Adversaries by T.L. Hodel

My eyes fluttered open as a groan left my lips. Chase was passed out beside me, head thrown back with his mouth open. I knew I heard snoring. Bastard. I mean, he was an alright-looking bastard, but still a bastard.

A big bastard.

I tipped my head, watching his steady breaths. Each inhale expanded his broad chest, making him seem that much bigger. If he really wanted to hurt me, there wouldn’t be much I could do to stop him.

A thought that, for some reason, caused my pussy to pulse.

Maybe it was the rough and gruff thing. I swear it was ingrained in female DNA to be attracted to brutes. The bad boy effect, I called it.

We could be in a room with charming, upscale men, and the instant some tattooed, muscle-bound asshole walked in, our pussies responded. And Chase was definitely a tattooed, muscle-bound asshole.

The black lines inked in his skin flowed effortlessly down his arms and around his hands. I wasn’t big on tattoos, but his were kind of pretty. I could even make out a couple of names scrawled in the mouth of a skull dripping with lily petals. Sam and Maddox.

I hadn’t heard those before. Were they part his big bad biker gang? Not very threatening nicknames if you asked me.

Oh, well. I didn’t plan on being around long enough to find out.

I rolled over and scoured the room for a weapon. Anything I could stab him with would be fine. I’d even settle for a pencil. Worked in the third grade when Logan tripped me on the playground. I think he still had a scar from that?

Unfortunately, other than a lamp on the table beside me – which was just out of reach – there wasn’t anything. I could always pry Chase’s boots off his feet and beat him to death with those, but God knows what those things would smell like.

When guys like him wore boots, the outcome generally wasn’t a pleasant aroma. One thing was for sure, the second I got the chance, I was throwing that tiny TV at him.

Guess it’s plan B.

I sat up and stretched my free arm out as far as it would go. Then swung my palm through the air, bringing it down on his face with a loud crack.

Chase shot up so fast he rolled off the other side of the bed, hit the wall, and thudded on the floor.

Good morning asshole.

“Motherfucker.” His growly face popped up, glaring at me over the mattress. “What the fuck…”

I smiled and sweetly sang, “I need to use the washroom.”

“So go,” he barked out.

My brow arched as I tugged on the chain attaching me to the headboard.

“Oh,” he scrubbed a hand down his face and crawled back on the bed, “forgot about that.”

Forgot about that? Seriously? How could he forget about someone chained to his bed? Especially if that someone was me. I mean, come on, look at me. I was hot. He knew it. I knew it.

Hell, the guys in his club knew it. Any one of them would give their right arm to fuck me, and he forgot!? I don’t think I’d ever been this insulted. I was ready to slap him.

Until he pulled the key out of his pocket, then I wanted to slap myself.

“Who keeps the damn key in their pocket when they’re sleeping beside their prisoner?”

Idiot. Did he want me to escape?

Chase clicked open the cuff around my wrist and cocked a brow at me.

“Are you lecturing me on how to kidnap you?”

“Well, someone should,” I snarled and got off the bed. “Don’t even know what you’re doing. What kind of kidnapper are you.”

I deserved better than some half-assed attempt at abduction. Tie me up, threaten me, make ransom demands, or at least have a place ready for Christ's sake.

Instead, I wound up in some after-school special. Next thing I knew, Chase would be teaching me some grand life lesson.

“You’re the one that didn’t check my pockets,” he said, while laying back down and folding his hands behind his head. “Maybe you were too busy eye-fucking me in my sleep.”

My teeth clenched as I glared back at him. I would never! Not with him. If anyone was eye-fucking here, it was him. I felt the heat in his dark eyes as he rolled them down my naked body.

“Looks like you’re the one enjoying the show.” I rested my hand on my cocked hip. “Like what you see?”

Because you are never getting it.

Chase yawned and shut his eyes. “I’ve seen better.”

My jaw dropped. He did not just… I mean what did… he was… I can’t believe…

“Ugh!” I snatched the blanket off the bed to wrap around my body.

Chase Mathers had no idea what he was talking about. What kind of girls did he hang around with? Skanks that’s who. I marched off to the bathroom, muttering under my breath. Telling me he’s seen better. Pfft.

