Page 22 of Chaos Bound
“It’s okay.” Naiya grabbed a pillow off the floor and hugged it to her. “I’m not that upset, just… I didn’t really expect it. Now I’m losing a friend.”
“You don’t need friends like that,” Ally said. “You need friends who are there for you when you need them. Doug called in a favor to get someone to cover for him today. He didn’t think twice about it. You need us. We’re there. And a real boyfriend would have been here before us. Hell, he wouldn’t have let you go to Devil’s Hills alone.”
The door flew open and Holt burst into the room, chest heaving. “Jacks are coming. I heard their bikes coming down the mountain. We got seven, maybe ten minutes at most. Grab your stuff.” He raced out of the room and Naiya followed him down the hallway.
“How did they find us?”
“Viper probably had someone watching your friends.” Holt pushed open the door to their room and grabbed the duffle bag Ally had stuffed with clothes for both of them. “And your work, your gym, any hang outs… It’s what we… the Sinners, would have done.”
Dammit. She should have thought it through. Holt had warned her, and now she’d put Ally and Doug in danger.
Holt checked the gun holstered beneath his shirt, while Naiya balled up his cut. She’d stuffed it under her shirt when they escaped the Black Jack clubhouse and she wasn’t about to leave it behind now.
“You go with Ally and Doug.” He handed her the bag. “I got business with the Jacks.”
She stared at him aghast. “But you can’t fight. You’re still injured. You barely made it into the parking lot with Doug. It’s suicide.”
“I got a gun, darlin’, and today I’m gonna kill me some Jacks. I lived through those last three months for only one reason—revenge. And it starts right now.”
Ally banged on the door, and Holt yanked it open. “She’s ready to go. Get her out of here. Fast.”
“What about you?” Doug took Naiya’s duffle bag and stood to the side as she stepped into the hallway.
“Got shit to do,” Holt said to him. “Not something I want to share with a cop.”
Doug stepped into the room, pulling the door behind him, and their conversation dropped to a hushed murmur.
“We’ll take you somewhere safe.” Ally gave Naiya’s arm a squeeze. “Let’s go. Doug will meet us at the car.”
If it had been yesterday, or any day in the last thirteen years since her grandmother died, Naiya would have followed her friend. She had learned the hard way how to survive in the biker world, and those lessons included running from danger at the earliest possible moment and never looking back. Easy to do when it had only been her, but this time she had someone else to think about. Someone who was still suffering the effects of months of torment. Holt had saved her from the dungeon as much as she’d saved him. How could she abandon him now?
“He’s going to kill himself, Ally.” Naiya looked back over her shoulder. “He couldn’t take on even one Black Jack in his condition much less the number I’m guessing Viper sent after us.”
“You have to think about yourself.” Ally tugged her hand. “Holt’s a big boy. He knows the score. You have to respect his decision.”
“He was tortured.” Naiya gritted her teeth together. “And all he thought about was getting revenge. He says it was the only thing that kept him alive. He can’t see past it. He can’t see that he doesn’t have the strength to make his dream a reality. His mind needs to heal as much as his body. The same thing happened to me after Viper raped me. I was blinded by hopelessness and revenge. I couldn’t see beyond the moment I pulled the trigger. Father Doyle saved me from myself. Holt needs someone to save him.”
“And I can’t see why you’re going to risk your life for someone you barely know,” Ally snapped. “I like him. And I know you like him, but maybe you’re just rebounding after finding out about Maurice. Holt’s an outlaw biker. There are lots of hot guys out there who won’t drag you back into the biker life you’ve been running from all these years or get you killed.”
Naiya scrubbed her hand over her face, torn between the man who had helped her escape and held her in his arms so they could share their pain, and the fierce survival instinct that had kept her alive when she had no one to care for her.
Run. Run. Run.But she couldn’t run and leave him to die. Not just because she felt a moral obligation to save him, but also because she felt a connection with him. When she’d curled up on the bed with his strong arms around her, she felt safe in a way she hadn’t been since her grandmother died. She liked how he hadn’t laughed at her quirks, and how he’d wanted to share her pain. Holt wasn’t like any of the bikers she knew, and that alone was reason enough to help him. But dammit, there was no time to plan.
“Do you have something in your medical kit that will knock him out fast?” The words came out before she could catch them, uncharacteristically impulsive, driven by desperation and a desire to help the man who had helped her.
Ally’s eyes widened, and she nodded. “I brought a sedative just in case he was difficult. It’s an intramuscular injection. But it might take a few minutes to work. How will you get him to stand still?”
“Just give it to me.”
The rumble of motorcycles grew louder, and Naiya’s heart drummed in her chest. She never did anything without a plan. But Holt was a stubborn man, and she wasn’t going to change his mind by banging heads with him. If there was ever a time for a rash decision, this was it. She needed to throw aside her calm, ordered, controlled life and live a little to save a life.
Ally fished around in her medical kit. She quickly prepared a syringe and Naiya palmed the needle just as Holt and Doug joined them outside the door.
“Come with us, Holt. Please.” She gave him what she hoped was a beseeching look, praying he would make the right decision instead of forcing her hand.
“I’m not going anywhere when there are Jacks about. I got a mission. You gotta survive. Now go.”
She slid the needle between her fingers until her thumb was on the plunger. Then she slid one hand around his neck and pulled him down toward her. “Do I get a kiss good-bye?”
