by LeAnn Ashers
She just stares at me with dead eyes. “I won’t regret it.”
Yeah, she will.
Jackie tries to get in the last word in.
I raise both of my hands, flipping her off. She gasps again and I laugh at that. Lane puts his hand on the small of my back. “Let’s get out of here, Doll.”
“He won’t stay with you forever, and what will you do then?” My sister cackles, and I turn around, smiling for the first time tonight.
“I am an independent woman, Jackie. I don’t need a man to be in my life to make it complete. Lane makes my life better, but I can take care of myself with or without him.”
At that I turn around and walk out of the house. The house I grew up in and will probably never see again. I bite my lip to hold my tears and my sadness and longing for what I could have had.
I am better off without them; I will be happier. It will suck but I have people that I care about. My family hasn’t been my family for a very long time. They just tried to bring me down.
Ellen is the only person I can call family now that I am without a father, mother, and sister.
“Doll, I am so fucking proud of you for standing up for yourself, and you got some damn good self-control. Something I lack.” He slips the helmet on my head, giving me a sly smile.
“Thank you for standing up for me. I just can’t believe I stood for that kind of treatment for so long.”
“They are your parents and I understand trying to find the good in people, but these people can’t be helped. What matters is you are finally free.” He kisses my forehead tenderly, and it’s like all my worries just wash away.
Now to start my life fresh.
9
Amelia
“I am going to miss you,” I whisper in Lane’s ear as I hug him tightly, my legs wrapped around his waist and my arms around his neck. I had an amazing weekend with him. Yeah, it had some rough patches but it was still perfect.
I am outside my house Sunday morning because Lane is picking up Tiffany and spending the rest of the day with her, since she was gone all weekend.
“I will miss you too, Doll.” He kisses my forehead and sets me on the ground. “I will be over tomorrow evening once Tiffany is in bed.”
“Okay.” I smile and rub my face on his chest, breathing in his scent. He tightens his arms around me. I don’t want him to leave. I want to be with him twenty-four seven. I am addicted to everything that is Lane.
Lane is so much more to me than I ever expected. Yes, he will protect me to the death, like I would him, but there are more ways to protect someone. Their heart and their soul—this is more important than you think.
Lane settles a part of me that I never knew needed soothing. Is it wrong that I think I have been missing something my whole life and now I have found it?
I feel so full of life and happiness. I am so fucking happy—more than I ever thought possible. I always dreaded being in relationships, because it felt like a chore more than anything, but it all changed with him.
“I will see you tomorrow, so get inside and rest. Tomorrow night I got some plans for you.” He smacks me on my hip lightly, and I laugh out loud at his playfulness.
“Yeah, well, I may have some plans for you tomorrow night also.” I lift my head off his chest, winking at him.
“Ohhh?” He smirks.
I smile slightly and step away from him, and the moment I do so I miss him. “Go spend time with your daughter—see you tomorrow.” I go into my house and wave at him as I shut the door.
A second later I hear his bike start up, and I let out a deep breath of sadness. I set my purse on the table by the door along with my keys.
My phone starts ringing in my back pocket, and I look at the screen. Ellen. I guess she got a whiff of what happened at my parents’ house. I forgot to call her and tell her what happened.
“Hey, Aunt Ellen.”
“Girl, what happened? Your whole family is rolling around having a fit.”
I laugh and sit down on the couch. “Yeah well, let’s just say I got tired of their bullshit and I am done with them.”
“Yeah, from what I heard I love your man. Lane?”
“Yeah, Lane.” I say his name softly.
“Lane as in the Grim Sinners MC?”
“Sure is.”
Ellen laughs loudly. “Hot damn, girl. He is hot.”
I scoff. “Don’t I know it! You know how I love the bad boys, but Lane is the best kind.”
“Yeah, he is like my husband.” I can hear the love in her voice. Her husband has always worshipped the ground she walks on, and she feels the same way about him.
“Lane is great, I really care about him. I am meeting Tiffany—his daughter—next weekend.”
She sucks in a sharp breath, because she knows how huge this is. If it goes well, then life as I know it will completely change.
I will have a little girl in my life.
“I will come down and visit you in a week or so.”
“Alright, love you Ellen.”
“I love you too, sweet girl.”
I smile at the endearment. I wish she were my mom. Ellen could never have kids and that saddens me. She would have been the best mother ever, but I was stuck with a bitch of one.
She hangs up and I set my phone on the coffee table.
Bruno, the Great Dane, couldn’t stay with Lane, and that was my first question when I walked into his house. Tiffany had an incident with a dog a few months ago and she is scared, so Bruno is with another guy in the club.
My phone rings again and I pick it up, seeing that it’s Danielle. “Hello?”
“I will be at your house in thirty minutes. It’s time for some shopping.” She hangs up before I can say anything. I love Danielle. She is the best friend you could have, and I have neglected her a bit lately.
I hurry into my bedroom to change out of Lane’s shirt and sweatpants, which swallow me whole, but—luckily for me—my ass works in my favor in that department.
My house seems too quiet now that I am away from Lane. I miss him so fucking much. Danielle shows up before I can dive deeper into my Lane-suffering thoughts.
