Sentinel - Devil Riders MC Book 1 (MC Romance Novel with FREE Bonus Novel!) (16 page)

The two men totally ignored the gunmen, and Chrissy wondered if they’d even seen them. But it was Trigger and Chopper. Of course they knew the men were there. Vague thoughts of warning them somehow made her feel foolish. They would have a plan, and if she jumped in, improvising, she’d screw it up.

With her stomach in a tight knot, torn between wanting to see her friends safely away and wanting to know what they were involved in, she forced herself to watch. Rafe, Trigger, Chopper, Trish… they were the only people in her universe who hadn’t tried to use her. That she was there when this was happening had to be coincidence. If they’d known she was there...

She had to trust them. She had to believe in something.

Suddenly Chopper yelled out, “Oh fuck!” and she saw a crate drop out of his hands and smash on the ground. It broke open on impact. Chopper jumped down and started retrieving its contents—automatic weapons. “Hey can you give me a hand with this?” he shouted at one of the gunmen. All four had come over to see what was going on. As they looked down at Chopper, who stood on the ground holding a gun in each hand, looking helpless, the men laughed. Behind them, she watched with interest as Trigger slid one of the cases behind stacks of empty beer bottles and threw a tarp over it before coming back and shouting at Chopper. “Just stuff them in the truck, you dumb fuck.”

Looking sheepish, Chopper carried the guns to the truck and as Trigger went back to hauling cases and the gunmen resumed their positions, Chrissy went back to the bar.

“Where the fuck you been?” Tony shouted, looking red in the face. “You been spying?”

He was standing with the two bikers who had been guarding the door earlier. They all looked nervous. Whatever the business was, it had them on edge. “I was trying to stay out of the way,” she said. “The bar was too fucking crowded and none of the people in it were customers. Since I have no idea who they are, and no curiosity, I decided it was a good time to eat my lunch.”

Tony looked uncertain. “Anything going on out back?”

“I’m paid not to be curious. How would I know?”

She heard the roar of the van out back as it pulled away, and saw that Tony heard it too. He grinned. “Good girl.”

* * * *

The cops hit the place within minutes and all hell broke loose. They came in the front door fast, wearing black, lots of body armor. The fact that they had HOMELAND SECURITY printed on their vests in white letters didn’t make Chrissy feel secure. As they swarmed into the bar, she was grabbed and thrown to the ground. A cop pulled her hands behind her back and cuffed her, then dragged her over and had her sit with her back to a wall.

“Don’t move an inch,” he warned and she didn’t. Other cops cuffed the bikers and Tony and in a blur of people in black uniforms, wielding terrifying weapons, she found herself sitting alongside Tony watching the officers ransack the bar, dumping drawers and rummaging through cabinets. The door to the other room lay on the ground in splinters and she saw that the cops had the men who’d been in there against their own wall while they tore that room apart.

Chrissy watched them, amazed to be in the middle of all this. She wondered how you convinced anyone you could work in a place and deliberately not know what was going on. And what was going on? Was she going to end up in jail? Had the cops caught Rafe and the guys, or had they gotten away?

The front door opened and a familiar woman walked in. Mandy Evans in a pants suit with a shiny badge pinned on it. The moment she entered the room it was clear who was really in charge. She was giving orders, sending the bikers off with two officers into a waiting van. Two other cops pulled Tony to his feet. “Ain’t it nice that you don’t know shit?” he grinned at Chrissy. “You got nothing to hide.”

“Well, I think
we
get to decide if she knows anything,” Mandy said. “I don’t think we are gonna take your word for something like that, Tony.” She turned to a cop. “Butch, stash Tony in the other room with Marvin and have two men keep a close eye on them until we are ready to talk to them. They are the keys to moving up the food chain. Kick the other bikers downtown. They probably won’t be useful, but you never know what they saw.”

As the cop named Butch pushed Tony into the room, Mandy followed them in. She grinned at the suit who sat on the floor with his wrists handcuffed behind his back. “Hey Marvin, here’s the good news. Even if we don’t find anything here, we’ve got Pete. Remember Pete? He’s your financial guy. He is scared shitless. He wants to make a deal.”

Marvin glared at her. “Then he’s a dead man. And we’ll find out who tipped you off and they will wish
they
were dead, too.”

Mandy laughed. “Marvin, you threaten and cheat enough people in a given week that your hot list of likely suspects is gonna look like Chicago voter registration rolls. Have yourself a good time figuring it out. Now you kick back and I’ll be back for a nice chat shortly.”

“I want a lawyer.”

She laughed. “Well the cell reception here stinks, Marvin. We can’t seem to get through. Tell you what. I’ll let you call your shyster as soon as you get to the station and are booked. Assuming you get that far.”

