by Alexa Rynn
But when I looked up I wasn’t greeted with Cutter’s blue eyes.
Instead, a pair of green ones.
A pair of green ones I knew all too well.
“Ace.”
He put his arm around me and pulled me closer to him. “I thought that was you. Grace, what the fuck are you doing out here in the middle of the night walking on the thruway wearing next to nothing? Have you gone crazy?” He turned my body around and started to guide me back to his bike.
Ace.
It was Ace.
I could trust Ace. I’d been covering for him with the cops for months.
He would help me.
I buried my head into his chest and burst into tears. “Ace,” I sobbed. “Oh, Ace. I messed up. I messed up so bad.” The tears stung my eyes like small pins. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
He rubbed my head. “There, there, it’s okay.”
I shook my head. “It’s not, it’s bad. So bad.”
He smothered his hands in my hair some more, petting me like a sick puppy that he had to take care of. I hated that I was so weak and dependent on attention but I was so cold and weak.
And as much as I hated to admit it, I was scared.
“So bad,” I mumbled again.
“I know,” he told me. “I know.”
He knew?
I pulled back from him, confused but then I felt a small prick in my neck and the next thing I knew his face was getting blurry, bobbing up and down in my vision.
My body went limp in his arms and I could feel him dragging me toward his bike. The trees were spinning all around me, coming alive and then dying again.
I heard him talking to someone faintly.
“I’ve got her, boss, on my way to you now.”
And then everything went black.
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CHISELED (A BAD BOY ROMANCE)
BY ALEXA RYNN
Copyright 2016 Alexa Rynn, all rights reserved.
No part of this work may be reproduced without written consent of the author. This book is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to any persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
This book is for a mature audience only due to strong language and strong sexual conduct.
Chapter One
BRADEN
The way I treated her was disgusting.
The things I did to her in the sheets should be illegal.
That’s how fucking nasty and exciting they were.
I never claimed to be the knight in shining armor that she wanted because the truth was that I wasn’t. I had never been a hero and I never would be… I was bad. I was a really bad guy. Every girl in the damn city knew it.
But that was all part of the thrill.
The danger of the game is half of the excitement but I didn’t play for just the high of it all, I played to win. And I didn’t want to just win by an inch: I wanted to dominate it so bad that people wouldn’t know what hit them, so they would be begging for more without even knowing why.
Hell, I didn’t want to treat her that way.
I didn’t want her to get caught up in the crazy bullshit I had created around me… but she just couldn’t let it go. And that meant I had to keep her at a distance because anyone who got too close ended up just as damaged as I was.
She wanted to save me…
I couldn’t even save myself.
The first time I saw her was way before I saved her life.
Years before, actually, she stood in line at a coffee shop around the corner from this girl’s house I had banged the night before. I would have never been on that side of town ordinarily but as fate would have it I’d met some blonde at a bar who was just dying for a piece of Braden Nash.
Join the club, baby.
So, there she was, standing in line like she had been placed there for the sole purpose of my amusement. A small jean skirt barely covered her round ass and her white t-shirt only added to the whole innocent girl thing she had going on. Her face was bare of much makeup, her dark brown hair hung in long waves down her back and the first thing that flashed into my mind was how good she would look on her knees looking up at me with that mouth wrapped around my thick shaft.
I licked my lips in satisfaction and then she looked over at me, locking her eyes on mine and something changed. I was used to girls blushing at the sight of me or flocking over to where I was, young billionaire Braden Nash was big news in LA. The heir to the Nash family fortune and business female attention wasn’t something I ever had to worry about. I’d long ago been pegged the playboy in the press and it was a title I carried proudly much to my father’s annoyance.
She didn’t look impressed though, she just looked sad, empty.
And by the time I had gotten my coffee she had vanished. Never to be seen or thought of by me again. But timing was a funny thing and it had other plans for me. Seventy-two hours later my father was murdered in front of me and events were set into motion that were beyond anyone’s control, especially hers, because the truth was that I wasn’t even sure how the obsession had gotten so strong. But it had and once I was in so deep there was no getting out… no matter what the cost was.
But, like I said, that was before the countless hours of training. Before I rescued her from one of the worst night of her life, before she became infatuated with uncovering my secret, before I had to trick her into working for me just so I could keep an eye on her…and way before I knew how sweet she tasted.
But love had always been a dangerous thing, especially when you had a million secrets no one could ever find out about. Because finding out was a matter of life and death, a matter of being seen or disappearing forever, and some secrets were better left buried.
No matter how far you had to go to keep them that way.
Or what you had to lose in the process.
My name had always been Braden Nash…
But my story was just beginning.
Chapter Two
ADDISON
My eyes snapped open into the darkness. My heart was beating so fast that I feared it was going to explode all over the inside of my chest. I looked around the room rapidly, trying to make out any figures in the darkness.
