Brawn

 

The office door slammed, and I spun around to see Lucas Kelly’s daughter, Maria, standing at the top of the wooden steps leading up to the trailer. She was crying – sobbing, really – with one hand in front of her face, like she didn’t want anyone to see her. She practically ran down the steps and started to cross the lot over to the Cadillac her father had bought for her.

 

“Maria,” I called. It was loud enough that I’d hoped she’d heard me, but not loud enough to catch anyone else’s attention. I stood and watched the boss’s daughter walking away with hurried determination to her car. Her golden brown waves were pulled up from her neck and shoulders with a few loose strands hanging down to keep her hair from looking too perfect. She wore a conservative button-down blouse with tight jeans that complimented her thin waist, perfectly round ass, and toned legs.

 

I had admired her for as long as I had been working for Kelly. She worked in the office, and it was always a pleasure to find some excuse to go in and see that warm smile and those large brown eyes. She was off limits, though, since she was the boss’s daughter. I hadn’t just been reluctant to make a move on her; I had avoided it, despite taking every opportunity I could to be near her.

 

I couldn’t resist any longer, though, not as I watched her walk away sobbing the way she was. It was the perfect opportunity to approach her, to nail the un-nail-able. She was a sweet, juicy piece of forbidden fruit, and her asshole father had just stripped me of my ability to resist the temptation by putting her in tears.

 

“Hey, Maria, wait up,” I called out as I started to follow her, glancing up at her father’s office to make sure he wasn’t watching her. She either didn’t hear me or just ignored me.

 

I glanced over my shoulder as I hurried to catch up with her. A few more people had shown up for work. I didn’t want them to see me chasing after Maria Kelly. It would have caused a scene. I wanted to be as discreet as possible.

 

I knew how hard her father could be. I had just talked to him before she showed up. He had called me in to talk about my brother’s presence on the jobsite.

 

“Listen, I know you’re a member of The Twisted Ghosts,” he had told me once he sat me down in a small metal office chair in front of his desk.

 

I hadn’t denied it. He had known who I was before I ever took the job.

 

“I know I’ve got a few of you biker types working for me. I don’t need you guys bringing your brothers from these biker gangs around. It’s bad for business, and it could cause friction between different groups. Got it?” His voice had been hard and solid like a wall.

 

“That’s not the word I would use. We’re members of different motorcycle clubs. Sir.” I had deliberately paused before addressing him so he’d get the point. He was crossing a line talking to me that way.

 

“Fine, clubs. Feel better? I don’t care if you call yourselves a dance troupe and tell me you ride for the art of it. You don’t bring that garbage around here. Do you understand?” He raised his voice as he spoke and jabbed his finger down onto his desk like he was ramming it into someone’s chest.

 

“Yes, sir.” I had answered him as humbly as I could. I wasn’t big on showing humility to any authority other than the MC, but the smug, made look of Mr. Lucas Kelly told me he was not a man I wanted to cross. Not without backup. Not without a plan.

 

“Also, I know you’re making money on the side. I know all you bikers are. Stop letting it interfere with your work, or being out of a job will be the least of your worries.” He’d gone from zero to a hundred with that threat. The hair on the back of my neck had stood up then.

 

“You got it, boss.” I looked him right in the eye as I spoke. I wanted him to recognize the mistake he was making.

 

That hadn’t been the first time he’d called me into his office about Shift or other members of the MC showing up. He was like an overprotective father with us. Any time anyone showed up on the jobsite who wasn’t an employee, somebody got their ass chewed.

 

He had apparently just chewed his own daughter out for something. The guy was an epic jerk.

 

Chasing after Maria as she walked to her car, I realized nailing her wasn’t the only way I could get back at her father for being a douche. In fact, it was probably the least I could do. There were better ways of making him pay for the way he treated everyone, ways that I could truly benefit from.

 

Lucas Kelly was a wealthy man. That was no secret. He was sure to pay a pretty penny to keep his daughter safe – you know, if she got in trouble somehow. I wasn’t just going to take her to bed. I was just going to take her. I was going to show Mr. Kelly what happened when he pissed off the wrong people, and I was going to show Shift I could make shit happen on my own.

 

I had the perfect place to take her, and I had everything I needed in the truck for kidnapping someone. It was the perfect plan, and it had fallen right in my lap at the perfect time.

 

I stopped chasing her and calmly walked to my pickup. I didn’t ride my bike to work, didn’t want any of the other guys messing with it on the jobsite, and, besides, if I needed to run any errands for work, the motorcycle wasn’t equipped.

 

I took my time fiddling with my keys, keeping an eye on Maria while she got in her car and pulled out her phone. She made a few outraged gestures and slammed the phone against the dashboard. I wasn’t sure what was going on, but she looked like she was screaming at it. Whatever had happened in her father’s office must have been pretty serious.

 

She pulled out of the lot, and I hopped in, cranking the truck quickly so I could follow. Still, I didn’t want it to be too obvious that I was following her. I took my time, keeping an eye on her to see which way she turned.

