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“Well, I’ll lead you to Winters to make sure you get there safely. Then I’ll kiss you long and hard until I’m ready to return to my place in Bastion.”
She frowned in the cutest way. “How do you know I live in Winters?”
I chuckled, getting off my bike. “Let’s get to your room. We’ll talk all about it there.”
“But—”
I tugged on her hand to get her moving. She watched me with a suspicious eye. I’d have to come clean about AJ tailing her.Fuck. I’d spoken without thinking, not something I usually did. Further proof Madeline screwed with my head.
We quietly passed through the rustic lobby, several pairs of eyes turned our way.The Easter Bunny and the Big Bad Wolfpopped into my head. We did kinda look like that. Madeline and I clashed big time, but I didn’t care. The way this woman made me feel—light and complete—mattered more.
Nothing and no one had ever filled the crater-sized hole inside my heart. I’d been hollow there since my mother took off when I was nine. Well, there had been a time in my life when I had sort of felt whole—with the Hamilton family. It had ended when part of me sank to the bottom of Lake Garrison twelve years ago.
Lake Garrison…
In the elevator, my mind started down the painful, lonely road. It led me back to my hometown of Garrison, South Dakota. The mother chapter’s home, the original Knight’s Legion MC, started by my granddad Frank and his brother Charlie fifty years ago. A couple of months after my birth, my dad moved up the ranks to vice president, then eventually president.
I’d only gone back home once—eight years ago—after my enlistment in the Marines ended. Foolishly I’d thought I could handle being back. But no. It had been too fuckin’ painful cruising by my old stomping grounds. And the lake. All the memories, both good and bad, had pelted me in the face like a violent hailstorm.
Nothing compared to having my innards ripped out when I had seen the Hamiltons from afar one afternoon. I’d caused an unbearable amount of pain to the most caring and loving people I’d ever known. They’d made me a part of their close-knit family when I hadn’t really had one of my own. They trusted me, loved me, and I’d destroyed every one of them. I would never forget the sound of Mrs. Hamilton sobbing or the sight of Mr. Hamilton’s stone-cold face at the burial of their youngest son.
What had haunted me all these years later, even more, was the little girl with two missing front teeth—my sidekick. A sassy firecracker I had protected from her rough and tumble older brothers.
On the day of the funeral, she’d clung to my side and soaked my shirt with her tears. The only words she’d spoken, dozens of times throughout the day, still tortured me.Why did he have to die? Why? I want him to come back.
I still hated myself for shattering her world and severing off a limb of a kind, loving family who’d welcomed me into their hearts and home.
I hate myself…
Delicate fingers skimmed over my cheek. Her soft touch and concerned gaze pulled me out of my thoughts. So sweet. So goddamn kind. So wrong for someone like me.
I was all wrong for someone like her. Madeline deserved better than anything I could ever offer. I wouldn’t destroy another innocent’s life.
“Hey, you okay?” she asked in the melodious voice I’d come to love in only one fuckin’ day.
“Yeah. Got stuff on my mind.” The elevator door opened. I took her hand and led the way to her room.
“You don’t look fine.” She wrapped her free hand around my forearm. I couldn’t let her touch soothe me. I needed to resist her magic, the spell she’d cast on me.
“I’m fine.”
“I’m a good listener.” She stroked her thumb over the top of my hand. Dammit, I wished I could confess my sins to this angel, but I didn’t want her to know a savage monster lived inside me.
“I’m fine, Madeline,” I snapped, louder and harsher than I’d meant to. “Unlock your door.”
“O-kay.” She dug out her keycard from her small bag, inserted it in the slot, and when the green light flashed, I shoved the door open.
She entered, and when I didn’t follow, she turned around, her baby blues filled with confusion. “Come in.”
“Listen, I have some things to do. Today was great.”
She was in front of me in a flash, a hand pressing on my chest. “What’s going on? Did I do something wrong? Offend you?”
Jesus Christ, she thinks she’s the problem.
“Nah, you were perfect, Angel. But honestly, Easter Bunny, meet Big Bad Wolf.” I tapped my chest above her hand.
“Oh, come on. Don’t turn my words on me. Not after spending the day together.”
