Arya grinned, and I raised a brow at her reaction. “She used to love old cars. Went to the shows with her dad. I bet she’ll love riding in it.”
Taking her for a different kind of ride in my car jolted through my brain, and I decided I’d lost my damn mind.
I gave Arya a short wave and returned to my bike, focusing on anything but the way my angel’s sexy legs would look wrapped around my waist. I parked it in the garage where we all kept our motorcycles, grabbed the bag, and jogged out to another garage where some of us parked cars or trucks.
After tossing the bag in the back seat, I climbed into the driver’s seat and sighed happily at the sweet purr of the engine when I turned the key. I’d restored this baby piece by piece, and she was hot as fuck.
Not as hot as Rylee, my cock whispered.
I banged my head on the steering wheel a couple of times because something was clearly wrong with my brain if it thought my cock was talking…
Shaking my head to clear it, I tried to focus on the task ahead as I drove off the compound and onto the open road.
I had six hours to screw my head on straight.
Probably should have known when I saw her picture that I was permanently screwed.
3
Nova
I waited down the street from Rylee’s house. I would have been worried about a random car on the street making people suspicious, but this part of town had seriously deteriorated in the last couple of years. If I had to guess, I’d have put money on the fact that the mob had overrun things around here. Especially considering the drive-bys I kept seeing. Someone else was keeping an eye on this house, too.
I’d been sitting in the same spot for over eight hours, and she’d never appeared. I’d only popped over to a gas station for a minute here and there to take a leak, so I was confident I hadn’t missed her. I had seen her asshole stepfather come home with a trunk full of beer and pound half a case while watching sports in the living room. The window there gave me a nice clear view, and I kept having daydreams about what the back of his head would look like through a scope.
Finally, at around ten at night, another car pulled into the driveway and parked. A woman who looked remarkably like my—like Rylee—stepped out and hurried inside. She marched into the living room, and they started talking. It quickly escalated into an argument and ended when he roared something and stomped out of the room.
Grade fucking A douche. However, I’d been relieved that he hadn’t struck her. I wasn’t sure I would have been able to keep my gun holstered. The woman, most likely Rylee’s mother, put her head in her hands, and her shoulders shook as she cried.
My whole world paused the next second when Rylee came rushing into the room and threw her arms around her mother. They hugged for a moment, but then her mom pulled away and said something before leaving like her ass was on fire.
Rylee stared out the window, her shoulders drooped and her expression longing and desolate. I had a nearly overwhelming urge to burst inside and scoop her into my arms. To comfort her and assure her everything would turn out okay.
After a few minutes, she turned and left the room, leaving me feeling as if she’d taken away the sun.
I spotted movement in an upstairs window, but it was too big and bulky to be my wo—Rylee. My gut was telling me that her room was on the backside of the house.
A police cruiser drew my attention when it slowly crept by me, and I fought the urge to slump down in my seat because that would only make me look more suspicious.
I fucking hated this place.
I held my breath, hoping it would just continue by, but I always had the shittiest luck whenever I stepped foot in this town.
The cruiser pulled up in front of me, and a cop exited the vehicle. I sighed and flipped on the overhead light, so he could see I didn’t pose a threat.
It was a warm night, so the window was already down when he approached, his hand resting on his holster.
“Evening,” he murmured as his eyes scanned all around me, looking for weapons, drugs, or booze, most likely. When he seemed satisfied that nothing illegal was in plain sight, his posture relaxed just an inch, and he finally met my gaze.
His eyebrows shot up, and he cocked his head to the side. “Nova Rossi?”
I squinted. The brightness in the car and the moon shining behind him made it difficult to clearly see the officer’s face. “Uh, yeah. Do I know you?”
“Kevin Hines, we went to high school together.”
Okay, so maybe my luck wasn’t all bad. Kevin had been a decent kid. Bit of a nerd, but he never looked at me the way the other kids did. And the two times I’d run into him on a trip home after joining the Silver Saints, he shook my hand and said hello.
