In His Arms Read online

  This new club, Satan’s Disciples, was nothing like the Black Falls Biker Club. It was a gang, not a club, which was a very important distinction. Nate’s men might get rowdy and get kicked out of a few bars or even spend the night in the drunk tank, but they were good men. Nate’s club stayed on the right side of the law for the most part. But this new gang was bringing drugs and trouble into their quiet little town, and his men were looking to him to solve it. So, six months ago, he had sat down with the local police, and through them the DEA, and made a deal. He was getting rid of them one way or another.

  He shook his head to clear these thoughts and looked down at the girl in his arms, wondering again what it was about her that made him feel like a kid with his first love. It was that feeling that kept him so firmly by her side. She had a way of making him feel less cynical, less used up. He’d loved before, but not like this.

  His phone buzzed on the nightstand, rudely yanking him out of his thoughts and back into reality. “What?” he said as he untangled himself from Haley and swung his legs over the side of the bed. Haley watched his shoulder muscles tense as he pulled on a pair of jeans and rummaged through the dresser drawer for a t-shirt. “Shit! Yeah, I'm coming!” He ended the call and shoved the phone into his pocket before pulling on his shirt and a pair of socks.

  “What’s wrong?” Haley was already retrieving her underwear from the lamp where they had landed when Nate playfully flung them away just an hour earlier. Now, his urgency was infecting her with a sense of concern.

  “The bar’s on fire,” he threw back over his shoulder as shoved his feet into his boots. “Stay here,” Nate shouted back at her as he slammed the door behind him and sprinted down the path to the bar.

  The acrid smell of smoke still hung in the air as he reached the back door of the bar. Cal was just coming out, his phone clamped to his ear. Reggie followed him, still carrying a fire extinguisher in one hand and dragging a trash can behind him with the other.

  “Yeah, it’s out,” Cal was saying into the phone. “No, I don’t think we’ll need you after all. It was just a small fire in a garbage can. I think it’ll be okay.” He looked up at Nate as he listened to the man on the other end of the phone. “Yeah, thanks. Will do.” He ended the call.

  “Reggie here was putting the beer delivery into the walk-in cooler when he smelled the smoke,” Cal explained. “He grabbed the fire extinguisher and pretty much had it under control when I called you. I called Jack down at the fire station, but by the time I got him on the line, the fire was out. Don’t know how it started, but it was mostly smoke.”

  “The back door was open?” was Nate’s only question.

  “Yeah, I was bringing the new delivery into the cooler.” Reggie shrugged.

  “I was restocking the bar when I heard Reggie yell,” said Cal, answering his unspoken question.

  Nate turned toward the house, a prickly feeling skittering across the back of his neck. He’d been out here for nearly five minutes now and Haley hadn’t joined them. If she had actually done what he’d asked by staying put, it would be the first time. She never did what he asked.

  He took a step toward the house, then another. The uncomfortable feeling was quickly morphing into something like panic with each quickening step. By the time he got to the porch, he was running. He flung the door open shouting her name only to be met with silence. He flew down the hall, coming to a halt at the bedroom door.

  The room was empty and quiet, and he called her name again before his eyes lit on the neatly folded paper on the bed. ‘You want her back, you know the price,’ was scrawled across it. Yeah, he knew the price. Disband. Officially. He’d be damned if he was going to let that happen. And he be damned if he was going to let them hurt Haley.

  “You know who to call,” he growled to Cal, who had come up behind him, reading the note over Nate’s shoulder. “And Sergeant,” Nate went on, falling easily back into his former role, “covert dress and weapons.”

  “Yes sir, Lieutenant,” Cal replied, making his first call before he was even out the door.

  Half an hour later, Nate was walking into his office dressed head to toe in black, Kevlar molded to his chest and a 9mm strapped to his thigh. He knew where she was; he just had to gather the right men and resources to get her back unhurt.

  When Cal informed him that a select group of men that had followed him from Kandahar to the Brotherhood, Nate blew out a breath and considered something for a moment. “Okay,” he answered. “Close the door. I’ll be out in a minute.” He waited until Cal had closed the door behind him before picking up the phone.

  ****

  “Stay here,” Haley mocked aloud as she frantically searched for her shoe, finding it at last under the bed. “Stay here,” she said again in disgust. “What am I? Five?” Angrily, she shoved her foot into her tennis shoe and in the same motion turned toward the door. Her progress was abruptly halted by a familiar wall of human named Lou.

  Before she could even draw a breath, he clamped his hand firmly over her mouth and pushed her backward onto the bed. Haley frantically tugged at the hand covering her mouth as she was abruptly flipped over onto her stomach. Her hands were brought together behind her and quickly cuffed as Lou pulled duct tape over her mouth. She realized he had an accomplice, and her heart sank when she heard Tiny’s voice close to her ear.

