Chapter 21
TWENTY-ONE
WEST
The second I closed the door behind me, I silenced my footsteps.
They knew we had gone up, and I used that to my advantage.
I couldn't hear the sound of Chloe’s fingers clacking against the keyboard, so I knew they wouldn't be able to hear it below us.
So, I rushed as quickly as I could while keeping silent and turned on a couple of lights I found in some of the abandoned office rooms.
We’re in an abandoned office building. Wonderful.
Men ran around beneath me while Carlos barked orders in Spanish.
I found a couple of desks to rummage through and found some pens that I knew could be used in a pinch for a plethora of things.
I stuffed my pockets full of anything I could find that I figured might be useful, and as I made my way back to Chloe, the men came up the other set of stairs.
I practically lunged for Chloe’s office door and ripped it open.
“Chloe, we have t—”
“Fuck you!” she exclaimed.
She grabbed her gun so God damn quickly that I ended up pivoting back into the hallway.
Thankfully, however, she didn’t shoot. I peeked my eyes around the frame of the door and found her eyes wide.
Her face pale. Her stance crooked. She was scared out of her fucking mind, but she held that gun with all of the confidence in the world.
“It’s just me,” I said breathlessly. “You almost done?”
She groaned as she lowered her weapon. “Almost. Got ninety-eight percent downloaded.”
“Check every fucking room,” Carlos growled as a door opened in the hallway next to us.
“Come on, Chlo,” I murmured.
She ripped the USB drive out of the computer tower. “Got it. Let’s go.”
She capped the charm on her necklace, and I swear to hell on high, I almost told her I loved her right then and there.
She scooped her gun off the table, and I ushered her out into the hallway, pushing her toward the nearest set of steps.
I kept my lips buttoned, providing her a model for just how quiet we needed to be.
And as we made our way down the steps, the men above us ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.
“Boss! We got a problem in here!”
“They found the computer,” Chloe whispered.
I didn’t stop moving until we were on the main floor of the abandoned building. “Let’s go find ourselves a vehicle to hotwire. Come on. There’s a back exit over here.”
“What if there are—”
I groaned. “Would you just shut up and come on, please?”
Believe it or not, we got out of that building without having to pop off another single shot.
I shoved my shoulder into the emergency exit door and the alarm sounded.
I winced at how loud it was. Carlos screamed over it, footsteps moving as quickly as they could.
And with my head on a swivel, I found a shadow that didn’t quite look like all the others.
“There, you see it?” I asked as I pointed off to our left.
“The alleyway? Yeah, I see it,” Chloe said breathlessly.
“There’s a car. Let’s go.”
Without question or hesitation, she ran in front of me. We sprinted toward the shadow that was just a bit thicker than the rest of the shadows around us and the two-door car that greeted us made my heart skip a beat. Something with some kick, thank fucking God.
“Are we really this lucky?” I murmured as I reached for the driver’s side door.
And when the door opened effortlessly for me, I knew there was a God.
“Yes,” Chloe hissed.
We dropped onto the buttery leather seats, and I knew whose car this was.
It had to be Carlos’ vehicle. It simply had to be.
It was much too nice and much too souped-up to be the car of someone that worked for him.
I ripped out the plate beneath the steering wheel and used one of the pens as leverage to break them away from the main circuit board.
I stripped a couple of the wires and twisted them together, and after that it was simply a matter of luck.
“Come on,” I grumbled as I touched a third wire to the two I had already tied together.
And after a few clicks, the car came to life.
“Yes!” Chloe exclaimed. “Holy fucking hell, that was hot, West!”
I barked with laughter. “Hold onto your tits, Chloe. We’re busting out of this joint.”
I threw the car into gear and slammed on the gas.
We peeled out of the alleyway while shadows rushed around behind the cracked and shattered windows of that fucking abandoned building.
I kept checking my mirrors, making sure none of those asshats followed us back to the warehouse.
And while I didn’t see anyone, I knew it was only a matter of time before they caught up with us.
So, I wasted no time in speeding all the way back.
“God, I never thought I’d be so happy to see this place,” Chloe whispered.
I skidded to a stop right in front of the door to the warehouse. It burst open and Stone stormed out with Texas and the rest of the guys hot on his heels. They surrounded the blacked-out sports car. Chloe instinctively took my hand as I threw the car into park and cut the engine.
And the second we stepped out, Stone laid into us.
“You fucking two have a lot of damn nerve—”
The second he saw the injuries on my face, he studied Chloe, who had gotten out right in front of him. His head tilted off to the side before his eyes darkened, and his gaze locked with my own.
“Notch, go get the girls. These two need to be checked out,” Stone commanded.
I’d never seen Notch move quicker in all his fucking life.
Utter chaos erupted as they ushered us inside. We both sat down at the kitchen table and Chloe refused to release my hand while they stitched up our wounds and iced our bruises. They gave us a thorough examination, even going so far as to test how badly our ribs and muscles were bruised.
