He stared at me for a long moment, and I almost looked away, afraid that he would see the truth in my eyes. Finally, he took a deep breath. "Okay, I have to go, too."
I just managed to keep my expression from falling. I hadn't considered that Martin might go with me. Of course, I knew he wouldn’t be going into the ladies room, but him being as close as the men's room was too close for comfort. I was aware of him behind me as we walked to the other side of the restaurant, and then down the short hallway that led to the bathrooms. There was no back door as I'd been hoping, and the men's room was right next door to the ladies’. The only other door across from the bathrooms either led to a storage closet or the kitchen.
As I was about to push my way into the restroom, Martin's arm moved above my head and he pushed the door open for me. I glanced up at him with slight surprise. "A gentleman always opens the door for a lady," he explained with a smirk.
I knew what he was doing. His gaze shot past me to the back of the bathroom, and I knew that he was looking for a window. There was none. What the hell was I going to do now? I went inside and waited until I heard the men's bathroom door close and I was sure that he had gone inside, and then I left the ladies room. I didn't hesitate. I didn't think. I just opened the other door and found myself in the kitchen. Several pairs of eyes turned my way as cooks stopped what they'd been doing. My server also happened to be there.
I met her eyes for the first time. There was kindness there. "Help me please."
She hesitated only briefly before motioning for me to follow her. I eagerly followed her to the back of the kitchen where the delivery door was located. I stopped her before she opened the door. "This will be the first place they come. I won't have enough time to find some place to hide."
She hesitated again, contemplating the options, and then turned toward another door. It turned out to be a stock room. "You'll be safe in here." She continued further into the room where there was a big stack of boxes against the wall. She pulled one out toward the back, leaving a tiny empty space. "Just until they leave. Then I'll come for you, okay?"
"Thank you so much!" I whispered turning and crawling into the tiny spot. Once I was inside she began to push the box back into place, but I held up a hand, stopping her. "I'm, ah, it's too dark." I was so embarrassed, as once again I let a childhood memory cause me to freeze.
Her understanding smile put me at ease. "I'll leave the light on," she assured me, pushing the box in a little more, but leaving it out enough for the light to filter in.
"Thank you," I whispered, tears smarting in my eyes. I let them fall.
I don’t know what happened after that. I remained there for what seemed like hours, jerking at every little noise, thinking that Martin was coming for me, holding my breath every time the door opened and someone from the kitchen came in for something. I wondered if they knew that I was there, and decided that they must, because none of them turned off the lights.
Eventually I was able to relax, and I think I even drifted off.
I didn't know anything until the kind server returned for me to tell me that they'd gone.
I had no phone. But I did know Holly's number, so I was able to borrow the waitress's phone to call her and tell her where I was.
I was safe for now.
Someone was coming for me.
Chapter 34
Bailey
"You've been so kind to me; I don't know how to thank you."
The server, Rosie, and I were sitting in an office at the Denny’s. It turned out that she was also the manager of the place. She'd been filling in for someone who'd called in sick. She was a friendly, motherly kind of woman in her mid-thirties, and she had five children at home and a good man who was on the road most of the time driving trucks.
"I could tell there was something wrong when you came in. In this area, most people who come in at this time of night are running from something or hiding from someone."
I shook my head. "Yeah, those men were taking me to their MC in Sacramento against my will." I didn't see the need to explain any further.
"I had a feeling." She nodded in understanding. "That one man, the one sitting next to you, he was furious when he discovered that you were gone. I told him that you'd run out the delivery door in the kitchen. He and his friends began searching for you instantly. I thought they'd never leave."
I returned her small smile. "Me, too."
"I made sure they were good and gone before I came for you."
"I appreciate all your help. And for letting me use your phone to call my friend."
"Someone did something good for me once, I'm just glad I've finally been able to pay it forward."
Suddenly we heard the sounds of motorcycles pulling into the parking lot, and then a loud banging at the door reached us from the front of the restaurant. We both jumped, locking eyes.
She reached forward and put her hand on my arm, offering comfort. "Don't worry. The door is locked, and it could be your friend." She got up to leave. "Stay here."
She left the room, and I went with her as far as I could without being seen from the front door. I could hear Rosie's low murmurs as she spoke to the person on the other side of the door. She kept her tone calm and low. The person she was talking to obviously wanted entry, and the more she denied him, the louder his voice grew until there was no doubt that I knew who it belonged to.
I rushed around the corner with wide eyes, my heart pounding. "Moody!"
Rosie turned back to me as I moved toward her.
"Let him in!" I demanded, my eyes clinging to his through the glass door. "Moody!"
Rosie had wisely stepped away. I threw myself against him the second he stepped inside the restaurant.
His strong arms encircled me as he crushed me against him. His hand fisted in my curls as he jerked my head back and he planted his mouth on mine. I welcomed his hard, passionate kiss, opening my mouth so that our tongues could mesh and jab at each other. Mutual sounds of pleasure acted like a catalyst, giving us reason to consume and possess at will. Moody always claimed me with his fierce kisses, but there was something different about this one. It was filled with a kind of wild desperation that revealed how deep his emotions were over finding me.
