Chapter 5
DELANEY
Iwoke slowly, floating in that hazy space between sleep and awareness.
The bed beneath me felt solid and warm, nothing like the cold stone I remembered from when I roused after being taken.
For a few peaceful seconds, I simply lay there, breathing in the unfamiliar scent of something distinctly masculine.
Then I registered the heavy arm wrapped possessively around my waist. A man was spooned behind me, his chest pressing against my back and his body heat keeping me warm. Instead of fear, an unexpected wave of safety washed over me. I felt protected in a way I desperately needed.
Everything that had happened to me flashed through my head, and I gasped as the remembered panic coursed through my veins. I tried to bolt upright, my heart hammering against my ribs.
The arm around my waist tightened, pulling me back against a broad chest.
“Easy,” Rev murmured close to my ear. “You’re safe. I’ve got you. No one’s going to get to you here.”
I froze, breathing fast. A biker had me locked against him in a bed I didn’t recognize. After everything I’d been through, my body should be fighting to get away.
Instead, some instinctive part of me wanted to melt back into his warmth.
To trust the quiet certainty in his voice and let him keep me right here.
The realization unsettled me. I didn’t understand how I could feel this way toward someone I didn’t even know.
After barely escaping one monster, a stranger’s arms shouldn’t feel like the safest place in the world.
I was torn between the urge to pull away and the even stronger desire to stay exactly where I was.
His arm stayed locked around me as he slowly shifted us both upright against the headboard.
Rev kept my back pressed to his chest like he wasn’t ready to let even an inch of space come between us, and I found my heart racing for an entirely different reason.
He was so close, I could feel the steady heat of his body radiating against me.
“Gotta check you over. Just tell me if anything hurts too much.”
Before I could say anything, one of his large hands gently captured my wrist. His fingers were rough with calluses yet incredibly careful as he turned my arm and removed the gauze to study the raw rope burns. I sucked in a breath at the contact.
Twisting around, I glanced up and finally got a real look at Rev in the soft morning light filtering through the blinds.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with lean muscles.
His short, dark-blond hair sat a little messy on top, as if he’d run his hand through it more than once.
The combination of a strong jaw covered in short scruff and sharp cheekbones gave his face a severe, almost intimidating edge.
The tattoo of a speedometer and a guy on a racing bike in a helmet, looking behind him, that stretched from beneath the left sleeve of his shirt down to his elbow only added to his commanding presence.
But it was his eyes that captured my attention and didn’t let go. Pale gray-blue and deeply observant, his gaze locked onto me with an intensity that made me feel like he could see deep inside me.
He ran his thumb lightly along the edge of the worst burn on my wrist, his touch featherlight despite the strength I could sense in his hands.
My skin flushed hot under his attention as I became hyperaware of him.
A flustered feeling bloomed low in my stomach, unlike anything I’d ever experienced.
And completely inappropriate after everything I’d survived.
The intensity of my reaction to him terrified me almost as much as the memories of what Dr. Kinghorn had done to me.
He shifted slightly and reached for my other arm, then carefully checked the scrapes along my forearms. His expression never changed, but I could feel the intensity rolling off him.
When he shifted our positions so he could check the soles of my feet, heat rushed into my cheeks.
I pressed my thighs together without thinking, embarrassed by how aware I was of every point where our bodies touched.
“You’re tough.” His eyes were still locked on my injuries like he was memorizing every mark on me. “Most people would’ve fallen apart after what you went through.”
I tried to ignore the way my pulse fluttered at the low rumble of his voice so close to my ear.
I knew instinctively that this man was dangerous.
But the way his rough hands turned gentle when he touched me and his cold eyes softened just slightly when they met mine made something deep inside me want to lean into him even more.
Every careful stroke of his fingers across my skin only made the feeling inside me grow stronger.
He finished checking the last of my scrapes and finally lifted his gaze to mine again. Up close, his eyes were even more striking. Especially since they were completely focused on me.
“I’m Soren Halvorsen.”
It took my scattered wits a moment to understand the words, and they only made me more confused. “I thought I heard Hadley call you Rev last night.”
“My road name.”
Since he didn’t explain beyond that, I introduced myself. “I’m Delaney Crosswell.”
He shifted slightly, keeping me tucked against his side as if it was the most natural thing in the world. “Tell me what happened, Delaney.”
I took a shaky breath and gave him the short version, keeping my voice as even as I could manage.
I explained working late in the restoration lab, the attack as I was leaving the building, and waking up groggy in what felt like the basement of an old church.
I described how I’d been carefully posed like a mourning portrait, the herbs under my hands, and the other woman lying nearby in the same arrangement.
The one who I’d come to realize was most definitely dead already.
When I mentioned the Victorian postmortem painting that looked eerily like both of us, his entire body went very still. The gleam in his eyes turned into something more predatory as his jaw tightened.
I continued anyway, telling him about Dr. Kinghorn’s clinical voice as he prepared whatever came next. How detached he sounded. And the way he talked about preservation and keeping things beautiful before the world could ruin them.
Soren barely seemed to even breathe while I spoke. He reminded me of a panther waiting patiently for its prey. Quiet, patient, and utterly lethal. After everything I’d just survived, it should have frightened me.
But his brand of danger felt protective. Like a blade turned outward instead of being aimed at me. Instead of wanting to pull away, I felt strangely anchored by it.
When I finished, he processed everything with unnerving focus. Then the questions started. Each carried an undercurrent of deadly intent. This seemed more like a man gathering information for a hunt than casual curiosity.
Eventually, Soren’s phone buzzed on the nightstand. Still keeping me tucked against him, he reached over to pick it up and glanced at the screen. His expression didn’t change, but I felt the subtle shift in his body as he read the message.
He set the phone down and looked at me again. “I need to step out for a bit. You gonna be okay if I leave you alone?”
I hesitated because I really wanted to ask him to stay right here with his arm around me. But that didn’t seem fair, and I’d have to eventually leave the safety of his embrace. “Yes. I’ll be fine.”
He studied me like he was reading every flicker of uncertainty I tried to hide.
Then he dipped his chin. “Rest while I’m gone.
This is club business, so I can’t ignore it, no matter how much I want to right now.
But you’re safe here. No one gets through these gates unless we want them to. I’ll be back soon.”
He eased away from me slowly, the loss of his body heat more noticeable than I expected. I watched as he stood and pulled on his leather vest, which proclaimed him a member of the Redline Kings MC, a club well-known in the area where I grew up.
After shoving his boots on his feet, he paused at the door and glanced back at me one more time. “You’re safe, Delaney.”
Then he was gone, the door clicking softly shut behind him. I pulled the blanket higher around me, trying to hold on to the warmth he’d left behind, but it was already fading. My heart gave an unsteady thump as the weight of everything settled over me again.
I had just escaped one nightmare and somehow landed in the arms of a Redline King who looked at me like I was already his. I didn’t know what I’d gotten myself into…but something told me there was no going back now.