"We need to talk," said Roar behind him.
He opened his eyes. "Ja."
"You can't let her go back to Moroad. They're looking for a way in to take us all out, and she's their trojan. She came through me, hiring her at The Fire Ring. And, you."
He looked over his shoulder. "I'll take responsibility for her."
Roar's gaze intensified. "You're too close."
"I want no one touching her." The muscles in his arms tensed. "Find someone to put a lock on the door. I'm not going to stand here holding the handle all fucking day."
"Brage!"
He failed to recognize the high-pitched yell inside the room. The only thing he'd heard out of her mouth was seductive pleasure.
"You're scaring me." She beat on the door. "Someone...please...let me out."
"Damnit," he muttered. "Get one of those lazy motherfuckers up here now."
His head pounded. He'd let her out if he couldn't walk away. She was a woman.
He had a sister in Seattle. Back in Norway, he had a mother, a sister, aunts, and if any man treated them with anything other than respect, he'd kill them.
Roar's hand landed on his shoulder. "Viktor is coming with the lock and tools."
He breathed through his teeth, his arm cramping. Dinah wasn't giving up. She waited longer between tries at the handle, trying to catch him off-guard.
"Change places with me." Roar stepped closer. "I'll take over."
"No." Brage remained steady.
He would be the only one dealing with Dinah. As long as he had his hand on the door, she was safe. Safe from Slag. Safe from him.
He would deal with the punishment he knew was already set in store when he informed Roar that Dinah had met with a Moroad member.
Heavy steps pulled him back to the task at hand. Viktor dropped a toolbox at Brage's feet.
"Will this do?" Viktor held up a slide lock.
Knowing Dinah was determined to escape the room, he eyed the toolbox. "Do you have two of them?"
"Ja." Viktor picked up a screw gun.
"Put one a foot above the handle and the other below." He pried his fingers between the molding and the doorframe, breaking it loose. There needed to be a flat surface. "I hope you have some three-inch screws in there. It needs to hold strong."
The handle jolted in his hand. Dinah was trying to kick or hit the knob off the door. His bedroom wasn't constructed to be a holding cell for an enemy.
As soon as the whirring and vibration of the screw gun started, the handle never moved. Instead, Dinah beat on the door. He couldn't let go until the second lock was on. The only way the door would open was if someone from inside the clubhouse let her out. That wouldn't happen.
All the inconveniences of keeping Dinah here flooded his head. There was no bathroom in the room. There was no food or water. The window opened to a screen that could easily pop out. While he believed Dinah was smart enough not to jump from a two-story window with asphalt below, he had no idea what desperation would do to her.
Viktor slid the second lock. "It's secure."
He let go of the handle as if burned and walked toward the stairs. He only made it six feet, and he punched the wall, breaking a hole in the sheetrock. The outburst of frustration only made his hand hurt.
Chapter 9
Long after the room upstairs in the Slag Motorcycle Club clubhouse fell silent, Dinah gave up on yelling for help and sat on the floor, pressing her back against the door. Going from the noise earlier that vibrated and penetrated the room, Brage had somehow locked her in.
The door wouldn't budge.
Bending her legs, she braced her elbows on her knees and cradled her head with her hands. If this was some kind of joke, she hated Brage's sense of humor.
The man went from perfect to being the first on her shit list.
Being locked inside a room wasn't her idea of fun. She also wasn't a fan of the He-man attitude. She had enough of her older brothers trying to strong-arm her to ever put up with that kind of attitude from someone else.
Her brothers. She jumped to her feet and dug in her back pocket for her phone.
"Shit," she mumbled, seeing the new crack in the screen.
Ignoring the damage, she connected with Tony's number and held the cell to her ear. On the second ring, she paced the room.
The recorded message announcing the number had not set up voicemail played over the phone. She disconnected the call, and sent Tony a text, begging him to reply. The moment the message was sent, it hit her that Brage was upset about where she'd gone today.
He must've seen her meeting her brother. She knew Moroad MC was after Slag. The reason why wasn't shared with her. She only knew Tony had screwed up, again, and she'd wanted to help him.
Today, her brother had made it sound like his club would kill him if he failed to get the information they needed on Slag.
And, now Brage knew about her connection to Moroad. What would that mean for her?
She couldn't call 911 because Brage could rat out Tony for being in Portland. The judge could force him back into prison for breaking the rules of his release.
She exhaled loudly. The moment Brage returned, she'd explain her way out of the tight situation.
In all honesty, she would rather deal with Brage than Tony.
Brage only knew her body. She could lie her socks off and even have sex with him to get out of the room. Whatever he wanted to hear, she'd say it.
Then, once her feet hit the sidewalk outside the gate, she'd take off and leave. Her brother would have to fend for himself.
Her eyes burned, thinking of leaving everything she'd ever known behind. Raised by her brothers was always unconventional. Not a day had gone by that
