My heart started to pound painfully in my chest at the realization I was no longer alone. And, I’d left Harry’s door wide open.
Grabbing Drew’s hoodie, I pulled it over my head and ran headlong down the corridor toward Harry’s room. The bar was just around the corner. All it would take is one of the guys walking to their room to see the gaping void that normally held the door and Harley Davidson sign on it.
I was only a foot from the door when I realized I hadn’t heard any bikes pull up.
Moving forward on my toes now, I tiptoed into Harry’s room, pushing the door closed just enough to leave a tiny gap that I could see through. Whoever was in The Hut wasn’t with the club. If they were, they’d be with someone else. They would be making noise, their bikes announcing them just moments before the jukebox kicked in. I knew this place so well, I could track most of the guys from one side of the building to the other, just by the noises they made.
I rushed to Harry’s nightstand and dropped to my knees, pulling open his drawer of weapons. Grabbing a gun seemed too reckless. If it was Rubin or Tate coming in, even Autumnto check up on me… I couldn’t finish that thought, so I grabbed the switchblade and slipped it under Drew’s long hoodie and into my pocket as a last resort. Just in case I was being paranoid.
I’d barely pushed to my feet again when the door creaked open, and Owen crowded the doorway.
I tried not to frown.
If Owen was here alone, something had to have gone wrong.
“Hey,” I said as relaxed as I could, forcing a smile to my lips. “You’re back early.”
He raised his chin, poison shining out of his eyes. “Why you in here?” he asked roughly.
“I—”
“Cut the shit, Ayda.” He growled, squaring off his shoulders. His hands moved to his back where I knew he was either pulling his knife or his gun. It didn’t really matter which it was. Either way, I was going to be his leverage. “Give me what you have.”
“Can’t do that.”
“Stop fucking around and give me the goddamn papers, bitch!”
I backed deeper into the room toward the desk, my eyes flicking to the drawer where I’d found some of Harry’s porn. It was a classic attempt at misdirection because I wasn’t feeling as panicked as I probably should have done. A part of my mind was calculating the scene, watching his hand on the 9mm that he pulled from the back of his jeans, relaxing as he let his finger sit along the side of the trigger guard, leaving the safety on... for now. The logical part of me was focusing on the door and calculating my odds of getting through it anddown to the safety of Drew’s office before Owen could get a shot at me.
“They in there?” he barked, pointing the gun at the drawer I’d glanced at. I raised my hands and slipped away from the desk, shaking my head, playing the scared little rabbit I used to be. All the while I was rotating us, putting him closer to the desk and myself closer to the door again.
Owen wasn’t stupid, though. Far from it. He moved closer to the desk, but he took off the safety and pointed the gun directly at my chest. “Move again, and I’m going to put a bullet in your head.”
I stilled and watched as he approached the desk, pulling the magazines out, gripping the spines, and shaking them violently. Naked girls rattled on the pages before he dropped one and grabbed another, the gun a constant and steady aim on my chest.
“Why did you do it?” I asked quietly. “Why would you betray the people most loyal to you?”
“You think I’m going to open up and confess all my sins to you, little girl?” He snorted out a bitter laugh, filled with hatred. “You think you can save yourself by spreading those legs and flashing Drew’s tight little bit of cunt at me? I’m not that fucking desperate, and I ain’t in the mood for confessions. Confessions mean you’ve been caught.”
“He’s going to kill you,” I said bluntly, changing my tactics. “He will hunt you down like a rabid dog, and he will kill you in a way that will make your worst nightmares seem pretty.”
“He ain’t that smart.”
“I think you underestimate him.”
“I think I estimate him just fine. He ain’t here, is he?”Owen spread his arms around the room making a point. I sneered at him, baring my teeth, my hatred now boiling in the center of my chest, white hot.
“Only because you ran like the little rat you are.”
That hit its mark. Owen made his way across the room in two steps and backhanded me so hard I could hear bells in my ears as my lip split open and my ass hit the mattress. Standing over me and panting, Owen tried to gather himself, his hands tugging on the edges of his cut, the gun making little metal scrapes against the fasteners.
Just seeing the patch on him made me more reckless. I couldn’t stand the thought of this man getting away from Drew and the others before they had their pound of flesh. I would do what I had to do to keep him talking. Even if it meant five more slaps across my face and a bullet in my chest. I wanted Drew to get his vengeance.
Pushing my tongue against the cut on my lip, I tasted the copper tang of blood and blinked back the tears at the sudden throbbing in my teeth. I wasn’t scared, not really. I was still in full control of my actions, so I swallowed the bitter tasting liquid and smirked.
“That all you got?” I asked smugly.
“Ayda, I’m not fucking with you. I’ll kill you.”