Page 19

Riley

I had been turning this situation over in my mind all the way to the shelter. These bikers and their Native friends clearly had formed an alliance, one that made them both stronger than either of them was on their own. Digging a thousand feet of utility lines together was an astonishing feat. Then again, if Mace’s family had as many strong, robust young workers as the Dark Slayers, maybe it wasn’t as impossible as it sounded.

Although Mace was clearly the hinge pin the alliance was built from, all of them interacted like lifelong friends, coming together for a common cause. They’d figured out a way to overcome insurmountable hurdles to bring utilities to this bunker. And in doing so, they’d created a haven of last resort all could use in their time of need. And there was clearly a need, because here we were.

Havoc’s boots made a soft thudding sound as he walked across the concrete floors. By comparison, my sneakers barely made a noticeable sound. Havoc busied himself by clearing things off the chairs and the end of the sofa that Alicia wasn’t sitting on. The large sitting room didn’t quite look like a hurricane had hit it but was messy enough to be noticeable. When he pulled out a large trash bag, I went over to help him clear up.

He saw me coming and waved me off. “Have a seat and take a load off, Riley. When I’m finished straightening up, I’ll show you around.”

I was tired, but it seemed wrong to sit around and do nothing when they were all here because of me. “I really should help you,” I protested, feeling guilt eating away at me.”

Alicia spoke up, “The brothers are like pequeno hombre tornados that storm through any situation, kicking ass, taking names, and making things right again.”

Havoc jerked his chin at me and said in a firm voice, “You’ve been through enough for one day. Let me take care of this.”

I nodded and dropped down into a comfortable armchair.

He immediately turned to Alicia with a frown. “ Pequeno hombre tornado ? Really? I can’t believe you just called me little tornado man in Spanish. That’s fuckin’ emasculating.” He brought two fingers up to his eyes and then pointed them at her in the traditional gesture for ‘I’m watching you’.

She just laughed merrily when he walked off in a huff. Alicia clearly wasn’t worried about Havoc keeping an eye on her. She rolled her eyes and said, “ Hombre oso de peluche grande , the lot of them.”

It had been a long time since I had spoken Spanish, but it sounded like she was calling them big teddy bears.

Havoc grumbled from across the room. “I fuckin’ heard that.” Then he shouted, “Mace, come and get your woman. She’s insulting the brotherhood.”

Mace stalked back into the room, all smiles. “Did you say my old lady was being a pain in the ass? Maybe it’s time for me to return the favor.”

Alicia was off the sofa and running away before I could get my head around what he was insinuating. Mace immediately gave chase, catching her with uncanny ease and tossing her over his shoulder. She was kicking her feet and screaming, “Put me down, estúpido . I’m not some sexy plaything for you to carry off whenever you please.”

Just when I was starting to become concerned enough to worry about if coming here with these men was a good idea, he turned around and stalked off with her. Alicia was not only smiling from ear to ear, but she also reached down to give his ass a playful slap. I don’t know why, but I immediately averted my eyes.

My first clue that nothing untoward was going on should have been the fact that Nine merely lifted his head and sniffed the air before dropping it back down again. It might have just been my imagination, but it seemed like whatever Marcus was doing in the back was working because the air was smelling nicer. And unless I missed my guess by Nine’s unbothered behavior, there was no scent of fear in the air.

As Havoc finished being tornado man, I took a few minutes to look over the main room of the bunker, or what I assumed was the main room. It was cavernous, sparsely furnished, and made of concrete. Around the top edges of the walls, the concrete turned into rough stone, like this had once been a gigantic cave. If so, this renovation style was an ingenious choice. The entire ceiling appeared to be smoothed-out stone that had been sprayed with cement. This bunker was living proof that even the darkest places nature had to offer could be claimed by humans and fabricated into something truly useful.

I was so deep into my own thoughts that I didn’t realize Havoc was finished and standing in front of me until he cleared his throat.

“You ready to have a look around?”

