Page 21 of Biker's Hostage

But I knew what I had to focus on right now, and that was getting this piece of bullet out of my leg, where it had shattered into my skin. Not a bad wound, but it smarted like hell. Once I was satisfied the tweezers were clean, I turned my attention to the wound in my thigh, twisting it around so I could get a better look at it. It wasn’t going to be easy to do this myself, but there was no way I could afford to go to a hospital to get it removed. Besides, they would want to know what had happened to get me shot in the first place, and I didn’t exactly want to go spilling all of that to them. Neither I nor the Dogs were persona grata in the real world.

I pressed on both sides of the wound to try and draw the speck of the bullet that had embedded itself beneath my flesh a little closer to the surface, and in amongst the gore, I could see a glint of metal. I poised the tweezers over the hole and took a deep breath, trying to prepare myself for what was coming next.

Gritting my teeth, I shoved the tweezers into the wound and moved them around until I had managed to get a grip on the bullet. A shock of pain ran the length of my leg, and I bit down on my teeth, keeping the yelp that wanted to escape me from spilling out. The last thing I needed was for anyone else to know what was going on here. God only knew what kind of connections the Dogs had across this city. They wouldn’t be satisfied with just shooting me in the leg, I knew that much.

I pulled the bullet out and tossed it onto the floor below in a puddle of blood, then pushed my leg beneath the warm water to clean it and soothe some of the pain. I knew I should have been focused on getting it covered, but right now, I just needed something to take the edge of.

As I breathed hard, trying to bring myself back down to Earth, I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to her again. What would she want, after all of this? Now that she was out of my grip, would she change her mind about me? Would she decide that I was nothing more than an asshole who had taken her and used her? Would she want revenge? Would she be the one to lead the Dogs to me, to destroy me...?

I didn’t know. But I could still remember, all too clearly, the tone in her voice when she’d urged me to leave, begging me to get out of there, like it was the only thing that mattered to her. I wasn’t sure she would have been able to fake that. Or to forget it so soon after what we had shared together.

I pulled my leg from the water and grabbed the bandages from beside me. I wrapped a generous length around my thigh to stem the bleeding. It hurt like a motherfucker, but at least it was done.

But everything else? Shit, everything else was just beginning. And I didn’t know what kind of chance I stood against the Dogs.

Or how I was going to do it without Chelsea by my side.

Chapter Fifteen – Chelsea

“Dad, no!”

My father was pacing back and forth before me in the living room of our small apartment, the look on his face assuring me that he wouldn’t have been able to take in a word I was saying, even if I wanted him to. He had made his mind up—and he was going to do anything and everything it took to get his hands on Zane again.

“You really think we can let him walk, after what he did?” he shot back at me. His eyes were dark with a kind of anger I had never seen in him before, a kind of anger that terrified me, right down to my soul. My father had always been so kind, so gentle, so loving when it came to me, but now, I was seeing the Dog in him, the same version of him, I was sure, that had killed Zane’s brother and started all of this in the first place.

“Dad, listen to me, please,” I begged him. It had been the better part of a week since I had arrived back, and I thought Dad was going to leave it all behind. He had been so grateful to have me back, doting on me, fussing over me at every turn, promising me that they were going to triple security at the Kennels to make sure nothing like this ever happened again, that I had nothing to worry about and he would be there to protect me.

“Did he hurt you?” Dad had demanded, pushing his face close to mine. The fear in him, that something had happened to me, had turned to anger.

“I keep telling you, he didn’t do anything to me!” I protested. He didn’t seem able to believe it. Intent on making this worse than it was, to torment himself for what had happened to me, he had hidden the reality of what was going on from me, protecting me from what he saw as more stress than I could handle.

But today, he told me the truth. The Dogs were already staking out places all over the city to find Zane, and they were going to bring him in, and... fuck, I didn’t even want to think what the end to that sentence was. I knew what they were going to do with him. I’d heard whispers of it, how far they would go for people who had risen against them, and he had taken me, one of their daughters. He was going to pay for that.

“You’re still in shock,” Dad told me, moving toward me and clasping my shoulders. I almost wanted to pull away as he touched me like that. I knew he was just trying to help. He was doing what he thought was right as my father, but I hated it, hated feeling as though I was nothing more than a piece he was moving around a board to do with as he pleased. I shook my head.

“I’m not,” I told him through gritted teeth. “You need to just let it go, Dad. He’s not going to try anything again. I’m sure of it.”

“Oh, you’re sure of it?” He raised his eyebrows, almost flippant. “After everything that’s happened, you’re sure of it? You’re sure he’s not going to hurt any other women?”

“Yeah, I’m sure of that,” I replied firmly. “He wouldn’t do that. It’s not who he is.”

“You know him that well?” I knew he was starting to wonder what had been going on between Zane and I, but I hadn’t told him anything about him—or the two of us. He would lose his mind if he knew that Zane had laid a hand on me, no matter how much I tried to convince him it had been completely consensual.

“It was about me, that’s all,” I muttered. “And... the Dogs. He’s not just going out there to steal away any girl he can get his hands on.”

“That’s what he told you. He probably wanted you to think you were special...”

My head descended into fuzz. I didn’t believe him, not for a moment, but it was hard not to let the doubt nag at the back of my mind. The way he had held me, I was sure he couldn’t have faked that, no matter how hard he had tried. What we had shared, however briefly, had been real. But what if... what if he had already forgotten about me, moved on? The thought of it gripped my chest painfully, and I pushed it down, trying to control myself.

“It’s not about that. He’s... he’s been through his own shit. He lost his brother—”

“We’ve all lost people,” he replied, shaking his head. “That doesn’t mean he can just go out there in the world and do whatever he wants. There are rules. And we have to enforce them.”

“You could just let him leave,” I pleaded with him. “I know he’s not going to come back, you don’t have to worry about that. He’ll just go, and that will be the end of it, I promise.”

“You can’t promise that,” he replied, eyes darkening. “So we have to make sure of it. We’re going to take him out, once and for all.”

I squeezed my eyes shut, frustration mixing with fear in my head. I couldn’t stand this. I just wanted Zane to get out of here. I wanted him to put as much distance between this city and himself as he possibly could. I wanted him to run and never look back, if that was what it would take for him to be safe.

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