident.”
I sat and stared at the Russian after he told me the story about Garrett’s girlfriend. I was quiet, stunned, floored by what he’d just told me.
“Your boyfriend up there, the one giving you the best sex you’ve ever had? He’s a killer, Dr. Dunn. He is a murderer, and he’s only keeping you around so that when shit goes south for him again, he has another human shield to hide behind,” Dima insisted.
“No.” I shook my head, unable to believe what he was telling me. Unwilling to believe it. “No, you’re wrong,” I told him. I stood up, pushing my chair back behind me, and I pointed my finger at him. “I’m going to prove you wrong.”
“Why don’t you go up there and ask him?” he challenged me. “See what he has to say for himself, Dr. Dunn.” His confident, smug tone had returned. He was pleased with himself for shaking my foundation. That was reason enough not to trust him right there.
“What was her name?” I asked him.
“What? What do you mean what was her name? Do you think I got that close to Garrett?” He laughed, a deep, mocking laugh. “I didn’t care for her name, no more than Garrett cared for her life. Go, Dr. Dunn. Go ask your boyfriend about his ex-girlfriend. Come back after you get your answer. If you still trust the man, I will tell you everything you want to know.”
I didn’t know what to believe anymore. It seemed like every time I went to talk to Dima, he told me something else disturbing and disappointing about Garrett. But every time I went to see Garrett about it, he turned it around and made me feel better about being aligned with him and the Crowns of Satan. I didn’t know what to do.
I did know one thing, though. The longer I stayed in, the deeper I got. The deeper I got, the more I wanted out, but the harder it was going to be when the time came to finally step away. I wondered what it was going to take to make me finally walk away from him.
He’d been dishonest about what I was doing and why I was there. He’d been dishonest about how he was treating Dima. And according to Dima, once he told me everything, we’d both be dead. Now, he was telling me that no matter what, I was in danger for sleeping with Garrett. I didn’t want to believe it. I didn’t want to believe that he was capable of giving up my life to save his own.
I closed the door to the basement room behind me and walked across the pit underneath the mechanic bays above me. I took the stairs, my legs weak and shaky beneath me. By the time I made it to the ground floor, I could barely stand.
For a brief moment, I considered running. As always, the shop doors were open, and no one seemed to be around. I could have left on foot and walked somewhere safe to call one of my coworkers. I could’ve claimed that I had been held captive by Garrett at the Crowns of Satan headquarters.
I couldn’t run, though. Garrett had me. I felt like I owed him the benefit of the doubt. He’d been taking care of me over the last few days. I wasn’t locked away like Dima downstairs. He treated me like part of the team. And, beyond all of those other reasons, I couldn’t shake my attraction to him. God help me, I wanted that brutish beast of a man, and I wanted to believe that he was genuinely a good man underneath his rough exterior.
Then why was I shaking so much? I had to admit to myself that I was afraid Dima might have been right. I knew Garrett had a violent past. Hell, his current situation was pretty violent, and there was probably more violence to come. I just had to trust that there were limits.