Forbidden Rider: A Lost Saxons Novel #5

by Ames, Jessica

  And I’m seriously hoping she has a good reason.

  As I watch Wade, I find myself wondering what he’ll do to me when he discovers I’ve been shagging his little sister for months behind his back. Worse still, that as soon as I can figure out what is going on in her head and get her back on track, that I’m going to claim her at the table as my old lady.

  The sick part of my brain that enjoys winding people up almost relishes telling him, just to see his reaction. Yeah, I’m warped, I know.

  I take another sip of coffee, this time welcoming the burn. It reminds me I’m alive, which may not be the case when Wade finds out the truth.

  Despite their history, and despite the fact he’s only been back in Piper’s life for a short time, the brother is overly protective of his kid sister. I get it; I have sisters myself—sisters I’d kill to protect. But given Wade walked away from Piper, I’m surprised by this possessive streak he’s developed over her. It means me going toe to toe with a brother to have her. I’m willing to do that, and she’s not here.

  Fuck, Pip, where are you?

  I want to be mad at her, but I can’t. She’s scared, and I get it, I do. She’s never had anyone. Even her parents are the worst humans on the planet. Suddenly, she has a chance with her brother and she’s worried me and her being together could unhinge that. I understand, even if I don’t like it. And I certainly don’t like that when things get tough, she runs. I want her to talk to me.

  A holler suddenly goes up and I twist in time to see my brother and Beth entering the room looking a little worse for wear. I join the fracas, even though my head feels like it’s going to split in two. I’m happy for them both. They had a hell of a journey to get here, and they deserve this.

  Logan’s hand rests on Beth’s neck as he presses a kiss to her hair. They look so in love. I want that. I don’t care if it makes me sound like some pansy-assed bitch. I want it. I thought I had it with Piper, but I don’t know if the woman is capable of giving me it. All I know is my world feels right with her in it. We’re good together.

  Beth settles at the table with the girls, who start gossiping like a gaggle of fucking geese, and Lo goes to get them something to eat from the kitchen while the noise resumes. I fire off another text to Piper, even though I’m sure I’m entering crazy territory right now. I don’t give a fuck.

  I zone in and out of the conversation, my attention mostly on my phone. This is my fault. I should have refused to play along. We should have told Wade about our relationship months ago. Hell, the moment I kissed her, I should have come clean.

  At first, she was so against the Club, it was hard to break through that wall. I managed, though. I managed to show her the Lost Saxons is about family first and foremost. We’re not choirboys, not by any stretch, but we’re not demons either. Everything we do is to protect what’s ours. We’ll defend our own to the death.

  Then she was worried about Wade’s reaction to her dating a brother, and for good reason. Wade laid down the law like this was the sixteen-hundreds and his sister’s virtue was in need of protecting. I should have nipped that in the bud fast. Fuck what Wade thinks. Piper’s his sister, but he doesn’t own her. He can take a swing at me, rant, rave—whatever he needs to do—but she’s mine and she’s going to be mine no matter what he says. I should have claimed her weeks ago. Months ago.

  The doors at the end of the dining room suddenly kick open. I twist, instinct pushing aside my fuzzy head, and forcing me into action.

  King is in the doorway, his expression focused, but I can see the panic beneath the prospect’s tight-set mouth.

  “What’s wrong?” Logan demands, already on his feet.

  It might be the morning after his wedding, but he’s still the Club’s Sergeant-at-Arms and he’s never off the clock.

  “There’s a woman at the gate. Bleeding, hysterical. She nearly fucking ploughed right through them.”

  “You left her there?” Slade growls, moving towards him.

  My instincts flare, and I nearly mirror his movement. It takes everything in me to keep my head.

  I don’t trust this fucker, not anymore, not after what he did with that whole Tap situation. The brothers want to move on, put it to bed and leave that shit in the past. What’s done is done, but I think Slade’s dangerous. His behaviour, even if I understand his anger, was uncontrolled.

