Romance: Sports Romance: ON SIDE (Secret Baby Pregnancy Football Romance) (Contemporary New Adult Fiction) (10 page)

Chapter Seven

ELIAS

Staring down at her, on the bed, I had to hold myself in check. She was beautiful. Beyond beautiful, she was fucking gorgeous. Her dark eyes were the color of the night sky. Set against such pale skin and with her jet black hair, she looked like a doll. Even with the purple highlights I hadn't noticed last night thanks to the darkness in the bar, she could still pass for a porcelain doll with her fair skin and dark features.

I pulled my eyes from her and sat down, next to her on the bed. We were close to one another, nearly touching, but she made sure to keep her distance.

“So you're asking me to come along with you, to find this man?” she asked me, staring down at her hands.

“No,” I responded. “Not at all. It's too dangerous for you – ”

“Stop that, Elias. You said yourself, I'm different.”

“You're also Deacon's niece and I can't let anything happen to you.”

“Then why are you here? Why are we even discussing this if you intended to go alone all along?”

“Because I still need your help, Ava. And that means answering some questions that might be hard for you to answer, but it very well could lead us to our man.”

She sighed. “I'll answer whatever questions I can,” she said. “But I'm not going to sit back and let you do this alone.”

I gave her a sideways glance. She was little but also built. Ava was no stranger to the gym and there was more muscle on her body than fat. She wasn't big or bulky and underneath her regular clothing, you probably couldn't tell what a powerhouse she was. But with such skimpy attire, it was hard to miss. I had no doubt she could hold her own in a fight, but could she stand up against the cartels? I knew that going in, it was likely a one-way mission. It's why I told Deacon to not make me the next leader of the gang – they needed someone who wasn't going to go off and get himself killed. But I couldn't tell him that last bit or he'd make sure to never leave my side, putting him at risk as well. It was my little secret and for now, I just kept telling him I wasn't ready.

I hadn't expected him to make the announcement last night, and part of me wondered if seeing Ava caused him to hurry up and make that decision.

I cared about the club, I did. They were my family, my friends. My entire world. But there was nothing that would hold me back from seeking the revenge I deserved.

Except now, there was Ava.

“You know it's likely a one-way mission, right?” I asked her.

“You don't plan on coming out alive?” she asked.

“Not really. If I do, great. But it's not the plan. My only goal is to kill the man who killed my parents, rip his heart out while it's still beating and whatever happens after that – well, I have nothing left to live for anyway.”

Ava's eyes softened, and for a moment, I thought she might reach out and touch me. But she kept her distance. Smart move considering we were both sitting side by side on the bed together.

“You have Deacon, the other guys – ”

“Yes, but that's not enough to keep me alive, Ava. Not if it means letting that monster live.”

There was a moment of silence, where she just stared at me as if she was trying so hard to talk some sense into me. But there was nothing she could say. I knew she understood.

“Well, I'm not letting you do this alone,” she said.

“But Deacon?” I asked. “You have an uncle who cares about you – ”

“An uncle who didn't even bother to show up to my parent's funeral to comfort me? Who didn't come find me after it was all over? Who made me come find him? Nah, I ain't got him. I'm alone, just like you.”

I didn't agree with her, but I also knew that look in her eye. I'd seen it too many times in others. It was the look of determination, the look that said there was no holding her back.

“Listen, if you don't let me come along, I'll just find him on my own – ” she said.

I knew she would too.

“It's why I came to see Deacon,” she continued softly. “Partially to say goodbye, but also to get some information. I knew it involved him, I just knew it. And now that I have some leads, I'll keep looking, even if it means I do it alone.”

“You aren't alone, Ava,” I said, closing my eyes as I spoke. I couldn't look at the face of Deacon's niece as I said the next part because I knew her life would be in danger. “We can work together to find this guy. And when we do, I'll do whatever I can to make sure you make it out alive.”

“Likewise, Elias,” she said. “Don't discount my abilities just yet. Don't make the mistake of underestimating me.”

