Total pages in book: 39
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 36052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 180(@200wpm)___ 144(@250wpm)___ 120(@300wpm)
“Back off, Bear.” Rocket eased closer to the big man and put a hand on his shoulder. “She’s frightened enough.”
“She knows I ain’t gonna hurt her.” He didn’t take his eyes from me. “You need to tell us everything. Finding out now is one thing. We’re ready for it. But we find out you’re bringin’ a threat to us and not givin’ us time to prepare? Well. That’s totally different.”
There was something in his eyes. Something that told me he was deadly serious. I could also see he was willing me to tell him the truth. Like it meant something to him if I told the truth or not beyond just keeping his club safe. No. This man wanted me to trust him. Which was something I could never do. Wasn’t it?
For a moment, it was just the two of us. He looked into my face, placing a gentle hand on my shoulder to squeeze in encouragement. I wanted to believe him. To trust that he’d understand and not condemn me, and that he’d help me out of a really bad situation. I opened my mouth to tell him everything…
“I told you. I-I was scared of those g-guys following me h-home.” I stumbled over my words. There was a doubt. One little doubt overriding my trust. What if…
I’d been told these guys wouldn’t hesitate to kill me if they thought I was betraying them. While I had no doubt Apple believed they’d help me, I was scared to take that leap of faith. Not when there was more than my own life to think about.
The second I uttered the words, Bear’s expression hardened and he stepped back. He didn’t say anything else, but I could tell he was seeing through me. The thought terrified me. I took a shuddering breath, and hoped like hell it wasn’t my last.
Chapter Two
Bear
She was lying. I’d bet my life on it. The question was, why was she lying? The terrified, vulnerable look in her eyes told me there was more to it than simply lying about what had happened tonight. Trouble was following this girl, and it was headed straight to Grim Road. I knew this like I knew none of it mattered. Not to me. This woman -- Olivia -- she was going to be mine.
Lemon sighed. “Right. OK. I guess we stay here.” Yeah. Our VP knew she was lying, too.
Olivia backed up, moving away from all of us. “What does that mean?”
“Relax, buttercup,” Lemon said, an annoyed look on her face. “No one’s gonna hurt you, but we can’t take you to the compound, and we can’t leave you to your own devices when you’re clearly lying about something to do with the way Bear and Ringo found you. So? Here we are and here we’ll stay until Crush and Byte get a beat on the guys following you.” She raised her eyebrows, giving Olivia a hard look. “Unless you change your story and tell us the truth.”
“I’m not lying.” She shook her head, her eyes wide and terrified. “I was afraid they’d follow me home.”
“Bullshit,” Lemon spat. Now, the VP was all business, not in the mood to fuck around. Olivia flinched, but Lemon didn’t budge. She crossed her arms over her chest and leveled her piercing gaze on Olivia. “But I get why you’d be opposed to telling us what’s really going on. For now. But we still can’t let you leave until we know the truth.”
She looked around at all of us. A trapped little kitten unsure what to do. She was trembling where she stood, but shook her head slightly. “I understand.” Her words were soft and resigned. Like she fully expected us to do something unspeakable but had accepted her fate.
“Christ,” Dom swore, scrubbing a hand over his face. “Can’t help you if we don’t know what you’re facin’, girl,” he muttered. Liv lowered her gaze to the floor and said nothing. “All right, then.” Dom pulled out his phone. “Piston and Venus are in town. They’d be the best choice to stay with her anyway.”
“I’ll call Apple, too,” Lemon said. “They’re friends --”
“No! I don’t want Apple.” Olivia’s head snapped up, her eyes wide and pleading as her gaze found Lemon’s. Then she shook her head several times before continuing more sedately. “I mean, I’m sure she’s busy.” She looked away. “Or something.”
Lemon’s eyes narrowed as she studied the other woman. Then she nodded slowly. “All right. Venus and Piston it is.”
“And me.” No way I was staying out of this one. No fucking way.
“Not sure that’s a great idea, Bear.” Dom studied me carefully and I knew the man saw way more than I was comfortable with.
“I’m claiming her,” I said. Why I said it I had no idea. Didn’t change the facts, but I wasn’t ready for this yet. Not by a long shot. The last thing I wanted to do was claim her, then have her be some kind of spy or informant or something. And I admitted to myself, if those guys really were CIA as Crush said, then, yeah. There was every possibility she’d brought the very people most of us were running from. Maybe not to our front door, but certainly close.