I enter the motel room and throw my bag on the bed. I’m exhausted. We’ve been driving for what seems like hours, only stopping now and then for toilet breaks and snacks, updating Hazel’s brother via text messages along the way.
My own phone has been ringing off the hook with calls and messages from Blake. I haven’t answered one of them. I don’t want to hear all his threats, it will only make me more terrified than I already am. No, I need to think of this baby inside of me and get it and me to safety. I’ve been whining for the last hour that I need a proper meal, but she insisted we drive on till we reached a motel for the night.
So now that we’re all checked in, and Hazel being the awesome best friend that she is, she’s gone to get us some takeout while I rest. But I feel edgy and can’t sit still. A shower, that’s what I need, something to take the edge off, and since alcohol is out of the question…. Opening my bag, I grab underwear and a tank top and head toward the bathroom.
Just before I enter the shower, I hear my phone ring, but when I grab it, I realize it’s not my phone; it’s Hazel’s. We must have accidently swapped phones in the car. Our covers are almost the same, so it’s easy to do. The screen displays it’s a private number calling, and I contemplate whether to answer it or not. I’m tempted to in case it’s something important, but instead I reject the call. If it’s important they’ll call back. Hazel can deal with it when she returns.
While I’m rinsing shampoo out of my hair, I hear a sound that seems to be coming from the main room. Unsure if I’m just imagining things, I slide open the glass shower door and pop my head out, trying to hear anything further, but I hear nothing. I remember locking the door to the room, before I gave Hazel the key to let herself in, but she can’t be back already, surely? I must be hearing things.
Closing the shower door again, I continue washing, taking my sweet time and enjoying the warm water as it soothes my bruises, careful to be gentle where it still hurts. Once I’m done I thoroughly dry my hair with the towel provided, and then lightly dry the remaining drops of water from my body, barely skimming over where my bruising is. I slip on my panties and tank top, and while brushing my hair I decide to leave it damp and go to bed like it is. I’m too tired to find the hair dryer right now, and just need to fall flat on my bed and go to sleep.
Opening the door to enter the main room, my first step off the tiles and onto the carpet brings me almost face-to-face with a complete stranger sitting on the edge of the bed closest to the bathroom. Shocked and afraid for my life, I scream for help, but my cries are soon muted when a hand covers my mouth, muffling all my protests.
“You’d better shut your mouth the fuck up before I shut it for you,” a deep, male voice whispers in my ear. Tears run down my cheeks, and my eyes travel to the man still seated on my bed. He’s dressed in jeans and a leather jacket. Then my gaze moves to the very tall, well-built man standing by the door of the small motel room. Oh God, there’s three of them. What am I going to do?
The one on the bed says, “Where the fuck is my sister?”
My eyes widen at his words. Sister? Could this…. Is this Kane? I try to respond but can’t, the hand over my mouth making it difficult.
“Let her go, Tracker,” the man orders from the bed, lifting his chin toward us. Once this Tracker guy lets go, I run straight for the door, scrambling desperately to unlock it, but I’m caught swiftly by the big giant guarding it, who grabs me in his arms and pulls me into him.
“Let me go, you jerk!” I yell, kicking and screaming as my feet leave the floor. I hear a husky laugh coming from the direction of the bed, and I turn and focus on that guy, ignoring the one attached to the steel arms still surrounding me. “I’m guessing you’re Kane?” I growl out, narrowing my eyes at him.
His eyebrows raise in a surprised look, and then draw together. Oh my God, the man is seriously hot… although, not the time to be noticing something like that, Charity.
He gets up from the bed and walks toward me. “Trigger, call me Trigger,” he says distractedly, his gaze dropping from mine down to my breasts, where I know my nipples are showing through my thin tank top, then further down my torso, and finally to my bare legs.
Who does he think he is? Hazel’s brother may be seriously hot, but what an asshole.
“Have you had a good enough look? Like what you see?” I ask him, sarcasm running like honey through my voice.
I hear a chuckle come from behind me, the chest against my back rumbling with it—Mr. Giant is laughing at my sassy comment.
