CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Karina
We’re not in the car very long before I conclude I’m in trouble. Logan won’t give me any details about where we’re going. He won’t talk to me at all.
We head southeast out of the city and I pay close attention so I’ll be able to tell Dante.
After driving for an hour and a half, I start squirming in my seat.
“Logan, I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Can’t you wait?”
“Uh, no.”
“We’ve got maybe another hour.”
I twist and make a show out of crossing my legs. “Definitely not.”
He blows out a breath. “Fine. There’s a rest stop coming up.”
He pulls up to the curb. “Hurry back,” he instructs as I jump out of the car.
It must be a busy traveling day or something because the bathroom is jammed and I have to wait. When a stall finally opens, I lock myself in it and whip out my phone. I’ve got at least ten missed calls from Dante and one text.
Dante: Don’t go with Hemi.
Shit! I knew it.
As I tap out Dante’s number, my fingers are shaking so much I almost drop the phone in the toilet.
“Karina!” he shouts. “Where are you, baby girl? Are you okay?”
“We’re at the San Silas rest stop.”
Someone bangs on the stall door. “Hurry up. There’s people waitin’.”
“Fuck. Dante, hold on.” Holding my phone at my side, I step out.
A mom with two kids gives me a bitchy look, but I ignore her and walk into the food court.
Even above the noise of the rest stop, I hear Dante’s voice yelling from my phone.
Huddling facing the wall, out of the way of traffic, I put the phone up to my ear.
“Sorry, Dante. I needed to—”
“Karina. Stay where you are. Luck and I are on our way.”
“Okay—”
Something hard presses into my back. Warm breath skates over my ear and down my neck. “Thought you forgot your phone, sprite?” Logan whispers. “Don’t fuckin’ move.”
“Karina? What’s wrong, baby girl?”
Logan slips my phone out of my hand and ends the call without a word. My phone disappears into his pocket. “Move,” he growls in my ear. “Signal anyone and I’ll shoot you.”
“Logan,” I plead. “Why are you doing this?”
“Start walking, Karina. I’m not fucking around.”
He slips an arm around my waist, and I guess to any casual observer we must look like a young couple in love. Although, if anyone bothered to look closely at my face, it would be obvious that’s not true.
When we get to the car, he presses me up against the driver’s side door. “You’re driving. Don’t pull any stunts.”
I’m too scared to come up with any sort of plan that doesn’t involve crashing—which I’d rather avoid—or getting shot.
So I drive.
I steer us back onto Interstate 10. “Where are we going?”
“Just keep driving.”
After a couple miles, he breaks the silence. “What did you say to Dante?”
“I told him where we were.”
His fist slams into the door. “Fuck! This is bad. He’ll fuckin’ kill me.”
“Well then maybe you shouldn’t have kidnapped me.”
He’s silent, so I risk glancing over. His eyes are fixed on me and it freaks me out.
“Why did you have to come there?”
“Where?”
“The clubhouse. That first day. Why?”
I shrug. I don’t want to admit that I originally went there to make him jealous.
“What can you possibly see in him?”
He can’t be serious. “Dante?”
“Who else?”
“He’s good to me. He takes care of me.”
“Are you fuckin’ kidding? He’s an animal. You know he was so pissed with me, he sent me down to Mexico to get killed?”
I open my mouth to call bullshit, except I wonder if it’s true. Then I decide I don’t care. My shoulders lift in a nervous shrug.
“You really want me dead, sprite?”
“Stop calling me that. I don’t care enough about you to want you dead.”
He lets out a heavy sigh. “Karina—”
“Don’t. You made it clear how you felt about me.”
“You don’t understand.”
Now it’s my turn to sigh. “I don’t want to hear it.”
He bolts forward in his seat. “There. Get off this exit.”
I steer us onto the off-ramp and he directs me to a shabby looking motel.
“Really?” I’m striving for a bored tone, but I think I sound scared.
“I gotta stop and think. The club’s gonna be after me by now. Pull up to the front door.”
As the car rolls to a stop, he pulls up the emergency brake and takes the keys. “Wait here and don’t move. We need to talk.”
Don’t move. Where the fuck am I supposed to go? We’re in the middle of nowhere and he took my damn phone.
He’s in and out pretty quick. “Drive ’round back,” he says as he gets back in the car.
My heart stops when he opens the door to our room. There’s only one bed.
All I can think about is that one bed. “You can’t be serious.”
He shakes his head and pushes me inside, locking the door behind him.
He sets his black duffel bag down on the cheap, scarred-up dresser.
“Sit,” he orders. I take out a chair at the table and drop into it.
My legs won’t stop shaking. I want to show him how indifferent I am, so I stare at the grungy, green curtains.
That’s a mistake.
Logan takes my arms and pulls them behind my back. As soon as his hands circle my biceps, I squeal and try to get away, but he’s too strong. “Stay still.”
He works quickly, tying me to the damn chair. It’s not uncomfortable yet, but it will be.
When he’s finished, he takes the chair across from me.
“Now you’re going to hear my side of things.”
Dante and Karina’s story continues in
Disconnect (Iron Bulls MC #2)
Available now.