It wasn’t unusual for people who got caught up in drug deals gone wrong to have their families threatened, and Cutter knew that. But there was something different about this time. He seemed to be genuinely afraid someone was going to do something to his sister.
If I knew what happened in the first place, I might be able to make more sense of this. Maybe one of the men who were killed that first night had a connection to Pedro. Maybe that’s why he’s trying to get revenge on Cutter on a very personal level.
Fuck. For all I knew, Cutter might have been the one responsible. The man had done some royally stupid shit in his life. Maybe he did go ahead and kill those cartel associates thinking that he was going to get away with it.
But that would be stupid, even for Cutter. If he had signed a contract and was going to be working with them, then why the hell would he risk everything by killing them?
I shook my head. It was frustrating, very frustrating, and I didn’t know how to handle it. If Megan was being targeted, and they had come as far as halfway between Barstow and Ridgecrest, were they hunting her? The cartel ran wherever it pleased, so if they were looking for her, we really weren’t far enough away for me to be okay with it.
They’d catch up eventually, and what would she do? Hell, what would she do if she was in that hotel room on her own and they were to show up? She’d all but frozen in fear when they attacked us the first time, she’d be dead for sure.
I sighed. I’d rather think about the second half of the night. The sex we’d had was mind-blowing. She had been so tight, so gorgeous. I could have gone for two more rounds. I understood how tired she got when the adrenaline wore off, but I was glad for the moment we had together before she passed out on the bed.
I hadn’t stayed long after she fell asleep. I wasn’t sure if she wanted to wake up with me still there, or if I had been merely an escape from the trauma of the night. So shortly after she’d fallen asleep, I snuck out. I turned off the lights and made sure the door was locked behind me, then I headed back to my place after flipping Axle and his knowing smirk the bird.
A sudden knock at the door caught my attention. I wasn’t expecting anyone, and any of the boys would have called before they showed up. Wrapping a towel around my waist, I walked over and opened it up.
“Hey,” I said in surprise.
“Hey,” Meg replied. She was trying not to stare, it was obvious, and to make it harder on her, I put my arm up on the doorframe.
“Is everything alright?” I asked.
“I thought you might want breakfast. You know, as a thank you for what you did for me last night,” she had two bags of food in her hand, and a tray of coffee in the other. I was surprised and was sure I couldn’t hide it.
“That sounds great,” I said. “Come in.”
I held the door open for her, and she deliberately kept her eyes on the floor in front of her as she walked in.
“I’ll go throw some clothes on,” I said as I grabbed a pair of jeans and headed into the bathroom. I called out behind me before I shut the door. “There’s plates and shit in the kitchen!”
“I found them,” she called back. I closed the door behind me and shook my head. What the hell was with this girl? She goes from one side of the spectrum to the other, but she’s not irrational about it.
Cutter did say she was a handful. Shit, if he only knew she was in my apartment with breakfast. Not sure that’s what he meant when he asked me to keep an eye on her.
I finished getting dressed and headed back into the other room. She had set my food on the coffee table in front of the couch, and hers was on her lap. “You don’t have a dining room table.”
“I’m aware,” I said. I took my plate and sat down. “Thanks.”
“Thanks for last night. Saving me, I mean,” she added quickly. She nervously brushed her hair behind her ear, and I smiled.
“You’re most welcome for last night,” I said. It was enough to make her cheeks flush, and I had to fight to keep from laughing out loud. We ate in silence for a few moments, then I cleared my throat. “I don’t think you should stay in the hotel anymore.”
“What?” she asked. She looked at me as though I’d just proposed to her, and I shook my head.
“I’m not sure what’s going on, and if those people are after you, then they aren’t going to simply sit down south and wait for you to show up again. They’re going to keep coming after you until they get to you. That’s how these kinds of situations work,” I replied.
“Why would they be after me?” she asked. I could hear the fear in her voice, though she was forcing herself to remain calm. “I don’t understand it. I haven’t done anything to them.”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe your brother did something to piss them off on a personal level, and they’re now going to get back at him in any way they can. Who knows?” I said.
“If you get caught in the middle of the night with them at the hotel with only one of my guys out there, there’s no way you’re going to reach me in time,” I said. “I don’t like it. And posting more than one guy out there is just going to draw more attention that there is something or someone in the hotel worth guarding.”
“So where am I going to go?” she asked. “Here?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I just looked at her with a blank expression on my face. Her face changed as she realized what I was saying, and she started shaking her head back and forth vigorously.
“No! There’s no way I’m going to stay here with you. No!” she said adamantly. “If you think you’re going to keep me under lock and key under your roof, then you have another thing coming.”
“If you don’t want to stay with me, I can arrange for you to stay with another member of the club. I’m sure Gunner would be happy to have you, or Brutus,” I suggested.
“I’m not staying with any of you!” she said. “Forget it!”
“So how do you plan to get out of it if you find yourself on the other end of a gun again?” I asked. The words hung in the air, and she stabbed feverishly at the eggs on her plate. She shoved them in her mouth, but I didn’t think she was really paying attention to what she was doing.
