Rescue Me (Demon Riders MC #1) (8 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Before the sky is even light, Elyse slips out of bed, careful not to wake Dane. She’d been staring up at the ceiling for hours, her sense of guilt making it impossible for her to sleep. She slips on a t-shirt of his that he’d left one day and she’d taken to wearing it. It smelled of him and never failed to comfort her. She heads to the kitchen and pours herself a glass of water, formulating the words that she needs to say in her mind. She knows that she can’t let another opportunity pass her by; it isn’t fair to him. As soon as Dane wakes up she is going to tell him, and she isn’t going to let herself take the easy way out.

She tiptoes back into her bedroom and it takes her a few moments to realize that the bed is empty. The light by her desk in the corner is on and Dane is standing next to it, his jeans unbuttoned as he stares at something. He must hear her come up behind him. He turns around slowly, holding something up in his hand and Elyse feels her heartbeat quicken. It’s not just the expression of confusion on his face that does it, it’s what he’s holding, her press pass for the
Portland Gazette
. She must have been so distracted with the conversation she had planned to have with Dane that she’d just left it lying around when she’d arrived home from the rink.

“Dane.” She takes a step towards him but he holds up his hand to stop her.

“What the hell is this?” His voice is cold and it chills her to the bone.

“Dane, I’m sorry. I was planning to tell you -”

“Don’t bullshit me, Elyse.” The warm, tender way that he usually says her name is gone and she wonders if it’s ever coming back. “Are you a reporter?”

Elyse swallows hard, wishing that she could give him a different answer. But the time for lies has passed. Now all she could do was tell him the truth, tell him everything. She nods tightly and watches as his shoulders slump at her words.

“You told me you were a blogger, that you wrote
fiction
, that you wanted to become a great writer.” He shakes his head like he can’t believe that he trusted her.

“All those things were true. I didn’t lie about any of that!” She hears the desperation in her own voice.

“So what do you do for the
Portland Gazette
? Did you know they’ve been trying to get the low-down on the Demons for years, just so they can sell more papers?” The anger on his face makes her take an involuntary step back. Then it hits him, he connects the dots and Elyse wishes that the earth would open up beneath her and swallow her up. “That’s why you came to the bar that night, isn’t it? You were working for the paper.”

“That’s how it started, but I met you and everything changed.” She takes another step towards him.

“I don’t want to hear this.” He walks past her pulling on his t-shirt and jacket and heading out of the bedroom.

She follows him, not wanting him to leave like this. “Dane, let me explain!”

He whirls around to face her, his eyes angry. “Explain what? That you only got close to me to find out about the club? That you’ve been lying to me, to all of us? That you made me think I could trust you when all the time you were just getting ready to betray us?” He slams his fist against the doorframe hard and she winces at the impact but he doesn’t even seem to feel it. She’s never seen him like this; it gives her a bit of an insight into the things he does when he’s working for the Riders. It’s not something she ever wants to be on the receiving end of.

“Yes, I was supposed to write a story about the Demon Riders. My editor thought I would be able to get information that his guys have never been able to access. It was going to be my big break, but this morning I told him that I couldn’t do it.” For the first time she feels like she has Dane’s attention. “I fell for you, for the club, and the community. I knew there was no way I could write the story, not the way he wanted me to. I never wanted to hurt you. Please, you have to believe me.”

“You told me I could trust you. I made the mistake of believing you then. I won’t make the same mistake twice.” His hand grabs hold of the doorknob and yanks it open.

“Dane, please don’t leave like this. Talk to me.” Elyse feels the tears pricking at the back of her eyes as she watches his chest heave with the deep breaths he’s taking to calm himself down.

“We all trusted you. The guys treated you like family without even knowing you.” Dane shakes his head but keeps his back turned to her so she can’t see his face. “You want me to talk to you, to tell you that everything is going to be all right, that all is forgiven? I can’t even look at you, Elyse. I can’t stand the sight of you.”

He storms through the door, slamming it so hard behind him that it makes the windows rattle. As the sound of his motorcycle fades, Elyse slumps down onto the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest and she finally lets the tears come.

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CHAPTER ONE

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright?  I don’t have to go out tonight.”  Jen gives her best friend a concerned look.

“Yes, you do.”  Elyse gives Jen a serious stare, which is only made mildly less effective by the redness of her eyes.  “I don’t expect you to babysit me every night.  It was a breakup, not a bereavement!”  Elyse tries a smile but, from the expression on Jen’s face, it doesn’t come off all that well.

