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  Raze pulled his head back and stared into my eyes, listening intently.

  “Life is all about choices,” I said. “You have a choice now. You don’t have to live that lifestyle anymore. You and I, we can build a whole new life together, just like we planned.”

  He leaned his head back, and I could tell he was fighting back tears. My man, my tough, alpha, razor sharp man, was bleeding open with emotion for the first time in a long time. I loved that he could be himself around me.

  I rested my head on his shoulder and squeezed my arms tightly around him.

  “I’m not going anywhere,” I promised him. “We’ve been through too much already for me to just walk away.”

  Raze nodded as he rested his chin on the top of my head. I felt his hot breath on the top of my scalp, and it felt comforting, like a warm blanket on a cold night. A shiver ran down my spine as the breeze of the night air suddenly turned chilly.

  “You cold?” he asked.

  “Yeah,” I said. “It just got cold all of a sudden.”

  “Let’s head inside,” he suggested.

  We went back into the hotel room, and I threw myself down on one of the cushy beds, resting my head on an overstuffed pillow. He climbed next to me and placed his arm around my shoulder, bringing me close to him.

  We laid in silence, just Raze and I, as we stared at the ceiling. It was the first hotel I’d ever stayed at that didn’t have a popcorn ceiling. I burrowed my nose into the crook of his arm, breathing in the faint scent of his deodorant mixed with the musky smell of the outdoors.

  “Raze?” I asked, burrowing in as close as I could and throwing my arm around him.

  “Yeah,” he replied.

  “How did you know where I was?” I asked. “Tonight, I mean.”

  Raze adjusted himself and cleared his throat.

  “I have connections,” he said.

  “Can you elaborate?” I asked with a slight chuckle.

  “I know someone on the inside of the Marquis Devils. He’s sort of a dual agent. He’ll do anything if the price is right,” Raze said. “When you went missing, he was the first person I called. I knew it was the Marquis Devils, especially after we ran into them at the bar. And then when we saw one of them at that diner, I knew they were on our tail.”

  “Did you know they were following us the entire time?” I asked.

  “Honestly, I thought we lost them that last night,” he said, slightly ashamed with his eyebrows raised. “I really did.”

  “How’d they get in to the room to take me?” I asked.

  “After I came out of the shower that night and saw you were missing and your things were still here, I just knew,” he said with a winced look on his face. “I looked outside, saw nothing, and then ran to the front desk clerk to see if he’d seen anything.”

  “Go on.”

  “He said a couple guys came in and basically scared the shit out of him. Threatened him and what not,” Raze continued. “They scared him into giving them our room info and a spare key. One stayed with the clerk while the other one went to get you. As soon as they left, the clerk got a description on the truck and called the police. Unfortunately I had to stick around and give a statement. It fucking killed me, Mia. Each second I was with the police was a second you were getting further and further away.”

  “So what’d you do next?” I asked.

  “I called my contact with the Marquis Devils,” he said. “Though it took me a bit to track him down since I smashed my phone. I had to go to the cell phone store the following day, the second they opened, and pretend like my phone got stolen. Luckily my contacts were backed up, so I was able to get it in just a few minutes.”

  Raze rustled his fingers through his short, dyed blonde hair and scratched his head as if the thought of those moments put him instantly back into distress.

  “I didn’t sleep at all that night,” he said. “All I could think about was what they were doing to you and why wasn’t I there to prevent any of it.”

  “Raze, it wasn’t your fault,” I reassured him again. “It’s fine.”

  “So I got my guy’s number, gave him a call,” Raze said. “He did some checking and got back to me within a few hours. Said he heard a couple men were headed back to Colorado with a young girl. They were going to pimp her out, make some money off her, and then act like they were going to sell her back to me, but really they just wanted me dead. They were going to use you to kill me.”

  “Yep, that definitely sounds like what they were going to do with me,” I said as shuddered. “They were fucking monsters.”

  Raze began to seethe and breathe through gritted teeth. “When I heard that, I wanted to kill them. I vowed to myself that I would have their blood on my hands one way or another.”

  “That first night, I almost got away,” I said. “They took me to a bar and I saw Red there.”

  “Red?” he asked. “Our Red?”

  “Yeah!” I insisted. “I never thought I’d be so happy to see him. I don’t think he recognized me though. And as soon as I started making a scene, one of the men hit me on the back of the head and knocked me out.”

  Raze scratched his head again. “I wonder why Red would’ve been there. That makes no sense.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t him,” I said, second-guessing myself. “It sure as hell looked like him though.”

  Raze shrugged it off, like it was no big deal, and I secretly wondered if maybe Red was a dual agent as well. It was hard telling, and nothing surprised me anymore.

  “I was coming to the bar that night,” Raze said in a low voice.

  “What? You were? Are you serious?” I asked.