“And where would I stay? You don’t have a lot of room in here,” she looked around the apartment.
“You can either stay out here on the couch, or you can take the bed and I’ll take the couch, I don’t really care,” I said.
She relaxed slightly. “What about when you have people over?”
I gave her a funny look, and she shrugged. “I’m not exactly the dinner party hosting type,” I deadpanned.
She huffed an exasperated breath. “Well I don’t know what your personal life looks like!”
“If that was going to be an issue, I would have told you,” I said. “I’m just trying to look out for you here. It would be a lot more comfortable for you to come stay here with me than for me to come stay with you in that hotel room.”
She now nodded with as much enthusiasm as she had had when she was arguing.
“True,” she said. “Fine. But I’m going to take the couch, and I’m going to keep all my stuff in my bag. I don’t need to unpack any of it or anything.”
“That’s fine with me,” I shrugged. “Whatever makes you happy.”
“I’d be happy if I could go home,” she muttered.
“Soon enough hopefully,” I said. “I’m sure your brother is doing everything he can to get this fixed. These aren’t the kinds of situations anyone enjoys dealing with, trust me.
We finished our meal in silence, and I offered to take her plate. “We can get you out of there and in here today. Since you don’t have a lot of stuff with you, it’s not going to take you long to move.”
She took her plate to the kitchen and grabbed her purse off the table. Axle is still outside. I’ll have him take me over to gather my things.”
I nodded and watched as her perfect ass sauntered out my door.
Keep in mind this is for her own good. You aren
’t going to get anything out of this but the peace of mind knowing she’s safe in the apartment with you. Forget a repeat of last night. She’s going to be on the couch, and you’re going to be in your bedroom, end of story.
I had been through some shit in my life, but nothing compared to what I was feeling now. To be around a woman so beautiful and so perfect for me and know that to resist her after I’d already had a taste, was a hard pill to swallow.
14
Megan
“Look, if you want to come, then you can, but I trust no one is going to bother you here. It’s a lot more secure than the hotel room,” Trip said. “All the doors are locked and only me, Gunner, and Axle have a key.”
I hesitated, then I put my chin up.
“Alright, if you really think that I’ll be okay, then I’d prefer to stay here,” I said.
“Okay. Don’t leave. If you want anything, you have my number. I can get it for you when I’m on lunch, or I’ll send one of the guys. Just stay here, do your thing, and lay low,” he said.
“Fine,” I replied. He didn’t stick around. With a final nod, he turned and headed out the door. I listened as his footsteps faded down the hall, then I walked to the window and watched as he got on his bike and rode off.
It was Tuesday. I’d been staying with him for three days now, and he was going back to work. Normally, he would have worked on Monday, but he’d taken the day off to meet up with my brother halfway between here and Barstow. And, he had a court date.
The very first thing I did was try to get out of him what he’d done to have to go to court, and I felt like an idiot when he told me he was standing by a woman who was trying to get a restraining order against her abusive ex-husband. At first, I thought he might be lying to me, but he got dressed up, the woman showed up at the apartment, and the two of them left together.
That night, he’d explained to me that he and several of the other members of his club would accompany women who were going to court against their abusers, offering them support and protection against the men who had been hurting them.
He had several stories of when he or other men under him had to step in before the meeting as men tried to threaten their ex’s in the parking lot at the courthouse. Through the months, many of the men who were taken to court – or who took their ex’s to court – had learned when they saw the Avenging Angels in the parking lot, they had to back off and behave.
“How’d it go?” I’d asked when he got back from court.
“Good. He’s got to stay pretty damn far away from her, pay her alimony, and stop with any and all forms of contact starting immediately. If he violates any of those orders, he’s facing a lot of jail time,” he said as he took off his vest.
“And then do you, what? Do you ride around and make sure he’s staying away from her?” I asked. I didn’t want it to come off as condescending as it had, and I knew from the look that he gave me he was rather offended at my choice of words. I winced but didn’t apologize.
“We can’t. She’s not local. She just found out about us from a friend and she wanted me to be there for her,” he said.
“You left town to do it?” I asked. My eyes widened, and I knew the surprise showed through my tone.
“Yeah,” he said. He gave me another look, and I decided to drop it. But, he didn’t. “That’s one of the reasons Satan’s Souls has had such a problem with us. Many of those guys don’t treat women right, and we’ve been there to stand up against them in court.”
I winced again. Though I wasn’t involved with the Souls myself, there had been times when I was at my brother’s house, and I’d heard one of his men complaining about having to go to court over his ex, and how she was bringing a body guard with her.
At the time, I hadn’t thought much of it. I thought that they were referring to a brother or perhaps a parent, but I never thought these women were reaching out to members of the Avenging Angels.
“That’s noble of you,” I said. He’d just shrugged, clearly not needing my approval over what he did in life to know he was doing a good job.
“You hungry?” he changed the subject.
“Yeah,” I said. “What for?”
