Page 6 of Ghost
Either way, he’s getting what he wants throughher.I can’t let that happen.
“I won’t let him pawn you off to some asshole, but your disappearance is going to cause a bit of a scene. Until things cool down, you’re going to stay here.” Grimacing at the words as they leave my lips, it solidifies her situation. I really have had her kidnapped.
“Here? At a bar?” Her face matches mine as she takes in our surroundings.
“It’s our clubhouse,” I defend, all while trying to see it through her eyes. Sure, it’s not the cleanest of places, and my brothers are a rowdy bunch, but this place is far more than meets the eye. It’s a safehouse, a place to go when the world feels dangerous.
Eliza shakes her head as she looks around. Suddenly, her face goes red and she jerks to look at me. She looks mortified. “Oh my God. What are they doing against the jukebox?”
Looking over, I see Jinx enjoying himself with one of the gals. While she’s smiling, he’s not shy about putting his hands on her. His mouth is happily lapping at whatever parts of exposed skin she’ll let him.
“Right. We should get you settled.” Scrambling to unplug cords, I gather up all of my belongings and stand. “Follow me.”
She gets up and sticks to my heels, not because she doesn’t have a choice, but because this place seems like the last place she wants to hang out.
I’m hoping that changes as she stays here longer.
There are a few rooms in the back that are used to crash in when things get a little too rowdy. Or if injuries take place that can’t exactly be taken to the hospital here in town.
The entire time, her curiosity is piqued.
“You don’t get out much.” Saying it as a statement, I take her to the room I spend most of my nights in first. After ditching my equipment and having her abandon her bag, I notice her taking in my belongings.
I wish this isn’t how we had to meet. Everything she’s learning about us is through a terrible first impression. If I were more normal, and she wasn’t a prisoner, then could we have happened to bump into each other in a more casual way? Possibly at a coffee shop or the grocery store.
“My father made it pretty clear that he has a lot of enemies. Warned me that bad men would try to snatch me up if I left the house alone.” She scoffs under her breath at the irony.
“We’re not bad.” The retort comes automatically, and I curse under my breath. “Maybe morally gray. I mean, do you really think you would’ve been in a better situation if we hadn’t takenyou? Eliza, your father is making deals with men just like us. No, men worse than us.”
She hugs herself, shivering at the picture I’m putting in her head. “He’s always wanted to protect me.”
All day today, I watched this woman run through a thousand emotions. From feeling anger, to fear, to sadness, her mental state’s taken a rough beating. I promised myself that if I ever got Eliza in my reach, I’d never let her suffer. Not like this.
Moving toward her, I’m hesitant when she flinches. Lifting my hands, she doesn’t pull away when my fingers graze her arms. Oddly enough, she leans in like she needs this contact as much as I do. Giving her body a squeeze, I sigh. “I hate to be the one to tell you this, but his intentions were not great. As long as I’ve known about you, he’s kept you locked up for months. Kept you away from anyone who could tell you that this behavior of his is wrong.”
Biting her lip, she doesn’t deny my statement. “He’s all I have.”
And that’s the issue. She’s got nowhere to go thanks to him. No one to lean on in a worst-case scenario.
“The people here are rough around the edges, but they’re accommodating. Sure, most of us came to this place because of a rough upbringing, but this place is a safe space.” Her skin prickles up beneath my thumbs as I brush the tips along her arms. “Even if you have nothing else, the Steelwood MC always has room for those like us.”
Those who have no one. Who are utterly alone.
Her gaze slowly drags from my chest up to my face. Parting her lips, a shaky breath comes out. “What is your story, then? I can assume you weren’t dragged out of your home in the middle of the night to discover this place.”
Trying to come off sarcastic, I can’t help but crack a smile at the irony. “Actually, I was. Though my kidnapper was more reckless.”
As Eliza’s brows pinch together, I turn and hunt down a hoodie. While I’m digging around my stuff, she’s scoffing like I’m feeding her a lie.
“You haven’t eaten.” Returning to her with one big enough to swallow up the top of her pajamas, I try not to feed into the satisfaction as she tugs it on. “I’ll tell you my story over something hot.”
Her feet are covered only by a pair of socks. My nostrils flare at the dirt caked to them. Now I’m not pitying Diesel for getting kicked. He made her go through the room wearing no sort of protection.
Eliza stumbles when I jerk my chin to my bed. That same rosy color comes back when I ask her to take a seat. When she doesn’t move, I sigh.
“You’re safe here.” Knowing my word doesn’t mean anything to her, I can only hope she can sense my sincerity. “I want to check your feet. Do they hurt?”
Looking down, she stares at her feet as if she had never noticed the problem. With the adrenaline she must’ve felt earlier, to the change in her environment, I can’t blame her. Thankfully, she does as I ask and plops down.
