Sentinel - Devil Riders MC Book 1 (MC Romance Novel with FREE Bonus Novel!) (12 page)

The job, doing it, was going to give him a big push. His life would be different when the dust cleared, assuming he still clung to his. His growing feelings for Chrissy complicated everything. Without her, none of that would matter. But she was there.

And now he couldn’t blame her for thinking the worst. He brushes her off and goes up to his apartment with another woman who is obviously available. Just business. As if he’d believe that if she went into a back room with a hot guy.

Saying it wasn’t true would just be playing the fool. You don’t plead innocent when no one has accused you of anything—it makes you seem guilty.

He never had wanted to share his concerns with anyone so much. He was torn between wanting to lay it all for her, and being glad she was pissed at him. If she walked away… well, then she’d be safe. She’d never have to deal with the kind of uncertainty that lay ahead if she was with him.

How did you protect the one person you wanted most by your side when you headed into trouble?

You couldn’t. Experience had taught him that you couldn’t protect people, not for certain. He’d never taken on bodyguard jobs because if someone wanted to kill a client and they knew what they were doing, there wasn’t much you could do to prevent it, short of locking the target in a metal box with twenty-four hour surveillance. And even that could fail. No, you could lend support, you could try to cover their ass, but anyone on the field could be taken out. It didn’t have to even be on purpose. A stray round that hit them was as deadly as one carefully aimed. He’d learned that the hard way.

* * * *

CHRISSY

“I’ll expect to hear from you shortly.”

The woman’s voice echoed down the stairs ahead of her, and Chrissy looked to see her coming out of the stairway, looking pleased with herself.

Seeing Rafe go up to his room with her, this svelte, enigmatic woman, had given Chrissy a knot in the pit of her stomach. The woman might be older, but she was hot. For a moment she wondered if Rafe preferred older women. She’d heard some men did.

Since she’d started at the bar Rafe had mostly ignored the women who came in. And she had paid attention. She noticed what Rafe noticed. Her emotions made her do stupid things like that.

And then they had taken that wild ride and Chrissy knew she’d fallen head over heels for Rafe. Everything about him excited her, from the way he controlled his powerful motorcycle as it flew over the wild asphalt with her clutching to him, to the way he made mad and passionate love to her. He had devoured her body, exhausted her with his explosive passion. She’d never had a lover be so wonderfully rough with her, nor so incredibly tender.

She’d thought they had something special. He’d told her she was special. Now, seeing this, she wondered, for the first time, what that meant to him. He’d said he was doing business with that blonde. Even if he was, even if that’s all he intended, up there in his room, on his bed, it could have concluded with something more.

If it had, if he had fucked this woman, what did that mean?

She didn’t know.

Why hadn’t he come down?

The woman walked to the bar looking like a person who was in charge of things, confident, and, annoyingly satisfied.

“A bourbon,” she said as she perched on a bar stool.

Chrissy poured the drink and slid it over.

“Rafe’s quite a guy.”

Chrissy didn’t want to talk to her, but she felt she had to.

“Everyone seems to think so.”

“I’d guess women think that more than men, although he’s a leader type. But the danger vibe he gives off is kind of sexy.” She drank her bourbon and put the glass down. “You like that type. More than the type. You like Rafe.”

“If you say so.”

She smiled. “I need his services for a time, bartender. I’m hiring him and some friends. That’s all.”

Chrissy refilled the glass. “This is on me.”

The woman looked surprised, but she picked up the glass. “You have class.”

“You go ahead and do your business, whatever it is sweetheart. When it’s over, don’t ever come back.”

She drank the shot down. “Why? Would you kick my ass?”

“Exactly that.”

The woman stared at her. “Rafe knows how to pick them. Honey, I have no intention of fighting you. I don’t think you’d win, but I’ll be moving on when things wrap up.”

“Good.”

The woman winked, got up and left.

“She ain’t his type,” Trigger said, sitting off to one side.

Chrissy laughed. “Let’s see… long legs, nice tits and ass, sexy attitude. I think you’re bullshitting me, Trigger.”

“I’m not saying the woman isn’t hot. I’m just saying that Rafe has moved on to a different class of woman. If he wanted, if he let the girls know he was looking, he’d have several nicer than that hanging on him.”

“Is that supposed to make me feel good?” She knew that was exactly how Trigger meant it. But the idea that Rafe was a magnet for other women just jumbled her already mixed up feelings about whatever was going down.

