Page 8 of Pain

I couldn’t stay mad, no matter how hard I tried, and instead of cold, I felt heat rushing through me, from my toes up to the tip of my head and back down again. It came to rest low in my belly, with a burning that made me want to rock my hips. Close my eyes, breath slowly, and sink myself into—

No. Stop. None of that.

The girl was hurt and frightened, and here I was thinking about what it would be like to feel her skin against mine, her heat under my fingertips.

Unacceptable.

Still, the helpless thing got right under my skin, and I stepped forward and scooped her into my arms, ignoring her protests as I turned to walk to the clubhouse, bringing the proverbial damsel in distress—also quite possibly a Trojan horse—right into our home.

***

“OH MY—WHAT HAPPENED?” Mandy, for all intents and purposes our second lady, muttered, rushing forward out of the bar. She was reaching for the girl in my arms before she got halfway across the room, her eyes on the bruises on Saraya’s arms.

She jerked to a stop when she got close enough to see who I was holding.

Her eyes had moved up Saraya’s body, no doubt keeping track of every wound she saw, and had landed on the girl’s face. Her dark ringlets and pale skin, those rounded cheeks.

Even with her eyes closed, Saraya was unmistakably herself.

Unmistakably the girl we’d spent years watching from afar as she rode on the back of Devil’s bike, her arms around him and her mouth firm.

Mandy hissed, and her gaze jerked sharply back up to me, her eyebrows low over her eyes. “What the fuck is she doing here?” she asked quietly.

Before I could answer, Gemini, my VP and Mandy’s boyfriend, appeared behind her. His gaze went from the back of Mandy’s head to Saraya’s face to my own face, and he stared at me hard. Waiting for answers.

Waiting to see how I was going to explain going out alone and coming back with Saraya Post in my arms.

I didn’t stall about it. I was just as confused as they were. “I was getting out of town, and she flew out of the truck I was following,” I told them sharply. “Blindfolded and beat to shit. She’s... They’ve... Devil’s...”

Shit, what was wrong with me? I never had trouble talking. I was the president of this club, for shit’s sake! Where the hell were my words?

“Hurt,” Gemini said, the one word coming out like a shotgun blast.

“Hurt,” I agreed. “I don’t know how badly, but most of it is from before the truck. She didn’t get this beat up in the fall. These are old wounds.” I met Gem’s eyes, trying to communicate what I was thinking, and he stared back, not giving an inch.

I waited, wondering which side of the line he was going to toe. Gem was sometimes level-headed and sometimes a raving idiot too prone to getting into fights. A man with two distinct personalities. Both personalities were loyal to the club, but one was significantly easier to deal with than the other. It was why we called him Gemini, and why I sometimes wondered whether I could trust him at all. Gem had run things while I was on the inside, and when I came back and he had to step down again, he’d been clear on his belief that he’d get the club when I retired.

Or died.

He almost always supported me, though, and unless he knew something I didn’t about why we couldn’t take Saraya in...

“She might be a spy,” he said bluntly. “Might be here as a plant, right from Devil’s bed. You thought of that?”

“I have,” I growled. “And I’ve decided it doesn’t matter. So we keep her separate from everyone else. Make sure she doesn’t see anything important. I’m not willing to send her back to Devil if he’s doing this to her. If she wants to leave and go out on her own, I won’t stop her. But I want her healed first. I’m not going to leave an injured woman out there by herself, Gem.” I paused, watching him. “And I don’t think you’d be okay with that, either.”

It was a gamble. But it was also the truth. Gem might be a loose cannon, but he was also a good man. He talked a mean game, turned a cold face to the world half the time, but he’d never have left Saraya on that street to take care of herself.

Most importantly, it wasn’t his call to make.

“I’m president here,” I reminded him, forcing my voice to be cold and hard. “At the end of the day, I’m the one who gets to call this shot, Gemini. Not you. And not Mandy.”

He tipped his head, considering me, and I saw the moment when he gave in. His eyes went from flat and black to something lighter, his mouth relaxing as he nodded. “You’re the president,” he confirmed. “And at the end of the day, if this goes badly, it’s on your head. Not mine.”

He turned and walked away, and my eyes shot to Mandy as I waited to see whether she was going to follow her man or do what I was going to ask her to.

Mandy scowled at me, her mouth sealed shut on all the opinions she knew she couldn’t express. Then she turned and gestured at me to follow her. “I’ll get her patched up. But that doesn’t mean I like her. Bringing Devil’s woman here is a problem, Knight, and you damn well know it. This is going to cause trouble.”

I knew she was right. I agreed with her.