 

I stayed back, keeping an eye on her up ahead of me until we wound up in a ritzy neighborhood.

 

“There’s no way she lives in one of these houses by herself,” I told myself. “She has to live with her dad still.” I looked around at the large mini-mansions on either side of the road, most of them with brick or stone walls built around their properties.

 

There was no other traffic on the road. It was just the two of us, and hopefully, she was too emotionally distraught to notice that the same white pickup truck had been following behind her the whole time.

 

She pulled into a driveway cutting through an opening in a brick wall covered in ivy. The house was a white three-story brick home with white columns in front and black shutters on the windows. I knew I was in for a damn good payday by taking his daughter. I was going to get all the money I needed to open my own shop, and then some.

 

I waited in the street until I noticed she was getting out of the car. Then, I pulled in behind her, counting on her to recognize me and wait to see why I had followed her.

 

It worked. As I pulled into the driveway behind her, I caught her attention. She walked up toward the front of the truck and waited for me to get out, the look on her face telling me she was wondering why I was there. She had no idea.

 

I left the engine running as I got out.

 

“Maria, hey, is everything okay?” I walked up to her with an outstretched hand.

 

She was still crying. She sniffled and wiped a few fresh tears away from her eyes. “Yeah, everything’s fine. You didn’t just come by to ask me that, did you? What’s up?” She laughed, nervously, as she talked.

 

Her guard was down. It was the perfect opportunity.

 

“I just wanted to check on you. I saw how you stormed off. I called after you, but I guess you didn’t hear me,” I said, trying to stifle the adrenaline pumping through my veins so I could sound comforting. My body hummed with electricity. I put a hand on her shoulder.

 

“Really, thanks for your concern, but I’ll be okay,” she said, placing one of her soft, thin hands on mine.

 

That was when I sprang into action. I spun her around and wrapped my arm around her throat. She grabbed my arm with both hands as I pulled her back against my body.

 

“What are you doing?” she yelled before biting down on my arm and clawing at me with her sharp nails.

 

“Bitch,” I barked at her. I hadn’t expected her to be able to fight back like she was doing.

 

She tried to stomp on my feet and threw a couple of elbows back towards my gut. She kicked at me. “Let go,” she growled.

 

“Where the hell did you learn how to fight?” I asked her, trying to maneuver my legs through hers to take her down on the ground before we drew any unwanted attention to our little scuffle.

 

“Self-defense classes, you asshole,” she hissed.

 

Finally, I was able to get her down on the ground and into a chokehold. I pressed all of my weight against her body. She was smaller than I was. There was no excuse for how hard I was having to work to overpower her. I wrapped my legs around hers to hold her still.

 

Her body stiffened against mine, and as she fought she rubbed up against me. I felt guilty for the cheap thrill, but I chalked it up to simply getting a preview of what was in store for me later.

 

I pressed myself against her soft, round ass as my arms cut off her air. I held her in the grass and flowers next to the driveway until her body relaxed beneath me and her hands let go of my arm. I checked to make sure she’d just passed out. I didn’t want a body on my hands. I had never killed anyone, and I didn’t plan on getting started just yet.

 

“Damn, woman,” I said as I stood up, letting go of her. I rolled her over onto her side and went over to the bed of the truck, pulling rope and duct tape out of the toolbox mounted behind the cab.

 

I worked quickly to tape her mouth shut and tie her wrists behind her back. I tied her ankles together, too. The last thing I needed was for her to come to in the truck and start fighting with me.

 

“All right, Maria, we’re going for a ride,” I told my sleeping beauty as I picked her up and carried her around to the passenger side of the truck.

 

As I situated her, I kept an eye out for anyone in the house or coming to it. Someone like Kelly should have had security. I wanted to make sure I wasn’t being watched. I also wanted to avoid any surprises, like someone coming by the house to check on her for him.

 

I pulled the seatbelt across her and realized it was pretty obvious I had someone bound and gagged in the passenger side of the front seat. I pulled her hair down and roughed it up a bit, making sure it covered her face, hiding the duct tape. I leaned her head back so it looked like she was just asleep.

 

I closed the door and walked around to the front of the truck.

 

“That’ll have to do,” I said to myself. “Just avoid major roads and the cops.”

 

What the hell was I doing?

 

I climbed in on the driver side and backed out of the driveway. There wasn’t another car on the street as I started to drive my prize away. Then, my heart sank into my stomach as a black sedan with blacked out windows pulled off another street a couple of blocks back. I told myself it didn’t mean anything and kept my speed even as we drove away, so it wouldn’t look like I was fleeing anyone’s house.

 

I kept an eye on the black sedan in my rearview mirror as it turned into the driveway we’d just left. Talk about close calls. If we’d taken just a moment longer, we would have had company.

 

My adrenaline was pumping. This was typical Twisted Ghosts’ business, not typical Brawn business. It was the kind of job I usually avoided, and I was out doing it on my own, for my own benefit. My brothers would have been proud.