His to Protect: Midnight Riders MC

by April Lust

  “And you did it?”

  “Of course I did. You know I did. God, why are you doing this to me?” She started crying again, but this time, she wasn’t so convincing. I felt like she was acting, trying to get me to feel sorry for her. She’d have to cry forever if that was what she wanted.

  “What else did you do? Anything else?”

  She cried harder. Now it seemed like she meant it for real. “I didn’t want to, I swear.”

  There was a pit in my stomach. What could have been worse than the spray paint? “What did you do?”

  “He made me do it!” She looked up at me with big eyes. “You have to believe me! I didn’t want to!”

  I got down on my knees, in her face. “What was it? Tell me! Stop with the bullshit.” I shook the chair, wishing I could shake her. What a fucking mess she was.

  “He made me call her. Today.”

  I pulled away. That wasn’t what I expected her to say. “What?”

  “I called her and…I pretended to be her sister.”

  I always heard people say things like “my head exploded,” but I never understood what they meant until just then. There was so much pressure in my head, I thought it might burst all over the room.

  I stood up. I couldn’t be anywhere near her. She was disgusting. “You told her you were Sara? How sick are you?”

  “He told me to! He made me! You don’t understand. He wouldn’t let me…” She looked over at the coffee table, where all her drugs were spread out. I knew what she meant. He held them back from her until she did what he wanted. I didn’t feel sorry for her—it was too hard to—but I hated him for it. Using a person like that. He preyed on her weakness. Did I ever really know him?

  I shook myself, getting back to the emergency at hand. “When did you call?”

  “I don’t know…” She squinted at the clock. “Like an hour ago?”

  “What did you tell her?”

  She was spacing out, and I had to yell again. “What did you say?”

  She shook herself, looking up at me. “I told her to go to the hotel…”

  I was losing her. I got in her face. “Which one?”

  “I don’t know. The one he goes to for business. Skull went there, earlier. That’s where he is now. He said…he had business to do there, and he…needed her to meet him there. But she wouldn’t, unless she thought her sister was there.”

  That didn’t make any sense. “Business?” Skull didn’t have business. But she made it sound like he went there a lot.

  She nodded. “Yeah, business stuff. I don’t know. It’s, like, a hundred miles away or something…” She leaned back against the chair cushions. Her eyes started to close.

  It didn’t matter. I knew which one she meant. It was an old, rundown building just off the highway. One of those pay-by-the-hour places where hookers went with their clients. More of a motel than a hotel. I didn’t know what she meant by business, though. Since when did Skull have business to do that I didn’t know about?

  I left her there, zoning out in her drug haze. The door slammed behind me as I got on my bike. Before I left, I pulled out my phone to text Alena. Please answer. Please, answer, I begged silently. I told her not to leave the house, to wait for me. But it was too late by then, and I knew it. She would have left as soon as she hung up the phone, maybe sooner. All I could do was hope she would turn around when she saw my messages. I didn’t want to tell her the whole truth in a text. I couldn’t break her heart again like that. She thought her sister was alive—I didn’t want to tell her someone lied to her.

  Then I started the bike and drove in the direction of the hotel. I knew her. She was stubborn. Even if she got my messages, she would keep going if she thought Sara was alive and waiting for her. I had to get there as soon as I could. There was no way to tell what Skull had planned for her.

  Chapter 19

  Alena

  It felt as though I’d been driving forever, though I knew it was only because I was so anxious to reach my sister. After all these weeks, I was finally going to be with her again! I’d known she was alive, I’d known it in my heart. I would have felt it if she was gone. Nobody had believed me. They would eat their words now. I laughed to myself when I pictured the looks on the faces of those stupid, lazy cops. Especially Mr. Know It All, who told me I should get used to the idea of my sister being dead.

  “I knew you weren’t dead!” I cried out to the empty car, and laughed to myself. I was almost giddy with joy and relief. She was alive, and I was going to take her home. Everything would be the way it was—no, better than the way it was. Because now I would never forget how precious she was to me.

  All I could think about was her, through every one of those long miles of highway during the first half of the drive. I wanted to see her smile again, hear her voice again. I would make all her favorite foods, take her shopping, do whatever she wanted as long as it made her happy. She could live with me as long as she wanted to—for the rest of her life, if it came to that. If I could just keep her safe, I would do anything.

  I couldn’t wait to get her home. I would never let her out of my sight again. I’d take better care of her this time, and would definitely keep an eye on the people she spent her time with. I’d do anything she needed me to do, as long as she never got involved with people like Skull and the club ever again. Hell, I would even move away if that’s what it came to. The house didn’t mean as much to me as her safety.

  Cole, my heart sighed. I had nearly forgotten about him in all my haste to get to Sara. I’d even turned off my phone so his messages would stop distracting me, making me think about him.

