Wicked Ride (15 page)

“Take Auralie over to The
Silo,” he says as he nods toward the door. “I’ll be
over in about ten minutes.”

I sigh out a breath of relief.
Again, this is not an optimal solution, but it’s
the only one I have. I turn toward the door.

“And Logan,” Bridger
says in a low voice.

I turn back around to look at
him, my face trying to appear grateful for what he’s
doing but still feeling sick inside.

“You know this is only
putting off the inevitable for one more day, right?” he asks.

I nod. “Yeah.
I get that.”

“Then you get your shit
sorted tonight,” he tells me sagely. “You either get her
to let you help her or you get the fuck gone. Go find some pussy and
fuck it hard, but you walk away after tonight. Magnus is a bad dude.
You’re going to put her at risk if you keep up with this
jealous bullshit when you may not have any right to be so.”

I curse under my breath.
“Understood.”

“And buddy,” Bridger
says in a far gentler voice. “I know you’re here for a
reason. I know something drove you to Wyoming and The Silo and that
you get something from all this. I suspect it lets you exist as best
you know how. But you can’t find happiness in this place. Not
for the long haul anyway.”

My stomach tightens and I stare
at him through hard eyes, refusing to give any credence to his very
spot-on assessment of me. I’ve
not shared that piece of me with anyone, and it sure as fuck won’t
be him.

“You can’t outrun
your demons,” Bridger says meaningfully, completely at ease in
giving me advice I don’t want or need. “You can’t
outrun them because they’re inside of you, not behind you.
Until you confront that shit, you’ll never lose them.”

This takes me aback, not because
he’s being nosy as
fuck into my life by his uncanny insight, but because his voice holds
something more than just a friend giving out a piece of unsolicited
advice. It sounds as if he might know a little something about
running from demons.

I’ve
always found Bridger to be coolly aloof and guarded with most
everyone except his buddy, Woolf, who used to own The Silo with him.
Figured something made him that way. It’s not until this moment
when I realize by the tone of his voice, that whatever it is that has
made him a very strange man, it’s something that’s caused
him great pain.

Maybe even a pain as great as
mine?

I shake my head to clear it, but
I still can’t help
but ask. “That work for you? Have you made peace with your
demons?”

It’s
an impertinent question to the man who essentially keeps me employed
as a Fantasy Maker, and I half expect him to kick me the fuck out of
his office.

But instead, he gives me a wry
smile and shakes his head. “Nah,
man. I keep those fuckers around intentionally as reminders of what
I’ll never go through again.”

I don’t
even know what to say to that, but on some level, I recognize the
reasoning. It’s why I keep myself reserved from relationships
and friendships. Because if you don’t have anything of value to
lose, it can’t hurt you down the road.

“Thanks for the help,”
I tell him quietly as I turn toward the door. “I’ll see
you over at The Silo.”

Bridger’s
silent as I walk out, and I find Auralie waiting there for me,
looking far more beautiful and normal in a simple black dress that is
cut to reveal a tiny amount of cleavage and black, strappy heels. She
still has a clean, fresh face, but at least she doesn’t look
twelve, which will probably disappoint those that come to gawk at her
tonight.

Sucking Bridger’s
dick.

Goddamn, I hate this, but it’s
the only play I have.

Auralie’s
chewing on her lower lip when I open the door. It pops free,
glistening wet. I want to chew on it some more, but instead, I walk
up to her and take her hand in mine.

“I’ve set it up for
Bridger to help us,” I tell her with my mouth near her ear
because the country music filtering down the hall from The Wicked
Horse is cutting into our privacy.

She pulls back and looks at me.
“You want me to—with
Bridger?”

“Yes,” I tell her,
and then fudge a little on my motivation. “He won’t hurt
you, and I don’t trust any of those other douches.”

She seems to accept that. and I’m
glad because I sure as fuck am not about to admit to her the way I
did to Bridger that it’s going to kill me to see her lips
wrapped around a dick that is not mine.