“I was thinking something fast and easy. You bought breakfast the other day, so I’ll get pizza,” Trip replied. “Pick out what you want and order. I’ll pay in cash when they get here.”
I pulled up the menu on my laptop, choosing a couple different flavors I thought he’d like. But it was hard for me to concentrate as I put in the order. It seemed so strange to me, thinking of these guys going to court for women they didn’t even know, standing up to men they didn’t know just because it was the right thing to do.
They stood against violence toward women, and they put themselves in potentially dangerous situations to make sure the women could get out. It was a turn on, that was for damn sure. I was starting to see Trip in a whole new light the longer I was around him. My brother had scared me a time or two with his temper. Granted, he had never hit me, and I didn’t think he ever would. I was one of the only people on the planet who could appeal to his better side. But that didn’t change the fact that he was aggressive by nature.
I couldn’t see Trip doing that to anyone. He had pissed me off when I first arrived, and he made it clear I wasn’t going to call the shots. But he had never been intimidating, and he hadn’t thrown his weight or his power around in my face.
Hell, he had put up with a lot from me during the first few days that I’d been around, even to the point where he risked his life for me in the parking lot of that diner.
We’d had a good evening. I asked him to stay in the living room and watch a movie with me, and I could almost admit that it was fun. He had a sense of humor I hadn’t noticed before, and we clicked on a different level than just the physical.
I couldn’t deny the sexual tension that electrified the room, but at the same time, we didn’t need it. I didn’t feel like I had to do anything, and I didn’t think he was expecting anything of me, either. We were just two people having a good time with some pizza and a movie.
And I could have melted into the floor with contentment.
Now, as I stood in the empty apartment, a strange feeling washed over me.
Did I actually fucking miss him? He had given me the option to go with him to work today, but I wanted to prove a point. I didn’t want him to think that I wanted to hang out with him, so I chose to be here alone.
Now, I had the entire day to do anything I wanted. I could watch tv, I could work as much as I wanted. Hell, he wasn’t there, I could go through the apartment and snoop through all his things.
I could find out what kind of man this really was. But no, I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t want to invade his privacy like that. Hell, I didn’t want to do anything but hang out – with him.
I walked back to the couch and sat down. I didn’t know what was going on with me, so I decided to call Kate. I’d not gotten the chance to talk to her much since coming to Ridgecrest, and I hoped to be able to catch her.
“Megan! I thought you fell off the face of the planet!” her voice was like a breath of fresh air.
“Oh my God! I’ve got so much to tell you!” I said.
“I heard about the attack in the parking lot, you had to have been terrified!” she said. “Were you scared?”
“You bet your ass I was scared!” I said. “The guy had a gun pointed right at my face. I thought he was going to kill me!”
“What happened?” she gasped. I suddenly realized she probably didn’t know the details, only that it had happened.
“Well, we were jumped when we left the diner after dinner. We had to run through the parking lot and when one of the guys caught up with us, Trip shot the gun out of his hand and we were able to escape,” I said breathlessly. “I was terrified.”
“Diner? Just the two of you?” I could hear the intrigue in her voice.
“Um hello? That’s the part you’re going to focus on? I was shot at
for Christ sake Kate!” I shook my head.
“Sorry, sorry. That’s horrible. But you’re ok right? You’re good?”
“Yeah, thanks to Trip, I’m fine,” I said.
“Ok good. So, dinner?”
“Jesus Kate, you’re relentless,” I couldn’t help but laugh. “Yes, he felt bad that I’d been cooped up all week, so he offered to take me out to get something to eat and a change of scenery.”
“I bet him taking you on dates wasn’t exactly what Cutter had in mind when he asked this guy to watch over you,” she giggled. “It wasn’t a date! He was just trying to me a nice human being,” I argued. But I was glad she couldn’t see my face. I could see my beet red reflection in the mirror on the wall across from me.
“You were going to tell me about your last date the last time we talked,” I quickly changed the subject. “What happened there?”
“Oh Brad? He’s long gone,” Kate’s voice let me know she was rolling her eyes. “I’m with Trey now.”
“Who’s Trey?” I asked. I settled into the couch. Once I asked her about a guy she was seeing, I knew it was going to turn into an hour-long conversation, and I wasn’t going to have to do a thing but listen and assure her I was still there with the occasional ‘uh huh’. I’d long since learned the appropriate questions to ask, how to ask them, and when.
She loved talking about who she was currently sleeping with and why they were or weren’t going to last for a while. The ironic thing was, she really stuck with them about the same length of time regardless of the potential she saw in the relationship.
I couldn’t blame her, though. I hadn’t the best track record when it came to men either, which was part of the reason it terrified me to think of how I felt about Trip. He made me think and feel things that I hadn’t in as long as I could remember; if I’d ever felt them before. What if there is more to this than just what you’re trying to convince yourself? What would happen if you stopped pretending and started letting yourself feel things for him? He’s a good man, he’s proving that to you time and time again, you just don’t want to see it.
Protecting Her: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Page 8