The shy woman always turned a bright red when she saw him, and she avoided catching his gaze, as if she had convinced herself that, if she didn’t look at him, she would miraculously become invisible.
“What the fuck!” Lucky came to a stop when he drew closer to his bike. Someone had spray-painted ‘Blasphemer’ across it in bold red, and anger scored his soul at the insult.
Lucky had lived the last few years undercover as a pastor in Treepoint, Kentucky, and one of the things he had looked forward to while he had tried to bust an inter-state drug trafficking ring had been his motorcycle.
When he looked up, he saw Willa staring at him furtively.
“Did you see who did this?” Lucky heard the accusation in his own voice, but it was too late to regain his temper as Willa paled. He was having a shit time with women so far today.
Willa walked toward him, the five children following behind her.
“Is something wrong …?” Her words trailed off as her eyes caught sight of his bike.
“We just came outside. Chrissy and Caroline saw a stray cat when they were playing outside earlier. They wanted to feed it…”
Lucky’s eyes went to the tabby cat at the side of Willa’s house that was contentedly eating tuna from a can. Then he studied the children. “Are you sure you didn’t hear or see anything?”
“Jenna’s house is closer to your bike. It would be easily seen from her living room window. If you didn’t see anything, why would we?” Willa said.
Lucky’s face turned red in embarrassment and anger at her logic. “Because I’m not the one who’s constantly looking out the window.”
Once again, Willa was the one turning bright red. “I’ll go get something to clean the paint off.”
She hurried inside her house, leaving him alone with five kids staring at him with varying expressions—from the overtly hostile glares of the two older girls to the three younger ones scowling at him.
“We didn’t see who touched your bike,” Leanne stated, staring him directly in the eyes.
Lucky knew the children fairly well from when he had been undercover as pastor. Leanne and Sissy were sisters; their mother Georgia had been a member of his congregation who had recently been killed when she was incarcerated for setting a fire in The Last Rider’s clubhouse. Shade and his wife Lily could have easily died if not for the precautions that Viper, the club president, had taken.
“I just asked if anyone had seen anything, Leanne. Maybe one of you put the other up to doing it?”
A firestorm was unleashed at his words.
“We don’t put each other up to doing stuff that will get us in trouble!” Sissy snapped. The oldest girl, at seventeen, had been hit the hardest by her mother’s death.
Lucky guiltily admitted to himself that he was wrong. This wasn’t a prank a kid would play.
“What does the word mean?” Charlie, the eight-year-old, questioned as he held his younger sister Caroline’s hand while his other sister, Chrissy, stared at him, sucking her thumb.
The three younger children Willa was fostering were Lewis’s, Georgia’s brother, who had also been raising his nieces after her death. Lewis had been determined to marry Willa to help care for his large family. The sick bastard had gotten his wish; he just wasn’t around to benefit from it. Willa had shot and killed him when he had come to her house in a rage and attacked not only her but also Rachel, who had tried to help her.
“It means that Pastor Dean isn’t acting like a pastor anymore.” Sissy smirked at him.
Lucky knew her age and recent difficulties were responsible for her attitude, but it didn’t keep him from snarling back at her. “You have a problem with me, Sissy?”
“I have a problem with you treating Willa the way you just did.”
“Willa needs to learn to take up for herself. She doesn’t need another person taking up for her. Certainly not a seventeen-year-old.”
Caroline’s foot kicked out, striking him in the leg.
“Stop it!” Lucky had long since lost control of the embarrassing situation.
He noticed Shade was parking his bike on the street as Willa rushed out of the house. Great, all he needed was an audience to his embarrassment.
“You a-hole!” Sissy yelled.
“Sissy!” Willa moved between Lucky and the girl, handing Lucky a towel and a plastic bottle.
“What am I supposed to do with this?” Lucky snapped, staring at the items in his hand.
“I thought you could use them to clean it off.” Willa pointed at his bike.
Shade got off his bike, moving to Lucky’s motorcycle, while Willa grabbed the items back from Lucky’s hands.
“I’ll clean it for you.” Willa was about to spray the words with the cleaning solution when Shade stopped her.
“What happened?”
“Lucky thinks one of the children or I did this while he was inside Jenna’s house. I told him they didn’t, that they were playing in the backyard, but he doesn’t believe me.” Willa’s lashes blinked furiously, trying to hold back the tears brimming in her eyes.