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“Trapped,” I correct her totally accurate assumption. “Did you draw the short straw?”
“No,” she laughs prettily. “I volunteered to bring you food because I thought it might be nice if you saw a friendly face. And have some food.”
I fold my arms and move off to the side, suspicious of the church girl.
“The face would be friendlier if it was coming to tell me that I’m no longer a hostage and free to go.”
Her shoulders fall in disappointment. “I get it, I do. If I were in your position, I’d be worried too, but they aren’t going to hurt you.”
I scoff in disbelief. “And why should I believe you? Because your biker boyfriend is nice to you? Newsflash, Letty, even monsters have people they care about, those that are untouchable.”
She sets the plate on the desk just to the left of the door and sighs.
“Shades is a biker. I can’t deny that. But he’s not a monster, never was. In fact, he’s a veteran. Most of these guys have helped keep our country safe, and that protective streak now extends to the women they care about. But none of them are monsters, Maven. The real monsters are the guys they’re protecting you from.”
“Convenient for you how that works.” It’s funny how good dick can brainwash a woman into believing just about anything. Including me, and the dick was mediocre at best.
“You think I’m just saying that to get you to lower your defenses?”
“No offense, but yeah, I do.”
“Well, then, I’ll just tell you two things. One, if they had any plans to kill you, they wouldn’t let anyone who doesn’t have a patch on their chest in here to interact with you. Plausible deniability.”
I gasp at how casually she talks of killing people, but worse? Her words make a lot of sense, but for some reason, they don’t make me feel better. “And two?”
“The guys your ex is tangled up with? They tied me to a chair and set the church on fire. With me inside. They kidnapped Kelsey and McKenna, did horrible things to them, so if you’re looking for monsters, look at the Iron Kings and the cops on their payroll.”
Shit. Letty’s words make my blood run cold. They terrify the fuck out of me, and as soon as the blood starts to circulate in my legs again, I make my move. I have to get out of here. I can’t rely on her assurances of my safety. I need to take charge of my own safety, my own life. My own future, if there’s one to be had.
She realizes what I’m doing and blocks the door, but I barrel through her and look left and then right. Remembering that Wilder turned left to put me in this room, I go the opposite way. Toward freedom.
“Maven got out!” Letty shouts behind me.
I pump my fifty-year-old legs as hard and as fast as I can, pushing through a wooden door and into what looks like a bar with pool tables and dart boards taking up space on the walls.
The door.It’s about thirty, maybe fifty feet away. I run toward it, toward the sunlight that filters just inside the room. Excitement builds as I draw closer to the door and time slows down.
Wilder puts himself between me and the door at the last second. I’m so close my fingers wrap around the metal door handle.
“No!” The sadness and anguish in my voice is palpable. The disappointment at my thwarted escape rushes over me, covering me in ice. Not even the heat of Wilder’s body can warm it.
“Maven,” he growls sympathetically, even as his arms wrap around my midsection and he lifts me in the air.
For a moment, I’m totally still. Frozen in shock or fear, or maybe it’s just disappointment that I’m probably going to die in some off-book biker bar.
In the next moment, though, my fight-or-flight instinct chooses to fight. I kick and scream and squirm in his arms, anything I can do to make it difficult for Wilder.
“This is bullshit! Let me go!” The more I squirm against his hot, hard body, the more aware I am of him as a man.
He’s fit as fuck. Muscles cover every inch of him that I can feel, and there’s nothing I can do to talk my wayward nipples down.
Fucking traitors.
It’s stupid to have this reaction to a twenty-seven-year-old kid. Especially one who’s holding me hostage for information I don’t have. I start kicking and squirming with a vengeance I didn’t know I had.
“Let me go right now!”
“Can’t do that, babe,” he grunts in my ear, still holding me easily as I thrash around like a rabid animal. “Sorry.”
