PROLOGUE
SHILA
That was not the boy I knew years ago. Back then, he had a boyish charm, a crooked grin, and he didn’t let his situation as a foster kid stop him from being the carefree person he was.
That all changed one night. I honestly have no one to blame but myself. I thought I was protecting him. In a way I was in another, I was also shattering not only his heart but my soul in the process. The day I watched him walk away without running towards him, I knew a piece of my body was leaving with him. I may have been young and too dumb not to tell him, but he carried the other half of my heart.
Two years later, I left it all behind—my toxic parents, my college scholarship, the only home I knew, and it was the best thing I could have ever done for myself. Don’t get me wrong, I searched and searched for what I now know is the only love of my life. He was either gone forever or staying completely off the grid. It had to work two jobs, lived in a room above someone’s garage, being meager with any and all things, including food and clothes. I didn’t even have a car, preferring to save anything I could, and would walk to work, ride the city bus to school. It was a never-ending cycle, but being in the home stretch was worth it. Though, I already knew I’d still need two jobs until my career as a massage therapist really took off.
“Hey, Shila.” I dart my eyes around the Breezeway Inn before realizing it’s Jolie who’s trying to grab my attention. So lost in my own world and dragging myself down memory lane, like I’m still sixteen instead of the twenty-five-year-old I am now. Yep, I got a slow start to figuring out what I wanted to do when I left home. I can still remember my parents telling me how disappointed they were in me, like it’s on repeat in my head. Well, to be fair, the day I didn’t leave with the boy who stole my heart has been replaying over and over. The days after, the being grounded for wanting to be with someone I loved, the constant arguing with them. It completely gutted me. I became a shell of myself, withdrew from friends, social activities, did the bare minimum at home. My sole focus was on graduating high school and getting the hell away from it, all with a broken heart.
“Hi, Jolie,” I reply.
“Can you do me a favor and work on Shadow’s room today? I got to the rest of them done earlier this morning. His is the only one I didn’t. Decker is itching to go for a ride.” Jolie is giddy, bouncing on the balls of her feet, then clapping her hands.
“Sure,” I say, even as the bottom of my stomach falls to the floor.
“Thank you!” She hugs me quickly, then leaves. Meanwhile, I’m left to pray to everything holy that Shadow isn’t in his room. See, that boy who I searched for, for years after our world fell apart, well, I knew him as Bennett, not the person he is today.
No, the man he is today seems larger than life, dark, brooding, not a hint of the characteristics that once ruled his personality, of the boy I knew. I also try to avoid him like the plague since he’s been staying with what I’ve learned is his now family. That doesn’t mean I’m suddenly too scared to acknowledge him in fear he’d hate me. Besides, it’s not every day you’re accused of statutory rape. I just hope Bennett knows that I would have never allowed my parents to do that to him. Which is the only reason I stayed behind when he asked me to leave with him. My parents were dead set on seeing him rot in prison, even if everything we did was completely consensual.
I just hope Bennett isn’t in his room, or anywhere at the Inn for that matter. I’m still not prepared for him all these years later.
1
SHADOW
The club gave me this road name for a reason, and it’s comin’ in handy now more than ever. It took a lot to stand back, not goin’ after the woman who’s kept me on the run from every aspect in my life besides the club. No one, not my Prez, not the brothers, not a fuckin’ soul, knows of my past past with Shila, and I’m willin’ to bet my last dollar Jolie doesn’t know either.
My eyes locked on Shila the minute we walked into The Breezeway Inn. Scurryin’ like a mouse getting its last piece of cheese when she recognized who I was. A fuckin’ shame, too. If she had stuck around, she’d have known that I see her. All of her. The way she bends her head down, tucking that long dark hair of hers behind her ear, showin’ off the slope of her neck. Lips she licks when she’s nervous. Fuck, she’s the exact same as when I last had my eyes on her, only adding curves to her body. The thing that has me stumped is how she landed in Louisiana when we’re both from Texas. Gotta hand it to fate, I guess, the fickle bitch that she is.