by Monroe, Evie
He walked into my kitchen, opening cabinets and poking around. “You have any rope? We need to tie her up so she doesn’t get away.”
And that did it.
“Get the fuck out of my apartment,” I muttered to him, still keeping Cait subdued. She’d calmed a bit, but every once in a while, I felt her trying to break free, to no avail. “I’ll deal with her on my own. Just get out.”
He stared at me. “Fuck that. You’re just gonna let her go. Are you . . .”
I let go of Cait, stood, and faced him, shoving him hard in the chest. “You heard me, get out.”
He glared at me, nostrils flaring, then his eyes went over my shoulder, to Cait. “Your funeral. I’m telling Cullen.”
“I’ll tell Cullen,” I said. “As soon as I get her calmed down. I’ll see you at church later.”
He gave me a surprised look, which turned into a bitter laugh. Then he shook his head, opened the door, and stormed out.
I let out a breath. As soon as he’d slammed the door behind him, I raked my hands through my hair. Fuck.
When I turned back to Cait, she’d gotten free of the sofa, but was hugging herself in a corner. She didn’t look like she wanted to escape anymore. No, she was shaking, her eyes full of tears. It might have been an act, but it if it was, she deserved all the awards.
Fucking Jet. I shouldn’t have called him.
Chapter Ten
Caitlyn
What had first seemed like one of the greatest nights of my life was quickly turning out to be the worst ever. As I stood there, watching the two men argue on the balcony, oozing testosterone as they decided what to do with me, my eyes kept trailing to the sky behind them.
It was getting lighter. The sun was coming up.
That meant my dad would soon be up. And he’d soon be home.
I had no idea where The Wall was located in relationship to this apartment complex, but I’d have to get back there to pick up my car. Then, find Martie, wherever she was and get her home. Then it was a good twenty minutes back to my house in North Aveline Bay.
It had to be after five by now. I was running out of time.
I managed a glance at Drake and Jet. Cobras. Of course they were Steel Cobras. How could I have been so stupid? Maybe because though I’d never run into men from the motorcycle club, my father’s main adversary, I’d heard enough stories about them. According to my dad, they were ugly, mean, gross sons of bitches. I’d heard about Steel Cobras from the time I was a little kid and had equated them in my head to the evil monsters in my story books.
These men? Definitely not monsters. Oh, hell no. They were beautiful.
Except that Jet kept flipping that gun in my face. He was definitely getting on my nerves. He had no idea how close he’d come to his nuts full of my knee.
As they argued, I thought of Martie, probably wondering where I was and dying to get away from her big mistake. But most of all, I thought of my mother, lying at home, unprotected. My daddy would surely kill her if he found out she’d let me go out all night.
I’d been gaming the system against my father for a long time. Maybe this was when I’d finally get caught.
But I thought of my mother, the last time he’d beaten her up so bad, she could barely stand up on her own. I knew I couldn’t let that happen again.
I saw my chance and I took it.
As Jet waved his gun and Drake spoke quietly, I slowly grabbed my purse off the counter and crept my way to the door. I quietly twisted the knob.
I was just opening it when I heard Jet yell, “Fuck!” and saw a flash of movement behind me.
I ran. I ran as fast as I could, but it wasn’t fast enough. Two large arms circled around my waist and dragged me backwards. I screamed, hoping a neighbor would come out, but that didn’t help. I was quickly shoved back into the apartment. Drake threw me down on the sofa, pinning my wrists together with one hand. He sat down on my legs, rendering me immobile, as easy as that, and continued to argue with Jet. I screamed with every last bit of breath I had, but it wasn’t much. He covered my mouth with his other hand, barely looking bothered at all.
He may have been hot and had that magic cock. But he too, was an asshole. A Cobra asshole. Maybe my father wasn’t too far off with his assessment.
Then he told Jet to get the hell out. Jet wasn’t listening, and I could tell Drake was getting pissed at him. He jumped up, freeing me, and basically shoved him out the door.
