by C. M. Owens
He curses himself before staring out the window and zipping his lips, putting the burden of finding out where to take her on my shoulders.
“Where do we drop you off?” I ask her, this time hearing a soft sigh pass her lips.
“Wherever you’re going, I’m following. I’m not ready to die just yet.”
Rolling my eyes, I turn on the street toward the warehouse, and Snake cuts his eyes toward me.
“We can’t take her there,” he hisses.
“We can’t leave her on the street. We’ll let Drex deal with this, since Herrin’s the one who set up that meeting to begin with and didn’t do any of his homework.”
“You seriously want to let Drex around her? Next to Rush, he’s the worst person to speak to a woman.”
My eyes flit up to the rearview to see a dark set of eyes staring right at me. Fuck. Her bottom lip is drawn between her teeth, and she’s staring like she can’t look away. Guess she’s never seen a face like mine.
Annoyed, I look back at the road, even though I still feel the heat of her heavy gaze on me.
“Drex is the best one to get rid of her,” I say dismissively.
CHAPTER 3
MAYA
I’m not sure who Drex is, but I don’t want to know. My body is still trembling, my hands are shaking, and my heartbeat is in my ears. I hate fear. It stinks and makes me feel like someone I’m not.
It was naïve to think I wouldn’t need immediate protection, when I knew the risks coming to this place. Lathan, however, is a little better than I credited him, and caught wind of my arrival in Halo before I even slept one night in my new bed.
Now this…
Is it stupid to ask some random guys with scars, tattoos, and guns to take me home with them? Yes. It’s incredibly stupid. But it’s by far dumber to go anywhere my brother might find me. And he will be looking for me. If I’m going to die, I’d like to at least die at the hands of a stranger, rather than my unhinged flesh and blood.
I was lucky when they pulled up, because it distracted Lathan long enough for me to get out of the locked room he’d shoved me in. My lock-picking skills aren’t a waste after all.
Then, to top off my luck, I was able to sneak into the garage while they talked off to the side. I managed to slip into the back of the SUV, undetected.
Lathan was so high it doesn’t surprise me that he never saw me slip out to where they were. I thought the model guy noticed me, but he never acted like he did. Until he got in the vehicle.
“Can I ask your names?” I ask the two silent guys up front as we slow to a steady crawl in front of a massive warehouse right in the middle of town. This is their clubhouse? Talk about no discretion or privacy.
It’s tucked away between more buildings—nothing at all like I would have expected.
“Snake and Axle,” the model says, not telling me which is which as they get out.
I hop out and follow, running close behind the one with scars whose voice sounds like sex to my ears. I’ve never wanted to fuck a voice more than I want to his. Yeah, I’m a crazy girl, but damn. It’s all deep and rough, almost as though he’s trying to seduce you with mundane words and succeeding without effort.
“I’m Maya,” I tell them, even though they don’t seem the least bit interested. “Maya Black,” I mutter under my breath as I sigh.
A door opens for them, and a guy with a beard and a bald head looks at me with surprise.
“Picked up a stray?” he asks.
“Drex’s problem. Lathan is a junkie,” the model tells him.
Still not sure which one is Axle and which one is Snake.
“Damn it. I told him he had to investigate these guys,” the bald guy growls.
“Herrin set it up. Not Drex,” the model adds before walking farther into the warehouse. “But we’re making Drex deal with the stray.”
I continue following like it’s my right to just bust up in their warehouse, and I move close to the side of the sex-voice guy as my breath catches in my lungs. There are people everywhere, and it looks like we’re walking into the middle of a party.
Loud music is blasting in the center of the room as girls dance for the guys, climbing in and out of their laps. I’m fairly positive that someone is fucking against the wall. I won’t look close enough to be certain.
I’ve been in the middle of plenty scandalous parties, but it’s a different breed here. Everyone is rough and…some are dirty…
In my element, I can rock these parties. However, this is not my element. I’m in pajamas to top it all off.
Feeling incredibly uncomfortable and like the new girl in school, I lean against Mr. Sex Voice, who jerks away from me like I’ve just slapped him.
When I look up, he’s glaring down at me, keeping at least a foot between us. I’m tempted to sniff myself and see if I stink or something.
In the light, I see his scars so much better. One gnarly scar runs the length of his face on one side and curls under his bottom lip. It’s deep, and it had to be painful. Some smaller ones are also on his face, marring what would be flawless perfection.
He cuts his gaze away from me and stalks off, leaving me on my own as a few whistles break out and eyes swing my way. I inch a little closer to the model guy, who is getting a drink.
“Are you Axle or Snake?” I ask him loudly to carry over the music.
He turns toward me with a coldness that wasn’t there earlier.
“I’m not interested, if that’s what you’re hinting at.” His eyes drop lower, like he’s appraising me and finding me dissatisfactory before his eyes meet mine again. “My girl would tear you apart for even trying. She has pretty claws.”
My eyebrows go up in surprise. Surely I’m not giving off a flirty vibe, considering he’s not my type. Never been much for the blindingly gorgeous kind.
