Outlaw's Ride: An MC Romance by Carter Steele (books recommended by bts .txt) 📕

are, and most importantly where they’re based out of.” Patrick gave me his full attention. “They’re no longer staying at motels with the exception of you and him at the Holiday Inn last night. I’ve sent people to follow them but they always seem to slip away.”

He knew where we stayed last night? Part of me wasn’t that surprised. Patrick was the most paranoid person I’d ever met and with good reason. Having been intimately involved in his business dealings for so long I knew that I was far from the only enemy he had.

Patrick took the phone from me, typed in Jeffy’s birthday to unlock it then started demonstrating the features he wanted me to use.

“All your selfies with him will have GPS-assisted location tags so take as many as possible. When Wreck or his MC inevitably start talking about anything important push the button twice on the side. The screen will stay dark but the audio recording will turn on. Lastly there’s a note section that deletes after a message is sent or an incoming text is read, that’s how we’ll communicate. All social media apps, and emergency calling features have been disabled and I’ll get live updates of all your internet searches.” He narrowed his eyes and slapped it roughly into my hand. “Don’t lose this phone or let anyone else use it. Understand?”

I nodded slowly, pulling my hand away from his.

“You hate me,” he said abruptly, snatching my wrist and pulling me close to him. His breath smelled of bitter coffee and acrid sugars of pastry remnants. The dismissive tone he’d been using during this interaction became darker, quieter and somehow more intimate.

I didn’t know how to answer that so I kept as neutral of an expression as possible despite being startled by the shift in his demeanor. I was used to almost business-like instructions from him, but this felt personal. It made me extremely uncomfortable. Frightened.

“I know you do,” he said. The glasses’ magnification made his eyes appear unnaturally large despite them narrowing at me. He wanted me to fully understand that my life was at his whim. That he had all the power. Only after he was sure I took that as a stone-cold fact did he let go of me.

I pulled back a step and rubbed my wrist.

“It’s good that you hate me. You can’t hate something you don’t respect, or at least fear. That respect was something you had to learn the hard way.” He smiled, and I fought the urge to touch my suddenly itchy and hot neck. “How long has it been now that you’ve worked for me? I guess it doesn’t matter. Not really. It must feel like a lifetime.”

“I’m sure you must have given thought to how all this ends. You and me. This…arrangement we have. Probably even more so now that I found your little memory stick.” Patrick walked around the room not heading anywhere in particular. He moved just to move, slowly pacing and thinking out loud. Finally he turned back to look at me.

The intenseness of the words sent a shiver up my spine.

“Do this and do it well. And that’s it. When this is all over and the MC is gone you’re free to go…” He paused, scratched his chin then continued. “Free to go home. I won’t need you anymore. Or them for that matter.”

My eyes flared wide. I couldn’t keep the emotion and surprise from my face. Did I hear that right? Did he really mean that?

I’d always thought one day I might slip away, sneak out of the country or at least head to one of the coasts and disappear. Even if I somehow managed to sneak out the evidence I’d been accumulating I didn’t think really think it would all end happily. Realistically I just assumed he’d eventually kill me.

The hope at least was always that when I was gone he’d leave my family alone.

Even in my wildest dreams I never thought I’d ever actually see my family again.

“Them? My family?” I repeated his words through sign, not understanding what he meant by that cryptic remark.

“Why do you think I married your mother? Do you think I love her or that little welp of a boy?” Patrick scoffed darkly. “You did that to me. You forced my hand.”

Me? Startled, I took a step back and hip checked a washing machine hard.

“You just had to stick your fucking nose into my business, didn’t you?” He folded his arms thoughtfully as he reflected back on the last ten years of his life. “I couldn’t let you ruin everything I was trying to build. But to my surprise you proved too useful to kill so I married your mother to keep everything and everyone in line. Call it a long term insurance policy.”

You tried to kill me, I screamed at him in my mind, and when that didn’t work you made sure I’d never say another bad word against you for the rest of my life. As far as the rest of the world, and more importantly- my family, was concerned I had died in a drunk driving accident coming home from a party.

“The sooner I’m rid of that brood the better,” he added.

You won’t hurt them?” I signed slowly, still unsure how real this all was. Worrying about my family made my blood cool to the point of freezing. I was helpless to stop him from doing anything to them. Patrick had so many resources these days that he could make it look like they died in a car accident…just like me…

“No, I won’t hurt them, you idiot. How would it help me to get the police involved in covering that up?” He scowled. “I would divorce her. Tie everything up all nice and legal and let her and her snot-nosed kid live out their tiny, unimportant lives in irrelevance.”

This was the most he’d ever said to me outside of commands. Patrick expected blind obedience so he never felt the need to