“Let’s go,” I
tell her as I pull on her hand and we hit the exit door. This puts us
out right at a stone path that leads to The Silo sitting just a
stone’s throw. “Bridger’s going to come over in
about ten minutes. I want you to go in, wander around, and mingle.
It’s not going to be overly crowded since it’s so early,
but flirt and hit on some men or something.”

Christ, it pains me to tell her
to do that.

It’s
going to hurt like a motherfucker when I watch her actually do that.

“Logan,” Auralie says
with a tug on my hand. I stop and turn to look at her. “You
should go.”

“I’m staying,”
I grit out.

“You need to forget me,”
she says in a small voice, but her face says it all.
I
couldn’t
ever, ever forget you. I wish we could just run, run, run and never
look back.

“Couldn’t forget
you,” I mutter back to her in affirmation of all the things she
just said with her eyes.

“But tomorrow,” she
continues on, stepping into me and placing her hands on my shoulders.
“I’m going to have to be right back here again. Probably
with Magnus. It’s going to happen one way or the—”

My mouth descends on hers because
I don’t want her to
finish that thought. I don’t want to hear about inevitability.
I want to focus on right this moment. Tonight, after she gets Bridger
off with her mouth—can’t stand that fucking thought
either—I want to take her back to the cabin and do as many
wicked things to her as I can without compromising her virginity. I
want to do this for hours, let it turn into days, and let the future
that would lead her to kneel at another man’s feet never
arrive.

Auralie leans into my kiss, her
hands going to clasp at each other behind my neck. She moans against
my tongue, and the smell of her sweet perfume makes me dizzy.

Reluctantly, I pull away and give
her a little push toward The Silo. “Go
on in. I’ll be in soon.”

She nods at me and walks away,
and yeah… I stare
at her swaying ass that I’d love to tap one day if I had the
time to build her up to that. I wait until she disappears inside,
waiting about five more minutes before I walk in. Bridger should be
soon on my heels and then we’ll get this travesty of a show
over with for the night.

When I clear the hall into the
main area of The Silo, I see Auralie standing at the bar talking to
one of the members. Nondescript dude, doesn’t
come in often. Don’t know much about him, but it doesn’t
matter. He won’t be touching her tonight.

I walk over to one of the black
leather couches that sits perpendicular to the glass rooms. From
there, I can watch the action in one of said rooms if I want,
although they’re
empty at this early hour, or I can swivel my head and watch Auralie.

With Bridger.

Fuck, my stomach hurts.

As if on cue, Bridger appears
from the entrance hall, his eyes scanning the entirety of the room,
although he passes right over me. There
are only a handful of people in here. Two bartenders, Auralie and the
man she’s talking to, as well as perhaps another five people
sitting at the bar. Add Bridger and me and that’s only eleven
total, which will at least help to cut down on Auralie’s
humiliation, no matter if her sucking Bridger’s dick makes me
feel slightly better, she wants no part of anyone’s dick but
mine.

“Everyone, let me have your
attention,” Bridger says with an authoritative boom.

I sit straight up from my pouting
slouch, completely stunned he’s going to really make a
spectacle of what he and Auralie are about to do.

Auralie’s
face is even more pale than normal, her lips almost white. Her eyes
cut to me with worry, but we both look back to Bridger when he says,
“I’ve just gotten a call from the fire department. We had
our yearly inspection, and they found some burned electrical.
Unfortunately, until that can get fixed, they’ve ordered us to
close down immediately. I’m really sorry, but I’m going
to have to ask everyone to leave. Hopefully, we’ll be opened
back up by tomorrow.”

My jaw hangs wide open as I watch
Bridger shuffle the patrons out while the bartenders start packing
away their wares. I look at Auralie, who is saying goodbye to the man
she was talking to, and then back to Bridger as he starts to walk
toward me.

I stand from the couch,
unprepared for how jello-like my legs feel from the shock of reprieve
I was just given.

Not Auralie.

No, Bridger gave that reprieve to
me
so that I wouldn’t
have to suffer watching my girl take his cock.

My girl?

Well, yeah…
I think so.

Fuck. I have no clue what to do
now.

“It’s just for
tonight,” Bridger says in a low voice as his eyes cut briefly
to Auralie, who is walking our way. It drops an octave lower when he
says, “I mean it… figure your shit out tonight or get
the fuck gone and don’t look back at her. You hear me?”

