Page 133 of Wife Number One

A roar of engines had me ducking down and slamming the phone into the dirt three steps before I normally would have. I cringed into the darkness, holding my breath, hoping the half a dozen bikers coming up the road hadn’t seen my light.

The six men stopped at the gate. Talked to whoever was manning it, and then slowly, the gates opened. Engines revved, bikers started their engines again, but second by second, the noise grew louder, and I swore beneath my breath as more headlights appeared along the driveway. It wasn’t just the six. There were more. So many fucking more my heart pounded. Dozens of them wound their way along the driveway, all in black, all with the Slayers logos on their backs, though these men had an additional patch, ones that marked the chapters they came from.

I couldn’t stay here. If I was noticed, I’d be dead in seconds, no questions asked. I’d been outnumbered just with the Saint View chapter of the Slayers, but with all their associated clubs here too? This was just suicide.

But the thought of Kara inside with all of them made me feel sick. The urge to storm the fence and hoist myself over it was there, but I wasn’t going to be any good to either of us if I was dead.

I’d walked out of the Slayers’ compound one time.

I wasn’t stupid enough to think they’d let me do it twice.

“She’s not your problem anymore,” I muttered. “She’s a grown fucking woman who you have no business with. She’s smart and sensible and…”

So fucking beautiful I’d never been able to wipe the image of her from my head.

“And she doesn’t need you reappearing and reminding her of the hell you put her through,” I finished my barely audible reminder.

That was what it came down to. That was really why I hadn’t jumped that fence.

I’d never given a fuck about my own life. Every year I’d been given felt like borrowed time, the reaper’s hands always reaching for me and just missing. I was dumb enough to walk back in there, even knowing they’d try to kill me.

For her, I’d do it.

But I wasn’t what she needed. I had my doubts that Hawk was either, but Hayley Jade had seemed very comfortable with him, and so what the fuck did I know? Who was I to come out of the woodwork and ruin whatever scrap of happiness they’d found? If she was married, or with Hawk, that wasn’t my business.

The bikes continued to stream along the road and into the compound.

While I used the cover of darkness and the roar of the engines to back out.

The evening was still young, and nobody expected me back at the restaurant until tomorrow morning. I should just fucking go home.

The thought of spending another night alone with my goddamn cats was too fucking depressing to bear when all I could think about was having her there beside me. Tucked up on the couch beneath my arm. Hayley Jade asleep in the spare room I would decorate in pinks or purples or whatever fucking color she liked.

“You’re a dumbass,” I whispered to myself, storming through the woods, leaving the Slayers and their party to themselves. “You’re so fucking stupid.” Who did this? Who kept a woman hostage then spent five years thinking about the damn connection between the two of you that you’d never been able to find again? Who thought about spending nights on the couch with her while her daughter slept in their spare room?

My head was so messed up. I needed therapy. Or bourbon. Or…

Her.

For fuck’s sake.

I drove my truck into town, cursing myself at every stoplight and fighting the urge to turn the vehicle around and use it to ram down the Slayers’ gates. I was delusional.

My phone rang, and I snatched it up, barking a “What!” down the line because whoever it was, I wasn’t in the mood. Unless it was Kara, which was impossible, I didn’t want to talk to anyone.

“Your phone manners leave a tad to be desired,” Luca said dryly. “Having a bad night?”

He didn’t know the half of it. “Something like that.”

“You’re about to be the head chef and part owner of the hottest new restaurant in Providence. What’s to be mad at?”

I sighed, not wanting to confide in Luca but so freaking worked up I also wanted to explode. All I could do was breathe out a ragged breath.

“Ah,” Luca said knowingly, like that one release of air told the man everything I wasn’t saying. “It’s a woman problem. That sweet little thing the Slayers have stashed away?”

My fingers gripped the steering wheel so hard it was surprising it didn’t crack. “How do you know about that?”

Luca laughed down the line. “You and Hawk had a screaming match about it on my security cameras.”

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