Chapter 11 Frost
ELEVEN
FROST
The second her arms slid around my waist; my cock came to life. I closed my eyes as I jammed my helmet over my head, willing my cock back down from deep within my soul. I didn’t even know I was capable of such a maneuver, yet somehow it worked.
I didn’t want to push my luck after convincing her to come with me.
Plus, that kind of thing couldn't be at the forefront of my mind. Not when we were at war with a cartel that didn’t have any beef with us in the first fucking place. I cranked my engine and looked around, allowing myself a moment to make sure no cars struck up their engines with me.
Then, we eased out of the parking lot and made our way toward the main road.
The ride was silent. I didn’t have those fancy Bluetooth helmets like some of the guys in our crew did, and that gave me time to think.
If she was giving me her time like this, then I had to make it worth her while.
I had to convince her that she was safest with me, and that meant being brutally honest with her about some shit.
And while I wasn’t ready to tell her much, I no longer had a choice in the matter.
If I wanted to protect her, I had to convince her that she needed protecting.
As I came to a stop as a stoplight, I was faced with two choices.
To the right was the pathway to my home.
A place I hadn’t been in weeks. Then, to the left was the on-ramp to get onto the highway so I could boogey toward the clubhouse.
I knew in my mind that I needed to take a left, but if someone was tailing us, I didn’t want to put the rest of the group at risk.
So, the second the light turned green, I took a hard right.
And once I did, a bright yellow and purple car pulled out behind us.
“Fuck,” I grumbled.
I had no way to communicate with Lexi, so I swerved in between two cars.
Her grip automatically tightened, and I hoped with all my might that she got the message.
I peered in my rearview mirror and watched as that bombastic, bright-ass car eased into the lane we were in.
So, I set my sights ahead of me and gritted my teeth.
Time to lose these motherfuckers.
I kicked it into gear and hopped up onto the curb.
Lexi shrieked, blanketing my ears with a sound that gripped my very gut.
I heard the car speeding up behind us to catch up and I tore down an alleyway to my right, skidding around a dumpster before I took a hard left.
I heard tires squealing behind me and I peered back long enough to see a red and orange car hop the curb and soar down the alleyway behind us.
And I knew there was only one real way of losing them.
“Hang on!” I bellowed.
Lexi tucked herself into me, her body shivering as her hands white-knuckled my leather jacket.
I pulled the gun off my hip and aimed it backward, popping the two front tires of the car to flatten them.
I holstered my weapon just as I kicked up burnt rubber to get back out onto the main road, and that damned purple and yellow car tried to cut me off.
But I vaulted into a parked car and flew over their heads as they came to a stop at a stoplight.
“Dean! Stop!” Lexi shrieked.
My motorcycle soared through the air before it crash-landed in the middle of a busy intersection.
Car horns honked and people cursed up a storm as I took to the left and stepped on the gas.
Sirens sounded in the distance. I heard car engines revving before the sounds of tires squealing with their brakes filled the air.
Burnt rubber wafted up my nostrils. The sounds of the sirens crept closer, and I knew I had to get the fuck out of there.
So, I tucked us into a pitch-black alleyway and cut the engine to my bike.
Lexi panted for air. “What the fuck are we--?”
“Shut up,” I commanded.
I held my breath while the police cars soared by us.
One by one, they blazed a trail right past the alleyway that concealed us, and as the sirens faded away, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I cracked my neck and stretched my hands above my head and waited to see if those cartel goons would creep up on us.
And when they didn’t, I cranked my bike up and eased us away from the cacophony.
I wanted to take Lexi straight back to the clubhouse, but I knew I couldn’t do that without her permission.
I knew Lexi like the back of my fucking hand, and if she didn’t want to do shit then she simply didn’t do it, and nothing I’d be able to say would ever convince her otherwise.
So, until I figured out a way to get her onto my side, I did the only thing I could do in that moment.
I took her back to my townhouse complex so that I could answer her questions without people eavesdropping all over the place.
As I eased us into a parking space off in the shadows of the parking lot that sat outside my place, she practically scrambled to get off the back of my bike.
I turned my torso, trying to hold my arm out to give her something to steady herself on, but it didn’t shock me one bit that she didn’t take the help.