After a full minute, Moody's mouth turned soft and tender, turning into a kiss filled with relief and profound emotion. Tears came to my eyes that this cold-hearted man could reveal so much depth. It gave me hope that the shell surrounding his heart was cracking. When we came apart, our foreheads remained connected, our breaths mingled into one.
"You came for me." I felt my bottom lip quiver.
"Christ, you had doubts?"
"We've been looking for you since you first disappeared," a familiar voice sounded from behind Moody.
I glanced around Moody, seeing Cole, Demon, and another man that I wasn't familiar with. I hadn't even noticed that Moody wasn't alone until now. I gave a smile of gratitude to the four of them. "Thank you." I’d meant it for everyone, but my eyes met the relief in Cole's. I noticed that Rosie was still standing there, and reached for her hand, pulling her next to me. "This is Rosie. She helped me."
She faced Moody and the others with a nervous smile on her face. I doubted that she'd been prepared to see more bikers show up at her restaurant. Moody stepped in front of her. As usual, his expression was taut, and scary to someone who didn't know him. I opened my mouth to admonish him for frightening Rosie when he surprised me by taking out his wallet and sliding out a business card.
He offered it to Rosie, who took it from him warily. "I owe you," Moody said in a firm tone. "You ever need help with anything, contact me at this number."
She nodded slowly, slipping the card into the pocket of her apron.
"Rosie, thank you again for helping me. You saved my life."
"I'm glad that I could help. I would want someone to do the same for my daughters."
"We'll get out of your hair now." Demon turned toward the door, his brothers automatically followin
g.
I gave Rosie a brief hug and then left with Moody. I couldn't help scanning the area for Martin as we left. It was dark, and the parking lot lights had been turned off. Only the light from inside the restaurant illuminated where we were standing. It took me a moment to locate their bikes, which were parked the furthest distance from the door in a darker corner of the lot.
"Cole, brother, take Bailey home for me."
"What? No!" I rushed out with disbelief. I grabbed Moody by the arms. "What are you doing?"
"Sending you home where you'll be safe."
"But where are you going? I don't understand."
"After Martin," he said simply.
I stood back and looked at him for a minute, not sure how to react. "No, it's too dangerous, Moody, just let him go."
Even in the dark I could see Moody's frown. "Baby, you think I'm just going to let this shit slide?" he snapped down at me. "Even if he hadn't kidnapped you, I'd still be after him. The man needs to go away permanently."
I shook my head. "But you don't have to do this. Let the law take care of Martin and those others." I had thought that we would be going home together. I'd been counting on it, counting on being in his arms, where I felt safe.
I needed to feel safe.
He pulled his arms away from my grasp. "He took you," he snarled. "He touched you."
Oh, God. I looked away, praying that he didn't want the details.
"Did you forget that he was going to kill you and Holly?"
How could I forget that? "No, I—" I was aware that the others were walking away to their bikes, as if they didn't want to be privy to our heated conversation. "I don't want you to go." I hesitated before admitting, "I'm scared."
"I was scared the whole fucking time he had you," Moody admitted deeply, the glitter of his eyes holding mine captive. "Now I'm going to end this. If I don't, you'll always have to worry about him coming for you."
I shook my head in denial, even though what he said was true. "I don't want you to leave me," I said weakly, ashamed of myself for giving in to a fear that I could barely comprehend.
"I'll be back, baby." He reached up and ran his thumb over my bottom lip. "But I need to do this. I protect what's mine."
His tone and tender touch was meant to placate me, but it had the opposite effect. "No, you don't!" I felt panic taking over at the thought of being separated from him again so soon. Why couldn't he see how I felt? Why couldn't he understand? I needed to be with him. I felt safe in his arms and protected. I threw myself against him, a part of me knowing that I was being unreasonable, but I didn't care. "I'll go with you then."
"The hell you will. I just got you out of danger, baby."
"But it's okay for you to be in danger? I'm not supposed to worry? The police—"
His hands curled roughly around my arms, and the shock that he was pushing me away from him was almost unbearable. "Jesus H. Christ, I'm not getting the fucking cops involved, woman! That's not how I roll. I handle my own shit, my own fucking way. And no one tells me how to do it."
"So are we doing this, brother?" Demon yelled from across the lot.
"No!" I said stubbornly, knowing deep down that I wasn't going to win.
"Yes!" Moody shouted back at the same time.
"Moody… I don't want anything bad to happen to you." Would it make a difference if I told him that I loved him? I wanted to, but I was afraid to say the words.
"You don't have much faith in my abilities do you?" he said scathingly. "I have a chance of catching up to Martin now," he stressed unyieldingly. "We'll have plenty of time to be together later."
"If you're still alive," I mumbled beneath my breath, not caring if he heard me or not.
"You don't have to worry about that," Moody gritted out. "I'm good at what I do, Bailey."
The image of him standing in the open window as he’d been shot at that day at the Desert Rebels’ clubhouse flashed before my eyes. "You take chances that you don't have to. I've seen you."
"You've known all along that I was going to go after Martin. What's changed?" he demanded.
