Chaos Bound (8 page)

“You can trust me, darlin’,” he said, as if reading her thoughts. “The last thing I would ever do is hurt you.”

Clearly, some part of her did trust him, or she would have stayed in the truck with Lucky Larry to the next town instead of agreeing to share the motel room with a strange biker. And it wasn’t like she’d be trapped here all night with him, the way she’d been trapped with Viper. The door was locked from the inside. The walls were paper thin, and the parking lot was almost full, which meant there were people who could hear—civilians who wouldn’t ignore her screams the way the Jacks had done when Viper took her on his office desk.

Not only that. Ally was on her way with Maurice and Doug. And although Doug was a marshmallow, he was a cop, a big guy, and more than able to hold his own in a fight.

“Okay. But you have to put on the sweatpants. I’ve taken off the bedspread to protect us from germs, but we’ll need to put towels over the pillows and check for bedbugs, too. I got you some socks. You should wear them to walk on the floor, but take them off before you get into bed.”

“Bedbugs?” Holt pushed himself up, laughing. “The things that were crawling around that dungeon…”

“Don’t.” She held up her hands in warning. “I don’t need to know.”

While Holt ate the leftovers she’d managed to procure from the motel restaurant, Naiya covered the pillows and checked the sheets all under Holt’s bemused gaze. She joined him at the table for a snack, and then went to the bathroom to change.

“Where’s your sweatpants?” Holt, already in bed, glared as she hung her clothes up in the closet. She’d thrown on the biggest of the Bolton Beaver T-shirts and it fell to her mid-thigh, enough to cover what she didn’t want to be seen.

“They didn’t have any my size.”

“So I gotta lie here beside you while you’re wearing a shirt that says Beaver Country and nothing else but a pair of panties, after being alone in a dungeon for three months?” He cocked his head to the side. “You are wearing panties, aren’t you?”

“None of your business. And if it’s a problem, we can go with plan number two, which is Naiya sleeps on the floor.” She reached over and turned off the light, her body freezing until she reminded herself she’d left the bathroom light on. “That’s probably better because I don’t want to hurt you.”

Holt rolled to his side, propping his head up with his elbow. “Yeah, I’m hurting. But I know you’re hurting, too. You buried your momma, got slapped around, kidnapped, and now you’re on the run after escaping Viper’s dungeon. So come lie beside me and let me hold you and we’ll hurt together.”

Emotion welled up in her throat, and for a moment she couldn’t speak. She’d locked the day away so she could focus on doing what it took to survive. Holt’s words and his gentle tone threatened to open a door to feelings she couldn’t analyze or understand. Feelings and emotions that scared her. “People don’t hurt together. They hurt alone.”

“Naiya.” His deep voice rumbled through her. “I’ve been alone a long time. Lie with me.”

Her breath left her in a rush, his command as much a permission to put aside her fears, as it was an invitation to share her burden, and behind it a plea. He needed her.

No one had ever needed her before. She lay down beside him, her head on his shoulder, keeping her body rigid in case she hurt him. With an irritated huff, Holt pulled her close until her body pressed tight against him.

“I’m sorry about your mom,” he said softly. “I lost my sister. I lost lots of brothers. I know how it hurts. You lose your dad, too?”

His words. His touch. His warm embrace. She almost unraveled right then. “I never knew him. And now that my mom is dead, I’ll never know who he is. I used to pretend he didn’t know about me, but that if he did, he would have taken me away and protected me.” She held up her left hand, showing him her ring. “All I have is this. My mother said he came to see me at the hospital the night I was born, and left it for me. It’s the Phantom’s ring. Do you know who he is?”

“Comic book hero.” Holt chuckled. “You like comic books?”

“Yeah.” She buried her face in his shoulder so he couldn’t see her blush. “That’s my geek side showing again.”

“Like the geek side,” Holt said. “We got a geek at the clubhouse. Hacker. Big into computers. He went to university and has a bunch of degrees, but he’s pretty laid back and doesn’t make a big deal about it. The rest of us, except Dax, don’t have much education. Some finished high school or did a few college courses. Not me. Wound up in juvenile detention when I was sixteen and when I got out, I left town, and went on the road. Found the Sinners.”

