Page 3 of Rebel (The Royal Harlots MC #7)

“Yeah,” Bolt drawled, “you were doing such a good job of that, too. I mean, where did I just pick you up?” She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but she figured that he’d find that amusing. The more she insulted the guy, the more he seemed to enjoy it.

“That wasn’t my fault,” she shouted.

“You weren’t trying to outrun a cop?” he asked.

“I was unjustly being pulled over, and trying to get to Jace,” she explained. “I was worried about him.”

“Well, I can tell you that Jace wouldn’t approve of you speeding through town and then trying to outrun the cop trying to pull you over to give you a ticket,” he said.

“Had I known what Jace did for a living, I might not have worried so much, or sped through town,” she countered. “If he hadn’t lied to me all this time, I might not have ended up in a jail cell.”

Bolt barked out his laugh, “You’ve never lied to your brother about something?” he asked. She wasn’t about to tell him that she had kept her working at a strip club, and worse, as a prostitute, from her brother. That wasn’t something that she’d ever willingly share with Jace or anyone else.

“What I keep and share with my brother is none of your business,” Rebel insisted. Her phone chimed, and she pulled it from her pocket, hoping that it might be Jace finally calling her back. But it wasn’t. Instead, she found a name across the screen that made her cringe.

“Kirk Atwood,” Bolt said, looking over her shoulder. “Who’s he?” he asked.

“Again, none of your business,” she spat.

She turned off her phone and shoved it back into her pocket.

Kirk used to be a client of hers—back when she was meeting her regulars at the local motel in town.

Kirk usually reached out to her once a month, and every time he did, she told him that she wasn’t still meeting clients on the side.

It had been almost a year since she had seen him, but he still couldn’t seem to take the hint and leave her alone.

Every month, he’d tell her that if she changed her mind, she knew how to get hold of him.

But for some reason, Kirk started taking things a step further about two months ago when he found out where she worked.

He’d show up at the clothing boutique, pretending to be shopping for a friend or girlfriend, but he never purchased anything.

Instead, he stood by the registrar and talked Rebel’s ear off.

Her boss wasn’t thrilled about the older guy hanging around, monopolizing Rebel’s time.

And when she’d ask Rebel about how she knew the guy, she would usually just shrug off the question, saying that they had gone out to dinner together a few times.

She could tell that her boss wasn’t buying her lame explanation, and she couldn’t blame her.

After Kirk’s first few visits to the boutique, Rebel realized that he wasn’t going to stop—even if she asked him nicely.

She promised her boss that she’d go down to the police station and get a restraining order against the guy, but when the officer asked about her relationship with the person she wanted to keep at a distance, she couldn’t go through with it.

Her past was quickly invading her present, and she couldn’t let that happen.

Especially not after she had finally found a job that she loved at the boutique.

So, she made Kirk some unkept promises, and when she didn’t follow through with meeting him at the motel that they used to meet at, he became irate.

Her boss finally called the cops to have him removed from the boutique, and he wasn’t allowed to come within five hundred feet of the store.

He hung around the shopping center, waiting for her to get out of work each night, and when she got home to her little apartment, she’d bolt herself inside and not answer the door—even when Kirk tried to pound it in.

He was officially stalking her, and the only good thing to come with having to leave town to track down Jace was that she could finally leave Kirk in her rearview—she just hoped that he stayed there.

“You don’t look too happy that he’s calling you,” Bolt assessed.

“Is he your ex or something?” Or something was right, but she wasn’t going to tell him that.

It would only lead to more questions from Bolt, and all she wanted to do was find a hotel and get some sleep.

It had been a damn long day, and the sexy, nosey biker was starting to grate on her last nerve.

“I’m tired,” she admitted, “where is the closest hotel?”

“You’re not going to stay in a hotel around here,” Bolt insisted. “We’ve been through all of this already.”

“Okay, fine, a motel then,” she said. “I’m not picky.”

“No motels either,” Bolt grumbled. “I’m not sure that you understood Savage and me when we said that Jace might have blown his cover, which means that you’re in danger.”

She looked around the parking lot and back at Bolt. “I don’t see any danger, do you?” she asked.

