Hot Set

by Ivy Blake

  “The first rule of kidnapping is that you don’t pay for the holding room with your credit card. You dumbfuck,” I said, in a low even voice.

  Ryan snarled and then rubbed the back of his hand across his mouth.

  “It doesn’t fucking matter because she will never be yours. Ensley is my woman, and nothing will change that,” Ryan hissed, and I took one step towards him. He was a coward. He stepped away from me in fear, as much as he tried to cover up that fear with his speeches.

  “Did you hurt her? Did you hit her?” I asked him.

  It didn’t matter to me what his reply to that was. I knew the truth. I had already seen the blood trickling down Ensley’s nose. I already knew that he had hurt her. I just wanted to see if he would tell me the truth.

  “I would never hurt Ensley. I love her. Everything I do for her, I do because I fucking love her. She just doesn’t know it yet,” Ryan whelped. Now he was beginning to shake, as reality began to set in. He knew he was cornered and he had no escape.

  “Did you hit her?” I asked him again, taking a step closer to him. Ryan’s nostrils flared, and he glared back at me, challenging me with his eyes.

  “She fucking hit me. All I was doing was loving her,” he said, and I lifted my gun up to his head.

  Ryan was standing in front of me, and I was pointing the gun at his head. He had nowhere to run, and I was going to make sure that he never hurt another woman in his life, definitely not Ensley.

  “You’re a sick fuck who likes to beat up women to make yourself feel good. Men like you don’t deserve to live,” I said, with the gun still pointed to his head. He was glaring back at me, still challenging me. He was sure that I wasn’t going to pull the trigger.

  “And you think you’re her big hero? Ensley Adams’ savior? You think she’s going to worship you all your life? She’s a whore, and she deserves to be treated like one. It’s the truth. Nobody knows her like I do,” Ryan continued, and I tightened my grip on the gun. I knew he could see the blazing rage in my eyes, and he had got it into his head that he was talking me out of shooting him.

  “Run while you can, man. One day, you’ll find yourself in my position. That is what whores like her do to the men they trap. That is what she did. She trapped me,” he said, and I shook my head.

  “You are a sick fuck. And you don’t even know it. You hit and hurt innocent women. How many others like Ensley are out there?” I asked, and he opened his mouth to say something.

  “Spare me the bullshit psychobabble. You’ve hurt Ensley, and that’s enough. That’s all I need to know,” I said, and Ryan widened his eyes, arching his eyebrows up his forehead.

  “What are you going to do? Shoot me here in the middle of this motel? For everyone to hear?” he said, and I could sense a grin forming on my face. He was such an idiot that he didn’t even notice the silencer on my gun.

  “Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m going to do,” I said, the second before my forefinger pulled the trigger. I felt the reverberation of the bullet leave the barrel and shoot through the air. In the next split-second, I saw Ryan stagger back and hit his head on the wall, where a spreading red stain remained. His body slumped and slid down to the ground, and I turned from him.

  “Where is she?” I asked the others, who had said nothing and made no movement all this time.

  “Jamison’s taken her outside,” Brooks told me. They were all smiling at me. I had got what I wanted.

  Chapter 28

  Ensley

  One of the guys, who I knew had been guarding my apartment door earlier, had dragged me out of the motel room.

  “My name is Jamison, and I work with Thorn. You need to trust me right now,” I heard him say. He had his thick muscular arms wrapped tightly around my waist, trying to hold me back from running back into the room.

  I wanted to go back in. I wanted to force Thorn to get out of there. We needed to leave! That was all there was on my mind. I just wanted to get out of this place with Thorn and forget about everything that had happened.

  Jamison had slammed the door shut behind him on his way out, and now I couldn’t see or hear what was going on inside. For all I knew, Ryan and Thorn were in a fight, and one of them was going to be hurt. I didn’t care what happened to Ryan, I just didn’t want it to be Thorn.

  “Please, just let me go back in there. I can put a stop to this,” I cried, while Jamison dragged me further and further away from the room’s door. I could sense that he was taking me towards the parked bikes.

