And I wasn’t sure how much she’d take back to him because of her angst toward me.
“What about that O’Malley’s?” she asked. “Have you ever been there?”
“That’s fine with me,” I said. I’d heard of the place. It was a burger joint with seventies style themes running throughout. Not something I’d choose to do on my own, but if she wanted to go, then I wasn’t going to argue.
Hell, I was surprised she was even going out with me at all. I was on the verge of caving and telling her to forget it when she finally gave in, so I was going to take as much as I could get out of this. The conversation on the way was less strained than it had been for most of the week, and I had to wonder if it had something to do with the compliment I’d given. I didn’t want to think too highly of myself in that regard. Hell, this woman was different than any other I’d met.
But she was certainly a lot more amiable than she had been and I wasn’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth.
We pulled into the parking lot and I quickly scoped the place out. I wasn’t too thrilled with the atmosphere. It didn’t have anything to do with the diner itself, but it was a rundown side of town, and there didn’t appear to be very good lighting near the alley.
I parked as close to the diner as we could, but it was a busy Friday night, so we were forced to be on the other side. We walked into the diner next to each other, and for some reason, I had the urge to grab her hand. I tucked mine in my pockets instead and didn’t say a word. I wasn’t sure if I was the only one feeling the tension between us, but when she walked through the door as I opened it for her, her hand reached out slightly to brush against mine. It was no accident, I could see that. But she quickly brushed it off. “Don’t think because you open the door for me, I think you’re any more of a gentleman.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I said. But there was a slight smile playing at my lips as we walked in.
We had to wait nearly half an hour before we got a seat, but since we’d driven as far as we had for the diner, there wasn’t much of a choice. At last, we were seated with our menus in front of us.
“I’m getting a burger,” Megan announced.
“Looks like that’s the main option,” I replied.
“There’s salads too, and other sandwiches,” she pointed out. I shook my head.
“I think a burger is the best bet,” I remarked. “This is a burger joint, so why not get one?”
“A lot of people come here and don’t get burgers,” she said.
“A lot of people are idiots,” I replied.
She gave me another look, but I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of eye contact. We ordered and I was surprised at the fast service. And the food. The place was a lot better than I’d expected, and by the time we were ready to go, I was glad we’d come.
Hell, even the conversation had been decent. We both seemed to intentionally avoid the issues we had been arguing about all week, and instead focused on what we were doing in the moment. I could even swear she flirted with me a time or two, though I was careful in my responses. She was confusing, that was for sure. She would make it clear she was staunchly against even the idea of a date despite the fact I’d never asked her to one, then she’d flirt.
I took everything she did in stride though as I still didn’t quite trust her motives. Though I was pretty sure she was into me, I didn’t want to get caught with my pants down, so to speak, if she was just buttering me up for information or to try and make a break for it. “You know I make my own money,” she said when we were outside. “I can pay for my own food.”
“No one said that you couldn’t,” I remarked.
“You didn’t have to do that,” she said.
“Would it kill you to let someone do something for you every now and then?” I asked. I was quickly getting the impression the conversation was going to turn into an argument on our way back home as she shot me another look.
“Would it kill you to let a girl do her own thing?”
“Shh!” I held up my hand. Her jaw fell open, and I knew she was about to start talking again when I spotted three men approaching up from the corner of my eye.
“Fuck you!” one of the men shouted. “You double crossing, traitorous asshole!”
The lighting made it difficult to see my patch, so I was sure they were mistaken as to who they thought I was. Either that or they knew Cutter’s sister and they were pissed to see us together. Either way, we were outnumbered and in trouble.
I yanked my gun out from behind my back.
“Trip!” Megan cried. She was interrupted with the sound of gunfire, and I immediately yanked her down to the ground between vehicles, and people inside the diner were starting to notice there was something going on outside.
The men were coming from the dark of the alley and I couldn’t see their exact location. But they were clearly intending to kill.
“Trip! What do we do?” Meg cried on the ground beside me.
“We’re getting to my truck” I hissed. “Come on.”
“I can’t move,” she said.
“Are you hurt?” I asked, concerned.
She shook her head. “I hate this, I hate this, I hate this. I can’t move.”
“You have to. If you stay here, they’re going to kill you,” I replied. “Come on!”
She slowly started following me. We could hear the three guys shouting to each other, but we stayed low, out of sight between the cars. It was only when we had to run from one lane to the next that we’d be exposed.
“There they are boys!” I heard the shout as we made the sprint.
Gunfire rang out and the bullets whizzed off the pavement. Megan screamed. “Why isn’t anyone calling the cops?”
I yanked her down next to me. “They probably are, but it takes time for them to get here!”
She crumpled to the ground, and I looked around the edge of the Beetle we were huddled against. “Okay, there’s my truck. We’re going to stay low, and you’re going to get in first, crawling in through the driver’s side so you don’t have to go around the front. Then I’m going to be right behind you. Keep your head down the entire time, okay?”
