Chapter 1
Rocky
“Tell me what he said, Kody.”
I stood inside the kitchenette in my small San Diego apartment, wrapping a bag of frozen green beans around a towel for my friend Kody. Who had a black eye, courtesy of my ex-boyfriend’s goons. It’d been two years since I made my escape from the concrete battlefields of Los Angeles and headed for blue skies and rich tourists in San Diego. But suddenly, Genesis and his men were back in my life.
“It’s not a big deal Rocky.” He sounded like he was spitting out teeth.
My back was to Kody who was splayed out on my couch. For a few moments at least I didn’t have to look at the mess they’d made of his face.
“Tell me what happened or I’m putting these veggies back in the fridge.”
“You’re so damn stubborn. Fine, they told me to stay the fuck away from Rochelle. And then bam right in the left eye. And the stomach. No big deal,” he groaned.
Those fuckers! It was Big Boy and Navajo, it had to be. I’d seen them around for the past couple of months, just watching me. Always watching with those damn smug smirks on their stupid faces. They’d kept their distance after Dallas had threatened their dicks, but only for a while.
“Shit, I’m sorry, Kody. I should have guessed they wouldn’t stop.”
“You mean shredding your tires?”
“You knew? They’d cost me a pretty penny, slashing all four tires just to inconvenience me. I think they thought I’d get scared and go running back to Genesis. I didn’t.”
“Of course I knew,” Kody mumbled around his pain. “You’re the cheapest person I know and suddenly you have brand new tires on your ten-year-old car. I did the math. And I know about the break-in, too.”
Shit. “They’re just trying to scare me so I’ll go back to LA.”
“Will you?” A groan came from the living room and I figured he must’ve tried to move again.
“Not unless they kidnap me.”
Which was probably plan C or D on the list of ways to get me to come back. A bell chimed and I froze, suddenly remembering what I’d been doing before Kody knocked on my door.
“Shit!” I ran into the living room, tossing the towel-wrapped beans at him as I raced to the bathroom and locked the door behind me. My heart beat so loud and hard it was all I could hear as I leaned against the sink. I stared at the five plastic applicators sitting on the counter beside my toothbrush and soap dispenser.
The truth was right there, a few feet away. I didn’t want to look, couldn’t force my feet to move to see the results. You can do this. Just open your eyes. The pep talk didn’t work and after counting to ten and back, twice, I took one step. Then another. And then I opened my eyes and looked down at the five different applicators hoping, no praying that I wasn’t seeing what I was seeing.
Pregnant. Positive. Digital displays. One single line and plus signs. They all said the same thing. They all said that my one sexy night of fun in more than two years had left more than a lasting memory. That I was now one of those women who got knocked up by a one-night stand. “Shit.” Every time I thought I was making progress in my life, something or someone came along to prove me wrong.
Kody knocked. “Hey Rocky, you okay in there?” I jumped.
“Yeah, I’ll be out in a sec.” I splashed cold water on my face and stared at the applicators one final time before I swept them into the trash bin. I knew what I had to do. It would start with getting the hell out of San Diego. For a while or forever. But first, I opened the bathroom door and walked into the arms of my best friend.
“Okay. I’m really sorry about bringing all of this into your life, Kody.”
“Hey, don’t worry about it, Rock. This isn’t on you.”
He could say that until he was blue in his pretty face, but that nasty purple bruise that closed his eye said otherwise. “It is Kody, and as long as I’m around, they’ll make you a target to get to me. I have to leave.”
“Where will you go?” He sighed and dropped his head to my shoulder. “I want to talk you out of this so bad, but you have your determined face on and it hurts too much to talk.”
I laughed so hard I snorted. “Good because my mind is made up. I’ll let you know when and where I land.” I would miss Kody. He was the first good friend I’d had and the fact that he was a guy meant so much to me.
“Wait, what happened in that bathroom?”
“Oh,” I smiled and rested both hands on his shoulders. “I’m pregnant.”
“The knight in shining armor?”
I nodded because that was what Dallas had been that night. My white knight with messy blond hair, a wide smile and blue eyes that always seemed to be laughing. “Yeah. That one.”
I knew Dallas would help me because he had that whole sexy, cornfed cowboy thing going on. But also, because I was carrying his baby.
Chapter 2
Lasso
I was confused as hell and all my Spidey senses were tingling in warning, telling me that shit stunk to high hell and it had nothing to do with the German shepherd next door. Standing on my porch, looking as lush and sexy as she had for one hot night in San Diego, was a girl—a woman—I hadn’t seen in almost two months.
“Um … hey Rocky. What’s up?”
As I stood there, ready for whatever bomb she was about to drop, another thought occurred. What if Rocky was a stalker? The Reckless Bastards had enough of that lately.
“We need to talk,” she said, her tone serious and somber. I braced myself, knowing nothing good ever came after those four words. “Can I come in?”
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The way she looked over both shoulders, scanned my residential neighborhood set me on edge and I stepped back, waving her in.
“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Because that would be just fucking perfect. I meet a hot girl and we have one fun night together and now she thinks the big bad biker can swoop in and save her.
“Kind of. Do you have any water? I’m so thirsty but I didn’t want to stop for the bathroom so, please?”
All types of warnings clanged around my brain at her words and how they didn’t fit together, not with her tone and her actions. But I got her a glass of cold water from the fridge and shoved it in her hands. “There. Start talking.”
She didn’t look worried at all, just gulped down half the glass and set it on the table, keeping her fingers curled around the bottom.
“Thanks for that. I needed … oh shit.”
One hand smacked over her mouth as her green eyes flashed wide. Worried. She was on her feet seconds later and before I could register what the fuck was going on, Rocky was emptying her stomach in my bathroom. On and on she went, making the most sickening sounds while I stood in my own damn kitchen feeling helpless as fuck.
“Sorry about that,” she said when she came out, wiping her mouth with a wad of tissues, the toilet flushing behind her. Her smile was sheepish, her expression contrite.
But now I was on the verge of fucking panicking. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on here?” I refilled her glass and shoved it her hands, forcing her to sit back down before she collapsed on the floor. I wet a kitchen towel and put it on the back of her neck. I didn’t know why, I just remember my own mama doing that to me when I made it to the kitchen table with a hangover. “Are you all right?”