Page 50 of The Devil's Escape


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She stalks inside without an invitation. “No, they’re fine.”

I shut the door turning to face her, my stomach tightening at the expression on her face. She’s a mixture of angry and defiant, but also with a small hint of fear coating everything just under the surface. “What the hell is going on around here?” she demands, her voice a low hiss as she moves closer to me.

“What do you mean?”

Her eyes narrow. “Don’t try that clueless bullshit with me. I’m not blind, and everyone acting like I am is bullshit. You think I’m not noticing the tension going on with those other MC guys? Or that they’re sitting in their little huddles quietly, talking, and watching us? I’m also not allowed to work on the Cobra guy alone if he needs anything. Medic or one of your guys always has to be there. Are you that worried that he’d hurt me? What about the kids? Are they not safe here with these guys? Tell me whatever the hell is going on, or we’re leaving, and I’ll take my chances getting the kids out of the state, or the fucking country.”

The thought of her leaving makes my stomach twist, and a denial rises in my throat. I’ve been around enough of the women, however, to know that will do nothing but piss her off and probably have her take a shot at my balls or punch me in the face.

“The kids are safe,” I assure her, my tone firm. “As for the Misfits, it’s complicated.”Understatement of the year, but this is club business, after all. “They’re an outlaw MC and they run things differently than we do here. So they don’t understand why we do some things the way we do. Also, their man not being taken but beaten has them riled up a bit, and I get it. They want revenge on Vlad, and they’re not getting it yet, which is upsetting them. As for you only being around Cobra with Medic, it’s because despite you helping out, you are not an Old Lady, and under MC rules, so you’re technically fair game. Which means that Medic or one of the brothers being there means that we’re making it known to the other MC that you’re under our protection, even if you’re not an Old Lady or one of the club girls.”

“And you think he would just grab me and force me?” she hisses, eyes swirling with fury.

“No, no, I’m not saying that,” I rush out. “Look, in an outlaw MC, women who hang around the club that aren’t in arelationship with one of the men are normally considered club girls, and they’re there for a good time. It also means they’re fair game for wanting hookups. And nothing wrong with that, because the women there want that, and they don’t care who they end up with. We don’t run that way here, but they do. We have club girls, but they are all here of their own free will, and they have to okay any contact of any kind with the brothers. We just want to make it clear to the Misfits that we don’t run our club that way. You might not be in a relationship with one of us, or a club girl, but that doesn’t mean they get to try and convince you to hook up with one of them.”

Her face stays hard. “And Isla? Do I have to worry about one of them going after her? She’s fifteen.”

“Never,” I assure her fiercely. “No one would ever go after a kid, and that goes across both clubs. Outlaws might not like the law, but there are ones that no one would dare cross, and that is at the top of the list. The only reason we’re keeping a guard on the kids is so that Vlad’s men don’t try to take them if we get busy or distracted with something he’s done.” I step a little closer, needing her to see and feel how serious I am. “You are safe here, Avery. I promise. The kids are safe. No one is going to hurt any of you. I’ll make sure of it myself.”

“How are you going to do that, exactly? You’re still recovering, and everyone is out dealing with what I’m assuming is Vlad and that ice goon of his. You can’t be with us all the time.”

“I can, actually. Bullet asked me to be the guard for you three for the most part, with someone else changing out every so often to give me time to relax.” She opens her mouth, which I’m sure is to tell me I’m not supposed to be working, but I quickly continue, “I’m not spending the rest of my life in a bed and healing, angel. I’m a man who’s used to getting up and getting things done, no matter what. The military drilled that into me and I’m not about to stop now. Besides, hanging around withyou and the kids isn’t going to be a hardship.” I grin. “It might just be an interesting educational experience.”

Her expression loses some of the anger, but there’s still some lingering. I can work with that. “That’s one way of putting it. Isla is a terror, always has been, and she has no problem in saying things like it is. I’m good with that, as long as she’s not being mean or rude. She has her moments when she needs to be corrected, but she’s good about learning from them and not doing it again. Sawyer’s the opposite. He’s a lot quieter, but he’s also stubborn as a mule and sometimes needs to be reminded that it’s not his way or the highway, and that he doesn’t have to bottle everything up. It’s an interesting balancing act.”

“I can see it.” I’m actually excited to get to know them both better. They seem like good kids, but that’s something to figure out later.

She eyes me before sighing heavily. “Hulk, I’m telling you right now that if anything happens to my brother or sister, there is going to be hell to pay, and I don’t care who thinks they can get in my way. Vlad will be the least of anyone’s worries, and I don’t care about your alliance with another MC. Are we clear?” The intensity in her blue eyes is hard to mistake and I find myself nodding, even though I probably should be more concerned that she just outright threatened us.

