by Evie Nichole
Jack was on Snake before the body hit the ground. He yanked the gun away and threw it behind him before wrestling Snake to the ground. I pulled my gun from the back of my pants and held it at my side, ready to aim it at anyone who dared step toward the fight.
Another brother stepped forward, another one I didn’t recognize. “This isn’t our fight. We’re not going to hurt you. We just want to leave.”
“Why did you go to Memphis with him to get me?”
“He was our president. We had to back him. He killed Buck, though. If you don’t kill him, we will. He’s not with us anymore. He got us into all of this, and we’re going to end it here. We don’t want anything to do with you.”
I looked around, spotting a few familiar faces. “How do I know you won’t try to find me later?”
“You’re just going to have to trust us, lady.”
I shook my head. “I need something more than that.”
Jack was kneeling on top of Snake, but Snake wasn’t slowing down in his struggling. Jack looked up at me and then to the bikers. “We have enough on them to put them each away for a long time. They even think of coming near you, we take them all down.”
“See? Look, we just need to go before the cops show.”
“Fine. Go.” I watched as they all got back on their bikes and headed toward the exit.
As they got there, though, a line of police cars and solid black SUVs were arriving. They sped off and several of the cars gave chase. I shrugged and looked back down at Jack and Snake. Whatever happened to those guys, I didn’t care. As long as they left me alone, I wasn’t concerned.
Snake gave one more powerful buck to get Jack off of him, and then he grew still. “This is never going to be over, Raelyn. I’ll get out. I’ll always get out, and then I’ll keep coming for you. I’ll hunt you down like the bitch you are, and then I’ll fucking gut you for this!”
Agents and police were coming in thick by then. I spotted the cops who were friends of Snake’s just as they spotted me. They tried to disappear into the fray, but I screamed at them. With everyone’s attention, I jerked my finger in their direction.
“They’re working with Snake. I’ve seen them helping him.”
The weasel-looking one of the two seemed to shrink under the scrutiny, but anger bloomed on the face of the other one. “How dare you suggest that!”
“Why are you here? I see FBI, State Police, but no local. There’s a reason for that. Your chief agreed to keep local out of it. Yet, here you are.”
Jack was relieved by a couple of state police who were all too willing to jerk Snake around while getting him to his feet. He stepped beside me and ran his hand down my hair. “You okay?”
I nodded. I was more than okay. It was ending.
Snake, didn’t get that memo. He was still screaming. He turned his attention to the two local police. “Get me out of this! I’m not going back to prison! I won’t! Do something! What do I pay you for if you’re just going to stand there?!”
Sensing their time was running out faster than they would’ve liked, the meaner cop pulled out his gun and aimed it at me. “Anyone moves and I pull the trigger.”
Snake started screaming even more aggressively, until frothy spit was flying from his mouth.
Jack tried to shift his body in front of mine, but the instant he moved, the gun went off. My body jerked backward and I sucked in a sharp breath as white-hot pain instantly took over my upper half. I fell against the forklift and clutched at anything to keep me afloat. I ended up with a fistful of Jack’s shirt as more shots rang out.
“Red! You’re okay! Stay with me.” His voice sounded so panicked. “Stay with me!”
I wanted to. Despite the pain, I wanted to stay with him. I was afraid of what the darkness slipping into my mind meant. I wasn’t ready to die. I hadn’t done anything with my life. I hadn’t had a chance to live.
I looked past Jack just as Snake wrenched himself free and charged Jack’s back with a knife he’d grabbed from his boot. I wanted to scream. I wanted to save him, but Jack put pressure on my body and the pain was too much. The darkness took over and I had no choice.
*
“Rise and shine. I told you that we weren’t saying goodbye yet.”
I stirred, instantly regretting it when pain shot through my body. I grunted and then tried opening my eyes. It felt like I’d been through a sand storm. My eyes were so dry and gritty feeling.
“Need me to call a nurse?”
