Free Boxed Set: Steel: Blacthorne MC Romance by Carrie Cox

all right if I keep them for a while until I can send them back to you?”
    “You can keep them, sweetheart. They are just old ones, and you’re welcome to them. Now how about some lunch? I’ve made some sandwiches.”
    I glanced back at Nick before following Martha to a large table in the center of the room.
    “Thank you,” I said as she handed me a plate of sandwiches.
    I was absolutely ravenous, but I still found it hard to swallow. I was so nervous. Of course, that was due to the situation I was in, but it was also the way that everyone in the room seemed to be on edge, waiting for me to do something. I didn’t understand it.
    I didn’t bother to sit down and join anyone at a table. I started to eat while standing up, until Chad stood up and pulled back his chair. “Ella, you can sit here.”
    Why was he being nice to me? I was immediately suspicious.
    Everyone was looking at me. I supposed it was because of my little outburst last night. But Nick had been right about one thing, I needed to play along if I was to get out of this mess. I could do that.
    “Thank you,” I muttered a little snarkily as I sat in the chair he’d vacated.
    Tom sat on my left, but thankfully, he and Chad had both showered so they didn’t smell so bad today.
    Damien sat across the table from me, staring at me with those dark, evil eyes.
    On instinct, I looked over my shoulder at Nick, but he was talking to Martha and helping himself to more sandwiches.
    I took another bite, but the bread seemed to get stuck in my throat. I took a sip of coffee to try and wash it down, but it just made it worse. Chad slapped me on the back.
    “Hey!”
    “I thought you were choking,” he said gruffly.
    Damien was still staring at me. He was so creepy.
    “We are leaving in ten minutes, Ella,” he said. “I hope you’re not going to give us any trouble today.”
    I stared at Damien with hatred. It was all his fault. Chad and Tom looked scary enough, but I didn’t believe they really wanted to hurt me or keep me against my will, and I knew that Nick didn’t, so it had to be Damien. He was my enemy.
    I lowered my gaze. “Of course not, Damien,” I said, sweetly.
    My reaction caught him off-guard. He had obviously been expecting me to ask about leaving again.
    After a moment’s pause, Damien nodded. Then he stood up and looked at Tom. “Let’s get the bikes ready.”
----
    W e’d been riding for three hours when we finally passed a town sign that said, Welcome to Blackthorne .
    I was surprised. This was Blackthorne? It was a proper town; I hadn’t expected that. I thought we would be somewhere out in the middle of nowhere. I smiled. This was positive. A town meant there would be people I could ask to help me. I scanned the small town as we drove through it. We passed a row of houses, a general store, and a gas station. The sign had stated that the population was only eight hundred and sixty, but that was better than nothing. I tried to soak everything up so I would remember the layout if I ever needed to get back there.
    To my disappointment, we rode on, and as the minutes passed, I felt my unease grow. The place we were going was obviously further out-of-town than I had hoped.
    When the town was only a speck on the horizon, what looked like a huge motel came into view. There was a diner on one side, and on the other, there was what looked like a biker bar. As we got closer, I could see the bikes lined up in the parking lot. I shivered as we pulled in and parked at the front of the bar.
    Everyone else seemed very happy to have arrived. They laughed and slapped each other on the back. Even Nick seemed more light-hearted than usual. None of the others said anything to me as they headed inside, so I trailed along behind them. I wondered if they would even notice if I made a run for it, but as I looked over my shoulder at the dusty road we had just driven down, I realized there was nowhere for me to go.
    As soon as we entered the building, I saw