A cop came over and helped Chrissy to her feet. “What about this one?”

Mandy looked at Chrissy and gave her an odd smile. “She’s mine.” A cop came over and helped Chrissy to her feet. “Come with me,” Mandy said, and she headed to loading dock.

As they stepped out of the back room, a cop came over grinning. “Look what we found.” He was standing over the case of guns Trigger had hidden.

“Pretty fucking careless of them,” Mandy told the cop. “Good work.” As he swaggered away, Mandy grinned at Chrissy. “Right where they were supposed to be. Rafe was a good boy, so we can complete the deal.”

She led her down the ramp from the loading dock and into the alley and stopped. Turning to the policeman following her, she held out her hand. “That’s fine, officer. Give me the keys to the cuffs and you report back to Butch.”

“But..”

“I’ll take it from here.” Her tone of voice made it clear that her word was final.

The policeman didn’t look pleased, but he handed over the keys, nodded and went.

Mandy took her arm and escorted her down the alley. “Nice work, kid. I didn’t think you were part of the program.”

Chrissy just shook her head, trying to process everything that happened over the past few minutes. It was all too much to take in. She thought about correcting Mandy, then thought better of it. Better to just play along and see where that took her.

“What happens now?”

“Well, right now I need to make sure you don’t die. I made a promise and I intend to keep it.”

Then she smiled and led Chrissy into a smaller alley between the bar and the next building. A man was on motorcycle, waiting. It was Rafe.

“About time,” he said.

“Better late and all that crap… I kept my part of the bargain.”

“Yeah. Me too. Want to keep up that kind of momentum while we are on a roll?”

Mandy let go of Chrissy’s arm and unlocked her handcuffs. “Now get on that bike. Rafe, I’ll contact you as agreed. You two stay in the safe house until then. I can’t have anyone seeing either of you. You are loose ends and if people start hunting you, start to think things aren’t the way we’ve made it look, that would screw things up royally. You’d fuck up my beautiful case against these morons and compromise other missions.”

Safe house. The concept echoed around her head. She and Rafe were going into hiding. A stunned Chrissy climbed on the back of that motorcycle, putting her arms gratefully around Rafe, feeling like she was caught in a weird reality cop show.

Rafe kicked the engine to life and Chrissy felt the rush as its power, its wonderful promise of freedom vibrated through her. She leaned her face against Rafe’s warm back and clasped her arms around him as if he might dissolve at any moment.

Rafe revved the engine. “Heaven forbid we should make your job harder, Mandy,” he laughed. “There goes my idea of spending the day at the mall, but I think we can find something better to do.”

Mandy slapped him on the back. “Get the fuck out of here or I’ll have you arrested for loitering.”

Rafe put the big bike in gear and twisted the throttle. It shuddered and they roared down the alley and away from whatever had been going on. Chrissy sank against Rafe and thought how right Tony had been, if for the wrong reasons. She didn’t really want or need to know anything about what had been going on. She didn’t even care what was going to happen. What mattered was that she was on Rafe’s big motor, her arms around him, and as she let her hands explore his body, the body she thought she’d lost forever, her fingers found clear evidence of what he had in mind for them to do next.

His cock was rock hard.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHRISSY

The safe house didn’t look at all like she expected, not that she had any idea what one should look like. She laughed at herself for thinking it would somehow be special. A safe house had to be innocuous, the kind of place no one would give a second glance to. This shabby and rundown double-wide in a trashy trailer park near the railroad tracks probably served the purpose better than most.

As Rafe pulled the bike to a stop and she stiffly climbed off, she saw they blended right into the environment. Several of the trailers had motorcycles parked in front. And this one looked lived in, with half dead plants in pots by the front door and stained linens flapping in a soft breeze on a makeshift clothesline.

The place itself was unimportant, and all her thoughts about it, about whether it was right or not, whether it was glorious or tacky, were just the product of her brain grappling with all that had happened. There was too much too think about and her overloaded brain chose to focus on the trivial.

Too much had happened way too fast and until she knew more there was no way to make sense of it—if she ever did. Rafe had reappeared in her empty life so abruptly and so out of context and that alone had staggered her. Watching Trigger and Chopper involved in a gun deal had been scary.

And all those men with guns, and then the cops, being arrested—none of it seemed real. She’d found herself in the custody of the woman she had worried she might lose Rafe to, who had turned her over to Rafe and sent them into hiding.

She needed a plot synopsis—or someone to start talking. But not yet. A huge knot in her stomach told her she wasn’t certain she wanted to know what had happened, or even what was going on now. She had to focus on basics. Basics and trivia. The safe house was a dump; she was alone with Rafe when she had thought she’d never see him again.