I blinked a few more times and finally managed to see Brent standing in front of me. My mouth was dry, but Brent immediately handed me a glass of water. After a long drink, I felt slightly better. “Where’s Jack?”
Brent sat down in the chair next to me and frowned. “He’s next door.”
Next door? I had the image of Snake charging Jack in my head, playing on repeat, and I couldn’t help it. I thought you were supposed to forget what happened right before you passed out, or whatever happened to me. I couldn’t, though. It was the first image I saw when I’d started waking up.
“He wanted to be here, but I sent him for some coffee. You’ve been out for a couple of days. He’s been here the whole time, and he’s reached zombie status. He’s going to be pissed that he missed you waking up.”
Tears filled my eyes. “He’s okay?”
Brent’s eyebrows furrowed. “Yeah, of course.”
I sighed and felt my body relax into the bed. I looked around and saw that we were in a hospital room. I was hooked up to several machines, one of which was beeping like crazy. “Is that a bad sign?”
A nurse came into the room, on that cue, and started asking me questions while pushing buttons. A doctor quickly followed, but it was hard to pay attention.
“The bullet barely missed your heart. You’re a very lucky woman. As it is, you’re going to have some pain with this shoulder for quite some time. You’ll be in physical therapy for a while. You can have a full recovery, though, if you put in the work.”
Jack walked in at that moment, and I couldn’t help but let out a weak laugh. “Hey, Jack, good news. I won’t be able to strip for a while.”
He laughed and moved to my side. “Well, that seems like great news.”
I smiled up at him, feeling an amazing sense of relief that he was okay. “But Doc here says if I work really hard, I’ll be able to get back to it before too long.”
The doctor shook his head and held up his hands. “I said nothing of the sort.”
Jack pressed a kiss to my forehead. “I’m glad you’re okay, Red. You really had me worried.”
“You really had me worried, too. I thought you were a goner.”
He rolled his eyes. “If I’m going out, it sure isn’t going to be at the hands of a lunatic like Snake.”
With that sobering thought, I noticed the doctor push a button on a hose hooked to my arm. “What was that?”
He smiled. “That’s the good stuff. It was time for your medicine again. You’ll probably be groggy and sluggish for a while, but you need it right now.”
They left my room, only after the doctor motioned for Jack to follow him outside. I was already feeling the effects of the medicine and couldn’t do anything but rest in my bed.
Jack squeezed my hand and smiled at me. “Try not to sleep for so long this time, okay?”
I made a face but I was already falling asleep again.
Chapter 24
I got out of the cab and handed the driver a wad of bills. “Thanks.”
I wrestled my bag onto my good shoulder and blew out a shaky breath. It’d been two months. Two months since I made Jack and Brent go back home. Two months since I’d last seen Jack.
I was still in a shoulder sling, but I was feeling much better. I’d called ahead before moving and found a physical therapist that could see me in my new town, and I had an appointment the next day to get started. I had a new apartment, one I was sharing with Carly. She’d woken up from her coma the month before and had been eager to g
et away from the hospital and from Jackson. There was just too much there.
Things were happening for the better. I was making things happen for the better. I was at my first job interview in my new town and I was nervous, but confident. If they didn’t want to hire me, I still had some money saved up, so I could find something else in the meantime. I hoped they wanted to hire me, though.
Looking up at the giant square, glass building, I sighed. It felt like coming home. Stone Security was my first job interview. I was applying for a low secretarial position and was interviewing with an HR guy who didn’t know me, as far as I knew. I wanted to surprise Jack.
He’d been pissed at me. When I first told him I wanted him to go back to Memphis, he didn’t get it. We had a connection. There was something between us that neither of us could deny, and I was still sending him away. He didn’t understand that I needed to get my life together first. He had this perfect package, all ready to hand over to me, but I didn’t want to take it that way.