Chapter Eight

AVA

We left bright and early the next morning. Elias had to sneak away and not let Deacon see him slip out. It was still dark outside when his bike pulled up to the hotel. I handed in my hotel key and carried everything I had in a backpack. The old man working the counter barely looked up as I checked out, still half asleep in his chair, pretending to watch the television in the corner that had gone off the air hours before.

“Thanks for staying with us,” he muttered, wiping the drool from his chin and dozing back off.

Yeah, it was that early.

“You sure you're up for this?” Elias asked me as I walked over to him leaning against his bike. In the dim light of the streetlights, his eyes shone like emeralds. I was transfixed for a moment until he reached out and touched my arm. “Earth to Ava – ”

“Yes, I'm up for this or I wouldn't be here,” I growled, adjusting the bag on my back.

Elias whistled. “Not much of a morning person, are you?”

I scowled at him. This had nothing to do with the time of day. The fact that he didn't get it said a lot about his expectations of me.

“You sure you're up for it?” I asked, hoping he heard the sarcasm dripping from my tongue.

“Baby, I was born ready.”

I smacked him hard on the cheek, hard enough that he reached up and stroked the spot.

“Listen, don't call me baby. Got it, sugar?”

“Got it,” he said, his smile fading.

“Good.” Together we climbed on his bike.

“Hold on tight,” he said to me as he revved up the engine.

That meant I had to wrap my arms around his body, which I initially resisted. But I knew I had little choice if I didn't want to fall off the back of his bike. It felt weird to hold onto him, my hands at the front of his body, feeling the muscles in his abs and chest and pressing my body against his as we took off down the highway.

Elias told me that he'd talked to some guys who'd recently brought some drugs from some Hispanic guys, said that with their tats, they looked to be cartel members. Whether they were or not, we wouldn't know until we got there, but it was the only lead we had. Oh yeah, the guy at the bar also said something about a tattoo that sounded a lot like the one our guy had.

When I asked Elias how he managed to get this information, he wouldn't tell me. Just said he had his ways to get people to talk. I didn't doubt him, but I did worry the information may be false. If you tortured someone for info, which I fear Elias may have done, you can't be sure it's the truth. Oftentimes they'll tell you anything you want to hear in order to make it stop.

But there we were, on our way to check out the lead. It might lead nowhere, for all we knew. But it was the best we had to go on. Elias seemed confident it might be what we needed. He'd also taken down all the information about my parent's death. All the details from where they found them to the state of their bodies when I ID'ed them.

Not that I officially ID'ed them, only their items. There wasn't much less of their bodies after the train finished with them. Which made me think – perhaps they were tortured and brutalized, much like Elias' parents had been. The train was merely a way to cover up all that was done to them. Good plan, but one that made me sick to my stomach to even think about.

Elias pulled up to an old diner outside of town, about half an hour away.

“What the hell are we doing?” I asked, pulling my helmet off just so I could yell at him. “You want to eat at a time like this?”

“We also need to talk, Ava. We need a plan.”

“I thought we had a plan,” I said.

“Not really,” he said, laughing at me. “And yes, I need some pancakes. If this is my last day on earth, I want to eat some fucking pancakes. You have a problem with that?”

“And what if I do?” I asked arms across my chest.

I climbed off the bike – I had to when he did, but I stayed beside it and didn't move toward the front door of the diner. I was bound and determined to stand my ground. I was in a hurry to get this done, my stomach was in knots, and he wanted pancakes?

“Then unless you can hotwire my bike and learn how to ride it yourself, I guess you'll just have to wait for me outside,” he said, winking as he walked toward the door.

Elias held the door open and motioned for me to follow. When I didn't, he shrugged and went inside all by himself. I watched him through the windows as he walked over to a table and sat down, pulling out a menu.

He was really going to stop for breakfast on his way to tracking down the leader of a violent drug cartel. The waitress walked over to him, and he looked back out at me with a smile.

