God… let me see her again, please, if you’re real at all, you owe me this.
Fear and desperation had me yanking my arms once again, harder this time. I grunted as the chains dug into my wrist and burned my skin, but the pain was nothing in comparison to what it’d be like if she hadn’t made it.
My adrenaline rushed fierce as the image of her being tied up like me flashed through my head. I needed to get up. Get out of here. But when I tried to stand, my knees gave way, too weak to keep me upright.
My stomach churned. Good Christ, I was gonna hurl.
And I did, turning to the left and puking all over.
I groaned, falling to my ass once more. It was as if I’d been drugged.
Sweat coated my temples now. I tipped my head to the side, trying to dry them with my shoulder. My vision blurred in and out of focus even more under the bright lights, and I blinked, struggling to see.
That’s when the door opened, and a familiar voice sounded ahead. “You look like shit.”
I froze, lifting my head just in time to see the last man I’d ever imagine being there.
“Chop?”
He moved closer and crouched down in front of me, elbows on his knees. “Out of all the brothers, I should’ve known you’d be the one.” His lip curled. I knew right away what his issue was with me. Emily. “But I didn’t think she’d be stupid enough to let you into her panties, that’s the thing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” It was a lie, a lie to protect Emily in case he’d somehow gotten her too. Because if I told him how I was really feeling about her, how we’d spent last night in that barn, fucking like there was no tomorrow, then who knew what kind of psychopathic rampage he’d go on?
“She was mine, did you know that? I was gonna make a claim. She was going to be my old lady.” Veins bulged out by his eyes, eyes that were red and menacing. Nothing like the smart brother I’d gotten to know over the last year, the techy nerd of the club. “We could’ve been fucking amazing together. Then your ass had to step in and take her away from me.”
“She never wanted you, asshole,” I hissed, nails digging into my palms. “You pressured her. You hurt her.”
He shook his head and stood. “Because she wouldn’t listen. I had to make her listen. Control her. Show her who the is the king.”
Psycho bastard. “She never wanted you. Ever. You put your filthy hands on her and—”
“Lies.” He took a step back. “All of you are liars just like he warned me.”
I stiffened. “Who the fuck are you talking about?”
He didn’t answer, just started pacing, raging, words coming out like vomit. “You bang Summer and Maya too? You guys pass those women around like a buffet?” He stopped in front of me again, hovering. “You’re all pieces of shit.” Then he spit in my face. “I should’ve gone in that caboose and shot a bullet through your skull like I wanted to. But noooo,” he whined. “You’re the bait we need to end this feud once and for all.”
I blinked, wetness pooling down my forehead from his saliva. I couldn’t stop to care was the thing, not when my mind was running wild with all the shit he’d just said.
That had been Chop’s cut.
Chop had been the one to fuck with my bike.
And now he was using me as bait.
Chop was a rogue. An RD traitor.
“Who are you working with?” I snarled, already knowing the answer. Pops.
“You’ll find out soon enough.” He sneered.
My tongue grew thick and dry. “Where is she? Where’s Emily?”
He smirked at the mention of her. “You don’t gotta worry about her now, she’s safe.” Then he held a finger up and said, “Actually, you made my job a hell of a lot easier by getting her here too, so thanks for that.”
“Leave her… the fuck… alone,” I managed, somehow getting to my feet, only to fall back against the wall.
“I mean, you can’t blame me for this, can ya?” He rubbed a finger over his mouth. “I’ve wanted between her legs for months now, but she’d never spread them for me. Now that she knows you’re here, I’ll bet she’ll do anything I want just to see you set free.”
“Don’t… touch her..” I groaned as a shot of pain ran through my temples, almost blinding me. Chop blurred in and out of focus again, but I knew he was moving closer. I could practically feel his hot breath against my face as he spoke.
“I’ll touch her if I want to touch her.”
Without thinking, I jerked forward and headbutted him. Blood started pouring down between my brows, which didn’t help with my dizziness, but who the fuck cared? I’d kill him before he ever got his hands on her again.
