BLAMELESS: MC Biker Romance (Black Thorns, #3) (10 page)

“Let me see,” I say, reaching for the belt of her robe.

She bats my hand away shakily. “No. Don’t. I’m naked underneath.”

“Sarah, I ain’t looking at you with sex on my mind right now. Just tryin’ to help you. You’re hurt. I gotta see it.”

She shakes her head and takes a step back.

Fuck this. There ain’t no place for her shyness right now. I’m a whore. I’ve seen hundreds of women naked. Ain’t gonna make a bit of difference to me. Not like I can tell her that. That won’t go over well.

Instead, I step into her and untie the belt of her robe real quick. She tries to close it quickly, but in her struggle, it just ends up pushing the thing right off her shoulders, leaving her naked.

“Fuck,” I blurt out, before I can reel it in.

Scars.

I step back, horrified. Not at the sight of ‘em, but cuz of the reason for ‘em. That someone’s caused this. Hurt her like this.

There’s so many of ‘em.

Several jagged ones across her stomach. Stab wounds? There’s one on her right upper thigh as well. “Jesus. Is that…a bullet scar?”

She nods slowly and sobs, “Because…I…I tried to escape…for the third time.”

I step closer and trace my fingers over a three-inch one across the top of her left tit.

Before I can ask, she murmurs, “He bit me…deep.”

“What?”

She wipes her eyes with the backs of her hands. “His pain and pleasure experiments.”

She don’t need to say more. I get it. And it’s beyond messed up. It’s downright sadistic.

My hands are shaking from the rage I’m tryin’ to hide from her at seeing the permanent damage that bastard has left on her.

She wraps her arms ‘round herself. She’s hiding from me. “Can you go now?”

“Go?”

“Now you know…you know why I never let you see that night. These scars…I’m ugly.”

“Ugly?”

“Yes. Now, go, okay?”

“Ain’t going nowhere, Sarah,” I tell her, cupping the side of her face.

She pulls away and yells, “I don’t need your pity, Zeb! I’m ugly, okay? I know it. Now…just go!”

Everything makes sense now. The way she is ‘bout sex. Not letting me take her shirt off that night. Her always covering up, even though she’s got the hottest curves I’ve ever seen. I always wondered why she hid her body when it’s so damn smoking.

I step into her and press my palms to her tits.

She gasps and her gaze snaps to mine.

I slide ‘em down her body, over the scars on her stomach and down to her thighs. My eyes are burning into hers as I tell her, “I been with a lot of women, Sarah. Hell, too many. And I ain’t never seen a body more perfect than yours. It’s outta this world. Your curves always get me so fucking hard just looking at ‘em. These scars don’t do nothing to take away from that. You hear me? You’re a goddamn bombshell, woman.”

She lowers her head.

And then she breaks down crying.

“It’s okay, sweet angel.”

I step back and pull my gun from my holster. I pull my phone outta my jeans pocket, too, and place both items down on the toilet seat.

Then I sweep Sarah up in my arms and carry her into the shower with me.

“Zeb!” she cries through her sobs.

“Need to get you cleaned up,” I tell her as I put her down and reach for a cloth and some soap nearby.

She moves away and shakes her head as I come close to her with it.

I pull her into me, holding her steady with one arm as I start soaping her up with the other, tryin’ to scrub the blood off her.

“Shh. Ain’t gonna hurt you. Never, Sarah. You’re safe with me,” I whisper into her hair.

She relaxes against me and I take her weight as she collapses into me and just breaks down crying.

Chapter 12

~Runner~

I watch Sarah’s eyes go wide as Ax steps through her front door with Dealer just behind him.

“No!” she cries, tryin’ to scramble off the couch where she’s been sitting for the last hour just staring into space with me watching her from the armchair across from it. After drying my soaked clothes from the shower in her dryer, I pulled a beer outta her fridge and had her drink it to calm her down a bit. Since then, I been sitting with her, keeping an eye on her and waiting on ‘em to get down here.

“They’re here to help, Sarah,” I tell her, getting to my feet and stepping into her path so she can’t bolt outta the room.

“I told you I don’t want to go to the hospital. My ribs are just bruised, not broken. Trust me on this. I know the difference. You promised you wouldn’t make me!”

“That ain’t why they’re here. Swear it, darlin’.”

That calms her down a bit, but not completely. Probably the sight of Dealer. Big guy with dead fucking eyes—eyes of a killer—walking on in to her living room. Hell, the guy freaks me out half the time. Can’t imagine what he’s doing to Sarah.

He gives her a chin lift and a smile, clearly picking up on her fear. “I’m Rox’s dad. We met at her wedding, remember?” he tells her softly.

She nods slowly, realization flashing in her eyes. I see her relax at his words.

Ax brushes past Dealer and reaches out to her. He gently rubs her arm and bends down to her eye level as he tells her, “You’re gonna be safe now. You ain’t got nothing to worry ‘bout no more. You feel me?”

“Yes,” she murmurs, unable to look him in the eye. Seems he intimidates her.

Come to think of it, every guy I’ve seen her ‘round does. Except me, weirdly. She were nervous like this when I caught sight of her inside the clubhouse.
Bikers
scare her then? Huh. That ain’t good.

Ax and Dealer both give me a look.

I tell Sarah, “Be right back, darlin’.”

“Okay,” she says, slumping back down on the couch.

Ax and Dealer follow me outta the room. I lead ‘em into the kitchen and out onto the patio. Don’t want Sarah to overhear none of this shit.

“What the fuck happened?” I demand, glaring at Ax. “You had two guys watching her.”

“The
diner
. Not her home.”

“What?”

“This place ain’t linked to her in no way. Rox had it hidden real good. Weren’t no call for the boys to be watching here. Supposed to be safe.”

