Chapter 5
Run If You Want... I'll Still Find You
Three days.
That was how long I had been inside Black Iron.
Three days of guarded hallways, watchtowers, armed bikers, locked gates, and whispered conversations that always stopped the moment I walked into a room.
No one threatened me.
No one mistreated me.
Yet every sunrise felt less like protection and more like imprisonment.
Doc insisted my shoulder was healing.
Reaper insisted I was safer inside the compound.
Titan insisted on nothing at all.
That somehow bothered me the most.
He never demanded my trust.
Never asked for gratitude.
Never reminded me that he had saved my life.
He simply watched.
Always watching.
As though he expected me to run.
He wasn't wrong.
The opportunity came just before dawn.
Most of the compound still slept while the overnight security teams rotated shifts. Engines idled near the front gate, mechanics prepared motorcycles for patrol, and kitchen staff carried crates toward the clubhouse.
The routine created small gaps.
Tiny moments where no one seemed to be paying attention.
I slipped out the back of the infirmary wearing borrowed jeans, a gray sweatshirt, and boots one size too large.
My backpack rested securely against my shoulders.
The flash drive remained hidden beneath the false lining where only I knew to look.
Every step away from the cabin made my pulse quicken.
The perimeter fence rose nearly twelve feet high, topped with coiled razor wire.
Impossible.
The vehicle gate wasn't.
A delivery truck rolled toward the exit while two prospects inspected its cargo. As the heavy steel gates slowly opened, I lowered my head and blended into the shadows behind the truck.
Just a few more steps.
Freedom waited only yards away.
The truck crossed the property line.
I followed.
No alarms sounded.
No voices called after me.
For one impossible moment, I thought I'd done it.
Then a deep voice drifted across the morning air.
"You forgot your jacket."
I froze.
Titan stood twenty yards away beside his motorcycle, one hand resting casually on the handlebars.
My jacket hung over his other arm.
He looked neither surprised nor angry.
Only patient.
"I don't need it."
"You will."
"I'm leaving."
"I know."
"Then stop me."
"I won't."
His answer confused me.
The open gate remained behind me.
The road stretched toward the distant mountains.
Nothing stood between me and freedom.
I took another step backward.
Titan didn't move.
"Go."
I frowned.
"That's it?"
"You've made your choice."
"I don't belong here."
"No."
His gray eyes met mine.
"You don't."
Something inside me expected him to argue.
Instead, he simply nodded once.
"I hope you make it."
The words stung more than they should have.
I turned and walked away.
The first mile felt glorious.
Fresh air.
Open road.
No walls.
No guards.
No giant biker silently observing my every move.
For the first time in days, I believed my life belonged to me again.
The second mile felt different.
The highway became strangely empty.
No passing traffic.
No delivery trucks.
No tourists.
Only silence.
Then I noticed them.
A black pickup parked beneath a stand of pine trees.
Its engine wasn't running.
Someone sat inside.
Watching.
I kept walking.
Half a mile farther, another vehicle appeared.
An old cargo van.
Dark tinted windows.
Parked facing the opposite direction.
Watching.
A knot formed in my stomach.
By the time I reached the old bridge crossing the river, I counted four separate vehicles.
Every one of them occupied by people pretending not to notice me.
My pace quickened.
Behind me, a truck engine started.
Another followed.
The pickup pulled onto the highway.
The cargo van did the same.
I didn't need to look back again.
I already knew.
They had been waiting.
Not for Titan.
For me.
The first SUV accelerated.
Doors flew open before the vehicle stopped moving.
Four armed men jumped onto the pavement.
"There she is!"
My legs moved before my mind did.
I sprinted across the bridge.
Gunfire cracked behind me.
Concrete exploded beside my feet.
A bullet shattered the bridge railing.
Another tore through my backpack without striking the hidden compartment.
"They're trying to box her in!"
Two more vehicles appeared from the opposite direction.
The trap had been planned perfectly.
There was nowhere left to run.
One man grabbed my arm hard enough to nearly pull me off my feet.
"I've got—"
His sentence never ended.
A deafening roar echoed across the valley.
Every hunter turned.
The unmistakable thunder of dozens of V-twin engines rolled through the morning like an approaching storm.
Black motorcycles burst over the ridge in perfect formation.
At their head rode Titan.
He wasn't alone.
Nearly forty Black Iron riders spread across both lanes behind him, moving with disciplined precision.
The hunters hesitated.
One of them cursed.
"He followed her."
"No," another whispered.
"He expected this."
Titan brought his motorcycle to a controlled stop only yards away.
He removed his helmet slowly.
Rain clouds gathered overhead once more.
"I gave you a chance."
No one answered.
"You chose poorly."
The man holding my arm shoved me aside and raised his rifle.
The fight lasted less than a minute.
Black Iron moved with terrifying coordination.
Motorcycles blocked escape routes while armed brothers disarmed attackers before they could organize.
The hunters had expected one frightened woman.
They had found an army.
When the last weapon hit the pavement, silence settled over the bridge.
Titan walked toward me.
There was blood on his knuckles.
None of it appeared to be his.
"You lied."
I glared at him.
"You knew they were waiting."
"Yes."
"You let me leave anyway."
"Yes."
"You used me as bait."
For the first time since I had met him, something flashed behind his steady eyes.
Regret.
"I trusted that you'd choose to stay."
"I needed to know I still had a choice."
"You did."
"I nearly died."
"You nearly did."
His honesty infuriated me.
"You could've stopped me!"
"I could have locked you inside the compound."
He stepped closer, his voice remaining calm.
"You would've hated me."
"I already do."
The words landed between us like broken glass.
Titan didn't react.
Instead, he reached down and picked up the torn backpack that had fallen during the attack.
He brushed dirt from the fabric before handing it back to me.
"I'd rather you hate me," he said quietly, "than bury you."
For several seconds, neither of us spoke.
I looked around the bridge.
The armed men who had waited so patiently for me were gone, disarmed and restrained by Black Iron.
Every one of them had known exactly where I would walk.
Exactly when I would leave.
Exactly how to trap me.
Titan had been right.
The world beyond those gates wasn't freedom anymore.
It was a hunting ground.
I looked back at him.
His expression remained unreadable, but his eyes carried something I hadn't noticed before.
Not possession.
Not control.
Concern.
It wasn't enough to erase my anger.
It was enough to make me question it.
Without another word, I walked past him toward the waiting motorcycles.
This time, when Titan fell into step beside me, I didn't tell him to leave me alone.
It was the first crack in the wall I had built between us.
Neither of us knew it yet.
But sometimes the hardest prison to escape wasn't made of steel or stone.
Sometimes it was the one built around a wounded heart.