Adrenaline Rush (Death Chasers MC 4)

“Well, alright. I’m done at the diner, so I’m going home. Be careful on your trip,” she tells me as I lock up the car and head into a different diner than the one she’s leaving.

Again, I tell her goodbye, but this time it’s for good. It’s time to start a new life, and with a new life will come a new phone.

Dropping the phone in the trashcan by the door, I walk toward the back, ordering a coffee as I pass the counter.

Julia had odd timing with her call, and I’m sure Rush thought I was setting him up for a trip to town, but all’s well that ends well. I wonder how long he watched my fake snuff film.

Is he so jaded that he watched it all?

Has Herrin fucked his head up so much that he enjoyed it?

Or did he barge into the faux fray to make sure he was the one who got to kill me, only to be severely disappointed by my absence.

“Karen!” a friendly redhead calls, and I prepare to put on one last show as Karen Canady, while I move to the table of five hulking men…who look a little less intimidating than they did this morning.

“Nice performance,” I tell them all dryly, causing them all to glare at me.

“You telling a cop we were threatening you was totally not part of the deal,” Tommy snaps, even as he tries to restrain a smile. “I almost shit myself.”

Laughing, I slide into the huge corner booth next to him, as Fiona drops off my coffee.

This is my out-of-town, nobody-knows-me diner that I visit on a very rare occasion, so as not to become overly familiar.

“Well, you were supposed to mention an anonymous tip that you forgot to bring up,” I say with an unapologetic shrug.

“Didn’t realize it was going to earn that sort of betrayal,” Tommy says, still grinning.

“You going to tell us who that show was even for?” Kevin asks from beside me, nudging me with his elbow.

“Or why you gave us money to buy a car and bring it here?” Tommy adds.

“Or why we’re meeting at a diner an hour away from your home?” Troy chimes in.

“Or why you called us from another phone number last week that is no longer working?”

“Anything you don’t want to ask?” I muse, deflecting.

I guzzle the coffee and lift my finger, signaling for a refill. I’ll be driving all night.

For now, I’m not worried about Rush finding me. I’ve already left him behind. He’s not going to find me on the interstate, and at least one of the Smiths will be taking my old car with them, while I take off in the one I had them bring.

“You in some kind of trouble, Checkmate?” Troy asks, piling onto their questions.

As my coffee gets refilled, I shake my head. “No trouble. At least not now. Long story with a lot of family drama. Not life and death or anything,” I lie, giving them a reassuring grin they seem to buy.

“It’s not really as weird as that time she had us make that video where we attacked her in her home,” Kevin says with a shudder.

“Wasn’t that two or three years ago?” Tommy asks, a smile curving his lips. “You never told us if you got that internship at that fancy filming place where you were sending that video.”

“If she’d gotten it, she wouldn’t have been waitressing at the diner,” Troy groans.

It’s sad when five overgrown teddy bears are arguing about ridiculous things makes you feel sort of feel lonely and jaded. Then again, there’s a reason I like these five. It almost reminds me of home—minus the guns, violence, and bloodshed.

“She’s doing that thing where she lets us talk, while we forget she’s evading questions,” Ladon says as he gives me a pointed stare.

“I’m just drinking coffee. It’s going to be a long trip.”

“Driving an hour south isn’t going to get you anywhere closer to New York,” Tommy says, sitting up as he gives me an incredulous look.

“True. I guess I should tell you I’m not going to New York. By the way, how’s Collin?”

Ask them about their baby brother whose death I helped fake, and they’ll finally shut the hell up about me.

“He’s going to be pissed when we tell him we got to see you again without him,” Tommy says with a wicked grin.

“So pissed. Should be fun when we meet him at the hunting lodge,” Troy adds.

“Thanks for detouring out my way. I really do appreciate it,” I tell them.

Five sets of shoulders shrug.

“Just happy to see you, Checkmate. We owed you one for all you did for Collin,” Tommy tells me. “Anything we can report back to our baby brother to make him crazy with jealousy so he might run off, chase you, and bring you back home with him? You’re the only girl he’s dated that my wife has liked.”