Link growled behind me as I took a step toward her.
“You want me to dumb it down? Fine. You put your family in harm’s way to make a buck. And that doesn’t sit right with me.”
“She was going to make enough money off this entire operation to pay off her debts, including her student loans. Of course, I thought of her first. She’s family!”
“And she’s not part of your fucking crew!”
Link placed his hand on my back. “Ash, settle down.”
I pointed at Slash. “You could’ve gotten her killed. You could’ve gotten her enslaved or even worse. You did that.”
“No, Ash. You did that.”
I paused. “Excuse me, what?”
She puffed out her chest. “If you and your motley crew of misfits here would’ve done a better job at protecting us, none of this would’ve happened in the first place. We had you guys in place for a reason, and you abandoned us. You left without warning and without word. We were in that situation because of you pussies!”
I hovered over her. “You know damn good and well why we left. You know damn good and well why we started to save our own hide. But if you want me to blurt it out in front of your cousin? I’m more than happy to, Double-Crosser.”
Link interjected. “That’s enough.”
Slash nodded. “About time you put your puppy on a leash.”
Hannah stepped in between all of us. “Can we cut the shit now? Yeah? Because it’s getting old, I’m hungry, and we need to figure out what to do now.”
Slash gripped her arm. “Come with me.”
I shook my head. “You’re not taking her anywhere.”
“What? You think I’m just going to let her go home? Or better yet, go with you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, better yet. I could do a much better job protecting Hannah from Skeleton now that you’ve roped her into this mess. All of those men that work for him have gotten a good look at each and every one of you. I don’t have any doubt in my mind that Skeleton will—”
Sly clicked his tongue. “Maybe slow down a bit, Ash.”
Knuckles chuckled. “Never heard him talk this much in all his life.”
I looked over at Hannah. “If you want to stay here, I get that. But if you want to come with us—with me—I can make that happen. All you have to do is say the word.”
Slash pulled Hannah to her side. “She stays with family. End of story.”
Hannah blinked. “Well, what if I don’t want to?”
Her question silenced all of us as rage passed behind Slash’s eyes.
“What did you just say?” she asked.
Hannah sighed. “Can you give my cousin and I a few minutes? Please?”
I nodded. “Take as long as it takes. I’ll be here.”
Link piped up. “We’ll all be here.”
Slash whistled. “Girls! With me.”
I watched as Slash dragged Hannah into the bar by her arm and it took everything inside of me not to go after her. Not to pick her up, toss her back over my shoulder, and plop her right down onto my bike. I felt the guys staring at me as the last of the Red Pythons walked into the bar. And as Link patted me on my back again, I let out the breath I didn’t know I’d been holding.
“You good, man?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m good.”
Sly chuckled. “You sure about that?”
I looked over at him. “Yep.”
Knuckled smiled. “And back to the cropped responses? After all of that talking?”
I shot him a look. “Shut up.”
Bowser snickered. “I think he likes the girl.”
Link rolled his eyes. “You think?”
I licked my lips. “I said, shut up.”
I stared at that front door, counting down the seconds in my head. I strained my ears to hear anything that might even resemble a fight and was prepared to storm the place. I didn’t know what they were talking about, but I wanted in. Whatever Hannah was saying, I wanted to be privy to that information.
Then, the door eased itself open.
Revealing the most beautiful woman I’d ever laid eyes on.
“Hannah, are you okay?”
She walked up to me and nodded before she heaved a heavy sigh.
“Look, Ash. Your offer is way too kind. But I can’t burden you like that.”
“You wouldn’t be a burden. You’d be under my care. There are a lot of things you don’t understand about—”
“She drew her gun at the campground and ruined the plan because someone called her fat.”
I paused. “What?”
I sighed. “At the campground, where the first fire-fight was. When we were all captured? My cousin drew her gun and was the first to fire because someone called her ‘fat’ in her outfit.”
Link stepped up beside me. “You’re kidding?”
Hannah shook her head. “I’m not. Now, I don’t understand specifics, but I’m pretty sure that you guys had one plan and they had another. I haven’t worked out all of the kinks yet, but that’s what my gut is telling me. This job was much more complicated than she made it out to be. I was hired as an outsider to throw off this Skeleton guy you’re talking about, but I was also told that we wouldn’t go any further than the first campground we ended up at.”
Link nodded. “There’s a lot we need to fill you in on, especially if you want to make sense of things.”
I quickly jumped in. “But you’ll have to come with us if you want that information.”
Sly murmured. “You don’t bribe a girl like this, Ash.”
Hannah quirked an eyebrow. “And you think I’m just going to hop on the back of your bike because you have answers to a few questions? What am I, some southern bumpkin idiot?”
Sly whispered. “Told you.”
I waved my hand at him. “What do you want, Hannah?”
She blinked. “Come again?”
“In all of this, if you had your choice in the matter, what would you want?”
“Don’t I already have a choice? It’s not like anyone owns me.”
