by Blue, Jayne
“I killed a man, that’s what he said. What about guns? What’s he talking about? I have dogs in the back. Or had dogs. I have to get more. I don’t have guns.” She was asking me a million questions, all valid, but they were coming out in a torrent, and we needed to go. Now.
“Get me those leads from the back of your truck.”
“Why, but, the leashes?” She looked at me like I was nuts but she backed away from Talon and me and headed to the truck. I hoped the violence and melee would keep her doing what I instructed instead of questioning how there were guns in her rig.
“Go on.”
I tied each of the Hawks to the bikes as fast as I could with three dog leashes. It wasn’t permanent, but it was at least a way to slow them down for a beat. If we were lucky, we’d get a little time.
“Get in, I’m driving.” The same fog as before was slowing her down. If that trauma had been tough, this was ten times worse. And I didn’t know if she’d retain all she’d seen and heard but even part of it was enough to freak a normal person out. I hoped she didn’t have any broken ribs or worse. Talon had kicked her, he’d hit her, and that made me want to back the fucking truck over him.
But I started rolling and Harlow looked behind us. I watched as her eyes darted all over the road, the cab, me. I knew what she was feeling – adrenaline was the issue right now, not PTSD. We were both in the flight portion of fight or flight. It was a powerful chemical kick in the ass when you needed it. But it was also hard to contain and we were contained in this truck.
I grabbed my phone. There was no pretense in front of her at this point. She had more information than I ever wanted to her to have. I couldn’t hide the fact that way more than her job and some bad luck had caused her trouble.
She knew she was in something bigger. I had no idea what she was thinking about this new set of facts, but I needed to get to Chase and the MC. They had to be up to speed. They may be the only reason we survived.
I rang Chase. There was no answer. Shit. Shit. Shit. I kept driving. My speed was getting high so I eased back. I didn’t have any idea what Harlow would say if the cops showed up, so I didn’t want to risk it.
My phone buzzed: it was a text from Chase.
“Can’t talk now, Kade. Call us after the border cross.”
That was something. I was still headed for the Mexican border. But before I got there, I had to deal with Harlow.
The Dark Saints were sworn enemies of the Devil’s Hawks. That wasn’t news. Not in the slightest. The Hawks had zero code, zero concern about protecting Port Az. All they cared about was money, drugs, and pussy, so The Hawks crew collected violent psychos and patched them right in.
This was the kind of person that Harlow had killed, Farkus.
The world was no doubt a better place without that fucker she’d hit with a shovel, but they wouldn’t let it go.
Protecting Harlow from them would now mean telling her as much as she could take about what was really going on.
She had made some vicious enemies. And I had to figure out a way to be sure they didn’t get to her. Harlow did what she did to protect the animals, she was selfless that way. I hoped I could figure out a way to make her understand that her life was in serious jeopardy if she didn’t do exactly as I said. I also hoped like hell that I could protect her.
I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t fucking sure at all.
10
Harlow
“Stop this truck. Stop this truck. Pull over.”
I was sifting through what the fuck just happened and I knew one thing. I had stepped in a viper’s nest of biker gangs. I’d killed a Hawk, I’d made love to a Saint, and I’d put myself at the center of something dangerous. I was just trying to get my dogs to their families.
I really couldn’t sort through it in any sort of sane way, except I needed Kade and everything associated with him out of my fucking truck!
“If I leave you and this truck, you’re dead within an hour.”
“Really? Ever since you showed up, I have had one near death experience after another. I think I’ll be much safer if you get out of my life. Immediately.”
I cringed inside at the fact that I had not only let Kade come to my rescue, I’d let him make love to me. Even the passing thought of it had me suppress a shiver in my core. The one time I let my hormones take over and turn into a puddle of idiot, it turns out to be life or death.
I looked at Kade. His jaw was set and the soft sides I’d seen with Tookie and with me was gone.
“I’m not getting out of your truck, or your life, for that matter, so you may as well get that straight.”
“I am going to call the cops, just like I should have in the beginning.” Goddamnit, why had I worried about keeping Rudy a float? I had squelched my common sense for the dogs and for Rudy.
“Going to the cops? You just killed a man if that Hawk is telling the truth. And you have a truck full of illegal weapons.”
Kade’s voice was low and calm but there wasn’t any mistaking that he was in charge. I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting him out of my truck or life right now. But I was still struggling to try to gain some control.
“And you knew about it the entire time. You’re a fucking liar!”
“Yes, I lied.”
I was a fool that much I knew. And I was livid.
“So is the badass biker with rage issues the real you or is it that guy who helped me with the dogs? I’d love to know.” I was poking a hornet’s nest, that’s what it felt like. But I was angry, confused, and there seemed to be no explanation for all that had happened in the last few days.
“I will answer your questions, as much as I can, and you’re going to get me over the border.”
“Why the hell would I do one thing that you said after all this?”
“Because I am going to get you out of this and keep you safe.”
“I think what you’re trying to keep safe is illegal guns. You don’t give a shit about me.”
I saw him wince at that. Good. Maybe he didn’t like thinking he was the bad guy. But in the last hour, I’d gotten real clear that all these men were bad guys.
