by Bella Rose
Thorn was sniffling, but he at least went back to his bike and remounted. Griffin longed to take Leah in his arms and comfort her, but he wasn’t sure what would be welcome and what wouldn’t. Around him he could see the others preparing to ride, but he also noticed the way they were staring at Leah. There was respect on their faces. They might not completely understand her or her reasons for staying away for so long, but they understood bravery and they respected the hell out of it.
“Our girl showed some grit tonight,” Curtis commented. “Damn.” He whistled just as Hobbs approached. “Did you see the way she just stood there and cut Joe down to size? Priceless.”
Hobbs grunted. “All except for the part where she just made herself into a prime Demon Lover target. They’re never going to stop bugging her now.”
“We need to keep an eye on her,” Griffin told them quietly as he remounted his bike. He pushed the button to start the motor. “Try trading off so I don’t get any more flack than I already will about having someone watch her.”
“She’s an independent girl,” Curtis agreed. “I think I’m starting to like her a lot more.”
“Yeah,” Hobbs agreed. “She’s like fungus that way. She just grows on you.”
They started laughing and shoving each other, nearly knocking over their bikes. Even in this midst of all this tension and danger, it was good to hear his friends having fun and being silly. It was one of the things that Griffin valued most about his life with the crew. There was always time for a joke or a talk or just someone to spend time with. As an only child, he’d been lonely as hell at home. But he’d grown up within the crew, and they were his family. He was more conscious than ever that Leah hadn’t had that luxury as a child.
The crew took off from the overlook and headed home. The gate swung open as soon as they returned and then slammed shut behind them with a satisfying clang. They were on home turf, and everyone went their own way. There were waves, salutes, and more than a few fingers given in jest. But this was the way it was supposed to be. And when Griffin made it to the driveway of the big house, he had nobody but Thorn and Leah with him.
The three of them parked their bikes and shut off the engines. For the first time, Thorn seemed to notice that his sister had been riding a motorcycle instead of driving her ridiculous clown car.
“Where did you get the bike?” Thorn grunted.
Leah didn’t seem to mind his tone, which bordered on downright rude. At least she ignored it. “I borrowed it from Rayna.”
“I didn’t even know you could ride,” Thorn said grudgingly. “You’re not bad.”
“Thanks, kid.” She snorted and then grabbed him by his shoulders. She put him in a headlock and rubbed his tousled head. “I’m so glad you don’t think I’m a total loser. Dad taught me, too, you know?”
Leah felt almost as if she were trying to juggle glass. She wanted to be low key with Thorn to at least try and get him to relax around her. But she wasn’t going to put up with his rudeness forever.
“Did you really know Joe when you were little?” Thorn wanted to know. “How come he didn’t tell me?”
“He thought you had what he wanted. He didn’t want you to know that he was trying to use you. He was Uncle Joe to me when I was a kid because Mama used to have him come over to fix things.”
“So she used him too!” Thorn seemed to marvel at this.
“I suppose you could say that.”
Leah swallowed back a lump and wondered if she was about to shoot this fragile peace all to hell. “Thorn, you need to get some rest so you’ll be able to work for a few hours in the barn tomorrow.”
“I don’t want to.” His expression was mulish. “I hate working in there.”
“Why?” Leah could not fathom why a kid who liked motorcycles wouldn’t want to learn how to customize them. “Why do you hate it?”
“I feel stupid,” he mumbled. His head was down, and he was scuffing the toe of his boot into the carpet.
Leah could feel Griffin’s presence behind her, but to his credit, he stayed out of the conversation. She took a deep breath and tried to understand. “Is it because you don’t know a lot about fixing bikes and stuff?”
“Dad never did that kind of thing.”
Griffin cleared his throat. “Deacon wasn’t mechanically inclined, Thorn. That didn’t mean he didn’t wish that he could do that stuff.”
“What if I’m not mechanically inclined either?” Thorn whispered.
