Claimed by the outlaw king

Riding into the dark

CHAPTER FIVE

Jaxon's POV

I knew something was wrong the moment her arms went around me. Annalise had been holding on since we left Manchester, but this was different. Her fingers dug into my jacket. Her body was pressed hard against my back, and she was shaking, not from the cold but from fear.

I glanced at the mirror. Three sets of headlights followed us through the darkness. Too close and too organized. They weren’t random drivers. They were hunting us.I twisted the throttle. The bike surged forward. Annalise made a small sound behind me and tightened her grip.

“Hold on,” I shouted.

She didn’t answer. I didn’t need her to. I could feel her trembling through the leather of my jacket. I hated that. Not the trembling. The fact that it bothered me. I spent years teaching myself not to care. Caring makes you weak. It makes you hesitate and hesitation gets people killed. I learned that lesson long before I became president of the Black Vipers. Long before men started calling me Guns. Long before, people looked at me and saw a man they were supposed to fear. I had buried too many people to believe attachment was anything other than a liability.

Yet there she was. A woman I barely knew. A woman who had spent the last few hours discovering that her quiet life had been built on a lie and every time she shook against me, something inside me demanded that I protect her. I hated that feeling. I hated it more than I could explain. I checked the mirror again. The vehicles were still there. One black SUV. Another behind it and a third hanging farther back.

Whoever was behind this had resources and they weren’t giving up. I pushed the bike harder. The city was long behind us now. Manchester’s lights had disappeared, replaced by dark stretches of road and the occasional lonely farmhouse. The Peak District rose ahead of us like a shadow. I knew these roads, every bend, every narrow lane, every place where the pavement disappeared into darkness.

That knowledge was the only advantage we had. I leaned into a turn. Annalise gasped behind me.

“Sorry.”

The word slipped out before I could stop it. I frowned. I don’t apologize, not to anyone, but she didn’t seem to hear me. Her breathing was uneven, too fast. I could feel every breath against my back.

“Annalise.”

Nothing.

“Annalise, talk to me.”

“I…”

Her voice cracked.

“I can’t.”

“You can.”

“No, I can’t.”

She sounded close to tears.

I slowed slightly.

“Look at me.”

“How?”

“Just listen to my voice.”

She was silent.

“Breathe.”

“I am breathing.”

“Not properly.”

She gave a shaky laugh. It was so small I almost missed it.

“I don’t know how to do this.”

Neither did I. I knew how to shoot, how to fight, how to disappear, how to make men twice my size beg for mercy. I knew how to run an organization built on violence and loyalty, but I had no idea how to comfort a terrified woman sitting behind me. So I did the only thing I could.

“Keep your arms around me.”

Her fingers tightened.

“I’ve got you.”

The words left my mouth before I could think better of them. Silence followed. Then her forehead rested against my back. My jaw clenched.

Damn it.

I shouldn’t have said that, I shouldn’t have meant it.

But I did.

I had promised Clara. Four years ago, she had stood in front of me, thinner than I’d ever seen her, her illness already taking pieces of her away.

“She’s all I have,” she’d said.

I told her I’d protect Annalise. I made promises before. Most of them involved blood. This one felt different. Clara knew what kind of man I was. She knew what my club did. She knew the things I’d done to keep my people alive. And still, she’d trusted me with her daughter. I hadn’t understood why. Not then. I was beginning to.

Annalise was everything I wasn’t. Soft where I was hard. Hopefully that I had become cynical. She looked at people like there was still something good left in them. That kind of innocence didn’t survive in my world. Which was exactly why I needed to keep her away from it. The mirror caught movement. One of the SUVs accelerated.

“Shit.”

I leaned forward. The vehicle was closing the distance. Too quickly. I reached beneath my jacket and checked the gun at my waist. I didn’t want to use it. Not yet. A winding road appeared ahead. I knew where it led. A narrow stretch through the hills. No streetlights. There is almost no traffic. If they followed us there, I could lose them.

If they didn’t. I pushed the bike harder.

Annalise cried out.

“Jaxon!”

“Trust me.”

The words sounded strange coming from my mouth. She had every reason not to trust me. I broke into her apartment. Dragged her out of her home. Put her on the back of a motorcycle and drove her into the middle of nowhere. If I were her, I’d hate myself. Maybe she did. But she still held on. That mattered more than it should. The road narrowed. I turned sharply. The first SUV followed.I smiled without humor.

Idiots.

They didn’t know about these roads.

I did.

I accelerated toward a fork. At the last second, I took the smaller path. The motorcycle bounced over uneven ground.

Annalise screamed.

“Sorry.”

Again. Another apology. I was starting to hate how often I was saying that word. We disappeared into the darkness. The SUV raced past the turn and watched its headlights vanish. Then the second vehicle appeared. I held my breath. It slowed, then stopped. The driver was searching. I killed the motorcycle’s lights. I could hear Annalise breath. Her arms were still wrapped around me. Neither of us moved. The SUV sat on the road above us. Then its engine revved. It moved on.I waited. Ten seconds, twenty, thirty.

Only when the road was silent did I start the bike again. Annalise sagged against me.

“Are they gone?”

“For now.”

“For now?”

“Yes.”

She was quiet. Then she whispered, “I’m scared.” Something tightened in my chest.

“I know.”

“I don’t want to die.”

“You’re not going to.”

“How can you promise that?”

I stared at the road. Because I had already promised her mother and because I knew what it meant to fail someone who trusted you. Because the thought of finding her body somewhere on a cold road had suddenly become unbearable.

“I just can,” I said.

She didn’t respond.

A few minutes later, I felt her breathing slowly. Her grip loosened. She was exhausted and wanted to tell her to sleep. Instead, I kept riding. The farther we went, the darker the roads became. Eventually, the first faint outline of the mountains appeared through the mist. We were almost there.

Almost.

Then my phone vibrated.

I ignored it.

It vibrated again.

And again.

I finally pulled over near an abandoned stone wall.

Annalise lifted her head.

“What happened?”

I reached for my phone.

Three missed calls.

One message.

From Rafe.

“Jax. Don’t bring her to the compound.”

Another message appeared.

“Someone inside knows about her.”

I stared at the screen looking so confused. I looked at Annalise. She was watching me.

“What is it?”

I didn’t answer because another message appeared. This one was from an unknown number.

Four words.

“You promised to protect her.”

I stared at the screen. Then another message arrived.

“Let’s see if you can.”

My hand tightened around the phone.

Someone knew where we were. Someone knew about my promise to Clara and suddenly, the darkness surrounding us didn’t feel empty anymore. It felt occupied.

I looked into the rearview mirror. Nothing. Just the road, the mist, the trees. Then two headlight appeared between the trees. They weren’t on the road. They were coming straight toward us.