Page 86 of Thornhill Road

“Lance, we talked about this.”

He advanced another step, and I was startled to find myself backed against the wall.

“Yeah, we did. We did. But that was before. You were on the job. Now you’re not. There’s no need to be so professional, Tess,” he said, drawing closer still.

“Lance, I’m not—”

I inhaled the last of my sentence on a gasp when he gripped one of his hands between my neck and my shoulder, pressing me back hard against the wall. I tried to wiggle out from underneath his hold, but he pinned me in place, his other hand shoved against my hip.

“I was surprised you came straight here that night.”

He was so close, I could feel his breath on my face, and I cringed as I continued my attempt to shimmy free of his grasp, pushing my hands forcefully against his chest.

“Made me wonder,” he continued, his tone darker than I’d ever heard it. “Sweet Tess at a place like this? Maybe underneath those pastel scrubs is a body that craves it rough.”

I shook my head on a whimper, the facing of the building scraping abrasively at the skin of my bare shoulders as I continued to struggle. “No. Lance—let me go!”

He didn’t let me go. Instead, he leaned down to kiss me. I was quick to jerk my head to the side, but he bit my cheek in retaliation, pressing his body flush against mine.

A sob clogged my throat as I panicked, unable to get him off of me. I tried to beat him with my fists, but to no avail. I felt weak in comparison with his strength, and I had a hard time gaining the right leverage in my stilettos.

“Lance—I willscreamif you don’t let me go right now.”

It felt like a decent threat. He was outside of a Wild Stallions biker bar, and I wasn’t alone.

It turned out, my threat fell on deaf ears. Rather than let me go, he slid the fingers at my shoulder around my throat and squeezed.

My hands immediately reached for his wrist, and I yanked as hard as I could. His grip only tightened, and then his other hand began to move. I felt his fingers graze the inside of my thigh, and I started to hyperventilate, momentarily frozen.

He pressed his forehead to mine as he muttered, “I see you in a whole new light now, Tess. You. Here. In this dress. You’re just begging for a fuck, aren’t you?”

When his fingers reached the zipper at the bottom of my dress, I abandoned my attempts to free my throat, and started to claw at his face. He jerked his head back, his fingers at my throat digging in deeper—then, all at once, he was gone.

I sucked down a hungry breath. As my lungs filled with air, my knees gave out, and I began to sink down to the ground. I was trembling as I tried to make sense of what was happening. I saw Wrangler dragging Lance toward the parking lot, but I couldn’t see what happened next, a row of motorcycles and a frenzy of shuffling feet in my way.

“Hey, hey—honey—are you okay?” Jenna cried, her voice shaking as she wrapped her thin arms around me.

I shook my head, feeling confused and disoriented, then tried to get to my feet. My knees, still a little useless, were no help.

I heard the first punch and tried again to stand.

Jenna, understanding what I wanted, helped me to my feet.

Then I saw him, lit by the streetlamp yards away, its halo stretching to meet him.

Mustang.

He landed a second punch. And a third. And a fourth.

Wrangler had Lance’s arms pulled back, so all he could do was take the beating.

The crowd around them grew, most of them men in their Wild Stallions kuttes, and I lost sight of what was happening—but I heard Lance grunt in pain after the fifth punch and the sixth.

Even though I couldn’t see, I knew when he hit the ground, and I flinched when I heard a boot make contact with his body. Once. Twice. Three times.

The beating stopped only when Maverick and Rodeo reached for Mustang and pulled him back. The men surrounding thescene parted as his brothers tried to drag him away, but Mustang resisted them as he yelled, “You sickmotherfucker—you put those hands onanywoman who doesn’t want your limp dick, I’ll find out, and I’ll cut your fuckin’ hands off. You put those fuckin’ hands onmywoman again—I will saw your dick off and feed it to you.”

I looked from Mustang to Lance, and I knew Maverick and Rodeo were holding him back so he wouldn’t beat Lance to death. As it was, he wasn’t moving.

---