Snake Charmer (Diamondbacks Motorcycle Club Book 2) (6 page)

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Gary loved to taunt her. He would entertain her with tales of everything that he would do to Lind once he came. Eve would always let him know that Lind would
not
come, and that sent Gary into a rage. He would slap her then, hard across her face. By the third day (because Gary also made sure to always let her know exactly how long she had been his captive), the only taste Eve knew was that of her own blood that ran down to her lips from her nose. The hours dragged by, meaningless.

Eve had long lost hope that anyone would come to save her. Her knight in shining armor had long since abandoned his metal mount in favor of a bottle, becoming the most pitiful of peasants. She had no hope that Lind would miraculously come back to his old self now that she was in danger.

She spent the time drifting in and out of consciousness, her confused mind filled with dreams and nightmares. Circulation in her wrists and ankles came and went in waves because she was tied to Gary’s spare wheelchair. There was something sinister and poetic about it.

Whenever consciousness came, Eve would often wonder about Alec. She wondered if the ambulance had found him, if they had made it in time. She wondered if he was alive, and if he had awoken and told Lind what happened. She wondered if Lind even cared.

She looked up, as the door to the room in the back of the nightclub where she was held opened and Gary wheeled himself in. He stopped right in front of her as usual, as if he were just an old friend settling down for a chat, but she thought there was something different about him today. His eyes were meaner, sparkling with a dark light that chilled her to the bone.

“How is my beautiful captive today?” He addressed her with a cheerfulness that froze the blood in her veins.

Eve stared at him but said nothing.

“Not very talkative, are we?” he teased her. “I think you’ll be pleased to know that I’ve had one of my men check in with the hospital. Alec Moore is going to make a full recovery.”

Eve watched him carefully, trying to decide whether he was feeding her a lie.

“It’s the truth,” he said, guessing her doubts. “I was never after him. After all, people shooting at him is what got me into this mess to begin with.”

“Exactly,” Eve said, unable—and unwilling—to remain silent any longer. “And I had nothing to do with that.”

“No,” Gary admitted. “But you could have saved me.”

“I didn’t know they would come after you.”

“Didn’t know, or didn’t care?” he said in a raised voice, his eyes wide.

Revenge and having his life destroyed had driven Gary pretty much insane.

Eve sighed. “Just let me go. Can’t you see? No one is coming for me.”

“Perhaps,” Gary conceded. “But I’m not letting you go. You’re not walking out of this unscathed.” He rolled a little closer to her still. “I’m going to make sure you know what
this
means.” He gestured to his wheelchair.

Dread filled Eve so quickly that she thought she would throw up with the sheer force of it alone. “What…” She swallowed hard and tried again. “What do you mean?”

“I’m going to cripple you, my darling.
Then,
you’ll know what I’ve been through. What I’m still going through. What I’ll go through every day and every night for the rest of my very miserable life.”

Eve’s overwhelmed brain kicked into motion. She thought frantically about something,
anything
, she could say that would make him see reason, but she couldn’t find anything. This wasn’t a man capable of reason. This was a crazed man, and for all of the surreal experiences she had been having of late, she didn’t know how to deal with a crazed person.

“You’re a psychopath,” was all she could come up with, and she regretted it as soon as the words left her lips.
That’s right, Eve,
she commiserated.
Insult him. Piss him off.

But Gary appeared unfazed. “You’ve made me one, my dear,” he said.

He made a quick call on his cell phone, and a few minutes later the door opened and two men stepped in. One of them was Vincent. He was holding a baseball bat in his hands.

Panicked, Eve began to struggle against her bonds. “LET ME GO!” she cried in a shrill voice that she hardly recognized as her own. “YOU CAN’T DO THIS! LET ME GO!”

“Oh, but I can,” Gary said, grinning sickeningly. “I can do this and I will.”

Eve was just about to vomit from the terror when familiar, explosive sounds came to her ears. Everyone in the room froze.

“What the fuck is that?” the man who had come in with Vincent said, looking around as if the answer might be written on the walls.

“Go check it out,” Vincent barked at him, and the man hurried from the room.

Vincent went to the window and peered outside. When he turned back, there was a grimace on his face. “It’s the Diamondbacks.”

Relief hit Eve like a brick wall. Her head began to swim as the tension and adrenaline slowly ebbed away from her body.

The next happenings were a blur. Shots were fired in the distance. There was a cracking sound as the word exploded and collapsed within himself. Shapes filled the room, storming in. Voices, cries, shouts. Her name, somewhere in there. Was Lind with them? She couldn’t tell. No one had a face; they were dark, blurry shadows and disembodied voices. She thought she heard gurgling, at some point.

Only later would she learn that it was the sound of Gary Merchant choking on his own blood after Lind had shot him in the throat.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Eve woke a few times, but she would always fall back into a deep, healing slumber. She finally came to one morning in a bedroom filled with early morning sunlight streaming in from the window. She stretched and yawned hugely. She felt sore all over, but otherwise all right. Most of all, she realized as full awareness fully came back to her, she was famished.