And after Notch gave both of us the all-clear, Stone pulled up a chair.
“Start from the beginning and tell me everything that happened,” he said flatly.
Chloe cleared her throat. “Well, I had to leave to go do something that was sort of in the works before all of this happened, and when I met with—”
I still wasn’t comfortable telling Stone everything, so I interjected. “She had a project for work. She couldn’t get off the project, so she had to go into town and turn some stuff in so she didn’t lose her job. I followed her to make sure she was okay, and we were jumped by the cartel.”
Stone’s eyes didn’t waver from Chloe’s face. “How did they take you?”
Chloe sighed. “We were tossed into the back of a van. At least, I think it was a van. Then, they took us to some abandoned office building somewhere and beat on us for information.”
His eyes finally panned over to mine. “How did you guys get away?”
I sighed. “How the hell do we always get away? I killed some of them, took their weapons, and we hotwired a car to get back here.”
He stood to his feet. “The three of us need to talk more in private. If you guys could follow—”
I looked over at Chloe and watched as her eyes drooped. The girl was so damned tired that her head started to bob. I walked over to her and scooped her into my arms. She curled instinctively into me, gripping the collar of my shirt so hard that I wasn’t sure I’d get her to let go.
“Can we talk tomorrow? The both of us need some rest,” I said.
Stone blinked. “I know the two of you are lying to me. I’m not sure about what, but I know you’re hiding something.
And if you think for one second that your lies are going to help us at all, you’re sorely mistaken.
So, heed my warning: if the two of you leave without permission again, both of you will be tossed out onto your asses. ”
“Stone,” Texas said.
The man held his hand up. “I have to protect the masses. I charged you with protecting her. And if those two missions don’t coincide, it’ll be nothing but a numbers game. Got it?”
I swallowed down the sheer fury working its way up my throat. “Yeah. Got it.”
“Good. We’ll talk tomorrow, first thing.”
I stared him down for a few more seconds before I carried her through the hallway.
Everyone’s eyes were on us as I hobbled, trying my best to keep my muscles moving when all they wanted to do was collapse.
I took her straight into my room before I kicked the door closed.
I used my elbow to throw the lock, then I walked over and laid Chloe gingerly on the side of the bed that I never occupied.
“What did you mean when you said you couldn’t lose me again?” she asked softly.
I slid her shoes off and perched on the edge of the bed. “What was that, beautiful?”
She turned onto her back. “That’s what you said. You said something like, ‘I can’t do this again.’ Or, ‘I can’t lose her again.’ Or, something like that. What did you mean?”
I knew exactly the moment she was talking about; I simply hoped that she had forgotten all about it. But now that she had posed the question, after everything she had been through with the club, I felt that she deserved at least an honest answer.
So, I drew in a deep breath. “I used to belong to another crew. You know, before I pledged this one.”
She pushed herself up a bit, her gaze holding mine. “Was there another woman, too?”
I nodded slowly. “Tiffany. The first woman I ever really loved. I met her at a bar one night. Supposed to be just a one-night stand. But when I found out that she was the girlfriend of one of the prominent gang leaders in our area, shit sort of hit the fan.”
“I can only imagine.”
I took her hand in mine. “He was abusive, her boyfriend at the time. And when I figured that out, all I wanted to do was kill him. All I wanted was to help her get out of that life so that we could have a life of our own. And I tried. I really did. But when her boyfriend found out—”
A knot crept into my throat, and it took a while for me to swallow it down.
“West, if you don’t—”
I brought her hand to my lips to kiss. “He killed her, Chloe. I was running down the hallway, taking out men left and right. She was right there, in the kitchen, tied to a chair. The next thing I knew, I rounded the corner and he just…shot her. In the head. Right there, like she meant nothing.”
“Oh, West,” she whispered as she crawled out from beneath the covers.
I blinked back tears. “I couldn’t relive that again. I couldn’t lose you the way I lost her. It almost killed me, Chlo. It almost killed me holding her lifeless body while her brain matter seeped out onto the floor.”
“Come here,” she said softly as she wrapped herself around me, “I gotcha. It’s okay. I’m right here, handsome.”
My lower lip quivered as I clung tightly to her. “I almost had her, Chlo. And I couldn’t lose you. I can’t lose you. I just can’t. It was all my fault that she died. Completely my fault. And I just—”
She peppered my face with kisses. “It wasn’t your fault, West. It was never your fault. You’re not the one who put the gun to her head, do you hear me? You’re not the one who killed her. That was his fault, West. Look at me.”
I forced my watery gaze to hers. “It’s my fault you’re hurt.”
She looked deeply into my eyes. “You’re not the one who hit me. You’re not the one who beat on me. And you’re never going to lose me because I’m not leaving your side again. Where I go, you go, and vice versa. Got it?”
And before I could even think about pulling her body against my own, she did it for me.
Crashing our lips together as I quickly placed her onto her back.