“Only you know what’s best,” he whispered.
***
When they left the side room, Lynx and Tammy were still by the office talking like they had known each other forever. King whistled down to them.
“I’m taking Lex over to the clubhouse,” he said. “Let Sasha know she won’t be on the bar tonight.”
He wrapped his hand with hers and kissed it.
“Will you be okay, Tammy?” Lexi called to her friend.
“Sure,” Tammy grinned. “I’m sure Lynx will look after me.”
He nodded and smiled at her, and Lexi and King made their way back down the hallway, straight out through the bar and into the night.
“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “You need some answers.”
He lifted her onto his bike and started the engine, and they flew out of the street to a whoop of men cheering and the blue daze of cop car lights. Lexi felt completely different from how she had only hours before when King was taking her back to their secret headquarters. Then she had been excited and full of curiosity, and now she was shaken and full of dread. What if her mom had made the whole thing up? Or what if Reid didn’t want to know?
As they flew down the highway and pulled off the main road and onto the dirt track, she kissed King on the back of the neck and whispered, “I’m so glad I found you.”
He turned his head to the side and said, “Babe, so am I…”
They pulled up at the house and a soft glow of lights came from most of the windows. It wasn’t late, and she could see movement inside.
“Before we go in,” she said to King. “Tell me about him…”
He smiled and pulled her to him.
“Reid was one of our founding members, and he’s more than well respected. If he’s your father, you’re from a family of legends. You’re outlaw royalty… No wonder I found you and can’t let you go.”
Lexi felt herself blush and ran her hands through his hair. She looked into his eyes and although she was scared to death, she knew that if she had him by her side, everything would work out okay.
They entered the house and made straight for the stairs. King held her hand as they climbed them two at a time and walked around the gallery to the doorway that was now empty, save for one of the other bikers who sat on a chair inside the room with Reid at his side.
Reid looked up and smiled.
“King,” he said. “Who’s this lovely little thing?”
Even though he was frail and clearly sick, his voice was still strong and boomed through the room. King smiled and looked down at Lexi who was now almost shaking. He let go of her hand and she moved into the room, searching Reid’s face for some flash of recognition.
She pulled up a chair and sat down next to him and stared at him deep in the eyes, and it was then that she saw it. The resemblance between them was definitely there. Their eyes were the same, their complexion. Reid was her father… She had found him.
She held the old man’s hand and felt the tears roll down her cheek. He nodded slowly and his lip trembled. He saw it too.
“She told me she got rid of you,” he whispered, the tears filling his own eyes. “If I’d have known… I would have found you.”
Lexi lunged forward and hugged him. In an instant, they both knew that they were father and daughter. Kept apart for a lifetime because of a poisonous woman.
There was so much to talk about and so much to learn. They laughed together and Reid told her how happy he was that she had found someone like King. A strong, lawless man after his own heart. When he began to tire, she and King went back upstairs and lay together in bed. She hadn’t wanted to leave her father’s side, but it had been so overwhelming and she needed a chance to digest it all. She had been on the biggest rollercoaster of her life, and as she looked back on the events of the past few days, she almost couldn’t believe it had all happened to her.
“I’m going to look after him from now on,” she said. “I’m so glad I found him…”
“You’re one of us,” King said as he held her tight and kissed her softly. “This is your house now, too. You don’t ever have to go back there.”
Lexi smiled and nuzzled into him. She had finally escaped her mother and Dereck, found her father who she had longed for her entire life, gotten herself a new job and found the man of her dreams.
“I guess miracles can happen,” she said as she looked up at King and he smiled.
“There’s so much more to come, Babe,” he said gently. “You haven’t seen anything yet.”
THE END
Continue reading to get even deeper into the secrets of Forsaken Riders and Slate Springs in LYNX, included next in these bonus stories ; )
Lynx
A Forsaken Riders Standalone MC Romance
Book 2
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.
1.
Tammy checked her rearview mirror as she started the engine and sighed. It was the time of day she hated more than anything, the beginning of her night shift, when she had to leave the comfort of her cute little home and get herself to work. The diner wasn’t exactly a hard place to earn a living, but she still resented having to be up late when the majority of people she knew were out having fun and being young, when Tammy was slaving over a hot stove and making small talk with truckers.
“Just eight hours to go,” she said to herself with a laugh as she backed out of her driveway and swung out into the street.
She turned on her lights and crawled along slowly, delaying the inevitable. She often thought about putting her foot down on the gas and just driving into the night. It was one of her favorite fantasies…
What if one day I just disappeared and never came back?
At the beginning of every night shift, the same thought crossed her mind. She imagined flying down the highway with her window open and the wind in her hair, the music turned up loud and her heart running free, but she knew it would never happen. Slate Springs was her home and always had been. Everyone she had ever known and loved was in that town, and she wasn’t about to desert them now, even if her future did seem pretty bleak without a significant other.
