Road Warriors (Motorcycle Club Romance Collection) (Bad Boy Collections Book 4)

by Faye, Amy

  I was doing all of this for Scott. That's all I wanted to do. After that, Seraniel could kill me for good and I would die happy. It was a dramatic thing to say, but it was true. I didn't care, as long as I saw this one last thing through.

  To a point, though, I was also doing this for Seraniel. Something in his apparitions seemed apprehensive, scared. If he had been summoned by someone here on earth, any number of awful things could happen as a result. He was a powerful angel, and more importantly, he had been my friend for a long time.

  There was an overwhelming sense of duty to all of this, uncomfortable and restricting. I had never had much responsibility before in Hell.

  Finally, Scott sighed, his shoulders relaxing. “Look. I'm not sure how I feel about all of this. I'm pretty sure I still don't believe a lick of it, but I like having you around. You haven't done anything to hurt me, and I know you're trying to help us. You can stay, for now. For now, I will trust you.”

  I smiled, but I didn't dare reach out to him. I didn't dare touch him. “That's all I could have asked for. Thank you, Scott.”

  It wasn't the best outcome I could have imagined, but it was good enough.

  Scott

  I didn't want Elise's arms around me while we rode, but there was little choice. It's impossible to explain just how that touch made me feel. It was like shards of glass were wrapped around my torso, ready to cut me if I made the wrong mood.

  It wasn't fair. Just as I was getting used to her being around, just as I realized that I loved her, I found out that she was nuts. And she was nuts. The alternative outcome, that she was a demon, was impossible. Did she really think that I would fall for that trick with the fire?

  Sure, it was realistic, but I knew that magicians could do a lot of cool things without their audience knowing. With new technology, almost anything was possible, even with an unknowing participant. No, I wouldn't let her confuse and convince me with that trick. She was insane, and was living in some kind of internal fantasy world where she believed she was a demon.

  But as I turned onto the highway, the wind whipping through my hair, I remembered the chaos she had caused. How trouble found her, whether it was starting fights or causing two strange men to make out. There was no way she could have orchestrated all of that, and yet there were few other options. She had to be behind them.

  How, though? How could such a small thing cause grown men to act so erratically? Maybe she really did have some kind of magic.

  No. I didn't believe that. I couldn't believe that. I had to get a grip of my thoughts, damn it. If she was capable of magic to cause fights, couldn't she also have been capable of forcing me to love her?

  Did I still love her? I thought about it. If she was just insane, I could stay with her, easily. Maybe I could even care for her, help her cope, get her on medicine and in therapy. It would be a welcome distraction, a reason to leave some of my work behind. I had plenty of money saved up, waiting for me to retire.

  If she was a demon, though, what was I supposed to do? That would completely rewrite everything I knew and understood. If I started believing in demons, I would have to believe in God again. I'd have to go back to church and sincerely repent of my many, many sins. But if I did that, Elise would probably hate me. That's what demons did, right? They corrupted humanity. Why would Elise be any different?

  It was an impossible situation. If she was a demon, everything about this was fucked. It was fucked from the start, and I didn't want to lose her. So yes, it was unfair that she had told me all of that. I wished she would have just kept her delusions to herself, instead of including me in them.

  God, why did I have to love her so bad? Who fell in love with a crazy person?

  Why did I need her around so bad? Was I going soft?

  When we got to the bank, Elise leaned against the wall while I dialed the manager. “Hey, I'm calling in one of those favors. Could you come out right now? I need to get into my safety deposit box.” I knew it was asking a lot, but I didn't want to wait until morning, when people could easily see us going in.

  He wasn't happy, but he agreed to come, and in only a few minutes he was there and unlocking the back door. Holding it open for us, Elise and I both crept in, feeling like we had to sneak even though we had been let in.

  The building was eerily quiet at night. If I wanted to, I could have probably grabbed some cash, but I didn't want to strain my friendships there. It was incredibly useful to have friends in finance, even if it was just a small bank in a small town in Arkansas. Plus, I wasn't really the thieving type, and I didn't need the money anyway.

  Off of the front room, to the left, was the small room that held the safety deposit boxes. They were small, though a few larger ones were down at the end. Mine was one of the larger ones, and it held some guns and some money, plus photos of Etta.

  The key that Elise found was for a smaller one, in the middle row near the beginning.

  There was no telling what was inside of that box. It could have been anything. It could have been the meaning of everything. The sheer weight of possibilities that the box held made me freeze in my spot.

  What would I do if I found out, definitively, that Joey was alive? What if it really was him, and not just someone trying to make me think it was him? How would I react? What would I do? It was entirely possible that the knowledge could fill me with a blood lust, a need to carry out the murder I had obviously failed at before.

  But would that really be the best answer?

  Sliding the key into the box easily, I took a slow, deep breath. Then another. Elise was so close to me that I felt her hot breath against my neck. Her confession was forgotten for the moment, and I was thankful that she was nearby. Turning to Elise, I examined her face. She seemed as anxious as I was, but she was still beautiful in the dark. I was thankful that she was near me, that I could lean on her for support.