Letting Jack take care of me after I got shot would’ve been too easy. He’d fixed everything for me. He’d taken care of me while Snake was trying to kill me. He’d brought an end to the Rage MC’s attack on me. Most importantly, he’d managed to kill Snake. He ended the life of the man who’d been my biggest nightmare since I was sixteen. I owed him so much. If I just went with him back to Memphis after getting released from the hospital, I wouldn’t have ever felt like I deserved him.
Jack deserved a partner who had something to bring to the table—besides her body—which wasn’t nearly as pretty as it once was. I had been joking when I said I could go back to stripping eventually. The scar that the bullet left on my chest wasn’t ever going to allow me to get back on stage.
I was okay with that, though. During those two months, I’d started to realize that I could, maybe, live inside of the bubble of normal. I’d been working full time at the library, and spending my nights with Carly. The first month, I stayed with her in her hospital room. The nurses knew me well, by that point, and had no problem in letting me break the visiting-hour rules. When Carly woke up, I stayed with her in her apartment. We spent a while talking about what had happened, and Carly spent a while trying to convince me that it wasn’t my fault.
The job interview was good. The HR guy, Jeremy Byers, wasn’t that impressed with my resume, but when I talked to him about my experiences at the library, he changed his tone. I left his office feeling like I could have gotten the job. Then, it was time for the part that made me really nervous.
I got on the elevator and rode up to Jack’s floor. I felt like my knees were going to crumble from underneath me. I tried to calm down, but I didn’t know what to expect. Two months had been a long time. I’d missed Jack, but maybe he hadn’t missed me. I wasn’t sure. A part of me was terrified that he’d gone back to Stacey.
When the elevator stopped on his floor, I stepped out and swallowed all of that fear down. I had to see Jack and nothing was going to stop me. Not fear and not his secretary, who looked like she was going to ask me to stop, until recognition flashed in her eyes.
I gently knocked on his door, and then I pushed my way in.
“Yeah? Kim, I told you I’m in a—” Jack stopped talking when he looked up from his desk and realized it was me. A crooked grin broke out on his face and he dropped the pen he’d been holding. “I thought you’d never make it. You got to town days ago, Red. What were you waiting on?”
I glanced at the men who were sitting at his desk and smiled. “I didn’t realize you were busy. I’ll come back.”
Jack shook his head. “No way. You’re staying. Gentleman, give us a few minutes, would you? If you’ll go down to the cafeteria, I’ll buy you both lunch. Ask Chef Hamilton for anything you’d like.”
They gave me knowing smiles and then quickly left the room. I looked up at Jack and couldn’t help the slight blush on my face. “Hi.”
He circled his desk and inched closer. “You haven’t answered my question. You’ve been in town for days. Why are you just now coming to see me?”
I raised an eyebrow. I’d heard him the first time he’d said it, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. Maybe he wasn’t following me around to make sure I came back to him. “You were keeping tabs on me?”
“Guilty. I’m not a patient man. I needed to know that you were actually on your way here.”
“You still want me?”
He was standing in front of me in the blink of an eye. Yet, he still didn’t touch me. “Yes. More than anything. You took too long to get back here.”
“It was only two months.”
“Two months too many. Are you here to stay?”
I’d thought a lot about what it meant to stay with Jack. He was a danger loving, wild man with a bossy streak. We butted heads and argued a lot, but I liked him. A lot. I didn’t know where it would go, but I knew I wanted to take the chance on him.
“Yes.”
He slipped his arms around my waist and held me to him, careful of my shoulder. It felt so good to be back in his embrace that I sighed into his chest. His strong body easily wrapped around mine and he rested his chin on the top of my head.
“I’ve missed you.”
Jack’s chest rumbled under my ear as he spoke. “I’ve missed you, too. I was pissed for a while, but then I just got over it. I just wanted you closer to me.”
“I’m glad. I was scared that I’d walk in here and you’d be back with Stacey.”
