Owning Beauty (Taking Beauty Trilogy 3)

A yelp sounded beside me and I turned to see the girl with her eyes wide and her mouth open in shock.

“You pinched my ass, you fuckin’ cazzo!” she yelled, charging at the biggest guy and slapping him right across the face. Hard.

His buddies erupted in laughter and the big guy’s face flushed red with anger. He grabbed her arm, pulling her close to him and then slapped her back.

She fell to the ground at my feet, her cheek flushing red as she stared up at us in shock.

He hadn’t hit her hard, but the fucker hit her and if there’s anything in the whole fucking world I can’t stand it’s an asshole that puts his hands on a woman. There’s no excuse in the whole fucking world for that, as far as I’m concerned.

“I really wish you hadn’t done that,” I said, facing off with him. He snickered.

“What the fuck are you going to do about it, asshole?” he sneered. “Take us all on?”

“Not for nuttin’, but you’re a real fuckin’ scumbag, you know that?” Every time it was time to fight, my past came rushing back, as well as my New York accent. You don’t grow up in Queens without fighting, and the feel of the adrenaline pumping through my veins always reminded me of my old days runnin’ the streets.

I didn’t wait for an answer. My fist made contact with his jaw before he could reply. He went down hard and his buddies were on me quick. I ducked, taking the first one out with a vicious right hook, then unloaded on his friend before turning to see how many more I was dealing with.

There were at least another dozen bikers in the club and they were all focused directly on me. I grabbed a bar stool, knocking three more of them out of the way before grabbing the girl off the floor and pushing her behind me.

“Stay behind me!” I barked, as I began moving towards the door. I needed to keep her close and try to make it to the exit as I fought my way through these guys, but now that she was on her feet, she grabbed a stool and began swinging at them, too.

She pushed one away with the legs of the stool, then swung it high over her head and came down on his neck in one fell swoop. He landed at her feet with a heavy thud and she swung it again, taking down the next guy like this wasn’t her first rodeo.

I pulled her away, knocking through two more guys as we fought our way towards the door.

By the time my back finally hit the heavy metal door, we’d left a dozen patched members of the Iron Godz MC laying bloodied on the floor. They weren’t going to stay down long. When I saw one begin to crawl to his knees and pull a gun out of his boot, I grabbed the girl’s hand and pulled her outside.

“Let’s go!” I said, dragging her out into the darkness of the parking lot. A gunshot rang out, the bullet ripping out the door and whizzing over our heads as we ran away.

“Oh, shit! Guns!” she cried, running alongside me. “My car is this way!”

“Fuck your car! Get on! Now!” I said, jumping on my bike and starting it up. The front door flew open and three bloody and extremely angry bikers stumbled out onto the sidewalk.

“Shit!” She cried, jumping on my bike as I kicked it into gear. She wrapped her arms around my waist and buried her head in my shoulder.

“Hold on tight,” I yelled, as we roared out of the parking lot, gunshots following in our wake.

Her arms gripped me so hard I could barely breathe. I gunned the engine, the vibrations running through our bodies violently as we sped through the night.

Gabby

The fat tires of Dante’s bike gripped the asphalt as he took a corner fast and low. I was shocked I hadn’t fallen off yet and the fear of having my brains splattered all over the road washed over me. He hadn’t given me a helmet and my hair flapped wildly behind me.

This wasn’t how I wanted things to go… None of this is what I’d expected.

I was terrified, and now that I was hurtling across the George Washington Bridge with my entire life in the hands of this stranger, I was wishing like hell I’d never gone into that filthy bar.

What the fuck was I thinking? How did I think that could possibly turn out okay? Stupid fucking Bella! I completely blamed her.

And why in the fuck had I gotten on this guy’s bike? I took off and just left my car there in the parking lot. It was my only security and my only method of escaping. Now, I was completely at Dante’s mercy, and other than his name, I knew absolutely nothing about him, except that he was incredibly fucking handsome and fought like a fuckin’ warrior.

It had all happened so fast. Maybe if I hadn’t turned my back on that fucking prick, he wouldn’t have pinched my ass. Maybe if I hadn’t slapped him, he wouldn’t have slapped me back. Maybe if I had managed to keep my shit together, then Dante wouldn’t have had to fight the entire fucking bar to keep me safe.

