Chapter 12

Twelve

Rook

I had barely made it another half mile down the road when the roar of the two bikes behind us grew louder. The headlights bounced off the small mirrors, and I knew they were too close now. My heart pounded, a mix of adrenaline and fear surging through me. The idea of Regan caught in any crossfire made my stomach flip in an uncomfortable way.

I decided it was time to give up outrunning them. I couldn't see anything at this speed without a helmet, and my stomach churned at pushing Regan this fast when she didn't even know what she was doing. At least she had stopped squeezing me to death a mile ago.

I signaled to the rest of them and pulled off, parking my bike far back as Aiden, Hero, Mason, Kane, and Zack pulled up next to me.

Aiden rolled to a stop, pulling off his helmet, his eyebrows jumping up as Evie grinned at us. No one would have expected Regan to show up at Syndicate. Hell, I hadn't even been expecting it, let alone expected her to be on my bike tonight.

Mason was the one to speak up, though. "Look who you found," he yelled with a grin, looking at Regan, as the other two bikes roared coming down the road. "Does she need me to take her the rest of the way?"

"Mason, if you so much as joke you are taking her home, I will—" My words were cut off as the other two bikes rolled in behind us. It was good for Mason because I at least had somewhere else to put my anger at his suggestion.

Regan looked at me with her big brown eyes and red lips, my jacket hanging heavy on her shoulders and the headlights casting her in a glow and I wished I could enjoy it a second longer.

"Mason," I said. "Take her if you need to. Don't fucking touch her, though."

He gave a sharp nod, no humor in his face this time, because he knew exactly what I meant. He would get Regan out of here if anything went wrong.

"Don't get off the bike unless one of them or me tells you to," I said, pointing at Aiden and then Mason. "Got it?"

She nodded and swallowed, her lips pursing together tight.

I had no time to talk it over with her as the two guys rolled up on their bikes. Hero stepped up next to me.

"I can take the one on the left," he said, making me shake my head.

"Just keep it under control. No gouging or mutilation. I want it over fast and as clean as possible."

I vaguely knew who they were. They were a group like us, working for anyone who needed them. Currently, they were working against us, though, and as much as I would love to bring them back to the garage to figure out who had been stealing the drugs we kept getting hired to find, I didn't have the time or energy tonight with Regan here.

We were paid extensively by anyone who hired us, and we tried to keep who we were quiet, but apparently word got out somehow we were working against them now. It didn't normally happen, but we were becoming well-known enough we would naturally be one of the first places these guys looked. We all knew it could be a consequence of what we did, and we all already knew how to take care of it.

Their boss would be expecting a report back on where we were and where his drugs were now, and we wouldn't let them live long enough to make it back.

It was a simple process which had worked for us for years.

The only difference now was, along with Evie, I had another girl here I needed to take care of. The guys looked over at both of them on the back of Aiden's bike and mine. Regan had long since pulled off her helmet, making it even more obvious how beautiful she was, which wasn't helping.

"Who's the girl tonight? Got a pretty one we can meet?"

Red hot anger sliced through me at the idea of either one of them touching her. That they would even try to get past me made me angry enough, but the thought of them finding out who she was only made it worse.

I knew I wouldn't be the only one willing to use her as leverage to get to her father. The moment anyone learned her name, they'd find a hundred ways to use her. It was probably better she rarely left the house.

She had gotten in this situation to find me, and I sure as fuck wasn't going to let anything happen to her now.

She was my pawn, not theirs.

Which meant they couldn't leave here alive and tell everyone about her. Or us. I knew it could only get worse if we let them go. Next, they would try to find one of us alone, including her, including Evie.

It had happened once before. We had let a guy go, thinking it would be the end of our fight and he would move on, but two days later, he grabbed Evie when she had been alone at the counter of Maverick Moto.

Luckily for us, Evie was a force on her own and she was already clawing his eyes out before Aiden and I walked in.

So we rarely let people walk away in situations like this anymore.

It was all the excuse I needed. I slipped the knife out of my pocket, hiding it in my fist as I threw my first punch. I hit him in the jaw, giving me just enough time to flick the knife out and ram it into the side of his neck. I made it a quick kill, the least mess I could make when we needed to get it over with and move on without a trace of us being here. Blood spurted, coating part of my shirt before I stepped back. The guy choked, the horrible gurgling making my lip curl before he crumpled to the ground.

I could never decide if I liked this part of the job. There wasn't anything particularly enticing to me about killing someone, but it made my life easier. It made every single one of us safer, and I really couldn't argue with it. With some people, I liked it more. The really disgusting ones felt like a service to the world, but for others, I tried to not think about it much.

Hero caught up in his fight, trying to fit in a few more punches before following my lead and killing the guy in front of him the same way.

He always seemed to have a thing about things matching.

I glanced back. Regan's wide eyes were stuck on me, her face paling, before I looked over at Zack and Kane.

"Put them and their bikes over the hill. I have to go." They were already on it, handling everything, as I got back on my bike.

The bikes would be over a mountain, their bodies along with them. The ground would be swiped clean so no one would see any signs of a fight or blood, and any trace of them probably wouldn't be found for weeks, if ever.

Regan didn't say a word, but she shoved the helmet back on.

I pulled back onto the highway, keeping to a little lower of a speed as I headed to her house.

Cameron Fletcher's mansion.

I still couldn't believe Regan, of all people, had to be his daughter.

She had followed me, trying to get closer like I needed her to, and now she had watched me kill the guy. The horror on her face was so clear I wasn't sure how I would recover from this.

I had seen the disgust in her eyes, the shock turning her world upside down. My stomach tightened as I braced myself for the inevitable freakout coming once she got off the bike.

"Of course you know where I live," she said, ripping off the helmet. "I almost forgot you're a stalker." She stumbled off the bike, her legs wobbly like a baby deer once again, nearly collapsing to her knees as she tried to escape. I jumped off, reaching out to help her, but she smacked me away, her wide eyes not leaving my hands. "You're insane. Stay the fuck away from me."

"Regan," I said, stepping closer. "Calm down."

"Calm down? Why would I calm down after what I watched you do?" she yelled, her hands flailing wildly.

"You already knew I did those things. You said it yourself."

"Knowing it was a possibility and seeing it are two very different things."

"Maybe. So what? You're running off?"

"Yeah, I'm running off. Goodbye, Rook."

I watched her run down the sidewalk, disappearing into the night. I heard the front door slam shut, and still waited.

" Fuck ," I said, knowing I had to go after her. She couldn't stay mad at me, not when I needed her to keep giving me access to her house and her father. If I could find something, anything, to prove how dirty his business dealings were, I would have a chance at ruining him.

I had to find a way to show her I wasn't just a monster—that there was more to me than the violence. At least enough to not put up a fight at me coming back around. I needed her to see the parts of me that were still good, still capable of something beyond destruction.

I had to keep her in my life.

So I went after her.