Trapped (Grizzly MC Book 1)

by Brook Wilder

  I don’t like the tone he uses when he says it. Like he knows something that I don’t.

  The meeting room is rather large. There’s plenty of space for Marc’s ‘entertaining.’ It looks less like a section of a meth lab and more like a casino VIP lounge, with a mini bar and relaxing chairs to sit on. I’ve never felt comfortable in this space, less so now with Marc waiting for me, sat on one of the loungers with his arms draped over the back and his legs spread like he was a king sitting on a throne.

  Eric and Lyle toss me to the floor in front of him.

  “Long time no see, Lena,” Marc coos at me. I stay at his feet, unwilling to move. I know what happens if I choose to move, It hasn’t been so long that I’ve forgotten the way that Marc likes to treat me. “You’re showing now. How lovely! We’ll have to go get an ultrasound soon to see what gender our little bundle of joy is.”

  Eric and Lyle laugh behind us. I give Marc cold eyes.

  “What’s up, Marc? I come here to meet you and they drag me in here.”

  “Oh, give up the act, Lena.” Marc waves his hand. “You little act might have worked on your Grizzly, but it’s not on me. Did you think I wouldn’t piece shit together? Did you think I wouldn’t back track and realize there was no way that that baby in your belly could be mine? Did you think, in all the time that I’ve known you, I wouldn’t be able to know when you were lying?” He shakes his head. “I wanted to believe my sweet little Lena wouldn’t step out on me, but I was very, very wrong.”

  My stomach sinks. So, he’s known? All this time?

  I grit my teeth; he’s been playing me all this time.

  “Why did you let it all go on then? If it was just a game to you?”

  Marc shrugs. “I like games. You know me, Lena. It’s so fun to play with you sometimes. You make it so easy. I figured I’d give you the chance to make things right. To give me what I want, but you haven’t. Instead, you’ve brought yourself to me, carrying some very precious cargo.”

  Marc snaps, and I look up to see Eric walking forward. My blood chills when I see him pull a switchblade from his pocket.

  “You see, I’ve been having them follow you and James for the last few weeks, Lena,” he says. “I’ve seen everything. I know you’ve gotten close to him. And I know that little bundle of joy in there ain’t mine. So, I think, what we’re gonna do is have a little fun. And when we’re done, we’ll send you back to your knight in shining armor as a lesson for fucking with what’s mine.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  James

  I’m getting antsy. It’s been way too much time for Lena to be in there. I’ve already sent word to Bones; he’ll be here, but the question is, will it be soon enough? There’s no movement from the shack, no sign of a fire starting. I know that Lena’s a smart girl—a survivor, too, having been with the Vipers for so long—but that doesn’t quell the feeling that something’s off.

  Standing by the edge of the wood, just at the clearing before the shack, I watch the sentries stand there, keeping guard. They haven’t noticed me, and I’m going to keep it that way, for now. I glance at my watch.

  Forty-five minutes.

  Fuck it.

  Whatever Lena’s done, I don’t want her hurt. Every fiber in my being that pushes me forward from the wood screams that there’s something going on, something wrong. I have to stop whatever it is. I have to protect her. Rushing the front of a lab that Lena herself said was heavily fortified and I would never be able to get through without trouble… well, maybe that stupid. I never claimed to be smart.

  I’m able to take out the guard closest to me by surprise, knocking him unconscious as the other one turns to me. He reaches for his gun, but I’ve got my own drawn before he can say ‘uncle.’ One shot. Clean. He’s down, yelling out at the hole in his shin. I kick his head and knock him out too for good measure. He’s lucky I’m more interested in getting to Lena unhindered than I am in killing him.

  I force my way into the shack, and the elevator can’t move down fast enough. It feels like it’s intentionally taking an eternity to move me down those five whole feet that Lena mentioned to me. It takes its sweet time in opening and I can’t get out of the damned thing fast enough as. Just like above, there’s a guard waiting—just like above, he’s not prepared for me coming out of the elevator. I greet him in kind, letting him have a taste of a pistol whip that sends him careening to the ground.

  For ‘heavily fortified,’ I don’t see a lot of movement. I wish, more than before, that I had come inside with Lena from the get-go.

  That sentiment only gets stronger as I navigate the halls. I have no idea where the fuck I’m going, opening doors at random and peering into empty cook labs and strange storage units full of supplies and product. Growling, I make my way through the facility and, slowly, something else makes this ordeal worse.

  I start to smell something rank, burning.

  Fuck.

  I turn down a hall, hoping that it’s the right one. I come face-to-face with a guard on rotation. I don’t have time to be cordial. I shoot him without hesitation and step over him when he drops, moving on. There’s a door at the end of the hall and I get the feeling it’s the one that I’m looking for.

  And I’m right.

