Mine to Take by Lila Fox
Chapter Twenty
She quickly sent off a text to Fury and then waited. Clarke is friends with Bryant. He’s supposed to be with you now. Check his phone. He’s sending him updates.
He texted back. Where are you?
The closet.
Stay put. I’ve got people coming for you.
Okay.
She had no idea how long she waited before she heard a slight rustling sound but nothing else.
“Zoe.”
She closed her eyes. No, not him. She didn’t want to see Savage. It still hurt so much. Hell, it was still so fresh and raw she felt like she would never be happy again or at least breathe freely.
“Babe, answer me. We need to get you out of here.”
She shook her head and pressed her hands to her mouth. She heard him sigh and then nothing. Within a minute, her phone vibrated, telling her she had a text, and she jumped.
Zoe, you need to go with Savage.
No, I can’t.
You’re not safe.
I can just drive somewhere until this is over?
You’re not safe anywhere but here right now. I don’t care where you go. We don’t know how many people are involved and anyone could come for you, and they won’t let you go. They’ll come for you because you’re a threat to them. Please let him bring you home.
She wanted to scream at the phone that it wasn’t her home and never would be. But she needed to be smart about this. The club could and would protect her, and it was the safest place she could be at the moment.
Okay.
Good girl.
Zoe opened the latch and scooted out of the closet. She gasped when Savage was there, ready to help her stand.
“Come on, babe, let’s get out of here.”
“Don’t call me that, please.”
He studied her face for a moment. “This isn’t the time. We’ll talk later.”
She shook her head.
He sighed, gathered the things in her arms, took her hand, and led her out of the closet.
She was shocked to see three other guys there.
“Ask your questions later,” Rage said. “We need to get out of here.”
The four men hustled her out of the back of the house and into a huge truck. Two guys were in front, and Savage and Bull were on either side of her. If the situation were different, she would have laughed. She was squished between two humungous men and could barely move her arms.
It didn’t help that one of them was Savage. The feel of the heat from his body and his scent woke up her senses. Her body readied itself for him like it had every time before, and it made tears come to her eyes.
She tried holding her breath and breathing out her mouth, but it didn’t help.
She looked up at him through her lashes and saw he was staring at her, but she quickly turned her head away.
He sighed and then set his hand on her thigh and squeezed. “Everything’s going to be okay, babe.”
She nodded even though she knew it was a lie. Nothing was ever going to be okay.
“Why’d you do it?” Savage asked her.
She gazed up at him. “Do what?”
“Try to protect me?”
She looked away. God, why did he have to talk about this now and in front of the other guys? She shrugged. “I would have tried to protect any of you.”
“I’m sure you would and probably for different reasons. What was the reason for me?”
She shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about this.”
He squeezed her leg and fell silent. “There will come a time very soon where you’re going to have to talk to me.”
“Not if I don’t want to.”
He snorted. “You know I can get you to talk.”
“You can’t touch me anymore. Remember, you wanted this to end? So you got your wish.”
“As anxious as I am to talk about this, I don’t think you want to do it now because I’m probably going to have you over my lap at some point.”
She gasped and felt her face heat with a fiery blush when the other men in the truck chuckled.
She gritted her teeth and kept her mouth shut.
It wasn’t long before they pulled into the compound and around back.
Savage opened his door and reached for her while Bull grabbed her things.
She tried to jerk away from him when Savage held her and pulled her along.
“If you keep fighting me, babe, you’re going to feel my hand on your ass.”
She gasped and stopped suddenly, making the guys behind her halt. “You have no right—”
Savage got in her face until their noses were inches apart. “I have every right, babe.” He looked at the guys. “Go on in.”
They walked around the two and shut the door.
“Now you listen. I did not leave you—” he said.
“But—”
“Let me finish. When you told me you wanted to break up, I can’t explain the feelings going through me. There were too many to count. The one that stood out the most was fear. I couldn’t see a future without you, and I lashed out. I know it sounds weird, but I had to run before I lost it. I had no intention of letting you go forever or at least without a fight. I can’t because then I may as well lie down and die.”
She stared up at him. Savage hardly ever talked about his feelings, but when he did, it made her see sides of him she’d hadn’t before.
“We need to get in, but we’ll talk about this later. When we go into the office, stay by my side and don’t act like you know what’s going on.”
“All right.”
He pressed a kiss to her lips, grabbed her hand, and tugged her along.
