Page 21 of Saved By the Rogue

It was a clear, crisp day, the sun beating down on top of us, the warmth of it filling the air around us; or maybe it just felt that way, with her this close to me, knowing she was right where she belonged, here against my side.

I knew she had made a huge choice in deciding to stand against her father, and it couldn’t have been easy for her. But it was the right one. No matter how much distance she tried to put between herself and him, I knew he would always come looking for her – he had already shown how keen he was to bring her home, that he would do anything to make it happen. And a man like that...he was used to getting what he wanted. I doubted there was anything in the damn world that would stop him.

I didn’t know if this newspaper article she was planning would really be enough to stop him, but it didn’t matter. It was a start. It was something. It was a step she could take towards this final point, towards this freedom that I could tell she had waited so many years for. I knew how it felt, to some extent – when I had been deep in my addiction, I had felt trapped to, lost.

She still didn’t know about that part of my life, and I didn’t have any idea if I was going to tell her. It wasn’t relevant now. I hadn’t touched that shit in years, and now that I had her by my side, I didn’t feel any need to – I felt like I owed it to her to stay clean, owed it to her to keep my head down and keep my focus on what needed to be done here.

Still. If we were...together now, which it felt like we were, I would have to talk about my past eventually. But first, we needed to secure her future – that was what mattered most.

We cut through the city streets, the rumble of the engine between my legs, strands of her hair whipping out from beneath the helmet and into my line of sight. I wasn’t used to having a girl on this bike with me, shit, I had only learned to ride after I’d gotten sober, and I hadn’t exactly been hot on the dating scene since then. But having her here, it felt...right. Like it was where she belonged. Like I could have kept driving off into the sunset, and nothing would have been enough to slow us down.

Eventually, though, we reached the Kennels, and I put down the kickstand and she hopped off.

"You have to teach me how to ride one of those things!" she exclaimed excitedly, shooting a look at the bike she’d just gotten off. I laughed.

"Hey, you’ve barely ridden one yet," I protested. "Give it a little more time before you start trying to drive it, huh?"

"Fine," she pouted, and she grabbed my hand. "Where are we going? Can I help?"

"You just follow me," I replied, grabbing the bag I’d transported from under the seat, and heading in to the compound, where Kiefer, one of the oldest members of the Dogs, was waiting for me. He greeted me with a jut of his chin, and I held out the bag to him.

"Courtesy of Chuck," I explained, and he nodded, pulling the bag open and looking inside. When he lifted his head again, his eyes slid to Star beside me.

"Who’s this?" he asked.

"An apprentice," I replied. "A Dog in training."

"A puppy," she suggested, and Kiefer cocked an eyebrow – but then let out a chuckle.

"Fair enough," he replied, stashing the bag in the safe behind him. "You want to stick around for a drink?"

I shook my head.

"I don’t want to leave the shop without an artist for too long," I replied. "Lee barely knows what he’s doing."

I didn’t mention, of course, the attack on the place recently – he didn’t need to know about that, and I didn’t want to spook him. I was still hoping that Sal had aimed his attention at me instead of the Dogs in general, and I wasn’t going to give Kiefer a reason to get on-edge if he didn’t need to be.

"Nice to meet you," Star chirped to him happily. God, she was so damn cute – I could tell Kiefer didn’t know what to make of her, given that most of the guys here kept their girls well away from the club if they had them at all, but he just shook his head in amusement and waved us off. It was a better reaction than Chuck had given her, at least – though he had agreed to let her use the tattoo shop as a base for her plan to take down her father, he had warned her that we couldn’t drop everything to defend her if something happened. She seemed to get it, and I hoped she wasn’t going to give us a reason to second-guess it in the future.

"So, this is what you do all day, huh?" she asked, as we headed back to the bike. "You drive around all day, and-"

And then, suddenly, her face paled. She ducked her head down, diving behind me.

"Oh, my God," she gasped.

"What is it?" I demanded, tensing at once, ready to take on any threat that might have been coming her way.

"Don’t look now," she muttered. "But he’s coming out of that bar, right there...it’s my father."

My jaw dropped as I spun around, and, sure enough, there he was – Sal Salina. I recognized him from the campaign posters that had been scattered around the city for the better part of last year, his thinning gray hair, his blue eyes, like Star’s, but without any of the warmth she had. He was stuffing his hands into his pocket, and I saw his wallet vanishing into his coat – had he been paying someone in there? Hiring someone, after the last couple of guys had given up on the case? I watched as he went, blocking Star from his view, though he didn’t seem to sense that his daughter was anywhere nearby. He climbed back into a sleek, dark vehicle waiting for him, and a moment later, it pulled away.

"He’s gone," I murmured to Star, once I was sure he was out of sight. She peeped up over my shoulder, confirming it, and let out a breath.

"Holy hell," she muttered. "I...I didn’t expect to see him here..."

"Neither did I," I agreed darkly.

"What is that place?" she asked me. "The Kennel? Do the Dogs hang out there, or...?"

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