Temper: Road Roses MC

by Ada Stone

  Dread filled me as he yanked down his zipper. I looked away so that I wouldn’t have to see the evidence of his arousal—how could he be turned on by this?

  Clenching my eyes shut, I begged him, “Please, Tyler, don’t do this.” It was barely even a whisper and he ignored it completely.

  My eyes were still closed when I felt the shove on my shoulders. I fell back onto the bed and Tyler’s body followed me instantly, laying himself on top of me. The tears were finally falling and I was shaking my head. Panic swarmed me. This was happening. This was happening and he had a gun and what was I going to do?

  I started to struggle, a sudden thought entering my head: I won’t let him have me.

  Yes, he had a gun. Yes, I would probably die if I didn’t let him rape me. But, damnit, I’d rather be dead than raped.

  I bucked at him and started slapping at his shoulders and arms, tried to shove him off of me. But it was hopeless. He grunted and cursed, but he wouldn’t get off of me. He managed to get a hold of my arms, pinning them above my head. All I’d succeeded in doing was annoying him. “Bitch,” he breathed. “You’ve always been a bitch. Never even bothered to see the nice guy right in front of you. No, it was all about the bad boy, wasn’t it? Well, is this bad enough for you?”

  He held both of my wrists in one hand. I tried to jerk them free, but it was useless. His grip was surprisingly strong. He had finally tossed the gun aside. I would have been relieved except that I was still pinned down and now his free hand was undoing my pants, slipping his fingers beneath the waistband of my panties.

  I screamed.

  He didn’t care.

  “Stop fucking struggling!”

  And then the door came down. Alexei appeared. And I wasn’t even sure that I registered anything else. All I could think was: he’s alive.

  “I’m so sorry,” I breathed, fighting back more sobs. I had to be calm and collected. I needed to be strong. And that seemed a lot easier now that Alexei was here.

  He shook his head. “No, don’t be. None of this is your fault.”

  I let that sink in for a moment. Not my fault. That was a good thing. A good feeling to know that after all that had just happened—and before that, too—that Alexei didn’t think it was my fault. It eased something hard and cold in my chest, making it just a little bit easier to breathe.

  “What do we do now?” I asked in just barely a whisper.

  He pulled back a little bit, my body instantly noticing his missing heat, and ran a hand through his thick, dark hair. He glanced down at Tyler, his bright eyes flashing in fury. “We’ll have to do something about him.” He frowned, glancing between me and Tyler. “I suppose what we do depends on you.” He said that last bit stiffly, as though he didn’t like it, but was saying it because he felt duty bound to do so.

  I frowned. “What do you mean?”

  He let out a sigh. “I mean that he’s the father of your baby. If you want him around—” He shrugged, as though my answer was unimportant, but there was a flicker in his eyes that told me it was. Butterflies filled my stomach as I realized that I had to tell him the truth. I didn’t know what he’d say, what he’d think after everything, but I needed him to know the truth of the matter.

  I needed him to know how big of a lie I’d told him.

  Sucking in a breath in hopes of steadying my nerves, I said what I’d been hiding for so long: “I lied.”

  He looked at me uncertainly. His piercing blue eyes narrowed at me. “Lied about what?”

  “About the baby.”

  His expression faltered and there was a sudden and profound sadness left there in its wake. “You’re not pregnant?”

  I blinked at him in surprise. That was not where I thought he would go with that. I shook my head at him. “No, I mean, yes, I’m pregnant. I mean that I lied when I told you that—that he was the father.” I couldn’t make myself look at Tyler much less say his name. “He’s not. I’ve… you’re the only man I’ve ever been with, Alexei.” I hesitated, the final confession lingering on my lips uncertainly. Finally, I said in barely more than a whisper, “You’re the only man I want to be with. Just you.”

  There was a moment of silence that spread between us, so deep, so stark that I thought I was too late. My confessions meant nothing now. I’d botched the whole thing up and I didn’t know what I would do and—

  He jerked me to him, our chests colliding as he leaned down, his mouth seeking out mine. His kiss was hard, possessive, filled with the passion that I’d always gotten from him. Not quite desperation, but so full of emotion and possession and need that it was undeniable.

  I felt my arms go around his neck, my eyes fluttering shut as I fell against him, losing myself in that kiss. He held me to him tightly, his arms encasing me in strength and hard muscle, his hands on the small of my back and that spot between my shoulder blades to ensure I was going nowhere.

  And I wasn’t. This was exactly where I wanted to be, nowhere else.

  His tongue slid across my lips, feeling as though he’d done it a thousand times and should do it a thousand more. I opened my mouth for him, allowing his tongue to slide inside and duel with my own. I groaned against him, wishing for more than just this kiss and afraid at the same time to ask for it.

  We kissed like that forever. Our bodies pressed together so tightly that nothing could fit between them, our breaths heaving, our heartbeats drumming in sync.

