Chapter 2
Chapter Two
He’d stolen a bride.
And he had no intention of ever giving her back. Delaney Daniels was his.
Nash Quinn knew his grip was far too tight around the handlebars. The Harley vibrated beneath him, and Delaney pressed every beautiful curve that she had against his body. She held him fiercely, desperately, as if she’d never, ever let him go.
Fair enough. I won’t be letting her go again.
Walking into that church had been like walking straight into a scene from his worst nightmare. His Delaney. Marrying someone else. Standing in front of a priest, wearing a white dress, holding those blood-red roses with that creep in a tux getting ready to claim her as his bride.
The hell, no.
Especially because the intel that Nash had picked up about her groom—well, his intel indicated that the guy might as well be the devil. No way did the devil get to keep Delaney.
I’m keeping her.
He’d been afraid that he wouldn’t get to Delaney in time. But he had. He’d stopped the freaking wedding and—
He steered the Harley off the road. Braked at an old, shuttered gas station.
“What are you doing?” Delaney asked, voice breaking around the edges. “Why are we stopping? Did you miss the part where we needed to go, go, go? Because I thought I was super clear on that point. If not, please allow me to repeat, we need to go, go, go!”
He killed the engine.
“Nash? Uh, Nash, this is the opposite of going.”
He shoved down the kickstand and climbed off the bike.
His body brushed against hers way too much during that climb from the Harley.
He took two steps away from her. Then a third.
Mostly because he needed a bit of space from the temptation that was Delaney Daniels.
Talking while she had her body pressed against his was far too distracting.
Breathing in her seductive scent was too distracting.
Being close to the woman who’d haunted him for years was far too distracting.
“Nash, we need to be driving away. Super, super fast.”
Stars glittered overhead. Moonlight. He’d deliberately chosen the darkest part of the lot to park his ride. The better not to be seen in case they were followed. And that brought him to his important question of… “You think he’s gonna follow you?”
“Uh, yes. I do. One hundred percent. I think Kurt is going to run fast after me because he swore not to let me go.”
Yeah, about that dick groom of hers…How should he break the news to her? So, Delaney, the man you almost married is a psychopath. That felt harsh. But it was true. A murdering psychopath. And when I realized you were marrying him, nothing was gonna stop me from getting to you.
“We are still not moving, and I just told you, he’s going to come after me. As fast as he can.”
His jaw locked. “Because he loves you so freaking much.”
“What?”
Nash sucked in a breath. Then let it go. He’d sounded snarly and jealous. His bad. Unfortunately, he was snarly and jealous, and dammit, had she just gotten more beautiful over the years?
He was pretty sure she had.
As he drank her in, she hopped off the motorcycle and hurried to stand right in front of him. “Let me be very clear with you.”
Great. She could be clear with him, and then he could break the news about the groom to her.
“Kurt Wellington doesn’t love me at all.
” Her head tipped back. She was small. Always had been.
Small. Delicate. Breakable. She barely clocked in around five-foot-three, while he was an easy six-foot-four.
He outweighed her by a hundred pounds. Had, even when they’d been in high school.
He’d been defensive line. She’d twirled a baton during halftime with the band, and one year that baton had been on fire because Delaney had wanted to—
“Just what did Agnes tell you?” Delaney asked as her hands went to her hips.
Ah. Agnes. His sister had been the one to aim him when he’d been hunting for Delaney. “She gave me your location. Said I had to stop the wedding.” But, fun fact, that agenda item had already been on his list before he’d gotten the call from his sister.
“And that’s it?” Her voice rose. “She just said for you to stop the wedding?”
His arms crossed over his chest. “Was there more?”
“Yes, a lot more!” Her hands left her hips to fly angrily into the air.
“I wasn’t sure if she got both texts. I barely had the chance to hit send on the second one before Kurt took my phone.
” Her breath shuddered out. “The first text did have the address of the church. I know that one got through. I heard the little swoosh as it was sent. The first text included the time and date for the ceremony. And it said please stop the wedding. But I sent a second text explaining why and…” Her shoulders fell. “She didn’t get the second message?”
As far as he knew, nope, she had not. “Agnes didn’t know why you wanted out of your wedding.
