Page 28

Zoe

That first day had been emotionally intense but also light and fun.

Coast and I talked for over two hours while Lainey took a nap. Then, when she was up again, we took her around the property, letting her see the tortoise and the trucks across the street, dipping her feet into the pool, letting everyone steal and entertain her for a while.

That night, there was no talking about it.

Coast and I just changed for sleep, then climbed in bed together.

And sometime in the darkest part of the night, I woke up to his hands sliding up my belly, his body crooked into mine, his hardness pressed against my ass.

His hands teased under my shirt, getting my desire to a fever pitch.

And then, under the sheets, he was lowering my shorts and panties down, then sliding into me from behind. A long, fluid movement.

There was nothing hard or impatient then.

It was all soft sighs and gentle touches.

Our bodies moved together, our need grew, but it was more than that.

It was sweet and passionate, full of the deeper connection we’d forged since letting each other in on our pasts.

We seemed to move together for hours before coming together.

Then, afterward, we fell back to sleep with our bodies entwined until Lainey eventually demanded we wake up.

The next day, some part of me wanted to just hang around the clubhouse, enjoying the new company, making sneaking away for more alone time with Coast.

But half of the guys discreetly disappeared in the middle of the day.

“Work,” Coast answered when I asked where they’d gone.

And then he informed me that when they got back, the club was going to have “church.” Which was, apparently, what a biker club called a mandatory meeting.

About, it seemed, my situation and presence in the club.

Coast had suggested I hang out upstairs or take a dip in the pool with Lainey while they went through with it.

I’d been the one to say I was going to go and get a few jobs done, so they didn’t have to worry about being overheard.

I felt squirrely at the idea of them all discussing me and my baby while we were in the house. Besides, I needed to not get caught up in the vacation of it all. I needed to work, to save, to have a nest egg to fall back on.

“You don’t need to do this,” Coast said, standing next to my car as I slipped Lainey into her seat.

“I might as well get a little work done while you guys are busy,” I said, shrugging it off. “Oh, who taped up my window?” I asked when I noticed.

“Eddie. He said he is gonna replace it for you, but he wanted it to have a temporary fix just in case you needed to drive it in the meantime.”

“That was really sweet of him. But he doesn’t have to fix it. I can—”

“He’s not gonna let you take it anywhere else. He loves working on cars. He wants to do it. Let him.”

“Okay,” I agreed, opening my door.

“Don’t work too late,” Coast said, following me and giving me a quick, hard kiss.

“I won’t,” I assured him. “Text me when church is done, so if I want to head back then, I know I can.”

“Will do. Got my phone on me if you need me,” he said, waiting for me to climb in the car, then slamming the door for me.

There was a strange flip in my stomach as I drove away, like something in me wanted to go back.

“But we really can’t be that needy, can we, Lainey?” I asked as she played with her feet and cooed at her reflection in the mirror hanging from the headrest. “No matter how much we like him.”

I did, too.

Like him.

Maybe it was even more than merely liking him. I liked him that night in the alley. I liked him that night when I delivered to the clubhouse.

It had slowly been growing into something else entirely after the night at the clinic, then the following days of him taking care of us.

I was just too afraid to call it what it was.

Especially when we were so dependent on not only him and the protection he was providing, but the club itself too.

I had two quick deliveries right away.

But as the sun fully set, I got a big order with the kind of projected income to make me double-check to ensure it wasn’t Coast luring me back to the clubhouse.

It was taking me out toward the other end of Golden Glades, though.

So after I picked up a surprisingly light order, I hit the GPS and headed in that direction.

“Wonder why they are tipping so much,” I murmured to Lainey as she let out a big yawn. “Tired, huh? You can take a nap. It looks like this is a house. You can stay in the car.”

As if agreeing, her little eyes got heavy.

I was probably asking for a sleepless night, letting her nap before her official bedtime. But she’d had a busy day of being played with and loved on. She’d missed two of her naps, so she had to be running on fumes.

I drove down a residential street of houses that got bigger and bigger as I drove.

Little matchstick-box-sized, half-dead front yards morphed into sprawling, meticulously maintained lawns that had to cost a small fortune to maintain. Little starter homes became luxury estates.

“We’re in a different tax bracket out here, that’s for sure,” I told Lainey. But she was already out cold.

I turned into the driveway when the GPS told me to, putting the car in park, but leaving the engine running, so the AC would be cranking for my heat-hating girl.