Kane, or Trigger, or whatever the hell his name is, licks his bottom lip when his eyes move back up to my breasts, and without any warning I feel heat pool in my panties. His mouth, his lips, the way he’s undressing me with his eyes, is seriously hot. He inches even closer to me, and the smell of his cologne mixed with leather and cigarettes turns me on even more. Shit, this pregnancy is making me horny as hell.
Suddenly the door to the motel room starts to unlock, but Mr. Giant quickly holds it closed with one hand while his other holds me to him even tighter. “Open the goddamn door!” a familiar voice yells out from outside. Loud banging on the door begins, and Mr. Giant must recognize Hazel’s voice, because he unlocks and opens the door using his free hand, revealing a very pissed-off Hazel standing on the doorstep, her hand raised and ready to knock again.
“What the hell are you…?” She stops, then frowns, focused solely on Mr. Giant. A look of realization and recognition dawns on her face, and my chest relaxes a touch. “Bear? Is that you?”
Hazel eyes widen when she notices that this “Bear” guy has his arm securely around me, holding me tight.
She storms into the room, then stops suddenly when she spies Kane on the other side of me. “Kane? Oh my God, Kane! What are you doing here?” she squeals, then moves forward and throws herself into his waiting arms.
“Let go of me, you jerk,” I growl, trying to get out of Bear’s hold now that I’m sure I’m no longer in any danger from the three beefcakes in my room.
Hazel turns around in Kane’s arms and laughs. “Let go of her, Bear. This is my friend Charity.”
He finally releases me, and my feet plant squarely back onto the floor. I turn to face him. “You’re an asshole,” I say to his face, then turn and glare at hot biker boy. “What the hell is going on here?”
Kane let’s go of his sister and rests his hands on his hips, looking from Hazel over to me. “So, this is your friend Charity, hey? The one who’s got you in some trouble?”
“Now just a min—” I stop speaking when he gently pushes Hazel aside and steps closer to me, his nose now mere inches from mine. His scent surrounds me, and I try to control my hormones.
“What have you got my sister into? She’s a good girl. You runnin’ from a pimp, or something?” he snarls in my face.
Pimp? No, he did not just call me a whore. Without any hesitation I slap him—I slap him so hard my hand turns numb from the strike. His head whips to the side with the force of the hit, and I begin to walk backward when I see his face again, this time looking like it’s set in stone. Shit, what did I do that for? Well, for starters, he called you a whore.
Standing to my full height—which is not that tall at all—and with all the courage I can muster, I rest my hands on my hips and state, “How dare you call me a whore, I’m not running from any pimp.”
He storms toward me then, and I step back even further, my back hitting a wall.
“Kane, stop it!” Hazel yells at him, but he doesn’t listen, and when he reaches me he places his hands against the wall on either side of me, caging me in. He smirks down at me, but it’s not a happy smirk—he’s pissed off. I notice his cheek is turning red from my slap, and I can just make out my handprint emerging. Trying to conceal my terror, I swallow hard and lift my chin.
“You’re going to be sorry you did that, Charity,” he warns, his gaze boring into my barely brave one. I cross my arms over my chest, feeling exposed all of a sudden. The air between us is thick with… something, so much so you could cut a knife through it. His mouth is now only inches away from mine, and for some reason I want to taste him. I’ve only just met this man, but my God, he is so drop-dead sexy to me. How can he have me so angry I slap him one minute, then wanting to jump his bones the next?
“Kane, stop it,” Hazel yells out again, pulling on his shoulder, trying to drag him away from me.
Kane just ignores her and keeps staring down at me. “We’re not done yet, spitfire,” he whispers to me after a moment.
I raise my brows. “Spitfire?”
He ignores my question, then slowly moves back, removing his hands from the wall and turning to his sister. “Hazel, you’d better start explaining what the fuck is going on. I left you in safe hands at the campus, and now your calling me sayin’ you need help?”
He takes off his leather jacket as he walks back toward the bed, and places it on top of the plain blue comforter. He’s wearing a leather cut beneath, and I can make out the words stenciled into the leather patch on it: Trigger—Blood Brothers MC. I turn to my left and see the guy who had his hand over my mouth watching me, his gaze travelling over my body. When his eyes meet mine, he smiles, and a dimple appears. My God, these men look like they’ve just come out of a bad-boy magazine. All of them are panty-dropping hot. Feeling vulnerable and exposed, I walk to my bag, which is on the bed, and quickly seek out a T-shirt and some pants. I cover myself up quickly, wanting to hide my near-nakedness from the prying eyes of these virtual strangers. Kane watches my every move as Hazel explains things to him, and I blush at the way his eyes devour my body while she speaks.