“You motherfucker.” He leaped at me, grabbed the back of my hair. After yanking a handful out, he slammed me onto the floor, face down.
I barely blinked when my forehead collided with the floor, but my focus was shot to shit regardless, and when I turned my head to look at him, he was two people, not one.
Not willing to give up, I growled again, slurring when I tried to speak, but couldn’t. Instead, blood and sweat dripped over my lips as the cold cement floor rubbed my cheek nearly raw.
“I was gonna be nice. Beg for mercy for you.” He stuck his knee into my lower back, digging it in. “Not now though.” Then he stood up and kicked my ribs with the toe of his boot.
Once. Twice. Three times.
I grunted, agonizing pain shooting up my body, into my back, my stomach, even my chest. Chop stood tall and moved away, laughing, just in time for the door behind him to open. Somehow, I could see enough to notice the new person, more so his black boots thudding against the floor as they stopped just inches in front of my face.
When the new guy crouched down, it took only the scent of him to know who it was. The smell of his mint Skoal. Just to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating, which I could’ve been, I re-opened my eye, seeing the dark face of my best friend Hawk… only with thirty or so years on him. Black hair to his shoulders. Dark eyes, pale cheeks tinged with red…
Pops.
I knew it. I fucking knew it.
Bile formed in my throat. I lifted my head enough to dry heave on his boots. This man had killed so many, ruined lives, including my father’s.
“It’s been a while, Benedict,” Charles Lattimore mumbled down at me, a hint of humor in his words. “You’ve looked better, that’s for damn sure.”
I wasn’t sure who I hated more right then: the man who’d hurt my woman, or the man who’d been a part of giving her life. Either way, I vowed right then that I would kill them both… or die trying.
I curled my lip, trying to mumble those words, but nothing came out.
Something I managed must’ve pissed the guy off because Pops grabbed my throat a second later and squeezed with one hand. I didn’t even have the energy to push him away. My arms were too numb, body practically limp.
“Fight me, boy.” He squeezed tighter, and I shut my eyes, relaxing, imagining Emily.
Her lips. Her body. Her smile. Her laugh.
“Fight me!” Pops yelled louder, my vision going black, then brightening, then black again.
Time went by—minutes, seconds, hours—and somehow, throughout it all, I stayed conscious, even though I couldn’t breathe. Pretty sure my jaw was broken, my nose too. I couldn’t feel shit in my arms, and all my ribs were practically bursting from my gut. But somehow, when he shoved my head back against the wall and got down in my face even further, I looked that motherfucker in the eye. And I smiled.
“Crazy son of a bitch,” he said. “I warned that man.” Pops let go of my hair, or what was left of it, but continued to hover. “He made you all weak, especially my son. And look at you… All pussy-whipped for my slutty little kid.”
I spat in his face, like Chop had done mine. Nobody said shit about Emily.
The door opened a minute later, then I heard Chop say, “She’s on her way.”
Pops held my gaze, a hidden message ther
e. He wanted secrets. He thought I’d crack. He thought a little shit-kicking would break me to the point where I’d give up my club.
Well, too bad for him I wasn’t a snitch.
I’d die before I ever let anything happen to my brothers.
More feet moved around the room. I had to shut my eyes, though, because I needed sleep. Or I was passing out. I didn’t know. Didn’t care.
“Charles?” a woman’s voice rang out. Like bells. The bells back home at the church. Not in Rockford. In Ireland.
“What’s going on in here?” she asked.
My bottom lip started shaking. I was hallucinating, that had to be it. Because I swear, I knew that voice.
I tried to open my eyes. Tried to blink. Tried to see if it was real or just my mind playing tricks on me. Blood poured over my lids, my mouth, out my nose. I was losing a lot of it. But I had to know.
“A leanbh?” she whispered the old Gaelic words. Words I’d heard countless times as a kid.
No fucking way.
Twenty-Two
Emily
I refused to look at her. Refused to speak to her. I couldn’t. Not after what she’d just said to me.
