Animal (Royal Bastards MC 1)

No, no, no…please. I check the rest of my body, almost weeping in relief to find my jeans still on.

Relaxing my limbs loosen the fabric slightly, the binding not as secure as he could have been if he had two good arms. I could try and work my wrists free…

“Sorry about your shirt. Didn’t want you fighting me again. Not while I’m fucked up anyway. You hurt yourself.” Kai’s voice carries across from beside the door. I feel the stinging cuts on my hands and the throbbing lump on my head.

“Shhh,” he warns, placing a finger to his mouth, his eyes tracking something through the sliver of the window visible between a couple panels of wood.

Is someone out there?

“How long was I out?” I ask, trying to distract him.

“Hours. I managed to get some sleep and grabbed the water out of your truck. You weren’t lying about that.” I was. If he found water, it was coincidental. Hours? Christ. Alec, Alec, Alec.

“Kai, if you’re not going to kill me, why am I here?”

His back goes flat against the wall, his eyes expanding teeth gritting. A creaking of the door draws my eyes, as it slowly opens.

Oh God.

“Watch out!” I scream out, but it’s too late. Kai jumps on the man who’s entered my nightmare. The small, three-inch blade he holds pierces the man’s neck, overtaking him by surprise. He didn’t stand a chance. His gun drops to the floor with a clang. As Kai opens up his artery, crimson sprays, decorating Kai’s hands and face. The man collapses to the floor in front of me, eyes open, glaring at me as blood expands around him. Vomit chases guilt up my gullet, dispelling bile from my lips.

I kick my foot out to try to get the gun, but Kai beats me too it. Tsking and waving the weapon like a finger, he chastises me.

“Who is that?” I ask, my voice raw.

“Fuck knows.” He digs into the man’s pockets, kicking his body over onto his back and rummaging through the suit jacket pocket. He pulls out a badge, flashing it to me. “A fed. Shit.”

What? I scan the Special Agent writing, my head spinning.

“Alec must have called in favors. We need to go.”

“No.” I huddle my limbs up, trying to force myself as small as possible while flexing and twisting my wrists to take advantage of his poor tying skills.

“We can’t stay here.”

“There is no we. I’m not in love with you, and I’m not going anywhere with you,” I cry out.

“You’re just upset.”

God, he’s so fucking insane. I can’t believe we lived under the same roof. He could have killed us all in his sleep.

“If I untie you, are you going to be a bitch or do as your told?”

“What do you think?” I spit out, screwing up my face to show him just how much I hate him.

Unmistakable rumblings of motorcycles crack the air, sending Kai into a panic. He dashes over to me, tugging at the binds to release me. Raising my foot up, I kick between his parted legs with all my might, connecting with his balls. He almost falls over me, but I yank my hands free and scramble toward the front door, crawling over the dead man in my path. A shot rings out, whizzing past my ear, making me cower. I hold my hands up in surrender. Engines cut out, and feet march in our direction. Kai curls around my back, dragging me to my feet, the barrel of the gun digging into the side of my skull. “Don’t move, princess,” he murmurs into my ear. The door swings open, but no one is there.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

“Drew?”

“Alec!” I cry out, tears forming and falling.

His head pokes around the doorframe, his arm stretching out, a gun in his hand. “Come on in, Prez,” Kai taunts, pressing the weapon farther into my skin.

“What the fuck, Killer?” Alec exhales, letting his gun swing around his finger, hanging in submission. He steps into the doorway, his other hand up in the air to show he has no more weapons. “Just let her come to me.”

Taking the gun away from my head to tap it against his own, he says, “Uh, I don’t think so. And you can tell all the motherfuckers surrounding this place to back the hell off unless you want to scrape her brains out of your cut.”

Alec’s jaw ticks, his beautiful dark orbs keeping me in his sights.

“No need to threaten her, just tell me what you want.”

“I want her.” Kai laughs, like it’s obvious.

“You know it was my fault that she left in the first place, right?” Kai announces.

“What does that mean?” Alec asks, taking in every inch of Kai and me, his brain ticking over, working through every scenario of how to get me out of this.