Stopping to refuel, Kane lingered for as long as he dared at a rest stop. As he gassed up his bike, his eyes drifted towards a board of tacked up notices. Lost puppies and used cars like new for sale. And right in the middle, there was a wanted poster for a supposedly dangerous thief. The mugshot seemed to tell a different story, someone so desperate that he had made a bad choice or ten, but the guy’s visage was plastered for everyone to see, and Kane took note of the promised reward.
10K.
Dropping the hose, Kane knew that Noel would never go to the cops and blow his own cover. However, money talked, and Noel had the funds. As long as he thought that Kane was alive, there was nothing that would stop him from promising a hefty bounty if someone could single Kane out in a crowd and point Noel in the right direction. There was a permanent target on his back, and sometimes Kane wondered what it was to Noel. Was it some hidden desire for Angeline or the fact that Kane failed to stay the grateful boy who was saved from munching on scraps? Noel thought that Kane owed him total loyalty, and Kane had betrayed that trust when he found and helped Angel. So, he worked to find ways to keep them apart, and now Kane was on the verge of screwing up his plans again. Noel would promise his own reward, and when he found him, them, his vengeance would be brutal.
Kane started to head back to Frisco. His need for Angeline wasn’t’ worth the price of her life or Theo’s. It was better for him to head for what no longer felt like home and take his medicine. In the end, it would cost him his life, but Angeline would stay safe. Noel couldn’t hurt either of them anymore if Kane was…
…if he was dead.
Pulling off to the side of the road, Kane considered the possibilities. Maybe he was driving too fast as he tried to get away, and his tires skipped a stone before he knew what was happening. That would stop Noel in his tracks and send him back to club frustrated for the rest of his days. All he had to do was pull it off, and Noel would have to admit defeat.
It would bring him back to Angeline and only cost him his bike.
Mounting again, Kane remembered the days spent restoring the chopper, playing with the wires and polishing the chrome until she sparkled like new. It had been a labor of love, and now he was about to chuck it all away.
But it wasn’t murder. It was a sacrifice of the noblest order.
“One last time,” he said as removed his jacket and hit the gas. “I know you won’t let me down.”
Speeding on the edge of the road, Kane turned a sharp corner. As the gulf brimmed below his eyes, he wondered how it would feel to crash into the jagged rocks, maintaining consciousness as the flesh left his body until everything was blackness. Should he follow the bike into the abyss and truly keep Angeline safe by way of his death?
Kane considered the possibility as he spun back to the road.
No.
Noel might still find her. He had raped her once, and if he was hopped up and furious, he wouldn’t leave her alive. His mentor’s future needed to be a series of dead ends. Kane would stay three steps ahead of him until he had to get back to business and Ben convinced him that there was no joy far from home.
Just die, Kane. It’s now or never.
Driving his bike back to the edge of the cliff, Kane held his breath and watched the wheels as they started to twist about the rocky road.
Maybe he was just going too fast. Didn’t see it coming.
Say that, Ben.
Kane hoped for those words, as he curled his fingers around the handlebars one last time. The bike went wild, but he didn’t hit the brakes as it started to careen off the cliff. He stayed with it in the open air for all of a second, and then he glanced over his shoulder and saw another vision of Angeline, drawing him back to solid ground with the sound of her sweet voice.
Find me, Kane.
Real or not, it was enough. Kane leapt from the bike and grabbed the edge of the cliff for all that he was worth. As the stones and soil slipped between his fingers, he held on tight and fought to bring his body back to the road. There was no pain as he kept hearing her voice ringing in his ears, but as he climbed back to the top, Kane turned his head at the chaos, the sacrifice that he had willingly unleashed.
His bike was stumbling as he might have done. The wheels left the frame, and the chrome bruised the dirt. A small part of him almost wanted the chopper to live to fight another day. Let some other scared little boy find the carcass and restore her to her former glory. But, at the last second, the bike hit the rugged earth at the bottom of the cliff. On impact, Kane’s old friend had his back one last time as it exploded into flames.
Kane stood for a second and watched the wreckage smolder, his leather jacket burning with the rest of it. Saluting the fire, Kane hoped that it would be enough to point Noel home and away from Angeline. He turned towards Colorado and smiled at the thought that soon he would really be with her again.
CHAPTER THIRTY SIX
Angeline trembled when she realized how close he had come to death. One second longer, and he wouldn’t be here to tell the tale. Taking him into her arms, she relaxed around the feel of him, and she kissed his cheek before whispering into his ear, “Just one more thing you had to give up for me.”
He didn’t nod, but Angeline was right. She should be as strong as he was and send him away with a laugh or a lie. However, she couldn’t do it. He was here, and she wanted him to stay.
“Kane?” Brent’s voice turned their heads around. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, cracking his knuckles as he kept his eyes on the floor.
