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Eight
Gage
The bedroom door opened, and I dreaded looking over at it. Another day of Shiloh being in this room with me sounded like hell. The heavy footsteps weren’t Shiloh’s. Thank fuck. I turned to see who was here.
Huck was putting my breakfast down on the rolling table that had come with the hospital bed.
“What time is it?” I groaned.
“Seven thirty,” Huck replied.
“What time does she get here?” I asked.
“She quit. Doc will be here by eight.”
“What?”
“What are you confused about—theShiloh quittingthing or Doc being here at eight?” Huck asked.
I scowled at him. “You know what the fuck I’m asking.”
“You wanted her gone. She told the doc you weren’t going to get better if she was here. Her presence was clearly not helping you, and he is closing his office to come stay with you.”
This was good. I didn’t want to see her again. She had made it so I didn’t have to. So, why the fuck was I pissed? I glared at the food Huck had rolled in front of me.
“You gonna eat it or kill it?” Huck drawled.
The urge to throw the fucking plate across the room was strong. She had thought she could just walk back into my life, remind me of shit I had worked a fucking long time to forget, then just walk right back out.
“Fucking bitch might have lost her memory, but she hasn’t changed any,” I growled.
Huck sat down in the leather chair where Shiloh had sat and read yesterday. “Oh, I don’t know. The Shiloh I remember would have thrown something at your head for leaving a bruise on her wrist. No way she would have nursed that fucking wound on your chest. Or quietly accepted the hatred you seethed when you spoke to her. I was fucking rude to her, and she didn’t react at all.”
I glared at him. “Are you fucking kidding me? That bitch almost destroyed me. I had to join the motherfucking Marines or rot behind bars.”
Huck shrugged. “Yeah, I remember. But did you ask her why she came back here? Why she didn’t marry her boyfriend? Why she’s working for her uncle when we both know her parents are loaded and she was never expected to work a real job in this lifetime? I don’t think the Shiloh that woke up from that coma is the same person we knew.”
No, I hadn’t asked her that shit. I didn’t care. Her fucking perfect life she’d planned had fallen apart.
“She didn’t get something she wanted. About fucking time.”
“I guess that’s one way to look at it,” Huck replied. “But if she doesn’t remember that she wanted those things, then I think that cancels it out. There’re probably new things she wants now, and clearly, with the new Shiloh, you didn’t make the wanted list. Lucky you.”
Seven Years Ago
One more hour, and I was out of here. Huck needed to hire more employees. The damnmotorcycle repairshit had been his idea. I wanted something with less manual labor and more women. A strip club had sounded like an excellent idea. But, fuck no, we were running a damn bike shop.
I shoved open the door to the garage, ready to send whoever had just pulled up away. We didn’t have enough manpower for any more business this week. The bikes were backed up as it was. Stepping through the door, I swung my gaze to the guy walking inside. The wordswe don’t have fucking timewere on the tip of my tongue when Shiloh Ellis walked up beside him and I forgot what I was saying.
It had been a year since I’d seen her last. She’d stopped showing up everywhere once her boyfriend was off at college. But this was not Jackson she was with. I watched her wrap one of her arms around his when our eyes met. A corner of her mouth lifted up, and, fuck me, she’d somehow gotten even more stunning. The crop top and tiny shorts she was wearing left little to the imagination, but I wasn’t fucking complaining. Had her tits gotten bigger? Shit.
“You work here?” the guy asked. He was tall, lean, and looked like another fucking high school jock.
“Yeah,” I replied, annoyed that I wasn’t sending him away simply because I wanted to look at her.
“I, uh, wrecked my bike, and I need it looking new before my dad sees it,” the guy said. “I’ll pay whatever I need to get it done ASAP.”
I shifted my eyes back to Shiloh. She was studying her fingernails, as if she were bored. No flirting these days, it seemed. She had given up on me and left it alone. Just like I had wanted, but if she didn’t let go of him, I was going to take his fucking arm off.
