Rough & Rowdy (Notorious Devils #1) (34 page)

Tears stream down my face because I know—I know that if he takes me out of this warehouse, that will be it for me. Pierce won’t be able to track me down a second time, and there will be no breadcrumbs, no trails.

“That bitch betrayed me, just like I knew she would. I had hoped it would have been later, though,” he murmurs as he continues to drag me away.

Once we are outside, I look around and see all of the bikes lined up, but no men.

This is it.

He’s going to take me.

Rape me.

Torture me.

I close my eyes again and just accept my fate.

I wrap my hands around Mark’s forearms and scratch as hard as I can while I simultaneously ram my heels into his shins. If I’m going down, I’m going down with a damn fight. If not for me, then for Bear.

“You bitch,” he grunts. He turns me around and slaps me so hard that my body flies to the ground.

He then picks me up by my hair. It feels like it’s being pulled out by the roots, and I try so hard not to scream, not to draw attention to myself. One man I could possibly overtake. More? No way.

“Fight me, you stupid bitch, and I won’t be the only one fucking you when you get back to my club,” he growls before he pulls me by my hair toward the unmarked vans in front of us.

I just hope that Pierce survives.

Those are my last thoughts before I feel myself falling and landing on Mark’s body. His hold vanishes, and I quickly scramble to my feet. I look down to see a pool of blood forming underneath his head. There is a small round dot in the middle of his forehead, too.

I open my mouth to scream, but promptly close it. I can’t draw attention to myself. I need to hide. I don’t even want to think about who killed that asshole. I’m just glad he’s dead.
Thank God for answered prayers
, I think as I look around for a place to hide.

I spot a stack of crates and make my way toward them as fast as I can. By the time I reach them, I’ve decided I need to take up running or something, because I am seriously out of shape. I huff and puff and try to catch my breath, but seriously, I need to start an exercise program. I huddle down and try to make myself as small as possible. I don’t want anybody to find me.

“Where the fuck is she?” I hear Pierce roar.

I peek between the crates to see him holding a gun to the long-beard
Bastards
biker.

“Long gone, asshole,” he grins.

I watch as Pierce presses the gun against his forehead and pulls the trigger. He doesn’t even flinch. My eyes dart around, looking for anyone dangerous, but all I see are
Notorious Devils
cuts in the crowd. I let out a breath.

I stand from my hiding spot and step out, wiping my sweaty palms on my shorts before I begin to walk toward the group.

“That sick fuck was dragging her away. I shot him, but I didn’t see where LeeLee went,” Bates’ voice rings out. I decide to just run.

I run toward Pierce.

He’s standing with his hands on his hips, looking down, but Bates sees me and nudges him. When he looks up, my heart breaks. He looks devastated before complete surprise washes over his face. He opens his arms second before I leap into them. I wrap my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck as he takes a few steps back. Then I bury my face in his sweat soaked neck.

“Kentlee,” he sighs, squeezing me tightly, his hands on my ass.

“I thought I was never going to see you again,” I sob into his skin. He grunts as he holds me close.

“Let’s get the fuck outta here,” he murmurs to his men. I lift my head from his neck to look at Bates.

One night, about two years ago, Bates came home drunk off his ass and he admitted that he was a Sniper in the Marines. He killed so many people that he had lost count. He hated it. He hated the nightmares that came with it; hated the screams of the people who watched a man drop so suddenly. His nickname is Sniper, but he despises everything that was associated with it. He didn’t want to pick people off from trees or rooftops anymore. He didn’t want the nightmares. He wanted to be free. But he just killed a man. For me, he did it. He faced his demons—to save me.

I love him like I could love no other friend. He’s my family, and now he’s my savior and hero.

“Thank you,”
I mouth.

“
For you? Anything,
” he mouths back before he smiles and walks off.

“Burn this place to the ground,” Pierce calls out.