I climbed off the couch and squeezed myself in a corner, wondering if I’d ever get out of here. When he closed the door, he looked back at me. “Don’t scream, okay?”
I scowled at him. “Why shouldn’t I?”
He held up his hands. “Because I’m not gonna hurt you and I’m not pointing a gun at you. Okay?”
“Fine. But please let me go. I’ve got to go.” I glanced out the window. The sky looked lighter still. If anything happened to my mom this morning, it would be all my fault.
“Hold on,” he said. At least he wasn’t threatening me. “What is all this about? Tell me the truth. Okay? Just the truth.”
If we’d ever found a Cobra girl in our club, my dad would’ve gone batshit crazy. I guessed I owed Drake an explanation, even if I really didn’t have one.
“I promise you. It was just a mistake. This isn’t some crazy plot to undermine your club and kill you. I promise. I was stressed out and just wanted a night of fun, away from the Fury. That’s it. And you . . . you were cute, and nice to me and . . . I’m sorry. I really didn’t know you guys were Cobras.”
I was babbling by now. I was tired and feeling gross. I just wanted to go home and wrap my arms around my mother and make sure that she was okay. Martie’d thought she’d made a mistake? This was turning out to be the most colossal mistake of the night, hands down. I’d take Mullet Man any day, over this.
He pressed his lips together. His eyes scanned down me, to my bare legs. He pointed. “Did I do that to you last night?” His voice almost gentle.
I looked down, at some bruises on my calves. I knew exactly when I’d gotten those, a few days ago. “No.”
He crouched to get a better look. “Where did you get them?”
I sucked in a breath. “I really do need to get home, Drake. Please.”
He stared at me for a long time. There was remorse in his eyes when he said, “I can’t let you go yet. There’s someone I need to talk to first.”
Chapter Eleven
Drake
“You know it’s six thirty on a fucking Sunday morning, don’t you, asshole?” Cullen rasped out when he answered the phone.
Cait was sitting on the very edge of the couch, looking like she was going to bolt again. She was biting on a thumbnail, tapping the toe of her boot against the coffee table and fidgeting from side to side. “Yeah. Did I wake you?”
“You’re lucky you didn’t, man. I’m on kid duty. Ella wakes up with the sun. I’ve been watching Paw Patrol for an hour and I’m about to go nuts. What’s up?”
“I got a problem,” I said, walking into the kitchen and starting a pot of coffee. “A big one.”
“Shit. What now?”
“Fury.” I sighed. “Jet and I went to The Wall last night. We didn’t wear any colors and kept that we were Cobras on the down low because we didn’t want any trouble.”
“So, what’s the problem with the Fury?”
I pulled down a box of cereal from the pantry and shook it at Cait. She wrinkled her nose, the crease over her eyes growing. I made myself a bowl. “Well, apparently they don’t seem to have any problems sending their girls over there.”
A pause. “Are you shitting me?”
“Nope.”
I got two mugs down and poured us each a cup of coffee. I shoved one over to her and banged on the counter to get her attention. She looked up, dazed, and shook her head.
“How’d you find out?”
“She has a tattoo.”
“What’s her name? What does she look like? Did she . . . fuck,
man. What the fuck were you thinking?”
I lowered my voice. “Cullen. I don’t think she’s a spy or anything. I think she just didn’t know better. She hasn’t been fishing for information or . . .”
“Yeah, but you took her to your place, right? You fucked her, right? You don’t know what she’s after.”
Shit. He sounded like Jet. I was tired as hell. The fight with Jet hadn’t done me any favors; I hadn’t gotten any sleep. And maybe I was thinking with my dick and needed a reality check. I polished off my coffee and poured myself another cup. “Right. Which is why I wanted to call you first thing. Better to be safe.”
“Okay. Good. Where is she now?”
“Sitting here looking at me. I didn’t want to let her go until after I talked to you.”
He let out a big breath. “Eight o’clock at the clubhouse. Bring the girl.”
I hung up and looked at Cait. “I need to take you to the clubhouse.”
