Page 32 of Chaos Bound
“On. The. Bike.” He enunciated each word, his voice increasing in pitch.
“Holt. Please.” Naiya heard a rustle in the bushes behind her. Holt’s gaze snapped over her shoulder, and he continued his steady pace.
“Jesus Christ, Naiya. Get on the fucking bike.” He walked toward her, holding his gun level with her chest. There was no point running. She had no chance against a bullet. But she wasn’t getting on the damn bike either. No way was she making this easy for him, even if her knees shook and she had to fight back the wave of nausea that gripped her stomach. She shivered and his expression darkened.
“You think I’m gonna hurt you?”
She wrapped her arms around her body, hugged herself tight. “I think you’re going to do what it takes to bring down Viper, regardless of who gets in the way.”
“Damn right I am.” He lunged for her, slid his hand around her nape, yanked her into his chest… And fired.
***
Holt tightened his grip on Naiya, as the Black Jack who had been watching them from the bushes went down. Fucker made more noise than a bunch of bikers at a patch-in party. Hell, when Jagger had given him his cut, the Sinners cheered so loudly he thought the roof would fall in.
“Shhhh. I’m not shooting at you.” He brushed his lips over her ear when she tried to back away, but tight in his grip, she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Let me go.”
He slid his hand down to her waist, pulled her trembling body against him. “Gotta make sure there’s no more Jacks about.”
Naiya’s hands slid between them, and she leaned back and thudded his chest with her fist. “You were going to kill me. You were going to use me to get back at Viper.”
Holt scanned the forest around them. “Keep it down. No telling who else is around.”
“Good. I want them to find us. Viper might hurt me, but at least I’ll be alive.”
He looked down at her face, twisted with anger. For one fleeting second, he had considered the possibility of offing her to stick it to Viper. The bastard wanted her bad if he was sending his top brass out this far out to track her down, especially when the Jacks were in the middle of a war with the Sinners. But almost immediately the thought disappeared beneath the overwhelming urge to protect her. She was intimately tied to his quest for vengeance. But more than that, they were connected in a way he still didn’t understand. He couldn’t bear the thought of her in danger, or at the mercy of the Jacks. He would never allow it. They had rescued each other. Now, she belonged to him.
“I said I’d protect you. If I killed you, I’d be breaking my word.”
“Let me go.” She shoved hard, forcing him back a step. His pulse kicked up a notch. Although he hadn’t heard any bikes or any rustling in the trees, the Jacks would be coming soon and there was always a risk of the guy who owned the SUV returning with his boat and seeing them near the dead bodies.
“We don’t have time for this,” he snapped. “Look who he sent after you.” He gestured to Leo’s body on the ground. “His fucking VP. You’re not just another piece of tail to him, probably because you aren’t like the women in his club. Even if you leave the state, he’ll track you down. Your only chance of staying alive and living the life you want to live is to stick with me. I’m not going to hurt you. You’ll have to trust me on that.”
She pushed against him, glared when he didn’t let go. “I don’t trust you. Not anymore. I saw your face, Holt. For a moment there you thought about shooting me. I’ll take my chances on my own.”
Her body was warm against him, soft despite her agitation. He lowered his mouth to her neck and kissed the hollow at the base of her throat. “Part of you already trusts me ’cause you’re still in my arms.”
“You have a gun,” she snapped. “And you’re holding me so tight I’m going to have bruises.”
“Where would you go?” he challenged. “How would you hide? Who would protect you?”
“The Sinners.” She stared up at him, her eyes defiant. “If I tell them where you are, they’ll owe me. And if you are thinking of doing something to me, you should know I took a picture of you with Ally’s phone when you were sleeping. If something happens to me, she’ll send the pictures to the Sinners. They’ll know you’re alive, and they’ll hunt you down. We both know what happens to brothers who betray the club. Call it an insurance policy.”
“Jesus Christ.” He pushed her away, torn between anger and admiration. How had he misjudged her? She wasn’t the soft civilian she appeared to be; she’d been forged in a Black Jack hell, and although she professed to be done with that life, it wasn’t done with her.
“I’m beginning to think you don’t need protection,” he said, his voice gruff.
“I need Viper off my back, so it seems we have a mutual goal,” she said. “But I’m not up for being part of a kill-team, or being used as bait, or sacrificed to stick it to Viper. So how about you make a new plan to bring him down that doesn’t involve me?”
“You don’t want justice?” His forehead creased in a puzzled frown. “You don’t want revenge for what he did to you?”
“Like this?” Her voice cracked, broke, and he caught a glimpse of just how hard she was struggling to contain her emotion, her fear. “I can’t handle this. Guns. Shooting. Death. Crime. I just want to go back to my normal life and—”
“Hide.”
“There’s nothing wrong with hiding,” she said.
