Chapter 4

4

PHANTOM

I ’d been across the street from her house in a motel parking lot for nearly four hours. Ever since Grey had tracked down her location—which had taken far too fucking long. Fifteen years with The Company had taught me how to be inconspicuous. I’d been waiting for her father to leave before approaching, knowing it would be a fuck of a lot easier to get her away.

But looking at her bruises, part of me wished he was still around so I could give him a taste of his own medicine. I didn’t want my woman witnessing that kind of brutality.

That might send her running and screaming in the opposite direction, though. So it was for the best that we were alone.

“Um, kill?” she asked in a breathless voice.

I wasn’t sure if it was fear or excitement, and that intrigued me. I doubted she was a bloodthirsty little thing, so I hoped it was more of that fire I’d glimpsed inside her.

My brain told me to tread lightly and not let on how absolutely obsessed I already was with her, but my hands had a mind of their own, and they cupped her cheeks. “I would do anything to protect you, sweet girl.”

Her eyes widened with surprise, but a glimmer of hope emanated from their depths. Maybe I should have expected her reaction because she’d been made just for me.

“Now, tell me who hurt you.”

“I…I don’t even know your name,” she whispered, making no move to free herself from my hands.

I closed my eyes and shook my head, exasperated with myself and more than grateful that she was taking this all in stride. “Sorry. I’m Phantom.” For some reason, that didn’t sit right. “Actually, my name is Kian. You call me Kian,” I corrected myself.

“Phantom?”

I smirked. “It’s my road name, sweet girl,” I explained, then released her to twist, showing off the back of my cut. “But like I said, you call me Kian.”

“Okay,” she agreed, making me smile.

When I turned back around, she was studying me curiously. “The Silver Saints? You’re in a motorcycle club?”

“Yeah.”

“Like in the movies?” She actually looked eager for me to confirm her assumption, which I found adorable as fuck.

But I rolled my eyes and took her hand, leading her over to a couch in the small living room to our right. “The movies are shit,” I told her as I gently pushed on her shoulders to sit, then I took the cushion right next to her. “Don’t get me wrong, there are some fucked-up clubs out there, ones similar to what Hollywood portrays”—I chuckled, thinking about some of the old ladies in the club—“and those smutty books chicks read.”

Tessa’s cheeks bloomed with pink, and a devilish smile spread across my face. From what my brothers had told me, the stories were garbage, but they had some excellent ideas to try out in bed. And other places.

“Um, so…anyway…I guess I should tell you my name is Tessa.”

“I know.”

She frowned, her face clouding with confusion. “How do you know…wait. How did you even find me?”

“Connections. I’ll explain another time. Right now, I need you to answer my question. Whose motherfucking fingerprints are those?” I gestured to her arm.

Her eyelids descended as she dropped her gaze to the ground, hiding her beautiful green gems. I lifted her face with my index finger under her chin. “I’m going to protect you, sweet girl. No one will ever hurt you again.”

She bit her lip and studied me, contemplating my words until she finally made up her mind and spoke. “My father. He didn’t really mean to, sort of. He just…he was mad and being careless and…”

“He didn’t mean to break his daughter’s fucking ribs?” I growled.

Tessa cringed. “Well, he was upset and shoved me, and I fell against the couch.” She grabbed my arm when I shot to my feet, ready to hunt the motherfucker down and break every one of his bones. “I’m not making excuses for him. What he did to me was wrong. Everything he has done. But it’s hard for me to think that the loving father I once had has disappeared completely. He hadn't physically abused me before yesterday, and it wasn’t on purpose…he was only focused on himself. I don’t think he really even processed that he’d hurt me. He’s acting out of desperation.”

That got my attention, dragging up the memory of his expression when he dragged her away from the bank. “Explain,” I demanded as I sat back down.

Tessa sighed and told me about her mom’s death and the change it had brought in her father. “Growing up, he was everything a dad should be. Loving, happy, and I was his little princess.” Moisture gathered in her eyes, and I used my thumb to wipe one away when it escaped. Her tears gutted me.

