VENDETTA: A Bad Boy, Motorcycle Club Romance by Lauren Devane Page B

because I’d already seen the gentleness cloaked by his big body and gorgeous muscles that I just wanted to lick. The thought of him injuring me didn’t even cross my mind, as long as he didn’t find out about my uncle. Not all men were Dale, hurting women because they could. But the one thing I wanted in my entire life was to have power, to have control over myself and my destiny.
    Flash made me want to give that up, that power, that future, so I could stay with him.
    The second day after leaving the villa, after we’d grabbed a few hours of sleep, we’d stopped so he could put some gas in the bike.
    “Should have fueled up in the city,” he said through teeth clenched around his wallet. I reached for it and pulled it from his mouth, freeing him to talk. The merest brush of his lips against my fingers made me light up inside again. I remembered sucking them on the bed, the rough slide of his skin over my lips.
    “I’m glad we stopped,” I told him, taking a few steps back, then coming forward again. “I needed to walk around a little. Plus, it’s beautiful here.” Out in the distance, red rocks lined the horizon, reminding me of Arizona where my parents had taken me once. I knew that as the sun moved, their colors would change and dim with the light.
    “Do you want to stop and eat a real meal?”
    “Do you think we should?”
    “Probably not.” I’d hoped for a different answer, but accepted the one he gave me. Knowing him for such a short time still made me believe that Flash was an honest man. If he thought it was safe for us to stop and eat something heartier than we had, we would be stopping. He wasn’t the kind of person who’d force me to stay hungry so I’d be easier to bend to his will.
    Unless he was in such a rush to get rid of me that he was flying for the California border without fear of being pursued.
    Guilt clawed at my throat there by the gas pumps as I thought about what I’d done to him. In my desperation at the villa, I’d talked him into giving me an orgasm that Flash didn’t want to give. The memory of his tongue delving into my pussy, the way I’d screamed under him…it haunted me through every single one of the miles we traversed.
    Never had I given in to someone so completely.
    “When do you think we’ll get to California?” I asked him.
    “A few days,” he said, watching the meter tick up. The station had the old pumps with numbers that flipped instead of newer, digital ones.
    “Do you think someone at the border will help me get a new ID and get into the country?” The fear had been dogging me ever since I realized everything I owned was at the resort. If the border officials required my legal documents, they’d have to get them from Dale—who might not be so happy with federal workers showing up on his property.
    “I’ll get you over the border,” Flash said. “No ID required.”
    “How?”
    “Don’t worry about it.” I got quiet, but there was no way I wasn’t going to worry. If I needed ID and they had to interrupt Dale, I was in deep trouble. It wasn’t like I could just run away from him, because he always tracked me down. It had happened when I was 11. When I was 14. When I was 17.
    I had the scars to prove it.
    Besides, he owed me heaps of money, even if I got paid less than the lowest runner. I’d built the operation into what it was. Selling to Hawaii? My idea. Pushing candles in LA? Mine, too. Dale would still be operating out of a two-bedroom house in the suburbs if I hadn’t decided that helping him deal meth was better than being beaten for fun by his “friends”.
    A dark part of me took pride in the work that I did, too, even if I’d never admit it to anyone. It was a rush and gave me a feeling I’d never gotten from anything else until Flash pushed his head between my thighs.
    “Thank you.”
    “It’s no problem,” he said, still not looking at me. “I’ve gotten people over the border before.”
    “No, really.” I put my hand