She sat up on the bed and looked around. After a few moment’s confusion, she finally recognized the room as the bedroom in Lind’s house. That alone was enough to have her heart start beating a mile a minute. Gingerly, she got out of bed. She was wearing a t-shirt twice her size that fell just above her knees. It smelled like Lind—the Lind she had known. She imagined he would find him in the house if she left the bedroom, and she wondered who it was that she would find—the Lind she had known and fallen in love with, or the unpleasant jerk she had encountered at the Diamondbacks’ headquarters.

There was only a way to find out. It was time to get out of that room. Besides, she could smell bacon.

She padded with barefeet out of the bedroom and then into the kitchen. Lind was sitting at the table nursing a cup of coffee, with a plate filled with scrambled eggs and a few strips of crispy bacon in front of him. In spite of all of her worries, Eve’s stomach grumbled.

Lind looked up when she entered. “You’re up,” he said, getting to his feet. “How are you feeling?”

Eve thought about it. “You know, I’m actually okay,” she said, surprising herself at the realization.

The memories of everything that happened had already returned to her, but right now she could only find it in herself to be grateful that she was safe and sound.

“Would you like some breakfast?” Lind asked.

“Yes, please. I’m starved.”

He offered her a smile and gestured for her to take a seat at the table. Soon enough, Eve had her own cup of coffee and a food-packed plate. Lind was sitting across from her, and she regarded him carefully over the brim of her mug.

“How’s Alec?” she asked after long minutes of silence. “Is he…?” she let the question hang in the air, somewhat terrified to formulate it fully.

“He’s alive,” Lind said quickly. “He’s going to be just fine.”

Eve exhaled in relief. “That’s good news,” she said.

“Yeah.”

The silence came back, and for the first time since she had met Lind, it was an uncomfortable kind of silence.

Finally, Lind heaved a deep sight. “I owe you an apology,” he began. “I was an asshole.”

“No arguments there,” Eve said, but she couldn’t really bring herself to be mad at him. After all, he had saved her. Again.

“I was…really spiraling,” Lind admitted. “It was touch and go for a long while there. I never meant for you to see me like that. I’m…very sorry. I realize that doesn’t cover it—”

“It covers it,” Eve said, cutting him off gently. She realized as she said it that she truly meant it. She had longed too fiercely to have him in her life again—however briefly—to let the past ruin this moment. She reached out across the table and squeezed his hand. “We’re okay.”

He looked at her incredulously. “Really?” he said. “Just like that?”

Eve grinned. “I won’t say no if you decide to buy me dinner.”

He chuckled and shook his head.

Eve sat back in her chair and attacked her food again. “You wanna tell me what happened with Gary? I think I might’ve missed a few things.”

As it turned out, there wasn’t much to tell. It had taken Lind seventy-two hours to get clean, which Eve thought was surprising given the condition she had found him in. After he had managed to press the pause button on his demons, he and the rest of the Diamondbacks had set out to find her. It didn’t take them very long. The revenge that had clouded Gary mind had also made him not very smart. He was keeping Eve in the back room of the rebuilt Cobra; he thought that, due to it being so obvious, it would be the last place where they would look.

What happened after that, Lind said, was what always happened in similar circumstances. Shots were fired, and people were killed (luckily, no one from the gang). Eve was a little ashamed to admit that she was happy to learn that Vincent had been one of the casualties. As for Gary, Lind shot him when he picked up the bat from the hands of the fallen Vincent and attempted to strike an unconscious Eve with it.

At the end of the bloodied tale, Eve smiled shakily. “Sounds like I owe you the use of my legs as well as my life.”

Lind frowned in confusion.

“He wanted to cripple me with that bat,” Eve said, surprised at how detached she sounded to her own ears as she recounted the events. “He said he wanted me to know what he had to go through.”

“Son of a bitch!” Lind hissed in anger.

Eve shook her head. “It’s done now.” She caught his gaze and held it. “Thank you,” she said sincerely.

Lind nodded curtly.

Unable to resist, Eve leaned forward to capture his mouth in a kiss. To her surprise, Lind returned it only for a moment before shaking himself out of it and pulling back sharply.

“I’m sorry,” he said, sitting back in his chair. “I can’t.”

Eve sat back down slowly and watched him carefully. “Why? What is it?”

“You’re engaged.”

Eve arched an eyebrow. “That never seemed to stop you before.”

Lind gave her a weak smile. He shook his head. “It’s different now. I can’t get caught up in it again.” He hesitated. “And by the way, I may have been high out of my mind, but the one
you
pulled was really a mean move.”

Eve frowned. “What are you talking about?”

“Asking me to help with your relationship problems?” Lind said. “It was really…I mean, what the hell were you thinking?”

Eve’s sudden flare of anger died down quickly when she was finally able to put the situation into focus. “Is that what you thought?” she asked, appalled. “You thought I was calling to discuss romantic issues?”