“During the days right after her death, he started to pull away. Soon after her funeral, he barely spoke to me anymore. He was gone all the time, and when he was home, he was in a bad mood. I—” She stopped, and her face flushed as her gaze dropped to her lap.

“You can tell me anything, sweet girl,” I urged her. Then I admitted, “Nothing you say will come close to the shit I’ve done. Don’t be embarrassed.”

“I was so relieved to leave for college,” she said, her shoulders drooping. “Maybe if I’d stuck around, I could have helped him?—”

“Don’t,” I grunted. “This isn’t on you, Tessa. That motherfucker is a grown ass man whose daughter needed him. Don’t go blaming yourself for shit that’s outta your control.”

Maybe I should have felt an iota of sympathy for the man losing his wife. However, there was no compassion in me because he’d been so selfishly absorbed by his own grief that he’d not only neglected his daughter but treated her like a pawn to feed his addiction.

“Anyway,” she continued after giving me a soft smile. “I found out recently that he has a gambling problem. He owes his bookie a lot of money. That’s why he was so upset. He tried to empty my college fund, but the bank called me for permission. I had to be the one to withdraw it, and he was angry when I confronted him.”

“That’s what you were doing at the bank?”

She nodded. “But they can’t cut the check for a couple of days.”

I made a mental note to get the information for her account and give it to Grey. “I know someone who can figure something out so your dad can’t get his hands on your money and you can finish school.”

Tessa’s gaze swung over to the fireplace where a large family portrait hung over it. “I don’t really care about school, to be honest. My first year there was fine, I guess. But it mostly was a means of getting away from my dad. I have nowhere else to go, and without that money, I’m stuck here.”

“Not anymore,” I grunted as I pushed to my feet. “You’re coming with me.”

She shook her head, then dropped it back so she could look up at my face with an expression of wonder. “I don’t even know your last name. But for some reason, I feel safe with you.”

I smiled and bent down to clasp her hands and pull her up. “You have good instincts,” I told her. Instead of saying what I really wanted to—that she was mine. I’d thrown enough at her, I didn’t want to push my luck. “Go pack a bag, baby.”

“Where are we going?”

I turned her toward a staircase across the hall and patted her ass to get her moving. “Right now, I’m taking you somewhere to have your injuries checked out.”

“A hospital?” Her face screwed up like she smelled something bad. “I don’t like them.”

“Good thing I know someone who does house calls,” I teased.

“Then why aren’t they coming here?”

I sighed and walked her over to the bottom of the stairs. “It was more like a figure of speech, baby. Now go get some shit so we can go see a doctor. No hospital, I promise.”

She came back down with a small duffel less than five minutes later. I took the bag, then put my hand on her back and guided her out the front door. We walked to the driveway, and she halted. “Where is your car?” she asked as her gaze swept the empty driveway and the curb in front of the house.

“No car,” I murmured, pressing on her back to get her moving again. It was the wrong time for a confrontation with her dad, and I’d already tested chance by staying at her house for so long since I had no idea where he’d gone.

“What?” She stopped again and looked up at me like I was crazy. “How are we leaving?”

“Motorcycle club,” I said, patting my cut. “What do you think I rode here?”

“B-but–I–um–I’ve never ridden a motorcycle!” she sputtered.

I grinned. “Good. I’m your first.”

Tessa turned beet red, and I wanted to beat my chest like a caveman because I knew she was thinking about a different first. My girl was a virgin. It wouldn’t have changed a damn thing about what I felt for her if she hadn’t been. But knowing I would pop her cherry, that I was the only one who would ever feel her sweet pussy wrapped around me, and the only one to see what she looked like in the throes of ecstasy…it was intoxicating and made it hard as fuck—literally—not to grab a room in that motel and make her mine right then and there.

However, I didn’t want my first time with my woman to be rushed or in a crappy motel. So I used the walk across the street to calm my raging hormones and talk my dick into standing down.

I managed to get myself to a point where the ride wouldn’t be excruciating. Well, that was what I thought until I was riding down the road with my woman’s soft body pressed against me, her arms gripping my torso, and the heat between her legs radiating through both layers of our clothing.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck .

Taking things slow with Tessa just might kill me.