Page 16 of Rodeo (Marked Skulls MC 2)
I rammed my head back into the guy again, getting his nose which I heard crack. He grabbed my collar, pulling me back but this time I turned around and head butted him. I’d had enough. Our foreheads clanked and I felt the zing right in my brain, a cracking sound. He stumbled and then fell back.
I whipped around and ran after the two guys who had Jordan in their grip. I pulled my gun out of my belt and pointed it at them.
“Stop the Fuck! I’ll fucking shoot! Stop!” I growled, chasing them down the street. Jordan was thankfully slowing them down. She hadn’t given up kicking and screaming, she was putting up a bloody good fight.
One of the guys let her go and pulled out his own gun. The other stood behind him, with his arms still tightly wound around Jordan.
“What are you going to do, buddy?” the man pointing the gun at me hissed. They were several feet away from me, I was panting and trying to keep my hand steady. The street was quiet. Abnormally quiet. If there were people in houses who’d heard us, they were too afraid to peep and look out.
“Don’t take a fucking step!” the guy growled and I clenched my jaws. I could feel the sweat dripping down from my forehead and into my eyes. My lip was split open and bleeding. Jordan was still screaming and trying to break free.
“You shoot me and he shoots her,” the guy said, and the other one who was holding Jordan, pulled his gun out and pressed it to her forehead. Jordan was wincing, she had her eyes closed and I could see that she was muttering something under her breath. All I wanted to fucking do was bring her to safety.
“Let her go and we can sort this out amongst ourselves,” I said, taking one step ahead.
“Not another move, hero,” the guy growled and I stopped in my tracks. Jordan let out another high-pitched cry. I could feel every muscle in my arm twitching. I had endured too many punches to keep holding the gun straight.
“Let her go. She’s going to keep her mouth shut. She hasn’t told anybody anything,” I barked.
“She told you, didn’t she? And all you had to do was get her panties in a tangle,” the man said, and then he made the mistake of looking to his side to pass a slithering smile towards Jordan.
I pulled the trigger, shooting him in his thigh and he collapsed to the ground, giving me a clear shot of the other guy. In the blink of an eye, I had shot him too, getting him on the side of his stomach.
“Run!” I yelled as his grip on Jordan’s arms weakened a little. She did as she was told. She was running away from the two men, right down the middle of the road. She was running in the direction of her apartment and I chased after her.
There were two more shots fired as I ran, missing me by inches. The guys on the ground were still trying to shoot us. I could hear Jordan crying, and her shoes squeaking on the concrete road as she kept running ahead of me. I was close behind her.
“Keep running, Jordan, keep going!” I yelled and she didn’t stop.
“Where should we go? They’re going to come to my place!” she screamed, turning her head to look at me. A streetlight illuminated her face for a few moments as she passed underneath it. I saw the fear in her bloodshot eyes, I would have given anything to keep her safe. I would have taken a bullet for her in that moment if it would have kept her safe.
“They won’t. They won’t do that at the same place they killed Fred. The cops are all over that crime scene,” I said, as I caught up with her.
We had reached her apartment building now and we both slowed down. Jordan was panting, and she rushed up the steps and opened the door of the building.
“Are you saying that my apartment is the safest place for me right now?” she asked and I nodded my head as I followed her up the steps.
“They won’t want to attract any more attention to this crime scene. That is why they haven’t come to your apartment yet,” I told her.
Jordan fumbled in her pocket for keys and then pushed open the door. We both tumbled into her apartment and I locked the door behind me.
She was standing in front of me with heaving shoulders now, trying to catch her breath. Despite the messy hair, the running mascara and the tear stained cheeks; no other woman had ever looked as beautiful before.
***
Jordan was crouched down in front of me, while I remained submerged in the water of her bathtub.
It was warm and soothing and strange. Nobody had commanded me to take a bath before, not even my mom, not even as a kid. This was new to me, and the fact that there was a woman who was taking care of my aches and wounds was a strange feeling.
Why did it have to feel so good at the same time?
“I really don’t need this, I’m fine,” I argued with her again but every time I tried to stand up in the tub, Jordan kept pushing me back into the water.
“You do! You have bruises all over your body, you just need to relax a little,” she insisted. She was still in the uniform from the diner and there was a tear on the side of her skirt from the struggle earlier. I tried not to look at it because it kept reminding me of how close I had come to losing her, and how that had made me feel.
She had a sponge in her hand, which she kept soaking in the water and then rubbing gently over me. The part that she said about the bruises was true—I did have them all over my body, but I didn’t need a bath!
I was still fighting the urge to admit that this was actually relaxing. I couldn’t remember the last time I had been in a bath like this. Jordan had sprinkled in some floral smelling salts which made the water bubble and get foamy. I couldn’t believe that I was actually enjoying this!
I looked over at Jordan as she bent over me, running the sponge over my chest. The sponge hovered over the spot on the side of my abs that had turned to a purplish-red color.
I reached for a bunch of her rich dark hair that had fallen over her face, and I brushed it away with my fingers. She fluttered her eyelids and looked at me, her eyes were sparkling and her cheeks were flushed red.
“You need to be taken care of too,” I said, and my thumb stroked her chin. Jordan shook her head and shied her eyes away from me.
“I’m fine. I’m not bruised or hurting anywhere,” she said and then stopped moving the sponge. She stepped away from me and sat down with folded knees on the tiled floor of the bathroom.
I straightened myself up, making some of the water splash out of the tub. I could see that her eyes were watering now. She had put on a brave face, she hadn’t cried or complained since we returned to the apartment.
“Jordan?” I said her name softly. She looked down at her lap, keeping her eyes averted from me.
“It’s nothing. I’m fine,” she said and dabbed at her eyes with her fingers.
I tried to get out of the tub again and she looked up at me with a jerk.
“Don’t get out, keep sitting!” she commanded and I did as I was told. I was willing to do anything to make her feel better.
“Talk to me, Jordan,” I said to her instead, and she took in a deep breath before meeting my eyes again.
“It’s all suddenly very real. I thought I was going to be fine, that it was all in my head. I had even convinced myself somehow that maybe, just maybe, the shooter hadn’t seen me at the window. But tonight, there were armed men dragging me into a car. They were going to shoot me. They would have killed me if you weren’t there!” she said and burst into tears.
I couldn’t just keep sitting there in the tub anymore. I pulled myself out of the water and settled down on the floor beside her.
I reached for her face, cradling her cheeks in both my hands.
“But I was, and you’re fine. Now I know their faces. I’ve located the shooter too. I’m going to get to them before they can get to you. Do you hear me?” I said.
Jordan wiped her cheeks with her hands again and then nodded her head. Her eyes were still bloodshot, and her eyelashes were damp from her tears. I was sitting naked in front of her, drenched in foamy water.
“I want to give you a hug but you’ll get wet,” I sai
d.
Jordan looked up at me and laughed, and I laughed along with her.
Then she threw her arms around my neck and I pulled her close. I felt warm hugging her, it felt good to have her in my arms. She looked into my eyes again and I could see that she was feeling a little better.
“I thought you weren’t coming back. I thought I’d scared you off today when I offered to make you breakfast,” she said and I stroked her hair. I wasn’t sure of what to say. This was still too fast for me, and it was ridiculous that it felt so right. Jordan was on my lap, her warm body was rubbing against my cock and I could feel those familiar desires for her rushing in my veins again.
“I had things to do. I had to go find the shooter,” I said and Jordan arched an eyebrow at me.
“So I didn’t spook you?” she asked and I grinned at her.
“Maybe a little,” I admitted and we both broke into laughter again.
