9. Killian
9
KILLIAN
I glared after her retreating figure as she moved slowly back to her room.
If she wanted us to give her time before we showed up, she was doing a terrible job of convincing me.
Fuck, but if I hadn’t followed her on the bus and woke her up at her stop, she would have missed it. Who knew where she would have ended up then? This wasn’t exactly the nicest part of the city, and I was sure the places where the bus was heading toward were worse than this shitty place.
Fuck, but how had she made it through the first twenty-four years of taking care of herself? ’Cause I was sure her parents hadn’t done shit.
This girl needed a keeper. Lucky for her, I was the man up for the job. And once I caught her, she would stay kept. No matter what.
I didn’t exactly agree with Maverick when he said to take it slow, even if that was what I told Silas. A fucking day had passed, and all we managed to do was kick a couple of lowlifes out of the motel rooms next to hers and take over.
And all I managed to do was follow her all day. And now, I watched as she walked to her hotel room, her back slumped over and her feet stumbling, as if it was taking all her effort just to stay upright.
My fist clenched.
I didn’t know what was wrong with her, but I planned on finding out soon .
I didn’t give a fuck about taking it slow anymore. Our girl was suffering, and all we were doing was dicking around.
Silas was off somewhere, doing whatever it was that he did. I didn’t bother asking him, nor did I care what he got up to. I was finding it hard to care about anything that didn’t involve Mila these days. Even business. Fuck, especially business. That meeting with the fucker Vincent wasn’t one of my best. I had been out of it and only a hair trigger away from acting on impulse. Unlucky for the fucker, he pulled the trigger when he brought Mila up. The price he paid was with his life, and I didn’t fucking regret that.
I’d rarely ever regretted a kill.
My eyes moved over to where Mila had disappeared. Would I have regretted killing her had Silas not stopped me that day? I didn’t think so. I didn’t even know her then. I might have hesitated from the first look of her through the scope, but I would have gone through with it.
I wouldn’t be able to do it now, Daniel Hayes' daughter or not. I didn’t know what it was that I felt for her. It was much more intense than what it had been with Lilliana. And that scared the shit out of me.
I swallowed and quietly moved over to the motel room I shared with Silas, looking down at my phone for the time. It was still several hours away before I could make my move. Fortunately, I was a patient man. Especially when it came to the things I wanted most.
It was past midnight when I decided it was safe to move.
Silas and Maverick still weren't back. Silas—well, I didn’t know what he was up to. He had been off since Mila left, and though we found her, there was still something about him that didn’t sit right. I might have been more concerned over that if my emotions weren’t all over the place.
Maverick was gone because he had to head back to the city and wouldn’t return until the following day. Something about dealing with the fallout of the Cadorna Famiglia’s new heir. Something I didn’t give a shit about, even if I had caused it. I still didn’t think we needed the Cadorna clan to help with our shipments. They provided a safe route to California, but it wasn’t like we didn’t have the means to get there ourselves.
We couldn’t use our uncle in Las Vegas because the paranoid fucker still wasn’t fully convinced we weren’t after his empire. It didn’t matter. Once the old man kicks the bucket and leaves his entire kingdom to his one and only heir, our cousin, Finley, we won’t have to deal with him anymore. Until then, we were simply playing the waiting game with Las Vegas.
My one and only concern was whoever owned Stocken Isle. Rumor had it that the owner lived in Chicago. My brothers and I had combed through every possible person in Chicago who could own Stocken Isle, but we seemed to have run into a dead end.
At this point, I wanted to believe it was nothing more than a rumor with no truth to it.
I shook my head as I pulled the hood over my head. Dressed in all black, I hoped to blend in with the night. It wouldn’t do well if someone saw me and decided to call the cops. Wouldn't have stopped me from going to get what was mine, but it was a headache I didn’t want to deal with.
The streetlamps on the property were either broken or dimmed. They barely provided enough lighting for anything, which made things easier, but this only drew attention to the fact that Mila had been staying in such a crappy place to begin with. And had we not found her, she would have continued to stay here without protection. Exactly what was she planning on doing after running away?
