Total pages in book: 35
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 33462 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 167(@200wpm)___ 134(@250wpm)___ 112(@300wpm)
Figuring I’d just do a drive-by, I headed toward the bakery. Maybe park up the road and find a place to wait without being seen.
It turned out I didn’t need to because she was already outside.
Sadie stood near the side door, talking to some guy who looked like he’d stepped off the cover of a fucking Barbie catalog. Neatly cut blond hair, clean-shaven, and a boy-next-door smile. And young. Probably only a few years older than Sadie.
Not that I gave a shit. Our age difference had ceased to matter once she flashed me that shy smile the first day we met.
The Ken-doll said something, making Sadie laugh.
My jaw hardened, and my hands clenched the handlebars. The next thing I knew, I was easing the bike into the alley and cutting the engine ten feet from them.
Both heads turned, and Ken frowned, but Sadie lit up like I’d just stepped out of her favorite daydream.
“Hunter,” she said softly, a sweet smile curving her plush lips. Her voice was slightly breathless, and it made me think of sex and my name falling from her lips while she broke apart beneath me.
Fucking hell.
My cock twitched, and every possessive instinct I had roared to the surface.
“Wesley,” I said, my voice low and hard.
Her smile faltered. “What?”
“My name,” I told her, watching those pretty brows draw together. “It’s Wesley, sunshine.”
Her lips parted. “But I thought…”
Her hands fluttered nervously at her sides.
“You call me Wesley,” I said, dismounting and prowling toward her. My boots hit the pavement with slow, deliberate steps until I stood only inches away from them.
I reached out and slid my fingers into her soft brown hair, letting the strands slip through my fingers. Her breath caught, and all I could think was…mine.
A throat cleared behind me, and I turned my head slowly, pinning the Ken doll with a look that had ended conversations. And lives.
He shifted his weight like he wanted to run but thought better of it. Then he swallowed hard and straightened his shoulders, trying not to look intimidated.
“We were talking,” he snapped.
Ballsy.
But still a dumbass.
Nobody spoke to an Iron Rogue without respect. And a healthy amount of fear.
I arched a brow but didn’t say a word. I didn’t have to, not when the threat in my silence said everything. He was staring into the eyes of a ruthless predator, and he knew it.
He paled and shifted back a step. Not much, but enough.
So he has some survival instinct buried under all that stupid.
“Go,” I said flatly.
He hesitated, glancing at Sadie.
I growled and took a menacing step forward, seconds away from using my fist to rearrange his face.
Sadie’s hand landed on my arm, warm and light, and my focus snapped back to her.
She looked up at me with wide eyes.
“Wait. Austin is fixing the window,” she explained, motioning to the cracked pane near the door.
“What happened?” I asked, my frown deepening as I looked at the glass. A jagged crack sliced through the center and down to the corner.
Sadie shrugged, but her fingers fidgeted slightly against her apron.
“Probably a rock,” she said too quickly. “No big deal.”
I didn’t answer.
Maybe it was a rock.
But it had hit dead center. Too clean. Too precise.
The window was old and thick, probably original to the building, and that was the only reason it hadn’t shattered. If it had been modern, the glass would’ve blown out completely.
And the way she said it… as though she was trying to convince herself.
My gut twisted, low and hard, and I’d learned a long time ago not to ignore that feeling.
But the extra tension crawling under my skin had a different source—and he was standing right next to her.
I let the kid finish the job, but I didn’t like it. Not the way he stood too close or kept trying to catch Sadie’s eye and engage her in conversation.
Annoyed as fuck, I crossed my arms and watched him sweat as he replaced the pane under my heavy stare.
Sadie stayed close but quiet. Every time he lifted his voice to ask a question or made a sudden movement, she shifted closer to me. Just barely. You wouldn’t notice if you weren’t trained to see it.
But I saw it and loved knowing she already felt safe with me.
By the time the kid packed up and left—without saying a word to me, a smart move—I was already calculating the angles on the building, itching to put up a camera and a better security system.
Just as I finished scanning the perimeter again, the bakery door swung open and Marcy stepped out, wiping her hands on a towel and grinning like she already knew what I was doing.
I’d met her when she’d signed the lease for the bakery, and my assessment of her had been positive. She was easygoing but sharp. The kind of woman who saw more than she let on and was highly amused when people assumed that her jovial disposition meant she was a little airheaded.