Chaos Bound (4 page)

“You don’t want her bro. She’s got…” He lowered his voice to a rough whisper. “Fucking STD, man. Doing the brothers a favor by taking her outta here.”

The biker jerked back, and released her hair. “Fuck. Hate that fucking shit. Such a fucking waste of pussy. Go.”

Holt nodded and tugged Naiya’s shirt. She quickened her pace, almost dragging him after her.

“STD?” She hissed at him. “You told him I had an STD? I’ve never had sex without a condom except for…”

She cut herself off. Rape wasn’t sex. Only fifteen, she’d been flattered by Viper’s attention at a Black Jack party. He’d been charming, gentle, and seductive. But the moment he had her alone, everything changed. Too late, she realized there was no going back. No didn’t mean no to Viper. It meant nothing at all.

“Shut it, darlin’,” he murmured. “You wanted to be passed around? Handed over to Viper? Nothing turns a man off more than tainted pussy.”

She stiffened in his arms. “I think I liked you better when you couldn’t talk. Before, I was just an innocent and helpless victim of Viper’s cruelty. Now I’m a drunk piece of tail teeming with STDs.”

“I’m protecting you,” Holt said. “And you don’t seem to appreciate that I’m sacrificing to get you outta here. What I want to do is go back and shoot every fucking Jack I see, but there’s no way you’re gonna make it out of here on your own.”

“I thought I was protecting
you
.” She huffed. “After all, you’re the one who can hardly walk.”

“Don’t need to walk to use a knife or a gun. Don’t need a woman to protect me.” They reached the edge of the parking lot, and Holt nodded at the two guards.

“Bitch’s got a fucking STD. Gettin’ her outta here.”

“Christ, Rafe. You sure can pick ’em. Just toss her out and let her find her own way home.” One of the guards grabbed Naiya’s shoulder. “I’ll take her to the gate. Bitches gotta learn not to bring that shit into the club.”

Holt pulled Naiya against his side. “Got another chick already lined up. Gonna bring her back and share her around. I can drop this one off on my way.” He took a step forward, and the second guard stepped into his path.

“What the fuck happened to your face?”

Desperate for a distraction, Naiya turned, hoping the guard wouldn’t recognize her. There had been an endless parade of Black Jacks and sweet butts in and out of her mother’s apartment when Naiya lived there, trading drugs for sex, or just hanging around. She had never felt safe at home, and often had to barricade herself in her room to keep out the Jacks who assumed she was her mother’s daughter in every sense of the word, and didn’t care that Naiya was underage or unwilling.

“You want a kiss, sugar?” she said. “Maybe a blow? I don’t think the stuff on my lips is catching right now.” God, she sounded like her mother.

“Fuck.” The guard stepped back, his hands flying in the air. “Don’t fucking touch me. Get her the fuck outta here, Rafe.”

Naiya’s pulse kicked up a notch, and she fought the urge to run as they stumbled forward and into a sea of chrome and metal. Dozens of bikes were parked in neat rows. Oh God. With the guards watching, how would they find the right one?

“You sure that’s Rafe?” One of the guards muttered behind them.

“He was wearing his cut.”

“When did he grow his hair? And what’s with the beard?”

Holt pressed the key fob and she heard the beep of an alarm.

“Over there.” He gestured to the far end of the lot, and Naiya picked up her pace, urging Holt to hurry.

“Rafe.” The shout echoed in the darkness, and Naiya trembled.

“Can’t you go faster?”

“That’ll answer their question the wrong way.” Holt kept his pace slow and even, his weight heavy on her shoulders.

“Rafe.”

He raised his hand in the air, and waved just as they reached the dead Black Jack’s bike, as if saying good-bye.

“Do you know how to drive it?” Naiya slid on the pillion seat the way she’d watched her mother slide onto countless motorcycles as she raced away leaving Naiya alone night after night.

Holt snorted as he straddled the bike. “It’s a Harley, darlin’.”

“Stop!”

She looked over as the two guards raced toward them. “Go, Holt. They’re coming.”

He flicked the throttle and the bike roared to life.

“The gate!” Naiya pointed to the chain-link fence as Holt peeled away from the lot.

“Automatic.” He revved the bike, and the gate slid to the side. Holt raced through. Naiya clung to his waist, her cheek pressed up against his back. Behind them, she could hear the high-pitched rev of engines, and she clenched her fists against his stomach.

