Free Final Ride (Lords of Mayhem) by Shyla Colt Page A

still in a daze. When a motorcycle roared up, she
snapped out of her daze and stood, immediately recognizing Hawk as the driver.
With her bag of serum in hand she waved to the woman behind the desk and
stepped outside. Hawk lowered his sunglasses and smiled. “Well if ain’t the
Little Mermaid in the flesh. Looking good, Ariel.”
    “Funny,” Hilary said trying to hide her nervousness.
    “No, I’m serious, that’s your name from now on. I’ve been
thinking about it, but nothing else I came up with seemed to fit. This is
perfect.”
    “Really? Ariel?” she said with a huff.
    “Yep, a sexy ass tempting creature no one can put their
hands on sounds about right.”
    “Oh.” He likes it. She smiled to herself.
    “Come on, Ariel. We need to head to our meeting. If we’re
late, the girls might lose their nerve and leave.”
    “Truth.” The girls were nervous about bringing an unknown
man into their circle. Especially one who was a vice president of a biker club.
So they’d arranged to meet at a hole in the wall dive bar about thirty minutes
from town. He took the bag from her, stowing it as she climbed onto the back of
his bike.
    She walked slightly behind him as they entered The Torch,
sweeping the busy place for the girls.
    “I see them in the back corner.”
    “Damn, they’re serious about this incognito thing,” Hawk
said.
    “It’s probably what’s kept them flying under the radar.”
    “I think they spotted you.” Hawk chuckled.
    The three women gaped as they made their way through the
crowd. They reached the table, and Hawk pulled out a stool. Hilary sat, and he
nodded his greeting to the wide-eyed women.
    “Hey guys. This is Hawk. Hawk this is Karla, Maddie, Nic,
and Lorene.” They were all stunning, ranging from brunette to blonde, with skin
tones equally varied.
    “Hi,” Karla ventured. As the unofficial spokesperson she
always forged ahead for the three other women she considered to be her sisters.
“C-can you tell us what this is all about?”
    Hilary glanced around and leaned in. “Remember how I told
you I’d been working on a way to put the men who…hurt you away?”
    The girls nodded. Hilary had managed to track the women down
through their medical records, hearsay, and pictures of Peter and his friends.
None would give away the identity of the men they dated, but they had begun to
tell her about the things they’d done.
    “Well, they found out. Hence, the drastic hair-color
change.” Fear colored their eyes a shade darker. “I don’t know if they know we’ve
been communicating, but given their extreme measures, I think it’s best we act
under the assumption they did.”
    “No. I can’t go through that again,” Nic yelped. Her hazel
eyes were wide. Her gaze darted around the room. “Always having to look over my
shoulder, double checking every lock and door—”
    “Then help us,” Hawk said. “We’re trying to get them locked
away. But without you, we have a bunch of circumstantial bullshit. You want to
live free of them. You need the courage to face them one last time and see that
they pay for what they’ve done. We don’t know how many women they’ve done this
to over the years. But we do know you’re the few who got out of there and could
help us put them away,” Hawk said.
    “Yeah, because we tucked our tails, ran, and hid,” Maddie
said. Her blue eyes blazed.
    “And no one blames you for that,” Hilary said quickly,
soothing her ruffled feathers.
    “And now you’d let Hil, who has nothing to do with any of
this, fight your battle alone?” Hawk said.
    “What is he talking about?” Lorene asked Hilary.
    “I figured out who they were, and I compiled a list of their
illegal activities. I’m planning on building a case against them based on the
things I’ve found. It goes deeper than the abuse, but that’s what we plan to
use as the last nail in their coffin. I know I can count on Juliette to
testify. But the more people who come forward, the more