Dangerous Love(4)

Out of nowhere, a group of guys rounded a corner two blocks away. She stopped dead. A quick count. Seven. There were seven of them. The street lamps played spotlight on their features. Ranging in the ages from late teens to mid twenties, they all dressed in dark jeans, black long sleeved tee shirts, and baseball caps worn differently on each young man. Hackles raised, her heart began to race and her stomach somersaulted. Not. Good.

A couple of self-preserved retreating steps caused the group of men to focus her direction.

“Hey, baby.”

“Red.”

“She’s so tiny. I like tiny.”

“Where u goin’?”

“Now, now, don’t be afraid.”

“I loooove me some red.”

And it went on and on, one catcall after another.

Eying her surroundings, she was royally screwed. Alleyways as a potential escape route lined between the business buildings. Well, that was certainly a no-go. Too many horror and Lifetime movies were made to know what would happen if she headed down those paths.

They maneuvered themselves closer and spread out into the street in order to trap her. Finally, she turned around to go back to the bar. Maybe Joe, her manager, was still there. Hopefully. But she wasn't feeling lucky about those odds.

Immediately the pounding of rushing feet echoed off the buildings. A glance over her shoulder, they'd decided to come after her and were closing in quickly. Her feet automatically ran for safety. They chased. She'd never been a track star back in high school but didn't consider herself slow. Her major issue was her short legs that couldn't eat up the distance needed. But she put all of her strength and energy into saving herself. Fear drove her to speed down the sidewalk the fastest she'd ever run. She only made it two blocks, when a hand grabbed her from behind, wheeled her around, and tossed her into the brick of a paint store. Pain lanced through her torso as the air left her lungs.

“Well, well, well,” said the tallest one of the group. “She’s pretty.”

They surrounded her like the prey they were about to consume. Someone tugged open her fleece while another ran his fingers through her hair. The distinct odor of booze assaulted her senses. Her lungs desperately screamed for air.

"Let's play," one whispered into her ear.

Cringing, she slammed her eyes shut to gain some sort of composure. She had no choice. She'd fight. There was no way in hell she'd lie down and hope to make it out of whatever was about to happen in one piece. A deep breath to take oxygen into her deprived lungs. Her mind raced to remember the safety course she and Kayla had taken a year ago. She hadn't practiced since.

A blast of light burst through her closed lids. Her eyes flew open. A set of high beams lit the night, pointed directly on the group that boxed her in. The sound of a truck coming to a squealing halt interrupted their game.

“Forester,” the shorter, wider one said respectively, with what sounded like a hint of fear laced through his voice.

The group parted.

Stalking toward her was her savior. Her biker savior.

Grabbing her wrist, he yanked her toward the truck. Throwing open the passenger's door, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing and plopped her inside, then slammed the door shut. He spun and pegged the group.

“Touch her again and you’ll deal with me. She’s mine,” he growled, then stormed around the front of the truck, his eyes deadly focused, and climbed inside. Peeling out, he punched the truck down the road.

When her mind adjusted to the fact she was safe, she began to shake uncontrollably, her adrenaline kicking in.

“Come here,” he mumbled. Once again, he manhandled her by pulling her into his body. Turning up the heater in the cab, he wrapped his solid arm around her body and hugged her tight against him.

Unable to help herself, she whimpered and buried her head into his hard chest. Her vision blurred but she refused to cry.

“Shhhh,” he said softly. “You’re all right.”

For five minutes she kept herself hidden against his body. The scent of clean, male spice and cigarettes flooded her senses. She could feel his heart beat against her cheek through his tight black tee. But those few things barely registered, as if fleeting realizations in the back of her mind. She was too shaken to take full stock in his warmth engulfing her.

Suddenly, the truck pulled to a stop and he threw it into park. She looked up to find they were outside Kayla's apartment.

"How do you know where I live?" she asked, wary once again. Clarity smacked her upside the head. She willingly got into a vehicle with someone she didn't know. Someone enormous and strong. Someone who looked deadly.

Digging for her self-preservation, again, she went to pull away but he held firm.