Insatiable - Devil's Stepbrothers MC (8 page)

He watched her climb off of him like she was a cowgirl and he realized they’d not used a condom. There wasn’t a time in his life that he’d had sex without one. Just watching her get off him and feeling the warm juices from both of their bodies mixing was sexier than he realized it would be. She strolled to the bathroom to get cloths to clean them up, and he stood up to walk in the bathroom with her.

She looked happy and flushed prettily when he met her in there.

“This is for you,” she said handing him a warm towel.

They both looked at each other as they cleaned off, but the problems that had led them to this cheap hotel were now filling the silence in the room. The sex had eased their bodies, but if the look on her face was any indication of her thoughts then both of their minds seemed to be running everywhere.

He set his cloth down and so did she before they returned to the bed. Laying down, he patted the bed like she always did when she wanted him to snuggle with her.

She was only still for a few minutes before she sighed deeply. “I guess we should talk about what happened.”

“Okay.” He didn’t know what had happened, but since she’d come to him ready for release, she couldn’t know the reason that had brought him to town.

“I think my father is going to try to kill you, and it’s my fault.” Her eyes watered, and she tried to hold them back. He knew she wasn’t a crier, so he knew this was big for her.

“Just tell me what happened.” His mind whirled trying to figure all this out, and he was thinking of plans but without all the information it was useless.

“I went to dinner with my family like I told you I do every month, but before I could even get settled I was called to my father’s office. Lucca and my uncle were there but there were also a lot of other men there. Some I knew only by sight, and others I didn’t know at all. My family knows that I don’t like the crime portion of their activities, so I usually am nowhere around meetings and things like this, but tonight was different.”

Aiden wished he’d brought some alcohol along with him or that this was a better establishment that served drinks because he could see that this story was hard on Lorna and what he’d found was that there were times when a good, hard drink could help. Since he didn’t have that, he went for rubbing her back to soothe and comfort her.

“Keep going. I’m right here.” He didn’t know what else to say, but he wanted to get to the bottom of her text and why they were here tonight.

“It was like I was a criminal. I was seated in the middle of the room and then all these accusations came. I know it’s because my father found out I was entertaining a man in my house.” She looked over at him, and he was glad to see her eyes had cleared up. There was more anger in them then sadness. “It was hard moving out because my Papa likes to have control of everyone and everything around him. Some of it is my fault because I take the money and the comfort that comes with the money, but that money has strings.”

“You’ve grown up that way. No one blames you for that.”

“But now he’s trying to kill you. He said you were using me to get to Lucca and had been sent here to kill my favorite cousin. I know he likes to keep everyone in line, and he’s not above using deception to do it, but that’s just going a bit too far.” She glanced over, and he could barely meet her eyes. “Isn’t that crazy?”

“I’m sure it seems crazy.” Aiden had come to the place where the rubber meets the road, and he had to make a choice. Like he made a choice to keep being with Lorna even though he’d come here to kill, who he now knew, was her cousin, he was going to have to figure out if he tells her and they work through this or he does his job and leaves.

He untangled himself from her arms and sat up on the side of the bed.

“Lorna, I have to tell you something, and you’re not going to like it.”

The gasp he heard behind him was awful to hear and made him feel like the devil his foster families had told him he was. There was a time when it felt good to be bad. So many people had done him wrong from the moment he’d taken his first breath and doing dirty things made him feel like he was lashing out at a world that had forgotten him or lashed out at him depending on what it wanted to do that day. Not today though. The way he’d behaved and left out pieces of his story was horrible because he’d gotten to know one of the kindest people he’d ever come into contact with, and he was going to shit on her the way life had a way of shitting on him. The only things was he deserved it, and she didn’t.

“Please don’t tell me my father was right. There are so many things he’s been wrong about, and I’ve felt justified in doing all the things I did this evening because I believed I was right.”

He didn’t even want to look at her because he knew there would be disappointment in her eyes. The fact that he didn’t say anything should have told her the truth that she didn’t want to be true, but knowing her as he did she knew, she would want to hear it from his mouth. She moved off the bed and came around to sit next to him.

“My name is Aiden Barnes, and I’m with a mercenary biker group from Idaho called the Devil’s Stepbrothers. I’ve never really told anyone my whole story because I’m a nobody from nowhere, and any story I make up is better than the truth. That’s what I’ve always thought anyway. I shared some of my history with you because you seemed to recognize the desire to be someone else, but I’m sharing my truth with you now because you saved my life.”