  “Miss, you really need to stop fighting me. I have my orders from Thorn, and I’m not going to let you go back in there,” Jamison said, and I finally stopped struggling. I knew I wasn’t going to get my way.

  “Can I let go of you now?” he asked, and grudgingly, I nodded my head.

  Jamison released his grip on me, and I stumbled back a little as I tried to steady myself.

  “I didn’t think it was going to be this hard to keep you in one place,” he said, with a grin, as we stood to face each other. I wasn’t exactly in the mood for small-talk, but it was way better than being stuck inside with Ryan with his knife at my throat.

  “What are they doing in there?” I asked him, throwing a look back at the door over my shoulder.

  “Thorn is taking care of business,” Jamison said, crossing his arms over his chest. I licked my lips and blinked rapidly. I still needed some time before I could feel like myself again. I still wasn’t used to the fact that I was out in the open now, free to go. Yet, there was nowhere I wanted to be, but here, right with Thorn.

  “Look, Miss,” Jamison began again, and I crossed my brows.

  “Call me Ensley, please,” I said, and he grinned at me again.

  “Okay, Ensley, I just wanted to tell you, because I’m fairly sure that Thorn won’t tell you exactly what happened. He might take all the blame on himself for what happened to you, but the truth is that it was all my fault,” he said. I shook my head and rubbed a hand over my forehead.

  “It doesn’t matter, Jamison. I’m safe now. You guys rescued me. That is all that matters,” I said to him, and he clenched his jaw and took in a deep breath.

  “I was supposed to be on duty, I was supposed to keep an eye on you the whole time, and stupidly, I thought it would be okay to go for a smoke break downstairs. I swear I wasn’t gone for more than fifteen minutes,” he said, and I could see the look of apology in his eyes.

  “Jamison, it’s fine. You don’t have to apologize to me. Ryan would have found me one way or another. He would have gotten to me, I know it,” I replied, and he nodded his head slowly. I didn’t know what Thorn had said to him, but I could see that he was extremely guilty.

  I would have said something more to reassure him, but at that moment, we heard a loud thud come from the room.

  “Thorn!” I shrieked, and before Jamison could get to me, I had already started running towards the door. In my panic, I was sure that Thorn had been shot. That he was dying.

  “Ensley!” I heard Jamison yell for me, but I had already pushed open the door.

  In the room, I saw the other men huddled in a circle, with Thorn standing in the middle. Ryan was lying in front of him, he had clearly thudded against the wall. There was blood on the wall behind him and a bleeding gunshot wound in his head.

  The men turned to look at me, and so did Thorn.

  “Ensley, you shouldn’t be here,” he said to me, in a low guttural voice. There was a rage in his eyes, but when he saw the look of horror on my face, his green eyes softened.

  I let out a whimper when I saw Ryan’s fallen body on the floor. I didn’t know whether to be horrified that he was dead, or feel happy and relieved.

  Thorn pushed past his friends, and stuffing his gun into his belt, he came towards me. Thorn was carrying a gun? I didn’t even realize that he was armed. What else did I expect from a man like him?

  “Ensley, are you okay?” I heard him say, and my eyes adjusted to his face.

  I couldn’t sp
eak. It was like my lips were glued shut together.

  “I had to do this. He hurt you. He kept hurting you. He would have come after you again. He would have hurt other women…” Thorn was trying to justify himself to me, and I looked up at him with understanding in my eyes.

  “I don’t need an explanation, Thorn. I’m happy you did what you did. He deserved it. He would have killed me if he had the chance,” I said, and Thorn threw his arms around me and pulled me close to himself. The moment the words left my mouth, I knew it was true. Ryan would have stopped at nothing to get me back. This was the only way I would finally be safe.

  “Are you all right?” I heard him ask as I buried my face in his chest. I clung on to his biceps like I was holding him for dear life. I nodded my head, and he pulled himself away from me. His eyes were searching mine, looking at my face repeatedly.

