Chapter 20 #2
Darren returned it immediately, his knuckles connecting with Luke’s shoulder before the two of them grappled again, boots scraping against the concrete.
“Fucking prick!” Darren snarled.
Luke shoved him backwards and drove his fist into his stomach.
Darren folded slightly but managed to grab Luke’s jacket, dragging him down with him. They both crashed against a metal bin, the clang loud enough to make me flinch.
For a second they struggled, each trying to get the upper hand. Every second felt like an hour, and I watched in slow motion as Darren got Luke in a chokehold, squeezing the breath out of him. I almost thought he had won… And then Luke’s head snapped backwards, connecting with Darren’s nose.
He spun around, kicking Darren in the stomach, sending him stumbling backwards, and then his arm was up, pinning Darren to the wall by his throat.
“Stay away from her,” Luke snapped, his face dangerously close to the older boy.
Darren tried to swing again, but Luke was ready. He slammed his spare fist into Darren’s ribs, and I heard the wheeze leaving Darren’s lungs from where I was standing.
Darren crumbled and Luke let him fall, stepping back as his body hit the floor. Luke turned his head, his gaze snapping in my direction, glaring at me.
“Fucking Devils,” Darren muttered from the floor, coughing his lungs up.
Luke didn’t answer.
He just stepped back slowly, never taking his eyes off me.
“You done?” Dante asked casually as Luke approached us. The entire time, he had been stood with his arms folded across his chest, watching the whole thing unfold with the sort of bored patience that suggested he had seen this exact scenario play out a hundred times before.
Luke didn’t look away from me. “Yeah.”
“I’ll deal with the Rider. Good luck, princess,” Dante said, inclining his head at me before walking over to Darren and holding his hand out, helping him get off the floor.
“You don’t hit a man when he’s on the deck,” my dad’s voice whispered in my mind.
These bikers had a weird code of conduct.
“This isn’t over,” Darren called over to Luke.
“It is for tonight, lover boy,” Dante laughed.
Darren hesitated, clearly weighing up his chances. Then he turned and stalked out of the alley with Dante following him to make sure he wasn’t coming back.
Only when he disappeared around the corner did Luke finally speak to me. “Are you hurt?”
I shook my head, and his shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Good.” Then his expression darkened again. “Get on the bike.”
The tension was so thick I could taste it.
After snapping at me to get on the bike, Luke had all but thrown his helmet at me, having not brought a spare, and started the engine without another word.
The set of his shoulders and the tightness of his lips left me in no doubt that there was no room for negotiation. I either got on his bike, or he was putting me on it himself.
As mad as he was, though, not for a single second did I ever feel a flicker of fear in his presence.
The minute he felt my weight behind him, he had shrugged out of his leather cut and handed it to me without a word.
And though he drove like a maniac to get me back home, I felt safe in his gear.
I felt safe with his driving skills. He had me protected.
The smell of him, the familiarity of the leather jacket, the same scent I had grown up with, mixed with the warmth that was Luke, had me leaning closer, breathing him in. The anger was radiating off him, and all I wanted to do was drown in his scent.
Darren hadn’t been wrong when he said sixteen-year-olds had raging hormones. He just wasn’t the target of my affections.
Luke was.
The big, stupid, goofy brute who had just taken on his rival for me—in enemy territory, no less.
The idiotic, loveable comedian who had been pulling away from me more and more for months.
The handsome, scary, almost a man that I was certain I was falling in love with.
I never wanted this bike ride to end.
But all too soon, we were pulling up on the outskirts of my property, the same place we had shared a night together only a year or so ago, and yet things couldn’t have felt more different.
Luke brought the bike to a stop and silently held his hand out for his stuff back.
“Luke…”
“Get in the fucking house, Gabby.”
“Luke, we need to talk about this,” I said, swinging my leg off the bike and coming to stand next to him. He kept his gaze focused ahead, refusing to meet my eyes.
“No, we don’t,” he replied through gritted teeth. “What you need to do is get into that house before I say something I’ll regret.”
“I don’t understand why you’re so mad.”
“Don’t do this.”
“I’m doing it! Talk to me! Why are you so angry? Why have you been pushing me away? Why aren’t you my Luke anymore?”
“Your Luke?” he barked, pushing off his bike, knocking it to the floor with his anger, and coming to stand in front of me, glaring down at me.
“Your Luke? You have the nerve to call me yours, when the only time you’ve rung me in months is to save you from a date with another man?
When did you stop being mine, Gabby? Huh? When?!”
“Since you never fucking asked me to be!” I screamed back at him.
“What did you want from me? Were you waiting for me to ask for your father’s permission? Were you hoping for a property cut and an old lady title? I gave you all I could fucking give you!”
“What?” I asked, ready to launch into another rant, but he beat me to it.
“Don’t you think I see how our world works?
Don’t you think I see Dante and Laura? How they’re forced together, how it's expected she’ll be his old lady?
She was raised in this world, and yet she can’t fucking stand it.
