Snatched

by Cathleen Ross

  “I already told you on the day you hung me over your veranda like bait for Psycho that I’d look after it.”

  “So, it’s late?”

  “The injections affect a period. Stress can, too,” she said, determined to drive the knife in.

  “You’ll never forgive me for doing that, will you?” His tone was flat, his eyes glittering with anger.

  She didn’t know how to answer that, so she avoided the question. “I know what you’re capable of.” It seemed weird, considering their intense intimate relationship and her growing feelings for him…but no, she still didn’t trust him completely. In bed, she did, but outside the bedroom? Not really.

  A muscle ticked in his jaw. “I had a job to do.”

  “Consider your mission a success. Lizzie is alive, and all you sacrificed was my trust.” She wrenched her arm from his grip.

  He slipped his arms around her hips and drew her to him. “Somehow, you’ll have to learn to trust me. I’m here, protecting you.”

  “From your father and his whore-loving, knife-wielding sidekicks. Nice, huh?”

  His expression told her the comment had stung. “Not all the brothers use whores. There are plenty of family men in the club.”

  She knew the brothers were his life. But she wasn’t.

  “Your world…it isn’t an acceptable way to live for me, Troy.”

  “Mom managed.”

  “You mother is wonderful. But she’s all about her husband and kids. I have a business to run. I’ll never stay at home expecting a man to keep me. I’m not criticizing Georgia. That was her choice, and I respect it. But if you want our relationship to be real, you need to accept that I won’t let you run my life the way Joe runs hers.”

  “You made that clear when you paralyzed my diaphragm,” he said wryly.

  “And yet you haven’t stopped ordering me about.”

  He slashed a hand through his hair. “You’re not the only one adjusting to a new lifestyle, here. Besides, don’t assume Mom obeys my father. It’s definitely the other way around. Mom rules the roost at home.”

  He pulled Stacey close and hugged her. Her head was against his chest, his big hand cradling it, tender and protective. She could hear his heart thumping, strong and sure.

  “Okay,” she said. “Sorry. A lot of stuff is making me nervous.”

  He bent and kissed the top of her head. “I know.” And just like that, the tension dissipated.

  She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him on the lips. “I have a lot to deal with today. It’ll be better when it’s over.”

  “I’ve got your back, Stacey,” he told her.

  “Thanks. But if I’m going to run this business, I need to do things myself.” She pulled away and went to her wardrobe to fetch her black high-heels. She was petite, and today she needed height to deal with her two male employees.

  She left Troy standing there in his towel. She raced down the stairs as fast as her heels would carry her, opened the front door, and pulled up short. His bike was parked across the opening. A clear warning to others that she was his property.

  Protection, Troy could do. He was trained for it. Short-term strikes under pressure. But anything long-term was out of his scope of experience. She knew he cared for her—as much as Troy could care for a woman. But she wasn’t making any plans for the future.

  Not with him.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Troy and Axel had planned to work on Precious in the shop all day. Troy had taken the bike apart and was cleaning every damn part, determined to get it running perfectly. Axel was regaling him with a sex story about some chick who could only get off if she scratched his back. From Axel’s telling of the story, he was flayed by the time he finished.

  Troy was still laughing when Axel suddenly went silent.

  “Here’s trouble,” Axel said quietly, looking toward the entry.

  Troy followed his gaze. “Fuck!”

  He’d figured it was Hawg, but when he looked toward the street, he saw Snake pulling in on his Blockhead.

  Snake made his way over to Troy. They’d been close until recently, so he wasn’t expecting a fight. But he always kept his semi-automatic in a waistband holster and a knife in his boot—he’d been trained to be prepared. And he was seriously pissed off at Snake for cheating on Lizzie.

  “Beast. Axel.” Snake nodded at them, his gaze watchful. His thin mustache drooped in an unkempt fashion.

  “Snake.” Troy returned the greeting. Normally, he’d give him a fist bump or a loose man hug, but Snake’s long arms remained down alongside his rangy body. His gaze shifted warily around, as if sensing danger.

