Savage: a Fighter Erotic Romance Novella (6 page)

BOOK: Savage: a Fighter Erotic Romance Novella
3.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

“Not now that we’re really doing this.  Go get ready.”

“For what?” I said, getting up.  There was some new energy in Luke now.  I didn’t recognize it before, but now I saw that it had been hiding in him the whole time.  It lit me up to, making my nerves tingle and breath speed up.  He looked like a bird that had been set free from his cage, and it was beautiful.

He turned to me, his eyes vibrant and alive.

“For this.  Grab your things and meet me outside on the bike,” he said, pulling out a packed bag he had hidden under the bed.  “You have five minutes, and then we’re leaving this shithole forever.”

MEN IN HATS

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

The first thing I learned about Luke on the road was that he loved his bike like he loved his own mother.  I swear I saw him groping it as we drove.  If it was a woman, and if we were official, I would have been jealous as hell.

The second thing I learned was that, when Luke said he was going to get the hell out of there, he meant it.  No sooner had my feet left the ground than we were tearing out of the parking lot and toward the highway at what seemed to be faster than the speed of light.  My heart took off just as fast, lea

I clung to Luke’s chest for dear life, my backpack weighing me down and threatening to pull me back onto the highway and certain death.  Every turn threw me like a ragdoll and ever hill made me sick to my stomach.  I was sure we were going to die if he kept driving like that, though then again, we were going to die if he didn’t.  I hated Catch-22s.

“You okay, darlin’?” he asked, the hint of a chuckle in his voice.

“I’m f-fine,” I said.  I dug my fingers into his chest as we passed an oncoming tractor trailer, its massive cargo casting a shadow over us and threatening to crush us to bits.

“Never had speed like this before, huh?” he asked, no longer bothering to hide how amused he was by my panic.  I gritted my teeth.

“Not the speed I’m worried about so much as your insistence on getting us killed.”

“It’s alright if you can’t handle it.  You’re so young after all.  And inexperienced.  Maybe we can stop and give you a rest?  Maybe find you a nice juice box?”

“Keep going and I swear to God I’ll puke on you.”

We roared past the state lines faster than I thought was possible, traversing Mississippi and Alabama at a break neck speed.  We only stopped once or twice, and then only for a few minutes at the most.  Luke was insane.  He seemed like he never tired, never got hungry, never even blinked for a bit too long through the hours and hours of driving.  Even as I was just about to fall off the bike with how absolutely wiped out I was, he kept on like had had just woken up minutes ago.

We stopped to get gas every once in a while, but only for a few moments. 

Unfortunately, that was just long enough for them to find us.

The first time I saw one, I was stopping inside a gas station to buy us water.  Luke had been driving for five straight hours without a moment of sleep or a bit of food, and I was sure he was going to collapse at any moment.  As I handed the cashier my five dollars, I noticed him out of the corner of my eye, walking down one aisle that I was sure he had already walked down five times.  I was unnerved, but when I walked outside and he didn’t follow, I thought I was just being paranoid.

When I saw him again a hundred miles later in yet another gas station, seemingly having appeared there out of thin air and inspecting an aisle just as intensely as he had inspected the last one, I knew I wasn’t.

It wasn’t until we stopped to eat at a dive bar in Tennessee that I really came to grips with what was happening. 

I tried to keep myself composed, ordering our food with as normal an expression as I could muster.  I carried it back to our table where Luke was leaning back in his chair and finishing off a cigarette.  He glanced up at me and puffed a smoke ring.

I wrinkled my nose when I saw it, momentarily distracted. 

“Those things’ll kill you,” I said, trying to silence my racing heart.

“Oh no,” he said, pointing a finger at me.  “Don’t you get started on that.  You start preaching at me and you’re kicked off this escape team.  Anyway, this is the one pleasure I had in the world the whole time I was going through that hellish fight club.  You let me have that, at least.”

“You don’t care that you’re going to be hacking up black lung in thirty years?”

He shrugged.

“I’m a fighter, darlin’.  We don’t live that long.  We don’t have much reason to plan for the next month, let alone thirty years from now.”

“True.” 

I sat our food down.  My heartbeat was thundering in my ears, and no amount of small talk was going to silence it.  I sat down at the table, hoping to God I seemed normal. 

Luke didn’t seem to notice anything, diving into his burger like a starving man. 

After a few painful minutes, I knew I couldn’t keep it in any longer.  The danger was too great, and we had too much to lose.  We had made it this far—we couldn’t give that up due to carelessness.  If I didn’t speak now, I would surely regret it later.

I took a deep breath.

“I think we’re being followed,” I said grimly under my breath. 

He gave me a confused smile.

“Why you think that, darlin’?”

“There are two men sitting at the other side of the restaurant,” I said, keeping my head down and speaking quietly into my drink.  “That man in the blue hat was in the truck stop back in Mississippi.  And the man with the yellow bin on his suit?  He was at that bar in Atchafalaya.”

Luke’s smile faded.  I could see the gears working in his brain, the thoughts forming as he realized what that meant.  His expression turned grim

“How sure are you?” he said, his voice suddenly low and serious.

“Eighty-five, maybe ninety percent.  Blue hat man has switched hats a few times, I’m pretty sure he’s intentionally trying to throw us off.  They’ve looked over here three or four times in the last thirty minutes.” 

I leaned over to look at them again, but Luke shook his head.

“No,” he whispered.  “Don’t look at them.  Don’t let them know we know.”

I nodded and kept my eyes down.

“So you’re definitely sure?” he said after a moment, tapping his fingers nervously against the tabletop.  “You’ve definitely seen them before?”

