Crash

by Elana Johnson

  Crash

  Sentinels MC Rebels, A Bad Boy Sweet Romance, Book 3

  Elana Johnson

  Contents

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

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  Chapter One

  Julie Paige couldn’t ignore her mother for much longer, so when the phone rang at three-ten—the exact moment it had rung yesterday too—she decided to answer it.

  “Mom,” she said, making her voice falsely bright. But there was nothing bright and cheery about her life. Especially now that Christmas and the New Year had passed. Julie had boxed up all of her decorations for another year, and they’d taken the spirit and magic of the holiday with them.

  “I finally got you,” she said, and it was clear she wasn’t happy Julie had been avoiding her. But the truth was, Julie was happier. She was happier without having to eat miserable meals with her family, and she was happier when she wasn’t constantly trying to find an answer for her mother.

  “I’ve been really busy,” she said. “Sorry, Mom.” Because Julie was sorry. She was sorry things had to be the way they were, and she was sorry she didn’t know where Lawrence was, and she was sorry the snow had started to fall during her shift at the hospital.

  “How were your holidays?”

  “Fine,” Julie said, flipping up the hood on her coat as she stepped outside. “What about you?” That would get her mother talking, and all Julie would have to do is hum in agreement every now and then.

  “Just fine,” her mom said, and Julie had forgotten her mother was a shell of who she’d used to be.

  “I’m just heading home,” she said, striding through the swirling snow. When she arrived at her car, it had definitely been scraped by someone in the recent past. A smile spread across her face when she saw the covered motorcycle parked next to her.

  She and Lucas Miner worked opposite schedules at the hospital, and she expected to find a note from him inside her car.

  “What are you doing for dinner tonight?” her mom asked.

  Julie ducked into the sedan, and sure enough, a small envelope sat on her dashboard, just above the steering wheel. “I’m exhausted, Mom. I’m going to take a bath and call for pizza.” Only part of that was true, as Julie only ate pizza on rare occasions. But she’d definitely call for Chinese food. Or a sandwich and salad combo from her favorite deli. Too much cheese gave her heartburn, and Julie had learned that meant pizza only rarely.

  “Why are you so tired?”

  “We’re down a nurse,” she said. “And I’ve been working seven days a week since Christmas.”

  “Oh, wow,” her mom said.

  “Robert has hired someone,” Julie said. “They start on Monday, so the end is in sight.” But Monday was still three days away, and Julie had to work all of them. “I’ll know more about my schedule after tomorrow’s floor meeting.”

  She was hoping she could get on the same schedule as Lucas, because if they kept working opposites, she’d never see him.

  “Keep me updated,” her mom said.

  “I will, Mom. I have to drive now.”

  “Okay, honey. Love you.”

  “Love you too.” She started the car and let her mother end the call. Julie sat in the driver’s seat and flipped on the windshield wipers, her mind lingering on the love of her mother. She knew her parents loved her, and she was extremely grateful for that. Tears pricked her eyes as she adjusted the heat and got her seat-warmers fired up.

  She wished she could make things right for her family, but she honestly didn’t know how. There were some things she knew absolutely, and some things she didn’t.

  She knew what drugs and how much to give a patient. She knew she’d have a hungry, keyed-up Daniff waiting for her at home. And she knew she liked Lucas Miner more than she should.

  She’d spent Christmas afternoon and evening with Lucas and his friends, and it was the best Christmas she’d had in years. She’d felt warm and liked for just who she was, and accepted by the people gathered in a humble home on the southwest side of town.

  She’d been out with Lucas a few more times since then, if grabbing something to eat in the hospital cafeteria during his fifteen-minute break could be counted as “going out.” It was what she’d been able to steal with him, so Julie was counting it.

  But she wanted more.

  She managed to make it home, where her house was nearly the same temperature inside as it was out. She’d left the door open for Riley, so the dog could go in and out as she liked.

  “I’m home,” she said to the dog, shivering as she looked to the sliding glass door she’d left open. She sucked in a shocked breath as she took in the messy puddles—some of them muddy—spread across the entire kitchen, dining room, and living room.

  The very bad dog lifted her head from the couch, where a wet stain indicated that the dog had been outside, gotten soaking wet, and then come in for a snooze on the sofa.

  “Riley,” she complained, though it was her fault the dog had gone outside and then come in messy. She stepped over the puddles to the kitchen counter, where she put her empty lunchbox and her purse.

  She closed the door and made her way to the laundry room for some towels. Along the way, she turned up the heat and noticed how badly her head was pounding. After a quick clean-up job that didn’t get everything, she shooed the dog off the couch and into the laundry room, where she closed the door to keep her contained.

  Julie couldn’t control the Daniff, she knew that. Riley knew it too, but she somehow still did what Julie wanted her to.

