Trouble: Crooked Souls MC (20 page)

Kat

I had never been so terrified in my life as I had while listening to the back and forth between Gabriel and Thorn. I was constantly worried Gabriel would push Thorn too far. I knew he would never hurt Sabrina—that was one thing I was certain of. He would protect her, even if meant stepping in between her and Thorn.

But I was afraid for him, too. I didn’t want to see Thorn pushed too far, to where he shot Gabriel. I worried he would do it just to free Sabrina.

Tony kept looking back at me. “Let me go!” I whispered, wriggling on the chair. “Please! I don’t know what he’s going to do! I can’t be tied down like this. Give me a chance to get away!”

He looked uncertain. I pleaded with my eyes for him to let me go. Finally, he sighed and made a motion as though to come to me.

Mike held him back. I whimpered. “No,” he said, looking at me. I realized he was just as frantic as I was. “If we let you go now, there’s no telling what he’ll do.” His eyes shifted to Thorn. So he thought Thorn was just as crazy as the rest of us did. He was trying to keep us all safe, too.

I nodded, understanding even if I didn’t like it very much. “Gabriel will know what to do,” he said, looking levelly at me. “You have to trust him.”

“Do you trust him?”

“I do. He’ll think of something.” I nodded. I had to believe him. Otherwise, what did I have to go on?

Meanwhile, Thorn was still talking to Gabriel, having forgotten all about us. Why didn’t one of these two idiots shoot him while Gabriel was diverting his attention? I would have done it myself if I had a gun and my hand was free. No wonder they were so easily led. I wondered if they had an entire brain between the two of them.

The tension crackled in the air. I hated feeling so helpless. If Thorn decided to turn and fire at me out of nowhere, I had no way to defend myself. I couldn’t even duck.

Please, please, let this work
, I begged silently.

“How does she look?” I asked, nodding to the window. Mike glanced out.

“She looks fine,” he said. “Gabriel’s holding her, but he won’t hurt her.” I knew he was right about that. Gabriel would never hurt a woman.

I realized, just then, that I loved him. I had wondered if I might. I knew I cared about him, almost as much as I cared about Sabrina’s safety. But…I loved him. Wasn’t that what my would-be final thought was?
I love you, Gabriel
.

I heard him speaking, and I strained my ears to listen closer. What was he saying? He was telling Thorn to let me go. But I could see from Thorn’s body language that it wasn’t going to be so easy to convince him.

“Tony! Get her for me!” Tony was frozen. I could tell he didn’t know what to do, and he had a good reason. Mike was right—Thorn might lose it if either of them went against him right now. He was only holding on by a thread.

Then it all happened at once. Thorn cried out, then turned to grab Tony. A shot rang out. I screamed, more from surprise than anything else. Thorn went down.

“My God!” I cried out, shaking from head to toe. Was it over? Was he dead?

No. He held his leg. Of course Gabriel couldn’t kill him. He’d tried to hide his heart for so long, but it was in there, and it was a good one. There was no way he would kill his best friend, no matter what the stakes were. Tony came to me, cutting the tape from my ankles while Mike freed my hands. I flexed them, shaking the blood back into them after having them bound so tightly for so long. It hurt, but I was happy to feel it.

And there he was, standing in the doorway. Tears filled my eyes. He was safe.

“You came for me…” I fell into his arms, weakly wrapping my arms around him as I sobbed. “You came for me. You saved me.” We fit perfectly together, just as we always did.

“Of course I did.” He was shaking, too. I knew he had been as scared as I was. He did a good job of acting otherwise, for sure. Never would I have guessed from his tone of voice that he’d been afraid.

I leaned back to look into his eyes. “I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” I admitted.

“Did you really think I would let anything happen to you?”

“Honestly? I didn’t know. Especially after I got so mad at you and threw you out. I didn’t know if you cared about me anymore. I didn’t think I deserve for you to, when I doubted you.”

He held me close and kissed me. I took his face in my hands, wishing I never had to let go.

“He told me you didn’t have anything to do with it,” I said once the long kiss ended. “You were only trying to protect the club, and him. I know how much you care about them, and I’m sorry I doubted you.”

“It’s all right. I don’t blame you.” He kissed me again, running his hands over my head. “Just do me a favor, okay?”

“What’s that?”

He grinned slightly. “Don’t ignore my texts.”