I love Charles.
I had to get him away from Flick and those men.
If I hadn’t, he would’ve been killed, and he’s a good man who deserves so much more than what he’s been given.
I didn’t want to hurt you though. That’s the last thing I ever wanted to do.
I sat back in the hospital bed, shaking my head in both disbelief and disgust. Mom was a good actress. But even this was above her abilities. That was how I knew she was telling me the truth.
I’d thought she was in danger when I’d read her letters, that she’d been taken and that if I found her, I could help her escape. But I’d been wrong. She had chosen him over the club. Over her own daughter and son. Which meant my biggest fears were coming true. The one thing that had niggled at the back of my mind since the day she’d run away.
I was too angry to care now though. Too worried about Archer and where he might be to raise hell. Because if there was even the slightest chance that he was still alive, he too would be with Pops—wherever Pops was. If I wanted to get him out of there, if I ever wanted to see him again, then I needed to cooperate as best as I could.
My one saving grace was knowing that Niyol and the rest of the Red Dragons were likely on their way here.
A face peered into the room from the hall then, the leather on his jacket crinkling as he moved. His hair was a bright-red color, and his eyes were an even brighter green, achingly familiar. He was tall and thin, with a square jaw. Model-worthy, but so young still, with that boyish face, red cheeks.
The second he pulled a hat from his back pocket and tugged it on over his messy hair, I couldn’t help but gasp.
Oh my God. I knew him. This was the person who’d been on my front porch the other night. The person who’d hand-delivered my last letter from Mom, then started the fire.
Curiosity lit his face as he studied me for a moment, and I could tell from the gentleness in his gaze that he wasn’t a killing machine. Not one of Pops’s rogues either. Still, if he knew my mom, then I had a feeling he was part of the rogues now under Pops’s command.
“Please, Emily. Just talk to me,” Mom continued, drawing my attention away. “I’m here now, which means we can finally be together as a family. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? You, me, your da—”
“He’s not, nor will he ever be, my father.” I looked to the window and sucked in my cheeks, refusing to let myself lose control. Deep down, though, I was raging, thinking back to a time when things between me and Mom had been simple and real.
“You don’t even know him. Please, Emily, don’t push him away before giving him a chance. Not this time.” She took a heavy breath, continuing to string her web of lies.
“No. You can’t ask me that, Mother.”
“Please.” She took my hands in hers. “Don’t be angry at me, honey. You know what it’s like to love someone that much, don’t you? Isn’t that how it was for you and Sam?”
I blinked, taken aback by where my mind went.
An Irish accent, strong masculine fingers. I could almost feel him naked against me, sliding inside of my body in that barn last night…
God, could he make me laugh too. Even if he had a tendency to anger me, there was nobody who could drive my emotions wild like Archer Benedict.
“Emily?”
Tears built in my eyes. Please, Archer. You have to be okay. Wherever he was, I just hoped he was safe, that Slade or my brother would come for him, find him, help him. That their army was rallying and, together, the Red Dragons would take Pops down once and for all.
When Mom quieted, I grew braver, needing to find out if she knew where Archer might be. “There was someone with me. We got separated in the water. Is he…?” I swallowed hard, tears forming in my eyes. “Is he okay? Is he here?”
I wasn’t selfish enough to ask for a chance at happiness or survival myself. Not when everything was so messed up—when I’d been so dumb. I’d put Archer at risk by coming here and now I wanted him to be okay. Needed him to be, was more like it.
“Archer, you mean?” my mom asked, her eyes narrowing a little.
I forgot she knew who he was. “Y-yes. He brought me here so I could find you.”
Her face softened, and she set her coffee down to come closer to my bed. “Honey, Archer’s fine. He’s with Charles now. He’ll take care of him. Charles always takes care of his men.”
“That man is a murderer!” I hissed. “How could you side with him?”
“It has always been unintentional,” she whispered, “and always for the boys in the club too.” Movement near the door caught my eye as my messenger slipped inside. His eyes narrowed between us, likely because of the noise. Not once did he smile or speak. Instead, his face was stoic and serious, making him look way beyond his young years.
