6. Kiera
KIERA
“Absolutely not.” Dom lifted her hand to mine, ready to rip it off the handle, but I held strong, shifting my body in front of the door.
“Think about this for five seconds. You guys are fucking scary?—”
“I’ll show you just how scary I am if you?—”
“Let me finish.” I saw Leo tense out of the corner of my eye, preparing to throw herself between me and Dom if shit went south.
“If this girl wakes up drunk and high in a car with you, she’s going to freak out.
No offense. But sending her with someone who looks less like a tattooed criminal and more like some girl she met in the bar bathroom might make her feel less like she’s being kidnapped. Less likely to run.”
My chest rose and fell hard as my eyes flicked from Leo and Spencer up to Dom’s, waiting for her verdict. Stepping between her and the car had been a bold move — clearly, she didn’t take kindly to being told no.
Before she could exact my penance, Spencer stepped forward. “She’s got a point, Dom…”
“No.” Her nostrils flared as she growled at Spencer over her shoulder, never taking her eyes off of me.
The ice in her gaze was cracking — and from the set of her jaw, it was clear that she hoped the glare would send me running. But I couldn’t. Not knowing what was on the line.
“The Oracle wants me involved. This is me, getting involved.” I stepped forward, lowering her voice so that just the two of us could hear it, “Please… let me help.”
I held out my hand for the keys, preparing myself to have it slapped away or worse.
To my surprise, Dom simply scrubbed a palm over her face. “Fine.”
She fished the keys from her pocket, not trying to hide her frustration as she slammed the jagged tangle into my palm. “Follow Leo’s bike. Spencer and I will keep an eye on the back.”
“Got it,” I murmured.
But before I could pull my hand away, Dom’s fingers tightened around mine. “Kiera…Don’t try anything stupid.”
I lifted my eyes to hers, trying to read the flicker of emotion there. There was a tenderness. Fear, even. But her gaze froze over as quickly as it had thawed. “My bike is faster than his car. Don’t make me prove it.”
“Yeah, whatever.” I dropped my gaze to the ground, turning my attention to the car instead of the heat creeping up my neck.
I popped the door open as Dom stalked off to her bike. But before I could dip into the driver’s seat, Spencer jogged over, catching me off guard with a soft kiss on the lips.
I blinked hard as I pulled away, “What was that for?”
“Be safe.” She whispered as she brushed a finger over my cheek. Dom’s gaze might have been an icy, impenetrable wall, but it didn’t take a rocket scientist to read the worry all over Spencer’s.
Leo’s bike rumbled as she pulled up beside us, lifting her visor to lock eyes with me.
Her shoulders never looked broader than when she was clutching the handles of her bike, ready to kick things into full gear.
And the sight of her solid frame was a comfort in itself.
“Stick close, Princess. I’ll make sure we get there just fine. ”
“Roger that, Major.” I feigned a salute as Spencer gave me one last kiss on the temple, and then I ducked into the sedan.
The interior of the car was disgusting. Our perp had been using one of the cupholders as an ashtray, and the entire car reeked of cigarettes and weed. Kicking around the passenger footwell were all types of takeout wrappers and a couple of water bottles filled with amber piss.
“Jesus,” I shuddered as I shoved the key into the ignition, reluctant to even touch the steering wheel. But as I adjusted the mirrors, catching sight of the girl in the backseat, I knew that it didn’t matter what I had to do. She’s getting home safe tonight.
Taking a peek back at her, I noticed that Leo had sat her up, buckled her in, and wrapped a coat around her shoulders during her check up.
Leave it to Doctor Callahan to manage chivalry in a crisis.
Buckling my own seat belt, I rested my hands on the wheel and let out a long breath. “Alright. Let’s hope this is a short drive.”
Up ahead, Leo was already waiting in position, shooting me a thumbs up to check if I was ready. Through the rear window, I could see Spencer and Dom flanking either side of me.
I never expected having my car followed to feel so comforting. But then again, I hadn’t expected anything in my life to be going this way two months ago.
Rolling down my window, I returned the thumbs up. And with that, we were off.
As cool air streamed in through the window, I could feel just how hot my face had grown, just how hard my heart was beating.
The road was eerily silent, but I didn’t dare turn on the radio — not with the poor girl half-conscious in the backseat.
Which meant for the first time since the mission had started — the first time since I’d been taken back to Valemont, possibly — I was completely alone with my thoughts.
And alone with my thoughts was never a good place to be.
As my mind churned through the night’s events, there was one thing I was fairly certain of. Dom might be a monster, but not the kind I’d feared.