I hear a few people confirm before he sets me down and straddles his bike. Without a word, I crawl on behind him and wrap myself around his back. I hold onto his middle tightly as he takes me away from what could have been a deadly situation for us. Both of us and our love. I expect him to drive straight to the clubhouse, but he doesn’t. Instead, he drives toward our home.

“We need showers before we get our boy,” he mumbles. He turns the engine off on his bike and closes the garage door.

I follow him inside, in shock. I haven’t stopped crying, but my tears are now silent ones that just steadily stream down my face. I’m not sad, I’m relieved; the tears are my adrenaline crashing and my relief taking over.

I follow Pierce into the house and into our bathroom. I watch him stoically as he strips his dirty, bloody clothes off and starts the shower. He turns to me and silently strips me of my own clothes before he takes my hands and leads me into the hot, steamy shower.

“I almost lost you,” he says quietly as water streams over our bodies.

Neither of us are doing anything but staring at each other. It is as if we are frozen, afraid to move, afraid that one of us will suddenly disappear.

“I almost lost
you
,” I repeat his words.

I almost lost him, but I was almost lost, as well.

“I was so scared,” he admits. I watch tears fall from his eyes, now red-rimmed with his emotion.

“I was terrified,” I admit before I throw my body against his.

“Never again. I’d kill them all again if I could, baby girl,” he whispers into my neck. I feel his big hands on my thighs before he lifts my body up, pressing my back against the warm tiles.

“I need to feel you. I need to know you’re here and you’re safe,” he murmurs as his lips brush mine.

“Take me, Pierce,” I sigh, burying my hands in his long, wet hair.

Without a word, I feel his cock enter me in a slow, gentle move. His hands are on my hips and his eyes are focused on mine. He takes me slowly and carefully.

I can feel him, every single inch of him, as he glides in and out of my hot core.

We say nothing more, my gasps and his low grunts the only noises filling the room. When his lips touch mine, I sigh. This isn’t fucking to feel alive, this is cherishing each other because we survived. One wrong move and one of us, or both of us, could have died today.

I wrench my lips away from his when I feel my pussy begin to pulse, right before I come. I moan as my eyes flutter closed, but Pierce doesn’t stop; he continues to slowly fuck me with precision and a rhythm that is perfectly wicked. His lips touch my neck as his fingers squeeze my ass even harder. I feel the vibration of his moan in my neck before I hear it; then he fills my body with his release.

“Thank fuck I got you back, baby girl. I would die without you,” he mutters as his lips trail down my neck and then back up and over to my lips.

“I wouldn’t have survived without you either, Pierce. Without you and without our Bear,” I murmur. He grins for a split second before he releases me.

We spend the next few minutes washing all of the blood and dirt off of our bodies and out of our hair. Once we are finished, we dress and walk down to Tammy’s house to get our boy. I can’t wait another second to have him back in my arms.

“I know why you went with them quietly,” Pierce says as we approach Tammy’s.

“For Bear,” I say, surely confirming his suspicions.

“Thank you, baby girl. Thank you for protecting him when I couldn’t,” he says. I see the pain clearly etched in his features.

“You cannot be with us twenty-four hours a day, Pierce. This shit happens. It could happen even if you weren’t the
Notorious Devils’
president,” I say, cupping his cheek.

“Yeah, but fact remains it happened
because
I’m the
Notorious Devils’
president. You’ll always be a target,” he says. I nod.

“I may always be a target, Pierce, but it’s not worth being unhappy and lonely. I’ll take whatever life hands me as long as you’re at my side.”

Fury

“I may always be a target, Pierce, but it’s not worth being unhappy and lonely. I’ll take whatever life hands me as long as you’re at my side.”

Kentlee’s words ring in my head long after she says them. I’m lying in bed, hours after we’ve picked up Bear and spent time just loving each other, loving our family. I’ve sated my woman, hopefully exhausting her to the point where she won’t have a nightmare about her fucking horrific day. Yet, I can’t shut my brain off.

I slip out of bed, grabbing my phone and my jeans before I pull them on and go outside on the front porch.

