Rake's Redemption (Wind Dragons MC #4)(29)

His green eyes soften but then harden a second later. “Fucking hell, Bailey. Did you f*ck him? Because I’ve been looking for another reason to kill that bastard.”

I groan and close my eyes, frustration filling me. “No. I didn’t f*ck him. And you know what? If I did, it’s none of your business. Why don’t you continue to f*ck other men’s women and leave me alone?”

“I didn’t know that bitch belonged to that guy. She threw herself on me; sorry for assuming she was single, not an old f*cking lady,” he says, sitting down on the edge of my bed and pulling me down to sit next to him. “We have a huge f*ckin’ problem here.”

“And what’s that?” I ask warily, pushing my hair behind my ear.

Rake scrubs a hand down his face, then braces his elbows on his knees. Finally he looks me in the eye. “If you f*ck someone I know, I’m not going to handle it very well, Bailey.”

“Rake, I—”

“When did you start calling me Rake?” he asks, something flashing in his eyes that I don’t like seeing there. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he didn’t like me calling him Rake. But that made no sense.

I shrug my shoulders. “I guess when I realized that’s who you are now.”

He was my Adam, but now he’s not. To everyone else, he is Rake, and why should he be anything else to me?

He swallows hard, making his throat work. “Fuckin’ hell, Bailey. My life was so much easier before you came back into it. I didn’t think so f*ckin’ much; my life was stress-f*ckin’-free.”

He looks straight ahead and sighs. “Those were the days.”

“Stop being dramatic,” I chastise, rolling my eyes. “We’re going to just have to deal with this, because I don’t want to have to stop seeing Anna and Lana.”

“Yeah,” he says, dragging out the word. “That worked so f*ckin’ well last time.”

A giggle escapes my mouth. “They’re strong women; you should have expected that.”

“I know,” he grumbles. “Was hoping my sister would listen to me for once.” He slaps his thigh. “All right. You aren’t going to f*ck anyone. Period. Glad we had this talk.”

He stands up, leaving me confused. “Pretty sure I never said I wouldn’t sleep with anyone.”

“Well, you can’t f*ck a biker without starting shit. None of the Wind Dragons will touch you, and if you f*ck Talon you’ll start a war. Oh, and if you f*ck a civilian, one look at us and they’ll shit themselves. That doesn’t leave many men for you, does it?”

The bastard looks pleased with himself. Really pleased.

“You’re unbelievable, you know that? Why do you even care? It’s been years. Years. We broke up on bad terms, and now this!” I say, my voice rising with each word.

Rake stands and walks to the door, keeping his back to me. As he puts his hand on the doorknob, he whispers, “Because no matter what you did, no matter what happened in the past, you will always be the love of my life.”

With that, he leaves the room.

I don’t go after him.

I hear the front door open and close.

I just sit there, his words running through my head on a loop.

And then, it all hits me.

And I cry.





TWELVE




JEALOUS” by Labrinth fills my car as I start the engine. On my way to pick up Cara and Rhett from the after-school care they go to twice a week, I’m about to reverse when I get the shock of my life.

Something sharp presses to the side of my neck, and a man’s deep voice demands, “Don’t move.”

I put the car back into park, my eyes darting around frantically, but the parking lot is empty as far as I can see, everyone already gone home for the day.

“What do you want?” I ask, my trembling voice giving away just how scared I am.

My bag was on the passenger seat, in clear view. If that’s what he wants, hopefully he just takes it and leaves without hurting me.

“I need you to give a message to the Wind Dragons for me,” the man says, gripping my hair from the side of my head. The knife digs into my skin further, rendering me motionless. I barely breathe as his lips come close to my ear. I look up in the rearview mirror, but all I see is light hair and a mask.

How did I not see anyone in my car? What is wrong with me? I need to learn to pay more attention, to be more careful. I wait for the message, but as he bangs my head against the steering wheel, I realize that that is the message. The man leaves my car and I sit there, shaking. I touch my fingers to my neck, there’s luckily only a streak of blood there. I lock the car doors and pull out my phone with trembling hands. First, I call Tia and ask her to pick up the kids, then I make another call. I don’t have Rake’s number, so I call Anna.

“Hey, beautiful, I was just thinking about you,” she says cheerfully.

I stay silent, not sure what to say and still in shock.

“Bailey . . . ?”

“Can you come and get me?” I ask her quietly.

“What’s wrong?” she asks, her tone turning serious. “Bailey, where are you?”

“I’m fine,” I assure her. “But something kind of just happened. I’m in my school parking lot.”