Chapter Eight
I was watching mindless TV, tossing the remote control up and down.
Time was difficult to keep track of in here but I figured another night passed because I’d slept for a few hours.
I was mid throw when the door opened again and I fumbled the remote, it hit my knee and I winced.
Mace waved a hand at me impatiently, he wanted me to get up.
I didn’t really need the bathroom but could wash up and brush my teeth. I was getting stale coffee breath.
“Where are we going?” I asked as he took me out of the room but didn’t head across the hall to the bathroom. I hated the shaky tone of my voice.
Mace didn’t answer me. He took hold of my arm, it hadn’t escaped my notice he hadn’t cuffed me. We didn’t go far, and I couldn’t really get a sense of where we were, before he led me into another room beside mine.
It was a bedroom. I could smell the scent of Mace’s bodywash all over the room. The bed was made, there wasn’t a thing out of place. He took me into an adjoining room, an ensuite bathroom, with a shower, I was almost weeping at the sight of it. I was tense and Mace still had hold of my arm.
He looked down at me. “Relax,” he said.
“Easy for you to say,” I muttered.
There was a towel and a pile of clothes on a vanity beside the sink.
“You have ten minutes,” he said, looking at his watch. “Tick tock,” he tapped his wrist after letting me go then stepped back and pulled the door over, but he didn’t shut it all the way, just enough that he wouldn’t be able to see me. He was going to stand out there.
I glanced around, like the other bathroom, there was nothing here I could use as a weapon, although I didn’t think I wanted to, given he was being decent.
I reached into the glass enclosed cubicle and turned on the shower, the water heated quickly, and I let out a deep sigh.
There were a couple of bottles on the side of the tub.
A two in one shampoo and conditioner and a body wash.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed while I’d been inspecting the place and I pushed aside my concern at undressing and just did it.
I jumped under the hot spray and let out a long moan, hopefully not loud enough to be heard over the noise of the shower.
I soaped my body and washed my hair twice.
I was rinsing off when he banged on the door, making me jump.
“Two minutes.”
“Okay!” I yelled.
I made sure all the soap was out of my hair and switched off the water.
I leaned out of the shower, grabbing the towel.
There was only one and I had a lot of hair.
I dried the ends to get as much of the water out and used the now mostly damp towel to dry off before stepping out of the shower enclosure.
On the counter there was a packet of new underwear and a sports bra, a pair of workout leggings and a t-shirt and hoody.
All of them black and still with the tags on.
I paused, wondering what had brought this on but he knocked again.
“You’ve got a minute to get dressed.”
“Yeah, right,” I opened the packaging and pulled on the underwear, it was a little big but it was better than what I’d been wearing for what seemed like a week.
I felt refreshed, like layers of grime washed away.
I pulled on all the clothes then started drying my hair again when he pushed the door open, his eyes raking over me.
He took the towel and dumped it on the pile of my old clothes.
I stopped suddenly and bent down, snagging the t-shirt, he gave me a funny look but didn’t question what I was doing.
It might not smell like him but I didn’t want to lose Hudson’s shirt.
As silly as it sounded, there was comfort in having it and I didn’t want him to take it or dump it in the trash.
“Come on,” he took my arm again and dragged me back to the room.
“Is this for Danica’s benefit? She doesn’t want to meet me in dirty clothes, with greasy hair?”
He started to say something then reconsidered. After a brief pause, he did speak. “You were right, you smell.”
“Fucker,” I grumbled and for a second, I thought I saw him smile, but it could have been gas.
“Yeah, that’s me. She is coming.”
“What?” I asked, widening my eyes. “Now? Today?”
“Try to keep up.” He exhaled deeply when he saw my body language shift. “She’s coming back early so I told her she needed to get her ass here and finish whatever she started.”
“Meaning?” I asked, not liking the shiver of fear that ran through me.
“I’m not sitting on you indefinitely. My club is…” he looked away, realising he was saying too much but after a moment, he surprised me and went on. “The Devil’s are pissed, they’re ripping through everything we have and I’m sick of being here while that happens.”
