Chapter 15 #3
Heat blasted from her skin, and my guts twisted into those knots that I was pretty sure were going to squeeze the life out of me.
“Told you I wasn’t going to let anything happen to you,” I grumbled low. “And I’ll do it by any means necessary. You want to get stubborn with me? Get rebellious? Then that means you’re going to find me putting you back in your place.”
Yeah, I was being a dick.
But she didn’t know who she was contending with.
I hooked my heel on the kick starter and struck it.
The engine roared as I pulled back on the throttle.
Power vibrated through the metal.
“Hold onto the handlebars.”
It had to be the eighth wonder of the world that she actually listened.
Adrenaline pounding, I eased us down through the lot, dread glomming up my insides as I turned my head left and right, searching for deviants hiding within the trees.
Not sure if we were being ambushed or if someone was trying to send a message.
My guts tangled in a fist.
If we’d been compromised…
I gritted my teeth and took to the street.
Going faster than I had on our way here but still trying to keep our speed controlled.
Painful when I wanted to go flying back to the compound.
The position with Brinley in front of me should have been awkward.
But no.
Leave it to her to mold perfectly into my body.
Taking my shape as if she were meant to do it.
Trembles rolled through her as I took a curve hard then barely stopped at the red light to make the left onto Crimson Creek Blvd.
The second we were on it, I pulled back on the throttle, ticking the tempo upward.
Motor roaring in our ears and the trees blurring by on the sides. Flashes of greens and browns blearing into an abstract painting.
I came up to a car in front of us, and I whipped around the left to pass, then glided back into the lane before I hit the brakes about a quarter of a mile up to make the left onto Deer Springs Lane.
The back tire skidded a bit, and I put my boot out and let it skim the pavement to keep us steady, then the bike righted as I pulled back on the throttle again.
I could feel Brinley’s heart bash against her ribs.
There were always kids out playing in this area, so I forced our pace slower through the neighborhood.
I never ceased in my vigilance. Eyes darting in every direction, and every few moments, I threw a peek over my shoulder to make sure there weren’t any beasts coming up on our rear.
Brinley might as well have been wearing armor with the way I was covering her. A shroud who would take a thousand bullets to protect.
I’d always known my death would likely be precipitated by trying to protect an innocent.
But there was something about this that felt different.
The lengths I would go.
Similar to what I felt when Elena had been held hostage by Kent Ellison. The outright desperation to get her to safety.
Similar to when I’d found out what was happening with Kai, and I knew I had to get him out of that place.
But this was skewed and contorted.
Like new DNA had formed inside me.
Completely foreign. Changing me in a way that I could no longer recognize myself.
We finally came up on the big curve on the right, the sporadic industrial buildings blipping by before we were taking the left through the open gate and onto my property.
The shop doors had been rolled down and locked tight for the night.
I kept moving, my Harley jostling over the gravel drive as I rounded the shop on the left.
Soon, under the cover of trees, the clubhouse came into view.
An army of motorcycles were gathered out front.
We had Church tonight, which meant every member would be in attendance.
I weaved around to the backside of the large building and came to a quick stop near the exterior staircase.
Brinley heaved strained breaths as she shoved me off.
Pushing me out of her way as she somehow managed to get off the bike with me still on it.
Climbing up onto the seat, her ass in my face, before she hopped off the side.
She didn’t even slow to look back at me. The grocery bag filled with all her treats dangled at her side as she stormed up the steps.
I was right behind her, pulling out my phone and texting Brody as I went.
Me
Bring the truck to the backside of the clubhouse. STAT.
My heavy boots clomped against the wood as I climbed.
They might as well have been a base drum with the way it drove the intensity higher.
Brinley’s obstinate spirit thrashed in the twilight.
Sparks of energy that glinted and flared.
Wild curls flying around her.
Fuck.
She was a force to contend with.
I caught up as she got to the landing, and I went to reach around her to input the code when she smacked at my hand.
