Other than a quick good-bye, she and Holt hadn’t talked after their heated off-road discussion. He’d picked up his stuff at the hotel, left her with a bundle of cash she didn’t want, kissed her cheek and walked out the door. She didn’t know where they stood. Was that the end? Was he leaving her to find Viper and get himself killed? Or was he planning to come back?
Naiya didn’t like uncertainty, and the only way to deal with it was by having a plan. She’d used the last of Ally’s money to buy a cell phone and spent the afternoon responding to interview requests—two in Colorado and one in Hawaii—while wallowing in the ache of missing Holt. How had it gone so wrong?
“Maurice has been calling ever since Doug caught him with his new … that girl,” Ally said. “Doug met up with him for a drink, and Maurice told him he’d made a huge mistake. He wanted to see you to explain, so Doug told him what was happening. He’s worried about you on the run with an outlaw biker. Do you want to see him?”
It took Naiya a second to realize Ally had asked her a question. The minute she’d mentioned Maurice, Naiya had switched off. “I’m in Conundrum.”
“And I’m heading your way as soon as I get off work,” Ally said. “I’m not leaving my girl alone in a strange town when she’s hiding out in a hotel, all broken up over her biker walking out on her, and she’s being chased by cops and psychopaths. The question is: do you want me to bring Maurice? He wants to come to see you. He says you can stay at his place and he’ll look after you.”
Naiya leaned back in her chair, fiddled with the computer mouse on the table. “Maurice who lay on his couch as I walked through the streets in the dark wants to look after me?” She couldn’t imagine Maurice shooting someone like Leo or facing off against an ATF agent or pulling a gun on the president of an outlaw MC, but then she and Maurice had led a pretty sedate life. They both worked hard, went to the gym, met up a few evenings a week and usually spent the weekends watching movies and walking in the park. Calm. Predictable. Safe. Just what she needed after stabbing a biker, going on the run, becoming an accessory to murder, stealing motorcycles, and threatening to shoot someone with what she was pretty sure was an unregistered weapon.
“Doug thought he sounded genuine,” Ally continued. “Maybe you should just hear him out. Even if you don’t get involved with him again, you need friends right now, and although I still want to poke out his eyes for what he did to you, he’s definitely not involved with the kind of people who could hurt you.”
“Bring him along.” Naiya sighed. “I’ll hear him out. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind feeling like a normal person again, having a normal conversation and just hanging out with people I know who aren’t going to shoot someone or steal something or ride a motorcycle at one hundred miles an hour and almost get me killed.”
“Does that mean it’s totally over with Holt?” Ally hesitated. “I kinda liked him. He was an over-the-top hunk of alpha loving, and he was totally into you.”
“He’s a biker, Ally.” Naiya rolled over the bed and picked up Holt’s shirt. “I like him—more than like him, but I can’t go where he’s going. He had a falling out with his biker brothers, but I don’t think it’s a forever thing. They let him walk out of there unharmed because they care about him. I’m sure he’ll be back with them at some point, and there is no way I’m ever getting involved with a club again. I’m a science geek, and I’m planning to spend the rest of my life in a crime lab. I need a secure future and a stable guy. I’ve already got three job interviews lined up, and I’ve just been offered—”
“Science geeks don’t shoot guns,” Ally said, cutting her off. “They don’t go on the run with outlaw bikers, jab them with needles, steal weapons, and pull the wool over the eyes of an ATF agent. They don’t fuck a man they barely know who is the total opposite of Maurice.”
“That’s pretty specific for an over-generalization.” She pushed away from the desk and walked over to the window.
“When I saw you at the motel, you looked different. You looked alive … like you’d just woken up. Your eyes sparkled, and, although it was a scary situation, you looked like you were excited and having fun.”
“Being chased by Viper isn’t fun.” She stared at all the normal people living their normal lives—shopping, walking, eating, and laughing. One day, that would be her. One day she would be free. “It’s the last thing I ever wanted.”