Page 135 of Tracking Luxe

Zara stayed quiet letting the boys catch up on Grinder’s condition. Truth be told she was tired and would love to lie down, the peanut was active on her spine, not that she was telling Rider, he’d rush her home.

A few minutes later, Jamie Steele and his VP walked over. “We’re taking off, Rider. Good to see you, Hawk.” The surly man just nodded.

Her man reached out and the two men shook hands. Amicable rivals in most everything they’d come together simply because Rider had asked Jamie for help in going in to get Grinder. Zara had only seen her biker-man meet several times over the last year with the other MC president, but she suspected they held a great deal of respect for one another. Rivals didn’t have to mean enemies. “Thanks for comin’, man. ‘Preciate it.” Rider told him.

Jamie spoke briefly with Grinder’s woman standing over by the corner chewing on her thumb nail, she’d been so quiet it was as though she’d turned invisible. Zara’s brows dropped watching her so alone, so scared yet silently keeping it together. Zara knew that feeling all too well.

She watched the woman shake her head to whatever Jamie was asking her, he touched her cheek and the two men left.

Slipping out of Rider’s arm, Zara moved through the crowd smiling to her boys who murmured her name or Z-girl and gave her half-hugs.

“Hi. We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Zara. That big one in blue over there is mine.” She smiled pointing to Rider. “Is there anything I can get you? Coffee? Tea? A sandwich? It might be a long wait until we hear anything.”

And that was how Zara got herself a new girl-friend.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

“I fell in love with my kidnapper…slowly and then all at once.” - Luxe

It felt like hours before they knew anything. Luxe was going out of her mind. Her skin itched with impatience. A doctor in green scrubs came to talk to the growing crowd, looking at the mass of them dauntingly he let everyone know Grinder was fine and resting after being treated for multiple contusions, fractured ribs, a transfusion and was now receiving antibiotics and fluids until his levels were back to normal and then he could be released.

Her lungs deflated with relief. He was okay.

They allowed visitors four at a time to go and see him. Of course, the bikers didn’t listen to that ruling. They all piled into the room at once.

Luxe hung back but found herself ushered in first by Rider.

The man in charge had already handled the cops when they’d been contacted by the hospital about Nathan’s injuries. She had no idea what he told the sheriff, other than they made no noise to want to interview her.

Just seeing him lying in the bed, alive, sent a ribbon of love twirling in her stomach and so much relief she could have passed out. He was alive. He was okay.

The heart that had never loved anyone in a romantic way before sped up, hammering inside her ribcage until she had to suck in a breath to calm down.

Love so powerful filled her.

She’d say hello, and sorry about a million times and then she’d leave his friends to take care of him, that was her plan.

Through the bodies of wide shoulders, loud voices and the smell of too much leather alongside the disinfectant of hospitals it was a miracle that she met Nathan’s eyes.

He saw her through everyone. The look, and the slight upturn of his mouth, like he was so damn pleased to see her, too, had the same effect of a hallucinogen screaming through her bloodstream.

Luxe had the overwhelming need to kick everyone out and curl up with her boyfriend and take care of every place that hurt him. She didn’t quite believe all the emotions she had locked up tight for him, even as they roared and tried to pitch her forward, pushing at shoulders and hard men, to get at her own, to cup his rough cheeks and kiss his eyelids and to breathe his scent, only then when she felt his heat thumping under her palm would she accept it was over and he was going to be fine.

It was only the will of her grandmother running through her veins and sheer exhaustion and the strain of being out numbered that kept her rooted to the spot over by the door as men all flocked to do their manly bro thing with Nathan.

His voice, when it came out of his dry lips was rusty and paper thin. “Boys, gimme a minute with my girl.” Luxe’s empty stomach flexed, sloshing the acid in there around like it was on a rollercoaster. She never thought hearing that sound again would be the greatest noise of her life. Standing in that too small hospital room surrounded in big burly men Luxe closed her eyes for a second and inhaled, settling the nerves in her body, the roil of worry was still there but less now he was awake, he was talking, breathing … alive.

It had been so close to Nathan dying.

Too close.

The way his eyes never left hers. Sexual trappings that embroiled them all this time was just a short distance from the truth; they both held genuine, deep feelings for one another. His were right there for all to see.

Her heart went nuts. How was it a steady look from him had the same effect on her as a romantic gesture would of giving her the combination to a diamond safe, causing her to flush from the neck upwards.

The mere sight of him sparked a chain reaction of the things he did to the inside of her—thestomach drop, her heart sped up, the butterflies.Ah, the butterflies. Amid the worry, that extraordinary reaction was still there, every time, as if she hadn't seen him in weeks and not hours.

It was Rider who moved first. Long brown hair tucked behind his ears, he moved around two other guys to clasp the hand the bedridden wounded one held out. “Good to have you back, brother.”

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