Page 26 of Protected by the Biker (Grim Reaper MC)
"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 speak. 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.
