Page 38 of Royal Sons MC

Seconds or maybe minutes passed, and then he was pulling back. "Shit, we can't do this here." He gently lifted her off him, but not before she felt the hardness beneath her hips.

The vehicle behind them had its lights on bright. Embarrassment nearly had Kailani fumbling onto the floorboard, but then she reminded herself that Traeger had kissed her. She didn't want to think of how she'd responded. "Why'd you kiss me?" she asked.

"Buckle up, babe," he said instead of answering her question.

Kailani wanted to press him for answers, but the revving of the SUV, followed by a flashing of headlights, stalled any further conversation. She hastily pulled her belt on, fumbling to get it into place. "You realize that you are bossy, right?"

Traeger flashed her a grin, his white teeth gleaming in the dark interior. "You ain't seen nothing yet."

She wasn't sure why his words excited her when other men repulsed her. She only knew her time was numbered in days instead of years and would grab what she could with both hands. "Bring it on, big guy."

Neither said anything else while he pulled her Jeep onto the road. She'd noticed they'd run a device around it and her backpack, clearly searching for a tracker. Not once had she thought about her family knowing about her little out that she'd been planning for over a year.

Nerves tightened the muscles in her stomach. She kept looking in the side mirror while Traeger drove, something she noticed he did, too. "Are we being followed?"

"Nope, we're good. Did you have a destination in mind?" Traeger signaled toward the next exit.

Kailani tensed, wondering where they were going. She'd thought they'd at least go as far as Los Angeles, which would've been a three-and-a-half-hour drive from her home in San Diego. Fear settled in her stomach. Had she jumped from the frying pan into the fire? Were these men actually working with her brother? Had Rico set this up, and was he now waiting for her at some undisclosed location? Madre de Dios knew what he did to his enemies and what he did to women he considered traitors.

"Are you part of my brother's network?" The question felt like sawdust in her mouth. It took her two tries to get the words out of her parched throat. She fumbled to open the backpack, wondering if she could use the mace kept inside on the man sitting next to her.

"What?" he asked, glancing at her sideways. "You think I'd work for a sick fuck like him? The answer is hell no. And before you think to use anything in that big ass bag of yours, know that I've been through more training on how to withstand pain than anything you can throw at me, so don't even think of it," he warned.

She sat back, pulling her bag onto her lap. "How did you know?"

He tipped his chin toward her and then looked back at the dark road. "You've very expressive eyes."

She turned to see the vehicle following them. The SUV carrying the young girl she'd rescued had yet to take the same exit. "Where are you taking me?"

Traeger's fingers tapped the wheel. "A friend of mine owns a place along the beach in Santa Maria. I figure we can lay low there a couple of days, then we'll rendezvous with my brothers. By then, King will have more information for us."

From the tone of his voice, he didn't seem to like babysitting her. "You know, you could just let me go, and I'll take care of myself."

"Princess, you'll be dead within twelve hours if I leave you to your own devices," he growled.

His words and choice of nickname had her anger flashing. "First of all, don't call me that. Second, I got me and that girl Tiana out from under my brother and his men's noses, did I not?"

"You sure did. However, are you forgetting those men were swarming the property before you and she ever got into your sporty little convertible? Had we not shown up when we did, and my brother Keys hadn't done his thing with the security, they'd have known you two had shimmied out the window two seconds after you did it. Your brother and his men would've been waiting for you both at the bottom of your window." He finished speaking without looking at her.

"Bullshit! Maybe you guys showing up is what alerted Rico to our leaving." She gritted out, sitting back with a huff, crossing her arms over her chest. Honestly, she didn't know which of them was right but wanted to think it was he and his brothers, or whatever they were, who'd alerted Rico. She'd known their movements and what she could and couldn't do to get in and out without detection. Heck, she'd done it countless times, which she couldn't help but point out to the big man sitting beside her.

When the silence stretched, she turned to stare out the window, watching the stars above her.

"Alright, I'll concede it could've been us who tipped him off, but Keys is usually too good to do that," Traeger said, breaking into the silence.

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