Chapter 37 #2
His cell phone rings, and he releases me to answer it. He listens, then says, “We’ll be right down.” He puts it back into his pocket, looking at me. “I need you to make sure that Ursula’s team is en route.”
I had called her before we came to Hedon, and I nod. “But where will you be?”
“I need to figure this out.”
“But I need you.” Panic lances through me, seizing my chest, and my fists curl into his suit jacket. “I need you to be safe, too.”
“I’m trained for this, little dove.” He leans down to kiss me softly. “Don’t forget, I grew up in the MC and was a Marine.”
I shake my head. “That doesn’t make you untouchable, and Guerilla will see you as expendable.”
“If it’s him.”
“It is,” I insist, and I can see he agrees that there’s a good possibility I’m right. “Guerilla is motivated—”
“Not more motivated than I am.” He plants a brutal, claiming kiss on my lips.
“I don’t know what the hell is going on here,” Riveria interjects, making us turn to her, and her beautiful face is etched with concern but also determination, “but I’ll help however I can, including if you need a place to hide, Leeva. Belinda and I will gladly help you out.”
“Thanks, Riv,” Hayes says with gratitude lacing his words. “However, I need Leeva protected behind fortified gates.”
“You’re locking me up?”
“Keeping you safe,” he stresses, pushing my hair back. “Just until we figure this out. Dom is here to get you; he and the Saints will continue to guard your place until Ursula and her men arrive.”
Ursula’s men, being her boyfriends and her personal security team—all ex-Special Ops.
Hayes tilts my face toward his, lifting my chin with his finger.
“I’ll probably need to stay away until we figure out exactly what’s going on and the magnitude of the threat.
But I need you to promise me you won’t try to run. ”
The tears are back, wanting to push forth, but I resist them. “Hayes, I’m a threat to you—”
“There’s a threat to me, regardless.”
My eyes flick between his. “You mean, the damage is already done.”
“If this is the worst-case scenario, then yes.” He stares at me with so much love that I want to stay forever and drown in it.
“I regret nothing about what we’ve done, Leeva.
My only regret is not telling you how much I love you all those years ago, so all the pain and your loss could have been avoided. ”
My tears won’t be denied any longer. “I don’t want to lose you, but I can’t be the cause of something happening to you either.”
He thumbs away my tears. “You’re my endgame, little dove.
My reason for breathing. My reason for living.
” He kisses me again. “I’ll take care of it, I promise.
Just don’t try to run. I can’t be distracted with that worry while I figure out a way to end this, so we get our happily ever after. Can you promise me that?”
“Yes,” I choke.
“Good girl.” His kiss is firmer this time, filled with all the love he’s had for me in the past and all the love he’s promising me for the future.
I cling to him when he rests his forehead on mine. “Put your mask back on.”
If no one knows what Hayes and I are wearing tonight, we might be able to slip out unnoticed.
I do as he says. He puts his mask back on, nods at Riveria, then takes my hand. With his other hand, he pulls his gun from the back of his waistband, ready to use it if needed.
However, no one attacks or tries to stop us. We actually don’t encounter anyone—attackers or staff—except for the security guard manning the back door. He eyes Hayes’ gun but nods and steps out of the way, likely having been given an order to do so by Riveria.
A black SUV with dark windows idles right outside the door. The SUV’s back door opens, and I’m funneled into the vehicle, taking only one step onto the concrete, protected by the open door on my right and Hayes blocking my body on the left.
“Directly to her house,” he orders the men inside, then says to me, “I love you, Leeva. Never forget that.”
Then the SUV door shuts, Hayes is gone, and we’re speeding away.
My lip quivers, so I bite it to make it stop as I pull off my mask and face my transporters.
The man beside me in the back seat has broad shoulders and looks muscular.
With the look of his long legs, I know he’s tall.
He has dark hair and a scar that runs through his eyebrow to the top of his eye.
The man driving appears to have a smaller, leaner build and a scar running down his cheek.
“I’m Dom,” the guy with the scarred brow introduces himself and motions to the driver. “My second-in-command, Hugo.”
“Hello.”
My voice sounds weak, so I clear my throat.
Hayes is likely marching straight into danger, possibly into the line of fire, so the least I can do is not come across as a teary-eyed, weak woman.
I might not have been born and raised in the MC life like Hayes, but I was still immersed in it, even if only on the periphery.
And I won’t wilt like some trembling flower.
“Hello,” I say more confidently. “I appreciate you helping us out.”
Dom settles into the seat, observing me with a smile. “I never got the pleasure of meeting you before. It’s nice to finally meet you.”
Neither he nor Hugo looks at me suggestively or judgmentally after picking me up from a sex club while I’m carrying a mask and wearing a scandalous dress. Dom pats my hand that’s clutched beside me on the seat. “Just relax; we’ll have you home in no time.”
“Thanks.” I try to do that, all while battling my panic that I won’t ever see Hayes again, along with my panic that I’ve just signed his death warrant.