Psy (MC Biker Romance)(Daredevils of Drake County Book 1) (5 page)

Chapter 9

He waited for her to finish getting dressed before driving her to the store. She still wasn’t sure how she felt about the motorcycle. Seeing Psy on it was incredibly sexy, but when she was on it, it felt terrifying. At least she got to hold onto him, so it wasn’t all bad.

He left her at the store reluctantly, not fond of the idea at all, but she insisted. Of course, the moment he left, she felt a pain in her chest from his absence. How in the world had she grown so attached to this man? Maybe she just needed space from him to clear her head. She felt like her head was just completely consumed with him and she needed to focus on keeping the pieces of her life together.

The day went by slowly. Sera couldn’t stop thinking about Psy and he texted her a few times to make sure that everything was really okay. She didn’t know how the hell she’d managed to attract someone so kind, but she was thankful for it.

The store phone rang and Sera considered not answering it. It was normally someone with the wrong number, but there was always the chance that someone was calling to see if she had an item or to find out the hours. She couldn’t let the call go with that possibility.

“Grandpa’s General Store,” she answered the phone as she always did.

“Are you ready for our date tonight?”

Her blood turned to ice in her veins: Greg.

“Fuck you,” she spat, not even trying to hide her contempt for the loathsome man.

He laughed and the sound brought back a flood of memories and a fresh wave of anxiety.

“Now now, that’s no way to talk to your loving boyfriend, Bells. I see you’re going to make it fun for me, though,” he taunted.

She hurried to the door and locked it out of sheer paranoia. She couldn’t stay here. Psy was right. She got too comfortable and thought she was safe, but she wasn’t.

“Don’t come near me again,” she tried to sound forceful, but her voice was shaking so much that she came off as frightened and weak.

That only made him laugh more.

“Or what? You’ll call the police? Go ahead, babe. I’ll get out of it again.”

She felt trapped and helpless all over again. Finally, she hung up the phone, refusing to let him press her buttons any more. She didn’t want to act like a victim.

Without another thought, she texted Psy.

Can I come see you?

Of course, sweetheart. 203 8th Street.

Okay, see you soon.

Her hands were still shaking when she put the phone back into her purse. The sun was beginning to set and she had a few blocks to walk to the address that Psy gave her. She wanted to get there before dark, just in case.

She couldn’t help but look over her shoulder every few steps. Greg made her paranoid. He terrified her. She needed to finish this once and for all. If that meant letting Psy do what he wanted to the dickhead, then so be it.

The address he gave her was nondescript. It was a plain metal door from the outside, nestled into a strip of other establishments. The other suites all seemed to be abandoned, or at the very least, faring poorly. This seemed like an odd place for Psy to live.

She knocked on the door, wondering if this was really the right place. She looked around for his motorcycle and didn’t see it anywhere which made her a little nervous. He didn’t seem like he’d go anywhere without Stella.

“What am I doing here?” She glanced up and down the road as she paced, looking for any signs of movement. She was so terrified that she’d been followed.

Her fear only annoyed her more. This needed to end. She couldn’t live her life like this.

“This is stupid, you should just go home. There’s nothing to be gained here,” she muttered, trying to remember why she thought Psy could help her.

He’d done nothing but help her so far. She had no reason to believe that he
couldn’t
help.

Finally, the door swung open, nearly hitting her. An old man peered out, a long gray beard trailing to his waist and a face lined with decades of wrinkles. His head was shiny and bald and when he opened his mouth to speak, Sera saw that he was missing at least half of his teeth.

“Are you lost, sweetheart?” The old man asked, sounding amused.

She didn’t like the way he looked at her.

“Um… I’m here to see Psy?” She really wasn’t convinced that this was the right place, but why would he send her to the wrong place?

“Oh, are you? Well why didn’t you say so?” The old man ushered her inside. Sera didn’t know whether or not she should trust him, but at the very least, she trusted Psy.

She followed the stranger inside and was completely astonished by what she found inside. She expected this to be Psy’s home. It actually looked more like a bar. Low lights, smoky air, and dozens of burly men covered in tattoos and leather.

What had she just walked in to? She didn’t see any other women here except for the busty brunette behind the bar.

Raucous laughter and angry exclamations rang through the deceptively large place. It was difficult for her to tell if they were serious or if a fight was going to break out at any moment.

