by Leela Ash
Laurie churned over everything in her mind. The idea of being away from him just now was frightening. She knew the drive back home wasn’t particularly long and would only take her two hours max, but she had gotten used to having him there to protect her. Still, she knew he would be there when she returned.
“I’ll stay with you, if you want.” he looked at her, his eyes alive with passion.
“I’ll be fine,” she smiled, all she had needed was that tiny bit of reassurance. “But if you really want to, maybe you can come see me once things blow over a bit.”
As they drove back into the town and headed up Main Street she noticed some of the items for sale in the store windows. There were wolf figurines in one shop and as she looked at the old man working there she noticed that he too had an ice blue glint to his eyes. A memory glazed over her to when she was a child and she stood with her father looking in one of those stores. He told her that he’d heard the rumors about the forests and that they’d had big animals living there. She had thought about it a lot afterwards and the whole time they were staying at the lake cabin she had hoped to see one of the creatures that the legends had told of, but nothing ever came of it and the memory had faded as she grew up. It was funny how life could work out. The fact she had been drawn back to that place and had met this man seemed like proof of some divine intelligence. In this moment she could easily see herself spending the rest of her life with him. Of course she hardly knew him, but there was plenty of time to remedy that. When she was a child she had romanticized about the legends of the animals, but never in her wildest dreams could have predicted what she would come to know as the truth. She looked across at her alpha billionaire shifter, and his huge frame and gorgeous chiseled features. Just looking at him sent a shiver down her spine, as well as up her legs. She had never been a big believer in fate but something had pulled them together. There was something between them that worked better than any relationship Laurie had ever had with anyone in her life before. Aiden didn’t just seem to understand her, he seemed to be inside her head. She loved the air of mystery that was constantly around him, and now with a promise of a reunion in the city she couldn’t wait to see where their relationship was heading. She looked up at him and he squeezed her hand. Everything was going to be just fine. She was sure of it.
THE END
MC Romance
What the Outlaw Must Have
Samantha Leal
Copyright ©2015 by Samantha Leal. All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Thank you so much for your interest in my work!
1.
Holly collapsed on the stool and rubbed the soles of her feet. They were red hot and tired. She had been working since eleven that morning and now as it approached 1:00 am, her whole body ached. Her shoes fell lightly to the floor, and Elle almost swept them up with the edge of her broom. The girls laughed, half with amusement and half with exhaustion.
“What a shift,” Holly sighed as she stretched and pulled a strawberry milkshake closer to her and took a long, much-needed sip.
“Tell me about it,” Elle said as she set down the broom and sat on the stool next to her.
“Pass me mine,” she smiled, motioning to the other tall glass next to Holly.
Holly slid it along the countertop, and Elle began to stir it with her straw.
“Happy Friday,” she grinned. The two girls clinked glasses.
“Yeah, who needs to go to a bar when you can serve truckers and indulge in these once a week?” Holly joked.
Elle laughed and slapped her playfully on the arm.
“We need to get lives, don’t we?” Elle scrunched up her mouth as she pouted and looked out across the parking lot. It was now deserted, but just an hour before it had been filled with trucks and cars, and the diner had been full of men and women either traveling somewhere or just looking for someone to talk to. Their small town could be a lonely one and they regularly got people in there who simply had nothing better to do.
“I’m just glad tonight is over.” Holly rubbed her eyes. “I’m so tired, I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
“Are you off tomorrow?” Elle asked as she got back to her feet and continued to sweep up the remnants of French fries and pie crusts that had made their way onto the floor.
“Yep,” Holly grinned. “And I intend to sleep all day.”
“Don’t waste it,” Elle said seriously. “Go shopping, catch a movie, or even better…come in here and see me!”
“Haha,” Holly laughed. “No chance.”
“Spoil sport,” Elle pouted.
Elle knew that even though they had the milkshake ritual every Friday night, she couldn’t stomach the thought of finishing hers. She pushed it away and got to her feet. Without her shoes, she tiptoed behind the counter and began to clean the counters before heading over to the cash register and counting the money.
“Randy would kill you if he saw you without shoes,” Elle laughed. “Fired on the spot.”
“Well, it’s a good thing he isn’t here, then,” Holly winked before arranging all of the cash into neat piles and putting it in the safe. Randy would be in at 6:00 am to collect it and no doubt check that the girls had done everything exactly how he liked it. For a boss, he could be a pain in the ass, but at least he left them alone regularly to just get on with things. Holly didn’t exactly like working as a waitress, but she was grateful to have a job that allowed her to pay her way and put a roof over her head. Since she lost her parents, she also didn’t mind not having so much time on her hands… She didn’t like being left alone to think.