I walk out of the house and climb in the passenger side of her car.
“Bitch, the dick must be good!” she says once I click my seatbelt into place. I laugh and lay my head on the window. She turns in my driveway. “Well, is it?”
“Girl, you have no clue.”
She purses her lips, giving me the stank eye. “I am jealous. How big is it?”
“A solid nine inches.”
She slams on the brakes and puts her hand on my shoulder. “Bless your vag and bless that man.”
Oh my god! I can’t with her. I cover my face and laugh, tears rolling down my face.
“I guess that’s why you were walking funny when you walked to the car. I just thought you were constipated.”
I laugh even harder, my stomach beginning to hurt.
“I missed you!” I tell her once I manage to calm down.
“Missed you too, cum sucker.”
A Few Hours Later
“Well, I have shopped until I have dropped,” Danielle says and all but falls into the car. I am loading my bags into the backseat. I may have gone overboard, but I couldn’t resist.
“Tell me about it, and I am so hungry on top of that.” I shut the door and open the passenger door.
Tires squeal loudly behind me, and I turn around to see a blacked-out van pull up beside me. My mouth pops open in pure terror, as I have seen in too many movies that this happens when girls get kidnapped.
In seconds the door is thrown open, and two men jump out of the van running straight for me. Danielle screams and I brace myself as my arms are grabbed. I scream loudly, kicking, trying to get them to let me go.
I squirm and shake, and I let my body go to dead weight. Hopefully, they will let me go. One of them lets go for a split second, and I take that second to hit him right in the nuts.
“Fuck!” he
roars, and all I see is a fist coming toward my face—then nothing but blackness.
Lane
My phone is vibrating in my pocket, and I take it out and look at the screen. I am at the club with Tiffany and the rest of the guys. We all get together on Sundays with our families and women.
Danielle’s name flashes on the screen. That’s weird.
“Lane.” I hear her sobbing, and my body stiffens because I know Amelia is with her.
“Danielle, what is it?” I ask. Wilder and the other men move closer to me.
“Amelia,” she cries, her breathing hitching. “Kidnapped. Men in a black van.”
My heart stops in that fucking second. I can’t even breathe—I am suffocating. My dad steps in front of me. “Lane, what is it?”
“Amelia kidnapped.”
His eyes widen, and the other men around me hiss in anger.
“Where are you, Danielle?”
She can barely answer through her sobs. “At the mall parked in front of the food center.”
“Dad, call Butcher and ask him to pick up Danielle. Caeden, check the cameras in front of the mall, in front of the food center, in Raleigh, Texas.” He runs into action.
“Lane?” Danielle whispers.
“Yeah?”
“Get her back, but make them pay.”
“Count on it.”
I get off the phone and look at Tiffany, who is oblivious to the fact that my world is crashing around my fucking feet.
Someone is going to fucking pay, and it’s not going to be an easy death for them. “Prepare the interrogation rooms,” I tell Derek.
Dad touches my shoulder. “Let’s go make some fuckers pay.” He smiles at me, letting me know the fucking crazy is coming out.
My men step back out of my way, and Adeline nods at Tiffany, letting me know she has her. I head down to the basement, where the surveillance is.
“Anything?” I ask.
“Sanchez.”
I know exactly who that fucker is, and it’s time to take down his empire. I call the president of the Devil Souls MC.
“Lane,” he says.
“Sanchez took my woman fifteen minutes ago.”
“You have permission to do whatever the fuck is needed.”
“Let’s ride!” I yell at my men, and I hear their feet thundering up the steps.
“Oh, and Lane?”
“Yeah?”
“Put a bullet in his head for me too.”
He hangs up, and I put my phone back in my pocket. It’s time I go and get my woman, time to fucking put some bullets in their fucking heads. They shouldn’t have even looked at her.
Let’s ride.
Amelia
Pain is the first thing I notice; my head is absolutely killing me. I try to lift my hand, but it won’t move. I slowly open my eyes and it all hits me.
I was kidnapped.
I look around the room; it looks like a basement. I am tied to a chair in the middle of the room. I was punched in the face; my cheekbone is swollen, making it harder for me to see out of my left eye.
Why have I been kidnapped? Lane is probably looking for me right now and freaking the fuck out. Danielle saw everything go down. Oh my god! What is happening?
Terror flows through my body, and I suck in my bottom lip to stop the trembling. Tears threaten to escape my eyes. What will happen to me? What will they do to me?
I hear a door creak open, and I raise my head to see the person walking into the basement. He is dressed in a suit, and his hair is slicked back from his face, which is smashed up like a bulldog’s. He smiles at me, and I cringe internally at the yellow teeth flashing at me.
“Amelia, my dear. It seems we have a bit of a trouble.” He stops directly in front of me and bends down until he’s at eye level. His hands wrap around my jaw. “It seems your cousin Jeffrey won’t give me what he owes me, and I need my money. All three hundred thousand of it.”
I am going to kill my cousin.
“Jeffrey is a stupid fucker,” I tell my kidnapper and he laughs. He stands behind me, his hand drifting along my shoulder and into my hair.
