Unattainable (Undeniable, #3)(44)

“Oh my God,” Ellie breathed. “You look…you look…” She trailed off, shaking her head.

Dirty didn’t like the way she was looking at him. At all.

“Your parents know,” he said tersely. “Moorseville’s lookin’ for you.” That seemed to snap her out of her stupor.

“Got no choice,” he continued. “You gotta go to the club. We’re goin’ on lockdown.”

“My mother,” she whispered. “She’s really sick; she needs to know I’m all right.”

Dirty held out his cell phone. “Call her,” he said. “Explain what happened, but you gotta make sure they ain’t gonna say shit to the cops. Shit’s about to go down between the Horsemen and the law, and you’re bein’ put in the middle.”

Ellie stared at him, probably trying to figure out what he meant by “shit’s about to go down,” but he wasn’t going to elaborate. She may be in the middle of this f*cking mess, but that didn’t mean she had the right to know what the mess was.

Ellie took the phone from him and while she called her parents, he began rummaging through his closet looking for something for her to wear. When she was off the phone and wiping tears off her bruised cheeks, he handed her a pair of leathers, a belt, a white tee, and his old leather jacket.

“Put my helmet on before we leave the apartment,” he told her as he pointed to it, and left her to get ready.

A few minutes later Ellie emerged from his bedroom. The T-shirt was tight around her breasts and the leathers were formfitting.

She looked damn hot. But it was the jacket he couldn’t stop staring at.

Dirty couldn’t explain it, neither did he understand it, why seeing a woman wearing something of his, his very first leather jacket, the very first thing he’d bought for himself after Deuce had brought him back to Montana, made him feel like…

Like…

He swallowed hard.

Like a man. He felt like a goddamn man. It was the weirdest f*cking feeling.

“Are you ready?” Ellie asked, sniffling as she wiped the back of her hand under her nose.

“Yeah,” he muttered, turning away. Suddenly he didn’t want to take her to the club. He didn’t want her around the boys; he wanted to keep her here. With him. Well, not with him, but near him, a room or two away, so every once in a while he could hear her laughing. Or something.

? ? ?

Ellie put the helmet over her head and followed Dirty outside to the sidewalk where his bike was parked. The street was busier than usual; it being a holiday weekend, the townspeople had all ventured into town so Ellie kept her head down and didn’t look around as she waited silently for Dirty to straddle his bike.

“Fuckin’ hell,” she heard Dirty mutter and her head jerked up. Following Dirty’s gaze to the other side of the street, to the front of Hank’s, she found Daniel along with two uniforms and Hank himself, all staring at the two of them. Her heart dropped.

“Flip up the lid on the helmet,” Dirty said under his breath. “He knows it’s you. We’re gonna have to play this shit out right f*ckin’ here and now.”

Swallowing hard, with shaking hands Ellie removed the helmet, and Daniel’s hard, narrowed gaze shot straight to her.

“Don’t leave me alone with him,” she whispered frantically as Daniel and his two officers started for them. “Please, Dirty, please don’t let him take me anywhere.”

Dirty turned to her and she balked at the expression on his face. It was like nothing she’d ever seen before. It was…it was…anger, determination, and most definitely a touch of crazy.

“I will kill him where he stands if he even tries,” Dirty said tightly through clenched teeth. Ellie gaped at Dirty. She didn’t doubt for a minute that he would in fact kill an officer of the law in broad daylight and in front of half the town, his expression was that terrifying.

“Ellie,” Daniel said, stopping on the opposite side of Dirty’s motorcycle. “We’ve been looking for you.”

Despite the raging anger and crippling fear she felt racing through her bloodstream, Ellie willed her shaking body to remain as still as possible. “Really?” she asked, her voice croaking.

Clearing her throat, she tried again. “Why?”

The corner of Daniel’s mouth lifted. “An officer found your purse behind Hank’s,” he said smoothly.

The more Ellie stared at Daniel, the sicker she began to feel until she had no choice but to place one of her sweaty, shaking hands over her stomach in a failed attempt to stop the rising nausea.

“She’s fine,” Dirty growled as he maneuvered himself partially in front of her. Like a shield, a protective wall, like…the man who’d saved her once and was ready to do it again. Even when facing down the law.

“She doesn’t look fine,” Daniel retorted. “In fact, she looks pretty beaten up.”

Ellie gaped at him. She couldn’t believe the nerve of this man, the audacity.

“How about you give her the purse back,” Dirty growled, “and we’ll be on our f*ckin’ way.”

Daniel’s smirk turned grim as he focused on Dirty. “Her purse is at the station,” he replied tightly. “Evidence in what we thought was a missing person case.”