  “You ready?” I asked her.

  She paused, not moving, then nodded. “Open it up.” For a self-described demon, she seemed so human.

  Turning the key, it clicked, and the box came out. The door opened to reveal a drawer. With a finger, I slid the drawer out towards us, holding my breath.

  Chapter 12

  Imogael

  I watched over Scott's shoulder as he opened the box, fretting over what he might find. Maybe it was trapped like the door of the factory, and he could end up hurt. Wouldn't it be the worst for him to die hating me?

  And there was no doubt in my mind that he hated me. It was pretty obvious. The way he avoided my touch and refused to get too close to me. How he looked at me, full of fear. It was breaking my heart every time his eyes glanced in my direction, first showing love and then hatred. I almost couldn't bear it, but fulfilling my duty was more important to me than sating my ego or my need for his love.

  I did need his love. Desperately. I needed his touch, I needed his lips against mine. Thinking that I may never have those things ever again filled me with despair, but I had to move past it. I had to keep myself together, not let myself collapse and give up. He deserved better than that. I needed to give him better than that.

  I would save him from having to put up with me forever, though. I would help him solve his problem, and then I would leave. In the night, when he couldn't stop me. That would solve all of our problems, and eliminating his choice simplified things.

  My mind was made up. I was going to leave at the earliest possible time. Maybe it would be painful for Scott at first (though I doubted it, considering how he was acting), but in time he would move on. Maybe he would find someone else, someone that wouldn't get him killed on accident. Someone much better for him than I could ever be, with my demon blood, my strange powers, my need for chaos.

  No, he would be much better off without me anywhere near him. If I couldn't get back to Hell, then I would drift while I was on earth. I would just wander, and explore the world of the humans.

  As he slid out the drawer that was hidden behind the locked door, there wa
s a niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach. Instinctively, I gripped at Scott's jacket and moved closer to him, my heart pounding. Something wasn't right. Something was coming, and it was bad.

  There was a sound, like something heavy hitting a wall. A gurgle. I looked to Scott, who was also listening, but he shrugged. “That was probably just the manager cleaning up while he waits for us.” He looked at me and saw the worry in my eyes. “Are you scared of something?”

  “Something dangerous is coming,” I warned. He just turned back to the box, not taking me seriously.

  Footsteps could be heard in the building, not too far away, and they were getting closer. Maybe it was just the manager, coming to check on us, but that niggling feeling in my stomach only nagged harder. There was no way I was wrong about this: there was someone out there, and they meant to harm us.

  I waited for the person to make a move, preparing myself to react. I didn't know what I could have done to stop it, but I knew I had to protect Scott at all costs. I would have gladly laid down my life for one single human. That specific human.

  What a piss poor demon I had become, I thought with a smile. I kind of liked it.

  As the door slid open, I grabbed Scott and pushed him down, then found myself staring down the barrel of a gun. Holding it was a man who looked a lot like one of the men from Scott's planning board in his basement, only with part of his face scarred and disfigured.

  He was momentarily confused when he saw only me in the room, but then I heard the click of him preparing to shoot me. I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. I wondered if I could heal myself if I got shot. I had never tried to heal myself before.

  There was a large boom, but no pain except for my ears ringing. I was convinced that I had died, and was finally facing oblivion. Maybe eternal death and darkness wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it would be relaxing, in a strange way.

  Then I opened my eyes. I was still in the room. The man that had come to kill us was on the floor, blood pouring from his chest.

  Scott stood, holding the gun that he had used to shot him, and then plugged another bullet into the man. Right in his head, through his skull. “I didn't double tap you last time,” he said to the dead man. “This time, I'm making sure I did the job right.”

  Scott stood still for a few moments, watching the bleeding man, then looked to me. “It was one of the men from your board,” I said.

  “I know.” He crouched down, searching the dead man's body, but he found nothing. His pockets were empty. “We need to take all of this and get the fuck out,” he told me. I nodded.

  “Is there a lot to take?” I asked, looking into the drawer. There was a lot of money in there, but the room was too dark for me to see.

  “No, I can carry it all. Take this,” he said, handing me one of his guns. I think it was the one he called Boaz, which he held always in his left hand. “Check if there's anyone else in the lobby. If there is, come back here. If they spot you, shoot them.”

  I nodded and poked my head out of the door while Scott stuffed his pockets with the papers and cash that was in the safety deposit box. I was anxious, but I didn't need to be. The bank was empty, and all was quiet again.

  Even the manager didn't come running.

  Scott

  Pulling everything from the drawer, I stuff it all into my pockets. There was no time, at the moment, to look at what was on all of the papers. There was no time to leave the money. My hands just moved, stuffed, moved, stuffed.

  But Joey was alive, and who knew how many of the others were alive too. I couldn't possibly fathom how they were alive, but it was undeniable at the point. And they were after me, coming to make me pay for trying and failing to kill them.

