This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set

by Kathryn Thomas

  Tania nodded, feeling overwhelmed. It was nice when a stranger helped. She walked out of the office, feeling a lot more positive. Things were looking up. She was ready to get back her life. From now on, nothing and no one could derail her. She wanted to get back on her feet and stay up.

  As she stepped out of the office, her gaze was drawn to the sleek car of Jason’s that she’d borrowed. A man stood next to it. Riley! All the breath whooshed out of her body as if someone had punched her.

  What the hell was he doing here? How did he find her? And what the hell was she supposed to do now?

  Chapter Sixteen

  She wanted to run. She didn’t want to have a conversation with him. She didn’t want to indulge in hot debates and long arguments. More that than, she was scared of what he might do if she went near him. Would he attempt to kidnap her again? Were his men lurking around the corner, ready to grab her?

  She looked around but didn’t see anyone.! He gave her perfect opportunity to confront him. Now that the initial shock wore off, she was glad for this chance. This was the time when she could ask why he did all those things that cut her heart into ribbons. This was her opportunity to take matters in her own hands. She strode forward and glared at him. “You bastard. How dare you show your face to me again.”

  His upper lip curled as he gazed at her from up and down. “I just wanted to see if you were okay, but apparently there was no need for me to do that. Given this…” He pointed at the car. “And the fact that you’re living in a mansion right now, it appears that you are doing more than well.”

  Fear made her blood chill. “How do you know where I’ve been living?”

  He didn’t answer her question. Instead, he stepped forward. His shoulders were hunched over, and there was a wild look in his eyes. If she didn’t know any better, she would’ve thought he didn’t sleep well during the past many days. Dark circles rimmed his eyes. His hair had grown a bit longer than before, and there was dark stubble on his cheeks. But he was still the most handsome devil she ever saw. Seeing him, all the old feelings resurfaced: pain, love, and joy. Everything exploded in her gut and she felt dizzy.

  She’d allowed him to make love to her. She gave him a chance to lay his hands on her, to make room in her heart, and she allowed him to wrap her around his finger. And now she was paying the price for her naivety.

  When she first saw him, she should’ve run away. Instead, she allowed him in her heart and home. What the hell was she doing here now? She should have told him to take off. Perhaps she should drag him over to the nearest police station. At the very least, she could register a complaint against him for stalking her. Maybe they would issue a restraining order and she would be well and truly rid of him.

  He wasn’t done as yet. “I saw your picture in the papers. Nice outfits by the way. That man…Jason…appears to be smitten with you. Does he know that you’ve got a heart that’s made of stone?”

  Anger hazed in her mind until she couldn’t think anymore. Tania jabbed her finger at his chest. “How dare you?”

  “How dare I?” His voice rose up an octave. She was aware that some people were staring at them, but she didn’t care. All she wanted was to make sure that she gave it back to him as well as he’d given her. When he was quivering with pain as she did during all those days only then would she be able to sleep in peace. “You’re the one who has moved on.”

  “How dare you treat me like shit. You lied to me, betrayed me, and then tried to kill me.”

  “I didn’t try to kill you.” His eyes were sharp, angry. Rage coiled in their depths. “That explosion at the warehouse had nothing to do with me.”

  “You were the only one there that day,” she yelled. “You rigged that place.”

  “Shhh…” he said, looking around at the people who were now openly staring at them.

  Was he scared? She sure hoped so. How the hell did he get away with it? She was surprised that the police wasn’t after him as yet.

  “What’s the matter now? Too frightened to talk about what you did?”

  “I didn’t do anything.” He gnashed his teeth. “It was…” After running his hand through his hair, he glanced around. “Yes, I belonged to a motorcycle gang. They are called Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood and they wanted the warehouse for legitimate reasons…or so I thought. But that’s all in the past now. I just wanted to make sure that you were all right. I’ve been looking for you all this while, and I thought you…”

  “What?”

  “That something bad happened to you, damn it. And then I found that you were actually doing quite well. You’ve found a new man and are now holed up with him in this big mansion.”

  Was he actually jealous? No, he couldn’t be. If he was jealous, it had to be because he cared about her, and she already knew that he didn’t give a shit about her. He left her with those men to die. “That has nothing to do with you.”

  “You are damn right it doesn’t.”

  Tania was aware that she’d made these grand plans to do something vile to him when she saw him but now that he was here in front of her, she didn’t quite know what to do. Should she hit him? No, she didn’t want to stoop to his level. She wanted to yell and scream, but she didn’t want to make a fool of herself in front of all those people who were now eying them with open interest.

  Rather than waste her time arguing with him, she walked towards the car. “I need to go. We don’t have anything to discuss.”