Damn him, I thought. My stomach growled, but I feared eating might make me sick to my stomach due to all the stress built up inside of me.

But hell, if he was going to sit down and enjoy a nice meal before we walked into almost certain death, I guess I should too. As I stepped inside the restaurant, he laughed and slipped a menu to the empty seat across from him as if he knew I'd be coming in along.

“I don't get you, Elias,” I said at last. “I don't get you at all.”

“Good,” he said, staring at the menu instead of looking at me. “Because I like remaining a mystery.”

I fought back a smile as I watched him mull over his menu choices, oblivious to me staring at him. Or maybe he could tell I was looking at him, I didn't know. Either way, I had to admit he was growing on me a bit.

“What can I get for you, miss?” the waitress named Sue asked me with a polite smile.

“Pancakes,” I said with a chuckle. “I guess we're going to be having fucking pancakes.”

Chapter Nine

ELIAS

I was impressed. Ava may have been a petite little thing, but the girl could hold her own in a pancake eating competition.

“For someone who fought so hard to not eat breakfast, you sure seem to be enjoying yourself,” I said with a wink.

She flipped me off, cramming a bite of pancakes into her mouth. Feisty. I liked it. But while she seemed hardcore in spirit, I had no idea how she'd actually hold up in a fight. Her lean muscle didn't come from sitting at a desk job all day. She obviously worked out. But honestly, I knew so little about her other than the little I now knew about her parent's death and that unnerved me a bit. If we were going to be fighting side-by-side, I needed to feel confident that this woman could hold her own.

“So what's the plan?” Ava asked me, wiping syrup from her chin, but missing a spot. I reached out with a napkin to wipe it off myself and she slapped my hand away. “How are we going to do this?”

Laughing, I said, “Plan? What plan?”

She gave me a look that would have curdled milk, and even though I had no idea what her background entailed, that look said enough. She'd kill me if it served her purposes. Or if I continued to annoy her too much.

“Sorry,” I said with a shrug. “But it's the truth. I don't really have a firm plan in place, I figured we'd see what happened and play it by ear. I heard that El Monstruo's cartel hung out a few towns over, figured we'd go there and see what we might find out. Maybe we'd get really lucky and run into the man in a dark alley somewhere.”

Ava sighed, rolling her eyes, but not saying anything.

“What? Do you have a better plan?” I asked.

“So we just head over to this town, hang out, and hope something good happens? That's it?”

“And kill the bastard when we see him, of course,” I said, taking a sip of my coffee which tasted like it had been burned. “But I thought that was obvious.”

Ava looked down at the remnants of her breakfast. I could see her trying hard to scowl at me, but there was a hint of a smile on that face of hers. She tried to cover it up, but it was there, for a split second, before she took a sip of coffee and grimaced.

“This stuff tastes like ass,” she said softly.

And just like that, her smile was gone. But something inside of me wanted to see it again. There was so much darkness in her eyes, so much anger, but I could tell that underneath it all, she wanted to be happy. I knew the feeling.

“I think I've tasted ass better than this,” I said with a smile, hoping to coax a positive reaction out of her.

And it worked. A half smile on her lips, she chuckled slightly before reaching for the bill. I tried to grab it from her hands, but she fought me off.

“No, stop treating me like a girl,” she said, giving me that dark look again. “I pay for this. You can always buy us dinner later because God knows we're going to be spending a lot of time together thanks to your half-assed plan.”

I had to admit, that didn't sound so bad to me. It had been a long time since I'd spent time with a woman who challenged me the way Ava did. And yes, I was curious to see how much of her act was for real. Was she really this tough and hard to get? Or was this simply all for show, a persona designed to protect her from the world.

Only time would tell, and from the sounds of it, we were going to be spending a hell of a lot of time together over the next few days, so I might have time to get answers to my questions.

***

“Where are we?” Ava asked the next time we stopped, which happened to be a couple of hours later. “Why are we stopping here?”

