Outlaw Road (A MC Romance) by Nora Flite, Adair Rymer Page B

subject. “Found your photo. You weren't lying about your sister, were you?”
    Her face fell, eyes darting around in a mad search. When she found the photo on the table, she snatched it up protectively. “Why would I lie about something like that? Why would I lie about any of this?”
    “Junkies have been known to stretch the truth from time to time,” I said flippantly.
    “Stop calling me that. I'm not a junkie!”
    “I know. I looked you over last night during that—” The recent vivid memory cascaded over me. Her silky form laying across the bed, the robe carefully left open, showing just enough milky skin for me not to care how clumsily blatant her attempt at seduction was. “—whatever that was.”
    A smile brazenly carved its way across my face as I studied her covered form, picturing both the blanket she was currently wrapped in, and the robe beneath it, balled up on the floor from being tossed across the room. If we'd kept going last night, I wouldn't have to imagine it.
    Flora seemed to wake up fully. Immediately she shrank, doing what she could to keep the previous night's embarrassment from marring her features.
    I walked over to the window and drew the blinds. Light flooded in, bathing us both. I looked out over the long, quiet road that led to this quaint little building, the delicious fantasy of what could have been slipping from my head. “That's why I'm giving you what you want.”
    Her eyes lit up. “You're letting me leave?”
    “If I did, where would you go, exactly?”
    She looked at me like I'd asked a trick question. “The brothel, of course.”
    I fingered the cord attached to the blinds. “Do you have any idea how to get to the brothel from here? Or hell, do you even know where here is?
    “No.” Flora perked up. “Tell me where we are.”
    Glancing at her, I said, “New Jersey.” Her face screwed up like she was in pain. I quickly added, “Come on, this state isn't that bad.”
    Shaking herself, she watched the floorboards. “No. It's just that... I'm further away from home than I realized.” Before I could even ask where 'home' was, she fixed a heated stare on me with renewed vigor. “It doesn't matter. I'll find a way back to that brothel somehow.”
    In spite of my wishes, I was curious. “How did you get to the brothel in the first place?”
    For a second, her eyes unfocused, perhaps deciding if she should answer me. “I went looking for Claudine at her boyfriend's house and...” Flora's lips tightened in disgust. “He drugged me. Fiddle must have been working for those men. I guess he was some sort of, I dunno, one of those guys who picks out the girls who get kidnapped. Sold.” She spit out the last word. I could see her heating up. This Fiddle-guy must have really gotten under her skin.
    “Chloroform?” I asked tentatively.
    “No.” She looked down at her blanket. “He put something in my drink.” 
    “Your drink? Hold up, lemme get this straight. You went to a strange guy's house to get answers for your sister's disappearance, he gave you some mysterious liquid, and you actually drank it?” I chuckled at how hopeless Flora was.
    Hopeless... The laughter decayed in my mouth. The deal with Roach and the Knights was festering. This growing doubt was becoming an infection. If I didn't find a way to kill it soon, the poison would spread to the rest of me.
    Flora's eyes flared wildly. She flew into a defensive anger. “You don't think I know how fucking stupid that was? I've had nothing but time to think about that!”
    She was right, I hadn't stopped making assumptions about her since the moment I'd first laid eyes on her. I didn't know a damn thing about this girl, so I held my tongue and let her speak.
    Seeing that I wasn't on the attack, she calmed down a bit and continued, this time more earnestly. “I get it. I know how crazy this sounds, I do, but you don't understand. I need to save her. No one cares about people like Claudine.” Flora looked down at