  He put a hand on the door, stopping her from opening it. “Just tell me one thing…did you care about me at all or was that just a ruse to know more about the deal?”

  That statement was so ridiculous, so crazy, that it took her a few minutes to even understand it. He was accusing her of doing a drama when she was the one who was betrayed? “You…” Tania lost her cool. She jabbed him in the chest. “How dare you say such a thing? Ruse?” she laughed. “It’s funny that you should accuse me of that when you were the one who spun this fairytale, making me believe that you actually cared about me when you got in my pants just so you could keep me quiet about the deal!”

  “I didn’t plan anything.”

  “Yeah, right. So the deal miraculously happened without you, and you were just as shocked as me to hear about it.”

  “That’s the truth.”

  She wanted to slap him. Tania had never used violence in her life to deal with any situation but right now her hand itched to slap him. It was a mark of her character that she took a careful step back to keep some distance between them. “I don’t want to argue with you anymore. It’s…useless.”

  “Easy for you to say. You’ve already moved on.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “I was forced to move on. Thanks to you, I lost my job. Thanks to you, I was forced out of my home because people kidnapped me. They took me prisoner and I didn’t know…” Her voice broke a little. “I didn’t know what they were going to do to me. They might’ve killed me, and I am sure that is what they planned to do.”

  “I’m sorry about that.”

  His words took her breath away. She nearly died twice, once at the warehouse and once in that house, and all he had to say was this. “You can take your sorry and shove it up your ass.”

  “I didn’t want those things to happen to you.”

  “I don’t fucking believe a word you say.”

  “It’s the truth. I didn’t know that they were going behind my back to finalize the deal. They…did it to do some insurance fraud and I wasn’t a party to it.”

  So that was the reason why the warehouse was blown up. Well, things made sense now. “You’re lucky that you’re not in jail.”

  “I’m not in jail because I didn’t do anything wrong.”

  She sneered. “Poor you, right? You didn’t have any clue as to what was going on.”

  “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you.” He sighed. “Look, I can understand that you’re not willing to believe I word I say. Fine. If that’s the way you want it, if you want to paint m
e as this evil monster who has been lying to you all along, then it’s okay, but at least have the guts to admit that you didn’t care about me.”

  “I never cared about you?” She had spent days crying over him. In the beginning, she couldn’t sleep and she was still having problems and yet he had the audacity to tell her that she was the one who wasn’t affected by this whole mess. “You asshole. How dare you try and make me out to be the bad guy when you were the one who wasn’t real all through this relationship. I was the idiot who thought that we were happy together, that we had something good going on, while all this time you were plotting behind my back.”

  “You thought we were happy together?”

  She didn’t know why she was telling him this. What was the point? Nothing good could come out of this conversation. He’d done what he did, and now it was over. They weren’t together anymore. She certainly didn’t owe him any explanations but now that they had said so much, she couldn’t back out without letting him know full well as to how much he hurt her. “I was…” No, she couldn’t tell him that she was nearly in love with him. “I cared about you a lot. Is that what you wanted to hear? Does that give your ego a good boost to know that you fooled me completely? Yes, I cried when I realized that you never cared for me, that you didn’t harbor such feelings at any time, and that is was all a lie for you.” She stopped to take a breath. “Does it make you feel good to know that you actually managed to convince me that we had a future together, that we belonged with each other? Now that you know all this, will you be able to sleep better at night.”

  “Sleep?” His laugh was bitter. “I haven’t slept since I last saw you at the warehouse. When I didn’t find you, and you weren’t in the hospital with me, I thought…” Much to her shock, his voice hitched. He blinked his eyes as if he was wiping away the memories of that day. “But you are okay, and I guess that is all that matters. Be happy. That’s all I ever wanted for you.”

  Happy? He thought she was happy? How could the idiot think that when he broke her heart? Unless…did he actually believe that she was with Jason now, that she’d moved on with her love life? It had to be that. He was actually jealous. But if he felt like this then surely, he harbored some real feelings for her? Or was she imagining things?

  Maybe she was still so besotted by him that she was trying to project her feelings on to him. Suddenly, she was very confused. This impromptu meeting was not what she expected. She’d thought that when she met him, she would know for sure what to do, but now she didn’t have a clue how she was supposed to respond to him.

  Suddenly, Riley turned around. Tania’s gaze followed him. She saw two men closing in from a distance. Although she didn’t know who they were, she had a fairly good idea that they belonged to same gang that kidnapped her. Damn it! Had she fallen in his trap once more? Did he make her linger here so that his companions would come and take her back?

  She turned to push him out of the way, but, much to her shock, he opened the car door and tugged her inside.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I want you to leave right. Go away, and don’t be out alone. It’s not safe for you. These people mean business. They are scared that you know about their warehouse plan because I was involved with you, and they will do whatever is necessary to keep you quiet,” he said quickly.