“What is this business that’s going on, Trig?”

He gave her a startled look. “What business?”

“Rafe said the woman was here to talk business.”

Trigger tried to look unconcerned and failed miserably. “I don’t know a thing, Chrissy. Honest, I don’t. If that’s what Rafe said, then that’s what it was. He doesn’t tell me about it.”

Her friend looked cornered and she felt sorry for him. “I didn’t mean to put you in the middle of anything, Trigger.”

His relief was palpable. “I’d tell you if I knew anything.”

She gave Trigger a beer and moved away, giving him an excuse to get back to a table and away from her questions. A few minutes later, Trish came down and walked to the cooler.

“It’s your day off.”

“I just came down for a couple beers. I’m watching zombie movies and it’s thirsty work. Who was that woman in the apartment?”

“Mandy something. Rafe said it was business.”

“And you don’t believe him. You think he’s screwing somebody else, maybe trying to put some distance between you because you two got too close, too fast for him?”

“I don’t know.”

“Look, you two might not be a match made in heaven, but you have a thing for him. And I was being a jerk before. I know he likes you. The thing about Rafe that’s different from most of these sons-of-bitches is that when he cares about somebody, he doesn’t let his pecker distract him from a good thing. Even if he lost control and banged the shit out of her, he’d feel so guilty you’d have him forever.”

“You can be so poetic at times, Trish,” she laughed.

Trish smiled. “That’s me. Trish the poet. Scratch the surface and you’ll find a fucking romantic.”

“Speaking of which, Johnny seemed awful heartbroken that you had the night off and hadn’t warned him.”

A smiled flickered over the girl’s lips. “Johnny? What’d he say?”

“Nothing really, but you know that two things men don’t hide well are a stiff cock and heartbreak.”

“They do need to suffer once in a while; it’s good for them.”

“So you didn’t tell him for his own good?”

“Just to keep him from taking things for granted.”

Trish grabbed her beer and headed back to her room, but stopped and came back. “Easiest way to tell where you stand with Rafe is to just go up to his room after closing.”

The thought had occurred to Chrissy too. “I have school tomorrow morning. I need some sleep.”

“Rafe told me once that learning to enjoy life meant getting your priorities right. Now my big brother has told me a lot of shit over the years, especially since our folks were killed in a traffic accident and he decided that made him my de facto dad, but that one… that one makes a hell of a lot of sense.”

And then she left.

* * * *

RAFE

After a time Rafe understood the problem and knew that all the thinking in the world wasn’t going to solve his dilemma. He had made commitments, to his buddies, to Chrissy, and to Mandy Evans. The idea of honoring some of those felt better than others, but that was life too. So he’d play out the hand that he’d been dealt and deal with the fallout when it came.

Near closing time, he went back to the bar and had a beer. “Coming up after work tonight?” he asked Chrissy.

“No,” she said. “Classes are starting up again and I have school in the morning. I need to get a little sleep and my books are at home.”

It was a reasonable excuse, but he thought it sounded like an excuse. “Is that the only reason?”

She stared at him. “Not entirely.”

“Then?”

“You’re a bit preoccupied with your business, and your client.”

Mandy.
She was coming between them.

“I’ve meant everything I’ve said to you. Including the fact,
especially
the fact, that the only thing going on with her is business.”

She nodded. “Okay, but I’m still adjusting to things. I’m barely settled into this job, and things are happening awfully fast. Whatever is going on between us, beside hot sex, I mean, is really turning things upside down. To be honest, I need a little time to think about what I want, what I need.” She touched his arm. “It is great being with you. You are fantastic, and I want to see where that goes. But whatever this business of yours is, it’s a distraction. And maybe that’s a good thing.”

“The business is, unfortunately, important.”

“I believe you. But how can we find out what we have, or don’t have, until you aren’t distracted? If I stayed tonight, it would just be about sex. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it might make things more confusing and I want things to be clear for both of us.”

He nodded. She had her mind made up and arguing wasn’t going to help. She was right, and he couldn’t tell her more.

“Fine then. See you tomorrow?”

She smiled, clearly relieved he hadn’t pressed her, but he knew she was right. His own head was spinning, and he hadn’t even thought about how confusing it all was for her. They needed time.

He hoped they had enough.

He swallowed the last of his beer and slid off the stool. With one last glance around the clubhouse, he made his way back to his room.

I'm getting to damn old for this shit.

