“And it will be like that again. Go with him tomorrow and see the Sinners. Give them a chance.”
He twisted his hand in her hair, gently tugged her head back. “If I go, you’re coming with me.”
“I don’t want to go to a biker clubhouse,” she said, pulling away. “It was hard enough going into a bar. You don’t need me. The Sinners will help you get revenge. And since I’m safe in Conundrum, I can stay here until you do what you have to do, or I find a job in another state. I checked my email when I came back and I’ve got interviews at crime labs in Florida, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. There are lots of options.”
“You don’t leave.” He gripped her shoulders in his massive hands, his face contorted in a mask of pain.
Startled by the vehemence in his tone, she pulled away. “We don’t need each other. You have your club back, a revenge mission to see through. I need to get back to my regular life. We’re different people. We want different things. We live in different worlds, lead different lives. The things you do: stealing, and shooting people, running guns—even if you’re doing them to keep me safe—they aren’t okay with me. I can’t live that kind of life. I’m starting a career where I fight crime. I can’t be a criminal or hang around with a criminal organization.”
“You’re scared,” he said firmly. “And that’s why you should go. You can’t keep hiding. You gotta confront the things that scare you. Nothing’s gonna happen to you when you’re with me. The Sinners aren’t like the Jacks. All bikers aren’t the same.”
Holt was right about one thing. She had spent the last seven years hiding. She’d hidden physically and emotionally, burying all memories of that night so she could forge a new life for herself, untainted by the past. But, of course, it had caught up to her, and she was on the run again. Hiding. Not just from Viper, but also from herself and who she longed to be—a woman free to make her own choices, to live without fear. She wanted to be the Phantom of her own damn story.
“Don’t leave.” He reached for her, pulled her into his chest, leaned down and kissed her. Angry and desperate, his kiss was as much a claiming as a plea, a ravaging of her body and her soul.
She pulled away, gasped for breath, her breasts rising, pressing against the hard muscle of his chest. “Holt. What are you—?”
“I need you,” he said. “You’re mine, and I’m not going to let you go. Whatever I have to do, whatever it takes, however long … If you can’t live the biker life after I’m done with Viper, then I won’t live it. But you can’t leave me. I am nothing, Naiya, if I don’t have you.”
*
Adrenaline pulsed through Holt’s veins, followed by a surge of panic when Naiya tried to pull away. He felt right with her, complete, the way he felt with Tank, but this feeling was deeper, more intense. He’d felt lost without Tank. But if Naiya left, he would be destroyed.
With a fierce hold, he cupped the back of her neck and kissed her deeply, trying to tell her with his actions what he couldn’t say in words. He was totally and utterly raw, emotionally exposed, flayed by Tank’s revelation and Naiya’s threat to walk away.
Naiya smoothed the damp hair from his temples. “Is that a request?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be. Just so long as it means you aren’t walking out that door.” His future was no longer neatly laid out, his plan for vengeance no longer clear. All he knew for certain was that he’d been looking for something all his life and he’d found it with her. She was the only thing that made sense in the world. She was sweet in his arms but strong enough to defy him, beautiful and brave, stubborn and sexy. He had been through hell and survived, and his reward had come in the form of a woman who could bend but not break, challenge but not conform, submit but not surrender. Naiya was his. Totally, utterly, and irrevocably. And he would never let her go.
She gave him a slow, sensual kiss that sent all his blood rushing to his groin. “I have a feeling even if I did leave, you’d follow me.”
“To the ends of the earth.”
Naiya knew him in his new skin. Cared about him even though he didn’t know what it was about this new Holt that would attract a woman like her. He didn’t need to flirt or tease or seduce. He wasn’t the “good guy,” mediating his way through disputes, playing jokes, or being everyone’s best friend. The new Holt was demanding and controlling. Impatient. Serious. So far removed from the self he knew, he would be lost without Naiya to anchor him to the ground. He needed her now. Needed to claim her, body and soul.