Her Hot Ride: A gripping and sexy biker mc romantic suspense novel Page 5

  Voices grew louder from outside my window. I stiffened and held my breath until they passed. I was running out of time and I needed to go, stat. So, I folded the paper and put it on my bed, knowing she’d be over tomorrow to grab the blanket I’d borrowed. Then I got to work gathering my stuff.

  Driving a car out of here wasn’t smart. Someone would surely see me. Which meant I’d have to leave by foot, walk into town, maybe get a Greyhound ticket or something. A plane ticket would be smarter and quicker, but I needed to save all the money I had for as long as I could.

  Once my bag was zipped and ready, I shut off the lights and walked into my living room. There, I stood for a long minute and looked around, marveling at the tiny home I’d made. When I inhaled, it smelled like the homemade chicken soup I’d cooked yesterday afternoon for lunch. As much as I hated to admit it, there was something about this place that I’d miss—though I’d never miss the land it sat upon.

  “No regrets,” I told myself, grabbing my purse then heading toward the front door. When I peered outside, the first thing I noticed was the lack of men out front. But the noise was loud in the back, which proved they were still by the fire. They wouldn’t stay put long. I needed to go, now.

  Pushing the door open, I slowly tiptoed outside, holding my breath as I took each creaky porch step down. I looked to my left, noting a light on in Summer and Niyol’s house. My best friend’s Range Rover wasn’t there, but Niyol’s bike was. Inside, I could just barely hear the sound of Biker’s yipping over the roar of the men out back.

  I said a silent goodbye to the pup and snuck to my right, keeping to the dark shadows as I crept through the trees that lined the side of the house. Branches crackled under my feet with every step, and things scurried in the trees. Regardless, I was thankful for the privacy my brother had insisted on keeping when it came to building these two little homes on the compound. Without the woods, my escape wouldn’t be possible.

  I stayed close to the fence on my right, but not so close I could be seen by anyone who might be along the other side of it. If someone saw me here, they’d shoot at me on sight, thinking I was someone who’d snuck through their gates, meaning harm. How that man had made it through the gates to get to my home without being seen wasn’t something I could wrap my head around. No matter, gifts were not meant to be ignored.

  I kept going, pushing the fear in my belly aside as I made it further and further away from the fire and my home, and closer to the clubhouse. I’d have to pass the main building then sneak in behind their garages in order to get to the back of the compound. There was a small hole in the fence back there, big enough for my short self to sneak through.

  Voices sounded to my left—one voice of a man more specifically.

  An Irishman.

  “What do you mean the cameras are all disabled? Chop said he’d tested them out last week.”

  I cringed at the anger in Archer’s voice. When he was angry, his accent grew thicker, almost incomprehensible. And right now I could just barely make out his words.

  “Yeah, well, you better get that shit put back together, otherwise there’ll be hell to pay.”

  His voice was more like a frustrated growl as he hung up the phone. I was pretty sure I was half the reason for his temper tonight. Not that it mattered; I’d be gone soon enough. Which meant he’d be out of my life too—good thing. I didn’t deal well with men who thought their opinions and needs were superior to my own; Archer, for all his supposed good intentions, drove me insane.

  Moving wasn’t an option with him so close, so I stayed still, watching him through the dark shadows. His phone beeped in his hands, and I could see his head bow as he looked at the screen.

  “Motherfucker,” he muttered under his breath. Seconds later, he shoved the phone into his pocket then leaned his head back, hands running through his wavy, blond hair. God, he was tall. The tallest man on this compound. So tall that if he turned even a little bit, he’d easily see through the gap in the trees and likely notice me standing here.

  I held my breath, waiting, waiting, waiting some more…

  “Flick!” he yelled, moving forward. “We got problems.”

  And then he was gone, footsteps trudging as he headed toward his club.

  That’s when I made my escape.

  Behind the garage, crawling through the tall grass toward the other side, things bit my hands, my neck too, proof that my cardigan couldn’t keep the bugs away. Still, I did what I needed to, eyes widening in relief when I realized there was nobody hovering in the back. Someone upstairs was looking out for me.

