Chapter 21
Sloane
“I’m getting you out of here. All of you. The kids, the women, anyone that can be saved.”
My breath caught in my throat. Every fiber of my being froze, too afraid to hope.
Had I just imagined him saying those words to me?
If he wasn’t sitting there watching me with patient blue eyes, I would have pinched myself.
This had to be a dream. Hearing the man I’d fallen in love with saying those words to me was a dream come true.
He was waiting to see what I’d say to the bomb he’d dropped. If he thought I was going to fight him on this, I was about to surprise him.
“I have supplies.”
He blinked slowly at me, clearly not expecting that. “What?”
I stood up in a rush, my skirts swirling around my legs as I moved into the bedroom and knelt down.
He watched with interest as I pried up a floor board at the side of our bed with my fingernails.
Inside was my treasure trove. Showing this to him was the biggest risk I’d taken yet.
Any of the secrets I’d told him before could have gotten me killed.
This was worse because if he told Ethan it would decimate my plan to escape.
I’d rather die than stay here with no hope to flee in the future.
This was my hope. And now he was that hope.
He hadn’t told Ethan—as far as I was aware—about anything else I’d confided to him. I knew the man I’d married was trustworthy. Or I wouldn’t have ever showed him my items.
The hollow space was filled with…years’ worth of things. Money, USB drives, clothes, shoes. I’d managed to squirrel away all manner of things that I—and the others—would need in order to escape Ethan.
Rip’s eyes narrowed on the stash of pencils I’d rubber banded together. Their points had been sharpened to an extreme tip and I fidgeted as he turned his gaze on me.
“Tell me you weren’t planning on going up against armed guards with pencils?”
Heat seared my cheeks. “It was the only weapon I could get my hands on. And they’re better than nothing,” I whispered.
His eyes softened and he cupped my cheek, brushing his thumb over it. He loved to touch me and I wasn’t going to lie, I loved that he did as well.
“I’m here now. You won’t have to go against the guards at all.”
It was amazing to me how—in such a relatively short amount of time—I’d come to know my husband. I trusted him to keep me safe. He’d keep the others safe, too. He crouched down next to me, eyeing my things—avoiding my anxious gaze. I was worried that he’d find fault with my efforts.
“You amaze me.” My head snapped up and I looked over at him, my heart lodged in my throat.
“The strength and courage it must have taken for you to break free of the chains that Ethan has placed around everyone living here is immeasurable. And somehow you’ve managed to keep from getting pulled into it all.
Not just that, but to maintain the fa?ade while planning to escape. ”
Tears welled in my eyes at his praise. I didn’t know how much another person being proud of me would affect me. I couldn’t speak for a moment, I just sniffed and looked away.
“You took all this yourself?” he asked, changing the subject. His voice was low and gravelly.
“It’s taken me years,” I admitted, doubt creeping into my tone. “It’s always been my plan to escape from here. I just couldn’t go alone and leave everyone else to their fates.”
“It’s fucking impressive as hell, Sloane.”
I looked down as he grabbed my hands, forcing me to drop the floorboard as he interlaced our fingers together.
“You’re the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.” His hand lifted and he brushed his knuckles over my cheek.
It didn’t matter that the tears I’d been trying to hold back had broken free and were streaming down my face. No one had spoken to me with such kindness, not since my mother died. Not until him. It was so nice. So genuine. He gave me such hope for the future.
“I wish I could do more,” I squeaked out, voice husky from fighting back the sobs that worked their way up from my chest.
Standing, he pulled me up with him, then swept me into his arms. He sat down on the bed, with me in his lap. I took comfort in him and buried my face in his chest. “You’ve done more than enough. I’ll take it from here.”
“How?” I breathed, pulling back so I could look up into his face. “How is a single man going to get so many of us out of here? They’ll kill you.”
A pained expression crossed his face. “That’s the other thing I need to talk to you about, Angel.”
I brushed the tears from my cheeks and tried to focus on what he was telling me. The look on his face was making me nervous and I didn’t want to tune out and over analyze before he had a chance to tell me whatever it was he needed to.
“First, I want you to know something.” He was back to cupping my cheeks, forcing me to stare into his gorgeous eyes. “I love you. I’ve loved you since the moment I saw you.”
My eyes widened and I gasped. I already knew I was in love with him, but I’d never expected him to have fallen for me. And for him to tell me was a shock. The men here didn’t act like they loved their wives, let alone verbalize it. Happiness flooded me down to my bones.
“I love you, too, Rip.”
Something flickered there in his eyes. “I sure hope you still feel that way after I tell you everything, Sloane.” He dropped his hands from my face and wrapped his arms around my waist, almost as if he was holding me to him so I couldn’t escape.
I didn’t want to go anywhere, so I sat and waited to see what his secrets were.
“I’m not the Derek that Ethan was expecting,” he admitted.
My brows drew together, unsure of what he meant, but I didn’t interrupt.
“I’m a biker. The old lady… girlfriend of one of the club members, is a Search and Rescue contractor and she noticed people going missing out here in the desert who she couldn’t find. She brought us in to help figure out what was going on. We ended up finding men burying Sherry Holden-”
I gasped and slapped my hand on his chest, making him pause, eyes filling with tears again. “Sherry’s dead?” I asked, voice wavering.
He nodded slowly, watching me closely.