“Don’t do that, ‘Lyse.  I’m the one who’s been sharing pizzas and passing you tissues for the better part of a week!  You don’t have to pretend around me.  I know it wasn’t
just
a breakup!”  Jen lays her hand over Elyse’s, surreptitiously moving her coffee mug out of reach at the same time, knowing that if Elyse has any more coffee, she’ll be up half the night obsessing over what happened between her and Dane.

Elyse looks up at the ceiling, sighing deeply and wrapping her terry cloth dressing gown around herself even tighter.  She was in the second stage of post-breakup mourning now and that mostly consisted of moping around the house and feeling sorry for herself.  So far so good.

“What do you want me to say, Jen?  That I cared about him?  That I hate how we left things?”  Elyse rubs at her eyes, surprised that she can even bring herself to cry anymore.  Her tears should all be used up by now, surely.  “Sorry, I know you’re just trying to help.  But right now I think I just need to be alone.”  She lets her forehead drop down to the kitchen counter and starts banging her forehead against it.

“You know that if you keep doing that for much longer, you’ll be lucky if you have any brain cells left.”  Jen nudges Elyse back from the countertop and rolls her eyes at the expression on her friend’s face.  “How have you got yourself so worked up about a guy that you only just met?  I mean
I
haven’t even met him yet!”  Jen almost looks more annoyed about this than any other aspect of the situation.

“Sorry, Jen, you’re right.  I should have waited until you’d given him the seal of approval before I screwed everything up.”  Elyse throws herself onto the couch with more force than necessary, taking up the same position she’s held the majority of the last few days.

“Exactly.” Jen’s response shows no sign of irony whatsoever.  She collapses into an armchair opposite Elyse, looking at her intently. 

“What?”  Elyse shifts uncomfortably under her friend’s intense stare.

“I’m just wondering when you’re going to be done beating yourself up about this.”  Jen shrugs, looking around the room as if she might find the answer somewhere—just lying around.

“Jen, we’ve been through this.”  Elyse groans, putting her head in her hands.  She can’t bear to have this conversation again.  “I lied to him; he found out in the worst possible way.  He didn’t give me a chance to explain, and I don’t know if he had if it would have made any difference.  I betrayed him, Jen, and this is a guy who takes trust pretty damn seriously.  I screwed up.  End of story.”  Elyse wonders if she sounds as miserable to her friend’s ears as she does to her own.

“You were doing a job, ‘Lyse.  A job that you’ve jeopardized to do the right thing by Dane and his buddies.”  Jen leans forward, as if she’s trying to get her friend to see sense purely with the power of her mind.  “That has to count for something.”

“Not enough apparently.”  Elyse shrugs, signaling she’s done with the conversation.

“It’s not like you knew you were going to fall in love with the guy when you agreed to write the article.  You couldn’t have planned for this, ‘Lyse.  You get that, right?”  Jen looks like she wants to shake Elyse into rational thought.

“I didn’t say I’d fallen in love with him.”  Elyse grumbles her response, knowing that she’s zeroed in on the only thing she can disagree with.

“No, you didn’t.”  Jen gives her a meaningful look, which Elyse dodges as best she can. 

The silence stretches between them, and Cat jumps up onto Elyse’s lap as if she senses that her mistress needs some comfort.  “So how’d it go with Max’s new girlfriend?  We never talked about it.”  Elyse’s attempt to change the direction of the conversation isn’t exactly elegant, but it gets the job done.  She’s fed up with talking about herself and about Dane and about the many ways in which she had screwed everything up.

Jen gives her a long look, as if she’s deciding whether or not to let Elyse distract her.  “She was…fine.”  The way that Jen says it gives the impression that the new girlfriend was anything but that mediocre word.  “You know his type, all moony-eyed with less than two brain cells to rub together.  This one wanted to be an actress.” 

Elyse snorts at the thought, just imagining the scene between the two women.  “So what’s she doing in Portland?”

“She probably couldn’t find her way to LA.”  Jen’s tone is bitchy, but she knows it.

“Meow!  Saucer of milk for the blonde in the armchair!”  Elyse raises an eyebrow, and they both laugh.  It feels good; it’s the first time that Elyse has really laughed since her argument with Dane.  She feels the smile fade from her face and remembers how there is a reason she has decided not to think about him.  “Well, it’s not like you were going to actually
like
any of the girls that you saw with Max.”

