Jailbait (5 page)

“Stop it!” Olson continues to yell but keeps his distance. Good thing my life wasn’t in his hands.

“It’s okay,” I say, voice all breathy. “He didn’t hurt me.”
 

“That’s not how it looks,” Olson says. “Get away from her!”

Grayson whirls around. “Or what? What are you going to do?”

Olson takes a quick step back. I smooth out my dress and look Grayson up and down.
 
Where once stood a boy, stands a man. His dark blonde hair hangs around his face, messy, but so incredibly sexy. His features have darkened and matured, but have retained everything that drove me wild all those years ago. That strong, stubble-covered jaw, those thick lips, and his eyes, god, those eyes I could drown in.
 

He’s wearing a leather jacket but I can tell he’s built. With more pounds of muscle than he had when we were together, and I thought his build was impressive then. His gaze is set, concerned, but there is darkness there that wasn’t before.
 

Grayson bends over and picks up my mother’s ring from under the dumpster. He wipes it on his pants and extends his hand. I take in a shaky breath and grab the ring from him, fingers swiping over his.
 

“Thank you.”

“Of course, Pepper,” he says softly. “Are you sure you’re—”

“You know him?” Olson interrupts, watching me put the ring on my finger.
 

I stare into Grayson’s blue eyes, and the memories come rushing back so fast it leaves me dizzy. Sneaking him into my room. Hearing him tell me he loves me. Leaving for college, having my heart break into a million pieces and then never seeing him again. Not until tonight.
 

“No,” I say. “I don’t know him.”
 

Three security guards come running and demand to know what’s going on. They address Olson, and one rushes toward Grayson.

“He didn’t do anything,” I say quickly and find myself taking a step toward him. I move my gaze to the men on the ground. The Grinning Man is groaning and starting to come to. My purse and its contents are on the ground underneath him. I look back at Grayson. “He…he saved me.” The words come out of my mouth on their own accord, bringing goosebumps to my skin.
 

I don’t want to think about what would have happened if Grayson hadn’t shown up. How much would they have hurt me? I have the sick feeling there were no limits.
 

“Those two,” I say and extend my arm. “They tried to rob me.”
 

The security guards move in, apprehending the men on the ground and calling it into the police. The last thing I want to do is file a police report and risk this going public. It’s done and over with, and Grayson is here and saved me.
 

Wait a minute. Grayson. Here.
Grayson is here.
He’s been here. I was right when I thought the man in the black BMW was him. What the hell?

I turn to fire away my questions, but I’m not prepared for my heart to jump almost out of my chest when Grayson’s eyes meet mine. It’s been so long, yet I feel like that teenage girl all over again.

Grayson reaches forward, tucking a loose curl behind my ear. “You’re bleeding,” he says, wiping a bit of blood off my temple. He brings his hand back to show me. I blink and nod. “You should get that cleaned.” He keeps his eyes down, and his shoulders tense.

Olson finally grows a pair and comes over, taking my arm. “Oh, Pepper,” he says like he expects me to faint and fall in his lap. Face first. With my mouth open. I shake my arm from his grasp and shake my head.
 

“I’m fine.” I take in a deep breath and put on a smile. One of the security guards comes back to us, handing me my purse, and says the police are on the way. I’ll have to give a statement, of course. Olson fusses over me again, inspecting the scrape on my head like he’s a fucking doctor, telling me not to worry about a scar because his mother has “the best” plastic surgeon in the city.

 
Knowing I can’t drill Grayson with questions in front of the others, I turn to thank him for saving me. And I’m already longing to look into his eyes again, because the two minutes that I’ve looked elsewhere haven’t been pleasant. “Thank…” the word dies in my throat. Grayson is gone.
 

Across the street, a motorcycle fires up and takes off through the night.
 

Chapter Four

Grayson

Warm air hits my face and I twist the throttle, blasting my bike forward. I swerve around a taxi and gun it again, narrowly avoiding getting clipped by a semi-truck. I need to slow down. I don’t need unwanted attention.
 

