Page 3

Chapter Three

I jolt awake, cold sweat clinging to my skin. I glance around the motel room, remembering I’m not in Anarchy and Thad can no longer hurt me. At least not physically.

I escaped.

I survived.

I touch my fingers to my stitched bottom lip and wince at the sore reminder that the man I married was nothing but a manipulative monster.

Unlike the man I find myself traveling with, but I’m keeping my guard up.

Or attempting to. This biker doesn’t make it easy to keep up my wall.

The guy makes me laugh. He’s easy to talk to despite his rugged appearance.

Tall, dark hair, and even darker eyes. His tattoos and leather jacket scream he’s dangerous, but he’s been nothing but kind to me since the moment we met.

Curtis Johner Woods snores from the bed next to mine. His heavily inked arm curls around his pillow. The black baseball cap he wears sits on the nightstand between our beds. The stale scent of his last cigarette permeates the room.

He’s a stranger and yet I feel safer in this dank motel room with him than I do with the man I married.

How did I fall for such an evil person? Cecilia tried to warn me.

I didn’t listen. I ignored the way my stomach would drop when I did or said something he didn’t like.

The tone his voice would rise to when I kept him waiting.

With time, the way he treated me grew progressively worse once he had his hooks in me.

Our relationship was a carefully crafted tower of lies.

But like anything with a poor foundation, the cracks eventually show, deepening until you can no longer turn a blind eye.

I wanted the fairytale he promised me. Only that version of Thad never existed.

He wasted my time and stole pieces of me.

Carved out my heart and cut out my tongue, but I’m slowly finding my way back and stitching those stolen and broken parts back together.

I’m finding my voice.

Repairing the damage and refuse to allow his darkness to swallow me.

Thad may have shattered my illusions of what I thought was love and landed some heavy blows that bruised my skin, but I escaped with my life. That’s what matters.

The air conditioner hums to life, the cool air sending goosebumps pebbling across my flesh. I shiver and pull the covers back up to my neck and stare at the water stain on the ceiling, trying to give it a shape. Only like my life, it’s misshapen. Disfigured. Stained.

Woods grunts, then lets a huge fart rip, breaking me from my terrible thoughts.

I stifle a giggle and roll over to find him staring at me. He doesn’t appear embarrassed. If our roles were reversed, I’d die right here. “I told you those gas station burritos were a terrible idea.” I bite my lip, ignoring the dull ache as his belly rumbles.

“Funny.”

“Bet you’re wishing you’d let me get that bottle of Pepto.”

“Maybe. Sorry if I’m keeping you up.”

“I was already awake.”

“Nightmare,” he states, reading me as though he can see straight through me.

The thought should unnerve me, but it doesn’t.

Am I that transparent?

“Something like that. I was having the strangest dream that I was being chased by a green stinky cloud and then I woke up and realized I wasn’t dreaming at all.” I wave a hand across my face, fanning the air.

“Smartass.”

I smile, and he chucks a pillow at me. It lands short, dropping to the floor between our beds.

“You’re a real comedian. You ever thought of doing standup?” he grumbles, and we reach for the fallen pillow at the same time. His rough fingers glide over mine. “Sorry.” Woods pulls away and I hand him the pillow. “You should get some shuteye. It’s a long way to Arkansas.”

“Right. You might think about lighting a candle.”

“Ha. Ha. Cute. Real cute, Jessika.” He ends on my name, his voice thick with exhaustion and a hint of something I can’t quite place. Something I’m not sure I want to explore.

Something I shouldn’t entertain, and yet I’m growing more curious about him and that expression in his eyes that makes my heart skip a beat every time he looks at me.

Things have been sexually charged between us since this morning. Since I did something completely reckless and out of character for me.

We had sex on the couch in Big Daddy’s office. I’m not a girl who just goes around fucking any guy she meets. But Woods is different. At least I hope he is.

I need him to be different.

It was probably a terrible idea to spread my legs to him without knowing a thing about him, but at that moment, being with him was exactly what I wanted. What I needed.

To forget about Thad. To forget that not only did my husband never give a damn about me, he wants me dead.

So here I am. On the run, hoping Big Daddy kills him before he gets the chance to come after me.

Nervousness flutters in my lower belly. I don’t know what I’m doing.

I left everything and everyone behind. Climbed on the back of a stranger’s motorcycle on a hope and a prayer that wherever he’s going, it has to be better than what I’m running from.

He could leave me stranded in the middle of nowhere.

He could kill me if he so desired. No one would ever find me and yet I trust he won’t hurt me.

He’s as rough and tough as far as bikers come, but there’s this softness in his brown eyes when he looks at me.

Like his soul and mine recognize one another.

Like we’ve met before.

Perhaps in another life we were connected somehow.

It sounds cliché and a little silly, but that’s the way he makes me feel. Familiar. Safe. Like he’d do whatever it takes to protect me.

Which is as crazy as it sounds. He doesn’t know me and owes me nothing.

He’s protecting me as a favor to Big Daddy, Gwynee’s man.

I don’t know why she wanted to help me. Maybe she felt guilty for not warning me fully about the type of guy Thad was.

Though he never hit her. Only cheated on her the whole time they were together.

I was so damn blind. I thought I was special.

That he’d be different with me. That he’d change for me.

The joke was all on me.

I’m not that special.

Gwynee didn’t owe me anything, but the man I married did. If I’d been her, I would have hated myself. I married the man who cheated on her. I don’t know what I would have done in her shoes, but I’m grateful either way.

