by Naomi West
Jake let me lead him back towards the parking lot.
“How did you get here, anyway?” I asked him, scanning the lot for his bike. Surely, he hadn't taken the bus as well, had he?
Jake snorted and dangled a keyring in front of me. “I own a car too, you know,” he told me, leading me over to a little speedy silver car that was parked over in the corner of the lot. “It's a bit more family-friendly. Or weather-friendly, depending on the time of year. And right now, it's a bit easier for me to drive given that my leg is in pretty bad shape.”
“I'm driving,” I told him, snatching the keys out of his hand.
“All right, all right,” Jake said, sounding amused. “But are you sure you can handle this baby?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Jake Ryce, I just handled watching a man get shot in front of me. Do you really think a car is going to worry me at the moment?” I shouldn't have said that, based on the sad look he got on his face—but it was too late to take the words back now.
We got into the car and he gave me directions to his apartment.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Jake
Back at my apartment, I climbed out of my car, gritting my teeth and trying to hide the pain from my leg, which was growing more and more pronounced now that the adrenaline of finding out that Halley was kidnapped was wearing off. God, the thing hurt like a motherfucker. I needed to take a round of painkillers just so that I would be able to think straight about all of this. But in order to do that, I needed to get myself upstairs.
Halley came around the car and ducked under my arm to give me a little much-needed support. She peered anxiously up into my face. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You look pretty pale. Maybe I should bring you back to the hospital instead?”
“I'm fine,” I told her, hating that it came out in a growl and hoping she realized it was out of pain, rather than out of any sort of annoyance with her. She was being absolutely brilliant; it wasn't her fault that I'd pushed myself this hard when I was technically still supposed to be on bedrest.
I probably should have waited until I had recovered a little more before I had gone after Max, but I just hadn't been able to sleep knowing that the fucker was out there somewhere, trying to take control of the Devil's Route. Knowing that Frank's death was unavenged.
It seemed that now I had gotten my wish for Max to be wiped off the face of the earth but not without some sort of penalty. Because now, as if I didn't already owe Emilio one for not killing me. It would have been so easy, while I was there in the clubhouse during the raid, and I had to assume that I had only been saved by his grace. Now I owed him for setting Halley free as well, for not killing her when he had the chance.
Although as she'd surmised, she was worth more to my enemies alive than she would be if she were dead.
Halley got me on the elevator and brought me up to my apartment, helping to get me settled on the couch against, just as she had when I had first come back from the hospital. I sighed and relaxed back, letting my eyes slip shut. There was something I needed to admit to her.
“I didn't really realize how hard I'd fallen for you until I got that text,” I told her. “I mean, I knew I wanted to protect you and do right by you but I thought that was just because of Cole. I mean, not that I didn't like you as a person either, I just...” I trailed off, smiling sheepishly. “I don't really sound like a big, bad biker dude right now, do I?”
Halley laughed a little, but there was something else in the sound that I couldn't place. “No, you don't,” she told me.
When I opened my eyes, she was staring down at me in surprise, and she moved so that she could sit on the couch with me, reaching out a hand to lightly rest on my arm. “I really mean that,” I told her, suddenly sensing what her unease was due to. I shook my head. “By all rights, I probably shouldn't be falling for you, but you're a good person, Halley. Such a good person. You've raised a great kid, all by yourself, and you're still here to look after me even after my stupid actions got you kidnapped. I don't know what I could possibly have done to deserve someone like you in my life, but … well...”
“So, what does this mean?” Halley asked, sounding almost as though she was afraid to ask the question. “I mean, Cole and I still have to get out of here, right? It's not safe, and it won't be until you Emilio figure things out.” She laughed a little. “Anyway, my parents would flip out if I told them that you and I were even seeing one another, let alone...” She swallowed hard and shook her head.
“What are you saying?” I asked her, surprised at her reaction. “What about your parents?”
“They don't like you,” Halley said simply. “I probably shouldn't have told them that you were a biker, but I mean, they would have noticed it the first time they met you, based on your tattoos. Anyway, I told them years ago, when I found out that I was pregnant, because they wanted to know why I couldn't at least ask you for money for the baby, even if you wanted nothing to do with him. And I had to explain that you probably weren't the kind of guy that they wanted to have around their grandson.”
I winced, but that made sense. “But we could still ... build a life together, couldn't we?” I asked. “I'm sure they would come around eventually. I mean, we couldn't tell them about the kidnapping or anything like that. But—”
“I'm not going to lie to my parents,” Halley said, shaking her head. “That's the same as you turning your back on your brotherhood, on your motorcycle club. They're my family, Jake, and I'm not going to lie to them. I'm not going to...” She broke off, shaking her head. “I just can't.”