Even at sixteen, she’s screaming at him about being unhappy and how she doesn’t want this.
And they are approved. How was I supposed to give you anything more when you’re the princess of the Riders? I gave you all I could, Gabby!”
“You gave me nothing!” I yelled, my chest heaving. “All I ever wanted was your friendship. All I ever asked for was your communication. I gave you all I had, and it wasn’t good enough. You pulled away from me, Luke. You did this!” I shoved his chest as I spoke, pathetic tears springing to my eyes.
“But that doesn’t mean you throw yourself at the nearest man available!” he yelled back, even though he flinched as soon as the words left his mouth.
“You have no idea what it’s like, Luke! None at all! Darren… he was the better of two options! I have my own fucking cousin drooling over me, making sly fucking comments, hinting and pushing, and… You don’t get it, you never fucking did!” I was almost wailing by the time I was done.
“Hey, hey, hey,” Luke soothed, all traces of his anger gone. He gathered me into his arms and held me close. “I’m sorry, Gabby. Please don’t cry. I can’t stand it.”
“I’m sorry,” I sobbed, my breath hiccupping.
“Don’t apologise, either,” he half laughed, half groaned. He pulled away and brought his hands up to my face, cupping my cheeks. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry,” he repeated, his eyes scanning mine.
“It’s okay,” I whispered.
“No. It’s not.”
“So then why—”
“I was jealous, Gabby, okay? Is that what you needed to hear? I was jealous, and I was scared… and then I was relieved, and I took it all out on you. I’m sorry.”
“I’m sorry, too.”
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” he said, pulling me back into a hug. “Friends?” he murmured into my hair.
“Friends,” I repeated, nodding back the best I could against his tight grip.
“Good. Get inside before Darren beats you home and gives his version of events. Dante will be trying to convince him not to say anything, but—”
“I understand,” I nodded, stepping back from him.
“Go straight upstairs, wash your face, and act normal. Act as though Dante got through to him. We’ll deal with anything else later.”
I nodded again, not knowing what else to say.
“Text me when you’re in your… shit! Dante has my phone.”
“It’s okay. I’ll text you anyway.”
“No. I can’t wait that long. Get to your room, and if everything is okay, flick the lights on and off.”
“What?” I laughed.
“I need to know, Gabby. I need to know your dad isn’t waiting for you. I can’t come in there myself, so please just flick the light and let me know you’re okay and you made it to your bedroom without your dad seeing you.”
“I will, I promise,” I said, stepping closer to him. I could see how panicked he was, so I mimicked his earlier movement and cupped his cheeks with my hands. “I’ll flick the light on and off. Everything is going to be okay.”
He brought his hands up to mine, grasping my wrists, and then turned his face to kiss the palm of my hand.
“Go,” he said, his eyes blazing with emotions I couldn’t comprehend, yet understood instinctively.
Obeying him, I turned, and I ran back to the house.
Luke
Sitting back on my bike, clenching and unclenching my fists, I forced myself to take steadying breaths. I couldn’t fight the sheer terror that had flown through me when she had first whispered my name on the phone. It had hit me like a tonne of bricks, and the feeling hadn’t left since.
Her whispers… the gasping sobs…
Fuck!
My hands were still shaking, my knuckles throbbing from Darren’s stupid face.
She scared the shit out of me.
I had only felt like that once, and that was when I had found my mum’s dead body. The entire drive over to Gabby, I thought the worst. I thought he had done something to her. That he had hurt her.
That he had taken something from her that he had no right to take.
My jaw tightened at the thought, and I scrubbed a hand down my face, dragging in a long breath of cold night air. The quiet around the house felt too loud after the roar of the bike and the chaos of the alley.
I flexed my fingers, wincing slightly as the skin across my knuckles pulled tight.
Worth it. Every single second had been worth it.
The house lights were still dark.
For a moment, I wondered if Darren had beaten her home. If he were waiting inside. If she had walked straight into something worse than him, if he had got to her dad first.
My stomach twisted.
I pushed myself off the bike and paced a few steps across the gravel, scanning the road behind me out of habit.
Rider territory stretched out in every direction, quiet for now, but that didn’t mean much.
Darren might have had enough sense to walk away tonight, but there were plenty of others who would happily cause problems if they realised a Devil had crossed the line.
None of that mattered to me at that moment.
All that mattered was that house.
I stopped pacing and leaned against the bike again, my eyes fixed on the dark window I knew belonged to Gabby’s room.
Come on.
The seconds dragged.
Then, suddenly, the light flicked on.
I straightened instinctively, every muscle in my body tightening as I watched the window.
The light flicked off.
On again.
Off.
I let out a quiet laugh under my breath and shook my head at myself, the tension bleeding out of my shoulders at last.
“Dumb kid,” I muttered, and the relief settled warm and heavy in my chest.
Reaching forward, I flicked the bike’s headlight twice before starting the engine, the familiar roar cutting through the quiet street.
Just in case she was watching.
I didn’t look back again.
But I knew she would have seen it.
And that was enough.