I yawn and close my eyes, praying for sleep to claim me and for Thad to stop haunting my dreams.

“Good night, Woods.”

“Night, butterfly.” The endearment comes out gravelly and deep, warming me deep in the center of my belly in ways it shouldn’t.

I’m still married and have no business being attracted to this handsome biker.

If he wasn’t suffering from food poisoning, I know, given the chance, I’d fuck him again. One night with him was better than the months I spent blinded by Thad.

I settle back into the covers and attempt to find a comfortable position. Silence stretches between us, but my thoughts won’t stop racing.

What will Arkansas be like? Where will I stay? What will I do? How long will I have to hide from Thad and the bad men he went into business with to take down Big Daddy?

If I’m lucky, the Kings of Anarchy MC will kill him before he realizes that I’m gone.

Would save me the cost of filing for a divorce.

It’s terrible to think such thoughts. But Thad would kill me, given the chance to try.

I saw the murderous glint in his eyes. He wanted me dead.

He never loved me. That evil bastard doesn’t know how to love.

All he does is take and destroy. He fooled me.

I won’t make that mistake a second time.

I glance back at Woods, who is already snoring and pray whatever is meant for me will find me.

But maybe, just maybe, it already has.

Morning comes far too soon. I groan and stretch, my body aching with each movement from a night of restlessness paired with a lumpy mattress. Not to mention I’m not used to spending hour upon hour riding a motorcycle. Even if that motorcycle comes attached to a good-looking man like Woods.

He exits the bathroom and shoots me an apologetic expression. “I’d wait about ten minutes before goin’ in there.”

“Thanks for the warning.”

“I’ve gotta check in with my guys. Be ready to ride out in twenty.” He lights up a cigarette as he goes out the door, leaving a cloud of smoke behind him. I’d normally find the habit nasty. Only I’m discovering when it comes to this man, he makes everything attractive.

I brave the bathroom and wash up as best I can with the meager bar of complimentary soap and threadbare wash cloth. This place is definitely low budget, and I won’t miss it. Though anything is better than being with Thad.

I’m nervous about what’s going to come. I don’t have a dollar to my name. When I ran out of the house to escape Thad, I left with only the clothes on my back. I don’t even have my phone. Big Daddy said he’d ship some of my stuff to me, but I don’t know how high that is on his list of priorities.

I’m at the mercy of Woods. Completely dependent on him until then.

I slip my borrowed boots on and fasten my hair into two braids, so my hair isn’t whipping around and getting all knotted up.

Outside of the motel room, Woods is pacing at the edge of the parking lot, engaged in what appears to be a heated phone conversation.

I hope it’s not something to do with me.

The rest of his crew are standing around their bikes, preparing for the rest of our ride to Arkansas.

“Hey girl. Did my brother keep you up all night with his snoring?” Willow, also known as Low, bumps her shoulder against mine.

“That and his rip roaring farts.”

“Ew.” She scrunches her nose up as her lips twist into a disgusted expression. “He’s so gross.”

“He’s lucky he’s hot.” The words slip out before I can take them back.

Low busts out laughing. “Don’t let Faye hear you say that.”

“Who?”

“His wife.”

“Oh.” My stomach drops to my feet and shatters into a million pieces. Once again, I was an idiot. Gullible must be written on my forehead. Must be the first thing men pick up on about me. Like a flashing neon sign. Easy. Na?ve.

Jessika Cohen is fucking stupid and an easy target.

Low must notice my horrified look because she says, “He didn’t tell you?”

“It didn’t come up. Not that we’ve talked that much.”

Her eyes widen.

“I didn’t mean that how it sounded. He doesn’t talk a lot.” I don’t want her thinking I’m a home wrecker. If I’d known Woods was married, I never would have gone there. A lump the size of a golf ball lodges in my throat, and I want to vomit. Woods is no better than Thad. I feel sick to my stomach.

What’s wrong with me?

Why do I keep making the same mistakes?

“Right. Your secret is safe with me.”

“There’s no secret.” No one can find out about us. No one .

“You’ve got the hots for my brother.” She winks and skips off before I can tell her any different.

Great. For all I know, Low could be going to call her sister-in-law to tell her she’s married to a cheating bastard.

Just what I need. The wife of the man who is doing me a favor to want to beat me up because she thinks I’m trying to steal her man.

That isn’t happening, but why do I feel disappointed?

It must be the shock of the past twenty-four hours.

Or maybe I stupidly allowed myself to believe that some of Gwynee’s good fortune was rubbing off on me.

The day she ended things with Thad, she met Big Daddy, who treats her like gold. The night I left Thad, I met Woods.

I’m an idiot. Our meeting wasn’t fate. There was no higher power forcing us together. He just happened to be there. He owes me nothing, so why does learning he has a wife feel a lot like another heartbreak?

He didn’t tell me he was married, but I didn’t ask. I stupidly threw myself at him.

I won’t make that mistake a second time.

He glances back at me, and I look away to keep my tears at bay.

God, did I want him to be better than the rest.

I’m pissed, but mainly at myself.

I’ll never learn.

Seems like hard is the only road I know.

I’m more like my mother than I care to admit.

Attracted to men who only want to use me.

Maybe I can sneak off and make my way back home. I look around, trying to remember where we are. I have no idea where we are. I have no phone. No money. All I’ve got is a broken heart.

And what a stupid fucking heart it is.

I can’t believe I fell for the savior act Woods has going on.

Fool me once, shame on me.

I’m on my own.

The only person I can trust is myself, even if I have shit taste in men.