“What?”
His shirt is black, and on it, it has two figures in a square. The first square is a depiction of a woman like you would see on a restroom sign with the triangle dress. Under that square, it reads: Your Girlfriend. The next square has a naked woman with huge tits bent over and offering her butt, and it reads: My Girlfriend.
“You’re ridiculous, you know.”
“Just bragging on you, babe,” he says. “What can I say?”
I ignore him with a smirk and hand him my duffle bag that has my clothes. “Remind me again why we’re moving so early?”
“We need to make tracks, sweetness. I plan on getting you to Kentucky today.”
“I’m not sure I’m as excited for that as you are.”
He slides his hand under my hair and pulls my face to him. “I promise you, you’ll love it.”
“If you’re wrong I’ll—”
He puts a finger to my lips, hushing me. “I wish you’d quit threatening my balls. They love you. You hurt their feelings.”
I smile despite the worry and stress I’m feeling. “I’ll see if I can make it up to them later.”
“I don’t know. They’re pretty upset. Still, a tongue bath might help them. They respond to physical attention.”
“You’re a freak.” I place a gentle kiss on his lips. “Now let’s go for food. I’m hungry.”
Torch fake sighs. “Your wish is my command. Too bad you didn’t wish for me to bend you over the hood. That would’ve been more fun,” he complains, throwing our bags in the back of the jeep. He walks me over to the passenger side and helps me climb in, then secures the seatbelt around me like I was a little child. It should annoy me, but instead, I like it. I feel like he’s trying to take care of me and I’ve never had that.
Thirty minutes later, we’re pulling into a small restaurant that has a big sign up advertising breakfast twenty-four hours a day. He helps me to my seat, then slides in beside me instead of across from me.
“Couldn’t we talk better if you’re over there?” I ask, pointing to the empty seat.
“I like feeling you close to me. Plus, I can’t sit with my back facing the door, sweetness. Too many years of training have taught me not to do that.”
“I could—”
“That would leave your back exposed and me unable to protect you. Not happening. Besides, you’ll like me eating next to you.” He dips his head down and his lips find my ear. “And eating you.”
“Pervert.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” He laughs, his teeth nibbling on the side of my neck.
“Hunter,” I whimper, because I like it and don’t want him to stop, but we’re in the middle of a restaurant—yet again. “You can’t be horny. There’s no way, after the morning we had. Not to mention the night before!”
“You bring out the animal in me, Katydid,” he murmurs near my ear. “What can I say?”
The waitress comes and takes our order and saves me from responding, which is good because I have no idea what I would say. Once we’re alone again, Torch pulls me around so I can face him in the chair.
“Tell me about Gabby.”
His question surprises me, but Gabby is a topic I love to talk about, so I immediately warm up to the conversation.
“She’s amazing. She has these dark eyes that I swear glow they’re so beautiful. And her laugh. I don’t think there’s a more beautiful sound in the world. She’s quiet. I’ve never seen a child her age so quiet. She watches everything, takes it all in, you know? Plotting and determining. It’s kind of scary, considering she’s just two.”
“Does she talk? What are her favorite things? Tell me.”
I laugh, he seems so eager. Who would have thought he’d want to know about a child?
“She does talk,” I admit. “I mean, not a lot. She’s only two. But she says ‘mom’ and she calls me Kay-Kay. She knows ‘juice’ and ‘nuggets’. She’s always climbing, and she loves when people draw. She watches, entranced. I swear she’s going to be a famous painter someday.”
“You sound like a proud aunt,” he says with a strange look on his face. His hand had been under the table, but he brings it up to run his thumb over my lip.
“You okay?” I ask, sensing something different from him.
Before he can answer, the waitress sets our food down in front of us, breaking the moment.
“Your leg seems better today,” he says, changing the subject after he gets settled. Talking about my leg makes me tense up, as always, so I don’t answer him. “Katie?” he nudges me.
