Gravel (MC Biker Romance) (25 page)

“I highly recommend the lady in the
back closes her eyes,” Raze said in a low tone.

I willingly obliged. I trusted
Raze.

I’ll never forget the sound that
followed. The explosion. The smell of
gun powder
.
The ringing in my ears.
The blood everywhere, splattered
across the dash, the upholstery, the windows, and both of us. It happened so
fast.

Raze climbed out of the truck,
popped the seat forward and grabbed me by the arm. My legs felt like Jell-O
from being crammed back there all day, but I ran after him as fast as I could.
No matter how fast we ran, though, it still felt like slow motion. Even though
I knew Shark was dead, I still wanted to turn back and look over my shoulder. I
felt like he was chasing after me, about to grab my shoulder and yank me away
from Raze at any moment.

We hurried around to the side of
the building where
Raze’s
bike was hidden between
some dumpsters. He climbed on, started it up, and I hopped on behind him. I
clenched onto him so tight it probably hurt him, but I didn’t care. I was never
letting go of him ever again.

As the fresh air covered our
blood-spattered selves and the vibration of the cycle rumbled beneath us, I’d
never felt anything so amazing in my life.

Raze had rescued me. I was free.

I don’t remember how long we rode
for. The minutes seemed to stand still and fly by all at the same time. It was
surreal to say the least. To be riding on the back of
Raze’s
bike once again, to have been rescued from the evilness that was Rip and Shark,
and to be free once and for all was nothing short of a dream for me.

I’d never given up hope completely,
but I had my moments over those three days where I seriously doubted I would
ever be free.

I rested my cheek against
Raze’s
back and breathed in the musky scent of his leather
jacket. He felt like home to me. He was home to me.

We pulled off to a rest stop along
a quiet stretch of dark interstate some time later.

“Raze,” I said as we climbed off
and he took a step towards me. My eyes burned and tears wanted to fall, but
they were happy tears. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

He cupped my face in his hands and
rubbed my cheek.

“Let’s get cleaned up,” he said.
“We can talk when we get to the hotel.”

“I’m not leaving your side,” I said
as I clenched onto his hand.

“That’s fine,” he laughed.

We strolled towards the bathrooms,
hand in hand, and found a private, single stall restroom labeled for family use
only. Paying no regards to the sign, we walked in and locked the door. I
glanced at my reflection in the mirror. I looked awful. My skin was pale and
sallow. I had big circles under my eyes and my dark hair washed out my fair
complexion, especially under those harsh fluorescent lights.

Blood spatters covered the side of
my face, and dried bits of blood were stuck in my hair. It was almost a
metallic scent and one that I’d never forget as long as I lived.

“I’m sorry you had to see me to
that,” Raze said with a solemn expression.

“It’s fine,” I said. “I’m glad you
did that. Those men were monsters.”

Raze studied my face. I could tell
he wanted to ask about everything that had happened, but he knew it just wasn’t
the time.

“Let’s get cleaned up and back on
the road,” he said. He pulled out a plastic sack. I hadn’t even noticed him
grab it. I guess I was too worried about not letting go of him for one second.

He sat out a bottle of shampoo, a
bar of soap, and a fresh change of my clothes. He was so prepared and it was
damn sexy. I wondered how many times he’d done that before, cleaned up after a
crime, but I quickly pushed that thought aside. It didn’t matter now.
Not at all.

I turned the faucet on, adjusting
the temp to the perfect combination of hot and cold, and lowered my hair down.
Raze grabbed the bottle of shampoo, squeezed a glob into his hand and began
massaging it into my hair. The water ran red as Shark’s blood rinsed out. It
was both disgusting and exhilarating to see those traces of Shark get clean
washed away.

His strong
hands
massaging my scalp was
everything I loved about Raze. He was tough yet
he had a sensitive, compassionate side. He was protective, yet you didn’t want
to ever cross him. I knew he was capable of a lot of things, many of them
unspeakable, but I knew he cared about me deeply. I knew he shared with me a
side that no one else got to see.

As the last of the blood rinsed
from my hair, I stood up and ringed out the excess water, letting it drip clean
down the sink. I washed the blood spatters off my face and grabbed the clean
change of clothes.

Raze watched as I ripped off my
white tank top to reveal a black teddy. His face seemed to temporarily fill
with rage at the first sight of the hideous lingerie they’d put me in.

He shook his head and his jaw
clenched, but he said nothing. I couldn’t get it off of me quick enough. I
peeled off the teddy and slid off the too-loose jeans and tossed them in the
garbage.

Raze tore off his blood-covered
leather jacket, washed his face, and changed into clean clothes. We were almost
as good as new, and it was almost as if none of that had happened.

“Ready?” he
asked
as he looked me up and down, inspecting me.

“Yep,” I said with a smile. It was
the first time I’d smiled in almost three days.

We left our bloodied clothes in the
bathroom trash and stepped out of the family restroom. Fortunately no one was
around to see us, and we took cover under the shade of the night sky. We
climbed back on his bike and zoomed up the on ramp, back on the interstate. I
didn’t ask Raze where we were going.
I knew wherever it was
,
it didn’t matter
. I was back with him now, and I felt
safe.

Maybe an hour or so later, we
stopped at a nice, clean, well-lit hotel just off the interstate. It seemed to
be situated in a nice neighborhood and looked newer. The parking lot was filled
with family SUVs and minivans and happy people going about their business,
oblivious to horrors that were going on right next to them.

