by Brook Wilder
I crushed the paper in my hand. She wasn’t going to get hurt again. Not on my watch.
Hell, I couldn’t go through that again.
Chapter Eleven
Sydney
Two hours later, I pulled the jeep up to the clubhouse, wincing as I accidently stretched my side the wrong way. I felt better after a hot shower and some Tylenol to kill the burning sensation. As much I wanted to sleep the rest of the night away, we still hadn’t gotten any closer to finding Hayley, and I was itching for a breakthrough.
But first I wanted to lay down the law to Grant Travis. He wasn’t helping at all. If it hadn’t been for Zack, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I had today, but we had wasted our time for nothing. I wanted to make sure that Grant wasn’t withholding information. As much as I disliked him, I wanted to find his daughter.
No surprise, Zack met me halfway to the door, looking as if he had just gotten out of the shower himself.
“How are you feeling?” he asked softly, his eyes raking over me.
“I’m fine,” I forced out.
I didn’t need him worrying about me. The moment between us hours ago had me rattled, wondering what life would have been like if he hadn’t ever brought my name up to the DHMC and I hadn’t been forced to leave town. Zack didn’t seem like a settling-down type, but there had been a time in our relationship that I thought he would have, with me.
But that tattoo I’d seen on his chest as he had given me his shirt had reminded me what had come first in his life, and I was a fool to think there had been more to him, more to what he had wanted out of our relationship. Being labeled a slut, a biker slut at that, had torn me apart, turned people away not only from me, but also from my family. A biker slut was known to exchange sex for information, who’s loyalty was above all to the biker gang she belonged to.
Though I never had any visible marks or tattoos, the label was there, and I had endured snickers and ribald jokes from guys who had never paid attention to me before, thinking I was easy and willing to give it up to anyone.
The marks on my soul had been permanent, and it was because of the man standing before me, attempting to apologize at every turn. There weren’t enough words he could say to make that pain go away.
“I want to see Grant,” I said angrily, angry at myself for letting Zack seep back into my life. “And I won’t leave until I do.”
Zack looked at me, his eyes full of emotion, but surprisingly he didn’t say no.
“Come on.”
I followed him, ignoring the looks as we walked through the clubhouse to an office in the back. It was a very nice office, but it was the man seated behind the desk, barking into the phone, that had my attention. Grant Travis. The man who had ruined my life, had pulled Zack from me and made him into the man he was today.
That was what Zack had left me for.
Grant looked up, and his eyes narrowed as they feasted on me.
“What the hell is she doing here?”
I stepped forward before Zack could answer.
“I’m here to know what you are hiding.”
His hard stare cut through me, and I heard Zack swear behind me.
“What?”
I placed my hands on his desk, leveling with him.
“I’m trying to find your daughter, and you are not helping me. I nearly died today. What would that have looked like, I wonder?”
Grant looked at Zack.
“What is she talking about?”
“We had a run-in with Muertos,” Zack offered up, his tone dark. “And Pajaro.”
“Shit,” Grant said, leaning back in his chair. “Don’t tell me that Hayley is with that bastard.”
“I don’t know,” I interrupted. “But if you know something about her, who has her, I need to know that. I can’t help you if you don’t give me that information.”
“We need more men,” Zack threw in. “If you want us to go after Pajaro.”
Grant looked at us before shaking his head.
“I can’t give that order. That would be a death sentence, us going after him. That would start an all-out war with the cartel, and I can’t allow that to happen.”
I couldn’t believe it. He wasn’t even going to attempt to go after the man that might have his daughter?
“Is that what you care about?” I asked. “This precious club? What about your daughter? What about her life? Does that not mean anything?”
“Don’t you tell me what I care about!” Grant shouted, rising from the chair. “I built this club, not you or anyone else!”
“At what cost?” I challenged, not scared of him. “Your family?”
It wasn’t just him I was talking about. Zack had done the same thing. I had been his family, and he had thrown me away.
“Get the hell out of here,” Grant growled. “Before I put a bullet in your head.”
“Go ahead,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “But you know I’m the best shot at finding your daughter. I have resources you can’t even begin to tap into, and if I disappear, then Hayley is as good as dead.”
“Get her the fuck out of here!” Grant shouted.
Zack grabbed my arm and I allowed him to drag me to the door, knowing I had gotten under Grant Travis’s skin. I had made him feel something, which had been the sole purpose of tonight’s visit.