She drummed her nails on the edge of the steering wheel and accelerated.
“May as well get there and start earning those much needed tips,” she said as she clicked her tongue against her teeth.
She knew it was likely to be a slow night, but she may as well give it all she had and get what she could. For a good girl like her, it was the only place in town to make an honest living. Tammy was humble and had learned from the best. Her father was a regular fixture in the community with their family’s hardware store that had been supplying Slate Springs for generations. She easily could have drifted into there and became a manager, but she had wanted to get out on her own and do something different with her life. Even if that just meant being a waitress at the local diner working for minimum wage. Plus, when it came to the store, her brother Dean seemed to have it covered. He and her father had the brains and the brawn to run the place. Tammy only would have been in their way.
As she turned a corner and merged onto the freeway, a roar came out of the dark behind her. Tammy felt her stomach clench and her heart race as she realized it was them…
One by one, motorcycles started to growl quickly beside her. She smiled and watched them as they weaved around the road and left the scent of gasoline hanging in the air. Her heart fluttered just at the sight of them. Those men were bad to the bone, but she also knew they were some of the sexiest she had ever seen. They didn’t regularly come into the diner, but recently a small group of them had stopped by and she got a good look at them for the first time in her life. They were young, strong, and la
wless, and even in the dark she could see the bulges of their muscles rippling down their arms as they gripped onto the handlebars of their Harleys.
“Yikes,” Tammy breathed out as she fanned her neck with her hand. “Forbidden fruit.”
She smiled to herself. She was so straight-laced and conservative, the mere thought of her hooking up with a man like that was laughable. Yet ever since her friend Lexi had started dating one of The Forsaken Riders, it was all she could think about.
Tammy and her friends had always done their best to stay away, but suddenly the secret world of Slate Spring’s only Motorcycle Club had been thrust into Tammy’s path without her even asking for it. Lexi, her best friend, was recently fired from her job at Red X, the local strip club, and found herself taken in by one of the bikers and offered a new job at their bar, The Bleeding Bullet. She would never admit that she was jealous of Lexi. Tammy only wanted the best for her friend and would always support her, but she kind of envied the way she had been seduced by King… He was strong, masculine, and instantly devoted to her. It was the sort of relationship that Tammy had always craved but knew she would probably never find.
As she watched the bikers disappear into the darkness ahead of her, she bit her lip and smiled. Now that she had her link to them, who knew what could happen…?
***
As she parked outside the diner and turned off the engine, she could see through the windows that it was busier than normal for a Thursday evening. She pushed open the driver’s door and stepped out onto the dusty ground. The air was still hot and thick, even though the sun had been down for hours. As she walked towards the steps, the sweat started to prickle up on the back of her neck.
Inside, music blared from the jukebox and Jamie, the other waitress who was on for the night, looked up and smiled.
“Hey, Doll.” Jamie chewed gum and blew a big pink bubble before it burst and caught along her chin.
Some of the truckers who were just passing through turned on their stools and eyed Tammy sleazily as she made her way behind the counter and tied her hair up into a long ponytail.
“How’s it been?” she asked Jamie.
“Slow until an hour ago, and then suddenly it all just exploded.” She chewed the gum loudly and leaned against the stove as she looked at Tammy thoughtfully. “What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing,” Tammy said defensively. “I’m fine, why?” She smiled to try to hide the feeling of inadequacy that was racing through her. Even though Tammy had worked herself out of debt, gotten herself a nice apartment, and was independent, she’d recently felt the strain of not having a man in her life, and it was really affecting her confidence.
“You sure?” Jamie smiled at her warmly.
“Yeah, of course,” she lied.
When Jamie returned to the front and left Tammy alone in the kitchen, she sighed heavily before Paul, one of the chefs, burst through the back door.
“Hey, Tam,” he said with his wheezy smoker’s voice.
She smiled at him and pulled her apron down from the hook before tying it around her waist. She checked the clock… It wasn’t even 9:00 pm, and she felt as if she could crawl into bed and sleep for a week. She stretched and looked out at the customers. Jamie needed her help, so she would have to banish thoughts of a perfect love and get on with what she was there for… To work and earn money.
“Evening, Sir,” she beamed as she approached the counter and took her notepad out of her apron pouch. “What can I get for you?”
***
A few hours later and the diner had quieted enough for the girls to rest their tired legs. Tammy sat up on one of the bar stools and sipped coffee as Jamie worked the jukebox, choosing her favorite cheesy 80s dance classics. The nighttime rush was over, and this was the hour that Tammy enjoyed the most. The people who seemed to frequent the diner at that time were usually locals on their way home after a night of drinking, and it was when all of the gossip came their way.