I turned off the interior light so I had a better view. “Hey, Kevin. I’m sorry, I didn’t recognize you with the lighting and everything.”
“No problem. Listen, man, I’m sorry to ask, but I noticed you earlier when I drove home for lunch. Is there a reason you’re parked out here?”
“Fair question,” I returned. “Do you know Chad Boone?”
Kevin’s face remained mostly neutral, but his mouth tightened at the corners and his eyes turned hard. “Yeah.”
“Apparently, my sister is friends with his stepdaughter. Arya was worried about her, so I promised to come check on her. I didn’t want to step on any toes if everything was fine, though.”
Kevin glanced at Rylee’s house and shook his head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this. But from what I hear, it’s bad. Unfortunately, he hasn’t done anything that would give me cause to arrest him. That I can prove anyway.”
I waited for a minute, mulling over my next words, then decided to be honest. “You know he’s in debt to the mob?”
“I’ve heard, but it’s all speculation.”
“Arya thinks Rylee will be caught in the crossfire.”
“Wouldn’t surprise me.” He paused, then murmured, “Haven’t seen Rylee in a couple of weeks.” His gaze came back to me, and he looked long and hard for a silent minute. Then he stuck his hand out, and we shook. Before letting mine go, he squeezed hard and brought me a little closer to the window. “You do whatever it takes to help that girl.” He smiled and shrugged. “Of course, as a cop, I can’t encourage you to do anything illegal or suggest any course of action, but...I’ll let the precinct know I’ve checked you out and not to bother you. Nobody will be sorry to see that son of a bitch gone.”
Then he released my hand and saluted me with two fingers. “Nice to see you, Nova,” he said before whistling a tune as he walked back to his squad car.
When he was gone, I sat back in my seat, a little stunned at what had just happened. As soon as the cops ran my license plate, they’d know who I was, but he assured me they would leave me alone... Well, well. Someone this town hates more than me.
The comment Kevin had made about not seeing Rylee recently stuck with me long after he was gone and the lights in her house had gone dark. The expression on her face when she’d been staring out the window meant more now.
I was willing to bet that Chad was keeping Arya under lock and key. And, after witnessing at least five cars that practically screamed “mob” crawl in front of their house, I was pretty sure it was because he was waiting for a deal. He didn’t want the Ukrainians snatching her before he could negotiate his freedom.
Speak of the devil...I thought as another car slowed in front of Rylee’s house and inched by, before speeding up when they reached the property line on the other side and disappearing.
Thinking back, I put together a pattern and realized they were sending someone by roughly every two hours.
Which meant I currently had a window of opportunity.
Grabbing a pair of gloves and a lock pick set, I exited my car and silently made my way to Rylee’s house and then around the side where I spotted another entrance. I had the pathetic lock unlatched in seconds and crept into what looked to be their kitchen.
It was an o
pen floor plan, though, so I immediately spotted the stairs leading to the second floor. Years of being a troublemaker, then a patch with the Silver Saints had taught me stealth. Not even a single floorboard creaked on my way up. At the top of the stairs were four doors. Two were open—a bathroom and an office. Through the one on my right, I heard someone sawing a fucking log and knew my hunch about Rylee’s room had been correct.
I stepped up to the final door and tried the knob. Good girl. It was locked up tight. Not that it would keep me out, but I knew it wasn’t me she’d been worried about trying to get inside since she had no idea I was here.
My body froze at the thought. It took every fucking fiber of my being not to turn around and smash into the other bedroom where I’d strangle Chad until he was clinging to life before putting a bullet in his genitals, then between the eyes.
But Rylee was more important.
Inhaling deeply, I refocused before exhaling slow and steady. I released the catch on her door and silently padded inside.
Fucking hell.