“Seriously, though,” Elle said as she turned off the neon lights that lit up the windows out front. “Don’t waste your day tomorrow… I’m stuck in here until six and then back in on Sunday. What I wouldn’t give to have the weekend free.”
Holly thought about it for a moment and realized her friend was right. She should do something worthwhile rather than just lying in bed and churning everything over.
“Okay,” she smiled. “You’re right. I’ll get out and seize the day.”
“Carpe diem,” Elle nodded with pride.
“Indeed,” Holly laughed.
As the girls left the diner and made their way to Holly’s car, she had an overwhelming rush of affection for Elle. She really had been a great friend to her when she needed someone the most, and she was grateful to have found her. When she had taken her job at the diner, the last thing she had expected was to find a friend for life. Now the two of them were the longest serving waitresses there and well-known fixtures in their local community, as well as with the hundreds of truckers who traveled down their stretch of highway day in and day out.
As Holly pulled up outside of Elle’s small ranch house, she kissed her on the cheek.
“Have a fun day off,” Elle bounced out of the car. “I’ll see you Monday?”
“Sure,” Holly smiled. “Have a good weekend.”
Elle smiled and waved over her shoulder as she made her way to her front door. Holly looked ahead and at the dark road in front of her. She had a whole weekend with only herself for company, and it seemed to stretch out ahead like a terrifying abyss.
“Come on,” she coached herself as she pulled away from the curb and started on her way home. “Time alone isn’t so bad.”
But she wasn’t fooling anyone.
Least of all herself.
2.
The next morning, the sunlight blazed through the curtains and illuminated Holly’s bedroom. She was flat on her back, wrapped up under the sheet, and she blinked as she came to. She sat up and stretched and rubbed her eyes. The day did look inviting. She could tell it was going to be a hot one and there would no doubt be plenty of people down by the lake waterskiing, fishing and swimmin
g, but she couldn’t bring herself to go down there alone. With each passing week, her confidence was dwindling. It had been such a long time since she had had a boyfriend, and after the death of her parents she found herself becoming more introverted.
She felt alone in the world, and it was starting to weigh heavy on her. Elle was the only person she really had that she could rely on and trust, but they couldn’t be together all of the time, and Holly knew that she had to make herself stronger on her own.
She got out of bed and walked slowly into the kitchen. Her house was similar to Elle’s but maybe slightly smaller. It was all on one level and had two bedrooms instead of three, but the girls often marveled at how strange it was that the layouts were almost identical.
When the kettle boiled, she poured herself a huge cup of tea and made her way through to the adjoining room. She slipped down onto the couch and yawned. Even though she had slept until almost noon, she was still exhausted.
She reached down and pulled out her photo album from the bottom shelf of her coffee table. She had made a habit to look at a few photographs of her family every day because she missed them so much. She still couldn’t believe it had been two whole years that they had been gone.
As she flipped open the first page, she saw the familiar picture of her mother and father with their arms around each other, smiling down at the camera while they stood in their garden at the old house. When they died, Holly decided to put it up for sale so she could move somewhere smaller and start again, but it hadn’t been easy to leave all of their memories behind.
Her father had dropped dead one day without any warning. Her mother had found him crumpled up in the shower, and the paramedics said he was dead before he hit the floor. A massive heart attack had rocketed through him and taken him at fifty-five. Holly honestly didn’t think that life could deal her and her mother any more blows, but less than six months later her mother had passed away from what the doctors believed could have been a broken heart.
She had heard of stories like that happening but had never really believed them. But after seeing it firsthand, she knew it to be true. Her mother had loved her father so much that she couldn’t exist in the world without him.
After the passing of her mother and once the house had sold, Holly knew it was time to move on with her life. She had invested much of the money from the house, used some as a down payment on a new house and started working at the diner. The world could have been her oyster, but she couldn’t face the thought of leaving her hometown and her family behind. It was the only place she really knew, and it was the only place she really wanted to be.
Making the decision not to leave came with its bad points. She never had the chance to meet anyone new, she hadn’t had a romantic relationship pretty much since high school and she was in no way likely to meet anyone at this rate. People simply didn’t just move to Red Creek; it was more the kind of town they either passed through or had been in forever.
She closed the album and slipped it back onto the coffee table. After seeing the love her parents had shared, Holly knew that it would take a very special person to steal her heart. She wanted the kind of love you only heard about in stories. She wanted not only to be swept off her feet but to also have something completely different and unconventional. Her dad had been so dedicated and protective over her mom that she had only ever considered someone who fit the same kind of mold. She needed someone who would do anything to protect her, someone who would fight for her fiercely and someone who other men feared because of his dedication. Once she was settled down, she wanted it to be forever. She wanted children and an exceptional love that would break all kinds of boundaries and challenge her in ways she never dreamed possible.
“I’ve waited so long,” she had said to Elle one day, “that I may as well wait as long as it takes… I’m not settling.”
