Chapter 29
Thorn
“What are we going to do about this?” Brooks was the one who asked the million dollar question, while the rest of us stared at Ryan’s fallen body.
The cops weren’t going to show up now because nobody had heard anything, but in the morning, it would be impossible to keep a dead body hidden.
“We get rid of it?” Beckett suggested, and I grunted as I thought. That was an idea, but lugging a corpse around, no matter what time of the night; was just a trap waiting for us to fall into.
“We don’t have cars. How are we going to transport this on our bikes without being caught?” I asked, and Beckett shrugged his shoulders and looked away. I stared at Ryan’s pale face. I didn’t regret killing him. I regretted that I hadn’t got to him sooner before he could get to Ensley.
“We need to do something quickly. The sun is going to rise pretty soon,” Topher spoke up, and I knew he was right. Time was running out on us.
“We stage the scene,” I said and looked up at my brothers.
“Suicide?” Topher asked, and I nodded my head.
“Start with removing all evidence of Ensley being in this room,” I told Beckett and Topher.
“Brooks, you and I have to make sure that Ryan looks like he shot himself,” I added.
Within minutes, all of us had set to work. The two of them were wiping down chairs and the bed, looking for evidence of blood drops or pieces of torn clothing. There were flashlights in Becket’s holder in his bike, and we used them to look into every corner and inch of the motel room.
Brooks and I, on the other hand, wiped down my gun and placed it in Ryan’s hand. Luckily, I had been wearing my riding gloves, but we still wiped the gun clean to be sure. Brooks, besides being an expert hacker, was also an expert at crime scenes. He knew exactly how to position Ryan’s body and how to position the gun; in a way that it was going to be believable for a crime scene investigator and a medical examiner; that the guy had shot himself.
This wasn’t the first time that Brooks was doing this job for us, and he knew exactly the kinds of clues that detectives and police officers looked for in a scene like this.
Thankfully I hadn’t shot Ryan straight on in the head. The gunshot was at an angle, so Brooks was able to make it believable that Ryan turned the gun on himself.
I made Brooks go over every last detail, including the work that the other two had done. I wanted them to look over everything as many times as it took, to make sure that there was nothing suspicious about the scene.
We had to create an illusion that Ryan was alone in the room, and then in a state of depression, had shot himself. Every evidence of Ensley had to be removed from the room. I didn’t want this to ever get back to her. Now that I had her safe and away from harm’s way, I wanted it to remain that way.
“All done, boss,” Topher said. I looked at Brooks who nodded his head, and I smiled at the others.
“Good job, brothers. It’s all done,” I said and together, we walked out of the motel room and got on our bikes.
Behind us, dawn was cracking. The sun had just begun to rise up the horizon, and there was an orange glow all over the sky. The four of us were headed in different directions. The others were headed to Pomona, and I was headed towards Ensley. I needed to see her again.
***
I parked my bike outside Ensley’s apartment building, and I could already see Jamison’s bike there.
I could feel all my limbs beginning to ache now. When was the last time I had gotten any sleep? When did I even eat last? None of that mattered though, and I rushed up the stairs and rapped on her door. Jamison took a few moments to open, and when he did, I barged into the apartment. Ensley was sitting huddled on her couch, and I could see that Jamison had made her some tea and a plate of sandwiches.
“All good?” he asked me, while I stared at Ensley. I had eyes only for her.
“All good,” I said.
Ensley looked tired when I first walked into the apartment, but now suddenly, there was a renewed brightness in her eyes. The tops of her cheeks had bright red spots on them, and the velvet throw she had wrapped around herself came undone.
“I guess I should be going now,” Jamison said, as I took my first few steps towards Ensley.
“Yeah, you should go,” I said.
“Thank you for everything, Jamison,” Ensley said, looking over my shoulder at Jamison’s retreating figure.
I heard the door shut behind me, and we were looking at each other again.
“You’re here,” Ensley said, and there was a soft smile tugging the corners of her lips.
“And so are you,” I said, and she blushed even harder.
“I didn’t expect you to come back here. Not tonight,” she said, and I stepped even closer to her.
“Well, technically it’s early morning. It’s the next day,” I said to her, and she rolled her eyes. I was glad to see that she still had a sense of humor.
“You know what I mean, Thorn,” she said and held my gaze intensely. I did know what she meant, but I wanted to hear the words from her mouth. We had been dancing around this for way too long. It was time that we discussed the subject that should have been discussed from the first night I spent at her apartment.