He climbed into bed and lay there for a while, sleep proving to be annoyingly elusive, as usual before a job. Ideas and worries and plans were racing through his head, and he struggled to force them down, make them wait until the light of morning. Then he could confront them. He would grab his worries by the throat and take them to the gym and fry them in a ferocious workout.

And then Chrissy’s face floated into his mind's eye. Her nervous smile, her beautiful flaming-red hair, and that personality to match, that spark she tried to keep hidden.

Rafe found himself wondering about her. She never talked about her past, but he could tell that something had happened to her, or with her. She was smart, sophisticated, and angry. She was also vulnerable. He’d read that those last two, a volatile mixture of anger and vulnerability was common in victims of abuse. She’d been almost too grateful for being rescued from her attacker. He wondered if there had been times when she needed help and there’d been no one there for her. No one watching her back.

That would explain why she blended in so quickly, adopting the Devil Riders as her new family. They were mean and cranky, ill-tempered and dangerous, but she treated them like family, as if she had nobody else.

He wished he could drop everything and just be what she needed. He’d never met anyone he felt so comfortable with, so drawn to. Yet he couldn’t stop being Rafe. Being Rafe had got him into trouble and most times, out of it again, more or less whole.

He laughed. Had he ever been whole? He wasn’t sure. He knew he’d walk the edge, carrying out Mandy’s job, whatever the cost to him. Even though it might mean losing Chrissy. Becoming someone else might keep her around for a time, but if she cared about him, she’d grow tired of a shell of who he
truly
was. That would be even worse. He couldn’t stand having her look at him, wanting to see Rafe, and seeing something else.

His thoughts were painful, preventing plans from forming. Bits and pieces about the job, buying the guns without getting everyone killed, were blurred together with wishing that he’d never taken Chrissy on that ride, never made love to her. He could’ve spared her the pain of drawing close and then pulling away, spared himself that pain as well.

But the thought of never making love to her would have been worse. Wanting her and not knowing how she’d feel when it came down to the moment of truth, where their bodies came together… he couldn’t stand that.

Eventually, Rafe fell into a restless sleep, but not until the dawn light was creeping up the window pane, casting a faint light into the room.

CHAPTER NINE

CHRISSY

After a night of little sleep, making it several days without a good rest, Chrissy decided to skip school. Not that school would be an ordeal, but it would keep her from thinking about her situation. She had decisions to make. She enjoyed her classes, but somehow they didn’t seem real or relevant to her life. She had more important things to deal with in the here and now.

Besides, if she went to school, she’d have no excuse to skip Justin’s tutoring session. He’d wanted to have one the first day back from Spring break. “To get a good start,” he’d said.

The idea of dealing with him nauseated her. She’d told herself that he’d calm down and they could start fresh, but in her heart she knew better. Justin was a first-class prick. Always was and always would be.

He’d be expecting her, and she considering calling him and tell him she was giving it a miss. Just calling would open a bag of worms. He’d want to know why she was canceling. He’d act as if she owed him an explanation. She wasn’t up to dealing with that.

So she ate a big breakfast, then sat in a hot tub and read a good book. She had limited resources for pampering herself, but those were available. And the bath relaxed her, so that when she stretched out on her bed, she fell asleep.

This time her sleep was deep. This time she dreamed of Rafe, and the bar, and Trigger and Chopper drinking, of Trish tormenting Johnny. And then she dreamed of closing the bar, shutting the door behind the drunk bikers, and going up to Rafe’s room, where he waited for her. She dreamed of his hands on her, undressing her, and making love to her.

When she woke it was afternoon. She needed to eat something and go to work.

At first she was unhappy. The day was mostly gone and she had decided nothing.

But you have.

She’d decided pretty much everything. She was done with school. School was a hook into who she’d been. For years going to school represented her way out of a life that was stifling. But her life wasn’t stifling any more. It was vital. It could be hard, but school would never make living easy either. And she wasn’t studying to be anything in particular, although she’d thought about being a teacher. She’d never been able to see herself teaching. She pictured herself with a roomful of Justin Willbanks. It would be hell.

She needed to break away from that too. From school, from Justin. Just walk away. She wouldn’t quit or drop out. She’d just move on.

It wouldn’t be easy or painless, but she had a focus. Here and now she had Rafe—as he was, however he was. She didn’t want to be distracted from enjoying that.

