Page 44 of A Vow To Chase

I squeeze her thigh, as I see her helmet thrown out to the side of me. It tumbles down the road, bouncing off the wet ground. I should be furious about that. Protecting her is now my priority. I’m not. This is who she is, who she always would have been without threats chasing her. She is my tiger. My fierce little warrior that kills to protect the ones she loves.

She barely moves, as I eventually pull over, just nuzzles her head onto my back. I look around the gloomy streets, watching broken lights flicker, and wonder what she’ll make of all this. It took some doing, and some coercion on several levels considering my recently deceased wife, but I need to find the real Alice Contreas under this bargain of ours.

That starts here.

I tilt my head, stripping my own helmet off, and look back at her face as it comes into view. She smiles lazily and waits for me to speak, then looks up as both Brett and Brandon walk past the old building towards us.

“You’re not supposed to be here until tomorrow,” she says, frowning.

Brandon looks at me and the motorcycle, then back to her. “Not fucking sure I should be here at all.”

“What does that mean?” She looks at me, still frowning. “Malachi? I thought they were flying in tomorrow.” A Lincoln drives down the road, blacked out windows keeping Gray hidden behind them. It pulls over, and I tap her thigh to get her off the back. She does, continuing with her frown as she watches Gray and Hannah get out of the car. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“Vows.”

She seems startled. “What?”

She looks at Gray as he gets closer and passes me a box. “Vows, Alice. Look at the building behind you.” She turns around, looks upwards at the spire.

“Shit.”

Chapter 20

Ally

Ilook at him, then Brandon and Brett, then over to Gray.

What the hell is this? I feel like I’m being corralled into something. I guess I should be ecstatic, or honoured, or some other romanticism that means happiness and love. I’m not. I would be if this was a declaration or proposal, but it isn’t. It’s a forgone fucking conclusion because he thinks he owns me now. Eternally respecting a bargain we made is one thing – marriage is another.

It all makes me look at the floor, scouring my own boots for some inspirational quote or game or tit for tat that might make sense to him. Nothing will. As far as he’s concerned this is the culmination of our time together. Probably the opening of the next chapter. I get it. I do. And it isn’t that I don’t love him – I do. I love what he is, what he’s done for me, who he is under the primal instincts he likes to play in. I even love those, god help me, but … I don’t know. It feels like a trap all of a sudden. Annoying considering I was beginning to settle into him, beginning to really think about a life with him outside of the bargain we made.

I run my hands across my stomach, feeling the new cuts sting under my touch. They’re real to me. He is. It’s all become a reality that fuses into something that both was before him and now is with him. I don’t know what I thought this would be, whatwewould be, but marriage isn’t something I even deliberated.

Hannah comes over to me and smiles. “I have makeup. Do you need it?”

I glare at her, pissed at the assumption that I would. There’s nothing wrong with how I look now. But that thought makes me look at my leather clothes, then flick my gaze to the church. Not that I’m thinking about saying yes to this hypothesis.

And a church? Really?

What the hell does Malachi Jones know about the sacrament of religion?

Damn sure no one bled for God.

Actually, a lot of people did, but that does not make this okay.

Turning on my heel, I start walking in the opposite direction. It’s more like running if I’m honest. Not quite, but kinda is. Marriage? With him?

“You’re still running, Alice,” he calls.

I stop, scowling at both his words and my feet. He’s right. I am. Whether I want to admit it or not. It’s not him I’m running from, though, it’s the past. It’s the death and the fear and the constant worry that chases us down day after day. It might be gone, and Greene might be dead, but it’s been with me for so long I don’t know how to trust what’s around me now when I feel caged.

I look back over my shoulder, staring at him as he looks at me. He fills my vision – his eyes, his body, his whole fucking aura of rebellion and chaos under that money bred charm. I don’t know that side of him, though. I was only just beginning to feel it around me – beginning to trust it. All I know is his hands on me, his knife on me, his mouth on me, his arms around me – protecting me.

Just a game.

This is far more than that.

“Why?” I shout.