Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Declan
Raven sitting next to me in my pickup is the most distraction I’ve ever had while driving.
I grip the wheel, if only to keep my hands to myself, but her bare legs constantly catch my eye. The damn coat barely reaches the top of her thighs. I want to touch, but if I do, I won’t want to stop.
Raven’s phone vibrates, and she checks it.
“Is that Kurt?” I ask.
“Yes. He’s set up the jump training for Sunday. That buys us an extra day.”
“Good.” I click my tongue. “It also puts a limit on our time in San Fran, but we should still have a reasonable window to scout our routes.”
“We’ll need to split up, of course,” Raven says.
I counted on that, but I don’t want to appear too eager. “Why? Can’t we ride together for both routes?”
“I don’t want just one route, Declan. I want to know the whole area around where I’ll be heading out.”
“You’re right,” I concede, letting reluctance come through. “You thought about which part of the city you’ll take?” I get in early, before she replies. “I’m going to head north. That gives me options of going either for the Golden Gate Bridge, or take I-80 into Oakland.”
“South,” she says quickly. “More routes, less chance of getting pinned in, easier to reach LA.”
Exactly what I thought she’d say, and that works for me. She gets the best exit options, and I get to check out the safehouse Mercer’s found me in Pacific Heights, in the north of the city.
We reach her apartment and I park my pickup near our bikes. She’s chained both of them to her anchor, and I pause, resting a hand on the saddle.
“Good to see it again?” she asks.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” I say. “Almost two weeks since I’ve ridden, four days since I’ve seen it. I miss it.”
“Not weird,” she says, walking past me and punching in the code for the door. “I’m the same. At least you haven’t given your bike a gender, like… certain people do.” She taps her chest and winks at me.
I laugh, following her. The raincoat barely covers her ass, and I check that there’s no one around. I want to get her inside, away from curious eyes. The thought of her in that Uber still gets my blood boiling.
The door clicks open, and I breathe a sigh of relief. “Let’s get changed and go,” I say, as Raven hits the button for the elevator. “It’ll take us most of the day even if we keep the stops down.”
“I’m looking forward to it. Not spent a day on the bike for ages. I have a comms kit we can use…”
She trails off as the lobby door opens and a man steps out. She gives him one glance, then turns away, focusing on the closed elevator doors. A blush tinges her skin.
“Well, hello there Raven,” the man says, taking a few steps closer and wholly ignoring me. He’s a big guy, maybe six-two, about my size but carrying more weight around his middle. Cowboy boots, a Stetson, and a leather jacket. “That is a mighty fine getup you’re almost-wearing.”
He’s making a beeline for her, and I step between. “We’re on a clock, buddy,” I say, barely keeping my anger in check. “Places to be, if you don’t mind.”
“Oh?” he asks. “You charging by the hour, now, Raven? Don’t mind if I do. When are you going to be done with this guy?”
I don’t even think. I grab both his shoulders, and slam him into the wall, hard enough for the plaster to crack and his hat to dislodge.
My forearm goes across his throat, pinning him there, and I’m right in his face.
Too damn angry to find my words. I want to crush his head into the wall, and I’m inches away from headbutting him as hard as I can.
His face drains of color, eyes widening, and it’s that which lets the red mist fade enough that I can speak.
“She’s not that kind of woman,” I grind out. “She’s also not someone you’re ever going to talk to again.”
“Jesus, dude—”
I apply more pressure until he cuts off with a strangled gasp. “If I find out you’ve even glanced at her, I’m going to pay you another visit and introduce a hammer to your kneecaps. You hear me?”
“Fuck,” he chokes out. “I hear ya, I hear ya!”
“Declan…” Raven puts a hand on my arm. “He lives across the hall from me.”
“Then you should fucking know better, shouldn’t you?” I growl. I’m one wrong word from putting my fist into this guy’s face, and it’s only Raven’s touch that’s stopping me.
“I didn’t mean nothing,” he says, no trace of his earlier bravado. Instead, his voice quavers. He’s a goddamn coward, picking on a woman half his strength and weight.
“You take your pile of fucking nothing and never open your mouth near her again.”
He doesn’t meet my eyes. “I got it.”
The elevator finally arrives, the door shuddering open.
“Declan.” Raven tugs on my arm. “Leave him. It’s not worth it.”
I don’t look away from the man I’m holding. “Go ahead, I’m coming.”
She steps into the elevator, out of sight, and I pull him off the wall then slam him into it again for good measure. His head cracks hard, and he winces and goes limp.
“I didn’t like the way you spoke to her,” I growl. “Remember, Raven knows where you live, so I will too in just one minute. You learn some fucking manners for how you speak to a woman, and if she ever mentions you again, you better run before I find you.”
