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  "Can I let go of you now?" he asked, and grudgingly, I nodded my head.

  Jamison released his grip on me, and I stumbled back a little as I tried to steady myself.

  "I didn't think it was going to be this hard to keep you in one place," he said, with a grin, as we stood to face each other. I wasn't exactly in the mood for small-talk, but it was way better than being stuck inside with Ryan with his knife at my throat.

  "What are they doing in there?" I asked him, throwing a look back at the door over my shoulder.

  "Thorn is taking care of business," Jamison said, crossing his arms over his chest. I licked my lips and blinked rapidly. I still needed some time before I could feel like myself again. I still wasn't used to the fact that I was out in the open now, free to go. Yet, there was nowhere I wanted to be, but here, right with Thorn.

  "Look, Miss," Jamison began again, and I crossed my brows.

  "Call me Ensley, please," I said, and he grinned at me again.

  "Okay, Ensley, I just wanted to tell you, because I'm fairly sure that Thorn won't tell you exactly what happened. He might take all the blame on himself for what happened to you, but the truth is that it was all my fault," he said. I shook my head and rubbed a hand over my forehead.

  "It doesn't matter, Jamison. I'm safe now. You guys rescued me. That is all that matters," I said to him, and he clenched his jaw and took in a deep breath.

  "I was supposed to be on duty, I was supposed to keep an eye on you the whole time, and stupidly, I thought it would be okay to go for a smoke break downstairs. I swear I wasn't gone for more than fifteen minutes," he said, and I could see the look of apology in his eyes.

  "Jamison, it's fine. You don't have to apologize to me. Ryan would have found me one way or another. He would have gotten to me, I know it," I replied, and he nodded his head slowly. I didn't know what Thorn had said to him, but I could see that he was extremely guilty.

  I would have said something more to reassure him, but at that moment, we heard a loud thud come from the room.

  "Thorn!" I shrieked, and before Jamison could get to me, I had already started running towards the door. In my panic, I was sure that Thorn had been shot. That he was dying.

  "Ensley!" I heard Jamison yell for me, but I had already pushed open the door.

  In the room, I saw the other men huddled in a circle, with Thorn standing in the middle. Ryan was lying in front of him, he had clearly thudded against the wall. There was blood on the wall behind him and a bleeding gunshot wound in his head.

  The men turned to look at me, and so did Thorn.

  "Ensley, you shouldn't be here," he said to me, in a low guttural voice. There was a rage in his eyes, but when he saw the look of horror on my face, his green eyes softened.

  I let out a whimper when I saw Ryan's fallen body on the floor. I didn't know whether to be horrified that he was dead, or feel happy and relieved.

  Thorn pushed past his friends, and stuffing his gun into his belt, he came towards me. Thorn was carrying a gun? I didn't even realize that he was armed. What else did I expect from a man like him?

  "Ensley, are you okay?" I heard him say, and my eyes adjusted to his face.

  I couldn't speak. It was like my lips were glued shut together.

  "I had to do this. He hurt you. He kept hurting you. He would have come after you again. He would have hurt other women…" Thorn was trying to justify himself to me, and I looked up at him with understanding in my eyes.

  "I don't need an explanation, Thorn. I'm happy you did what you did. He deserved it. He would have killed me if he had the chance," I said, and Thorn threw his arms around me and pulled me close to himself. The moment the words left my mouth, I knew it was true. Ryan would have stopped at nothing to get me back. This was the only way I would finally be safe.

  "Are you all right?" I heard him ask as I buried my face in his chest. I clung on to his biceps like I was holding him for dear life. I nodded my head, and he pulled himself away from me. His eyes were searching mine, looking at my face repeatedly.

  "You're bleeding," he said and traced the trail of blood from my nose with his finger. His eyes flitted over my face till he found the other bruises and scratches.

  "What did he do to you?" he growled, and I licked my lips and looked into Thorn's eyes.