“Yeah, Brent?” Kane asked. Angeline sighed as he pulled her closer to her side and held her against his chest.
“What if it doesn’t work?” Kane starred to protest when Brent was on his feet, his fists clenched as he said, “I guess I get it. You want to be with her and your… with Theo.”
It was like he was passing the mantle. Brent Wilkins liked playing at being Theo’s dad, and Noel was the true source of the sleeping boy in the next room who never cried once as the men he loved most scuffled. But Theo was always Kane’s because he had vowed to love him as much as he loved her.
Leaving Kane’s side, Angeline took her father’s hands. “Dad, don’t,” she said. Angeline pressed her brow to his and whispered, “Theo’s yours, too. Kane knows that.”
Right on cue, Kane hurried to her side. “I hitched my way here, and we can all go together,” Kane said.
Brent cocked and eyebrow and held Angeline at his side. “And where exactly we going, Kane?” Brent asked.
Angeline hoped that he had a plan beyond his burnt bike, something so intricate that Noel could never get wise to their whereabouts, but now Kane struggled for words and muttered, “We’re going… look.” He ran his hands through his hair, and it seemed as if he was trying to shake off his doubts as he finally said, “It’s going to mean a lot of moving around a while. Just to be safe. But soon the worst will be behind us.”
How she longed to believe that. And Kane had come through for her so many times before. But as Brent groaned at her back, she couldn’t help but share her father’s doubts. A burnt bike and an eviscerated leather jacket? That would only go so far.
“Kane,” she said as she left her father’s touch for his hand. “This could go still go bad. And I can’t stand the thought of him—”
“He won’t touch either one of us again,” Kane promised. “Because I’ll kill him if he does. He’s not my brother anymore. You’re my future, Angel. You and Theo.”
Glancing at Brent, she was struck by the sight of her father nearly defeated as he stood under the force of his own power. Even his words of wisdom could not still the pounding in her heart now that she had him back, and Brent scowled as he started towards the door.
“Dad?”
Brent looked back sadly, and every member of the trio tensed when Theo started to cry from his crib.
“I should—”
“Angie.” He held up his hand, his eyes kinder than they been since he burst in. “I still don’
t trust it,” Brent started. “But I won’t hurt him anymore.” She relaxed as Theo’s cries continued to fill the room and he said, “I’ll look in on him.”
Seconds after he was gone, there were the sounds of Theo cooing. If the worst came to pass and she met some dark fate, Brent would protect Theo. She wondered how it would work if he had Kane, too. Without her. Her boy could do no better than to have this man who had suffered everything for her as his parent. Maybe she should flee now or order them to leave so that she could wait alone for Noel’s vengeance? Her entire body quivered at the thought, but Kane held her close and kissed her head.
“Thank you,” he said.
“For what?” she asked.
Kane’s lips moved to hers, and her body brimmed around the promise of his kiss. He soon honored her desire and claimed her mouth. Sinking into him, she held him as she tasted his blood and felt Noel’s attack pouring through her fingers.
“For believing in me,” Kane said. “I swear I’ll keep you safe.”
It wasn’t the best plan, but it was his plan nonetheless. Maybe he could weave a spell and make it work? Plus, he would change course if Theo was in danger. But right now, Theo was with her father, his crying calmed. Maybe it was wrong, but she could do nothing but fall into his arms as he clasped her close.
“Thank you, Angel.”
She had longed for him, needed him now, and she guided him back to the bed and directed him to the spot that was always his. Kissing his taut flesh, she sighed into in his chest and said, “I should tend to your wounds. I need you to be okay.”
Kane smiled up at her and winded her hair through his fingers. “Then just be with me,” he said. “That’s all I need.”
Angeline smiled as he unzipped and presented his cock. This was far from the healing that she had intended, but her cunt buzzed when she saw him exposed, and she kissed his lips as he gripped her thighs.
“I need my Angel,” he said. “Now.”
How could she refuse him when he had sacrificed so much just to get back to her side?
Removing her clothes, Angeline fell with him to the bed and wrapped her limbs around his body. Kane seemed to tremble under the force of her hold, but Angeline did not relent as she pulled him closer. “Make me yours again,” she said as her lips dotted his.
Kane trailed his kisses down her neck and said, “You’ve always been mine, and I’ll prove it to you.” Forgetting all the ways in which a cock could be used to kill the spirit, Kane grazed her cunt with a smile. Her walls waited to receive his flesh, and when he plunged, her entire body hummed. He kept kissing her as he took possession, and when their eyes met, his kissed her face. “Mine,” he repeated. “Always.”
His cock swirled inside her, and Angeline strained to hold every inch of his massive erection. It was as if he was on fire as he found the way back to her soul, and her thighs spread to receive him. She tossed her head against the pillows, the ecstasy of knowing him properly almost too much to bear. His cock did not relent, and she felt sure that she could take him here or in the depths of the woods or even on the edge of a cliff.
