Blood & Bones: Deacon (Blood Fury MC Book 4)

by Jeanne St. James

  The way she responded to him inside the bar made that an easy decision.

  Keep his distance until he no longer could.

  Reese glanced in the rearview mirror. It was after eleven and the mountain road she lived off of normally didn’t get a lot of traffic, even during daylight hours. To have someone following her, not only in town, but out of it, wasn’t a normal occurrence.

  And right now, anything out of the ordinary in her life shouldn’t be taken lightly.

  Once the victim advocate had contacted Reilly about her abusive ex-boyfriend skipping bail and disappearing, Reese’s life became a whirlwind. While she went and “saved” her sister—again—she had her administrative assistant cancel all her appointments and delay all her court appearances since Reilly’s well-being became priority number one.

  She rushed down to Philly and picked up her sister from a friend’s house, where she’d been hiding out.

  She told Reilly to only bring a couple of bags because they didn’t have time to pack up her whole apartment and get her moved. Instead, Reese paid a moving company to box what little Reilly had and put it in a storage unit, rented under her corporation’s name.

  Reese tried to think of every connection that would link her and Reilly as sisters. Having different last names helped. But still, she had hoped she hadn’t missed anything so that abusive asshole could find her younger sister and finish the job he had started. Which was her being almost beaten to death.

  But now, being followed late at night made the tiny hairs on the back of Reese’s neck stand. The last thing she wanted to do was draw Billy Warren right to where she lived. Which was Reese’s home and Reilly’s current safe haven.

  Instead of pulling into her driveway and opening the electric gate, she drove right past her own property with her heart thumping in her throat.

  All she could see of the vehicle, which stayed about a quarter mile behind her, were headlights. That left her with no description to even give police.

  In reality, she could simply be feeling a little paranoid.

  More like a lot.

  However, Billy Warren was not just an asshole, but one of epic proportions. He used his bad boy charms to suck women in and then took advantage of them by stealing their money before abusing them.

  That made her think of the man she met earlier. Nick could be cut from similar cloth and Reese wasn’t interested in finding out. It had been best just to ignore him earlier.

  Both she and Reilly really needed to swear off men for a while. Apparently, they both sucked at picking good ones.

  She pressed her foot harder on the accelerator, giving the BMW X6 a boost of speed. Unless she did a U-turn, there really wasn’t much in the area where she was headed, except for state game land. No lights. No help. Nowhere to lose a tail. And worse, spotty cell phone coverage.

  Civilization was behind her and the dark, uninhabited woods in front of her. Again, a reason why she was suspicious of someone driving behind her.

  She had loved living out in the middle of nowhere... until now.

  Damn it.

  She reached into her leather tote bag and dug for her phone. Once she located it, she tried unlocking it using her fingerprint, but it dropped from her shaky fingers.

  “Shit!”

  She couldn’t risk pulling over to find it. Instead, keeping one eye on the road, she leaned over and felt around the floorboards as far as she could reach. Hopefully it didn’t fall between the seat and the center console. Every time it did that, it took forever to fish it back out. And that would be impossible to do while she drove.

  A flash of movement on the road caught her eye and she jerked up in her seat in time to see a deer bounding across the narrow roadway. She slammed on the brakes, her seatbelt locking, and jerked the wheel, attempting to miss the animal.

  Her vehicle skidded just enough to catch the loose stones on the edge of the road, ripping the steering wheel from her grip. Closing her eyes, she braced as the front end of her BMW kissed a tree. Luckily, not hard enough to set off the airbags, but enough to stop the vehicle’s forward motion.

  And her escape.

  “Shit!” She slammed her hand on the steering wheel in frustration, unlatched her seatbelt and began to frantically search for her cell phone. Headlights lit up the interior of her X6, but not enough to make it easier to find her phone.

  Scrambling, her fingertips touched something familiar near her foot and she grabbed her phone. Unlocking it quickly, she lost her breath when she realized what she feared was true. She had zero bars of cell phone coverage.

  “Damn it!” Tossing the useless phone onto the passenger seat, she yanked her tote bag from the passenger side floorboard, where it had fallen in the minor fender bender, and once again dug inside it, searching for the next best thing besides her phone.

  A sense of calm came over her as soon as her fingers wrapped around it.

  Trying to keep her wits about her, she went to put the vehicle in reverse to see if she could get it free from the slight ditch and tree. But before she could, the vehicle which had been following her parked right behind her. Its front end tight to her back bumper.

  Effectively trapping her.

  She couldn’t go forward or reverse.

  She was stuck.

  She was at the mercy of whoever was rushing up to her vehicle. With the mystery vehicle’s headlights blinding her, she couldn’t see who it was since it was only a dark figure on the move.

  If she couldn’t flee, she needed to fight.

  She inhaled a deep breath, slowly released it and tried to slow both her racing heart and mind. She’d taken self-defense classes in college a long time ago and tried to remember some defensive moves.

  Moves she should’ve taught Reilly.

  Dig fingers into his eye sockets, stomp on his foot, knee him in the balls, jam his nose into his brain with the heel of her palm. Scratch, bite, kick. Do whatever was needed to escape.

