Page 53 of Twisted Hearts

30Aaron

I jumped up with a start.My breaths heaved as my chest bobbed up and down with quick panicked movements. The scene in the woods with the mercenaries had gone differently in my dream.

In the dream, they’d captured Megan and held a gun to her head. Her big terrified eyes begged me for help, but I was powerless to do anything but stand there and watch. Just as the blast from the gun sounded, my body had lurched from the mattress.

A cool layer of sweat had coated my body as my sore muscles twitched beneath my damp skin. Shaking off the nightmare, I reached out for Megan, but she wasn’t lying next to me. The coolness of the spot let me know that she’d been up for a while. My gaze traveled over to the closed bathroom door, listening for her.

Megan believed that the men that attacked us were meant for her. She’d stressed that her past was going to get me killed or hurt. What she didn’t know was that I didn’t care if those men had come for her because I had a problem with anyone that threatened to bring harm to her.

I’d go to war for any member of my club, no matter how misguided they were, and no matter if we were feuding internally. And I realized while the bullets were flying that I was willing to die to save Megan too. I was willing to bring death to anyone who threatened to harm a hair on her head.

She wanted to leave me, and although she wouldn’t admit it, I knew that if she left me this time, not only was she not coming back to me, but she was going to make it so that I’d never find her again.

The idea of not seeing Megan was an unbearable first for me. Shit between us had gone past me craving the best sex I’d ever had. It had moved to care, understanding, and that unseen force that could send the manliest man to his knees.

If I lost Megan, I’d lose my fucking mind. She grounded me, made me believe my life was worth a damn. That I was not just passing along in a blur of boring days until someone needed the next body to drop or the guns to get collected and distributed. If protecting Megan was my purpose, I’d gladly accept the job.

My glare hit that bathroom door again. It was awfully quiet in there. I lugged my stiff and sluggish body from the squeaky bed and padded to the bathroom. I twisted the knob, sprang the door open, and peered in. No Megan.

The crease in my forehead deepened as I instinctively checked every crack and corner of the shabby motel room, knowing that Megan wasn’t inside. Wishful thinking made me ignore the obvious. I glanced over the bags of groceries we’d gotten before the shootout, sitting in a neat pile near the loud air-conditioning unit. Maybe she went to the vending machine.

My speeding heart and quickened pulse had me anxious, pacing around the room like I was missing a part of my soul and didn’t know what to do without that missing part. There was no way anyone had taken her right from under my nose. I’m sure they would be dead on the floor if they had tried.

After throwing on my clothes, I snatched the room key from the wobbly cigarette-burned table and dashed out of the door.

I searched for Megan on the first level where we were and the second level where more vending machines were. My heart picked up its pace, and my internal senses screamed that she’d taken off.

“I can’t let anything happen to you because of me.”Those were the words she’d spoken to me after the shootout in the woods.

My fingers skimmed the back pocket of my jeans before I pulled out my wallet. It had just occurred to me that it was in my left pocket, and I always tucked it into my right. I flipped it open and found nothing but lint inside. Megan had taken the few hundred in cash I carried and in its place, was a neatly folded note on the hotel’s cheap stationery.

After I unfolded the note my gaze locked on to her scribbled words.

Aaron. I know that those men were after me, and I can’t let them hurt you any worse than they already have because of my actions. You are the best thing that’s ever happened in my life, and I’ll always cherish and remember our time together, but I must pay for my own sins.

Megan.

What the fuck kind of wimpy goodbye was that? What was up with her and goodbyes? Why didn’t she tell me to my face that she was ready to leave? Because you would have talked her out of it like you’ve been doing for the past week.

My fucking hand began to shake as a tornado tunneled its way through my brain. Finding Megan was my number one priority. She was out there running around alone with a group of armed mercenaries on the loose.

If there was one thing I’d come to realize, it was that Megan had become a part of me. A part that I’d rip this fucking world apart to protect. But first, I needed to find her—again.

Megan was insistent that the group hunting us was after her, so I was sure she thought she was doing the right thing by leaving me. It no longer mattered who the group was hunting, both our pasts were dark enough that madness and mayhem was a part of us.

Even if this group of mercenaries were looking for her, it didn’t mean that I was going to stand by and let someone hurt her.

I drove by and checked out the other two motels on the stretch of back-woods roads we’d decided to lodge on. I would have called D, to track Megan’s phone, but the woman had kept so much from me, that I didn’t even know her phone number.

After driving around for two frantic hours searching for her, an idea seeped its way into my brain and made me inch my foot down on the accelerator.

Megan was a clever woman, but she’d given me a glimpse into the way she thought about certain situations. The first time I’d gone hunting for her, I’d traveled across multiple states and had to use illegally acquired information to find out that she’d been right under my nose, here in Florida. If it hadn’t been for D, I probably wouldn’t have found her.

Would she do it again? Would Megan hide right under my nose as I chased her ghost? There was only one way to find out, and I prayed my hunch was right.

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