"Before you were just an arrogant, overbearing asshole, but I care about you now." I heard his snort, and it just angered me more. "By all means, go and get yourself killed, or better yet, get caught and sent off to prison!" I started to stomp away toward Cole and the others. I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard some snorts coming from their direction. It was clear that they'd heard my last outburst. "Thanks for saving me again!"
"You little hell cat!" Without warning, I was swung around. "If I had the time I'd tan your little ass right now. You calm the fuck down! I'm doing this for you and Holly. If you can't see that I'm taking care of your ass, then maybe you're not the woman for me after all."
I sucked in my breath. How had it come to this? I knew that Moody was a possessive man, more so now that he'd claimed me as his woman. Before it had all been about protecting two defenseless women and taking care of a problem, but now it was more personal. Our relationship was still in the very early stages, and I'd gone too far. I wondered if it was too late to back up.
Instead of apologizing, I found myself asking, "What are you saying?"
Moody released a heavy sigh. "Nothing right now, baby. Go home with Cole and we'll talk later."
I watched him walk away in the direction of his brothers, wondering if I'd ruined things between us. Why had I acted so foolishly? I blamed it on the trauma I'd just suffered. Martin had terrorized me. He'd touched me. The man I loved had rescued me like I’d known that he would, but I hadn't expected him to take off right after that. I'd anticipated a night of being held and comforted by him.
As Moody, Demon, and the other men rode away, I met Cole at his bike. He wrapped a hand around my neck and pulled me against his chest.
"You have to understand, honey, a man like Moody doesn't know any other way of handling trouble but by taking care of it himself. Men like us, we don't take shit from anyone, and we don't run to the cops. That could bring more shit down on us than anything else.
"I love him, Cole," I mumbled against his cut. "Why does it have to be so damned hard?"
He chuckled. "It takes a lot for outlaw bikers like us to let people get close, especially women, because of how we live our lives. Some of us never cross that line, but when we do, we claim the woman and protect her with everything we've got. It's not always a matter of following the rules society dictates, Bailey."
Cole's tone was slightly scolding. I knew that he didn’t approve of my insistence that Moody get the law involved.
"He's not going to change. If you can't get past that, you and Moody will have problems."
"I'm not asking him to change." Was I?
"Aren't you?" Cole countered. "Look, honey, you just went through a bad experience. You're scared and worried. I get that. He gets that. But men like us react to situations in the only way we know how. We're good at what we do." He took in a deep breath and released it. "And if I don’t get you home, he'll skin me alive."
I looked up at him, barely able to discern his slight smile.
"You want that on your conscious?"
I huffed out a laugh. "I guess not."
He got on his bike and I climbed on behind him, wrapping my arms around him. The ride home was a lot nicer than the ride there had been. It was late, and the highway less traveled. Cole rode at a steady pace and within the speed limit. I caught myself nodding off several times, but, realizing how dangerous that was; I fought to keep myself awake. Falling off the back of a bike at any speed would probably kill me.
Every so often Cole shouted back to me. I knew it was his way of keeping me from getting careless and too relaxed. When he did this, I would tighten my arms around him and let him know that I was good.
It was early morning by the time we arrived back at my apartment, and Cole was just as exhausted as I was. Once we got inside, he collapsed onto the sofa and I went directly to bed.
I lay there for a long time worrie
d about Moody and the others.
Chapter 35
Moody
Martin was dead, wasn't sure about his colleagues. Didn't really give a fuck. They'd lost time searching for Bailey, allowing us the chance to catch up to them, but we'd had nothing to do with their end. Apparently Hermes had had his own agenda regarding his AWOL brothers. The president of the Sacramento Reapers had been waiting for them at a gas station right off the exit of the highway to take them home. I’d known as soon as we'd came up on them that Hermes was going to make an example of Martin and the other two, as seven of his brothers had circled the three deserters once they'd pulled into the station.
Demon, Bull, and I had brought our bikes to a stop across the street and hung back, observing. We didn't want to get involved in club shit that didn't concern us, and if Hermes wasn't going to do what I thought he was, then the three of us were fucking outnumbered. Not good odds for coming out alive in a fight.
I’d glanced at Demon. "How are relations between the Desert Devils and Sacramento Reapers?"
He’d shrugged. "We don't have one, brother. We keep to our own territories."
It was then that Hermes had acknowledged that we were there. "You brothers have a beef with these three?" he’d called out from across the street.
"They took my woman," I’d replied back. "We've been following them from Boulder City. Got my woman back, but we want to make sure they don't try anything again."
Hermes, who was a big rotund man, had sat on his huge hog with his arms crossed, as if contemplating my words. He’d run his beefy hand over the lower half of his whiskered jaw. "You're invited to come along then. See what the Sacramento Reapers do to brothers who don't follow the rules."
I’d exchanged a look with Demon, who’d shrugged with an expression that seemed to say, why the fuck not?
"We'll take you up on that," I’d answered. I’d wanted to see for myself how badly Hermes was going to make an example of Martin and the other two, and if I'd still need to take care of them in the end. No way in fucking hell was I going back to Bailey as long as Martin was still a threat to her.
Furious (Nomad Outlaws Trilogy Book 3) Page 26