Fox (The Road Rebels MC Book 4)

by Savannah Rylan

  He stepped closer to me. I looked up at him with watery eyes. His nostrils were still flared, his face had turned a deep tomato red with anger.

  “I’m taking you home, sweetness. I’m taking you back to where you belong,” he said and reached for my face. I couldn’t stop crying as he stroked my cheek with the back of his hand.

  Images of our small apartment in New York floated up before my eyes. I couldn’t go back to that life. I couldn’t go back to being locked up in an apartment. To not have an outside life. To not seeing Thorn again.

  The tears flooded down my cheeks, and he didn’t stop touching me.

  “Don’t cry, Ensley. You’ll feel much better when we go back home, you’ll see. You just need your bed and me. Isn’t that all you need?” he said, and he opened his arms wide. I could sense that he was about to hug me, he was about to wrap his arms around my body. I shook my head violently as he came closer, but then he stopped.

  We had both heard the roar of the bikes outside the motel. My heart stopped beating in my chest for a few moments. Could it be Thorn? The Grim Reapers?

  “You fucking bitch!” Ryan’s punch came out of nowhere. His knuckles slammed against my jaw, sending my face sideways and I could feel the metallic taste of blood trickling slowly into my mouth.

  He was raging.

  “You told them! You told them where you are!” he was growling in panic. I shook my head and cried.

  “You fucking bitch. How did you do it? How did you get to them?” he barked and crouching down behind my chair, I could feel him untying the knots on the chord. He was releasing me.

  “You’re coming with me. We’re going to get out of here, and you’re going to do what I tell you to do!” he yelled and then I felt the metallic coldness of his knife’s blade against my wrist. He was cutting the cord off.

  It snapped away and fell to the floor, and my first instinct was to lash out at him. I jumped off my chair, whipping around to face him. Ryan was crouched on the ground now with a shocked expression on his face. I could see that he hadn’t expected me to react this quickly.

  “This is for every time you raised your hand at me,” I hissed and lifting my right foot up, I kicked him in the balls as hard as I could. I didn’t have much energy left in me, but whatever I did, I used it to bash my foot into his sad excuse for manhood.

  I watched as Ryan rolled backward for a moment. He had growled out in pain, but within moments, he had recovered himself again. His eyes were bloodshot and focused angrily on me.

  “You fucking bitch. You’re dead,” he hissed.

  Chapter 27

  Thorn

  The motel wasn’t hard to find. Keeping my rage in check was the hard part.

  We had found our way to the place quickly, and we jumped off our bikes and walked towards the room. A broken neon sign glowed above the compound that we walked into. There was no doubt that residents and the management had heard our ride into the place, but nobody had come outside. They all wanted to mind their own business. Our leather cuts and our bikes were easily recognizable, and everyone here knew to keep their heads down when we were around.

  “Where do you think they are?” I heard Beckett asked, as the others followed me.

  The rooms were lined up one after the other, and the lights were out in every one of them. It was the middle of the night, and everyone was behind locked doors. I didn’t even know for sure if this was where Ryan had brought Ensley. There was a high probability that he had taken her somewhere else. That they were already out of the state by now. Time was of the essence, and I started walking in front of every room one by one. We didn’t have the time to break down every door and check.

  The others were following me, keeping their ears cocked for any noise. I tried looking through every pulled curtain too, but the rooms were too dark. We might have to knock on every door, I was beginning to think.

  Outside room 8, I stopped, and with my brows crossed, I stared at the door. I thought I heard like a struggle was going on inside.

  I didn’t miss a heartbeat. I kicked the door with my foot, and it flung open. I cocked my gun in my hand and held it out.

  It was a small room, and in the middle of it, Ensley was standing with her shoulders heaving. Ryan was in front of her, just about managing to stand up. Whatever had happened before this, I could see that right now, it was Ensley who was in the better position. Had she hit him? How?