  So, I brace, ready to act if he decides to do something crazy. The fact Clara is with him might keep him level, but I don’t know. The unpredictability of the man makes me on edge. I glance at the small blonde woman at Slade’s side, wondering not for the first time, what her life is like behind closed doors. If he’s hurting her, I don’t give a shit what the others say, I’ll bury him myself. Clara’s a sweet woman and she’s good to our Club.

  King doesn’t move, but I see his legs snap straight as if he wants to. I don’t blame him Slade isn’t exactly level lately. Not that King knows what the crazy fucker did to Tap, but the prospect isn’t stupid. He knows something happened and that Slade was involved. If he knows the VP murdered and torched a patched member he might rethink signing up.

  “We pulled her out of the vehicle, secured her outside. Charlie and Ghost are with her.”

  “Who is she?” Logan pushes, ignoring Slade.

  We all do our best to ignore that crazy bastard.

  “I don’t know.” His gaze slides towards me. “But she’s asking for you.”

  Every eye in the room swivels in my direction.

  I’m used to being gawked at. Being in an MC garners a lot of attention, and looking how I look, I get noticed. I’m six-foot-three, with stupid floppy blond hair and I know how to work the charm to my advantage. I know how to get attention. This is a different kind of noticing, though, and it’s not one I’m wholly comfortable with.

  I blink. “Me?”

  What the fuck?

  “You piss off some piece of skirt, Jem?” Weed asks, amusement in his voice.

  Not lately. I haven’t been with anyone but Piper for months. I can’t say that, though, not with Wade standing two feet from me.

  And it can’t be Piper. King knows her, as does Ghost. In fact, the entire Club knows her. She was here for eight weeks looking after Wade, and she’s been here multiple times since for various visits, including last week for Beth’s hen do.

  Mind racing, I shove the chair out of my way and push through the crowd of people.

  Mum comes to the kitchen door as I pass. I see hints of Sofia and Adam in her face, but she’s most like Mackenzie in the shape of her jaw and slope of her nose. Her colouring is all me and Adam, though, and her personality is all Lo.

  “Jem, honey, what’s going on?”

  “Stay here,” I order.

  “What’s happening?”

  “Stay here,” I repeat. I don’t want her getting caught up in whatever this is.

  She looks as if she’s going to launch into a lecture about my tone, but I’m out of the doors before she can say shit. I love my mother, but fuck, can she lecture.

  Unease swirls in my guts as I hit the front doors, aware of my brothers at my back—both Club and blood. I hope they had the common sense to tell their old ladies to stay inside. I have no idea what I’m dealing with here and I don’t want any of them caught up in the crossfire.

  I follow King who is leading the way like the Pied fucking Piper, and as soon as we step outside onto the loading bay, my heart drops to my feet.

  Sitting on one of the picnic tables, Ghost standing one side of her, Charlie the other like a pair of sentinels is Camille Neville.

  She’s hard to recognise beneath the blood and bruises. If it wasn’t for her mass of red hair and the pendant she always wears around her neck, I don’t think I would be able to. Her left eye is swollen nearly shut, the other starting to close, and her jaw is a mass of mottled purple and black. Her top is torn at the shoulder, revealing a hint of lacy black bra beneath and her jeans are intact but bloodied, too, ripped at the knees. I don’t ev
en want to think about the injuries hidden beneath her clothes, but she’s beat to hell.

  I let my eyes slide towards the gate, seeing the abandoned car in the entrance of it, the driver’s door still flung open. Christ. How did she drive like this?

  Cami raises her head and as soon as she sees me, lets out a sob that cuts through me.

  When she comes off the bench, Ghost moves to stop her, but I shake my head, and the huge brother lets his hands drop to his side as she throws herself bodily into my arms. I go back on a foot with the force of her, but manage to wrap my arms around her tiny frame. Cami sobs uncontrollably and I have no idea what she’s saying, but my fear is mounting.

  What the fuck is Piper’s best friend doing here, looking like this?

  And where the fuck is my woman?

  I’ve never seen Cami look anything but perfectly put together. This is throwing me completely.

  I manage to disentangle from her after a moment, and when I do, I feel rage roar in my gut. She’s a mess.