“Crystal. I promise that everything will be okay, Avery.”

“Don’t promise something that you don’t know you can keep, big guy. Nothing in life is for sure, and even if you’re not the one that causes the pain, things might not turn out perfect. Just promise me, that if shit goes south, you’ll make sure they are taken care of. I don’t care how you do it, but make sure that they are in a safe place, and someone will make sure they do all the things that teenagers are supposed to, and they go to the schools they want to.”

I don’t like the direction that her thoughts are going. “Avery, don’t talk like you’re expecting everything to go bad. I don’t make statements like that lightly.”

She shakes her head. “Hulk, nothing is perfect, and when you’re dealing with men like Vlad and Nikolai, nothing is guaranteed. And things always seem to go bad. My mother is an addict, and she was a bad one for most of my childhood. She only started getting better when she met the kids’ father. She got clean for him, but it wasn’t long enough. She started going right back to it the minute they were in school, and even though she hid it, I always knew. You learn the signs when you’ve grown up around it and it’s made me realistic. That is why I’m being realistic about this too. And there is a good chance that Vlad and his men will try to get to me again, and while you all are great, you can’t guarantee one hundred percent that they won’t grab me and kill me. Or hire someone else to do it for them. So that is why I’m telling you that you need to promise me that you are going to take care of them if something happens to me.”

I don’t want to agree because it feels like I’ll be saying that she’s right in thinking that she’s going to not make it out of this entire situation alive. I’m not going to let that happen. Ever. And I want that very clear to her. She protected me, and now it’s my turn to protect her.

I step closer, our bodies brushing. She doesn’t step away, but her eyes widen slightly. “I understand why you’re thinking that.” I cup her jaw, holding her face in place so she can’t look away from me. I need her to hear me, and see how important my words are. “But I need you to hear me when I say this, Avery. I won’t allow anything to happen to you or your siblings. I will protect all of you, no matter what. I’m not making promises that I can’t keep,” I add quickly when she opens her mouth to argue. “This is what I do. Our club owns a security company, both for bodyguards, as well as security systems, and I work there. It’s myjob to keep people safe, and I take it very seriously. Even more so when the people I’m protecting matter to me. So I need you to hear me, Avery, when I say that I will keep you safe. I will keep Sawyer and Isla safe.”

“You don’t know me,” Avery points out, her tone reasonable, but her eyes search mine. “And I know you’re going to do your best, Hulk. I don’t want you to think I don’t believe that, but I’m pragmatic, and I need to think everything through. When it comes down to it, if you have the choice to save the men in your club and me and my siblings, you’re not going to pick us. That’s not the way it works, even I know that, and I barely know anything about MCs.”

Before I was taken, I’d have agreed with her. My club is my top priority, but being here with her now, I’m not so sure. Uncertainty is starting to creep in, but that’s something to worry about later. Right now, I need to convince my devilish angel to give me a shot to prove her wrong. “We would never let that happen. We keep women and children out of this fight as much as possible. As for knowing you, we’ll get there soon enough. I plan on finding out everything I can about you. Your favorite foods, what makes you tick, what makes you smile and laugh, and what makes your eyes sparkle the way they did earlier.” I smirk, unable to resist teasing her a little bit. “You know, when you were staring at my cock after I got naked.”

I half expect her to blush and look away in embarrassment. Instead, her lips pull up into a mocking smirk, and her brow arches. “I was staring at how a man so big can have something so small.”

I bark out a laugh. We both know that’s a crock of shit, but I’m not easily offended. Besides, I like a woman who can keep me on my toes with what’s going to come out of her mouth. Probably why Rose and I get along so well. “Mmmm, you sure about that?”

She gives a small chuckle. “Yeah, I’m pretty sure about that. If this was any other time or place, I’d make you show me again so I can prove that I’m right, but considering you’re still recovering, and I have things to do, we’re going to have to put it on hold.”

My cock hardens at her words—and it is definitely not fucking small—and I murmur, “Angel, any injuries I have has nothing to do with my cock and making you scream my name. I’ll just have to take you from behind so you don’t try to claw my back as you come.”

Her eyes heat at my words, and a delicate shiver makes her tremble against me. “Are you trying to seduce me, Hulk?”

I lower my mouth to brush along the other side of her jaw, and my hand cupping the other side of her jaw moves to the nape of her neck, holding her still. “I’m thinking about it. Do you have a problem with that?” I press a gentle kiss to her chin, and then up along the outer edges of her mouth.

Avery’s eyes flutter close briefly before they open again to stare back into mine when I pull away just enough to see her clearly. “Are you sure this isn’t just some kind of trauma response with everything we’ve been going through?” she whispers. “You’ve been through a lot, Hulk, and you might be confusing desire with gratitude or something and I don’t?—”