“Just wait until Jimmy hears about this.” Shelly-Ann smirked. “You’ve shot yourself in the foot big time. We both know what’ll happen if he finds out you saw the girls without asking me first. And if I tell Jimmy you’re with a Sinner…”
“I’m not with him. He’s just someone I know.” But the Sinners were the reason she’d moved to Conundrum with the girls. After a brutal territorial war, Jimmy’s MC, the Devil’s Brethren, had been kicked out of town on penalty of death, which made it a safe haven for anyone wanting to stay out of the Brethren’s reach. At least it was safe until Jimmy found a way around the ban by paying his sister to move to town.
Dawn stepped off the sidewalk, pulling the girls with her, to avoid two women with baby strollers. Her cheeks flushed when their gazes flicked from Cade to her to Shelly-Ann and back to her. After years of trying to put her past behind her, hints of an association with a biker made her feel sick inside. Bikers were bad news. Her little fling with Cade had been an indulgence, a nod to the wild child she kept buried deep inside. Sex and nothing more.
Shelly-Ann waited until the sidewalk was clear again. “Another five hundred a month might keep my mouth shut.”
“I don’t have another five hundred dollars.” Dawn gritted her teeth and handed Shelly-Ann the money she owed her for the week. “I’m already working three jobs. I just sold my car to cover the extras you said you needed last month. You’re getting money from Jimmy, too. How much do you need? You’re not spending it on the girls.”
“Your choice. But you’ve got a history of making bad choices, so you might want to rethink that attitude. You chose to piss Jimmy off, and look where it got you. No kids. I got my own problems to deal with, and looking after your brats is draining me dry. You know where I’ll be on Sunday. And I know where Jimmy will be if you don’t show up with the extra cash.”
Heart aching, Dawn bent down to hug her girls. She assured them Sunday wasn’t too far away, and that one day they would be a family again—a promise she’d been making every week, because she was damn well going to make it happen no matter what it took. No one was going to keep her away from her girls, and especially not Jimmy and his deadbeat sister.
After Shelly-Ann led her sobbing daughters back to the car, Dawn slumped against a streetlamp. Shelly-Ann had been right about one thing. She definitely had made some bad choices in her life, and the worst one was accepting Jimmy’s offer to save her from the streets. In her sixteen-year-old na?veté, she had mistaken his interest for kindness and his possessiveness for love.
“You okay?” Cade gently brushed her hair back from her face, and her skin tingled at his touch. Focused on dealing with Shelly-Ann, she’d totally forgotten about him. And Cade wasn’t an easy man to forget. Not with those faded jeans, tight in all the right places, those washboard abs, a body that moved with easy grace both in and out of bed …
Take me, baby. Deep inside. I want you to feel what I feel. Like there’s nothing in the world but us.
What was supposed to be a one-night stand with Cade just over a year ago had turned into two nights, and in those two nights he had ruined her for other men forever. Too bad he was a biker, the kind of man she’d promised herself she’d never fall for again.
“I’m fine. Sorry you had to hear that.”
“My fault. Shoulda been more discreet. Not really one of my strongest traits.”
Dawn gave him a dry smile. “As I recall, your strongest traits involve a bed.”
She bit her lip as soon as the words left her mouth. What was she thinking? Flirting with him was a one-way street to disaster. And yet her subconscious was in the driver’s seat and heading straight for “Route 69.”
“Apparently not strong enough, since you dumped me.” His blue eyes glittered, and she hit the mental brakes. No need to worry; it seemed she was traveling alone. Served her right. After all, she had walked away. Not him.
A flush stole across her cheeks. “We only slept together twice, so technically I didn’t dump you. It was more like a permanent good-bye.”
“Never had a woman refuse to see me again.” Sardonic amusement laced Cade’s tone. “Interesting experience. Not one I’m keen to repeat.”
She wrapped her arms around herself to beat back the chill of the wind. “Well, as long as you’re wearing that cut, you have nothing to worry about from me. As you can see, my life has already been totally messed up by a biker. I’m not interested in getting involved with another one.”
“That why you walked away?” He stroked his thumb over the apple of her cheek, and warmth pooled in the pit of her stomach. “’Cause I’m a biker? We’re not all the same.”
“You’re an outlaw biker, not just a biker. Isn’t that what the one-percenter patch on your cut means? Mayhem and violence are how you live ‘The Life’ and it’s a life I never want to be part of again. In simple terms, outlaws are bad and civilians are good.”