Leah leaned in closer. “What if you just need a chance to learn? You can read, right?”
“Yeah.”
“So you can follow directions. There are books that have lists of instructions on how to fix things. Even when you were a baby you were always taking things apart and putting them back together. Don’t let your fear of failure stop you from learning something that would really mean something to you.”
“You think I could?” Thorn’s throat moved as he swallowed. “Learn to build a bike?”
Griffin reached and gently punched Thorn in the shoulder. “I’ll go out there with you tomorrow, kid. Nevins works Sundays, too. We’ll both show you a couple things. If anyone else gives you shit, we’ll just kick their asses.”
“Okay.” Thorn nodded his head, and for the first time, Leah saw the light of interest in his eyes. “It’s a deal.”
Chapter Twenty
Leah blinked and came awake with a start. She was in what had once been one of her mother’s carefully decorated guest rooms in the farmhouse. It was surreal to sleep inside that house. By the time they had all gone to bed the night before, Griffin had mumbled something about not needing to push things anymore for one night. Then he’d disappeared into the master bedroom and shut the door.
Leah hadn’t wanted to face the fact that she was disappointed that Griffin had been such a gentleman. In fact, she had maybe wanted him to be a little ungentlemanlike. She’d been thinking that the two of them would stay up and talk for a while before they went to bed.
Sitting up, she chuckled and rubbed her hands over her face. What did she think they were? An old couple from a fifties television show? Now she threw her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. Her old flannel pajama pants were baggy as hell. She liked the snuggly comfort of the worn pants, but now she realized that Griffin was going to see her in all her early morning bedhead, no-makeup glory. It was a little startling. They didn’t know each other that well, and yet they lived together now. It was going to take a lot of adjustment.
Feeling just a little bit disgruntled, Leah pulled on an even baggier sweatshirt and put her hair up in a messy ponytail. If he was going to see her looking like a homeless person, he might as well get the whole picture. Then she pushed her way out of the bedroom and headed downstairs. The least she could do was to see if there was anything in the kitchen that could make a decent breakfast.
She heard the voices before she even made it to the bottom of the stairs. Griffin and Thorn were talking in awfully animated tones for such an early hour on a Sunday morning. Leah walked into the kitchen with what she knew was a surprised expression on her face.
“I can’t believe you guys are up!” She looked from Griffin to Thorn.
“We don’t sleep in around here,” Griffin informed her. “I got the kid up and told him he needed to get himself ready to go do some work in the barn.”
Leah raised her eyebrows at Thorn. “And you just popped right out of bed?”
“It sounds like it might be fun.” Thorn sounded like he was working pretty hard to seem disinterested. “I thought I might learn some stuff that’ll let me do some mods to my bike.”
“If you want mods for your bike, you need to talk to me,” Griffin said. “I’m the one who did the original work.”
“Really?” The expression on Thorn’s face was pure awe. “Dad never told me who did it.”
Leah could well imagine that Deacon wouldn’t have wanted to risk the chance that his son would start to idolize someone else. But at least
this gave the guys something to talk about. It also apparently distracted Griffin enough that he didn’t seem to notice her baggy pajama pants and ratty appearance. Go figure.
Griffin tried not to stare at Leah, but it was a little difficult considering she looked as if she’d just rolled out of bed after a night of good loving. How could a woman be so beautiful with little to no effort first thing in the morning? With those baggy pajamas and her hair up she looked young and almost innocent. Her green eyes were luminous even without makeup, and her skin was clear and smooth.
“So will you show me?” Thorn asked eagerly.
For the life of him, Griffin couldn’t remember what the kid had just asked. But that didn’t really matter. He just nodded. “Sure. I can do that.”
Then Griffin winked at Leah and enjoyed the fact that she blushed. Not enough women blushed these days. It was too bad. They were all jaded and manipulative. Nobody was honest or straightforward anymore. Leah had always been different. He was so glad to see that she still was.