I sigh, staring at my fork for a while before finally answering. “It’s fine. I just … used it too much the last few days.”
“What does that mean?”
“Do we have to talk about this?”
“I want to know. I can’t protect you like I need to, or even take care of you, if I don’t know what’s wrong. I’ve seen the scarring, so I’m assuming the leg isn’t going to get better. I just want to understand.”
“You’re a nosey asshole, anyone ever tell you that?” I huff.
“You’re so sweet.”
I roll my eyes, take a breath, and decide to give in and tell him. I don’t especially want to, but I figure, if this makes him react differently to me, it gives me just one more reason not to trust him. Since I’ve caved and pretty much agreed to try to build something with him, it’d be good to know if there’s a reason I shouldn’t. Right? It’s like hedging your bets; you can’t just jump in with both feet into the lake without knowing how deep it is, because you might drown. Bethie and Gabriella are counting on me, so I can’t drown or let them get hurt, no matter what my hormones want from me.
“My leg doesn’t have anything to do with my scars. I grew out of whack. One leg is like an inch or so longer than the other, and my back and hip is… misaligned. It’s no big deal.”
“So the pain comes and goes? There’s nothing they can do?”
The pain is constant, but I don’t tell him that. My leg is a weakness and I’m not about to reveal it. I can’t. I’m also not telling him that my father could’ve taken me to a doctor when I was young and still growing, and help correct things. There’s no point.
“No. It is what it is. Most of the time, I barely know it’s there,” I lie. “My father and grandfather hated it, though,” I admit. “They saw it as a defect and blamed my mother’s blood.”
“Jesus, the family you grew up in,” he growls.
“It was a laugh a minute,” I agree. He doesn’t even know the half of it. “My father couldn’t stand to look at me after he found out. That’s when he started looking for Beth. If I couldn’t represent him in the family as the perfect daughter, perhaps my sister could. So, in a way, all this mess is my fault.”
“Bullshit. Your father is a twisted piece of work, Katydid.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
“How did you get the burn scars?”
“You’re just full of questions today, aren’t you?”
“Humor me.”
“The snake wanted Bethie away from Skull. Roger came up with a plan and needed my help to see it through.”
“The snake?”
“Oh, sorry. My grandfather. My father might have been evil, but he couldn’t hold a candle to that bastard.”
“How—”
“I think I’ve had enough of this episode of ‘Ask Katie Anything’. How about—”
“Katie. I need you to get up and go to the back of the room where the restroom is,” Torch says, and it’s like someone flipped a switch. His entire body is rigid and his tone is dominating.
“What?”
“Do it now, Katie, and don’t look behind you,” he says, his voice tense.
“Hunter.”
“Do it now, sweetness. I’ll meet you by the bathrooms,” he tells me again, this time giving me eye contact, but I can tell there’s no room for arguments. I swallow nervously, wondering what in the hell is going on, and do as
he ordered.
I pray my family isn’t about to catch up with me.
I watch out the window as three of the Chrome Saints gather around Katie’s jeep. I got Katie out of here. I breathe as I watch her walk to the back of the room and down the small hall where the restrooms are. I’ve been here before and I know there’s an emergency entrance off to the left. I motion for the waitress, keeping one eye on the men outside. As I watch them approach the diner, my heart rate accelerates. I’d face them down on my own without a problem—if Katie wasn’t with me. I need to make sure she’s protected at all times.
When I was last here, it was about six months ago on a gun run for the club. It’s not our territory, though it’s run by one of Diesel’s allies, so we’ve never worried. However, the very reason for me being here is dangerous. The Donahues have lost a lot of clout in the last two years, but they’re still the head of the Irish faction, and even if the Russians are slowly pushing them out of existence, no one wants to be on their bad side. This is why I’ve not worn my cut, and why I’ve not used my bike. It looks like that’s not going to matter if I don’t get out of here, because I recognize those fuckers, and one of them is Colin Donahue’s cousin. If they catch me, the only escape is a fucking shootout, and no club, even if they are buddies of Diesel’s, will stand for that in their territory.