  I try to calm myself. I don’t want to scare her, but I’m sure my nostrils are flaring as my breath saws out of me.

  “Who did this to you?” I’m impressed by how level I keep my tone, considering the fear and rage racing through me.

  Cami is a small woman, maybe five-five, and from the looks of things whoever attacked her got most of the hits in.

  “I tried to stop them.” Her voice wobbles.

  “Stop who?”

  “There were too many, but I tried.”

  I don’t like where this is going. My stomach twists.

  “Cami, what happened?”

  She grabs my biceps and squeezes with bruising force. It’s a surprisingly strong grip for someone as small as her and as hurt as she is.

  “They have her…” she whispers through cracked, cut lips.

  Three words. Three words that make fear drill into my soul.

  They have her.

  “Who? Who has her?” The words taste bad on my tongue, but I spit them out anyway. I need to know. I need the answers she has. Impatience has me wanting to shake them free from her, but I resist. I don’t want to hurt her more than she already is, but I need her to give me more than this, faster. I need to know where Piper is, now.

  “Men. They took Piper. I tried to stop them, but there were so many of them.”

  She sobs, clinging to me like she’ll fall down if she doesn’t. I’m aware of the crowd around us, but I don’t care. All I care about is the woman in front of me and what she’s saying, the answers she has.

  “Somebody took my sister?” Wade’s voice cuts through the air. I watch as he mentally throws aside all the questions battering his brain right now, and focuses on the bigger issue at hand.

  Cami pulls back from me, releasing her iron-clad grip. I stagger, my heart racing so fast I feel light-headed. A hand steadies me. Logan, I realise. Eyes that mirror mine narrow, no doubt reaching the right conclusion about how Piper’s best friend knows me. My big brother is astute. If it wasn’t for the fact he’s been so caught up in Beth and keeping the Club safe, he would have realised before now what I’ve been up to and where I’ve been disappearing to for weeks, and he probably would have smacked some sense into me.

  But I don’t have time or the inclination to deal with Logan right now. My only focus is Piper, because I can’t wrap my mind around what Cami is telling me.

  Someone took Piper.

  Someone took my woman.

  And from the look of her best friend, they didn’t take her nicely.

  I’m going to kill whoever touched her, and I’m going to hurt them for touching Cami, too.

  I was sitting here, sulking, crying over my wounded heart while Piper was in trouble.

  I’m a fucking idiot.

  I’m worse than that.

  I’m a selfish cunt.

  Of course she didn’t run.

  Of course she didn’t back out.

  Piper is many things, but she’s not a coward, not really.

  She might have been scared, but she would have talked to me. If my head was screwed on right and if I wasn’t acting like a baby, I would have realised that.

  “Who fucking took her, Cam?” I demand, tugging her back from Wade.

  I need answers and I need them now. I need to be on my bike, looking for her, but I need a thread first and Cami looks about ready to collapse.

  I push her back onto the bench and crouch in front of her.

  “Who?” I repeat.

  “I don’t know.” She sucks in a breath before running the tip of her tongue over the cut on her lip. It’s opened again and blood is bubbling from it. She needs to be looked at by a doctor, and soon, but not before she tells me what I need to know. “They’re mixed up with Grant somehow. That’s all I know.” She folds her shaking hands together on her lap and closes her less swollen eye over.

  “Her stepfather?” I question, and I can feel Wade’s eyes boring into my back. These are things I shouldn’t know, not really.

  “Yeah. They were waiting in the loft when we got home. I tried to stop them.” Her gaze meets mine and I see tears forming at the edge of the puffy lids. “I fought so hard, Jem, you have to believe me.”

  I grab her hand and squeeze it. “I can see how hard you fought, sweetheart. Do you remember anything about them?”

  “They were definitely local, judging from their accents.”

  “Were they wearing colours?” Logan asks.

  “Colours?”

  She sounds confused by his question, and why wouldn’t she? Camille Neville isn’t from our world. She’s a rich girl who doesn’t have affiliations with gangs or motorcycle clubs. Piper brought this into her life.

