Page 17 of Guarded By Atlas

Several doors face the road, and before I can process what is happening, one swings open, and someone emerges a second before a shot rings out, shattering the silence. I see Saint dive for cover behind a nearby tree, barely evading another shot. He’s pinned down, unable to return fire from that position without risking being hit. Movement at the far end of the lot beyond him catches my attention, and I watch as Gray slinks silently along the edge of the parking lot toward the motel, his dark shape barely distinguishable against the hedge wall.

On my other side, I notice Hound has taken cover behind an old dumpster. I nod at him, then point to myself and gesture in the opposite direction, indicating that I intend to approach the motel from the other side. He nods his understanding and gets into a position to provide cover for us. I crouch down and move as silently as possible along the edge of the parking lot toward the far corner of the motel. I go as quickly as possible to match my arrival with Gray’s, who has a head start. It’s too dark to tell if he’s noticed me, but knowing Gray and his skills, he knows exactly where everyone is.

My suspicion is confirmed when I hit the side of the building and peek around the corner to see Gray at the otherend, already looking at me. He points toward the still-open motel room door and then holds up three fingers.Three men inside the room.

I move back around the side of the building where it won’t be seen and turn on the flashlight app on my phone. Using my hand to cover the beam, I point it at the ground, uncovering it three times to signal the information to Hound and Saint. It’s the signal we’d decided on before leaving the clubhouse, so I don’t worry whether they understood the message. Then I look around the corner again and lock eyes with Gray once more. I signal for him to hold still until Hound opens fire on the motel room door, drawing attention just as we’d hoped it would.

I watch as a man leans around the doorframe, gun raised to return fire. Without taking a moment to think, I lift my own gun and squeeze the trigger. The sickening yell that rings out a moment later proves my bullet found its mark. Everything happens in a blur after that. Gray and I move in on the room as Hound and Saint provide cover for us. One of their shots finds its target, and we’re able to get right up to the doorway and take out the other man with an immobilizing shot.

Gray and I enter the motel room to find three Vipers writhing on the floor, guns discarded. I quickly clear the rest of the room of any threats as Gray secures their guns and verifies with one of them that there are no other Vipers lurking nearby. Once we are certain we are in the clear, I signal to Saint and Hound to join us.

The Vipers stood no chance, really. The four of us were more than capable of handling this showdown on our own. While I would have liked to have had Trigger with us, it was better he stayed behind in case of any run-ins with the police. Already being on parole, that’s not a risk Trigger can take.

I step over the men on the floor, looking at each face, and when I don’t spot the one I’m looking for, I question if perhaps I don’t remember him as well as I thought. To be fair, the faces were grainy, and yet, despite having apprehended all three kidnappers, I find myself dissatisfied. Perhaps I’ll feel better once we get them back to the clubhouse and into the basement where we can really take our time exacting our revenge.

“Everyone okay?” Saint calls out, and once he receives confirmation from everyone, turns to the three men groaning in pain, each nursing a gunshot wound somewhere on their body. “I want all of you to remember that not killing you was intentional. Anyone of the Rebels could have shot you in the head and ended your pathetic life, but we didn’t. But we aren’t done with you yet. When we are, you’ll wish that’s exactly what we’d done.”

As if he’d timed it that way, the sound of a vehicle pulling up outside the room reaches us, and I look out the doorway to see our VP, Knox, arrive with an unmarked white van. I smile at what is clearly his attempt at a joke—we are essentially kidnapping the kidnappers in a van just like the one they’d used to take Marie.

Despite having apprehended all three Vipers, I can’t shake the feeling in my gut that this isn’t over. Maybe it is, and I’m simply looking for a reason to hold on to Marie longer. She has no reason to stay with me now. Fuck, I am not ready to let her go just yet.

But what could a man like me really have to offer a woman with her background and upbringing beyond a few nights of fun?

Chapter Seven

Marie

My palms slide down the wet shower tile, a sob tearing out of my throat as a fire licks through my body with the intensity of lightning.

I’m going to be late for work. Good God, I’m going to be so late they’ll probably fire me. As if taking a week off wasn’t bad enough, now I’m going to miss the start of my shift because I didn’t have the will in me to push Atlas out of the bathroom when he followed me in. It’s my fault. It’s my own darn fault for assuming what we shared in bed when we woke up would be enough for either of us.

It wasn’t.

His lips were on mine before the water turned hot. My hands were on his body, wanting and seeking. Gripping his erection and stroking it as a fire he’d only sated a few minutes ago grew with such intensity. I’d then dropped to my knees, licking his massive girth before taking him in my mouth. He was too big and I kept choking, but I managed to get him all hot and bothered before I found my face pressed against the tile.

I shouldn’t want this—him—as much as I do.

God, I’ll probably need to talk to someone about this. Maybe a doctor or a therapist, someone who’ll advise me on how to overcome this addiction I have for Atlas. How the heck can I go back to living a life where I don’t feel the strength of this man as he pressed against me, inhale his warm scent and lose myself in the feel of him.

I can’t live without this.

“Oh, God!” I sob when he starts pressing into me, stretching me with his massive cock. Christ, he’s so big. It’s a new experience every time I take him. An intense, delicious feeling that never fades. “I’m going to be so late for work.”

“No, you won’t,” he says into my wet hair, pushing it aside to kiss my neck. “I’ll give you a ride. Faster than the L.”

His words give me pause. “You are giving me a ride to work?” I ask, my words morphing into a moan when he starts moving in and out of me. He grabs my hips to hold me steady, pulling back before sliding back inside of me. I whimper as I feel my feminine lips slide against his shaft with every slow thrust.

“I’ll give you a ride and then stay a few hours just to be safe.”

His words barely penetrate my fogged-up brain. “I thought… You said… Oh, God!” I sob when he releases his grip on my hips and snakes a hand up to rub my tits. I cry out when he pinches and tugs my wet, sensitive nipple between his knuckles. “Atlas!”

“We got the men who took you; don’t worry.” He breathes into my skin as one hand leaves my tit and he grips my hip again, thrusting into my sex harder this time, my ass slapping wetly against his front. “I’m just being cautious. You’ll feel safer with me there.”

He’s right, and I should tell him as much, but my spinning head can barely grasp onto the words long enough to voice them. My fingers slide down the fogged-up glass as I try to anchor myself in the storm he’s creating inside of me. “Close,” I sob as he slams his manhood harder and faster into me, his fingers gripping tight as he brings me closer and closer to the peak of a high only he can give me.

Only he ever will.

“Mine,” he growls, dropping his hand down between my legs to rub on my clit, and that triggers my climax. My back bows as a scream tears out of my throat, waves of pleasure rocking through me with every slam, every touch, and reduces me to a whimpering mess. He slams into me twice before I feel him tense and his cock swell impossibly larger before he pours himself into me with a harsh grunt, violent shudders rocking through his system as I milk him to the last drop.

---