Page 24 of Deathless
“Look, Rori isn’t perfect,” I said. “In fact, she’s a massive pain in the ass sometimes. Stubborn as a bulldog with the bite to backit up. But I’ll put my life on the line for her because I know for a fact she’d do it for me.”
Hudson chuckled dryly. “You’re lucky. I can’t say I ever had someone that would do that for me.”
“Rori will,” I told him before I could think better of it. “You just have to give her the chance.”
Before he could respond, a motorcycle rumbled to life. I looked toward the garage, noticing an ex-gladiator straddling one of the loaner bikes, which wasn’t unusual. With all the free time the guys had, many of them practiced riding.
The rider turned out to be the Bull, and he gave me a little wave as he noticed me watching.
“Be right back,” I said to Hudson as I started toward the man on the motorcycle, some instinct poking at me to stay alert.
“Hey, VP,” the Bull greeted me as I came closer. He seemed eager to leave, with one foot already off the ground and his hands twitching on the handlebars.
“Hey, Bull.” I meandered casually to the front of his bike, blocking his way. “You headed somewhere?”
“Nah, you know. Just want to hit a couple of practice runs.” His eyes darting to the road behind me told a different story.
“Hey, why don’t Hudson and I join you?” I glanced back at the man still sitting on the weight bench. “It’s about time he learns to ride, and I could keep an eye on both of you.”
The Bull ground his teeth. “No offense, VP, but I’d rather do this one alone. Want to clear my head a bit. Next time, though?”
I smiled at him, trying to keep a calm facade while reading into his body language. “Seems like you’re in a hurry. You got somewhere you need to be?”
“No,” he huffed. “What’s with the interrogation? I thought we weren’t prisoners anymore.”
“You’re not, but you also don’t know the area. It’s not safe to ride off alone.”
“Not trying to be disrespectful, but I really need to blow off some steam.”
“Why, what’s got you riled up?” I pressed. Damn, sure wish I had Santos to check my six.
“None of your business, to be fuckin’ honest.”
“Hey, no need to have a tone with me. If you need to blow off steam, take a walk. Lift some weights. Shoot some targets around back. But you can’t just ride off on a bike that isn’t yours.”
The Bull snorted out a big breath like his animal namesake. He seemed to relax for a moment, complying with my request. Then he jerked the handlebars and started the bike, kicking off as fast as he could in an attempt to go around me.
Too bad he didn’t know motorcycles like I did.
I reached over his dash and hit his killswitch, stopping his ride dead in its tracks. Then I lunged, grabbing the lapels of his jacket to swing him off the bike. He hit the ground, but the ex-gladiator wasn’t going without a fight. A meaty fist swung and crashed into my temple, knocking me off him while the world spun.
He scrambled for the bike again, but I grabbed his foot, bringing him back down to the ground with me. He rolled before I could successfully pin him and kicked me in the stomach with his free foot. I doubled over and got clocked in the head once again.
Fucking hell, I really needed backup. Rori had to take all the good people with her. The only one I could really trust here was the Hunter, and he was probably horizontal with Paige right now.
The Bull had knocked the wind out of me and my vision was dotted with stars and black dots, but I held onto anything I could. His jacket, his pant leg. I could not fucking let him get on that bike.
“Gotta warn them,” he muttered to himself as he tried to shake me off.
“Warn who, asshole?” I crawled up the backs of his legs, trying to get on top of him so I could get an arm around his neck or something, but he flipped over, pinning me beneath him.
His tailbone pressed directly into my stomach, painful and making it difficult to breathe. I bear-hugged around his torso and tried to get my legs around his, but none of the angles were right. I should have done more of those jiu-jitsu classes with Daren, but that was his thing, not mine.
“Let go of me!” The Bull tried to unlock my hands from their grip, but I held on. “They’re keeping her safe! I can’t let them, ugh, get to her!”
I couldn’t fully process what he was saying, not when my sole focus was preventing him from getting away. But it hit me then as one hell of a delayed realization that we might’ve been suspicious of the wrong person.
The Saint was weird. Eccentric for sure. But this man, grappling on the ground with me right now, was without a doubt disloyal to us. Maybe the Saint was too, but I couldn’t worry about that now.
