AllFreeNovel
Share Us
For Lyrica, it was that time of night that haunted her the most. The time that seeped into her soul, filled her with chaos, and left her staring into the darkness and hearing the secrets she had no desire to know.
It was that time when she ached for what she now knew she could never have, yet was forced to acknowledge that settling for less wasn’t going to happen.
It was that time of night when, no matter the locks on the doors, or how tightly the windows were closed, still he found a way to her. . . .
“Pretty Lyrica,” he whispered from the darkness. “Did you really think I’d let you hide . . . ?”
“Please—don’t.” She shook her head, helpless as she felt his weight on the bed, watched his shadow come over her as he slowly drew the sheets back from her naked, aching body. “Please . . .”
“You’re mine . . .”
RIDING TO
SUNSET
JACI BURTON
To Lora Leigh—as always, thank you.
ONE
“Hey, the newbie’s back.”
“Survived the latest mission, huh? Did Diaz hold your hand so you wouldn’t be scared?”
“I’m pretty sure Diaz said that Jed was afraid of the dark.”
“I give him a year and he’s going to run back to the FBI, tail between his legs.”
Jed Templeton cracked a grin, not at all insulted by the ragging he’d been getting from General Grange Lee’s crew of veteran Wild Riders. On the job for about a year, Jed was still the new guy. And when you were the newest of any crew, you took shit until you proved yourself.
He dropped his bag and headed into the kitchen of Wild Riders headquarters to grab a beer before moving to the living room, where Mac, Lily, Diaz, Jessie and Spence were huddled up watching a football game on the big-screen TV. He grabbed one of the available seats, unscrewed the top off his bottle of beer and propped his booted feet onto the scarred table.
“So?” Jessie asked, leaning forward to clasp her hands together. “Diaz said it got rough.”
“He would say that, being a pussy and all. I had to do most of his job for him, but I’ll cover for him when I file my report to the general.”
Jessie snorted. Diaz scowled, but didn’t say anything.
“So really, Diaz, how did he do?” Mac asked when the commercial came on.
The room went silent except for the sound of a manic announcer on TV, selling car insurance.
Diaz shot a glare to Jed, who smiled at him.
Diaz shrugged. “He can hold his own. Kicks ass in a gun fight and hand to hand. He’ll do all right.”
The rest of them nodded and tilted their drinks in his direction. He nudged his bottle of beer toward all of them, and when the game resumed, they argued over teams.
That was it. With Diaz’s endorsement came acceptance.
Lily came over to sit next to him on the two-person love seat. She laid her hand on his forearm. “It’s hard to dig into this group,” she said. “I was the first, and a woman at that. When I joined, I had to prove myself. So did Shadoe. Even Jessie, though she’d been mostly brought up here, had to prove she could hack it on her first assignment. We all have our trial by fire.”
“Yeah, good thing you didn’t suck worse than the women,” Spence said, grabbing a handful of chips.
“I did not hear that, Spencer,” Lily said. “You don’t want to upset me and my hormones.”
“Sorry, oh pregnant one.”