How in the hell was it possible that an hour ago I didn’t even know this guy existed and now my life was completely in his hands?

Terrified to loosen my grip, I kept my arms firmly wrapped around him, the warmth of his body the only thing comforting me.

Fuck! Maybe I could get him to take me back to my car. I’d even left my purse behind, which held every other bit of security I had. My phone, my wallet, the keys to my apartment. I’d never felt so helpless. I tried to console myself with the thought that Dante probably wasn’t going to hurt me, seeing as he just risked his life pulling me out of a bad situation…

But still. There was no guarantee.

So, maybe he wasn’t like the others. What had he called them? One percenters? As far as I knew, he was the only one wearing a different patch than the others, and from this view, I had a good look at the Outlaw Kings patch on this back. I hadn’t noticed any difference until the asshole that ruined my whole night had pointed it out. A huge skull stared back at me. I shivered and closed my eyes, laying my head on his back and gripping him harder, trying as hard as I could to calm my frazzled nerves and hoping like hell the skull was just for show.

Maybe he was one of the good guys? Because those guys back there definitely weren’t good guys.

At this point, all I had was hope. If I had to call my father for help once we stopped, so be it. I’d swallow my pride and make up some story. He’d send a car for me, and I could go home.

Once Dante stopped, I’d have him take me to a phone if he wouldn’t take me back to my car.

Everything was going to be fine.

Fuck, I hoped everything was going to be fine. It had to be.

Only he wasn’t stopping.

We rode on into the night as mile after mile passed beneath us. One hour bled into another and I began tapping him on the back to get his attention.

“Where are you going?” I yelled, my words gobbled up by the wind.

He ignored me. I tapped again and he reached back with a warm hand, squeezing my right thigh, which I think was supposed to be reassuring…

It had an entirely different effect.

Warmth and desire ripped through my stomach and I let out a little gasp. When he pulled his hand away, a part of me wished he’d put it back… I took a deep breath, inhaling slowly, trying in vain to again slow the adrenaline racing through my limbs.

What in the hell had I gotten myself into?

Dante

We turned onto the dirt road that led to the clubhouse in Montclair and I slowed down a little. My tires kicked up dust behind us as we wound down the curvy road that led deep into the woods. My woods. Tall trees towered over us, swaying in the wind, throwing dancing shadows across our path. After a few miles, I slowed the bike to a crawl as we approached the clubhouse, the dim light spilling out of the windows onto the driveway in front of the secluded cabin that I called home.

I turned off the bike and sweet silence surrounded us. The girl jumped off the bike like she couldn’t get off fast enough and I suppressed a little grin. I wasn’t surprised. Long rides on a Harley take a little getting used to. It took a special kind of woman to be able to handle this lifestyle and those were few and far between.

&nb

sp; “Where are we?” she asked. I heard the alarm in her shaking voice. “Why did you drive all the way to fucking New Jersey?”

“We’re at my clubhouse. We’re safe.”

“Your clubhouse? Is that so?” she asked, raising an eyebrow as she met my gaze. The moonlight shone in her bright green eyes and I smiled down at her. I knew she must be scared and when she reached up to push her wild black curls from her eyes with a shaking hand, I reached out and grabbed it. She was shivering and she pulled her hand away from mine quickly.

“You’re freezing,” I said.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. “Look, I’ll just call a cab if you’ll let me borrow your phone?”

“There’s no cell phone service out here.”

“What?” she asked, her voice rising. “Well, just take me back to my car. I don’t know why you brought me all the way out here.”

“I had to make sure we weren’t being followed.”

“Right,” she replied, her eyes darting around. She took one look at the cabin and then her gaze turned to the road we’d just arrived on. “Well, looks like all is fine now. Please take me back, or if you don’t want to take me all the way, if you’ll just take me to a phone where I can call a cab or a friend or my —,”

“ — Your boyfriend? Husband?”

“My father.”

“Your father? How old are you?” I asked, my eyes squinting, looking her up and down for the first time really. She was a petite little thing but there was no way a girl dressed like this still needed her daddy to save her…