Elle had smiled at her and nodded her head in agreement. “You know what you want,” she’d purred, “and you’ll get it, I’m sure.”
The words echoed around her mind as she showered and got dressed. She still had no idea what she was going to do with her day, but she knew that she had to get out of the house and not just sit with her thoughts.
After she had dried her hair and put on a slick of lipstick, she grabbed her purse and headed for the door. Outside, the sun beat down on her as she climbed into her hot car and opened up the windows.
“Let’s see what’s happening in the creek today,” she said to herself with amusement.
She was fully expecting there to be nothing of note, just a normal, dull day in a small town. How wrong she was…
3.
Main Street was buzzing with activity with it being a Saturday afternoon, and as she parked her car outside the grocery store and made her way along the sidewalk to pay the meter, she got a strange sense that something exciting was happening.
She turned and watched groups of old women gossiping on the street corners and some of the shop keepers out on the sides of the road looking up and down and chatting with people as they passed.
It was as if they were waiting for someone…or something. They were all looking worried and concerned.
“Is something wrong?” Holly asked a teenage boy on a skateboard as he rolled by.
He shrugged his shoulders and didn’t answer.
Holly shook it off. Maybe she was just being paranoid. Being unoccupied really didn’t agree with her. She needed to keep herself busy and clearly needed a hobby. She looked down the street and saw the hanging gym sign swaying back and forth in the light breeze.
Maybe I should get involved with some classes, she thought. Yoga or Pilates… Or I could get a personal trainer…
She laughed at herself before she had even really finished thinking about it. Holly knew the last thing she would be doing was bending into all sorts of random positions in a room full of old ladies. She would rather just run with her loneliness and be done with it.
She went into the grocery store and picked up a basket. She hadn’t made a list or really thought about what she needed, but as she started browsing, she decided that it was the perfect day to make herself a big fruit salad and lie outside in her garden on her sun chair while eating it and listening to music.
She picked up strawberries, mangoes, apples, oranges, blueberries and grapes. Her mouth was watering as she thought about chilling them all and mixing them up in a big bowl. As she approached the register to pay, she could hear the hushed whispers of different huddles of people all around her. They were all discussing something frantically and shaking their heads. Some of the older ladies had drawn faces and looked pale. One woman said how she thought it would best to leave town right then and there before the inevitable happened.
“Excuse me,” Holly said as she leaned over and tried to get involved in their conversation, “but is something going on?”
They turned and looked at her blankly before looking again at each other.
“Well, if you haven’t heard, dear, it won’t be long until you find out,” one of the little old ladies said as she picked up her groceries and made for the exit. “This town is doomed,” she added before she turned and disappeared onto the street.
“I… what?” Holly looked at the other women.
None of them seemed to want to have the conversation, and all dropped their heads before they continued on with their own business.
Holly was completely in the dark and had no idea what was happening around her. The town was far too hyped up and alert for it to be nothing, and the old lady in the store saying “This town is doomed” made her skin crawl…
What on earth could be happening?
After she bagged up the fruit and wandered back out onto the sidewalk, she stood for a moment and looked around. The same buzz was still alive, and she was determined that she wasn’t leaving until she found out what the hell was going on.
She threw the bag of fruit into her car via the open window and crossed the street to the other side. The usual
collection of men sat outside the barber shop, and as she approached them, some of the older guys got to their feet to greet her.
“Holly, how are you doing?” a man named Mitch asked her. He had been one of her father’s closest friends.
“I’m good, thank you,” she said as she wrapped her arms around him for a reassuring hug. “But what is going on down here today?”
“What, you mean you haven’t heard?” Mitch asked with raised eyebrows. “I thought you gals in the diner would be the first to hear, what with all the people you got passing through…”
“I haven’t been in this morning,” she said. “I woke up late and came straight down here… I don’t even know where my cell phone is, so God knows if Elle has tried to get me… What’s happening?” She looked up at Mitch with wide eyes as her heart began to race. She could tell from his expression that it was something bad.
“Looks like the old ways are coming back,” he said finally. “You were only young when they were driven out of Red Creek, but folks always thought they’d come back…”
Holly shook her head with bewilderment and looked around at the serious faces all around her. They were all in various states of fear, disappointment and sadness. The old men of Red Creek, whose families had been there for generations and been some of the founding members were all in front of her now and looked as if they were on the verge of a breakdown.
“The outlaws…” Mitch said ominously. “They’re back.”
As Holly looked up into his eyes, she heard the thunder of wild engines in the distance. They were loud, heavy and growled through the peaceful streets like a hot knife cutting through butter. Her skin prickled as she turned and watched the scene in front of her unfolding… Under the light of the sun, the glint of silver shone so brightly she had to lift her hand to cover her eyes.