  “You’re gonna pay for getting us kicked out of the Brotherhood, bitch.” His voice was menacing, and a ripple of fear travelled through her. “Once you’ve served your purpose, we get to have you all to ourselves.” Tiny laughed as Lou pulled her up by her arms and slung her over his shoulder.

  Lou carried her through the woods behind Nate’s house to a car parked a short distance away. After being unceremoniously dumped into the trunk, they drove for a short while. To Haley, it seemed like far too short a trip. She wasn’t stupid. She knew what was coming and she could barely think straight through the fear.

  The key slid in the lock of the trunk and she tensed, bending her legs in and fiercely striking out with them when the lid went up, catching Tiny in his generous beer belly. He doubled over, and she tried to scramble out of the trunk but could get no leverage with her hands.

  Using one hand, Lou easily pulled her from the trunk and tossed her back over his shoulder, securing her legs with one enormous arm. “Feisty. I like Feisty.” He chuckled and yelled back at Tiny, “Don’t worry Tiny; you’ll have plenty of time to get her back.”

  He carried her into a house and past a group of men playing poker. A cheer went up as they passed, and with a lump of fear in her throat, she realized that these men must be the Satan’s Disciples motorcycle gang. From what Nate had told her about them, they were nothing like the Brotherhood.

  “We got her, Boss,” Tiny reported to a slimy looking man who was sitting at a card table with his feet up. His only response was to nod and jerk his head toward a door just past the kitchen.

  The men she had gotten to know in The Black Falls Brotherhood were good guys for the most part. Some might be a little rough around the edges, but they were decent people. These men looked like the stereotypical movie bikers.

  She was numb with fear as Lou carried her downstairs and into a filthy bathroom and briefly freed her hands, only to re-secure them to the shower rod. He pulled her head back by her hair and kissed her, shoving his tongue into her mouth and making her gag.

  “When I come back, we’re gonna have so much fun.” He sneered at her and left, closing the door behind him and sliding the lock into place.

  Haley waited to hear his footsteps recede and, after taking a few deep breaths to calm down, looked around the room for any means of escape. There was a small window above the toilet. If she could just get to that, maybe she could squeeze through. Grabbing the shower rod with both hands, she pulled down with all her might. The rod didn’t bend, but the plaster holding it cracked a little. She used all of her weight and all of her strength, pulling as hard as she could, cutting her wrists in the proc
ess, but she couldn’t get the rod to come out of the wall.

  Fighting back tears, she looked up at her bleeding wrists, realizing that Lou had been careless when he had re-cuffed her. The hand that he had briefly freed wasn’t re-cuffed as tight as it could be. Using the blood dripping from her wrists and a prayer, Haley made her hand as small as possible and tried to squeeze it through the cuff. Little by little, her hand began to slide slowly and painfully through the cuff.

  She was just easing it over her knuckles, taking a generous portion of skin with it, when all hell broke loose. She heard running feet and a moment later, gunfire. Fear made her forget the pain and she wrenched her hand loose with a grunt and scrambled to the window. She slid it open and pulled herself through, taking off at a dead run toward a stand of trees not too far ahead of her.

  Haley went down in a heap as she reached the trees, crawling on her good hand and knees, trying desperately not to be seen. She allowed herself a moment to breathe before she risked a look around the tree she had pulled herself up against. There was a man silhouetted against the sunlit sky looking in her direction, and for a moment, her heart stopped.

  He turned and her breath caught as she recognized Nate’s familiar features. With a cry of relief, she managed to get herself up and stumble out of the tree line. “Nate!” she called, lurching toward him.

  “Haley? Oh, thank God!” He rushed toward her and swept her up in his arms, crushing her to him. “I thought I lost you!” He was looking her over, assuring himself that she was alright when he saw the handcuffs. His eyes hardened and he asked in a low voice, “What did they do to you?”

  Cradling her injured hand, she said, “I had to get away.” She let her head drop against his chest and sighed, “Just take me home, please.”

  Nate opened the passenger door of a black SUV and placed her gently inside. He kissed her quickly and told her he’d be right back. Haley watched as police cars began rolling up with lights flashing. Nate and Cal spoke with the police chief briefly, and after shaking the chief’s hand, Nate slid into the driver’s seat and said, “You’ll need to go make a statement tomorrow morning.”

  “Okay,” she answered tiredly.

  He turned toward her and met her eyes with his brilliant blue ones. “Don’t do that again,” he said.

  “Do what?”

  “Leave me.” He stroked her face and kissed her softly. “Promise me.”

  “Come with me on the rest of my road trip. I have to finish what I started or I’ll never forgive myself.” Haley’s eyes searched his face. “Share it with me. It’s the only way I can keep that promise.”

  “Road trip.” Nate smiled and kissed her again. “Sounds like a plan.”