Without warning, Kane growls and storms over to where I’m standing and grasps my neck, not hard enough he’s hurting me, but enough to twist my face from side to side in his hold. “That motherfucker laid a hand on you?”
I’m not sure how to answer him, and I go limp when I realize he’s really looking at my face now, likely noticing for the first time the bruising around my eye.
“There’s more bruising, Kane,” Hazel says from beside me. “He hurt her, said he was going to kill her if she didn’t get an abortion, we had no choice but to run.”
Kane’s face turns to stone once more, and I’m sure I can hear his teeth grinding in his jaw. He looks up and down my body and stops at my stomach with the mention of the fact I’m pregnant. Tears well in my eyes when his look turns soft and he can’t seem to look away from where my child rests inside me.
Finally, he drops his hand from my neck and lifts it to rub at his jaw. “What’s your man’s name?”
“He’s not my man anymore,” I say, allowing the tears to fall.
“Name, Charity,” he grinds out, jaw tight.
“Blake,” I answer shakily, wiping away my tears with both hands. “He’s an MMA fighter.”
He stills. “Not Blake Reynolds?”
I nod. “That’s the one,” Hazel answers for me.
Bear whistles from the doorway, as if to say far out.
“Fuck,” Kane curses, then begins to pace the floor of the small room. The guy whose name is Tracker walks up to Kane and mumbles something to him I can’t make out. Kane nods and grabs his phone out of a pocket in his jeans.
“What’s going on?” I ask, but they ignore me.
Hazel sits down beside me. “Don’t worry about them, they’re just doing their biker stuff.”
I frown. “Biker stuff?”
She shrugs, and I look back over at the men. “What’s going on?” I ask again.
Kane looks over at me, and then Hazel. “I need to make a few calls. Get some rest, both of you,” he says. His eyes narrow, looking straight into mine. “You tell anyone where you were heading?”
I shake my head. “No.... I just packed a bag and took off when Blake left for the gym.”
“Fuck, I can’t believe Blake Reynolds is your man,” Bear states, a look of almost pride on his face.
Kane whips his head toward him, and growls, “Shut the fuck up, you think a man who lays a hand on a woman is something to be proud of?”
Bears eyes draw together. “Not sayin’ that, man. Just saying… you know… Blake Reynolds, MMA champion. Didn’t you fight him back in the day, Trigg?”
I gasp. Kane fought Blake?
“Don’t remember,” Kane replies quickly, but something in his tone and his body language tells me he does. He looks over at Hazel and me. “Me and my boys have a room next door. You lock this door when we leave,” he commands, opening it and turning the knob a couple of times to test its durability. He briefly looks over at me. “Sorry we scared you. Are you okay?”
I can see he’s genuinely sorry, and I nod. “Yes, I’m fine.”
“You both need anything?”
“Um… where’s dinner, Hazel?”
“Oh crap, I dropped it by the door when I couldn’t open it.”
Kane walks over and grabs the bag of takeout off the ground, setting it on the small round table beside the window. “Sorry about ruining your dinner, you want me to go out and get you something else?”
I contemplate whether or not to say yes, but decide I’ve had too much excitement for one night and just want to head to bed. “No, thank you, I’ll be fine.”
He narrows his eyes. “You need to eat, with a baby and all.”
“She will,” Hazel replies as she opens the bag and pulls out some fries. “Look, the fries are fine.” She eats a couple.
Kane nods in response. “Okay, you come get us if you need us. We’ll leave first thing in the morning,” he adds.
Hazel walks over to Kane and gives him a hug. “Thank you. Thank you for helping us out,” she says softly into his chest.
His eyes stay on mine as he hugs her back, then he pulls back, kissing her on top of her head. “I’ll come get you in the morning,” is all he says.
“Okay,” Hazel responds, and he turns around at that and walks out the door. Tracker looks at me and smirks then walks out behind him, followed by Bear.
What the hell just happened?