Rylee was lying on her back, her head turned toward me, her gorgeous, fluffy hair curling around her angel face, and she had one hand under her cheek. The other was resting on the naked skin of her soft belly, her T-shirt having scrunched itself up just under her fat tits. Her nipples poked through the threadbare fabric, and my mouth filled with saliva while my dick hardened to steel.
Her legs were on complete display because the only other piece of clothing she was wearing was a pair of small, white panties.
My teeth ached to leave little bite marks on those thick thighs before licking her pussy from top to bottom. Somehow, I just knew she was a virgin, and the thought of that tight hole squeezing, first my tongue and then my cock, almost made me come in my pants.
A soft sigh escaped as her rosy lips parted, and my shaft throbbed with the desire to be wrapped up in them. She shifted on the bed, and the moonlight streaming in through her window illuminated her sexy-as-fuck body even more, making her creamy skin glow. The hand on her stomach glided up between the valley of her breasts, drawing the hem of her shirt all the way up as her arm rose above her head before she stretched like a cat.
Her tits popped free of the fabric, and I almost fell to my knees at the sight of her natural double Ds. The cool air made the large nipples distend and harden into taut peaks.
I wanted to fuck those tits, suck on those sweet nipples, and—suddenly, I pictured them beading with drops of milk and her belly even rounder; swollen with my baby inside it.
Holy shit.
I couldn’t fight it anymore.
There was no use in pretending.
This angel is mine.
4
Arya
Waking up to find a man standing near the foot of my bed had been a recurring nightmare for me over the past year. So when my eyes drifted open while I was still half asleep, it took me a moment to realize I wasn’t dreaming. Someone really was in my room.
“What th—”
My gasp was cut off when a calloused palm pressed against my mouth, and a lean male body pinned me to the mattress. “Shh, it sounded to me like your stepdad is passed the fuck out, but you might wake your mom if you make too much noise.”
I started to heave a deep sigh of relief over the fact that Chad hadn’t taken his creepiness to the level of watching me sleep in the middle of the night. Then the reality of my situation hit me—there was a strange man in my room. My stepdad was the least of my concerns at the moment. At least with him, I knew I had a decent chance of fighting him off because he was a lazy slob. But if someone from the Ukrainian mob had grown tired of the endless negotiations and decided to just grab me, then I was in serious trouble.
I started to struggle, twisting my torso and trying to kick out with my legs. My hands gripped his forearm and pulled, but the guy was seriously strong. His lean frame was apparently all muscle, and I quickly regretted my lack of physical activity over the past year. If I’d still been in spots, maybe I would’ve been in better shape to escape his hold. But all I had managed to accomplish so far was for him to press me deeper into the mattress while I got distracted by the scrape of his jean-clad legs against my bare skin.
Holy crap. I went to bed last night in nothing but a T-shirt and panties.
“I need clothes,” I mumbled against his palm. The words came out garbled beyond recognition, but something in my tone caught his attention.
“I’m only gonna lift my hand if you promise to be good, angel. Can’t risk that drunk douchebag waking up and calling in the Ukrainians for reinforcement,” he warned in a barely-there thread of sound.
I stilled, the wheels in my brain starting to turn. The way this guy talked about my stepdad, it sounded as though he hated him almost as much as I did. And I could have sworn there was unbridled fury in his tone when he mentioned the mobsters Chad was trying to sell me to. I released his arm and felt for his chest. When my fingers encountered the unmistakable feel of a leather vest, a spark of hope started to grow in my chest. Arya had told me all about the cuts the guys in the motorcycle club wore when her now-husband gave my friend one of her own that announced to the world that she belonged to him.
It had taken me a couple of weeks to reach out to Arya for help. The night I’d overheard Chad arguing with my mom, he’d spotted me before I had the chance to call my friend. Then he’d dragged me inside and came up with a ridiculous excuse to ground me. No phone, no internet, no leaving the house. I’d basically been held prisoner in my own home since then. I’d gotten lucky a few days ago when my mom left her cell phone charging in the kitchen after she and Chad had gone up to bed. I used it to call Arya. There had been no way for her to let me know if the motorcycle club was willing to help me, and they couldn’t get a hold of me to confirm what I’d told her. Was it possible that they had sent this guy to rescue me?