I give him another shake, then release him. He sags against the wall, and I step for the elevator before the doors close.
“Psycho,” he mutters behind me, voice hoarse. I hope his throat fucking hurts.
The elevator takes us up, and I stand in the middle of it, breathing hard. That was an unusual loss of control for me, but I don’t regret it. Not for one fucking minute.
“Are you all right?” she asks. She’s standing at the side, giving me space.
“He practically called you a whore,” I grind out. I still want to go back down there and finish the job. Hell, if she hadn’t restrained me…
“It’s… uh… it happens.” She’s far too accepting for my liking.
“It’s my fault,” I say. “I made that crack about being short of time, and he took it like that.”
“It’s his fault, not yours.”
“Yeah, but I put the thought in his head.”
“And I chose to wear this damn raincoat.”
I force a smile. “And I’m really glad you did.”
“Yeah,” she says sadly. And that pisses me off most of all. That asshole took something that she made special, and dirtied it. “Thank you for standing up for me.”
“I did what needed to be done.” My fists clench, as I’m not sure I did enough.
She bites at her lip, that tell for when she’s aroused, nervous, or both. “You didn’t have to do anything. It doesn’t matter. It’s just part of… life.”
“I’m only sorry I didn’t hit him.” I should’ve hit him. I did bounce his head off the wall, though. Gave him a concussion with a bit of luck.
“I’m sorry I didn’t too,” she says bitterly, with a flash of her usual spirit. “He just caught me unawares.” She sighs. “If I’d been in my leathers, I would’ve smacked him.”
“But not in just a raincoat, huh?” I feel responsible. She wouldn’t be dressed like this if it wasn’t for me.
The elevator arrives. I step out first, but the hallway outside is clear.
She gives a dry laugh. “It would undermine the whole thing if I managed to flash him while punching him in the face, wouldn’t it?”
“I love watching you beat the crap out of men,” I tell her honestly, as we walk down the hallway. “But from now on, I’m going to get there first whenever I can. Which door is his?”
“That one.” She points it out, and I memorize the number. “Just… don’t get into trouble, okay? Not for me.”
There’s an irony there somewhere, but I’m not in the mood to explore it. “Absolutely for you,” I tell her. “No hesitation.”
She stops outside her door, fishing out her keys. “Thank you, Declan. It’s… unusual that someone cares enough to…”
“I care,” I say as she trails off. Except I didn’t, not back at Franco’s when Pablo was harassing her. Although that’s not true either; I did care, but I was playing a role. A different role to the one I get to play now.
And she dealt with Pablo the same way she dealt with the men in the pool bar.
“You don’t need me to protect you,” I tell her as we walk in. “There’s a reason I call you ‘Hellcat.’ Defending you is a privilege, not a necessity, and I’m happy to do it whenever you want to dress up in just a raincoat.”
“Never again,” she says quickly. “I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.”
That’s almost a shame, though I will feel better knowing other men won’t see her like this. “You got the effect you wanted though, right?”
She glances at me, then lowers her eyes, cheeks tingeing. “Do you know I hate blushing?” she asks suddenly, with a note of frustration. “I never used to. I hate you for that, Declan Hale. You’re the worst.”
“I’m taking it as a compliment.”
She huffs at me, then heads for the bedroom. “Five minutes. And don’t you dare follow me; we’ve got a six-hour ride ahead of us.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I still watch her ass beneath that coat.
The 101 takes us out past Thousand Oaks, and I glance that way out of habit. Raven has us on comms, so we can talk as we ride, and she must’ve seen the look I gave.
“Do you like that town?” she asks. “It’s kinda quiet.”
I almost tell her I had a house there a while back, but that’s Maddox’s finances, not Hale’s. “Just somewhere I figure might be good to raise a family one day.”
She says nothing for a breath or two, long enough for me to realize what I just implied. “Is that on your mind?”
“Hell, I don’t know,” I say honestly. “Maybe?” I’ve never considered it, and the response I just gave surprised me as much as it’s surprised her.
“No kids already?” she asks.
I laugh. “Not that I’m aware of. I did tell you I suit up.”
“Apart from with me. Right.”
“Everything is different with you, Hellcat.”
Past Ventura, we ride along the coast, the ocean calm. Then at Santa Barbara, we take the 154 to cut the corner. It’s a nice climb up through the Santa Ynez Mountains, bends every few hundred yards. We race together, pushing it, swapping the lead from time to time.
“On your outside, Romeo,” Raven tells me as she zips by, and I laugh with delight into my helmet.