Chaos Bound (Sinner's Tribe Motorcycle Club #4)(83)
“And I’m heading your way as soon as I get off work,” Ally said. “I’m not leaving my girl alone in a strange town when she’s hiding out in a hotel, all broken up over her biker walking out on her, and she’s being chased by cops and psychopaths. The question is: do you want me to bring Maurice? He wants to come to see you. He says you can stay at his place and he’ll look after you.”
Naiya leaned back in her chair, fiddled with the computer mouse on the table. “Maurice who lay on his couch as I walked through the streets in the dark wants to look after me?” She couldn’t imagine Maurice shooting someone like Leo or facing off against an ATF agent or pulling a gun on the president of an outlaw MC, but then she and Maurice had led a pretty sedate life. They both worked hard, went to the gym, met up a few evenings a week and usually spent the weekends watching movies and walking in the park. Calm. Predictable. Safe. Just what she needed after stabbing a biker, going on the run, becoming an accessory to murder, stealing motorcycles, and threatening to shoot someone with what she was pretty sure was an unregistered weapon.
“Doug thought he sounded genuine,” Ally continued. “Maybe you should just hear him out. Even if you don’t get involved with him again, you need friends right now, and although I still want to poke out his eyes for what he did to you, he’s definitely not involved with the kind of people who could hurt you.”
“Bring him along.” Naiya sighed. “I’ll hear him out. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind feeling like a normal person again, having a normal conversation and just hanging out with people I know who aren’t going to shoot someone or steal something or ride a motorcycle at one hundred miles an hour and almost get me killed.”
“Does that mean it’s totally over with Holt?” Ally hesitated. “I kinda liked him. He was an over-the-top hunk of alpha loving, and he was totally into you.”
“He’s a biker, Ally.” Naiya rolled over the bed and picked up Holt’s shirt. “I like him—more than like him, but I can’t go where he’s going. He had a falling out with his biker brothers, but I don’t think it’s a forever thing. They let him walk out of there unharmed because they care about him. I’m sure he’ll be back with them at some point, and there is no way I’m ever getting involved with a club again. I’m a science geek, and I’m planning to spend the rest of my life in a crime lab. I need a secure future and a stable guy. I’ve already got three job interviews lined up, and I’ve just been offered—”
“Science geeks don’t shoot guns,” Ally said, cutting her off. “They don’t go on the run with outlaw bikers, jab them with needles, steal weapons, and pull the wool over the eyes of an ATF agent. They don’t f*ck a man they barely know who is the total opposite of Maurice.”
“That’s pretty specific for an over-generalization.” She pushed away from the desk and walked over to the window.
“When I saw you at the motel, you looked different. You looked alive … like you’d just woken up. Your eyes sparkled, and, although it was a scary situation, you looked like you were excited and having fun.”
“Being chased by Viper isn’t fun.” She stared at all the normal people living their normal lives—shopping, walking, eating, and laughing. One day, that would be her. One day she would be free. “It’s the last thing I ever wanted.”
Ally’s voice rose to the wheedling the tone she used when she was trying to convince Naiya to do something she knew Naiya wouldn’t want to do. “But it was fun when you were with Holt ’cause he wasn’t scared of Viper. And he made you not scared either. You took risks and survived. You hung with a biker and didn’t turn into a crack whore, if you’ll pardon my disrespect, but I’ll never forgive your mom for abandoning you like she did. Holt would never do that to you. He wanted to protect you. If he’s gone, it’s ’cause you pushed him away.”
“I didn’t push him away.” She lowered her voice when a man in a business suit walked into the room. “He said he was going to do what he had to do, and I wasn’t going with him because it was too dangerous and I didn’t belong. That’s when I suddenly realized I’d gone off the rails. I mean, what the hell was I thinking?” Naiya frowned when a black sedan with blacked-out windows pulled up in front of the hotel. Something twigged at the back of her mind. She’d seen that vehicle before.
“Isn’t that his choice?”
A man stepped out of the sedan. Tall and lean, with dark hair, a black suit and a blue tie. Her heart skipped a beat.
Michael.
“Ally, I have to go.” She raced over to her computer, logged off, and grabbed her stuff. Sweat beaded her forehead as she made a last visual sweep of her workspace.
“I’ll call you later.”
TWENTY-TWO
TANK
A woman shrieked, and Tank missed his shot.
“Fuck.” He looked up at Gunner chalking his cue on the other side of the pool table. “That doesn’t count.” He glared at the group of women sitting beneath the flashing neon sign that read “Rider’s Bar.” What the hell was so funny? Didn’t they know this was a place for serious drinking and not a place to party?
“Every stroke counts.” Gunner snorted a laugh and made a lewd gesture with his hips. “That’s what I tell the ladies.” He looked over at Shaggy who was their fourth for the game. “Take notes, old man. Now that Zane’s outta the game, I’m the new Sinner chick magnet.”