  “The brothers and I are having a meet to celebrate your engagement,” Snake announced. With his short hair, mustache, dark glasses, and thin face, he used to have old-time spiv glamor, the sort from the gangster movies, but now he just seemed shabby and miserable.

  Troy scowled. Stacey at a meet? Hell, no. “Since when did you become the organizer of my social calendar?”

  “Razor ordered it,” Snake said, using Pa’s biker name.

  “What are you, the fucking messenger boy?”

  Snake was a full-fledged brother. Normally, the prospects did all the grunt work around the clubhouse. Membership was not a sure thing, and the prospects had to work hard and show the right amount of respect. If they were ordered to eat shit, they’d better do it.

  Snake shrugged.

  Troy crossed his arms and looked Snake up and down. He wanted to punch his lights out he’d caused so much trouble. “Too bad. I’m not fucking interested in partying.”

  Snake shifted from side to side. Troy was bigger than him. Meaner than him. They both knew it.

  Snake’s expression turned pleading. “Razor and Hawg expect everyone to be there. Look, I fucked up with your sister. I’m sorry. I’m going to make it right.”

  Anger flooded through Troy. “You think organizing a meet will make things better? Fuck that. I don’t want to celebrate while my sister is off God knows where. Lizzie’s fucking gutted because of you. I want to break every bone in your body.”

  Snake looked down at his boots, and Troy could smell his fear. “I want Lizzie back. I miss her. I love her.”

  “Then why’d you stick your cock in that hooker?” Axel asked, coming over, unable to resist.

  “She does anal,” Snake said, as if that was an explanation.

  “And Lizzie doesn’t?” Axel asked.

  Troy swiped up the nearest heavy tool. “You answer that, you’ll be eating this wrench,” Troy said to Snake.

  Snake backed away.

  “Go easy, Beast,” Axel said, placing himself between them.

  Snake’s gaze slid from Troy to Axel and back again.

  “I don’t fucking want to hear about my sister’s sex life,” Troy ground out. “Deal with your own shit, Snake. I’m not interested.”

  He’d have enough of his own shit to deal with, now that he had to convince Stacey to attend a Slayers club meet. She didn’t like bikers, and she could be fucking stubborn when she wanted to be.

  He turned to Axel. “You know about this meet?”

  Axel shrugged. “The brothers want to do right by you. Besides, it’s a good excuse to get pissed and hunt pussy.”

  “You don’t need an excuse,” Troy said with an eye roll. “Try growing your skin back on first.”

  Axel grinned.

  Troy stared back at Snake. “Stacey’s not a biker. She’s not going to like this idea.”

  “You know the deal. She marries you, she marries us,” Snake said.

  “And hell, everyone wants to see the woman who brought you down. No one ever thought you’d marry,” Axel said.

  “Thanks loads. What am I, a monster?” Normally, Troy didn’t give a fuck what the brothers thought of him, but he was starting to feel offended.

  Axel laughed. “More Hulk than Frankenstein.”

  Troy shook his head. “That’s the best you can do? A weird, violent, green ba
stard?”

  “You’re not green,” Axel said.

  “Or that ugly,” Snake added.

  Troy glared at him. “Who asked you?”

  “Fine. I’m outta here. See you Saturday.” Snake raced back to his bike, no doubt relieved that Troy hadn’t ripped him a new one.

  Axel looked at him curiously. “Why didn’t you take him apart for fucking your sister around?”

  Because he’d made a promise to his sister. But he had no intention of looking like a pussy and admitting that to Axel. “Believe me, I’d like to. But he’s not the first guy to be caught with his dick in the wrong hole. I’m not a fucking fidelity enforcer.”

  Axel had a funny look on his face.

  “What?” Troy asked.

  “Do you really think you can be content fucking only one woman for the rest of your life?”

