Lucas (A Billionaire Bad Boy Novel)

by Adriana Jones

  “You’ve got your information, but it’s not about The Bastards.”

  “Not about The Bastards?” he screamed.

  I waited against the dumpster. He returned to the phone a little calmer.

  “Go on.”

  “Something did happen to me, but it wasn’t The Bastards. It was The Defilers. They took me…” I began. My voice caught. I tried to cough, but I didn’t have air in my lungs again. What the hell? Darkness flooded in and I grew weak, needing to reach out for the dumpster to catch my fall.

  “Took you? Are you okay?” Wyatt seemed less angry now.

  “They abducted me,” I began. My voice wavered. My bottom lip quivered. It reminded me of a time when I was trying to tell a friend about Sam. About what he did to me. She was a good friend, but she didn’t believe me. She didn’t believe me enough to tell me to leave. She thought I was exaggerating.

  “The Defilers knew I was hanging out with The Bastards. They thought I was one of their girls, so they took me. They were trying to hurt them by taking me. They weren’t going to let me out alive.”

  “Fuck, Ash, I’m pulling you out of there right now.” He must’ve had the speaker pressed right up to his face, because I could hear him very clearly. His breath was fast and out of control.

  “I’m fine. That’s not why I’m telling you that.” I heard him clear his throat, but I didn’t give him time. “I was wearing a wire the whole time. The wire was to pick up on what The Bastards were saying.”

  With my strength back, I decided to check the surrounding area again. I peered out from behind the cubby. There was no one in sight.

  “They hurt me. They strung me up and beat me. But I’m fine. I’m fine, Wyatt. That’s not why I’m calling. The wire picked something up.”

  “They hurt you…”

  “I picked up their safe house. Ninety-nine percent sure that this location will pull up something useful. The guy on the tape spoke of a garage, about how they needed to pick up the product from there. This place, it doesn’t move.”

  I declined to tell him about the first garage. He would never get that out of me. I would conveniently be too “out of it” during the abduction to remember. If they did a sweep of it, they would bring up all sorts of evidence that wouldn’t jive with my official story.

  “Go to this location, but hurry, before they have time to take all of the product out. You’re bound to find weapons too. And maybe even...some girls. God forbid.”

  “Give me the address. Hurry,” he said. I heard his pen hit paper. As soon as I told him the address, about 40 miles away from the location which I was kept, he scribbled it down and then said, “This is going out right now.”

  I was smiling.

  Justice, I would still get my justice. The Defilers, the real evil, would be taken out. Hopefully, they would be taken unaware. They would be put on trial and jailed. The organization would end. Many lives would be saved. All because I’d been brave enough to check the recordings.

  “I’m getting you out right now,” he added.

  “Right now?”

  There was still something I needed to do. Tell Red.

  “We can work fast when we need to. You’ll be given a new name, new address, a new home. You’ll be a new person…”

  “New?”

  “You knew this was a possibility,” he started.

  “Yes,” I said, still in a daze.

  What if I didn’t want new?

  It figured, just as Red and I seemed solid. He was what I needed. This was my new home. I didn’t need another one. This was the truth. Nothing could compare.

  Together, I remembered again. You ride with me. Red, speaking to me, binding us together like he was speaking magic words that would solidify it with the universe.

  “Look, you can’t stay there. You can’t come back here. They might figure out who you really were.”

  “Someone needs to come with me. If I’m going to do this, I need that favor.”

  A door creaked open. Someone was talking in a low, hurried voice to Wyatt. He wasn’t paying attention to me at all.

  “What?”

  ...Or maybe he had. That seemed like an angry what.

  “There’s someone who needs to come with me. One of The Bastards, he wants to come.”

  Wyatt chuckled, but then his laughter caught, like he needed to loosen his tie around his throat. “You’re asking to bring one of The Bastards with you?”

  His question trailed off to a presumptuous, “Why?”