  Still crawling, my bag heavy and weighing me down, I rushed to the hole in the fence, nudging my bag through first then crawling out like a dog.

  Seconds later, I was on the other side. Free. And ready to get the hell out of this place for good.

  Five

  Archer

  I hadn’t slept in twenty-four hours. None of my brothers had. And the tension around the table in Church was thick with impatience. We were all pissed off and had nowhere to direct it but at each other.

  “Why was she out that late? That’s all I’m fucking asking.” Crazy looked to Hawk, then me. “I don’t trust that woman. None of you idiots do.”

  “She fucking lives there,” I murmured, knowing the exact reason why Emily had been outside. She’d been running from my ass, escaping out my window. Yeah, it looked bad that the car had caught fire when she’d been outside. But the woman wasn’t capable of lighting up some dynamite and then getting back inside without nobody seeing her. If the goddamn cameras had been functioning, then this wouldn’t be an issue.

  “You accusing my sister of something, asshole?” Hawk pushed away from his seat, snarling. “Because you better think twice about anything else you say from here on out. She’s not a fucking prisoner. She has rights. And if she wanted to walk outside at fucking midnight on a Wednesday, then who the hell cares?”

  “Knock it off, Hawk.” Flick laid his head back and scrubbed his hands over his face. The guy looked like shit, even worse than he had the night before.

  “I’ll knock it off when your boy here quits accusing Emily of—”

  “Shut up,” I growled at my best friend, then I looked toward Crazy as I said, “And you.” I shook my head. “Jesus Christ, man, you’re off your rocker. No way she’d be capable of blowing up that damn car. Nor does she have a reason to.” I curled my lip then refocused on the rest of the brothers in Church: Flick, Mute, Talker, Slade, Hawk, then finally Chop. “You all know who was behind this,” I snapped. “Don’t pretend like you don’t.”

  The room went quiet. Everyone bowed their heads, including Hawk. Of all the brothers, how could he be so stupid? Unlike the rest of them, I leaned forward onto the table with my elbows as I spoke, sure as shit not ready to let this go. “We need to make a move, now. Because if we don’t, then we’ll lose them again. They’re likely close by. Hell, maybe they’re here to stay, readying a full-scale attack. Either way, it’s time we do something about it.”

  Pops wasn’t dumb enough to stay too close after such a stupid attack like that. One that didn’t make sense at all. Blow up a damn car outside the gates—what was the point?

  “I’m with Archer. We need a plan.” Slade was the only voice of reason at the table. “I’m not sitting around and waiting for more bad shit to happen anymore.” He looked to Hawk. “What if that damn car drove through the gate and hit your fucking house when Summer and your unborn kid had been inside, sleeping? You ever think about that?”

  Hawk’s jaw grew taut, but he stayed wordless because he knew it was true.

  Slade kept at it though, the only other brother at the table ready for retaliation like me. “We’ve been sitting ducks for too long. It’s time to hunt. Last night was obviously a warning. It’s time we take action.”

  I nodded, sharing a look with Slade. “Agreed.” Then I eyed the room, meeting each of my brothers’ gazes from across the table once more. A collective sigh soun
ded, and I felt us uniting. It’d been a long, long time since that had happened, and I prayed to fucking God that it was just the beginning, especially with Flick back.

  “I’m all for taking Pops down, but we got no credible leads,” Flick spoke up, folding his hands behind his head. “And we don’t got the manpower to make it happen either.”

  “I sent a few guys out on a run an hour or so ago to see if there’s been any movement close by,” Slade said.

  Flick shook his head, disagreeing. “Thing is, we ain’t got nothing concrete. Which is exactly why we need to wait a little longer.”

  “There wasn’t nothing with the car? No notes or anything like that?” Chop asked, the first thing he’d said all of Church.

  Motherfucker needed to stand down. Already, I was seconds from telling Hawk what he’d done to Emily. He may have been Flick’s favorite, but that didn’t mean we couldn’t make him quietly disappear one night.

  Chop’s eyes shot my way, almost like he’d heard my thoughts. I grinned, tapping my pointer fingers together. Maybe I’d sick some rabid animals on him instead. Shove him into a den of wolves so they could chew him to bits.