  Thankfully, her couch was a dark blue, and it didn’t appear to be too muddy. Julie had invested in a wet-dry vac the week after Lawrence had dropped off his impossibly huge dog, and she’d learned quickly that such appliances were necessary with such a large beast.

  She could shampoo the couch later, and she padded down the hall to her bedroom and bathroom, where she got the tub filling with hot water. She dropped an orange vanilla bath bomb into the rising water and picked up her phone.

  Call me during your lunch? she sent to Lucas, hoping the request wasn’t too needy. She’d asked him to call her once before, and he had. He’d even claimed he liked talking over texting.

  She knew he wouldn’t answer right away, and she set her relaxing playlist to a calm volume and climbed into the tub, a sigh filling her soul as it came out of her mouth.

  Now, if she could talk to Lucas later, maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all.

  Julie woke with a start, everything around her cold, cold, cold.

  She thought she’d heard a noise, but no
w all she could hear was the classical music she’d put on when she’d gotten in the tub—which was obviously a very long time ago, as the water she currently sat in was on the outer edge of barely lukewarm.

  Way too cold.

  Shivering, she lifted herself out of the tub and reached for a towel as Riley barked. Knocking sounded on the front door, and Julie realized that was what had woken her. She quickly wrapped a towel around herself and picked up her phone, the wet ends of her hair making another icy tremor move through her body.

  She’d missed texts and calls from Lucas, and the last one said, Where are you? I’m at your house, and I’m worried about you.

  Her heart felt four times lighter than it had a moment ago, but she certainly couldn’t answer the door wearing only a purple bath sheet. With shaky fingers, she quickly typed out, Come in. I’m getting dressed, and closed and locked the bathroom door.

  She pulled on a pair of pajamas as quickly as she could, bundling her hair in the bath towel.

  She knew the moment she opened the bedroom door that he’d entered her house, because Riley wasn’t barking, and the energy dripped with Lucas’s male dominance—and the scent of his cologne.

  “Hey,” she said when she found him in her kitchen, feeding a bit of turkey from his sandwich to Riley.

  “Hey.” He abandoned the food and came over to her, concern sparking in those cloudy-gray eyes. “I over-reacted, didn’t I?”

  Julie didn’t want to admit that she’d fallen asleep in the bathtub, so she just shrugged. “Why aren’t you at work?”

  Lucas studied her for a moment longer, his eyebrows drawing down. She’d seen this look a couple of times, usually when he’d learned something he didn’t like. Then he’d blitz off on his motorcycle with his best friend and roommate, Jordan Waterhouse, the two of them riding to Ruby’s, where their motorcycle club did business.

  Julie liked the perpetual leather jacket Lucas wore, almost as much as the sexy beard that covered the lower half of his face.

  “What?” she finally asked, smiling at him in what she hoped was a playful way.

  “Remember how you asked me to call you?”

  Some of the playfulness inside her evaporated. She couldn’t even say yes, though of course she remembered.

  Lucas took her hand in his and looked down at their fingers. Her heart started pounding in her chest, and not only because he’d touched her. He’d never shown her much affection, and he hadn’t held her hand, put his arm around her, or kissed her in the few weeks they’d been communicating.

  Just another reason she wanted their schedules to line up. If they could actually go out, maybe she could hold his hand. Maybe she could kiss him.

  “Well, I texted and called, and when you didn’t answer, I got this bad feeling.” He spoke very quietly, and Julie leaned forward to hear him better.

  She shivered too, because her core body temperature was still a little too low. “I may have fallen asleep in the tub.”

  “That’s not safe,” he said.

  Julie didn’t need to be lectured about it. She got enough of that from her mother. “I hardly ever do it,” she said. “I’ve just been so tired lately.”

  Lucas nodded and stepped away from her, removing his hand from hers. “I’ve learned to listen to my gut, and it said I needed to be here tonight.”

  “Are you going back to work?”

  “I took the rest of the night off.” He sat down at her counter and lifted the lid on a container of soup. “You wanna eat with me?”

  “Yes,” she said, moving toward him automatically. They’d been learning about each other superficially, but he knew she liked the sausage tortellini soup from the pizza parlor, and sure enough, that was what waited for her at the counter. “Thank you, Lucas.”

  “Mm.” He put a spoonful of his soup in his mouth.

  “And you got your bread, so this is a meal,” she teased.

  He chuckled and shook his head. “I can’t help it if soup isn’t a meal without bread.” He dunked his roll in his seafood stew and took a bite.

  Julie tipped her head back and giggled. She sipped a few bites of her soup, finally starting to warm up.

  “I can take Riley tonight,” he said. “If you want.”

  “You want to?” This would be a first.