Her eyes widened. “The Cobras clubhouse?” She jumped up. “No fucking way.”
I glared at her. Hell, even in the morning with her hair all loose and out of control, she was still gorgeous. Why the fuck did she have to mess around with those assholes? If it hadn’t been for that, I’d have just been waking up from the most fan-fucking-tastic one night stand I’d ever had.
“You don’t have a choice in the matter. Our president wants you there.”
She let out a shaky breath. “He’s not going to let me leave, is he?”
I laughed bitterly. “If the tables were turned, you’d be in a lot more trouble than you are now. But we’re not assholes. I’ll get you home, but first you need to answer to Cullen.”
“Cullen?” She flopped back onto the sofa and started to chew on her thumbnail. “You don’t understand. This isn’t good. I have to be somewhere. I need to get my car at that bar, pick up my friend, and . . .”
“You have a phone, don’t you? Call her and tell her something came up.”
She buried her head in her hands and moaned miserably. “You don’t understand.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “Okay. Tell me. Make me understand.”
I wanted to understand. I wanted to know for sure that I hadn’t just worsened an already fucked-up situation between the Fury and the Cobras. But she didn’t look up, didn’t answer me.
Fucking hell. “What? If your man finds out we know who you are, will he hurt you? Is that what those bruises are?”
She looked away.
“Dammit, Cait! Answer me,” I said, grabbing her shoulder and wrenching her toward me. “Do you have a Fury asshole for a boyfriend who’s been hitting you? Is that why you did this? Did he make you go to The Wall to spy on us?”
She crossed her arms. “For the last time. No. I didn’t know you were Cobras.”
Fuck. Any more of this and I was going to be as bad as Jet. We were just running over the same tracks, again and again. I needed to cool it.
That lasted about as long as it took for me to go to my room and put on a t-shirt and boots. I came back to find her texting away to someone, and I lost it.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I swiped the phone from her hand. She was writing a text out to someone named Martie. “Who is this?”
She scowled. “My friend. From last night. Remember?”
I scanned the message. “Is she Fury, too?”
She shook her head slowly. I handed the phone back to her, and she snatched it away, seething at me. “Stop being so fucking paranoid about your precious club secrets. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
Right. She could think that. And even if she was innocently out for fun last night, even if she’d associated with the Fury for just one day, it was one day too much. We couldn’t let her slide for that. Jet may have been an asshole with her, but he was right. This meant everything to us a club.
And I was the asshole who’d introduced this poison. I felt like a fucking traitor.
“Come on,” I muttered to her, going for the door.
I handed her my spare helmet and she strapped it on. We got on my bike. This time, she kept her distance as much as she could. She didn’t press her chest against my back or wrap her body tight around mine. I wished I didn’t miss it, but I did. I wanted to feel her against me. I thought of last night and my cock pulsed, wanting more of that. Then I cursed myself again, as we pulled up to the warehouse.
I wasn’t late, but when we walked inside, almost everyone had assembled in the general meeting room. Even Zain, which was a miracle considering it was eight in the morning on a Sunday. The room fell into silence as the second the door slammed behind us, and the officers filed out of our private office. The brothers all looked at me, and then at Cait. Jet scowled at her like he wanted to rip her head off.
Cait looked at me unsurely. I pulled out a chair around the table that most of the guys were sitting at, but she shook her head. She crossed her arms. “I’ll stand, thanks.”
Cullen took a drag of his cigarette as he looked at me. “Jet filled us in a little but tell us what happened.”
“There’s not much to tell,” I explained. “Jet and I were at The Wall. I met Cait. I took her home. I saw the Hell’s Fury tattoo. I called Cullen.”
Nix said, “Did anyone bother to ask her what she was doing there?”
“Of course we d—”
Cait interrupted. “I was with a friend. I just wanted to have some fun. That’s all. I didn’t know he was a Cobra. If I’d known, I would’ve stayed away,” she said, her voice raised and confident. They all swung their heads to look at her.
“We weren’t wearing our kuttes,” I explained.
