OFF LIMITS: Grim Angels MC Page 10

  “Scott, wait…what does he want?”

  “Don’t know. Stay up here,” he commanded as he stepping into the dark stairwell.

  “Not a chance,” she mumbled and pushed past him and down the stairs.

  “Jess, Goddmanit!” Scott snarled after her, his bare feet thumping on the steps as he banged down them behind her.

  Jess flung open the door to the street. “What do you want?” she demanded.

  Scott arrived a moment later to find Rick pacing on the street outside. He was tugging at his goatee, which was never a good sign in his experience. He was pale and jitterier than usual and without the constant glint of humor he used like a shield.

  “What the fuck, man?” Scott asked, the night air feeling cool on his bare chest after the heat of the apartment.

  “You gotta get out of here, Scott. Val’s on his way over.” He nodded at Jess, the slightest scowl on his face. “Shit is going down, bro. They are out for you, dude.”

  Jess felt her stomach drop. They were coming to lock her back up in her tower. “How?” she asked.

  “Jason,” Scott said softly. He ran his hand through his hair and begun to pace. “Fucking, kiss ass, Jason. That fucking creepy little ginger Irish wop. Trying to secure his spot by throwing me under the fucking bus.”

  Panic was starting to build in Jess. She had seen Val when he was furious. He was unstoppable. He descended on his enemies like a thunderstorm, a giant wall of rage that burned family homes to the ground, a howling demon that buried men to their necks and let the animals finish them off. He was lawless in his anger and devoid of anything even slightly resembling humanity.

  “Fuck it,” Scott snarled. “Let him come.”

  Jess’s panic increased. That dead look she had seen in Scott’s eyes a few nights ago at the bonfire was back, the soft part of him that had held her as she cried long gone. She thought for a second that she was lucky to have even seen it at all. “No.” She laid a hand of Scott’s chest. Despite his blank expression, she could feel his heart beating rapidly. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  “No, we don’t.” Scott’s voice was flat and defiant. He looked right through Jess, right through Rick, right through anything that stood in his way.

  Uncle Val, Jess thought, he looks like uncle Val.

  “I don’t owe that guy anything. I’d like to see what he has to say. See what kind of impressive toys he brings to the party.”

  “No, you don’t, man,” Rick spoke up, his voice high pitched with alarm. “He’s bringing a pack with him and they’re looking for your head, man. I swear it. I managed to sneak out so I could come give you a head’s up. I’ve put myself at risk, man. I’m a dead man if he finds me here, too. You have got to get the fuck out of here, pronto.”

  “I’m not backing off. I haven’t done anything wrong, so why would I?”

  Jess turned to him, placing her hands on his face so that he had to meet her eyes. She needed to find that special man inside of him again. Drag it out of him before it was too late.

  In spite of himself and his mounting rage, Scott softened. In the deep blue evening, she was the most beautiful thing that he had ever seen. He knew at that moment ] she could make him do anything she wanted, and he wouldn’t care, because he would do anything for her.

  “You don’t have to back off, Scott,” she said, her black, velvet-painting eyes locked on to his. “And I’ll never ask you to. I will never ask you to back off. But we’ve got to get out of here. Just for a while. He’ll cool off and then we can deal with it. But it’s time to go. We need to lay low, just for a bit, and then we can deal with this. I’ll be right there with you when we do, I promise.”

  Numbly he stared at her. The world could’ve burned around him and he wouldn’t care. She was a goddess in a t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She was an ivory figurine with blood on her hands. She was going to make him make so many mistakes and, yet, he didn’t care.

  “Go get some stuff,” he said at last. He sensed both Rick and Jess’s relief at his decision. Jess immediately turned and raced up the stairs and into the apartment. Scott turned to Rick who was looking at him, wide eyed with honest concern and relief. “You need to go,” Scott said, then nodded his head. “Thanks.”

  Rick smiled. “Never thought I’d see the day when Prada risked his ass for pussy.”

  Scott walked to Rick, positioning himself inches away from the guy’s face, looking past that ridiculous face tattoo into the eyes of man he’d known for almost a decade. “I never thought I’d see the day that Jason would sell me out. This ain’t over. Not by a long shot.”

  He heard Jess slam the door behind him and lock it. She handed him the rest of his clothes, a small duffle in her other hand. He smiled as he finished dressing. She was smart. She packed just what they needed for a couple of days, keeping the pack small enough to strap to a bike.

  “Thank you,” she said to Rick, offering him a shy smile.

  Rick shrugged. “You damn well better be worth it,” he grunted.

  ***

  They rode through the night, the Harley singing the song of freedom. They rode away from the desolate suburban streets, away from the greasy stink of the café, and away from the sound of her mother snoring on the couch. Every mile they rolled was another mile away from empty bottles and ivory towers. They rode past the burned out buildings and collapsing dream homes. They rode under graffiti pocked overpasses and past clusters of men doing deals.