  “Because he’s in trouble. This is the only way I know I can keep him safe,” I lied. Really, he has a nice butt and he fucks like crazy, and he’s the hottest, sweetest biker you’d ever meet, Wyatt.

  I didn’t even know if Red would go for it. He probably wouldn’t. I couldn’t see him as “Steve,” the UPS driver, living in suburbia, all for my sake. Would I even want to see him like that?

  “Putting one of those criminals under protection? There’s no way. I can’t give him a new name. I can’t give him a home. These things are expensive and hard to come by. I can’t hand them out to anyone and certainly not to a criminal. No matter how much trouble he might be in.”

  I sighed. My fingers curled around the phone, wanting to smash it and end the call.

  “We’ve got the meetup time and location for you. Can eleven a.m. at the Rhondo Valley Gas Station work for you?”

  “I’m not familiar with that one. I’ll have to plug it into my GPS.”

  “It should be a few miles away.” He paused. With a snicker, he said, “I’ve already triangulated your cell.”

  “You’re creepy, you know that?”

  “Thanks?”

  “Yeah, I’ll see you then. I’ve got to go.” I didn’t mention the word which itched to leave my tongue, “Maybe.”

  I would need to tell Red. Even if it was bad news, he deserved to know. If this was going to be a relationship now, there would be no secrets between us. This would be the beginning of something new for us, telling each other the complete truth, being completely honest and open.

  Already, it had given me the best sex of my life.

  What could go wrong?

  I grunted, snapped the burner, and disposed of it in the dumpster.

  There was a lot riding on this. There was a lot I could lose. And I had no idea how to make any of it better.

  Witness protection was for life.

  The Blessed Bastards were for life.

  Red returned at eight. He seemed tense at first when I told him that I’d left my confined space.

  “Was anyone following you? Did you notice anything suspicious?’

  “Yes.”

  “What?”

  “I saw a few deals at the mall I couldn’t believe were true. There’s this curling iron I’ve been wanting. It’s on sale for twenty dollars. It usually goes for over fifty.”

  He grunted and sighed. He swept me up into his arms. His cock, his warmth pressed against my stomach and simmered.

  “After talking to everyone, it doesn’t seem like they’ve noticed anything suspicious. Let’s get out of here for a while…”

  I jumped at the opportunity. Red and I hadn’t been on a normal date. Funny, I was looking for a boring, pedestrian evening, a dinner and a movie. We could eat fast food for all I cared. It really didn’t matter as long as we went out.

  “Yes, let’s go,” I said, taking a leap and snatching his hands.

  He backed away. “Okay, let me take a piss. Then we’ll leave. You’re really going stir crazy, aren’t you?”

  “I’m batshit insane at this point.”

  “At this point? I always thought you were batshit,” he said with a hint of smugness. He departed before I could yell back at him.

  I banged on the bathroom door.

  “I can’t hear you. I’m taking a piss.”

  “Stop it and listen to me.”

  “Stop mid-stream? Nothing stops me mid-stream.”

  I banged again. “I thought you
couldn’t hear me.”

  “I can’t,” he said. His tinkling drowned me out.

  Was it wrong for me to be doing this? Childish, perhaps, but we were free to have fun now. Only possible because we told each other the truth.

  The truth…

  Perhaps I would wait, until tomorrow, to tell him the full truth about leaving. Fear paralyzed me when I thought about leaving Red.

  After he was done drowning me out with a tinkle, we set off for the mall. It was a cozy, not too crowded mall on the edge of the suburbs. Since it was evening, we could relax. Up ahead, there was the store with the good curling iron deal. He went in as I kept going.

  “What are you doing?”

  “We’re getting the deal you wanted.”

  What? A man who actually wanted to buy me something...and it was a curling iron, and he’d remembered it, even when he seemed like he didn’t care? He even paid for it himself. I protested, but he wouldn’t listen. Being part of The Bastards, he had done well for himself. He never struggled.

