by Hope Stone
I really didn’t want to use the same spoon as him, but I wasn’t about to say no. I took a bite, and it really was good. “This is good. Thank you…?” I left a space for him to say his name.
“Chanclas.”
“Like the sandals?” I asked.
“Yeah. My real name is Carlos but when I initiated with my first MC I was wearing chanclas and the name stuck.”
“And now you’re with Las Balas?”
His eyes narrowed. “How do you know Las Balas?”
“My sister’s friend, the dark haired girl from earlier, she is dating one of your prospects.” My mind started to wander to where Lily was, but I couldn’t worry about that. As long as I kept this guy talking and kept his disgusting hands off of me, I was okay.
“Which one?”
“Scorpion.”
“Ah yeah. Weird kid. I don’t think he has what it takes to be a Las Balas, but it’s not up to me.”
He walked across to where I was standing and put his hand out for the bowl. “You done?”
I took the last bite and wiped the corner of my mouth and nodded. “Yeah, thanks.”
He turned to put the bowl on the counter behind him and when he turned back, his eyes looked different. The friendliness of just a few moments before was gone and his eyes were vacant and dark, and he took a small pistol and a switchblade out of his boots and unbuckled his pants.
“Okay. Enough foreplay. Take your fucking clothes off.”
Forty-Three
Ryder
“I really advise that you come with us, sir. You need to be checked for internal injuries.” The paramedic was standing in front of the open back door of the ambulance that contained Lily and Bailey. The guy I’d been calling Linebacker was in a different one, under police protection.
It had only taken a few minutes for the officers to find out what had happened. There was a massive manhunt underway for El Diablo, and the entire desert was lit up from helicopters circling the area.
They had given me a preliminary exam and I was fine. What I needed to do was find Paige. “I’m fine. I need to contact the other girl’s family. I’ll meet you at the hospital.”
I climbed up into the ambulance and kneeled down between Lily and Bailey. “They are going to take you to the hospital in Barstow, which is about an hour away. I’ll call your parents, Bailey, and tell them you are okay.”
“Actually, can you wait a little? They are going to freak out if they hear that Paige is missing.”
I wasn’t sure about that. I would want to know right away that Lily was okay. The uncertainty must have shown on my face because she added, “We can call when you get to the hospital, okay?”
I nodded. “Okay.”
Just then a youngish looking paramedic stuck his head in and said, “Almost ready.” Bailey smoothed down her hair and said, “Do I look okay?”
“Your hair is sticking up, but otherwise, yeah,” said Lily.
“Oh! That reminds me! I have something for you.” I dug in my jacket pocket and pulled out the hair tie and handed it to Lily.
“What’s this?”
“Gerard Way gave that to me to give to you.”
“What?” she asked, looking incredulous. “You met him?”
“Yeah. At the convention center. He took it out of his hair and told me to give it to you.”
She clasped it in both hands. “Oh my god. He WORE THIS?”
I grinned. “And wanted you to have it.” I leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. “I love you, Lil. I’ll see you in a few hours.”
I walked over to my bike and took a look at the helicopters looking for El Diablo. He was either going to get caught, shot, or go so deeply underground that he wouldn’t be a threat to us for a long time. Kidnapping two teenage girls with the intent to sex traffic them was a pretty major crime, and when one of them was the white daughter of a high-profile surgeon…he wasn’t going to get away with it, even if he did get caught.
I turned my attention to Paige. Where could she be? I figured my best bet was to go to the last place I saw her and try and figure out what happened from there.
It only took a few minutes to get to the Bun Boy Motel. The Audi was still there. The curtain and broken glass were still by the tree. I could see a broken out window on the second floor.
Since I saw Chanclas with El Diablo and the girls said that “the fat one” was told he could “have” Paige, it made sense that it was him who took her.
He probably only had his bike, so he wouldn’t go far with a kidnap victim in the open like that. My best guess was that they were pretty close by.
I went around the other side of the motel to see if maybe they were in a room. But the bike was gone and I didn’t hear or see anything. He wouldn’t be so stupid as to keep her here, would he?
Maybe it would be a good idea to head over to the restaurant and see who was still there.
Two minutes later, I was there. The only ones who were still around were Hawk, Swole, Chalupa, and Scorpion.
“Did you find them? Did you get there in time?” Scorpion practically ran up to me as soon as I turned my bike off.
“I did. They were just about to be loaded onto the plane, but I got there in time.”
“I wondered when I saw all the copters,” Hawk said.
“Were they okay? Where they…hurt?” Swole asked.
“They seemed okay, but they’re on the way to the hospital in Barstow to be checked out.”
“Where’s Diablo?” asked Chalupa.
“That’s what the copters are doing. He ran off into the desert.”
“He’s toast,” said Swole.
I then turned to Hawk and asked, “Where’s Padre?”
“Trainer took him home. He kinda snapped back into reality after a bit.”
Memory issues were so weird, and I imagined we were just seeing the beginning of it with him.
“What about Paige?” Swole asked. “Did she go to the hospital too?”
“No. She’s still missing. I think Chanclas has her.”
