AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Sure. A short walk off a tall building seems appealing on the difficult days, but when faced with the very real prospect of my mortality, I can hand to my heart swear that death is not something I’m willing to risk.
Again.
The best I got from the sheriff was the offer of a restraining order that would ban him from setting foot anywhere near my residence or in my place of work. Hence, our Mexican stand-off. The ground between both places is fair game, which means all he has to do is wait.
The diner has to close some time.
“If you won’t let me talk to Dad, I’m asking my uncle for help.” Maddie’s finger slams the screen with finality.
“What have you done?” I swipe the phone from her hand and find a message typed to a guy called Digger. I’ve only ever heard her reference her uncle by his given name, but perhaps this is him.
Bikers all have those weird road names, after all.
“You said the two of us wouldn’t be enough.” She flicks her eyes in the direction of the two elderly farmers at a table beside us and then the ladies behind the counter. “It’s not like anyone in here would be any use.”
“It’s not their issue either.”
“You keep saying that as though it justifies what he did,” she snaps. “It’s not weak to ask for help, Rae.”
“I know.” But that doesn’t change the fact I feel like a failure every time I do.
I feel fool enough for believing the dark-haired Adonis outside would be anything other than trouble. I guess I’m so accustomed to being held at arm’s length that it never twigged as an issue when he refused to introduce me to his family.
Family, he spent every other night stepping out on me for.
“What can the club do? Honestly?” I slide her phone across the table to her. “I’m not one of yours.”
“You are to me.” She glances at the device and lifts an eyebrow, finger flying over the shiny screen. “He’s on his way.”
“What did he say?” My pulse races from excitement or apprehension; I can’t be sure.
“Nothing you need to worry about.” Her head twists at a flash of movement from outside the window.
Connor lifts her helmet off the peg of her bike.
Maddie flies out of the wooden seat, legs screeching across the linoleum floor. “Hey!” She pounds her fist against the glass. “Put that down, fucker!”
“Maddie!” I urge her to sit with a flick of my head.
My boss, Peggy, lifts her brows while pouring a coffee at the counter.
I mouth a silent apology, turning a frown on Maddie as she plants her ass back in the seat. “What did you just say about spurring him on?”
“He touched my shit.”
I eye Connor as he sets the helmet back where he found it. His mischievous grin tells me he achieved what he wanted, though. “Be grateful that’s all he touched.” A tremble races down my spine at the memory of those hands on my body, the blood in his teeth as he told me he loved me. “He’s trying to draw me out.”
“Well, it won’t work.” Peggy appears at the side of the table, flat-mouthed stare fixed on Connor. “He’ll get bored soon enough.”
She has no idea.I sat captive while that man waited fourteen hours for his victim to confess. He has patience. In spades.
“You want another coffee?” Maddie lifts her empty cup to Peggy without breaking eye contact with me. The buxom woman stares down at her with nothing short of disgust as she tips the heated pot.
The two women don’t like each other—I know that much, but not why.
“UnlikePeggy, here,” Maddie snarls. “I know men like him. They don’t give up. He’ll sit there until the place closes, and then he’ll wait for you to be forced to cross his path.” She shifts her heated stare toward Peggy. “You prepared for that fight, honey?”
Peg gives a little huff out her nose and then storms back to the counter. Irony is having half a dozen people watching your back at any given time and still not being safe. At everyone knowing everyone else in this fucking town and it not mattering a shit when it comes to this.
