Page 36 of Shielding Lexi (Temptation)

I don’t answer. Fuck him.

“I’ve been thinking… it’s been a really long couple of weeks for you. Jumping off my boat, washing up on that shit island, hanging out with those boring fucking Guardians. You must be happy to finally be back in my arms. Why’d you jump anyway?”

I know he wants me to answer him, but I refuse. I’m not giving him anything. Not a word.

“Oh, you’re going to make me guess!” he says, turning right. “I love a good guessing game. Let me see… I’m thinking you didn’t jump, you fell. You weren’t trying to get away from me at all. You just slipped and went in the drink.” He laughs. “Is that right, Lexi? Did I get it?”

My mind wanders and I think of Hawk. He must be losing his mind, Kane too. I wonder if Reaper is even home yet. Will they search for me? How will they know where to find me? Will they come alone or bring the police? Can they trust the police? Am I going to die? Is Brick going to kill me? Will I die like this? Will my mother have to endure losing both her children? What will Sara and Margo say when they find out Brick murdered me? Maybe they’ll never find out. He got away with Julie’s murder.

“Lexi,” Brick says with excitement. “We’re here…”

The car comes to a hard stop, and he turns off the engine. I feel his weight lift from the car, then hear his footsteps move around to the passenger side. He opens the door and jerks me out.

“Stand up straight, sweetheart,” he says eerily sweet as he pulls me across some kind of pavement. Brick isn’t as big as Reaper, but he’s tall and strong with lean muscles.

We must be close to the docks. I can smell the sea air and hear the gulls squawking.

Brick stops and drops me, forcing me to the pavement.

I let out a wince, but pipe it in immediately. I won’t let him hear me cry, and I won’t beg him for mercy.

I’m not sure what he’s been doing, but a moment later, he grips my wrists again, this time dragging my nearly nude body hard across the pavement. Heavy scrapes tear up my skin as we move. I bite my lip to hush the pain as it tries to escape my lips as I kick and thrash against his grip. The chains bite my flesh, and when I suck in a breath, I get a mouthful of dusty old cotton that makes me gag.

Is he taking me to his boat? Will he kill me there, then throw me overboard?

The pavement turns to sand, and soon the sand turns to water, and I don’t have to look to know where I am. Brick is evil. He’s more than evil, he’s the fucking devil.

19

Reaper

We pull up to the old shipping yard on the west end of town. The full moon is high and bright. The tide will come in faster tonight.

“You know your way around here?” Kane asks, climbing off his bike.

I look toward him, my jaw clenched, my gun already drawn.

He and Hawk make eyes before following me through the labyrinth of shipping containers, triple checking every blind turn.

“No one is here, Reap,” Hawk says, following close behind.

I don’t answer him, but I too think the whole thing is odd. Even if Brick went rogue, he surely had a few friends he could convince to guard his territory while he—I stop myself before I get sick. There’s no way I’m letting him hurt her. No fucking way.

As we creep in closer to the pier, Julie flashes in and out of my mind. She was too fucking young to have been messed up with Brick.

What was she thinking? What was I thinking not reaching out more, just trusting the smile on her face was genuine. I wanted to give her space and privacy to be her own person, but I made a mistake and it cost her. I’m all she had. Of course she wouldn’t have told her big brother she was dating the drug dealer of an opposing MC. I should’ve investigated, pulled it out of her. It could’ve saved her life.

I let out a sigh as I round the next corner. I shouldn’t have been listening, but when I got home last night, I overheard Lexi telling Hawk about her sister and I couldn’t stop thinking about how fucking hard that girl has had it. She’s been to hell and back, and she gets what it’s like. She gets it more than anyone I’ve talked to. I hate myself for how I pushed her away, how I didn’t trust her, how I made every fucking day more difficult than it needed to be.

Waves crash against the shore and my stomach tightens when I see Lexi tied to a pillar under the pier. There’s a hood over her face, the tiny sundress Hawk had bought her now soaked and fully submerged.

“Look familiar?” Brick laughs from the shoreline. There’s an elation in his voice that puts my finger on the trigger.

“She’s locked to that pillar,” he says with a shit smile as he turns his back to me and wanders toward the beach. “Only I know where the key is, so you might want to lower that gun.”

I glance toward Lexi, chained to the pier in an old heavy wood chair, the water rising, edging near her chin.

“You have one minute to tell me what the fuck is going on, or I’ll shoot and think later,” I say, knowing Kane and Hawk are still behind me with guns drawn.

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