“You were really here to kill Lucca?” She wanted to hear the words, and he couldn’t blame her. She’d given up a lot in the last few hours, and she deserved to hear it all.

“Yes. I knew you had some information about him and you were the way to get to him, but I didn’t know you were related. I thought you were an ex-girlfriend or something, and I had no idea you were the big boss’s daughter.”

“So you did use me to get to Lucca?” Her voice sounded so small, and for once in his life, he was ashamed about what he had been planning to do, but this was his job. “How many other people have you killed? How many other lives have you destroyed? When you take someone away like that, it’s not that person you punish but the people left behind wondering what happened. Those people put up signs and look for clues to find the loved ones you so easily discard.”

He hadn’t really thought about the other people who were affected. Aiden didn’t have any family or anyone who’d care if he never returned from any mission, so it was difficult to see her point of view, but he thought about what happened tonight. What if something would have happened to Lorna, and he didn’t know about it? He’d have spent a lot of time, money, and energy attempting to retrace the steps she took and knowing the people who she’d been with it would have been for nothing. They didn’t leave traces unless they wanted to, and if he were going to kill his own daughter in his own home, Aiden would bet there would be nothing of her left. That thought chilled him.

“I don’t know what to say about the families of the people I was hired to kill. I’ve never thought about them until right now, but to answer your question. Yes I was using you to get to Lucca… at first. The rest of the time I was trying to figure out what I was going to do to keep you. That’s not to say that I wasn’t going to do my job. I’m good at it, Lorna. It’s the only thing I’ve ever been really good at.” He took a moment to look over at her, and he could see her confusion. He’d gotten her into something that he didn’t know if she’d ever make it out of. For the first time in his life, he was worried about another person’s safety.

She stood up, put her clothes on and then paced around the room cataloging what had been going on in her life. “I’ve betrayed my family for a criminal. The one thing I didn’t want anyone to be in my life was a person who could use violence for their gain. I’ve grown up around it, and I’ve done my best to keep it out of my life, but the farther I run, the closer it gets. A liar and a thief and I brought him home and tried to bring him into my family.”

He didn’t know what to say to her or do for her. His mind was blown from having someone go out on a limb for him. The boy no one wanted and the man no one thought about. He was someone who was sent to do the tough jobs, the almost suicide jobs, because he had no family and no real place to call home. He had an apartment that had a reasonable amount of stuff in it, but there was no one to call if something happened to him and no one who would claim his body if he died. He was nobody, and that’s what made him good at what he did.

“My father was right. I was going to bring them down, and I am naïve. I thought you cared about me like I did for you, but I was wrong.” Lorna slid down the wall and sat on the floor. He knew she felt alone since she’d gone against her family and was now stuck with the criminal who was going to betray her with her family. He knew how it felt because that’s the only feeling he’d ever had until a week or so ago when he hooked up with Lorna.

“I didn’t mean for it to get this far. I did plan to use you for information and after I saw your body in the pictures I meant to have sex with you as well, but I didn’t plan to stay around this long. Honestly I didn’t think you’d let me stay around this long. I’ve enjoyed being with you even as I planned to take away your cousin.”

“I have to fix this. I’m going to go see my father and tell him I’m sorry.” She stood up and walked toward the door. He caught her just before she walked out and spun her to face him. Lorna tore her arm out of his hand with her eyes full of contempt and disgust.

“I know you’re upset…” he said trying to explain why he stopped her.

“Of course you know why I’m upset. You’re the reason. You and all of the people like you who don’t care to be decent human beings. You take what you want and throw everything else away. I texted you because I thought you were going to be killed in some senseless way just for fucking Giovanni’s daughter, but you’re more like my father than I ever imagined.” She could barely get all of what she wanted to say because she was hyperventilating. He backed away from her with his hands up. She already felt violated; there was no reason for her to feel trapped as well. Aiden got the feeling that was how she spent most of her life, and she wasn’t happy about it.

“I just wanted to remind you of a few things before you go barreling out into the night.”

She looked skeptical, and he couldn’t fault her for that. The trust she thought she had with him was damaged, but if she didn’t listen to him. she may be in a worse position than even she thought. He could tell she was going over the options in her mind and the exact moment she decided it may be to her advantage to see what the criminal could bring to the table.