  I couldn’t avoid him forever, and, as always, he managed to creep into my thoughts when I least expected.

  I spent the second half of the drive thinking about him, the club, our future. What would I do about Cole? Could I leave him? Hell yes, because he had lied to me. He knew all the time where Sara was and what happened to her. Didn’t he?

  The fact that she was alive sort of canceled out that assumption, I realized. If he had known she was alive, it wouldn’t have been anything at all for him to tell me. I couldn’t imagine a reason for him to hide her from me. If she was dead, I could understand. He would have been thinking about the club, and his own skin. If she was alive, there was no big secret to hide. So why would he have pretended not to know, especially when he saw how it was tearing me apart to be without her? He couldn’t know, could he?

  Now I was more confused than ever, and I remembered the look on his face when I ordered him out of the house. That wasn’t the face of a man who’d been found out. No. It was the face of someone who didn’t understand what I was accusing him of, or why. He had been just as confused about all of it as I was.

  Damn! I slapped my hand on the steering wheel. I had pushed him away when he probably hadn’t deserved it. I would have to apologize to him as soon as I got home. With my sister, of course. She was more important at the moment.

  But then…what would happen after I got her home? What if she still knew something about the club that could get her into trouble? Was that why she was hiding all this time? It was the only thing that made sense. She was hiding because she knew a secret about them. Something dangerous. If that were the case, we would have to leave. I wouldn’t risk her safety.

  But that would mean leaving Cole behind.

  I sighed just thinking about it. Who meant more to me? Sara, of course. But Cole had made me happy for the first time in as long as I could remember, too. He did something to me, something for me. Something nobody else had done before. Something I didn’t know was possible until I met him. Could I give him up so easily?

  I thought about him, imagining his face in my mind. His ruggedness. Those eyes of his, undoing everything I once believed about myself. I’d known I had a thing for bad boys, but he took me to a whole new level. When he kissed me, it was like something inside me jumped to life. Our bodies fit together perfectly, as though we were made for each other. The
way it felt when he was inside me… I shook myself, focusing on the road. It wouldn’t do to get into an accident on the way to pick up my sister.

  Could I live without the passion he stirred inside me? I knew nobody else would come close, no matter how hard I tried to replace him. He’d ruined me for all other men. He made my body scream. I ached just thinking about him. Was I ready to give that up?

  I wasn’t. Not like this.

  There had to be a way we could all be happy together, I was sure of it. And I would figure it out as soon as I got my sister home with me. Safe and sound, finally. We would start over again. It would all be different. It would all be better. And Cole would be a part of it somehow.

  I pulled up at the hotel, motel, whatever it was. It was nasty, plain and simple, no matter what name was used to describe it. Run down, outdated, the parking lot full of cracks and potholes. The sort of place the term “no-tell-motel” was invented for. A rent-by-the-hour type of establishment. I knew people probably came here to have affairs or do business, if their business was prostitution. I hated to imagine why my sister would ever be at a place like this. Had she been hiding here all along? What had she been doing over those last weeks? What had she seen? Poor thing, I could only imagine.

  The idea that she might have involved herself in the sort of activity that went on in a place like that flashed through my mind. Could I accept it if she had? I could…if there was no other choice but to do so. But I would do my best to help her out of it, too. I would forgive anything, do anything to protect her now, if it meant having her back with me. Nothing else mattered.

  There weren’t many people here. Where was she? She’d mumbled a room number at some point, hadn’t she? I closed my eyes, trying to remember what she had been saying when she hung up the phone. Room twenty-seven. Worst came to worst, I would knock on the wrong door and maybe see something I didn’t want to see. It was worth a little embarrassment.

  Sure enough, twenty-seven was the only room in the building with lights on behind the curtains. My heart pounded in my throat. This was it! I’d been waiting so long!

  I hoped she was the same person she used to be. Why did that thought flash through my head just as I climbed out of the car and walked to the door? Of course she would be the same Sara I had always loved! Certainly six weeks couldn’t change that.

  I knocked on the door. “Sara?”

  Then a lot of things happened all at once. The lights went out behind the curtains. Why? I didn’t have time to process this before the door swung open and a strong hand clutched my arm and pulled me into the room. Another large hand covered my mouth before I could cry out.

  It was dark. I couldn’t see anything. All I could smell was whiskey and cigarettes. Oh, no.

  It was him. He had set me up. Sara wasn’t here. My heart sank.

  “Hey there,” he murmured.

  I knew the voice, too. I was so scared, I almost lost control of my bladder. This was the end. He was going to kill me. There was no one around to accidentally save me this time.

  I struggled against him, thrashing around, screaming behind his hand. He only laughed, moving with me, absorbing every blow I managed to land on him. Oh, no, no, no. It couldn’t be real. I wouldn’t believe it.