I groaned in frustration. “Drop the tough girl act. We already know you’re stronger than most of the girls still in that bar. Just tell us what you want. What do you want out of all this?”
I stared into her beautiful amber eyes before she drew in a deep breath.
“In a perfect world, what I want is my ex to stop following me around,” she said.
Anger filled my gut. “Who’s following you? What's his name?”
Link put his hand on my shoulder. “One step at a time, Ash.”
I shrugged him off. “Hannah, what’s his name?”
She shook her head. “The main reason why I took the gig was for the money. I need it to pay off my school debt and the rest of my credit card. But just like I told Slash inside a few minutes ago, I was going to use the rest of the money and the free space on my credit card to move. Preferably, across the country.”
Sly furrowed his brow. “You’re being stalked.”
She nodded. “Yeah, and it hasn’t been fun. No matter what I do, he won’t stop. I see him outside of my apartment, just sitting in his car. He leaves me notes in the morning, every morning, in my mailbox. I even found him following me in his car a few times whenever I leave to get groceries. My entire life operates out of a studio apartment right now because of that asshole, and the police won’t do a damn thing about it.”
Link clicked his tongue. “Why not?”
She shrugged. “Because he’s a police officer, and they think I’m full of it.”
I growled. “You’ll be safe with me if you come. We’re eight hours away, at the very least. All the way down in upstate New York. You can have your own place, or you can live in the basement apartment of my place, and I’ll help you get set up in whatever town you choose to live.”
Link whispered. “Ash, are you sure about this?”
I shot him a piercing look before I turned my attention back to her.
“If that’s what you want, Hannah, I can make that happen. All you have to do is come with me.”
She shrugged. “I mean, I can’t do that now. I don’t have the money to—”
“You leave that to me.”
“Uh, Ash?” Sly asked.
I snarled at him. “All of you, shut the fuck up.”
Hannah giggled. “Let me get this straight: you’re willing to put me up somewhere, pay off my debts, and help me get a job so I can get established in a city somewhere?”
I shrugged. “You were going to do it alone, anyway. Might as well do it with someone who wants to help you out.”
Her eyes danced between mine before she nodded.
“All right,” she said.
I blinked. “All right, you’ll think about it?”
She shook her head. “All right, as in—let me go tell Slash that I’m heading out with you guys tonight.”
Knuckles interjected. “You don’t need to go pack things up or anything like that?”
Hannah shook her head. “I don’t own much. I’ve moved twice to try and get away from my ex, and he finds me every time. I carry around two bags with me, and those two bags hold my entire life. They’re in the back of the bar. I’ll grab them after I’m done talking to my cousin.”
Then, she disappeared into the bar.
And I wondered just how much of this conversation about her ex she had truncated for the moment.
6
Hannah
“Hannah.”
I ignored my cousin as I charged my way into the back of the bar.
“Hannah!”
I shook my head as I reached for both handles of my bags and heaved them to my side.
“Hannah, don’t ignore me when I’m calling for you!”
I sighed. “What, Slash?”
I turned around and saw my big-bosomed cousin staring at the door with “the look” on her face.
“Oh, don’t give me that shit,” I said.
“And where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“I’m taking my chances and getting the hell away from here, that’s what I’m doing.”
“Oh, I know what you’re doing. I asked where you’re going.”
I shook my head. “None of your business.”
She pointed to the ground. “You put those bags back down right now and you talk to me.”
I swallowed hard. “He found me again, Slash.”
She blinked. “What?”
I sighed. “He found me.”
“When?”
“A few days ago, when we were still planning this whole thing and about to execute it. He saw me at the thrift shop rummaging around for an outfit and he followed me back to my place.”
She took a step toward me. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”
I scoffed. “Why the fuck do you think I packed my shit up and came to sleep in the back of the bar all this time?”
“I don’t know. I thought you were moving again and needed a place to crash. Or maybe something at your place was getting fixed and you needed to get out for a few days.”
“Well, none of those things are the case. And I’m taking the chance I’ve got now and getting the fuck out of here.”
I tried to push past her, but she gripped my arm.
“You’re going with them?” she asked.
I slowly looked over at her. “I absolve you of any responsibility to pay off my debts like I would have with this job.”
She gripped me harder. “That’s not what this is about.”
I wrenched away. “No. This is about whatever personal vendetta you’ve got against those men and whatever bullshit you’ve got going on with this other crew that almost tried to kill us. And that backfired, too! What, you think I need two men coming after me now? My ex and this Skeleton asshole?”
“You know damn good and well I’m more than capable of protecting you.”
“It’s not you, Slash. Don’t you get that? It’s here. It’s this town. I stay here, and he’ll always find me. I stay here, and this asshole you’re running from or working for or whatever the fuck you’re doing will always know where to find you.”
“You can’t go with them. I forbid it.”
I shoved her out of the way with my shoulder. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re not my parent, then.”
“Hannah! Get your ass back here!”