I groaned, leaning my forehead against his chest. I knew what he meant. If I had stayed home, as he asked, this wouldn’t have happened.

Then I remembered something. “Sabrina!” Thorn nodded, leading me outside, to where my sister sat. We stepped over Thorn, still sitting in the doorway. I couldn’t bear to look at him. He didn’t make a move or a sound.

I only had eyes for Sabrina. When she saw us coming, she stood. She looked thinner, with dark circles under her eyes and sallow skin. She was wearing a cheap, shapeless t-shirt and leggings—a far cry from her usual colorful wardrobe.

But it was
her
. I thought my heart might explode from happiness. There she was, alive. My arms ached for her, and I held them out as I rushed toward her. She whimpered as we threw our arms around each other.

“Oh, baby,” I cried, holding her tight. “I thought you were gone. I didn’t think we’d ever be together again. I missed you so much!”

“I’m so sorry,” she wept. “I should have listened to you. I should have.”

“It’s okay. You’re safe now.” I would never, ever let her go.

***

I sat with her against the wall of the room. We were just outside the door, and I’d heard the questions police were asking Tony and Mike. It didn’t sound like they had any awareness of Thorn’s plans for me.

By this time, we had attracted a lot of attention from others around the hotel, but I only cared about Sabrina and Gabriel. Onlookers stared at us, whispering to one another. “Just ignore them,” I murmured, my arm around her shoulders. “Tell me what happened.”

“I woke up in my car, in the woods. I didn’t know how I got there.” She wiped tears away with the back of her hand. “My head hurt. I thought I must have banged it.”

“Why didn’t you to go the hospital?”

She shrugged. “I wasn’t thinking straight, you know? And I was scared that he would find me. Thorn, I mean.”

“You were afraid of him? What had he done to you?”

“Nothing, before that last fight. He had never laid a hand on me. Only that fight, and the one we had before it…they were brutal. He was screaming, like a different person. I knew it was because he had started doing drugs. He wasn’t himself. We were fighting about that.”

The police arrived, and I watched as they swarmed on the room. “Yeah. He told me about that.”

“I don’t know why I didn’t let it go. I should have left him then and there. No questions, not another word. I knew that was what you would have done. It was stupid of me to hang around as long as I did.”

“Not stupid. You wanted to help him. It’s who you are,” I said.

She shrugged. “It almost got me killed.”

“Why did you come here? Why didn’t you come to me?”

She cried a little. “I remembered this place. Thorn had been here before. I knew it was cheap—I needed something cheap, something I could afford. I thought he might come back, so I hid my car at the far end of the parking lot, under some trees. I’ve been here ever since.”

“But didn’t you want to come home? Why didn’t you call me? I thought you were dead!”

“I knew you would want to go to the police, and I was too scared to do that.” She looked up at me, her big hazel eyes full of tears. “I thought the rest of the club might come after me. You know. To get even. And then they might have come after you, too. I thought I was protecting you.”

I watched Gabriel. He was talking with three of the cops on the scene. I saw him gesture toward the room, toward Thorn—now being loaded into an ambulance—and toward Mike and Tony, now in the backs of two police cars. I nodded grimly. “Yeah. I guess I would have been worried about that, too.”

“Do you think they will now?”

I smiled down at her. “No, honey. I don’t think so. I think we’re okay.”

She leaned against me, her head on my shoulder, and I closed my eyes. I was so full of joy. She was sitting with me again, right here. She wasn’t dead. I had found her.

Well, with a little help.

She cleared her throat, which she always did when she was about to ask an uncomfortable question. “Can I ask you something?”

I looked down at the top of her blonde head. It didn’t matter what she said. I just wanted to hear her voice. “Of course.”

“Are you and Gabriel…you know…”

I laughed. “Why would you even think that?”

“Because of the way he came here to save you. And the way he told Thorn to let you go. I heard it in his voice. How much he cares about you, I mean.”

I didn’t answer for a long time. I only watched Gabriel as he managed the situation. He had taken charge right away. A born leader.

“Would it make me a hypocrite if I said yes?” I asked Sabrina.

“No. You’re not a hypocrite. You were right about Thorn being wrong for me. He’s no good for anybody. Not even himself. Believe me, I’ve had a lot of time to think about it.” Then she looked up at me. “But Gabriel could be right for you. You’re very much alike.”

“Oh? How so?”