  When I push open the door, the sight before me makes my blood boil. Marc and two other men hover over Lena, crouched over her as she’s laid back on the floor. The blond has a blade trailing between her breasts where her shirt’s been cut open. Terror like I’ve never seen before reflects in her eyes, and her hand settles protectively over her stomach.

  My instinct is to kill. That natural reaction to someone harming love and child sears like a fire through my body and I instinctively step forward with an animalistic growl that sounds nothing like it’s come from my throat. Unfortunately, the man above Lena sees it coming from a mile away, and Blondie draws a gun on Lena before I can get to him.

  “Whoa, this is unexpected. A grizzly come to play.”

  “Not a surprise,” Marc drawls. He grins and I could rip the smirk from his face then and there. I keep my distance, if only for Lena’s sake.

  “Marc. Company.” I eye the two men as I lower my gun. The shaved-head fucker is the one that comes forward and takes it. He twirls it around his finger before he tosses it away.

  Three against one. Complication of trying not to have Lena caught in the middle. These aren’t good odds and that acrid smell in the air is only getting worse. Soon this place is gonna blow and I know that I have to get Lena out of here or we’re gonna blow with it.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Lena

  “Well, well. I wouldn’t have expected getting a two-fer tonight. Kinda romantic, don’t you think, Lena? Lover boy here… Maybe, instead of sending you back to him, I’ll just let you both watch the other suffer.”

  Marc turns his eyes toward James, a manic coldness in them that I know all too well—the eyes of a man who’s all too willing to kill the people that are in front of him. It sends a chill down my spine. James no longer has his gun, and I know that Marc, Eric, and Lyle are all packing. It’s not looking good for either of us and I have no idea what we’re going to do about it.

  I don’t dare say anything, though. It’s not only my life that I have to protect, but the life that’s growing inside me, no matter how accidental this life is.

  “Get on the ground, Grizzly.”

  My breath is still as James complies to the command. Marc walks over to him, grinning.

  “Should I kill you now? Or should I have some fun with you?”

  “You could always shut the fuck up,” James suggest lightly. A nasty expression flickers over Marc’s face before he chuckles.

  “So, you want to play then. Fine. Lena here knows all about how nice I like to play.”

  Marc steps back and is about to turn around when something unexpected happens. James moves, almost lightening fast. His hand dips into his boot, and he pulls out a gun. There’s a flash in Marc’s eyes, a
glint of recognition before his brow furrows and he growls…

  But it’s too late.

  A shot rings out in the room, and blood spatters all over the place. I’m too shocked to let out a noise. I can only stare wide-eyed and damn-near terrified as Marc drops to the floor. His body is lifeless, his dead eyes wide as though just realizing a second too late that his time has come. All is still, and it’s Eric who moves first.

  “You bastard.”

  BANG

  The sound of an explosion rattles the room, and the horrible scent that has wafted up gets stronger. Eric and Lyle exchange a glance, as if knowing what’s happening. They forget me and James and bolt from the room, yelling at anyone that can hear them to get the fuck out.

  Everything is going according to plan, expect the part where I get captured by Marc, where James has to rescue me, where we’re still in the building while it’s getting ready to come down around us.

  James doesn’t seem bothered by this. He reacts instantaneously, scooping me up from the ground.

  “You shouldn’t have come in here,” I choke out as he holds me close to him, cradled to his broad chest as he stands.

  “I told you, Lena. I’m here for you.”

  There’s so much more in those words than just ‘I’m here for you.’ I hear it in the strained tension that pulls at his vocal chords and give him emotion. I see it in his face as he tries to keep his stoicism up as he barrels us out of the room with my head pressed to his chest so I don’t breathe in the fumes. It’s in his impatience as the elevator takes too long to carry us up, up, and another explosion rings out, rumbling beneath our feet.

  James loves me. I know it.

  As the doors open and we shoot out of the elevator, the explosion catches up with us. It booms, rattling the air with a mighty roar. I feel the heat behind us, but James shields me as he rolls us to the ground, away from the blast, and keeps his body over mine just in case. I cling to him. Heat licks at my fingers and I know that James bore the brunt of that blast. He did it to protect me. Our child.

  He did it in spite of my lies.

  “James. James are you…”

  His mouth covers mine. He smothers my concerns as surely as that fire and its deadly smog have smothered anyone that was unlucky enough to be caught in the blast of the fire down below. He takes my breath away, and I let him. I wrap my arms around his shoulders and pull him close to me. I don’t want to let him go.

  “I thought I was going to lose you,” he says between kisses. “I thought that bastard was gonna kill you. I don’t know what I would have done if he had hurt you. I-I love you, Lena.”

  He says the words that I’ve been dying to hear for years and believe were true. And from James? It’s the best thing I could have asked for.

  “I love you too, James.”

  I’m searing in my core, as sure as the fires are searing. James is, too. The adrenaline pumping, the tension releasing, this victory against Marc… James is pressed against my thigh. I feel him hard and I want nothing more than to let him take me here and now with the fires raging behind us.

