Chapter Ten

CHAPTER TEN

Meadow

Igot lucky escaping with a twisted ankle, but it hurts like hell.

There was a man standing guard beneath my window, but thanks to the timing of the century, he was off peeing in a bush when I made my move. And by move, I mean risking life and limb for freedom by hurling my headstrong ass from a third-story window. Would I do it again?

Absolutely.

There’s definitely a knot in my throat as I hobble away from the house as quickly as possible with my throbbing injury and cut into the trees on the edge of Walker’s property, searching for a break in the gate. Come on, come on. I don’t have a lot of time. I have no doubt that Walker will notice I’m missing soon and—

MEADOW!

Walker’s bellow shatters the night. On reflex, I throw myself down on the ground and cover my head, because it sounds like an explosion.

His obvious misery brings hot tears to my eyes and expels a sob from my mouth. It’s an effort to pick up and keep moving. I can hear Helen’s voice in my head telling me he was raised for violence. That he has a good heart but wasn’t given a chance to be anything but a brutal mob boss. I can feel his skin under my fingers and hear his heartbeat in my ear.

I love you. Just hang onto me.

I climb to my feet and pitch forward, willing away the tears in my eyes. It wasn’t meant to be. It wasn’t meant to be. Keep moving.

There is no exit anywhere along the gate and I’m wasting time by continuing to look for one. It’s not going to be easy scaling a seven-foot-high gate with a bum ankle, but I’ve got no choice. Walker is coming for me. His men are probably coming for me, too. If I don’t get over the gate and away from this house in under a minute, I’ll be thrown back in my gilded cage.

I find a low-hanging branch on one of the trees near the gate and jump, catching hold of it, swinging my legs up as high as I can and catching the top of the gate. Then I inch my hands higher, higher, higher on the branch, until I can get my knees over the gate, take hold, pull myself over with a groan of effort and hop down onto the sidewalk. The pain in my ankle causes my vision to double momentarily and I stumble, but keep going, running as fast as I can toward the closest parked car.

Hitchhiking is never a good decision, but I have little option.

Please be a woman. Or a kindly old man.

When I reach the passenger side of the car and it turns out to be the latter sitting in the driver’s side, I slump against the vehicle in relief. “Can you give me a ride? Please? Just to the closest train station. O-or bus…”

I trail off when the man smiles at me. Not a nice smile.

He’s looking at something over my shoulder.

I turn and find a gun pointed at my head.

“Well, now,” says the much younger man holding the gun. “What’s a sweet little thing like you doing out here in the dark?”

Behind me, I hear the window roll down. “Out for a jog.”

He cracks a laugh. “Saw you jump over that gate.” His face clears of any humor. “You came from McManus’s and if you’re escaping, sweetheart, I’m guessing it means he wants you back.”

Panic looms heavy and my pulse speeds up. “Mc-who?”

“Get her in the car,” comes the voice behind me.

“No!” I try to make a run for it, but the man holding the gun is fast and he wraps an iron band of an arm around me, throwing open the car door with the other. Trying to shove me inside. But he picked the wrong day to force me into a confined space, because I have had it up to my fucking ears with men trying to lock me up. I twist and kick and punch and bite. I use a foot on the doorframe to prevent him from getting me inside. I fight for my life—and I think I knock his tooth out in the process. Good. Because I am not getting in the car.

The sound of a gunshot jolts my body. Am I shot?

Oh my God, did he shoot me?

I stop struggling and glance down, searching for blood, but I see nothing. And then I’m falling backward, down onto the sidewalk. A body breaks my fall. It belongs to the lifeless man who’d been attempting to get me into the car.

My head whips to the right and I see a figure sprinting down the sidewalk, gun drawn, his expression a mask of rage and denial.

Walker.

He’s here.

Whether it’s right or wrong, relief buoys me. Joy. He’s here.

I love him and he’s here.

Whatever issues lie between us, I’ll be safe now. I know that for a fact.

A car door slams and the driver returns fire in Walker’s direction.

“No!” I scream. If he’s hurt or worse, I’ll never forgive myself. He might have kidnapped me, but he’s in danger now because of my actions. Without thinking, I crawl around the front bumper of the car and come up behind the shooter. With all of my strength, I push the car door into his back, causing him to misfire.

“Meadow, no!” Walker roars. “Get down. Get down.”

I don’t question him—and that’s a good thing. As soon as the driver recovers, he spins around and aims at me through the open driver’s side window. Time slows down and I can hear my inhale, exhale. He’s about to fire when his body jerks and he falls to his knees, eyes going blank, and lands face down in the street.

In seconds, I’m being lifted into Walker’s arms. Surrounded by his men.

