Page 42 of Sunshine & Ink

I could almostsmellhis cut, that intoxicating old-leather scent that would remind me of him.

I had avoided anyone or anything connected with motorcycles ever since leaving Raker. I didn’t want to think about it or be reminded of him.

“I do not know anyone who belongs to you,” Willow replied.

Oh, Willow. I felt a sudden stab of fear that she would go too far.

What was Raker even capable of? Did he want to find me so he could punish me for what I had done?

At one point I wouldnever have thought he was the kind of asshole who could do something like that.

But that was before what happened.

I no longer thought he was anything but a vicious, amoral brute.

He cared about nothing but power.

My friend Willow was in her late 30s, with short platinum blonde hair, very bright blue eyes, and a muscular, strong body with a tough face that hid a very kind interior.

I slipped further behind the coffee machine. Maybe I could hide from sight there, and I felt Raker’s eyes sweep past me, burning my skin even though he couldn’t see me.

Shit

I hated him, but this asshole felt just as powerful and magnetic as he ever had been. My heart was hammering in my chest so hard my ribs ached.

“That’s interesting,” Raker said in an unhurried manner. “My informant is usually pretty good. I’d be surprised if he was lying to me.”

“No one by that name is here,” Willow repeated. “You should leave.”

There was a beat of silence, and my fingers clutched the side of the table, hardly daring to peer out, but knowing I had to.

My belly was squished, my skin scraping by the rough grain of the wood, and I quickly tugged my T-shirt down.

I was saving my reward money as best I could, but I wanted to make sure there was plenty so my baby could always have enough, so I didn’t exactly have an extensive pregnancy wardrobe.

Of course, Leopold would have given me money, but I had a stubborn streak of pride that kept me from taking his money until we were actually married.

“I know she works here,” Raker said, his voice harsh and uncompromising, “and I am going to tear this place down around yourfuckingears until I find her.”

His fingers moved and flickers of bright light appeared between them, the orange flame terrible and hypnotic at the same time. My heart stopped with terror, as it always did with even the threat of a fire in this perpetual drought.

As my breath caught in my chest with terror, Raker turned the flame to the heavy wooden counter.

With the flames flickering between his fingers, he wrenched the heavy counter out of the floor and threw it down, the coffee cups and cash register falling on the ground with a terrific crash.

I almost jumped out of my skin as the flame caught the wood, spreading slowly at first, all along the cracks of the old piece of furniture, then beginning to race down the long edges.

“Tell me where Sunni is,” Raker said, and the raw, uncontrolled quality in his voice terrified me.

That wasnothow Raker acted. He was cold, controlled, devastating.

“No,” was all Willow replied.

There were two spots of color high in her cheeks and she didn’t even look at me.

The last coffee cup rolled off and smashed into ceramic shards on the ground.

Raker stepped toward the glass display that held the remainder of the savory and sweet treats Elise and I had baked that morning, his huge black shitkicker boots crunching over the shards on the ground.

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