“Over my dead body, Dorothy!”
“Stop calling me that!” she shrieked.
I walked out of the bar with my cousin quick on my heels. I picked up the pace, jogging back over to Ash’s bike and slinging my bags over the back of it. All eyes were on me as I tried stuffing them into the compartments on his bike. And while some of it still hung out, I was able to fasten the compartments and keep my things stable.
“Ready to go?” Ash asked.
I nodded. “Ready when you—”
“Stop it right there!” Slash exclaimed.
Boots skittered against the concrete as I turned around. And when I saw what happened unfold before my eyes, my heart skipped a beat. I watched every single man in that parking lot with a Dragon Riders’ leather cut step in between myself and Slash, with Ash looming behind me and his shadow covering me from the rest of the world.
I felt more like family to them in that one moment than I had to Slash in my entire life.
“Hannah, please,” she said.
I shook my head. “I have to do this. And you have you let me.”
“I can’t. You’ve always been my responsibility. Ever since your parents died, I’ve always looked out for you.”
“And I’ll never stop loving you for that. But you have to let me go. You have to let me find a new path now. Because this one’s only going to get me killed.”
Ash murmured behind me. “Not happening on my watch.”
I peeked up at him. “I know. That’s why I’m coming.”
“Think about what you’re doing, Hannah. About the message you’re sending.”
I snickered. “I think you and your girls should be more worried about that than anything.”
I turned toward Ash’s bike and I slung my leg over the back. He slowly turned around, eyeing me for a while as I straddled his motorcycle. He winked at me and I winked back, a shiver working its way through my bones all the way into my gut.
I like it when he stands up for me.
My wimpy-ass ex never did shit like that.
“Hannah, get off that fucking bike or so help me God—”
I scoffed at her. “Put a cork in it and deal with your own shit first.”
The blonde-headed man chuckled. “Everyone? Ready up!”
Even though Slash continued cursing me up and down, I didn’t pay attention. Because the second Ash settled that helmet on top of my head, I prepared myself for another world. For another life. For a second chance at doing things right instead of mucking things up. I wrapped my arms as tightly around him as I could and let my thighs settle against his. I scooted against his back until my breasts pressed against him, finding myself wishing I could get even closer.
Then, their bikes struck up.
With the sound of rumbling engines filling the air, we took off from the bar. Slash shrieked over the sounds, but I blocked her out. Ash had the radio turned on in my helmet’s earbuds and I found myself singing along to the music while I clung to his leather jacket. Preparing myself for a better life as we rode off into…
New York? Is that what he said?
It didn’t matter, though. All I wanted was to get out of here and never look back. And with my things jam-packed into Ash’s saddlebags, I felt like I could do that now. I closed my eyes and let the dipping and weaving of the motorcycle tell me what to do with my body. I drew in deep lungfuls of fresh air as we left my hometown—hell, my home state—and made our way south. Every once in a while, I took in my surroundings. The beauty of the woods just off the highways and the massive mansions we drove by as we cruised through some of the richer p
arts of towns. I never was one to want great, big things. Or expensive thing. Or even shiny things.
And Ash was all of those wrapped into one.
“All right, we’re here,” he said.
The first words he said to me the entire trip, and it was when his bike finally slowed to a stop. The ride seemed like it was over in the blink of an eye, and when I slid my helmet off, I found us smack-dab in the middle of the woods. Well, not really the woods. It seemed as if we were in some sort of clearing. In front of me was a very well-kept double-wide trailer with a beautiful wildflower meadow behind me. Surrounding trees came from every angle, and a shimmering, shining lake was about a quarter of a mile in the distance away.
“Where in the world are we?” I asked.
Ash slid off the bike. “This is my place.”
I blinked. “You live here.”
“Yep.”
“In the middle of a meadow.”
“Eh, it’s a decent plot of land.”
“It’s a wildflower meadow, Ash. With a lake.”
He nodded. “Nice fishing in the summer, too.”
I snickered. “So, you fish.”
“Yep.”
“Do you hunt?”
“Yep.”
“While you live out here in your secluded wildflower meadow?”
He shrugged. “Why not?”
I shook my head. “You’re something else, you know that?”
He paused. “I don’t get it.”
I giggled as I hopped off the bike and I wrestled my bags out of the compartments. But I didn’t even get them at my sides before Ash scooped them out of my grasp. He hoisted them beneath his arms and motioned with his head for me to follow, and my heart skipped a beat.
My ex really never did things like this for me.
“So, this is my place. You’re welcome to any of it, but I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.”
I pointed. “We aren’t going through the front door?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
I followed him around the back of the house and found a beautiful concrete patio with gorgeous wicker furniture surrounding a fire pit. My jaw dropped open as I gazed over the backyard, my eyes sweeping over the pristine lake off in the distance. I couldn't imagine how much someone paid to live in a place like this. All alone, with no one around, and nothing but nature to keep someone company.
Ash (Dragon Riders MC Book 3) Page 4