* * * *

JUSTIN

The bar was about as seedy as the investigator had told him it was. It still surprised him. Justin had read about places like this—biker bars. The idea of Chrissy going into one, much less working here, didn’t fit with how he saw her. Sitting in his car across the street, watching the bikers and an occasional girl arrive, he couldn’t see how she would stand being there.

And he knew she worked there. He wondered what the hell she did.

When she hadn’t come back to school it caught him off guard. She hadn’t dropped out—she was still listed as a student, but she hadn’t shown up at any of her classes. He had the investigator check and she wasn’t in a hospital. She wasn’t in the morgue. She just wasn’t at school.

After working through scenarios of things that might have happened to her, he decided she was staying away from him. It surprised him that she would go to such lengths to avoid him. She might try to drop the tutoring, but a brain like her wouldn’t miss school unless it was something important. The idea made him smile. She didn’t like him, but her trying so hard to avoid him meant he was important in her life. That was sweet.

Her not showing up at school had put a crimp in his plans to bed her. The office wouldn’t give him her home address. Frustrated, he went back to the investigator he’d used to dig up her past. The woman had done a good job of finding out about Benny Ashcroft, about how she’d run away from him. The girl seemed to be a runner. Justin liked that. It meant she was weak, and unprotected. When he trapped her, she’d panic. He could deal with panic, use it against her.

Justin had told the detective that Chrissy worked in a truck-stop diner, but it turned out that was old news. For a few bucks, Justin got the update—Chrissy had taken a job in some fucking bar in a crappy side of town. It was the only trace he had of the bitch, but it would be enough. A runner like her could be spooked. He’d go see her, confront her with what he knew. She’d have to choose—she could leave with him, and do whatever he wanted or she’d get a visit from Benny. From what he’d learned, the idea of Benny finding out where she was should scare the shit out of her.

He didn’t want to tell Benny Ashcroft about her. Benny was psycho. The investigator knew of a couple of girls he’d beaten half to death after Chrissy ran off. Benny had bought off any charges, and it seemed he was steaming mad about Chrissy leaving. He’d hired some goons to track her down, but they weren’t as effective as Justin’s detective, so Benny had put a fucking reward out for information about where she was. So, if Chrissy turned him down, Benny would pay him to find out where she was. He didn’t like thinking about what Benny would do to her, but on the other hand, if she was such a bitch as to piss on his offer, she deserved what she got.

He had the address and he drove to the bar right after dark and parked across the street to wait. He sat in his car watching for a sign of her and growing impatient. He told himself that she had to show up sooner or later, assuming that bitchy investigator gave him the real story.

He listened to the radio for a time, tapping his fingers and watching the door. A few people, disreputable types that came in on motorcycles, went in the front, so he knew the place was open. After a while he decided that she must already be inside. That screwed his plan. Seeing the kind of crowd that went in, he couldn’t just stroll in and have it out with her. He wouldn’t fit in at all.

“A back door,” he laughed. A bar had to have a back door—a place that the beer was delivered. He could go in the back and wait until she came back for something. He didn’t know that much about bars, not places like this, but he knew they’d keep stores in back, and the help would have to go back there sooner or later.

As little as he liked the idea of walking around this neighborhood, he was determined to accomplish his mission.

He got out of his car and walked nervously around the building, through a dark alley and up to the back. When he came around the corner, he congratulated himself. Right in front of him there was another alley and a delivery door. And, beside the door, under a light, sat Chrissy’s old Honda. She was there.

Now the question was how to get to her. He was close. He just needed to get in the bitch’s face, let her know that he knew her secret—and the price for keeping it. He licked his lips thinking about the wonderful ways he’d use that leverage for his pleasure. She didn’t have to like him or be nice to him, but the bitch was going to fuck him, and any way he wanted.

But she was inside and he was outside and Justin had never been in a place like this. He’d never had a reason to be in a biker bar. It looked filthy from where he stood, and the company was gross. He couldn’t imagine wanting to be in there. Besides he’d stick out. A classy guy, an uptown type would attract a lot of attention. He couldn’t just walk up to her and say what he intended to say and until she knew what leverage he had, she wouldn’t go off with him.

He heard a woman’s voice. Maybe his luck had changed. He moved into the shadow of the building and worked his way toward the back door.

He saw her through the open sliding door. She was working in the back room, carrying empty beer cases, stacking them, and sweeping the floor. So
this
was better than teaching him?

It didn’t seem he’d ever have a better chance. He stepped out of the shadows on the loading dock. “Hey, Chrissy, I was looking for you.”