“I left town when I was fifteen, too.” And only after her grandmother’s priest had saved her from going through with her plan to shoot Viper by way of revenge. But that wasn’t a story she shared with anyone. Not even Ally. She’d hit rock bottom that night. Lost to herself. Betrayed by her mother. Nowhere to go. No one to turn to. She’d bought the gun. Walked through town. And only a chance encounter with Father Doyle had saved her from a lifetime of regret. In that moment, she realized how far she’d fallen. It was the only time in her life she had ever asked for help.

“Well then the geek and the biker have something in common.” He stroked a warm hand down her back, his touch soothing. “So tell me more about the Phantom. Does his ring have magical powers? Can it turn us invisible so we can just walk into the Black Jack clubhouse, take out Viper, and walk out again?”

Naiya smiled up at him. She rarely told anyone about the ring for fear they would make fun of her. But Holt seemed genuinely interested.

“He was a ghost with no superpowers so he defeated his foes using his intelligence. He wore two rings that could permanently mark everyone they touched. This one is the Good Mark, and people who touch it are under the Phantom’s protection and the mark gives good luck. On his right hand he wears the Skull Mark and people that receive it, usually with a punch, are branded a victim of his wrath and bad luck follows them around. I used to imagine he gave me the Good Mark to protect me. Not that it did any good. I’ve had to look after myself since my grandmother passed away.”

“Maybe it did,” he said. “You found me. I’ll protect you.”

“Not the Sinners?” She bit her lip and then forged ahead. “You aren’t going back to the club?”

“They fucking abandoned me.” Bitterness laced his tone, and his fist clenched against her side. “They left me to die in that shit hole. After I’ve offed Viper and as many of the Jacks as I can take out at once, I’m going back to make the Sinners pay. Just like I did when I was just a teenager. My parents fucking abandoned me and my sister so they could get high or drunk or whatever they needed to help them forget their shitty life. A street gang became my family. I took the fall for the president when it all went bad and wasted two years of my life in juvenile detention. When I got out, I found out the first thing the president did was go after my sister because I wasn’t there to protect her.”

“Oh, God, Holt. I’m so sorry.”

His voice caught, broke. “I had lots of time to plan while I was in Viper’s dungeon. I got a new mission in life. Revenge. It’s the only reason I survived as long as I did. It’s what I lived for. It’s all I want.”

Naiya placed a gentle hand over Holt’s heart. “I’m not the only one hurting inside.”

SIX

Bang. Bang. Bang.

Holt jerked awake, blinking in the semi-darkness, his heart pounding in his chest. How long had he been asleep? Usually he timed his sleep by the light coming through the bottom of the door. Daylight was safe because Viper was busy with club business. Night. Darkness. That was the dangerous time. He tried to stay awake at night so Viper wouldn’t take him by surprise. There was no light now, but there was something on his chest. Moving.

Rat.

Holt bolted up, brushing off his chest, his arm flinging to the side with enough force to smash the rat against the wall. After so many months, he had a system in place and a pile of decaying rodents in the corner of the dungeon as a measure of his success.

Except this time his hand met with flesh, not fur. And the rodent screamed.

Damn. Still alive. He rolled to the side, his hands outstretched to catch it.

Bang. Bang. Bang. Someone pounded on the door. Viper was here. The pain would begin again.

“Holt. No.”

He reached, grabbed something much bigger than a rat. Smooth. Soft.

Another scream. A sob. Shouting outside the door.

“Holt. Please. It’s me. Naiya.”

“Naiya.” A shriek came from outside. “Doug. Break it down.”

Holt froze. Beneath his palms he could feel the thud of a pulse. Water dripped on his hand.

No. Not water. Tears.

Naiya.

He ripped his hands away, rolled off the bed. Naiya curled up on the mattress, her hands around her neck. Sobbing.

“Fuck.” He reached for her across the bed as the door continued to shake. “I thought I was back in the dungeon … I didn’t know. Did I hurt you?”

“Door.” She pointed behind him, waving him away. “It’s my friend, Ally.”

Holt didn’t move. “I hurt you.”

“Please…” She swallowed, her voice soft, broken. “Open the door.”

He unlocked the door and pulled it open. A woman pushed past him and ran into the room, leaving him face to face with a man only an inch or two shorter than him, but with at least fifty pounds on him in weight.

“On the ground.” The dude pointed to the floor. “Hands behind your head.”