“You learn to watch out for sketchy men when you’re a teenage runaway,” I said.  “I’m good at this.  I haven’t been murdered yet, have I?”

He smirked.  “We’ve got that at least.”  He took a sip of his beer, paused to look at it for a moment, then downed it all in one gulp. 

When he looked back at me, his eyes had a plan.

“Pretend I’m drunk,” he ordered me.  “Tell them I’m your boyfriend and you’re going to take me home.  I’ll do the rest.”

Before I had a chance to react, he stood up, slammed on the table, and yelled, “We need another beer over here.”  His voice was slurred and his eyes were wild.  He was a good actor; for a moment I almost believed it myself. 

But when a few men jumped up to subdue him, I jumped up faster.  No way in hell was I going to let himself get murdered just when we were finally getting away.

“No,” I cried, putting my hands up to stop them.  Luke stumbled, and I leaned over to catch him, slinging one of his huge arms over my frail shoulders.    The men hesitated.

“You should keep your old man out of here,” one of them grumbled.  “Last thing we need in this place is more of those motherfuckers.”

“I know, I’m sorry.  He gets like this sometimes, but he’s harmless.  I’ll get him out of here and put him to bed.”

Before anyone could land a punch on him, I dragged him out the door.  Luke mumbled incoherently as we walked out, sometimes stumbling again and giving some of the men a nasty eye.  I poked him in the ribs. 

“Overacting,” I hissed as the doors shut behind us.

“Not following the plan,” he whispered back. 

“I don’t hear footsteps behind us,” I said quietly as we walked to the sidewalk.  His bike was parked in the parking lot to the left, and I started leading us that way.  “Have they stopped following us.”

“No,” he said grimly.  “And like I said, just follow my lead.”

Instantly, he swerved to the right.  His heavy footsteps began towing us there towards the back of the bar where the alley lay in darkness.

“What are you doing?  The bike is over there,” I whisper-shouted.

“Trust me.”

I bit my tongue but followed him as he stumbled back.  Once we had made it past the wall, he straightened up, totally shedding the drunk act.  He peered over the corner for a moment and waited.  I crossed my arms, worried.

“What are we doing?  Please, I’m starting to get worried.”

“They haven’t stopped.”

“What?”

“They haven’t stopped following us.  The two men you pointed out.”

“But I didn’t hear them.”

“Exactly.  Because they’re hanging back.  And they should be coming out right about….”

Sure enough, the doors opened then, and two discretely dressed men walked out.  They headed towards the parking lot, but when the saw the bike sitting there abandoned, they halted.  One of them said something to the other, and the other clutched his hat. 

They span around, scoping out the area in front of the bar.

“Now,” Luke said in a whisper.  “Like I said.  Just wait and trust me.”

Before I could ask what he meant, the sound of footsteps approached us.  I shut my mouth stood still, breathing as quietly as possible as Luke crept forward.  The footsteps matched his pace, and just as the two men were about to turn the corner, Luke leapt out.

I heard a sickening crunch as one man’s head hit the brick wall of the bar, propelled by Luke’s hand.  I started to scream but slapped my hands over my mouth, desperately trying to avoid the attention of anybody nearby.  The last thing I needed was the bar men coming out again.

Luke seemed to think that too, because instead of hurting the other man, he covered his mouth and pushed him against the wall.  Luke’s breaths came out in harsh, grunting pants.

The man stared up at Luke with wide, terrified eyes.

“Where is he?” Luke growled.  “I know Vera sent you, so don’t try to deny it.  I don’t care what he’s threatened you with—know that I can do worse.  And know that every time you deny it, I’m going to rip off one of your fingers.  If I run out of fingers, I’m going to kill you.  Do you understand?”

The man stared up at him, silent and petrified.

“I said do you understand?” Luke roared, shoving him hard against the wall. 

The man began nodding furiously, his eyes even wider and more scared now.

“Good.  Now tell me where he is.”

The man looked down at the hand clamped over his mouth.  Luke grimaced.

“If you scream, I swear to God I will rip out your vocal chords with my teeth,” he said.  The man’s hands began shaking violently, but when Luke moved his hand, he was silent. 

I stood still in my place, unable to move.  I was transfixed by this new, hideous side of Luke.  The one that had been trained into him since he was a child.

“Where is he?” Luke asked.  The man shook, but after a second of silence, Luke shoved his head once more into the wall.  The man gasped.  He grabbed the chokehold that Luke had over his neck and pulled it to give himself some air.  Luke released his neck just the slightest bit, just enough to give the man the chance to speak.

“Here,” the man panted.  “Vera is here.”

LIFE OR DEATH

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

“Shit,” Luke said, his eyes wide and wild.  He pushed the man against the wall again, this time his force even more brutal.  The man choked as Luke’s grip on his throat tightened.  “Tell me where he is—is he coming here?  Have you told him where we were?”

“Ye-ess,” the moan rasped under his grip.

“And he knows what we look like?  He knows I have a woman with me?”

The man tried to speak, but he couldn’t get the words out through Luke’s tight grip.  He began choking, gasping for air and reaching out as if he could grab it and bring it to him

“Luke,” I said in a low voice.  My hands had begun shaking as I watched him interrogate the man.  My knees felt weak and wobbly.

BOOK: Savage: a Fighter Erotic Romance Novella
3.7Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Taking Liberty by Keith Houghton
Winterfrost by Michelle Houts
Trojan Horse by Russinovich, Mark
Little Miss and the Law by Renard, Loki
FriendlySeduction by Gillian Archer
Cold Dead Past by Curtis, John