  "He's dead now. I'm safe. We can go home," I said, and the words got stuck in my throat. What was home? My apartment wasn't his home, was it? He had a rented hotel room near me. He had his own apartment in Pomona to go back to. What was I talking about?

  I felt my cheeks flush and I dragged my gaze away from him.

  "I meant that we can get out of here," I said and slowly, Thorn released his hold on me. He was nodding his head, and I could feel a flutter in my heart somewhere. Did this mean that he was coming back with me?

  "Jamison, take Ensley home, and stay at her door till I tell you to," Thorn said. I shook my head in panic again.

  "We all need to go. The cops could get here any moment!" I squealed, but I felt Jamison's hands close in on my shoulders already. He was beginning to pull me away from Thorn again.

  "We're going to deal with this before the cops get here. This is why you need to go, Ensley, please listen to me," Thorn said, and now he had taken on a commanding tone of voice which I knew I had to abide by.

  I couldn't say anything more. Thorn had already made his decision. I was going to have to go back with Jamison, and he was going to remain here with the others, and clean up the mess.

  I looked back at Thorn before we left the motel room. He was standing with his arms crossed over his expansive chest. His green eyes were glowing in the dim light of the motel room. He looked tall and muscular as he stood there and I knew he was my savior. I knew I had made the right decision by hiring him as my protector.

  I didn't think about Ryan, I didn't even look at him. My body and brain might have still been in shock. Like a machine, I followed Thorn's orders and allowed Jamison to lead me to his bike. I sat behind him as he rode me back to my apartment, and the whole time, I could only think of Thorn and when I was going to see him again.

  Chapter 29

  Thorn

  "What are we going to do about this?" Brooks was the one who asked the million dollar question, while the rest of us stared at Ryan's fallen body.

  The cops weren't going to show up now because nobody had heard anything, but in the morning, it would be impossible to keep a dead body hidden.

  "We get rid of it?" Beckett suggested, and I grunted as I thought. That was an idea, but lugging a corpse around, no matter what time of the night; was just a trap waiting for us to fall into.

  "We don't have cars. How are we going to transport this on our bikes without being caught?" I asked, and Beckett shrugged his shoulders and looked away. I stared at Ryan's pale face. I didn't regret killing him. I regretted that I hadn't got to him sooner before he could get to Ensley.

  "We need to do something quickly. The sun is going to rise pretty soon," Topher spoke up, and I knew he was right. Time was running out on us.

  "We stage the scene," I said and looked up at my brothers.

  "Suicide?" Topher asked, and I nodded my head.

  "Start with removing all evidence of Ensley being in this room," I told Beckett and Topher.

  "Brooks, you and I have to make sure that Ryan looks like he shot himself," I added.

  Within minutes, all of us had set to work. The two of them were wiping down chairs and the bed, looking for evidence of blood drops or pieces of torn clothing. There were flashlights in Becket's holder in his bike, and we used them to look into every corner and inch of the motel room.

  Brooks and I, on the other hand, wiped down my gun and placed it in Ryan's hand. Luckily, I had been wearing my riding gloves, but we still wiped the gun clean to be sure. Brooks, besides being an expert hacker, was also an expert at crime scenes. He knew exactly how to position Ryan's body and how to position the gun; in a way that it was going to be believable for a
crime scene investigator and a medical examiner; that the guy had shot himself.

  This wasn't the first time that Brooks was doing this job for us, and he knew exactly the kinds of clues that detectives and police officers looked for in a scene like this.

  Thankfully I hadn't shot Ryan straight on in the head. The gunshot was at an angle, so Brooks was able to make it believable that Ryan turned the gun on himself.

  I made Brooks go over every last detail, including the work that the other two had done. I wanted them to look over everything as many times as it took, to make sure that there was nothing suspicious about the scene.

  We had to create an illusion that Ryan was alone in the room, and then in a state of depression, had shot himself. Every evidence of Ensley had to be removed from the room. I didn't want this to ever get back to her. Now that I had her safe and away from harm's way, I wanted it to remain that way.

