Fox (The Road Rebels MC Book 4)

by Savannah Rylan

  “Fuck!” I growled loudly, as I ran to pick up my leather cut and my helmet. I was out of the hotel room door in under a minute, and I didn’t stop trying Jamison and Ensley’s phones. Neither of them was answering. This couldn’t be good!

  I ran out of the hotel and jumped on my bike. With my phone still stuck to my ear, I kept calling as I rode towards her apartment building.

  This was a fucking mistake. I shouldn’t have given the responsibility to any of the other guys. None of them had as much at stake as I did.

  What did I have at stake? The thought jolted my brain as I rode closer and closer to her place. We were just beginning to get to know each other. I wasn’t the kind of guy she should be with, to begin with. Wasn’t it just sex between us anyway? Sex and a job. That was all.

  And yet, as I parked my bike outside her apartment building, I couldn’t shake off the feeling that if I lost Ensley; I would never be able to forgive myself.

  Chapter 22

  Ensley

  I knew I had to distract myself. I couldn’t just be sitting alone in my apartment, thinking about Thorn and what he might have been doing that night. Wondering if he was even thinking about me. Chances were that he wasn’t. He might have even been with another woman, what right did I have on him anyway?

  I wanted to scream because every part of my body was aching for him. Ever since I first met him, I wanted him, and he had obliged. He made sure that I was satisfied, that every sexual craving I had for him; was fulfilled. But there was more to give than that, and he withheld it from me.

  I remembered the night when we had fallen asleep together. How frightened I had been, till he held me in his arms. He had the capacity of making me feel safe just by being there in the same room as me, but he didn’t know it. He didn’t know how he made me feel and I was too bruised, and too emotionally wrecked to tell him.

  What would be the point of telling him anyway? I knew he was the kind of person for whom this could never go beyond the point of what it was right now. I would be a fool for expecting anything more from him.

  These thoughts were whirling around in my head, and I knew that if I didn’t find a way to distract myself; then I would go crazy very soon.

  The idea came to me, to go through my lines.

  Shooting for the next season of the sitcom was coming up in three days, and no matter what the situation was with Ryan-I had to be there for the shoot. My contract, my livelihood, and the production house all depended on it, and I wasn’t about to let them down.

  I had done everything I could in this situation. I had hired a group of men who were more than capable of keeping me safe. If Thorn and his MC couldn’t keep me safe from Ryan, I knew that nobody else could. Now, with the men watching over me, I had no excuse to turn up on the set, but I wasn’t prepared for it.

  With the busy schedule I’d had for the past few weeks, I barely had time to look at the script.

  I sat down on the carpeted floor of my living room now, and I pulled the script out of the box. It was a thin enough script. A few hours of practicing and I’d be up-to-date with my lines.

  The more I read through it, the less I was thinking about Thorn, and I was relieved to remember that I had a life outside of this apartment. That Ryan had not been able to take that away from me yet. And Thorn was going to make sure that it remained that way.

  I swirled the glass of wine I poured for myself, and re-read the first page again, trying to say it aloud so I could practice my expressions.

  There was a knock on the door, and I looked up with a jerk. Thorn! My heart was racing. I knew he would be back! Was he feeling everything that I had been feeling? Was it as hard for him to stay away from me, as it was for me?

  I put the glass of wine down beside the script on the carpet, and I walked over to the door. There was a heavy smile on my face, and I didn’t even try and cover it. I was already rehearsing all the things I would tell him when I found him on the other side of the door.

  I didn’t want to pretend anymore. I didn’t want to pretend like what was happening between us was just a professional thing. Thorn was way more than just a bodyguard. I wanted him with me, I wanted to be with him, and I couldn’t believe he was here. It was like the Universe kept bringing us together.

  I opened the door wide, my face bright with anticipation and excitement. But my smile quickly faded when I saw Ryan instead of Thorn.

  He had been standing close to the door, biding his time until I opened it. He was wearing a thick dark hoodie, covering his head and most of his face too, but I would have recognized him anywhere.