He hadn’t been joking earlier when he said I’d had a long day. It was true. Unfortunately, I was also too keyed up to sleep or sit still for long. That fact, coupled with my natural curiosity and eagerness to spend more face-to-face time with Havoc, got me moving out of my comfortable chair. “I would love to explore our new surroundings a bit.”

When we got to the door, Havoc turned to address the huge wolfdog who had suddenly lost all interest in anything except dozing. Havoc patted his leg and said, “You coming, Nine? Come on, boy.”

The large slumbering beast turned over and sprawled out into an even more comfortable position on the sofa, practically taking up every square inch of available space. Havoc’s hand dropped and he said, “That’s okay, boy. You got us here safely, and that’s all that fuckin’ matters on a night like this.”

Nine? He just lifted his head long enough to make a whining sound and went back to resting.

My eyes flickered up to Havoc’s busted lip and bruised face. The cut on his neck was now crusted over with dried blood. That my bruised and battered protector still had the presence of mind to extend some caring and compassion towards his furry friend only made me appreciate him more.

Without overthinking it, I stepped closer to Havoc, wrapped my hand around the back of his neck, and pulled him down for a long, lingering kiss. When I pulled back, I teased, “Looks like your furry friend is down for the count. I guess you’re stuck with my company instead.”

His tongue came out to slide along his bottom lip, as if he were enjoying the taste of me still clinging to his lip. “Lucky me,” he said in an unusually deep and breathless tone.

We stood there for a moment, gazing into each other’s eyes This big, rough, tatted-up biker with a heart of gold and a protective streak a mile wide had somehow become the only man I wanted in my life.

Finally, he swallowed thickly before stepping back. The look on his face was enough to make me wonder if he was thinking along the same lines that I was. We’d decided to give whatever this was between us a chance, and as for myself, I was becoming more sure of what we had by the minute.

We left the room and were funneled directly into some kind of food prep area. It had the same utilitarian cement walls and floor, but this one had steel shelves along two walls and a large stainless steel table. Eventually, we rounded a corner and there was a stove, sink, and empty refrigerator with the doors standing open. Across from that was a closed doorway. Havoc opened it to reveal a food storage room. He pulled out a coffee maker and some nutrition bars, handing me sugar and a canister of creamer. “We’ll leave this out for the morning,” he said confidently. “If you see anything you want to eat or drink for now, grab it.”

I looked around and ended up grabbing a couple of bottles of water and a bag of chocolate-covered nuts. After unloading the coffee and nutrition bars on one of the counters, we continued with the tour. Everything here was so different from anything I’d ever seen before that I found it fascinating. It was something new to take my mind off my problems. Havoc was an interesting conversationalist, telling me about the shelter and the times his club brothers had been forced to take shelter here.

The fifth large room turned out to be the area where the serial killer kept his hostages. It wasn’t gross or bloody, just depressing to think women spent their minutes on earth here.

“To be honest, I wasn’t expecting the shelter to be so big. I don’t think anyone could imagine this kind of space exists underground from looking at the outside.”

He nodded. “I agree. We recently discovered a hidden door leading to a mostly unfinished lower level. The guy who built this must have been batshit crazy in addition to being a stone-cold killer who preyed on women.”

“It feels like he was trying to make space for as many hostages as possible in the event of an apocalypse,” I grumbled.

“Yeah,” he muttered. “Though some of it is our doing. After Mace and Alicia camped out here for a week, we realized we needed to make it more habitable. So now there’s extra rooms for brothers to stay in case a bunch of us need to hide out.”

He could tell seeing all this made me feel lots of conflicting emotions, so he rushed me out to continue the tour. Down a new hallway, we counted a total of eight doors, all small bedrooms according to my hulking tour guide. Realizing there was another level below this one gave me the creeps.

Havoc showed me another closet. This was a room for storing cleaning supplies. “We’ve been restocking when we can because if we ever end up using this, we’re gonna need to keep the place sanitary.”

He looked at me. “It seems like you guys have thought of everything. I can see why you brought me here. It’s not only well-stocked but I can’t imagine a safer place on earth or one that’s more difficult to locate.”

