Page 6 of The Biker’s Savage Desire (Chaos Brothers MC #4)

Mae

The morning feels unreal. Too soft and too still, like the kind of peace people write about but rarely live.

The birdsong is gentle, drifting in like it’s trying not to disturb us, and I stay perfectly still, tracing lazy circles against the warm rise and fall of Grumpelstiltskin’s chest, though he’s not nearly as grumpy as he was when I met him twenty-four hours ago.

How has it only been twenty-four hours? It’s like we’re in some kind of worm hole or time machine. It’s like the universe has slowed time and given us this storm to show us what real love should’ve felt like all along.

Listen to me… love. I need to get a grip.

His hair’s course beneath my fingertips, and the rhythm of his breathing anchors me.

For the first time in what feels like forever, I don’t wake up to a jolt in my chest or a list of things I’ve failed to fix.

Just this moment… the weight of his arm around me, the golden light melting through the curtains, and the quiet.

I know I should get up. I should think. I should assess what this night meant and what it didn’t. But instead, I press my cheek a little closer to his skin and close my eyes again, just for a second.

I’m not ready for the world yet. Not when this moment still feels untouched by it, though I’m not sure I ever will feel ready for the world again. Not after a night like last night. I’ve never felt anything more genuine in my life.

My body makes every attempt at holding onto the peace, but it doesn’t last. A buzzing breaks the trance. It’s sharp, persistent. There’s a phone tucked somewhere on the floor beneath discarded clothes, vibrating against the hardwood like it forgot we aren’t supposed to have service up here.

I don’t open my eyes right away. I let the hum of it coil in the back of my mind, hoping maybe it’ll stop if I stay still enough, but it doesn’t. It keeps going, insistent, like a reminder that we don’t live here in this sliver of sunlight forever.

He shifts beneath me, tension returning to his body, like even while sleeping he knows something’s reaching for us.

I finally lift my head from his chest. The room feels different now, like the air itself knows the spell we’ve been under is breaking.

This must’ve been what Cinderella felt as her dress returned to rags.

“It’s my phone,” I whisper. “Everyone’s probably worried about me. I didn’t call or update anyone after I left the wedding. I thought we didn’t have service up here.”

He doesn’t answer right away. He just cracks one eye open, lashes still heavy from sleep.

“We don’t. You’re probably getting a random ping off the tower to the north.

Don’t matter either way. Lay back down. We don’t give a fuck about any of that shit.

” There’s no tease in his voice, no smirk playing on his lips.

There’s just possession. Possession wrapped in the softest comfort I’ve ever felt.

I kiss his chest gently and slide up out of the bed, half tempting punishment, half asserting my independence. Also, I really should check-in with everyone back in town. At this point, I’m sure they have half the police department out looking for me.

Cool wood wakes me up as my feet pull me back to reality. Each step, a sad reminder of what the outside world is like.

“Clearly, you want more punishing,” Red groans from the bed, his voice still husky with sleep.

“I do.” I glance down at my phone before slipping back under the sheets. I regret looking at the screen.

“You good?” He turns toward me, the pad of his thumb brushing against my face as though he’s picked up on the frustration that’s settling into my chest.

“Yeah, I just… my ex. He’s called like three times and left two voicemails. There’s a load of texts, too.”

Red takes the phone from my hand as though it’s his problem to fix, then scrolls through the messages. “ He’s worried? That’s rich considering he was screwing another woman… don’t you think?” His jaw clenches not waiting for an answer before clicking the voicemail message.

“Mae, call me back. This is out of control. You didn’t have to disappear like this, okay? Everyone’s worried about you. I’m sorry for everything. Let’s just talk. One night shouldn't erase all our time together. People are worried. I’m worried. Please. Come home.”

The silence afterward is deafening.

I want to scream… or cry. Maybe I should just throw the phone across the room.

But instead, I stare at the glowing screen like it might offer different words if I wait long enough.

I’m not sure what those words might be, but I’m thinking something a little more consistent with his actual personality.

“He’s got a lot of fucking nerve,” Red mutters, his voice like gravel and smoke. “Cheats on you, then plays the victim? Leaves you standing at the altar, and now he’s worried?” He scoffs with a sharp exhale. “Nah. He doesn’t get to call you ‘home’ anymore.”

I don’t say anything. I can’t. I’m half-numb, half-enraged.

He turns his head to me, his eyes dark, sharp, and deadly serious. “Tell me you’re not considering it.”

“I’m not,” I whisper, but it comes out fragile like it needs proving.

He stretches out of the bed, his carved, bare chest on display as he paces, then stops. “If he tries coming around you again, I won’t just send him away. I’ll make sure he remembers why he should’ve stayed gone.”

It should terrify me, that anger, but it doesn’t. I can feel what he’s not saying beneath the surface. You are not going back to someone who broke you, not while I’m here… and that feels good.

I sit on the edge of the bed, heart thudding like a warning bell. “He doesn’t know where I am.”

“You better make sure it stays that way,” he growls before softening a little.

“So what, you’re going to hold me hostage here for the rest of eternity?

” Part of me likes the idea of being trapped up in this old mountain cabin forever with a big, rugged biker who’d clearly kill for me.

The other half knows that’s not realistic.

As small and pathetic as it is, I have a life to get back to.

He raises an eyebrow, his half-wicked smirk twisting at the edge of his mouth like smoke curling off a match.

“If it were up to me,” he says, pacing toward me barefoot on the worn wood floor, “I’d lock the damn door, throw the key into the river, and keep you wrapped up in my flannel until the end of time. ”

God help me! A part of me wants that too!