  “But…”

  “Listen to me,” he said in an urgent voice. “Don’t trust anyone. They are in this town, and right now they are scrambling for cover. If you get in their way, you’ll go down. Stay safe.” He slammed the car door. “Go.”

  The men were so near that she could see them. Although they were not familiar, she thought one of them was the same as the one who watched her in the house. What the hell was going on? Riley was actually trying to get her out of this mess. How could this be? Wasn’t he the one who got her kidnapped? If so, why did he change his tune now?

  “Let’s go,” she told the chauffeur.

  As the car moved forward, she saw the men move towards Riley. One of them pushed him while the other punched him. Shit! What the hell was this? Why were they beating him?

  She might’ve slipped out of the car to try and help him, but she could hear him yelling. “Go, go.” Even at this time, he was worried about her safety. The car moved away. She turned back to look at the men who were forcing Riley to walk with them. Did he just offer himself as a sacrifice so that she could get away?

  She looked at him until the car turned a corner and he was out of sight. She leaned back against the seat. Frustrated and confused, she didn’t know what to believe anymore. Everything was topsy-turvy. She’d thought that Riley betrayed her, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t have helped her escape…right? Nothing was as she’d assumed.

  She needed to get to the bottom of this mystery, but she didn’t know who to approach and whom to trust. Nothing made sense anymore – and she didn’t know if it ever would do so again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Riley was in a great deal of trouble. As he faced the board of members of Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood, he wasn’t sure if he would leave the building alive. Sure, he’d never known them to resort to violence before this particular incident, but now it seemed obvious to him that they were desperate to close this matter. In desperation, people did crazy things – and right now he was smack in the center of the trouble zone.

  “You let the girl go. I’d ordered you to bring her in,” said Charlie.

  If he’d known Charlie ordered his men to shadow Riley to see if he would lead them to Tania, he never would’ve made any attempt to find her or he would’ve, at least, been more discreet. He only found out about that when he saw the men near her car, but he’d shown them clearly that his loyalties no longer lay with the club.

  Why risk so much for a woman who had already moved on? He didn’t know the reason, but he couldn’t betray her. Not even now. Not after all that happened. She did get into a lot of trouble because of him and, of course, he still loved her. Just because she chose someone else over him didn’t mean that his love died. It was still there, smoldering in a corner of his broken heart. Perhaps it would never fade away. Truth be told, she was the love of his life and he couldn’t imagine a life without her. But he would have to find the strength to continue – alone.

  “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” said Raymond, the financial head of Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood. “Why did you let her go?”

  He might be down, but he wasn’t stupid. “There were too many witnesses in that place. What were they supposed to do? Did you really expect them to get away with a kidnapping in broad daylight?”

  Charlie’s mouth gaped open. “Are you actually implying that you let her get away to save my men?”

  “I am not implying anything.” Riley kept his voice even and friendly. “I am stating that I saved our men from the police by not letting them conduct a crime in front of a dozen witnesses. Had they made an attempt to take her away they would’ve been sitting in the jail right now. Is that what you wanted?”

  Charlie sputtered. He raised his hand and then looked at Raymond as if seeking his support. “What the hell is this new drama?”

  Riley cocked an eyebrow. “It’s not a drama but critical thinking, which you, unfortunately, lack. That has always been your mistake. If you guys had trusted me right from the start, this entire mess wouldn’t have been created. Had I known the reason you wanted the warehouse and what you intended to do, I would’ve gotten Tania off your back a long time ago. But no. You hid things from me, and look at the result now.”

  Raymond tapped his pen on the desk. He looked thoughtful, serious. “So what is your plan now?”

  “I know where she is and I’ve convinced her that I had nothing to do with the warehouse explosion. The fact that I let her get away will make her realize that I never intended her any harm. She will meet me again, and when she does so…” He shrugged. “You can have her then.”

  Raymond smiled. “You’re a sharp one. We
should’ve trusted you more from the beginning.”

  “That’s what I’m saying,” said Riley in a cocky voice. “It was a huge mistake.”

  “I hope there won’t be any more mistakes from now on,” said Raymond. “I am trusting you with this assignment, and we hope you’ll be able to show us you can do a lot for the gang. If you prove yourself, we can offer you a seat on the board.”

  That’s exactly what he’d wanted all this while. It seemed ages ago that he thought it would make him happy if he was one of those wielding power in the gang’s higher echelons. How things had changed since then. “Great.” Riley turned, but then he looked back at them. “What is it that you guys are intending to do once you get your hands on her? She doesn’t know much about the explosion. It might be a better idea to just forget her, leave her alone, and move on.”