3. ELOISE
ELOISE
The man shaking hands with Rafe Maddox was my father.
I stared at the photograph until the warehouse, the two men, and the date printed along the bottom began to blur.
Three days ago.
While my mother supervised the final alterations to my dress and Preston practiced promising to love me, my father had been meeting the man who planned to move unregistered weapons through our property.
“He knew,” I whispered.
Diesel remained beside me, his hand closed around mine. Grease was worked deep into the lines of his palm, his knuckles scarred beneath heavy silver rings, and his grip was warm and steady.
“Looks that way,” he said.
I pulled my hand free.
The loss of contact should have made me feel better. Instead, the room seemed colder without it.
“I need to call him.”
Hawk and Chains exchanged a look.
“Use this.” Gunner placed a phone on the bar. “Blocked number. Don’t tell him where you are.”
“My father isn’t going to send armed men here.”
Diesel leaned one hip against the bar. “Sweetheart, your daddy sent armed men after a tow truck with you inside it.”
“That was Preston.”
“Keep tellin’ yourself that if it helps.”
Something shifted in his expression, the careless amusement fading before he looked away.
I entered my father’s number.
He answered before the first ring had finished.
“Eloise?”
The desperation in his voice hurt more than I expected. For one stupid second, he sounded like my father again. The man who taught me to ride a bicycle on the long driveway behind our house. The man who used to bring me into his office and tell everyone I would run the company one day.
Then his voice hardened.
“Where the hell are you?”
“I saw the photograph.”
Silence.
“You met Rafe Maddox three days ago,” I continued. “You knew Preston was giving him access to the south yard.”
“It is not that simple.”
“It’s exactly that simple.”
“Rafe Maddox represents investors who can save this company.”
“He represents the Black Thorns.”
“That is an allegation.”
“I heard Preston talking about weapons.”
My father released a heavy breath. “Preston says you misunderstood.”
“Of course he does.”
“He is worried about you. We all are. You disappeared with a known criminal after humiliating him in front of three hundred people.”
I looked at Diesel.
He was still leaning against the bar, arms folded across his broad chest, glitter catching the light along one side of his neck. Nobody looking at him would have called him harmless, but he was the only man in my life who had listened when I said I needed to get away.
“Preston hit me,” I said.
The words quieted the entire room.
My father did not answer immediately.
That hesitation told me everything.
“You knew,” I whispered.
“He told me there was an argument.”
“He bruised my face.”
“You were threatening to postpone the wedding two days before the ceremony. Preston was under extraordinary pressure.”
A chair scraped across the clubhouse floor.
Diesel had stopped smiling.
“So it was my fault?”
“That isn’t what I said.”
“It’s exactly what you said.”
“Come home and we’ll discuss this privately.”
“No.”
“Eloise, hundreds of jobs depend on that agreement. If you don’t sign those documents tonight, the banks will start taking pieces of this company apart on Monday morning.”
“Then let them.”
“You don’t mean that.”
“I do.”
“You’re upset.”
“I’m finally thinking clearly.”
“Put the man who took you on the phone.”
Diesel held out his hand.
I hesitated before giving him the phone.
He lifted it to his ear. “Yeah?”
“Who is this?”
“Tow-truck driver.”
“I want my daughter returned immediately.”
“Then you probably shouldn’t have tried shootin’ holes through my truck.”
“I don’t know what you think she told you, but Eloise is emotionally unstable. She has been struggling with the pressure of the wedding.”
Diesel looked directly at me.
“You sound pretty stable to me, princess.”
“Put her back on.”
“No.”
“She is my daughter.”
“Then you should’ve protected her.”
His voice stayed quiet, but every man in the room reacted to it. Reaper went still beside the table. Hawk’s jaw tightened. Even Chains watched Diesel differently.
“I don’t know what you believe you’re doing,” my father said, “but Preston has already contacted the police. You abducted a vulnerable woman from her wedding.”
Diesel’s mouth curved without humor. “She climbed into my truck.”
“She was confused.”
“She told me to drive.”
“You will bring her back.”
“Ain’t happenin’.”
“You have no idea who you are dealing with.”
Diesel glanced at the photograph of Rafe.
“Know exactly who I’m dealin’ with.”
He ended the call and placed the phone facedown on the bar.