It was obvious that she hadn’t thought it through. And perhaps we had gone about it the wrong way, keeping the truth from her about her birth control pills. I always thought honesty was the way to go. It wouldn’t have changed the way we went about things, but at least we would have been honest about it. And it wouldn’t have given her a reason—an excuse —to leave.
And we wouldn’t be here.
I wouldn’t be here, picking the lock to her motel room.
I would have been back at home, in bed, preferably with her next to me, wrapped up in my arms.
I paused in my movements from the thoughts. I couldn’t even remember the last time I wanted to spend the night with another woman. But hell, if I didn’t want that with Mila.
I pushed the pick further inside the lock and smiled to myself when I heard the subtle click, telling me I had disengaged the lock.
Quietly, I pushed the door open a crack, and when I heard nothing but silence coming from the room, I pushed it open far enough for me to slip inside. I closed the door quietly behind me, waiting for my eyes to adjust.
I could just make out her tiny form, sleeping in the middle of the bed.
She barely stirred.
I shuffled closer, my heart beating so fucking loudly in my chest I was afraid she might hear it and wake up.
My hands reached out for her.
The first touch on her face was like coming home. I let out a deep exhale, feeling the weight that had been pressing down on my chest dissipating and the darkness that had surrounded me like a second skin slowly pulling back, hidden just enough for me to function.
I felt more human with her around.
My fingers moved down the side of her face, taking in the softness of her skin there.
She breathed out evenly as I got to her lips, and I let my finger trace lightly over the outline, taking in their plumpness.
“Fuck, but I missed you,” I whispered quietly. She didn’t hear me. Of course she didn’t, but that little confession was like the final wrecking ball to the walls I had built around my heart since my teenage years.
The impact was so strong, so sudden, I almost fell down to my knees.
I took in a deep breath and tried to steady myself.
I frowned when my fingers moved up and got to her forehead. She was hot. And sweaty. And now that I thought about it, her cheeks had been hot. Was that why she looked so… off? Was it why she nearly missed her bus stop?
Was she sick?
I pulled the blanket a little further down her body, not that it would tell me anything. Not in this dark room, but fuck. My fist clenched as a wave of helplessness washed through me. It was a feeling I didn’t have very often. Not in my adulthood, but this?
I didn’t fucking know what to do.
My hand moved back to her face, taking in the temperature. It wasn’t normal. She was hot. Too hot, and fuck, but I wasn’t sure if I should call for Dr. Lee to come by or not. That would probably cue her to the fact that we found her if she woke up to find the doctor in her room treating her.
I shook away the ridiculous thought, my hand moving up to her hair and taking in the soft strands around my fingers.
She muttered something in her sleep, and I stilled, wondering if she would wake up now. It would probably scare her to see me standing here, but I couldn't bring myself to move.
She didn’t wake up.
A small frown appeared between her brows. I let go of her hair and ran my fingers between it, smoothing out the skin there. “Baby,” I murmured.
She relaxed and turned slightly away from me, letting out a small sigh. Unable to stop myself, I pulled the covers back and got into the bed beside her.
She was still deep asleep when I pressed my body against her, molding myself to her. I wrapped my arms around her middle, and I could hear her let out another small sigh. I liked to believe it was one made in relief of knowing she didn’t have to be on guard all the time now. Not when I was here.
“Sleep, sweetheart. I won’t let anything happen to you,” I promised. It was going to be the one I took with me to the grave.
Her hand came up and pressed against mine. For a moment, I thought she had awoken, but she did nothing but leave her hand there.
I pulled her tighter against me, wondering how the hell I was supposed to leave her now once morning came.
I didn’t sleep.
I couldn’t. I stayed up the entire night and watched her.
She never woke up, and at one point, she turned toward me, burying her face in my chest, her arms moving around me.
I felt my heart skip a beat from the move, and I didn’t know what to make of my reaction.
