Running Wilde Ch. 45 | You Can Run (Full Version)
I see something in you, I know that it's crazy 'cause girl I just met you
But we joining forces 'cause that would be gorgeous
No girl, I won't let up
I just rolled the dice so no more thinkin' twice
Destiny she won't fail us
If you feel what I feel can you just keep it real
Baby, it ain't no pressure
Glock Six
-6lack
Aiden swerved into the car park of the diner and sprung out of the car before it had even come to a complete halt. He bolted down the narrow alleyway on the side of the restaurant, where he’d last left her, hoping to see a coil of candy pink hair, praying that Mighty’s technologically enhanced iWatch on his wrist was wrong.
“Ava-Marie?” he called into the still of the night when he saw no signs of her. He gritted his teeth and looked back at his wrist. The green pulses of his sonar tracker showed Ava miles away, so far that he couldn’t estimate how long it would take to track her down.
His heart tremored uncomfortably.
She really was gone.
“Fuck!”
He sprinted back to the car and took off in the opposite direction he was meant to go, back onto the M1, pushing the engine well over the speed limit as he dialled a number into his latest burner phone.
“Mighty?” his breath rushed out of him the moment the ringing stopped.
“Boss, you okay?” Mighty frowned into the receiver. The unfiltered concern in his tone made Aiden clear his throat and take a slow, hushed breath.
“Ava-Marie is missing.” He said steadily, “The tracker shows her miles away on the M1. She’s moving fast. She has to be in a car. Before I do anything, I need to know what kind of car.”
“You think feds got to her?”
“I hope not. Find her coordinates and access the cameras so I know what I’m dealing with.”
“I’m on it.”
Deft fingers clicked frantic rhythms across the keyboard.
The silence on the line that followed felt like saying goodbye to an old acquaintance, then walking in the same direction and realising that you might have to hold another awkward conversation. “It’s just loading now.” Mighty filled it.
“Yeah.”
More silence.
“The M1 has a lot of cameras, so you know…”
“Yup.”
Even more silence.
“Almost done.”
Aiden didn’t bother to reply. He was tightly wound as it was and this unnecessary small talk with Mighty was only winding him up further. He wanted answers, not idle chit chat.
“I’ve got eyes on her,” Mighty said finally, his voice lighter, “Good news, she’s not in a police car, so we can rule that out.”
Aiden almost relaxed into his seat. “Bad news?”
“It’s not necessarily bad…it’s…interesting. The Lockewood girl is alone.”
“Alone?” he frowned. He was sure that if she wasn’t in a police car then she must have hitched a ride, after all she was a sheltered rich girl and it was the most naïve option, so he didn’t imagine she’d do anything else -except, it appeared she had. He pinched the bridge of his nose. Why was this girl set on making a complicated situation even more complicated that it had to be? Once again, he was trying to avoid the police, but now instead of picking her up and getting the hell out of dodge as he’d planned, he had to chase after her to stop her from fucking up what little progress they’d made.
“Yes. Alone. And she’s singing.”
*
Ava sped down the motorway and screeched The 1975 at the top of her lungs. Her voice sounded like a drunken parrot, and did the song more harm than good, but she didn’t care. It felt good to lose herself in her musical interlude and pretend she was just a university student obsessed with Matty Healy again. It felt good to head bang and do poor air guitar impersonations like she used to do with her friends back in their dorms as they were getting ready for a night out.
“He’s got his gun. He’s got his suit on. She says, ‘Babe, you look sooooo cooooool_”
A horn blowing at her from the car in the next lane snapped her out of her concert.
She immediately stopped dancing and screeching and sat up straight, pretending that she had never been doing that, because despite what she was singing, she looked far from cool.
“AVA-MARIE!”
Her head snapped to her left. “No fucking way!”
There he was, Aiden, keeping pace alongside her. Livid. She felt all of the lightness rush out of her stomach and her body grow heavy with the weight of the shackles she thought she’d broken free of.
“Pull over. Now!”
“No,” she whispered to herself. She slapped her palms against the steering wheel, “No, no, NO!” She hit the wheel even harder, then glared accusingly at the skies, “I was free!”
“PULL OVER!”
She smashed her foot down on the accelerator and the Volkswagen lurched forward.
Aiden’s jaw tightened, “This gyal must think I’m ramping with her.” He shifted gears pushed his car faster.
“One last chance. Pull over.”