“Are we going to the Sinner’s Tribe clubhouse?” she shouted.

But Holt didn’t answer. Instead he leaned low over the bike, and they sped into the night.

THREE

“Holt, wake up.”

Holt startled awake, bracing himself for a pain that didn’t come. He stared up into the darkness and frowned. Usually, after he passed out, Viper would throw a bucket of water on him so he could continue with whatever torture he had planned for the evening. Even after Holt had told Viper everything he wanted to know about the Sinners, the sessions continued. Viper got off on Holt’s pain, and only Holt’s fantasies of retribution filled the void when hope fled.

“Holt.”

The hands that shook him were small and gentle, the voice soft. He blinked to clear his vision and saw stars overhead, the dark shadow of branches, the silver light of a full moon, bats fluttering overhead. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled the scent of pine and the earthy fragrance of the forest. He was free.

“How do you feel?” Naiya leaned over, frowning. “You crashed the bike.”

Fuck. He remembered feeling dizzy on the highway, the lines swimming in front of him, panic at the sound of bikes behind them, desperation, determination, turning onto a dirt road, slowing the bike … and then nothing.

“You okay?” He pushed himself up on his elbows, his gaze taking in the woman kneeling beside him.

“Just a few scrapes and bruises. I jumped when we started to wobble.”

“Christ.” He was supposed to be protecting her, not killing her. “What about the Jacks?”

“They drove past, so we can call it a successful escape. But I think you need food and water and medical attention. I was going to flag someone down on the road and ask them to take us to a hospital.”

“No hospital.” Definitely no hospital. The kind of injuries he had sustained screamed for police intervention, and even though he intended to leave the biker life behind after he exacted his revenge, he wasn’t about to involve the police in biker affairs. Some lessons couldn’t be unlearned.

“Sure.” She kneeled beside him and brushed the hair off his face. “I guess the Sinners have their own doctor.”

“No Sinners.”

Her face creased in a puzzled frown. “But they’re your club. They’ll want you back. You must want to see them. They probably think you’re dead.”

Holt lay down again and stared up at the night sky and the stars he had never appreciated until they were gone. The Sinners probably hoped he was dead because when he did show up they would be faced with the repercussions of failing to rescue their brother.

“We’ll grab a ride to the next town,” he said, acutely aware he hadn’t answered her question. “The guard had a couple hundred dollars in his wallet. Should be enough to get you a motel room. You just lie low for a coupla days until I take care of Viper. “

A curious look crossed her face, a cross between confusion and disappointment. “I don’t need your money. And I don’t need to stay in a motel. I have friends in Missoula. And … a boyfriend. I can call them and they’ll come and get me. I just thought it would be easier if the Sinners helped me out in case … you know … maybe you don’t succeed. Viper’s not going to let me go. He thinks I owe him a debt.”

“You don’t need the Sinners,” he assured her. “I’ll deal with Viper. You got my word.”

Easier said than done. Now that he was free, he questioned his original plan to return to the Black Jack clubhouse and hunt Viper down. With all the guards patrolling the property, he’d never make it within five feet of the gate, much less get up close and personal with Viper in a straight-on assault. Plus he had no strength, no weapons, and no advantage.

“You’re hardly in a position to go after him,” Naiya said, as if she could read his thoughts.

Or maybe he did have an advantage. His gaze fell on Naiya, fiddling with the ring on her finger. She was right that Viper would come after her. Not just, as she said, because Viper thought she owed him a debt, but because she was smart, pretty, brave, and sexy as fuck. A real prize for a degenerate bastard like Viper. And his type of woman, given the similarities between her and Evie, whom Holt had saved from being raped by Viper in a bike shop. Plus, there was the matter of a dead Black Jack and a stolen bike—things Viper couldn’t ignore.

If Holt kept her close, he wouldn’t have to go to Viper. The Black Jack president would come to him.

“You’re right,” he said, dissembling. “I could use your help. Food. First aid.” He rolled to his side and didn’t have to feign a grimace. “We’ll go to a motel, lay low until I’ve got my strength back.” He gritted his teeth, forced out the lie. “Maybe call the Sinners if we need them.”

“I don’t have much first-aid experience,” she said, frowning. “We spent more time with dead people than live people in my course, but I can call my friend Ally. She’s a nurse.”