We climbed off the bike, grabbed
our things from the saddlebags, and headed inside to check in. I stood back as
Raze handled everything. He spun around a few short minutes later, handed me a
keycard, and pointed towards the elevator. The hotel lobby had smooth, crystal
clean marble tile floors, a flowing fountain, and more greenery than I’d ever
seen on the inside of a building. It was easily the nicest hotel I’d ever
stayed at in my life.

We headed up to the fifth floor and
found our room halfway down the hall and to the left of the elevator. As soon
as Raze opened the door to our room, the smell of industrial cleaners and new carpet
filled my nostrils. I walked in and sat my stuff down on the bed, sitting down
to take a load off. I could tell the comforter was new, and there was not a
speck of dust to be seen anywhere in the room.

“This is a really nice place,
Raze,” I said with a smile. “I feel safe here.”

Raze said nothing but looked
satisfied with our surroundings. He walked across the room to where an enormous
curtain was covering floor to ceiling windows, and he pulled them back to
reveal a beautiful ironclad balcony. He slid the door open, and a breeze of
fresh air filled the room.

I stood up from the bed and
followed him out to the balcony where a little bistro table and chair set were
waiting for us.

“Where are we anyway?” I asked as I
looked out over the most beautiful city light scape I’d ever seen.

“Just outside of L.A.,” he said.

“This is really pretty,” I said as
I took a seat.

He stood, leaning against the
railing on his elbows and looking lost in thought.

“I’m sorry that stuff happened to
you, Mia,” he said as he hung his head. I could tell he blamed himself.

“Raze, it wasn’t your fault,” I
insisted. “You did nothing. You saved me. You saved my life.”

Raze shook his head. “I never
should’ve brought you into this lifestyle.”

“I made a choice,” I argued with
him. “And I chose you.”

Raze spun around, still leaning on
the balcony. His face was hardened, and I could tell there were things he
wasn’t saying. He was such a closed book sometimes. I stood up and took a few
steps towards him until we were almost
nose to nose
. I
leaned in and placed a delicate kiss on his mouth, wrapping my arms around his
narrow waist.

“You saved me, Raze,” I said. “I
owe you everything for that.”

He buried his face in my neck,
breathing me in, and wrapped his arms around me, pulling me closer.

“I don’t deserve you,” he said. “I
never really thought I did. I don’t know what you see in me, but thank you for
seeing the best in me. I feel like a monster most days.”

I knew Raze had done some horrible
things in his young, adult life, and knowing him, he was surely eaten up over
them every single day.

“You’ve always done what you’ve had
to do,” I said. “You did what you had to do to survive, to right the wrongs.
You’re only human.”

Raze pulled his head back and
stared into my eyes, listening intently.

“Life is all about choices,” I
said. “You have a choice now. You don’t have to live that lifestyle anymore.
You and I, we can build a whole new life together, just like we planned.”

He leaned his head back, and I
could tell he was fighting back tears. My man, my tough, alpha, razor sharp
man, was bleeding open with emotion for the first time in a long time. I loved
that he could be himself around me.

I rested my head on his shoulder
and squeezed my arms tightly around him.

“I’m not going anywhere,” I
promised him. “We’ve been through too much already for me to just walk away.”

Raze nodded as he rested his chin
on the top of my head. I felt his hot
breath
on the
top of my scalp, and it felt comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold night. A
shiver ran down my spine as the breeze of the night air suddenly turned chilly.

“You cold?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I said. “It just got cold
all of a sudden.”

“Let’s head inside,” he suggested.

We went back into the hotel room,
and I threw myself down on one of the cushy beds, resting my head on an
overstuffed pillow. He climbed next to me and placed his arm around my
shoulder, bringing me close to him.

We laid in silence, just Raze and
I, as we stared at the ceiling. It was the first hotel I’d ever stayed at that
didn’t have a popcorn ceiling. I burrowed my nose into the crook of his arm,
breathing in the faint scent of his deodorant mixed with the musky smell of the
outdoors.

“Raze?” I asked, burrowing in as
close as I could and throwing my arm around him.

“Yeah,” he replied.

“How did you know where I was?” I
asked. “Tonight, I mean.”

Raze adjusted himself and cleared
his throat.

“I have connections,” he said.

“Can you elaborate?” I asked with a
slight chuckle.

“I know someone on the inside of
the Marquis Devils. He’s sort of a dual agent. He’ll do anything if the price
is right,” Raze said. “When you went missing, he was the first person I called.
I knew it was the Marquis Devils, especially after we ran into them at the bar.
And then when we saw one of them at that diner, I knew they were on our tail.”

“Did you know they were following
us the entire time?” I asked.

“Honestly, I thought we lost them
that last night,” he said, slightly ashamed with his eyebrows raised. “I really
did.”

“How’d they get in to the room to
take me?” I asked.

“After I came out of the shower
that night and saw you were missing and your things were still here, I just
knew,” he said with a winced look on his face. “I looked outside, saw nothing,
and then ran to the front desk clerk to see if he’d seen anything.”

“Go on.”

“He said a couple guys came in and
basically scared the shit out of him. Threatened him and what not,” Raze
continued. “They scared him into giving them our room info and a spare key. One
stayed with the clerk while the other one went to get you. As soon as they
left, the clerk got a description on the truck and called the police.
Unfortunately I had to stick around and give a statement. It fucking killed me,
Mia. Each second I was with the police was a second you were getting further
and further away.”