Page 17 of Dark Biker Protector

She chuckled slightly.

"You know, I never thought about it like that," she remarked. "That’s a good point."

She grinned and slid her hand over mine. She seemed to be willing to drop the conversation we’d been having before, much to my relief – I didn’t want her getting any close to the truth about my sister, it would have been too much for her to handle. We were still so fresh, so new, and I didn’t want to drag up the worst of my past for her to deal with this early on.

"You have no idea how grateful I am that you helped me with all of this," she mumbled to me. "I felt like I was losing my mind, looking over my shoulder the whole time I was here, even though I know he couldn’t have followed me to this place."

I nodded. I wanted to believe her, of course.I wanted to believe that her asshole ex had lost interest or moved on or just forgotten this whole thing in the first place. But I wasn’t sure I trusted it. I knew what men like him could be like, how easy it was for them to turn around and take what they thought was theirs. And someone like Franco, by the sounds of it, hadn’t exactly been good at hearing no. If she’d had to get the cops involved – no matter how useless they had been – it wasn’t a good sign.

Not by a long shot.

"Anyway," she remarked, shaking her head. "Let’s not talk about all of that, huh? I don’t want to think about him."

"Agreed," I replied, putting an arm around her and pulling her close. I glanced towards the window where, all at once, I felt as though there was someone watching us. I knew I was just overthinking it – I was just paranoid – but still...

I wasn’t going to let up until I knew for sure that she was safe. And whatever that took – I was willing to make it happen.

Chapter Ten – Abbey

"You sure you can make it back okay?" Chuck asked me, frowning down at me as I looped my arms around his shoulders.

"I’m going to be fine," I assured him, laughing. "I have a cab waiting outside. You stay here, I don’t want to drag you away from the guys."

He grinned and leaned down to plant a kiss on my lips.

"If you insist," he murmured. As soon as his mouth found mine, I re-thought whether or not I wanted to make a case for him to come home with me. But I knew it had been way too long since he had spent time with the rest of the Dogs, and the last thing I wanted was to keep their leader away. I knew he had a job to do, and no matter how selfish I was tempted to be with all of this, I was going to let him do it. Even if I really wanted to just have him stick around. I kissed him again on the corner of his mouth, and he smoothed his strong hands down my back, pulling me a little closer.

"You sure about that?" he asked, voice low. His must be in the same place that mine happened to be. I giggled.

"I mean, no," I admitted. "But I don’t want to take up all your time. I know you have your duties..."

"Fuck the duties," he murmured, and I felt my knees getting a little weak. Oh, this guy was so willing to throw everything away just so he could spend a little more time with me – how could I not be falling for that as helplessly as I was? It would have been impossible. But I knew if we spent too much time together, the excitement of everything we had was going to fall away way too quickly, and there wasn’t a chance in hell I was going to let that happen.

"Go back in," I laughed, as my cab pulled up behind us. "I’ll text you when I get back, alright?"

"Fine," he muttered, kissing me again, and sliding a hand playfully down to give my ass a squeeze before he let me go. I giggled.

"Get out of here," he told me, flashing me a grin as I climbed into the cab. I loved how into me he was – how open he was about how much he was attracted to me. It had been a long time since I had been with a guy who swaggered with as much confidence as he did, and there was something supremely sexy about knowing that he commanded as much power and influence as he did – nothing got in his way, nothing even came close, and everyone gave him just what he wanted.

Including me.

I climbed into the cab, gave the driver my address, and we headed off towards my place. I glanced in the mirror to see Chuck staring after me. I took him in -- his leather jacket, his shaven head, that dark stubble that grazed against my cheeks whenever he kissed me. The flutter in my chest turned into a pounding.

He had invited me out to the Kennels tonight, the bar owned by the Dogs, to meet with some of the rest of his crew. I'd had no idea what to expect, but he’d spent the evening with his hand wrapped around my waist protectively, as though making sure everyone in this place knew just how much he wanted me. As though it couldn’t have been more obvious.

It was strange, spending time with him outside of my apartment, but strange in a good way. Strange that he seemed so willing to introduce me to these men he commanded – and fuck, seeing him take charge and command their respect the way he did was seriously hot to me. He knew exactly how much power he had in this city, and the way those guys rushed to take care of his every command was a sure sign of it. He didn’t need to throw his weight around to make himself known, and I could hardly tear my eyes from him all night as he talked, laughed, joked with the guys who clearly worshipped the ground he walked on. He’d mentioned that he’d had a strong relationship with the man who had run the club before him, seeing him as something of a father figure, and it was clear that so many of these men saw him the same way.

I rested my head against the window, smiling tipsily. Being in his presence had been more intoxicating than any of the booze I’d had this evening. The thought of him, even though he wasn’t by my side right now, it was the most impossibly exciting thing in the world to me...

And I knew I was falling for him. Falling for him hard. Hard in a way that might have been dangerous, given how we had met. I had arrived in this city because I was trying to get away from my ex, after all – could any good relationship start on those terms? I had no idea. I wasn’t sure it would do me any good to overthink it.

Sometimes, you just had to take what was right in front of you and accept that it was working, right? You didn’t need to spend all your time tossing and turning it back and forth in your head, making it into a problem when it wasn’t. So there was an age gap between us. So he was the leader of a biker gang. So what? I had never lived my life by any conventional standards, running from freelance job to freelance job and chasing stories others wouldn’t touch.

I paid the driver, leaving her a generous tip thanks to my good mood, and climbed out of the car, rummaging in my purse for my keys – but, before I could reach them, a scent accosted my senses. A scent that made me stop dead in my tracks.

My head flashed around just as the car pulled away down the street. It was...it was paint. The same smell from when I arrived back and found that typewriter sprayed on the side of my building. Those kids must have been hard at work again, causing trouble, causing problems...

Or, at least, I hoped it was those kids.

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