  In the split-second that it took my mind to register what was going on, he pushed the door further back with his knees, and I stumbled back into the apartment.

  “No!” I shrieked, as loud as I could, but he had banged the door shut behind himself.

  “No! No! Ryan, you have to leave!” I screeched. My voice was muffled by my hands on my mouth, while he pulled the chained lock on the door and then turned to me.

  What happened to the guy from the club that was supposed to be outside my door?

  I had moved as far away from him, back into the living room as I could. I could feel my hands going cold. My knees were shaking with fear. I had dreaded this moment when I might see him again. I had nightmares about it. But I had never imagined him just walking into my apartment; me just opening the door to him!

  I never opened the door without looking through the peephole. I should have waited to hear Thorn’s voice before I opened the door, but I had been so caught up in my daydreams of being reunited with him; that I had completely fucked this up.

  “Were you expecting someone else, Ensley?” Ryan asked, stepping threateningly towards me. I kept backing away from him, my body shuddering with fright. He looked the same, if not a little more muscular. He had that same look of rage in his dark eyes, the same several-day-old stubble on his cheeks. His shoulders were wide, and his neck was short, like a body builder’s.

  When I was a teenager, just a nineteen-year-old trying to rebel against my parents; it was exactly this look of his which had drawn me to him. I had mistaken his attitude for masculinity, his possessiveness for love and how tightly he gripped my arm for strength. It was only a few months later, when he had forced me to cut off all contact with the outside world and kept me trapped in our apartment; that I realized how gravely I had misjudged him.

  “I thought you’d be happy to see me, sweetness. I’ve come to take you away from all this nonsense. I told you, Ensley, you would never have to work another day in your life if you’re with me,” he hissed.

  I didn’t want to stay and hear the rest of what he had to say. Instead, I whipped around from him and ran towards the bedroom. I could feel my socks slipping and sliding over the floor as I ran. Ryan was fast on my heels, and when I tried to shut the bedroom door on his face, he knocked his forehead right into the wood.

  I screeched and flew away from the door. He was in my bedroom now, and I could see a bright red bruise on his forehead where he had hurt himself on the door. He didn’t give a shit. He was on a one-track mission, and the mission was to make me his.

  I was desperate and scared, and still shrieking, hoping that someone would hear me; I looked around in a panic for my phone. If only I could dial Thorn’s number or send him a text!

  I ran towards my phone on the bedside table, but Ryan grabbed me. His hands were all over me now, as he whipped me around. I was struggling in his arms, trying to get away from him, to slip out of his grasp but his hold was iron strong. I remembered that grip. He could have choked me to death with just one hand if he wanted to.

  “Give up the fight, sweetness. You know you’re not going anywhere. All I had to do was find you, and I knew that I’d make you mine again,” he hissed, close to my face.

  I could feel the sense of helplessness settling in. I was about to give up the fight, just like he wanted me to. Then a sudden surge of panic gripped me, and I writhed and flailed in his arm
s.

  “Ensley! You’re being a very bad girl!” Ryan scolded me, as he struggled to keep his grip on my body.

  “Ensley!” I heard his voice one last time before he pushed me against the bed. I felt the edge of the bed strike against the back of my head, and after that, everything went black. It was like I had fallen into a long deep sleep.

  Chapter 23

  Thorn

  By the time I was running up the stairs of Ensley’s apartment building, Jamison had arrived on the scene, and now he was chasing behind me.

  “Where the fuck had you gone?” I growled at him, while I took the stairs two at a time.

  “I wanted a smoke, just went around the corner, man. I thought Topher had an eye on the place,” I heard him say. I clenched my fists keeping myself from knocking Jamison in the face.

  “What’s going on?” he yelled out behind me.

  “She’s not answering her fucking phone,” I said, as we came to a stop outside Ensley’s door. The door was ajar, and I look directly into her apartment. There was no sound or movement inside, and I stepped in quickly. I knew something was wrong. I had known something was wrong from when she had not answered the phone.