  Once I had everything, I followed Elise out into the lobby and grabbed her arm, pulling her through the back rooms that led to the back door. Everything was so quiet. It wasn't a good sign, but we had to keep moving.

  At the door, there was blood. A lot of it. Pushing it open more to step out, we found the manager on the ground, a thin wire wrapped around his neck and cutting into his flesh. He was taken out in a way to keep him quiet. The man who had come to kill us didn't want to get caught before he finished the job. Shooting the manager would have alerted neighbors.

  “Fuck,” I said. Then I said it louder. I stopped dead in my tracks, unsure of what to do. Should I see to the manager, or leave?

  “We have to go, Scott.” Elise tugged at me. “Come on. The police are on their way.”

  She was right. Their faint sirens were getting closer, and in only a few minutes they would be there. We both jumped onto my bike, and we were off, even passing a police car on our way back home.

  So much had happened in just one night, and I knew that I would have to process it all soon or I was useless. I needed to know what was going on, what Joey's plan was, and how I could stop him, but first I had to know what was in my pockets.

  Anger was pushing at me, but I kept swallowing it down. Anger would not do me any good yet. I needed to stay calm, focused, on the task at hand.

  Elise's touch on my torso felt much less dangerous as we made our way back to my house. She felt fragile, actually. There had been a gun in her face, ready to shoot her, only a few minutes prior. No wonder she was shaking.

  I didn't know what to think of her, who she was, what she was. None of that mattered. I loved her, and I knew we could work through it. She shouldn't be punished for thinking she was a demon. If she really was a demon (I knew she wasn't), then we would deal with that somehow.

  All that mattered to me was that she was willing to take a bullet for me, and that I loved her. Deeply, passionately. It was a surprising love, but I needed to act on it. I needed her to know what I felt, and it was time for me to stop fearing her.

  When we finally got to my house, she hopped off of the bike before I did. I followed her, unlocking the front door and letting us both in.

  “So what are we going to do now?” She asked. I wanted to kiss her. Terribly.

  “We have to lay low for a while. The police might come and ask us some questions, but we technically weren't doing anything wrong in there. We were let in, we had a key for the box, and we didn't kill anyone. So if we show up on a camera, we'll be fine.”

  She nodded. “Do they have their cameras on at night?”

  “I sure as hell hope so, or things will be a lot more complicated.”

  She stepped closer to me, her eyes on the ground, her bottom lip quivering. “Are we going to be okay?”

  The question shattered my heart into a million pieces. I never wanted to see her scared or sad. What kind of man was I, for leaving her in such a fearful state? Sweeping her into my arms, I hold her close and kiss her forehead, taking deep breaths to encourage her to do the same. I should have been more kind, more understanding. She didn't deserve to be treated the way I had treated her, with apprehension and suspicion.

  “I can't guarantee anything, Elise, but I can promise you one thing. Anything that happens, I'll be there, next to you. I'll walk through fire with you, for you. You don't have to be alone in this.”

  She nodded, laying her head on my chest. She smelled like gun powder. Her long hair cascaded over my arms as they wrapped over her shoulders.

  I didn't know how, but I would work things out with her. All of the weirdness she brought, all of the danger he caused her, none of it really mattered. All that mattered to him then was that he needed her to stay with him.

  “I'm sorry for being such a shit earlier,” he said. “For not trusting you. I don't know if you're a demon or whatever. I'm not ready to just believe that, but I do know something,” I said, tilting her head up to look into her eyes. They glinted, and they were wet. Was she crying?

  “What?” She asked.

  “I know that I love you, and I am glad that you're here.”

  Her thin arms squeezed around me, pulling me closer. Her breaths slowed, and then her tension eased away. “I'm so happy,” she said.

  Taking he
r face in my hands again, I bent down and pressed my lips to hers. It was a real kiss, between two adults who were finally starting to understand one another. It wasn't about sex or anything else. It was just a need to be closer to her, to show her some affection. It was the best kiss I had ever experienced.

  Chapter 13

  Imogael

  Precarious. That was the word that would describe how I felt while I stood in his living room. The whole world around me seemed to be opening up, while I was closing off and dangling from a crumbling edge.

  Scenarios flashed through my head. Different ways that I could lose Scott. Different ways I could die. None of them really felt like my own thoughts, more like they were being projected onto me.

  I stood in front of the living room window, my arms wrapped around me as if to shield me from the cold. Scott went to his bedroom and threw off his jacket, then came back out mumbling about dinner. I wanted to tell him to just go through the stuff in the jacket, to not worry about feeding me, but I was paralyzed. Again, I felt like something was coming. Or maybe I felt like something was following.

  It was probably just trauma from having had a gun in my face. Scott passed me once more before he turned to look at me with concern. “Elise? Is everything alright?”

  Shaking my head, I kept staring ahead. It was all that I could do. If I moved, that edge would only crumble some more.

  “Talk to me,” he said, his voice gentle and low. He slid his hands over my bare shoulders, down my arms. They were warm, gentle. The warmth cut through the cool numbness that I was feeling, bringing me back enough to turn to him.