  "All done, boss," Topher said. I looked at Brooks who nodded his head, and I smiled at the others.

  "Good job, brothers. It's all done," I said and together, we walked out of the motel room and got on our bikes.

  Behind us, dawn was cracking. The sun had just begun to rise up the horizon, and there was an orange glow all over the sky. The four of us were headed in different directions. The others were headed to Pomona, and I was headed towards Ensley. I needed to see her again.

  ***

  I parked my bike outside Ensley's apartment building, and I could already see Jamison's bike there.

  I could feel all my limbs beginning to ache now. When was the last time I had gotten any sleep? When did I even eat last? None of that mattered though, and I rushed up the stairs and rapped on her door. Jamison took a few moments to open, and when he did, I barged into the apartment. Ensley was sitting huddled on her couch, and I could see that Jamison had made her some tea and a plate of sandwiches.

  "All good?" he asked me, while I stared at Ensley. I had eyes only for her.

  "All good," I said.

  Ensley looked tired when I first walked into the apartment, but now suddenly, there was a renewed brightness in her eyes. The tops of her cheeks had bright red spots on them, and the velvet throw she had wrapped around herself came undone.

  "I guess I should be going now," Jamison said, as I took my first few steps towards Ensley.

  "Yeah, you should go," I said.

  "Thank you for everything, Jamison," Ensley said, looking over my shoulder at Jamison's retreating figure.

  I heard the door shut behind me, and we were looking at each other again.

  "You're here," Ensley said, and there was a soft smile tugging the corners of her lips.

  "And so are you," I said, and she blushed even harder.

  "I didn't expect you to come back here. Not tonight," she said, and I stepped even closer to her.

  "Well, technically it's early morning. It's the next day," I said to her, and she rolled her eyes. I was glad to see that she still had a sense of humor.

  "You know what I mean, Thorn," she said and held my gaze intensely. I did know what she meant, but I wanted to hear the words from her mouth. We had been dancing around this for way too long. It was time that we discussed the subject that should have been discussed from the first night I spent at her apartment.

  "Tell me what you mean, Ensley," I said, and now I was standing right over her. She was craning her neck to look up at me. Her blue eyes were bright with excitement, and I had forgotten all about the fact that I needed to sleep.

  ***

  I took Ensley into my arms, and my lips covered hers. She opened her mouth to me, and my tongue slipped in between her lips. She tasted just as sweet as I remembered her, and she clung to me tightly.

  As we kissed, I lifted her off the couch, and she wrapped her legs around my groin. My hands were around her waist, her hands were on my chest, and I could already feel my cock hardening in my pants.

  We both knew what was going to happen. What always happened when we were alone together. It was like she had some kind of invisible hold over me and I couldn't shake it off. But we needed to talk first. Before we got naked with each other again.

  "Ensley," I said her name gravely when I pulled my lips away from her. She was peering into my eyes, looking at me longingly.

  "I want to make sure that you're doing okay," I said, and she let her legs drift down, and unwrapped herself from me. Her eyes were flooding up with tears again, and I could feel that familiar feeling rising up in me again.

  "I hate seeing you cry," I grunted, and she dabbed the corners of her eyes with her knuckles.

  "I'm crying from relief," she said, with a weak laugh. Then she lifted herself up on her toes and reached to leave a kiss on my cheek.

  "I'm happy, Thorn. I'm relieved that this is all over now. I can finally go to sleep tonight and not be afraid," she said, and then she gave her hand to me.

  Ensley was leading me into her bedroom, and I had no other choice but to follow her. I could see that she had tidied up the room after all the mess that Ryan had left it in when he'd abducted her from the room. I could also sense that it was not something that she wanted to talk about.

  "Ensley, I'm sorry that this happened to you, under my watch," I said, and she turned to me and shook her head.

