Los Perdidos: The Novel (Sons of Glory Motorcycle Club Romance) (9 page)

As I stared down the barrel of Liana’s gun, fear shot through my veins, cold as ice. Her expression was wild-eyed as she looked at me, crazy with anger and jealous rage. She had clearly been watching Smoke’s house for a while, waiting. She had known I was here all along, and she was here for one reason and one reason alone.
I have to think quickly
, I realized as I fought to push down my rising panic. I had to keep her from shooting me immediately. Every second I gained was a small chance I wouldn’t die here, in Smoke’s house, at the hands of his angry, cheating ex-girlfriend.

My mind raced to find a way to stall for time.
What does she want more than anything?
What could I say that would stop her from whatever it is she’s planning on doing to me?
What would make her back down from wanting me dead?
As I cast about for options, I realized with a start that the answer was right there in front of me. It was the reason she hated me in the first place: I was with the man she wanted. Looking her straight in the eyes, I told her exactly what she wanted to hear. “I don’t know why I’m your problem anymore,” I said, making my tone as bitter and dejected as possible. I fought to maintain contact with her wild, furious gaze. “Smoke just broke up with me.”

“What?” Liana cried as her mouth began to curve into a surprised but happy smile. Her eyes widened, and then narrowed as she gave me a suspicious glare. “What the fuck are you talking about?”

“He said I was only a quick fuck to him,” I said, making my voice break with emotion. “He said there was never any chance for anything serious between us. That I’m out of my depth.” As I spoke these words, a spike of pain sliced through me as I realized that they were all true. Essentially, Smoke and I had just broken up for real, for all I knew. Though he hadn’t said it in so many words, he had basically said things between us couldn’t work.
Not that we had ever really even been a couple officially, anyway,
I reminded myself. Everything I had just said to Liana wasn’t really a lie -- it was how Smoke actually felt. Like an idiot, I had fallen in love with a man who had just used me for sex. To him, everything that had happened between us was just a cheap thrill with a gullible college girl. In fact, for all I knew, he just might go back to Liana after all, now that I would be out of the picture. She had history with him, and she was certainly more his ‘type’…

My mind was jolted out of my unhappy thoughts as I saw Liana’s mouth curl into a sneer of triumph.
For fuck’s sake, Jen, stop thinking about your broken damn heart and focus on the fact that this woman has a gun pointed at you!
The anxiety of being held captive by Smoke’s psycho ex was churning my thoughts into a haze of confusion. I had to keep my wits about me if I was going to get myself out of this somehow. As my brain spun in circles, I dimly realized that Liana was talking at me now. I struggled to listen to her words and keep my mind from reeling from the stress. “Ha,” she sneered, “I knew Smoke would never go for you. You’re just a fuckin’ tight ass bitch. You could never hold the attention of a real man like him.”

“I -- I guess you’re right,” I nodded, coaxing her along despite the pain her words caused me. “He said that seeing you tonight made him realize he wanted a real woman, not just a little girl.” I consciously used the exact same words Liana had flung at me in the bar, hoping they would connect with her. They seemed to do the trick, at least temporarily. A tiny flicker of hope appeared in her expression, and I watched her lower the gun, almost imperceptibly, but definitely by an inch or so. Then her jaw clenched, her eyes narrowing again in as she looked at me in suspicion. “Yeah? Well, if Smoke broke up with you, what the fuck are you still doing here in his house, then, bitch?”

In the back of my mind, a tiny, snarky voice wanted to respond that I was not the only woman in Smoke’s house after he had clearly broken up with her, but I wisely suppressed it. As I stood there, trying to think of a response, a flicker of an idea came to me in a flash, and I ran with it. “Smoke got a call from someone in the MC and had to leave for some club business. He told me to be gone when he got back.” I glanced outside in the direction of the driveway. “But I don’t have a car here. I just called a cab to come get me.” I hoped that of she thought someone would be coming soon, she might get scared and leave.

My words had their desired effect. Liana’s gaze faltered. She glanced toward the street, as if expecting to see my fictitious cab pull up at any moment. Looking back at me, her eyes narrowed in hate. “When did you call it?” she said through gritted teeth.

“Just now – right before you showed up,” I lied.