  Her hair streaming out behind her, her legs and arms wrapped around Scott, Jess felt no fear. For the first time since that night at the girl’s house, she felt whole. She didn’t love Scott, but there was something about him that was healing her. She felt safe in his presence, safe like she never had. She could sense he would never hurt her, and he would protect her from being hurt. And that was enough, for now. She smiled and laid her head against his back. The fact that he could take her to places she had never been in the bedroom didn’t hurt anything either.

  Holding him, the throbbing of the bike beneath her, she felt free. Given time, maybe they could build something together, no matter what was waiting for them when they stopped.

  And something would be. Baying at their heels like a pack rabid dogs, her mother and uncle wouldn’t stop. Their fury, built from broken promises, betrayal, and blood, would stalk them until they were stopped. As the world burned around her, a vengeful giant on their tail, she knew only one thing for certain: so long as they were together, they would survive.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Jessica Mitchell moved in her sleep, grunting and snuffling as she wormed herself in a little tighter, throwing an arm and leg possessively over her bedmate. Scott Murphy smiled in the dim light as he glanced at the clock, grimaced at the time, and then tightened his embrace around her willow-like shoulders. They had gone to bed almost three hours ago, and though Jessica had gone to sleep almost immediately, he hadn’t. His mind was still spinning, winding in ever-tighter circles as his thoughts raced, thinking over what had happened.

  They had dashed out of the apartment Jess shared with her mother with little more than the clothes on their backs, so they were sleeping in the nude. Not a bad thing to his mind, but the circumstances left a little to be desired. You don’t have a lot of time to think about packing when the leader of the Grim Angels, Valdemar Ingersson, came calling. Not when he had blood in his eyes and not if you valued your life.

  He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. In Detroit less than a week and he was already in deep shit with his club. He hadn’t wanted to leave his home in Atlanta, and he hadn’t wanted to come to Detroit as the right-hand man of the future leader of the club. Jason MacGinnis, President of the Atlanta chapter of the Grim Angels, had been tapped as the new President of the mother chapter in Detroit, and he wanted Scott with him. Scott had, reluctantly, agreed and followed Jason and Rick to Detroit. As the head of the Detroit chapter, Jason was going to be the nominal head of all one hundred twenty-eight chapters scatte
red across the country, something that had him practically salivating. The Grim Angels weren’t as big as the biggest clubs, but they were growing fast.

  He had come to Detroit out of loyalty, but once there, his world had been turned upside down and inside out. On the day of his arrival he had met Jess at a party and been gob smacked into oblivion. He had always had his pick of women, women that most men would kill for, and though many were undeniably beautiful, they were mere playthings. Their vacant smiles and even more vacant eyes left him cold. But Jess, she was different.

  Though she was beautiful, and stunningly so, there was so much more to her. He could see a keen intellect behind her gaze, her eyes lacking that dullness he found so off-putting. And though she was heart-stoppingly gorgeous, she had a certain modesty about her that made his blood roar. In short, she was everything he dreamed of in a woman, and more. Beautiful, smart, and sweetly modest was a trifecta of unprecedented rareness, but, beyond that, she had an inner strength that amazed him. She was truly extraordinary and he was determined to make her his.

  What he didn’t know, not until it was too late and he had been smitten with her, was that she was the niece of Val Ingersson. The Val Ingersson. Val Ingersson, President of the mother chapter of the Grim Angels. The same Val Ingersson that had declared his niece off-limits to every member of the club.

  Scott stared at the ceiling of the motel. Thank God for Rick, he thought. Had he not shown up and warned us the Grim Angels were riding for us, I would have been caught bare ass naked in her bed, maybe even balls deep inside of her. He didn’t understand the problem with Jess seeing a member of the club. Yes, that asshole Luke had fucked over the club and hurt Jess at the same time, but he would never do anything like that. He just needed time to prove it.

  They had ridden away from her apartment only minutes ahead of the baying hounds on their tail. He had wanted to leave the Angels, ride back to Atlanta, pack his shit, and move on, but Jess had insisted they stay. Detroit was her home and she didn’t want to leave it until there was no other choice. She was certain that after her uncle had a chance to calm down she could reason with him. Besides, with charters scattered all across the United States, there was no place they could hide that the Grim Angels wouldn’t, eventually, find them. Better to stay and make their stand in Detroit and prove to her uncle, and the rest of the club, that they had done nothing wrong.

  Scott wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but her logic made a certain amount of sense. Running only damns them as knowing they are guilty. So they had decided to stay close and give her a chance to convince her uncle to back off.

  He smiled. When they had finally stopped, after two hours of being on the move, she had a couple of messages on her cell and he had listened in as she played them. Val didn’t seem to be in much of a mood for reasoning and her friend Angela had begged her to call. His own message, from Jason, he didn’t even bother listening to.

  Jason’s nose was stuck so far up Val’s butt that if Val were to fart it would come out of Jason’s ass. He would never trust Jason again and he didn’t give a shit what he had to say. He hadn’t known Jess was off limits until Jason had told him, and Jason could have kept that information to himself and give him time to reason with Val. But, instead, Jason had sold him out, using him as leverage to pander to Val.