But there was nothing.
No one was in my bedroom. Everything was as it should be.
I allowed myself to let out a breath I’d been holding in and glanced at the clock on the nightstand. 2:07 A.M. I’d been waking up in the middle of the night like clock work for the past few weeks, ever since the news reports had started. It was ridiculous, like out of all the houses in the entire city of Los Angeles the LA rapist was going to pick mine to come into.
I threw back my covers and allowed my feet to hit the cold wood floor. Might as well fill out some more applications if I was going to be awake anyway. Finding a job had been a struggle since I’d been laid off earlier this month. Apparently businesses weren’t that impressed by a shy 24 year old with an English degree from a community college.
I had just passed my closet door when I heard it.
Breathing.
I stopped and glanced at the doors of my wardrobe, frozen in place. But when I listened more carefully I heard nothing, no sound coming from anywhere in the room once again. I sighed loudly.
I was really starting to lose it. I placed one foot in front of the other again and told myself to get over my craziness.
And then the closet door swung open and a man lunged out at me, wrapping his arms around my throat. My first thought was to scream for my life and I did until he shoved his hand over my mouth and dragged me across the floor back to my bed.
“Shut up,” he barked. “Shut the fuck up right now.”
He forced my body to the top of my mattress and slammed my head against the wooden frame. A stinging pain filled my brain and the room started to spin. I cried out, the p
ain, the ringing.
He shoved a hand over my mouth to silence me.
His hands smelled like grime and mutt, his breath was rapid and his eyes filled with something I’d never seen on a human before in my years on earth. I squirmed under his touch and he licked his lips harshly.
“If you scream it’s going to be a lot worse for you. Do you understand me?” His dark gaze looked into mine filled with demons of evil and rage. “I don’t want to kill you, Addison, but I will.”
A tear slipped out of my eye at the mention of my name.
He saw my reaction and grinned. “That’s right, I know your name, baby. Just like I know where your mother lives and where you nephew goes to school. Now if you’re a good girl, nothing will happen to them. If you’re a bad girl though, well, I guess what happens to them will be on your hands, won’t it?”
Dread washed over my body. I hadn’t been paranoid at all the past few weeks. He had been watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to make his move. And now he knew me, he knew my routine and that no one was going to come and rescue me because no one ever came over at this time of the night. And my family, he knew all about them. Where they lived, where they worked. He’d been following me and I lead him right to them.
Guilt consumed my bones at the mere thought.
“I’m going to take my hand away from your mouth now and you’re not going to scream. Do you understand me, Addison?” His pale skin somehow shimmered in the darkness of the room.
I nodded my head yes.
He slowly removed his hand from my lips and when I didn’t make a sound a sly smile came across his face. “Good girl.” He lifted his hand to my face and pushed a stray piece of hair back from my face. “That’s a good girl.”
“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered. “It’s not too late. You can leave, I wont tell anyone you were hear, I swear.” I’d been looking for any kind of compassion in him, any kind of human emotion.
But it was of no use.
He ran his fingers down my neck and over one of my breasts. “Well, that’s just so sweet of you but I think I’m good where I am.” And then he leaned down and kissed me full on the lips.
I gasped into him and squirmed under his touch but when that didn’t work I had no choice but to bite him on the lip. He pulled back, fury on his face. His hand went back up to my neck, holding me in place and then he leaned down and licked me across my face. “You taste just like I thought you would.”
Panic washed over me and my survival mode set in. The only thing I could think about was that I needed to get out of there. I needed to fight. I pulled my leg back and kneed him as hard as I could in the groin and it caused him to be distracted for a second but it was of little use because his upper body still overpowered mine and he pulled me back down on the bed in only a matter of seconds.
“You fucking cunt,” he howled. He pulled his hand back and smacked me across the face hard. “Now you’re going to get it.” He started fumbling with his pants with one hand and tore my t-shirt down the center with the other.
Panic overwhelmed my entire body. This was really happening. This was really going to happen to me. I was going to have a part of me taken that I would never get back.
The thought added to my terror and I let out one last scream, praying that somehow, someone somewhere would hear me and call the cops or come over and find out what the hell was going on.
The man slapped me against the head again, harder this time and I felt my eyes roll back in my head, startled from the contact. The tears dripped down faster as I felt his hands at the top of my pants, a smile of pure satisfaction plastered on his face.
This was it.
But the smile got replaced with a look of surprise as the man was yanked backward off me and thrown on the ground. He lets out a loud yelp from the floor and got up after a second, ready for a fight.
At first I thought someone had called the cops or a neighbor had heard the commotion and came running over but the man who stood across my attacker was like nothing I’d ever seen before. Black jeans and shirt covered by a black leather jacket. Flat boots covered his feet and black gloves hid his hands from view.
The man who broke into my house looked just as confused by the development as I did. “Who the hell are you?”