  Rumbling engines sound as we kiss, and we break apart to see a half-dozen other Grizzlies pulling up on their bikes. Their eyes are mostly on the impressive flames in front of us, but some train on the pair on the ground, entwined like nothing’s going on behind them. I blush, and sit up, bringing James with me as we stand.

  “Holy shit.” Dom comes up to us, his eyes darting between me and James and then back to the flames. “You two really did a number on this place.”

  “It was all Lena,” James says. “She was the one that set the fire.”

  “James was the one that got us out.”

  Dom looks to me. I know—like with James—there’s going to be some healing to do there. But I think that he can see that the process is already starting, and he smiles at me.

  “Well. You both did good. Why don’t we let this run its course? Get the hell out of here before someone can pin this shit on us…”

  ***

  James and I ride back to his home. He drives this time. I lean my head against the cool glass of the window, letting it soothe me. My hand rests against his lap.

  If someone had told me months ago that I would be looking at a world where I wasn’t being pursued by Marc anymore, I would have laughed in their face. There wasn’t such a thing as a world without Marc or the Vipers. I was a Viper girl through and through, cursed to dance for a living and look after girls I could barely protect because I couldn’t even protect myself. Now, I’m a soon-to-be mother. I’m in love.

  And I’m heading home.

  Dom and the others head back to the safehouse, but I think James and I have other ideas and everyone else seems to see that. I’m glad that we’re not made to go to the safe house. I don’t think I could contain myself in a respectable way there.

  When we pull up to the house, James comes around to my door to let me out. He takes my hand and pulls me gently out of the cab, only to press himself against me.

  Oh…

  I smile up at him.

  “Out here?”

  “I want to take you under the stars. Like I would have back at the lab.”

  It’s oddly romantic, and I can’t say no to him. I pull him down to kiss me and he hoists me up, only to pull me away from the truck and walk me over to the lush grass in front of the house. I want at his body. I want at his soul. I want to be one with James like my life depends on it—and in a way, I already am.

  He lays me back, peels my ruined clothes off me one by one, before he sheds his own and tosses them somewhere else on the lawn. His arms prop him up over me, and I see nothing but love in his eyes.

  “I love you, Lena,” he says, with a conviction in his voice that wasn’t there earlier. Funny how life or death situations can make you realize what you truly want in this world.

  “I love you too, James.”

  He guides himself into me, opening me up on his length. My legs spread for him, my back arches off the soft grass as I let him cleave a path between my thighs until he’s filling me completely with his cock. My hands come to his shoulders and I grip there, holding to him tightly.

  Our rhythm is slow. We’re in no rush. The roll of our hips is loving and languid and there’s nothing but passion in this open-world love-making that we’re doing. I moan for him, he moans for me. A thousand stars above my head give a backdrop to the star-struck sensations that James weaves through my body with every touch and sweet utterance of my name on his lips.

  I would have never had something like this with Marc. I would have never been held so tenderly, loved so tenderly. My pleasure never mattered, but, in James’ hands, everything about me matters.

  This is what it’s like to be loved.

  I know that now.

  Epilogue

  James

  “James! Where did you put the bassinet?”

  “The box is in the nursery closet!”

  “No, it’s not.”

  Well, fuck.

  I walk around the plethora of boxes of baby gear Lena and I have strewn around the house. We’ve been busy in the last few months after Marc’s demise. Lena is about the size of the house now, belly ready to pop with the arrival of our bouncy baby girl. Or boy. We haven’t actually let ourselves be spoiled on that discovery. I’m certain it’s a girl, she’s certain it’s a boy.

  Anyway.

  I look through the boxes that are still downstairs and haven’t been moved upstairs. Car seats and clothes and diapers—so many diapers. Where is it… Where…

  There!

  “It’s down here, I’ll bring it up in a minute!”

  “Thank you!”

  There’s laughter in her response, and I can’t help but smile. If someone had told me that I would have been preparing for the arrival of my child a few months ago with such enthusiasm, I wouldn’t have believed it. Why would I? I had lost the love of my life. I was resolved to being alone for the rest of my life.

&
nbsp; Lena’s been a balm to the ache in my chest that I never thought would go away.

  Something less than savory has come with Lena’s arrival in my life, however. Marc’s been dead for months, and even with his warehouse gone, meth has started seeping onto the streets of Tomahawk and neighboring Grizzly territories. We learned a few weeks ago that Eric and Lyle are very much keeping things up and running, and while we hedged the conflict with Marc, something more sinister is brewing.

  So, I’ve called Dom.

  He’s supposed to go on tour soon. He does that every now and then, and it’s good for recruiting. He’s charismatic, women love him, and men want to join him. I’ve decided to send him out on an assignment while he’s singing his heart out to the masses.