  Scowling, he looked away, squirming a little in his seat.

  That’s right, asshole. You better watch yourself.

  “I don’t get it,” Talker jumped in. “Why the fuck did our security system catch no one? The cameras we got are everywhere. We should be able to see who drove the car.”

  My eyes narrowed even more at Chop. He was in charge of that shit. Yet…

  “Wires were cut.” He scowled at Talker then looked to Flick, avoiding me.

  “Boy’s right.” Flick nodded. “Saw it with my own eyes.”

  “From the inside?” Talker leaned back in his chair, rubbing at his bare chin. Kid couldn’t grow a lick of fucking hair on his skinny little face if he tried.

  “Yeah,” Chop said, nodding. “Which means it could’ve been anyone here.” A shrug. “Maybe Emily even.”

  “You motherfucker.” Hawk was up and out of his chair before I could blink. Seconds later, he had Chop on the ground beneath him, hands around his throat. Nobody stopped him when his fist flew into Chop’s eyes. Probably because we all felt the same way about the pretty-boy suck-ass. I grinned, sure as hell in no rush to stop him myself. Hawk didn’t even have a clue what Chop had done to his sister. If he knew, he’d murder him before I did.

  “Enough.” Flick shoved his chair away from the table and stood. “You assholes are eating at my brains, and I didn’t get enough pussy last night to deal with this shit.” Then he grabbed the back of Hawk’s shirt and tossed him as if he weighed nothing.

  “I’ve made the call.” Flick barked at us all then, taking a step closer to the door. “Wasn’t gonna tell nobody till they got here, but you’re all not making me feel too generous right now.”

  I frowned, leaning forward in my chair. “Made the call to who?”

  Flick looked to me. “Rodent’s sending some brothers from the Fallen Order at the end of the month. Once they’re here, we’ll start to figure out what to do next.”

  “Hell no.” I pushed away from the table and stood, eyes to Slade, whose face had gone pale.

  Rodent. The leader of the Fallen Order. The Texas club Flick had been staying with. They sold and traded young girls. We couldn’t trust them. And I didn’t want to either.

  “You don’t get an official say in this,” Flick said to me, stone-faced.

  Who in the hell was this man?

  “I sure as hell do. I’m VP.” My breathing grew ragged at the thought of those men being here, close to my family. “I told you before you left to go to that fucking place, and I’m telling you again, right now, in front of the brothers. We. Don’t. Need. Them.”

  “I’ve already made arrangements.” Flick stroked his beard, grabbed the door handle.

  “The hell you mean you’ve already made arrangements?” I rushed him at the door, jumping in front of him. He didn’t get to fucking leave like that. “They’re not even a brother club of ours.”

  “But they’ve got the bodies, the weapons, and the guts.” Flick shooed me away with his hand.

  “Gonna have to stand with Flick on this one,” Hawk jumped in from behind.

  I shot a look to my best friend over my shoulder; his narrowed eyes were glued to the table. “The hell, man? You want those assholes around Summer?”

  Before Hawk could say anything to that, Slade stood up, hands on his face, scrubbing hard. “Not fucking okay, Flick,” he mumbled, eyes squeezed shut when he pulled his hands from his face. I’d guess he was probably trying to get the image of those girls in cuffs out of his head like I’d been doing for months now. The Forsaken—an outlaw club located in Texas—had been trading them for drugs, and Slade and I had watched it all go down. We’d seen those girls in that club and, for fuck’s sake, Flick likely had too.

  Something was wrong with our pres for him to think this was the route we needed to go down. I’d known him going to Texas would mean something in the end, would even mess with his mind. And I was right. This proved it.

  “I’m done.” Flick shoved me aside, leaving the room, slamming the door shut behind him.

  I eyed Hawk from across the room; his gaze was on me. My oldest friend didn’t have a clue. None of these men did. But for Flick to know yet not think twice about it? I wasn’t sure he was the kind of man I wanted to stand behind after all.