  But eventually, it had to stop. We slowed down, albeit reluctantly. Then, with a tender sweep of his lips across mine, we finally broke apart. He sucked in a breath and when his eyes met mine, they flashed with desire and need. But there was no time for either.

  Brushing a strand of my hair behind my ear, he said, “We have to go. Staying here is dangerous.”

  I nodded in agreement. I wanted out of this room. It didn’t matter where I was, so long as it wasn’t here and Alexei was with me. His eyes drifted down to Tyler, examining him coolly. After a moment, he looked back to me. “He’s going to be a problem if he wakes up like that.” Considering him for a second longer, he said, “I’ll make sure he doesn’t get to a phone any time soon.”

  Before I could ask what he meant, he pulled away from me completely—it was a terrible feeling, the need to be beside him, wrapped up in him, so intense it was startling—and kneeling down to get a grip on Tyler’s feet. He nodded his chin towards the only other door in the room besides the entrance. “Open it, please.”

  I nodded and went to it hurriedly. I opened the bathroom door, then stood aside so that Alexei could drag Tyler’s unconscious form into the small, dirty room. I watched him lean Tyler’s head against the porcelain of the toilet, then come back out into the main part of the room. He jerked out the cord for the telephone and made sure it was detached from both wall and phone. Then he proceeded to tie Tyler up, his hands coming together on the opposite side of the toilet, so that it looked like he was hugging the cold porcelain, his head leaned against the top, cheek pressed to the side.

  I thought Alexei was done, but then he stole a pillow, too, and wadded it up. He shoved it into Tyler’s mouth. Then he stepped back and admired his work. Satisfied, he turned back to me. Raising a single eyebrow, he asked, “Are you okay with this?”

  There was little today that I was okay with, but Tyler tied up to a toilet—alive, breathing, and in better shape than they thought they’d left Alexei in—was one of them. I could live with it. I nodded.

  He relaxed a little. “Good. We need to go.” He grabbed my arm—the third man to do so today, and by far the gentlest—leading me out the door. He frowned at the broken door he’d kicked in, and released me long enough to pull it back to a standing position. It was definitely still broken, but if you weren’t looking too closely, it looked almost just like the other doors next to it. Hopefully it would be enough to escape attention, for a while at least.

  We started walking away from the Ranch Hand Inn. I noticed that Alexei’s car wasn’t in sight. “Where are we going?�
� I asked.

  He held my hand as we walked along the side of the road, staying a little farther into the woods so the trees helped to hide us from view. “I parked about a half a mile up the road, just to make sure no one spotted my car.” He offered me a wry smile. “I’m glad I did, though I don’t know how much good it did me in the end.”

  I didn’t answer. I wanted to ask him what had happened, but at the same time, I knew enough to know that I didn’t want to know any more. I stayed silent.

  We walked until the woods opened up to a clearing. It was a parking lot for a building that looked rundown and boarded up. It didn’t look like anything. When we got around the shack, I spotted his car, hiding in the shadows.

  “Good. It’s still here.”

  He opened the passenger door for me and then got in on the driver’s side. I shivered and immediately he started up the car in response, turning the heat on full blast. It took only a moment for it to heat up, but when it did, I felt better. The heat seeped into my bones, relaxing my body until I finally felt safe and warm and just better.

  Alexei looked over at me. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but I need to find your brother.”

  I nodded. Alexei looked surprised, but I offered him a small, sad smile. “I know.”

  After everything my brother had told me, I understood now that he wasn’t who I thought he was. And while maybe I wasn’t ready to consider what Alexei would do to him—he was still my brother and no matter what he’d done, I didn’t wish for him to die—I knew that my brother couldn’t be left to his own devices. He’d done something horrible.

  I was hoping that maybe I could talk Alexei into calling the police. It seemed pretty improbable, but maybe if I told him I would make the call—anonymously—and be sure not to mention anything about Alexei and his employers, then maybe he would go for it. Chris needed to be punished, but I wasn’t yet convinced that he needed to die.

  I knew I’d have to talk to Alexei about it before we reached my brother, but I also sensed that now was not the time to bring it up. Not yet, though it would have to be very soon.

  “I’m not sure where he is,” I admitted to Alexei, frowning. “I know he’s meeting up with Jason, though.”

  He nodded, thinking about it. “That’s good to know. I’ve got a location for Chris; I just wasn’t sure if this Jason character would be there, too.”

  I was surprised to find out that Alexei knew already where Chris was, but I thought maybe I shouldn’t have been. After all, he’d found him at the Ranch Hand Inn. Biting my lip, I nodded. “What are you going to do? Won’t it be dangerous with both of them there?”

  Alexei gave me a wry smile. “Don’t worry about it. I can handle them.”

  I frowned at him. He looked badly beat up, bruised, and his lip was a little bloody. He was covered in dirt, too, and I knew he’d been beaten severely enough that Chris was convinced he was dead. If it had gone that way the first time around, why would this time be any different?