We were parked outside an old building that was mostly boarded up. It looked like just your run-of-the-mill abandoned warehouse. Nothing special about it. It sat in the middle of nowhere on a lone, dusty road surrounded by trees.

Ava climbed off the bike, removing her helmet and shaking her dark, purple-streaked hair free, it fell around her pale face, framing it nicely. Yes, I was staring. No, I couldn't help myself.

“We're here to practice,” I said as I removed my helmet. “I need to see what you're capable of before we look for this guy. I can't afford to run with somebody who can't take care of herself.”

She raised an eyebrow at me, hands on her hips and her attitude clearly showing. “Practice? See what I'm capable of? What the hell – ”

And without even thinking about it, I closed the distance between us and shut her up with one, quick movement. Our lips pressed together, I kissed her, silencing her. She didn't fight back – not at first, anyway. Not like I expected her to. Her hands were on my chest as if she wanted to push me off her, but instead of pushing me away, she rested them there, even digging her nails into my skin.

“And here I thought you'd slap me,” I said after I'd broken the kiss.

“You surprised me,” she said, not meeting my gaze. She looked down, her face clearly flushed. “I didn't have time to react. But if you'd like me to, I can certainly slap the hell out of you now.”

“Please, no,” I said, tucking a strand of her dark hair behind her ear before stepping back. “I'd rather we get along.”

“I'm sure you would,” she muttered.

“Not like that, Ava.” I sighed. “Seriously, you're Deacon's niece. There's no way I could fuck you knowing that. I'd be afraid that all I'd see was his face when I looked down at you.”

I turned away and walked toward the building, but what I wouldn't have paid to see the look on her face. Call it intuition, but I knew this girl had a thing for me. She looked at me with both disdain and lust – a mixture of emotions I'd seen in plenty of women before. She was fighting an inner battle with herself, just like I was. And I knew it was cruel for me to play these games. But she'd asked for it. She kept telling me off, and I was tired of it. I acted without thinking, but it was the best way to stop that argument before it started.

Ava caught up to me and walked beside me in silence as we approached a side door. The words “Stay Out” were written in spray paint across the door in bright red – like the color of blood. Other warnings were written beside it, all of which I ignored as I turned the handle, twisting it hard, forcing the door to open for me. With a loud crack, it opened and swung inward, the sunlight streaming into the darkened interior of the warehouse.

“What the hell?” Ava said, stepping inside before I did. She looked around, wiping the dust off a table that sat nearby.

I walked over to a fridge and pulled out a beer, handing it over to her. She shook her head, refusing it, so I opened it for myself.

Tables and chairs lined the outside area, and a bar stood along the wall where we were standing. In the middle of the warehouse was a ring.

“What is this place?” Ava asked, not bothering to turn toward me.

“Let's just say – us guys need to unwind sometimes,” I said, taking a long drink from the cheap-ass beer. Leaning against the bar, I watched as Ava walked around the large building. It was empty, as I knew it would be this time of day.

“We also train here sometimes,” I said. “And train new recruits. Break them in, you know.”

“No, I don't,” she said. “And I don't know if I want to know.”

“Probably not,” I shrugged and took another long swig.

Ava turned toward me and stared me down. “So what are we doing here again?”

I put the beer down on the table and walked over to her. She didn't budge. If she thought I was going to kiss her again, she was in for a surprise.

Before I even got to her, though, Ava had her arm up, blocking mine from coming toward her. A simple move, just to get us started. She'd blocked me well.

“Good one,” I said with a cocky grin.

“Yeah, if you think that's something, why not get in the ring with me?”

“Feisty. I like that,” I said, walking beside her as we moved toward the ring. I reached out to help her in, but she refused my hand, climbing in all by herself and scowling at me.

We both stood in the center of the ring and I gave her an amused smile as she flexed her arms out, stretched her lean legs. I waited, giving her the chance to strike first this time, and she did. Her arm came toward me, hitting my arm hard as I blocked her, but what I didn't expect was her leg driving hard into my stomach.

