The three-hour journey was broken up by two breaks at a pitstop. It was late already, none of us had been sleeping right anyway, and Giulia was sore after what that fucker had put her through. We each downed a large cup of coffee which, of course, necessitated the next stop.
Fucking coffee.
Lancaster’s little sister didn’t realize how lucky she’d been coming across me. As Road Captain of the Satan’s Sinners MC, it was my fucking job to lead my brothers into chaos. She hadn’t just caught the eye of any brother, she’d caught mine.
But then, looking like she did, I knew every fucker with a dick had seen her walk into the bar when she had. No one could have failed to spot the elegance she exuded. Everything about her screamed money. More than that, it screamed ‘hands off,’ which of course, was more of a challenge than anything else. Especially to a fucker like me.
The coordinates to our end destination were on my phone as I led us to hell, but along the way I thought about her, thought about how she’d looked around Daytona like it was dog crap on her expensive heels. Then, I thought about the vulnerability in her eyes when I’d had to help her breathe through her panic. At first, I just thought she was scared of me. Lots of country clubbers approached the MC, wanting to get laid. Wanting to get fucked hard by the local scum. I’d thought she was one of them until Cody had shared her intentions with us, then I’d learned otherwise.
She’d entered my world with a purpose.
A purpose that saw me driving straight through the heart of New Jersey and close to the Pennsylvanian border. The reason it was so far from the MC was because of a windy motherfucker of a road that brought us to the town itself and took a goddamn age to traverse.
Stewartsheim, according to Google anyway, was home to less than three hundred souls. I had to assume the women being held against their will weren’t included in the census so, yeah, more like three hundred plus.
My mouth twisted into a grimace as we approached the township. Lancaster’s sister had given me fucking coordinates. How the hell she knew them, I didn’t know, but I wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially when we went off road, driving onto a field, and approaching a body of water I had to assume was a reservoir, seeing as we were in the middle of the goddamn country, and I didn’t know about any lakes in this part of the state.
The early morning sun made the body of water gleam and glitter where it hit, but it was still dark enough for me to see that, in the distance, there were rows of homes where the good folks of Stewartsheim lived, and who were slowly starting to wake up.
The coordinates took us past the township, past the reservoir—if that’s what it was—and onto slightly higher ground that was surrounded by trees.
When we reached our destination, I didn’t even fucking realize it. The sun had started its rise, sure, but we were surrounded by a chaos of trees that kept us in the shadows. Only when I braked to a halt did my brothers join me, and Nyx was the one who called out, “Where the fuck are we? Why did we stop?”
“These are the coordinates,” I stated firmly, peering at the map and wondering if Siri had failed me. Again.
“Looks like that bitch was toying with us,” Steel muttered.
I glowered at him, aware he’d see my expression because of the glow from my phone. He grunted at the sight, and I bit off, “We can’t see for shit. There could be a fucking creepy ass cabin right in front of us and we wouldn’t know it was there.”
“We have our lights on,” Steel retorted, as he folded his arms across his chest.
Fucker looked like he was settling in for a fight.
I opened my mouth to give him what he was asking for, then Giulia whispered, “Did you hear that?”
She sounded shaken, and I knew the difference. She hadn’t been around the clubhouse that long, but she was a weirdo who I quite appreciated. She was snarky, usually a bitch, and had a wicked right hook. I actually liked that she’d managed to bust her stepfather’s ballsack because with a fucker like Nyx in her bed, she’d need to be ready for anything.
Not that he’d hurt her, but living our life the way we did? Shit got real and weird, fast.
“What is it, babe?” Nyx rumbled, his voice low. His leathers squeaked as he twisted to face her, giving her all his attention.
The second he did, she released a sigh, like she could breathe or something because he was looking at her, seeing her. I wasn’t sure why that would help, but it did. Hell, it had helped Lancaster’s sister this evening too. Breathing with her, calming her down, it had felt oddly natural. But then, I’d done it often enough with my ma, helping her climb out of her panic-fogged stupor, for me to be at ease with it.
“I don’t know,” Giulia admitted. “It was like a cry.”
“Probably the wind,” Steel muttered, earning himself a glare from both me and Nyx as well this time.
“Why are you trying to be awkward?” I groused. “You want them found as much as we do.”
He gritted his teeth. “‘Course I fuckin’ do.”
“Then don’t be so damn difficult.” I turned my focus to Giulia once more. “I didn’t hear anything. The bike’s engine is still whistling in my ears.”
“Mine too,” she admitted, “and it was faint.” She reached up, tugging slightly in a way that made me realize Nyx had somehow managed to grab a hold of both her hands. She ran the one he released over her face and muttered, “Maybe I’m losing my mind.”
Nyx snorted. “No way, baby. You’re not losing shit. I’ll find you every fucking time. You hear me?”
Her lips curved in a dry smile, and she surprised me by raising their joined hands and brushing her mouth over his knuckles. That small act of tenderness probably gained more of a reaction from me and Steel than her getting naked would have. Women didn’t do shit like that around us, but Giulia had because, it figured, she wasn’t like any of the women we usually had at the clubhouse.
And weirder still?
Nyx didn’t mind.
He didn’t pull back. Didn’t pull away. Didn’t even shoot us embarrassed looks.
Fuck, he loved her.
He actually fucking loved her.
I mean, I guess it made sense. He’d given her his brand, she wore his patch. But still. I hadn’t thought about love. Love wasn’t a thing in this world of ours.
On edge at what I was witnessing, I kept quiet. I didn’t want to be on the end of Nyx’s fist tonight, not when there might be some women who needed our help around here. Last thing they needed was to see their saviors bruised and bloodied after getting into a stupid fistfight. But I wanted to speak. Fuck, I wanted to ask questions.
How did it feel to be in love?
Was it weird? Was it nice? I’d never felt anything like that myself and I was curious, even if I probably shouldn’t be. Badass bikers didn’t fall in love…supposedly. Nyx had, though. And shit, he was the biggest, baddest motherfucker I knew. Demons would cower before Nyx, that was how messed up he was.
The shit I’d seen him do to those sick fucks who messed with kids?
Yeah, I couldn’t see Satan himself not feeling squeamish at the shit Nyx did in his spare time.
Giulia sighed, catching my attention once more, and I saw that their hands were lowered and she’d pressed her forehead to Nyx’s arm. Was she crying?