“I don’t think anyone knows about this place besides us. Only our police contact, and he didn’t put the location in any of his reports. He described it as in the middle of nowhere and told them he didn’t think he’d be able to locate it again if he tried,” Havoc explained. “Only highly trusted people know about this place. And until we get a handle on what’s going on with Slater, you’ll be staying here.”

It took me a minute to get my head around staying here for now. He tried to smooth it over with a more detailed explanation. “If we deem him to be a minimal risk, Storm may agree to you coming back to the clubhouse, but I doubt it.”

“Are you sure this isn’t overkill? It seems disproportionate to the danger. Slater is just one man.”

He guided me to a bedroom, as he tried his best to answer my question. “We need to remember that Slater is a lawman and he’s already done some fucked up shit under the cover of law. I wouldn’t put it past him to raid our clubhouse to get you back, or arrest you under some jumped up charge. And he could probably get away with it. Therefore, the only way to keep you safe is to keep you out of his reach entirely. Before we had access to a place like this, we would stash people we were protecting out of the area or with allied clubs. Trust me, this is better than being isolated on your own or having to stay with a bunch of strange bikers you don’t know.”

My lips pressed into a firm line as I thought over his words. When I stepped over the threshold into the bedroom, I mumbled, “I guess that’s okay. At least you’re here with me.”

Turning me around, he looked me in the eyes. “I’m not gonna lie to you, sweetheart. I am going to need to leave at some point to track down the computer geek. I can’t ask my club brothers to risk their lives tracking down your enemies while I hide out here with you, safe and sound. No man worth his salt would do something like that.”

My eyes jumped around the room for a brief moment before I asked, “This place locks from the inside, right? God, I hope it does if I end up getting left here alone. The idea of Slater finding me in a place like this and taking his time hurting or killing me like that serial killer hurt the women he brought here terrifies me.”

He immediately reached out and pulled me into the circle of his arms. Holding me tight, he rubbed my back soothingly. “You are never going to be left alone, not on my watch. That’s the whole point of being part of a brotherhood. We protect each other and our loved ones. That means even when I have to leave to take care of business, others will take my place in protecting you. Storm will send some of my club brothers or prospects to secure this location. Even our prospects are experts at guarding shit because from day one, they’re responsible for guarding the clubhouse full-time. They trade off shifts and that’s their most important responsibility while they’re prospecting. I wouldn’t leave you here unless I was a hundred percent sure you were safe.”

I gave him a grateful look and reached up to put my hands on his chest. “You’re shockingly good at making me feel better about my awful situation.” Then I laid my cheek against his chest, making something deep inside shift. It’s like my hands on his body had flipped a switch, making me hyper-aware of how strong and protective he was.

“Yeah, it’s easy to be supportive and keep you safe when my club has stacked all the cards in our favor. I swear, joining the Dark Slayers was the best decision I ever made. I’m usually the one protecting my club brothers and their families. It’s nice to know they are willing to step up and do the same for me.”

I tilted my face up to look at him. “Like I said before, I trust you and your club brothers.”

Staring into my eyes, he tried to use humor to keep things light. “You sure about that? You’d be one of the few women open to seeing us as more than just a bunch of guys who liked to hang out, party, and ride our hogs.”

“I figured out you were more than just a dumb biker stereotype the first time I met you, Havoc. The things I didn’t understand, Zoe explained to me real fast. If I’m adjusting to club life faster than the others, it’s because of the lessons she taught me and the fact that you’re easy to get close to.”

“You sure it’s me you’re thinking of there, sweetness? Remember, I’m the stubborn biker that kept you at arm’s length in the beginning. That gave you a nice hard hate fuck right out of the gate. I didn’t think that you’d ever be able to get past that shit.”

“Shows how much you know. I actually liked that shit. You’re one of the few guys I’ve met that was spontaneous and honest enough to trust jumping into a one-night stand with just for the hell of it. I wouldn’t have traded that night for anything in the world.”

“We don’t have to leave it at a one-nighter. You know that, right?”