Driven to the Limit Read Online Free PDF Page A

again. And again and
again, but the engine stayed dead.
    Dagger swung his leg over and climbed off the Mannhof.
Before Lauren could reach for Jake, Dagger pushed him over onto the driveway.
    “Hey, man,” Andy said. “That’s an expensive machine.”
    “It’s mine. I can do what I want with it,” Dagger said.
    “Chill,” Andy said. “Let’s go get a beer.”
    Dagger looked down at Jake for a minute as if he’d like to
kick him a few times. “Aw, hell.”
    “Come on, man,” Andy said.
    “Yeah.” Dagger headed toward the house, and Andy followed
him.
    Jill walked to Jake and looked down at him. “Do you think
Dagger damaged it?”
    “Help me get it up so I can check it, okay?”
    Even with the two of them, it took some grunting and
struggling to upright the bike. After all that, Lauren looked at where it had
hit the pavement. It seemed all right. “I’ll push it into the garage and check
it out.”
    “How did you get it started, anyway?”
    “I honestly don’t know.”
    “Well, whatever you did, do it again. Dagger’s going to
burst a blood vessel if he doesn’t get his ride.”
    When pigs flew. Lord knew her own driving record was nothing
to brag about, but when she rode Jake, he took the controls. Now that she knew
what a miraculous creature he was, she’d protect him from Dagger and his
violence better than she’d protected herself.
    She swung her leg over Jake and settled against the seat.
The moment she did, the engine came to life with a quiet roar.
    “Whoa!” Jill jumped back a step. “How’d you do that?”
    “Magic.” Magic Jake had better not repeat with others
watching. She’d have a long talk with him about that the next time he shifted
to human.
    “What an amazing sound,” Jill said. “I never thought a machine
could be sexy, but… hoo-boy.”
    “You don’t know the half of it.”
    Jill’s eyebrows went up. “Huh?”
    “Never mind.” She grabbed the controls, and Jake shifted
into gear and headed up the drive into his garage.
    As soon as they got inside, he switched himself off. She set
the kickstand, climbed off, and grabbed the automatic door opener. As the door
lowered, she crouched beside Jake to check the side that had fallen against the
pavement. Before she could check it for dents, he started to shift into human
form. He did it so quickly this time that in a moment, she found herself
staring at a strong leg with a bruise at the hip.
    She reached out and ran her fingers over the skin that had
started to turn purple. “Are you okay?”
    He reached down and pulled her to her feet. “Fine. It’ll go
away in a day or two.”
    “I was afraid he’d hurt you.”
    “Never mind me. Did he mean what he said about kicking the
shit out of you?”
    “I don’t know. Probably.” She turned toward the side door,
but Jake grabbed her arms and pulled her back around.
    He stared down into her face. “He beats you?”
    “He’s a maniac. He’s knocked everyone around once or twice.”
    “ Gott im Himmel .”
    This time, Jake headed toward the side door, and Lauren
caught his arm. “Where are you going?”
    “I’m going to tell him that his days of shit kicking are
over.”
    “Naked?”
    That stopped him. “You’re right. I’ll need some clothes.”
    “You’ll need more than that. He’s not just violent. He
fights dirty.”
    Jake’s jaw tightened. “Klaus taught me how to take care of
myself.”
    “Okay.” She sighed. “He’ll also want to know how you got in
here. There’s a gate around this compound and guards. Strangers don’t get past
them. We need a story about who you are and how you got here.”
    He ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m a friend of yours
from that place where you went.”
    “Rehab,” she said. “Maybe that could work.”
    “Good. Get me some clothes. Then, we’ll go to the
authorities and get Dagger shut down.”
    “Ah, you are an innocent.” She put her hands on the
sides of his face and looked into his crystal blue