“Well, we can’t pick our family can we?” He sighs deeply, and his hand comes up to my cheekbone. My stomach curls, and I try to swallow back the vomit that’s threatening to escape.
“We can’t,” I manage to say; my whole body is shaking.
“Well, anyway, I need my money, you give it to me or…” He comes back around and looks me up and down. “Or you can become my bitch.”
I hear the slight rumble of a motorcycle, and I know that sound. It’s Lane; I know the sound of his bike by heart. “Or you can choose not to die today.” I arch an eyebrow, not able to keep the smile off my face. That’s when he hears the loud thunder of a shit ton of bikes pulling to a stop outside.
“Who are you?” he spits out, his face bending toward mine.
“I am the motherfucking ole lady to the president of the Grim Sinners.”
“Fuck!” he yells and places his hands at the back of his head.
Lane
We roll to a stop outside Sanchez’s house in the country. I climb off my bike and wave toward the back of the house, and my brothers run to the back. Nobody is leaving here alive unless I decide they can. Wilder and Dad come up on either side of me.
“Let’s fuck up some shit.” Wilder cocks his gun and I take my own out; then I motherfucking smile.
“Oh fuck!” Dad says loudly, and I run up to the porch and kick the fucking door in.
Three men are waiting in front of the door, and I lift my gun, aim, and hit the one in the center and then the one to the right. Wilder takes out the other. Then I lift my gun to the fuckers standing at the entrance to the kitchen; with quick precision both hit the floor.
Dead, Dead, Dead. Men hit the floor around me as the guys and I tear through this fucking house.
The only room left uncleared is the basement. I kick the door open and run down the stairs. My eyes zero in on Amelia sitting in a chair, her face swollen on the left side.
They fucking hit her.
No mercy.
“Don’t come any closer, and I won’t kill her! I didn’t know she was yours!” Sanchez yells across the room. He steps out of the corner where he was hidden.
“Doesn’t matter, you took my woman, had her fucking kidnapped, and hit her. You think you’re going to breathe after this? But oh, your death won’t be easy.” I lift my gun and shoot his hand, which is holding the gun to Amelia’s head.
He drops the gun and I run over and take it from the ground. Sanchez is holding his hand and staring at me with pure terror.
That’s right, fucker, fear me. This face will be the last thing you will ever see. His next couple of days will be fucking hell, and Sanchez knows it too.
I take out my knife and cut Amelia loose. She stands up and runs to my side. I wrap my arm around her shaking body. “You’re safe now, Doll.”
She nods and turns around, looking down at Sanchez. She grabs my gun from my hand. “Don’t kill him, Baby, I need to have my fun.” She smiles and points the gun at his dick. Sanchez puts his hand over himself to try to protect it.
Oh fuck.
“This is for suggesting I become your bitch, and for kidnapping me. I am nobody’s bitch.” She pulls the trigger, and Sanchez screams. She blew off a couple of fucking fingers as the bullet hit its mark.
“Wilder, tell doc to keep him alive.”
Amelia lets her hand fall, her face moving up to look at me. “Lane, just hold me?”
I take the gun from her hand, stuffing it back into my holster. I bend down and lift her off the ground. She wraps her arms around my neck, and her legs lock around my waist.
The men bow their heads respectfully. Amelia is so fucking tough, even when she is scared she will not allow someone to fuck with her. Dad comes up next to me and touches Amelia’s back. She raises her head and smiles at him.
Pure fucking beauty. My dad shakes his head with a smile. Amel
ia will be fine after this; nobody will ever touch her again. What happened here will put the message out: don’t fuck with the Grim Sinners’ women.
I spot Derek and nod toward Sanchez. “Derek knows his job is to lock him up in the interrogation room and do what it takes to keep him alive until I come for him; then the rest of the guys get their go.”
“Let’s go home, Doll.”
I walk out of the house and straight to my bike. I lift my leg over it with her still clinging to my front.
“Can you ride like this?” she asks.
“Don’t you dare fucking move,” I growl and she snuggles deeper into my chest; then it hits me like a fucking ton of bricks.
I love her.
Amelia
Lane pulls up in front of my house, and I loosen my grip slightly. He doesn’t let me go, though; he climbs off the bike with me still in his arms.
I am still in shock; it’s like my brain hasn’t wrapped around what happened. I was kidnapped because of my cousin Jeffrey owing money—he did this.
I hear my front door opening, and I am hit with the cold air in the house. The door slams shut and Lane walks through the house, into my bathroom.
“I am going to set you down on the counter.” I nod and he sets me down on the counter. I raise my head to look at him.
“Fuck, Doll. It’s killing me seeing you with that mark on your face.” He tenderly touches my jaw.
“I am okay, just shaken up a bit.”
He shakes his head angrily. “Why did Sanchez take you?”
“My cousin, my dad’s brother’s son, owes him money.”
“Jeffrey is dead too,” he deadpans and stares at me to see my reaction.
Jeffrey isn’t anything to me anymore. Call me evil, but being kidnapped because of someone will change your view of them really quick.
