Page 14 of Biker's Enemy

After Juliette and Hunter leave, I stay in the kitchen scrolling through my phone. Juliette’s kitchen is goddamn sterile compared to the one I used for the past three years. I’m almost afraid to touch anything. But I’m hungry. Juliette thankfully hasn’t succumbed to any insane healthy eating trends so I don’t have to go far to find something decent. I drop a few waffles in the toaster, pull out the butter and maple syrup before frying some sausages and getting some eggs together in a separate skillet. Yum.

The Eggos finish first, so I munch on them while I finish cooking up the sausage and eggs. By the time I’m done with the Eggo waffles, toast sounds good, so I put a couple slices in the toaster.

When I sit there with my full post-waffle breakfast, I feel relaxed. Really relaxed. Eugene can’t hurt me anymore. The entire kitchen smells like a home. And there’s food. Lots of it. I cut one of my breakfast sausages up and then shovel it onto a piece of toast with some scrambled eggs.

“That smells good.”

I yelp and drop everything. It’s more like I throw it, honestly. The voice behind me chuckles. I slowly turn around in my chair to see who it is. Not Hunter. But my instincts lean towards surprise more than they lean towards fear.

The man from the day before is standing right there in the kitchen like he lives here. He smiles when I look at him and a strange chill moves straight through me. But he’s smiling, so there isn’t anything about him that should scare me.

“Hunter and Juliette aren’t here,” I tell him.

“I know,” he says, walking purposefully over to the kitchen sink. He takes a clear glass and begins to fill it with filtered water from the slower faucet on the sink. I can’t help but watch as he fills the glass. His thick fingers seem big enough to break it just from the way he holds it. The man has huge arms too — gigantic, well-built arms that fill out and expand the tight black t-shirt he has on.

He has a light sunburn on the back of his neck, but I’m surprised he’s not more red considering the climate in Santa Fe. His hair is a robust, scarlet color. Some ginger men look a little rough, no offense, but Tanner doesn’t look like that at all. He sets the glass of water on the counter and turns to face me.

“How’ve you been?”

I give him a skeptical look. Why is this man talking to me? I’m pretty sure he’s Hunter’s best friend, so he must have a key to the place or something. Maybe he’s just making small talk.

“It hasn’t been that long since I last saw you. Everything’s fine.”

“What brings you out to Santa Fe?”

My eyes snap nervously to his. I have an immediate panicked thought that he knows everything and that he’s the one Hunter called to bury the body. The breakfast I barely had two bites of suddenly feels extremely unsettled in my stomach.

“Visiting Juliette.”

“Really? Couldn’t pay me to visit anyone out here…”

Yet here you are…

But I don’t say that out loud. I just keep looking at him.

“I’m getting paid,” he says. “Just not to visit. But… business is almost over and I’ve got a place out in Arizona I’m heading back to.”

“Cool…”

I don’t know much about Arizona, honestly, so I try to eat a little more and pretend that talking to a guy who looks as sexy as Tanner Hollingsworth isn’t making me nervous the longer the conversation lasts.

I’m the furthest thing from a natural flirt. I give all my Sims in the Sims 4 the “unflirty” trait, that’s how serious it is.

Tanner smiles and a flush of red forms a funny pattern across his nose and cheeks, like a raccoon mask. I’ve known white boys before, but I’ve never seen any get all red this close.

“You ever think about going to Arizona?”

“Nope. Didn’t even plan on leaving Kansas.”

“Got a boyfriend back there? Family?”

I try not to give him a shifty look, but I know my ass must look suspicious as hell judging by the expression on Tanner’s face. But maybe I have it all wrong.

I don’t even know what to say.

“I asked you a question, ma’am,” Tanner says. “Do you have a boyfriend back home where you’re from?”

He means the question.

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