That’s the whole reason I left, after all.
 

And my heart won’t stop fucking racing, and I can’t shake the feeling of Pepper’s smooth skin beneath my palm. Touching her was warmth and comfort, a full belly, and a good night’s sleep. Touching her was everything good.
 

Touching her was familiar, and it shouldn’t be.
 

And fuck, she knew I’ve been watching her. I should have stayed and explained, told her everything including the secret her father is keeping. I should have sat her down and made sure she was okay—mentally and physically. Her head hit the brick wall behind her pretty hard before I got there. I heard the sickening
thunk
that made my blood boil.
 

Hurting Pepper is like breaking a commandment. Do it and there will be consequences. Consequences that end in bloodshed and tears. Consequences that push me over the edge, going where I worked so damn hard to come back from. I don’t want to get arrested again. Though no matter how hard I try, I can’t control myself when it comes to Pepper Davenwood.
 

I don’t want to go back to prison, but I’ll break every law in the book if it means keeping her safe. She’s my personal brand of jailbait.
 

I let off the throttle and coast back down to ten over the speed limit. I blink and exhale, taking the first exit I see off the highway. I have no clue where it leads, but it doesn’t matter. I need to pull over and clear my head. It takes a few miles to find a place out of the way. I stop my bike and swing down the kickstand.

I take a few paces, breathing in the sweet smell of pine. I run my fingers through my messy wind-blown hair and let out a breath.
 

Calm the fuck down
.

I get out my phone to check the GPS and figure out where the hell I am. My finger hovers over the icon to bring up a Google search and stop. I have nothing to search. I didn’t get a good enough look to even begin to describe what I think I saw.
 

I crack my knuckles, pushing away the guilt for not getting there sooner, not watching Pepper’s every move, and imagine myself hitting those guys a little harder. Seeing them bleed. Knocking a few teeth to the ground.
 

“Stop,” I say aloud and shake my head. I’m not that guy anymore. I don’t
want
to be that guy anymore. I never wanted to in the first place. Another deep breath and my heart starts to slow. I’m worried about nothing. No one is looking for me. My debts are paid. I’m out, miles away.

It’s over.
 

And now I need to keep a clear head and focus on protecting Pepper.
 

Pepper.

I haven’t been that close to her in nearly ten years, and I never realized how much I missed her until she was right in front of me. For those few fleeting moments, my heart felt whole, which was weird and comforting at the same time.
 

Turns out, you can be homesick for a person after all.
 

I get back on my bike thinking of her, and how, despite it all, she looked flawless as always. Because that’s how she is. Everything about her is elegant and proper.
Pepper.
It’s not a name. It’s a fucking ingredient. Yet on her, it’s distinguished and I don’t feel worthy of speaking it.
 

I head back the way I came, debating if I should drive by the charity gala or not. The police are gone by now, I’m sure. I can’t be sure what Pepper would have done, though something inside me says she went back inside, refusing to let something like that ruin her evening.
 

An hour has passed since I left, and the gala seems to be thinning out by the time I ride by. I don’t spot Pepper or her pathetic date, not that I really expected to. So I swing by a diner for dinner, then head for home. Only I don’t take the right turn. I keep going, getting away from the city and before I know it, I’m driving down the rural road surrounded by Davenwood property. When I was a kid and first came to this place, I couldn’t understand how a person can own this much
 
earth. The grass around the road is always well maintained—of course—but the hundreds of acres of woods is left wild and untamed.
 

Pepper always loved it.

The glow of the mansion looms ahead. It’s impossible to get to via car without alerting security. Technically the road I’m on is private, but the Davenwoods are used to people driving by, curious to see what their house looks like. The mansion sits half a mile off this road, fenced and gated away from us common folk. Two lights illuminate tall stone pillars on either side of the iron gate, and ten years ago the thing was decked out in cameras and motion detectors. I rarely came in that way.
 