I just need him.
Kane’s many wounds fell away as he regained his strength and lifted her off the bed. Wrapping her legs around his thighs—anything to keep him close and show him that they could really do this—Kane ground his fingers into her back. His cock continued to buzz, and his hands moved gently in as effort to deprive her of any scars. However, she wanted him to leave his mark on her pussy, and Angeline stretched closer to take more of him in. “I believe you,” she said. “Take me away.”
“I will,” Kane promised. “Right now.”
Arching upward, he held her tight and fiercely kissed her mouth as he ground his hips to hers. This was different than their moment in the woods. There they had rediscovered each other, and now, even though she knew the truth of the suffering that he had endured for her sake, Kane was making every move to show her that he could still be the only man that she would ever want inside her despite the danger.
“Kane… I…”
He stilled her speech with another kiss, and with a supreme thrust, her pussy swallowed all of his cock.
Her wet walls stretched wider than she had ever known, and she sighed into his neck, moaned, and said, “I missed you so much.”
Kane’s pulsing intensified, and she felt as if she would shatter in the quivering confines of her own skin when he pulled back and lowered her to the bed. Blinking wildly, touching every inch of his flesh that her fingers could find, Angeline stretched up to keep him close. However, Kane teasingly swirled around her cunt as he hovered over her desperate body.
“This is going to work, Angel,” he promised, as he caressed her breasts with his lips. Suckling each nipple, Angeline bit down on her lip. When her nails met his back, she saw him flinch, causing her shift up and offer all kinds of apologies.
“Don’t,” he said. “Your hands never hurt me.”
Still she flattened her palms to his bruises and stroked him sweetly, as he darted in and out of her pussy. Every entry caused her to grow damper, and she held onto his waist to keep him from leaving her ever again. “Stay,” she purred. “Forever.”
Smiling brightly, he finally granted her the supreme push, lust flowing through her veins. Angeline felt the need to rest her head, but she kept her eyes on his. She needed to see him as he took her. “I’m here for you,” he said.
She stayed in his stare as her body buckled. When he finally exploded, it took all the strength in her soul to keep from leaving his eyes. But then Kane blinked and fell into her breasts with a grateful moan, and she clung to his neck as he groaned into her soft flesh and said, “Only you.”
He kept repeating the words, and her satisfied cunt echoed his voice with a series of fitful twirls that forced his eyes back to hers. When his dark pools locked around hers, she stroked his face and kissed the sweat from his brow. “Always you,” she said.
Their weakened bodies rested on the bed, and Kane’s cock stayed inside her as his fingers searched her face. Brushing the curls from her eyes, he settled against her. He seemed to forget all pain when she dared to cling to his back, her kisses bathing his tight shoulders.
Being with him like this was like breathing, and Angeline realized that she had spent two long years underwater—just trying to make her way back to the surface. Every time she nearly hit the air, Kane was gone. There was nothing to hang onto, so she had no choice but to fall back into the darkest depths of her soul. But now he was here. He was real.
And she wanted to keep breathing.
Kane cradled her close, and he kissed her face as her eyes started to close on the verge of the first good dream in too many years to count.
“Not yet.” His voice brought her back around, and she saw the love in his eyes as he played with her hair and kissed her cheeks. “I didn’t come this far just to watch you sleep.”
Kane was already throbbing inside her again, and she was amazed that he could be up for more in the space of what felt like seconds. She could go again. Absence had turned her heart far fonder than she ever could have imagined, and they had so many nights to make up for.
The sound of Theo fussing followed by her father’s kind voice let her know that her baby was still safe, but could she really do this? Could she put all her hope in Kane’s wild plan and just hope for the best?
“I should—”
“I know,” Kane said, as he pulled her up and kissed her lips. Their faces were close as he parted from her kiss and fondled her cheeks. “Because you’re a good mom. The best.” She choked back a sob, as he gathered her into his arms and whispered into her hair, “And I’m going to be around to see it.”
Nodding into his chest, she kissed him fast, as she climbed off the bed. She started to dress, and Kane curled his fingers behind his head as he watched her more towards the door.
“Do you want to come with me?” she asked, longing to see Theo smile at his father again.
“I do,” he started. “But your dad’s probably still cooling off.”
Angeline knew as much, and her fingers curled around the doorknob as she gave him a final glance. “But one day you’ll just come, right?” she asked.
“What do you mean?”
“I… I mean that we’ll be safe and this will all be normal?”
Standing, Kane took her into his arms. His hot breath drizzled into her ear, as he said, “You’re not normal. You’re spectacular.”
Angeline smiled around his compliment and kissed him before she left the room. Entering the nursery, she took Theo from her father’s arms and walked the boy to the window, the place where Kane had stood.
This Savage Love: A Bad Boy Romance Boxed Set Page 141