  I stared at her. Her blond, beautiful hair was a mess. Her makeup was running down her cheeks, and her shirt seemed to be torn at her shoulders. Ryan, who I saw for the first time, growled and straightened himself, going straight for Ensley.

  I charged at them, knocking Ryan over with the full force of my body. I had thrown myself at him, and now I had him pinned to the wall. He was a big guy, but definitely not as big as me. Neither was he as strong. He struggled to move away, but I pressed my arm right up to his neck, choking him, while I held my gun pointed at his temple.

  “Where do you think you’re going, motherfucker?” I hissed into his face.

  I could sense Ensley behind me.

  “Thorn, please, let’s get out of here,” she yelled, and I had to fight every muscle in my body to not turn around and pull her into my arms.

  “Leave us, Ensley,” I hissed, with my eyes still focused on Ryan. He was still trying to get out of my grip, but now that I had him, there was no way that I was letting him escape.

  “Thorn, I want to go!” she screamed.

  “Leave us!” I growled back at her. I could sense that she didn’t know what to do. She was feeling helpless, but I couldn’t help her right now. I needed to deal with this bastard first.

  “Jamison, take her out, now!” I barked, and I could sense the movement behind me. Jamison was trying to pull Ensley away and out of the room, while she struggled against him. She didn’t want to leave my side.

  It was only when I heard the door slam shut behind Jamison, that I released the pressure on Ryan’s throat. He coughed and choked as he tried to steady himself, and I stepped away from him.

  Beckett, Topher, and Brooks were standing behind me, each with their guns pointed at Ryan. I didn’t need to point my gun at him anymore. There was nowhere he could go now, and he knew it.

  He wrapped his hands around his neck, as though that would help him breathe better. Still coughing, he steadied his eyes on me finally. His dark eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets. I could smell the alcohol on his breath. He had been in the middle of packing his bags when we got here.

  Which meant that we had got here just in time. Any longer and there was a good chance that he might have already taken Ensley away from this place.

  Ryan was glaring at me now, then looking over at my brothers standing behind me.

  “How did you find us? How did she tell you?” he asked, in a weak choking voice. I breathed in deeply, watching his crazed eyes as he tried to catch his breath.

  “The first rule of kidnapping is that you don’t pay for the holding room with your credit card. You dumbfuck,” I said, in a low even voice.

  Ryan snarled and then rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth.

  “It doesn’t fucking matter because she will never be yours. Ensley is my woman, and nothing will change that,” Ryan hissed, and I took one step towards him. He was a coward. He stepped away from me in fear, as much as he tried to cover up that fear with his speeches.

  “Did you hurt her? Did you hit her?” I asked him.

  It didn’t matter to me what his reply to that was. I knew the truth. I had already seen the blood trickling down Ensley’s nose. I already knew that he had hurt her. I just wanted to see if he would tell me the truth.

  “I would never hurt Ensley. I love her. Everything I do for her, I do because I fucking love her. She just doesn’t know it yet,” Ryan whelped. Now he was beginning to shake, as reality began to set in. He knew he was cornered and he had no escape.

  “Did you hit her?” I asked him again, taking a st
ep closer to him. Ryan’s nostrils flared, and he glared back at me, challenging me with his eyes.

  “She fucking hit me. All I was doing was loving her,” he said, and I lifted my gun up to his head.

  Ryan was standing in front of me, and I was pointing the gun at his head. He had nowhere to run, and I was going to make sure that he never hurt another woman in his life, definitely not Ensley.

  “You’re a sick fuck who likes to beat up women to make yourself feel good. Men like you don’t deserve to live,” I said, with the gun still pointed to his head. He was glaring back at me, still challenging me. He was sure that I wasn’t going to pull the trigger.

  “And you think you’re her big hero? Ensley Adams’ savior? You think she’s going to worship you all your life? She’s a whore, and she deserves to be treated like one. It’s the truth. Nobody knows her like I do,” Ryan continued, and I tightened my grip on the gun. I knew he could see the blazing rage in my eyes, and he had got it into his head that he was talking me out of shooting him.