“I was just making conversation,” I grumble, repeating what I said earlier.
He returns his attention to the party, ignoring me, acting like it’s my conversation skills that need work. My eyes flit around the room, looking for the one who abandoned us. It’s too chaotic to really tell if he’s anywhere close, but a blonde-haired girl walking toward us has my attention when she flashes a big smile.
She looks vaguely familiar, but I have no idea why.
“Hi,” she says brightly, bouncing close to the guy at my side.
His arm drops around her shoulders, and he kisses the top of her head.
“Hi,” I say back lamely.
She continues to smile while looking around, and I awkwardly stand in place.
“You came in with Snake?” she asks, glancing between us.
At least I know who Snake is now.
“I needed to escape, and Axle and Snake happened to have wheels,” I explain, remembering what Snake said about her claws.
My eyes dart down to see her perfectly manicured nails, and I wonder if she’s ever actually been in a fight.
Her eyes brighten, and her sweet smile grows. No way is this girl a fighter.
“I’m Sarah. Snake’s girl. You really shouldn’t be here dressed like that. The guys…are a little rough here.”
I glance down at my skimpy pajamas and shrug.
“I can handle my own—”
“Says the girl who cowered in our backseat from her brother and begged for our protection,” Snake cuts in.
“Play nice,” Sarah hisses, gently elbowing him in the ribs.
Snake just grabs a beer from the bar behind us and starts drinking as he pulls Sarah closer to his body. He doesn’t know anything about me, so I understand that the circumstances are misleading, and it’s not like I can explain the truth of the situation.
“Why do you need protection?” she asks seriously.
It’s hard to hear her, but I still manage.
“Long story.”
She darts a glance at her boyfriend just as he gets called away. I take notice that more eyes are on us now, watching me with undisguised curiosity.
&nb
sp; I guess I stick out, considering I’m wearing a small camisole and very short, thin pajama shorts. I have on zero makeup, my hair is barely brushed, and I have on my ugliest sneakers to top it all off, since Lathan’s goons barely allowed me enough time to grab shoes at all.
Not my best first impression.
“You’re in deep shit, aren’t you?” Sarah asks, losing the bright look in her eyes as it changes to something a little colder.
“Yeah. A little bit. I can’t go home right now, so I’m trying to convince Axle to let me stay. I didn’t realize…this is a little more than I was expecting.”
I gesture around to the wild party, noting all the guns I see. Guns don’t make me nervous, but when they’re attached to a bunch of drunk brutes, that’s when anxiety creeps up.
Sarah shakes her head.
“You need to stick close to me, but you can’t stay here. There are some guys here who don’t wait for consent.”
That didn’t even cross my mind. My stomach tilts when I think of how stupid it was for that to not cross my mind. My father always kept his men in check, so even though I grew up in a similar—slightly more refined—environment, it wasn’t as unsafe as this one.
The guys there wore Armani, but they still packed the same Glock as these guys have on their Wrangler hips.
“What’s going on with you?” she asks. “Maybe I can help.”
Not sure how she can help. “My brother wants me dead.”
She nods like that isn’t completely shocking. “Sucks when people want you dead. Why?”
It’d be too risky to tell her all the details, so I stick to the story I gave Axle and Snake.
“I have money and he wants it. My parents cut him out of the will before their deaths because he was deep into drugs. They left everything to me, and all he had was his original trust fund that is probably gone.”
She starts to speak, when suddenly my eyes land on a returning figure, and my stomach flips over. Dark angel is an accurate description. I just wish his jaw didn’t tic every time he looked at me.
Sarah’s eyes follow mine, and we watch as he talks to a guy who is reading the screen of his phone like there isn’t a party going on around him. The guy looks up, confused, then they both cut their eyes toward me.
Shit.
Now I have two guys staring at me like they can’t stand the sight of me. But my options are limited and I’m a little desperate to stay here. Despite the cold glower, Axle did get me away from Lathan, and he did bring me here.
Axle might be a stone on the outside, but he obviously has a heart somewhere inside that massive, firm, very distracting chest of his.
Right?
CHAPTER 4
AXLE
She’s staring right at me as we walk over to her, and Drex curses me again like it’s my fault he has to deal with this.
“What’s going on?” Sarah asks.
I really wish she wasn’t over here right now.
“You can’t stay here,” Drex tells Maya, ignoring Sarah’s question and jumping straight to the point.
The last thing we need is someone else getting stuck in the crosshairs of the impending war we have breathing down our necks with the Hell Breathers.
“I can’t leave Halo and I can’t go home,” she tells him firmly.
“Not my fucking problem,” Drex tells her, bored. “Get the hell out of my clubhouse before I let the guys inspect the new merchandise.”
“Seriously, I might die—”
“Seriously, I give zero fucks,” Drex interrupts, cold as ice as he steps closer to her.
I should have just kicked her out myself, but she’s persistent and annoying, and I hate dealing with women. I do find the determination in her eyes a little amusing. She’s not backing down. She even narrows her eyes in challenge.
“I want to talk business,” she goes on.