  But it was very real. The pain from his fingers digging into my face was real. I couldn’t break loose. It was over. He’d done this. All of it.

  “See, you kept snooping around, didn’t you?” he whispered, his words almost a caress in my ear. I shook my head, trying to tell him I hadn’t. I wasn’t lying, either. I hadn’t done any more snooping since that night. He had scared me half to death, his message coming through loud and clear. I had done what he asked. I’d stayed away. But it wasn’t enough. Maybe he had never intended to let me go, no matter what he told me that night. He was going to kill me either way. And now he was telling himself what he needed to believe so he could do what he was planning to do. It would be easier for him to kill me if he told himself I hadn’t complied with his orders.

  Oh, Sara. I’m so sorry. I tried. I wept, my tears rolling over his hand. I wished he would at least let me see him. I wanted to see the man who intended to kill me.

  He did one better, actually. He motioned with his free hand and suddenly, the light went on. I saw two men in front of me. My heart sank even further when I looked at the one on the left. “Have a good day,” he had said before he got into the car beside his friend Alan, who I assumed was the man standing beside him.

  He had actually smiled at me, the sick son of a bitch. He’d wished me a good day. He must have known this was coming. No wonder he wanted to be sure my car got back to me so quickly. It allowed me to be able to drive here.

  The man holding me pushed me to a chair, standing between the other two men. Before I knew it, they were tying me up.

  I looked into the face of the man who had grabbed me. Yes. He was the man I’d spoken to in front of the bar. I’d been right all along. Not like it helped me now. There was no helping me now.

  He looked even worse than he had when I first saw him, and that had only been a couple of days earlier. There was a wound above his eye, and the eye itself was blackened. Skull. What had he been up to?

  “What is this?” I asked. “Why did you set me up?”

  He laughed. “You think that was a setup? That was nothing. It took no effort to get you here. You’re so desperate, you would have believed anything I told you. Didn’t anybody ever tell you to look before you leap?” He laughed again.

  I scowled at him, even though I was terrified. I could hardly think straight. I felt like a caged animal. What were they planning to do to me? My wrists were bound together, tight. I winced, trying to wriggle free.

  “Don’t try anything,” Skull muttered, staring me in the eye. “Or you’ll end up like your sister.” He pulled out that knife, the one he’d used to threaten me at the bar. The knife I had seen in my dreams. It was even longer than I remembered, the light from the lamp gleaming off its steel edges.

  He waved it around in front of my face. “Remember this? I remember pressing it against your throat. It took no pressure to break the skin. Imagine what would happen if I used just a little force?”

  I whimpered, trying to hold back my tears. I didn’t want him, or either of these scumbags, to see me break down. But I couldn’t manage it. All I could think about was Sara, and his choice of words.

  “You killed her, didn’t you? She’s been dead all this time?”

  He shrugged like he didn’t even care. That was it. The tears burst out of me, along with gasping sobs. My hands were behind me, bound at the wrists, and my ankles tied to the legs of the chair. I couldn’t even wipe my nose as I cried.

  She was gone. Did she know I had been looking for her? I hoped she did. I hoped she knew I never stopped looking, and never stopped loving her.

  But I’d be able to ask her myself, soon enough. Wouldn’t I? This whole act they were playing, tying me to a chair, was just another way of screwing with my head. Just like they’d lied to get me here. I was going to die.

  Even with all this going through my mind, there was one big question which I needed to have answered. I had to ask. It was killing me, not knowing the truth.

  “Did Cole know she was dead? That you killed her?” I struggled to speak clearly through my sobs.

  He looked at me sharply. “Did he know?”

  “What you did? He kept telling me he didn’t. Did he? Or was he just lying?”

  He sat, staring at me. “You really care? After all this?”

  “Yes. Did he? Was he lying to me?”

  His face changed. It was softer now. “He was just trying to protect the club, you know? That’s how he is. He wouldn’t do anything to betray us, or put us in a bad spot with the police.”

  “So he knew, and he was lying to me to protect you guys? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “No, you dumb bitch.” I winced, his words cutting me like a knife. I wondered if he ever spoke to
my sister like this, and if he had, why she hadn’t left him long ago. Men didn’t just randomly start calling women dumb bitches out of nowhere. He snarled at me. “I’m saying he didn’t. I didn’t wanna put more on his shoulders than he already had there. It would have been too much. No. He didn’t know anything. Happy now?”

  I couldn’t say I was exactly happy, but I was relieved. At least I knew he hadn’t been using me. It was cold comfort in a moment such as this, but it was some little bit of hope to hold on to.

  Then, another thought hit me. He must have known I was on my way here. It was the only thing that made sense when I remembered the texts he’d sent me. Why hadn’t I replied? Damn my pride! He had ordered me to stay home, which told me he must have known something was going to happen if I let Skull lead me to the hotel.