My fingers loosen on the throttle on their own accord, and I find myself looking at the mansion, unease growing deep inside my chest. A bug hits me square in the forehead and I bring my hand up to wipe it away. At that same moment, something large and dark steps onto the road, and I think it’s a deer about to make a mad dash to the other side and run right into me.
 

I yank my handlebars and hit the brake as hard as I can without spinning out. Then a light clicks on, and beams right in my line of vision, blinding me. I don’t see the loose gravel on the side of the road and the next thing I know, I’m horizontal to the pavement. I give my bike one last jerk to the soft grass on the side of the road. I’m falling, but am going slow enough that my bike won’t suffer too much.
 

Neither will I, not that I care. I’ll be all right. I always am.

“Grayson!”
 

Maybe I’m not all right. Maybe I died and went to heaven because it sounds like an angel calling my name. The engine cuts out and the tires stop spinning. Horse hooves echo in the now-still night and she calls for me again.
 

“Oh my god, Grayson. I-I didn’t mean to hurt you! Gray? Gray?” Pepper’s frantic voice fills the space around me.
 

“I’m fine. I went down easy,” I assure her and get out from under the bike and heft it up. She holds leather reins loosely in one hand and reaches for me with the other, stopping before her fingers touch my skin. Her eyes move up and down my body slowly, inspecting me for damage. She brings her hand back, and then reaches out again, awkwardly holding her arm in the air.
 

The horse—a big, black beast—flares its nostrils and eyes me apprehensively. The fact that it didn’t freak the fuck out over this ordeal tells me how well trained it is. Well trained and expensive. But Pepper always had a soft spot for her horses.
 

“I knew it was you. For the last month you’ve been following me. I thought I was going crazy, thinking I was seeing you. Then you show up tonight, and take off without so much as a hello, and here you are again. I heard a motorcycle in the distance and I thought I was crazy for assuming it was you, and even crazier for coming to the road to see who it was. But obviously I’m not crazy. You’re the crazy one, following me around like some creep. What the hell is going on?” She says everything quickly, temper rising and nerves falling away. She takes a step closer to the horse.
 

“We should go somewhere and talk,” I suggest. “Let me explain everything.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you,” she retorts and inches back. Through the dark, I can barely make out her features. The tension though…that I can feel. And she’s scared and pissed. And maybe turned on. No, that’s just me.
Fuck.
 

“We need to talk, Pepper, and the middle of the road isn’t safe.”
 

“Going somewhere with you isn’t safe either,” she spits out and looks at the stirrup. In just seconds, she can jump on her horse and take off through the woods where the bike can’t follow and I can’t keep up on foot. I could grab her arm, keep her from running. Though that’ll only serve to piss her off. I can’t command Pepper’s heart by controlling her body. And that’s what I want, even when I won’t admit it to myself.
 

Her heart
.

Besides, I’m not entirely sure Black Beauty won’t rear up and bust my head in, because he’s eyeing me like a guard dog. Pepper takes in an audible breath, and closes her eyes on her exhale.
 

“Come with me back to the stable,” she finally says. “We can talk there.”
 

The stable is behind the mansion, also equipped with surveillance. I don’t feel like dealing with Alcott tonight, though a face-to-face would be a good way to get him to come clean. “All right.”

“Do you remember how to get there?”
 

“It’s not that hard to find, Pepper,” I remind her.
 

“The back way in?”

The back way is a long, curved driveway that is surrounded by white fences and perfectly green pastures, leading to a barn big enough to house an entire herd of horses, living in luxury beyond what the average human lives in. “Yes.”
 

“I’ll meet you at the mailbox.”
 

“Just like old times,” I say and can’t help but smile.
 

Pepper holds my gaze for a few seconds, and I hate that there is fear in her eyes. She doesn’t need to be afraid of me. I will never hurt her. If only she knew the lengths I’d go to in order to keep her safe.