Valentina wiped her sweaty palms on the thighs of her jeans as she surveyed the thick black forest that loomed dark and threatening on both sides of the long, winding road.
Dumb. Idea.
Bad. Bad. Bad. Idea.
“What are you muttering about?” Gia switched on the high beams as they made their way slowly down the dark, deserted road. The so-called road was really no more than a wide, rocky path, and it was beating the hell out of the car’s suspension system. Both girls jumped in their seats as the undercarriage bottomed out before it took another nosedive into a pothole. They held their breath until the forward motion of the engine jostled them out of the rut and put them on solid ground again.
Valentina bit down on her lip and felt a tremor of fear run through her. They were in the middle of nowhere and dangerously close to getting stuck in this ridiculous minefield of a road. Valentina was going to be damned if she was going to leave the safety of the car and trudge back down the wide path through that deep darkness to get help. She had checked her cell twice, and the service was weirdly in and out. It was almost as if something was jamming the frequency.
“Let’s turn around, Gia, while we still can. I have a bad feeling about this.” Valentina sent her cousin a pleading look.
“Oh, hush. You had the chance to back out when we were at the house changing our clothes. Besides, we don’t have to stay long. And I doubt that we’ll ever get another chance to go to an after-wedding biker party. It’ll be fun. We’ll be fine if we just stick together.” Gia slowed the car down and peered through the windshield at the unlit road ahead. “We should be there any minute.”
“Any minute? I don’t think we’re even going the right way, then.” Valentina pinned her gaze to the navigation system. “Just stop here for a second, and let me look at the screen. It says that we are supposed to take a left turn another 800 feet ahead, but I can’t believe that there’s another road up there.”
“Goddamn it. I hate to admit it, but I think you might be right.” Gia tapped a long crimson-lacquered nail on the GPS screen. “I don’t get it. I plugged in the coordinates that Riker gave me. But I agree, there doesn’t seem like there can be anything up ahead but more of this shitty road and those spooky trees. Roll down your window and see if you can hear anything.” Gia chewed on her bottom lip.
“You roll down your window,” Valentina retorted while visions of a forest filled with angry grizzly bears, rutting bucks, and feral cats ran through her mind.
“Oh, for god sakes, I thought you were sorting out the whole ‘I’m afraid of everything’ thing with your therapist.” Gia huffed, but Valentina noticed that she didn’t roll down her window either.
“And I thought you were sorting out the whole ‘I like bad boys’ thing with yours,” Valentina retorted.
“Yeah, well, it’s a work in progress…” Gia’s voice trailed off as she once again peered into the inky darkness. “But yeah, this is starting to get creepy.”
“Starting to get creepy? I think we passed creepy about a quarter mile back.” Valentina peered out into the inky darkness again.
“Okay. Let’s get the hell out of here. I think I might be able to turn around right here. Just keep an eye out on your side and tell me if I’m about to ram into anything.” Gia began to turn the steering wheel hard to the right.
Just as Gia was about to put the car in reverse, the rumble of loud pipes and the beam of a single headlight came barreling down from the road ahead of them. Before the girls had time to register what was happening, the biker had eased his Harley next to the car. One large, black- leather gloved hand rapped on the driver’s side window while the other pulled down the skull bandana that covered the lower half of his face. “You lookin’ for me, beautiful?” Riker flashed Gia a bright smile.
Gia look at him with a mixture of relief and confusion. “How did you know we were here?’
“Darlin’, we’ve had you on our radar for about ten minutes.”
“You’ve been watching us this whole time?” Valentina raised an eyebrow because the already too high creep factor just rose exponentially.
Riker swiveled his head past Gia to give Valentina his full attention. “You’ve been on Saints’ property for about three miles now, as soon as you took that turn off the interstate. We got eyes on this road, and there are more cameras leading up to the clubhouse. We had a little bit of trouble a few months back. Along with some of the other shit we did to secure the compound, we put in some added surveillance around the perimeter. Waited for you to come up the road, but when you didn’t, I headed down to see what the fuck.”
“We didn’t see any cameras.” Gia pouted prettily at him. “We thought we were lost.”
“Well, that’s the whole idea, sweetheart. So, are you two gorgeous ladies ready to come on up and celebrate Saints style?” With reluctance, Riker lifted his eyes from Gia’s generously displayed cleavage and focused on her face.
Before Valentina could respond in the negative, Gia gave Riker a wide smile and threw his words back at him. “Well, that’s the whole idea, sweetheart.” Valentina watched on in resignation as Gia wiggled her ass in the low bucket seat and fondled the shifter lever as if she were delivering a promise.
Riker couldn’t take his eyes off her.
“So, you gonna take me there?” Gia’s voice was low and seductive and made Valentina want to vomit. This little foray into no-man’s land was going to set her cousin back weeks in therapy.
“Oh yeah, baby. I’m gonna take you places that you’ve never gone before.” Riker reached in and traced the rough pad of his thumb along Gia’s bottom lip. Then he gave her a wicked grin before he tugged the road scarf back up over his face, fired up his bike, and pulled out in front of them. He looked back and hollered. “Let’s get this party started!”
