Broken (Soldiers of Darkness MC Book 1) (9 page)

‘It wasn’t an option.’

‘So you came to me.’

She stares at me, and she doesn’t say anything for a few, long beats and I have no idea why she’s making me feel this way, but she’s scaring the living crap outta me. And giving me a hard-on I’m trying like hell to ignore.

‘I came to you.’

‘Why?’

‘I’ve already told you why. Your MC is close to where it all happened…’

‘But it didn’t happen in
my
town.’

‘I came to you, Mack.’

It’s like I’m talking to a freakin’ robot. She’s just closed down, shut off, and I don’t understand any of this. I don’t know how big a problem she’s really gonna be, and I don’t even know if sending her home is the answer now.

‘I send you home… even if I put you on that plane myself you’re just gonna keep coming back, aren’t you?’

‘Like a fucking boomerang.’

I’m on her in a flash, so quickly she couldn’t have seen it coming, but I’ve got her pinned against the wall now and she is gonna listen to me, even if it’s the last thing she fucking does. ‘No more games, Izzi. I’m done with the fucking games…’

The kick she gives to my stomach sends me reeling. The bitch has knocked every last fucking breath out of me.

‘You think this is a game? Huh?’

I manage to stand upright, clutching my stomach as I try to get my breath back, but I’m struggling. ‘Looks like your mystery man taught you well, baby girl.’

‘You don’t know the fucking half of it.’

I can’t stop the smirk playing at the corner of my mouth. I have never, in my entire life, come across a chick like this one. She is something else – hot, horny, tough. But she’s also unpredictable, and that worries me. ‘You’re ain’t gonna let this go, are you?’

She shakes her head, and I’m almost resigned to the fact that she’s a problem I might not want or need, but I’m gonna have to deal with it. I’ve got no choice.

‘I’ll track them down, no matter what. You’ve already given me a name, so, I’ll find them, and I’ll kill them myself. There’ll be no blood on your hands, I promise you. Nobody need know you gave me the information…’

‘You really think they won’t find out it was me? I’ve told you, Izzi, these men are dangerous. And I should know… Listen, sweetheart, you need to leave this alone. Seriously. You need to take a step back and think about this…’

‘You’re working with them, aren’t you?’

‘Jesus! Yeah, I’m working with them. And I’d rather have them on side, I don’t need the crazy fuckers as enemies. I’ve got enough of those as it is.’

‘Then it’s
you
I need to take a step back from. To protect you.’

I laugh, I can’t help it. ‘You want to
protect
me? Shit, Izzi, come on, darlin’… You make one move on them and they’ll trace everything back to me…’

‘Get out.’

Is she fucking kidding me?

‘Get out, Mack. You’re done here.’

Like hell I am. ‘You got some kinda death wish? ‘Cause I think you’re way too pretty to die.’

She fixes me with a look that makes my blood run cold.

I have no idea who this woman is.

I have no idea what she’s capable of.

But I ain’t done here. I can’t leave her to do this alone.

I can’t leave her. Period.

Chapter Nine

Izzi

‘I might have messed things up, Sam.’ I lean back against the wall and stare up at the dark night sky. Even though it’s been days since Mack Slayer fucked me, my thighs still ache, and my skin is bruised and cut from the rough sex. I’ve played that morning out in my mind over and over again, each time allowing it to turn me on to the point where I’ve had to finger-fuck myself to a satisfactory endgame while I cry out his name and wish it was his cock inside me instead of my own fingers. But we haven’t gone there again. We’re still circling each other like wary wild animals, both of us waiting for the other to do something we’re not happy about. I told him to stay away, but he’s ignoring my wishes. And there’s a part of me that’s glad he’s defying me. But everything’s so fucked-up right now, I’m feeling a little bit lost. And I can’t have that. I need to sort my head out and get back in the game.

‘Then put it right.’

‘How?’

‘Listen, Izzi, did I not teach you how to handle yourself?’

I close my eyes and breathe in deep. Sam taught me so much, but I might have gone a little off-plan now, and getting back on track might be tougher than I think.

‘He wants me to back off. For
his
safety as well as mine, and I can’t…’

‘And maybe he’s right.’

I pause for a second, because I can’t believe he just said that. ‘Are you fucking serious?’

‘You may be getting out of your depth here, Izzi. Do you want me to send…?’