Drex snorts derisively, and I smirk.
“We’re not selling cupcakes. Understand? You’re more likely to die here than at your brother’s hand. Now go.”
My amusement dies when she looks at me like she’s disappointed. I’m tempted to let her crash in my room for the night. We’re not working a job, so I’m not using it. It wouldn’t hurt anything if she stayed up there.
Then I remember what a sadistic asshole Benny is, and if we go to war, what she could face is worse than death. She’s a little too sweet for the bloodshed in store.
“I have money. I can pay for protection.”
Drex’s eyes light up with humor as he grins. “We don’t need money. We probably have more of it than you. Go. Now. Before I lose my temper. Trust me, you don’t want to see that.”
“I’ll take her home,” Sarah says, stepping between them almost protectively.
Drex laughs to himself as he walks away, and I leave Sarah behind with Maya. No one will mess with Sarah. She’s Snake’s girl and he’d kill anyone if they did. Besides, she’s part of our crew.
“So the guy was a junkie?” Drex asks me, already forgetting about the girl.
“Yeah. No deal.”
“Pop should have vetted him better.”
“Herrin’s standards aren’t as high as yours. You should take over the vetting from now on,” I point out. Again.
Drex snorts, looking over at where Sarah is escorting Maya out the doors. I look away when those dark eyes meet mine again.
“Don’t bring back any more strays. For all we know, she could have been trying to plant herself in the crew.”
Drex is paranoid, but I don’t call him out on it. The girl is a scared kitten who has a twisted brother and nothing more.
“I thought if you had to deal with Herrin’s mess, you might start cleaning it up,” I tell him, letting the corner of my mouth tug up in a taunting grin.
Since he never says anything bad about his father, I’m not surprised when he simply flips me off and walks away. I decide to get drunk and forget about the girl who shivered at the sound of my voice.
I also try to forget about the fact she touched me. It’s been a long fucking time since a girl touched me in any way.
CHAPTER 5
MAYA
“Where are we going?” I ask Sarah as she turns down another road.
“That depends,” she says as she trains her eyes on the road ahead.
“On what?”
“On you telling the truth. You were lying about why your brother wants you dead. Trust me, I know a lie when I hear it.”
Shifting uncomfortably, I study her profile. How does she know?
“He really does want my money,” I tell her, because it is the truth. “And it was all left to me when my parents died.”
“Why else does he want you?” she asks, obviously detecting the honesty there.
There’s really nothing left to lose at this point, even though I’m worried that the club is helping my brother. They never would tell me why they were there.
But, considering my limited options and the pile of shit I’m already in with Lathan, I tell her the very long, drawn out story as she drives in circles. When I’m finally finished, I expect her to pull over and shove me out of the car before burning rubber in the opposite direction.
People who want to live stay far away from me and all my dangerous madness.
“You look like a sorority girl,” she states randomly, quirking her eyebrow at me before returning her gaze to the road.
“You look like a stripper,” I volley, shrugging.
She laughs under her breath. “My look is just an act. Your act is pure genius. You’re actually a little crazy.”
I nod in agreement. “Some call me insane. But now you understand why I need protection.”
She cuts the wheel down a road we haven’t looped around yet, and she shakes her head. “You don’t need protection. You need to learn how to hide in plain sight, and you need expendable goons. Drex’s guys are not expendable. One Death Dealer dies because of your mess, and they’ll all come for you.”
I
swallow a little nervously. I’m crazy—not suicidal. I don’t know a lot about biker clubs.
“I didn’t want Drex’s guys or assume they were expendable. I’ve been looking into building a team. They need to be more skilled than just goons.”
“I’ll make some calls for you. You need to adopt a name to work under if you’re going through with this.”
“I’ve already formed an identity—a male identity—that will be the one in charge, or so my team will think.”
Her grin only spreads. “I’ll let you know when I have some expendable goons in line for your little pet project.”
I turn to face her a little more fully. “I have a criteria that has to be met before they’re hired. And why would you help me?” I ask her, suspicious.
She turns into an apartment complex. “As of now, this is your home. You have access to your accounts that can’t be tracked by your brother?”
“I handled that immediately. But he’ll still find me if I stay in the city if I don’t have protection. That’s what I was trying to ask the club for. Protection only.”
Her smile never wavers. If anything, she smiles bigger. “Oh, that won’t be a problem. I’m an expert at hiding right under someone’s nose. I’ll teach you. It’s not hard to learn. No protection needed until the heat starts coming down. Then we’ll start resourcing that task out. It’s safer to rely on yourself as long as you can.”
As she parks her car and gets out, I follow, still suspicious. “Again, why would you help me?”
She stabs the elevator button, and I glance around the empty garage.
“No cameras out here or in the garage elevator. Two cameras are on your floor, but your new apartment is in a blind spot from both of them because of the angles,” she says, still not answering my question.
As the doors open, she steps in, and I follow her once more.
“You have the funds to replace all your clothes. Do that instead of returning to your old apartment for your things. Keep the sorority girl look,” she adds.
I run a frustrated hand through my hair.