Rush - Blue Devils MC Book 2 (Book 1 Included FREE for a short time only!) by Ashley Rhodes Read Free Book Online

girl was gonna catch his attention and force him to pay attention to her for more than 30 minutes at a time, but that someday hadn’t happened yet.
    Lain met them up at Diamonds Peak with Tina riding double on his motorcycle. Bikes freaked Hannah the fuck out - she’d seen one too many wrecks where the guy never walked again - and she’d refused to ride double on Rush’s bike, so they took his car up instead.
    When they stepped out of the car, the vista opened up in front of them and Hannah sighed appreciatively. Maybe dry, brown desert wasn’t her style, but standing up here on this mountain, she could enjoy the stark beauty in front of her, even if she preferred the sand that came on the ocean beach instead.
    “Wow!” Tina said, somehow turning that word into two syllables. “This is, like, totally rad. Thanks for bringing me up here, baby.” Apparently ‘thank you’s’ included a full make-out session in Tina’s world and she and Lain spent some time swapping spit.
    Sure that Lain’s attention was elsewhere, Hannah felt free to roll her eyes. Rush caught the gesture and grinned down at her. “Wanna go hike around a little?” he asked.
    “That’d be great!” Hannah said, a little too enthusiastically. She grimaced at herself and Rush broke out into laughter.
    “Well, anything that makes you that happy…” he said, teasing. He took her hand and they hiked around the rock formations for a while, stopping occasionally to drink out of the canteen Rush had prudently thought to bring along.
    “I know we decided that it was cooler up here than down there,” Hannah said eventually, panting, finding a shady rock to sit on, “but I think that only helps if we sit on our asses instead of wandering around.”
    “Yeah, we’re probably doing this wrong,” Rush agreed with a smile. “Let me walk around to the other side of these rocks to see if there’s anything to explore over there. Or any shady spots to enjoy.” He winked at her and she laughed, settling back onto the limestone rock a little more. It had a funky bump right in the middle of it, making it difficult to get comfortable, and as she squirmed around, she glanced down.
    And froze.
    And couldn’t scream. Or move. Or even whimper. She’d turned into limestone rock. She was terrified. Petrified. She didn’t know, just didn’t know anything. In that moment, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to recall her name. She was just staring, and that…that thing was staring back at her. Evil. It was going to coil and strike and bite her and eat her and the coyotes were going to gnaw on her bones.
    Far away, in another galaxy perhaps, there was noise and she realized in the tiny part of her brain that was still processing noise, that Rush was talking to her but she couldn’t understand him. Nothing existed except her and this…thing that was staring at her with its beady little eyes.
    Then it was flying through the air, far away from her, and the spell was gone and she could hear again but it didn’t matter, she began to shake and whimper. Then Rush was picking her up and carrying her, making little soothing noises, telling her it was going to be okay. She couldn't unclench her teeth enough to respond but the shakes got bigger and the tears began rolling, unchecked, down her cheeks.
    Rush was telling Lain that they were going and the stupid airhead with him whined about ruining her fun and then Rush was driving to her house. He unbuckled her seat belt and carried her up the back staircase and she was remembering how he’d carried her the first night they’d met and how she’d trusted him then, too. He laid her down on her bed and pulled off her shoes and curled up beside her, stroking her arm.
    “It’s gonna be okay, it’s gonna be okay,” he repeated over and over again in a singsong voice and then, “It’s gone. It’s never coming back again,” and the fact that he was smart enough not to use that word is what made her fall in love with Rush