Chapter 5

Jackson

What chance did I have?

My cock raged for her pussy. She was an image from my own secret fantasies. I wanted to pinch myself just to check I wasn’t dreaming. I couldn’t have designed a better creature for my seduction.

Her blue eyes seemed to drink me in. I ached for her. This beautiful, delicate creature was going to be mine. She was straight up offering herself.

A gift.

I was going to possess her, body and soul, and fill the emptiness of my life with something beautiful—something terrible, and tragic, and heavenly.

She needed help—real help. The kind of help that could get a man killed. She needed me.

But there was something else.

I needed her. I needed her like my life depended on it.

Little did she know, but I was going to take more from her than she ever dreamed. She said she’d give me everything. If only she knew what I had in mind. Whatever price she thought she was paying, she was wrong. She wouldn’t just be mine for the night, she would be mine forever, in ways she couldn’t imagine.

“So you’ve run out on Wolf?” I said.

She nodded.

“It’s not going to be easy to get away from him.”

“I know.”

“The rest of Los Lobos will join the hunt.”

“What choice do I have?” she said, her emotion rising to the surface.

“Relax. You did the right thing. You can’t live your life under the thumb of a man like that.”

“I just couldn’t take it anymore,” she said, tears filling her eyes.

“It’s all right,” I said. “Do you have a plan?”

“I was going to run for the border. I’ll figure something once I’m across.”

“You don’t know where you’ll go?”

“I don’t have anywhere.”

“Do you have any money?”

She shook her head.

“That’s a terrible plan,” I said. “You won’t get far at all. He’ll find you.”

“That’s not your problem. Just drive me to the border and forget all about me. You’ll have everything you want from me by then.”

“Will I?”

“You want what every man wants, right?”

She pulled her skirt up on her thigh, giving me the tiniest glimpse of the black satin of her panty.

She was a torment. Fuck, my cock wanted that pussy. It throbbed and crushed against my jeans. I had to adjust my position.

I could tell this didn’t come naturally to her. She hated what she was doing, bartering her pussy for help. But she was paying for freedom, and I respected that. The world was full of people who accepted their fate without a fight. She wasn’t one of them.

“Maybe I want more than that,” I said.

“Whatever you want, you’ll be done with me by the time we reach the border.”

“I don’t think so.”

“What are you talking about?”

“If you knew what I wanted from you, you’d run from me too.”

“It can’t be as bad as what Wolf wants.”

“You’re telling me I can have whatever I want, but that’s only because you’re desperate. When it comes time to pay the price, you might regret what you’ve bartered.”

“And you’ll make me pay every penny?”

“When the dancing’s done, the fiddler always gets his pay.”

She started to cry. “Look, I’m not here to bargain. I need your help. If Wolf finds me, he’ll destroy me. You can either help me or you can leave me here for him. I’ll give you whatever I have. I don’t care what you want. Take it and help me, or stop wasting my time. I won’t go back to Los Lobos. I’ll die first.”

I was silent for a moment. I looked at her, took in the details. What was I doing? I’ve taken a lot of things from people in my life, but never something like this. I usually take from those who can afford to give, and I take money, not something personal. Not something vital.

But I’m a thief at heart, a bandit, and I wanted this woman’s body, all of it, more than I’d ever wanted anything else in the world.

“Stop crying,” I said. “I’ll get Wolf off your back.”

“How?”

“Leave that to me.”

“And what about his gang? Los Lobos is a brutal pack of killers.”

“All men are brutal killers,” I said, “or have the potential to be.”

She looked at me. It was the first time she truly saw me for who I was. Fear crossed her eyes. I meant my words. Brutal killer. She could see it.

“What if you die?” she said.

I spread my hands in a gesture of helplessness. “If I die, I die.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means you’ll have already fulfilled your part of the bargain. In return for that, I’m willing to give you my life.”

She nodded. “And this arrangement, what exactly is it? What am I offering in return for your help? You keep saying I’ll regret it, but you don’t say what it is.”

I didn’t like forcing her into this position, this horrible choice. She deserved better, but I was the only one there, the only one who could protect her. We needed each other.

“It’s everything,” I said. “That’s all I can tell you.”

She looked at me again, assessing me, trying to decide what sort of devil she was making this pact with.

“All right,” she said at last. “Let’s do it.”

“You sure?”

She nodded.

And as easy as that, we’d both given ourselves up to fate. I’d taken on a fight I couldn’t win and in return, without even realizing it, she’d offered me the child I wanted. I knew just by looking at her, she’d be a good mother to it. Some things you can tell at a single glance.

“Does Wolf have any idea where you are?” I said.

“I don’t even know where I am.”

“All right,” I said. “I’m taking you to one of the rooms.”

“Okay,” she said. One look in her eyes told me she meant it.

I beckoned the bartender.

“You rent the rooms?”

He nodded.

“We need one.”

“Sure,” he said. “They’re fifty for the hour. A hundred for the night.”

I left a hundred-twenty on the bar, grabbed her hand, and led the way out to the rain. We were both soaked anyway. Our room was across the lot. We ran.