“What the fuck?” Holt folded his arms. “You some kind of cop?”

“He is a cop,” the woman—Ally—shouted. “So you’d better do what he says.”

“Where’s your uniform?”

“It’s okay, Doug.” Naiya said from the circle of Ally’s arms. “He didn’t mean to hurt me. He was half asleep.”

The cop stared at Holt and he stared right back, each of them assessing the other. Any other day, Holt would have been confident he could take the bastard down, but today—tonight—he might have to work at it.

“Doug. Stand down.” Naiya broke away from Ally, stepped between Holt and Doug. Even from where he stood, Holt could see the marks of his fingers around her neck. One more second and he would have choked her. He might be out of the dungeon, but it wasn’t out of him. Maybe it never would be.

How could he keep her close if he was a danger to her? And what the fuck had he been thinking putting this innocent girl back in Viper’s sights? But how else would he lure Viper and to exact his revenge? And how else could he keep Naiya safe?

Without thinking, Holt reached out and lightly stroked the marks on Naiya’s neck. She shuddered, and Ally slapped his hand away.

“Paws off, biker bastard.”

“Ally!”

“Look what he did to you,” Ally’s voice rose to a shriek. If not for the hulking presence of her man, Holt would have been tempted to gag the bitch. He’d never heard a woman shriek so loud.

“He thought he was in Viper’s dungeon,” Naiya said. “You’re a nurse. You know about trauma and psychological distress.”

“All I know is that a biker was strangling my best friend and if we hadn’t got here when we did, she’d be dead.”

Holt grabbed a shirt from the chair. “I’ll go wait outside till you’re packed up and ready to go.”

“No.” Naiya spun around to face him. “I asked them to come here to look after you. Ally’s a nurse, and Doug had medical training for his police work. Since you won’t go to a hospital, they’re the best you’re going to get.”

“I’m not—”

Naiya cupped his face with her hands and drew him down. “I’m okay. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me. I understand, Holt. I had a … traumatic event and I sometimes wake and think I’m still there. That’s why I sleep with the light on.”

Something shifted inside him as she held his gaze, clicking into place. Her hands felt right on him, her words resonated in his chest. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to wrap his arms around her and keep her safe.

But he kept his hands down and his desire at bay. “I’ll get another room.”

“You don’t need to do that. We’ll work it out.” She slid her hand through his and squeezed, a soothing gesture that would have amused him if he hadn’t found such comfort in her touch.

“So how about we start again,” she said. “This is Doug.” Naiya gestured to the cop. He had a round, smooth face and wide blue eyes framed by long blonde lashes. Christ. If he hadn’t been six feet tall, with a good-size belly, Holt would have sworn he was staring at a kid.

“And this is Ally.”

The short, curvy blonde with the bob and way too much makeup scowled. “Don’t look at Doug ’cause if you hurt my girl, it’ll be me coming for you.”

“And my boyfriend…” Naiya looked to the door, and her brow creased in a frown. “Didn’t Maurice come with you?”

Doug and Ally shared a glance and then Ally paled. “Um … he couldn’t make it, but he was relieved we were coming out. Maybe we can talk about it later.”

Holt didn’t like the look Doug and Ally shared, or the pain that flitted across Naiya’s face. Who was this loser of a boyfriend who didn’t come out the second he heard his woman was in danger? And why would he have let her go to Devil’s Hills alone if he knew Viper wanted her? The dude was a fucking moron and needed some sense pounded into him. Too bad he didn’t have the balls to show because Holt was of a mind to teach him what it meant to be a man.

“Appreciated, but I’m good.” He grabbed his shirt. “I’m glad she’s got friends to take care of her. Keep her outta sight for the next week. If you give me a number, I’ll text when it’s safe again.”

“You won’t last a week if those wounds aren’t treated.” Ally gestured to his chest. “I might be pissed, but I made a promise to Naiya I’d look after you and I will. So on the bed, biker boy. Lose the sweats. Find a towel. And assume the position.” She looked over at Doug, now sprawled in a chair. “I need my bag, babe.

Doug jumped up like the chair was on fire, and lumbered out the door. “Back in five.”

Holt fixed the crazy bitch with a stare. Hard enough to accept her help, but no fucking way was he letting a chick boss him around. Either Doug had been born without balls or she’d stolen them from him when he was asleep.