“Psy’s in the back, honey, through that curtain,” he pointed toward a doorway on the right of the bar that was concealed by a large hanging drapery.

She thanked the old man and tried to make her way to the back room without making eye contact with anyone. She would have knocked, but… it was a curtain, so she just stood on the other side for a moment to make sure she wasn’t interrupting anything. She never meant to eavesdrop, it just kind of happened.

“How are things coming along with that girl?” An unfamiliar voice asked.

“Smooth as silk. She should be leading me straight to him,” that voice wasn’t unfamiliar at all! That was Psy’s honey-coated voice that made her melt. But was he talking about her?

“Good, Gregory James is a thorn in my side and I want him taken care of. Do you understand?”

“Of course. Consider it done,” Psy answered and Sera clapped her hand over her mouth.

All of it… everything they’d done… it was just to get to Greg? He never cared about her at all! He was just using her! She couldn’t believe it, but at the same time, it made perfect sense. She knew that he had to have a but. No one was as perfect as Psy was pretending to be. She was foolish for getting her hopes up and even more foolish for thinking he could help her.

She was turning to run, to leave this crazy man behind. To leave all of these crazy men behind. She was just a magnet for trouble and she was so sick of it happening time and time again.

“Sera?” Psy called from behind as she started to walk out. She tried to pretend that she hadn’t heard him.

“Sera! Wait,” he jogged up to her and caught her by the arm. “Where are you going?”

She pulled her arm free from him, hating how much she loved him touching her. She felt so stupid!

“Why do you want to know? So you can find Greg and ‘take care of him’? Were you ever actually interested in me or was it all just a part of your plan?” She couldn’t believe how angry she’d gotten in just a few seconds. Her heart was racing and her chest felt like it was filled with an angry hornet’s nest. She just wanted to make him hurt as much as he hurt her, but it wasn’t in her nature to try to inflict harm on anyone. No matter whether his feelings had been real or not, hers had been and she didn’t want to hurt him.

“It’s not like that Sera… I mean, at first it was. Yes, I was assigned to make contact with you in order of finding out more about Gregory’s whereabouts, but then I met you and…” he scratched the back of his head nervously, trying not to make a complete fool of himself.

“I met you and got to know you and it became so much more than that, Sera. You have to believe me.”

Her heart skipped a beat. Could he be telling the truth? It was impossible to know because she still had the information he wanted.

“I want to believe you, really I do, but I can’t. Who assigned you to get close to me? Your boss?” What exactly was it that Psy did? She still had no idea, but now she knew why he was so keen to spend time with her and swore that he didn’t have anything else to do.

“Uh… kind of. If you haven’t figured it out, Sera, we’re kind of a brotherhood here. Greg isn’t one of us. He’s involved with our rivals and has been a giant pain in the ass. It’s only added motivation that he’s treated you so poorly. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, I really am.”

Tears sprang to her eyes and she fought so hard to keep them suppressed. She cried enough times over men that didn’t deserve it this week, she wasn’t about to do it again.

“So… you’re what? In a gang?”

He made a face at her and shook his head.

“No, we don’t like that word at all.”

“Well I don’t like being fucking used. I thought… I thought you were different… but you’re just like him. You just go after what you want with no regards for anyone else.” She couldn’t look at him any more. It made her heart hurt to think of his betrayal. She had wanted so badly to believe that she could trust him. She wanted to think that he could make her happy. But of course, he was just as two-faced and horrible as all the other men she dated.

“Please don’t say that, Sera. I really do care for you. You can’t tell me that you didn’t feel something special when we had sex…” She smacked him as hard as she could manage.

“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare try to make me believe you’re innocent in all of this. You acted like you were such a nice guy. You
slept
with me, and all along it was just a big fucking lie. Well screw you and your little ‘brotherhood’ I’ll never lead you to Greg. I’d rather take my chances with him than accept any help from you.”

She turned and began to walk away from him. Psy tried to call after her, but she didn’t want to hear any part of it. She was fuming. No matter how many times he called her name, she ignored him. She started to walk home and he raced to get his bike to follow her. He wasn’t going to just let her go out into the world on her own with her crazy ex out there.

