Road to Hell_A Motorcycle Club Romance_Devil’s Mafia MC

by Paula Cox

  “Sleep?” His laugh was bitter. “I haven’t slept since I last saw you at the warehouse. When I didn’t find you, and you weren’t in the hospital with me, I thought…” Much to her shock, his voice hitched. He blinked his eyes as if he was wiping away the memories of that day. “But you are okay, and I guess that is all that matters. Be happy. That’s all I ever wanted for you.”

  Happy? He thought she was happy? How could the idiot think that when he broke her heart? Unless…did he actually believe that she was with Jason now, that she’d moved on with her love life? It had to be that. He was actually jealous. But if he felt like this then surely, he harbored some real feelings for her? Or was she imagining things?

  Maybe she was still so besotted by him that she was trying to project her feelings on to him. Suddenly, she was very confused. This impromptu meeting was not what she expected. She’d thought that when she met him, she would know for sure what to do, but now she didn’t have a clue how she was supposed to respond to him.

  Suddenly, Riley turned around. Tania’s gaze followed him. She saw two men closing in from a distance. Although she didn’t know who they were, she had a fairly good idea that they belonged to same gang that kidnapped her. Damn it! Had she fallen in his trap once more? Did he make her linger here so that his companions would come and take her back?

  She turned to push him out of the way, but, much to her shock, he opened the car door and tugged her inside.

  “What’s going on?”

  “I want you to leave right. Go away, and don’t be out alone. It’s not safe for you. These people mean business. They are scared that you know about their warehouse plan because I was involved with you, and they will do whatever is necessary to keep you quiet,” he said quickly.

  “But…”

  “Listen to me,” he said in an urgent voice. “Don’t trust anyone. They are in this town, and right now they are scrambling for cover. If you get in their way, you’ll go down. Stay safe.” He slammed the car door. “Go.”

  The men were so near that she could see them. Although they were not familiar, she thought one of them was the same as the one who watched her in the house. What the hell was going on? Riley was actually trying to get her out of this mess. How could this be? Wasn’t he the one who got her kidnapped? If so, why did he change his tune now?

  “Let’s go,” she told the chauffeur.

  As the car moved forward, she saw the men move towards Riley. One of them pushed him while the other punched him. Shit! What the hell was this? Why were they beating him?

  She might’ve slipped out of the car to try and help him, but she could hear him yelling. “Go, go.” Even at this time, he was worried about her safety. The car moved away. She turned back to look at the men who were forcing Riley to walk with them. Did he just offer himself as a sacrifice so that she could get away?

  She looked at him until the car turned a corner and he was out of sight. She leaned back against the seat. Frustrated and confused, she didn’t know what to believe anymore. Everything was topsy-turvy. She’d thought that Riley betrayed her, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t have helped her escape…right? Nothing was as she’d assumed.

  She needed to get to the bottom of this mystery, but she didn’t know who to approach and whom to trust. Nothing made sense anymore – and she didn’t know if it ever would do so again.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Riley was in a great deal of trouble. As he faced the board of members of Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood, he wasn’t sure if he would leave the building alive. Sure, he’d never known them to resort to violence before this particular incident, but now it seemed obvious to him that they were desperate to close this matter. In desperation, people did crazy things – and right now he was smack in the center of the trouble zone.

  “You let the girl go. I’d ordered you to bring her in,” said Charlie.

  If he’d known Charlie ordered his men to shadow Riley to see if he would lead them to Tania, he never would’ve made any attempt to find her or he would’ve, at least, been more discreet. He only found out about that when he saw the men near her car, but he’d shown them clearly that his loyalties no longer lay with the club.

  Why risk so much for a woman who had already moved on? He didn’t know the reason, but he couldn’t betray her. Not even now. Not after all that happened. She did get into a lot of trouble because of him and, of course, he still loved her. Just because she chose someone else over him didn’t mean that his love died. It was still there, smoldering in a corner of his broken heart. Perhaps it would never fade away. Truth be told, she was the love of his life and he couldn’t imagine a life without her. But he would have to find the strength to continue – alone.

  “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” said Raymond, the financial head of Devil’s Mafia Brotherhood. “Why did you let her go?”

  He might be down, but he wasn’t stupid. “There were too many witnesses in that place. What were they supposed to do? Did you really expect them to get away with a kidnapping in broad daylight?”

  Charlie’s mouth gaped open. “Are you actually implying that you let her get away to save my men?”

  “I am not implying anything.” Riley kept his voice even and friendly. “I am stating that I saved our men from the police by not letting them conduct a crime in front of a dozen witnesses. Had they made an attempt to take her away they would’ve been sitting in the jail right now. Is that what you wanted?”

