Page 19 of Baby for the Bikers

Maybe this strange town with its motorcycle club protectors and brothers who share isn’t the worst place to make a fresh start. Maybe Tom is right about patterns.

Maybe I should keep an open mind.

Sleep claims me before I can decide if that’s wisdom or madness.

8

ROWAN

Something pokes at my consciousness,dragging me from the deepest sleep I’ve had in months. Not sunlight—the room is still dark. Not noise—the apartment is silent except for my own breathing.

It’s the weight of eyes on me.

My lids flutter open, and I freeze. Three shadowy figures hover above my bed, their outlines barely visible in the predawn gloom. Every muscle in my body tenses as recognition hits.

Ryder. Brick. Maddox.

The Kane brothers are in my bedroom. Watching me sleep.

“You sleep like a dead person,” Maddox says, his voice too loud in the quiet room.

I jerk upright, clutching my blanket to my chest, my heart hammering against my ribs. “What the hell? How did you—” My voice comes out sleep-rough and panicked.

“Door was surprisingly easy to pick after yesterday’s repair job,” Maddox answers with a casual shrug, as if breaking into a woman’s apartment before dawn is perfectly normal behavior.

“What the actual fuck?” I scramble back until I hit the headboard, the blanket still gripped tight. My pajama top has ridden up during the night, and I’m painfully aware I’m wearing nothing underneath. “How long have you been standing there?”

Brick tilts his head, studying me with those intense green eyes. “Long enough to wonder if we needed to check your pulse.”

“Get out!” I snap, gesturing wildly toward the door. “You can’t just break into someone’s bedroom while they’re sleeping!”

Maddox looks at his brothers, eyebrow raised. “I told you guys breaking in was a bad idea.” That’s when I notice he’s holding one of my cupcakes from yesterday, already half-eaten.

“You’re eating my cupcakes?” My voice rises an octave. “While watching me sleep?”

“They’re really good,” he offers, as if that explains everything.

My brain scrambles to make sense of this bizarre scene. For one insane moment, I wonder if Tom’s stories about the brothers’ “sharing” habits have somehow manifested this surreal invasion. I push the thought away immediately. This isn’t about that. This is about three entitled men who think they own my space.

“Get up. Get ready.” Brick’s tone leaves no room for argument. “We have a long day ahead.”

I clutch the blanket tighter, suddenly very aware of what my body was doing in this very bed just hours ago.

“I told you yesterday,” Maddox says around a mouthful of cupcakes. “Six a.m.”

“It doesn’t give you the r?—”

“We knocked,” Brick cuts me off. “You didn’t answer. Had to make sure you weren’t trying to skip town on your debt.”

Ryder stands slightly apart from his brothers, saying nothing. His dark gray eyes scan my room with eerie intensity. When his gaze slides back to me, something in his expression makes heat climb my neck despite my anger.

“Fine,” I snap, needing them out of my personal space. “I’ll get ready. But you need to leave my room. Now.”

“Five minutes,” Brick says. “Or we come back in.”

The door closes behind them, and I collapse back against the pillows, my heart still racing. What kind of town have I landed in where men just let themselves into women’s apartments? Where businesses collect debts by kidnapping you at dawn?

The clock reads 5:17 a.m. No wonder I didn’t hear them knocking—if they ever did.

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