THE DADDY NEXT DOOR: A Dark Bad Boy Baby Romance (Heaven’s Horns MC)

by Nicole Fox

  Dorian shrugged a little. “I suspect there's quite a bit of a need for revenge there. Anyway, she's in law enforcement. For all that she did to get Katia the packages, I imagine she also wants to set things right in the world.”

  I frowned at him and then shrugged as well. It would be good to have her help. Especially when I knew we could rely on Rian for insight into Silas's character and behavior.

  We went back upstairs after breakfast and settled in to wait for Gabi to arrive. My phone started ringing, and I stared down at the unfamiliar local number, debating whether or not I should answer it. It could be something to do with Jess, though, or something to do with Katia. Finally, I answered it, pressing the plastic to my ear.

  I didn't expect it to actually be Katia on the other end of the line, that's for sure.

  “Thorn Riley,” she said in her silky voice. “So nice of you to pick up my call. I have a deal to make with you.”

  I quickly changed the phone over to speakerphone, knowing that Dorian would want to hear this as well. “What sort of a deal do you want?” I asked suspiciously.

  Katia laughed a little. “Well, as you may have heard, I've flown the coop. I'm out of jail. And that means that I'm here with your lovely little fuck-buddy, Jessica Harper. And I have a feeling you want to continue to ensure that nothing too horrible happens to her.”

  I swallowed hard, trying my best not to let my temper get the better of me. “What sort of deal do you want?” I repeated, an edge to my voice.

  “Well, I figured I'd make you an offer — her life in exchange for your life. We all know that she's innocent, and you, on the other hand … well. I'm feeling generous, and I think that you might be more of service to me than she is. She makes for good entertainment, but there's nothing like having a good, strong man by your side...”

  “Her life for mine,” I repeated flatly. “How could I ever believe that you were going to let her walk free, though? You weren't going to let Rian Gonzalez free, even if Gabi and I delivered the packages to you in prison.”

  “Well, Silas was having a lot of fun with her,” Katia said dismissively. “I couldn't take away his fun.”

  “You might say the same about Silas and Jess,” I pointed out.

  “Oh no,” Katia said, and I could just imagine her tossing back her long, flowing hair. “He refused to sleep with the girl — says he doesn't need your sloppy seconds. Of course, she's still providing quite a bit of entertainment, but he won't mind being done with her. He'd rather have you here, paying for the humiliation that you've caused him.”

  “Fine,” I said, even though I knew I shouldn't be agreeing to anything like this. I could see anger on Dorian's face out the corner of my eye, but I knew Katia wasn't going to make the offer again, and she wasn't going to give me time to think things over or anything like that. It was now or never here, and I couldn't leave Jess trapped in whatever fate had befallen her over the past week. “Fine, I agree.”

  “Good, good,” Katia said cheerfully. “You'll need to meet me here, at our regional headquarters. Tomorrow, at noon. Make sure that you're alone; I don't need you trying to play the hero and making us all do extra work to take you in. There will be no escaping.”

  “I understand,” I told her, nodding my head grimly even though she couldn't see it. “I will see you tomorrow at noon.”

  Without bothering to say goodbye, Katia hung up the phone, leaving me staring down at the blank screen. As soon as she had hung up, Dorian exploded, cussing me out in three different languages. “For fuck's sake, Thorn!” he finally cried, shaking his head. “And here I thought you couldn't do anything more stupid than you already have done!”

  I shrugged a little, staring out the window at the view. “As much as I'd like to say that there is another way to do this, you and I both know that there isn't. This is the best chance that I have to ensure Jess's freedom. Whatever else happens after that, we'll deal with it when it comes to that.”

  Chapter Thirty

  Thorn

  Katia was grinning at me as I walked into the national headquarters the next day, and I couldn't help but feel chills run up and down my body. Dorian had done everything that he could to try and dissuade me from actually meeting up with Katia and Silas, but he'd ultimately been unsuccessful. I owed Jess at least this much, for getting her caught up in all this mess.

  Anyway, I didn't think my emotions would allow me to leave her there, caught amongst these sick bastards.

  Gabi had supported the plan too, when she'd come over the previous day. Or at least, she had agree with me that it was the most plausible option that we had. That didn't really make it any better, but it was good to have that vote from her too.

  I squared my shoulders and marched over towards Katia. “Where is she?” I asked. Despite the fact that I was bartering away my life, all I could think about right now was Jess, wondering if she was okay, wondering what sort of state she might be in after a week as Silas's plaything.

  “She's fine,” Katia said, rolling her eyes a little. She gestured with the flick of her hand and Jess was led out of one of the other rooms.

  They had her collared, and they were leading her along on a leash. She was stark naked, and I could see goosebumps on her flesh even from here; she must be freezing. But she held her head high, seeming to look straight through everyone around her. I was surprised to see how strong she looked, how little this captivity seemed to have taken out of her.