“I don’t know. It’s just a feeling I have. You’re both smart. You understand people. You’re good leaders. You take care of the people around you, too. You don’t just hang around in the background, I mean. You step up and do what you need to do. Usually, what other people are afraid to do.”

I thought this over. She had a point. Hadn’t I put myself in danger by looking for her? Everyone had told me it was a bad idea—the police, the entire club. Even when Thorn threatened me, I was coming up with new ways to find out the truth about my sister.

“I guess you’re right,” I admitted. “But I don’t know about Gabriel. There are too many differences. Like, do I want to be part of his club?”

“You don’t have to be.”

I laughed sarcastically. “Sure I don’t. It’s only the biggest part of his life.”

“But you don’t have to have anything to do with it. Besides, I know he wants to make them more legit. That’s why Thorn’s plan wouldn’t have worked—about the drugs, I mean. Gabriel doesn’t want to have anything to do with them. He wants the club to be above board, all the way.”

“He never told me that,” I said, marveling at her words. I hoped she was right. If that were true, I would move heaven and earth to be with him. Even if it wasn’t, I wanted to find a way for us. He meant too much to me. He’d saved my life and had brought my sister and me back together. And I loved him. How could I not want to be with him?

“I don’t know, sweetheart,” I finally said, after thinking about it. “I care about him very much. Too much, maybe. But there’s a lot going on, too. I want to make sure we’re both safe—you and me. You’re what matters most, and I won’t let you go or put you in any danger. Even if that means saying goodbye to Gabriel.”

As I said the words, my heart ached a little. But I had to be strong. For her sake, as well as mine.

“Even if he cares for you? Because it’s so obvious that he does,” Sabrina pointed out.

“Yeah, well…he cares about his club, too. Sometimes I think he cares about them more. I don’t want to be second to any MC. I would need to know that I came first.”

He turned to me, and I saw a little smile on his face. My heart ached even more.

Gabriel

It was a long day. It took hours for the police to finish questioning me in the parking lot of the hotel. I knew there would be more questions to come, especially when it came time to sign a formal statement. I’d been down this road before.

I kept looking back at Kat. She wouldn’t let Sabrina out of her sight, and for that matter, Sabrina didn’t want to be without Kat. I knew the two of them would be inseparable for a long time.

Cops led Mike and Tony to separate cars, placing them in the back. I wasn’t sure how I felt about them. They were stupid kids. Thorn had probably told them they would be big men in the club if they helped him make the peace with Jorge and his crew. Could I blame them for being a little dazzled by that? Probably not. But it didn’t mean I forgave them. They had their own shit to deal with outside of the club, though. They’d held Kat hostage, for one thing. It all depended on whether she wanted to press charges.

Thorn was on a gurney, wheeled from the room to an ambulance. “Can I talk to him for a minute?” I asked. The cop let me go, and I walked over to where the paramedics were about to load him in. They waited when they saw me come up to them.

“Hey,” I said.

“Hey.” He looked gray, but I guessed it was from the loss of blood.

“I’m sorry I shot you,” I said. “Wow, that sounded really stupid.”

He laughed a little. “It did. But it’s okay. That’s nothing compared to what I did.”

I shrugged. It would take me a long time to get over everything that had happened, but I knew one thing for sure. “I forgive you.”

His eyes went wide. It took a lot for me to say it, but his reaction made it worthwhile. “Really?”

“Really. You’re my brother, man. I know why you did everything. I’ll stand by you.” And I meant it. I had to accept the decisions he had made, like the drugs and the lying. But at heart, he was still the same person. Other things got in the way, was all. Once that shit was taken care of, we could be on the same footing again. Granted, I didn’t know if he’d be going to jail or what. But I’d stand by him then, too.

“Tell her I’m sorry,” he said. “Tell them both how sorry I am. You know I didn’t mean any of it.”

“I know you didn’t. That’s why I aimed as low as I did.”

He laughed again, nodding. “Fair enough.”

We shook hands, and I watched as paramedics placed him inside the ambulance. I didn’t know where he was going after the hospital, or how long it would be before he was free. But he was my brother for life, no matter what.

I turned back to Kat, who was still sitting with Sabrina. She smiled, nodding a little. She understood.

There were more questions. This time, the cops took Sabrina into the room, and then Kat. I waited until it was all finished. I knew I should technically have gone back to the clubhouse, but I called over there to explain what was going down and had a long talk with Randy, who was sergeant at arms. He was third in line, or second considering the way Thorn had left the picture. I would do my best to be sure he wasn’t removed permanently, but I didn’t know if the rest of the guys would be as forgiving as I was. They didn’t owe him what I did, didn’t know him like I did. I would have to do a lot of convincing to keep him in good standing.