  We ate at a chain Italian place, which was fine. More than fine. Halfway during our meal, he noticed my solemnness. This date was bittersweet. Lingering in the back of my mind, there was Wyatt’s proposal to me, how I would be leaving, starting a new life.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I’m hoping this doesn’t end.”

  He put down his fork and knife. “Why would it end?

  “I don’t know. It seems...too good to be true. We still haven’t discussed how we’re going to solve this problem of ours, either.”

  “I told you. It’ll be taken care of. We don’t have to worry about anything.”

  He picked up his fork and knife again. I wanted to say, “Actually, what if I told you tomorrow I’m about to ride off into the sunset without you.”

  The food wasn’t quite as appetizing as I hoped.

  “Tomorrow, I want to get up early and grab a paper and a coffee.” The words stung and left me even more lifeless. I was a zombie at this point, just putting on a smile. I wished I could tell him, but I didn’t have the heart. Not when we were eating. Not when everything seemed to be going so well.

  Red looked so happy.

  Often, I would see him scanning the room. I even caught him walking around the restaurant when he said he was going to the bathroom. He was scouting, trying to see if any Defilers were trailing us.

  But he wasn’t grim. There was no brooding.

  I scarfed down the chicken caprese on my plate, but it left little taste. I was still stuffed and ready for bed.

  Back in our room, his cock was hard and willing, but he didn’t make any moves. Cradled in his arms, I thought about how I’d be leaving the next day, about how much I hated myself for not telling Red right away.

  There’s still time, I promised myself.

  Sleep took me before I could come up with a solution.

  I startled awake from Red, already dressed, up early and raring to go. That was usually how I was, but today I barely managed to toss the sheets off. Morning light blasted in through the open curtains. What on Earth was he thinking?

  “You wanted to get up early, remember? Otherwise, I wouldn’t dare wake you.”

  “Smart man. What is it, a Saturday too? You don’t wake a girl up early on Saturday morning.”

  “Thought I should wake the dragon this time. You seemed serious.”

  “Yeah,” I said, tossing myself up and crossing my legs. I rubbed my temples. My fingers massaged my eyelids until I saw stars.

  “On the bike. In ten minutes,” he demanded.

  I fell in line.

  “Yeah, fine, I’ll get dressed real quick.”

  “Thought you could use some hard motivation.”

  “You’re not wrong.”

  I headed to the bathroom and applied some makeup. It was quick. My hair wasn’t easily tamed, so I needed to wrangle it somehow. It usually took hours of work. Frizzled, unruly, yet curly, if I put some effort into it, it was usually good enough to pass as naturally sexy.

  Doing my best in ten minutes, I appeared before Red, dressed in a t-shirt and jeans. My steps were heavy. The bed seemed to pull me back. Wouldn’t it be easy to just fall onto it, have Red on top of me, and hide from the world?

  “Ready?” he asked.

  “Ready,” I said. As ready as I could be.

  “I’ve never seen someone so serious about grabbing coffee and a paper.” Creases formed in his smile, cracks appearing underneath his warmth.

  As we left the hotel, my feet dragging, I almost royally screwed up by asking if we forgot to check out. On his bike, the lively rumbling underneath me, the strong embrace of my protector, it was surreal that it might all be leaving soon.

  This was my last chance to live. My last chance to really be alive.

  Never again would I get to ride on the back of Red’s bike.

  The morning sun already soaked my skin. It was another cloudless, perfect day, mocking my retreat.

  I shook his shoulders.

  He jerked from the bars.

  “What?”

  “Pull over,” I screamed over the roaring.

  We were on the side of the road, the dust kicking up as I covered my mouth and he stepped away, crossing his arms, a thick shield over his heart.

  Gagging, wanting to spit, I let the dust clear before attempting to speak. Red stood before me. He delved through his mane, his shining hair, absorbing so many different colors in the sun, like it was made for him, like they were one.

  “I’m leaving,” I spat out.

  “Where are you going?”

  “I’m sorry, Red,” I said as I flung myself at his chest. I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tightly, trying to get my fingers to intertwine.