She yanked the helmet off her head and tossed it at me like it was disease-ridden or something, and I knew that didn’t forecast a very pleasant conversation.
Nevertheless, I escorted her across the parking lot and into my place.
“So, this is where you are now, huh?” she asked.
I turned on the foyer light. “Yep. Home, sweet home.”
She nodded as she walked into the living room. “It’s a pretty nice place.”
I chuckled. “You sound shocked.”
And the second she whipped around, everything about her changed. “What in the absolute fuck was all of that, Dean!?”
I sighed as I leaned against the wall, trying to keep my cool since one of us needed to. “I’m sure you have many questions about the guys that came into the hospital.”
She leaned her ass against the back of the couch and folded her arms across her chest, her voice startlingly calm after her outburst. “I do, yes. And you’re going to answer every single one of them. Got it?”
I nodded. “Ask away. I’ll answer however I can.”
“Were those men at the hospital cartel, or bike crew?”
I didn’t skip a beat. “Cartel.”
“Are you with them? Or, no?”
I shook my head. “No. My crew is fighting them back.”
“What started that fight?”
I scoffed. “To be honest? We aren’t quite sure. We refused to sell to a customer one day, and then we blink, and we’re entrenched in a battle we’re struggling to fight.”
“So, you didn’t want to sell to them, so they figured they’d wipe you guys out and take over. Is that it?”
I furrowed my brow. “Yeah, that’s pretty much it.”
“And because we once fucked back in the day, I’m now a target.”
“I intervened on your behalf at the hospital, so they know that you’re important to me.”
She clicked her tongue. “So, it doesn't matter that I don’t give a shit about you. All that matters is how they perceive things.”
Her words stung, but I deserved them. “Correct.”
She drew in a deep breath. “So, you want to keep me safe while you’re off fighting a war with the cartel that’ll probably get you slaughtered all because you intervened when some guy was choking me out in the hospital after his friend died on the table.”
That was news to me. “Wait, the guy died?”
She nodded. “Yeah, he did. I came in for my first night of work and the GSW victim came in. I was asked to guard the door while the doctors worked in the E.R. as best as the could. From what I gathered, he lost too much blood and they couldn’t replace it quickly enough. His body simply gave out.”
I cocked my head. “You’re not a doctor like I knew you wanted to be? Why not?”
“Focus, Dean. I still have questions.”
I sighed. “All right, all right. Yeah. Go ahead. Hit me with ‘em.”
She pushed off the couch and took a few steps toward me. “Why did you intervene the other night?”
“What?”
“You heard me. Why did you intervene? Another security guard would’ve found me, and things would’ve been just fine, but you had to intervene. Why? Did you know your intervention would put me in their crossfire?”
I nodded. “I had a feeling it would, but I couldn't just let you stand there and get--.”
“So, it’s technically your fault that I’m in this position right now.”
“No, you’re in this position because you stood up to them and they didn’t like it—threatening them with the police and all that shit. Now, they see you as an enemy.”
“But you didn’t know that the night you stepped in, did you?”
My back stiffened. “We have to talk about how we’re going t--.”
“Did you, Dean?”
I growled. “No, I didn’t.”
She scoffed. “So, you know your presence in my life would make me a target in the middle of some war you’re fighting, but you did it anyway because… you wanted to get your dick wet? You wanted to be back in my life? You wanted to torture me some more? Is that it?”
I took a step toward her. “You’re wanting to lay blame when all I want to do is--.”
“Because there’s blame to lay, Dean! That’s why! You have shit you need to own up to because you left me high and fucking dry!”
I placed my hands on her shoulders. “I’m so sorry for how things ended with us. I’m so fucking sorry for being the coward that I was and taking some bullshit op that kept me away for so long.”
She swatted my touch away. “I don’t want to hear your stupid apologies. They’re useless, anyway.”
She turned her back to me and the second I heard her sniffle; it broke my heart.
I walked up to her and tried placing my hands on her shoulders again, but she slipped away and crossed the room.
It killed me, seeing her like that. All I wanted was to protect her, but she was still in so much pain and had no answers to what happened between us.
So, I launched into what happened.
“Remember the day we were talking, and my base got bombed?” I asked.
She kept her back to me. “Of course, I do.”