She gripped the steering wheel, gritted her teeth and muttered a string of profanities that Aiden couldn’t make out, and leant forward as if sheer determination would enable her to outrun him, even though fate clearly had other plans for her.
He sighed and pushed his car faster than he knew the VW would go, thankful for the late night and empty roads. He swerved in front of her and swung his car around so that it sat horizontally, blocking both of their lanes.
Her foot slammed on the break and the tires screeched against the tarmac. Before she could think to swerve into the next lane, Aiden whipped out his gun and shot the front tires. He heard her curse words this time. It was a strange comfort. He’d grown used to her swearing at him as of late. He tucked his gun into his harness and marched over to her door, only to be met by the barrel of the gun he’d given her.
His eyes flashed. “Put it down before I put you across my knee,” he growled.
She opened her mouth then closed it. It had been a while since he’d said anything remotely sadistic or had been this openly angry with her. It coaxed beloved unwanted memories to the surface.
She rolled her shoulders back, put her other hand on the gun and pointed it at his face, “How did you find me.”
Bent at the waist, Aiden brought his face level to Ava’s and looked past the gun. “You knew I would find you. You wanted me to.”
She broke eye contact.
“I didn’t want you to find me. I was hoping they’d kill you.”
“No, you didn’t.” He moved closer. “You’re mine, Ava-Marie,” his eyes slid slowly down her neck to her rose gold collar, “So I will always find you.” When they flicked back up to her, steeled with his solemnity, she swallowed. “Always.”
His promise intertwined seamlessly with his threat and made her heart constrict…and flutter.
Ava flexed her fingers around the handle and pressed the tip of the barrel to the small gap between his brows. He didn’t flinch. “I did. I made it this far without you, Aiden. I’ve proven that I don’t need you. I can take care of myself.”
“I can see that.” Despite his anger, the corner of his mouth turned up into an almost smile. He carefully pushed the gun down. “How’d you get the car?”
She looked away, “I stole it.” Her cheeks turned red at the thought of poor Roy deserted in the middle of the field.
His smile broke through in a full-on eruption of white teeth. “That’s my girl,” he said proudly.
“I’m not yours, Aiden,” she sneered, lifting the gun back up, “I haven’t been yours for a while.”
He pushed it away with more force, and scoffed, “What? Because of your tantrums?”
Her eyes widened, “Tantrums? You think these are tantrums?”
“You think they aren’t?” Aiden reached to open her car door and she hit the lock. He frowned, “Open the door.”
“Fuck off,” she glared at him.
He reached inside the car and flipped the lock off but the moment he let go she flipped it back. “This is exactly what I’m talking about. You’re behaving like a brat.”
“You’re not taking me seriously.”
“You’re not doing serious shit.” He kissed his teeth and reached in again, then yanked the door open before she could repeat her counter action. “Let’s go.”
“I stole a car_”
“So, you stole a car, big whoop! Now you’re a criminal. Maybe now this means you’ll finally get off of your holier than thou bullshit. Now can you come the fuck on, the police are coming.”
She slumped forward and banged her head on the steering wheel, “This is exactly what I didn’t want.”
“So you stole a car?”
“Don’t say it like I’m stupid!”
“Maybe if you didn’t act like you were_”
She jumped out of the car and barrelled into him, driving hm back, her face contorted in fury, “How did you find me?”
“I knew you’d head back to London. That’s what a stupid person would do.”
“If you call me stupid one more time_”
He stood taller, “You’ll what?”
As her gun went back up Aiden matched her action. She stilled. “We’ve both got guns, Ava-Marie,” he tilted his head to the side, “Now what?”
She looked from him to his pistol, then scoffed. “You won’t shoot me.”
“You’re getting on my nerves, and we both know how impulsive I am.” He stepped into her gun. “But to be honest, I really would rather put you across my knee.”
Ava edged back, her pulse spiking and her skin warming at second mention of it. “You wouldn’t dare.”
