Page 15 of Bride for the Bikers

Harper tucks her hair behind her ears, looking down at the comforter. “I don't know…”

I can't fucking imagine how it feels to think that she finally found the solution to everything wrong in her life, and then it just turns to more and more shit for each day that passes. I cross over and crouch down next to the side of the bed, taking her hand. Her fingers are so fucking small, with those perfect pink wedding nails. “Nobody’s going to force you to do anything. You got me?”

Her fingers close around mine and squeeze.

Carnell sighs. “If she won’t play, maybe we can hook him with just the four of you, but we don’t have time to waste. It’s already past when he’d be expecting contact. I need at least a couple of you to come with me, so we can plan this out.”

Thunder nods at me. “Me and Lightning will stick around and keep an eye on Harper, make sure she's okay.”

“Good. I’ll take Outlaw. We’ll be back ASAP.” I don’t like splitting up, but as team lead, I need to deal with Carnell and his fucking plan. Outlaw will have my back, and I trust Thunder to keep things from going off the rails.

As we follow Carnell out, I wonder what the fuck we've gotten ourselves into. I trust Carnell about as far as I can fucking throw him, and I have absolutely no fucking faith in his plan being able to draw Mesner out, but we don't have much fucking choice.

If he betrays us, I'm gonna fucking make sure he goes down with us.

10

HARPER

“You okay?”Lightning settles on the same bed as me.

I don’t know when I stopped being scared and started to think of them as being almost on my side, but having him here is actually comforting. Which is stupid, right? I heard Shadow ask that guy if he wanted them to kill Vincent with the kind of tone someone else might ask if they should be the one to order pizza. But if my father is really some kind of dangerous drug lord… maybe it’s best to have guys like these bikers on my side.

“I don't know. Not really, but it's a lot to take in.” I draw a deep breath, and let it out slowly. In, and out. “Up until a few months ago, my life was working at a nursing home and taking care of Mom. There was literally nothing special about me. I got average grades, shared a middle of the road apartment with my mother and got my drama from TV like everyone else. Now I’m hiding out in a motel while a cop and a bunch of bikers plot to bring down my father who is apparently a horrible drug kingpin.”

“Laid out like that, it is pretty fucked up.” Thunder drops on the other bed, but close enough that he could reach out and touch me if he wanted to.

I shake my head in disbelief. “For just a little while, I thought something had finally gone right, you know? Vincent seemed so happy when he found out I was his daughter, and he was the answer to all my prayers. Everyone who says money doesn't buy happiness has never had to sit and watch someone they love die because they didn’t have it. When Mom couldn’t work anymore, we only had what I was making, and I had to always balance getting as many hours as I could with needing to take care of her. We were lucky enough to have some good neighbors and she has friends, but they all have their own lives too. I had to start going to the food pantry just to be able to stretch the budget between paychecks.”

Ugh, I don't want to cry in front of these guys, but the corners of my eyes are stinging, and I can't help it.

“Fuck,” Lightning breathes out. “I hear ya.”

I shake my head. “Do you? I’ve always thought I was a good person, but when you were all telling me about what my father was like, all I could think was maybe it wasn’t that bad. Want to know the truth? I already figured he was into something shady. I never thought drugs or anything like that, but at least sketchy business stuff. Rich people crime, you know? If it meant my mother got better and I didn’t have to worry about where the food was coming from, I was willing to look the other way. I ran because the idea of marrying a stranger freaked me out, not because he was using me for some kind of tax scheme. Oh God. I’m a horrible person.” Hot, frustrated tears slide down my cheeks.

Thunder shakes his head and cups my chin in one of his big, rough hands. His thumb strokes away a tear. “Nah, you’re just fucking human. The world isn’t black and white, baby. It just takes some people longer to learn that lesson than others.”

“Yeah, look at us. Don’t know if you’ve noticed, but we aren’t exactly fine upstanding citizens,” Lightning says with a mischievous grin.

“I guess so.”

Thunder lets out a deep, belly laugh. “Baby, we were sent here to drop millions of dollars of glass to send a fucking message. You said you were going to look the other way about white collar shit? We don’t give a fuck that your daddy is into drugs. The problem was that he got sloppy and it was putting our people in danger. More importantly, our people. Not a single one of us will fucking judge you for taking what you were offered.”

Lightning nods. “Gotta say, though. I’m glad you aren’t married to that other fucker. Means I still have a shot.”

His teasing puts a little smile on my face. “But I'd be in Hawaii right now, so I don't know. It sounds a lot more fun than this.”

“Dunno about that.” Lightning leans a little closer. My heart skips a beat, but unlike last time, when he was checking me for weapons, it’s not fear that causes it. “There's a lot of ways of keeping entertained if you're creative.”

I'm pretty sure he's not talking about board games. “That’s probably not a good idea.”

Lightning laughs. “Oh, it’s a great fucking idea. But I get it. Finding out your daddy's a fuckstain is probably a mood killer.”

Right. That.

I don’t correct him, because there’s been enough honesty. They don’t need to hear about how I didn’t have much time for dating the past few years and haven’t made it past third base. If everything had gone to plan, I’d be on my “honeymoon” rightnow, getting used to the idea of at least two more years of membership in the V-club. It definitely wasn’t going to happen with Devin. We had about as much chemistry as flat soda.

I must have a thing for bad boys, because I’ve had more dirty thoughts since ending up with these men than I’ve had in ages. Even now, with Thunder and Lightning next to me, their T-shirts clinging so hard to their bodies, I can't help but wonder if Lightning’s as big as Thunder? They're twins, right? Wouldn’t everything be identical?

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