Page 69

There were five men in the room, all of whom turned their eyes my way.

“Glad to see you made it, Princess.” For half a second, I could’ve sworn Chase looked relieved.

“Didn’t really have much of a choice, now, did I?”

The bastard just smirked at me.

Resisting the urge to slap him, I cocked a hip and straightened my shoulders. “Why are my girls here?”

“Because I brought them here.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”Don’t kill him, Naomi. Not yet anyway.“What right do you have to uproot my girls?”

“I could’ve left them unprotected. . . ”

My eyes narrowed in on him. “Why would they need to be protected?”

A shiver ran up my spine when his brown eyes darkened. The way he was looking at me reminded me of the video I found. The authority rolling off him as he ordered that girl around was something I couldn’t forget.

“Go upstairs. I’ll be there in a minute.”

The deep gravel in his tone had me tempted to do what he said, but no one ordered me around, not even Chase Mathers.

“I’m not going anywhere.” I crossed my arms and planted my feet firmly on the ground.

Chase didn’t say anything—he just sat back in his chair and stretched out his legs. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was getting off on my defiance.

“Are you going to answer my question?”

“I don’t know,” he reached out and grabbed a mug of beer off the table. “Care to tell me why you had the sudden urge to go home?”

Shit.

I was so pissed at him for practically forcing me to come here and kidnapping my girls that I almost forgot about that. Now, it was all I could think about—my throat bobbed with a heavy swallow as I fought to keep my eyes from shifting to the file, poking out my purse. I failed. The instant my gaze dropped to the manila folder, Chase caught my fuck up.

He looked over at one of his men and tipped his head in a silent order. One that I tried to beat them to but I never had a chance. There were four of them, and while I was wiry, I couldn’t match their strength.

My purse was torn out of my hand, and I was pushed back against the wall before I could do much more than utter a few threats. The only thing I could hear when one of the men passed Chase my father’s file was my own heart, pattering wildly.

I could see the second what he was reading registered in his mind. In that fraction of a second, his expression morphed from arrogance to curiosity, and then finally pure unadulterated anger.

I’d never been more scared than I was when his gaze locked on mine. I may have even slightly jumped when he barked loudly at his men.

“Get out!”

The bikers all quickly filled out the door. I was tempted to scurry behind them and disappear.

“Don’t even think about it,” Chase growled directly at me.

Refusing to show him any weakness, I stared back and scoured my brain for a way out of this situation. I’d seen countless girls calm down an angry man—Shelby did it all the time with Logan. All it took was a little good old-fashioned charm and a touch of sweetness.

I was so fucked.

What did nice girls do when they were trapped in a room with a very big man staring at them with a murderous glint in his eyes?

“Where did you get this?”

I could feel the ridicule in my eyes as they rolled Chase’s way. “From a filing cabinet.”