“That's fair,” I said, as much as I hated to admit it. I sighed and closed my eyes again.
“You should rest,” Halley said.
“Can you stay?” I asked, cracking my eye open to look at her. “I just … I want you to be here when I wake up. Or else I'm probably going to panic.”
Halley blinked at me. “Of course,” she said, squeezing my arm lightly. She sighed. “We're going to have to figure this out at some point soon, though, Jake.”
“I know,” I told her. “Trust me, I know. But like you said, right now, I need to rest. And if you're gone when I wake up, I'm probably going to panic, given the events of the day. So, unless you'd like to be on the receiving end of the phone call where I half-asleep try to find out where you are...”
“My parents will wonder,” Halley said, sounding uncertain. “And I should get back to Cole...”
“Tell them that you're running errands,” I suggested. “Please Halley. Anything. Just please. I don't want you to be gone when I wake up.” I must be more exhausted than I thought, if I was sounding that desperate. But Halley looked as though she understood.
“Why don't we move in to your bed, then?” she suggested quietly. “I mean, we snuggled on the couch last time, but it's a little too narrow to do that comfortably.”
I nodded and let her help me up to my feet and maneuver me into the other room.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I woke up feeling panicked, but when I reached out to the other side of the bed, Halley was still there, warm beneath the covers. I grunted a little and moved until she was nestled against my chest. When I blinked open my eyes, she was staring up at me. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Yeah,” I said, willing my heartbeat to return to normal.
“Nightmare?” There was a hint of a smile at the corners of her lips. “I can't even imagine the big, bad biker dude having nightmares.”
I shrugged a little. “It happens,” I admitted. “I've seen enough shit happen.” I paused, not really wanting to tell her about all of that. As much as she had already been inducted into my life and lifestyle, I didn't really want her to know about all the horrible things that had happened before Frank had taken me under his care. She was kind of my second chance at a new beginning. I didn't want to tarnish this relationship with everything from my past, although it didn't seem like I had much of a choice when it came to things relating to the Devil's Route
and the Holy Flames.
She hummed softly in response, not asking about the unspoken words. I guess she already kind of sensed all of that, burbling below the surface.
That was the thing about Halley and me. We came from two completely different worlds, but somehow, we managed to understand one another better than any two humans really ought to, given what little time we'd had together. That was definitely a large part of what drew me to the woman, but it wasn't all of it, by far.
“What time is it?” I asked, still a bit groggy.
“Late afternoon,” Halley said. “Almost four.” She shifted a little.
“I guess you probably have to be heading home to your family,” I told her, even as I burrowed closer to her.
“Probably,” Halley admitted, but she allowed herself to be pulled into my arms. She turned her face up towards mine, searching it for a minute — for what, I had no clue — and then she kissed me softly, just the barest brushing of lips before she ducked her face down into the crook of my neck.
“Halley, I meant what I was saying before,” I told her. “I really have fallen for you. God, I'd start a new life with you if I could. I just can't turn my back on the Devil's Route, not when they need me right now. I can't let the Holy Flames come under fire because of me.”
“What if you could have both?” Halley asked.
I snorted. “If you're referencing that 'plan' that you said I should come up with when we were at the cemetery, I'm no closer to figuring out what I'm supposed to do by now then I was then.”
“I have an idea,” Halley said. “I mean, it's not brilliant, and I don't know if it would work. Hell, I don't even know the first thing about implementing the plan, I just...” She fell quiet.
“Tell me,” I urged. “Halley, if you think you might have anything that could help us, please tell me.”
She nodded a little, as though to herself. “Well, I just … I don't know much about motorcycle clubs, but I was just thinking. Don't there have to be more branches of the Devil's Route MC scattered about the country? You told me at one point that Frank was the regional president, which implies that somewhere out there, there's a national president, right?”
“There are other branches of the club, yeah,” I admitted. “But how does that help us?”
“Well, just think about it,” Halley said. “You could call on them for help to defeat Emilio and the Holy Flames. You're regional president right now, right? So, they'd support you. Or even if they didn't, they'd help you avenge Frank's death. Even if Frank's death was ultimately ordered by Max, they don't have to know that. They just have to know that someone from the Flames shot a respected leader from their organization. Right?”
“What's to stop the Flames from summoning up all their auxiliary forces as well, though?” I argued. “It's a good idea, don't get me wrong, I just don't see—”
“There's two ideas there,” Halley interrupted me. “Either you'd have to act fast — but I think it would be difficult to get that many bikers to swarm into town without Emilio getting suspicious and figuring things out. Or else you'd have to gather them here under some other guise. Something that Emilio couldn't be suspicious of. Like a memorial ride for Frank.”
