Page 12 of The Chase

She was speechless. She thought she’d feel indignation. She didn’t, she felt a thrill creep up her spine. She wanted him. She was surprised by him. Here he was, all rugged, just out of prison, cast out by his outlaw motorcycle club. Fresh from nonchalantly torching a hotel. She had a million assumptions about him. Here she was assuming she’d ditch him as soon as they had got a safe distance away. And yet, he’d bought her sensible shoes and he hadn’t drunk a drop of alcohol. He’d come back to rescue her, but in the same breath, had cockily told her, not asked her, but outright told her, that he would be fucking her. It sent pangs all over her body and her mind. He was a Rubik’s cube and she thought she’d had it all lined up, only to find she was far from the final solution.

“I’m…”

“Save it for later, Kitten, right now, we’ve gotta move. Toss your phone,” he said.

“What?” she said. Her phone was like her right arm.

“Get rid of it, toss it over there, they’ll track it. If you want to disappear, you gotta let it go,” he said. She understood, she did, her brain got that. But her heart… something pulled. To throw away her phone was to throw away who she was. All her emails, access to the internet, social media... in that moment, it hit her. His words echoed in her head, gotta let it go.

“Okay, fine,” she said, and it took great strength, but she did exactly that. A simple gesture, in the end. She threw it like a ball, it soared into the darkness and clattered to the ground somewhere. And she was free. Cut loose.

“Good, now we run.”

“Colt, I have one request.”

“What, Kitten?”

“There is something I need to do… we need to go to the bus station.”

He raised both his eyebrows and jerked his head back. “Why the fuck… no.”

“It’s important.”

“What? No, we can’t loop back around-”

“Colt, I need to get something from there. My father…” She paused and took a shaky breath. She felt tears welling in her eyes and swiped them away quickly.

“Shit, Kitten, I’m sorry-”

“Christ, this has been such an ordeal,” she muttered, more to herself.

“Blue’s death was a fucking shitshow, I’m sorry-”

“It’s not that! He’s not… It’s-” She paused and wondered how much she should continue. How much to say. She didn’t know this man, she didn’t trust him yet, not fully. Enough to get a ride on his bike, sure, but with everything else she was thinking right now… no, not yet.

She cleared her throat. “My father said if I ever needed it, there was help, waiting. An emergency package of sorts. He said if I ever needed to get away... I’d always laughed it off to be honest but he insisted I knew that he’d left me something. At the bus station. I have the key to one of the luggage lockers. It’s stitched into the lining on my jacket here.” She tapped her torso.

Colt nodded slowly. She knew it would mean navigating around downtown, a risky place. He had managed to avoid the MC while he’d tracked her to the hotel, but going back downtown with the MC on their bikes and in active pursuit… she knew it wasn’t smart. But she wanted to go back and get this thing. Whatever it was. It might be helpful, or it might be something really useless. It held sentimental value to her, she had to convince him-

“Sure, Kitten, we’ll swing by the bus station,” he said quietly.

She gave him a penetrating look that he shifted under uncomfortably. She was surprised he’d relented. He wasn’t an ogre, he was human, he did have a heart. “Then where?” she asked, with big wide eyes.

“Where? Over the state line,” he ground out. His eyes were hidden in the darkness. His whole face was.

She raised her eyebrows. “Then where?” she practically whispered.

“Don’t know,” he said simply. “One step at a time. Let’s grab this package or whatever it is Blue left for you, then let’s get the fuck out of here.”

“Okay. Thanks,” she said, almost hesitantly. She had expected more push back from him.

“Maybe I can pee at the bus station?” she asked hopefully.

“Oh no, you go into that bus station, you grab the package from the locker and you run out, do you hear me? Straight back on the bike and then we don’t stop until we are over the state line.”

“But that will take hours! We’ll be riding all night!” she exclaimed. “I assumed you had a car or something-”

“Nope. Bike. MC Prez, remember…” he said sarcastically, pounding his fist into his chest.

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