  “Open up, JP. We gotta talk.” My mind was clouded. I needed a reprieve from Church, the shit that’d gone down, Flick’s declaration and walkout most of all. He’d never walked out like that before. Which meant he knew something, but didn’t have the balls to say what it was.

  I also wanted to make sure Chop left Emily alone today. Even if half the club didn’t trust her, I was still supposed to be tailing her.

  I didn’t have a monthly right now, and part of me knew fighting with Emily would get my adrenaline pumping.

  “Hey. Open the fucking door.” I pounded again with my fist. Maybe she wasn’t gonna answer like she’d done yesterday. She hated me. I tolerated her. Our interactions had been rare, up until recently. Now I couldn’t seem to stay away. Whatever the hell that meant, I wasn’t in the mood to figure it out.

  Her car was in the driveway. She wasn’t at Hawk’s place with Summer—I’d just seen the two of them leave in her Range Rover ten minutes ago.

  “Fuck this.” I grabbed the spare key in the light, shoved it in the door. Turned the handle too. “JP. What the hell are you doing in here, masturbating?” I frowned and took a few steps into the room. That would have been kind of fun to walk in on, honestly.

  But she wasn’t in the living room or the kitchen. The lights were off too. I listened for the shower but heard no water. Bedroom it was then. Only, her door was wide open. She wasn’t in there either. I looked around, thinking maybe she’d jump out of the closet, ready to karate-chop me in the balls for being here without her permission. But… she didn’t.

  I frowned, pulled my phone out to call Hawk, but something on her bed caught my eye.

  A sheet of paper folded into thirds, the name on the outside saying, Summer.

  Curious, I swiped it up, sat on her bed, unfolded it, and read the words.

  I shook my head, blinked. “What in the actual fuck?”

  Be on alert? The rogues are closer than we thought? I’m leaving? I’ll miss you?

  Red flashed behind my eyes. My upper lip curled. Holy shit. She’d run. She’d actually fucking run. Worst of all, her warnings to Summer made it seem like she’d been in contact with Pops? Probably her ma.

  I balled up the paper then flipped on the light switch, breathing heavily, nails digging into my palms. Was she behind last night’s ordeal after all?

  Goddammit, Emily. Breathing in through my nose, I tried to keep calm, rein in my thoughts, and give her the benefit of the doubt. First things first, I needed proof. Clues that she’d possibly stoop this low.

  Wher
e to start? Where to fucking start?

  Drawers.

  I pulled them out, not knowing what I was looking for. I tossed cotton bras and panties out first, fingers stroking the hems and straps as I did. Even pissed about the possibility that she might be a traitor, I couldn’t help but think of how she’d look in the simple things. They were damn plain, but they fit her. Every librarian inch of her.

  I hissed, slamming the drawers when I came up empty. Having no idea what I was even looking for, I ran to her closet next. I tossed shit out left and right: shoes, clothes, empty boxes… Still, nothing. Good Christ. The woman wasn’t that stupid. She’d be dead if anyone found out about this. Even Hawk might not come back from her betrayal.

  I left destruction in my wake, tearing through her house, more closets, her couch, cushions ripped apart… For a good, solid hour I wreaked havoc on her place. Only one more spot left to check: her kitchen. I’d known last night when I’d come over that something didn’t feel right. Got a read on her that I’d thought, later, had to do with Chop. But now I wasn’t sure what I fucking thought. I’d tie her to my bed, cuff her, hands above her head and…

  Shit. I’d enjoy that too much.

  The first place I looked in the kitchen were the drawers. Again, I wasn’t even sure what I was looking for at this point. Proof that my gut feeling was right? Maybe this was why she wanted to be bait? Because she knew things nobody else did and she felt like shit about it.

  I tossed towels, bottles, food, and junk like that out of her cupboard and fridge… coming up with nothing. Too many scenarios ran through my head, and by the time I got done ransacking shit, I was sure of only one thing: Emily had been keeping secrets. Just not the type of secrets I’d thought.

  The last place was under her kitchen sink. I crouched down in front of the open cupboard, ready to give up, call Hawk, tell him what I knew. Until I saw it. A fucking cookie jar.