“Be that as it may, I’ve promised Jace to keep an eye on you, and I can’t do that if you’re in a hotel or motel. You’ll be staying with me. The Royal Bastards have a little house about fifteen minutes from here. We’ll be safe there, and Jace will know how to get in touch with me if he needs me.”

“I think you should call Jace and let me talk to him. I can’t stay with someone I don’t know.

You and I have only just met, and I can’t be expected to shack up with you, Bolt,” she insisted.

Rebel was trying everything she could to get out of having to stay with the biker.

She wasn’t kidding when she told him that she didn’t need a babysitter.

She had been taking care of herself since she was eighteen, and there was no way that she’d start relying on a total stranger now to do that job for her.

“Jace is off grid. He can’t use his phone.

Hell, he probably has it turned off or destroyed it by now.

He’ll use burner phones and call me when he can.

For now, you’re just going to have to trust me.

Jace wants you to stay with me so that I can keep you safe.

” Rebel blew out her breath, knowing that she was fighting a losing battle.

“I want my own room,” she insisted.

“There are three bedrooms in the house, but only one bed in the master. You can take the master, and I’ll sleep on the sofa downstairs,” he said.

“Well, that’s convenient,” she mumbled under her breath. “No, I am not taking the only bed,” Rebel insisted. “I’ll take the couch. Besides, I don’t plan on staying at the safe house for very long. As soon as my brother calls, I’ll be on my way.”

He shook his head at her, “You really are the most stubborn woman on the planet,” he said.

“You’re seriously calling me stubborn?” she asked. “You’re the stubborn ass here, Bolt.” Two bikes pulled into the parking lot, stopping their name-calling. Bolt quickly looked around and grabbed her hand into his own.

“What are you doing?” she shouted over the noise.

“I’m getting us both out of here. Those bikers who just pulled in don’t belong to the Royal Bastards or Harlots. I’ve never seen them before,” he said, tugging her to the pickup truck in the back of the lot.

“You know everyone who comes here?” she questioned.

“Of course,” Bolt said. “I’m one of the Bastard’s Enforcers. It’s my job to know everyone who comes and goes.”

“What’s an Enforcer?” she asked.

“Later,” he grumbled. “We can go over the roles in a biker club when I know that we’re both safe.

Right now, I need you to get your ass in this truck.

” He pulled open the passenger door of Savage’s truck, and she took a second to look in, deciding if she wanted to follow his orders or not.

Apparently, she took too long to decide, because Bolt picked her up and practically tossed her into the cab of the truck, slamming the door behind her once she was in.

She watched as he rounded the front of the truck and quickly opened the driver’s door to slide into the cab. “Next time I give you an order, you follow it.”

She couldn’t help herself, giving him a mock salute. He didn’t seem to find her as funny as she found herself. “I think that you’re making more out of this than there needs to be. So two men you don’t know stopped for a beer. I’m sure that it happens, and it doesn’t mean that we’re in danger.”

“Oh yeah?” Bolt asked, nodding in her direction. “Then who’s that guy walking over to our truck?” She turned around and looked out of her window, squinting to make out who was walking toward them. She gasped when she realized that it was Kirk.

“Shit,” she breathed. “We need to go, now,” she almost shouted.

“You know him?” Bolt said, starting the old truck. It hummed to life, and she watched Kirk’s face as he realized that she was leaving. She wasn’t sure if he thought she’d be happy to see him, but judging from the look on his face, that was exactly how he was hoping their reunion would go.”

“I’ll explain everything once we get to the safehouse,” she promised.

“For now, just get me out of here.” Bolt didn’t ask any more questions as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the highway, and she was thankful for that.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to explain Kirk stalking her to her brother’s best friend and partner, but she was going to have to come up with something within the next fifteen minutes, because Bolt didn’t seem like the kind of guy who liked to be kept waiting.

They had driven in silence for the first ten minutes of the ride back to the safe house. She knew that he was running out of time before Bolt would want answers from her—namely, who the guy was back in the parking lot of Savage Hell.

Kirk looked at her as though he knew her, and Bolt would be able to see hunger in the other man’s eyes. He would have questions, and she’d have to answer them.