“We’re heading out,” Griffin told her with a smile. “Do you need anything before we go?”
She glanced around at the kitchen and then he saw her gaze drift toward the living room. “I’m thinking a purge and clean are in order. I’ll probably just get started. I might need some cleaning products before the day is done. I’m not sure what we have. If I’m not here when you get back, I’ll be at the store.”
“Sounds good.” He gestured to his phone. “You can text me if you need anything.”
It was all so bizarrely domestic and normal. Griffin couldn’t help but feel incredibly satisfied by that. He’d never expected to have a life like this one. Now he put his arm around Thorn and the two of them walked out the front door.
They had made it barely twenty yards from the front door before Thorn dove right in. “Do you really love my sister?”
“Does it matter?” Griffin asked carefully.
“Yes.” Thorn nodded. “It’s not fair that she had to marry someone just because of me if the two of you don’t even like each other.”
“That would be unfair,” Griffin agreed. “But I’ve known your mom a long time and I like her a lot.”
“So maybe you could eventually love her, right?” Thorn sounded hopeful.
“It’s nice of you to worry about your sister.”
“I told her I hate her,” Thorn admitted. He swayed when he walked, kicking his toes through the new fallen leaves. “I don’t though.”
“Sometimes it’s easier if people don’t realize how much we care,” Griffin told the kid. It didn’t take him long to realize that he was suffering from the same problem.
***
Leah had long ago left her pajamas behind for a pair of cut off shorts and an old T-shirt. She was scrubbing the hell out of the kitchen floor and quickly realizing that she needed a legion’s worth of cleaning products. There had been two men living in this dump for far too long for there to be anything remotely useful around. They had window cleaner and had apparently used it for just about everything.
Soon enough she was driving down the road on her way to the store. She turned up the radio, rolled down the windows, and let herself do a little dance just because everything finally seemed to be going right.
Glancing up to her rearview mirror, she realized a huge group of motorcycles were coming up fast behind her. She carefully moved to the side of the lane, expecting them to pass since they seemed in such a big hurry. But they didn’t. They swarmed her car until she was forced to brake lest she run some of them over. She didn’t recognize the riders, but it didn’t take her long to recognize their patch.
Demon Lovers.
Her gut tightened as she realized that Joe Turnbull was likely behind this whole debacle. She gunned her engine and tried to swerve around the riders. Some of them swerved out of her way. She nudged another’s back tire with her front bumper. Still another one got pushed onto the right shoulder. But none of that mattered. As soon as she got rid of one rider, another one took his place. She was well and truly surrounded. She could only imagine what they wanted. They finally began to force her over. The whole platoon of them slowed down and eventually she had no choice but to pull over.
She sat tensely behind her wheel, the window still down. Good old Uncle Joe marched in her direction. He hadn’t been one of the ones to put himself at risk in order to pull her over. How nice of him.
“Well, good morning to you, Leah,” Joe said cordially. “Beautiful day for a ride, don’t you think?”
“Are you insane?” she snapped. “You could have gotten someone killed! You guys need to back off before I decide I don’t care if someone dies.”
“I hardly think that’s going to be a problem.” He reached into her vehicle and snapped a pair of handcuffs onto her wrists. “You’re going to come with us. We’ll have a nice chat, and you’ll likely be home before too long.”
That alone told her that this was purely business. There was no more “Uncle Joe”. He was taking the gloves off and doing his best to get what he wanted, no matter the cost.
***
Griffin checked his phone once more before he and Thorn left the barn. They’d been there a full four hours, which was far longer than Griffin had expected, but the kid learned fast and seemed hungry for the knowledge.
“I’m starving,” Thorn moaned as they trudged back down the hill from the barn. “Do you think Leah will have food cooked or something?”
Griffin laughed and slapped the kid on the back. “Tell you what, player. As long as you never ever ask her a question like that when you first walk in the door, I think she’ll probably be willing to feed you.”