“Loud and clear,” I
tell him as I turn and hold my hand out to Auralie.

I have
some work to do tonight.

Auralie

“Magnus can’t be
mad,” Logan says as soon as he has me in his truck and we’re
pulling out of the parking lot. “Text him and tell him The Silo
is closed down.”

“Okay,” I say,
pulling my phone out of the little clutch I brought.

I shoot off a quick text.
The
Silo is closed down tonight. Burned wires. Fire department shut it
down.

“I can’t believe he
did that,” I say in wonder to Logan. “He must be a really
good friend.”

“Yeah,” Logan mutters
in agreement, but he doesn’t say anything more. While I know
he’s relieved that we’ve been given a day’s
reprieve, I also know he’s already worrying about tomorrow. If
I were strong and really wanted to spare both of us more pain, I’d
be a brave girl and turn him away when he drops me off at my cabin. I
should cut the string quickly and decisively, and yes… even
cruelly if I have to, and let him be free from my bullshit.

Because this man does not deserve
my shitty life, nor does he deserve to be burdened with my lies and
bad deeds that have
probably earned me a one-way ticket to Hell.

My phone chimes, and I look down
at Magnus’ return
text.
You better not be
lying to me to get out of this.

My fingers fly over the screen as
I respond.
Call Bridger
if you don’t
believe me. He’s the one that just came in an announced it.

His response is just as fast.
You’re
at The Silo now? It’s not even 7PM. Far too early for you to
have gone and put on a good show to the biggest crowd.

“Oh, for fuck’s
sake,” I growl at my phone and pull up my screen, punching
Magnus’ number. Logan’s head turns to look at me and I
shoot him an irritated eye roll, which he knows is not meant for him
but for another.

Magnus answers right away. “You
were supposed to go late tonight. I told you I wanted a show. There
couldn’t have been anyone there this early.”

“Jesus, Magnus,” I
say in irritation. “What does it matter? It wasn’t going
to happen anyway since it just got closed down. One way to look at it
is if I’d have gotten there a bit earlier, I could have
probably sucked a cock and made some inroads for you.”

He makes a disgusted sound on the
line. “Do you have
to be so crass?”

“You got to be fucking
kidding me?” I ask with astonishment, my voice rising higher
and higher. “Crass? Crass? You’re pimping my body out for
money… and you call me crass?”

“It’s a job,
Auralie,” he says smoothly. “Nothing more than that.”

My eyes cut over to Logan, who is
thankfully only privy to my end of the conversation. I can’t
bear for him to know I’m doing this for something as base as
money. “I’m
hanging up now, Magnus,” I say tiredly. “Any idea when
you’re coming back?”

“Day after tomorrow,”
he snipes at me. “And be ready to get back to work. I want to
up our efforts.”

“Fine,” I snap. “I’ll
be ready to suck dick when you command.”

“Auralie,” he
chastises me, but I hit the disconnect button and throw my phone on
the seat beside me.

“I don’t understand
why you align yourself with such a douche,” Logan accuses.

I turn to look at him, but not
before I realize I have no clue where we are as I take in unfamiliar
scenery as the sun hangs low over the horizon.

“Where are we going?”
I ask curiously.

“To my place,” he
says. “We’ll cook some hot dogs like I promised, because
I figured you’d be more into that than a pizza and a movie.
Then we’re going to discuss the real reason you align yourself
with a douche like that.”

I give a tired sigh. “Logan…
I’m not going to—”

“Just fucking stop,
Auralie,” Logan barks at me. “I’m tired of you
hiding stuff from me.”

I stare at him, my jaw hanging
wide open. “That’s
sort of the pot calling the kettle black.”

That effectively shuts him up
because he knows I’m
right, and I find it more than telling that he didn’t offer to
trade quid pro quo. I tell him something, and then he tells me
something.

It’s
not going to work that way for Logan McKay apparently, because he
stays stonily silent the rest of the drive.

So by the time we pull into his
campsite—which admittedly is adorable—I’m
beyond pissed and ready for a fight.