She looked at me expressionlessly. “Cancel it.”

“What?”

“Call and cancel the fucking cab!” she yelled, the gun wavering wildly in her grip. “And no fucking funny stuff!”

There was no way out of this but to pretend to call the cab company and cancel it. My hands trembled as I reached slowly into my back pocket for the phone. “Okay, I’m just reaching for my phone, now.” My voice shook with fear as I spoke, despite my best efforts to keep it sounding natural. I made obvious, deliberate movements, turning my backside toward her so she could see what I was doing. As my hand closed over the smooth metal and plastic case, another idea came to me. Working as hard as I could to remain calm, I flipped quickly to my call history and pressed on Smoke’s name. The phone dialed, and as I listened I prayed silently to myself that he would answer. He did, on the third ring. “What?” he barked gruffly. I didn’t know if his tone was because I had interrupted him, or because he was really done with me.

“Uh, hi, this is Jen Chapman?” My voice faltered as I spoke into the phone.
Please, Smoke, please realize I’m in trouble. Please come help me.
“I just called your company a couple of minutes ago and ordered a cab, but I need to cancel it. Something’s come up and I can’t use it now.”

“Flame, what the fuck are you talking about?” Smoke’s confused voice asked me.

My eyes were riveted on Liana as I spoke carefully into the phone. “Yes, that’s right. I was going to use the cab, but something’s come up now and I can’t leave.”

“What are you saying?” he began, and then his tone shifted from irritation to one of wariness. “Wait, are you okay? Is there someone at the house? Are you in danger?”

Clearly he had understood; I forced myself not to convey any emotion, relief or otherwise. “Yes, that’s right,” I answered.

“Fuck. Hang on, baby, I’m coming,” Smoke said urgently. “Stay calm.”

“Thank you,” I replied in a neutral tone. And then, even though the very last thing I wanted to do was cut the only lifeline of communication I had with the one person who could help me, I forced myself to press “end” and put the phone back in my pocket. “There,” I nodded at Liana. “No more cab.”

“Okay.” Liana relaxed visibly at my words. She still had the gun trained on me, but I could tell by the way she held it that the weight of it was starting to fatigue her arms. At the sight of this, a sudden flood of exhilarating hope filled me. Since she hadn’t killed me yet, maybe I had a small chance of getting through this alive. My mind continued to work frantically as I strove to keep my face and voice as calm as possible. “Smoke’s not going to be done with his club business for a while,” I said. “If you wanted to let me go, I could leave right now and you could hang out here and wait for him to get back.”

Liana’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” she sneered. “Like I’m gonna let you leave and go run to the police, you stupid bitch.” She shifted her stance to relieve the discomfort from the weight of the gun, and trained it on me again with renewed determination.

I held up my hands in a conciliatory gesture. “I would never go to the police. I wouldn’t tell anyone about this,” I said soothingly. “Why would I want to? All I want is to get out of here, now that I know Smoke doesn’t want me anymore. I’ll go back to my life, and you two can work things out together.”

“How the fuck are you gonna leave, since your car ain’t here?”

“I’ll walk,” I said, shrugging. “I don’t mind.” Would she really let me go? I knew it was a long shot. But at least she was talking about it. And with any luck, Smoke would be here soon. As I silently wished for him to come as soon as possible, I realized in sudden horror that if Liana heard Smoke’s motorcycle drive up while I was still here, she was likely to do something impulsive. I hoped fervently that he had the sense not to signal his arrival.

Liana shook her head at my suggestion. “No fuckin’ way,” she said. “I ain’t letting you leave this house.” She perched herself on the armrest of an easy chair and set her jaw, the gun still leveled at my chest. Although I was still unnerved by the loaded weapon, and even more so by the crazy bitch pointing it at me, I was beginning to see that Liana didn’t seem to have a real plan. She must have told herself that she was going to kill me as soon as she saw me, but that moment had passed. Now she was just winging it. Since I knew I couldn’t count on Smoke to rescue me in time, I needed to capitalize on her indecision and try to convince her of what to do.