So what if they were on the run? Whatever crazed turmoil raged outside, she was with him, and that gave her an odd feeling of security.

Still, there was much that hadn’t changed. Benny would still be after her. If she and Rafe went back… she couldn’t go back. And Rafe needed to. She had been running away from her problems and Rafe had interrupted her. Sooner or later she would need to run again. Running was good. When you stopped, your enemies caught up with you.

You had to keep running, stay one step ahead.

As long as she could remember, she had wanted to settle down; each change she made was in search of a safe harbor. But every damn time the safe harbor soon became a new battle zone, the next place she needed to run from. She’d tricked herself into letting her guard down, into thinking things would be better. She’d fooled herself and Rafe too. She couldn’t let that happen again.

“We’re safe now.”

She looked at Rafe, wanting to ask who they were safe from. “Are we?”

“For a short time.”

That seemed more honest. And, for that short time, with his arm around her, his strong, comforting arm, she wasn’t afraid. Being with Rafe again mattered much more that being safe. And she couldn’t run again until she got her bearings, gathered her energy and resources. Besides, if she ran now, Mandy Evans would join the growing number of people chasing her. She let out a calming breath. “Yeah.”

Chrissy looked around the little trailer and took that moment to collapse. She’d been running on nervous energy, living in fear. Now that she felt safer, even momentarily, trusted in Rafe’s protection enough that she dared close her eyes for a moment, her body realized it had used up all of her reserves. She had nothing left and she broke down, sobbing.

Rafe had been watching her, and he caught her, holding her in his strong arms. “Overdid things a little, did we?”

I have no idea where I am or where I’m going. Even my latest world has imploded. Why am I so happy?

As they hugged in the center of the trailer, she asked the nagging question: “How did you find me?”

“Accident. It was the world’s best accident. I came here to do this job, then I was going to track you down. As it turns out, you came straight to where the job was.”

“Fate,” she said over the blood pounding in her ears. “I’ve never been able to escape my fate.”

“In this case, I’m rather glad. I hope you are.”

She grabbed his vest and pressed up against him. “I’m glad and I’m scared. I’ve wanted you with all my being and I was sure I was being punished for asking for so much. First I thought you were putting some distance between us for your own reasons. Then I ran away from you because of… well, you probably know the details at this point. Now, I have no idea what to think.”

He took her face in his hands and kissed her. “I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you left. When I saw you yesterday, I thought it was a hallucination, that I was seeing what I wanted to see.”

“Yesterday? That was you in the other room?”

“I was in there setting up the transaction for today. Getting the lay of the land.” His hands touched her with a feverish intensity as he talked, as if he was making sure she was real. She understood that, and was glad when his grip was too hard to be tender… it let her know that she wasn’t dreaming of him dreaming of her. The idea would have made her laugh if she weren’t getting so aroused, and yet tormented by wondering about what would happen next.

“Once I knew you were working there, well I had to make provisions for getting you out without letting the bad guys know what was going on. I had to hand off that part to Mandy. I was all set to come up with a reason to drag you out of there, but she convinced me that would just get us both killed. She came up with the idea of leaving you inside, which was about the hardest thing I’ve ever done. and let her men arrest you.”

“And then she let me go.”

He laughed. “Well, officially you escaped from custody.”

“Escaped?”

“Yes. We both eluded them, clever people that we are. You see, what happened was that she took you aside for questioning and, like any arch villain, you somehow got the drop on her, threatened her with a toothpick or something, and escaped when your crazed motorcycle gang, led by that desperado, Rafe, doubled back for a rescue.”

“That sounds awfully brave and daring of me. Do I get a reward?”

“Yes.”

He nuzzled her neck, backing her against the wall. His hands worked her tank top up, baring her breasts, then he fondled them as if he’d never touched them before. Her nerves crackled with desire and she arched her back, wanting more. When he bent his head down to taste them, suck her nipples hard, she gasped and put her hand behind his head.

His caresses rippled through her, tearing her apart. Her body ached for him and she pulled her top over her head as he slowly knelt in front of her, kissing her belly, undoing the snap on her shorts, then unzipping them. A fire coursed through her as he tugged her shorts and panties down, and when she stepped out of them, he grabbed her leg and put it over his shoulder, pulling her pussy to his face. His stubble of heavy beard burned her thigh as he put his face to her waiting pussy and thrust his fiery tongue between her lips. His hand held her ass, cupped her ass cheeks and pressed her to his face. She moaned with delight and grabbed handfuls of his long hair as her mad biker ravaged her hungry body. The room spun and she lived in the insane delight of the moment.

