Ties That Bind (Ruthless Sinners MC 1)

Damn. I thought I was scared earlier, but something about the way he was looking at me brought butterflies to my stomach, and that completely terrified me.

Hawk

I was torn by my own ever-growing curiosity and the best course of action for handling the beautiful redhead I’d found sitting in the back of Shotgun’s pickup. I wanted to take the tape from her mouth, ask her who she was, and how she was involved in all this mess with Danny, but something told me if I asked, I’d be climbing down a rabbit hole and never find my way out. Besides, with Rafe being shot and the club finally having our hands on Danny, I didn’t have time to waste with some broad—no matter how beautiful she was. Having no other choice, I got her out of the truck and led her inside. Not knowing who she was made it difficult to know where to put her. I figured she couldn’t do much damage bound and gagged, so I put her in one of the empty bedrooms with an exterior deadbolt to lock her inside. Just before I walked out, I stopped to study her for a moment. As I stood there looking at the beautiful creature, I considered removing the tape from her mouth, but then, I noticed the way she was glaring at me—like she wanted to scream for help or slit my throat—so I decided against it. Instead, I simply walked out of the room and closed the door.

Once I had her locked inside, I went down to our makeshift infirmary to check in on Rafe. When I walked in, Shotgun and Viper were hovering over the gurney as Doc assessed Rafe’s condition. Just as I was walking up, I heard Doc tell Rafe, “You got lucky, brother. Real lucky.”

“Don’t feel all that lucky at the moment,” Rafe complained.

“Well, you’re lucky nonetheless,” Doc replied. “I’m surprised he didn’t do more damage at such close range.”

“The piece of shit was a lousy shot,” Rafe grumbled.

“Clearly.”

While I was pleased to hear that Rafe was going to be okay, I was curious to know how he had ended up getting shot. I was about to ask when Viper beat me to it. “So, what the hell happened?”

“Things got out of hand,” Shotgun started. “We tried telling Danny that we needed to talk to him, but he wasn’t having it. Without any explanation, he told us to get the fuck out, and when we didn’t, he drew his pistol. I thought he was bullshittin’. I never thought the dumbass would have the balls to actually pull the fucking trigger.”

“Neither of us did,” Rafe admitted. “Guess he felt backed into a corner and decided to take his fucking chances.”

“That’s a mistake he’ll soon regret,” Viper snarled. “But first, we’re gonna need him to talk. It’s the only way we’re ever gonna know what the hell happened with that last shipment.”

“If he knows anything, I’ll get it out of him,” Shotgun assured us.

“Good. I’m counting on you to do just that. Menace took him down to your holding room.”

“I’m on it.”

When he started towards the door, I asked, “Hold up ... What’s the deal with the girl?”

“Damn. I almost forgot about her.” Shotgun turned back to us with a shrug. “She’s his sister or something. Got the feeling she didn’t know anything about what Danny was up to.”

“Then, why’d you bring her back here?”

“The way she was running her fucking mouth, there was no way we could’ve left her behind.”

“What was she running her mouth about?”

“Everything… Us being there. Me being shot. Danny getting himself into trouble. You name it. The girl was downright pissed.” Rafe chuckled as he added, “Fuck. She was giving Danny hell up one side and down the other. You should’ve heard her. It got so bad I almost started feeling sorry for the guy, and that’s saying something.”

“That why you taped her mouth shut?”

“Hell, yeah,” Shotgun answered. “Couldn’t take another minute of her yammering on.”

“So, what are we going to do with her now?”

“Got no idea,” Shotgun answered. “Probably would’ve left her if she hadn’t threatened to go to the fucking cops. At least now we know she isn’t gonna have them sniffing around and asking questions we don’t wanna answer.”

“He’s got a point there,” Rafe replied. “Talk to her. You’ll see for yourself why we didn’t leave her behind.”

“Where is she?” Viper asked.

“I locked her inside the empty room next to Bear’s,” I answered.

“Good.” Viper turned to Shotgun. “You go deal with Danny and see what you can find out. Hawk and I will talk to the girl.”

“You got it.”

When Shotgun headed towards the door, Viper turned his attention to Doc. “Take care of our boy. I’ll be back later to check on him.”

Doc nodded, then Viper and I left the room to go talk to the spitfire. As we walked down the hall, I found myself thinking about the moment I’d opened the truck door and found her sitting inside. Everything about her, from the intense look in her eyes to the blue nursing scrubs she was wearing, intrigued me. The revelation seemed odd to me. I wasn’t a man who was usually so captivated by a woman, especially one who hadn’t even spoken, but there was something about her that interested me, and I was eager to find out everything there was to know about her. After I unlocked the door, I followed Viper inside, and we found her sitting on the edge of the bed—hands still bound behind her, but the tape was starting to curl around the edges where she’d been trying to remove it.