  “Yeah, my guy told me where they were taking you. I was on my way there,” he said. I could tell he was trying not to make me feel bad.

  “Wow,” I said. “And I fucked that up royally.”

  “Let’s just say you put us a day behind,” Raze said, trying to be kind. “As soon as I found out where they were headed with you, I booked it there. I drove around that little town for hours and hours until I saw their truck parked behind that burger place.”

  “Wow,” I said again. I was clearly at a loss for words. Raze was resourceful. He was strong. He was powerful. He was a force to be reckoned with. “You’re good.”

  “I don’t know about that,” he cocked his head. “Determined, yes. Absolutely.”

  CHAPTER 22

  I traced my fingers up his tatted arm and caressed his soft skin. He was truly something special. He saved my life, and I vowed to myself to never leave his side no matter what. I leaned up and kissed his mouth again, mine lingering on his until our tongues intermingled.

  He flipped to his side then rolled over top of me, pinning me under him. I loved feeling the weight of his masculine physique holding me down. His lips kissed mine, then worked their way down my neck and to my collarbone. He ran his hand down my side, brushing the side of my breast, and slipped it under my ass. He gripped my ass hungrily as he forced himself between my legs.

  His other hand undid the button to my pants and slid them down while I worked on unfastening his. Things were quickly growing hot and heavy, and I’d never wanted him inside me so bad in my life. We still had our tops on, but it didn’t matter. We wanted to be connected. We wanted to be one. We wanted to be as close as we could possibly get.

  His hand reached down and gripped his throbbing cock as he shoved the tip of it into my wet and waiting lady kingdom. Within seconds, I felt the burst of pressure and he was inside of me. He wasted no time thrusting, hard, as if he couldn’t get enough of me.

  His breathing grew labored as his hips did all the work. He buried his face into the crook of my neck while his hands traveled the length of my body repeatedly. His kissed my lips and then my cheek and then nibbled on my ear as my fingers dug into the churning muscles of his back.

  I heard him release a few sighs and some moans, and I knew he was close. All at once, I felt him writhe inside me. A few more thrusts and he h
ad collapsed, staying inside me for a bit.

  “Oh, god, Mia,” he moaned before rolling back over to his side of the bed.

  I had no words. I just wanted to be close to him. The last few days had felt like weeks, and I never wanted to be apart from him ever again in mind, body, or spirit.

  A few more minutes passed and he was soon snoring. I stood up carefully, so as not to wake him, and went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I double checked the locks on the door and left the bathroom light on with the door slightly ajar. I had never needed a nightlight before, but I wasn’t about to fall asleep peacefully in a dark hotel room. The last time that happened would forever be burned in my mind.

  I tiptoed back to the bed and climbed under the sheets, pulling them over him as gently as I could. He was still passed out, pants around his ankles, and I nestled up close to him. I laid my hand on his chest and took comfort in watching the rise and fall of his chest and the sweet sound of his steady breathing in my ear.

  I fought the sleep that wanted to wash over me. I didn’t want to leave that sweet moment. I didn’t want to ever forget what it felt like to have lost him and to have found him again. I wanted to stay in that moment forever, but eventually my body won over and my eye lids fell heavy. I surrendered to the heavy blanket of the night and fell asleep in Raze’s arms.

  CHAPTER 23

  I awoke the next morning and popped up in bed when I realized it was just me. Raze wasn’t lying next to me. The room was eerily silent. Panic flooded through my bones as I struggled to catch my breath. It was happening again. It was happening all over again.

  “Raze!” I yelled out, hoping maybe he was just in the bathroom. “Raze!”

  Nothing.

  I threw the covers off me and ran to the bathroom, flinging the door open, but it was empty. I ran across the room towards the balcony and flung back the curtains, but it, too, was empty.

  I placed my hand on my heart, which was going a hundred miles per hour, as I looked around the room. All of his stuff was still there, his wallet, everything. I stepped out onto the balcony and saw his bike parked below.

  “Think, Mia, think,” I whispered to myself as I tried to piece the puzzle together.

  A jolt of lightening shot through me when I heard the beeping from the key in the door and the rattling of the handle. The door widened to reveal Raze, overflowing tray of food in hand.

  “Well, are you going to help me or what?” he asked.

  I stood there with my jaw open as I tried to calm myself down.

  “You scared the shit out of me,” I said with my hands on my hips. “Why’d you just leave without saying anything?”

  Raze looked taken aback as he stepped inside and sat the tray down on a nearby table.

  “I didn’t want to wake you,” he said. “You looked so peaceful. I thought I could slip downstairs and be back before you woke up. I wasn’t gone that long.”

  My face softened as I felt bad for snapping at him. “I’m sorry.”

  He walked over to me and cupped my face in his hands, kissing my forehead.

  “No worries,” he said. “Next time I’ll wake you if I leave.”

  I looked up into his steel blue eyes and all my anger instantly dissipated.