“Well, it weren’t! Where the hell is Rox anyway? Would be good for her to be here along with you two scary-ass fuckers walking into her home. You scare her. Would be good to have another woman here.”

“I stopped her from coming down. She’s making calls, tryin’ to figure out how Torvin got hold of this place.”

“You stopped her? Why?”

“Cuz she gets fucking crazy and she’s a mother now. Those days of her getting mixed up in shit like this are over. No front line stuff for her no more. She’s helping in another way, by tracking the leak.”

“‘Til then, it ain’t safe for Sarah here. Gonna take her to one of my safe houses,” Dealer says.

“Safe house?” I basically spit. I eye Ax. “Better if she stays with you. Your place is safe and in the middle of nowhere and she knows Rox. She’ll feel comfortable there.”

He shakes his head. “No. Ain’t happening. Already told Rox that, too. She had the same idea as you.”

“Why the hell not?”

“Cuz Sarah’s a target. She comes and stays at
my
house, then my family is gonna be put at risk.”

I blow out a breath. What can I say to that? He’s right. Don’t want him risking himself or his family.

But I don’t want her staying in a safe house—a place she don’t know at all and all on her own.

“I’ll take her back to my place.”

Both of ‘em look stunned for a second.

And then Ax shakes his head. “Nah, brother. Took me two minutes to break into your apartment the other night.”

“Well, you ain’t like most people, are you?”

“Betting Torvin’s got guys on his payroll who ain’t neither,” Dealer points out.

“Fine. You take her to one of your safe houses then, but I’m going with her.”

“What?” Ax demands.

“As security. Prospects ain’t gonna be good enough.
I
will be.”

Ax eyes Dealer like he can’t believe he just heard what he did outta my mouth, so he’s needing some sorta confirmation from another pair of ears. He folds his arms across his chest and asks me, “Something you ain’t telling me here?”

“Like what?”

“Like her being your Old Lady? An old lady that you ain’t told nobody ‘bout yet,” Dealer says, amused.

“Fuck you, asshole.”

He takes an aggressive step towards me. Ax throws out his arm and holds him back. He shakes his head at him and then tells me, “You forgetting where your respect’s at? I get it. Your head’s too full of pussy to see straight right now, ain’t it? But watch your mouth. Dealer’s ex club Prez, my wife’s old man
and
a close friend of the club. Plus, you dickhead, he’s helping Sarah out here. Now the club’s legit it ain’t got the ties to certain things that Dealer still does. Off-the-grid shit, for one.”

I blow out a breath and grit out, “Apologies, Dealer.”

He nods.

Ax smiles, happy I backed down for once. Ain’t like me, but right now other things matter more than my ego. Sarah.

“She’s…important to me.”

“Didn’t seem that way up at the clubhouse the other day. Rox told me what you said to her.”

“Yeah, well. Her coming up there caught me off guard and you know how I get when that happens.”

“Crazed?”

I roll my eyes. “Fine, yeah. Crazed.”

“All right. That’s sorted then,” Ax says. “Dealer? Give her time to pack a bag, then move her ASAP, yeah?”

“Got it.”

“Sorted? It ain’t sorted, Ax. Like hell.”

“What?” he growls.

“Want Torvin buried.”

“No.”

“You know what he did to her? She’s got scars all over her fucking body. Jesus Christ, he’s a sadistic piece of shit. And now he’s coming after her again. What if she hadn’t had that knife in her hand? He woulda killed her.”

“He ain’t a threat to the
club
.”

“Yeah, that’s why you’re putting her in a safe house instead of putting her under club protection. Don’t think I didn’t figure that out right away.”

“She ain’t connected to the club. Only connection is she’s a friend of my wife’s
and
you got a hard-on for her. That’s
it
. She ain’t a member and she ain’t an Old Lady either. You know the rules, Runner! Jesus, of everyone, you’re the one quoting the goddamn rule book more than anybody else all the fucking time.”

“You don’t give the order and I’ll fucking do it on my own, Ax!”

He stiffens at my words, his jaw ticking in that menacing way that means he’s ‘bout to lose his shit.

He steps up to me, getting in my face. Calling over his shoulder, he tells Dealer, “Need a minute.”

Dealer’s gone back into the house in the next second.

And then Ax’s hand smashes into my chest, knocking me back hard.

“The club’s legit now! What you’re wanting ain’t what we’re ‘bout no more!”

“Yeah? What ‘bout Malcolm Kent? You had him and his guys murdered in a fucking bloodbath.”

“Weren’t the same and you know it.”

“Right, cuz it were ‘bout
your
girl.”

“No. Cuz he was a threat to the
club
. And…Sarah ain’t even your girl, unless I’m missing something here, so that reasoning makes no fucking sense. None of it does. What the fuck’s going on with you? Why you so obsessed here? You basically told her to fuck off two days ago and now, here you are, willing to murder somebody for her.”

“I care ‘bout her, all right? Tried to shake it, but I can’t. And murdering that asshole’s ‘bout a hell of a lot more than even that. He’s a dirty fucking drug dealer, Ax. You know it. We been watching him. We’ve seen it. He needs putting down.”

He eyes me curiously. “This is ‘bout your past?”

“It’s ‘bout
him
.”

“You know him, don’t you?” he accuses.

“Know who he’s connected to.”

“Who? You been withholding shit from me and the club?”

“Didn’t know for sure ‘til real recently when I looked deeper into what we already had on his recent movements.”

“And?”

“The product he’s moving and the volume? It ain’t possible on his own. Needs a big connection. And there’s only one guy who can pull it off so fucking quietly, on the down low.” I take a second to get my shit together, before revealing, “Jase Wilkes.”

He steps back in shock. “Your brother?”

“Big brother, yeah.
Just
by blood. Weren’t never a real brother to me.”