Page 23 of Biker's Hostage

I glanced in the mirror, and sure enough, there were at least six bikes closing in. I slammed my foot down on the pedal, and the car groaned in protest.

I fixed my eyes on the road ahead of me, adrenaline pumping through my system.

I couldn’t let them catch me. It was just a few hundred yards to the highway ahead of me, and if I made it there, then they would have to ease off amongst the rest of the vehicles that were streaking this way and that. This road might have been quiet, but the main highway would be packed, and people would notice if there was a high-speed chase going down.

One of the bikes drew up next to me, the driver in a heavy helmet that obscured his face. He swung the bike toward me, slamming it into the side of the car and sending me spiraling a few feet to the left. I managed to pull control back, spinning the wheel wildly as I guided it back under control, and the driver dropped back a few feet, knocked off-balance by his attack.

They were trying to drive me off the road. I couldn’t let it happen. I couldn’t. I gripped the wheel—so tight it looked as though my knuckles were about to burst from beneath my skin—and gritted my teeth. Just a little further...

Another thud smashed the car off-center, and my back wheels skidded out from beneath me. I nearly spun out then, but I managed to pull myself back around. How many of them were there? How many more would I have to fight off?

Suddenly, I saw another bike out of the corner of my eye, but this one wasn’t trying to knock me off the road, no. They were zooming ahead of me, dashing to cut me off from making it on to the highway. No! I couldn’t let them beat me there. I slammed my foot down, silently urging the car onward.

“Come on, come on,” I muttered as the bike came to a halt at the head of the road, blocking my path. I could drive around him, but if he...

All at once, the bike revved again, and the driver angled the vehicle beneath him to face me. And then, he began to drive. Fast.

He was closing the distance between us at a terrifying speed. If I kept it up, I would smash into him in a matter of seconds. There was no way I would survive that, but neither would he. He was psyching me out, trying to see if I would go through with it. I stared at him through the window, time slowing for a moment as I tried to figure out what the better option was here...

And then, I screeched the car to a halt. No. No fucking way was I getting into a wreck before I let them take me. If they were going to catch me, then I was going to make sure they did it while I had at least a fighting chance of surviving. An accident like that would leave me in a bad enough way that I wouldn’t stand a chance, much as I hated to hand them this win.

A few seconds later, bikes surrounded the car, cutting me off from making my escape back down the road behind me. My heart sank as the man who had been driving at me rose to his feet and pulled his helmet off, stalking toward me. He had the same green eyes as Chelsea, and I was sure he had to be her father. No wonder he had been so willing to risk his life to get his hands on me.

And if that’s what he’d do just to capture me... I didn’t even want to think what he was capable of when he had me where he wanted me.

Chapter Seventeen – Chelsea

Hunched over the toilet, I tried to hold back the waves of panic that were flooding my body.

I didn’t even know what this was about, this panic. I had been feeling it since my father had driven out to get his hands on Zane again, and I didn’t know what had been happening since. Was Zane okay? Was my father? I wouldn’t have been able to live with myself if I knew more people had gotten hurt on account of everything that had happened with me, but I was helpless in the face of stopping it. They were in their own battle now, and I couldn’t force them to change their minds.

But this fear, it felt like something else, something other than worry, though I hated to admit it. No, it felt like... it felt like something I couldn’t even consider. Or, at least, what I had always imagined that would feel like.

When the panic had started to grip me a few hours ago, I thought it was just stress or the start of my period. But then I realized it had been weeks since the last time I menstruated. I had been with Zane for the better part of three weeks, plus the days since I had returned to my father, and before that, I had been so caught up in the stress of moving I’d hardly had time to think about my period.

But now, as I tracked it back, I realized it was late. Really late. And I... well, I hadn’t exactly been careful with the sex I’d had with Zane. When I was with him, it felt like all the consequences flew out the window. We were so far removed from the real world that it seemed impossible that anything could really come from what we had shared together.

But now I was back here, in reality once more. I knew there was a chance I was pregnant.

If I was, it was going to make everything even more chaotic.

I had been trying not to think about the possibility, but what choice did I have? The reality of it, it had settled in as I had paced the apartment overnight, thinking about what my father might have been doing. I was sure he would bring Zane back to the Dogs compound, and we lived in an apartment right opposite it, so I was able to keep an eye all evening to see if he was there, but no sign of him yet...

Which gave me a chance to run to the all-night pharmacy and get my hands on a pregnancy test, just to get this stupid thought out of my head. Because there was no way I had actually gotten pregnant from the few times we were together, just no way. I refused to believe that. Yes, I had been reckless in doing it without protection, but still... there was no way that the universe would have thrown something that crazy at me. After everything else that had happened, didn’t I deserve a break...?

But I knew damn well that wasn’t how it worked. The universe didn’t just benevolently give you a break from the hardship because you were due one. No. If anything, when the shit hit the fan, it dumped even more craziness on your plate and left you to deal with it all alone. Which was what I was facing now.

But I could handle it. I could. I was going to have to, wasn’t I? I had picked up the pregnancy test, not bothering to hide it from the cashier. My head was too busy, too full of the nightmare unfolding around me to bother with any of that.

And now, it was sitting on the bathtub beside me as I tried to keep myself from throwing up, hanging over my head like a threat. I had to take it. I had to just get it over with.

I forced myself to sit up, leaning my back against the door and staring at the small packet sitting opposite me. It didn’t look like it could ruin my life, did it? It seemed almost innocent, planted there a few feet away from me, but I knew the results of this test could change everything, everything I had ever been through, everything I was about to face. I had no idea what I would do if it was positive.

But I needed to actually take the damn thing before I found that out, didn’t I? I snatched the box up, tearing it open and pouring the contents into my hand. I read the instructions quickly. These things were meant to be easy, right? Just pee on the stick, wait a few minutes, and then you had your answer.

I grabbed the stick, took the test, and sat it on the floor in front of me. I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to come up right now. Negative would have been the sensible answer, but there was a part of me, a stupid part of me, that wanted something... some connection between Zane and I, something that would keep us tied together, even though we were apart right now.

And this would be exactly that.

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