He chuckled. “You’re insane. There’s something about you. I haven’t been able to get you out of my head. Even if I had wanted to move on, I wouldn’t have been able to.”
I loved hearing that. I stretched my good arm up and wrapped it around his neck. “I feel the same way.”
We stared at each other in silence for a few moments, letting our words sink in. Somehow, in the craziness that was Snake, we’d managed to get attached to each other. Even when I thought I hated Jack, I’d wanted to be near him. I felt like it was a pull that was bigger than we were. I didn’t want to fight it. I just wanted to wrap myself up in him and breathe easier.
“Do you have a shower here?”
Jack frowned. “What?”
I kissed his chest and then higher. I ran my tongue over his Adam’s apple and moaned as his fingers tightened on my body. “A shower. I’d like to follow tradition and shower with you.”
Jack’s arms hooked under my thighs and lifted me so I was wrapped around him. “How’s your shoulder?”
I grinned. “Good enough.”
He walked us backward until my back was pressed against the door to his office. He turned the lock on it and then walked me back to his desk. “I do have a shower, but I also have this fantasy…”
I laughed as he cleared the papers off with a swipe of his arm. “Jack! What if you need those?”
He lowered me onto the desk with a wicked grin. “Red, I just can’t find it in me to care.”
I was okay with his apathy on that subject, especially after he showed me just how much he’d missed me. I didn’t know if I’d be able to walk out of Stone Security, but I was in physical therapy. They could fix whatever he broke.
The End.
NOWHERE ALASKA
Prologue
Ten Years Ago
Harbour Bates huffed and sank a little lower into the uncomfortable plastic seat that the school’s
front office staff seemed intent on keeping until it withered into dust. She pulled her gangly legs up onto the seat’s edge, rested her chin on her knees, and continued to flip through her book as the constant rain battered the tin roof.
It was nearing the end of the tourist season and their small town of Nowhere was quickly returning to its barely-populated state. Winter was just around the corner, the rains had already set in, and today her family was leaving behind their bed and breakfast hotel to stay at their tiny winter cabin. It was a magical time, where no complete strangers shared her bathroom and Harbour could spend her days with m
iles of untouched wilderness separating her from Derek ‘I get a migraine if I’m not actively irritating someone’ Quintana.
A hunk of her hair slipped out from behind her ear and proceeded to drip water onto her book. It didn’t matter that she had tried to wash it out a dozen times in the bathroom sink, Harbour could still feel the gunk Derek had used for his ‘prank,’ slick between the strands. She still had no idea what he had used, but it had rather effectively ruined her dye job. From root to tip, she was now the colour of Kermit the Frog.
The door to the office opened and ushered in a gust of chilled air, effectively distracting Harbour from nurturing her resentment. She looked up to see who had entered and instantly regretted it. Of course, it had to be Derek. The urge to do something stupid, like berate him for being such a colossal and complete jerk, hit her like a truck. She bit her lips to keep all the words in and set her eyes solely on her book. Luckily the front office had plenty of windows and shiny surfaces to keep him entertained. He could get lost admiring his own reflection. It was the one upside of Derek being good-looking.
In a certain light. At a certain angle. You know, if you like tall, muscled guys with chiselled jawlines.
Harbour hurriedly corrected her stray thoughts.
Derek somehow pulled away from his own allure long enough to notice that he wasn’t alone. Most of the staff were backing up for the day and didn’t bother to hang around out the front. That left her as the only outlet for boredom.
“Hey, Harbour.”
Her eyes skirted to him. He flashed his ‘charming’ smile, the one that he could hold even as she glared at him. After a moment she decided that disinterested but polite chatter was probably her best course of action. She only needed to survive another five minutes or so before her parents arrived.
She mumbled a high ‘hi’, smiled for good measure, and went back to her book. The chair beside her squeaked across the linoleum tiles as he flopped down into it. Harbour’s jaw twitched. There were dozens of free ones. Why did he have to sit so close that she could smell the fine leather of his jacket?