  Red tilted me back, but he didn’t let go. He rested his hands against my lower back, keeping me planted.

  “They called in witness protection. They’re going to give me a new name, a new home, a new everything. I’ll be a new person. You won’t know me.” Frantically, I gripped his shirt, trying to bury myself in his chest. “You can’t know me.”

  His bottom lip trembled and his nostrils flared. He had that hundred-mile stare like he wasn’t really there.

  “Hey, don’t go,” I pleaded with him. “Stay with me.”

  “I’m glad you told me,” he said, each word like a punch to the gut. “I’ll drive you to them.”

  The rest of the ride was solemn. Even the powerful motorcycle engine seemed quiet. An endless blue sky and the contrasted deep black road seemed a muted grey, like the world had been transformed into a post-apocalyptic movie. Pressing my cheek against his chest, it was an icy, scary reality that this wouldn’t last much longer.

  We pulled into the gas station, a dumpy, two-pump location that looked all about functionality and little else. He stepped off the bike again. I wouldn’t get off.

  They would have to tear me off it.

  “Red, it doesn’t have to end like this.”

  He flashed me a blood-boiling smile. It gleamed in the desert sun, chiseling through the icy barrier that had been formed between us.

  “It’s not,” he said calmly.

  I perked up from the bike. But it is the end, I wanted to say, but he cut me off.

  “I’m coming with you.”

  “You’re what?” I screamed. I jumped off the bike. Grinning, he kept himself poised and sturdy, ready for me to land.

  I stopped before I could get to him. I spun back and caught the front bars. They steadied me. He wasn’t speaking logically. He still was in shock.

  “You can’t come, Red. I’m sorry, but they wouldn’t let me bring you along.”

  “We already broke the rules once. I’m sure we can break them again. I’ll live with you, but no one has to know. We’ll fuck, from day to night, and unless they call the cops because they hear so much screaming, no one will find out. They’ll never have to know who I am. But don’t ask me to leave you. Not now.”

 
“Are you sure?” I asked. My voice strained. I tried to empathize that he didn’t have to, but it didn’t come out that way. It came out like I was too happy to hear his conclusion.

  “We’re riding off together like I said. I’m a man of my word.”

  He strode toward me. He tilted my chin up from his boots.

  “You’re mine, Ash. If I have to leave The Bastards, so be it. I put my time in, and we took down The Defilers.”

  “We did?”

  “Yes, you didn’t hear?”

  “No one told me anything. Who was going to tell me? The concierge? I’ve been cooped up in the hotel for the past two weeks.”

  “I’m going with you.”

  “What about the blood bond? I thought it was until death.”

  “They’ll understand. I’m not throwing away the colors. I’m just going away.”

  “You think they’ll understand?”

  “They will. They don’t even have to know why I’m gone,” he said as he drove his lips onto mine. He sucked my breath away, then pumped me full of his racing love, happiness pouring into me and washing away all doubts. His hands curled against my gracious hips. Grazing my lips, he moved higher to my forehead, planting it with a solid kiss.

  “There’s nothing that’ll stop me from having you,” he said, “I’ll follow you the whole way to our new home.”

  Tears began to well. I reared back, trying to dodge all of the swelling emotion. It was impossible. He caught my jaw, forcing me to confront it.

  “I love you, Red.”

  He lifted me up in the air. He spun me around. Dizzy, full of giddy love while in his arms like a fool, I allowed myself to be, because this was right, oh so right. My feet landed on the ground and he pressed himself on me again.

  “Go hide,” I purred in his ear. His thick tip, pushing into his jeans, nudged me. I knew what I wanted to do later.

  “And put that thing away or else we’ll be both be caught,” I told him while wiping away tears of joy.

  He saluted me. “You got it, babe.”

  Red sat back on his bike. He kicked the stand up and gunned the engine.

  Could this really be happening? Things never went well for me. All of my life, I’d been desiring such a man, such a love, but it seemed like a fantasy. Hard times were still ahead—I knew that, but with Red, we could weather any storm.