BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset)

by Parker, Kylee

  When he caught up with her he reached out and touched her on the shoulder. She got a fright – she hadn’t heard him coming.

  “Bruce,” she breathed and took a step back like she wasn’t sure if he was there as a friend or as someone that was going to kill her. It hurt that she was unsure about him, but in all fairness, he doubted her loyalty, too.

  “What are you doing here?”

  “I wanted to talk to you,” he said, and then because he couldn’t stand not knowing he added, “where are you going?”

  She took a breath but paused like she wasn’t sure she wanted to tell them. She was suspicious of his intentions. And he was of hers. How had their relationship gotten so complicated I such a short time?

  But then again, it had never really been simple. It had just been complicated in a different way.

  “I’m not going to Williamsburg if that’s what you mean. I’m not going to rat you out to anyone.” Her voice was calm, but the hostility was in her words. Bruce shook his head. That wasn’t what he’d meant at all. The truth was he wasn’t sure what he’d meant at all now that she was in front of him.

  “Why did you come back,” he asked and his voice was so low it was almost a whisper. That was the million dollar question, the one that would tell him if she was there to sell him out to the killers, or if she was really there for the reasons she’d stated. He didn’t believe Dwayne that she should be seen as the enemy. It went against his grain to see her as someone that would get him killed.

  “I was so angry with you when you arrived at my place in El Verano,” she said. “I was furious that you thought I was yours to own. You arrived on my doorstep and told me all these things about my life and I was set on disbelieving everything you told me. I wanted you to go away.”

  The words hurt as much now as when she’d said them then.

  “I gave you what you wanted. I never wanted you to do something you didn’t want.”

  Jenna looked at Bruce with a passive expression until he closed his mouth and let her continue speaking.

  “I wanted you and your difficult life to go away. I wanted the easygoing life I had before to come back. But after you left I realized that it was all a lie anyway. My life had never been simple. These things that I’m seeing now, they were a part of my life for a very long time. Even before you came along. And when I pushed you away it didn’t make the problems go away. With Darren my life they were just as complicated, just in a different way.”

  She paused and took a deep breath. Bruce bristled at the sound of that Assassin’s name, but he controlled himself. Still, his hands were balled in fists and it felt like his chest was on fire.

  “The only difference,” Jenna said and her voice was a lot softer, a lot sadder. “Was that this damn complicated life of mine didn’t have you in it anymore. And suddenly I realized how very empty it all was. How empty the rest of my life will be if I don’t have you.”

  She looked down at her hands, inspecting her nails even though Bruce doubted she could see them in the dark. The wind was cold all around them and he thought her hands must have been freezing. She wore no gloves, she’d come from the city in an obvious hurry and she hadn’t prepared for the mountain winter.

  “Where are you going?” Bruce asked. They were still standing a short distance from each other, but the atmosphere between them had changed. He wanted to step closer to her, touch her, but he didn’t want to scare her off. After a moment, she was the one that stepped into him. Close enough to feel the warmth from her skin, but not so close that they were touching.

  “I came to warn you about them coming, but I’m not done,” she said. “If I just disappear now, they’ll know something’s up. I wanted to head back.”

  “To him?” Bruce asked and the temperature dropped around them. An icy wind started blowing and Bruce had a feeling the cold came from him.

  Jenna nodded. “I don’t want to be with him, Bruce. It was always you, I just didn’t always know it. But I have to see this through so that it can end. If I run away now…”

  “How did you know what I was saying was true?” Bruce asked.

  Jenna shook her head. “It wouldn’t leave me alone. So when I saw him again I tested it. I thought something, and then I asked him a question, and the answer he gave me was what I was thinking. It had happened before, I’d just thought we were on the same page.”

  They stood together in the darkness for a while. The cold had started to drive away from them, warmth from their emotions circled them and being together felt right.

  “I have to go back,” Jenna said again like she was justifying herself. “I can’t disappear now. It’s almost Christmas.”

  Of course, Bruce had forgotten about that. Christmas was the season of being together.

  “But I’ll be back,” Jenna said. “I’ll be back, and I want to help you fix this. I want to fix us.”

  It was the first time that there was a positive comment toward their relationship. It broke through the invisible wall between them, and Bruce reached out and wrapped his arms around Jenna. He pulled her body against his, and her warmth flowed through him. She completed him. With her body against his, he felt like the fullest version of himself.

  The smell of her hair was in his nose, the heat of her body traveled through him and he felt her heart, beating in time with his through all their clothes.

  “I love you, Bruce,” she said first. “I really do.”

  “Then come back to me,” Bruce a said, even though she already had. She nodded her head against his chest, and then she slipped out of his arms. He didn’t follow her when she disappeared between the trees. It felt like a part of him had been torn off and he was losing it. He could track her scent through the trees, feel her warmth slowly fade as she moved away. He stood there, staring into the darkness that hung between the tree trunks until she was long gone. The cold had wrapped itself around him and when he breathed he smelled only the snow in the air.

  He turned and headed toward the plateau. He believed that Jenna wanted to help. Not just because he loved her and she’d said so, but because it was knowledge lodged inside of him. It was truth that wouldn’t buckle now.

