wasting my time. I won’t go back to Los Lobos. I’ll die first.”
I was silent for a moment. I looked at her, took in the details. What was I doing? I’ve taken a lot of things from people in my life, but never something like this. I usually take from those who can afford to give, and I take money, not something personal. Not something vital .
But I’m a thief at heart, a bandit, and I wanted this woman’s body, all of it, more than I’d ever wanted anything else in the world.
“Stop crying,” I said. “I’m going to get Wolf off your back.”
“How?”
“Leave that to me.”
“And what about his gang? Los Lobos is a brutal pack of killers.”
“All men are brutal killers,” I said, “or have the potential to be.”
She looked at me for a long moment. It was the first time she truly saw me for who I was. A look of fear crossed her eyes. I meant my words. Brutal killer . She could see it in my eyes.
“What if you die?” she said.
I spread my hands in a gesture of helplessness. “If I die, I die,” I said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means you’ll have already fulfilled your part of the bargain. In return for that, I’m willing to give you my life.”
She nodded. “And this arrangement, what exactly is it? What am I offering in return for your help? You keep saying I’ll regret it, but you don’t say what it is.”
I didn’t like forcing her into this position, this horrible choice. She deserved better, but I was the only one there, the only one who could protect her. We needed each other.
She couldn’t change what she needed of me.
I wouldn’t change what I wanted from her.
“It’s everything,” I said. “That’s all I can tell you.”
She looked at me again, assessing me, trying to decide what sort of devil she was making this pact with. When she spoke she’d made her decision.
“All right,” she said at last. “Let’s do it.”
“You sure you want to go through with this?”
She nodded.
And as easy as that, we’d both given up everything to fate. I’d taken on a fight I couldn’t win. It would certainly cost me my life. And in return, without even fully realizing it, she’d offered me the son I wanted to leave behind after my death. I knew, just by looking at her, that if she gave me a child, she’d be a good mother to it. Some things you can tell at a single glance.
“Does Wolf have any idea where you are?” I said.
“ I don’t even know where I am.”
“All right,” I said. “I’m going to take you to one of the rooms.”
“Okay,” she said. One look in her eyes told me she meant it.
I beckoned the bartender.
“You rent the rooms?”
He nodded.
“We’re going to need one.”
“Sure,” he said. “They’re fifty for the hour. A hundred for the night.”
I left a hundred-twenty on the bar, grabbed her hand, and led the way. We went out to the rain. We were both soaked to the skin anyway. Our room was across the lot. We ran.
Chapter 6
Jackson
I OPENED THE DOOR AND she hurried inside. She was nervous. She wasn’t used to this sort of thing. I could tell. It only made me hotter for her—her tight little ass in that wet dress—her sweet, plump breasts, bursting against her low-cut neckline—the delicious pussy I knew was waiting for me.
I looked at her.
There was a window by the door and she pulled aside the curtain to peer out.
“You looking for him?”
She shook her head.
“He doesn’t know where to find me. I could have gone anywhere.”
I looked at her but said nothing. We were on borrowed time. Maybe it would be a matter of hours, maybe days, or weeks, or months, but sooner or later, Los Lobos would catch up with us, and when they did, it wouldn’t be pretty. When that time came, I would make sure I was there alone. I would make sure she was safe. She knew it and I knew it. That’s why we were in that motel room together.
And even then, I knew there was more to this than just our bargain. There’d