In the end, it was my decision who stayed and who went. I wouldn’t patch in Mike or Tony after this—they were too stupid to be valuable club members. If they didn’t know enough to take big deals like the one Thorn had gotten them involved in to their president, they didn’t deserve to wear our patch. I would vote for Thorn to stay in, but there was a good chance the rest of the guys would overrule me. I couldn’t be a dictator. I would have to bend somehow. If they insisted Thorn had to leave, I would make sure he stayed safe. That would be my only condition.

“Heavy is the head that wears the crown,” Randy said when our conversation came to a close. I laughed a little.

“Yeah. Something like that.”

“You okay?” he asked.

“I’ll be okay. It’s a lot of shit to handle.”

“Well,” he said, “if there’s anyone who can handle it, you can. Spike thought so, too, or else he wouldn’t have put you in his place.”

I laughed again. “He had no idea I’d be taking over so soon, though.”

“Eh, I think he had an idea. He knew something big was gonna happen. He wasn’t in the dark. Jorge and company had been quiet for too long. He used to talk to me about the chance of them attacking us. And he had faith in you.”

I felt stronger than I had in a while. “Thanks, buddy.”

“Don’t mention it. Go take care of your old lady.”

I chuckled a little when I hung up the phone. My old lady. How would Kat feel about that title? I didn’t even know if she wanted the job—but if she did, she definitely wouldn’t want to be talked about like a piece of property. I was getting smarter when it came to dealing with her temper and stubbornness. Was that what love did to people? Because I would never have changed my way of thinking for anybody else. For her, it seemed worth it.

It was well past dark by the time we left the hotel. Kat drove herself and Sabrina, who said she would come back for her car another time. One of the cops offered to have it towed to Kat’s house instead.

We stopped to get something to eat halfway there, at a diner just off the interstate. Now that I saw them sitting together, it was like looking at twins. And I knew from the way Kat kept touching her sister, stroking her hair, patting her hand, that it would take a long time for her to get over this.

Sabrina kept looking at me, with her head tilted down toward the table. I knew why she felt uncomfortable. “I guess you wouldn’t imagine sitting here with me like this, would you?”

She shook her head.

“We don’t know each other very well,” I said.

“No, we don’t. It’s really weird,” she admitted. Kat was quiet, watching us.

“Well, there’s plenty of time to get more comfortable. The main thing right now is that you’re safe. You’re both safe.” I looked at Kat, my chest tightening when I thought of what could have happened if I’d gotten there any later than I had. She was mine. And she would keep being mine. I would never let her go after this. She meant too much to me.

“Do you know who called me?” Kat asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “Tracee. The woman who’s been living with Thorn.” I shuddered a little, wondering how he could have been with her. He fell far, going from a pretty girl like Sabrina to someone like Tracee. I looked at Kat. “She didn’t mean to hurt you when she did it. He had his ways of getting her to do what he wanted. And hey—she told me where you were going. That was good, anyway.”

“I never would have gone if it hadn’t been for her calling me.”

“But then you wouldn’t have found me, either,” Sabrina said. I watched her eat like she hadn’t eaten in weeks.

“We’ll go crazy if we keep thinking about what could have happened. Let’s just be happy everything turned out all right.”

We left the diner soon after. “Should I come to your place?” I asked Kat, keeping my voice low. She nodded.

“Where am I going now?” Sabrina asked. I looked at Kat.

“To my house,” Kat said. “You can stay as long as you want. I have all your things in your old room, but the bed is ready for you.”

“I guess I don’t have an apartment anymore. Or a job,” Sabrina said.

“It’s all right. We’ll get it all worked out. I’m just so glad you’re back. We can talk about it in the car.”

I got on my bike, smiling to myself. If that kid thought she was gonna make a move without her sister’s permission any time in the next year, she had another thing coming. Maybe even more than a year.

***

Kat was finishing up with getting Sabrina settled in her room. I had helped move things around in there to make it a little more comfortable while Sabrina showered and changed into her own clothes, then I went to Kat’s room to give the two of them some alone time. Kat had been glowing when she led Sabrina through the front door. Like a dream was coming true. It meant everything to me that she was safe, and finally happy.