  “You’re bleeding,” he said and traced the trail of blood from my nose with his finger. His eyes flitted over my face till he found the other bruises and scratches.

  “What did he do to you?” he growled, and I licked my lips and looked into Thorn’s eyes.

  “He’s dead now. I’m safe. We can go home,” I said, and the words got stuck in my throat. What was home? My apartment wasn’t his home, was it? He had a rented hotel room near me. He had his own apartment in Pomona to go back to. What was I talking about?

  I felt my cheeks flush and I dragged my gaze away from him.

  “I meant that we can get out of here,” I said and slowly, Thorn released his hold on me. He was nodding his head, and I could feel a flutter in my heart somewhere. Did this mean that he was coming back with me?

  “Jamison, take Ensley home, and stay at her door till I tell you to,” Thorn said. I shook my head in panic again.

  “We all need to go. The cops could get here any moment!” I squealed, but I felt Jamison’s hands close in on my shoulders already. He was beginning to pull me away from Thorn again.

  “We’re going to deal with this before the cops get here. This is why you need to go, Ensley, please listen to me,” Thorn said, and now he had taken on a commanding tone of voice which I knew I had to abide by.

  I couldn’t say anything more. Thorn had already made his decision. I was going to have to go back with Jamison, and he was going to remain here with the others, and clean up the mess.

  I looked back at Thorn before we left the motel room. He was standing with his arms crossed over his expansive chest. His green eyes were glowing in the dim light of the motel room. He looked tall and muscular as he stood there and I knew he was my savior. I knew I had made the right decision by hiring him as my protector.

  I didn’t think about Ryan, I didn’t even look at him. My body and brain might have still been in shock. Like a machine, I followed Thorn’s orders and allowed Jamison to lead me to his bike. I sat behind him as he rode me back to my apartment, and the whole time, I could only think of Thorn and when I was going to see him again.

  Chapter 29

  Thorn

  “What are we going to do about this?” Brooks was the one who asked the million dollar question, while the rest of us stared at Ryan’s fallen body.

  The cops weren’t going to show up now because nobody had heard anything, but in the morning, it would be impossible to keep a dead body hidden.

  “We get rid of it?” Beckett suggested, and I grunted as I thought. That was an idea, but lugging a corpse around, no matter what time of the night; was just a trap waiting for us to fall into.

  “We don’t have cars. How are we going to transport this on our bikes without being caught?” I asked, and Beckett shrugged his shoulders and looked away. I stared at Ryan’s pale face. I didn’t regret killing him. I regretted that I hadn’t got to him sooner before he could get to Ensley.

  “We need to do something quickly. The sun is going to rise pretty soon,” Topher spoke up, and I knew he was right. Time was running out on us.

  “We stage the scene,” I said and looked up at my brothers.

  “Suicide?” Topher asked, and I nodded my head.

  “Start with removing all evidence of Ensley being in this room,” I told Beckett and Topher.

  “Brooks, you and I have to make sure that Ryan looks like he shot himself,” I added.

  Within minutes, all of us had set to work. The two of them were wiping down chairs and the bed, looking for evidence of blood drops or pieces of torn clothing. There were flashlights in Becket’s holder in his bike, and we used them to look into every corner and inch of the motel room.

  Brooks and I, on the other hand, wiped down my gun and placed it in Ryan’s hand. Luckily, I had been wearing my riding gloves, but we still wiped the gun clean to be sure. Brooks, besides being an expert hacker, was also an expert at crime scenes. He knew exactly how to position Ryan’s body and how to position the gun; in a way that it was going to be believable for a crime scene investigator and a medical examiner; that the guy had shot himself.

  This wasn’t the first time that Brooks was doing this job for us, and he knew exactly the kinds of clues that detectives and police officers looked for in a scene like this.

  Thankfully I hadn’t shot Ryan straight on in the head. The gunshot was at an angle, so Brooks was able to make it believable that Ryan turned the gun on himself.

  I made Brooks go over every last detail, including the work that the other two had done. I wanted them to look over everything as many times as it took, to make sure that there was nothing suspicious about the scene.

