“Would you mind telling me what the hell is going on?”

Seth turned away from the window overlooking the compound and toward Levi. Their president stood near the door, arms crossed over his chest, his tone sharp with frustration. “I guarantee you, Levi, I’m going to find out.”

“I’ve heard that before,” Levi muttered. He turned to Grady, standing nearby, leaning against the wall on the other side of the window, a smirk on his face. Anger surged within Seth, and for a moment, his own annoyance goaded him to wipe the smirk off Grady’s face. “What?” he challenged. “What do you expect me to do, Merc? Beat it out of her?”

Grady’s grin widened, and he tipped his head, slicing through the tension building in the room.

“What have you been able to find out?” Levi muttered, stepping to his couch and falling into it. The cushions released dust into the air as he gazed at the dark television.

Seth didn’t like it when the television was off. Off meant Levi was upset.

“Not much,” Grady shrugged.

Seth frowned. “What does that mean?”

“It means that I found a couple of articles that your girlfriend—”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Seth interrupted. Of course Grady would take the opportunity to take another dig at him. “She’s just—”

“A quick, convenient fuck?”

Seth took a step toward Grady, hands balled into fists.

“Knock it off, both of you,” Levi snapped. “It doesn’t matter,” he continued, turning toward Grady with a glare of warning. “What kind of articles?”

“Some lame articles in a local Albuquerque paper with Nikki’s byline.” He shrugged. “That took a little doing, since you never got her last name, which is Bascomb, by the way. She writes lifestyle, you know, like local happenings. I started with Googling her, found people on their images section, found her—a photo that looks several years old but close enough—and then followed that trail back to the newspaper. She’s got profiles on a bunch of journalism freelancing sites. When I first saw the she had a profile on one of those job sites that listed openings for news reporters, I thought she was an investigative journalist.” Levi and Seth listened quietly as Grady continued. “That might be a good angle, but it didn’t pan out.”

Levi frowned. “How could a lifestyle writer be caught up with the Jokers?”

“Well, maybe she hangs with them.”

Seth turned on Grady again, annoyance surging within him, hands instinctively balling into fists. “Are you seriously trying to suggest that that woman in my cabin would deliberately allow herself to be treated that way by those assholes? Possibly raped, sold as a sex slave only God knows where, or even killed? What the fuck’s the matter with you?”

Grady returned his angry glare but then stepped back and shrugged again. Damn it. Right now, Seth would prefer the old Grady back again. That way, he’d have an excuse to take a swing at him. Grady opened his mouth. “I think at this point, Sticks, we have to explore all the possibilities. On paper, she looks like a goody-two-shoes. So you tell me. How does a goody-two-shoes end up with the Jokers? It was a question I had to ask, and one you should be asking, too.”

Levi sat up, leaning forward, elbows on his knees. “What are you getting at, Merc?”

“I’m getting at the possibility that she’s not everything that she seems.” He held up his hand to interrupt Seth, who’d taken another step forward, his expression darker than before. “Just listen to me for a minute, will you, Sticks?”

Seth paused, deciding. Finally, tension thick in the room, he nodded, and with a sigh, returned to the window, his left shoulder leaning against the sill. Why was he so upset? Why did he care what Grady thought of Nikki, or what Levi thought for that matter? She wasn’t his girlfriend, and he had no ties to her other than a couple of quick romps in bed. Why was he so defensive? But he knew. He had questions of his own. As far as he was concerned, it was alright for him to ask those questions, but for anyone else to have suspicions? He shook his head. No. Nikki was his to deal with and his alone.

“What if . . . what if she’s a plant?”

That, he wasn’t expecting. The same thought had crossed his mind right when he’d first laid eyes on her, but he’d dismissed it almost immediately. She was too vulnerable, too damn good for that. He jerked his head from the view out the window back to Grady. “A plant? Plant for what? For whom?”

“The Jokers,” Levi said, leaning back in the corner of the couch, crossing one leg over his knee, a contemplative expression on his face. “It’s something to think about.”

Seth frowned. “To what purpose?” He glanced at Grady and then Levi, staring at him with a lifted eyebrow. “Oh, you can’t be serious. This is fucking stupid. You’re thinking that she’s a spy or something, spying on us? What the hell would the Jokers even care what we’re doing?” He grunted in disgust, shook his head, and returned his gaze out the window.

“Maybe she and I should have a little talk,” Levi suggested. “Sticks, bring her over here. It’s time we got this straightened out once and for all.”

Seth stiffened, glancing between Levi and Grady. What he should do is take Nikki to the nearest bus station and send her on her way. This was ridiculous. “You can’t be seriously considering that,” he said. “What purpose—”

“Are you telling me that you honestly believe that the Jokers would kidnap somebody simply for seeing a chop shop?” Levi asked. He didn’t wait for Seth to answer before he continued. “I don’t. That’s what stupid. Ever since you brought her back here, the thought that she knew something has been niggling at me . . . that she knows something and she doesn’t want us to know. So I have to ask myself, why?”

Seth started to protest, but Grady interrupted.