Valentina sighed as Gia put the car in gear and followed Riker down the god-forsaken road.
Once they made the turn that would take them to the clubhouse, Valentina was surprised to find that the condition of the road they were on in stark contrast to the one they had just left. The direct road leading to the clubhouse was smooth and newly paved. There were security cameras in obvious display every several yards and motion detection lights set high on poles that lit up as the car approached. The whole area was lined on either side with a twelve-foot electric fence. The fence itself was finished off with a topping of curled razor barbed-wire.
“Did Riker say the Saints had a little bit of trouble? Looks like they’re prepped for a goddamn zombie apocalypse,” Gia said as she passed the neon-yellow triangular sign that read: High Voltage—Danger of Death.
Valentina stayed quiet as her thoughts turned to that dark night months ago when Dolly, Pinky, Claire, and Raine had paced the floor of the Abruzzi mansion waiting for word about their men. And although the exact details of the posing threat had not been made clear, Valentina had been able to tell by the way her father had instructed his security team that the menace to both organizations, La Familia and the MC, was imminent, wide-spread, and deadly.
“Someone has attacked the compound!” Glory Thomas had shouted out the terrifying announcement.
Valentina had stood at the top of the stairwell of her father’s house and watched Glory’s frenzied arrival. She remembered how hysterical and panicked Glory had been —her voice near shouting as she described the horror of the attack that she had left behind.
But mostly what Valentina remembered about that night was the way the women had circled their wagons. How they had given each other such comfort and support while awaiting news of their men.
Despite the horror of the circumstance, Valentina remembered how much she had envied the close bond the women shared with one another and how much she had wanted to be a part of that. Gia hadn’t come back yet from her disastrous stint on the West Coast, and Valentina had been left to deal with the aftermath of the earthquake on her own. She had never felt more alone in her life.
The spirit of sisterhood that had blanketed the Saints women in solidarity was something that Valentina had wanted and needed. But when she had tried to navigate her way through to their inner circle— when she walked into the room where they had all gathered—she had found them gossiping about her.
Twice.
The second time she decided to meet the unanswered questions and speculation head on.
It was the first and last conversation Valentina had had with the former Marine Captain Hallelujah Thomas. That is if the awkward and stilted words she had managed to stammer out while he looked at her, silent and brooding, could be called a conversation. Still, Valentina could not escape the feeling of destiny that swept over her the first time she had seen Hal standing in the kitchen of her father’s house. He had appeared to her to be a scarred and noble knight watching over the womenfolk and keeping them safe from harm.
Valentina had thought Hal beautiful. She thought that he was beautiful in the way that a harsh, wintry landscape or a deadly glittering ice storm could be beautiful. He was a huge Nordic-looking man, uncompromising in every angle. The square of his strong jaw and the boldness of his features were a perfect setting for eyes so icy-blue and hair so pale-blond that he almost seemed unworldly—like Valentina imagined the Archangel Michael to look. And just like Michael, Hal was a warrior.
The deep, ugly scars that riddled his face, and the angry, thick burn tissue that marked his body lay testimony to his fortitude and courage. Valentina cringed to remember their one and only full-length conversation—the one where she described, in detail, just how damaged she was.
Good going, Valentina. Way to reel him in. Because isn’t that what every man wants— a frightened, paranoid woman whose claim to fame was being buried alive under third world earthquake rubble?
Valentina knew as soon as the words were out of her mouth that she shouldn’t have said them. But she couldn’t stand the thought of being gossiped about in her own home either. Might as well set the story straight from the beginning, and then they could think whatever they wanted to about her—Hal could think whatever he wanted about her.
Valentina tried not to care but she could not get Hal out of her mind. When the invitation to the wedding of Glory and Jules came, Valentina saw it as her chance. Not only had she paid an outrageous sum for the pale-yellow designer dress she wore, but Valentina had practiced several opening lines over and over again in front of the mirror like a pubescent teenager, hoping that she would get a chance to talk to Hal.
However, much to Valentina’s exceeding disappointment she had not been able to catch up with him during the reception. She had caught Hal looking at her once though. Just before she and her father were seated for the ceremony, Valentina had felt a spark of heat run up her spine. She turned to catch Hal looking at her ass, and instead of giving him one of Gia’s come-hither looks, Valentina had become as flustered as an old hen. Much to her chagrin and to Hal’s amusement, she had become completely undone under his scrutiny.
Valentina had caught glances of him now and then at the reception but by the time the music began to play, Hal was gone and her opportunity to speak to him was lost.
Still, the pull Valentina felt towards Hal from that very first encounter stayed with her. It was the main and only reason Valentina let her cousin talk her into going along to the party at the Saints clubhouse tonight. Valentina really hoped that she would run into Hal.
In retrospect, she should have known better than to let herself be swept along by another one of her cousin’s outrageous ideas. In Valentina’s experience, she knew that one unwise decision usually led to another, especially where Gia was concerned; if Valentina had taken even a moment to have a logical thought, she would not have been stupid enough to choose a wild biker party to test the waters of her still fragile mind.
Hindsight.
The bitch of it is—that it always comes too late.