“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I promise her and rush to get my jacket before she can take her magical words back. “You get some more rest.”
She’s smiling seductively, like a gorgeous creature from every guy’s dream when I turn back to her.
“How about you give me one more of those kisses before you leave,” she says, and she knows how much I want to. But I think she wants it too.
So I don’t think, just obey. And a long, long time passes as our tongues chase each other and the taste of perfection floods me. I’d take it further, take it all the way and damn the consequences if my phone didn’t start buzzing again. Good thing Blaze knows me so well. Good thing he always has my back, even when it’s a lost cause.
I won’t repay that by leaving him to face all the music for my fuck-up last night.
“I’ll be back,” I say breathlessly as I break the kiss.
“Good,” she whispers. “Hurry.”
I dare not look back at her as I exit the motel room. If I did, I’d stay right here.
Colt
The heat starts beating down on the back of my neck even worse than it was for the whole ride back once I pull in through the gate in the wall surrounding the desert compound that’s out MC’s on these parts. Nothing but dried up bushes dotting the wide-open plain of dry orangey-brown sand around the rectangular concrete building, and even those are sparse. It feels and looks like I’m riding straight into hell and I slow down instinctually.
How bad did I fuck up?
But that’s just the idiot in me talking. I did what I had to in order to survive. Nothing more. Nothing less. Cross will understand that.
I speed up again, my tires kicking more dust that cuts my already parched throat like shards of glass. By the time I near the building, I’ve already breathed in almost more than I can handle. But I’m gonna take it like a man. Whatever comes.
Blaze is alone by the front door, clearly waiting for me. Even from a distance, I know exactly what expression he’s got on his face—the classic scowl, with the worried, shifty eyes that make him look like he’s gotta go relieve himself. I nod at him then veer off and park my bike under a dark green tarp held up by thin metal rods that serves as a makeshift garage for our bikes here. It does nothing about the heat, but at least it’s possible to actually sit on your bike after it’s been parked out here all day.
“What the fuck took you so long?” he barks at me while I’m still a couple of yards away from him. He sounds like a mom scolding a wayward child. I gave up hoping he’d stop that shit a long time ago. He’s like an older brother to me, and always has and always will have my back. Just as I’ll always have his. This mothering shit is just part of the package.
“Is it a big deal?” I ask once I reach him.
“Is it a big deal, he asks,” Blaze scoffs shaking his head. “Come on, they told me to bring you right in.”
He turns and walks into the building and I follow, sighing in relief as the cool air inside engulfs me. Some cold water would be perfect too, but I’m not about to antagonize Blaze, or Cross who’s waiting for me, for that matter, by stopping to get some.
“I’ll take care of it, Blaze. Don’t worry so much,” I tell him once we reach the narrow, windowless hallway that leads to the offices part of this bunker.
“You better. I already told Cross everything you told me last night,” Blaze says.
“What? You think I’m gonna lie to him?” I say, meaning to sound offended, but it just comes out flat.
“I hope she was worth it,” Blaze says, giving me a piercing look over his shoulder. “Because she just might get us kicked out of this club.”
“We just slept last night,” I mutter, wishing it wasn’t the truth. “And kissed a little bit.”
He chuckles. “Yeah, she was pretty out of it. Too bad for you.”
Damn straight. Because I might never see her again. That’s been in the back of my mind for the whole, almost hour-long ride back to this place. I should’ve fucked her before I left. She’s probably not gonna stick around for me to get back. Why would she? She was just saying that.
But it’s time I push all that aside. Come what may, at least I’ll always remember the taste of her lips—sweet like honey, but with a tang of something sharp, the perfect blend of nice and naughty, just like I knew it would be.
Blaze stops at the closed door of the room Cross uses as his office here. He knocks, then opens the door after Cross tells him to come in. Then he steps aside for me to enter on my own.
It’s not a big room, five men would be crowded in here, as we were when Blaze and I were given the order to get Ace out of the Sinners’ bar. Now it’s just me and Cross in here, and that look he’s giving me is dark as night as it slices through me like a hot knife.
“Colt,” he says quietly and evenly, but it feels like he screamed it. “What the hell happened last night?”
I open my mouth to reply, but the words just aren’t forming. I close it and try again, but it’s still not working. Cross’ look maybe grows a little less dark, as he watches me struggle, but not by much.
“I’m waiting,” he says pointedly after a few more seconds that stretch into hours go by.
“I went to the Sinners’ bar to get a woman out…a woman they were holding prisoner. It was supposed to be a simple in and out job. But…” I finally manage.
I totally don’t want to tell him how bad I messed up. That’s why I’m speechless. That’s why my words just trailed off into silence.
“But that’s not what happened,” Cross supplies with an edge to his voice. He already knows what happened, and I’m acting like a middle school kid who’d just been sent to the principal’s office. I gotta pull myself together.
“They already had her locked up when I got there and were planning to kill her. When I started asking around for her, they just grabbed me and tried to kill me too. I killed three of them to save myself. Well, I killed two, and she killed the third, to be precise. They had it coming. I’m sorry it went like that, but I’m not sorry I got her out. She’d be dead right now if I hadn’t. And the guy they sent to kill her, he was a real wacko with a knife and was really looking forward to cutting her up. No one should go like that. He sliced up my jacket real good. I only have my reflexes to thank that he didn’t slice my arm up too.” I show him the slash in my leather jacket like an idiot. Luckily the leather absorbed most of the cut else I’d probably need stitches. “And I only have her to thank that I’m even standing here talking to you.”
Cross leans back in his chair once I finally shut up again. He steeples his hands and looks at me over his fingers, his gaze still as pointed and dark, but not as piercing.
“Who were they? Do you know?” he asks.
“I didn’t get their names. The one with the knife was a dark-haired, wiry guy. Quick on his feet. The other two were aging gorillas of the type their MC is full of.”
Cross nods, leaving me wishing I could give him more information.
“And what am I gonna do with you?”
“It won’t happen again,” I assure him. “I won’t go doing stupid things on my own again.”