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“It’s been three and a half years since Stacy left and nothing has happened.” Her words might have been all bravado, but her body language said otherwise.
“You want to talk to me about that family curse you keep mumbling about?”
She shook her head.
“Didn’t think so. I’m willing to let you keep it to yourself, for now, but don’t let your delusions put you and Leo in danger.”
“We’re fine. We’ve been fine all this time Stacy’s been gone.” Her voice shook like even she didn’t believe what she was saying. “No trouble to speak of.”
“No trouble? What about those letters you’ve been getting? The truck for Leo? What if it’s all connected, have you considered that?”
The look in her eyes told me she had.
“And if it is, what do you think might happen next. It was a toy truck today, but what about tomorrow? This is escalating, can’t you see? Can you keep an eye on Leo twenty-four-seven?” I paused and looked her right in the eye. “Once I start looking into what happened to Stacy, I might end up poking some sleeping bears, you prepared to tackle them alone?”
The way her shoulders fell, said it all.
“That’s what I thought. I’ll stay here with you two tonight, but you both will be safer with me.” Keeping her close would make it easier to keep her safe. And, admittedly, to make her mine.
Sooner rather than later.
Chapter Six
Ellie
I must be crazy. First for allowing Diesel to stay at my house. That was my first mistake, and I knew one day in the not-too-distant future, I would live—or not live—to regret that choice. I knew he was right—someone had been watching me and Leo. It might be connected to Stacy’s disappearance, or it might not, and the sooner we could figure out what happened to her the better. But more than the inherent danger, possibly to my life or Leo’s, was the implicit danger he posed to my heart.
Diesel was big, overwhelmingly so, but he was also gorgeous. Really fucking gorgeous, and worse, he was gorgeous in that charming, bad boy way. He wore his jeans a little on the baggy side, but that did nothing to hide the powerful legs that carried him gracefully wherever he directed them. His white t-shirt hugged big, sculpted biceps, but the leather vest decorated with patches hid what I was sure were killer pecs and a perfect six-pack. It felt so wrong to be lusting after my sister’s ex, especially considering the current circumstances.
“Stop it!” I whispered to myself even as my eyes fluttered shut and images of his shirtless, and then completely naked, body came to me. “Stop!”
I forced my eyes open and my mind on the task at hand. Naughty thoughts of Diesel were merely a distraction from the boxes that lined three of the four walls in my garage. I stood in the doorway and looked at the boxes of Stacy’s belongings. I couldn’t bear to look at her bedroom any longer, for two years it had been like a shrine—everything left as it was on the day she disappeared, but when it became clear she wasn’t coming back, I eventually packed up her things, and moved them here. I’d turned her bedroom into an office, and when I wrote it felt as if she was still with me.
If she was up to something, digging into something, it was probably here, which was why I was procrastinating. I couldn’t bring myself to take that last step. It was both a literal and metaphorical barrier to what I needed to do. My inability to take that last step was cowardice, plain and simple. As badly as I wanted to know what happened to my sister, I was just as terrified to learn the truth. It was that fucking curse, I knew it. Sure, believing in the curse was easy, it made sure I kept my circle small. But it kept me safe, and it kept Leo safe.
“Find anything yet?” Diesel’s deep voice startled a gasp out of me, but on the heels of that fear came a frisson of female awareness and appreciation. Everything about him was masculine to the nth degree, inescapably macho, impossibly alpha.
I put a hand to my chest to stop the intense pounding of my heart, so loud I was sure the whole neighborhood could hear it and shook my head. “Not yet.”
“Might help if you actually got in there and looked.” His tone was tinted with amusement, his warm breath fanning the shell of my ear, revealing he was much closer than I realized. “What’s wrong?”
I shook my head quickly. Too quickly. “Nothing,” I lied.
“Still worrying about that family curse, you don’t want to talk about?” He brushed past me and walked into the garage before turning to face me, so close that I counted at least four shades of blue in his eyes.
“No,” I lied again, unable to look away from that steel cut jaw covered in blond scruff.
His lips tilted into a small smile. “I’d love to play poker with you, pixie.”
Confusion at his abrupt change in topic dipped my brows. “Why?”
He leaned in close, eyes sparkling with mischief. “Because you are a terrible fucking liar, and I would have you in nothing but your socks in five hands or less.” That wicked smile was like a living, breathing thing, a touch that ignited a fire deep inside me.
A fire I’d worked hard to keep under wraps for too many years to count. So I brushed off his words and rolled my eyes. “Not just a biker, but also a comedian.”
“I know.” He flashed a satisfied smirk. “Leo is out like a light, so I’m here to help. Where should we start?”
“Help?”