Zack didn’t say anything as he dragged me out of the club, bikers literally moving out of his path as we walked outside.
“Get in the damn jeep,” he growled, pushing me toward the passenger side.
I turned to face him.
“I will not be bullied, Zack. I have things to do.”
He leaned forward, and I could see the anger in his eyes.
“Do what I say, Sydney, or I will give you to Grant and let him deal with you.”
I wasn’t scared.
“Where are we going?”
“You will find out when we get there.”
***
Thirty minutes later, Zack pulled my jeep into the clearing, shutting off the engine. I looked around, surprised and not believing he had done this to me. This was not where I wanted to be, at all.
“Take me home.”
He let out a breath before turning to look at me, his arm draped over the steering wheel.
“What the hell were you trying to do back there, Syd? Get yourself killed?”
I opened the passenger side door, the jeep suddenly too small for the both of us. Night was all around me, the stars twinkling overhead with the soft grass under my boots. This clearing brought back too many memories for me, and I did not want to be here, to break down in front of Zack.
This was our special place.
“Talk to me, Syd.”
I turned to see Zack standing a few feet away, his hands in his pockets. There was nothing that even remotely resembled the kid who used to bring me here. That Zack had been darker, edger, but still had a tenderness about him that used to make me have all the feels.
This one… I had no idea what to do with this one.
“Why did you bring me here?”
He blew out a breath, looking around.
“I… hell, I don’t know. It was the only place I knew you couldn’t run from me.”
I was tired of playing games. Marching toward the jeep, I ignored him.
“I’m going home.”
He grabbed my arm before I got to the jeep, trapping me against the hood with his body.
“You are going to talk to me, Syd. What were you thinking, taking Grant on like that? Are you trying to piss him off?”
“I’m trying to get him to feel!” I exploded, feeling the pent-up rage start to boil over. “That’s the problem with you bikers! You have forgotten everything you cared about except your precious club. His daughter is missing, and he doesn’t seem to even care!”
Zack’s eyes dilated, and his expression grew angry.
“Is that what you think? That I don’t care anymore?”
I swallowed hard.
/>
“I-I don’t know what to think anymore, Zack.”
He expelled a breath.
“Hell, Sydney, I wish I didn’t care. Do you not know? No, I guess not. I came for your graduation night. I watched you celebrate with your family and knew I would just screw it up if I stepped back into your life.”
My mouth dropped open as I saw the rawness on his face. Zack had come for me?
“But why?”
“Because,” he said, looking away. “I didn’t want you to hate me. I didn’t give away your name that night. Grant guessed it. Turns out he’d had someone following us the weeks leading up to the initiation, attempting to find things to use against me. They just put two and two together.”
“But you still went through with it,” I said, emotion in my voice. “After the rumors spread, you didn’t once attempt to come to my aid, Zack. Do you know what I dealt with? Do you know how disappointed my family was?”
They had never even once guessed that Zack and I had been involved together. I hadn’t known how to tell them that I had fallen in love with the wrong guy.
His expression was torturous.
“I know, hell, I know. That was what I was doing there that night. I wanted to apologize to you, to your family for what I had done. I-I was going to tell them that I loved you.”
My heart stuttered in my chest.
“W-what?”
His lips curved in a smile.
“You heard me. Hell, Syd, I was in love with you too.”
I stared at him, my heart bursting past the walls that I had built up against him. All these years… not once had I thought he had loved me. I thought I had been a distraction for him, knowing that at some point it wasn’t going to be forever.
But how I had hoped.
He reached out and lightly pushed my hair out of my eyes, his finger trailing down my cheek.
“You were a complete surprise to me, Sydney. You were the complete and total opposite of what I thought I wanted, but that day, in this field, I knew that I couldn’t let you go.”
“But you did,” I whispered, feeling the pain of that day.
I remembered the panic of calling his cell after I had heard the rumor, how he had ignored all my calls and texts. I had cried non-stop for two days, realizing I had been used and cast aside.
“I know,” he admitted. “And it was the stupidest thing I have ever done in my life. I don’t want to lose you again. Ever.”
I made a sound, and Zack’s mouth slammed into mine, opening up a flood of emotions as I wound my arms around his neck. This was what I wanted. This was what I had dreamed about more than once since we had found each other again.
Zack growled and forced his way past my lips, his tongue torturing mine until I whimpered against his mouth. It was all wrong, but oh-so right.