She stopped at the sound of his voice. She stared at him, then gave him an odd smile. “Hello Justin.”

* * * *

As Justin watched Chrissy walk toward him he sensed that something was terribly wrong. She was coming straight up to him, acting like she wasn’t even fucking surprised that he was there, at this fucking bar. Not shocked that he’d managed to find her.

He looked her over, liking the way she looked in a tee shirt and shorts. “Nice office attire. “

A few feet from him, she stopped. “What do you want?”

He didn’t like the confidence in her voice. This wasn’t the Chrissy he expected. She had an edge to her. But that was okay. He knew how to knock that shit out of her. “I want
you
.”

“Get lost.”

“Before you brush me off you better know what it will cost you.”

She laughed. “Cost me?”

“I know your secret.”

She laughed. “I confessed, Justin. The Sunday school teacher was able to put the money back for me and made it right.”

She was tormenting him. “Yeah well I know about Benny Ashcroft. And I know things you don’t, like the fact that he is so pissed you ran off that he put a price on your head? Your ass, actually.”

“A price?”

“He hired thugs to find you and he’s offered a reward for bringing you to him. Of course he’s been looking in all the wrong places and it’s a big city. You’ve been keeping a low profile, and hiding out with scum he’d figure you would be afraid of.”

“What’s your point, Justin?”

“You know what I want. I’ve been telling you. You need to come with me and let me fuck you any way I want.”

“Why would I do that?”

“To keep me from telling Benny where you are. Like I said, he has thugs. I tell him where you are, and he’ll send them over.”

“And if you do that, you never get me.”

“True. That would be a shame. But you screwed me around—treated me like shit, and girls don’t get to do that. Not to me. Either I get to show you what you are, or I tell Benny and let him teach you a lesson about power.”

“I didn’t screw you. I refused to screw you.”

She looked so calm that it infuriated him. He wanted to wring her neck… after he ripped off her clothes and fucked her. In fact, seeing as they were in a dark loading dock, it dawned on him that there was no reason not to do exactly that. Well, not break her neck, but he could take what he wanted. If she didn’t get the picture by then, he could beat the crap out of her and go home and call Benny.

The idea started sounding good. Hell, after he had her, why
not
call Benny. Once he’d humiliated her and used her he wouldn’t want her around, talking at him, putting him down. Suddenly that sounded even better than his original idea. He reached out and grabbed her by the wrist, pulling her close. She smelled good and he liked the look of concern that came over her.

“You should start to worry. You are just a cute piece of ass, Chrissy, nothing more. A chick like you doesn’t turn me down without there being consequences, and it’s time to pay the piper.”

He grabbed her tee shirt and started ripping it off her. She screamed and he let go of the shirt long enough to hit her with the back of his hand. She spun away, her wrist coming out of his hand, and he lunged for her again.

And he was stopped cold. Something big grabbed him around the waist and squeezed him. He felt his eyes bulge in their sockets. Chrissy was watching as whatever monster it was crushed the life out of him.

“Don’t kill him, Trigger. He isn’t worth killing.”

Justin heard a snap and he screamed with the pain that shot through him. “Just a rib or two, Chrissy,” a deep voice said. “Please. I won’t kill him. He’s gonna wish I had, but I’ll even see he gets home okay. You get back inside. Those bikers need beer in a bad way.”

Another woman and a biker came into Justin’s range of view as the one holding him dropped him on the asphalt and kicked him, his hard-toed boot sending a shockwave of pain through Justin’s back.

“What’s this?”

“Just some old evil demon from Chrissy’s past. We gotta do an exorcism. You get Chrissy inside, Trish. Me and Chopper gonna take a ride in a nice Mercedes I saw parked out front. My bet is it belongs to this little boy and I promised to take him home.”

Another boot caught Justin in the chest, knocking the wind out of him, and then he was vaguely aware of being carried over someone’s shoulder like he weighed nothing at all. When they reached his car, the man stood him on his feet and slapped his face as someone else undid his pants and took them off him. “Just need the keys, kid.”

They stripped him naked and threw his clothes in a dumpster, then he was manhandled into the back seat of the car. As his attacker got in front, he shifted and found his head resting in someone’s lap. He looked up to see a huge face smiling down at him happily. The man tangled huge fingers in his hair and pulled. Justin managed to let out a scream, but it was cut off when the man chopped him across his Adam’s apple.