  He turned back to working on the bike and thought of Stacey, of how he couldn’t get enough, do enough, or explore enough of her. “Yeah,” he said. “With Stacey? Sure.”

  And suddenly he realized…it hadn’t been a lie.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Just down the road from the shop, Stacey sat in a grungy diner with Hans Rudder, Dad’s store clerk. He’d been working for Dad for five years and had a wife and two kids. Stacey had always exchanged pleasantries with him when she visited Dad at the store, but she’d never actually held a long conversation with him.

  She waited while the waitress wrote down their orders, then took out her paperwork and laid it in front of him. “Could you have a look at these? This is the spreadsheet for the last three months, while Dad was in the hospital.” She laid out another spreadsheet. “This one is from the three months before Dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.”

  Hans leaned forward to look, his face serious.

  She pointed to the outgoing sales. “We’re bringing in stock, but the warehouse looks bare. Are you sending out the normal number of items?”

  “I see the order come through on the computer,” he said simply, “and I send it out. Same as always.”

  “Except, it isn’t the same as always. Look.” She pointed to an incoming order of ten seat covers. “I can see that ten came in. Here, you’ve sent out five. But there are none in the warehouse. Where are the other five? What’s going on?”

  He shrugged. “Like I said. I do my job. I send out what needs to be sent. If you want to know where the rest of the stock is, check with Bill.”

  “Bill told me to check with you.”

  The waitress came with two cups of coffee, but Hans pushed his aside and stood. “You accusing me of stealing?” His face had gone ruddy.

  Stacey stood, too. “I’m just trying to get to the bottom of this.”

  “Can’t help you.” He put on his bomber jacket.

  “Can’t, or won’t?”

  “Bill’s the foreman. Talk to him.”

  “I want answers, and I plan to get them.”

  Hans walked out, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t be back at work when his leave ran out at the end of the week. And with no one to run the store, she couldn’t reopen.

  Great. One more problem to deal with.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Stacey arrived home late, pulled her sedan into the carport, and stepped out. The lights were on inside, and a delicious smell greeted her when she walked in. She’d barely had time to eat all day because she’d been focused on identifying every piece of missing stock. Naturally, Bill had no idea what had happened to it all.

  She was contemplating firing Bill, or calling in the cops, or both. One thing she wasn’t going to do was talk about it with Troy. She didn’t want to get used to relying on him. Not for muscle, and not even for advice. Until she heard different, he could be gone in a heartbeat at any moment.

  The trouble was, her body and her mind didn’t care. They were still excited to see him.

  He was binding her to him with sex. How could you make such amazing love with a person and not fall for them completely? He might be able to, but she couldn’t. She wanted to run into the kitchen and throw herself into his arms, tell him all her problems and listen to his advice.

  But that would be foolish.

  His Harley was parked across her front door again, and she’d had to edge her way around the large, black, alpha machine to get inside. To her, it seemed like overkill, but she’d worked out that bikers relied on bluster, bullying, and violence to get their way.

  Still, if she had to have a bike blocking her entryway to symbolically keep the club brothers out of her life, that suited her just fine. She didn’t want any part of them.

  She walked into the kitchen to see Troy cooking something on the stove that smelled of smoky wood and sizzling meat. She inhaled deeply. “Mmm. I didn’t know you could cook.”

  “You’d be surprised what I can do.” He glanced at her appraisingly, checking her dress, her shoes, her hair.

  “I’ve had more than my share of your surprises, thanks.”

  “So young. So cynical.” He gave her that smile of his that said she was in for a night of sex. “Mom dropped this by. I think she was looking for an excuse to visit with you.”

  “Sorry I missed her. Too bad I had to work late. What did she have to say?”

  “She’s still in shock over the engagement.”

  “You mean she’s shocked you’ve found someone who’ll put up with you?”

  “Why do people keep saying that to me?”

  She laughed at his grumpy expression. “No idea.”

  “Come here.” He grabbed her by the waist and kissed her, pressing her hips against his groin. He was hard. Always hard.