  Her eyes finally focused on mine, and she looked mildly surprised to see me there, but just for a moment, before that flicker of emotion was gone again.

  “Doesn't she make a lovely pet?” Katia asked, reaching over to stroke Jess's hair as though the woman really were, in fact, a pet of some sort.

  Silas leered at me. “But I sense that you're going to make a much better pet for us.”

  “What?” Jess asked, sounding shocked, and I took that to mean that they hadn't told her exactly what deal I had struck to get her freedom. “Thorn, what are they talking about?” she asked. “They can't be taking you as a pet, can they?”

  I shrugged a little. “It's my life in exchange for yours,” I told her. I wished I could tell her the rest of it — how Dorian was trusting in me to kill Katia, so that the Sigma Saints could start over again. I wished I could tell her about these feelings that I had for her, about the way I had been thinking about her all week while she was in here, feeling more and more guilty about the whole thing with every passing second. But I couldn't say any of that in front of Katia and Silas.

  I turned to Katia. “All right, you have me here, so that means she goes free. Where are her clothes?”

  Katia laughed a little. “I didn't say I was going to clothe her before putting her free. She can walk out just like that.”

  I narrowed my eyes at her. “You wouldn't dare,” I said, a warning note in my voice.

  Katia just shrugged, though. Finally, I stripped off my shirt and tossed it to Jess, figuring that that at least would give her some amount of decency. She gave me a grateful look and quickly pulled the shirt on over her head.

  “What's in that box?” Katia asked suddenly, pointing at the box that I'd brought with me.

  I shrugged a little. “Just a package for you,” I told her. “You can see what's inside it soon enough. But for now...”

  I pulled Jess into my arms, knowing that this was probably going to be the last time I ever got to embrace her. I held her there for a long moment, trying to memorize the way her warm, sumptuous curves fit against my body, the way she clung to me as though I were a life-raft and she were drowning. “You're going to be okay,” I murmured.

  “But what about you?” Jess asked, sounding scared.

  “Head back to the hotel,” I told her, ignoring her question. “You'll find help there. I promise. You're going to be okay.”

  Jess shook her head, clinging even more stubbornly to me. “I can't let you do this, Thorn. I can't let you sacrifice yourself for my sake.”

&n
bsp; I rolled my eyes a little, surprised still by how stubborn she was proving to be. “You can let me do this,” I told her. “There's nothing else for it. Now go.”

  Finally, finally — with one more sad look into my face — Jess started to walk away. I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched her go. Now for Katia…

  I turned towards the woman right when I was sure that Jess was far enough away. I reached down and grabbed the box I'd been carrying, fidgeting with it. Inside were the explosives that Dorian had brought for me to use on Katia. The goal was to bring down as much of the headquarters as I could with Katia. I wasn't worried; I figured Dorian must have done his job well.

  But before I could detonate the explosives, suddenly there were people swarming out f seemingly every available opening. I cried out in surprise as I was jostled left and right by armed ... FBI agents?

  Somehow, they must have tracked down Katia Sin already, and they were here to arrest her. I could practically weep with relief. I dropped the box of explosives and put my hands up above my hand, ready to comply with anything the FBI agents said to me.

  Katia flung herself at me, her eyes flashing maniacally. “You little—” She started to say.

  But before she could make contact with me, one of the FBI agents intervened, pulling her back away. The man was reading her her rights before I even knew what was really happening.

  I looked around, trying to figure out just what was going on. One of the agents separated from the crowd buzzing around Katia and Silas and came over to me. It was Gabi, I realized, staring at her in shock.

  “So we meet again,” she said wryly, a small smile twisting her face. She nudged at the box with the toe of her boot. “All the packages were already delivered, so what's in the box?”

  I paled a little as I looked at her. “Explosives,” I admitted. “Pretty low-level explosives, and I haven't started the timer or anything yet.”

  “What were you planning to do?” Gabi asked with a bit of a frown.

  I shrugged, looking away from her. “The only way Jess could ever truly be free was if Katia and Silas were both dead,” I told her. “So I planned to, uh, take care of that problem.”

  Gabi narrowed her eyes at me. “You mean to tell me that you were actually planning on dying for Jess's sake?”

  Before I could respond, two of the other agents were there as well. “We'll need to ask you some questions about your involvement in all of this,” they told me. “Right now, you're being arrested under charge of...”

  I hardly listened as the man droned on about my rights. Instead, I fixed my eyes on Gabi. I wanted to say that she owed me one, that I needed her help to get out of this situation, but at this point, I'd lost track of who owed whom. And I knew I probably deserved to go to jail, after the role I'd played in delivering the packages to Katia. It was about time all of this caught up to me.

  I let them handcuff me, not fighting back at all.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Thorn

  I drummed my fingers restlessly against the table in the questioning room as I waited for them to send someone in to interview me. I knew they were giving me time to think things over, to decide what I really wanted to tell them. The thing was, I planned to just tell them the truth. I should never have helped Katia with anything; I knew that now.