  “Kuttes or gang colours,” Lo clarifies.

  “No. Just jeans and leather jackets. Nothing distinguishing, but I wouldn’t know. I don’t associate with gangs.” It’s not said nastily, just as a matter of fact.

  “What about tattoos?” I twist to look at Foz as his rumbling voice sounds behind me. I didn’t realise the Devil’s Dogs had followed us out. “Anything that looks like a reaper? Or an eagle or an inverted cross?”

  She shakes her head at the red headed man, but I see a hint of trepidation in her face before she manages to lock it down. I don’t blame her. There’s a lot of scary looking bastards surrounding her right now, and given she was just attacked by a group of men, she’s right to be wary. I suspect her trust in me to keep her safe is the only thing stopping her from freaking out.

  “No. I don’t know. It happened so fast. We barely got the key in the door before we were attacked. After that, everything was a whirlwind. I was more focused on trying to keep them from taking Piper. I didn’t really notice anything else. One of the men…” She chews her bottom lip and winces. “He’s been…”

  “What?” I push when she breaks off.

  She jiggles her leg a little. “He’s been following Piper. She blew it off, thought it was Grant trying to scare her. He said he was done protecting her, whatever the heck that means.”

  Anger rolls through me at her words. Why in the fuck was her stepfather trying to scare her? And why is this the first I’m hearing of it?

  “Protecting her from what?” Wade asks the question sitting on my tongue, but I’m seeing red. Asking it isn’t in my ability right now.

  “I don’t know. He’s caught up in something… something dangerous. We thought he was talking shit to get P to toe the line. He and Farrah—Piper’s mum—are more than a little controlling. They’ll do or say anything to get her to do what they want.”

  I hear Wade growl a curse behind me, but I keep my eyes locked on Cami. I already knew her parents are both shit heads.

  Cami slides her eyes from the brother back to me. “I don’t know what trouble he got in this time. He didn’t say and P didn’t know, but Grant said if she didn’t do what he wanted, he wouldn’t protect her from these men who were threatening him. She thought it was bullshit, so she told him to shove off.”
She swipes at the tear working down her cheek, but it’s an angry gesture. “Then she saw this man when we were out having lunch one afternoon, just watching her. She wasn’t sure if he was part of this or not, but he creeped her out—creeped us both out.”

  Lead settles in my stomach. Why in the hell didn’t Piper tell me any of this? I could have done more, protected her. I thought all the danger was in Kingsley—Dylan being on the lam, Slade and his antics, the Club in disarray, this fucking P.I. sniffing around… I never thought Piper was in trouble in Manchester. I thought she was safe there, out of the way. I let my guard down. I got complacent, and now she’s gone. That’s on me.

  “I didn’t think anything of it,” Cami continues. “I just thought he was a guy… until we walked into the loft. He was one of the men who attacked us.”

  I straighten from my crouch, my mind on autopilot. I’m going to Manchester and I’m getting my fucking woman back.

  I don’t even make two steps before a hand fists into my kutte.

  “Where the fuck are you going?” Logan hisses at me.

  I stare at his hand for a moment before raising my eyes to look at my brother. I love him. He raised me to be the man I am after our dad died, but that doesn’t mean I won’t punch his lights out if he doesn’t release me.

  “I’d hate to mess your pretty face up for your honeymoon, Lo, but I will if you don’t let go of me.”

  He doesn’t, so I shove him. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t move an inch. Heavy-set bastard.

  “You’re not going anywhere, you daft shit.”

  Wade stares at me, and I can see the cogs working in his brain. He’s not stupid. He’s figuring things out. He turns to Cami.

  “Why’d you ask to speak to him? Not me? Piper’s my sister.”

  Cami opens and closes her mouth, as realisation that she’s fucked up hits her. I’m guessing Piper’s told her we’re not divulging our secret until after the weekend. Clearly that isn’t going to happen since Piper’s God knows where.

  Whatever, we don’t have time to get into this right now. I need to find my girl and I need to do it fast. Every nerve in my body is fired up. I can’t stand knowing she’s out there, hurt, alone, scared.