I blinked at her, surprised. What she was suggesting was…
“You wouldn't want to start it here,” Halley continued, looking a bit nervous, as though she thought I might reject the plan immediately. “That would make Emilio ... well, not suspicious, but maybe worried about his territory. He'd want to protect his area, just in case. And he'd call in backup forces from the Flames to do that. But if you were to start it somewhere else and amass this huge group of bikers and then you could just swarm in and attack.”
“That might work,” I said, awe in my voice. I shook my head, amazed that she had seen the solution when no one else had been able to. “That really might work,” I repeated.
Halley grinned, looking pleased with herself. “Well, I had a little time to think about it while you were napping,” she said bashfully. She then fixed me with a serious look. “But Jake, I swear to god, if you want to be around Cole in the future, you're going to have to clean up your act.”
“I'm not going to quit being part of the Devil's Route just because I have a family,” I told her, shaking my head. It made me a little sad to come to that realization, but I just couldn't turn my back on Bryce and everyone else just because...
“That's not what I'm saying,” Halley told me. “I'm not saying that you have to quit being a biker to be with me. But I am saying that this shit had better not affect me again like this in the future or I'm going to leave—and I'm going to take Cole with me. And if I even hear a rumor of Cole getting mixed up in anything like drugs or illegal trafficking or weapons or anything else, I will take him away, and you will never see us again. Do you understand me?”
It was funny, almost, to hear how stern her voice was, except that I could tell that she was 100% serious about it. If I fucked up again, she was going to let me have it.
And I loved that about her.
With a growl, I rolled us over so that she was on her back, pinned beneath me, and even that simple action had her pupils blown wide with lust. “You think you can tell me what to do?” I asked her, a teasing note in my voice.
She grinned cockily at me, clearly picking up on my mood. “Am I not supposed to do that?” she asked innocently.
I growled again and bent down to kiss her heatedly, nipping at her lower lip and then sucking on the bite. I forced my tongue inside of her mouth, kissing her until she was absolutely breathless and practically whimpering with desire.
“Do that again,” she told me, though, a playful grin on her face.
I complied, kissing her even more thoroughly this time, practically pillaging her mouth with my tongue. Meanwhile, I slipped my hands down and pulled up her shirt, fondling her breasts until the nipples stood sharply against the thin, lacy fabric of her flimsy bra.
She reached around behind herself to unhook it, and when I leaned back a little, she wiggled out of both her tee-shirt and the bra. Then, she gave me a challenging look, and I realized I was in for a long ride this time. I accepted the challenge, though.
I bent down to kiss her naked mounds when she reached up and caught my face. “Wait,” she said, biting her lip a little. “I want you to...” She trailed off, looking embarrassed, and I couldn't help smiling a little at that.
“What?” I asked her. “What do you want?”
She took a deep breath, as though she had to summon every ounce of her courage just to admit it to me. “I want to taste you,” she told me. “I want you to...” She broke off again, but I knew what she was saying. I raised an eyebrow at her but then moved off her so that I could strip down.
Still… “Are you sure?” I asked her, because the last thing I wanted was for her to feel like she had to do something because it was what I wanted.
“Get over here,” she said in response.
I knelt back over her, moving up on her body until my half-hard prick was right in front of her face. And keeping her eyes on me, looking up at me through those thick, brown eyelashes of hers, she guided my penis towards her mouth. At first, she only laved kisses along the outside of it, covering the full length of it with light, easy touches of her soft, smooth lips. She traced her tongue up the thick vein on the underside of my member and then slipped her mouth around just the head, sucking lightly at it.
I moaned, already hardening at her ministrations, and I was rewarded with a small smile from her as she continued to work my head between her lips, her tongue dancing around it, fluttering against the sensitive skin and then pressing at my slit, drawing a bead of precum out of me that she swirled around her mouth.
She drew more of my length into her warm cavern, alternating her movements so that every single time she pulled back, the feeling was something somehow new. And with the hand that she wasn't using to guide my prick, she began to play with my balls, rolling them between her d
elicate fingers and stroking at the skin there.
I'm not sure how long she continued this for. It felt like ages, but it was probably only minutes. I already felt as though I was on the verge of exploding, but I wanted to make this last, wanted to make this good for her as well. Just when I reluctantly made to pull back, though, she used her hands to grab my hips, urging me to move, to actually use her, as though she were only a warm vessel for me to put my dick inside of.
I groaned and began to snap my hips back and forth, using her for release. I was only human, after all, and with a woman this gorgeous trying to make me come like this ... well, there wasn't any way I could argue with that.
Still, I felt my orgasm building closer and closer, and I tried to pull away. “Halley, I'm going to—”
