Dogfight (Alpha MC: The McKinnon Brothers Book 1) (5 page)

He grabbed her wrist, leaning toward her, too close.

“We’re on the highway. Don’t be an idiot.”

“I’m being the opposite. Let me out. I’m not taking the fall for your incompetence.” She didn’t breathe too deeply while his face was so close to hers.

“I liked you better when you didn’t talk so much.” He released her, but stepped on the gas. If she jumped out now, she’d probably be torn to shreds.

But she had to get out. If she showed up at Frankie’s there was no telling what he would do to her if he thought she had hacked into his personal computer. She could go back for the dogs another time, with back up, and guns.

“Listen,” she said, trying for reasonable. “Whatever Frankie’s paying you for the bike, I’ll double it. Just let me out at the next exit.”

“You can’t afford to double it.”

“My father is a banker, I can afford—”

“Enough with the lies, Casey.”

Her head snapped to him, her shock making her mouth fall open. He finally looked at her, his eyes deadly.

“Yeah, I found out who you really are. Which means it’s only a matter of time before Frankie does, too.” He focused on the road again. “You have to go to the farm. I doubt he knows which of us tampered with his computer, but if you don’t show up it’ll make you look guilty.”

Casey swallowed past the fear in her throat. How had he found out who she was? Was he actually a good hacker and it was she who tipped off Frankie? Hiding under a fake identity was her only means of defense. Now she had nothing.

She shook her head. Why did a bike builder look into her story? Her eyes slid toward him. “You’re not just building his bike, are you?”

“And you’re not in love with him.” That was answer enough for Casey.

She didn’t care what he was really there for. All she cared about was getting away from him and getting to her friend’s place in Maine. She needed to lay low for a while. Not showing up might make her look guilty, but facing Frankie when he could have information on her was not something she was willing to do. And who was to say Connor hadn’t already told him who she really was?

For nearly a half hour they drove in silence, the highway speeding beneath them, too fast for her to try anything. Casey gnawed on a nail, her stomach in knots. Every mile they drove brought her closer to Frankie and further from escape.

And then taillights lined the way ahead.

Traffic. Casey almost smiled.

Connor slowed the car until they were just creeping along. Casey made her move. She grabbed the door handle, pressed unlock, and yanked. Connor was fast. He had both arms around her, pinning her to him. She kicked her bare feet out the door, desperately trying to jump out.

He was too strong, inhumanly strong. She wasn’t going to break his grip, so she leaned forward as much as she could, and then slammed her head back. The impact didn’t break his hold on her, but he hit the brakes and the car behind them smacked into the trailer, sending both of them flying into the dashboard. Connor hit the wheel, his grip gone, and Casey bolted.

Barefoot and in a sundress, Casey ran over the hot pavement, across the three lanes of traffic and into the trees on the right side of the highway.

“Casey!” Connor’s yell came from the car, thank god.

She ran faster, dodging trees, jumping over roots, fear and adrenaline keeping her from feeling any of the branches whipping her face or snapping against her bare legs.

She didn’t stop until she broke through the woods and found herself on a residential side street. Only then did she take a moment to catch her breath and watch the woods behind her.

Nothing. Connor hadn’t followed her. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t get off at the next exit and come find her. He might be better off letting her escape; it made her look guilty and got him off the hook with Frankie. Unless Frankie got pissed that Connor let her get away.

Casey needed shoes, and new clothes. Her dress was shredded and her feet scraped and dirty.

She ran along several streets, looking for one that appeared empty. She found it, no car in the driveway, no lights, mail stuffed inside the mailbox. The house was older, the pool in the backyard half empty, the water green. She found a basement door, jimmied the lock, and snuck inside. No one was outside on this hot day to see her breaking in.

The place was stale. Whoever lived here hadn’t been around for a while. There was no telling how long it would take Connor to find her, so she searched for a bedroom, rifled through the dresser until she found a pair of men’s jeans and an old flannel shirt. She took a pair of scissors to the pants, making them shorts, cinched a belt around her hips, and pulled the flannel on over her bare chest, tying it at her waist. It was too hot to wear more than that.

There was a pile of old shoes and boots by the front door. She found a smaller pair of hiking boots, and pulled them on over some socks she’d found.

She took a moment to braid her long, dark hair. She was regretting leaving her stuff with Connor. He had her handheld, and she felt vulnerable without it. She needed to call Mariam. Ready as she could be, Casey opened the back door.

And walked right into Connor’s hard chest.

Chapter Thirteen

Casey turned and tried to run. Connor wrapped an arm around her, pressing her tight against him, and slapped a hand over her mouth. She kicked and fought to break free. But he was bigger and much stronger. Before anyone got suspicious, he dragged her inside and kicked the door shut.

She drove the heel of her foot into his knee.

Connor growled into her ear. “Knock it off, woman, or I’ll knock you out.”

She relaxed for a moment, but Casey Keene wasn’t going to give in easily. As he started to loosen his grip, she bit down hard on his hand, expecting him to drop her in pain. But his reaction was not what she expected.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he said.

He knew she felt his erection pressing against her ass because she froze. And then she thrashed harder. He laughed, walking her across the room.

Connor dropped her on the couch. She spun onto her back, ready to fight him. She kicked at him, swung her fists, bucked. He had a hard time getting his hands around her wrists, pinning them to her chest, and then wedging himself between her legs to keep his groin safe from her flying feet.

No one should be this much God damned trouble, he thought as she turned into a bucking bronco in her attempt to get away from him.

