Chapter 8
Donavan
I take risks every day. Some days I’m in the mood to mitigate the chance of dying, but for the most part, I couldn’t care less if any given day could be my last. I defied death once, and where did it get me?
I haven’t been able to outrun my demons no matter how much distance I put between Chicago and me.
Hell, my sister still somehow ended up right exactly where I am. I realized there’s no escaping destiny.
The fact that I’m still in Lindell, parked outside of the hotel I followed Alani and her sister to last night, should be cause for concern.
Hell, Cerberus is watching me while I keep my eyes locked on the front door, but I’m not the only one who had this idea.
Nash’s pitiful ass is here too, looking like a lost fucking puppy who got smacked with a rolled-up newspaper for pissing on the floor. How he’s not licking that woman’s blood from his fingers after what she did to him, I’ll never understand.
But then again, vengeance doesn’t ever bring back the things that have been lost. I know from firsthand experience.
Marcello and Alessio’s deaths brought no peace.
If anything, the effort of going to Chicago was wasted.
If it hadn’t been for Madelene’s abduction, I wouldn’t have expended the energy.
I severed ties and thought I had erased all semblance of loyalty to my family years ago.
But that tiny part of me, the man who remembers the love I felt at home despite the hell I was going through with the Severino family, pulled me in to help.
Vengeance, though, was my number one priority.
One of the Cerberus members goes to Nash’s vehicle and speaks with him.
I feel both pairs of their eyes look in my direction, but I pay them no mind.
They don’t exactly seem annoyed enough with my presence to confront me, but I’d be a fool to think they’d just let me walk into that fucking hotel unchecked.
When the biker finishes his conversation with Nash, I watch him walk back and stand sentry at the front door. He looks casual enough, but I know he’d put a clip of metal in my ass if I attempted to walk past him.
I spot Nash climbing out of his truck, but instead of him approaching me, he diverts his path and walks right past the man and through the front door of the hotel. I know I won’t be afforded the same luxury. Nash was hurt and tortured for weeks. It gives him a pass.
I’m the man that stuck a stick in the fucking hornet’s nest that’s the Cerberus MC, and that’s not something that will be forgiven easily, if ever.
It isn’t long before the front doors slide back open and much to my surprise, Ayla and her sister come out, walking beside Nash rather than being escorted by a member of Cerberus. Maybe the man has more power over the club than I initially thought.
As Alani looks all around the parking lot, I let myself believe that she’s looking for me. When she actually sweeps her eyes in my direction, she looks pissed.
She mouths a curse word before determined legs carry her in my direction. I sit a little straighter in my truck, watching the bounce of her fucking perfect tits as she approaches, surprising me when she tugs open the passenger side door rather than confronting me from the driver’s side.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” she yells the second she climbs inside.
As much as I want my hand around her throat, her angry breaths on my skin, I lock my eyes on the Cerberus man still standing in front of the hotel. It’s a real possibility I’ll slit his throat if he even thinks to interrupt her little tantrum.
“Kidnapping!” Her animated hands are flying all over the place. Although I can control the look on my face, I can’t control my cock, and the damn thing is making its own set of demands.
“Did you miss me, little bird?” I ask, turning my head a few inches in her direction.
I know she’s going to hit me seconds before she strikes out, but I do nothing to stop it. The impact on my cheek is enough to turn my face so I’m fully facing her.
Terror fills her eyes, and maybe that’s a lesson she needs to be taught—to only act when you’re prepared for whatever the consequences might be.
My jaw flexes, a fight against showing her what such a level of disrespect will get her, but instead of gripping her throat, knowing I’ll only be stopped, I decide to bide my time, looking straight ahead.
Like a petulant child who has no idea the level of danger she’s in now, Alani snaps her eyes forward, a stubborn set to her jaw.
“Seatbelt,” I growl as I watch her sister and Nash climb into his truck.
I’m a safe driver, but accidents happen. I’ll be damned if anything other than me will hurt her any time soon.
She doesn’t say another word as I follow Nash, ending up parked in front of a bank.
Her eyes burn into the side of my head before she sighs in frustration and climbs out of my truck.
Of course, it doesn’t take much longer after the women walk into the bank for Nash to end up at my window. The reprieve I thought I got at the hotel fades away like a distant memory.
