wrong. Raze was right. I wasn’t cut out for
this lifestyle.
Lying on the bed, I began to
quiver. Within seconds, I was shaking uncontrollably.
“Uh, Raze,” Ace said as he stopped
and stood up off the bed. “Is she alright?”
Raze looked up at me and he knew.
He flew across the room and grabbed me by the crook of my elbow to help me up
off the bed.
“I told you, Mia,” he sighed. “You
don’t have to do this. You’re not this kind of girl.”
Sheepish and mortified, I buried my
head in his shoulder while his dad and uncle buckled their pants and got the
hell out of there.
“I’m sorry I made you look bad,” I
said.
“Sorry?” he said. “You have nothing
to be sorry for. You didn’t make me look bad. Don’t worry about it.”
“So I guess this means we can’t be
together?”
Raze lifted his defeated eyes to
meet mine.
CHAPTER 3
We left his motel room, and I
followed Raze back across the parking lot and over to the long line of cycles
parked outside the bar. He hoisted me up and placed me on the seat of his bike
and looked me square in the eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asked. He rubbed
my face, my hair, and then my arms. “I never should’ve put you in that
position.”
I nodded as tears streamed down my
cheeks. “I’m fine.”
Raze placed his hand under my chin,
leaned in, and kissed my mouth tenderly. His hands then cupped the side of my
face and he ran his fingers through my hair.
“I can’t imagine not seeing you
again,” he whispered. “You really must like me to go through what you did.”
I nodded and bit my lip. I liked
him. I liked him a lot. There was some inexplicable, magnetic attraction
between us that I couldn’t even begin to describe. It was just there.
“This life, this biker gang life,
it’s fucking bullshit,” Raze said. “I hate it.”
“Can’t you leave?”
“I wish it were that simple,” he
said as he looked down at his boots. “I wish I could take you out of here. You
and I could just ride away together and start a life somewhere new.”
“Why can’t we?”
Raze looked back into my eyes. “I
guess we could. It’s just complicated. There are certain repercussions for
abandoning your gang.”
“But your dad is the president.
He’d understand, right? He’d never do anything to hurt you, right?”
Raze shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve
seen him do some pretty horrible things. I guess I’ve never disobeyed him
before.”
“You’re a grown man, Raze,” I said.
“You can’t live the life he wants you to live. You have to live a life for
yourself.”
“We could have a pretty amazing
life together, couldn’t we?” Raze said as a sweet smile spread on his face. “A
normal life.”
“Yes,” I smiled back. “This is far
from normal.”
“It’s all I’ve ever known,” he said
as kicked the gravel around the bike.
“I just want to be with you. I’ll do
whatever you want,” I insisted.
Raze sighed. He was deep in
thought. I could tell he was trying to decide what to do from here.
“Let’s go back to my room, relax,
get some sleep, and we’ll get up early tomorrow morning and leave before the
sun rises. No one will know we’ve left until we’re long gone,” Raze proposed.
It seemed so romantic, yet so risky.
“Okay,” I agreed as I stared deep
into his eyes.
As I followed him back to his motel
room, no one was outside so no one saw us together, which was good. We entered
his room, and he flipped on the lights. I sat down on the bed and relaxed. I
knew I was safe and in good hands. Raze was the only man I trusted.
Raze breathed deep as I collapsed
onto the bed next to him. He made himself cozy under the covers, and flipped
the TV on to fill in the silent background that surrounded us. He stretched his
arm out around me and pulled me close.
Cheyenne McCray
Niall Ferguson
Who Will Take This Man
Dan Bigley, Debra McKinney
Tess Oliver
Dean Koontz
Rita Boucher
Holly Bourne
Caitlin Daire
P.G. Wodehouse