The stranger in black didn’t answer, tilting his head to the side just an inch instead. The attacker wasted no more time and lunged toward him quickly but the mystery man laid him out almost effortlessly and in a blink his body was on the floor again.
“Ahhh,” the guy yelled out. “You son of a bitch! I think you, you broke my leg!”
The figure in black didn’t speak, leaning down instead and grabbing the guy by the back of the head before he dragged him to the other side of my bedroom, ignoring his screaming and pleading.
“My leg, please, my leg!” He reached down and held the top of his thigh in his hand. “I’m… I’m sorry, please.” He looked up at the men in black with fear in his eyes, begging for any type of sympathy.
The stranger picked up his foot and shoved his boot into my attackers broken leg causing him to scream out so loud that I was sure the walls were shaking. I looked away, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach. The sight of torture was too much for me, even to someone who deserved it.
When I finally looked back up he had produced a thing of rope and handcuffs out of nowhere and was busy wrapping them around the guy’s hands and legs, having him tied up in a matter of seconds before opening my closet door and shoving him inside.
He paused before he closed the door and stared down at the mess of the man in front of him, the man who had seemed so scary to me seconds before. “You’re lucky I’m in a good mood today or you’d be leaving here in a box.” His voice sounded robotic and emotionless. I could practically feel the satisfaction that magnified off him as the man continued to scream out in pain on the closet floor. And then he slammed the door shut and turned around, facing me for the first time.
I gasped at the sight of him. He had a mask on his face, all black with a green tint where his eyes should be. He moved toward the bed like he walked on clouds instead of ground, gliding like something out of this universe.
I grabbed the blanket off my bed and held it over my body that was partly revealed thanks to the struggle. The green tints looked me over slowly like he was trying to figure something out. “It’s okay,” he said slowly. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
It occurred to me just how off his voice really was, almost computer sounding. It sounded like it had been altered in some way or another. “Who… who are you?”
He shook his head. “That’s not important. You need to call the police.”
My body started shaking beyond my control. “I can’t… I can’t move.”
He closed the distance between us and sat on the edge of my bed. His closeness didn’t scare me the way I had thought it would. “Yes, you can. You need to get up and call the police right now.”
I bring my knees to my chest. “He knows where my family is…”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to your family.” The dark stranger reassured me as a loud moan came from the inside of the closest. “I promise you, no one is going to hurt them.” He reached out slowly and took my hand in his and even through the glove I felt electricity shooting up and down my entire body. “But right now I need you to go and call the cops so they can put this guy where he deserves. Can you do that for me?”
I looked at his face, trying to see through the mask, trying to understand who this man was and what was happening. He had saved me, like a knight and shining armor he had come out of nowhere when I needed him more than I’d never needed anyone in my life.
But still, I felt frozen in place.
I was unable to move. Unable to process what the hell was happening.
I shook my head. “I can’t… I…”
The mask man dropped my hand and moved closer to me. “Get up,” he sounded meaner now, rude and angry. “We
don’t have time for this. You need to call the police and now or this isn’t going to end well for any of us.”
“But I…”
“NOW!”
I pushed the covers back, startled by his change in demeanor and leaped out of my bed. Suddenly I felt full of determination. I grabbed my phone off the dresser and unlocked it, hit 911 and waited for the operator to come on. When she finally did I spat my address off as fast as I could, telling her someone had broken in and tried to kill me.
But when I spun around a second later to tell my knight the cops were on their way the room was completely empty and the only sign of his presence at all was an open window on the other side of the room, the curtain flowing slowly in the wind of the nighttime breeze.
I hadn’t even heard him leave.
Chapter Three
BRADEN
I swung open the metal door to the basement of my mansion and slipped inside just before it slammed shut behind me. It was designed to allow only a fraction of a second for entry without a key inserted into the alarm safe by the entry. If the key didn’t stay put the door didn’t either even if you knew the code to unlock it.
“Update,” I barked as soon as I entered, dropping my black bag on top of the metal table that sat by the door. I slipped my leather jacket off and draped it over the chair before closing the distance between me and the various computer monitors on the other side of the large space.
Hayden swung around in her chair, one hand still on the keyboard as she typed away. “The cops got the guy you stuffed in the trunk who was trying to pull off that car jacking. They also picked up the asshole that took that little girl from school earlier today. Apparently after she was dropped off back at home unharmed the guy who took her was delivered to the police station in a bloody daze, left on the sidewalk.” She raised her eyebrows at me.
I huffed. “Like he didn’t have it coming.” I glanced at the monitor in back of her, taking in the various street camera angels she had live at the moment. “What about the girl?”
She glanced at the screen and hit a few keys, pulling up the live police feed. “The cops are at her house now, the guy is being transferred to the hospital for medical treatment before they charge him.” She paused. “Both of his legs are broken.”