  Charlie sputtered. He raised his hand and then looked at Raymond as if seeking his support. “What the hell is this new drama?”

  Riley cocked an eyebrow. “It’s not a drama but critical thinking, which you, unfortunately, lack. That has always been your mistake. If you guys had trusted me right from the start, this entire mess wouldn’t have been created. Had I known the reason you wanted the warehouse and what you intended to do, I would’ve gotten Tania off your back a long time ago. But no. You hid things from me, and look at the result now.”

  Raymond tapped his pen on the desk. He looked thoughtful, serious. “So what is your plan now?”

  “I know where she is and I’ve convinced her that I had nothing to do with the warehouse explosion. The fact that I let her get away will make her realize that I never intended her any harm. She will meet me again, and when she does so…” He shrugged. “You can have her then.”

  Raymond smiled. “You’re a sharp one. We should’ve trusted you more from the beginning.”

  “That’s what I’m saying,” said Riley in a cocky voice. “It was a huge mistake.”

  “I hope there won’t be any more mistakes from now on,” said Raymond. “I am trusting you with this assignment, and we hope you’ll be able to show us you can do a lot for the gang. If you prove yourself, we can offer you a seat on the board.”

  That’s exactly what he’d wanted all this while. It seemed ages ago that he thought it would make him happy if he was one of those wielding power in the gang’s higher echelons. How things had changed since then. “Great.” Riley turned, but then he looked back at them. “What is it that you guys are intending to do once you get your hands on her? She doesn’t know much about the explosion. It might be a better idea to just forget her, leave her alone, and move on.”

  “She knows too much, thanks to you,” yelled Charlie.

  “I didn’t tell her anything because I didn’t know anything, remember?” Riley shouted back. “And I need to know because if you’re planning to do something stupid, it doesn’t serve our purpose.”

  “We’re only going to talk to her to see what she intends to do with the information that she had,” said Raymond.

  He curled his upper lip. Riley didn’t believe him. “As far as I know, she doesn’t have any relevant information. If she did, she would’ve gone to the police long ago.”

  “Are you trying to protect her?” Charlie demanded.

  “As always, I’m looking out for our best interests.”

  “Shhh…” sai
d Raymond in a commanding voice. “We don’t want any more arguments within our ranks. Once you bring her in, we’ll decide as to what we want to do. Right now, she is a loose cannon and we can’t afford to let her remain a threat to us. She knows you, she has recognized the two men, and she was aware of the location where she was kept. That place is our property. If she takes the police over there, we will be in serious trouble. So before she opens her mouth, we need her with us.”

  “Fine,” huffed Charlie. “But I don’t trust him. He won’t bring her in.”

  “You wait and see,” said Riley with a cocky grin. “I’m going now. I’ll be meeting her soon, and I hope that your goons won’t follow me. If she sees a sign of them, she might back off, and then it won’t be my fault.”

  “You go ahead,” said Raymond. “Two days you’ve got and if you can’t do the job in that time, we’ll have to take over.”

  Riley executed a smart salute and sauntered out of the place. He was in a well of shit, and there was no way out. There was only one thing that he could do to escape the repercussions of failure, and that was to meet Tania. Would she even see him again?

  He could’ve gone home, changed, and thought about his strategy, but he was impatient. He wanted to see her now. After checking his watch, he realized that it was already six in the evening. Would she be home? Or did she step out?

  Her phone was still switched off or, perhaps, she never got a new one. There was only one way to meet her, and that was to go see her in that mansion. If she called the police on him, he would be stuck. Not that he had a choice.

  After hailing a cab, he went straight to her house, or rather to the mansion that belonged to her new lover.

  She didn’t take too long to replace him. The hurt would never leave him. Still, she was the one he loved, and he would do anything to save her, even if it meant that he had to put his life on the line.

  That’s exactly what he was doing, but he didn’t care. He was reckless, strong, and nothing could stop him from protecting the woman he gave his heart to. Riley rang the bell on her mansion after he was dropped off in front of it. Shit! He wished that he’d taken the time to shower and change. He looked like a mess. Roughly, he ran his hands through his hair and, much to his surprise, the gate swung open.

  He glanced into the camera that was mounted on top. So she knew that he was here. Good. He didn’t intend to waste any time. After he walked in, it took him a few moments to get over the staggering beauty of the estate. The magnificent garden that surrounded the house was stunning. The profusion of color, the scent of them, was heady.

  But much more mesmerizing was the woman who opened the door and walked out to greet him. Dressed in the same mint green dress he’d seen her in earlier, she looked beautiful. Nothing about her had changed, and yet everything was different. Once, she would’ve ran into his arms and, perhaps, he might’ve twirled her around, but now she was right in front and still a world apart.