The waitress finally comes over. I hand her a fifty dollar bill. “Keep the change, darlin’,” I tell her. I get up and walk calmly to the back of the building, turning the corner just as I hear the bell ring, indicating the Saints have made it inside.
“Hunter? What’s going on?” Katie asks when she sees me.
“I’ll explain it when we get out of here, sweetness.”
I take her arm and head for the back exit, only to find they’ve apparently made some security improvements since I’ve been here last. “Fuck.”
“What? What is it?” Katie asks, confused.
“There’s a damn buzzer on the door.”
“So disable it.”
“That would take way too long,” I say back. “We’ll have to find another way out. Maybe there’s a window in the kitchen…”
I trail off as she slips a hand into her bra. To my surprise, she pulls out a pocket knife and pops it open.
“Where did you hide that?” I growl, because shit, if she’s been hiding it this long, does that mean she had it when I first took her hostage?
“Beauty of having Double D’s,” she answers, not paying me much mind at all. “You can hide a lot of shit under them.” Then, she uses the knife to pop off the face plate of the alarm.
“You seem to know what you’re doing,” I note, more than a little amazed. I’m good at technical shit. I can wire up a bomb and I can do anything you want to do using computers. But Katie’s skill at disabling this alarm is scary good. Shit, I’d say she could outdo Briar at it, and he’s the club’s best at bypassing alarms by hand.
“It’s just a cheap home security system,” she mumbles, taking a pin from her hair. “If I hadn’t learned to disable these, I would have never discovered boys.” The next thing I know, she’s got the door open and the alarm is completely silent. She’s standing there looking at me like I’ve lost my mind. Hell, maybe I have. I know I’m standing there with my mouth open. “You, ready?”
I nod, shaking off my shock, then lead her to the jeep. We’re halfway there when I see the guy they have posted outside. Trouble is, he sees me too. I toss Katie the keys.
“Get out of here, sweetness. Get the fuck out and once you get away, call the club in Kentucky and tell Skull the Chrome Saints are after you. He’ll protect you and help bring Beth in safe.”
“Are you out of your mind?” Katie hisses.
I pull my eyes away from the man walking towards us. “No!” I say back to her. “Get the hell out of here while you can!”
“Hunter! That’s Levi!” she says, naming Colin’s cousin.
“I know, so get the fuck out and don’t give me any lip!”
She shoots me a look like I’ve gone insane. Shit, maybe I have. I could have run for it, even though running doesn’t sit well with me. Doing that, however, meant Katie also having to run, and she’s not able to. I’m pretty sure I can take all of those motherfuckers myself, but if they join up, the chances go down. I picked the wrong day to leave my gun in the car. I didn’t want to draw attention to us, so I just kept my knife.
Katie finally takes off, heeding my command. I turn my attention to the approaching man.
“Well, if it isn’t one of the Devil’s pussies,” Levi says.
I’m going to enjoy messing his face up.
“Levi, I see you’re putting on a few pounds. Did you have to trade your ride in for a trike so you can cart your ass around with the rest of you?”
“I’m gonna like beating your ass, boy.”
“Carmen told me you preferred dicks. That’s why she came looking for me,” I tell him, talking about the bitch he claimed a year or so ago.
His face goes red, and he throws the first punch. I manage to dodge it, since he broadcast it for five minutes. I deliver one to his stomach, then his ribs, as he uppercuts me. The blow rattles me, but I shake it off and come back at him, finally scoring a good hit to his nose. Blood splatters everywhere and Levi goes back, falling on the blacktop parking lot. He’s shaking his head, trying to get his bearings. When I hear footsteps running, I look up to see Levi’s buddies head toward us. I’m preparing for a fight when Katie’s Jeep suddenly slides to a stop in front of me. It moved so fast it comes close to tipping on two tires.
“Hop in!” she orders.