  Since her vehicle was pinned in, locking the doors was useless. She needed to immobilize her attacker and then, if needed, escape in his vehicle.

  She could do this.

  She should’ve bought a gun after what happened to Reilly. She’d have no qualms shooting that motherfucker dead since he deserved it.

  Better yet, she could say shooting his ass was in self-defense. Then Reilly’s nightmare would be over, and her sister could live her life without fear—

  The man grabbed her driver’s door and Reese prepared herself as it opened.

  “You o—”

  Shoving her arm out and pressing the button at the same time, she made contact.

  “Fuuuu—”

  The man immediately dropped to his knees, but the contact was broken between him and the stun gun, which meant he’d be back on his feet again sooner than she could flee.

  “Get back!” she screamed at the collapsed man. “Or I’ll tag you again.” She pressed the button on the stun gun and heard the sharp crackle and saw the spark arc between the tips. The noise alone should scare someone off. But somehow, she needed to get to his vehicle without him taking her down first.

  “Fuck,” came out in a groan from the heap on the ground. “Fuck! What the fuck, woman?”

  Reese blinked. The voice sounded familiar.

  Sort of.

  She reached behind her and grabbed her cell phone, hitting the power button to illuminate the human heap, who was clutching his chest.

  “Fuck! You shocked me right in the fuckin’ nipple and lit up my barbell.”

  What the hell was he doing following her?

  “Who are you?” she screamed. “Why are you following me?”

  “I’m...” He groaned, rubbing his chest. “Fuckin’ shit!... Nick.”

  “Did Billy Warren send you?” She hit the button on the stun gun again making the electrically-charged sound which could make most assholes pucker.

  He lifted a hand in the air. “Don’t fuckin’ hit me with that again. Jesus. I think you fr
ied my nipple off.”

  “Answer me!”

  He grabbed onto her open door and began to pull himself up.

  She pressed the button again on the stun gun and jabbed it in his direction.

  He let the door go and stumbled back, falling on his ass. “Christ, woman!”

  “I’m calling the police.”

  “The fuck you are. There’s no fuckin’ coverage out here.” He kept rubbing at this chest. “Goddamn it. I might be maimed for life.”

  “Answer my question. Did Billy Warren send you?”

  He got onto his knees and pushed himself to his feet, this time at a safe distance from her car. “No. Put that damn thing down.”

  “Fuck you. You don’t tell me what to do. I want to know why you’re following me. Start talking or I’m going to shove this against your balls and make some fried oysters.”

  His hand automatically covered his crotch and he took another step backwards, almost tripping again. He caught himself and lifted a palm out. “Christ, give me a sec to unscramble my brain.” He blew out a breath, ran both hands down his face and then stared at her. “Was comin’ to make sure you were all right since you hit a goddamn tree.”

  “I hit the tree because of you!” she shouted.

  “You hit the fuckin’ tree ‘cause you swerved to avoid that damn deer!” he shouted back.

  “I wouldn’t have had to avoid the damn deer if you weren’t following me.”

  He shook his head. “For fuck’s sake,” he muttered. “Put that thing down and I’ll explain.”

  “No. I have no idea who you are and why you’re here. This is staying in my hand while you explain. Start explaining and quickly.”

  Chapter Four

  Deacon might have to blow his whole load right there on the side of the road. In the dark. In the woods. He would need to reveal why he was in town and who he was. He wasn’t thrilled about doing it. But if the woman who just shocked the shit out of him was R. Ackerson, then, if anyone should know the truth, it would be her.

  He winced. His nipple still felt as if it was on fire.

  “You live back there?” He tilted his head in the direction from where they came. He figured he’d been made when she blew right past her own driveway.

  “First of all, why would I ever tell you where I live? And secondly, you’re supposed to be explaining, not asking me questions.”

  “I need the answer to my question first.”

  “So you can use that information against me?”

  “Yeah, just like a fuckin’ lawyer does,” he muttered.

  Her mouth dropped open, then it snapped shut. “How do you know who I am?”

  “Just puttin’ the pieces together.”

  “What pieces?” she asked, her eyes narrowed on him. He couldn’t see the color since the only light came from the interior of her fancy BMW whatever-the-fuck-it-was. But he had noticed they were green when he talked to her back at the bar.

  He had plenty of time to check her out while she checked him out. In those few minutes when he stood by her table, she had assessed him thoroughly and also made a judgement about him because of his looks.

  He couldn’t admit he followed her back to her office because that might shut her down before she even opened up. He had to choose his words carefully.

  And stay clear of that fucking stun gun.

  “If you live in that house up on that mountain, then I’m looking for the woman staying there. Reilly Porter.”

  Her grip tightened on the stun gun which she still held out in front of her, probably in case he lunged at her.

  He would love to lunge at her, grab that fucking thing and whip it out into the woods.

  “I have no idea who that is,” she lied.

  If he didn’t know better, he might believe her. But she was a lawyer and lawyers could lie their asses off and sound believable.

  But then, so could he.

  “She’s hidin’ out on a property owned by R. Ackerson, LLC. A company owned by you.”

  She stared at him, her face a blank mask. She was checking to see how confident he was on his information.