Chapter 10

Sera didn’t even care about Greg anymore. Her heart felt broken. That didn’t make any sense to her, she’d only known this man for a couple of days, how could she be so torn up over the loss?

She wiped the tears away from her face and continued walking with a purpose. She needed to do what she should have done in the beginning. She called the police and told them what Greg said. While they still couldn’t do anything for her, they were able to do a drive-by of her house every now and then. It wasn’t much, but it was somewhat reassuring. She didn’t know what she would do if Greg came knocking.

Psy left a lot of distance between them. He knew where she lived and planned to stake her house out, but he didn’t want her to hear him coming. That would only make things worse.

Sera finally arrived home and opened her newly-repaired door with an ache in her heart. She hated that she was going to think about Psy now every time she came home. She didn’t want to think about him at all. It had all just been a game to him.

She noticed that her house was a little chilly and wandered over to the thermostat to turn the heat up. She dropped her purse on the couch and thought about just crashing on her bed. She was exhausted, despite having had a good night’s sleep.

Walking into her bedroom, she pulled her shoes off before she actually took a look around. That’s when she saw it: her bedroom window was smashed, there was glass all over the floor and the curtains billowed in the breeze. She barely had time to register what was happening before Greg’s hand clamped over her mouth from behind.

“I told you this would be fun, Belly,” he purred right next to her ear.

He made her skin crawl. His hot breath on her neck made her nauseous now and when he pressed his lips to the sensitive skin of her neck, she tried to shrink away from him. He held her tightly, his hands leaving bruises on her. She couldn’t escape, couldn’t make a noise. She only prayed that the police would be by soon and that they would notice her broken window. She felt like an idiot now for being so angry with Psy. What he did was wrong, obviously, but he could have saved her from whatever plans Greg had for her.

He ran his hand up under her shirt until he cupped her breast and squeezed it painfully. She tried to cry out, but his hand muffled the sound. As he pulled and twisted on her nipple, tears sprang to her eyes and flowed freely.

She prayed for anything, anyone to save her from this nightmare now.

“Oh, stop your crying, you know you love this,” he hissed, pinching her hard again.

His hand roved down into her pants and he thrust his fingers in her without any warning. She tried to scream again and this time he pinched her clit so hard that her vision tunneled for a moment.

“Stop lying, slut, your cunt is wet, I know you love this, you stupid bitch.”

She had to do something. There had to be a way out of this.

He tried to undress her with one hand, but couldn’t manage it. He turned her head sharply to force her to look at him. It hurt her neck, but that was the least of her worries at the moment.

“If you make a fucking sound, I will kill you, do you understand?”

She nodded, tears still streaming from her eyes. Death had to be better than this torture. She just couldn’t let him keep treating her this way.

The moment he removed his hand, Serabelle screamed as loudly as she could. He backhanded her so hard that she fell to the ground, hitting her head in the process, making her lose consciousness.

Psy had been scoping out Sera’s house from a far, but hadn’t seen anyone else go or even approach since she had. Then he heard it: the high pitched scream that could only come from someone truly terrified for their life. Without another thought, he hopped off of his bike and ran as fast as he could to her house. If that bastard was there, he planned to kill him with his bare hands. He wanted to watch the life drain out of his eyes for everything he’d done to Sera.

The door was locked, and of course, no matter how hard he tried to break it down, he’d done too good of a job making it secure. So how had Greg gotten in?

He circled the house frantically looking for his way in until he spotted the bedroom window at the back of the house, out of view from the street.

Sera wasn’t making any noises now and that worried him even more than her scream. There was no time to try to catch him by surprise, he just had to get to her.

He climbed through the window, trying to make as little sound as he could. The asshole was busy tying Sera to the bed. Her eyes were closed and the unbruised portion of her face was ghostly pale. Psy felt the urgent need to protect her, to save her, to keep her all to himself. Without another thought, he launched himself at Greg and beat him to the ground.

The deranged man looked back at him with feral eyes and then started laughing. He spit out a mouthful of blood before speaking.

“The Daredevils sent
you
to get me? They must be desperate as fuck.” It didn’t matter that Psy had him pinned or that he was clearly ready to commit murder. Greg still had to taunt him.

Psy pulled back his fist and punched him again. But each subsequent blow only made Greg laugh harder. He was delusional, insane, and completely unsettlingly nuts. Psy wanted to wring his neck, but if he got charged with murder then he may never get to see Sera again.