“I’m giving you ten minutes. This better be good.” She closed the door and sat at the circle table while she looked at her nails. She’d never looked more like the princess he’d heard about until right then. He tried to get his words together so he would know what they were up against. “The clock is ticking, Aiden. Spit it out or let me go.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

Lorna had been duped again. How had this happened? She knew she’d been taken in by his good looks, but that wasn’t the reason she’d kept him around. They were so much alike, and for that reason alone, she knew she should have fucked him and sent him away like she did with all of her other play toys. She knew that she told people she was anyone other than herself because she knew she’d be judged by her father’s actions, so she made herself into whoever she wanted to for that day. As soon as he opened his mouth, she’d recognized the trait she’d picked up long ago and wanted to know more about the man who was so much like her. What she didn’t think about was what he was hiding. He could have been anything, and she’d brought him to her home. Maybe she didn’t need to live alone since that decision could have cost her life.

Aiden paced the room looking like he was searching for words, and her anger grew. She wasn’t always happy that she had the family she did, but they were hers, and they loved her. Lorna wasn’t sure about the conditions that were placed on her. Tonight, she’d embarrassed her father when she knocked him down, and she’d saved someone her father wanted killed. Her father was right. He’d killed people for less than either of the things she’d done, and that crossed her mind as soon as she opened that door.

“Your father is a very cutthroat boss. I don’t know what that means for you and your relationship with him, but I think we need to figure out how we can make all this work.”

“We? This is your mess.” She felt the need to remind him.

“That you’ve hooked your name with by saving me. I don’t think your father is going to take this lightly.”

She hated that Aiden was probably right. “So what do you think
we
should do?”

“We need to find a way to satisfy my boss and your father at the same time. If we can do that, then we can both be free. From this situation and if you want… from each other.”

She wasn’t sure she wanted to work anything out with this man. He’d already broken her trust and her heart. What else could he do? This didn’t seem very fixable, but she wanted to know what exactly he had in mind. “If we work together, you’re going to have to be completely honest with me. Full disclosure. Can you do that?”

“Yes, I can.” He looked like he was earnest, but that could just be his award winning acting coming into play. She couldn’t believe she fell for every line he’d handed her. She thought he was some poor boy from Idaho, but really that could all be a line too.

“So what’s the first thing that must be done?” She wondered if he had all that worked out because it seemed like an impossible task.

“We need to find out who is trying to get rid of your cousin and what issue are they having. Maybe it’s something we can fix ourselves, and there would be no need for bloodshed,” he said sounding hopeful.

“You do know these men are criminals and like to kill. How do you know it wasn’t something as simple as you stepped on my turf, and I’m going to make an example out of you?”

He sat down on the other chair across from her and looked like he was thinking of this question and wanted to answer it honestly.

“I don’t know that, but I want to try to find out if we can start there. Sometimes things are not what seem. We won’t know what’s going on until we try.” He looked like that little piece of plan was going to work, but at this point they didn’t have much else. “Do you think we can work together?”

“The way you make it sound, I don’t have much of a choice.” She hated that her voice got almost whiny when she didn’t get her way, but this wasn’t just a little issue; this is one what would cause her store to close down and her life to change.

When his phone rang, she saw him look down at the caller ID, and his eyes get wide for a second.

“Put it on speaker,” she said because she didn’t want to be left out of anything. He pressed the answer button and didn’t say anything, but the voice that came through the line left her no doubt on who was on the other end of the line.

“Barnes!” It wasn’t a question; it was a demand. Lucca had somehow found Aiden’s number and had something to say. “We have a large organization, so we know where you are, and I know that you have my cousin. You both need to leave before reinforcements show up and your lives are terminated. I don’t know if what everyone is saying is true, but you better fix this and nothing better happen to my cousin or I’ll kill you myself.” The call was disconnected, and they looked at each other for a few seconds before they jumped up to leave. He had to throw on his clothes and they both went to the door.

“Stay back. If someone is going to get killed, it’s going to be me.” He said as he jumped in front of her on their way out the door.

“Where are we going?” She asked as they closed the door and went for the steps.

“I’m not sure where we are going, but we need to make this right. I guess we take the motorcycle and try to get away from this area, but don’t worry; we’ll work this out, and you’ll be back at your boutique before you know it.”

She couldn’t help but be skeptical, but when he reached for her hand she knew that he would try his best. He revved up his bike, and she hopped on behind him. The lights of a half a dozen cars could be seen in the distance, so Aiden left his lights out as he drove in the opposite direction.

“God bless us,” she said as a prayer. Her life had never been peaceful, but it looked like she’d made a turn to hell.