‘No! Jesus, no. No, Sam. I can do this, OK?’

I hear him sigh down the line and I close my eyes again. ‘Get him back on side, Izzi. You need him, whether you like it or not. You need him. Remember what we taught you. You had him, OK? You had him. You can get him again.’

‘You really do want me to stay close to Mack Slayer, huh?’

‘It’s what we talked about. You knew what was needed.’

‘And you still expect me to…?’

‘Just do what you have to do, Izzi. Stick to the plan. Everything else, that’s up to me.’

‘And that’s all I get, is it?’

His silence answers that question.

I sigh and look back up at the sky, focusing on a cluster of tiny, twinkling stars.

‘Don’t take your eye off the ball, Izzi. Remember what I told you. You can do this, but you need to focus. I can only help you from a distance, for now. But you finding me, that was fate.’

‘You believe in fate?’

The voice on the other end of the line chuckles quietly, and I can’t help but smile.

‘I believe in a lot of things, sweetheart.’

I drop my gaze and stare down at the pavement, scuffing the heel of my boot against the wall behind me. ‘I’m so angry, Sam. The pain, it’s still so raw, and I can’t let go of the hate…’

‘And you shouldn’t. Once you let go of the hate you lose the strength. You lose everything.’

‘What if this really isn’t worth what the consequences could be?’

There’s another silence down the line that makes my stomach turn.

‘You know what you need to do, Izzi. But emotions, they cloud everything. So you need to focus, OK? Every second thought you’re experiencing, every tiny shred of doubt that creeps into your mind is to do with the way you’re feeling. So you need to focus on what happened to Aiden and your father. Remember that night, what you need to do in order for you to be able to move on. Do that, and everything will work out just the way you need it to.’

I pull out a packet of cigarettes from my pocket and light up. I never used to smoke. Aiden hated it, and once my dad managed to stop he became one of those people who thought of it as a nasty, dirty habit. But after their deaths I turned to everything I could to help me blot out the pain – alcohol, cigarettes, even drugs. Oh, nothing major – some cannabis, the odd snort of coke, anything that could help numb the pain, or take it away completely. Even if it was just for a few hours, I’d take it. They’re addictions I need. And now I’m worried I might have found another one.

‘I’m going to ask you a question, Izzi, and I want you to answer it honestly. No bullshit, no telling me what you think I want to hear because this isn’t about me. I don’t care whether you go through with this or not, it was my duty to train you, not force you to do anything you don’t want to do. So, just tell me, honestly – do you really want to see these people dead?’

I sink to the floor and throw my head back as I take a long, deep drag on my cigarette, blowing smoke up into the air. I picture Aiden’s smile, my dad’s beaming face as we told him we were engaged. I remember how happy I’d been; how ridiculously, unbelievably happy I’d been as I’d lain in bed the night before their senseless, timeless deaths, planning out our life. Kids’ names, garden designs, what color I wanted to paint the bedroom in our brand new house, I’d had it all planned. Until someone blew all that right of the water.

‘I want to see them dead. And
I
want to be the one who ends their pathetic, shit-filled lives.’

‘Then you know what you need to do.’

He ends the call and I sigh quietly, slipping my phone into the pocket of my short denim skirt.

‘You planning on staying out here all night?’

I look up, and he’s standing there, all tall and arrogant and sexy-as-hell. I hate him. I hate how he makes me feel; how he distracts me and frustrates me. I hate him.

‘You inviting me in?’

He shrugs, and all I can think of is his cock ramming its way into me from behind, and I want to feel that again, so bad I’m wet just thinking about it. And again, I hate him. He’s doing this to me and I can’t stop it. ‘It’s a free country, darlin’. I ain’t stopping you from coming inside.’

‘How’d you know I was out here?’ I pull myself to my feet, while he makes no attempt to do the gentlemanly thing and offer me any help.

‘I didn’t. I just came out here to get my cigarettes. Left ‘em on the bike.’

He jerks his head over to a line of Harley Davidsons all parked out front of the bar. ‘You telling me nobody in there had a cigarette they could offer you?’

He smiles, and again all I can think about is how he felt inside me. I want him there again, but I need to focus first. I need to get my head straight. ‘What can I say? They’re all selfish bastards.’

