Vicious Cycle (Vicious Cycle #1)(49)

“I’ve got it from here. Call Rev. Give him the lowdown and have him and the boys meet me there.” Before Archer could say another word, I cut off the call. In a flash, I was off the stool and sprinting for the door.

“Deacon?” Cheyenne called after me.

I ignored her. As I threw open the clubhouse door, I eyed one of the older members leaning against the hood of his car, talking to one of the club whores. Pointing to the car, I said, “I need to borrow that. Now.”

Without a word, he tossed me the keys. After jerking open the car door, I slid across the leather seat and cranked up the engine. There was no way I was taking my bike. I would be too vulnerable and too suspect. A car could ease up to the house without notice, while the unmistakable sound of a cycle’s pipes would give me away.

I spun out of the parking lot, kicking up a cloud of dust and gravel. My hands gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles turned white. As I shifted in the seat, I felt like a caged animal. I knew in my gut that if Archer’s tire had been shot out, then Alex was in serious trouble. Sigel and his thugs had somehow worked out her connection to me. Fuck. I couldn’t focus on the extent of the danger Alexandra was in or I would completely lose my shit. I had to stay calm. I was no good to her or myself if I went off the deep end.

Instead, I focused my rage on who I suspected was responsible. Sigel. He’d been lying low, searching for a way to draw me out. When it hadn’t worked with Willow, he’d moved on to someone else—someone he thought was very important to me.

In that moment, as my mind spun with out-of-control thoughts, I realized how much Alex did mean to me. She was more than just Willow’s teacher. In the small, stolen moments we had spent together, I’d come to care about her more than I’d ever expected. While I wanted her physically so f*cking bad, it was deeper than that. I’d wanted her body all along, and this afternoon was just an example of how much. But there was more. I wanted to end Sigel for trying to take something from me I hadn’t yet gotten to claim.

When I reached Alex’s street, I parked three houses down from hers. I didn’t know how many of Sigel’s men had her. After I killed the engine, I escaped off the driveway and started sprinting through the heavily tree-lined yards. At the corner of her yard, I ducked behind a bush to survey the scene. The streetlamp overhead gave enough light that I could see there was no car parked in Alex’s driveway. However, just down the street, a dark car sat outside a house with a FOR SALE sign in the yard.

Keeping low to the ground, I hustled across the driveway. With the garage door down, I made my way around the side of the house, searching for another way into the garage or the house. I found a side door to the garage that was locked. Taking my wallet out of the back of my pants, I used one of the oldest tricks in the book to shimmy the lock open.

I slipped inside the darkened garage, stepping lightly to avoid making any noise. I was halfway around the side of Alex’s car when the sound of struggling caused my chest to constrict. “You f*cking cunt!” a man’s gruff voice shouted. When I got to the door, I peered inside. Rage burned within me at the sight of Alex bound, gagged, and unconscious. It took everything within me not to rush forward. But I had to keep my head and use reason in the situation. I’d come armed with only a gun, and anything that loud was going to alert a neighbor and the police. That was the last thing I wanted. I was going to take care of this f*cker with my own hands.

But all reasoning went out the window when the man pushed up Alex’s skirt, revealing her thighs. Before his hand could go any farther, I stormed through the door. The man whirled around. Before he had the chance to raise his knife to me, I landed two hard punches in his jaw and gut. The knife clattered to the floor. When he reached for it, the heel of my boot smashed down on his wrist, grinding the heel into the back of his hand. As he cried out in pain, I brought my leg up to kick him hard in the chin. He went spiraling back.

I nailed him with two hard punches to the gut and then to the jaw. Blood spattered over my knuckles and onto my hands. I grabbed him by the hair and began slamming his face into the stove. When he finally slumped over, signaling I had beaten him unconscious, I released his hair and shoved him onto the floor.

At the sound of a whimper, I whirled around. Alex must’ve woken up sometime while I was beating the scum who had dared to attack her. When I met her eyes, they were wide with fear. I took a few steps toward her and held up my hands. “Alex, it’s okay. It’s just me. No one is going to hurt you anymore.”

When I reached for her, she shrieked and shifted away from me. I didn’t know what kind of f*cking shock she was in. I had expected her to fall into my arms. At that moment, Rev and Bishop, along with Case and Mac, came busting into the house from different entrances.

“House and perimeter are clear,” Case informed me.

“Good.”

“So it was just that one f*cker?” Mac asking, motioning to the man crumpled on the kitchen floor.

“Yeah. Hopefully the piece of shit is down for a while.” Glancing back at Alex, I said, “But I don’t know about her.”

“She in shock?” Mac asked.

I nodded. “Won’t let me near her. I think it’s something about seeing me beating the hell out of the man.”

Case nodded. “She’s spooked about you.”

“Wash your hands and face,” Rev ordered. I almost told him to go f*ck himself until I caught a glance at my reflection in the stainless-steel refrigerator. I realized then how I frightening I must look to her with blood spattered on my shirt and face, not to mention that my hands, all the way up to my elbows, were coated in it.