Just said that you needed help. Agnes was too far away, she couldn’t get here fast enough, so she called in me and my brother Ryan.
” One shoulder rolled. “I was closer than Ryan, so that’s why I’m here.
” I actually already intended to stop the wedding even before Agnes reached out to me, and I’m just trying to figure out how to explain all of this to you without causing a serious freakout.
“So…what?” Delaney took a step back. “It was between you and Ryan and…you like, drew the short straw or something and had to come charging in?”
More like he’d come flying in as fast he could, breaking every speed limit possible, his heart in his throat as he prayed that he’d get to the church before Delaney said “I do” to the dangerous jerk who would never deserve her.
“Uh, yeah.” He sawed a hand over his jaw.
“Something like that. You know, you could have just walked away from the guy. Probably a whole lot less dramatic than having me barge in and carry you away.”
Headlights appeared on the dark road, slicing toward them.
Delaney hurtled her body at him. She shoved into him, surprisingly hard for someone of her size, and his hands automatically curled around her.
“Hide!” Delaney gasped out. “We have got to hide!”
His motorcycle was already pretty well hidden.
And he’d been sticking to the shadows, too.
She’d been the most visible, especially since she still sported half of a white wedding dress.
He whirled fast, putting himself in front of her and caging her between his body and the brick wall on the side of the gas station.
The headlights rushed past them. The vehicle never slowed. Correction, two vehicles. No, three. They all blazed past the shuttered gas station.
“I bet that’s him,” she whispered. “Kurt said he wasn’t going to just let me go.”
“Guess he wants you very badly.” Something Nash could understand. His hands were on her shoulders. Her scent—jasmine—teased his nose. “Guess he loves you, too.” The sonofabitch.
“No, he doesn’t love me.” Very definite.
In the dark, he frowned down at her.
“He wants to kill me.”
Nash’s body stiffened. Wait, hold up. Does she already know that her groom is—
“Kurt wants to kill me,” she repeated. “As in, if you hadn’t come roaring to the rescue on your bike, I would have never lived past my honeymoon.”
He didn’t have a response. Mostly because there were some things he was not supposed to tell her. Confidential, classified things.
“You think I didn’t try to leave him?” Delaney fired at him.
Every muscle in his body seemed to have turned to stone.
“I did. As soon as I found out the truth about him, I tried to leave. But Kurt chased me down. He caught me. He tied me up and locked me in a closet.”
What. The. Fuck? Deadly rage burned beneath his skin. “He locked you in a closet?” Holy hell. She knows exactly what he is. The intel we had on the guy was dead on.
“I got free of the ropes. I managed to get my phone, and I texted Agnes. I know she worked as a Fed, and I thought she could help me. That she could come in with guns blazing only…” A faint click as she swallowed.
“I guess she didn’t get the second message.
And instead of guns blazing…” Her voice trailed away. “You came to save me.”
The night surrounded them. Her seductive scent filled his nostrils.
And fury poured through every cell of his body.
After a tense moment when the silence stretched far too long, Nash nodded.
He forced his hands to release their too tight grip on her.
And then he backed away. One step. Two. He spun on his heel and lunged for his motorcycle.
She rushed forward and darted around him to stand in Nash’s path. “What are you doing?” Delaney asked.
“Going to kill a man.” The first item on his to-do list.
“What?”
“The bastard put ropes on you? Locked you in a closet?” His teeth snapped together. “Dead. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure his death hurts. Count on it.”
She pressed her hands to his chest, as if to physically stop him. “You can’t do that!”
“If I’d known what the guy did to you when we were back at that church, I would have killed him then and there.” Going back and taking care of the job was now mandatory.
Except, wait, the creep probably wasn’t at the church any longer. Had he been in one of the three rides that just torpedoed past them?
“Nash! No!” Sharp. Confused. Delaney shook her head, and he saw some of the heavy locks of her dark hair fly over her shoulders. “You are a doctor! You don’t kill people!”
His lips parted. But he didn’t speak. Kinda because he wasn’t sure what to say.
The last time that he’d seen Delaney, yes, Nash had planned to be a doctor. He’d been in medical school. He’d wanted to be a trauma surgeon. But…
Life had changed. He’d changed.