  I could feel the rage coursing through my veins as I looked around the apartment.

  “Ensley?” I called out her name, even though I knew I wouldn’t hear a response. Jamison had followed me inside, and I could hear him moving around behind me.

  “Shit man. I didn’t think ten minutes would make much of a difference,” he said, and I saw red. I whipped around, walked over to him and my fisted hand met his face. My knuckles hit his nose, and I heard the crack.

  Jamison, who I expected to punch me back, just took the hit, stumbled back a little but said nothing. I could feel my arms flinching from the hit, and I shook my hand out.

  His nose could be broken, but it wasn’t bleeding, and if he was in any pain, he wasn’t showing it.

  “What the fuck is going on!” Topher had made his way upstairs and was gawking at us now.

  “I’m really sorry, man. I didn’t think, and I should have thought. I’m really sorry!” Jamison kept repeating himself, and the two of them followed me into Ensley’s bedroom.

  There were signs of struggle all around the apartment. Lampshades were on the floor, in the living room a glass of wine was knocked over and had stained the carpet. Ensley’s bag was still in the bedroom, and so was her phone. I walked over to it on her bedside table and picked it up. I had no idea what that was going to achieve, but I felt like I would be closer to her if I touched something that was so personal to her.

  All I could think about was how scared and miserable she must have been feeling right now. The one job I had! The one thing I had promised her; was that I was going to keep her safe and I had failed at that.

  “What do you think happened here?” Topher broke the silence in the room. They were both standing at the door of Ensley’s bedroom, watching me rooting through her things.

  “That motherfucker found a way to get to her. In all likelihood, he walked right in through the door because there was nobody there to stop him,” I said, narrowing my eyes at the two of them.

  Jamison stepped towards me. His nose had turned deep red, and I clenched my jaw.

  “I’m sorry man,” he said.

  “This was your fucking job!” I growled at him. I could feel my shoulders heaving, and I had never seen him looking this apologetic before.

  At this moment, I wasn’t just one of his brothers; I was also the President of the club. What would Enzo have done in a situation like this? A mistake this big that could fuck up our whole job-was definitely not going to go unpunished. I could see Jamison watching me, trying to predict what I was going to say next.

  “Just keep your eyes open the next time and don’t go for a smoke. You hear me?” I growled.

  Jamison nodded his head and stepped towards me. He was sticking his hand out to me, and I shook it. No matter what kind of leader Enzo had been, I wasn’t the kind of man to hold grudges. Neither could I put all the blame on Jamison alone. Topher hadn’t noticed Ryan coming into the building either. I should have been here too. I shouldn’t have relied on other people to take care of something that was so precious to me.

  I was a fool for thinking that I needed time away from Ensley. I was the one she had entrusted all her faith in, and I should have been the one taking all the responsibility for it. I didn’t need sleep. I didn’t need any time away from her. Now, she had been abducted by the one man she was most afraid of. What was he going to do to her? Now that he had her, he was going to make sure that she didn’t slip out of his grasp as easily as last time.

  “What are we going to do, brother?” it was Jamison who snapped me out of my thoughts.

  “Just give us the word, and we’ll do it. Tell us what to do, Thorn,” Topher said, and I glared at them, with my jaws clenched.

  “Call Church. I need everyone to get it through their thick skulls that we are already sucking at our job. The Grim Reapers never fail, and we are not going to start on my fucking watch,” I growled.

  Topher turned away from us, slipping his phone out of his pocket to make the call. Jamison stepped towards me. I could see the look of apology in his eyes.

  “I can see she means something to you, Thorn,” he said, letting his voice drop a little. I jerked my head to look at him, glaring at him directly so that he could see just how much he had pissed me off by saying that.

  “She is our employer, and she’s paying us to get a job done. That’s what it fucking means to me. Understand?” I said it with a deep guttural growl. My fists were clenched again, and I didn’t know what exactly I was angry at.