“I care about you, more than you know. Now calm the fuck down and clean up.”
I lost my shit. I was enraged. He was giving me goddamn orders like that after I saved his ass after he’d smuggled guns under my nose? He cared about me? – that was ridiculous! I was ridiculous.
I grabbed his arm and jerked it from the steering wheel. I kicked at his legs. The truck swerved. Kade put up his arm and I hit at it with my fists. I had no idea if actual words were coming out of my mouth but I was yelling. That much I knew.
“Jesus Christ, Harlow.”
Kade took my tirade like I was an annoying insect. He pulled the truck off the road and brought it to a stop. I took the opportunity to open the door, and I ran. We were miles from anywhere, anyone.
I had lost complete control of my emotions and my situation, so I ran.
I heard Kade behind me, chasing me. Was he trying to stop me, save me, kill me? I didn’t know and wouldn’t bet on any of the possibilities.
His hand reached my arm, and he pulled me back.
“Harlow. Stop. Stop,” he said, and I thrashed against him.
“You fucking liar,” I yelled and he pulled me into his chest. His arms were strong around me. He was solid against my body, which felt like it was flying into a million pieces.
“I know. I am. You can’t run off. I’m not going to hurt you. I’d never hurt you.”
He was smoothing my hair with his hands; he was settling my flailing with his strength. And dammit, my body reacted to his touch. It remembered, even if I was trying to block it out, how good Kade felt against my skin.
I was wrapped in his arms, writhing, and somewhere the writhing away from him turned into writhing to get closer. I felt my mouth on his and he kissed me back, hard. I was a wild animal still, but my instinct to run had changed into need.
I clawed to ge
t closer to Kade, and he took my unhinged emotion and channeled it into something savage between us. Kade’s lips were hard on mine as his tongue invaded. I leaned back and his hands gripped my ass. It hurt but only in a way that made me want more. His lips trailed down my neck, and I felt them on my nipple. Raw need was turning every inch of me into a place I wanted Kade to be.
We fell to the dusty ground. I felt Kade’s hands pull down my jeans. My t-shirt was in shreds. I kissed his temple, his jaw, his ear, and I felt his fingers sink into my sex.
“Kade!” I thanked God we were on a deserted stretch of road with no car, no person, in any direction. I yelled his name into the air as I felt him pulse. It was driving me insane. He pulled out and I was momentarily bereft.
“Come on.” He lifted me up and carried me in his arms back to the truck. I climbed in and he after me. He sat on the passenger seat and I ripped off every stitch of clothing that kept me from him. He pulled me on his lap and I straddled him. He was massive and I felt every inch of him in the softest parts of me.
“Kade.” This time it was a sigh as I rocked my body on top of him. I chanced a look at his face. His eyes were trained on me, as I lost all control. I felt Kade’s hands on my hip bones and then one slid back to my ass. The other hand at the base of my head, supporting my spine that now seemed made of sense and electricity.
He pushed me closer, sealing our bodies together in a way that had me screaming out for release. I rocked harder on him and his motion matched mine.
“That’s it, that’s it,” he said and then leaned in and kissed my neck, pulling me closer.
“Yes, yes,” I whispered and felt every cell in me trained on his heat in my center. I came hard in the midst of all the emotions that swirled around me.
Kade made that growling sound that I’d heard before and balanced my frantic response to his hands, his cock, his lips.
He matched his climax to mine. It had happened in the space of fewer than five minutes: me running, him catching me, and me losing myself to the attraction I had for him.
My limbs went from taught and coiled to liquid. I held tight to him. Part of me hated him, hated myself for giving in to my body this way.
“Kade, please don’t hurt me. I can’t stay away from you.” I was begging him. I realized as my body tried to make sense of the pleasure that Kade gave me that I was powerless to stay away from it. I didn’t want to. I wanted him again and again. From his smell to his touch to his voice. Everything about Kade had me wanting to surrender.
“I will never, ever hurt you.” He slid me around and cradled me on his lap. I was as vulnerable as a human could be, naked, at his mercy, and happy to be so. Even if this was the stupidest thing I’d ever done.
“I don’t want to fight you. But the guns, you knew all along why they were chasing me,” I said, and it was true.
“You don’t have to fight me. I’ll tell you everything. Shh...” he reassured me, knowing that, for the moment, just holding me was what I wanted. What I needed.
“Okay.” He smoothed my hair and then trailed kisses on my shoulder.
“I’m going to keep you safe. Period. You just have to trust me.”
“I do.” And I did. I may be doomed, I may be stupid, but I was Kade’s. I hadn’t planned to fall in love, or lust, or whatever this was, but it was happening. It had happened.
I had always kept my head around men. I had always made calculated decisions that factored in only what I planned to do for my animals and for the karma bank I was trying to balance. I had never just let shit fly like this.
But there was no denying that I was going where Kade said I should go. I was trusting that he didn’t want to hurt me. I was relying on the fact that he was standing between me and those asshole Hawks. All this was my body trusting his body.
My body and soul wanted Kade, and no matter how illogical or wild the rest of it was, I was here.
