Page 20 of Steal Me (Rebel Hearts Heists 1)
River stops my fall and I find myself in his arms, engulfed by his bright and masculine citrus scent. His hazel eyes are fixed onto mine and they’re a warm amber color, sexy and intense. “Are you all right, kitten?”
His voice is low and has a sweet undertone that I’d expect from Kaden or Royce but that I find completely shocking in crazy, cold hearted River. His hands are keeping me upright, closed around my biceps and for the first time, I notice how the trees are thick in this spot, obscuring most of the sunlight and how I’m totally at River’s mercy. If he wanted to hurt me or take advantage of me in here, chances are that no one would hear me scream with the highway running along on one side by the hotel and this mini woodland separating us completely from the shops that we were just at.
I’m about to reassure him that I’m ok, because for some strange reason, I don’t feel threatened by his nearness like I did that first night in the penthouse but my words die in my throat when I hear a rustling noise and then aclickcoming from behind River.
“Take your fucking disgusting paws off Sloane, asshole. She’s my little bitch, not yours. Oh, and by the way,FBI motherfucker. I would tell you that you’re under arrest and make you aware of your rights, but you know better than me that you’re not getting out of these woods alive.”
Like the stuff nightmares are made of, Pierce is holding a revolver to the back of River’s head, his cold, dark eyes are fixed onto mine. Pierce grabs my wrist with the hand that isn’t holding the gun and tries to pull me toward him but I guess I have to thank the adrenaline that floods my body at the idea of being taken by him.
Because things happen fast but my mind is in such a heightened state, that it’s as if I were looking at myself from outside my own body rather than being the one who grabs one handed one of my stilettos from inside the bag and lifts it to hit the side of Pierce’s head. Damn, Sloane. I would nearly pat myself on the shoulder for that shit but I am too panicked.
Pierce’s scream tears the silence in the wooded area and he lets go of the gun while his hands clutch the toe of my shoe that isn’t stuck deep in his ear. Blood starts running down the side of my ex-fiancé’s face and I feel absolutely nothing about it, because the adrenaline leaves my body as fast as it had arrived and I sag down, my knees hitting the soft terrain with a painful thud. River acts fast, taking the gun from the ground and extracting one coiled plastic tie from the back pocket of his jeans.
He uses it to tie Pierce’s hands together behind his back, leaving the shoe still stuck in his ear as shock makes my ex pass out. He hauls me up and supporting my weight with a strong arm banded around my waist, he starts running toward the hotel.
“Tying him up will give us some time but we need to leave. The hotel will be the first place that motherfucker will check when he comes to.”
The rest happens to me as if I were a spectator in the whole situation: I can barely hear anything or see anything, I follow River and barely register that he hot wires an old truck in the hotel parking lot. After driving north for an hour, we stop at a truck stop and change car going for an old Jeep this time. After two more hours, River stops in front of an old motel, something that looks straight out of a horror movie. I follow him into a dusty room with two queen size beds and I don’t say anything until River guides me toward one of the beds, making me sit down and checking on me with a concerned look in his hazel eyes.
“Kitten, are you alright? Are you hurt?” He cups my face with his hands and the contact with his slightly rough skin makes me snap out of it.
There’s only one thought that is playing on repeat in my head. I have to confirm it. “You … you had plastic ties. Were you planning to use those on me?”
River nods, the crazy asshole doesn’t even sound apologetic when he explains that he had to be prepared, just in case I did anything stupid or tried to run. And his words bring us right back to yesterday, to being the kidnapper and his victim rather than the odd duo of friends who went shopping and flirted while buying cowboy boots.
My eyes leave his and I move my head to the side, refusing to look at him. River kneels down on the floor, forcing me to look at him again. “Kitten, I really don’t want to hurt you. Please believe me. Our situation would make hurting you the most sensible solution but the reality is that I fucking can’t, ok? Because you saved me. When that dumbfuck agent had a gun to my head, you could’ve let him kill me. But you helped me. You chose me. And that is worth a lot in my eyes. So I promise that I won’t try to off you anymore, as long as you don’t do anything that will get us all in jail. And I won’t tell the others that the fucking FBI agent that has shown up three times on our doorstep is also your abusive ex.”