I’d just grabbed the food out of the passenger side and was glancing at my app on the phone when I saw it.

Black car.

Dark tint.

I tried to reason with myself. Plenty of people drove black cars. And lots of people liked to have tint to guard against the relentless summer sun in Florida.

But something had my stomach tightening, had my gaze shifting around.

And thank God for that.

Because if I’d walked up to that door, they would have grabbed me.

Two men.

Standing in the shadows near the corner of the driveway.

I didn’t stop to think.

I dropped the bag.

I ran to my car.

My blood was surging through my veins, making my heart slam so hard against my ribcage that it made me instantly nauseated.

But there was no time to worry about that.

They were already jumping into action, rushing at me from both sides.

I threw myself into the passenger side of the car, hitting the lock buttons, then climbing over the center console.

A hand banged against the window that was just barely being held together by tape.

But that wasn’t what had my stomach falling out.

No.

It was the man reaching for a gun right near the rear passenger side.

Right near my baby.

I threw the car in reverse, slamming so hard on the accelerator that the tires spun for a second before gaining traction.

The driveway was too winding to reverse at full speed, so I whipped the car into a whiplash-inducing K-turn before speeding back down the driveway.

“No no no no no,” I whimpered as I saw the metal gates slowly starting to move. “Fuck. Okay. Hold on, baby,” I said, nerves skittering as I reached to click my seatbelt on, worrying we were about to try to burst through them.

But they were slow-moving gates. And there was barely enough room for the car to move through, the wrought iron scratching against the sides of the car as we went, the sound making Lainey wake up with a whimper.

“It’s okay. We’re okay,” I called back to her. But there was nothing convincing in my voice, and Lainey’s whimper became a half-hearted cry.

“Shh, baby. Shh,” I said, flying down the street. “We’re going to go see Coast again, okay?”

I was about to hit the brake, respecting the speed limits to avoid a ticket.

When I saw a black car with dark tint racing up on me.

“Shit,” I cried, pressing my foot down again, my sweaty hands gripping the wheel.

“Shit shit shit,” I whimpered, saying a silent prayer that we didn’t flip as I turned down a cross street.

What did I do?

Go to the police station?

But I’d just turned in the opposite direction.

I could circle back.

Or…

I reached for my phone, unlocking and scrolling to my contacts while trying to keep my eyes on the road and rearview.

My whole body felt like it was shaking as I hit the speaker and dropped my phone into my lap, listening to it ring.

Once.

Twice.

“Hey, baby, what—”

“Coast!” I cut him off, voice high and desperate as the car behind seemed to be gaining on me.

My little clunker was no match for a newer model luxury sedan.

“Where are you?”

I swear I could already hear him moving.

“I’m on… on… Sunnyside Ave,” I said, catching a street sign. “It was a setup. They lured me to their house. Now they’re chasing us in their—no!” I cried as there was a hard tap on my bumper.

“Talk to me.”

“They just rammed into me.”

“Fuck. Okay. Listen to me. Do you know where you are?”

“Kind of.”

“Do not stay on back roads. Get on a main drag. You want options to put other cars between you and them.”

“Okay. Alright,” I agreed, mentally mapping the area, then taking a right turn to get back toward a more populated area.

“I’m coming, okay? We’re all coming. But you need to—”

His sentence was cut off by my yelp and Lainey’s cry as the car rammed into us again, harder.

The trunk flew open, blocking my view out of my back window.

“Zoe?” Coast called, and I could hear the rev of engines.

“They hit us again. The trunk is open.”

“Okay. Listen, try to go faster. If they hit you too hard, the airbag might deploy. And there’s a chance that can knock you out if the impact is strong enough. We can’t let that happen.”

“Okay,” I agreed, sniffling, fighting back stupid, useless tears.

“Call streets as you pass them.”

“Oceanview,” I told him.

“We’re not that far away. Just keep moving toward the main drag. It’s not busy this time of night, but any cars are better than no cars.”

“Shh, baby. It’s okay,” I tried to coo at Lainey, but my own voice was borderline hysterical. “Coral Gables,” I told Coast.

“Good. You’re getting closer. Just focus.”

My breath was coming in frantic, shallow huffs. The air was pumping, but sweat was pouring down my neck and down my back.

“Zo, talk to me.”

“I can’t. I can’t think.”

We were going too fast.