I started off, rounding the corner. I could hear the sound of the men moving in the alley, but it was still hard to pinpoint where they were exactly. I turned to say something else to Meg, but she wasn’t there.
“Megan!” I whispered.
She screamed. Looking over my shoulder, I saw one of the men had run into the open and was now standing at the end of the Beetle. He had his gun poised but I was a moment faster. Raising mine, I fired. He let out a cry and dropped his weapon, and Megan took the chance to run.
We bolted for the truck, moving as the bullets continued to fly around us. There was no point in trying to sneak in now. She jumped in one side and I leapt in the other, then sped off.
I left black marks on the pavement as I skidded onto the street, passing cops with their sirens blaring on our way by. I wasn’t going to wait for questioning, I’d let them figure it out.
I had an idea who it was we’d just encountered, and though I was still running on adrenaline, I was also shaking with rage. They could have killed Megan, and part of me wondered if that’s who they were after.
She was sitting in the passenger seat, white as a ghost and shaking her head. She said nothing, and neither did I. There wasn’t anything to say. I’d told her it wasn’t safe, and she could now see for herself how serious this situation was.
There wasn’t a need for words.
The night proved what I said was true.
12
Megan
I rode in silence, mostly due to the shock I was experiencing. My brother had been living this life since I was a little girl, but this was the first time in my life I’d ever been in a situation that intense. I’d known men who did things like that, but he’d always kept those things away from me.
I’d seen the aftermath, like when he had shown up at my house with his
shirt all bloodied a couple weeks before, but I’d never been in a spot that the danger was aimed directly at me.
If it hadn’t been for Trip acting as fast as he did, I would have been killed. I didn’t know if he intended to kill the man or not, but he hit him right in the arm, causing him to drop the weapon and giving me enough time to get out of there.
But it wasn’t even the fact that I’d almost died that had me so bothered. It was the fact that I knew that boy who had held a gun on me.
His name was Jesse Reynolds, and he’d been in my class the year before. He was a slow learner and hadn’t officially dropped out of school until he was nineteen. I tried to get him to see that he could achieve if he worked hard, but he gave up all too soon, and now look where he was.
He’d not only thrown away all his potential and went into the life that I tried so desperately to steer him out of, but he had tried to kill me. There was no denying it. I saw the look on his face as he took aim, as though he was doing something great.
And perhaps in the world he now lived in, it was something great.
Trip was kind enough to not badger me on the way back to Ridgecrest. He had likely been through this kind of thing a lot in his life. But he seemed to realize that I was in shock, and he was giving me space. Hell, he was probably secretly gloating, knowing that he hadn’t wanted to go down that far south.
It was entirely my idea that we did, and it had almost gotten us killed.
We pulled up in front of the hotel, and he put the car in park. “You alright?”
They were the first words spoken, and I suddenly realized I couldn’t answer. My throat was tight, and I feared if I were to say something I’d break down in tears. So, I just nodded. I slowly grabbed my purse and opened the truck door, then stepped out onto the ground.
“You’ve got my number if you need anything. Axle will be outside tonight,” Trip said. I nodded again, but I hesitated. He waited for me to close the door, but I couldn’t. There were tears in my eyes, threatening to run down my cheeks.
“You were right,” I said at last.
“What?” he asked.
“That was a former student. The kid who almost killed me. He was someone I knew,” I whispered.
“Fuck,” he said. “I’m sorry. I know you try your best with those kids, but sometimes there’s just nothing you can do.”
His words hung in the air. He didn’t need to say it again. It was their choice at the end of the day what they did with their lives. I could push and push, but if they were going to go off and do their own thing, that was on them. I nodded.
“Do you want me to come in for a minute?” he asked. My head jerked up. I hadn’t thought of that, but now that the offer was out, I wanted it more than anything.
“Would you?” I asked.
He turned off the ignition and opened the door. We walked in silence to my room, and I let us both inside. My heart raced. I was still running on adrenaline, but I was also nervous. The man had saved my life, and I was now more attracted to him than ever.
He wasn’t pushing himself on me, despite my being vulnerable, which also turned me on. Whether I thought of him as a criminal or not no longer mattered. All I wanted was to have him. I wanted to taste him, to feel him, to have him hold me until I felt safe again. I locked the door, and without a word, I stepped over to him, pressing my lips to his. I didn’t know what to expect. He might push me away, he might pull back. He might tell me it wasn’t a good idea. The man was my brother’s biggest rival, after all.
But he didn’t do any of those things.
Slowly, he started kissing me in return. Our hands started exploring each other, grabbing at each other’s clothes. His hands moved to my tits, squeezing them, massaging them, making me put my head back and moan.
I had my hands on his pecs, then I moved them to his biceps. I’d wanted to grab them since the day I saw him in the bar. I wanted to know what he felt like under my fingers. I rolled his jacket off his shoulders, then pulled his t-shirt over his head.
He did the same to my shirt, letting them both fall to the floor at nearly the same time. He unclasped my bra with one hand, as the other wrapped around the back of my head, pulling my face toward him, kissing me passionately the entire time.
