Riding the Line (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation 2)

I giggled and grabbed the cutting board with the potatoes on it. “It all happens to us eventually.”

“Your parents still around?” he asked.

I shook my head and carefully dumped the potatoes into the pan. “They both passed away a couple of years ago.”

“Brothers or sisters?”

I shook my head again. “Nope. It’s just me.”

“Sorry, darlin’.”

I shrugged. “It’s all good.”

It wasn’t anything to be sorry about. Mom and Dad both smoked like chimneys when they were younger, and it caught up with them. Daddy was the first to go, and Mom followed a year later. Lung cancer got them both. That, of course, didn’t stop me from being a smoker, though. And, like most things in my life that were bad for me, I didn’t know how to quit them ‘til I was too far gone. Like Grit for example. Thankfully, I had woken up and got out of Destin before it was too late.

Silence lingered while I stirred the potatoes around, then crouched down in front of the cabinet and found the matching lid to the pan. I slapped it onto the potatoes, lowered the heat, and turned the sausages that were browning nicely.

“I was thinking I would take a ride down to the lake later, if you want to come.”

I glanced over at Frost and smiled. That sounded nice, but later, I planned to be out of town and headed to Destin. “Uh, maybe?”

He nodded.

Son of a bitch. What the hell was I going to do? I needed to get to Destin, but how was I going to do that with Frost literally next to me all of the time?

Maybe talking to the Knights and seeing if they could help me was the best idea. I mean, the worst they could say was no, and I would just be back to figuring everything out on my own.

“Uh, so,” I stuttered. “I was a…”

Jesus. What the hell was I even trying to say? I have a friend who got herself into some scary shit, and now I need you guys to pull whatever strings you have to help her. Her being a woman you have never met and probably won’t ever see again after we save her.

Easy peasy, right?

I cleared my throat and chanced a glance over at Frost. He was watching me carefully from hooded eyes. He could sense something was off. It wasn’t like I was some master manipulator who could act like nothing was wrong when my world was actually spinning off its axis at the moment.

“What’s going on, darlin’? You’ve been acting different since last night,” Frost drawled.

Lord Jesus. I knew it. “Uh, well, I’m just kind of worried about a friend of mine back home.”

There was a very partial truth. I didn’t need to drop the bombshell of my ex being in town and also that my friend was kidnapped by her baby daddy. Nope, didn’t need to mention that just yet.

“What’s going on with her?”

I finished flipping the sausage and moved the lid from the potatoes onto the pan with the links. “Uh, well, she broke up with her boyfriend, and now, she’s pregnant.” See, there was another sliver of the truth. Drop the truth like breadcrumbs, and it wouldn’t sound so shitty.

“Damn. That’s a shitty situation.”

I laughed nervously and stirred the potatoes. Understatement of the year. “Yeah. So, I’m just trying to figure out a way to help her.”

“She from around here?” he asked.

I shook my head. “Uh, no. Back home.”

“And back home would be where?”

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“Not really home anymore, but Florida. South Florida,” I elaborated.