  "I don't blame anyone but myself. Ryan was going to find me eventually. Jamison blames himself too, but you have no idea how grateful I am to you and your MC for rescuing me. You have all done a good job, and I want you to know that" she said and sat down on her bed.

  I was standing in front of her, watching her as she spoke.

  What had I done to deserve the company of this woman? Why was she even interested in still talking to me? What did she see in me that I didn't?

  A smile was spreading on Ensley's face.

  "Thorn, I need you to stop worrying about me," she said, and I stepped up to her. I took her face in my hands and pressed her cheeks to my stomach as I stroked her head.

  "You will never have to be afraid again," I said, and she looked up at me and nodded her head.

  "And it's all because of you. You made that happen, thank you," she said, and I leaned forward and kissed her lips again. There was so much that I needed to tell her. I needed her to know how I felt about her, but I didn't have the words for it. I didn't know what to say to explain to her what I was feeling.

  "Thorn, I'm glad you came back, that you came here," she said when we parted again. I stroked her forehead and her head. I was in her bedroom. We were alone together in her apartment. There was only one thing this was going to lead to, but for the first time in my life; I wanted more than just sex from a woman.

  "There was nowhere else for me to go," I replied, and I watched as Ensley's eyes widened. That was not the response she was expecting from me. That was not what I was expecting to say either.

  "I'm glad we bumped into each other than night. I'm glad that stupid hipster was hitting on me," she added with a laugh, and now I took her into my arms again. I was biding my time to say the words, but how long was I going to keep it to myself?

  "Ensley, I'm in love with you," I said in a rush, and when the words came out of my mouth, there was a serene silence in the room. It was like I could hear the light bulbs glowing in the room, I could hear her breathing and my own heart beating.

  I had never said that word. I didn't even know what that word sounded like aloud, coming from me.

  Ensley gasped when she heard it and then stood up with a jerk.

  "I'm in love with you too, Thorn," she said and threw her arms around my neck.

  I was holding her close to myself like I wasn't prepared to ever let her go. She was the most amazing thing that had happened to me, and even though I thought I had lost her there for a while, she was back in my arms again now. And she loved me! She felt the same things that I was feeling for her!

  We fell into bed together, still wrapped up in each other's arms. I whispered in her ear, everything that I wanted to do to her, and she giggled
and snuggled even closer to me.

  Outside her room, the sun was rising, and the sky had turned bright. The rest of the city was going to be waking up, and we had just gotten into bed. As much as I loved her, and as desperately as I wanted to fuck her again, with Ensley in my arms and with the threat gone now-we were both falling asleep. It was going to be the best sleep of our lives.

  Epilogue

  Two Months Later

  Ensley

  "Without my boyfriend Thorn, I wouldn't be where I am today. Family is everything," I said, just as a crowd of cheer rang out in the audience. It was another talk show and another host whose questions I had to answer.

  These days, I made it a point to be thankful every day for the blessings I had in my life. One of the most important of which, was having Thorn there with me. Waking up beside him was a blessing. I had never felt more valued and never been more in love before.

  In the past two months, I had recovered everything. It was only after being in a relationship with Thorn that I had discovered how deeply Ryan had affected me. I had regained my confidence, I had regained self-love, and slowly, I was also starting to rebuild my lost relationship with friends from my past and family. Not all hope was lost, and Thorn had been a major influence in that.

  Being with him had shown me that I could have both, a loving relationship and my own life.

  Everything I had thought about Thorn when he had first walked into the bar that night was wrong. I had misjudged him and stereotyped him. Yes, he was a hard man, toughened by the life he led. Yes, he was the President of a Motorcycle Club, and at some point, they had been involved in businesses that were illegal and dangerous. However, now, they were running a legitimate protection agency, and no matter how tough Thorn's exterior was, he was the softest most genuine man inside. I was a lucky woman, even though he never forgot to show me how lucky he was to have me either.

  I unclipped the microphone from my lapel and stood up from the couch. I shook hands with the host of the talk show and slowly made my way to the back of the studio while waving at the audience who were still cheering.