Page 6 of Jag

It also hadn’t slipped past me that she pushed buttons I didn’t even know I had. With keys in hand, I walked out my door and headed toward my bike. Maybe it was time I pushed a few buttons myself.

Chapter Two

River

Looking in the mirror, I adjusted the straps of my bra under the black tank top and rotated around to see how my jeans fit.

“New place, new job, and a new me,” I repeated the same words every day since I arrived in Shades Valley. I picked up the brush and worked it through my thick, red hair until I had the wavy strands in my hand, then twisted them and snapped the sizeable black clip into the wild mess. When I let go my hair was piled on my head in a makeshift ponytail that actually looked good on me. It had been a long time since I felt comfortable in my skin—if ever. Funny how it only had taken moving across the country to achieve it.

With one last look, I headed out into the bedroom and inwardly groaned at the clothes tossed on my bed. Yeah, I might have changed a few times before I settled on my current outfit. If Thomas saw me now, he’d voice his disapproval for sure.

“River, your outfit does not reflect that of a partner’s wife.”Never mind he wasn’t a partner yet, only the son of one who was promised the advancement and votes of the other two partners if he showed his father he was committed as a family man. And what better way to tip the scales in his favor than marry the step-daughter of one of the other partners.

Yeah, that worked out well.

Thomas was my past, and I needed to keep him there. He no longer had any say in what I wanted or needed. I’d let him have too much power over me when we were together. But no more. I’d made the break and now controlled my life for the first time. The thought of that made me smile as I sat on the edge of the bed and pulled on my boots.

With my boots on, I left the bedroom, went downstairs, grabbed my purse and jacket, then headed out the door. I’d spent enough time getting my house unpacked and livable. I even had everything filled out and ready to begin my job, though, I still had a bit before I would officially start. All that was left was the invention of the new me. Not so much inventing—more like finding my true self.

The woman I was meant to be had to be buried in there somewhere, right?

I locked the door and started toward my car. The small Mercedes stood out on the street where I lived, and it would be the next thing I changed and the last thing I owned from my old life. That was how I’d categorized things—old and new.

“Hi!”

I turned toward the voice and smiled at the little girl who walked toward me from the neighbor’s yard. Her black hair was pulled up in a ponytail that swung with each step as she moved closer. I’d seen her a few times around town along with her coming and going from Sue Mayson’s place. She was the daughter of the woman I purchased the house from, Sami Borelli, though the little girl looked nothing like her mother. She was, however, the feminine version of her dad, Kane, one of the bikers who dropped her off or picked her from Sue’s place. That thought immediately brought the man who haunted my thoughts since the first time I’d laid eyes on him. The same man I seemed to always run into, literally. Dominic Amara. Jag to his biker buddies.

Each time his presence sent me spiraling into a woman I had no clue existed inside me. He had dark blue eyes that were in contrast with his dark brown hair and olive skin tone. And when the man focused those sapphire globes on me, my blood warmed, and my insides tingled. Those thoughts of him needed to be curbed pronto, if not for my sake, then for the little girl’s.

“Hi yourself.”

She stopped right in front of me and looked up through eyes that seemed much older than she appeared.

“Do yous live here now?”

“Yes, I do. What’s your name, sweetie?”

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