by Tonya Brooks
“There's nobody like my Harley,” he agreed.
“Your wife's name is Harley?” she asked in surprise.
“It is.”
“I like her already,” she laughed and extended her half gloved hand. “I'm Easy.”
From her flirtatious manner, he had little doubt of that. Matt shook her hand and introduced himself. “Nice to meet you, Easy. I'm Matt.”
“I'm looking for Grayson Manor, Matt. Can you give me directions?”
“No problem,” he nodded. “Just stay on Fourth Avenue and it'll dead end at the Grayson's driveway.”
“Thanks, Sugah,” she said and flashed him a dazzling smile as she shifted into first gear and the bike growled as it rolled back out onto the street.
Matt watched her ride away in amusement as he wondered how his friends would react when Easy arrived at their door. Brett had better hope she was a friend of Dizzy's or there'd be hell to pay when he got home.
~~~~
Easy cruised slowly through town as she glanced around at the buildings lining the street and began to feel a sense of familiarity. The historical downtown area looked exactly like she remembered it from her childhood she realized in pleasant surprise. The sight of a tall man with blonde hair and broad shoulders caught her attention and she noticed he was wearing a police uniform shirt with well worn jeans and cowboy boots. Her smile grew. This had to be him. She stopped the bike in the middle of the street and revved the engine to get his attention. When he looked over at her, she lifted her hand and crooked her index finger at him three times.
Brett Walker saw a stunning woman dressed in leather astride a motorcycle stopped in the middle of Fourth Avenue beckoning to him. He knew for damn sure she wasn't a local, and assuming that she was a lost tourist needing directions, he crossed the street and stopped beside the bike.
“Can I help you, Ma'am?” he asked cordially and couldn't help wondering if she was as wicked as she appeared to be. The woman practically screamed trouble and he really hoped she was just passing through. Lakeside was exciting enough without having a woman like her around.
The badge pinned to his chest read Chief B. Walker and she smiled in delight. “Brett Walker.” she said as she looked him over like a horse at auction and was more than satisfied with what she saw. “Damn, Sugah, you look good enough to eat.”
The friendly smile dimmed as a frown marred his brow because he had no idea who she was or how she knew his name. Something about her seemed oddly familiar but he was certain they'd never met before. He'd remember a woman like her, for damn sure. “Do I know you?” he asked curiously.
“Not yet, Sugah,” she laughed wickedly. “But you will.” That said, she stood up and grasped his shirt, catching him by surprise and pulling him down so she could plant a kiss square on his lips.
Brett stared after her in complete disbelief as she eased the bike on down the street, completely unaware or unconcerned that dozens of people had just witnessed her kiss their newlywed police chief as if she had a perfect right to do so. Brett was just trying to figure out who the crazy woman was and why she had kissed him as he continued to stand in the middle of the street.
“Brett!” Harley Baker exclaimed indignantly as she advanced on him pushing a baby stroller. “Have you lost your damn mind?” He turned to stare at his best friend’s wife as she stopped in front of him and placed her hands on her hips, a scowl covering her beautiful features. “Who was that woman?”
“I have no idea,” he admitted.
“So a woman you don’t even know just kissed you in the middle of Fourth Avenue?” she asked facetiously.
“It’s the truth,” Brett insisted.
“You'd better hope like hell you come up with something better than that before Dizzy finds out about it,” she informed him seriously. “I happen to know she bought a new box of shotgun shells yesterday.”
Now that galvanized him into action.
“If I catch you with another woman again, neither one of you will live to regret it,” his wife’s promise rang through his head with terrifying clarity because he knew damn well she had meant it. The last thing he wanted to do was face a jealous woman with a loaded shotgun. As rampant as gossip was in this town, he'd be willing to bet that his wife already knew about it. Brett ran back across the street and jumped in his jeep. He made a u-turn in the middle of the street, flipped on the lights and siren as he burned rubber toward home.
He pulled into the driveway and was stunned to see that the crazy woman with the motorcycle was parked in his driveway. To make matters worse, she was headed to the doorsteps and his wife was just walking out the front door with her shotgun in hand. Without bothering to turn the engine off, he yanked the emergency brake and jumped out of the jeep before it stopped rolling.
“Sweetheart, put the gun down,” he said with some urgency as he advanced on them as fast as humanly possible. “I don't care what you heard, you can't shoot her.” When his wife just stared at him wide eyed, he reached out and grabbed the other woman’s arm to pull her back down the steps and put himself between them.
“Do you know her?” Dizzy asked, confused by her husband’s very peculiar behavior.
“I've never seen her before in my life,” he swore as he began to back slowly away with the woman safely hidden behind his back.
“The hell you haven't,” Easy said as she moved back in front of him. “I just kissed you not five minutes ago.”
Brett could have killed her himself for admitting that. He muttered a curse under his breath and nudged her back behind him again. The woman obviously had no idea that she'd just given his wife all the justification she needed to shoot them both.
“You kissed her?” Dizzy demanded as she stared at her husband with a frown.
“She kissed me.” Brett hastily clarified. “I don't know who she is or why she did it, but she did and half of Fourth Avenue saw it.”
“You kissed my husband?” she growled at the other woman as she focused her attention on her.