My eyes dilate in shock. “How—”
“Come on, kitten. I might be a little crazy but I’m not a total idiot. I heard the shit you said to Royce and Blaine. And the agent called you Sloane and said you were his little bitch. It doesn’t take a genius to do the math.”
I flinch at the words ‘little bitch’ and I feel like I am at some odd fork in the road. I don’t have to tell River, I don’t owe him anything. In a way we’re even. He saved me from being taken and I saved him today. Yet, as I examine his stunning eyes and serious expression the whole story spills out of my lips.
When hot tears start running down my cheeks River takes me in his arms, in a surprisingly soothing and comforting embrace. I have no idea how long I am talking, my voice is quiet and troubled at some parts and furious at others, my head is tucked against his neck. I feel weak, shaking with tears on my face, and for a moment I worry that River is going to laugh at me. Or reject me suddenly, changing course, like he’s been doing from the first minute we got stuck together. Instead he just listens until I finally finish.
“That motherfucker!” He snarls, “I should’ve shot him in the face. Look Sloane, I promise I won’t tell the others but I think you should. Do it in your own time but if we’re all running from something, I think they deserve to know the full picture. Circumstances have us stuck together but it’s only right that they know what we’re facing. I admit that yesterday, when this Pierce guy showed up at the penthouse, I thought that you had found a way to alert the cops. Now I know that it isn’t the case. Because you saved me. And I bet the asshole is working alone, he’s only after you, he just happened to stumble onto the bank robbery but initially you were his only target. Now he might retaliate by setting the FBI on us to get to you. Do you see why it would make perfect sense to kill you? But Sloane, you saved me. You could’ve let him shoot me and take your chances with him but you chose me instead.” It’s becoming very clear to me that the concept of me ‘choosing him’ is essential to this situation. He’s repeating it like a chant filled with quiet redemption. A part of my chest squeezes thinking about what could cause him to feel that way. To feel that no one ‘chooses him’.
I nod, River is right and for as much as I’m still shaking because of today’s events, I believe him when he says that he won’t hurt me. “What I don’t understand, kitten, is how did your ex find us if you didn’t alert him? Do you have your cell phone on you? He could’ve tracked that.”
“No. My cell is back in my dorm at school. And it’s a new cell, not the one I had when Pierce and I were together. New cell, new number. I was very careful to cover my tracks.”
River won’t relent.
“Yeah but he found you so easily, way more than once. There must be something on you.”
“I don’t—”
He hauls me up onto my feet and steps behind me. “We need to find what it is, kitten. For your safety and for ours. Spread your arms and legs. What if he put a tracker under your skin or something?”
“Like a dog?” I ask in disbelief but River isn’t joking.
He pats along my shoulders and down my arms, down the sides of my rib cage, my hips, my outer thighs and legs. “Take your boots and your clothes off.”
As I begin undoing the buttons of Royce’s shirt, River’s hands travel back up my body, on the inside of my legs, on my inner thighs, slowly feeling every inch of my skin with gentle fingers. My shirt falls on the floor as his hands reach the apex of my thighs and even before they skim over the sensitive skin of my center, my core clenches and a gush of excitement dampens my panties and there’s no way he could miss it.
I feel his smile more than see it because he’s still standing behind me as his fingers trail the edge of the fabric of my panties and then put some pressure on my throbbing center making me gasp with a violent jolt of pleasure.
“Kitten …” He growls abandoning the fabric of my panties, leaving a burning need everywhere his fingers have been. He moves his hands upwards and starts feeling my stomach and the soft skin on of my breasts, braless, since I left my bra somewhere in the room where we spent last night. When he’s touched me everywhere and he’s satisfied that there’s no microchip on me, he spins me around and runs the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. Our mouths are a breath away from one another and God help me but I want him to kiss me, I want it with every fiber of my being.