  The only that was left to do was to convince the pack of the same thing. It was going to be harder than he thought. Jenna was a human. She’d been involved with an Assassin. And above all, Dwayne the Psychic had seen something, and he’d stated that she was the enemy. Whatever it was that he’d seen, he was convinced.

  And that was going to be hard to counter.

  But they would listen eventually. They were all scared, even Tara, and they didn’t have many options left. They were going to be outnumbered without a doubt, and there weren’t that many ways for them to fight the Assassins without getting killed.

  At this point in time, their only hope lay with Jenna and her loyalty to a pack that she didn’t belong to, and to people that kept wanting to have her killed.

  And still Bruce believed that this was going to be their way out.

  Chapter 2

  Jenna got on a plane and flew to El Verano. She hated flying. She would have taken the bus if she’d had a choice. Growing up in the mountains hadn’t made her comfortable with modern technology and how fast the world had become, but she’d had to take the plan to get to Bruce and back to El Verano again without Darren getting suspicious.

  She’d told him she’d gone to visit an aunt. Somehow, even thought she was sure now that he could read her mind in one way or another, he’d believed her.

  She’d been gone for just one day and a night. If she arrived back home in the morning everything would be alright.

  She hadn’t wanted to leave Bruce behind again. For the first time in months it had felt like there was something there again. Bruce had held her and in his arms she’d felt home. She didn’t know why she’d thought it good to run in the first place. Being with Bruce was right.

  And she was going to make it work now. This part, the part where they were being hunted by
their enemies, was her fault. They’d wanted her isolated – now she understood why.

  She’d left to make things easier on Bruce. Instead she’d made in infinitely harder. But Jenna had a plan. If Darren had been playing mind games with her, she could do the same with him. She didn’t know how far his mind reading abilities went, but if it was anything like that psychic in Bruce’s pack had said – feeling intentions and emotions unless they were in a group – then maybe she could mess with Darren’s mind as long as he wasn’t with the others.

  All this preternatural stuff was complicated. Where were the days when you only knew what someone said to you? It took deceit to a whole new level.

  When Jenna landed she switched on the phone she’d gotten used to using. When she was outside the airport building she dialed Darren’s number and waited for his phone to roll over to voicemail. In the morning he was at his law offices. If that was really what he was.

  Jenna suddenly doubted everything he’d said to her.

  Instead of getting his voicemail, Darren picked up.

  “You have perfect timing,” he said.

  Jenna felt disconcerted – she hadn’t expected to talk to him directly, but she smiled so it would sound like it over the phone.

  “Well, that’s always good to know. What am I in time for?”

  “I was just having a terrible day and I was thinking that hearing from you would brighten my day. You must be psychic.”

  Jenna rolled her eyes but forced a laugh.

  “I just wanted to let you know that I’m back in town. Do you want to do something tonight?”

  “That is just what I need,” he said. “What do you feel like?”

  “Getting take away and staying in, talking,” Jenna said. Darren agreed and they ended the conversation. After he hung up Jenna stared at the phone in her hand. Stay in and talk – she had a lot to say.

  When she stepped into the street the wind cut through her coat. The lack of snow was an illusion, it gave Jenna the idea that it wasn’t that cold. She huddled her coat closer around her and headed home where she dropped off her bag before she headed out again. She wasn’t going to stay home and work out what she needed to say.

  She didn’t want anything around the place where Darren was going to be when she spoke to him that he could pick up on. She was at a disadvantage that she didn’t know how his mind word. But then again, so was he. Jenna was just a human, she was well aware of that, but she wasn’t stupid, and she could play this game. She wasn’t supposed to know about all these other worlds, but the fact was that she did. And she was going to use it.

  She was planning on giving just enough away that it would work for her in the long run. It was a little like making a bet, she thought. You risk a little, but you stand a chance to win a lot. Jenna also stood the chance to lose a lot, but she didn’t think too hard about that. Losing wasn’t an option if she wanted the happily ever after with Bruce she’d signed up for when they’d gotten married.

  And if she wanted to give Bruce his half of their happy ending, she had to make sure that his world didn’t fall apart, either.

  By the time Jenna headed back home it was almost nightfall. Darren would already be on his way over to the apartment. If he was already there, that would be even better. Jenna started to panic as she got closer to her building. What she had to do wasn’t going to be easy, and she had to be convincing.

  Her hands felt numb in her coat pockets and the wind around her brushed against her cheeks, making her feel small and insignificant. She had a knot of nerves in her stomach that made her nauseous. She concentrated on breathing steadily.

  Darren was outside the apartment building when she arrived. He stood on the curb looking worried, huddled in his own coat against the cold that was taking over now that the sun was gone.

  “I thought you’d be home,” he said.

  “Sorry, I had some errands to run,” Jenna said, and her voice was strained. She was flustered and she fiddled with the keys before she got it in the lock. Her nerves were getting the better of her, but it looked like she was flustered. Good.

  “Are you okay?” Darren asked, picking up on the emotions twisting inside of her.