  Jess moved, muttering in her sleep, and he looked at her until she became quiet again. His thoughts continued to darken as he thought about Jason and the treachery that wouldn’t be forgiven or forgotten. Let the little ginger try to sell out another brother for gain after he breaks his jaw. He would be eating soup through a straw for months after he got done with him, and if Jess got hurt during any of this, he would kill him.

  “No!”

  Jessica’s shout in the quiet room made him jump, tearing his thoughts away from vile retribution. She moved again, squirming, her breathing becoming shallow and fast as she moaned softly then muttered something unintelligible.

  “Shhh…” he whispered. It had been barely eight hours since he learned her secret, but he knew instinctively she was dreaming of the night she found the woman Luke, her lover at the time, had killed and mauled. He had then tried to kill her and she had killed him with his own knife, stabbing him repeatedly as they fought to the death on the floor, probably in the pool of the woman’s blood.

  She began to thrash, pushing against him and whimpering. He let her go, afraid that, in her dream, his embrace would become Luke’s grasping arms as they struggled. He didn’t know exactly how she had killed him, only that she had gotten the knife from him when he fell, but he wanted to take no chances.

  “Jess…wake up. Wake up,” he murmured, trying to bring her around without scaring her. He gave her a gentle sake, then softly touched her face.

  Jess issued a blood curdling scream and set bolt upright in bed, panting, with her eyes wide and staring. As soon as his heart started beating again, Scott sat up beside her but did not touch her. “Jess…you okay? Jessica?” he whispered, feeling completely helpless.

  Slowly her face turned to his, her eyes still wide, her chest heaving in great gasps, but then she seemed to come out of it and her face scrunched as she fell into his arms.

  He held her as she began to sob then slowly laid back in the bed, pulling her down with him as she clung to him. She made little noise as she cried, but he could feel her pain and terror as she shook and gasped. Finally she began to still, her sobs quieting, but he continued to hold her, saying nothing, giving her strength through simple touch.

  “What can I do?” he asked, his voice so quiet it was almost lost in the murmur of the air conditioner.

  “Hold me,” she whispered, sniffing again as she adjusted her position so that she could be held closer, tighter. “Tighter,” she begged softly, needing to feel his strong arms, needing to know he was there to help her fight her dreams. He pulled her onto his chest before his arms cinched down, almost crushing the air from her lungs, but it was what she wanted, what she needed. Held tight, she felt a measure of safety and peace come over her. She wasn’t sure why his embrace comforted her, one hand on her head, the other around her back, but it did and that was all that mattered.

  They lay together for some minutes, and though his embrace loosened slightly, he continued to hold her tight, wrapping her in the protective warmth of his embrace. She could feel his arms beginning to quiver with effort but his embrace relaxed no further and it touched her that he would give so much effort for her. She pushed up against him, his embrace suddenly loosening as she rose, slid up his body, and brought her lips to his.

  His kiss was sweet, gentle, but the hunger from earlier was still there. She wanted him. She wanted him to fuck that terrible night out of her, to burn away the memories of blood and death with pleasure, and then replace them with something greater. The kiss began to deepen and she felt him stiffen against her leg. She glanced at the clock, the numerals blood red and bright in the darkness. No! Not blood, her mind rebelled, the color of roses, the color of love and passion.

  There were still almost four hours until sunrise, but she couldn’t return to sleep. Not now. He had pulled her out of the dream before she saw the girl’s body, and she wanted to keep it that way. She had slept, deep and dreamless, after he had made love to her in her apartment, and she wanted to do so again. “Make love to me, Scott,” she whispered, touching his face softly. “Make love to me and never stop.”

  Were it any other woman he would be fucking himself to nirvana without a second thought, but he hesitated at her request. He wanted her; he wanted her desperately, but she was vulnerable and he didn’t want to hurt her. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes. I need you to make me feel alive, Scott. I, I can’t do it alone. Please, Scott, help me live again.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Scott looked in Jessica’s eyes, the redness and puffiness from her crying visible even in the dim light leaking around the bathroom door, but she had never looked more beautiful. They hadn’t made lo
ve after settling into the motel, too strung out from their mad dash into the night, but that was hours ago. If the Grim Angels knew where they were, they would have been here already.

  He brought his hands up, cupping her face gently, giving her time to change her mind, but her eyes drifted closed as her mouth opened slightly in invitation. He pulled her slowly to him and she came, willingly, offering her full, soft, lips as a sample of the pleasures to come.

  He took her lips, slowly, almost lovingly, sucking gently on her bottom lip, and she felt herself become wet with anticipation. She’d had other lovers, but none affected her like Scott. His touch seemed electric, burning away her fear and doubt and leaving her pure and alive. She wanted, needed, that feeling tonight. She wanted the blazing heat of their passion to burn the memories of that bloody night from her and leave her hollow, ready to be filled again.

  In her apartment she had been desperate for him, her passions roaring through her like wildfire. But now, away from her stuffy and dilapidated apartment, away from the prison she had allowed her mother to lock her into, she wanted to slow herself down, to have Scott make love to her and not just fuck her headlong into orgasm.