Over a big plate of pasta, Emma asked, “What do you all know about that motorcycle club in town?” Her gaze cut to where the family was sitting in the far corner of the restaurant. A dark-haired man, a blond-haired woman, and two boys, probably about first and fifth graders if she were to guess.
“The Raven Riders?” Alison Bard asked in a low voice. Two years older than Emma, she taught one of the other kindergarten sections and had been a mentor and friend since Emma’s first day six years before. “They run the race track outside of town. Green Valley. I’ve been to a few of the races there before.”
Catalin Mendoza, their newest kindergarten teacher, nodded. “Me, too. I heard that they provide protective services for people in bad situations. I don’t know how that works though. Why?”
Emma twirled her fork in her pasta and recalled Caine talking about working in security. Was that possibly what he’d meant? “The man that tried to stop the mugging belongs to that club.”
Her friends’ eyes went wide. “Wait,” Catalin said. “Are you telling me that you were saved by a biker and we’re just hearing that detail?”
Smirking, Emma nodded. “It wasn’t really pertinent to the story.”
Catalin looked like she might swallow her tongue, and glanced at Alison to see if she was as aghast. “Is she serious right now?”
Alison laughed and nodded. “Leave it to you to leave out the best detail, Em. So tell us about your biker.”
Her biker. As if. She shrugged. “He was…I don’t know…” Emma struggled to think of a description that would do the man any justice.
“She’s speechless,” Alison said, chuckling.
Catalin’s brown eyes were wide as saucers. “She’s totally speechless.”
Emma couldn’t help but laugh. “No, no. It’s just that he’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met before. Tall, dark, and intimidating on the outside, but then he had this kinda killer dry humor and was really sweet to me.”
Her friends traded a look, and then Catalin said, “When are you going to see him again?”
Shaking her head, Emma swallowed a bite of her noodles. “I didn’t get his number.”
“Em!” Alison said.
“I could go ask that guy,” Cat said in a total deadpan as she thumbed toward where the other Raven sat with his family.
“Don’t you dare,” Emma said, chuckling—and realizing how much lighter she felt after hanging out with her friends. Even if their teasing was at her expense. And it didn’t hurt that she’d followed up with Sheriff Martin after school and filed a report on her mugging. “I can’t thank you enough for taking me out tonight. I needed to shake off this funk.”
“Always,” Alison said. “You know that.”
Catalin nodded. “I agree, but I was only half joking about asking that guy.”
Emma made a face she hoped communicated that she would have to kill her if she made a move toward that Raven.
Shrugging, Catalin grabbed a piece of Italian bread from the basket. “Suit yourself. But if you have a way of tracking down Mr. Tall, Dark, Sweet, and Intimidating, why wouldn’t you?”
It was a question still rattling around in her brain as sleep eluded her again that night. And it ensured that, when she did finally nod off, Caine’s icy-blue stare starred in all her dreams.
Chapter 5
There was only one thing that really scared Caine, and tonight was the second fucking time in the past five months that the Ravens had been forced to deal with it.
Fire.
That fear was a stupid fucking thing to feel when he’d arrived after the fire department had doused most of the flames. It hadn’t happened to him. And he wasn’t the one fighting it. Still, standing on the street outside of Ana Garcia’s downtown row house, Caine struggled to force away the memories that explained just why he hated fire so goddamn much.
Memories of a trapped little girl. Scorched skin. A two-story fall…
Sonofabitch.
Standing beside him, his brother Phoenix Creed shook his head. “This is fucking bullshit.”
Caine nodded, seething that this had happened right under their noses. On the Ravens’ watch. Breaking glass had alerted Ana that something was amiss, allowing her to call 9-1-1 and flee the house in plenty of time. And the close proximity of the downtown fire station meant that the responders had been able to get here fast and confine the worst of the damage to the front of the first floor. So Ana would eventually be able to live here again. In the meantime, she’d be safe living in one of the cabins on their compound—where Dare had already taken her about a half hour before, right after she’d finished talking to the sheriff.
So, as crises went, this one had turned out much better than it might’ve. Not that it made Caine feel one damn bit better.
“Question is, what are we going to do about it?” He arched a brow at Phoenix, whose expression was set in a dark scowl. One that Caine understood, not just because they both felt like they’d dropped the ball here. But also because Phoenix had been the one to bring Ana’s case to the Ravens months before, and he felt a certain investment in her situation as a result.