Because I fucking fell asleep on the job again?
I tried not to focus on her, as hard as that was. With her body pressed against mine, all curves and softness, while we ran for her life. Gunfire followed us through the trees around the corner bend for a while, but eventually, it all died off. I expected them to pursue us, so I stuck to the back roads until I knew it was safe.
But if they meant to pursue us, they were shit at it.
I wanted to enjoy the ride with her. I wanted to pretend that she clung to me because it was her first bike ride and she was nervous about it. I didn’t know why I wanted these things, though, so I shoved them to the side. I needed to stay focused, and I knew she wasn’t here for a bike right.
She wasn’t clinging to me because she wanted to.
She clung to me because her life depended on it.
And I wouldn’t fail her.
Not like I failed my men.
It was a long ride back to the clubhouse. Longer than I wished. We were on my bike for over an hour before the clubhouse peaked on the horizon. I kicked it into gear, slinking off the road and picking up the pace of our driving until I skid to a stop in the front yard of the clubhouse.
The guys poured out the front door.
“Aaaahhhh!” she screamed out as she scrambled off my bike.
My eyes were wide and wild as I watched her fall off my bike. “Wait a second, Jasmine. Just?—”
She scrambled backward, her blouse untucked. Her brown hair on top of her head, now wild and tangled around her face. Her skin, blotched with dried blood. Tears streaked through it, carrying watered-down droplets all the way to her neck.
“You’ll never take me alive!” she shrieked as she stumbled to her feet.
Her feet werebleeding.
“Jasmine, everything is okay. Doc needs to see you,” I said as I reached out.
Her eyes were wide with fear over my shoulders as she put up her fists. “Come at me, assholes! YOU’LL NEVER TAKE ME ALIVE, DAMN IT! I’M A WOMAN! I KNOW BETTER THAN SECONDARY LOCATIONS!”
“You tell ‘em!” Ariel, Cap’s girl, called out through a window.
That made her pause.
I slowly peered over my shoulder and saw the crew gathered. Okay, so I acknowledged how that would be intimidating. A bunch of massive dudes in leather jackets in the dead of night. Our scars and balled up fists, shadowed by the moon.
I nodded to myself and slowly turned my attention back to her. “Jasmine, we’re not taking you anywhere. You’re safe here.”
She blinked before her back straightened. “Well, that sure as fuck is not what just happened back there, asshole!”
She lifted both of her hands into the air and flicked off all of the guys standing behind me.
“Hell yeah!” Amanda yelled from somewhere behind me.
I heard Wrecker chuckle before the sound abruptly stopped. And I had to admit, I swallowed down a chuckle myself. She was so meek and mild this entire time. Soft spoken. Innocent. All sunshine and no rain.
Fire suited her.
“You’re being followed, Jasmine,” I said as I took a tentative step closer to her, my hand held out in between the two of us, like she was some scared little fawn I had to calm down. I peered over my shoulder. “Everyone move back. Range.”
“Yeah?”
“Go get Doc.”
“On it.”