“No nurse.” Holt groaned. “Just you. Don’t think I could handle too many people right now.”

“If you’re sure.” Her worried gaze travelled across his body. “I suppose if they’re got a computer and Wi-Fi at the hotel, I can look things up. I dropped my purse in Viper’s room when I … we were…” Pain flickered across her face and she looked away. “I don’t have my phone. I feel kinda lost without it.”

What the fuck did Viper do to her? Holt felt a twinge of guilt at his deception. From the way she kept twisting that ring on her finger, and the slight tremble of her hands, he could see she was scared. And, although she’d brushed off his question, she was hurt.

A surge of protectiveness rose up inside him—something he hadn’t felt since he’d lived in Texas. Even if he didn’t need her to lure Viper, he couldn’t just leave her alone to fend for herself. Look what happened to his sister when he’d taken the fall for his street gang and spent two years in juvenile detention for a crime he didn’t commit. Even now he couldn’t forgive himself for her death.

“So I guess the plan is to hitchhike to the nearest motel and get you fed and cleaned up.” Her voice wavered. “Then I’ll call someone to come and get me. You can call me when the deed is done so I know it’s safe to come out of hiding.”

Fuck. What was with all the fucking plans? Why couldn’t she just wing it and then he wouldn’t have to keep thinking his way around her? “Don’t involve anyone else,” he said. “You don’t want to put them in danger. Just stick with me.”

Naiya’s brow creased in a frown. “I’m not sitting around in a motel waiting for you to serve up poached Viper à la mode at your convenience. I need to find a job. I spent the last of my savings on my mother’s funeral. That’s where Viper caught me. At the cemetery.”

Jesus Christ. Viper had no limits. But then Holt knew all about Viper, and not just from the time he’d spent in the dungeon. He’d heard stories from Viper’s daughter Arianne, who had abandoned and betrayed her father years ago to become the old lady of her father’s greatest rival, Sinner’s Tribe MC President, Jagger. Viper had killed his old lady, Arianne’s mother, when he thought she was having an affair. He had repeatedly beaten Arianne and her brother Jeff and paid off social workers and medical staff to look the other way. He had even given Arianne to one of his men against her will, offering her virginity as a reward. He was clever, cunning, ruthless and cruel. A formidable enemy. A monster of a man.

“I’m sorry about your mom.” Although his mom was still alive and living with his dad in Laredo, she was dead to him after effectively abandoning Holt and Lucy to indulge her addictions and not being there to save Lucy when Holt was locked away.

Naiya shrugged. “I hadn’t spoken to her in seven years. She was more interested in getting her next hit and being Viper’s prize sweet butt than she was in me. And she betrayed me in the worst possible way.”

They had something in common after all. He’d figured she had to have some connection to the biker world. A civilian wouldn’t have known about the importance of a biker’s cut, nor would she have stayed as cool as Naiya had when they’d been confronted during their escape.

Interested despite himself in the beautiful little spitfire, he leaned closer, his head brushing against her arm. “What work do you do?”

“I’m a forensic scientist. Well, I was supposed to be. I just finished my internship, and I was supposed to have an interview for a full-time position at a crime lab this afternoon. Looks like I missed it.”

“A forensic scientist? No shit.”

“No shit.” She leaned back against a tree, her skin pale in the moonlight, her lips turning up in a smile. “Not the usual response I get when I tell people about my career. Usually they ask me if I’m doing the stuff they see on crime shows.”

The question danced on the tip of his tongue. He and Tank used to watch all the crime shows together, making fun of the stupid criminals who left evidence behind, and the cops who took too long to put the pieces together. Although nothing topped the night one of the crime shows had featured an outlaw MC. They’d laughed so hard at the idiotic portrayal of bikers that Tank snorted beer out his nose.

Out of habit, Holt curled his fingers around the handle of his knife. He’d never said anything to Tank about the words engraved on the handle, but then he didn’t have to. They understood each other so well sometimes words got in the way.

Longing gripped Holt hard, and he fought it away. He couldn’t afford to indulge in memories of the Sinners or the man who had been closer to him than a brother.

“Once I find a job,” Naiya continued, “I’ll be doing blood and body-fluid analysis, DNA imaging, identifying genetic material on evidence, testifying in court … stuff like that. I’ve always been a bit of a science geek.”