“That fat bastard?” Hawk said. “He’s more dangerous than he looks. We need to find her ASAP.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it okay if I go to the hospital to see Lily? I need to make sure she’s okay,” Scorpion asked.
“I’ll take you,” said Swole. “I’ll make sure that Paige isn’t already at the hospital.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
“We’ll go out and look,” said Hawk, nodding to Chalupa.
“Too bad you don’t have Find My Friends,” Scorpion said. “That app is a lifesaver sometimes.”
“Oh my god, I do! We added each other before I left.” I pulled out my phone. “Dammit. It’s dead.”
“Here.” Swole handed me her backup charger. “This’ll take a few minutes but you’ll get enough of a charge.”
“Thank you!” I said, plugging the phone in.
“I want it back. Tammy will kill me if I lose it.”
“Will do.” I fist bumped her and then they all rode off in different directions. Now I just had to wait until my phone charged and then hope that Paige’s phone wasn’t dead too.
It was the longest five minutes of my life as I sat alone in the Bun Boy Restaurant parking lot waiting for my phone to charge enough to be able to turn it on.
I had too much time to think. I thought of my parents and what they would have gone through tonight with Lily being missing. I wondered what they would think of her and the job I did raising her.
I could almost hear my mother’s voice as she said, “I am so proud of you, mijo.” Tears sprung to my eyes.
I wanted what they had. She and my dad had loved each other so much. It was one of those fairytale kinds of things where they were always together—even in death.
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my life alone. Didn’t want to end up like Sofia. I wanted love, like Swole and Tammy, and even Hawk and his wife.
And as much as it surprised me t
o realize this, I was starting to think I wanted all of that with Paige. She was beautiful and funny and fierce and passionate. She was everything I could ever want in a woman, even though she was way out of my league.
Just then, the parking lot dirt lit up. My phone was on. I entered my password, opened the app, and there it was. The blue dot that indicated where I was (thank you Verizon for the reception out here). But where was Paige’s blue dot? “Please let her phone not be dead…”
My heart sank when I only saw one blue dot. Her phone must be dead. But then, I squinted to see, and it looked like there was a second blue dot flashing right under mine. “That’s weird. Why would the dots be…”
Then it hit me. She was here. She’d been right here the whole time!
The only place they could be was inside the abandoned restaurant. I ran over to the window and pressed my face against the glass. I didn’t see much because it was pretty dark, but it looked like there might be some sort of light coming from the back.
I took off running around the back of the building. The door was ajar, and I could hear voices. I stopped to catch my breath so my panting wouldn’t alert them to my presence. I wanted the element of surprise.
“I said take your fucking clothes off.” His voice was coming from the kitchen area.
“Look, you really don’t have to do this…” that was Paige’s voice.
“I don’t have to. I want to. And once we get started, you’re gonna want it too.”
It sounded like a belt fell to the ground and my stomach clenched. I wanted to kill him immediately but I forced myself to be quiet as I tiptoed to the entrance.
He had her backed up against a counter and his pants were down around his ankles. I saw a pistol and a handgun on the counter behind them.
“Please, no. Don’t do this.” She was starting to cry and he was pawing at her clothes.
“Get your fucking hands off of her.” I shouted. Chanclas practically jumped out of his pants. Paige lunged away and I dove for the gun.
Grabbing it, I aimed the gun at Chanclas who was standing, facing me, with his dick hanging out. “Don’t shoot!”
“Like hell I won’t.” I shot the motherfucker in both knees and he went down hard.
“Let’s get out of here. We can call 911 from the parking lot,” I said, grabbing Paige’s hand.
We ran out the back door, and as soon as we got outside she threw her arms around me. “Thank you! How did you find me?”
“Find my Friends!”
She started laughing through her tears. “Oh yeah!” And then she asked, “But…the girls? Are they…did you…?”
“Yeah. I got there in time. They are on their way to the hospital in Barstow.” I then wrapped my arms around her. “It’s over, Paige. You’re all safe.”
Forty-Four
Paige
“Really, don’t come down.” I was on the phone with my parents, who had me on speakerphone. Ryder and I were just leaving the hospital. “They’re keeping Bailey and Lily overnight for observation and then Ryder and I will bring them home in the morning. The doctors said they are perfectly fine.”
“I’d really rather come down, but I trust your judgment, Paige,” my dad said.
“I’m so glad you’re both safe, honey,” said my mom.
After he’d burst in just in the nick of time and prevented me from either being raped or worse, we’d called 911 and then headed out to the Barstow hospital. The girls were already in a joint room, watching Keeping up with the Kardashians and laughing about hospital food. We’d all been interviewed by the cops, who’d said they would want us to fill out a statement next week.
“Hawk, you need to make sure that no one else touches it. Only you. Got that?” Ryder was on the phone with Hawk, arranging to get his bike from Baker, since we’d taken the Audi to Barstow.
The engine roared to life as I pulled the car out of the hospital parking lot. I’d have rather Ryder driven, but my dad would kill me if I let someone he’d never met drive the car. We were just gonna have to change that, and make some introductions tomorrow.
