Prologue
His palm itched as he sat parked outside her apartment building, willing her to appear. Just glimpses of that long dark hair and tight little body were about all he got lately. Those damn bikers and their bitches she’d been hanging out with kept her close—too close. She washis. Her and the boy.
She’d been a very bad girl, running out on him. She thought she could take his son from him? That she could up and disappear without him coming to claim her?
She was in for a rude awakening.
His breath caught when he saw her car appear out of the parking garage. He could see enough to confirm she still wore the cast she’d had for the last few months.
Sure, he may have had to put her in her place a time or two, but with him she’d never broken anything. Couldn’t she see she was safer with him?
He had to get her away from these people and this town. He had to make her see.
She was his. She’d always be his.
With that thought in mind he started his engine to follow her as he had been for the past several weeks, ever since he’d tracked her to Hawthorne.
He was content to bide his time; she’d be worth it in the end. And their time together? It was coming.
Soon.
Chapter 1
Spring was in full bloom in Hawthorne, Nevada, as I drove up the windy mountain road lined with pine and rugged landscape. After a colder than normal winter, spring was a perfect reprieve before the blistering heat of summer set in.
Being from New Mexico and after living in Texas, the heat and I had learned to coexist. At least the Nevada heat was dry. It was nothing like the humid summers of Texas where your clothes clung to you within seconds of leaving your house. I shuddered at the mere thought of that state, for more reasons than one.
I pulled up the gravel driveway that led to Sophie’s house, where hopefully Mason was up from his nap. After a difficult meeting with my divorce lawyer, I was eager to set eyes on my son.
The front door swung open as I was getting out of the car. Sophie stood with her son, Maddox, poised on her hip, balancing him alongside her pregnant belly. “Hi Jilly. Bubs is still sleeping.” She smiled warmly, referring to Mason, as I followed her inside their beautiful house.
I nodded as Axel strolled in, his large frame taking over any room.
Much like another biker I knew.
“Hey,” he greeted before his eyes narrowed on his wife. “Baby, how many times have I told you to let me carry Mad?” he demanded in his typical overprotective fashion.
She bit back a smile, used to his antics. “I can carry him,” she assured him. “Honey, I’m pregnant, not crippled.”
Axel made a growling noise and reached for his son without further comment. I smiled. I was so happy that my friend had such a good man in her life.
I heard Mason’s babble from the guest room and headed in that direction.
He was standing in his Pack ’n Play, his dark hair mussed from sleep and eyes wide with excitement.
At over a year old, Mason was a toddling, babbling ball of sweetness and quite the handful. He squealed in greeting when he saw me, music to my ears.
I grinned. There was nothing like seeing my little man to turn an otherwise shit day around.
“Hi, sweetie.” I bent over and picked up his stout little body, awkwardly cradling him against the cast that had covered my arm for what, at that point, felt like forever.
I kissed his neck, my favorite spot, and carried him out to the living room where Axel sat with Maddox on the carpet and Sophie was bustling about in the kitchen. “Thank you both so much. I’m gonna take this guy home.”
Sophie shot me a worried look. “Wait, aren’t you tired? Do you want to stay for dinner? You could sit and put your feet up for a while.”
I offered her a tired smile. “I’m fine,” I assured her.
“You’re stubborn, is what you are.” She reprimanded me in the loving way only a best friend could.