He purposely blocks my view of the bank until I roll down my window.
“Got a fucking problem?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing,” he snaps.
I pull my eyes from the front of the bank to look at him.
“Explain to me how a girl who you abducted feels comfortable enough to not only climb in your truck but slap you in the face without fear.”
The implication in his voice is almost enough to make me climb out of this truck and prove to him exactly who I am.
“I don’t fucking hurt women.”
“You abducted her,” he argues.
“I tried other ways to keep an eye on her. They didn’t work.”
“You fucked her,” he guesses.
Silence fills the cab of the truck. I don’t owe this man any type of explanation.
“You took advantage, asshole. She’s like fucking eighteen. She—”
“She wasn’t a fucking virgin if that’s what you’re accusing me of,” I snap. “I didn’t drug her. I didn’t abuse her. In fact, I couldn’t keep her off my dick.”
It’s not the full truth, but she had the chance to leave my room and she crawled into the bed instead.
“That’s enough. Ayla’s going to be pissed that you’re doing the whole barely legal thing with her little sister.”
I fight the urge to smile. Barely legal. Her age is the least of this man’s worries if I consider the smirk on her lips before I walked out of the house last night.
“I don’t fucking answer to Ayla, now do I?” I say instead.
“Watch it,” he warns.
I keep my eyes pinned to the front of the bank. He’s looking in that direction as well when the women walk out, an envelope clutched in Ayla’s hand.
Alani doesn’t look in my direction, not even when Nash walks away from my truck without another word.
I don’t hesitate to pull out right behind Nash’s truck when he leaves the bank parking lot. I don’t have a plan, and, if anything, I’m doing my best to shove down the idea that threatens to pop up in my head.
We end up back on campus, and I grab a parking spot close to the entrance of Alani’s dorm, waiting for her to climb out of Nash’s truck.
My position will force her to walk right past my truck, so I climb out of the cab and wait near the hood.
She walks by me without so much as diverting her eyes to me.
The lack of attention feels like a punishment, much like I’m sure she thought the slap to my face was.
I lick at dry lips, resisting the urge to grab her by the arm. With how protective Nash is of Ayla, the sister is ten times that of Alani. She went through hell and back to protect the girl, and I know today would be no different.
As she disappears inside, I have no other recourse but to climb back in the cab of my truck, but I don’t back out of the parking spot.
Ayla doesn’t climb out of Nash’s truck, and I’m still sitting here, having no plan, as they leave.
The job is over. I have no doubt payment for it will be in my bank account by tomorrow morning. There’s absolutely no reason for me to stay, but I can’t seem to leave either.
The threat that brought me to Lindell in the first place is just as real today as it was yesterday when I dragged Alani to my truck.
I know Nash hasn’t forgotten it, but Alani is still alone inside, left with no protection.
Cerberus is probably still slinking around campus, but they can’t be everywhere at once.
Their obligation, if I know anything about the club, is to everyone, not just one person in particular.
Alani will get no more attention from them than any other person on campus even with an active threat against her.
My blood boils at the prospect of someone else thinking they have any right to the woman inside the dorm building.
I know Ayla warned her sister, told her to be vigilant, but after just watching the younger woman, I know she wants danger.
There aren’t many people who can imagine what trafficked women go through even when told by someone with firsthand experience.
I also don’t doubt Ayla watered down what really happened to her to protect her sister, considering what she was willing to endure in Mexico to keep her safe.
I war with myself literally all day, but it seems like in the blink of an eye rather than hours, the sun sets behind her building, casting the front in an ominous glow. The light on the front only reaches a few feet into the darkness.
I’m out of my truck the second I see her walk outside, looking in my direction.
An unexplained thrill hits me in the gut that her first instinct is to check and see if I’m still here, but then I freeze, my hand lifting to the gun tucked in my belt when someone else steps out of the shadows.
It proves how fucking sloppy this girl is making me, and that alone should make me bolt and put all of Lindell behind me.
When I realize it’s that female Cerberus bitch, my steps falter. There’s still a part of me that wants to put a bullet in her fucking head. I don’t, simply because of the shitstorm it would bring down on me.
I’m reconsidering if it might be worth it when I’m forced to stand there and watch the two of them walk away.