Page 51 of Taken By the Biker Daddies

I wiped my tears and burst through the door before they could emerge from it. All three of them looked at me with wide eyes.

“Lauren?” Max approached me and touched my arm. “Are you all right? Shouldn’t you still be resting?”

I placed my hand over his.

Ah, I’m going to miss his concern and his gentle touch.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “I have something to tell you.” I looked at Jake and Wade. “All of you.”

“What is it?” Jake asked.

I drew a deep breath. Where should I start?

“I…the…It’s not the Devils who left that note.”

Jake’s eyebrows furrowed. “You were listening?”

I nodded.

“What do you mean?” Wade asked, stepping forward. “Do you know who wrote the note? Has someone been threatening you?”

“Yes,” I answered. “I know who wrote the note.”

“Tell us,” Max urged me, squeezing my hand.

I paused for a moment as I looked into his eyes, carving their sapphire hue into my memory. This was it. The moment of truth. Afterward, he might never look at me like this again.

“Do you remember the day you hit me with your bike?” I asked him.

He nodded. “Not a day goes by that I don’t regret it.”

And yet, every day, I was grateful for it. If not for the accident, I never would have met Max or Jake or Wade.

“I was running away from someone, just like you said.”

Jake’s eyebrows arched. “Wait. You remember?”

“I…”

For a second, I was tempted to lie again, to simply say that I woke up this morning with all my memories intact. It was possible, wasn’t it? They would never know the truth. And I wouldn’t have to lose them. But I didn’t want to lie anymore.

I took another deep breath. “I…never had amnesia.”

“What?” Wade was the first to react.

“When I woke up at the hospital, I could still remember what happened,” I explained. “But when the doctor said I could have amnesia, I started to wonder if maybe I did forget some things, then as I lived here, I just realized there were some things I would rather forget.”

Max let go of my hand slowly, the disappointment that I was expecting from him clear in his eyes that had now turned cold. “You…lied to us?”

“I didn’t mean to,” I told him. “I was just so scared and confused. I had nowhere to go, no one to turn to.”

“So, what happened?” Wade asked me. “Who were you running away from?”

“My ex,” I answered. “His name is Clyde Roarke. I went to his cabin in the woods to tell him I was done, but I saw him kill someone, so I ran. He ordered his men to chase after me through the woods. One of them had a dog. Most of them had guns.”

“So the ‘C’ in the note stands for Clyde?” Jake asked.

I nodded.

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