“I helped her and Caitlyn escape,” I told him, eyes closing. “I feared… What about Caitlyn?” My voice cracked as that sweet little girl’s face flashed through my mind.
His hand slid around the back of my neck and squeezed. I took comfort in the touch. “Caitlyn’s alive.” The relief was instantaneous and would have knocked me over if I wasn’t sitting down. “We got there in time to rescue her and she was adopted by one of our members.”
He went on to explain that his club was all former military and that they helped people in their city. Whenever the cops couldn’t step in, they did to make sure the city stayed safe.
I wasn’t really sure exactly what a motorcycle club was, but this wasn’t the time to ask those kinds of questions.
Just like I wanted to ask what he’d done in the military.
Getting to know the man I’d married wasn’t the top of the priority list even though I wanted it to be.
There was one thing I couldn’t go forward without knowing.
“So what’s your real name?” Fear and worry were coursing through me after he told me the rest. He’d been planted here, by his club, to find out who could be saved and who couldn’t.
He’d never planned to marry me. Did that mean he’d divorce me once this was over?
My heart throbbed with sadness at the thought.
“It’s really Derek Skore. Riptide is my road name.” When I frowned, he explained, “We give each other nicknames when we join the club.”
“Why Riptide?”
“I was on leave back when I was still in the military. Went home to Ilwaco and I was doing some surfing. Ended up saving a kid who was getting pulled out in a riptide. That stretch of ocean is known for them. My next deployment my brothers ended up finding out about it and the name stuck.”
There was some of that story I didn’t understand, but the idea of seeing the ocean was so exciting. If I managed to get out of here, I wanted to go. It’d always been a dream of mine to see an ocean, any ocean.
“Sloane, I know this is a lot to take in, but I need your help. You know everyone here. Would you be able to help me with who we can get out of here and who we can’t trust?”
I shoved all my feelings to the back of my mind.
It didn’t matter that he’d lied to me, that he wasn’t who he said he was.
We could deal with that later. As much as I wanted to scream, to cry, to ask so many things, I had to focus.
Too many were going to be depending on us for their safety.
He was going to help us get out of here.
Our ticket to freedom. I couldn’t really get mad at him for not being forthcoming with me because I’d done the same with him.
Since he’d admitted the truth to me it was time for me to do the same.
“Of course I will, Rip…” I nibbled on my lower lip. “Is there something else I should call you?”
He shook his head, his shaggy hair swinging into his eyes.
He’d need a haircut soon unless he was planning on letting it grow longer.
I’d been shocked that Ethan hadn’t insisted on shaving it down into a buzz cut when he got here.
I knew now that Ethan hadn’t wanted to rock the boat too much while he was getting to know Rip.
He couldn’t afford the man to back out of their deal because of something like a haircut. Too much money at stake.
“I told you the truth that night. I prefer D or Rip. Either is fine.”
Nodding, I plucked at my skirts. “I’m more than willing to help you, and so grateful you and your club are going to get us out of here. I…I have something else to tell-”
He broke my words off with a kiss and I couldn’t help but melt into him with a moan. Our mouths fused together and my mind melted under the intensity of his kiss.
“Sorry,” he said, pulling back. “I just…Sloane, I meant what I said. I love you. Marrying you might not have been in my plans, at least not like this, but there’s a part of me that is fucking glad it happened.
” He raked a hand through his hair, looking sheepish.
“I know I’ve been lying to you, but starting now I’ll make it up to you. ”
The knot in my chest eased and I smiled at him. “I actually understand. You didn’t know who you could trust coming in here. Thank you for giving me that trust, Rip.”
The secret I needed to tell him was important, but I was so scared of how he’d react. There was time enough later to confide in him. It wouldn’t hurt to wait a little longer. Then I’d tell him the only thing I had left to hide. The only thing that caused me shame anymore.
“I want to continue this once we get all of you out of here.”
My heart leapt with excitement and hope and I nodded. “I do, too.”
Relief flashed over his face. “We have a lot to do and not much time to complete it. We need a meeting place that you can send everyone to on the night this is going to go down. I’ll have one of my brothers lead you out of here and back to where we’ll have our vehicles.
I don’t want you here when the fighting goes down. ”
“I want to help,” I insisted.
“You will be helping,” he said, tucking a piece of my hair behind my ear.
His tender touch melted my heart. “They are going to be looking to you to guide them. They won’t know my brothers and are going to be scared.
They’ll need you. Otherwise we’re going to have a dozen bikers trying to herd scared women and children, worse than trying to herd cats.
It’ll put them into too much danger when we’ll have Ethan and his men to deal with. ”
I nodded. He had a point. It terrified me, thinking of him going up against Ethan and the others.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think he was strong enough to defeat them.
I knew he could. I was just used to Ethan being the most powerful man around and him having all the control.
“Don’t underestimate them,” I told him, searching his gaze to make sure he was taking this seriously. “They’re ruthless.”
His grin was so sexy it made my belly clench with lust. “Trust me, Angel, they have no idea who they’re going up against.”
He wrapped me up in a hug and I let him, relaxing into his hold. He’d told me a lot already, but there was so much more to learn about him. Did he really want me to stay married to him? Or would he change his mind once we were out of here and in what he kept referring to as the real world?
I tried to set the worries aside as we began planning. There was enough to do without worrying about what would happen then. We had to make it out of here in one piece first.