Page 3 of Coyote

A short silence spun out between us, and he finally spoke, “If this Lucas was as good a man as you say, he wouldn’t have held that against you. He would have stood up for you and taken care of you.”

“Lucas was a good man, kind, decent. Unfortunately, at the time I was confused and had a lot of garbage floating around in my head. First of all, I resented the motorcycle club Lucas loved because if not for them, I would have never met the one who hurt me.”

“I think staying away from outlaws should be considered self-preservation 101,” he responded.

“Plus, they were also fighting with some mafia guys from LA who were trying to set up shop in Griffinsford. It was just a whole bad situation all around, if I told him what happened with the other guy, then it might have started an all-out biker war. Starting over was easier, even it costs me the man I love,” I added.

“Still, if this man loved and cared as much about you, as you did him, he would have stepped up if you’d given him a chance.”

“Maybe, but I also had it in my head that I was flawed in some way the drew those attackers to me. That they saw some vulnerability I hadn’t learned to hide. Truth be told, I felt like some kind of rapist magnet because I had been attacked twice in a year. I figured that couldn’t be a coincidence. And there were other instances of men you would call ne’er-do wells gravitating to me. After a while it messes with your mind, ya know?”

“A lot of men in this world are shitty. You can’t let that effect how you feel about yourself, honey.”

“I just felt like if Lucas found out about me being attacked, he’d go after the guy and do something to him, that might cause him to wind up in jail. Or worse, the two biker clubs might end up in a conflict that could cause a bunch of them to get hurt. I didn’t want that.”

“Even if you didn’t want to be with him, whoever fathered your child should still be paying for his daughter,” he insisted.

“When I left, I didn’t know I was pregnant. Then when I found out, I had a meltdown because I didn’t know whether the baby belonged to Lucas or the man who wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

“Shit. I didn’t think about that. I’m sorry you had to go through that, Bethany. It seems like the nice people in life always get ran over by the assholes.”

I shot my friend a tired smile. “I can’t tell which one of them is the father.”

“Oh, that must have been awful, not knowing.”

I caught his eyes and quickly added, “None of this affects how I feel about Nessa, even if she was the product of rape, I still love her.”

“That’s obvious to anyone, honey.”

“Anyway, I have dark hair and eyes as do the two possible fathers. But she has Lucas’ big heart and sweet nature. That’s what makes me think she’s his, that and her cute little dimples.”

“The other guy doesn’t have those?”

I shrugged, “He had a beard.”

My friend smiled at me. “It sounds like you really liked this Lucas guy.”

“Well, yeah. Lucas was really nice in a tough biker kind of way.”

Reggie’s eyes flew open, and he choked on his mouthful of coffee. “You mentioned he was a biker, but for some reason, I was thinking a casual weekend rider like Thomas on his sports bike. Mild mannered Bethany Marks with an honest to goodness biker? We’re talking Hells Angels and Harleys?”

I laughed at his over-the-top reaction. “Yes, he most certainly was a biker, or he probably is by now. When I dated him, he was a prospect.”

His eyebrows dropped into a frown. “Prospects are beginner bikers, right?”

I snorted a laugh at his phrasing. “They think of prospecting as being a proving stage. If they do a good job one of the brothers will recommend them to be patched in as a fully-fledged member of the club.”

I just kept blabbing, because that’s what we normally did in the mornings until we got a call, or a customer walked into the office. “The name of their club was the Dark Slayers MC. I always thought it had an ominous ring to it, but most of the members were ex-military so I don’t know how dangerous they are.”

Suddenly, Lucas’ handsome face flashed through my mind. It might be cliché, but he was tall, dark, and handsome. When I’d known him, he was just starting to fill out and was well on his way to building the kind of muscles and bulk his club brothers were famous for. “I do miss him,” I said wistfully. “But I don’t know if I could ever be a biker’s wife. Plus, if it turned out that Nessa was his, he would probably be furious that I kept her from him. You know how possessive bikers can be.”

“No Bethany, I really don’t. Why don’t you explain it to me?”

Reggie’s voice was so serious that it occurred to me that maybe he was upset with me for getting attached to a biker. I knew in my heart that I didn’t do anything wrong, but I was starting to feel judged.

Thankfully, I was saved from answering his question by the front door chime. I rose from my seat and stated lightly, “Duty calls. As always, I enjoyed talking with you today and I’m sorry if you’re disappointed that I fell in love with a biker. Please don’t think bad of me, or my daughter for being his. I promise it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”

His mouth fell open and he stammered, “I would never judge anyone because I know how hurtful it is, I was just worried about what you told me.”

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