“Enough!” he growled, letting the part of him that he kept hidden from her frighten her into submission. Finally. He knew how he sounded. The growl was deep and guttural, inhuman.

She stared up at him; eyes wide, confused and just scared enough. But thankfully, she was fucking still.

He’d dealt with men twice her size and strength, and yet he had to take a second to catch his breath. It didn’t help that he was still hard. He would chalk that up to being turned on by biting and nothing to do with the woman lying beneath him.

He’d seen her naked before, but God damn if she didn’t look sexy in that flannel.

“Enough,” he said again, this time without the growl. His return to human fired her up again, but only so that she glared at him. Perhaps she thought she had imagined the animalistic sound he’d made.

“Let me go.” Her voice was low, her attempt at deadly.

Connor smiled. His cheek stung from where she’d head-butted him. He owed her for that.

“You know I won’t.” He listened to her heart race, could smell the desperation on her.

“He’s going to figure out I lied to him. You said it yourself. Let me go.”

“I don’t turn up with you in tow, Frankie’ll think I let you go. And believe me, he’ll still find you. But I don’t plan on taking a whooping from his Hulk on your behalf.”

“If I show up with you, he might think you hacked his computer. Which you did. I might tell him so.”

“Be my guest.” He knew she wouldn’t. Right now they would be arriving as Frankie’s guests, ignorant of his motives for deciding to bring her along. If she brought up the hack, he’d know it had been her. “Who knows,” he said. “Maybe you can convince Frankie you’re really there for him.”

She scowled. “How?”

“Same way you tried to convince him to bring you in the first place.” Whether it was to punish her for running away, for head butting him, a sadistic desire to see her reaction, or for some other twisted reason, Connor pressed himself between her legs. He was still hard.

He watched her eyes dilate, heard her heart skip several beats, felt her breath catch, all a moment before she dug her knees into his sides and attempted to shoved him away.

Connor chuckled as he stood, leaving her to scramble to her feet on her own. He grabbed her arm, the stain in her cheeks fading back to that delicious golden tan.

“If you run from me again, I’ll knock you out and put you in the trunk. Understood?”

She saluted him, her racing heart betraying her cool tone. “Aye, aye.”

He got a blissful hour of silence as they rejoined the traffic. At this rate, what would normally have been a three-hour drive would turn into six. He was hungry, but he didn’t plan on stopping until they reached the farm. Once there he could hand off his charge and forget her. She was Frankie’s problem, and keeping her cover was hers.

They were passing through Worcester, the traffic finally letting up a bit, when she ended her silent treatment.

“It was your brother, wasn’t it?”

He glanced at her.

“Aidan McKinnon, your club’s tech guy. I looked you up; I just didn’t put it together until now. He was the one who found out who I am, not you.”

Connor returned his attention to the road. He wondered what else she had found out, but wasn’t going to ask. People tended to do more talking if you kept quiet and let them.

She went on, her voice cool and calm, her heart a little panicked. “I’m guessing your harmless MC is a cover for something else.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because, your brother did a search on me, looked into who I really am. If you were just building Frankie a bike, you wouldn’t have needed intel on me.”

Smart girl, he thought, but said nothing.

For a moment she stewed in her own thoughts, maybe waiting for him to prompt her. The woman had little patience.

“You could be a rival of Frankie’s. Some guy who runs his own dogfighting ring looking at the competition, maybe planning to sabotage it.”

“I look like a dogfighter?” He allowed himself a smile, wondering if she knew how ironic that was.

“No.” She had pulled a foot onto the seat and had an arm around her shin. She rested her cheek on her knee and stared at him. “You look like a biker, I guess. You’ve got the tattoos and that dangerous something about you.”

Good. She realized he was dangerous, just didn’t know why.

“I bet your brother didn’t find much, though, did he?”

He answered with silence. She smirked.

“Obviously I didn’t do a good enough job since your brother was able to connect Jenny Cartwright to Casey Keene. I wonder how he did it.” She sat in silence a moment, pondering the genius that was Aidan McKinnon. Even Connor was in awe of his younger brother.

“I know a lot about you, though,” she said with a satisfactory lilt in her voice. “Thirty-six years old. Parents, Jackie and Donald, live in Alaska. Your club’s leaders are all brothers, three of an original seven. Most of your club is related. You’ve never married. You don’t have any social media accounts. You’ve never left the East Coast. And you’ve never been sick, never gone to the hospital, not even as a child.” She glanced at him as she revealed this last bit, as if she didn’t quite believe her own intel. Who never got sick?

He didn’t. None of his family did. Ever.

He found it odd, and more than uncomfortable that she had been able to find out as much as she had. He would have to attribute it to her hacker skills and not some fault of a club member letting information on his family get on the Internet. He would let Aidan know, though. He could get rid of it.

She sniffed and pushed strands of loose hair out of her face.

“I don’t know why you’re here, but I do think the bike is just a cover.” She went back to staring out the window in silence.

Connor sent up a small prayer of thanks, and then he heard the screeching and felt the drag in the trailer behind them.

“Ah, fuck.”

Chapter Fourteen

Casey felt a moment’s joy as they pulled over to the side of the highway, but it vanished when Connor grabbed her wrist, squeezing hard enough that she wanted to cry out, and glared at her, his face way too close to hers.

“You run, you finish this ride in the trunk.”

She rolled her eyes, going for cool and uncaring, but inside snakes twisted in her belly. As Connor climbed out of the car, going around to the trailer, Casey realized she was afraid of him. But why? Because he was stronger than her?  A lot of people were. Because he was bigger? Silent? Mysterious?