Page 2 of Striker's Yield

I’d been out of town for one event, and the next one was a wedding. A biker wedding at that. Avery had been busy, so she hadn’t been able to come with me.

A few of the women there, I learned, were ol’ ladies to the bikers, and they’d mistaken me for Avery. I hadn’t corrected them at the time. Mostly because I found myself transfixed by a guy who didn’t even know I existed.

Tall, dark-haired, with a maintained beard that wasn’t overly long, nor was it trimmed too barely there. He had tattoos on both arms. But it was the eyes that really did it for me. They were this dark blue, the likes I hadn’t seen before. So beautiful, enthralling, and mesmerizing. One look at him, and he’d taken my breath away.

The only problem was he didn’t know I even existed. I’d seen him, but he hadn’t seen me.

A couple months after the wedding, Avery and I were in the café together when several of the women who had been at the wedding, including the women next door, came in. They took one look at us and gave a surprised gasp. Usually, one of us was in the back and the other was in the front. Most of the time, it was her out front while I handled the paperwork.

“How had we never realized you were twins?” Emerson, the owner of the salon next door, asks.

Avery laughed and looked at me. “We’re identical twins.”

“Our own parents struggle to tell us apart even now.”

“You’re like a clone of each other,” Kenny, the woman we’d catered a wedding for, states.

We all laughed and joked about it.

I suck in a breath and then another. Sirens could be heard coming from the distance. One of the neighbors must have called the police when they heard the gun going off. Or they called when they heard me shouting at the top of my lungs.

Turning away from the sight in the house, I stumbled to the steps and slowly took a seat to wait for the police. There were going to be questions to answer. I was going to need to call our parents and tell them what happened. This was going to break them. I just knew it.

One thing at a time.

One moment forward.

Everything in me hurts right now. Losing Avery and watching Rick take her life, it feels like it killed something inside me.

CHAPTER 1

Striker

Present Day . . .

“Lila, you’re not going to some party, and that’s final,” I snap, glaring at my little sister.

“But Striker,” she whines, stomping her foot and crossing her arms. “It’s not fair. You don’t let me do anything fun.”

“That’s not true, and you know it. You’re just not going to some party that I don’t know the players,” I tell her, not letting her tantrum bother me. I’ve been raising her since she was ten and moved her in with me. I know what she’s like. Also, I know she’s a beautiful girl, and I don’t want anything to happen to her.

In the past years, hell, in the past few months, I’ve seen a hell of a lot of shit happen to women I know. There’s no way I want something to happen to my little sister.

“It’s not like I’d be going alone. Marcie and Valerie would be going with me,” Lila states like that means anything to me.

“Not happenin’, Lila. Give it up. You and your friends want to do something, fine, do it here at the house where I know you’re safe,” I suggest and pull my cut on. “I’ve got to get to Devil’s Nirvana.”

“Fine, whatever,” Lila snaps, throwing her hands in the air. “I’ll tell them to come over here, and we’ll just watch movies and order pizza.”

“Good.” I nod, shoving my wallet and keys in my pocket. “Don’t think to get any wild ideas, thinking you can run off after I leave. Prospect will be watching, and Athena’s gonna come by. Think Jessie wanted to hang out with you.”

Athena’s son had a bit of a crush on Lila and loved hanging out with her. Mostly because she always gave him her attention no matter what was going on around them.

Lila’s eyes narrow to slits as she glares at me. “You set me up,” she accuses.

Smirking, I shrug. “What can I say? I know how to make sure my little sister keeps her ass safe.”

I don’t give Lila a chance to come up with a retort. I’m already running late as it is. Brass had plans with Athena, and I needed to get there so he could do whatever he’s got planned.

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