She was still such a mystery to me. Everything about her, and even the way she was able to make me feel simply by existing, never made sense. Not from the beginning and not now.
And I didn’t know what to make of my feelings and my reactions to her. Did I…
Did I love her?
I tightened my arms around her from the thought. It was too early for that. There was no way I loved her.
I had thought I loved Lilliana once when I was nothing more than a reckless, na?ve fifteen-year-old boy, but looking back, I wasn’t sure if what I felt was love. Certainly, it didn’t feel like that with Mila.
I shook away the thought when the sun started to peek through the clouds, and I knew I had to leave.
I squeezed her to me once more, pressing a small kiss to her cheek before I quietly got out of the bed. I tucked the blanket around her body and moved my hand to her forehead. She was still a little hot but nowhere near as bad as it had been the night before. Perhaps all she needed was a good night's sleep.
I frowned. I still thought she should see a doctor, but how would I get her to see one?
Cursing silently, I slipped out of the room, locking it behind me and taking in the cool morning air.
My eyes scanned my surroundings, my thoughts firmly placed on the sleeping girl behind me. My body felt wrong. Like it was physically rejecting the idea of leaving her.
I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to get myself under control when movement across the property line of the motel caught my attention. I narrowed my eyes at that. It could be nothing.
But I didn’t know many fuckers who would loiter about in a shitty motel’s parking lot at five in the morning, and my gut told me it wasn’t nothing.
My gut was rarely ever wrong. I kept my expression neutral as I walked away from the motel room and out to the side of the property. And it was as I predicted. The fucking shadow followed me.
I walked between two buildings that housed a handful of motel rooms each, purposely slowing my steps for the fucker to catch up, nearly shaking my head in disgust at how much noise he was making. Either he wanted me to know that he was following me, or the fucker didn’t have enough experience following another person.
I turned the corner and waited.
He didn’t disappoint. He turned the corner, pulling up short when he noticed me there, but it was too late.
I pushed him up against the wall, my arms pressed down on his neck, and watched as the fucker struggled to get out of my hold. He wasn’t going to get out of it unless I let him.
“Why are you following me?” I asked, bringing my face close to his. I didn’t recognize him. Short brown hair, pale skin, and sunken brown eyes. He could have been any fucker out there. On the short side of average, I towered over him by at least seven inches and outweighed him by about twenty pounds. He appeared to be strung out on drugs. So now, why would a fucker like him follow me?
I smiled as my hand moved down his body, stopping when I found something hard. I pulled the gun out and threw it to my left, far from his reach, and kept searching him. I found a small blade on the fucker and threw that away.
Panic reached his eyes when he realized he was completely defenseless. I laughed. He was defenseless against me, with or without the weapons.
“I’ll ask again. Why are you following me?”
He shook his head, his skin turning an interesting shade of purple. I let up my hold on his neck, and he gasped, gulping in as much air as he could. I waited.
He didn’t answer me.
I leaned down a little closer. “No? You don’t want to answer me? I can make you talk if you want?”
Fear appeared in his expression, and I waited. Fucker was lucky I didn’t have an empty room I could bring him to. If I brought him back to the room Silas and I shared, I would have to gag him in case Mila could hear.
“I-I was just following orders.”
“Whose?”
“My president. Please. I’m a recruit, and they needed me to do something to prove myself.”
“President? You mean for the Heartless Saints MC?” I asked. I didn’t need him to clarify for me.
The fucker nodded.
“And have you met this president of yours?”
Again, he nodded.
I smiled, showing teeth. Tears seeped out of his eyes from the sight. What kind of men was the MC recruiting? Hell, Mila showed more bravery than this when we first took her.
“You’re going to tell me everything about them. And more importantly, where to find them.”
“And th-then you’ll let me go?” he asked.
I let out a small chuckle. “Sure, Johnny. I’ll let you go.”
“My name’s, uh, name’s not Johnny.”
Fuck, what an amusing little prospect. “It won’t fucking matter.”