He better be staring at my ass right now.

I snatched the bag Ava packed and slammed the bathroom door. Chase’s words instantly left my thoughts. Was this a bathroom or an outhouse? The tub and shower were together and don’t even get me started on the bright teal tiles on the floor. Teal?

It was awful. Did Riley grow up with brown counters and small sinks? It would explain her bad attitude. I’d be upset too. Who could live like this?

After making sure I’d covered the toilet in paper, I relieved myself and then carefully used my fingertip to turn on the sink. It groaned and creaked before spurting water out at me.

What fresh hell had I landed in? This was almost as bad as camping. At least I had some supplies.

I dropped the bag on the counter and unzipped it. Inside there were shoes, make-up, and clothes. All of which were Ava’s. Not a problem for the make-up, the clothes, and shoes, however…

I dropped my face in my palm and sighed. Ava was barely five foot, and I was six. How in the hell did she expect me to fit in any of this?

The best I could come up with was a green Babydoll dress–that squished my boobs and was more of a shirt on me–and a pair of shorts I’m pretty sure she only bought because of all those ‘look at my ass’ videos floating around.

Gotta say, my ass looked pretty damn good, but when didn’t it? Besides my escape plan wouldn’t work if I was tripping over a blanket.

In the middle of the room, next to the sink, was a large window that just happened to be open. It was time to put all those years of cheerleading to the test.

Using the counter to steady myself, I slung one leg out the window sill and then the other. About a foot below was a roof that led to a small dip and another roof.

From there, I could use the gutter and swing myself over to a window, grab onto a lattice next to it, and climb down to freedom.

The only hard part about the first drop was doing it quietly. I flipped around and carefully slid down, softly touching my bare feet to the shingled surface. I might be able to squeeze into some of Ava’s clothes, but there was no way her shoes were going on my feet unless I cut some toes off. I crept over to the dip and flattened against the wall when I heard voices.

The first one wafted from a window I had to pass by. “You got any twos?”

“Nah, man,” another one said, “go fish.”

My brows knit together. Go fish?

I ducked down and peeked in the edge of the window. Inside the small room sat two men in leather, playing cards.

“You got any tens?” the one with the big beard asked.

“How do you always get this shit?” The other one scowled at him and flung a card on the table. “You better not be fucking cheating.”

Was I really sitting here, watching two bikers play Go Fish?

Beard boy chuckled. “Just lucky, I guess.”

A groan drew my attention to something huddled up in the corner. All I could see from where I was, were a pair of bruised feet and legs. One of which twitched.

“Looks like he’s awake.”

Beard boy grunted and dropped his cards. “Let’s see if he’s ready to talk.”

As tempted as I was to stay and see what was going to happen–I mean, they were playing Go Fish, how scary could they be–now was my chance to slip by the window unnoticed.

I scurried forward and quietly dropped down to the next roof. I was almost there but had to stop when three men circled the building. Flattening my stomach on the roof, I carefully shimmied back so they wouldn’t see me if one happened to look up.

“You see that hard body Spider brought?”

There was that name again. Who the hell was Spider?

“How could you fucking miss that ass?” another one growled.

“Careful,” a third one said, “Spider knocked Butcher the fuck out last night when he asked if he could have a piece of that.”

Butcher, Spider, and hard body, I shook my head. Only men would get this worked up over a bike. It kind of made sense, I guess. We had shoes, and they had engines. Though I much preferred the shoes. You couldn’t wear an engine to dinner, and they were dirty.

Once I was sure they were gone, I popped up and scanned the area. No one was in sight, so I headed for the window, grabbed the edge, and swung over to the lattice. From there, it was an easy climb down.

I was so impressed with myself that I even did a dismount. Kicked off the lattice, flipped in the air, and landed on my feet with my arms held high.

And that, folks, is how it’s done.

“Uh-huh?”

The smile fell off my face.

Well, shit.

I turned around and came face to face with Chase. He was standing behind me with his arms crossed.

“You didn’t think it’d be that easy, did you?”

“Whatever,” I lifted my chin and pranced back inside, “at least none of my friends play children’s games.”