Helpless (Steel Demons MC #5) - Crystal Ash Page 0,65
on to her just as tightly. I didn’t want to be taken. I didn’t want to lose my club, my only friends. And I never wanted to let her go.
But their hooks were already in me, literally, and she deserved so much better than to be dragged into whatever awaited me.
I dared to do something I’d never done before—touch a woman’s face. Cupping her soft cheek, I looked into her watery, red eyes. She was still wearing the fake eye-color lenses, but I still saw her underneath them.
“Thank you for everything you’ve done for me,” I told her. “I’ll never forget any of it. But you have to let me go.”
“I won’t.” She shook her head defiantly, her forehead still brushing mine. “You’re not alone anymore. I won’t let you be.”
My fingers curled into the fabric at her back, holding her tight with what remained of my fading strength for this last moment.
“Then I hope you forgive me for this.”
I shoved her away as hard as I could.
Mari stumbled back several steps, arms windmilling for balance before she fell back. Her mouth still open in an O of shock, she jumped to her feet and started toward me again.
“Run!” I roared at her, no longer resisting the ropes pulling me back. “Get back to the car!”
Shots were already popping off and she bent low, covering her head. While ducking to protect my own head, I saw the massive black car driving through the garden. Dyno mowed down hedges, bushes, small trees, and crashed into toppled patio furniture to get to her.
Hurry. Hurry.
I barely noticed that my ropes went slack. I was heavy, so I figured the cops just took a break from their pulling. But then someone grabbed my arm with a hand much bigger and stronger than Mari’s. I looked up to see Grudge’s impatient expression, his mouth growling with wordless screams to fucking move.
I rose to my feet, following his lead with no time to question it, and bolted toward the car. I must have lost a lot of blood or something, because my body was going much slower than I was telling it to. Grudge kept pulling on my arm as we ran. The glint of something metallic in his other hand must have been what cut me free.
My vision was going blurry, unfocused. I felt like I was swimming through fog and getting nowhere.
More hands grabbed me, shoved me. I was in a dark place again, great. Oh no, this place had windows that were just tinted dark. And Mariposa was here. She touched my face and her mouth moved. My body felt like it was being tossed around, despite staying stationary. I couldn’t figure out if I was sitting still or moving, and multiple voices were yelling.
Cool water touched my lips and I opened my mouth for more, just like when it rained over my dungeon and I drank only what I could catch on my tongue. But this water flowed freely, cool and satisfying to my parched throat.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Mari came into clear focus, her finger pulling up on my eyelid.
“Shadow?” Her makeup and contacts were gone. Now it was just her normal, beautiful face etched with concern. “Are you with us?”
“Um, yes.”
The car was dark and silent, Dyno driving on a dirt road with the headlights on the lowest setting. Next to him sat Larkan. In the next aisle sat Grudge and T-Bone, sandwiching the small blond woman we came to rescue. Mari and I were alone in the backseat.
“You were in shock,” Mari explained. “I think you still are, but at least you’re lucid now.”
“Where are we?” I peered out of the dark tinted windows at the endless, dense forest rushing past us. Not a single light of the city was to be seen. Good fucking riddance.
“Only about a hundred miles in the wrong direction,” Dyno called up from the front seat. “We had to zig and zag all over kingdom come to lose the cops. We’re damn lucky this beast had an extra full gas can, ‘cause we’ll need to loop back around to grab the bikes tomorrow.”
“The plan is to camp tonight, head for the bikes early tomorrow, then hit the road hard, back to Four Corners.” T-Bone stretched his arm along the back of his seat, casting a glance down at the woman next to him. “Then deliver this little lady back to her father, safe and sound.”