“I could understand all this if she’d been writing an exposé on gang life in Albuquerque or something, but she’s not. She’s not even on social media. I mean, she’s got a couple of profiles up, but nothing earth-shattering and very few followers. Whoever she is, she’s private. She doesn’t put herself out there.”

“Bring her in here, Sticks.”

Seth glanced at Levi, still shaking his head, glowering. This was fucked up, thinking that Nikki was a mole or something. He didn’t want to believe it. Then again, he too had questions, none of which she seemed inclined to want to answer. Why?

Levi stared at him with the lifted eyebrow. Grady stepped to the door, opened it, and toed it open. With the glower, Seth left the room and clomped down the wooden stairs and out the building, shaking his head and muttering under his breath. He made his way toward his cabin, a myriad of thoughts racing through his mind. Who the hell was Nikki Bascomb really? What could he do to make her trust him, to tell him the truth? He couldn’t shake the feeling that she was in trouble, but he couldn’t help her if she didn’t tell him, damn it.

Would she still be there when he opened the door, or had she found another way to slip out? No, that wasn’t going to happen again. Levi had a couple of guys watching the cabin. If she even so much as stepped outside without one of them accompanying her, Levi would know about it in less than a minute.

He opened the door and stepped inside, surprised to find Nikki sitting on the couch, foot bouncing nervously on the floor, arms crossed over her chest, a deep frown marring her forehead. She barely spared him a glance and then returned her gaze to the opposite wall where the television screen sat dark and silent.

“Levi wants to talk to you.” She didn’t move, didn’t look at him, but he couldn’t help the tightening in his jeans as he watched her. God, she was something else. Something he wanted to take into the bedroom and explore to his heart’s content.

Without sparing him a glance, she shrugged. “Big fuckin’ deal.”

He stood by the door, watching her, saying nothing. If he just outwaited her, she would continue. She did, reluctantly turning to look at him.

“I want to go home, Seth. I don’t want to talk to Levi, and no offense, but I don’t really want to talk to you either. I want to go home. I need to go home!”

“I understand that, but—”

“Do you?” she asked, her voice low but harsh with disbelief. “Maybe you don’t have a family that cares about you, but I do.”

“You don’t know anything about me, Nikki,” he said quietly. “Nikki Bascomb.” She snapped her head in his direction, the blood draining from her face. Why? What did she—

“I know your kind, Seth. And I can imagine you caused your poor family nothing but grief—”

His stomach lurched as her comment brought a swell of unpleasant memories. He took a step toward her, anger tightening his gut. She turned to him, a sneer twisting her lips. Taunting. Why? What the hell was wrong with her? Was she purposely trying to piss him off? Hot or cold, she had no in-between.

“Unlike you, I belonged,” she continued, anger shoving common sense out the window. “I had a sense of belonging, with my family. Now look at me, held captive—”

“You’re not exactly a captive, Nikki.”

She continued as if he’d said nothing. “Held captive by a biker gang of all things.”

“We’re not a biker—”

“What would you know about family?” she continued, her voice growing more stringent and mocking. “Do they even know where you are? Do they care? Or do they worry about you? Are they somewhere, their hair turning gray, waiting for word from you, wondering where the hell you are?” She rushed on, her face flushed red with emotion, her eyes glassy with tears. “Well, I’ll tell you one thing. I belong to a family that cares about each other, and right now, I promise you, they’re worried sick!” Her voice broke. “So please, let me go! Let me go back home! I won’t tell anybody what happened here. I promise!”

He wanted to believe her. He truly did. He pulled out one of the metal folding chairs from the card table and placed it in front of the couch where she sat, turning it so that he sat backward, knees almost touching hers, arms crossed over the back of the chair.

“You can get off your high horse, Nikki. I have a family, but I didn’t turn my back on them. They turned their back on me.”

“Why? Because you were difficult? Belligerent maybe? You got into drugs or trouble with the law?” She shook her head. “You’ve spent time in jail, haven’t you?”

He frowned, her judgment cutting surprisingly deep. “You know nothing about me.”

“Well, then, who the hell are you, Seth? Why should I tell you anything about me when I know nothing about you? You want me to trust you? I don’t trust anybody right now. Not you, not your fearless leader, not any of your gang . . . or club, or whatever the hell you want to call it.”

“You want to know a little bit about me? Okay. Here goes. I’ve always been the black sheep of my family. Not because I got into trouble, which I admit I did sometimes. Mainly though, it was because my stepsister and I didn’t get along.”

“Why not?”

“Because she’s a bitch. A lying, conniving, bitch.”

“Let me guess. Her dad came into the picture and of course favored her and her mom over you?”

He sighed impatiently. “It’s a little more convoluted than that, Nikki.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

He stared at her. Did she really care? What the fuck did he have to lose at this point? Maybe he had to give a little piece of himself to get a little piece of her back. “My dad died in a car accident. A few years went by, my mom couldn’t cope and turned to drinking, I’m sure you can picture it. I pretty much took care of her after that. She drank a lot, closing herself up in her room.”

“She grieved for him, for the life she lost . . .”

“Yeah, but see, I was grieving too, but she was so wrapped up in her own pain that she had nothing left for me.”

