Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 93698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93698 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 468(@200wpm)___ 375(@250wpm)___ 312(@300wpm)
Was the man not going to give up? Was she going to have to call the police and report a stalker?
After ignoring the pounding on the door earlier, he had moved back out to the public street. Most likely so he couldn’t be accused of trespassing.
But he had to go home sometime.
In all the time she’d spent around bikers, she certainly learned that they were stubborn a hell. Annoyingly so.
Especially the one camped outside her rented apartment. All she needed was for her upstairs neighbors to complain about a sketchy biker hanging around—wearing his colors, no less—to their landlord and she could end up homeless.
Shit. She needed to respond to Glen.
She quickly sent off a response. Ledger isn’t feeling the best, so I put him to bed early. Can we do it another night?
The fib was necessary since she didn’t need Glen to come over and the two men to once again bump heads. Or worse, throw hands.
Her phone vibrated again. Of course! I hope he feels better soon.
Glen was such a good guy. Unlike the one hanging outside her place.
She glanced over her shoulder and listened for Ledger. Since the house was quiet, she closed her eyes and contemplated her next move.
Go watch a movie in bed and hope Zeke was gone in the morning? Or go outside and deal with him? Hopefully, he’d eventually get the hint that she didn’t want him in her life. She thought she made it clear at the fairgrounds. Hell, she thought she made it clear when she left four years ago.
Either way, she decided to check on Ledger first.
When she peered around his bedroom door, she saw him sitting in the middle of his Thomas the Train rug surrounded by colorful Duplo bricks.
She pushed the door open wider. “What are you building, buddy?”
Her heart squeezed when he glanced up and smiled at her. “A twain.”
He looked so damn much like his father. And grandfather. The genes had to be strong in that family to keep producing carbon copies.
“A train? Like the one we rode on the other day?”
He nodded his head like it weighed fifty pounds and it was an effort. “Uh huh.”
“Okay. You can play for a little while longer. I need to go handle something important, then I’ll be back shortly to help you clean up your toys and brush your teeth.”
“Otay, Mommy.”
Well, maybe not exact carbon copies since Ledger wasn’t stubborn. Not yet, anyway.
A second later, his face scrunched up. “You goin’ somewheres?”
“No, I just need to step outside to take care of something.”
“The boogeyman?”
“Close enough,” she muttered under her breath. Louder, she said, “No, a visitor.”
“Gwen?”
“No, buddy. But Glen said he’ll take us out for ice cream soon.”
“I like ice cream!”
“Me, too. Okay, stay in your room until I get back. No matter what.”
“Otay, Mommy.”
She studied her son for a few more seconds before closing the door and heading back to the front of the house. After tucking her feet into the slip-on shoes left by the door, she paused to take a deep, bolstering breath.
Then she set her jaw, pulled open the door, and stepped outside, securing it behind her.
“‘Bout fuckin’ time.”
He’d been perched sideways on his motorcycle with the heels of his biker boots resting on the cement curb and his denim-covered ankles crossed. Even in the dimly lit street, she could feel his intense gaze burning a hole right through her.
He flicked what was left of his cigarette away, then rose to his feet.
She had made sure to keep a good ten feet away from him. Unfortunately, he closed that gap within two strides.
Her skin tingled and her mouth became as arid as the Sahara Desert as she fought the urge to rake her gaze down his body. She wished she could only see him as a complete asshole and nothing more.
Unfortunately, for some reason he had an appeal she couldn’t resist.
He was like catnip to her inner kitty.
Her reaction was stupid and dangerous and she’d already made that mistake once. She couldn’t make it again. She had too much riding on it.
She only wanted what was best for her son, and the cocky man standing before her…was. Not. It.
A man who couldn’t keep his ass out of jail. And not because he was a biker. Simply because he was Zeke. Or, as that patch on his chest declared: Trouble.
“Why are you here?”
“Know why.”
She pretended she didn’t. “I’m not interested in getting back together, Zeke. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Like I told you the other day, I have a son to raise and I need steady in my life, not turmoil.”
“We were always fuckin’ dynamite together, Ky.”
“We sure were. Until that last explosion. The one in which you lit the fuse.”
His jaw shifted. “When the fuckin’ smoke cleared, you were gone. You fuckin’ ran. Apparently, with my kid, too.”