“What do you expect them to do?” I crossed my arms. “You’ve spent the last few months attacking them, people have died, and taking me? Tell me you wouldn’t do the same thing if it happened to someone you care about.”
His jaw clenched, his eyes filling with something I couldn’t put my finger on. They hardened quickly. “She’s coming back. She can do what it is she needs to do and I can get back to my club.”
I didn’t know what my family was doing but it had Mace rattled. “Which is what?” I asked, already knowing. He wanted to be back out there, fighting my family. He wasn’t going to tell me his plans.
“When will she be here?”
“An hour or so,” he headed for the door but paused. “You hungry?”
He really gave me whiplash. He didn’t need to feed me, he more or less told me he wanted to go out there and do my family harm. I didn’t get him at all. I shook my head though, I didn’t think I could stomach anything right now but I was thirsty.
“Just water, maybe coffee too?”
He left and the door locked. I bit my thumbnail and tried not to freak out.
Whether he liked Danica or not, she was the one the Kingsmen were working with, who had taken me and started this fight with the Devil’s Chaos.
I had no idea what she was about to tell me but I wasn’t tied to a chair this time, and I wasn’t going to let her leave without giving me the answers I needed.
Mace didn’t say a word when he brought me a bottle of water and a coffee about a half hour later. I paced, I sat, I turned the TV on and off but still no Danica. I was sure the bitch was doing this on purpose. She wanted me on edge, probably watching the camera seeing what this was doing to me.
Finally, the door opened. I wrung my hands in my lap and raised my head.
Mace’s expression was completely unreadable.
He read the question in my eyes and nodded then crooked two fingers to me to come over.
I did so, thankful I was getting to leave the room.
I’d seen some daylight when I was in Mace’s room, I needed to see more.
“What? No cuffs?” I asked.
“You gonna try and hurt her?”
“Maybe, you saw what I did to Lily.” I’d never get used to calling her anything else.
His brow arched and whether he wanted to admit it or not, a flash of amusement crossed his face but he wiped it away.
“Do yourself a favour and don’t bother,” he said in a low voice.
“I don’t want to have to break anything up.
Besides, if you have any sense, you’ll listen and ask the right questions. ”
With that cryptic directive, he headed out of the room. He wasn’t dragging me around, clearly at the end of his patience with this. I followed him, squaring my shoulders, ready to face this bitch again.
We walked out into the familiar hallway, the bathroom door was ajar as we passed. There were two more doors along the hall, one was Mace’s room where I’d showered earlier. The second door was closed. I followed him into a wide-open plan living area.
It was an incredibly masculine looking place, the walls were navy and the furniture dark wood with grey and hunter green accents.
I wondered if this was his place? I doubted they’d be that stupid though.
The first thing my dad would do was check every property the Kingsmen owned, or they knew they owned.
There was a dining area in the far corner with a six-seater grey wooden table.
An archway that looked as if it led into a kitchen was to the left of the table.
I could see the front door from here on the other side of the room and noted the five locks on the door.
They weren’t joking around with the security here.
The sun was streaming in from three windows around the room, so it was daytime.
I’d suspected as much, but now I knew, we were in an apartment, a few storeys up.
Danica sat on a chair, her long, tanned legs crossed and angled slightly, like she was some kind of royalty, wearing a slim fitting cream coloured skirt and a black blouse.
She had a string of pearls around her neck and her hair was styled on the side in an intricate bun.
She’d been an MC President’s daughter, a club whore and an Old Lady.
This woman doesn’t fit any of those moulds.
I didn’t know what she had done since she got kicked out of the Devil’s, but she’d definitely levelled up.
“Have a seat,” she said in that honeyed voice of hers. “Would you like a drink?”
I shook my head, figuring like the discussion with my father, I was best to hold my tongue and my bitchiness because as much as I wanted to tell her to go to hell, it wouldn’t help.
Mace left the room and my heart started beating rapidly.
I don’t know why the thought of him leaving had me panicking. He was a part of this.
“You’re comfortable?”
I narrowed my eyes, was she for real?
“I suppose not,” she looked around. “The place is a step up from where you were before, we needed somewhere out of the way.”
“Somewhere my father couldn’t find me,” I drawled.
“See, you do get it.”