“So what happened?”

“She met Darren. I don’t know how the hell they met because as far as I knew, she never left the house, but one day there he was, sitting at the dinner table. My mom looked nice, more with it. I was pleased until he moved in with his daughter. Jessica was fourteen at the time. Let’s just say that things went downhill fast from there.”

“Why?”

He sighed, running a hand through his hair. This was the part he didn’t want to get into, the part he tried never to think about, but he had to get her to trust him. “Because I knew that he only latched onto my mom because my family had money. He wanted it.” He shrugged. “It’s pretty simple, and it was obvious, but when I tried to tell my mom, she didn’t believe it. Of course, she told Darren, and from then on . . .”

“Let me guess, you rebelled? Got into trouble? Did everything you could to piss them off, just because?”

He frowned. “Not all the time. Actually, I just minded my own business for the most part. Jessica got away with bloody murder. She started hanging around with the wrong crowd, smoking, drinking, drugs, you name it.”

“And Daddy turned a blind eye?”

He offered a chuckle, one that lacked humor. “One day she went into my room and hid her drug stash in there. Before I could get rid of it, the cops came. I’m sure she’s the one that called them and tipped them off. There we were, standing in the living room, my stepdad holding a search warrant, the police telling us that coke, meth, and prescription drugs were being sold out of our house.” He shook his head, the memory digging into his gut even now, years later. “Long story short, I got thrown in jail. Darren didn’t offer to bail me out. Neither did my mom. He told me I was garbage, a no-good loser, that I’d never be welcomed in his home ever again.”

Nikki fingered the bottom of her shirt and then looked up at him, her eyes surprisingly damp. “I’m sorry, Seth. I shouldn’t have said those things. I shouldn’t have assumed that just because you’re—”

“Just because I’m in a motorcycle gang?”

“Club,” she said with a small smile.

“I wandered around for a bit, and then I hooked up with Levi. I’ve been with the club ever since. Family.” He straightened, squaring his shoulders and giving her the hardest look he could manage. “So don’t be giving me any shit about family, belonging, or sob stories. We all have a past, Nikki, but some of us are more fortunate than others.”

She said nothing for several moments. “Have you ever gotten in touch with your family since you got out of jail?”

“No,” he said. He stood, gesturing. “Come on, Levi’s waiting.”

Minutes later, he and Nikki joined Grady and Levi in the upstairs room. Levi asked Nikki a bunch of questions, and she stumbled over some of her answers, such as what she had done to provoke the attention of the Jokers. There had to be more than her simply seeing a chop shop. It was obvious to him, and to Grady as well as Levi, but she still held back, even when Grady told her how he’d found out her last name, seen her articles in the Albuquerque paper. Why? What was going on?

“Look, I know you guys don’t believe me, but that’s not my problem. I want to go home.”

Was she playing them? Levi wasn’t buying it, not one bit.

“So if I let you go right now, what would you do?”

She looked at Levi as if he had two heads. “Haven’t you been listening? I’d go home! What do you think?”

He stared at her until she shifted uncomfortably beneath his gaze. She turned to Seth, but he kept his expression neutral, not giving anything away. Levi looked at him, then at Grady, offering a small shake of his head.

“Take her back to your cabin, Sticks.”

“Wait a minute,” Nikki protested. “I don’t want to go back there! I want to go home!”

Levi stood and approached Nikki, who stood tense beneath his glare. He stopped a foot away from Nikki, his eyes boring into hers. “Tell me the truth, lady, or you’re not going anywhere.”

She exploded. “What the hell does it matter to you why the Jokers had me? Why the hell do you care? You have no right to keep me here! You’re no better than they are!”

“Get her out of here, Sticks.”

“I’ll do some more digging,” Grady said quietly.

Before Seth could move, Nikki reached out and shoved Levi. Hard. Levi had apparently been expecting something like that and only took a step back as Seth reached around and grabbed Nikki around her waist, trapping her arms to her sides. She lashed out with her feet, catching Grady on his shin. Grady muttered a curse, stepped back, and opened the door. Seth had Nikki wrapped in his arms while she lifted her feet, swinging at anything she could hit, cursing a blue streak, prompting him to carefully counterbalance her weight.

“Knock it off, Nikki,” he threatened.

“Or what?” she grunted in response.

With a quick movement, he spun her around in his arms, bent down, and heaved her over his shoulder, her legs dangling in front of him, his arm wrapped around her hips. She pounded on his back, his ass, thrashing with her legs as he headed out the door. Grady chuckled, then slammed the door behind them.

“Put me down!” she screamed, arms and legs thrashing, threatening to spill them both down the stairs.

He smacked her hard, right on the ass. Not exactly the way he had imagined it, but the sharp slap cracked like a pistol shot in the sudden silence of the room downstairs. Laughter rang out below. Nikki grew still and limp, as if she’d fainted, but he knew she hadn’t. Likely embarrassed, she gave up her fight, for the moment. Still, he had no doubt that once they were in the privacy of his cabin, she’d let him have it with both barrels.

He looked forward to it.