He stands still for a long beat, eyes locked on mine like he’s working through something heavy. “Tell me you’re sta—”

A faint knock hits the door, and I jump back as though I’m afraid of the sound. It’s the truth, I am. Whatever’s on the other side of that door can’t be good. Not up here, not this early in the morning.

Red narrows his brows and tugs on his jeans before grabbing the pistol I didn’t know he had from the nightstand drawer. “Stay here. I’ll go see who it is.”

I’ve never felt like I was with anyone capable of keeping me safer than I am right now. Still, I don’t want to deal with any of this. I want the world to go quiet again. I want to go back to the place where our love nest was invisible to the rest of the world and time stopped for us.

The door swings open and I listen intently through the bedroom wall. It’s a female’s voice, though Red doesn’t seem happy to see her. In fact, he sounds angry.

Oh God! What if this is some ex-girlfriend coming to talk things out? Maybe he uses this place for all the women he picks up. Maybe he’s had this night over and over again with hundreds of gullible runaway brides.

I’m so stupid!

I storm out of the bedroom, ready to give him a piece of my mind, when I see a girl about my age cold and shaking, standing in the doorway.

Red glances toward me, pistol still drawn and aimed at the girl.

“What’s going on?” I narrow my brows and keep my eyes on the short brunette with thick curves and a pack strapped to her back.

“Sorry,” Red groans. “We don’t have anything extra.”

The girl drags in a ragged breath. “You can put the gun away. I’m not armed. I’m hungry.”

“You should leave,” Red presses, stepping forward a beat as to intimidate her.

“Please. I’ll take the food and water with me. I’m so hungry.” The girl sounds genuine, but Red doesn’t budge.

I go back into the bedroom, grab a blanket and a dry T-shirt off the shelf. Neither are mine to give, but neither are the granola bars and bottles of water I grab next.

“What are you doing?” Red groans, pistol still aimed. “We don’t know this girl from Adam. It’s no accident that she’s up here.”

“You told me last night it’s miles into town, and it doesn’t look like she’s got any way of getting back. She could starve or freeze. We need to help her.”

Red doesn’t lower the pistol, but his grip shifts with reluctance. He’s weighing it. Not just her, but me and my judgment.

“She could be bait,” he mutters.

I toss the blanket toward her, not rough but not gentle either, then set the rest of the supplies in the doorway. “I doubt she’s bait.”

The girl hugs the blanket tight to her chest like its armor, her eyes wide but not pleading.

“Jesus,” Red mutters. “This is how things go sideways.”

I glance over my shoulder. “Maybe. Or maybe it’s just being human.”

“What are you out here for?” he presses, studying the girl.

“I’m Maci. I’m a reporter for the Rugged Mountain Gazette.”

Red’s posture stiffens like he’s been splashed with ice water. “This isn’t helping things, Maci. Why are you here?”

“I was out looking for a story and I stumbled onto this cabin.” She untwists the bottle of water and chugs it down fast. “Sorry for the intrusion.”

Red lowers his gaze. “You expect me to believe you were out here in the middle of nowhere looking for a story? You like writing about grizzly fights? Or is it the wolf attacks that get ya excited?”

The woman nods as she crams a granola bar into her mouth. “People say all kinds of weird stuff happens out this way. I was just looking around.”

“Sure you were.” Red stiffens. “Where’s your vehicle, Maci?”

“Oh! I don’t have one. I came out here on foot.”

This sentence seems to set Red on high alert. His shoulders pull back, his jaw tightens, and he grips the girl firmly on her wrist while hollering to me, “Get dressed. We’re taking a ride into town.”

He leads the girl toward the back door, boots thudding against the cabin floor. She doesn’t resist, just follows, the blanket still clutched in one hand like it might shield her from whatever comes next.

I dress fast, my heart thudding harder than it should at Red’s response. He didn’t even blink before reacting. Something is wrong. Something is really wrong.

Shit! What did I get myself into?

On the other side of the back door is a garage I didn’t know existed with an old Chevy pickup parked inside. It’s not as old as Sheila, but it’s old enough to be her cousin.

“What’s happening?” I whisper to him the second he has the girl in the back seat of the truck.

He nods once. “I think she’s lookin’ for Duke. I heard about a reporter that had gone missing a while back. She was posting online about some story she was following. Pretty sure this is the girl. I need to take her back to the clubhouse.”

My stomach knots. “Why?”

“If she’s been following Duke, she knows things she shouldn’t,” Red mutters, his jaw tight. “Where have you been stayin’ in town?”

“At the inn on Main, but I don’t want to go back there.

I want to stay with you.” The words slide out of my mouth before I’ve fully fleshed them out.

I know part of me wants to stay by his side because I’m not ready for this to be over yet.

The other part wants to stay close to Maci.

I don’t know who she is or what she’s done but it can’t be that bad.

She’s like five foot four inches, and she’s wearing a hot pink backpack with cartoon patches.

I’m pretty sure girls like that aren’t starting MC wars, and I feel some kind of responsibility toward her.

Maybe it’s that we’re the same age, or that she looks about as lost as I feel.

“You can’t, princess. I’ll drop you off at the inn and I’ll call you later. I promise.” He opens the truck door and helps me inside, my fingers brushing his before he closes the door and rounds to the driver’s side.

What the hell is happening?

An hour ago, we’d been lost in another dimension.

A space in time where real life didn’t exist. Where phones didn’t ring and people didn’t knock on doors.

Where violence disappears, and ghosts of past regrets vanish to make way for love.

Now, the veil has lifted, and reality is here, loud, uninvited, and apparently hell-bent on vengeance.