“Tell me what you mean, Ensley,” I said, and now I was standing right over her. She was craning her neck to look up at me. Her blue eyes were bright with excitement, and I had forgotten all about the fact that I needed to sleep.
***
I took Ensley into my arms, and my lips covered hers. She opened her mouth to me, and my tongue slipped in between her lips. She tasted just as sweet as I remembered her, and she clung to me tightly.
As we kissed, I lifted her off the couch, and she wrapped her legs around my groin. My hands were around her waist, her hands were on my chest, and I could already feel my cock hardening in my pants.
We both knew what was going to happen. What always happened when we were alone together. It was like she had some kind of invisible hold over me and I couldn’t shake it off. But we needed to talk first. Before we got naked with each other again.
“Ensley,” I said her name gravely when I pulled my lips away from her. She was peering into my eyes, looking at me longingly.
“I want to make sure that you’re doing okay,” I said, and she let her legs drift down, and unwrapped herself from me. Her eyes were flooding up with tears again, and I could feel that familiar feeling rising up in me again.
“I hate seeing you cry,” I grunted, and she dabbed the corners of her eyes with her knuckles.
“I’m crying from relief,” she said, with a weak laugh. Then she lifted herself up on her toes and reached to leave a kiss on my cheek.
“I’m happy, Thorn. I’m relieved that this is all over now. I can finally go to sleep tonight and not be afraid,” she said, and then she gave her hand to me.
Ensley was leading me into her bedroom, and I had no other choice but to follow her. I could see that she had tidied up the room after all the mess that Ryan had left it in when he’d abducted her from the room. I could also sense that it was not something that she wanted to talk about.
“Ensley, I’m sorry that this happened to you, under my watch,” I said, and she turned to me and shook her head.
“I don’t blame anyone but myself. Ryan was going to find me eventually. Jamison blames himself too, but you have no idea how grateful I am to you and your MC for rescuing me. You have all done a good job, and I want you to know that” she said and sat down on her bed.
I was standing in front of her, watching her as she spoke.
What had I done to deserve the company of this woman? Why was she even interested in still talking to me? What did she see in me that I didn’t?
A smile was spreading on Ensley’s face.
“Thorn, I need you to stop worrying about me,” she said, and I stepped up to her. I took her face in my hands and pressed her cheeks to my stomach as I stroked her head.
“You will never have to be afraid again,” I said, and she looked up at me and nodded her head.
“And it’s all because of you. You made that happen, thank you,” she said, and I leaned forward and kissed her lips again. There was so much that I needed to tell her. I needed her to know how I felt about her, but I didn’t have the words for it. I didn’t know what to say to explain to her what I was feeling.
“Thorn, I’m glad you came back, that you came here,” she said when we parted again. I stroked her forehead and her head. I was in her bedroom. We were alone together in her apartment. There was only one thing this was going to lead to, but for the first time in my life; I wanted more than just sex from a woman.
“There was nowhere else for me to go,” I replied, and I watched as Ensley’s eyes widened. That was not the response she was expecting from me. That was not what I was expecting to say either.
“I’m glad we bumped into each other than night. I’m glad that stupid hipster was hitting on me,” she added with a laugh, and now I took her into my arms again. I was biding my time to say the words, but how long was I going to keep it to myself?
“Ensley, I’m in love with you,” I said in a rush, and when the words came out of my mouth, there was a serene silence in the room. It was like I could hear the light bulbs glowing in the room, I could hear her breathing and my own heart beating.
I had never said that word. I didn’t even know what that word sounded like aloud, coming from me.
Ensley gasped when she heard it and then stood up with a jerk.
“I’m in love with you too, Thorn,” she said and threw her arms around my neck.
I was holding her close to myself like I wasn’t prepared to ever let her go. She was the most amazing thing that had happened to me, and even though I thought I had lost her there for a while, she was back in my arms again now. And she loved me! She felt the same things that I was feeling for her!
We fell into bed together, still wrapped up in each other’s arms. I whispered in her ear, everything that I wanted to do to her, and she giggled and snuggled even closer to me.
Outside her room, the sun was rising, and the sky had turned bright. The rest of the city was going to be waking up, and we had just gotten into bed. As much as I loved her, and as desperately as I wanted to fuck her again, with Ensley in my arms and with the threat gone now-we were both falling asleep. It was going to be the best sleep of our lives.