Page 94 of Bearly Hanging On

That’s when you come to me, Harper.I swallowed hard, my mouth suddenly dry.That’s when you tell me what the fuck is happening and let me sort it.

Yeah? And that’s when you’d be forced to kill your own brother, which was exactly what I was trying to protect you from.

I protect.That was the wolf growling at her, not me. That’s my job.I flung up a one finger salute at some dickhead who thought to pull out in front of me. I saw the whites of his eyes as I roared past, travelling along the verge.I would have rescued Daria and you would have stayed in the bunker safe.

Yeah, well, hindsight’s 20/20 and all that. Oh my god, ew.

What, Harper?The light turned green, and the bike leapt forward, speeding down the road towards the freeway.Harper, what’s happening?

Your brother is monologuing. Something about the two of you fighting it out in the womb for supremacy. He just has really bad breath and he’s breathing it all over me.

With that mental image in mind, I swerved around one car, then the next. For a moment, I was forced to ride behind a truck, but as soon as I could, I was zipping past that too. Cameras flashed, no doubt clocking my insane speed, but I’d pay a million fines if it meant getting to Harper sooner.

Tell him to keep the fuck away from you, I sent, then instantly regretted it.No, don’t, that will just egg him on. Tell him…The driver of the car I was overtaking stared out the window, eyes widening when they saw the rifle on my back. They grabbed for their phone, no doubt to call the police.Just tell him his fight is with me.

Pretty sure he knows that, she ground out.

And that if he wants to break my heart hurting you…I did not want to put this shit in my brother’s head, but if it boughtHarper some time, so be it.He has to wait until I get there to collect his pound of flesh.

This is not what I wanted.When my mate’s snark turned to desperation, I knew I had a problem.I had it all planned out. The guys, the police?—

You got the cops involved?As if summoned by that thought, I heard the thin wail of a police car. I pushed the bike to go faster.Fuck, Harper, we are going to have a very long chat about this afterwards.

After you rescue me?she asked.

If that’s what it takes for me to put you over my knee and spank the reckless out of you, then yes. Now.I glanced in my mirrors, seeing the flashing lights getting closer.I’ve got to take some evasive manoeuvres to get the cops off my tail.An idiot riding too fast on a motorbike is one thing. An armed idiot is a whole other thing.

I’d brought the damn rifle in my haste to get to Harper, and while part of me wanted to throw it off, let it get crushed under the wheels of incoming traffic, I don’t think that would’ve helped right now. I took a sharp right, going over a thickly planted traffic island, my hand revving the engine as I scudded over flowers and shrubs, sending foliage spinning in its wake, before zipping up a ramp that led to an arterial road. The cop car tried to do the same thing, only for the back wheels to fishtail out, spinning back and forth before the car slammed into a tree. With a grin, I took off faster.

It took me far too long to reach the quarry. Too many cars, too many cops trying to intercept me. I’d ended up having to veer off and ride through the scrubland by the creek, because nothing other than a dirt bike would be able to follow me there. The closer I got to the creek, the more familiar the territory it was, because Dax and I, we’d played between these trees as kids, hid behind those boulders, pretending it was a fort. He wasn’talways broken, but by the end, my father had made sure he was. It started when Dad took him along to the different jobs he did as an enforcer for some of the biker clubs and ended up here.

“Mack!”

Kieran strode over, putting himself in my path.

“Get the fuck outta my way, Kieran.”

“Mack, you need to listen.”

“Listen?” I shook my head. “Listen and do what? Come up with some cunning plan to smoke Dax out with Harper through the ventilation shafts?”

“There’s ventilation shafts?” I don’t know when the hell Dina and Mira got here, but the tiger shifter sisters darted forward, plucking stun grenades from the belts of the police officers standing behind Kieran. The cops seemed awfully jittery, not sure what to do around all of these shifters. “On it!”

“There’s no other way around this,” I told Kieran, resisting the urge to flinch when his fathers drew closer. “It was always going to end like this.”

“No, Mack.” His hand shot out, grasping my shoulder. “No.”

“Yes.” It was only then that I could smile without it feeling like it was cracking my face. “Yes. I should’ve hunted Dax down, finished this years ago, but he’s my brother.” Right then I saw the scruffy haired kid, the one I used to fight like cats and dogs with, then sit with for ages, playing games in the dirt. “But not anymore. I’m done. We’re done, because Harper is my mate and I’ll kill anyone who tries to get in between me and her.”

I made straight for the mine shaft, claws snicked out, fur prickled as the wolf was summoned.

“Dax…!” My voice echoed through the quarry. “You want this? Come and get me!”

I’m coming, Beautiful, I told Harper.When I get you out of that den, I’m gonna spank that arse raw, you hear me?

This was the moment she called me Fur Face and told me it would be my arse that would cop a spanking, right? Instead, the voice inside my head was resolutely silent. That had me roaring, right before I launched myself at the door.

Chapter 40

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