The headshots in her desk drawer were certainly suspicious. But I’d seen the ire in her eyes, the bloodlust as she beat the fucker in my trunk into the dust. That wasn’t the type of revulsion that could be faked. She saw what he had planned for this girl, and she was determined to make him pay.
She was hiding something, but if it wasn’t some lurid involvement in the town’s trafficking problem, then what was it?
The events of the past played over the dark backdrop of the road, consuming my every thought. But no matter what thread I pulled, I couldn’t find anything of substance. Nothing besides the house, the hidden wing.
Maybe she has a good reason to hide that wing after all. Maybe that’s the heart of this whole thing.
Just the thought of whatever sick and twisted secret she was hiding just down the hall from me made my stomach twist. But before I could get too lost on that thought, Leo made a hard right.
I couldn’t see a road, but I knew Leo wouldn’t lead me astray, so I followed her turn. The car lurched as we pulled onto a dirt road hidden behind a thick row of trees, nearly invisible from the road.
And up ahead, at the center of a clearing was a squat brick building riddled with broken windows: an old, abandoned warehouse. As we drove closer, I couldn’t believe I hadn’t seen it earlier — it was huge, with several loading docks and a huge parking lot around back.
But then again, the trees lining the road were uncharacteristically dense in this area — and now I knew why.
Plus, the lights that bled from the broken window were kept low — easy to miss from a distance with cover from Valemont’s light pollution just a few miles down the road.
The only thing that really seemed out of place was a red lantern sitting in one of the first floor windows near the door. But given that Leo was driving right toward it, I could only imagine that it was some sort of signal from whoever we’d come here to meet.
This is their turf. I’ve got no choice but to trust them now.
I slowed the car as I followed Leo, trying to avoid potholes in the worn dirt road. But as I pulled to a smooth stop outside the warehouse, I heard a murmur from the backseat. My passenger was starting to stir.
“Whereee… am I?” Her eyes were unfocused and her words slurred as she struggled to peer through the window.
Unbuckling, I turned to face her, offering a gentle smile I wasn’t certain she could see. “It’s alright, hon. I’m gonna make sure you get home.”
She rolled her head to the side to look in my direction, face scrunching up. “Who… what?”
“You had a rough night. Some creep was on you at the bar, so you asked me for a ride home. You’re safe. Just try to get some rest, and you’ll be home before you know it.”
I felt guilty for the fib until I saw the way her shoulders dropped and the bleary smile that crossed over her lips. “You… rock.”
My knuckles whitened around the steering wheel, heart pounding in my ears. But I didn’t dare move — not until her eyes fluttered shut and she fell back asleep. Whatever else happened tonight… she didn’t deserve to be afraid.
Once she was out, a light rap on my window pulled me back to reality. Leo hovered by the door, nodding toward the back to see if my passenger was okay.
Nodding, I unlocked the door letting Leo open it and offer me a hand up. “You okay, Princess?”
“More or less,” I sighed, watching as Spencer waved someone else over.
Valemont Violence worked fast. Before I knew it, the car was swarmed by a small army of bikers, each of whom moved with singular purpose.
While Spencer pulled me into a hug, placing a soft kiss on the top of my head, another biker was opening the rear door, letting Leo take one last look at the girl before gently lifting her from the car. “Where are you–?
“Taking her home.” Spencer murmured. And before I could ask how, another car pulled up: a BMW I’d seen around Lucky Strike once or twice before.
While the first biker loaded our rescue into the backseat of the new car, another went through her wallet, fishing out her ID and passing it to the driver. A third biker emerged from seemingly nowhere, hopping into the driver’s seat of the scumbag’s car and adjusting the mirrors.
“Where’s…?” I looked around, spotting Dom’s shadow already retreating into the warehouse. But my attention was drawn back to the car in front of me as a fist — Leo’s — slammed against the trunk and popped it open.
While the girl we’d rescued was sleeping peacefully, already on her way home, the scumbag we’d caught was awake and fucking terrified.
“Morning, sunshine.” Spencer spat, hitting him square in the face as he squirmed around the trunk. “Welcome to hell.”
Without a word, Leo stepped to the trunk, lifting him by the hair and tossing him into the dirt at her feet. A jolt of adrenaline coursed through me as his body thudded to the ground, muffled screams bleeding from the gag in his mouth.
Leo didn’t waste a second. With a darkness I hadn’t witnessed since the night she rescued me, she grabbed him by the zip ties and yanked his hands over his head, dragging him through the dirt toward the warehouse.
She moved him like he was nothing. Less than nothing.
And as I watched her storm ahead, leading the way to his demise, I couldn’t make sense of my body’s reaction. Fear and arousal thudded through me in a muddied mix as I grappled with the sheer show of strength and the dawning realization of what must come next.