I don’t have to be told twice. I jump in the Jeep, and we tear out of the parking lot, the trailer and my bike hooked on the back. I grab my phone and hit redial.
“Skull, we’ve got problems,” I tell him the second he picks up the phone.
Damn it.
“Someone needs to kill Colin, slowly and painfully,” I growl, driving down the road.
“I’m pretty sure Skull’s already making plans,” Torch says and from the corner of my eye, I can see him staring at where he tossed the phone after hearing Skull go on for ten minutes.
“If he manages to do that, I might grow to like the asshole.”
My mind churning, I don’t know what to do. If Colin’s flunkies find me, could they possibly be closing in on Bethie and the baby, too? Shit.
“He’ll do it. It just might get real bloody. Step on the gas, sweetness. Levi and his assholes won’t be far behind and I’d rather not have a shootout with you here between us.”
Torch’s voice is stressed and I can hear his worry… for me. That feeling hits my stomach again. Damn him!
“They won’t come after us,” I say.
“Trust me, they will.”
“Not without stealing a car,” I point out. “Even then, they’d have to change some tires.”
“What are you talking about?”
I flip open the console between us and show him my Bowie Knife I keep there. “That’s why it took me so long to pick you up. I slashed the front tires on their bikes and then slashed the four cars in the parking lot. Even managed to get the two on the side that I assume belong to the waitress and cook.”
“Fuck me like a whore in church on Sunday!” he exclaims, then observes me. “I think I underestimated you, Katydid.”
“Most people do,” I admit without bitterness. It’s just a fact of life. Torch shakes his head and looks out the window, growing silent. “What are you thinking about?”
“That if Skull hadn’t killed your father,” he answers, “I’d like to be the one to gut the asshole.”
My hands freeze on the steering wheel. “Skull killed my father?”
“Yeah.”
“Shit.”
“What’s wrong?”
“I didn’t want to find something to like him for,” I grumble.
“Where’d you learn all this shit, Katie?”
I tense up at his que
stion. I keep my vision on the road in front of us and tighten up my hands. “What do you mean?”
“Don’t play dumb, sweetness. We both know you’re smart as a tack.”
His words do a little more towards making my stomach feel weird and releasing that tight rein I have on letting Torch all the way in. It should scare me, but it’s starting to feel normal. I’m starting to wish my walls were down. I want to let Torch in. No one has ever thought of me as smart before, except maybe Bethie, but she loves me.
“My father… was like two different men,” I finally reveal. “When he and my mother were first together, he wanted to live a normal life. He tried to leave the family. Who knows? It might have worked out well.”
“Why didn’t it?”
“My mother was a money-grubbing whore, maybe? Can’t say for sure. I’m judging from the many sermons my father gave while making sure his daughter didn’t walk in her footsteps.”
“What do you mean?”
“When my father left the ‘family’ for her, things were fine until my mother discovered that without the family, she wouldn’t have summer homes in France, credit cards with no limits, no Mercedes, no maids or chauffeurs. In short, my mother hated everything about life in suburbia.”
Torch processes this. “She made your father go back in?”
“If only it were that simple,” I say with a sigh, wondering why some twisted part of me actually feels sorry for Redmond. I shouldn’t; he beat whatever fucks I gave out of me long ago. “She decided, since Redmond wouldn’t keep her in diamonds, furs, and private planes, she’d find someone who would.”
“His twin,” Torch says right on cue.
“Yep. Old Uncle Edmond was knee-deep and climbing the ranks in the family that Redmond had turned his back on. Isabel latched onto him and never looked back, even when my father told her he was taking the oldest daughter with him.”
“But, you’re twins…”
“Oh, see, but the family has a system,” I point out. “Redmond came out first, so he had the position first. Edmond only got to be head of the family because Redmond didn’t want it.”
“So, by keeping you, Redmond was pretty much securing the next generation?”
Burned: Devil's Blaze MC Book 2 Page 16