Delilah pulled back from where she’d been reaching to put her hand on his shoulder so she could get on like he’d told her to.
“Why didn’t you say you’re barefoot?”
Delilah stared down at her feet and shrugged.“I haven’t had shoes in months.I didn’t think about it.”She glanced up at him through her lashes as she tried to gauge his reaction.She didn’t want to get too close if he was mad.She didn’t need to be hurt more on top of everything else.
“Months?”His eyes went wide for a second or two then narrowed.The sound of an engine starting and revving seemed to remind him of something.He shook his head and looked up her body again.“We don’t have time for this—we’ll have to make do.Get on.I’ll be careful and we’ll take care of your feet as soon as we can.”He held out a hand in her direction.
Delilah stared at the hand for a second then took it and let him help her on to the bike.
“Hold on tight,” he said, hooking his hands behind her knees and pulling forward until she pressed tight against his back.The heat emanating from him warming her.“Lean with me and just hold on.I’ll take care of the rest.”He wrapped her arms around his torso, then started the engine as several other men hurried their way.He didn’t seem worried, so she tried not to think about it.Instead she turned the oversized helmet hugging her head to one side, rested it against his back and closed her eyes.
She’d long since given up hope of having any control in her life, and now she just hoped whatever was coming didn’t hurt.
Chapter Seven
Hawkeye tried to ignorethe warm trusting body pressed against his back.He didn’t want to look too closely at why he couldn’t put her in the back of the truck with the other women.Other than the feeling that they would rip her to shreds given the chance.
Maybe he needed to look at that more closely.Why would the women they were rescuing want to hurt her?He didn’t think anyone the Crows cared about would be sleeping on the hard floor of the pantry but couldn’t figure out why she would be there and not with the other women, serving the Crows.Hawkeye had no illusions about exactly what the women had done to serve them.He’d seen some of it firsthand as even the blast Smokey had rigged hadn’t been enough to stop a couple of the men as they had a woman tied down and helpless as they fucked them.
He shook his head, pushing that image away.If the woman behind him had been treated differently, the women would resent that.That part wasn’t hard to figure out.What had him puzzled was the woman at his back.Why had she been there if they weren’t going to put her on the streets like they did all the others?
The wind battered his face as he made his way out of Eagle’s Rest and back toward Craven’s Creek.The small body pressed against his back, shivering, reminded him they would need to find somewhere to stop, soon.Somewhere they could get something in the way of shoes and a jacket for her.But first they had to get out of there.They needed to make it to neutral territory.
The roar of engines behind had him twisting around for a moment, making sure it was his brothers and not a handful of Royal Crows that had gotten away and were on his trail.Some of the tension in his body relaxed when he spotted Shotgun first, then made out Diesel, then Raven in the lead.The president had switched out his usual skull cap helmet for a full-face model to keep anyone who spotted them riding by from being able to see who he was right away.Hawkeye had given his helmet to the girl, but he pulled his gaiter up to just below his eyes.Between that, his glasses, and that they all wore dark colors—even the t-shirts under their cuts were black—he hoped he was safe.As the brothers reached them, they pulled around him until he and the woman at his back were in the center of the cluster of bikes.
They’d been on the road a little over half an hour before he signaled that he needed to pull off.He waited a few minutes until the message had time to pass through the group, then he pulled ahead of the rest of them and off the highway.He was headed for the huge travel center truck stop he’d been seeing signs about for miles.
He pulled in and up to a pump, as though he wasn’t needing to get things from inside—someone would ask soon.He climbed off, swinging one leg forward instead of backward like he usually did.Once he stood, he patted the woman’s shoulder, letting her know without words that she was fine where she was.
“I know you’re not out of gas,” Shotgun said after pulling his bike in behind Hawkeye’s and killing the engine.All the other brothers had gone to pumps as well.They were all in the habit of filling up when they could.
“I’m not, but might as well fill up while we’re here.”He leaned over and showed the woman how to lift the visor so she could look around.
Shotgun scowled.“And why are we here?”His tone said he was tired of the word games and he wanted Hawkeye to tell him what was up.
“My passenger needs a few things.”Hawkeye nodded to where her bare feet rested on the pegs on either side of the bike.“What size shoes you wear, Dove?”
