Page 20 of Ruined

NINE

FRENCHIE

OVER THREE MONTHS LATER

Ipull up to the gate and look beyond it to the homes and private airstrip. When I pull off my helmet, I roll my neck and stretch out my back. Kicking my stand down on my Harley Sportster, I again check out the homes. I retrieve my cell phone from the interior pocket of my leather jacket and dial the number. I figured they couldn’t turn me away if I came here directly instead of calling ahead.

“Hello,” a soft feminine voice answers, and if I didn’t know she was his mother, I’d be jealous.

“Hello, I’m looking for Dylan.”

“Oh, he just left for a friend’s house.”

“Dang it. I was hoping to speak to him. I’m at the gate.”

“Is this Minuet?” she asks, and I’m shocked for a moment that she knows who I am. Then I remember Vixen mentioning that she came to see me at the hospital.

It’s been three months since the attack. I found out Dylan was in Sitka at the academy, and I gave him and myself that time. I needed it after what happened with Wilder. Physically, I’ve healed. My hip hurts a bit from the long ride, but I wanted to bring my bike. I needed it. The run from Ptarmigan Falls to Wasilla took me more than eight hours because I stopped several times to stretch so that my hip wouldn’t hurt too much.

“Yes,” I say softly into the phone.

“Just a moment. Do you know which house is ours?”

“I do.”

“Come in.”

A moment later, the gate opens, and I put my helmet back on and straddle my bike. I head toward the airstrip, rounding it to the far side. There, I see the hangar house with Dylan’s truck parked in front of it. That means he’s on his bike too. I love watching him ride. He’s the only man I’ve ever thought of riding bitch with instead of riding on my own.

I pull up and slip my helmet off, then unsnap the leather cuff holding my hair back. It falls down my back and around my shoulders. The blond shining in the light against the black of my leather and my cut.

Riddler wouldn’t let me walk away from the Handmaidens, and I’m glad she didn’t. I needed them these last few months. They helped me get through this and talked me into going after my man. They helped me find the courage to fight for what I want in life.

The door opens, and a beautiful woman with hair the same shade of blond as her son’s steps out. She’s elegantly beautiful in slacks and a lightweight sweater layered over a shirt. I look down at my heavy motorcycle jeans and leather jacket with a band T-shirt on beneath. I barely have anything feminine on.

“Come on in.” She directs me, and I try not to limp as I move toward the door.

My doctors and physical therapists said that I would suffer from pain on long rides, and that as I got older, I might suffer from arthritis in that hip. But I was lucky not to have a hip replacement now.

I try to shake off the road dust before I step inside.

“I’m Candace,” she says when I reach the porch where she’s waiting for me. She takes me in a hug, and I hug her back.

“Don’t worry about it. Come in. Want some water, coffee, or tea?” she asks as we step through the door into the open-concept, modern home. She walks toward the kitchen and gestures to a bar stool, but I choose to stand.

“I was hoping you’d come get him. He’s too worried about hurting you more. I tried to tell him that he overheard a conversation and needed more clarification before he assumed it was about you and him.”

I chuckle softly. “I’ll take some water, and if I could use a bathroom to freshen up in a bit, I’d appreciate that.”

“Of course. You can’t show up looking like that when his friends are trying to set him up with another girl.”

The instant fit of jealousy causes me to pinch my lips and squeeze my hands into fists.

She reaches across the bar and pats my hand. “Don’t worry, beautiful girl, he only has eyes for you.”

“Thank you.”

We talk a bit longer, and I explain that he misunderstood the conversation with my professor, and that I’d heard he was in Sitka. I tell her I was giving him time while I healed from my injuries. After a little while, she shows me to a bathroom, and I take a quick shower and change my clothes.

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