Page 5 of Blood Revealed

We beat him until he passes out and continue beating him until his chest rises and lowers for the last time.

“Go. Get her out of here,” Chaos orders me.

“Come on, sweetheart. I’ll get you safe.”

Most women either want to fuck us or are scared shitless of men like us. The jury’s still out as to which she’ll end up being, but she follows me to my bike and climbs on the back like she’s done it a thousand times before.

In my rearview I see the flames and black smoke of his burning body to get rid of the evidence.

I have us back on the interstate, heading back south, when the phone vibrates in my back pocket and I pull off to the gravel to answer it. “Talk to me,” I yell into the line as the cars whip past us.

“Where you headin’?” Boss asks.

“There’s a town about ten miles from here. The first you see for hotels. We’ll pull off there to get some shuteye before we head home.”

“On it,” he says, hanging up. I ease us back onto the road. The girl, I don’t even know her name yet, she clings to me, holding on for dear life.

Clicking on my blinker, I take the exit and follow the signs that point us to the hotel. I’m wiped and the sign readsVacancywhen we turn into the parking lot. I stop us in front of the office, climb off my bike, and hold my hand out to her. “Come on, sweetheart.”

She takes my hand without question.

“You want your own room?” I ask, and to my surprise, she vehemently shakes her headno. “You want to say with me?”

“Yes… please.”

That’s pretty much the extent of the words she’s spoken since we rescued her. I slap the bell on the desk and we wait for the proprietor to come out of the back office.

“One room. Closest food joint?” I ask.

As the old man slides me the paper to fill out, he points toward the outside. “Take a left out of the lot. It’s about a mile down the road. McDonald’s. Open twenty-four hours.”

“Much obliged.”

I set the pen down after filling out the form and slide them both to him. He slides the key back to me.

“You want food first?” I ask. She shakes her headno. “Okay, baby. We’ll check out the room first.”

She smiles the first smile I’ve seen from her and swear to Christ, my breath catches. It’s the most beautiful smile I’ve ever seen. Damn. Holding her hand, we walk to the room and she drops mine so I can unlock it. There’s a rush of stale, warm air to greet us when it swings open. And there’s only one bed. She looks at the bed, then at me. The fear only shows for a brief second. I think she knows she’s safe with me.

“It okay I turn on the air?” I ask.

“Please,” she says back as she steps inside to check out the rest of the place.

“I’m Bloodhound, but my brothers all shorten it to ‘Blood.’”

“Hannah,” she answers. “Hannah Brown.”

I know she understands the biker life now when she doesn’t even bother to ask me something ridiculous like,“Bloodhound? What? Your parents not love you?”She knows it’s my ride name.

“How’d you end up in that fucker’s truck?”

“He’d been talking to his wife on the phone, talking baby talk to his baby and shit. He seemed like a safe bet.”

“Can’t trust so easily. It could get you killed, sweetheart. What if we hadn’t followed you?”

“I had to get out of Houston last night and he seemed like the best option. I’m sorry I didn’t have time to vet my ride choices.”

“Why’d you have to get out of Houston last night?”

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