Page 13 of The Biker’s Second Chance (Chrome Creed MC #2)

OPENING THE DOOR

SPIKE

S ometimes I hate how good the club is at getting information on our enemies.

I sit at my desk in my room just staring at the screen on my laptop. Files upon files of information are waiting for me to go through courtesy of Rumble and Virus.

My stomach turns as I read up on one woman. There’s an image of her. She’s smiling and sitting on the lap of an older man.

Even though she’s smiling in the picture, I can see in her eyes that she doesn’t want to be there.

She looks as if she was once very pretty, but now there are two scars going down her face.

One from the corner of her mouth to her ear, and the other on the opposite side going from the bottom of her eye to the tip of her nose.

The scars pull her facial features down, making them look distorted. The forced smile doesn’t help either.

The man sitting down has his arms around her, but I don’t miss how tightly he’s holding her. Even in the picture, I can see it.

According to the note Rumble attached to the image, this is one of the many successful placements Xavier has facilitated.

This woman is probably living a horrific life. Unfortunately, there’s nothing I can do about it now.

I shove my seat away from the desk.

There’s nothing I can do about any of it. All of this seems too fucking big. Too much pressure.

Why the hell should I be concerned about what some other group is doing? It’s not affecting me.

Or at least it wasn’t until Jayne got involved.

Jayne.

I groan at her sudden intrusion on my thoughts.

I’m feeling so much right now when it comes to her.

She’s distracting in the worst way, and she’s not even in the same room as me.

The logical part of me knows I need to sort out my feelings for her, but I’m avoiding it by putting her in a different room.

As if a hallway is going to be enough to forget what happened at the hotel.

I was so close to taking her. I wanted to. Hell, I still want to.

Leaning back in my chair, I close my eyes and take a few deep breaths. I need to deal with all that later. Right now, I need to focus.

A sudden quick knock at my door jerks me out of my internal conflict.

“Yeah,” I answer before finding out who it is.

My heart drops when Jayne walks in and closes the door behind her. So much for dealing with this later.

“What do you want?” I question before she has a chance to say anything.

“Stop the shit, Spike.” She glares at me and crosses her arms over her chest.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You walked into my room. I think I have the right to know what you want.”

“I want to talk about what happened at the hotel.”

God, not now.

“Jayne, get out. I have nothing to say to you.”

“Bullshit. It’s obvious you have a lot to say. You had plenty to say when I was squirming underneath you in the bed. Why can’t you talk to me now?”

“I was just trying to get you to settle down. It’s the only way I know for sure that works.” I shrug, acting as if what I’m saying isn’t a complete lie.

“You and I both know that’s not true.” She drops her hands and softens her voice. “Spike, I know you’re mad. I’m mad too. But that isn’t going to make what is going on between us just vanish. We need to talk about this.”

“What don’t you understand? There was a time to talk. A time to get to the bottom of all this, but you chose a different route. You left, remember?”

She flinches away as if the words actually hurt her.

“It wasn’t that cut and dry, and you know it.” Her voice trembles.

“It was for me. I don’t want to talk about anything. You need to leave.”

“I’m not going anywhere.” She lifts her chin in defiance.

“That’s a first.” I retort, clenching my jaw, trying my hardest to keep calm.

“Spike, I—” her words are cut off by a ringing coming from her pocket. Words can’t describe how grateful I am that her phone is going off right now.

Jayne pulls her phone out and looks down at the screen. I see the confusion on her face as she examines the number before she answers it.

“Hello?”

I walk closer to her, ready to usher her out of my room, but I’m stopped dead in my tracks when I see all the color drain from her face.

“Who is that?” I question.

Jayne isn’t talking to me, she’s focused on the call.

“You don’t have to do that. She didn’t do anything. Just leave her alone.” That tremble in Jayne’s voice gets more pronounced, and I can see tears starting to gather in her eyes.

“Who the fuck is that?” I ask again, louder this time.

Someone is making my girl cry. I won’t fucking stand for it.

“She doesn’t want to be there. Just let her go. I won’t contact her. Just let her go... I don’t know where the other girls are. I don’t know anything.” Jayne’s voice is taking on a hysterical edge, and I’m through waiting for her to give me the answers I need.

Reaching forward, I snatch the phone from her hand and quickly put it on speaker.

“... She would’ve had an easy life. Now I’m going to have to cut her legs off so she knows better than to ever think about leaving. You think she’ll survive, Jayne? Maybe I should come get you and take one of your legs so little miss Tessa knows that I’m fair.”

Did this fucker just threaten to cut one of Jayne’s legs off? Fuck no.

“I’d like to see you fucking try.” I growl down at the phone, and there’s a silence.

“Ah, we have a new player? Who’s this?”

“You don’t need to worry about who I am. What you need to know is Jayne and her people are all protected by Chrome Creed. We don’t take very well to others threatening people we are protecting.”

“Chrome Creed? What the hell is that?” Xavier chuckles as if he’s really getting a kick out of this.

“Keep fucking with Jayne and I promise you’ll find out. You and all your little Burning Soul bastards.”

There’s another silence, but this time when Xavier speaks again he’s not laughing.

“Boy, I don’t know who you are, but I promise you don’t want to get involved in my business.

That woman over there screwed with my shipment.

That cost me a lot of money. I’m going to get what’s mine, one way or another.

Even if I have to take it from her body part by body part.

Shall I add this Chrome Creed onto the list of people who owe me? ”

“You crazy fuck...”

“I can’t deny that, but I like to think it adds character.” Xavier answers quickly.

I shake my head and Jayne grabs hold of my forearm. She probably can sense how close I am to losing it.

“I’m going to give you one last warning. You leave Jayne and those other girls alone, or you’re going to have a much bigger problem on your hands than losing a bit of money.”

Xavier sighs. “Pity. And here I thought you’d be smarter than her and see reason. So be it. I guess I’ll be seeing you too.”

With that, he hangs up the phone and I focus my eyes on Jayne, who is still pale and shaking.

“Oh, god. What did we do?” she croaks before she puts her hands on her face and begins to sob.

It’s almost instinctual. I grab her and pull her into my chest. I hold her tightly and kiss the top of her head.

“We’re going to do what we need to do. I’ve got you.”

As the words come out, I know I’ve never been more confident about anything in my life. I’ve got her no matter what craziness is coming our way.