He matched her step, “We both know I would.” He slipped his gun back into its holster, “You’re well overdue some discipline, Ava-Marie. I‘ve been patient with you, hoping that if I gave you time to process the shit we’re in, that you would stop being such a brat and behave.” He loped closer to her slowly, carefully, fixing his eyes on her, holding her in place, and Ava watched him move closer, and closer, and closer, until his towering bulk blocked out the moon and all she could see was him, all broad shoulders, thick limbs, heaving muscles encased in skin so dark he almost melted into the night. He was so close that his heat eased the sting of the breeze through her thin shirt and yet when his body skimmed against hers ever so slightly, her nipples grew harder. Aiden pretended not to notice, but his nature betrayed him, twitching and swelling, pressing against the confines of his trousers, filling the space and fighting to point in her direction. He tilted his head, regarding her, his face stern and unyielding, noting how she almost shrunk beneath him. His voice came huskier than he intended, “I want to make you behave, Ava-Marie.”
The change in his tone sparked her intuition, and just like in the restaurant, that all too familiar feeling came alive, but this time she didn’t know how to stop it. Her butterflies were erratic at the thought of what he’d been holding back all these weeks…and how good it would feel to feel that release his power permitted.
She tried to back away but his large hands wrapped around her slender wrists and his eyes darkened, “Thirty-Eight.” He quoted her number, pulling her back to the playroom.
Thirty-eight stings from the flogger…thirty-eight caresses of his full lips scattered across her flushed naked flesh.
She dropped her gaze and blew air out of her mouth.
“I want to double it. Triple it.” He pulled her hard against him, “I want you hot, and red, so much so that you won’t be able to sit for a fortnight.” His other hand pressed into her back and travelled up her spine into the damp pink curls tumbling down the nape of her neck. He made a fist and yanked her head up. “I want to alternate each strike, from front to back. I want to make you ache, inside and out, and once I’m certain you’ve learned your lesson, I want to fuck you. Hard.” He lowered his face till it was less than an inch from hers, “Then I want to watch you come for me.”
She swallowed.
“But I’ve been patient with you, Ava-Marie -so, so patient -and yet you continue to try me.” He moved her hand between them and unabashedly pressed it to the base of his rigidness. It twitched in her palm and he pulled air between his teeth. He waited to see if she would snatch it away, but when she made no move and her breathing became more pronounced, he started to move it up and down, stroking his length with her touch. “But I’m starting to think, that with this little running away stunt, that maybe you’re not as angry with me as you think. You’re acting out because, with all that’s been going on, I’ve neglected you.”
“I am angry with you,” she whispered. Her hand squeezed his hardness with more force than he was comfortable with.
He bit his lip and grunted, “I’m sorry for making you angry.”
“You will be.”
He lent in closer and bumped he tips of their noses together, “Are you threatening me, Ava-Marie?” he purred.
Though her body quivered, when she spoke her voice was still, “Yes, Aiden Michaels.”
He groaned and pressed his mouth to hers, hissing when she bit his bottom lip and moaning when she ran her tongue across it. He picked her up and placed her on top of his car boot then stepped between her legs and gripped her hips to pull their centres together.
“It feels like forever…since I’ve touched you,” he said huskily between ravenous kisses.
“You don’t deserve to touch me,” she breathed, tugging on his shirt and clawing at his back.
“That only makes me want to do it more.” He thrust his erection harder against her.
Ava gasped.
He pulled back. “Earlier at the diner, when I had to distract you from giving us away,” he trailed the tip of his nose across he cheekbones and breathed her in, “I wanted to fuck you right there, in front of everybody. It was that bad.” He curled his waist and grinded against her, “It is that bad.”
Ava moaned and opened her legs wider.
Another moan followed and they both froze.
“Who was that?” her yes darted around into the darkness of the surrounding fields.
“Oh,” he released her and put her back o the ground, “How could I forget. I got you a gift.”
The moaning sound came again. Her eyes landed on the boot. She stepped back and glared at him. “Aiden…is there someone in there?”
He popped the trunk and smiled at her, “I brought your boyfriend back to you.”
“Oh my…fuck!” Junie looked much less attractive with his face and neck holding prints of the sole of Aiden’s boots and his clothes soaked in blood. “You got him good.”
Aiden tilted his head and blinked at her, “You’re not mad?”
“No,” she glared at Junie, “I heard them talking back at the diner. They were coming after me, to take me back to Uncle Chris. He said he was going to fuck me first.”
“Is that right?” he said as he regarded Junie with renewed interest and something else that made Ava shift her footing. He slammed the boot closed, all traces of lust gone away, “Get in.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to get some answers.”
“You’re going to torture him.”
He locked eyes with her, “I’m going to torture the fuck out of him.”
“Aiden…”
“What?” he snapped.
“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”
“Do you have a better idea?”
“No, but_”
“Then come on.”