  “Run while you can, man. One day, you’ll find yourself in my position. That is what whores like her do to the men they trap. That is what she did. She trapped me,” he said, and I shook my head.

  “You are a sick fuck. And you don’t even know it. You hit and hurt innocent women. How many others like Ensley are out there?” I asked, and he opened his mouth to say something.

  “Spare me the bullshit psychobabble. You’ve hurt Ensley, and that’s enough. That’s all I need to know,” I said, and Ryan widened his eyes, arching his eyebrows up his forehead.

  “What are you going to do? Shoot me here in the middle of this motel? For everyone to hear?” he said, and I could sense a grin forming on my face. He was such an idiot that he didn’t even notice the silencer on my gun.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said, the second before my forefinger pulled the trigger. I felt the reverberation of the bullet leave the barrel and shoot through the air. In the next split-second, I saw Ryan stagger back and hit his head on the wall, where a spreading red stain remained. His body slumped and slid down to the ground, and I turned from him.

  “Where is she?” I asked the others, who had said nothing and made no movement all this time.

  “Jamison’s taken her outside,” Brooks told me. They were all smiling at me. I had got what I wanted.

  Chapter 28

  Ensley

  One of the guys, who I knew had been guarding my apartment door earlier, had dragged me out of the motel room.

  “My name is Jamison, and I work with Thorn. You need to trust me right now,” I heard him say. He had his thick muscular arms wrapped tightly around my waist, trying to hold me back from running back into the room.

  I wanted to go back in. I wanted to force Thorn to get out of there. We needed to leave! That was all there was on my mind. I just wanted to get out of this place with Thorn and forget about everything that had happened.

  Jamison had slammed the door shut behind him on his way out, and now I couldn’t see or hear what was going on inside. For all I knew, Ryan and Thorn were in a fight, and one of them was going to be hurt. I didn’t care what happened to Ryan, I just didn’t want it to be Thorn.

  “Please, just let me go back in there. I can put a stop to this,” I cried, while Jamison dragged me further and further away from the room’s door. I could sense that he was taking me towards the parked bikes.

  “Miss, you really need to stop fighting me. I have my orders from Thorn, and I’m not going to let you go back in there,” Jamison said, and I finally stopped struggling. I knew I wasn’t going to get my way.

  “Can I let go of you now?” he asked, and grudgingly, I nodded my head.

  Jamison released his grip on me, and I stumbled back a little as I tried to steady myself.

  “I didn’t think it was going to be this hard to keep you in one place,” he said, with a grin, as we stood to face each other. I wasn’t exactly in the mood for small-talk, but it was way better than being stuck inside with Ryan with his knife at my throat.

  “What are they doing in there?” I asked him, throwing a look back at the door over my shoulder.

  “Thorn is taking care of business,” Jamison said, crossing his arms over his chest. I licked my lips and blinked rapidly. I still needed some time before I could feel like myself again. I still wasn’t used to the fact that I was out in the open now, free to go. Yet, there was nowhere I wanted to be, but here, right with Thorn.

  “Look, Miss,” Jamison began again, and I crossed my brows.

  “Call me Ensley, please,” I said, and he grinned at me again.

  “Okay, Ensley, I just wanted to tell you, because I’m fairly sure that Thorn won’t tell you exactly what happened. He might take all the blame on himself for what happened to you, but the truth is that it was all my fault,” he said. I shook my head and rubbed a hand over my forehead.

  “It doesn’t matter, Jamison. I’m safe now. You guys rescued me. That is all that matters,” I said to him, and he clenched his jaw and took in a deep breath.

  “I was supposed to be on duty, I was supposed to keep an eye on you the whole time, and stupidly, I thought it would be okay to go for a smoke break downstairs. I swear I wasn’t gone for more than fifteen minutes,” he said, and I could see the look of apology in his eyes.