  As though reading my mind, Alexei offered me a more genuine smile. He put his hand on mine, sending sparks of electricity running up my arms. “They got the jump on me before. But not this time. I won’t give them the chance to fight dirty twice.”

  I nodded, though I was still scared and worried for him. This was going to go badly; I could feel it.

  We drove towards a warehouse that Alexei had apparently been directed towards. He insisted that we stop at a store on the way to pick up a disposable cell phone and to get me some ginger ale and Mentos, the only things that kept my stomach calm, but aside from that, we didn’t stop at all.

  He seemed a little on edge with me being there. “I would drop you off first,” he explained as we drove through the quiet night. “But I can’t be sure that nothing will happen. What if Christopher leaves before I get there? What if Tyler manages to get out? No, I can’t leave you alone. This is the only way I can protect you.”

  A warm feeling flooded me. After the way my brother had so carelessly dragged me into this, after Tyler had pointed a gun at my head and then forced himself on me, it was nice to have at least one person thinking about my safety.

  I smiled at Alexei, relieved that we were finally together again.

  Chapter Thirty

  Alexei

  I drove with purpose towards the warehouse. After getting the disposable cell phone from the market, as well as a couple of things to ensure that Susanna’s morning sickness didn’t suddenly rear its ugly head, I made a point to call Yegor and check to make sure that the truck was still there. It was, he assured me. I felt a little bit better this time around, having a few things working in my favor. The first was that Christopher felt certain I was dead. It was his own stupidity that had ensured he hadn’t finished the job of putting me to rest and it served him right that he would feel falsely secure. The second was that I knew Jason would be there, too. Susanna had provided me with that bit of information and it was helpful, because I knew what to look out for.

  My eyes glanced over at Susanna in the passenger seat. She was quiet, thoughtful. Up to this point, she had been pretty adamant about her brother, sure that he wasn’t capable of the things for which he’d been accused, but tonight she was strangely silent.

  I think it had to do with the confession of killing me, ironically enough, that swayed her opinion of him. After all, if he was capable of killing me, then wasn’t he just as capable of having murdered someone else? It didn’t matter that he actually hadn’t managed to finish me off, only that he’d intended to.

  Still, I was surprised she was going along with this so willingly. Perhaps she was still in shock after what happened in the hotel.

  I gripped the steering wheel tighter until my knuckles were turning white. What sort of monster tried to rape a pregnant woman? I should have killed him right then and there, and probably would have if Susanna hadn’t been in the room. But she was, and though smashing his face in helped a little bit, it didn’t really quell the licking flames of hatred burning in my gut.

  At least she’s safe. At least she’s with me.

  It was the only comforting thought I had, really.

  After a while of driving, Susanna finally spoke up, her voice small and hesitant. “You’re going to kill my brother, aren’t you?” she asked, her gaze ahead of her instead of turned towards me.

  I frowned, not sure what to answer with. Of course I was, and I had the feeling she already knew that. Not wanting to lie to her, I nodded. “Yes.”

  She fell silent again for a moment, then, “And that’s the only way? I mean, is it about the money, or something else?”

  I wasn’t sure what she was getting at. I thought she had realized what sort of man her brother was. After thinking for a moment, I said, “It would be a lie to say it isn’t about the money. Even for those who love what they do, it is still, in some part, about the money. But that is not the only thing I take into consideration.”

  “And what else do you consider then?”

  I mulled the question over for a moment before answering, realizing how important it was. “It’s a little bit about justice, in a strange sort of way. Some people just need to die. They’re dangerous and have proved themselves to be nothing else. I can’t let that go, but I would be lying if I said I was only being noble or righteous. Because I’m not. I work for some dangerous people, Susanna. And these people are a big part of why I do what I do. I owe Vinny—” I slipped up, I realized, saying his name, but she was going to be a part of my life now. I’d already made up my mind on that, so I glossed over it and kept going. She needed to know who she was getting involved with. “—a lot and if he asks something of me, I won’t ask too many questions before I do what I do.”

  There was a long pause filled with tense silence before Susanna spoke again. I was worried as she did, her next words a clue as to how all future conversations might go. “So you wouldn’t consider getting the police involved?” she asked timidly.

  I glanced at her sharply
and said in a flat tone, “No. Not even remotely.”

  She frowned, turning in her seat so that she was facing me. “What if it was reported anonymously? He could be locked away and you wouldn’t have to—”

  I interrupted her before she went any farther. “Vinny won’t let the police be involved. Christopher’s death warrant has already been issued. Now, it need only be served. And if not by me, then someone else will take the job.”

  She fell silent at that. We didn’t say anything else for the rest of the drive. I knew she wanted to find another way, one in which her brother survived, but there was nothing I could do about that. She loved him, yes, but he’d already wasted too much time and messed up in too many ways. There was no more lenience to be offered.

  ***

  We arrived at the warehouse a little while later. It was still light and the first thing that I noticed was that the street lights in the immediate vicinity were out. None of them worked until several blocks down. I didn’t think it was a coincidence.