Tammy massaged the back of her neck with her thumb and forefinger and closed her eyes for a moment. As Whitney Houston blared through the diner, she could have been anywhere in the world. She remembered a night when she was younger and more carefree; the exact same song had been playing when an old boyfriend kissed her for the first time while they sat in the back of his car and looked out the windows at the stars. Even though no one could see inside of her head, she felt herself blushing at the memory. It felt like a lifetime ago and she sighed.
“Earth to Tam,” Jamie joked as she knocked lightly on her forehead with her knuckles. “Are you seriously asleep?”
“No,” Tammy pouted without opening her eyes. “Just resting.”
“You shouldn’t have come in tonight. You look wiped,” Jamie said as she scooped up a thick piece of lemon meringue pie and started to pick at it with a fork.
“I’m fine, honestly,” she smiled.
She opened her eyes and looked up at the clock as the hands ticked slowly around to nearly 1:00 am.
“Three hours to go,” she yawned. “I guess I better do something around here. If Joe sees any of the surveillance video, he’ll want to fire me.”
“Yeah, right,” Jamie said.
Although the wages were shitty, at least Joe was a good boss. There were so many questionable characters in Slate Springs, Tammy considered herself lucky that at least she had been employed by a man who seemed to have a decent set of morals. He was always fair with the waitresses, and he never overworked them. Tammy had heard horror stories from some of her friends about their employers, so she knew she couldn’t complain… at least she knew Joe was always going to be good with money.
The bell tinged on the door behind them and the girls turned to see Candy, one of the strippers from Red X, tottering into the diner on her six-inch heels.
“Hi, guys,” she smiled sweetly.
Candy was a young, naïve girl who had found herself in town around three months before. She got sucked into working at Red X by Marv, the owner, and now it looked like she was going to be stuck there for some time…especially now that he had fired Lexi.
“You’ll never guess what,” Candy said as she sat down with wide eyes, “One of the bikers turned up at the club tonight and threatened Marv.”
Tammy’s ears pricked up, and she leaned over so she could get the full story.
“Really?” Jamie said with a huge grin. “What happened?”
“He just burst in and dragged Marv out back… Said he had a score to settle.”
“What did he look like?” Tammy asked eagerly.
Candy shrugged and tapped her long fingernails along one of the menus.
“Dunno… Tall, dark…handsome,” she laughed. “Cliché I know, but it’s all I’ve got.”
She ordered a burger and fries, and Jamie rang it through to the kitchen. Even though Tammy had only seen King once with the rest of the bikers when they came into the diner, she was pretty sure that the man Candy saw was him protecting Lexi.
Lexi had left Red X earlier that week under a cloud and without being paid. Marv insisted on collecting all of the girls’ earnings before dividing them up and choosing how much to pay them. Lexi had despised him and regularly told Tammy how much, but now it looked as if she had someone to fight in her corner.
“You seen Lexi much?” Candy asked as she outlined her lips with bright pink gloss and pouted in a handheld mirror.
“Not really,” Tammy said, which wasn’t strictly true. Lexi had been staying with her on and off since she began fighting with her mother, and now that she was caught up with the bikers, even more drama seemed to be heading Lexi’s way.
She turned on her heel and wandered back to the kitchen. She pulled her cell phone out of her bag, and as if by magic, Lexi was calling her. She hurried out the back door and into the cool night air.
“Lex,” she said. “What’s up?”
“Tam?” Lexi whispered.
“It’s the middle of the night,” she laughed. “Are you up work
ing too?”
“I’m in the bar.” She could feel the smile coming through Lexi’s words even though she couldn’t see her.
“And your new gentleman friend?” Tammy asked playfully.
“Waiting for me inside,” she cleared her throat. “I just wanted to say thank you for all of your help.”
Tammy smiled. “Anytime.” And she meant it.
“I’ll be back sometime tomorrow,” she said. “I better go now, love you.”
She hung up the phone, and Tammy felt nothing but love for her friend. At last, it seemed as if one of them was having some luck in love.
As Tammy wandered back into the diner, she couldn’t help but wonder when it was going to be her turn…and if the small town of Slate Springs was hiding a man good enough for her, too.
2.
The following morning Tammy woke up early, knowing that she had to pull herself together and head over to the diner for yet another shift. She had wanted to take the day off but knew she was better off busy, especially when she was in a funk. The more she thought about her friend Lexi finding love, the more she found herself craving a man of her own.
She jumped out of bed and went into the bathroom. The air was muggy and hot, so she turned the shower on cold and gasped as she stepped into it. She washed away the grease from the night before and got out as fast as she could, wrapping her hair up tightly in a towel and shivering as she pulled her robe around her shoulders. She had so much energy considering she had been up until the very early hours. As she dressed quickly and dried her hair, she cranked up the radio and tried to stop feeling sorry for herself.
As she pulled into the parking lot at the diner, she could already see the buzz of life inside and knew she was in for a busy day. Luckily, she didn’t have to be there too long; she had arranged with Jamie so that she could leave in the middle of the afternoon, rather than working up until the night shift girls came in.
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