His hand traveled down my body, cupping my breast, and I froze, pushing on his chest until he took a step back. There was hunger in his eyes, and I felt it all the way to the pit of my stomach.
“This...”
“This is right,” he ground out, pulling his shirt over his head. “This is right, Sydney. Nothing else matters.”
I took in his naked torso, my eyes drifting over the tattoo on his left pec. It was his stamp from the DHMC, the proof that he had gotten what he wanted. His eyes followed mine and he chuckled, crooking a finger at me.
“Come here,” he said. “Look closer, Syd.”
I stepped forward, my legs wobbly as I approached him, peering at the tattoo in the jeep’s headlights.
“It’s my initials.”
Sure enough, at the bottom of the crude tattoo, there were my initials, hidden inside the tails of the tattoo.
“I had them added,” he said softly, his voice laced with emotion. “Afterward.”
Tears sprang to my eyes as I looked at Zack. He was giving me all he had, the proof that he had never forgotten about us, about me. Our worlds might have changed, but he hadn’t.
Neither had I. I was still that girl with stars in her eyes every time I looked at him, not believing how lucky I was to be riding in his truck, wearing his clothes, touching his body.
He had been everything to me.
Reaching out, I laid a hand over the tattoo, feeling the heat come off his skin in waves.
“We aren’t those people any longer.”
He captured my hand in his.
“I know, and I don’t fucking care. I’m still the man who dreams about you, who knows your body better than you do. I’m still that man.”
I silenced him with a kiss, not wanting to talk any longer. He was right. He was the only man who knew this body, the only man that had ever made me sigh in wonder and happiness.
I was glad I had waited.
Zack lowered us to the ground, pausing just long enough to slide my shirt over my head. I met his gaze as his hands covered my breasts.
“Beautiful.”
I touched his strong shoulders, sliding my hands down his muscular chest to his abdomen before they collided with the waistband of his jeans.
“I don’t want to wait.”
I had waited long enough.
He chuckled, laying back in the grass.
“Have your way with me, officer.”
I laughed as I tugged on his button, tapping his hips so he would lift them.
“Still no underwear, I see.”
“Nope,” he grinned, bringing his arms behind his head.
I took a minute to marvel at his body, my breath shallow in my own chest. His tattoos curled around his shoulders in dark, thick lines, but somehow matched the rest of him.
“You’re beautiful.”
“I’m all yours,” he said gruffly.
My panties flooded at the thought. He was all mine. He always had been.
His cock slid from under his jeans, and I grabbed it boldly, feeling him jump in my hand.
He was giving me complete control.
“Easy now,” he said softly. “It’s been some time, Syd.”
I ran a thumb over the bulging head, sliding it down the shaft. Zack had taught me so much about pleasing him, and those memories were flooding back. I knew he hadn’t waited on me, but, seeing him laying beneath me, it didn’t matter.
Nothing in our pasts mattered.
Chapter Twelve
Zack
She was fucking killing me.
I gazed at Sydney as she stroked my aching cock, watching her eyes. It had been a long, long time since I had seen her rising above me, and my body quivered with the thought of her doing it again, reminding me why I had loved her for so long.
And I still did.
It wasn’t just a feeling. It wasn’t just because of the history between us or her initials permanently tattooed on my skin.
It was because she was in my soul, where she had always been.
Sydney released me, and I watched with bated breath as she rose in the headlights, removing her bra and bearing her beautiful breasts to me. My mouth watered at the thought of them in my mouth, but I refused to move. This was Sydney’s night, not mine. I had brought her here, to our clearing, to show her that I hadn’t forgotten and that I wanted to restart everything that had been between us.
The hell with everyone else for the moment.
She shimmied out of her jeans, and I thought I would blow it right then and there as I took in her naked form.
“You’re fucking gorgeous.”
She walked toward me, and I felt her hands run over my chest before she lowered onto my cock, her wet warmth surrounding my aching member.
“Shit,” I whispered, reaching for her hips to guide her the rest of the way down.
The grass was itching my bare ass, but I didn’t give a fuck.
Sydney was seated on my cock.
She let out a sound, and I growled, urging her to move.
“Ride me.”
She placed a hand on my abdomen and pushed herself upward, shuddering as I slammed into her. God she was so wet, and I wa
nted to give her everything.
“Zack,” she cried as she moved against me.
“Yes,” I said through gritted teeth, fighting my own orgasm. Only Sydney could put me to shame like this. “Come for me, Syd.”