  Especially since I'd gone against Dorian's wishes in doing so.

  Mostly, I wondered what Dorian would do now, with the Sigma Saints in disarray. I wasn't exactly sure what sort of evidence the feds thought they had on Katia and Silas now. Katia at least would be going back to a more secure prison for the rest of her original term; she wouldn't be getting out any time soon. But I had to assume that Silas was somehow being implicated in all of this as well…

  The door swung open and Gabi stalked gracefully into the room, falling into a chair across from me. “Well, well, well, Thorn Riley,” she said in her silky voice. “I have to say, I'm impressed. Nabbing not one but two women out from under the nose of Silas Eaves takes skill. Are you sure you aren't an undercover agent as well?”

  I snorted, twisting my fingers together. “It didn't really take skill when it came to freeing Jess,” I pointed out. “If it had, I wouldn't be sitting here.”

  Gabi leaned forwards. “I'd like to believe you're innocent in all of this,” she said, her eyes glinting a little. “But you're going to have to give me a reason to let you go.”

  I bit my lower lip. Surely she couldn't be suggesting that she wanted to just let me walk clear of all of this, right?

  “Do you know how Katia Sin escaped from prison?” she asked.

  I frowned and shrugged a little. “Not entirely, no,” I said. I hadn't paid close enough attention to the news story; I'd been more shocked to learn that Katia was already out of the prison. But when I thought about it, I was even more surprised. I could remember a few flashes of the video tape in my head, and I didn't recall there being any blood or anything like that. If Katia hadn't fought her way out using the guns… “No, I have no idea how she got out,” I said, realization dawning on me.

  Gabi was trying to help me out of this.

  “What do you know about Silas Eaves?” she asked, switching gears a little.

  “Most of what I know about him is hearsay,” I admitted. “I've heard he's not a very pleasant guy and that he's been involved in a lot of the top schemes of the Sigma Saints. But I don't know that much about him personally.”

  “And yet you were there in the Sigma Saints' national headquarters talking to him and Katia as though you were all best buds.”

  “I made a deal with Katia,” I said, shrugging a little. “Silas Eaves was keeping a good friend of mine as a captive. I told Katia that she could have my life if Jess walked free.”

  “And the explosives?”

  “I meant that quite literally,” I said, smiling sharply. “I told Katia that she could have my life if Jess walked free. I planned on setting off the explosives and ensuring that Silas and Katia were both caught in the mess. I wanted to ensure that they weren't able to hurt anyone else in the future.”

  “Vigilante justice,” Gabi muttered under her breath, a small smile on her lips.

  “I'm not sure if it was justice or not,” I said truthfully. “That's for you all to decide. I just knew that based on what I know about the two of them ... well, the world would have been a safer place.”

  “Except that you admitted yourself that you don't really know much about Silas Eaves and that what you do know is based off hearsay,” Gabi argued.

  I stared at her, wondering if she was actually helping me at all or if this was just hearsay. I thought suddenly of Dorian, of his insistence that Katia and Silas be removed from their positions of power in the Sigma Saints, about how the organization needed to be rebuilt without them in it.

  “You need to talk to members of the Sigma Saints,” I told her. “There are plenty of people who want Katia and Silas removed from their positions. People who think that the organization has become too much of a criminal activity lately, full of brash and impulsive, and bloodthirstyleaders.”

  “And who might you suggest I talk to?” Gabi asked, leaning forwards again.

  I shook my head, leaning back casually. This might doom me, but I had no desire to be the snitch. “You'd have to talk to one of the Sigma Saints,” I told her again. “But I'm not one of them.”

  There was silence in the interrogation room. I could tell Gabi wanted to ask me more, to get me to snitch the names of everyone involved in the organization, but I couldn't do that, no matter if it meant I was going to jail or not. That would just make new enemies for me and continue to put Jess in danger. I hoped, of course, that Dorian had already spirited Jess far away from here, got her set up back at home. But even there, she could be found if someone had a big enough grudge against me.

  I refused to be their snitch.

  To my surprise, Gabi stood up and walked around the table, offering me a hand up. “Well, in that case, Thorn Ril
ey, I have no further questions for you,” she said. “I'll make sure that all charges against you are dropped.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Thorn

  Dorian jumped to his feet when I walked into the hotel room, looking exhausted, as though he'd been up all night waiting for me to return. “Where the hell have you been?” he snapped, striding over to me and pulling me into his arms.

  I collapsed a little against him and then pulled away. He continued to eye me critically, looking for signs of injury. “Dorian, I'm exhausted. Can we just sleep on it and leave the story-telling for tomorrow?” I grimaced. “I need a shower too. Jail cells are not the cleanest places in the world.”

  “You were in jail?” Dorian snapped, catching my arm as I made to walk past him. “What happened? Who paid your bail?”