Page 65 of Havoc

Mace stalked back into the room, all smiles. “Did you say my old lady was being a pain in the ass? Maybe it’s time for me to return the favor.”

Alicia was off the sofa and running away before I could get my head around what he was insinuating. Mace immediately gave chase, catching her with uncanny ease and tossing her over his shoulder. She was kicking her feet and screaming, “Put me down,estúpido. I’m not some sexy plaything for you to carry off whenever you please.”

Just when I was starting to become concerned enough to worry about if coming here with these men was a good idea, he turned around and stalked off with her. Alicia was not only smiling from ear to ear, but she also reached down to give his ass a playful slap. I don’t know why, but I immediately averted my eyes.

My first clue that nothing untoward was going on should have been the fact that Nine merely lifted his head and sniffed the air before dropping it back down again. It might have just been my imagination, but it seemed like whatever Marcus was doing in the back was working because the air was smelling nicer. And unless I missed my guess by Nine’s unbothered behavior, there was no scent of fear in the air.

As Havoc finished being tornado man, I took a few minutes to look over the main room of the bunker, or what I assumed was the main room. It was cavernous, sparsely furnished, and made of concrete. Around the top edges of the walls, the concrete turned into rough stone, like this had once been a gigantic cave. If so, this renovation style was an ingenious choice. The entire ceiling appeared to be smoothed-out stone that had been sprayed with cement. This bunker was living proof that even the darkest places nature had to offer could be claimed by humans and fabricated into something truly useful.

I was so deep into my own thoughts that I didn’t realize Havoc was finished and standing in front of me until he cleared his throat.

“You ready to have a look around?”

He hadn’t been joking earlier when he said I’d had a long day. It was true. Unfortunately, I was also too keyed up to sleep or sit still for long. That fact, coupled with my natural curiosity and eagerness to spend more face-to-face time with Havoc, got me moving out of my comfortable chair. “I would love to explore our new surroundings a bit.”

When we got to the door, Havoc turned to address the huge wolfdog who had suddenly lost all interest in anything except dozing. Havoc patted his leg and said, “You coming, Nine? Come on, boy.”

The large slumbering beast turned over and sprawled out into an even more comfortable position on the sofa, practically taking up every square inch of available space. Havoc’s hand dropped and he said, “That’s okay, boy. You got us here safely, and that’s all that fuckin’ matters on a night like this.”

Nine? He just lifted his head long enough to make a whining sound and went back to resting.

My eyes flickered up to Havoc’s busted lip and bruised face. The cut on his neck was now crusted over with dried blood. That my bruised and battered protector still had the presence of mind to extend some caring and compassion towards his furry friend only made me appreciate him more.

Without overthinking it, I stepped closer to Havoc, wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him down for a long, lingering kiss. When I pulled back, I teased, “Looks like your furry friend is down for the count. I guess you’re stuck with my company instead.”

His tongue came out to slide along his bottom lip, as if he were enjoying the taste of me still clinging to his lip. “Lucky me,” he said in an unusually deep and breathless tone.

We stood there for a moment, gazing into each other’s eyes This big, rough, tatted-up biker with a heart of gold and a protective streak a mile wide had somehow become the only man I wanted in my life.

Finally, he swallowed thickly before stepping back. The look on his face was enough to make me wonder if he was thinking along the same lines that I was. We’d decided to give whatever this was between us a chance, and as for myself, I was becoming more sure of what we had by the minute.

We left the room and were funneled directly into some kind of food prep area. It had the same utilitarian cement walls and floor, but this one had steel shelves along two walls and a large stainless steel table. Eventually, we rounded a corner and there was a stove, sink, and empty refrigerator with the doors standing open. Across from that was a closed doorway. Havoc opened it to reveal a food storage room. He pulled out a coffee maker and some nutrition bars, handing me sugar and a canister of creamer. “We’ll leave this out for the morning,” he said confidently. “If you see anything you want to eat or drink for now, grab it.”

I looked around and ended up grabbing a couple of bottles of water and a bag of chocolate-covered nuts. After unloading the coffee and nutrition bars on one of the counters, we continued with the tour. Everything here was so different from anything I’d ever seen before that I found it fascinating. It was something new to take my mind off my problems. Havoc was an interesting conversationalist, telling me about the shelter and the times his club brothers had been forced to take shelter here.

The fifth large room turned out to be the area where the serial killer kept his hostages. It wasn’t gross or bloody, just depressing to think women spent their minutes on earth here.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the shelter to be so big. I don’t think anyone could imagine this kind of space exists underground from looking at the outside.”

He nodded. “I agree. We recently discovered a hidden door leading to a mostly unfinished lower level. The guy who built this must have been batshit crazy in addition to being a stone-cold killer who preyed on women.”

“It feels like he was trying to make space for as many hostages as possible in the event of an apocalypse,” I grumbled.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Though some of it is our doing. After Mace and Alicia camped out here for a week, we realized we needed to make it more habitable. So now there’s extra rooms for brothers to stay in case a bunch of us need to hide out.”

He could tell seeing all this made me feel lots of conflicting emotions, so he rushed me out to continue the tour. Down a new hallway, we counted a total of eight doors, all small bedrooms according to my hulking tour guide. Realizing there was another level below this one gave me the creeps.

Havoc showed me another closet. This was a room for storing cleaning supplies. “We’ve been restocking when we can because if we ever end up using this, we’re gonna need to keep the place sanitary.”

He looked at me. “It seems like you guys have thought of everything. I can see why you brought me here. It’s not only well-stocked but I can’t imagine a safer place on earth or one that’s more difficult to locate.”

“I don’t think anyone knows about this place besides us. Only our police contact, and he didn’t put the location in any of his reports. He described it as in the middle of nowhere and told them he didn’t think he’d be able to locate it again if he tried,” Havoc explained. “Only highly trusted people know about this place. And until we get a handle on what’s going on with Slater, you’ll be staying here.”

It took me a minute to get my head around staying here for now. He tried to smooth it over with a more detailed explanation. “If we deem him to be a minimal risk, Storm may agree to you coming back to the clubhouse, but I doubt it.”

“Are you sure this isn’t overkill? It seems disproportionate to the danger. Slater is just one man.”

He guided me to a bedroom, as he tried his best to answer my question. “We need to remember that Slater is a lawman and he’s already done some fucked up shit under the cover of law. I wouldn’t put it past him to raid our clubhouse to get you back, or arrest you under some jumped up charge. And he could probably get away with it. Therefore, the only way to keep you safe is to keep you out of his reach entirely. Before we had access to a place like this, we would stash people we were protecting out of the area or with allied clubs. Trust me, this is better than being isolated on your own or having to stay with a bunch of strange bikers you don’t know.”

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