“So you’re Fury?” Jet asked, his tone hard. “Whose girl are you?”
She didn’t answer. Whoever the asshole was, he’d done a number on her. She was afraid of him. And she’d probably be a hell of a lot more afraid if he ever found out what she and I did the night before.
Cullen pushed off the side of the table and came up close to her. He had this way of staring that made most people crack, but Cait met his gaze, unblinking. “You gonna tell everyone whose girl you are, or should I?”
We all swung our heads to him. “You know?” Jet asked.
Cullen nodded. “I figured it out.”
She shrugged. “You might as well.”
He moved aside. “She’s Caitlyn. Slade’s girl.”
The place exploded. Everyone burst into movement and roars, but I stared at her, frozen, silent. Slade was a mysterious dude but from what I’d heard, he was older. What was a young girl like Cait doing with him? Did she get off on the power?
Fuck. Slade. The president of the Fury. I’d just been fucking his girlfriend.
That made me public enemy number one.
And I had a really hard time believing that Slade’s girl didn’t know The Wall was our hangout. Was she really fucking with me?
Jet nudged my shoulder and shouted, “I knew it. She’s playing all innocent and meanwhile she’s fucking the president of the Fury himself!”
Cait just rolled her eyes at him like he was a total ass.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Cullen said, settling us all down. “Calm down. Let me back up. She’s not Slade’s girlfriend. She’s Slade’s daughter.”
His daughter? I nearly choked. She’d said something like that, last night. That she had a controlling father that she lived with. And her controlling father was, of all people . . . Slade. Slade had a daughter. And last night, I fucked her.
Holy fuck.
That didn’t just make me their number one enemy. If word got back to Slade that I’d touched his flesh and blood, I was as good as dead.
Cullen looked at Jet and then me. “Jet. Drake. That was so fucking stupid of you guys. It’d be nice if for once you’d start thinking with your heads, instead of your cocks. You know what’s going to happen when Slade learns about this?”
I looked away. “He doesn’t know.”
“He won’t know,” Cait added. I looked a
t Cait. She’d been in such a rush to get home. She had bruises on her legs. Something told me this was just as big a secret for her to keep as it was for the Cobras. But could she manage that, living under the same roof as Slade? “I promise. I need to go. I promise if you let me go, I won’t tell him anything.”
Great. A promise from the Fury. To the Cobras. That was as useful as a three-dollar bill.
“So what the fuck do we do now?” Nix asked, ignoring her.
Cullen stubbed out his cigarette and nodded. He motioned to me. “Take her home. Straight home.”
So that was it? Jet opened his mouth to argue but Cullen silenced him with a look.
He nodded at Cait as he went back to the table. “Sorry about what happened to you. If my boys roughed you up at all. We don’t condone that shit. Let’s get you home.”
Head down, I went to the door, fishing my keys from my jeans, but she stopped. “Thank you,” she said to Cullen. “I’m sorry, too. I promise, I won’t say anything.”
Jet scoffed, but the rest of the Cobras just looked at each other, faces etched with doubt. Cullen looked away and waved at her, accepting the promise, but I could tell even he wasn’t sure it was worth anything.
Of course she’d tell, wouldn’t she? She was branded Fury. She—and her loyalty— belonged to them.
Chapter Twelve
Caitlyn
“Just drop me off at The Wall,” I said, stiffly and formally to Drake as I climbed on the back of his bike. “I have to pick up my car.”
“Hell no. Cullen said your house. Where do you live?”
Oh, that would be just lovely. Daddy seeing me riding up on the back of a Cobra’s bike. That’d be one way for me to never survive my twenties. And I was done with Drake and all the Cobras for the rest of my life. Yes, Drake had been dreamy in bed, but this, whatever we had, was going just about nowhere. There was no way it could go anywhere, after what had just happened. “What are you, suicidal?”
He looked over his shoulder at me. “I want to know where you live with that prick.”
“What? So you can kill him in the night and get another win for your precious club?” I challenged.