Page 10 of Biker's Hostage

Even thinking those words, for some reason, made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. I tried to push away the instinct, but it nagged at me. This woman... shit, this woman who I had just come to the thought of, could I really kill her, if that’s what it came to?

These were the bastards who had killed my brother. That’s why I was doing this, that’s what I had to remember. No matter how attracted to her I was, there was no way in fucking hell I was going to forget that. My brother might have been all kinds of an asshole, but he was the only family I had left. If that wasn’t reason enough to make them pay...

I pushed the thought aside. I would deal with that when I had to. For now, what mattered was telling them what they needed to hear.

I rang the number and drummed my fingers on the counter before me as I waited for someone to answer. Nothing. Answering machine. Fine. Give them something that they could go over, again and again, something they could torture themselves with.

“I have Chelsea,” I spat down the line. “I want three mill for her safety. If you can’t pay it...”

I trailed off. I wanted their minds going a million different places when they heard me speak. I wanted them worrying. I wanted them scared.

I wanted them to think that I would go through with it.

“Call this number. Don’t make me wait.”

And with that, I hung up, tossing my phone aside. It was a burner, an old thing that wouldn’t allow for tracking—if they even had access to that kind of technology. I was pretty sure only the cops could do something like that, and I knew there was no way in a million years that they could be working with the cops.

I rubbed a hand over my face and sighed deeply. This was getting complicated, more complicated than I had ever intended for it to get. There was something about her that made that threat of killing her seem impossible. I knew I couldn’t go through with it, even if they didn’t pay up.

I had to push that thought away. I had to shove it aside. I would deal with that when it came to it. For now, I was still set on one goal and one goal only—taking them down any way I could.

Even if it meant putting her life on the line in the process.

Chapter Seven – Chelsea

I paced back and forth, back and forth, unspent energy rolling through my system with an insistent force. I didn’t know how much longer I could take being in here, how much longer I could cope with being trapped in these four walls before I lost my mind entirely.

As though I wasn’t well on the way to that already.

I had spent the night tossing and turning, my ears pricked for any sound of Zane. Not because I was scared of him, no. Because that almost-kiss we’d had the night before had burned itself on to my brain, and I didn’t know what I could do to force it out of my head again.

I was losing it. Well and truly losing it. Because what kind of person would have been attracted to the man who had kidnapped her? I thought I had been flirting just to try and get him off his guard, but there was something more to it, some real desire that was making my head spin in all the ways it shouldn’t have been.

Which was... a risk, I knew that. A huge fucking risk. I didn’t know what this man was capable of. Hell, I didn’t know, at this point, what he was planning with me, what he had decided he was going to get out of taking me at all. He’d said something about his brother, about taking down the Dogs, but I still hadn’t figured how I fit into all of that. Was he any clearer on it? I had no idea.

But I knew I wanted him. Being stuck here with him, it felt like he was the only thing I could think about. I had never found myself this needy for a guy in my entire life before, like my whole existence was spiraling down to how much I wanted him and how badly I needed this.

Did he have any clue how he made me feel? Was he banking on that being enough to keep me from pushing back against my containment? Was he playing with me, toying with me because he got off on it? Was everything he had told me about taking down the Dogs nothing but a lie, an excuse for what he truly intended to do to me...?

I stared at the ceiling, digging my nails into my palms. I hated this. I felt like my whole body was alight with anticipation, with a needy want I couldn’t control. I didn’t want to control it. God, after so long at college, making sure every little detail of my life went exactly as it was meant to, maybe there was almost a kind of... relief in knowing I didn’t get to choose how this went...

Or maybe I was just trying to make sense of the fact that I was really, really into that hot guy a couple of rooms away, when I shouldn’t have been.

It had been a while since he had come in with food or water, and I knew it was just a matter of time, just a small matter of time before he had to return. And when he did, what was I going to do? Pounce on him? No, don’t be crazy. I still didn’t know what this man was capable of, what he would do to me given the chance. I had been more or less playing by his rules up until now, and if I broke them...

If I broke them, I didn’t know how I might have to pay the price.

Suddenly, the door swung open. I had been so lost in my thoughts I hadn’t heard the lock moving. My head snapped up, and there he was, standing right in front of me. The heat in my cheeks rose at once, and I did everything I could to hide it, twisting my head away from him and praying he didn’t notice.

“I bought you more food,” he told me, his voice impossible to read. I nodded and glanced at him out of the corner of my eye as he laid out some stuff on the bedside table. Then I noticed his phone dangling from his pocket.

I felt my palms begin to sweat. I could grab it, and he wouldn’t even notice. He had taken my phone from me before I’d woken up, and I had no idea where the hell it was or if I would ever even see it again. If I could fire off a message to my father, I might be able to hasten my rescue a little...

Before I could stop myself, I moved a little closer to him, praying he stayed distracted. He didn’t seem to notice me getting any nearer to him. Now. I had to act now. If I was going to get this phone, I couldn’t hold back, I had to...

My hand shot out almost before I could stop it, and I tugged the phone from his pocket. Being this near to him, smelling the scent of him again, it was throwing my head in a hundred different directions, but I had to remain focused. I had to remember that this man had kidnapped me. I couldn’t let whatever desire I might have felt for him get in the way of that.

He fiddled with something on the bedside table. My heart pounded in my chest. My hands were so slippery with sweat, fearful of what he would do if he caught me in the act, I could hardly get a grip on the phone. I tugged it out, pulling it into my hand, and I was about to stash it into my jeans when...

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