“Did I forget to mention I'm a kickboxing instructor?” she said with a hearty laugh.

“Yes, I believe you did,” I said, standing tall. Her attack hurt, but not so badly that I couldn't keep going. “Did I forget to mention I'm a hybrid like you?”

“No,” she said. She kicked at me hard, but I grabbed her leg, twisting it and bringing her to the ground. “You mentioned it, but you never told me what you're mixed with.”

Her face hit the ground hard, almost too hard. I felt bad for a second and reached down to help her back up. But once again, she refused my help, jumping to her feet and aiming for my face with her foot this time. I wasn't ready, expecting her to need time to recover, and ended up with her foot driving into my cheek.

“Because you wouldn't believe me even if I told you,” I growled. I wasn't going to hit her. I only wanted to test her. I would block her, take her down, but there was no way I'd ever hit a woman – no matter how bad ass she might be.

She swung around, kicking at me again. And again. Before I could block her, she got two swift strikes in. Damn, she was fast.

“Try me, I've heard some pretty crazy shit in my lifetime,” she said, stopping long enough to push the hair from her face.

“Nothing like this, Ava,” I said. “Nothing like this.”

“You still think I'm naive, don't you?”

“Not naive, it's just hard to explain,” I said, standing still.

The fight was over, or so I thought. But Ava took the opportunity to rush me, taking me to the ground – hard. Her tiny body had more force in it than I thought – it was likely both the lion and the bear in her. She called upon those forces in battle so easily, I didn't even see it until she was on top of me, staring down with eyes that weren't her own.

“Still think I'm a weak little girl?” she asked me, holding me down. “How many weak-ass women can hold a man like you down.”

“Not too many,” I said, feeling excitement course through my body. “In fact, you're the first.”

She stayed there, holding me down with her body and stared at me, a look of pleasure in her eyes. And then she smiled. Of course, she smiled. She was enjoying showing me up.

“You know, I could get up if I wanted to,” I teased.

“Do it then,” she said.

“I don't want to. Maybe I like you on top of me.”

I felt myself growing hard in my pants, my erection defying my brain in the moment. No amount of “down boy” could save me in that moment. I bit down on the inside of my cheek – hard. But still to not avail. And when Ava's eyes grew wide, and I knew she felt it pressing against her body.

As soon as she felt it, she jumped up, her face red and a look of fear in her eyes. Fear? Was she afraid of me getting turned on?

“I'm sorry, Ava,” I said softly. “Natural bodily function, I'm not going to seduce you or anything – ”

She paced the ring, her hands clenched at her sides. She was off her game. I watched her, much like a cat watches a mouse, and waited for the opportunity to strike. Hopping up on my feet, I lunged for her, took her down to the ground, but this time kept her head from hitting the ground. Now it was my turn to be on top, to be in control – but I made sure my erection came nowhere near her body. No need to make the situation any more awkward than it already was – even though my cock was just itching to be free from my pants and sheathed somewhere cozier.

She gasped as I took her down, but she didn't fight back. As I held her down, I smiled. “See, I told you so – ”

But before I could say another word, Ava strained upward and kissed me. She pressed those soft, sweet lips to mine, forced her tongue into my mouth and grabbed onto my face, pulling me into her. There was no fighting back, this time, nothing I could do. My body pressed into hers, pressing her into the ground. Her legs wrapped around my waist as she bucked up toward me, rubbing herself against my erection and taking me completely by surprise.

I shouldn't have let my guard down, though.

As her legs tightened around my waist, I felt her push on my chest, and before I knew what was happening, she'd flipped me over onto my back. Again. Holding me down with a defiant look on that sweet face of hers.

“What were you saying, Elias?” she asked me. “About being able to take me down?”

“Not fair,” I gasped. “...to use a man's horniness against him.”

“Who said we were playing fair?” she said. “I don't know about you, but I'm playing to win.”