A shudder ran through Naiya’s body at his brutal words, his harsh tone and his cold, hard stare. She saw nothing of the man who had promised to protect her, but instead, a Sinner intent on revenge. She’d suspected he might be using her, but she never thought he would take it this far.
Leo must have seen Holt’s resolve, too. In one swift move, he shoved Naiya to the side and fired. “You don’t fucking touch her.”
His shot went straight through the space where Holt had been standing only moments before. Too late, Leo realized his mistake. Out in the open, he had nowhere to go when Holt returned fire from the cover of the bush. A shot cracked the silence, and Leo dropped to his knees, firing blindly into the trees. Holt fired again and again until Leo crumpled and fell to the ground.
Shocked, Naiya couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. She’d spent the last few years analyzing dead bodies, watching autopsies, and staring at pictures that would make ordinary people cringe. She’d hung out at the Black Jacks’ clubhouse and various biker hangouts. And yet, she’d never seen anyone actually shot before. Bile rose in her throat. How had she thought of Holt as anything other than the violent, ruthless outlaw he was? How had she let her guard down?
She pushed herself to her feet and took one step back, then another. Holt seemed oblivious to her presence, his gaze focused on the unmoving man in the dirt. Taking a deep breath, Naiya turned and ran.
A bullet thudded into the tree beside her head. She froze mid-step and slowly turned around, blood rushing through her ears so fast she could barely hear her own rasping breaths.
“You’re not going anywhere.” Holt’s voice was flat, savage, dark like the gun aimed at her heart.
Naiya swallowed hard. “I know you want your revenge on Viper. But please don’t use me.”
“Get on the bike.” Holt gestured to Leo’s Harley Davidson, partially hidden in the trees.
“Let me go,” she said softly, pleading. “I won’t tell anyone about Leo or the guard at the Black Jack clubhouse. I’ll leave the state. You’ll never see me again.”
“On. The. Bike.” He enunciated each word, his voice increasing in pitch.
“Holt. Please.” Naiya heard a rustle in the bushes behind her. Holt’s gaze snapped over her shoulder, and he continued his steady pace.
“Jesus Christ, Naiya. Get on the fucking bike.” He walked toward her, holding his gun level with her chest. There was no point running. She had no chance against a bullet. But she wasn’t getting on the damn bike either. No way was she making this easy for him, even if her knees shook and she had to fight back the wave of nausea that gripped her stomach. She shivered and his expression darkened.
“You think I’m gonna hurt you?”
She wrapped her arms around her body, hugged herself tight. “I think you’re going to do what it takes to bring down Viper, regardless of who gets in the way.”
“Damn right I am.” He lunged for her, slid his hand around her nape, yanked her into his chest … And fired.
*
Holt tightened his grip on Naiya, as the Black Jack who had been watching them from the bushes went down. Fucker made more noise than a bunch of bikers at a patch-in party. Hell, when Jagger had given him his cut, the Sinners cheered so loudly he thought the roof would fall in.
“Shhhh. I’m not shooting at you.” He brushed his lips over her ear when she tried to back away, but tight in his grip, she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Let me go.”
He slid his hand down to her waist, pulled her trembling body against him. “Gotta make sure there’s no more Jacks about.”
Naiya’s hands slid between them, and she leaned back and thudded his chest with her fist. “You were going to kill me. You were going to use me to get back at Viper.”
Holt scanned the forest around them. “Keep it down. No telling who else is around.”
“Good. I want them to find us. Viper might hurt me, but at least I’ll be alive.”
He looked down at her face, twisted with anger. For one fleeting second, he had considered the possibility of offing her to stick it to Viper. The bastard wanted her bad if he was sending his top brass out this far out to track her down, especially when the Jacks were in the middle of a war with the Sinners. But almost immediately the thought disappeared beneath the overwhelming urge to protect her. She was intimately tied to his quest for vengeance. But more than that, they were connected in a way he still didn’t understand. He couldn’t bear the thought of her in danger, or at the mercy of the Jacks. He would never allow it. They had rescued each other. Now, she belonged to him.
“I said I’d protect you. If I killed you, I’d be breaking my word.”