  “I got us a bunch of stuff,” he said as he pointed towards the tray. I saw several boxes of cereal, small milk cartons, a few juice cartons, a couple homemade waffles, two plates full of scrambled eggs, muffins, and some toast.

  “Geez,” I said with a laugh. “You grab the whole buffet or what?”

  “I didn’t know what you wanted, so I took a little of everything,” he said proudly.

  I pulled a chair out from the table and grabbed a few things off the tray, mowing down like nobody’s business. I had to admit that the last few days had made me extremely hungry and given me a new appreciation for food. I never wanted to skip a meal again.

  Raze watched in awe as I gulped down huge drinks of juice and shoved mouthfuls of cereal, scrambled eggs and syrup-drenched waffles in my mouth.

  “What they didn’t feed ya?” Raze laughed.

  I looked up at him in all seriousness and said nothing as I continued to eat.

  “Oh,” he said as he sat back, looking pissed.

  He watched me eat a bit more, almost in awe of how much a small girl like me could inhale in one sitting, and then helped himself to some toast and cereal.

  I ate and ate. I ate until my belly pooched over the waist of my pants and ached with a sick fullness. I leaned back and took a deep breath as I admired the clean plates in front of me.

  “So what’s the plan today?” I asked Raze while he still worked on his food.

  “I thought maybe we could head up north,” he said.

  “North?” I asked.

  “Northern California,” he said. “There are some quaint little towns up there. I thought we could drive around and find one we liked. Stake our claim. Start a life there.”

  My face lit up as butterflies swarmed around my stomach. “That sounds awesome. I think that’s a great idea.”

  Raze smiled, quickly, and returned to his meal.

  “I also thought we could trade in my bike,” he said. “You know, for a boring little sedan or something.”

  I jerked my head to the side. Raze’s bike was his baby. It was his life. It was a part of his identity. I couldn’t expect him to get rid of it.

  “That’s your baby,” I argued. “You’re going to sell it?”

  “New life, remember?” he said as he looked up at me with raised eyebrows. “I don’t want to be in the gang anymore. I want something new. Something better. Something better for us.”

  I nodded as I knew he had a point. He was really serious about this.

  “Before we leave town, we’ll stop at a dealer,” he said. “I’ll see what we can swap for it, even-Steven, and we’ll hit the road and head up north.”

  “Okay,” I said as I couldn’t hide the smile that spread across my face. “Sounds like a plan.”

  We showered, watched a bit of local news for the forecast, and checked out of the hotel. We climbed on his bike and headed towards a local dealership where they happily accepted his trade for a Toyota Camry. It was the most boring yet reliable car on the lot, the salesman told us. It was gray and came with all the standard features Toyota offered. It wasn’t flashy. It wasn’t attention grabbing. It was exactly what Raze had in mind.

  “I want us to fly under the radar for a bit,” he said as we walked inside to sign the paperwork. He reached over and squeezed my hand.

  “Of course,” I said.

  The salesman slapped a stack of paperwork in front of us and circled a bunch of lines for Raze to sign. It almost felt like he was signing his life away, and in a weird enough way, he sort of was.

  We pulled off in our gray Toyota Camry and headed up to northern California to start our new life. We knew exactly what we wanted. A sleepy little seaside town on the coast. Not too big, not to small. Friendly people. Lots of local shops. Quaint restaurants. Affordable housing. We wanted a place with a back yard so we could get a dog. Raze had never had one growing up and had always wanted a yellow lab. He even had a name picked out for it, but he wouldn’t tell me yet. He seemed sort of embarrassed about it.

  A day’s drive and stumbled upon the sweetest little town, and we both knew. We were home.

  “Welcome to the rest of your life,” he said as he leaned over and kissed my forehead.

  My once-rugged alpha male was melting away into the person he was meant to become. When I looked at him, I saw a broken little bird who was determined to live his dreams. And when he looked at me, I saw nothing but hope in his eyes. I had saved his life just as much as he had saved mine.

  I was beginning to fall in love with him. That much I knew. And I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him in that boring little sleepy seaside town.

  EPILOGUE

  Raze and I rented a small, two bedroom house about a mile’s walk from th
e ocean. On clear days, we could sit on our back porch and see the waves crash about the shore. I received my CNA certification and worked at a local nursing home. It didn’t pay much, but I was able to go to nursing school part-time. Just a few more years and I’d be a Registered Nurse. I couldn’t wait. Money would be good then.

  Raze worked at a local mechanic’s shop while we saved up for him to open a shop of his own someday. I told him it was important to have goals, and I think he was staring to realize that.

  Most days, we’d go to work and be home in the evening. Raze would grill out or I’d bake us some sort of frozen dinner. My cooking skills weren’t the greatest, but Raze never complained. We bought a lot of our furniture secondhand and tried our best to make our little rental place our home.