I nodded my head jerkily.
“You gonna keep quiet?”
Another nod.
“Good girl.”
A totally inappropriate shiver raced up my spine at his low rasp of approval. “Who are you?”
“Shit. Sorry, angel. I forgot there had been no way to let you know that I was coming.” He shifted away from me, and I finally got a good look at his face.
“Oh, my gosh, Nova. You scared the crap out of me.” He’d been standing in the shadows when I first woke up, so I didn’t get a chance to take in his familiar handsome features. I’d obsessed more than a little bit over Arya’s bad boy of an older brother. With his dark hair and eyes, lean muscles, kissable lips, chiseled cheekbones and jawline, and tattoos, Nova was beyond hot. To the point where I’d seriously considered stealing one of his photos the last time Arya had come for a visit because I missed being able to gawk at them now that she didn’t live with her parents anymore.
But looking at a picture that couldn’t do anything back and being in bed half-naked with a living, breathing man who I really didn’t know were two totally different things. Not to mention that I’d learned a painful lesson about how important it was to be careful with which guy you let into your life because of the mess my mom’s less-than-stellar choice had landed me in. All I needed from Nova’s sexy body was the protection it could provide—and I’d remind my ovaries of that fact as often as it took to stop them from exploding just because he was near.
Shoving at his chest, I hissed, “Move so I can put some clothes on and we can get out of here.”
He let out a low groan as he levered off the mattress, and I barely bit back a whimper when I realized it hadn’t been a flashlight in his pocket that I’d felt pressed against my thigh...it had been his dick. The erection he was currently adjusting into a more comfortable position. Because I gave him a hard-on.
Nope. I wasn’t going there, or else I’d forget my seconds-old promise to myself to keep my hands off my friend’s older brother.
I scrambled off my bed and headed straight for my closet. After pulling on a pair of dark jeans, I kept my back
toward Nova while I wiggled into a bra underneath my T-shirt. Once that was done, I tossed a black hoodie sweatshirt on, put on a pair of socks, and shoved my feet into a pair of black sneakers. Then I grabbed an old leather duffel out from under a pile of clothes on the floor of the closet. My dad had used the bag during every vacation we’d taken as far back as I could remember. Turning back around, I whispered, “I’m ready.”
“You got everything you need in there?” Nova asked.
I nodded. “Yeah, I was already pulling together a stash of stuff I wanted to take with me when I split before I found out what my stepdad was up to.”
“Smart.” Nova flashed me an approving grin as he stretched an arm out toward me. I handed him the bag and headed toward the door. He fisted the back of my sweatshirt, stopping me before I twisted the knob. “Hold up, angel. I go first, and you stick close behind me.”
I’d never snuck out of my house before, so I didn’t argue with his plan. I’d asked Arya for help because the guys in the motorcycle club had way more experience with stuff like this than I did, so it made sense to follow Nova’s lead as we crept along the hallway and down the stairs. I held my breath, afraid to make any sound until we were safely outside. When I spotted the classic Mustang parked across the street, I let out a low whistle. “My dad would’ve loved this car.”
“If we get out of here clean, I’ll think about letting you behind the wheel for part of the ride back,” Nova offered as he tossed my bag on the back seat next to another duffel.
I rubbed my hands together in anticipation. “Really?”
Those kissable lips of his curved at the edges. “Between the gas station and a drive-through for some food, sure.”
“That works for me.” I could have a lot of fun in the driver’s seat of this baby for even just a mile. My dad had taught me how to drive before he died, and he’d been proud of the fact that I was hell on wheels. But Nova would have to learn that about me himself—preferably while I drove his car like I stole it.
Nova: Silver Saints MC Page 2