Chapter 8

EIGHT

MILES

" W hat the fuck do you mean, she's gone?" I shout again, ripping across the clubhouse at full speed toward the bedroom.

" I don't know how else to tell you she's gone, Pres," Sully signs, shrugging at me as he backs up to the hallway wall, giving me a wide berth.

The window is open, curtains blowing in the wind. Her handcuffs are lying on the bed.

Fuck, the other key!

"Goddamnit! I didn't take the other key away from Brax!"

"Is this going to be a problem? We won't have to go after him, are we? Because I'm going to be honest with you, I've seen him hitting the punching bag of his, and I don't want to be on the other end of it," Blaze admits.

Any other day, it would be funny.

I snarl, moving into the hall and punching a hole through the drywall.

"Isn't that Brax now?" Kylo announces, and my boots move me outside before my brain can register we're on the warpath.

"Braxton Bardot! You disobeyed a direct fucking order!" I shout, roaring louder than his bike.

He slows to a stop, and I spot her on the back of his bike, clinging to him. A beast in my chest rears its jealous head, green flames billowing off it.

"I did no such thing. Well, I guess I did, but I needed answers about what I'd found online. I needed to know who the fuck we had in our clubhouse."

The entirety of our club's inner circle stands, surrounding us, all looking at me. It's going to be ugly, and with her in tow.

"Blaze," I nod toward the woman, "lock her back up."

She takes Brax's helmet off, and fuck if the one swift action doesn't have me wishing it was my helmet she's slipping out of. A look passes between them, and Brax lifts a finger and grins, running the tip over his lip.

Oh, I'm beating the fuck out of him tonight.

"Please, don't lock me up again. I'll behave. I won't run. I don't have anywhere to run to if I'm honest with you," she begs, handing the helmet over to Brax and coming straight to me.

She knows who's in charge, then.

That makes the monster simmer some. Purr, even.

"We're supposed to take your word for it?" I ask, looking down at her as she bites her full bottom lip, looking over toward her savior as he tousles his hair which is already fucked from riding without his helmet .

The rain had stopped, and they were dry enough. When I look down, however, I glimpse her bare feet.

I look toward my brother, and he shrugs. "Well, what else are you going to do? Lock her away the entire time she's here?"

I have no clue when we'll be ready to move in on her father or if it'll be Carter that we move in on. I want solid proof that something happened to Mom while she was at work. Proof he's involved before I kick in the doors to the place. Being hellbent on revenge is one thing; being a fucking idiot is another.

"Fine, but she stays at the house. She sleeps with one of us each night. We need to know where the fuck she is," I tell Brax, speaking over her shoulder as if she's not right in front of me.

"Fine. But you take her tonight. I can't stand her another fucking minute."

Her face twists in pain as she looks over her shoulder. When she turns back, she hides her face and drops it. She's used to being bullied. Though he's not bullying her, he doesn't trust himself with her.

She should believe the lie rather than know the truth.

"Agreed. But you know what happens next, right?" I toss back, and he sighs and sets his helmet on his bike with a curt nod.

I incline my head toward Kylo as he steps forward and grabs the pretty princess. She realizes what's about to happen as I remove my jacket and crack my neck back and forth, and she thrashes in Kylo's arms.

"Shit, be fucking still, woman!" he grumbles, and usually, Kylo is the level-headed one in the bunch. It's nice to see she riles even the most silent of us.

He lets me get the first shot off when I step toward Brax. My knuckles crack across his jaw, and the screams of the princess behind us are consistent. I wonder which one of us she's worried about.

Brax ducks when I go for him again, grabbing me around the middle and pummeling me to the ground.

"Did you think just because I deserved it, I'd go easy on you, big brother?" he seethes through gritted teeth.

"I fucking hoped not!" I return.

The rest help Kylo drag the princess, kicking and screaming, back to the house. They know we'll be here awhile. Such is the way when we fight.

An hour later, we're both bruised and bloody. The princess I now know as Aella is scolding us both, muttering curses under her breath as she patches us with creams and Band-Aids.

Brax hisses. "Fuck, Bambi. Leave it be. I'll be fine."

She eyes him narrowly, and he clamps his mouth shut. One look from her has him heeling, and I don't know if it's a good idea to get rid of her now. She belongs here if she can tame The Ghost.

"Where'd you two go, anyhow?" I ask him.

Brax smirks. "Lover's Bluff."

I shake my head as I roll my eyes.

I should've hit him harder in the mouth.

I notice Aella is lingering over his brow with the antiseptic, looking down at him as she licks her lip. She's lost in the memory of whatever they'd done, and the monster raises his head again.

After we beat the shit out of one another, Brax told me all he had found out about her, and she told us how much she hates both her father and Carter. Somehow, she's valuable to us, to our cause. We just haven't sussed it out entirely.

"There," she says, triumphantly pulling her hands up on her full hips. "It's no professional job, but I think your wounds are at least clean of gravel and dirt."