“Most of the boys Charles has recruited are so young and sweet. Just like this young man here.” Mom stood and approached the quiet teenager.
“Yeah, I doubt that.” I snort-laughed. “Are you even aware of how much terror and destruction that man you claim to love has caused since you left?” I continued. “People have died because of him, Mother. Maya and Slade were both nearly killed, and Archer’s…”
My throat closed off. A choked sob built up in it. I didn’t want to cry. I wanted to be brave. But my worry for Archer consumed me.
“Hush now,” Mom cooed as she sat down beside me on the bed. “Everything’s going to be okay. I promise you.”
Pops had so obviously brainwashed her—turned her into this shell of a woman that she was now. It was too much to take—and we’d only just been reunited.
I sat up in the bed and hit the nurse’s call button. “I need to go. Can you take me to him? To Archer?”
Mom frowned. “Honey, that’s not really possible right now. But soon. I promise you’ll see him.”
“No. I want to see him now.” I shook my head. “I need to be released,” I told the woman over the speaker. “I’m fine and now I’d like to go.”
My hands shook as I reached for my IV and yanked it out. Blood squirted over me, dripping down my arm, but I didn’t care. The longer I stayed here, the more danger Archer could be in.
“Emily, stop. You’re going to hurt yourself. Why are you so upset?”
“Because I need to see Archer!”
Mom grabbed my arm, yanking it away when I reached for my sack of clothing on the floor. “No. What you need to do is calm down.”
I shoved her back against the bed, wired and angry. “I won’t calm down until I see him alive with my own eyes, so take me to wherever he is. Right now.”
The boy moved closer, hesitant. If he was supposed to be some sort of bodyguard for my mom, then he sucked at it.
“Angel, it’s okay,” Mom said, holding a hand up to stop him.
I whipped my head toward
the boy, scowling. “Your name is Angel?”
Mom set her hand on my forearm. “It is, sweetie.”
I shoved her away, and she immediately cringed. Good.
“Angel,” she continued, her gaze never leaving my face, “can you grab the rest of Emily’s things for her? We’ll be leaving now.”
My knees grew weak at the thought of going with her—to where she and Pops were staying. Even if she hadn’t been lying, I’d been stupid to think I could get her away from Pops at all. Archer had been right yet again on that one. Why hadn’t I listened? Why had I thought I’d ever be able to do this? Be a hero, find my old life, then run with it like nothing had changed since before she left?
“I’m so stupid,” I whispered under my breath, taking a seat again.
Mom sat on the bed beside me, wrapping my arm up with a towel to stave off the bleeding. “You’re not stupid.” She sighed. “You’re just naive.”
I blinked. “Naive? Really?”
“You don’t understand the club and its name. What it means. Did you know that your father was one of the Red Dragons’ original founders?”
“No.” And I didn’t care either.
Mom squeezed my arm. “You don’t understand what it’s like for him. He lost everything.”
“It’s not just our lives we need to protect anymore, Mother. Summer is pregnant, damn it!” I blurted out.
I looked up, wincing the second I saw Mom’s tear-filled gaze widen. She covered her mouth, blinking through her tears.
“Summer is pregnant?”
“Yes. She and Niyol are going to be parents.” And I might never see my niece or nephew. Or my best friend again. I shut my eyes, fighting another wave of tears.
Mom latched her hand around my wrist again, squeezing. This time when I looked back at her, I saw a smile touching her lips. I held my breath, praying the old mom was in there, that she cared enough to at least try and leave with me. Or help me get Archer free, even.
“I’m really going to be a grandma?”
“You are.” Come back to me, Mom. Please, come back.
She took my hand in hers, sniffling. Her dark hair, when I looked down between us, was almost as long as mine now, peppered with gray streaks that hadn’t been there last summer.
Her Hot Ride: A gripping and sexy biker mc romantic suspense novel Page 18