  “Yeah,” he said. “I like dogs, and I can drop her back here before I go to work. That way, she’d only be here for an hour or so before you get home.”

  “All right,” Julie said. “I have an early meeting, and I’m hoping we can get on the same schedule.”

  Lucas looked at her, that hot current igniting between them.

  Julie’s nerves buzzed, but she added, “Then we can see each other…normally.”

  When he continued to watch her, Julie wished she could learn to control her mouth. “I mean….”

  “I know what you mean,” he said quietly, looking down at his dinner again.

  Her doorbell rang, and she met Lucas’s eye. “Are you expecting someone?” he asked.

  “No,” she said, sliding off the barstool as Riley trotted over to the front door. The dog whined and scratched as if she could dig under the door, barking a moment later.

  “Back up,” she told the dog, but Riley just looked at Julie, an earnest expression on her face. Behind her, the barstool Lucas had been sitting on scraped against the floor. She glanced at him and went back to trying to move the big dog away from the door.

  She finally succeeded, opening the door a moment later. The storm continued to rage outside, and she took in the man standing there.

  Disbelief ran through her when he turned back to her, his face so familiar and yet so different.

  “Who is it?” Lucas asked, coming to stand beside her. Behind them, Riley barked and barked, and Julie understood why.

  “Lawrence?” she asked.

  “Hey, sis,” he said, and even his voice sounded off. His eyes moved from Julie to Lucas, and a clap of thunder summed up everything as it exploded through the sky and shook the floor beneath Julie’s feet.

  She should have been relieved to see her older brother alive. Finally.

  But an anger like she’d never known before simmered in her veins, and she gripped the door so tightly her fingers ached.

  Chapter Two

  Lucas Miner felt the air go out of his lungs at the sight of Lawrence Paige. He hadn’t said a word to Julie about her brother tormenting him as a teenager. She’d hardly brought up her family at all, especially since Lucas had found her crying in the waiting room at the hospital, unable to go to Christmas dinner with them.

  For some reason, he’d been willing to be her excuse. Something inside of Julie called to him, and Lucas had a protective gene he couldn’t just ignore. And it was screaming right now.

  “What’s with the motorcycle?” Lawrence hooked his thumb over his shoulder as if he couldn’t see Lucas standing next to his sister.

  Lucas glanced at Julie, though he didn’t think it wise to remove his eyes from Lawrence. She seethed. Like, literally seethed with anger, and Lucas could feel it and practically see the red waves of fury as they rolled from her.

  He wanted to step in front of her and protect her. Or hold her back from ripping off Lawrence’s face, he wasn’t sure which.

  “How dare you?” she said, her voice a bit too quiet. “Where have you been? You just show up here and think everything’s fine? You should be ashamed of yourself. And you should get right back into whatever car brought you here and go see Mom and Dad.” Her chest was heaving by the time she finished, and pure surprise moved through Lucas.

  By the look on Lawrence’s face, he wasn’t expecting that welcome either. He blinked, and Lucas didn’t think he’d ever seen the guy without the perfect comeback. And if he didn’t have one, his right jab sufficed.

  But he didn’t swing at his sister. He finally said, “I don’t have a car. I got a ride.” He finally looked at Lucas, those dark green eyes the stuff of Lucas’s nightmares. His heart sta
lled for a moment, and he got thrown back twenty years to his adolescence, where this man had made his life a living nightmare.

  Before he could say anything, Riley barked again, and she finally managed to worm her way through Lucas’s and Julie’s legs, her tail whipping against his shins.

  Lawrence laughed as the huge dog greeted him, crouching down to let her lick his face.

  Lucas needed to leave. Get out of there. Get on home, where he could figure out this confusing relationship with Julie—if it was even a relationship at all.

  They texted a lot. She wasn’t afraid to ride on the back of his motorcycle. He’d brought her a helmet from Ruby’s, and with a pair of good gloves and a winter coat, she stayed, in her words, “toasty warm.”

  They’d shared a couple of meals, like they were now, but their work schedules had prevented real dating. Lucas wasn’t sure if he wanted to really date Julie or not. She’d just mentioned she was trying to get on the same schedule as him, and his heart had pulsed but not fled. So maybe?

  The main reason holding Lucas back straightened right in front of him, and he stuck out his hand. “I’m Lawrence Paige.”

  Lucas scrambled for a fake name, because he absolutely couldn’t use his real one.

  “This is my boyfriend,” Julie bit out, and Lucas felt like he was falling. “Lucas Miner. And I’m busy. Take your dog and go talk to Mom.”

  “Lucas Miner?” Lawrence scanned Lucas from head to toe, and Lucas had never been happier to be wearing his security uniform, even though the shirt never fit right. He’d spent a lot of time in the gym too, wondering if it even mattered.