Hunted (Dauntless MC Book 1) (11 page)

Grace watched the tablet fall in the water and fizz, hoping it would give her the promised relief from the hangover she suffered.

“Oh God, what was I thinking?” She spoke aloud, not realizing she was within earshot of anyone else.

“I’ve been asking myself what you’re thinking for quite some time.”

“Don’t start, Luke.”

She rolled her eyes as she watched him enter her office uninvited and take a seat in front of her desk. She raised the glass to her lips and held her nose as she forced the medicated fizz down.

“I’m serious, Grace, you’re so much better than this. What do you see in that guy? You’re so far out of his league.”

“See… I don’t get that mentality, Luke—the whole
us and them
thing? I mean, really, are we, as professionals, supposed to see ourselves as better than the average, working class citizen?”

“There is nothing average about Dauntless motorcycle club, Grace. They bring in millions a year in illegal gun trade. Don’t even get me started on the prostitution rings and whatever drugs they may or may not be involved in. How can you date a guy who puts guns on the streets, guns that kill law-abiding citizens? Like I said, you’re so much better than that. You could get any guy you wanted, including me, and yet you settle for that loser. Why?”

Grace’s eyes cut through Luke as she pointed her manicured nail at him and yelled, “Get out of my office! Now! You may think you’re better than everyone else but I don’t think like that and you fucked up when you called my friends losers.”

Luke breathed deeply, rose from the chair reluctantly, and made his way out of her office. That had not gone the way he intended for it to go, not at all. All he could think about as he made his way down the hallway towards his office was how in the world he was going to make her see the light. It killed him to see her with that guy because, in his mind, he meant it when he told her she was so much better than
those people.

What he didn’t realize was Grace didn’t see things the same way as the people who worked in her circle did. To her, it was all about loyalty and the club had been there for her when no one else was. They had shown her what it meant to truly be a family and she had no intentions of letting that feeling of comradery go. Dauntless motorcycle club had been the only family she had ever known and she would go to bat for them until her dying day.

“Hello, hello,” Red screamed out as she pulled against the chain on her manacled leg. She looked around and tried to remember how she had gotten here. Her head pounded with pain as she made her way to the small window on the metal door. She was grateful the chain on her leg allowed enough room for her to look around. She peered out and could see that it appeared she was being held in some sort of warehouse.

She reached towards her back pocket to feel for her phone but the son of a bitch had already gotten that. Fortunately, he hadn’t gotten the camping knife she kept in her boot. That thing had all kinds of little tools on it and the instinct to survive would see to it that she found a way to utilize it to save her life.

Tears streamed down her face as she realized she was on her own. No one would come looking for her because she had no one. No family, no friends, and no Dauntless motorcycle club members would be coming to the rescue.

If she wanted to survive, she would have to do it on her own. She’d be damned if she was going down like this. She didn’t know who this crazy bastard that had abducted her was, but she did know who she was. She was a survivor.

Scooter eyed himself in the mirror as he ran his hands through his hair. Tiny’s marriage to Raven had gone off without a hitch and now everybody was out in the courtyard celebrating—everyone except the woman he wanted to see, Red.

She hadn’t returned last night and he’d gone by her apartment to look for her but she wasn’t there either. Where was she? Was she with another guy? Scooter couldn’t shake the feeling he had that the girl was in some kind of trouble.

It sat like a concrete block in his gut every time he thought about her. She seemed so lonely and sad whenever he watched her and she didn’t know he was looking.

It was evident she had no family. She had just kind of stumbled into the club one night with some outside girls that were looking to party. Tiny had offered her a job at the strip joint and Scooter would go there just to stand in a corner and watch her dance.

Nobody knew how he felt about her but he sure did. From the moment he had laid eyes on her, he wanted her. He kicked himself for being so damn shy. Any of the other brothers would have made their move by now. Though you’d never know it by looking at him, he had always been painfully shy. He was a 6’2” mass of muscle, hiding his flawless face behind his long, blonde hair. He did well watching over the club’s events from the sidelines but he had never done well with being the center of attention. It just wasn’t who he was.

The sound of a commotion pulled him from his thoughts and he rushed outside to see what was going on.

Justine rubbed the towel through her freshly showered hair. She had managed to get a night away from her partner, Derrick, for the night because he was busy working an undercover case that the agency didn’t need her on.

She made her way into the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She was looking forward to a night in front of the TV alone. A bump against the counter as she reached up into the cabinet to get a teabag brought on a memory of the night before.

Derrick had shown her a world she would have never known without him. He had all but blackmailed her into a relationship with him. Hell, who was she kidding? He
had
blackmailed her.

Unlike most men who would just ask a girl on a date and go from there, Derrick had confronted her about opening up to a convict. He had acted like he was so jealous about it. She had noticed how he watched her when he thought she wasn’t looking. She knew he liked her and she also knew she would never have anything to do with a guy like him.

The guys she had always dated before were trust fund babies. They came from society’s elite. Old money, and all that went with it, was all Justine had ever known. Her greatest rebellion had been getting a job with immigration customs enforcement. Her parents had a fit when she did so and that had been the whole reason she had done it.

Derrick was the total opposite of any man she would normally ever have anything to do with. It wasn’t that he couldn’t get a woman; it was just the opposite for him. He drew women like bees to honey with his bad boy looks. His whiskey brown eyes that smoldered when he was taking her body the way he did, along with his long, dark brown hair that he kept tied back in a ponytail holder, caused women to swoon over him. The five o’ clock shadow on his chiseled face, along with a Roman nose that fit his face perfectly, only added to his badass good looks.

He looked more like a drug dealer or a biker than he did a cop. It was what he did to her physically that did it for her though. When he looked at her, it was like he could read her thoughts and see right into the depths of her being. He was a sadist at heart and he had brought out the masochist in Justine that she never knew existed in her before him. He had changed her and she would never be the same.

The ringing of the doorbell pulled her out of her thoughts and she reached up to turn the stove off and stop the whistle of the teakettle before she made her way over to answer it.

She stood on her tiptoes and looked out to see a huge bouquet of flowers. She chuckled as she thought about Derrick standing behind them. Maybe a night with him wouldn’t be so bad after all. She opened the door, excited to see him, and never saw the needle her abductor carried. She only felt the prick of it and the warmth that was delivered to her system before the feeling of euphoria hit her. Her body slumped into the large man’s chest as he dropped the flowers on her doorstep and carried her to his van.