Our eyes lock for a couple of heady beats, and I know he wants me, too. I can see it. But I’m not here for that, not right now. Not until I know what I’m doing. And I really do have to focus, I have to think on my feet here. I need to begin a new and slightly revised plan, and keep my fingers crossed that Mack Slayer is a man who can be swayed by a pretty face and the promise of low-down dirty sex. I need to make him think I’ve had a change of heart. I need to make him think that he’s helping me in a whole other way now.

‘What’re you doing here, Izzi?’

‘I want a job.’

He laughs, as I knew he would. He won’t take me seriously, not at first, so I was ready for that reaction. But it might just work. If I keep at it. ‘You do know the kinda jobs we got on offer here, don’t you?’

‘I can take my clothes off and open my legs as good as anyone.’

He grins, and it’s obvious he still isn’t taking me seriously. ‘You don’t strike me as the stripper type, darlin’.’

‘You really shouldn’t assume.’

No. He really shouldn’t.

‘Do you wanna shut down that defensive shield you keep throwing up there, sweetheart?’

I hold his gaze, and I’m determined this is going to work now. Somehow. It has to. It’s all I have left. ‘I’ve made plans to go back home.’

He raises an eyebrow. ‘You have?’

He doesn’t believe me, and he has every reason to raise that suspicious eyebrow because I’m lying. I’m not going anywhere. But if he
thinks
I am, it might make everything that little bit easier.

‘If you’re going home…’ He leans back against the wall beside me and takes the cigarette I offer him, ‘why’d you want a job?’ He lights up and drags deep, blowing smoke down at the ground before he raises his gaze to look at me. ‘You ain’t even legal to work in this country.’

I almost laugh out loud at the irony. He gets it, and smiles. He has a really nice smile. It kind of changes his whole face.

‘You really want a job here? Taking it all off for horny biker bastards who ain’t afraid to tell you straight what they’d love to do to that achingly pretty pussy of yours?’

I shrug. ‘Why not?’

He stares right at me, and once again I remember how he felt inside me; his tongue, his cock, his hand…

‘Izzi?’

I snap back to reality. I’m making this up as I go along now and I don’t care. I feel like being reckless. ‘Girls walk in here every day asking for work, don’t they? Just think of me as one of them.’

He takes another deep drag on his cigarette and turns his head away from me. ‘You’re gong home, Izzi. So I still don’t get why you need a job, if you ain’t sticking around.’

‘Because I don’t want to go just yet.’

He faces me, and his expression is confused. He’s having a hard time believing any of this shit, and I’m not sure he actually does – believe it. ‘What about Viper’s crew?’

I try to keep my expression stoic. Whatever I do, I have to make sure he knows as little as possible. He can’t know. Not until it’s over; done. ‘I’m not going through with it.’

‘Just like that? You’ve changed your mind?’

‘Maybe I’ve realized I’m just not cut out for all that vigilante shit.’

‘Isn’t sticking around a bad idea then? You came here for a reason, but if you suddenly ain’t…’

‘I can leave, straightaway, if you like. I can bring my flight forward, I just thought you might want to hang out some more…’ I move in front of him and run my fingers over his rough chin, pushing my tits right up against him, ‘before I go.’

He smirks. Mack Slayer as the world knows him is back. ‘I don’t do any woman twice, darlin’.’

‘You will.’ I lean forward to kiss him, slowly, pushing my tongue inside his mouth and he puts up no fight. He wants me, I can feel his cock rammed hard against my thigh, so I know. He wants me. ‘You will.’

I smile as I pull away and head inside. He’s going to follow me. And I know what’s going to happen when he does…

Mack

She’s fucking right. I knew it the second I went down on her, and she knew it, too. She’s making me break my own rules and I don’t care. I just gotta be careful, y’know? I got a reputation to keep up.

And as for this shit she’s feeding me about changing her plans and forgetting all about her fucked-up retribution, I ain’t buying that. I looked into her eyes, I saw that anger; that fire. You don’t let go of that overnight, you can’t. So, yeah, I’m gonna give her a job in
Laney’s
; keep her right here under my nose. I’m gonna watch her like a fucking hawk and while I’m doing that I’m gonna grab every perk I can. She’s the girl who’s making me go back for seconds. I gotta see if she’s worth it.

‘I ain’t just
giving
you this job, y’know.’