“I can do it myself, so you can just leave me alone,” she hissed.
“Obviously you can do it, but you aren’t staying here.”
She whipped around. The gold in her eyes flashed.
As bright as an emergency flare.
“What? Did the heat get too much for you?” she snarled. “Was that guy too big of a contender? Are you scared of the trouble I bring, and you’re kicking me out?”
Each word was a barb.
She might have been irate, but I could see what was written below the spite.
Hurt.
Like she thought I was just going to abandon her.
Leave her to fend for herself.
Had the sinking sense that was the way it had always been for her, and I was pretty sure her reaction had nothing to do with her dislike of me but was a survival instinct.
With her back to the door, I reached around her and punched in the code.
“No, you’re coming to my house,” I grated.
“What?” she screeched, her expression morphing in a beat.
The door blipped and gave, and I basically picked her up and set her aside so I could get through.
She was a firestorm licking at my heels.
The beat of music from below throbbed through the baseboards. A distant thud of mayhem when I was standing in the middle of the pandemonium.
Wasn’t sure which of us was causing it.
Brinley or me, with her panting these jagged breaths at my backside, and me charging the few steps down the hall and into her room.
I threw open the door. Wood clattered against the interior wall, and I strode for where I knew her suitcases were stuffed under the bed.
“Are you freaking kidding me?” It was a gust of dubiety from where she stood aghast in the doorway. “I’m not staying at your house, Silas.”
“It’s not up for debate,” I growled, pulling out the suitcases and tossing them to the bed.
This would be a whole lot easier if she hadn’t packed her entire damned closet.
“Oh, but it is, King.” She spat the last, and I could feel her cross her arms over her chest.
A torrent of anger surged around her fear.
“I’m so tired of people thinking that they can just toss me around, keep me in the dark and tell me they’re doing it for my safety, like that is enough for me to blindly go along with your bullshit. First my brother telling me where I was going, what I had to do, and now you. I count.”
Her tone was pure venom until the last two words croaked out of her.
I turned to witness her clutching both hands over her chest, and fuck, she might as well have driven a blade directly into my mangled heart.
Because I was moving.
Stalking her way.
Little did she know that she was the one with all the power.
The one who was sucking me in like she was her own orbit.
That thing about her that made her so dangerous to me glinting around her like a halo.
“You want to know what’s going on, Brinley? You want to know that your brother is involved with vile, horrible people? You want to know what it felt like when they had my sister?”
Horror unhinged her jaw. “Elena?”
The fire in her drained, likely doused as the torment I felt when Elena had been Kent Ellison’s prisoner gushed out of me like a ruptured dam.
Her throat bobbed as she swallowed heavily. Those eyes ablaze as they searched mine.
I pushed on, grating through the fury and hate. “You want to know that she still sometimes wakes up screaming at night? Terrified? Do you want to know how I refuse to let that happen to you?”
I was so close to her that I could feel the fine hairs lift on her arms. So close that the chills that raced across her flesh became mine.
My spirit lurched forward without my permission.
“You count more than you fucking know.” It wheezed out. Stakes that struck into the ground like they were the one thing that could keep both of us steady.
Yeah. I was a fool to admit it. I shouldn’t let on the way she had me on uneven ground.
Our noses brushed, and I was inundated with her scent.
Almonds and apples and cream.
Leave it to Brinley Webber to have the ability to turn my voice into a forlorn plea. “Please…just let me take care of you.”
Confusion knitted her brow, though I could feel her softening. “I’m not weak or helpless, Silas.”
“No. You’re not, are you?” I breathed in what she exhaled. “But this is my job, Brinley. Taking care of people is the only thing I have. The only power I’ve got.”
I figured if I was already giving this much away, I might as well fully lay it out.
“Need you not to fight me on this. Because in my home? That’s where I protect the people I care about most.”
And I wasn’t about to let her out of my sight.