Page 38 of Chains

The shock of what just occurred has left me breathless and unsettled. My heart racing a mile a minute. We both take in the mess in front of us, and, as usual, Lexie walks into danger first. The girl has no fear. I try to tug her back, but she jerks her arm out of my grasp.

Following behind her, I notice a big hole in the living room window, glass laying all over the floor, and Lexie bending down towards a huge rock laying on the wood floor. At least she’s had the foresight to slip into a pair of slippers while I’m standing there barefoot. Shock written all over my face.

“Son of a bitch.” She grits out when she unfurls a piece of paper from the rock.

“What is it?” I whisper, terror overtaking my arms and legs, as I’m unable to move from the spot between the hallway and the living room.

She hands me the paper, but I take a minute before I finally take it from her fingers. The words written on it make me want to run and hide.

‘DID YOU THINK YOU’D BE ABLE TO HIDE FROM ME FOREVER? I’M COMING FOR WHAT’S MINE.’

My eyes tear over, but I refuse to let them fall as I open my fingers, the paper fluttering silently to the floor. My legs feel like a bowl of jelly, and I drop to the floor like a lead weight, Lexie rushing over to me. But I wasn’t able to hear a thing she was saying to me, feeling as though I were in a long tunnel underwater, nothing was getting through to my brain.

Wrapping my arms around myself, I rock back and forth, my eyes glassing over as I stare off into nothingness. I don’t know how long I’d been unresponsive on the floor, but when I felt powerful arms wrap around me, that musk and amber scent mixed with leather, and carry me outside, placing me gently in the back of a vehicle, I let myself finally relax.

I knew where we were headed, but I didn’t have the energy to fight him. The thought that Caleb was out there, watching and waiting for a chance to strike, drew absolute terror inside me. I’m not strong like the other women of the DCMC, I can’t just bounce back when something bad happens.

I thought I could, but tonight proved just how wrong I was. I must’ve fallen asleep, because the next thing I know, I’m being carried through the clubhouse, and into another room, where I’m placed onto a bed.

“You’re safe now, little one. No one will ever hurt you again. I give you my word.” Those were the last words I heard before I dropped off into a deep sleep.

***

I groan and turn on my back as the pounding in my head gets worse. Opening one eye, I look around the room and narrow my gaze when I notice that I’m definitely not in my bedroom back at the house. I know I’m at the clubhouse, but why?

The events of last night assail me, and I wanted to shoot up in bed, but the strong, muscular arm banded around my waist stops me. What the hell? I look down, and see a mussed head of dark hair using my stomach as a pillow, his beard and breaths tickling and scratching my skin. Ink all over his back, the DCMC insignia front and center.

I have the urge to rake my fingers through that hair, but I stop myself when his husky, still sleepy voice sounds. Tightening my hands into fists by my sides.

“Good morning, baby.”

“What am I doing here?” I ask in a whisper.

He lifts his head, his blue eyes looking deep into my soul.

“You don’t remember?”

I nibble my bottom lip and avert my gaze, desperate for an escape.

“Look at me, little one,” he demands. I do, reluctantly.

“He found me.” I tell him on a whimper. My eyes filling with unshed tears.

With an agility belying his size, Chains turns on his back, and has his arms around me within seconds.

“That fucker will never get close to you again. I promise you that.” He tells me angrily.

“I need a shower and my clothes.” I tell him, attempting to get out from under him. It’s been so long since he and I have been together, I really don’t know what to make of his sudden change of heart.

Why is Chains pursuing me suddenly? Why the sudden interest? When I was with Caleb, he didn’t even want to know me. In fact, he’d showed me just how much I didn’t mean to him, by shoving the club girls in my face whenever I would visit Lexie.

My mouth opened, and the words spewed out before I could stop them.

“Why now?” I whisper, unable to look him in the eyes. Focusing somewhere past his left shoulder. From the corner of my eye, I could see he was grinning, and I wanted to slap that look off his face.

“Because now I can show you that you’ve always been mine,” he tells me with utter certainty in his voice.

I roll my eyes. “Right. Until another girl comes along.” I grit through my teeth. With a strength I didn’t think I possessed, I push Chains off me, and run to the bathroom, cursing when I see no lock on the door. Damn him.

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