  He’d just taken a shower, and his hair was slicked back off his face. He wore rough blue denim jeans and a simple white T-shirt that clung to his body. She could smell his woodsy scent, and it affected her in a way no other man ever had. His warm lips pressing against hers made her shiver with pleasure.

  “What do I do if she wants to discuss the wedding? Like, the actual plans?”

  He frowned. “Good point. Especially since Snake and Lizzie got away from her. She and Lizzie were planning some big biker wedding together. Mom got married in a registry office, so she didn’t get a proper wedding. She wanted something special for Lizzie.”

  “Troy,” Stacey said, feeling massively guilty and worried. “It’s really going to hurt your mother when we break up.”

  “How do you know we’re going to break up?” He hadn’t let her go, and she swore she could feel his cock throbbing through his jeans. He was gazing at her intently, like he was about to bend her over the table.

  “Um, because you keep saying you’re leaving. That you haven’t decided whether you’ll re-up or not. And once you’re gone, it’s over.” She couldn’t think of them as a long-term couple. She couldn’t.

  Uncomfortable with his scrutiny, she moved out of his arms and looked at what was in the pot and took another deep inhale. Pork and beans bubbled away with a slick layer of grease on the top.

  Her head swirled, and she gripped the counter.

  “You okay, babe?”

  “I need to sit.”

  He helped her into a kitchen chair and got her a glass of water. “What’s the matter?”

  “I’ve been flat out all day. The air-conditioning broke down at the warehouse, and it was sweltering. There’s so much to get on top of at work. I really miss Dad. I wish Brian would come home. I’d be able to deal with all the work issues so much faster if he was here. He knows the business.” She gulped her water down, her equilibrium returning.

  “Can I help?”

  “No. I’ll manage.”

  “Stacey, I’ve worked in a bike shop for years. Car spare parts and bike spare parts. I can help. The business isn’t rocket science.”

  She massaged her temples. Her head ached from staring at the computer screen all day. “I know. But I need to do it myself.”

  “Stay here. You need to eat.” He served up two meals, settin
g one in front of her, along with a knife and fork for the pork and beans.

  “Thanks.”

  He was doing it again. Being sweet and caring. She thought about the day at the cabin when he’d made sure she had asthma medicine, and the way he’d bathed her after her escape attempt, delicately washing all the mud off her.

  She started to eat, savoring the pork, which was rich with spices and added vegetables. “Yum. Your mother’s a good cook.”

  “She’s self-taught. She had a ring on her finger and a baby in her arms when she was just sixteen.”

  “So young. Imagine her living in that cabin surrounded by alligators. It must have been hell.”

  “Not much of a choice when she got pregnant. First go, too.”

  Stacey paused mid-bite. “How do you know that? I can’t imagine Pa telling you such personal details.”

  Troy took a bite, chewing it with relish. “That’s the way Mom tells it. When she started to show, her father threw her out, completely disowned her. He wouldn’t let Mom see her mother, either, though they kept in touch when he wasn’t around,” Troy added. “Her father couldn’t believe his daughter had taken up with uneducated, low-life, poor white trash, as he called him.”

  “I could see where he was coming from.”

  “Stacey,” Troy growled.

  “They were very young to have a baby.” Stacey kept her eyes on her plate, scooping up some pork and beans. It wasn’t that she wanted to dis Pa’s background, but she didn’t get what a striking woman like Georgia saw in him.

  “So, they were on their own. Pa joined the forces and served for three years, so was able to put some money together.”

  “He left your mother alone in the swamp? With a baby? Holy hell.”

  “She wasn’t alone. She chose to stay in New Orleans where she had support rather than moving to Pa’s base, especially as he wasn’t there much. Some of the brothers have been friends with Pa from high school. Hawg kept an eye on Mom for him. Made sure she had everything she needed.”

  “Hawg! That psychopath? What was Pa thinking?” She gulped her water, horrified at the thought.