I was growing wetter by the second, and there was no denying his arousal as I pressed myself against the front of his jeans.
He suddenly put his hands on my waist, started walking, and pushed me back onto the bed, crawling on top of me. His hand slid under my back, raising me slightly toward him. He put his mouth to my tits, his teeth to my nipples, suckling me, nipping at me, sending chills down my spine.
Trip unbuttoned my jeans and pulled them down, then used his teeth to pull my panties free as well. I couldn’t wait any longer. I was driven crazy with the heat of the moment, and I had to have him inside me. He would have gone down on me, but I wasn’t the kind of girl to not show what I wanted in bed.
I pulled him back up to my face, undoing his jeans and pushing them down, using my feet to include his boxers, freeing his massive dick. He was already rock hard, dripping with anticipation for me.
I took him in my hands, stroking him as I laid beneath him. Trip eased himself down on the bed on top of me, his arms on either side of my body, the palms of his hands on the top of my head as he passionately continued to kiss me.
Then, he pressed his cock to the slit of my pussy. I was so wet, he didn’t need any help gliding inside. I let out another moan, arching my back as I took him as far inside me as I could. I spread my legs wide for him, encouraging him to thrust in and out of me, the full length of his cock piercing my insides each time.
He moved fast and strong, using the headboard as leverage to get as deep as he could. I put my hands on his ass, pulling him into me with each thrust. Closing my eyes and smiling with the passion of the moment. Slowly, the events of the night faded as the pleasure ran through my veins.
He made me come quickly, sending the orgasm through every part of my core. I cried out loudly as I came hard, arching into him as much as I could, letting the sensation run through me.
Trip wasn’t far behind. He thrust into me twice more, hard and deliberate, then I felt his cock emptying inside me. He moaned, holding me against him as he filled me completely, his cock pulsing until he had finished.
Then, we held each other for a moment longer. I didn’t want him to pull out. I didn’t want to face what my world had turned in to. I just wanted him inside me, and I wanted to be in his arms forever. For the first time I realized, when I was with Trip, I was truly safe.
Perhaps my brother had done something right for once in his life, sending me to be with the one man who really would take care of me no matter what. He had risked his life for me tonight, and I knew he’d do it again in a heartbeat.
He pulled himself out of me and laid on the bed, and I wasn’t sure whether to lay on him or turn away. The passion was still in the air, and I felt connected to him, this wasn’t just a one-night stand; this was something deeper and far more meaningful than anything like that.
It just had to be. I closed my eyes and took a few deep breaths. I didn’t want the moment to end, though I knew it must. Trip felt every bit as good as I thought he might, and I hoped he could feel the connection to me as well.
But my eyes were suddenly too heavy to open, and I felt myself drifting. I wanted to fight it, I wanted to say something to him about the night – about the moment – but they refused to listen. I drifted into the inky bliss of sleep, the night disappearing as quickly as it had arrived.
The next morning, I woke to an empty hotel room. There was a dent in the pillow next to mine, but I wasn’t sure if Trip had left right after I’d fallen asleep, or sometime this morning. The light was pouring in through the slits in the blinds, but it was Saturday; he likely wouldn’t be coming for me.
Last night was a one-time thing. Forget about those feelings you had after you had sex. It wasn’t anything more than that, just
let it go. You got caught up in the moment, that’s all. It’s natural. It’s completely natural.
There was no denying that I felt weird about what happened, but I wasn’t going to let myself dwell on it. I had been weak when I was scared, and I had given into the temptation that was in front of me.
Did I regret it? Not a damn bit. Did I wish that it hadn’t happened? Hell no.
But was I going to let myself think that it meant anything more than what it was, or that it might happen again? No.
It was what it was, and now it was nothing more than a memory. It might be one of the best memories of my life, but it was just a memory, nonetheless.
And as far as I was concerned, it was safer to keep it that way.
13
Trip
I stepped out of the shower and ran the towel through my hair. I still couldn’t get the night before out of my head. There were two separate parts of the night, both of which were demanding my equal attention.
The men who had shot at us had to be members of the cartel, plain and simple. Who else could they have been? No other MC’s rode in that area unless they were passing through and not once had I heard the sound of a bike. It had to have been kids the cartel recruited to do their dirty work. They were just ill-informed and unexperienced. An experienced hit squad would have taken the time to make sure they were aiming at the right damn targets, not just anyone in a leather cut.
And the one that had aimed his gun at Megan had known her personally. What did that mean? Were they coming for her in particular? Did they want her dead for some reason other than sending a message to her brother? That really didn’t make sense. She was so adamant that she wanted nothing to do with that life, why else would they want her dead? It had to all lead back to Cutter and Satan’s Souls.
It was a puzzling situation, but, there was no denying that they seemed to be after her in particular. Cutter told me when he asked if I would keep an eye on her that she had received a threatening note. At the time, I thought it was nothing more than them reaching out to the family.
Protecting Her: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 7