She starts cleaning the mess she'd made. Bloody gauze falls to the floor, and I bend off my chair to help her. Our hands collide, and she stiffens. We both freeze, our eyes finding one another in the moment's breadth.

I don't know what she has going on with my brother, but I know there's something I can't deny between her and me.

Though Brax and I have shared before, I don't know if this is the time or if she's the right one.

"Time for bed," I tell her, picking up the gauze she forgot about and helping her clean the table.

She looks around for Brax, but he's already left to his lair.

"He'll have gone to his room. He does that."

She nods, looking uncomfortable without him, almost like he's her security blanket. Thinking of the most lethal Cobra I have as such is laughable.

But I keep my mouth shut.

I look her over. She's covered in dirt and mud from riding, and her dress and jacket are ruined. Her feet are as black as night.

"You need a shower," I say, smirking.

She nods, looking down at herself. "I don't suppose Brax packed me an overnight bag, did he?"

It's been nearly forty-eight hours since he stuffed her in her trunk and brought her here. No one even thought about ordering her clothes. It just shows we're not used to women sticking around for long.

"We can get you some tomorrow. For now, you can wear one of my shirts and some of my boxers or sleep pants."

She looks me up and down, taking in the size of me. I'm six-foot-two to her five-foot-six-ish. My pants would swallow her, but that was the intent.

Thinking of her bare pussy inside my clothes makes my teeth itch to strike into her flesh. When we get into my room, I give her clothes and a towel, allowing her space in the bathroom to shower and have a moment to herself. Even though a few times I've paced behind the door, talking myself out of peeking at her nude body.

She'd admitted to me she was a virgin.

I say was because I don't know what Brax did to her. From the look that passed between them before I punched his ass, something had happened.

When she finally comes out, she has her clothes in a dirty pile in her hands. I point toward the hamper, and she drops them inside.

She's a timid creature, but something is lurking below that I can almost see. Something that, when roused, is venomous .

She climbs into bed beside me, and I shut off the light.

For a beat, it's silent. It has me wondering if she had instantly fallen asleep.

"I know you probably think I'm insane. Telling you I'll behave when you've kidnapped me," she says, filling the ringing air with words again.

"I didn't take you, Brax did. You weren't a part of the plan, Aella."

"I'm glad he did," she admits. Maybe it was the darkness veiling the room, or perhaps she needed to say it, but I was startled by her words.

"Why?" I ask, turning towards where I can hear her breathing, steady and soft.

"Because I'd had the worst night of my life. I got stood up at dinner by my best friend, only to come back home to find her riding my fiancé. She looked me dead in my eyes and smiled, Miles. She meant for me to find them. I know it. I got rid of my apartment. I had only just moved in with him. I was still in flux. I had nowhere to go."

I scoff. "You'd have found a hotel somewhere, I'm sure."

"That's not the point. A hotel isn't somewhere to go. A home is. Do you know how long it's been since I've had a home? And tonight, when Brax told me he would get me back home, I realized I didn't have one, and it hurt more than anything. Even more than their betrayal."

I close my eyes. I don't know the feeling, but some of our Cobras do. They found solace here .

"Well, even if it's only for a little while, this can be your home."

I don't register she's turned toward me until her lips find mine in the dark.

I don't kiss!

But even as my brain screams the notion, I'm kissing her back. It's brief and hesitant, but it's her saying ‘thank you' when words have failed her.

"Was Brax... Did he... Was he good to you, I mean?" I finally ask, the dark hiding the blush on my cheeks.

She sighs, and there's a heat that wafts from it. "So good," she admits, and then she giggles. "I didn't know it could be so good."

Jealously rages through me, even though I know she's not ours to claim.

It's her choice who she lets touch her, even if who she's chosen worries me.

"Well, I'm glad to hear you enjoyed yourself," I say, and she giggles again. This time, a massive yawn moves through her.

"It wasn't the best part of the night, though."

I don't know that I've ever laid in my bed and talked to anyone the way I am with her, and I'm not faking a moment of it. I'm genuinely interested in what she says about how her night went.

"Oh yeah? What was the best part, then?"

She turns back toward me, and I notice the shift this time. Her fingers skate over my bare chest. "The ride. God, I was so..."

"Free," I finish for her.

"Yes! And alive! I haven't felt that alive in... I don't even recall how long."

A smile lifts my lips. "I remember the first time I rode with my dad. The world was zooming by, and at first, I was so scared, but then it got great. Epic even."

"That's how I felt. It was like time and bullshit slipped away."

I nod, even though she can't see me.

She curls into my side, her head on my chest. "Is this okay?"

"Yes, pretty princess. It's just fine."

"I registered you didn't want me kissing you." She yawns. "I won't do it again."

"I don't kiss," I say.

She doesn't ask why, as everyone else always has. She nods against my chest and then drifts off. My arm comes down around her, holding her to me as I wonder what the fuck I'm doing.

But my eyes shut, and even though my body is throbbing in pain from fighting with Brax, I'm the most comfortable I've been in a long fucking time.