Lind shrugged. “What else?”

“I can’t fucking believe you,” Eve muttered.

“What?” Lind said, genuinely confused. “What is it?”

Eve took a long sip of her coffee and glared at him over the brim of the mug. “If you must know,” she said, setting the mug back down, “I was calling for advice on how to handle an…um…unpleasant situation.”

Lind was instantly on guard. His eyes narrowed in suspicion. “
How
unpleasant?”

Eve grimaced. “He hit me. Once.”

Lind’s impossibly blue eyes flashed with anger. “The bastard’s dead.”

“No, he isn’t,” Eve said quickly, terrified that Lind might carry out his threat. “I’ll handle it. I shouldn’t have called you,” she admitted after a moment. “It’s just…it had just happened and I didn’t know where else to turn.”

“I’m sorry,” Lind said again. “I let you down. I’m so sorry.”

Eve shook her head, waving away his apology. “What should I do now?” she wondered aloud.

“You should go back.”

She looked up at him in surprise. He had not even thought about it. “You don’t want me here, do you?”

Lind sighed. He got up and walked around the table, kneeling down next to her chair. He took her hands in his and squeezed them. “I want you here,” he said, looking so deep into her eyes that for a moment Eve thought she might drown in his stare. “You can’t even begin to imagine how much I want you here.” He took a moment, letting the words he had just spoken reach her and sink in. “But you can’t run from this, Eve. You need to go back and break things off with that asshole, get some closure.”

Eve hesitated. He was right, of course. She
knew
he was right, and yet… “I don’t know if I can.”

“Of course you can.”

She shook her head. “You don’t get it.”

“Then make me get it,” he said. “Make me understand.”

She took a deep breath. “I’m scared,” she admitted. “I know it’s ridiculous to be afraid of one man after all that I’ve just been through, but I am. What if things get out of hand?”

“I’ll be there to watch your back.”

Eve stared at him. He sounded and looked like he meant it. “I can’t ask that of you.”

“You’re not asking,” Lind said. “I’m offering.”

“What will my father say?”

“He’ll say you’ve done good getting rid of an asshole who beat you,” Lind interrupted. “Doesn’t your father love you?”

Eve bit her lip. “He does,” she admitted.

“Then, I’m sure he’ll be happy to know that you’re safe,” Lind said. He squeezed her hands for emphasis. “You know you have to do this, Eve.”

Eve took a deep, shaky breath. She nodded, finally convinced. “I know. You’re right. I’ll do it.”

Lind smiled brightly at her. “Good,” he said.

And then he leaned in. Eve did not pull back, she would have been crazy to do so. Instead, she met him halfway and let herself get lost in a kiss she had been dreaming about for…who the hell cared for how long. Suffice it to say, it had felt like an eternity.

Lind tasted like coffee, and Eve already could not get enough. They never stopped kissing each other, even as they both got up and half-walked, half-stumbled towards the bedroom. They kept touching each other, clutching at each as if both were afraid the other would disappear into thin air if they were to break contact even for a moment. Eve supposed neither of them could be blamed. She realized right then and there, as Lind touched her all over and caressed her face in the most reverent way, that he had missed her just as fiercely as she had missed him. She suddenly felt very foolish for ever doubting his feelings for her.

Soon, she was taking off her—technically,
his
—t-shirt and leaning back on the mattress, with Lind’s gloriously naked figure on top of her. His lips found hers again and sucked greedily on her tongue. Eve responded by arching into his body, craving the feel of his skin against hers.

When they emerged for breath, Lind didn’t lose any more time. His lips were on the move again; this time leaving hot trails down her throat and then all over her body—her shoulders, her collarbones, her breasts, her stomach, and her thighs. Her sex. All the while, his hands explored her skin. The frantic, hungry touch of his fingers and palms on her body was enough to make her moan in pleasure and anticipation.

Just as hungry for his body as he was for hers, Eve’s hands also began to trace the outlines of his flawless figure. She outlined every muscle, followed the curves of his shoulders and spines and butt cheeks with a feeling of gentle awe. She could hardly believe this was finally happening. She could hardly believe this gorgeous man was giving himself to her. She let her fingertips run lightly down his sides, all the way down to his crotch. She cupped his testicles, and he moaned in anticipation.

The sound resonated deep within her, and Eve made a decision. She was going to have some fun. She pushed him away, gently but firmly, and pushed him back onto the mattress, rolling easily on top of him. He watched her, intrigued.

“What’s the plan, darlin’?” he drawled.

Eve grinned. She leaned down and took his mouth into a kiss once again. The taste of him exploded on her tongue, and she took her sweet time savoring it. Then, she pulled back and let her lips map out his body. This time she traced a gentle but burning-hot trail down the whole length of his body until she reached his crotch. Her tongue teased him, kissing the dimples between his thighs and cock. Lind arched and moaned in response.