Page 30 of Biker's Baby

“I’ll check out the place when I get off work and let you know if there’s reason for you to be scared. If it’s all clear, I’ll let you know and you can head back, okay?” I asked.

“Okay,” she said with a nod. “I’m sorry I bothered you here at work.”

“Just get going before someone sees you!” I said. “Now!”

She muttered something, shaking her head and going back to her vehicle.

I knew I was harsh, but I didn’t care. I couldn’t risk her being seen here with me, and she didn’t seem to understand why. This was far more important than her just not being popular with the MC. I wasn’t supposed to be protecting anyone at all.

To have her here could be considered a betrayal if Tad were to find out, and I wasn’t going to put my life on the line. Or her life, either, for that matter. It was hard enough sneaking this around Glenn. If there was a chance Tad could get involved, I knew it would crumble quickly.

I stood and watched as she drove away, then I turned and headed right back into the warehouse. Thankfully, Glenn had missed the entire interaction, which saved me from having to come up with more lies in the moment. It wasn’t that I minded keeping up the charade of the fantasy girlfriend I’d told him about, but it was difficult for me to be convincing when I was rattled to see her there in front of me.

I did check my phone several more times throughout my shift, however, making sure Iris wasn’t trying to get a hold of me. I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, and since she was at some restaurant now late at night, I knew there was a chance something could go wrong.

As soon as my lunch hour came, I told Glenn I had to take off for a quick errand.

“It’s like one in the morning, and you have an errand to do?” he asked.

“I forgot something I need back at the house,” I told him. “I’ll be back shortly.”

“Sure.” He gave me a look that told me he was already thinking I was going home to have some quick sex session with some girl, but I wasn’t in the mood to stand and argue with him, or even take any of his banter for that matter.

I hopped on the back of my bike, and even though it was late, I didn’t hold back. I roared the engine to life, then I flew back home as quickly as I could. It was strange walking into the house without Iris being there, and I had to remind myself that it wasn’t normal for her to be there anyway.

It was normal for the place to be empty when I got home, no matter what time of day it happened to be. The unusual thing was when Iris was there.

I checked the windows all around the house. The first floor was where I expected to find the issue, but I was surprised when it was actually upstairs that caught my attention.

It appeared as though someone had tried to get into one of the upstairs bedrooms – the guest room, of all places.

Now, I couldn’t help but ask myself – was that sheer luck? Or did this person know that Iris and her son were staying in the guest room and hoped to be able to get the jump on them?

I headed outside and looked around, trying to determine how this person had managed to get up to the second story window. It was still a mystery to me as to why they would want to go for the second story when they could have tried any of the first story windows, but I pushed the thought out of my mind.

Perhaps they thought if they were able to get into the place upstairs, they would have a better chance of catching Iris off guard. Or maybe they didn’t know that she was in the house at all, and this was someone who was after me. Or, there was always the third option, and this person might not have been after either of us in particular, and they just so happened to be burglarizing random houses.

I knew that wasn’t likely, but I wasn’t going to try to figure it out, either.

I saw how they had gotten up to the second story easily enough. They had stacked crates right up against the house and evidently climbed those up to the top. It didn’t seem like a very sturdy plan, but then, perhaps they were just looking for an easy and quick way to get the job done.

Either way, I kicked the pile of crates over, breaking several of them in the process. I would have to take care of them later. For now, they were useless to anyone who tried to get into the house by that method again.

I went around the house once more, checking each of the exterior windowpanes. Then, I went back inside and checked the entire place, making sure there weren’t any intruders hiding where I hadn’t seen them before. I had to make triple sure the place was safe before I gave Iris a call.

She would be bringing her child back to the house, and I wasn’t going to put her back here if there was a chance the place wasn’t entirely safe for her. She had her son to worry about first and foremost, so there was no way I could tell her to come back if there was even the slightest chance the place wasn’t safe.

But I looked over the place as thoroughly as possible, and I felt that she could come back without any worry, at least for the rest of the night. I would look things over better in the morning and make sure there was no way for anyone else to bother her while I was gone.

I grabbed the phone and called her.

“Hello?” The relief was evident in her voice as she answered on the first ring.

“It’s safe,” I told her. “You can come home.”

I bit my tongue, my mind fading into a blur as she thanked me for checking the house for her on my lunch. She was clearly grateful, and she didn’t even seem to notice the one thing that had made me stop talking.

This wasn’t her home. I had told her it was safe to come home, but it wasn’t her place to call home.

This was my home.

She didn’t have one.

She was staying with me, and it was okay with me for her to be here as long as she needed, but the fact of the matter was that this wasn’t her place to call home.

And no matter how badly I had wanted to change that, no matter how badly I might want to change it now, I couldn’t.

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