“Why not when I first walk in?” he wanted to know.
Griffin sighed. “Let’s just say a man should never insinuate to a woman that she has nothing better to do than cook him a meal.”
“Oh, right!” Thorn mused. “That makes sense. Girls are so damn weird. You know that?”
“Sometimes.” Griffin chuckled. “And other times they make more sense than all the men in the world.”
“My dad would roll over in his grave if he could hear that!” Thorn crowed. “He used to go on and on about woman’s work. But the problem was that he didn’t have a woman so either we did it, or it didn’t get done.”
“Lots of stuff didn’t get done, huh?” Griffin guessed.
“Tons.”
They were getting close to the house. Some of the windows were open, but Griffin couldn’t see Leah anywhere inside. His gut started to tighten as he worried about whether someone had come by and upset her.
“She’s probably at the store, remember?” Thorn looked disappointed. “I hope she brings food back with her. You think we should text her?”
“No. I think you should go find something to eat that we already have on hand,” Griffin told the kid.
“Dude,” Thorn gushed. “I’m telling you. No food.”
“Then go get on your bike,” Griffin said with feigned gruffness. “I’ll take you to the bar to get some food.”
“Woohoo!” Thorn threw up his hands and bolted back out of the house toward his motorcycle.
Griffin headed out and did the same. He noticed that Leah’s car was missing. He should have noticed it when they first walked up, but he hated the thing so much he had probably blocked out the memory of it being parked in the driveway.
The two of them had made it halfway into town when Griffin saw Leah’s car parked alongside the road. Thorn was pointing and making hideous faces as if he were laughing that the silly little vehicle had died on the side of the road. Griffin was more concerned with where Leah was. He didn’t see anyone sitting in the car and there were no missed messages on his phone. What had happened to her?
They pulled up behind the car, and Thorn cast a look around. “What’s with all the tracks? It looks like the whole crew was out here.”
Griffin’s gut tightened until he thought he was going to be sick right there on the sh
oulder. “She didn’t pull over voluntarily, Thorn. I’d say someone forced her off the road.”
“Who?” Thorn looked bereft.
Griffin felt a grim sense of finality. “My guess is the Demon Lovers.”
Chapter Twenty-One
“This is a ridiculous plan,” Leah told Joe Turnbull as he parked his bike.
They were deep in Demon Lovers territory. It appeared to be an old factory or something, maybe a farming building. It was ramshackle and the metal walls and roof were rusted through in some places.
Joe followed her gaze to the rundown facility. “You can see we need some new digs.”
His voice was so strangely normal. It was as if there was nothing unusual going on. The man had just abducted her from her car on a county road and was now holding her hostage in a decrepit warehouse. Now he wanted to talk about the Demon Lovers’ real estate needs?
“Joe, I’ve got nothing to give you. I don’t know what your intention is, but I’m not playing ball,” Leah told him flatly.
“Cop!” someone shouted.
Leah felt a shot of relief. Someone had reported her missing or found her car! “Oh, thank God!”
“What’re you so excited about?” Joe looked at her strangely. “It’s just Ronnie Jenkins.”
That name meant nothing to Leah. Joe roughly grabbed her arm and marched her toward the building. The other gang members were already inside. To say it was a mess would have been an epic understatement.
It was apparent that at least some of the gang slept there, based on the haphazard arrangement of cots in one corner. There were five-gallon contractor buckets scattered about, likely to catch water coming through the ruined ceiling. Someone had installed a kitchen of sorts in one area. Another area hosted a few couches that had seen better days and a threadbare rug. The entire place had a derelict, depressed atmosphere. Leah compared it to the vibrant, albeit disorganized, array of trailers, houses, and of course the barn, on her mother’s land, and she could easily see why the Demon Lovers were so envious of what the Hellfire Crew had. Jealousy was an ugly thing.