  We had to create an illusion that Ryan was alone in the room, and then in a state of depression, had shot himself. Every evidence of Ensley had to be removed from the room. I didn’t want this to ever get back to her. Now that I had her safe and away from harm’s way, I wanted it to remain that way.

  “All done, boss,” Topher said. I looked at Brooks who nodded his head, and I smiled at the others.

  “Good job, brothers. It’s all done,” I said and together, we walked out of the motel room and got on our bikes.

  Behind us, dawn was cracking. The sun had just begun to rise up the horizon, and there was an orange glow all over the sky. The four of us were headed in different directions. The others were headed to Pomona, and I was headed towards Ensley. I needed to see her again.

  ***

  I parked my bike outside Ensley’s apartment building, and I could already see Jamison’s bike there.

  I could feel all my limbs beginning to ache now. When was the last time I had gotten any sleep? When did I even eat last? None of that mattered though, and I rushed up the stairs and rapped on her door. Jamison took a few moments to open, and when he did, I barged into the apartment. Ensley was sitting huddled on her couch, and I could see that Jamison had made her some tea and a plate of sandwiches.

  “All good?” he asked me, while I stared at Ensley. I had eyes only for her.

  “All good,” I said.

  Ensley looked tired when I first walked into the apartment, but now suddenly, there was a renewed brightness in her eyes. The tops of her cheeks had bright red spots on them, and the velvet throw she had wrapped around herself came undone.

  “I guess I should be going now,” Jamison said, as I took my first few steps towards Ensley.

  “Yeah, you should go,” I said.

  “Thank you for everything, Jamison,” Ensley said, looking over my shoulder at Jamison’s retreating figure.

  I heard the door shut behind me, and we were looking at each other again.

  “You’re here,” Ensley said, and there was a soft smile tugging the corners of her lips.

  “And so are you,” I said, and she blushed even harder.

  “I didn’t expect you to come back here. Not tonight,” she said, and I stepped even closer to her.

  “Well, technically it’s early morning. It’s the next day,” I said to her, and she rolled her eyes. I was glad to see that she still had a sense of humor.

  “You know what I mean, Thorn,” she said and held my
gaze intensely. I did know what she meant, but I wanted to hear the words from her mouth. We had been dancing around this for way too long. It was time that we discussed the subject that should have been discussed from the first night I spent at her apartment.

  “Tell me what you mean, Ensley,” I said, and now I was standing right over her. She was craning her neck to look up at me. Her blue eyes were bright with excitement, and I had forgotten all about the fact that I needed to sleep.

  ***

  I took Ensley into my arms, and my lips covered hers. She opened her mouth to me, and my tongue slipped in between her lips. She tasted just as sweet as I remembered her, and she clung to me tightly.

  As we kissed, I lifted her off the couch, and she wrapped her legs around my groin. My hands were around her waist, her hands were on my chest, and I could already feel my cock hardening in my pants.

  We both knew what was going to happen. What always happened when we were alone together. It was like she had some kind of invisible hold over me and I couldn’t shake it off. But we needed to talk first. Before we got naked with each other again.

  “Ensley,” I said her name gravely when I pulled my lips away from her. She was peering into my eyes, looking at me longingly.

  “I want to make sure that you’re doing okay,” I said, and she let her legs drift down, and unwrapped herself from me. Her eyes were flooding up with tears again, and I could feel that familiar feeling rising up in me again.

  “I hate seeing you cry,” I grunted, and she dabbed the corners of her eyes with her knuckles.

  “I’m crying from relief,” she said, with a weak laugh. Then she lifted herself up on her toes and reached to leave a kiss on my cheek.

  “I’m happy, Thorn. I’m relieved that this is all over now. I can finally go to sleep tonight and not be afraid,” she said, and then she gave her hand to me.

  Ensley was leading me into her bedroom, and I had no other choice but to follow her. I could see that she had tidied up the room after all the mess that Ryan had left it in when he’d abducted her from the room. I could also sense that it was not something that she wanted to talk about.