I was with Kade. I still had questions. And I had a million worries about where this truck was going next.
“You’re the most important thing in the world to me. I don’t know how it happened but it happened for me at the truck stop. Right away,” Kade whispered it in my ear. I felt the soft hairs on my arms stand up.
I knew he was speaking his truth.
“You’re cold. Come on, hide in the back. We’re going to get to a motel.”
“Yeah, a shower would be nice, and a bed.”
“Coming up.”
Kade and I assumed our now familiar places in my truck.
I couldn’t think anymore tonight. I couldn’t argue. I needed to rest.
I needed a few hours of safety to figure out if I was doing the right thing or making a mistake that would get me killed.
11
Kade
I was gone. In all ways. Harlow had me wrapped around her finger. When she was angry with me, I was sick in my stomach.
Right now I had her trust. It might not last long, but I thought I could sustain it at least until we knew our next stop.
I drove us to a rundown motel that I’d used as a hiding place before. The owners kept to themselves and it was three miles off the highway exit but still deserted.
I was fairly sure we could have a quit few hours; it was late evening and we were exhausted. I’d get through to Chase and Harlow would get her shower and a little rest.
We’d been running on fumes physically since we’d dropped off the dogs and even in that short time span I noticed a little hollow in Harlow’s cheekbones. She was beaten down by what she’d been through. I was serious about protecting her and that started with the most basic survival. She needed food, water, and rest.
I didn’t know how much of any of it I could get her, but six or eight hours? That I could do.
I opened the room door for her.
“You shower, crash, whatever you need. I’m going to get some food for us. I’ll be back in ten minutes.”
“Okay. I think a ten-minute hot shower sounds like heaven on earth.”
I kissed her and I swear we could have gone at it again. My attraction to her was off the charts. It was so intense that I wondered if this was how Axle and Benz had wound up defying the MC and nearly getting bounced out. Because of a woman. I could see myself doing shit for Harlow – anything, no matter if it was good for the club or not.
I held her gently by the shoulders. I looked critically at her face. She had a bruise on her jaw. I moved my fingers to her ribcage.
“Lift your arms. Can you?”
She did it.
“I don’t think anything’s broken.” I pivoted her body away from me and toward the motel bathroom.
“Be sure to get me fries, okay?” she said as she disappeared into the bathroom.
“Got it!” I’d already called the Shoney’s and ordered burgers, fries, dessert, and drinks – everything I could fit in a bag. I didn’t think she’d bolt, but I took the keys to the truck anyway. I trusted Harlow, but running wasn’t crazy. It made sense. Her on the road alone with the guns? I didn’t even want to think where that would lead.
I also called Chase again.
This time he answered.
“What the fuck is going on? Are you okay?”
It was good to hear his voice.
“Yeah, well, it’s been a fucking eventful few hours.”
I told Chase about all that had happened, in as abbreviated a version as possible. Then he laid a bomb on me.
“Yeah, well, we were attacked. Hawks decided to bring the war here, too.”
“Shit, is everyone okay?”
“Mostly, but our bikes, for the most part, torched.”
“What the fuck?”
“Yeah, they firebombed the bikes, we came out to see what was going on and they started shooting.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah, we’ve got a shit storm of retaliation wrapped up in a territory war.”
“I’m a few hours ahead of the last Hawks we ran into.”
“Bear wants
you to get to Mexico. Make the drop. And then get back here as fast as you can. We’re going to need all of us as this shit heats up.”
“Got it. I need to know, what does he know about Harlow? What does the club know?”
“Well, we all know that woman is a bargaining chip right now. The Hawks want her head and you’ve got her. Be careful. We’ll do our best to keep them busy here in Port Az so you can make the drop.”
“I will.”
“Kade, we took a big hit but I’m worried about you out there, man, with no backup.”
“We’re okay, just keep the Hawks distracted, would you?”
“That’s the plan.”
“Great, drop is tomorrow. I can handle it.”
We hung up and I worked to calm my rage at the fucking Hawks.
They had attacked the MC in Port Az. That was bold as hell and a blatant declaration of war. But Bear couldn’t just declare war in response. We were going to have to all be in Church, what we called our MC meeting, to decide. If open war was going to happen, we all had to be on board. I shuddered about what that really meant.
The Devil’s Hawks may not have rules but The Dark Saints did. It was how we would survive. Bear could give orders but the club had to agree.
I picked up the food for Harlow and me and brought it back. I was more than a little relieved to see her emerge from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel and practically attacking me for the bags of food I carried.
“I’m glad you didn’t try to leave.”
“I did,” she said as she shoved the burger in her mouth. My heart sank.
“Well, yeah, I’d be an idiot to stay with you but then I remembered you had food.”
She was making me laugh. After all this fucked up shit, she was making me laugh.
“Okay, that takes a bit of the edge off.”
She took the bag and put it on the small table. Then she dug through her luggage for a change of clothes.
“No need for formal dining,” I said.
“I realize. But I can’t be serious about eating in a towel with you right there. Why don’t you take a shower and then we’ll eat together like two normalish people.”