Page 27 of Pike
Pike was on his hands and knees while one biker kicked him and the other punched him.
I had to help him. That was the only thought in my mind as I scanned the dark living room for a weapon. Pike’s gun had to be somewhere but thanks to my obsessive need for safety the blinds were closed, and it was too dark to see anything helpful. They hadn’t noticed me yet, so I hit the bottom of the steps and crawled towards the fireplace and grabbed one of the logs.
I took a deep breath and moved towards the man kicking Pike’s side. I stood behind him and lifted the log over my head, exhaling as I brought it down on the back of his head. I shouted when he collapsed onto the floor, but I stood over him and kept hitting him even when my arms grew tired, even though I was breathless and exhausted.
Somewhere in the distance I heard the sound of fighting, of fists hitting skin but I couldn’t focus on anything but the man on the floor as I raised the bloody log again.
“Chloe.” Pike’s voice sounded in the distance but then his arms were around me. “Chloe. Stop.”
I didn’t stop. I couldn’t.
“Chloe.” This time his words whispered in my ear with an urgency that stopped me instantly.
I looked down at the bloody log, at the unconscious man beneath me. Was he unconscious? Was he dead? “Oh shit, did I kill him?” I stood so quickly that my legs shook but Pike was there, hooking his arm around my waist while he whispered quietly into his phone. “He’s dead!” I whispered to myself. “Oh my god, he’s dead!” My legs gave out completely but he only gripped me tighter.
“Look at me, Chloe.”
I shook my head, unable to look away from the man on the floor.
“Chloe.”
I kept shaking my head. “He’s dead,” I said just as another thought occurred to me. “What are we going to do? They know we’re here now which means more of them will come.” My breaths came in sharp, shallow bursts. “We have to leave! Now!” Each word made me more lightheaded, but I couldn’t stop the panic spiral.
“Calm down.” For the past few weeks that calm voice had helped pull me back from the edge of panic and anxiety, but it did nothing now.
“We’re sitting ducks! What if there are more of them coming right now?” I tried to break free, my thoughts on packing and getting Gemma.
Pike’s grip tightened to stop me, and he stepped in close, crowding me. He didn’t say a word, just cupped one side of my face and slowly lowered his lips to mine. It wasn’t a slow kiss or a sweet kiss. The kiss was incendiary, so raw and fierce that it stole my breath. My ability to think. His big, rough hand held me in place while his mouth devoured mine with hungry flicks of his tongue and low growls.
Soon, too soon, my body was a live wire, primed and ready for what came next but Pike pulled back with a slow, satisfied grin. His other hand cupped the side of my face and his forehead pressed against mine. “I need you to stay calm.” His voice was low and gentle with a thread of steel woven throughit. “Some of my brothers are on the way to take care of this,” he motioned to the body on the floor that still hadn’t moved.
This.He said it so simply, butthiswas a dead man. A man who was dead because I killed him. “I’m a killer,” the thought escaped from my lips while I thought it. “Shit, I am a stone-cold killer.” Tears pooled in my eyes and instantly rolled down my cheeks as the gravity of what I’d done—again—weighed down on my chest. “Oh my god, all this time I judged Marcus and the Ghost Riders, and it turns out I’m just like them.” My breathing became shallow again and the edges of my vision were dotted with black. “I am not a good person. I’m a bad person!” I tried to step back, to pull away from Pike’s touch but he wouldn’t let me. “I really ought to leave Gemma with Faith and go far, far away. I can’t be trusted not to kill.” I was practically shouting now.
Pike brushed a soft kiss to my lips just to shut me up, I was sure. “You did what you had to do to help me. You saved my life, so if you remember anything about what you did tonight, rememberthat.” He kissed me again, still soft but with a fierceness that rocked me to my core. “Now go check on Gemma.”
My legs were shaky, but thoughts of my little girl pushed me forward. Every step felt as if I was walking through waist-high mud, but somehow, I made it to the closet where Gemma still slept, completely undisturbed and oblivious to what had happened one floor away. I picked her up and carried her back to bed, pressing a kiss to her forehead before I gently closed the door behind me.
I covered my mouth before the sob could escape. I couldn’t put these emotions on Pike or anyone else. I had to deal with them on my own. It was well past time that I handled my own emotions, especially if I was so capable of killing. I let thetears fall until I reached the bottom of the stairs, and then I dried them and found Pike in the kitchen. Looking at him and then at the bodies on the living room floor I said, “What do we do now?”
He turned with compassion and worry in his eyes. “We need to take them outside.”
My stomach lurched but I nodded anyway because it had to be done. “Yeah. Okay. Take them outside.”
It wasn’t an easy job, lugging two dead men outside, but we eventually got it done.
At least, part of it was done and I was guessing the Steel Demons would take care of the other part. “What will be done with them now?”
His gaze studied my face for a long moment before one eyebrow arched. “Do you really want to know?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. Kind of? Maybe?” What the hell was I saying? Of course I didn’t want to know, but shouldn’t I? “Someone else is cleaning up my mess again.”
He nodded. “They’ll do a damn good job, so you never have to worry about this coming back on you. That’s what you need to know.”
I shook my head, unable or unwilling to believe that. “This is my mess.”
“Do you know how to get rid of a body?”
“No,” I sighed. “But maybe I should.”
