Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 59146 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 296(@200wpm)___ 237(@250wpm)___ 197(@300wpm)
She opened her mouth, then shut it again. “I will. If I feel threatened, or he doesn’t leave when I tell him to.”
I knew that was the best I was going to get. “Come here,” I said roughly, and I pulled her into my arms, wrapping my arms tightly around her. She stood rigid for several seconds before melting into me, surrendering to my needs at the moment whether she realized consciously what she did or not. “I’m sorry I’m being domineering. I don’t have a good reason other than I’m just built that way.”
“Bossy and domineering?” There was humor in her voice, but I noticed how she snuggled against me. She didn’t want me going any more than I wanted to leave. But I got it.
“Yeah. That’s me.” I gave her one more hard squeeze, then pulled back slightly so I could look down at her. “You don’t know me. I understand that. I also suspect you feel like you need to deal with this on your own. I get that too. I just don’t want you to resist calling me if you truly get scared. You can deal with this on your own and still have me as backup.” I tried to give her a reassuring and benign smile, but my emotions were bleeding over so much I didn’t know if I managed. She didn’t try to pull away from me like she was scared so there was that. “Everyone needs a good backup. I can bring the full weight of my club down to protect you if you need it.”
This time, she moved closer to me, burying her face in my chest and she sighed. When she looked up at me, there were tears in her eyes. Thank God she smiled instead of looking fearful or angry. “Thank you, Jonah. The offer means more to me than you could possibly know. I appreciate it, and I promise to take you up on everything if I feel unsafe.”
“You call me whether or not you feel unsafe. Just until we’re sure everything’s leveled out.”
“OK. I promise I will do all of that.”
I didn’t kiss her, though I wanted to. Desperately. Instead, I let myself out. The door closed and the deadbolt turned with a click. I stood outside her door for a moment, wondering if I did the right thing by not staying with her. Maybe I should camp out in her backyard?
No. Definitely not.
Finally, I walked to my bike. I rode to the gas station two blocks over, filled a thermos with coffee, and parked in the shadows across the lot from her building. The light in her apartment stayed on a while, and I watched the shadow of her moving behind the blinds before they went dark. Yeah. I felt like a fucking stalker, but that itch between my shoulders wouldn’t go away. And I couldn’t ignore it.
I sat on my bike all night. Watching the apartment of a woman I barely knew when she expressly told me not to. This wasn’t who I was. Men who sat in cars watching women were the kind of men I put in the ground. The irony wasn’t lost on me.
In the pre-dawn hours, a prospect pulled into the parking lot and killed his lights. The kid hadn’t been here long, but he was really trying to turn his life around. He’d done everything anyone asked of him and more. It’s how he’d gotten his road name. Zero. As in, he was trying to zero his life out and start fresh. “Knuckles said to stay until she leaves for work and to not let her see me. If she does, I’m supposed to call Darby or Hannah.”
“I’m good. Tell Knuckles I’ll call him later.”
“He said to…” He cleared his throat and I swear I thought the guy was trying not to laugh. “These are his words, not mine. To get your ass back to the clubhouse. He’s callin’ church, and they’re going to help your girl.”
“Fuck.” I scrubbed my hand over my face a couple of times. Fuck, I was tired. “You’ll call me, too, if you have to call the women.”
“Understood, Inferno.”
Tossing him my empty thermos, I started up my Harley and took off. The ride to the compound took twenty minutes. The gates rolled open, and I parked beside the clubhouse. Knuckles was on the porch, coffee in hand, watching the mist burn off the gravel.
“Come on, lover boy,” he said. “Come tell us what’s wrong with your girl.”
Church convened at six that evening. Thank God, too, because I caught a much-needed nap before I talked with Knight and he gave me the rundown. I learned that Darby, God love her soul, had told Sully, who’d come to Knight and, apparently, I wasn’t the only one worried about Juniper, though Darby admitted it was only a feeling she had.