“Can’t sleep,” the voice says on the other end.

“No, Pops, I can’t,” I admit.

I can hear a party in the background, but I don’t care that I’ve interrupted him. There’s some shuffling around and the music fades into the background.

“She’s safe, they’re safe.” He confirms what my head knows, but I can’t shake this feeling. This feeling that I’ve brought her into this shit and I should let her live a free life.

“How’d you do it?” I ask.

“Do what?” he sounds confused.

I forgot that he doesn’t know what’s been rattling around in my head all night.

“Put mom in danger like you did by making her an Old Lady? How did you knowingly make her a target?”

“It’s selfish of us, isn’t it?” he asks. I grunt my agreement. “I did it partly because I’m a selfish prick and I wanted her; but that wasn’t the only reason. I tried to keep her away from me when I knew she was going to be a target, when I knew I truly cared for her and she could be someone an enemy could hold over my head. She wouldn’t accept it, though. She told me if I truly loved her, then I would do everything in my power to make her happy. Then she laid it on me, told me that she couldn’t be happy unless she was mine. Fucked up, right?” he chuckles. I want to agree, but I could see Kentlee saying the same damn thing.

“You made her happy, though,” I point out. He chuckles.

“Busted my ass to make her happy, son. Doesn’t mean I didn’t fuck up a lot – because I did. But I tried my damnedest to make sure she didn’t regret one minute at my side. I already told you if I could do it all over again, I’d have given her more kids and been home more; but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t give her all that I had to give at the time. I did. I gave her everything—my heart included,” he says.

“Okay,” I whisper into the dark.

“Don’t push all that beauty and love you have away, Pierce. Hold onto it with both hands,” he says quietly before he ends the call. I set the phone down on the banister before I feel two slim arms wrap around my waist.

“What are you doin’ up?” I ask, turning around and leaning my ass against the wood, pulling Kentlee into my arms. She’s wearing one of my t-shirts and it looks sexy as fuck on her.

“Rolled over and the bed was empty,” she shrugs. I place my finger beneath her chin, lifting her head so that our eyes can meet.

“Truth?” I ask, searching her pretty eyes.

“I felt you get up. I was sleeping, but restlessly. I followed you out a few minutes after you left the bed,” she says. I know she heard my side of the conversation with my dad.

“I love you, baby girl, you know that?” I watch as she bites her bottom lip.

“But you’re leaving us?” she asks.

It fucking kills me. I slide my hand around to cradle the back of her neck before I place a closed mouth kiss on her puffy lips.

“Never. I’m never leaving you, sugar. I love you
so
much,” I admit as I press my forehead to hers.

“It sounded like you wanted to leave,” she whispers. I hate that I have made her feel this way, this uncertain.

“I’ve shared how it scares me that you’re my weakness, that people will use you to get to me. It happened, and it was terrifying. But neither of us would survive being separated. I couldn’t imagine my life without you and Bear in it. I don’t even want to think about it. So, no, I don’t want to leave, and I’m not going to,” I say. She wraps her arms around me a bit tighter, holding me before she whispers into the night.

“I was so lost when you were away and when I thought you didn’t want us. I never want to feel like that again, Pierce. You’re my rock. You’re my heart. You’re all rough and rowdy, and I love that about you. I love everything about you, but I want you to be as happy as I am.”

“I’m happy. I’m so fuckin’ happy, it aches inside, baby girl,” I say before I bend down and take her mouth with mine.

I kiss her—my lover, my woman, my friend, and the woman who rests her heart in the palm of my hand.

The woman who’s turned me into a complete pussy.

I can’t give a fuck about it. There’s absolutely nothing I would change about us.

I pick up my phone and then my girl and carry them both inside.

I spend the rest of the night telling and showing Kentlee how much I love and need her in my life. I wasn’t living until she strutted that fine ass of hers in front of me on Main Street. I was going through the motions in life—
fucking, fighting and surviving
—but I wasn’t living until I had something to fuckin’
live
for.

My woman.

My son.

My family.