Free Risking It All: A Hellfire Riders MC Romance (The Motorcycle Clubs Book 14) by Kati Wilde Page A

a task. The first was gathering up my things and heading out Lily’s door. It was the hardest walk I ever took—and her front porch was as far as I got before starting my second task. While Lily’s hurting and vulnerable, I’ll keep her safe through the night.
    Tomorrow I’ll deal with the knowledge that she might be hurting because I shoved too hard. I fucked up our very first night, making her follow through on the bet. Knowing that, I made her follow through again. Six more nights. I thought she was all in, dragging me to bed by my cock.
    Then she ended up crying.
    Crying. I rub my chest, trying to massage away the pain, but the rotted ache is just growing. Because Lily was crying and she pulled out of a bet.
    Backing down.
    She doesn’t do that. She doesn’t fucking do that. She gets up on her feet and fights harder. So whatever it was that hit her must have hit hard. So hard she hurts too much to get up again.
    I didn’t know anything could do that.
    My cell buzzes and lights up. Message from Stone. Nothing unexpected. I reply and set the phone on the wooden rail surrounding Lily’s porch. More calls will soon be coming in.
    Maybe they started coming in to her, too. I hear her feet on the stairs, then Lily comes through her front door—and stops short, seeing me. Pain twists harder in my chest. Her eyes are red, her face pale. She’s in a T-shirt and jeans, but no kutte, and the keys to her truck are in her hand.
    “Jack?” Leaving the door open, she comes at me. “What the fuck are you doing?”
    She’s looking and sounding pissed now. But most likely still hurting.
    That’s how she deals.
    “Watching your place,” I tell her. “Croc wants me to join the Hangmen. Said he might use you to persuade me.”
    Full lips parting, she stares at me, then looks out down the street as if searching for the enemy in the dark. “You think he will?”
    “Maybe.” The Hangmen carry through on their threats. Mostly so that anyone else who might think about turning the Hangmen down will change their minds.
    My phone buzzes again. The prez this time, or I’d have ignored the text. I reply and when I set it aside, she’s frowning at me.
    “Why didn’t you give me a heads-up earlier?”
    Because I keep fucking up. “I planned to in the morning. I figured if you knew how they were looking at you as if you were my property, you wouldn’t let me touch you again.”
    That makes her draw in a sharp breath, like she’s taken a blow. She averts her face, looking down the street again. It’s late, and quiet. The only sounds are the crickets and the distant wail of a fire truck siren.
    After a second, she says, “I don’t give a fuck what the Hangmen think.”
    I know. “It isn’t just the Hangmen.”
    She swings back around to look at me as my phone lights. Gunner. I ignore it.
    “It’s everyone,” I tell her. “Even the Riders. I’m fucking you so they think you belong to me.”
    Her lips twist in a bitter smile. “That misconception’s easy enough to fix. All they have to do is to come here and look around.”
    “At what?”
    “Exactly,” she says like it hurts, and before I can ask what the fuck she means by that, my cell buzzes again and she snarls, “Who the hell is blowing up your phone?”
    Stone again. “The brothers. My garage is burning down.”
    “Your garage…” She blinks like she’s sure she didn’t hear that right. “What?”
    “Croc wanted the business, too. Then said he’ll use me as an example of the consequences of saying no.”
    “Jack.” All at once she moves in close, gripping the edges of my kutte and giving me a little shake. “Are you all right? What the hell are you still doing here?”
    What’s the point of being there? “Watching it burn won’t change that it’s burning. And I don’t give a shit if it does. It’s all insured. Everything important’s stored off site and since I knew it might be coming, this afternoon I cleared out everything else I don’t