Page 20 of Pain

The scream and roar of bikes coming around the turn on the far side of the block. The noise of them revving their engines. Shouting. Screams. Gunfire, and the sound of bullets smashing into the walls of the building. I shot one glance toward the road and saw at least twenty men on bikes, all of them wearing Devil’s colors.

All of them pointing semi-automatics in our direction.

I dove toward Saraya, shouting for her to get down, and wrapped her in my arms before turning and hitting the floor with my shoulder. The girl shrank into my arms, her head in my neck and her arms sandwiched between us, and we rolled quickly toward the back of the shop. I cast a glance back toward where I’d been standing mid-roll and saw that both Tinker and Brock were on the ground and army crawling as quickly as they could for shelter. Across the parking lot, I heard shouts under the gunfire as my men and the women they protected told each other what to do and where to go.

On the street outside of our compound, the bikes roared and squealed as the guns fired at us, doing their level best to take out anyone who wasn’t paying attention.

I put my hand to the back of Saraya’s head and pulled her as close as I could, turning so that my back was to the street, my body sheltering her from harm.

Moments later, it was over, the bikes tearing away and leaving nothing but the aftermath of their attack. I waited several moments to make sure they were really gone and then rolled onto my back, bringing Saraya with me. I’d just looked up into her shocked green eyes when Tinker’s face appeared behind her, hovering over us.

“You okay, boss?” he asked tersely.

I did a quick mental check of my body, looking for anything that hurt worse than it should have, but everything felt normal. “I’m not hit. You?” I asked, my eyes on Saraya. “Are you okay?”

She bit her lip and nodded, and then noticed—as I had a split-second earlier—that my body thought we were doing something quite different than hiding from men with guns. I was hard as a rock, my hips trying their best to rock themselves, and I had only one excuse for that.

Saraya Post. The moment I’d stopped running and noticed her up against me, her tiny, curved form fitting perfectly into my larger body, my instincts had gone to another world.

Totally unintentional.

Her eyes slanted down toward the bulge in my pants and then came back to meet mine, even wider, and I cleared my throat and shoved her off me.

“Right,” I said, jumping up and leaving her there. “Well, I guess that answers that question.”

“Yep,” Tinker muttered. “Devil definitely knows you have his woman. And he’s not going to wait to declare the war. He’s already fired the first shots.”

We strode out of the shop, our eyes on the parking lot and my mind on only one thing: making sure all my people were okay.

As far as the girl I’d just left behind in the shop went...

Well, I’d saved her, hadn’t I? Started a war over her?

What else did she really deserve from me except that continued protection? It didn’t have to be personal.

And I wasn’t going to let it go there.

CHAPTER 10

SARAYA

“We’ve already been attacked once,” the voice said sharply. “What are you waiting for? Another attack? One that goes worse this time?”

“You’re overreacting,” another voice replied, its tone just as sharp.

“Am I?” the first voice snapped, sounding almost amused at that. “Am I? We lost three bikes in that little raid and have an entire wall nearly collapsing from the damage the bullets did. We don’t have the time to replace it, and we damn sure don’t have the money to replace those bikes! And yet you think I’m overreacting?”

“Yes,” another voice snapped, just as hard, and this time I recognized it.

Knight. Knight who was the president of this club and hadn’t said anything yet.

Knight, who had brought me here.

“You’re overreacting, Gemini, and you damn well know it,” Knight continued. “You’re also overstepping your bounds, and you know that as well.”

“And what is that supposed to mean?” the first man—Gemini, evidently—snarled.

There was a pause, and then the thump of a body hitting the other side of the wall I was sitting against. I jumped back, partially in surprise at the sound and partially out of fear that they might somehow know I was there, right on the other side of them, listening.