Page 24 of Ride Hard
Chaser
Irefusedto believe Sloane was thatchildish.
She was putting together an escape plan that much was clear. Annoy the hell out of me, steal her stuff back, then leg it into a crowd, hoping I would be glad to see the back of her infuriating ass and give her a headstart.
That was how my targets usually did it, but too bad I always found them. After that, things usually became worse…for them, notme.
We were at yet another motel deep in the backwater of some asshole state in the middle of thecountry.
It was getting worse. The need to stick my cock in Sloane’s pussy. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was so Goddamn infuriating, or I was attracted toher.
But she was still the boss’s precious daughter, and she was still off-limits to the likes of me. A grunt, a nobody, cannon fodder on the front lines of a criminal bloodfeud.
Don’t disappoint me, Chaser. You know what happens when youdo.
I squeezed my eyes shut at the memory. One shot is all it took to destroy someone’s life. One shot to bind them to youforever.
Either Sloane knew what she was talking about or she’d made a lucky guess. I wasn’t a biker, not really. I ran with Fortitude because I owed them. Simple asthat.
Death begat death, and revenge begat revenge. Round and round it went, and it neverstopped.
In the end, it wasn’t worth it. It fixednothing.
It didn’t bring her back, and now I was stuck, and it wasn’t just in a shitty motel room with the daughter of the man who’d tricked me into shitting my life down the toilet… No, that part was just the icing. The cake… Fuck, it was the endless servitude caused by a debt that would never be repaid. A life for alife.
Hindsight was a brutal kick in theballs.
* * *
Narrowingmy eyes at the sight before me, I closed the bathroom door with abang.
Sloane was in the top she liked to wear to bed, reading a book that looked more like a brick than anything else. Her feet were bare and her legs…they were long as fuck and appeared as if they hadn’t seen direct sunlight inmonths.
Rubbing my damp hair with a threadbare towel, I tossed it over the back of a chair. The shower wasn’t cold by choice, but it hadhelped.
“What’s that?” I asked, unable to hold onto mycuriosity.
“It’s a book,” she retorted. “You know, with the pages and the words andstuff.”
“Hilarious.”
Stepping past her, I grabbed the book and tore it from her grasp. She kicked up a stink as I turned it over in my hands. Fuck, it weighed a ton. Explained why her bag killed my back every time I lifted it from thetrunk.
“Theory and Methods in Political Science,” I read aloud. “What the fuck is thisfor?”
“I’m studying to get my college degree,” she said, snatching the book back. “I’m not giving up on it just because you kidnappedme.”
“I wouldn’t call it kidnapping,” I said, the word college the last thing I was expecting her to say. It was another clue to the interior she was hiding underneath all that childishsass.
“You’re forcing me to stay, so it’s pretty fuckingclose.”
Snorting, I glanced at the bright yellow marker in herhand.
“What do you want that book for anyway?” I went on. “You want to be apolitician?”
Sheshrugged.
“You’ve got the mouth for it.” I tossed the book onto thebed.
