AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He shook his head and laughed before he reached for his glass, which I still held after refilling it. His fingers grazed mine briefly, before he put the glass to his lips. His full, pink, and kissable lips.
No! Nope, not kissable lips. Just regular lips. This man was affecting my ability to think straight, and I didn’t like it.
“Do you want me to apologize for making assumptions?” I said it a little defensively, which probably negated what sincerity any apology would have.
“Not yet,” he said, his blue gaze boring into me like he could see every thought inside my head. “How have you been managing taking care of Leo on your own?”
I frowned and stood up a little taller. “We manage just fine.”
He laughed again. “I’m not asking like that. I’m just asking, Ellie.”
“I work from home,” I answered vaguely. “I make enough to give me and Leo a good life.”
Diesel looked at me for a long time before his gaze swung to Leo, running across the backyard with Sal in his hand, laughing like the happy little boy he was. There was love in his eyes and I knew that I would have to, at the very least, share Leo with him.
“He looks like a very happy kid.”
I smiled at the unintended compliment, but I shut that shit down. I couldn’t let this handsome bear of a man make me do something foolish. Something stupid that might make me the next victim of the Markham family curse. “He is, thanks.”
“Tell me about him.”
“He likes pretty much anything on wheels, and he loves animals. It seems like every week he’s introducing me to a new friend. Last week it was Frankie, a frog he found at the pond. Either of those things will make him very excited. He’s a sweet kid who is very protective. Watching him grow and learn has been nothing short of a privilege.”
“When is his birthday?”
I frowned. “You don’t think he’s yours?” That was maddening as hell when it should’ve been a relief.
“Settle down, spitfire. I just want to know when my son’s birthday is.” His brows pulled down into a confused frown. “What is with you?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know you, what little I know isn’t exactly comforting and the way you’ve gone about all this has been freaking me out.”
He looked confused for a long moment, and then his brow lowered. “Yeah, well, I don’t know you either, but I’m not here making accusations. All you know about me is what you think you know. I’m the president of a motorcycle club, not a fucking biker gang. I run multiple businesses and I do charity work, so what exactly do you object to?”
The ferocity in his tone slithered through my veins and heated up my blood. I didn’t know what to do or say in the face of that kind of intensity. He was right, I didn’t know much, but Stacy hadn’t said anything bad about him until he didn’t answer her messages. “What exactly is it you want, Diesel?”
“What I want is to get to know my son. I want to be a part of his life.”
“But your life is dangerous.” Wasn’t it?
His full pink lips curled into a lopsided grin. “His mother is missing, presumed dead, so her life wasn’t all that free from risk, was it?”
“Maybe not, but my life is safe, I don’t hang out with bikers.” Okay, up until five minutes before Diesel arrived, I wasn’t entirely sure my life was safe—but knowing it was him who’d been sending the stuff, at least that was one thing off my mind.
“For now,” he said darkly.
I lost it at that, “What do you want from me? You’ve been terrorizing me for the past couple of months? I’ve been shit scared! Why send those letters? What were you trying to do? And that truck for Leo, that was—”
“Hey! Hold it there, pixie, what are you talking about? Terrorizing you? I never even met you before today.”
My shoulders slumped, “You mean you haven’t been sending the letters and gifts?”
He shook his head, “You want to tell me what’s got you so spooked?”
“It started almost two months ago, I found a rose on my porch one morning. I didn’t think anything of it. Then the next day there was a note stuffed in my mailbox saying that it was good to see me smile. I put it down to kids playing a prank or something, you know like random acts of kindness? To be honest, I thought it was sweet. But then another note came, and another. It was personal stuff, like commenting on what I was wearing or where I’d been.”
Diesel stood and listened, his brows drawn tight in concern. I reached down and opened the kitchen drawer and took out the notes I’d saved—all fifteen of them—and handed them over.
His fingers brushed mine as he took them, and I almost jumped back. “Steady there, pixie. Let’s see what we’ve got here,” he said as his eyes scanned the pages. “You been to the cops?”