His tongue danced in and over her cunt. He let go of her ass and lifted her other leg onto his other shoulder. The wall held her upright and she straddled her lover’s face as he began to add his fingers to the assault on her. As he inserted fingers in her, he used his lips, that long tongue, to uncover her clitoris and tease it. When he sucked it into his mouth, took it between his teeth, while fucking her with long, thick fingers, she came, her legs clenching around him, digging her heels into his back. Chrissy writhed, screaming with the joyous sensations Rafe elicited in her body.

As her body peaked, she sagged limply. He stood slowly, letting her legs slide down to support her unsteadily. He kissed her, and she tasted her own juices on his face. She’d come, and she wanted him even more, her fantastic lover. She reached down to undo his jeans, undoing that thick leather belt, unsnapping his jeans, and feeling his heat as she pulled his zipper down, all the time taking his tongue in her mouth, feeling his mouth consuming hers.

Her long fingers found his hot flesh and drew his shaft out of his pants. She thought it was bigger, harder, hotter than she remembered it. It was glorious how badly he wanted her. She held it, stroking it lovingly. He grabbed her ass in both hands and lifted her. She understood what he wanted, and eagerly guided his massive, throbbing prick to her needy cunt. It burned as she brought it between the lips of her pussy and as his cock spread her pussy open, she hooked her legs around him and cried out as he drove deep inside her. He filled her, pulsing with feverish life, and then he was moving his hips, his body pinning her against the wall with each delicious thrust. She clung to him, bit his bare chest as he fucked her against the wall of that anonymous safe house.

The world shifted realities so rapidly. She’d started the day alone and resigned to loneliness, to never seeing Rafe again, and here she was, clinging to his powerful body while he took her, plundered her, owned her.

She tipped her head to nuzzle his neck, to suck his earlobe. Then he tightened his grip on her ass cheeks and moaned. As he came, sending waves of his cum shooting up inside her, she clung to him even tighter.

* * * *

They lay naked in an unmade bed, his leg draped over her body.

She saw he was awake, staring at her, with a spark starting to glimmer in his eyes again. She reached over to touch his face.

“Well, here we are, wherever that is.”

“We are in the moment. You said you wanted to live in the moment, in the here and now. Welcome to it.”

She liked his teasing tone. She ran her hands over his powerful shoulders. “In a rather perverse way I do seem to be getting what I asked for. I seem to be right in the middle of a bunch of things, and I’m curious about what is going on around me. I can’t make it out, that swirl of things that has brought me to this point of being a criminal on the run.” She laughed. “I’m not going to plan… I’ll try not to anyway, but it would be handy to know a bit of what’s going on around me. It would be handy to have an idea of which way to run the next time the world springs a surprise. And I have the feeling more surprises are definitely in store.”

“I imagine so. I’ll tell you what I know. As that sometimes treacherous and always dangerous bastard fate would have it, it would seem that you just inadvertently assisted a grateful government in shutting down a group that was stealing powerful weapons right from the manufacturers and selling them to very nasty people.” He laughed. “In this case, I played the role of one of those nasty people.”

“How did I help?”

He glanced at her and smiled. “Well, Mandy, our lady of Homeland Security, somehow got the impression that you were part of my team. She thinks you cleverly and covertly infiltrated the organization and passed along vital intelligence. Mostly, though, you helped by keeping your cool and not blowing my cover.”

“It was a covert mission? No one can know you were a good guy?”

“It’s a combination of budget problems and politics, I guess. We were freelancing for Homeland Security. They don’t like the world to know they use people like us, but they needed some bad-assed bikers, people with police records who could make contact and get the principles and the guns in the same place. Another group, terrorists, I’d guess, wanted the guns too. The people who had them saw no reason not to sell them to both of us, and probably keep the guns as well. So the end result of the deal was supposed to be all of us dead. They sent two guys after me, and I led them to the waiting arms of an armed welcoming committee. Trigger and Chopper drove the van to another ambush. The cops already had the van and men who delivered the goods. But with the sale being made, Mandy is hoping the terrorists will be in touch with our contact, who is one of her people, and see if they can buy the guns from us.”

She let out a sigh. “Whew. Complicated.”

Rafe laughed. “Not my plan. I was just the bag man.” He kissed her. “Relieved to know Mandy wasn’t just some floozy I was fucking?”

Her own laugh surprised her. “I suppose so. But what happens now that we’re on the run from the cops?”

He gave her a serious look. “We disappear.”

“Really?”

“It isn’t the cops we need to worry about. The mob didn’t get their money and they
will
want it. Also, they’ll wonder if we double crossed them—no matter that they were double crossing us. They don’t know Trigger and Chopper, and wouldn’t mess with them if they did. To their way of thinking, they are just hired muscle, and not worth the effort. You and I are a different matter. The people who run the operation are not the forgive and forget type.”