  “Jamison, it’s fine. You don’t have to apologize to me. Ryan would have found me one way or another. He would have gotten to me, I know it,” I replied, and he nodded his head slowly. I didn’t know what Thorn had said to him, but I could see that he was extremely guilty.

  I would have said something more to reassure him, but at that moment, we heard a loud thud come from the room.

  “Thorn!” I shrieked, and before Jamison could get to me, I had already started running towards the door. In my panic, I was sure that Thorn had been shot. That he was dying.

  “Ensley!” I heard Jamison yell for me, but I had already pushed open the door.

  In the room, I saw the other men huddled in a circle, with Thorn standing in the middle. Ryan was lying in front of him, he had clearly thudded against the wall. There was blood on the wall behind him and a bleeding gunshot wound in his head.

  The men turned to look at me, and so did Thorn.

  “Ensley, you shouldn’t be here,” he said to me, in a low guttural voice. There was a rage in his eyes, but when he saw the look of horror on my face, his green eyes softened.

  I let out a whimper when I saw Ryan’s fallen body on the floor. I didn’t know whether to be horrified that he was dead, or feel happy and relieved.

  Thorn pushed past his friends, and stuffing his gun into his belt, he came towards me. Thorn was carrying a gun? I didn’t even realize that he was armed. What else did I expect from a man like him?

  “Ensley, are you okay?” I heard him say, and my eyes adjusted to his face.

  I couldn’t speak. It was like my lips were glued shut together.

  “I had to do this. He hurt you. He kept hurting you. He would have come after you again. He would have hurt other women…” Thorn was trying to justify himself to me, and I looked up at him with understanding in my eyes.

  “I don’t need an explanation, Thorn. I’m happy you did what you did. He deserved it. He would have killed me if he had the chance,” I said, and Thorn threw his arms around me and pulled me close to himself. The moment the words left my mouth, I knew it was true. Ryan would have stopped at nothing to get me back. This was the only way I would finally be safe.

  “Are you all right?” I heard him ask as I buried my face in his chest. I clung on to his biceps like I was holding him for dear life. I nodded my head, and he pulled himself away from me. His eyes were searching mine, looking at my face repeatedly.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said and traced the trail of blood from my nose with his finger. His eyes flitted over my face till he found the other bruises and scratches.

  “What did he do to you?” he growled,
and I licked my lips and looked into Thorn’s eyes.

  “He’s dead now. I’m safe. We can go home,” I said, and the words got stuck in my throat. What was home? My apartment wasn’t his home, was it? He had a rented hotel room near me. He had his own apartment in Pomona to go back to. What was I talking about?

  I felt my cheeks flush and I dragged my gaze away from him.

  “I meant that we can get out of here,” I said and slowly, Thorn released his hold on me. He was nodding his head, and I could feel a flutter in my heart somewhere. Did this mean that he was coming back with me?

  “Jamison, take Ensley home, and stay at her door till I tell you to,” Thorn said. I shook my head in panic again.

  “We all need to go. The cops could get here any moment!” I squealed, but I felt Jamison’s hands close in on my shoulders already. He was beginning to pull me away from Thorn again.

  “We’re going to deal with this before the cops get here. This is why you need to go, Ensley, please listen to me,” Thorn said, and now he had taken on a commanding tone of voice which I knew I had to abide by.

  I couldn’t say anything more. Thorn had already made his decision. I was going to have to go back with Jamison, and he was going to remain here with the others, and clean up the mess.

  I looked back at Thorn before we left the motel room. He was standing with his arms crossed over his expansive chest. His green eyes were glowing in the dim light of the motel room. He looked tall and muscular as he stood there and I knew he was my savior. I knew I had made the right decision by hiring him as my protector.

  I didn’t think about Ryan, I didn’t even look at him. My body and brain might have still been in shock. Like a machine, I followed Thorn’s orders and allowed Jamison to lead me to his bike. I sat behind him as he rode me back to my apartment, and the whole time, I could only think of Thorn and when I was going to see him again.