  Pain echoed in his heart but he ignored it. She wasn’t his anymore.

  She came to a stop a few feet away. “Hi.”

  “Hello.” What the hell did one do in such a situation? Riley shifted on his feet. “Beautiful house.”

  “Yeah, it is.” She cast a glance at the garden. “Why don’t you come in? I saw you from the camera.”

  “Yeah, the state of the art security is impressive.”

  “Jason needs it and, frankly, I am happy to live here for now. At least no one can get in, and that gives me a lot of peace.”

  They walked into the house and, as expected, he was impressed by the sheer opulence of the place. If he could’ve given her all this, would she have waited for him? Riley was aghast at his own thoughts. She wasn’t the sort of woman who went for a guy just because he was rich. He had his chance and he blew it. She was with someone else now, and that guy, no matter how much Riley hated him, probably deserved her.

  She led him into a living room and he sat on the couch. “Coffee?”

  “Sure.”

  She went into the kitchen and came back a while later. “It’s coming.”

  He laughed. “This guy’s got a housekeeper.”

  She met his gaze and smiled. “And two part-time maids, a chauffeur, and two gardeners. There is any army of people around to make life comfortable.”

  He shook his head. “I can’t even imagine this life. It’s pretty…fabulous, I suppose.”

  She shrugged and took a seat opposite him. “One could get used to it easily enough, but that’s not why you’re here. What bring you to this place, Riley?”

  A matronly woman brought in a tray and he waited until she left it on the table. Tania poured him a cup.

  He took it from her hand. “I told the gang I was coming to meet you, that I could convince you to come with me, and they would have you.”

  She gasped and her hand stilled on the pot. After gazing into his eyes for a moment, she picked up the pot and poured herself a cup. “You lied to them. Why?”

  It gladdened his heart to know that she trusted him at least that much. It wasn’t much, but it was something. He was grateful she didn’t think too badly of him anymore. “Obviously because if I hadn’t, they wouldn’t have let me get out of that building alive.”

  “So you did it to save your hide?”

  “Of course.” He took a sip. “Why else?”

  “If that was your sole reason, why are you telling me this? You should’ve skipped town, left them behind, and started elsewhere.” He didn’t say anything. The woman was too sharp, and there wasn’t much that he could slide by her without her picking up on it. “But you didn’t do that. You came here to warn me.”

  He made no attempt to deny it. Of course, he wanted to tell her to be careful. They were fixated on her and though he tried to dissuade them, it didn’t work. She wasn’t safe in this town, not now, and, perhaps, never. “They want you. For some reason, they have decided you’re a threat to their security, and until they find you...and either get rid of you or make sure that you don’t talk, they aren’t going to back out.”

  “I don’t have any evidence or proof of their wrongdoing. If I did, I would’ve gone to the police by now.”

  “That’s what I tried to tell them.”

  She sipped her coffee as if she didn’t have a care in the world. He wanted her to pack her bags and leave this town, perhaps this country. But maybe she didn’t want to go away from her new boyfriend. A hot lance of jealousy pierced his heart. He wanted to smash the cup on the ground and stomp on it. A scream spiraled to his throat but he swallowed it. There was no point getting worked up on this issue. She’d chosen her path and it was time for him to choose his. All he wanted was to make sure she was okay.

  “They are not going to leave me alone.”

  “No, they won’t.”

  “What do you suggest I do?”

  He sipped his coffee. It was bloody delicious. The asshole probably flew in the beans from Spain or some other exotic location. Why would she want to leave a suave, successful man like him and hang out with a gangster? That’s what he’d become. He’d sought adventure and instead he got crime. It was his fault for trusting the wrong people, and he would be damned if she paid the price for it. “You should leave this town.”

  “And what about you?”

  He shrugged. What the hell could he do? “I would have to move away also, find a new place, and start all over again. It’s the only thing that would keep us safe.”

  She leaned back, the cup held in her hand. “There is another option.”

  “What?”

  “We could work together to expose the gang. Why should they disrupt our lives? They get away clean – without any damage – and that’s not acceptable to me. Alone, I can’t do much, but if you’re with me, we can get the evidence we need to show to the police that they rigged the warehouse.”

  His mouth gaped open as he stared at her. The woman sure had guts. What she said was true, and it made sense, but would she really have the c
ourage to do it? Did he want her to do it? It was dangerous, risky. They could get hurt, killed even. No way did he want to put her in that much danger.

  “How are you so sure that I’m not working for them?”

  “You would’ve grabbed me in the morning if you were,” she answered.

  “There were too many witnesses,” he said.

  Her smile lit her face. “Is that what you told them? Did they buy it? You’re smart. In any case, I know that’s why you didn’t do it. Even you’re not that good an actor, Riley.”