There was a knock on the door and both men turned to look in that direction. Another knock.

“Well, aren’t you going to answer the door?” Greg asked innocently.

“Fuck you,” Psy growled, pinning him to the ground by his throat. He reveled in watching the man struggle for breath, gasping and gaping over his empty lungs.

His face turned redder and redder and his eyes started to bulge from his head.

There was another knock and then the door burst open.

Four officers poured into Sera’s tiny home and pulled Psy off of Greg a moment too soon.

They cuffed both of the men before calling for an ambulance for Sera. She was still laying unconscious on the bed with each wrist tied to a corner of the bed. One of the officers untied her, but none of them bothered to try to move her.

Psy pulled at his handcuffs, wanting desperately to get to Sera, to hold her and make sure she was really going to be all right.

“I was trying to save her,” he shouted at the police officer.

“Yeah, we’ll have time for your statement soon, buddy,” the officer answered with more than a little skepticism.

Of course they would think that he was the bad guy. Hell, maybe they thought that he and Greg were working together and something went wrong. He couldn’t blame them for being cautious, but damn he wanted to be by her side.

The police pulled him aside and started asking him questions as the ambulance arrived and paramedics started checking on Sera. Psy couldn’t focus on the questions he was being asked. He could only watch Sera and hope and pray that she would be okay. She had to be okay. He had to have gotten there in time or he’d never forgive himself. The ambulance took her away and Psy begged and pleaded to go with her. Of course, the cops were having none of that. He’d yet to answer any of their questions. Greg was already being hauled off to jail for breaking his restraining order, they didn’t need to hear his statement.

Psy gave them a brief run down of that past few days and then answered any questions they had for clarification.

Finally, after what felt like forever — but was really more like an hour — they released him but advised him not to leave town until they were able to speak to Sera.

He told them not to worry. He had no intentions of going anywhere but to the hospital.

Hours later, Sera woke up in the hospital with a massive headache. She groaned and clutched her head, rolling to the side in pain. Her whole body felt sore and hurt. She didn’t remember anything at all after being hit by Greg and she hated to think of what he might have done to her while she unconscious.

“Shh, it’s okay sweetheart,” she heard the voice but she couldn’t open her eyes. It wasn’t possible that he was there though. She must be dreaming. Her mind was tormenting her. Psy didn’t care about her, he only cared about his little gang.

She groaned and he brushed a stray piece of hair from her forehead, stroking her warm forehead gently.

“It’s okay, I’m here,” he cooed, so happy to see her awake. They weren’t quite out of the woods yet, but this much was encouraging.

She finally opened her eyes and he was really there! How was that possible?

“What…are you doing here?” she rasped, trying to keep her eyes open, but the bright sterile lights made her wince.

“Because I care about you, silly,” he said in almost a whisper.

She tried to shake her head, but found that the movement hurt even more than the lights did.

“No… just Greg…” she mumbled.

“He’s taken care of now. He won’t be bothering you again. But I really did mean it, Sera. I care about you a great deal. I don’t know how it happened, but it did.”

She had to open her eyes then. She had to see his face, see if he was as sincere as he sounded.

The eyes that met hers were shimmering with admiration and something else. She was hesitant to label it because she didn’t want to get her hopes up.

“I’m sorry I didn’t get there sooner. I shouldn’t have let you leave on your own.” He pet her head in a soothing manner, and she couldn’t help but fall for him all over again. This was the kind gentle man she knew. He may be in a motorcycle club, but that didn’t make him a bad guy at all.

“Sera… I know this is probably crazy for me to say, but…” he sighed. He looked into those aquamarine eyes and his heart swelled in his chest. There was no use denying it.

“I love you. I knew from the moment I met you that you were something special. You’re so strong and selfless. You’re beautiful and charming… I understand if you’re still angry with me, but please, at least give me the chance to redeem myself.”

She gave him a sleepy smile as the toll of her injuries started to pull her back into dreamland.

“I love you, too. Give me a kiss.”

His smile spread ear to ear. Hearing those words from the woman of his dreams was all he could ever hope for. He leaned over her and placed a gentle kiss on her parted lips.

“As many as you want,” he whispered over her soft snores.