But for now, we were going to stay overnight in Barstow. It was a sleepy town halfway or so between LA and Vegas, and because of that, it really only had the kinds of accommodations used by truckers and travelers. No fancy hotels or anything. Frankly, I didn’t care. All I wanted was a hot shower, some food, a bed to sleep on…and Ryder.
I was blown away at how he single handedly managed to save all three of us. It was like something out of an action hero movie, except it was real. This man, sitting next to me, really had risked his life to save me.
When I was in school, I’d read something about attraction between people in an emergency, and I was definitely feeling the spark. But, if I were being real, what was about to happen had been building for weeks.
As we made our way to the Ayres Suites, I stole glances at Ryder’s profile. He was quiet, deep in reflective contemplation. He’d been through a lot tonight, too. I could imagine the fear of losing a sister to sex traffickers, but not to what it would feel like to have it be your only family and at the hands of someone you’d considered a father figure.
Suddenly, it occurred to me. Maybe Ryder’s rescue of me was just part of who he was. Maybe it didn’t mean anything about feelings for me—he’d have done the same thing no matter who it was. My heart sunk a little as I realized that it was true. He was a man of character and strength. He didn’t do it because he loved me, he did it because it was the right thing to do.
“Okay, we’re here.” I said, pointlessly, as we pulled the car into a space right in the back of the very full parking lot. There must be a lot going on in the sleepy town of Barstow tonight.
We got out and went to the front desk, and a very old man slowly made his way over from the small chair he’d been sitting on. He appeared to be eating something chewy, because his mouth was full. “Can I help you folks?”
“Uh, yeah, we need…” I looked at Ryder for some clue but he was looking the other way. “We need two rooms.”
That got Ryder’s attention and he looked at me with raised eyebrows.
“I’m afraid we only got one room left. There’s a national bowling tournament in town and we’re almost sold out. It’s got a king sized bed, but there’s a pullout couch for ya.”
I slid the emergency credit card that Dad always keeps in the car to the guy. “Fine. We’ll take it.”
As the man sucked his teeth and droned on about the amenities of the motel, I could feel my body heat rising. One way or the other, Ryder and I were about to spend the night together. We finally got the paper envelope with our keys and made our way over to the elevators. Ryder still hadn’t said a word since we left the hospital.
Like an idiot, I felt the need to fill the silence with chatter. Finally, after we’d walked down the long hallway, we stopped at the door. “Looks like this is us,” I said.
His eyes were cloudy with some emotion I couldn’t discern.
“Ryder,” I said at the same time he spoke.
“Paige.”
We smiled and he said, “Ladies first.”
“I just want to say thank you for everything you did and to let you know that I know it doesn’t mean anything about me or that you feel anything for me and that the only reason we are here is because we have to get the girls from the hospital tomorrow and that we tried to get separate rooms but we couldn’t and it’s okay because I’ll take the foldout couch and you can have the bed.”
He was grinning. “Are you finished?”
I smiled and nodded.
“Are you sure? We could stand out here and discuss how many towels we’ll each use and what to do if the toilet seat doesn’t have that paper strip across it.”
“Too much?” I asked, blushing.
“Personally…” he said, leaning in for a whisper, “I’d much rather go inside, peel off all of your clothes, and lick every inch of that body of yours.”
That did it.
&nbs
p; My hand was shaking as I tried repeatedly to get the stupid plastic card to make the little light turn green. Ryder placed his hand over mine and guided the key up and down and I swore there was nothing more erotic on the planet.
Finally, the blessed door opened. I turned around to thank him for helping and his mouth closed down on mine before I could get the words out.
The attraction that had been building combined with the intensity of the past few days to create an explosion of desire. We tumbled into the room and closed the door, not even bothering to look around.
Our mouths never left each other as hands grasped at buttons and buckles, kicking shoes off and stepping out of pants.
When there were nothing left but our shirts, Ryder backed me up against a wall, and pulled my t-shirt up, kissed my neck, and reached around to unclasp my bra. As he pulled the clothes over my head, it brushed my raw wrists and the glass cut on my arm and I winced in pain.
“You’re hurt,” he said, taking my wrists and examining them. “Why didn’t you tell them at the hospital?”
I didn’t want to talk. “I’m fine.” I reached my hand down and wrapped my fingers around his stiff, hard cock.
That was all the reassurance he needed and he peeled off his shirt.
The sight of him naked took my breath away. I’d imagined what he would look like…I’d dreamed about it…but nothing had prepared me for this moment.
His chest was literally perfect. He had several tattoos that I planned to ask about later. His six pack had the most beautiful trail that led down to a glorious cock that would soon be deep inside of me. His strong biceps were just the right size. Big, but not in that veiny bodybuilder way.
He saw me checking him out and grinned. “You like what you see?”
I was embarrassed for a second and said, “Yeah. You are… really hot.” That was the best thing I could come up with? What a derp.
“Let’s take a shower,” I said, walking to the bathroom. I was fully aware of his gaze on my ass as I walked in front of him. But it had been a long, dirty day and I wanted to get clean.