Adopting my most reasonable tone, I continued: “But if I left now, who would believe me if I told them you pointed a gun at me? If I called the police, they would come here and see you and Smoke together. They’d just assume I was a crazy ex-girlfriend, making up stories.” I winced a little as I said this, hoping she wouldn’t take the last remark as a reference to herself. Luckily, she seemed deluded enough not to notice. She cocked her head a little, thinking, and I could tell she was actually considering my words, so I decided to push a little harder. “That’s what Smoke would think, too. There’s no way Smoke is going to defend me against you, especially to the cops. He just wants me gone,” I said matter-of-factly.

This seemed to have an effect on her. “He knows we were meant to be together,” Liana murmured, almost to herself. “He’s mad because I cheated on him once or twice, but he knows that didn’t mean anything. I’m his old lady.”

“That’s right,” I coaxed. “You’re the one he wants.” My voice caught in my throat as I said it. Even if what I was saying was a lie, it still didn’t change the fact that he didn’t want me, either.

I could see that Liana was starting to waver. “Look,” I said. “You don’t want me to be here when Smoke gets back. You want it to be just the two of you, alone, right? So why don’t you just let me leave, so you can wait for him to come back to you? That way there’s no obstacles to your getting back together. If I’m here, he’s just going to want to know what happened. Why waste all that time trying to explain?” As I watched, Liana slowly lowered the gun. She seemed to have lost interest in threatening me. Finally, she waved it vaguely at the front door and said, “Okay, get out. Now.”

I sighed in relief and smiled reassuringly at her. I wasn’t about to wait and ask her if she was serious. “Thanks,” I said, keeping my voice calm. “I’ll go grab my things and be on my way.” Holding my breath so that I wouldn’t burst into terrified tears, I forced myself to walk slowly into Smoke’s bedroom to grab my bag. As my shaking hands reached inside it to make sure I had everything, I heard the front door slam open, a chorus of male voices suddenly shattering the silence. Spider’s angry voice boomed through the house: “God DAMN it, Liana, freeze right there, or I swear to God I will blow your fucking head off!” A moment later, his panicked shout came towards me: “Flame! Flame, where are you!”

“I’m in here!” I cried. “I’m fine!”

Smoke came crashing through the bedroom door. As soon as he saw me, he crossed the room in a bound and folded me into his arms. “Thank Christ,” he exhaled into my hair. His grip was so tight that for a moment I had trouble breathing. After a few seconds, he pulled back and reached up to my face. Gently, he tilted my face toward his and stared deeply into my eyes. “I thought you were dead…” he whispered.

“No, I’m okay,” I murmured. “That ex of yours is definitely one psycho bitch, though,” I laughed shakily.

Smoke’s mouth covered mine, his tongue probing insistently. I eagerly returned his kiss, all of my relief pouring out towards him as our bodies pressed against one another. When we finally broke apart, I was shaking and a bit dizzy. I lost my balance for a moment, and Smoke steadied me. “Shhh, you’re okay now,” he soothed.

I looked up at him and smiled reassuringly. I didn’t want him to worry about me now that I was safe. “Yeah, I’m okay. But… What about…” I asked as I nodded in the direction of the living room. Male voices, angry ones, were ordering Liana to shut up.

“Jimmy and Snake are with me,” he said quickly. “Jimmy’s got a gun on her. Don’t worry, you’re safe.”

“She had agreed to let me go,” I told him, my voice still shaking a little. “It was over, I think.”

“I don’t fucking care,” he said fiercely. “That bitch is going to pay for this. Jimmy!” he called. A male voice came from the other room. “Yeah!”

“Flame’s fine. Get that bitch out of my sight and take her to the clubhouse. I’ll deal with her later.”

“Yup!” came the reply. I heard Liana protesting as she was muscled out of the house. When I heard the screen door slam behind them, something in me snapped, and I began to tremble uncontrollably. “She…” I stammered, “she was going to kill me… She said she’d make me pay for taking you away. I told her we’d broken up… that you wanted her back… I’m sorry…”

“Sshhhh…” Smoke soothed. “You did the right thing. Thank fuck you did the right thing. That bitch is nuts. No telling what she’s capable of when she’s mad.” We were sitting on Smoke’s bed now, with his arms around me as he slowly rocked me back and forth to soothe me. A few hysterical sobs escaped me, and I began to take deep breaths to control them.