Steel Temptation (Back Down Devil MC #6)(28)

“What?” Nate asked.

“You heard me. You wanted to know if I f*cked him? I didn’t. But he wanted it today. That never happened before. I went to check on Jacob and the bedroom was empty. Uncle Jake then held me by my throat and said what he wanted.”

“I’ll kill him,” Nate said. He looked beyond Mia. He made a signal with his hand. He looked back at Mia. “What happened?”

“He gave me money. Told me to find a place to take a shower and calm down. He wants me to work you guys so I can lure you…”

Nate stepped back and took out his gun. Gaige was then there, his gun drawn.

“Tell me this isn’t a set up?” Nate asked.

“Fuck! No!” Mia cried out. “I’m not on his side.”

“What happened?” Gaige asked.

Nate gave Gaige the three second rundown.

Gaige then looked at Mia. “We’re supposed to just trust you.”

“Or just let me go,” she said. “I never asked for this.”

“I never asked to be attacked,” Nate said. “Getting f*cking smashed in the head and knocked out. We have a war…”

“Bro, easy,” Gaige said.

“Just shoot her!” Griffin called out. “We have to send a message.”

Mia stood there, arms at her sides. She was ready for whatever was going to happen.

Gaige stepped toward her. “You stopped. Why?”

“I made up a story with my uncle. That you left town and met with some guys. Just thinking off the top of my head. He then got nervous, saying something about a charter. Made me realize that you probably have guys everywhere. So I stopped. And waited. I don’t care.”

“Well, you’re right. We have guys everywhere. Your uncle got nervous?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

“That explains the chief,” Nate said to Gaige. “Getting spooked and jumpy.”

“Christ,” Gaige said. He pointed to the car behind Mia. “It’s simple now. Get in the car and follow us. Back to the compound. Your last chance. I’m going to get hell for this.”

“Okay,” Mia nodded.

Nate glanced at Mia, shaking his head. “I can’t help you anymore if this is the shit you’re going to pull.”

Nate started to move and Mia grabbed his arm. “He tried to f*cking touch me.”

That’s all Mia had to say. It was the truth. Uncle Jake crossed the line, finally. Somewhere in Mia she always knew the day would come. It had to, right? The man was unstable, crazy, and he was alone. Unless he had a woman or a girlfriend on the side…

“Move,” Nate growled. “I’ll be in front of you and they’ll cover the rest. You make one turn or move the wrong way and Griffin is going to light you up.”

“Light me up,” Mia whispered.

She had an idea of what that meant.

Looking back, she saw Griffin shaking his head. He and Nate started to argue, the rumbles of the motorcycles drowning out their voices to Mia.

She felt like a captured criminal now.

Back Down Devil MC was all around her, escorting her into Frelen. She wondered what kind of image this would give to anyone working with Uncle Jake. Then again, this was what he wanted, right? For Mia to get involved and then report back to him. It didn’t make sense though. The MC would know… Uncle Jake would know… and Mia would still be in the middle. It’s like they wanted this war (as Nate put it) to really happen. To grow.

Mia pulled her car into the Back Down Devil compound. Nate pointed and Mia parked the car. A few seconds later there were two guys in leather cuts at the door. They didn’t have the patches… they were… prospects…

Nate shouted something and the car door opened.

“Get out,” one of the guys said. Mia grabbed the money, her bag, and was out of the car. She looked at Nate and he waved her over.

“They’re going to stash your car,” Nate said. “So nobody can find it. As far as anyone is concerned, you’ve vanished.”

“He wants this,” Mia said. “Uncle Jake wants this. This doesn’t make sense.”

“It doesn’t have to,” Nate said.

He turned off the engine and climbed off the motorcycle. His hand slid around her waist and he started to walk.

“Come on,” Nate said. “We have to talk to Miller.”

Mia stutter stepped and watched everyone staring at her. Guys sitting on motorcycles, smoking cigarettes. Guys sitting on tables, drinking beer. Everyone dressed in leather and looking angry as f*ck.

Gaige and Griffin were in a heated conversation. Griffin waved his hands, constantly pointing at Mia.

“He hates me,” Mia said to Nate.

“You lied,” Nate said. “Everyone hates you. You have no friends.”

“Christ. Can you be any meaner?”

Nate stopped and pulled at Mia. “Do you think this is a f*cking game?”

“I never…”

“Yeah, me either. This is where you are right now. You want to end up dead? I’m not going to apologize for what your uncle is doing. He’s going to be killed. That I can promise you. But this goes deeper. There’s another crew involved. There’s local law enforcement involved. You being here is you being protected. Unless…”