  “Uh…” she started, drawing it out. She took a deep breath and let it out with a shudder. It was all honest, but her words weren’t going to be. “God, Darren you’re not going to believe me if I tell you what’s going on. I can’t deal with this anymore.”

  Jenna dropped her keys inside the door and fumbled when she picked them back up.

  “Hey, slow down,” Darren said, taking the keys from Jenna and putting a hand on her elbow. He guided her toward the stairs and walked up with her. “You’ll be surprised how much I’ve been through. You know you can talk to me about anything.”

  Jenna took another shaky breath and drew out her hesitation before she nodded. When they got to her apartment door Darren was the one that unlocked it and let Jenna walk in first. He closed the door and slid the bolt home before walking to the kitchen and filling the kettle.

  The gesture reminded Jenna of Bruce and the way he used to be at home in her cabin at home. A pang shot through her and she sank down on the couch.

  “I’m going to make us some tea, and then we can talk,” Darren said. Jenna nodded and shrugged out of her coat. She pulled the sleeves of her turtle neck shirt over her hands and tucked her feet under her on the couch.

  Darren fiddled in the kitchen and then finally brought two mugs to the couch. He handed her one. When she sipped it the tea was too sweet. Instead of drinking it she held it in material covered hands.

  “What’s going on?” Darren asked.

  “I ran into my ex-husband today,” Jenna said. She looked into the cup in her hands.

  Darren gasped next to her. “You have an ex?” he asked. Like he didn’t know. Jenna nodded.

  “We never spoke about these things and it’s hard to talk about, so I didn’t mention it.”

  Darren frowned, shifted closer in a protective way. “Did he give you any trouble?”

  Jenna shook her head. “Not really. I mean, not the kind of trouble…” She stopped, rubbed her face with her fingertips. “Do you believe in magic,” she asked. The change of topic let Darren look confused. She knew he would use it.

  “Magic,” he asked.

  Jenna nodded.

  “I guess I do, yeah. There are always stories that I think might be real.”

  “Stories like werewolves and vampires?” Jenna asked in a voice that was almost a whisper. Darren shifted even closer as if the facts might be untrue if they didn’t speak about it too loudly.

  “Why are you asking me?” he asked.

  Jenna took a deep breath. She was already nervous, that wasn’t an act, but she hoped it looked like she was scared Darren would think she was crazy.

  “My husband is different than us,” she said.

  Darren was quiet and she let the silence stretch for long enough that he was the first to speak.

  “Are you saying he’s a werewolf?” Darren asked.

  Jenna looked into his eyes for the first time and shook her head. “A bear,” she said softly. Then she dropped her face into her hands.

  “This sounds ridiculous, I know,” she said and her voice was muffled. Darren put his hands on her wrists, pulling her hands gently away from her face.

  “Hey, don’t hide. It doesn’t sound ridiculous. I know what you’re talking about.”

  Jenna faked surprise. “You do?”

  Darren nodded and he looked around the room like he was the one that was worried about being crazy now. “I didn’t know there were more humans that knew about this,” he said and the worry in his voice was genuine. Jenna understood why.

  “I wasn’t supposed to know, but I found out by accident. That’s why I left. I can’t live like that.”

  Darren nodded as if he understood. Maybe he did.

  “What did your ex do to you?” he asked as if the thought suddenly dawned on him.


  “He just threatened me, told me to stay away from them if I wanted to stay alive. The rest of them want to kill me because I know, but he said if I stay away from humans I would be safe. But what was I supposed to do? They’re having some meeting tonight and he wanted me to leave my aunt’s place so that I wouldn’t be around when they… shifters… were all there.”

  Jenna swallowed hard. She’d tried to sound scared. She’d tried to sound betrayed and hurt and all those things she wanted Darren to believe. Darren narrowed his eyes and looked at her. She could see him thinking, or feeling, or whatever it was that he did that was messing with her mind. Just to make sure, she imagined a house with someone that looked like she could be her father’s sister, and an open stretch of forest behind the house. Maybe Darren would pick up on images or something.

  Jenna had no idea if it worked, but Darren nodded slowly.

  “Where does your aunt live?” he asked.

  “Just outside Ficksburg. Do you know it?”

  Darren nodded. Jenna had never been there. He dad had never had a sister. But she’d looked it up on a map and it was about a day’s travel in the wrong direction, away from Williamsburg.

  “She’s on the edge of that forest there. A little farm.”

  Darren shifted on his seat. Then he got up and walked around the room.

  “You don’t think I’m crazy, do you?” Jenna asked. She’d made her voice small and shrunken in on herself, a pathetic ball on the couch. Darren looked at her and his face softened. He walked to her and sat down on the couch next to her, taking both her hands in his. That buzz came again, and Jenna recognized it for what it was. Instead of letting it flow through her, draw out everything she knew, she broke contact and pulled her hands back, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “I don’t think you’re crazy. I’m glad you told me so that I know what you’re going through.”

  Jenna nodded, didn’t make eye contact. She hoped he was buying the act. She hoped he was buying her feelings.