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“Come on. It’s getting late and I need to take you somewhere else. Somewhere safe.”
His voice held no room for questions, not even for a protest. He’d closed up again as if he hadn’t just ravished me and was close to losing it.
“Rupert—”
“It was a mistake, Sophie. I got carried away. So did you. Let’s just forget about it.”
Hurt lanced through me. Mortified that I read everything wrongly and his care for me was that of a friend and that adrenaline had been a major factor in him kissing me back like that. I swallowed my need to argue and clung to my pride. It was the only thing I had left, and I’d be damned if I gave that up, too.
If he didn’t want me, then I’d rather die than let him know how I truly felt.
“Fine. Take me home, then.”
***
He didn’t take me home. At least, that was my deduction when the motorbike kept speeding out of the city center and toward a more natural area that made me wish there was a cottage where we could rest and rejuvenate. The wishful thinking stopped when we reached a remote area and he began going down a dirt path that wasn’t even visible from where I was looking. But Rupert seemed to know his way around it. Confusion sparked when I spotted a large, warehouse-type building just beyond some massive boulders, effectively hidden from passersby. When he parked the bike and ushered me down, I was even more bewildered.
“Where are we?”
“Headquarters of the Huntsmen.”
“The what?”
“The Huntsmen,” he repeated, gesturing toward the building he was walking into. I had no choice but to follow. “It’s the name of our motorcycle club.”
My mouth dropped open, but I thought it through and decided that I wasn’t surprised. Of course, the big, bad guy would be a member of a motorcycle club. It explained so much about those two men and his reaction to them.
“Those guys… They were your rivals, then?”
“Sort of. It’s complicated. But I think it’s time for you to find out.”
“Find out what?”
“Why I’m opposed to you staying with us. Why Sebastian’s always watching out for you.”
I reeled at the new tidbit. I expected Rupert, sure, but Sebastian being part of a motorcycle gang?
I looked around, noting the spacious interior and how it wasn’t as bad as I expected. Lamps lit up the hallway, and inside were doors dotting the back and an elevated platform where I assumed they gathered to discuss things. It was all so organized for something that was supposed to be wild and rowdy, and I was taken aback when I spotted not just men but some women and children walking around. A few gave me curious looks, but they were far away enough not to speak to me. Rupert’s aura must have a lot to do with that as he marched like a man on a mission toward a destination that I didn’t know yet.
“What else should I know?” I asked, feeling like I was still being kept in the dark.
“Just one more thing. It’s time for you to meet our leader.”
That stumped me, unsure why I had to meet the leader of a gang I wasn’t even a part of. But then we turned a corner and a familiar figure came into view. Rupert gestured at him.
“Sophie, our leader. Sorry, bud. We got in trouble and I had to bring her here. I also had to tell her.”
Shock rammed me over when I stared at Matthew, who stared back.
CHAPTER 9
MATTHEW
Fury coursed through me, and I couldn’t tell if it was because of what had happened to Sophie or because Rupert brought her there of all places. I didn’t plan on telling her about the Huntsmen, at least, not yet. Not when she had plenty of things in her mind already. At the same time, I couldn’t stop thinking about hunting those men down and doing even worse things to them, not satisfied that Rupert let them go just like that.
“I had to bring her here,” Rupert said, already aware of where my head was at. “And I couldn’t stay there with them whileshewas there. I had to get her away from that violence as fast as I could. The apartment wasn’t a good choice, either, because I didn’t know if they had reinforcements on watch who could have followed us.”
Everything he was saying made sense, and I had to take a deep breath to calm myself down.