I realized something then. I had never felt that sort of feeling before. Being happy over another person’s happiness. It was like I was learning all the things other people already knew. It had taken long enough.

I stripped down to my boxers and got into bed. It was incredible, the way things had turned out. I wouldn’t have guessed that the girl who came storming into the bar, demanding to know where her sister was, would work her way into my brain and my heart the way Kat had. Now, here I was. In her very feminine bedroom, full of ruffles and lace and fluffy pillows. She was definitely the girly-girl on the outside.

Inside was another matter.

I was laughing to myself when she came into the room. “What’s so funny?” she asked.

“This room, and me in it. I don’t really fit in, do I?”

She smiled. “You fit in my world just fine. But yeah. You do look a little out of place.”

“Does it bother you?”

“It’s not me I’m concerned about,” she said. “It’s you. Does it bother you?”

I thought seriously about it. “Not if it has to do with you, it doesn’t. I’ll do what I have to do to make it work with us. If that’s what you want.”

“Is it what you want?”

I sighed. We were getting nowhere. “I feel like we’re both trying to say the same thing here, and I guess I have to be the one to say it first.” I sat up, taking her hands in mine. “I love you.”

She smiled hugely, and her eyes filled with tears. “Are you sure?”

“Am I sure? Kat, I almost died today. Not because of Thorn. Because I didn’t know if you were okay. It would have killed me if anything happened to you. That’s when I knew I loved you. I couldn’t live without you now if I tried. Simple as that.”

“I love you, too,” she whispered.

Something in my heart clicked, like a piece falling into place. I felt like a whole person for the first time in my life.

“What are you going to do with the club?” she asked. “I have to know.”

“Will the answer change how you feel about me?”

“Never how I feel,” she said, “but it will affect my life, so I think I should know.”

“I want us to be legit, all the way,” I said. “I’m tired of the dangerous bullshit Spike got us into. He was a good man, and he meant well, but I know there’s a better way for the club, and all of us. I don’t want my guys getting killed over bad blood and deals gone wrong. It’s not worth it. It’s not what we were originally about.”

“How will you do it?”

I shrugged. “I’m not sure. But I know it’s possible. I talked to Randy about it tonight, and he and a lot of the guys feel the same way. They don’t want to continue down the path we’re on. I know I can set things right.”

“I know you can, too.” She smiled. “I want to be with you while you do it.”

I had a funny thought. If there was a chance for me to make things right, the odds were in my favor with her in my corner.

I took her in my arms, lowering us both to the bed. “I’ll never let you go,” I whispered. I meant every word.

“Me, too,” she said. “I thought I was going to lose you today. Or that you would lose me. It broke my heart. That was when I knew how much I love you.”

I tilted her head toward mine, until we were face-to-face, and kissed her gently. All the feeling I had for her was in that kiss.

We weren’t gentle for long, though. She opened her mouth, sliding her tongue into mine. That was all it took for me to get as hard as a rock, almost immediately. I needed her.

She rolled onto her back, taking me inside without saying a word. The first time was fast, both of us desperate to come together and hold onto each other while we did. I pushed into her hard, fast, possessing her. She was mine. All mine. Only I would ever do this to her.

She looked up into my eyes, and I saw the truth in them. She was mine, but I was hers. She hardly made a sound, moaning into my shoulder just once when she finished. I was quiet, too, for Sabrina’s sake. When I rolled off of Kat, I had to laugh at myself. I hadn’t even taken off my shorts.

“That was fast,” she whispered, smirking.

“That was just the appetizer, smart-ass,” I said.

“Oh, really?” Now she was challenging me.

“Yeah, really.” I grabbed for her, and she giggled, twisting away. So she wanted to make it hard for me to get to her. I let her have her way for a little while, playing, pretending I couldn’t get a hold of her. But soon enough was enough. I wrapped an arm around her waist and roughly pulled her to me, reminding her who was boss.

She was on her back. I ran a hand up her legs from the tops of her feet to her hips, then over her stomach and her chest. She was still wearing a thin little tank top, and I could see her nipples poking out under the fabric. I flicked them with my fingertips, and she sighed.

I let my fingers trail down her body, over her hips, then lower. I’d only pushed her panties to the side before, and now I ran my fingers over the top of her mound. She was still playing hard to get, holding her legs tightly shut. It didn’t take much work to get her to start opening up to me, her body responding without her meaning it to.