The second bike stopped alongside the first, both of them keeping their bikes idling. The vibrations strummed through us, booming in my lungs, growling through my head, making it impossible to think. I could feel myself slipping towards panic. Even if Carrick could shoot both of them, the noise would bring every Blood Spider in the area down on us. My breathing started to speed up and, the more it did, the harder it was to stay silent.
“Anything?” One of the bikers, his voice horribly close.
“I ain’t seen shit.” The other one. I heard the snap of a lighter and then he took a drag on a cigarette.
“They’re in here. I saw ‘em come in.”
“Yeah, well we’d better find them. I called the bar and Hay’s going apeshit. That psycho Volos wants his woman. Now.”
Volos. I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the words, but it was too late. I could see the mask’s twisted features looming closer and closer. I felt my whole body tense, my breathing growing ragged—
And then Carrick’s warm fingers were stroking my cheek. It was clumsy, as if he wasn’t used to tenderness. When I opened my eyes, he was glancing between the bikers and me, looking completely out of his comfort zone. He looked as if he’d happily start shooting, just so he could get away from comforting me. And yet….
And yet however awkward it was, it felt really freakin’ good. I felt safe, and my breathing slowed a little.
“Fuck it,” said one of the bikers. I heard him take a last drag on his cigarette and then the smoldering butt arced over the wall of boxes. It missed my ear by an inch and hit the ground in a shower of embers. “Maybe they made it past us. Let’s check the streets. You take Roosevelt, I’ll check Heatherton. Plenty of parking lots around there they could be hiding in.”
“What if they’re still in here? They could slip out behind us.”
“We got guys watching the highway. If they do make it out of town, we’ll run ‘em down.”
Both of them gunned their engines. The walls of the alley boomed and shook. The roar rose...and then died away as they sped off.
Carrick slowly straightened up. After what felt like an hour of having him pressed against me, I felt suddenly cold without him there. I straightened up as well, which left us sitting face-to-face with only a few inches between us.
That conflict in his eyes again, even clearer, now. Lust...lust so powerful it made my whole skin feel like it was on fire. But anger, too. Frustration. Anger at me, that I tempted him...but anger at himself, too. He was tearing himself apart. What the hell was going on?
He looked away, glaring off into the darkness. Then he shrugged out of his leather cut and handed it to me. “Here,” he muttered. “You can’t ride around like that.”
I took it, but his hand kept its grip on the leather for a second, as if letting it go felt wrong. It hit me that the cut was something he treasured. And he was lending it to me.
“Thank you,” I said.
He released it and I slipped it on. It felt good to have some of me covered, even if my legs were still bare. And the leather was warm from his body: it was almost like he was wrapped around me, keeping me safe. It even smelled of him, a little: leather and oil and the citrus tang of his cologne.
When I looked up again, he was gazing at me with such intensity I caught my breath. Not just lust. Something else. A breeze whipped my hair across my face and I brushed it back. “What?” I asked.#p#分页标题#e#
He shook his head. “Nothin’.” His voice was gruff, almost deliberately so. He quickly climbed off the bike and climbed on again forwards, his back to me. “I can’t get you out of here tonight,” he said. “They’re watching the highway. They could be on us before we saw them, in the dark.”
I nodded, even though he couldn’t see it. “So what do we do?”
He didn’t answer for a second. Then, “We’re going to have to find a motel.”
9
Carrick
I hunched over the handlebars as we rode, silent and stoic. But inside, I was unleashing a string of curses that would have made even the filthiest fuckers in the MC wince.
She liked me. I’d seen it in her eyes. Only she didn’t like me: she liked the me she knew from over a decade ago, when I was still a good guy. When I didn’t have years of club dirty work on my soul. Before he turned me into a monster.
I couldn’t take advantage of her. Oh, Jesus, I wanted to. She was into me, and she was semi-naked and grateful and we were heading to a fucking motel…. The universe was handing me her on a silver platter.