Club Princess - Nicole James Page 0,55

grips me as one of the goons yanks Lola out with him, and effortlessly tosses her into the back seat. She screams, but her voice is muffled by duct tape. Her arms are cuffed behind her, but she’s twisting and lashing out with her feet. Her movements are uncoordinated and fumbling, and I wonder if they’ve drugged her again. The goon grunts as she catches him in the thigh before his big hands grab her foot, and shove it back into the car.

The blood drains from my face, and a cold chill slices through me. There is no fucking chance I’m letting them get away with her again.

The other goon is firing off shots in the front, offering a distraction so that they can get Lola away. Trez’ information says there should only be two of them plus Lockwood, if he’s even here.

Rage explodes out of me. I come around the shrub to see her struggling, trying to pull her arm free and keep the man from closing the door and locking her in the car.

I blow a hole through the man’s head, dropping him like a rock.

Lola screams behind the tape, and I run to her, fear knifing through me that she’s hurt.

I pull her out of the car and drag her to me, enfolding her in my arms, desperate to make sure she’s okay. She’s trembling, and I want to empty my clip into the body on the ground just for scaring the fuck out of her.

Just then there’s another round of gunfire from the front of the house and a propane tank explodes catching the side of the cabin on fire.

I dive, covering Lola with my body.

***

Lola—

I’m knocked to the ground and disoriented, my ears ringing. Memphis brushes the hair back from my face and pulls the duct tape from my mouth. Things are woozy, the effects of the last shot making me wonder if I’m dreaming, but as he holds me close, I know that woodsy, leather scent that is uniquely his.

I also smell smoke, and see it billowing up from the cabin. I frown, trying to make sense of everything.

“My God, Lola, not knowing where you were, not knowing what might be happening to you… I’ve been half out of my mind.” His words sound like they come from a long tunnel, echoing in my head.

The cranky worry in his voice surprises me, as does the possessiveness in his tone.

He digs in my captor’s pocket and comes up with a key for the cuffs, moving behind me to unlock them. I’m dizzy again, but I manage to say in a small, dazed voice, still not believing it, “You’re here. You came.”

His breath runs out in relief as he pulls me to my feet, and drags me against him. I’m shocked, not yet clearheaded, but conscious of his strong-arms around me, and of his temper that is thoroughly aroused.

“If that asshole wasn’t dead, I’d kill him again for touching you,” he growls. I realize just how deeply I’ve gotten under his skin and into his feelings. It’s in his voice and the squeezing pressure of his arms.

I sob.

“It’s been a helluva long terrifying twenty-four hours, Lola,” he mutters just before his mouth descends on mine. The roughness of his kiss is hungry and needy, and I return it willingly and unreservedly.

I cling to him.

Finally, Memphis breaks the kiss, his breathing hard, his cheek pressed against the side of my hair, and his arms binding me tightly to him. “Lola, Lola.” In the muttering of my name, there’s a question, a need expressed that his hard, muscled body has already told me.

“I know.” I feel lightheaded. For all the pounding of my heart though, I feel a remarkable calmness, too. He’s here. He came.

Then his arms are loosening, shifting to scoop an arm beneath my thighs and pick me up. The change in altitude has my head spinning again. He carries me to the side of the building as we hear a muffled thump come from inside the cabin and the gunfire dies down.

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Memphis—

I come around the front of the building to find it’s fully engulfed. Rock and Darko are trying to bust the now locked door down, screaming for Lola.

“I’ve got her,” I yell, and see the terror on Rock’s face as he swivels his head toward the sound of my voice. His body literally deflates with relief that she’s out and safe. He and Darko dash over to us.

Rock runs a hand over Lola’s