Walker shouts a few orders and then we’re moving, quickly, climbing into the back of an SUV. Tires squeal and…I’ve failed? That’s it? I’ve failed. Even as I acknowledge that, I’m clinging to Walker like he’s a life raft and he’s just rescued me from the middle of the Atlantic. Nothing makes sense.

How can I be so elated to see the man I was trying to flee?

I don’t have time to question my confusing emotions, because Walker is laying me down on the seat, running shaking hands over my body. Up my legs, beneath my shirt and over my torso.

“Are you hurt, baby? Oh my God. Are you fucking hurt?”

I shake my head vigorously. “Just my ankle.”

Walker zeroes in on the body part in question, cupping it in his hands and making a hoarse sound. “I’ll make it all better. I promise.” He sets my ankle back down carefully, before hitting me with glittering eyes. In that moment, I worry he’s gone insane. The light in his eyes is positively unholy. “I’m trying really hard here, Meadow,” he says in a strangled whisper. “I’m trying real fucking hard not to blow up. Because I know I was wrong. I know I was a monster to you, so I’m going to attempt to not strangle you for crawling toward a man with a gun.”

“He was going to shoot you.”

“You just left me, Meadow,” he rasps. “I was almost hoping he would.”

I don’t know what to say to that statement. It fills me with cement.

“I’m only holding on to one ounce of self-preservation. One. And only because there’s a sliver of hope you’ll give me a second chance.”

My heart leaps. “Technically, it would be your third.”

Eyes still on fire, he shakes his head slowly. “You make jokes when I’m hanging on to my sanity by a thread?”

“You knew what I was like. You kidnapped me anyway.”

“Goddammit, I love you so much,” he grits out. “Now please shut up.”

This might be an inappropriate time to laugh. I do it anyway.

The sound sends a flash of tenderness across his face. “Meadow, I’m going to be a jealous asshole over you. I’m going to worry and get irrationally angry if you take chances—like the one you just took—but if you come be with me—”

“Of my own free will?”

“Yes. I will open a massage studio for you. I will have to heavily vet your female only clients, but it will be yours and it will be the best damn studio in Boston. You can come and go with bodyguards. Lots of them. I’m compromising. Do you recognize that I’m compromising?”

A watery sounds bursts out of me. “Yes.”

“You jumped out of a window and almost got taken by my enemies.” He pinches the bridge of his nose and I see that his hand is still shaking. “I’d like to be commended on my composure right now.”

“You’re very composed. The most composed man of all time.” Happiness spreads its wings in my chest as I sit up and climb onto his lap, laying kisses on his cheeks and mouth. “I love you. I love you.”

“You better, Meadow,” he says, nipping at my bottom lip, his hands moving roughly up my thighs to grip my backside. “You fucking better. My world revolves around you now. I love you so much, it could send me over the edge, but it’ll be too bad, baby, because you’re stuck with me.”

“I want to be stuck,” I whisper, rolling my hips and hitting him with some pointed sass. “Within reason.”

Lust kindles between us and ignites. Both pairs of hands attack the waistband of his pants, pushing it down to free his waiting erection. With his tongue skating over my cleavage, he hooks three fingers in the crotch of my panties and rips the material in half, before guiding his shaft to my wet flesh and dragging it up and back. “Take a seat on this fucking throne, my queen.”

My head tips back on a whimper and that’s when I realize the SUV has stopped moving. A glance at the window tells me we’re parked in the driveway and there are at least two dozen men surrounding the vehicle, waiting for us to get out.

“Eyes on me, Meadow. Only me.” He plants his thick sex inside me and I slip down with a moan, lost in the perfection of how he fills me so completely. Walker hisses a breath and tangles his fingers in the strands of my hair, tilting my face to his. “I just killed for this tight pussy. And I’m not waiting to have it.”

“No,” I sob, writhing in his lap. “I don’t want to wait, either.”

His hips lift in a steady rhythm. “You can be the queen when you climb out of the car. I’ll treat you like gold and slaughter anyone who doesn’t.” He turns and throws me down on the seat, positioning my knees over his shoulders and baring down on me with a wild drive of his full shaft. “But right now, you’re the king’s runaway fuck toy and everyone can wait while he gets his fill.”

For the next fifteen minutes, the SUV rocks with the intensity of our grunting, sweaty coupling and there’s something scandalous about it, something extremely naughty—especially when I scream his name loud enough to be heard down the street, let alone in the driveway—but the love shining in his eyes tells me I’ve found my perfect match. The man who will fulfill my submissiveness in bed while loving me for the stubborn, uncompromising woman I am outside of it.

I might have run away once, but I know in my heart that I’ll spend the rest of my life running toward this complicated man. Toward my forever.