  “Yeah, I understand,” he replied.

  Chapter 24

  Ensley

  It didn’t feel like I had been sleeping when I woke up. I wasn’t feeling rested or refreshed, instead, there was a dull aching throb at the back of my head where I’d hit it against the edge of my bed.

  I blinked my eyes open, but I couldn’t see anything. There was darkness all around me, and I couldn’t figure out if I were standing up or sitting or lying down. I tried to move my hands up to my face, and that was when I realized that my hands were tied. I let out a cry, but it was muffled by a gag. Panic coursed through my body. I felt hot tears roll down my cheeks and I struggled to get my hands lose again.

  Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness of the room I was in. My senses were coming alive, and I could hear the ticking of a clock on the wall. There were no lights in the room, but a dim streetlight was filtering in through the curtains on a window at the other end of the room.

  I tried to scream, in the hopes that maybe that window was open and maybe someone would be able to hear me outside.

  I realized that I was in a cheap motel room. I was sitting on a chair with my hands tied behind me with a thick chord. There was an ugly bedspread on the double bed beside me, and now as my eyes adjusted in the dark; I could see the wallpaper peeling and the dampness on the ceiling above me. There was a raw musty smell in the room too, of damp unwashed clothes and used socks, mingled with the oily stench of days-old takeout. Ryan had brought me to the motel room he’d been living in, in LA.

  The thought of him made my body shudder and I pulled against the chords again, which I could feel were chaffing the skin on my wrists. My throat was raw and dry too, as I continued trying to scream through the rag in my mouth. I wanted desperately for Thorn to find me. I wanted to see his face, to be in his arms.

  The door creaked opened, and I stopped screaming. Ryan was stepping into the room, and he shut the door behind him and locked it.

  “Hello, Ensley. You’re awake,” he said, and even in the darkness, I could see his small beady eyes glowing. He was taking small slow steps towards me, and I tried to slide the chair back, as far away from him as I could go. But there was no escape from him. I couldn’t even get out of the chair, let alone get out of the room.

  Ryan came to
a stop at the edge of the bed. He was glaring at me from under his heavy eyelids menacingly. He bent forward to switch the bedside lamp on, and a dim orange glow spread around the room. Now I could see him clearly, and every cell in my body screamed. I screamed too, even though my voice was muffled, I couldn’t stop screaming.

  Ryan started walking towards me again, and I felt like I was beginning to lose my breath.

  “You look like you want to say something, sweetness,” he said, coming to a halt right in front of me. I looked up at him with bloodshot bleary eyes. He had a sadistic grin on his face, he was pleased with himself for what he had achieved. I roared again, but slowly, I was beginning to lose my voice. I was thirsty and exhausted and starting to feel weak.

  “Do you see this?” he asked, continuing in his cheery voice. I watched in horror as he pulled a knife out of his back pocket and held it up. The orange glow of the lamp caught the glint of the metal blade, and I felt more tears roll down my cheeks. Ryan leaned towards me, close enough to my face so I could smell his rancid breath.

  “If you scream, or make a sound, this knife is going to feel a whole lot closer to your body. You get me?” he said, and I had no choice but to nod my head. My survival instincts were kicking in.

  “Good girl, I’m going to take that rag out of your mouth, but remember; don’t scream. It’s not going to get you anywhere,” he said. Then he yanked the gag out of my mouth, and finally, I felt like I could breathe again. A rush of air entered my lungs, and I coughed loudly, causing the ropes to tug harshly on my wrists. Ryan stepped away from me, so he could carefully look me up and down.

  “As ravishing as ever. You’ve taken care of yourself, my love,” he said and slid the knife back into his pocket. My eyes were watery, I felt sweat beading at my hairline, and even though I wanted to scream again, I knew that he had me under his thumb.

  I looked up at him with fire in my eyes, but I knew I couldn’t do anything. This was the worst position he could hold me in. I had no escape.