Chapter 4

Aria

He passes out.

“And in this corner standing at five-foot-three inches and a hundred and twenty pounds, Aria Monroe!” I say throwing my fists in the air like I just won the WWF belt.

“Shit.” I turn at the sound of Idiot #3’s voice.

I had forgotten about him for a second there. When I turn around to face him all my happiness from a second ago falls away to complete panic. He has one arm wrapped around the Omega’s chest and the other is holding a knife to his neck.

My move to lock with the Omega’s. They're wide and then he flinches. That's when I see a small trail of blood go down his neck. This guy had been smarter than his friends. He brought a knife to a fistfight. This is not good. If I rush for him he could seriously hurt the Omega, but I can’t let him take the Omega either.

Seriously how has no one heard what’s going on and come out to help me?

“Okay, calm down. You don’t need that.” I hold my hands up and try to speak as calmly as I can.

“Move and I’ll kill him!” The guy yells.

I shake my head. “You don’t need him, just take me. I am worth way more than him. If you take me to Axel he’ll have what he needs to take the Iron Horsemen down.”

The guy eyes me warily, but my eyes move back to the Omegas. He looks to be a second from passing out himself. I need to get him out of here. Who knows what they did to him before I got here. So how do I convince this guy to let him go?

Money! These guys always want money.

“Buck will pay you. If you take me he’ll pay anything you want to get me back.” I know for a fact Buck would, but not before doing what he can to kill everyone first.

Fight first, negotiate after. That’s his Moto.

“How do I know you won’t fight back?” The guy asks.

Fair question, since that’s exactly what I plan to do. I just need to get the Omega out of the way. Now how I’m going to do that is the question. My eyes move to the Omega once more and I try to give him a reassuring smile before focusing on the idiot with the knife.

“Please. I’ll do whatever you ask.” I add as much desperation in my voice as I can.

The guy looks at me with confusion. “Do you know this guy?” He asks.

Um…So I can play this two ways. I can tell the truth and say I've never seen the guy in my life, or I can lie. Choices….choices…

On one hand, if I tell the truth he might take the guy anyway. On the other hand, he might let him go if I beg for his life because I do know him. Maybe if I say the Omega is mine and I’d do anything to protect him, the guy will let him go thinking I won’t fight if it means keeping my Omega safe. Having a willing hostage is better than an unwilling one. I know what I’m going to do. Now let’s hope this Omega can play along. He’s not looking good.

“I do. He’s…mine.” I say my voice cracking as I play into this new approach.

The idiot’s eyes widen but then he looks at the Omega’s neck. “He doesn’t have a mark.”

I shrug and let out a weak laugh. “I wanted to wait until the right moment. Please, just let him go. I’ll do anything if you just let him go.”

The Omega’s slightly unfocused eyes brighten just a little. Is he catching on?

“If I let him go and you come with me…if you fight I will come back and kill him. Do you understand?” Idiot #3 says before pressing the knife a little more against the Omega’s neck.

A whimper comes from the Omega and more blood starts to fall down his neck. The sight of it makes me furious, but I push that down for now.

“Yes. I understand.” I nod anxiously.

“Come here.” The guy keeps the knife against the Omega’s neck as I step closer.

Once I’m within grabbing distance he removes the knife from the Omega’s throat and shoves him so hard that he stumbles and collapses on the ground. He’s in worse shape than I thought. The guy grabs me by the arm hard but my attention is focused on the Omega who hasn’t gotten up yet. This isn’t good. In my concern, the guy gets an arm around my chest locking my arms in place like his friend had.

I need to get away from him. Now. So almost on autopilot I reach up and grab one of his wrists twisting it until he cries out and lets me go. I keep hold of his wrist as I spin to face him. I tilt my fingers back and use the heel of my hand in an upward motion toward his nose. It makes a cracking sound and blood comes gushing out immediately. Then I kick him in the stomach and release him facing him to fall flat on his ass.

He’s still holding the knife, so I charge at him and straddle him. Using my knee I secure the arm with the knife and punch him hard. His head snaps back and hits the ground hard. That’s when I remove the knife from his hand. I toss it away as far as I can. When I stand up I look down at him in disgust and step over him. Just for fun, I kick him in the side too. Then I turn and rush toward the Omega.

I lower to my knees and gently turn him over. He doesn’t fight back or resist which tells me he’s most likely unconscious.

“Come on man. Don’t die on me.” I give him a little shake but he doesn’t wake up.

That’s when I hear a familiar voice and look up to see Daniel staring at the scene around me wide-eyed and mouth dropped open in shock.

“Finally! Took you long enough.”

Daniel

“Hey, have you seen Aria?” I ask one of the guys sitting at a table near the exit.

“She left about twenty minutes ago.” He says pointing his thumb over his shoulder toward the door.

Fuck! Why did she leave without telling me? After what happened with the guys from Ragging Machines, I didn’t want her walking to her car alone. Not that she would accept my offer, but I would insist because if the Ragging Machines wanted to hurt our club it would be taking Aria. All of us think of her as an honorary part of the club, and Buck sees her as his daughter. He would bring hell on their heads.

I pull my phone out and send her a quick text.

Daniel: Hey princess, did you get home okay?

I watch my phone waiting to see the indication that she's read the message. Nothing. It shows the message has been delivered but not read. There could be a few reasons why she wouldn’t reply to my message right away, but I’m worried and it’s making me paranoid. I fidget for a good minute watching the screen, but when no answer comes I lock the screen and slide my phone back into my pocket. Since she’s gone and it’s late I decide to head home too.

“I’m heading back,” I tell a few of the guys and head out.

When I push through the door I freeze when I see a familiar truck still parked in the parking lot. Fear sparks inside me. Why is Aria’s truck still here?