  He couldn’t be one hundred percent sure Reese Ackerson was R. Ackerson, but his gut instinct told him she was. It wasn’t a common last name, and there was no other reason to be traveling that dark, desolate mountain road late at night unless she lived on it.

  “How do you know my name?”

  “Bambi called it out when you walked into the bar.”

  “No, my last name.”

  “I asked Bambi.” If she was going to lie, so was he. Singed tit for tat.

  “Before or after you approached my table?”

  Fuck. “Does it matter?”

  “Did you know who I was before you approached my table?” she asked in a commanding voice. Probably the same one she used in the courtroom. The “tell me the truth or else” tone. It was actually kind of hot.

  But for that question, he had no reason not to tell her the truth. “No.”

  She thought he approached her for a reason other than he had. The plain truth was he thought she was hot and was hoping to get her naked. At the time, that was all it was. Purely sexual interest, not a damn thing more. He had no idea she had any connection to Warren.

  “Why are you looking for Reilly Porter?”

  “Ain’t actually lookin’ for her. Lookin’ for the man who might be lookin’ for her.”

  She tried to hide the worry in her face, but failed. Her lip curled into a sneer when she spat out, “Billy Warren.”

  “Yeah.” Too bad all women didn’t have that reaction to Warren. If they did, they’d save themselves a world of hurt.

  “Why?”

  If she knew Reilly, then she knew why. “He’s on the run.”

  “I know.”

  “Was asked to find him if he shows up here in Mansfield.”

  “Why?”

  “’Cause I got a business not too far from here findin’ assholes like Warren.”

  “What kind of business?”

  Was he being cross-examined on the witness stand? “I’m a bail bondsman.”

  “So, you bailed that asshole out of jail?”

  “No, I’m also a skip tracer and licensed bounty hunter. Bianchi Bail Bonds in Philly bailed him out. Now they’re lookin’ for him and contacted me.”

  “Why do they think Billy will come up here?”

  He leaned closer, but kept out of arm’s length. “You know why.”

  Her lips flattened out. She dropped the hand holding her stun gun into her lap and closed her eyes. “Fuck.”

  “Bianchi thinks because of Warren’s history, he’s gonna come up here, look for Porter and finish what he started so she can’t testify against him.”

  Her eyes popped open. “You just confirmed my fear. But I was hoping no one could find her up here.”

  “Well, you were fuckin’ wrong. Bianchi figured it out, so expect Warren to be able to also.”

  “Shit.” She chewed on her bottom lip.

  “Is she a client?”

  Her brow furrowed. “No.”

  “Who is she to you?”

  She grimaced. “My sister.”

  “Is she alone up there in that house?” If so, that would not be good.

  The women had different last names, one of them could be married or divorced. There could be other adults up there with Porter. Or worse, kids who could be at risk.

  She dropped her head and rubbed at her forehead, her long hair hiding her face from him. She had taken it down after she went into her office. She had also shed her jacket and opened a couple top buttons on her blouse.

  She had done exactly what he had fantasized about. But, unfortunately, he was dealing with reality right now, not his imagination.

  “How do I know you are who you say you are? How do I know you’re not here on behalf of Billy to use me to get to my sister? I want proof of who you are. Some sort of ID.”

  If he showed her that, she’d find out he’d
lied about his name. Shit.

  “I can show you my badge.” He rarely carried it but he had it with him in his truck.

  “That won’t tell me shit. You could buy one on eBay.”

  That was true. His badge didn’t have any identifying info on it. It only stated he was a Fugitive Recovery Agent, unlike some law enforcements’ which included a badge number to identify the pig wearing it.

  It would be hard to pull anything over on the woman sitting before him. She wasn’t stupid. She had knowledge of the law. She was also aware of the dire situation she and her sister were now in.

  She would be very cautious.

  As she should be.

  He sighed. He needed her to trust him, to get access to her property, so he could set up there to keep an eye out for Warren. If the man knew enough to come to Mansfield, he’d have the exact address of where Reilly was located.

  “Gonna be completely honest with you if you’re completely honest with me.” When she didn’t respond, he prodded, “We got a deal?”

  “So, you’ve been lying.”

  Christ. “No, wasn’t lyin’ when I said I’m here to capture Warren, if he shows up, and deliver him to Bianchi. I am a licensed bail bondsman and bounty hunter. We can help each other.”

  “How?”

  “Give me access to your home and I’ll help keep your sister safe.”

  Her gaze raked over him. “How are you going to keep her safe?”

  He did the same to her. “How are you gonna keep her safe?”

  Her jaw shifted. “I’ll move her somewhere else until the trial.”

  “Won’t be a trial without a defendant. You should know that. So, I gotta catch that motherfucker first.”

  Her head lifted and she stared straight at him. Even in the limited light he could see her eyes were hard and determined. “Then, we’ll just have to draw his ass out.”

  Then, we’ll just have to draw his ass out.

  He wanted to smile at that but didn’t. Instead, he said, “Gonna check the front of your Beamer and see if it’s drivable. In the meantime, put that fuckin’ stun gun away. Then I’m gonna follow you home.”