Jen refrains from comment, but the wistful expression on her face says it all.

“Aren’t you supposed to be going on a date?  You’re going to be pretty late if you don’t leave now.”  Elyse gives her friend a pointed look, but Jen doesn’t move from her chair.  “Jen?”

Her glazed expression fades, and she seems to be rejuvenated with renewed purpose.  “I can’t leave you like this, looking all sad and heartbroken.  What sort of a best friend would I be if I dumped you for a dude?”  Jen shakes her head in consternation.

“Umm, the kind that actually has a life?”  Elyse looks at her friend a little more closely.  “You were looking forward to this up until about an hour ago.  What happened?” 

Jen rolls her eyes at the serious note in Elyse’s tone.  “I changed my mind, that’s all.  I’m just not in the mood for the all the first date getting-to-know-you crap.” 

Elyse frowns at her friend, knowing that Jen loves first dates.  It has been one of the running jokes between them: Jen would go on any number of first dates, she loved the fact that she could be whomever she wanted to be, that it was a blank page, full of possibilities.  It was the dates after that when she usually lost interest. 

Jen bites her bottom lip, looking cagey, and Elyse zeroes in on the action like a missile.  “Jen, fess up.”

Jen sighs theatrically.  “It’s no big deal.  He seems like a nice guy and all, but I just realized the real reason I agreed to go out with him at all.”

Elyse waits for the punch line, but Jen is silent, looking at her hands knotted in her lap.  Jen is the most outgoing, extroverted, full of fun person that Elyse has ever known, but the woman sitting in front of her doesn’t look like any of those things.  “Don’t make me drag it out of you, Jen.”  She gives what Jen refers to as her ‘Don’t fuck with me’ stare.

“He’s a friend of Max’s.”  Jen says the words so quietly that at first Elyse doesn’t think she’s heard right.  However, the embarrassment on Jen’s face makes it clear that Elyse hasn’t misinterpreted her whisper. 

“You agreed to go out with him because you knew that Max would find out and you were hoping it would bother him, make him jealous.”  There’s no judgment in Elyse’s voice—if anything she’s surprised that something like this hasn’t happened before. 

“I know, it’s pathetic.”  Jen barks a humorless laugh.

“That’s not what I was going to say,” Elyse chides her.  “But Jen, don’t you think it’s time you just told him?”

Jen looks at her as if she’s just suggested that she jump out of a twenty-story window.  “Hell to the no.”  She shakes her head so hard that Elyse worries she might give herself whiplash.  “And don’t think I don’t know what you’re doing…distracting me from your train wreck of a relationship to talk about my train wreck of a non-relationship.  I see your game, Powell.”

Elyse holds her hands up in surrender.  “You got me.  We’re equally pathetic.”  She wonders if that merits a high-five, probably not.  “So are you going to let this guy down easy or just stand him up?”  Jen shoots her a look, and Elyse makes an innocent face.  “Either is good with me, I’m just asking.  This is a judgment free zone!”

“I’ll text him and say that I’m not feeling well.”  Jen shrugs, as she heads to the kitchen and opens the refrigerator.

“Does that mean we’re moving on to the ‘Death by Chocolate’ faze of our men troubles?”  Elyse figures she could get excited about that particular part of the grieving process.

“You know it.  I’ll hit the store for supplies.”  Jen grabs her keys and pulls open the door brusquely to a buxom platinum blonde who looks as shocked as Jen does.

“I was just about to ring the bell.”  She motions towards the doorbell, as if trying to prove that she wasn’t just hanging outside their house with no intention of coming in.

“Okaaayyy.”  Jen gives her a dubious look, wondering who the hell this person is that’s turned up uninvited at their front door.

“I’m here to see Elyse.”  The blonde folds her arms over her impressive rack and gives Jen a look that would have wilted a lesser woman.

Jen blinks a few times and then puts two and two together, taking in Suzi’s dye job, her eyes flicking over the intricate designs on her nails.  “You must be Suzi.” 

“Suzi?”  Elyse squeaks the word out from the other room, scrambling to her feet and going to stand in the threshold of the living room.

Suzi takes in Elyse in her dressing gown and fuzzy pig slippers, rolling her eyes before she looks back at Jen.  “So can I come in?  It’s freezing out here.”

Jen steps back and Suzi takes that as enough of an invitation to walk inside, huffing about how cold it is outside.

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