My hands were shaking again.
“He knew Preston hit me.”
Diesel stepped between my knees. He didn’t touch me, but he stood close enough that I could feel the heat coming off him.
“Yeah.”
“I spent my entire life trying to be what he needed.”
“Maybe it’s time you figured out what you need.”
I almost laughed. “Right now, I need clothes.”
His gaze dropped over the wedding dress.
“I don’t know. Startin’ to grow on me.”
“Diesel.”
“There she is.”
“Who?”
“The woman who’s gonna be a pain in my ass.”
“You kidnapped me, apparently. You don’t get to complain.”
He grinned.
Mara returned with a pair of jeans, underwear, and a soft black T-shirt. “These should fit well enough until we can get your things.”
“My things are at my parents’ house.”
“Then we buy new ones,” she said.
“I don’t have any money.”
“You don’t need money tonight.”
The casual certainty in her voice made my throat tighten. In my world, everything had a price. Every favor became a debt. Every gift arrived with expectations hidden beneath the ribbon.
Here, a woman who didn’t know me was offering clothes as though helping someone required no explanation.
“Thank you.”
“You can change at Diesel’s place.”
I looked between them. “His place?”
Chains folded his arms across his chest. “The clubhouse is the first place Preston will expect us to keep you. Diesel has rooms above the towing office inside the compound. Gunner can secure the stairs, and nobody gets through the gate without us knowing.”
“I can stay somewhere else.”
Diesel shook his head. “No hotel’s gonna hold against the Thorns.”
“I hardly know you.”
“You know I didn’t take you back.”
“That is an extremely low standard.”
“Good news. Gives me plenty of room to impress you.”
I opened my mouth to argue.
Chains ended it with one look. “Until we know how deep the Bradford deal goes, you stay inside the compound.”
It sounded like an order.
Every instinct I possessed rose against it.
“I’m not a prisoner.”
“No,” Diesel said. “You’re the reason the Thorns just shot up one of my favorite trucks. That makes you my responsibility.”
He lifted me from the bar before I could answer.
My arms went around his neck automatically, bringing my mouth dangerously close to his. His eyes dropped to my lips, and the air between us tightened.
“Still bleeding,” he said roughly.
“You just wanted to carry me.”
“Been tryin’ to hide it.”
The rooms above the towing office were warmer than I expected. One bedroom, one bathroom, and an open living area overlooking the garage through a wide internal window. Tools and engine parts covered one table, but the rest of the apartment was clean. Sparse, but clean.
There were no family photographs. No evidence that anyone had ever lived there with him. Just a framed picture of the Iron Flames beside the television and a collection of mugs that all appeared to have been stolen from roadside diners.
Diesel set me down beside the bathroom.
“Mara said there are clean towels inside. I’ll be out here.”
I reached for the back of my dress.
The zipper would not move.
I tried again, twisting until pain pulled through my shoulder.
“You need help?” Diesel asked.
“No.”
“Lookin’ convincing from here.”
“It’s stuck.”
His rough laugh brushed across the back of my neck.
“Turn around.”
I faced the bathroom door and gathered my hair over one shoulder. His fingers found the zipper. The first careful tug drew it down an inch.
Then another.
The dress loosened slowly, exposing my back to the cool air and his heated stare. His knuckles skimmed my spine. The touch was accidental, but my body reacted as though he had dragged his mouth over the same path.
Neither of us spoke.
The zipper reached my waist.
Diesel stopped.
His hand closed carefully around my upper arm. In the bathroom light, the marks Preston had left there were impossible to hide.
“How many times?” he asked.
“Diesel—”
“How many?”
I sighed. “Enough.”
“I’m not going back,” I said.
His gaze lifted to mine in the mirror.
“No, sweetheart. You sure as hell ain’t.”
A warning sounded from somewhere outside. One sharp alarm followed by the grind of the compound gates.
Diesel’s phone rang.
He answered without moving away from me. “Yeah?”
Hawk said something I couldn’t hear.
Diesel’s expression hardened.
“Keep him outside. I’m comin’ down.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
He ended the call.
“Your groom.”
“He isn’t my groom.”
“Then we need to make sure he understands that.”
“How?”
Diesel’s gaze traveled over my loosened dress before returning to my face.
“With me.”