Back in power and ready to destroy them.
Chapter Sixteen
Jethro
DAWN.
The new sun painted the sky a glowing pink as we drove beneath the gatehouse at the entrance of Hawksridge. Kes and Flaw accelerated, pulling away and speeding up the long driveway.
I slowed down, steadying the bike and Nila’s weight behind me.
Her torso plastered against my back, her hips as close to mine as possible. She was the exact opposite from the first time I’d collected her.
Back in Milan, she’d been respectful in her fear. She’d kept her distance and didn’t try to break through my carefully constructed walls. Now, she was pissing me off taking liberties she was no longer entitled to. Her hands hadn’t stopped roaming as I drove down motorways and country lanes. Her heat seeped through my jacket, infecting my skin below. She thought things were the same—that I secretly wanted her to touch me.
She couldn’t be more wrong.
Slamming my bike to a halt, I planted my legs on the road and twisted to face her. “I’m going to give you a choice.” Tearing her arms from around my waist, I held up a blindfold that I’d stuffed into my pocket.
Nila frowned, her eyes flickering up the hill where the road disappeared toward Hawksridge. “What choice?”
Rubbing the silk between my fingers, I said, “I can either blindfold you or not. It’s up to you.”
Cut was confident this imprisonment would be a lot smoother than her first, but he still didn’t want her knowing the way off the estate—unless she gave a guarantee. I smirked. “Decide, Ms. Weaver.”
“How is the choice up to me? And besides, I saw the driveway when the police took me away.”
“Fair enough.” I let the blindfold fall from my fingers and onto her thigh. “Are you going to try to run again? Or have you accepted that your home is now with me?”
I hadn’t meant to word it like that. I’d meant to say had she accepted that she would die on this estate. That her life out there—her home in London—was over, done.
Forever.
Nila’s gaze delved into mine. I felt her probing my soul, looking for answers and hope.
I didn’t have to stop her or hide.
There was nothing inside that shouldn’t be there. Not anymore.
I was proud of who I’d become.
And it was all thanks to the little white tablets in my pocket.
After a long minute, she replied, “My home is with you, Kite. I know that. I think I’ve always known that.” She licked her bottom lip. “I won’t run. I won’t leave you. Not again. Whatever happened to you the past few weeks, I’m willing to look past it because I know what we found together is true and this...” She waved at me as if I offended her. “This is a lie that I don’t buy.”
My heart skipped—just a small skip—before settling into its wintry shell. Her power over me was gone. It’d just been tested and proven.
“You don’t have to buy anything for it to be the truth.”
She sighed. “No, but I can hope.”
“Hope is as useless as love, Nila Weaver.” Shoving the blindfold back into my pocket, I gunned the bike and took her the final distance home.
* * * * *
The underground parking garage housed thirty or so bikes for the Black Diamond brothers. We’d built the bunker especially for our MC, hidden away in case the police ever raided us, which until last month was never a possibility.
Now it might be thanks to the fucking Weavers and their lies to the local papers. Our bribes worked perfectly to keep the law on our side. But when strangers started moaning and demanding justice, it wasn’t a simple matter of turning a blind eye anymore.