“Damn right,” Easy admitted as she stepped back around him again in spite of his best efforts to prevent it.
“Why?”
“He's gorgeous,” she said as if that explained everything and kissed him again.
Brett grasped the crazy woman’s shoulders and held her away from him as he looked up at his wife and the double barrel shotgun she held. He swallowed painfully and did the only thing a desperate man could do in his position. “I love you, Sweetheart,” he choked out hoarsely and knew they were both going to die.
“I love you, too,” she smiled adoringly at him as she propped the shotgun up against a column and walked down the steps to them. “Now let go of my sister so I can introduce you properly.”
“Your sister?” he exclaimed in relief and disbelief as he released her. When the two women began to laugh like a couple of naughty schoolgirls, he knew he’d been played. Then the sisters embraced joyfully, squealed in delight and embraced again before breaking apart to do a happy dance right there in the driveway.
Dizzy slung her arm around her sister’s waist and said proudly, “Brett, this minx is Easy.”
Hell, from the way she was dressed, he didn’t doubt that for a minute, but he knew that was not what his wife had meant by the comment. “I beg your pardon?”
“I'm Easy,” she grinned up at him with the same mischievous smile and sea green eyes as her sister. “Nice to finally meet you, Brett.”
“Wish I could say the same,” he muttered and glared at them both. Now that the shock had worn off, the family resemblance was so strong that he couldn’t believe he’d missed it before. No wonder the woman had looked familiar. Easy was taller and had black hair, but they definitely looked like sisters. Judging from the scare they’d just given him, they acted alike too. “That was a rotten trick.”
“Don't be mad, Sugah,” Easy laughed. “It was just a joke.”
“Brett's just pouting because he thought I was gonna shoot at him again,” his wif
e informed the other woman cheerfully before she hugged her yet again. “It's so good to see you. Why didn't you tell me you were coming?”
“I was down in Daytona for the rally and when it got rained out, I thought I'd drop by and surprise you on the way home,” she explained as she returned the hug fiercely.
“Oh, no,” Dizzy said as she shook her head stubbornly. “You're not just dropping by. Now that I've got you here, I'm keeping you.”
“My calendar is clear for a bit,” Easy admitted.
“You mean you can stay?” the younger sister asked hopefully.
“Until you get tired of me,” she agreed with a smile.
“Easy, that's wonderful!” Dizzy exclaimed happily. “We'd love to have you, wouldn't we Brett?”
The hell he would, but having her here obviously thrilled Dizzy and that was all that mattered to him. “Love it,” he agreed with a smile even though the last thing he needed was another Grayson woman on his hands. Brett had the feeling that this one would make her sister seem like a saint. Not that his adorable little wife was a hellion, but she sure as hell was a handful at times. Like when she got trigger happy and scared the hell out of him.
“Brett, will you grab the saddlebags and take them up to the blue bedroom, please?” Dizzy asked as she looped her arm through her sisters and led the other woman inside. “You're not gonna believe how good the old place looks now that I've had her redone.”
~~~~
Once the sisters had toured the house and were seated on the back porch with a glass of sweet tea, Dizzy said, “E, your hair looks amazing, but I can’t believe you cut it.” Her straight blue black hair had always been waist length and the short spiky style was quite a dramatic change.
In an instant Easy had been thrown back into a living nightmare, but that’s how PTSD worked. A sight, a sound, a smell, a word, anything could trigger a flashback, or so the shink had told her. She closed her eyes and inhaled a slow deep breath as she fought off the unwelcome memories the comment stirred up.
It had been twelve weeks, but Easy could still smell the fumes from the ruptured gas tank, see the absolute chaos and destruction around her as she lay pinned under the vehicle while the soldiers fought valiantly to get her out, hear voices shouting orders amid the loud barrage of gunfire and explosions and the god awful screams that she hadn't even recognized as her own, before blessed oblivion claimed her.
Her long hair had been a casualty of the incident, but she was not at liberty to discuss why or even how it had been shorn off, so she merely shrugged and said, “It was time for a change.” It was also time for a change of topic, so she said, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t make it to the wedding.”
Dizzy rolled her eyes in exasperation. Her sister had apologized dozens of times since the wedding and there was no reason for it. “Would you stop,” she implored and grasped the other woman’s hand to give it a gentle squeeze. “You were working on the other side of the world. There was no way you could have made it.”
“I know,” she agreed in regret. “I just hate it that none of the family was here for you.”
“None of you were even in the country at the time,” was pointed out.
“Mom and dad were.”
Dizzy wrinkled her nose and admitted, “I didn’t bother to invite them.”
Easy frowned and nodded her understanding. Their parents were difficult, to say the least. “I just wish one of us could have been here,” she insisted and then her expression became angry. “And I wish like hell we’d know what was going on with Mendoza.”
“It was too dangerous to involve you guys.”
“You told Roxy,” she accused and was still miffed that their youngest sister knew and she hadn’t.
“I only told her that Carlos was holding me hostage in his loft,” she corrected. “And I barely had time to tell her that much before his goons followed me into the ladies room.”
Dizzy had run into their younger sister at a party in Hollywood and managed to get just enough time alone with her to beg her to call the FBI. She knew the fed’s would use any excuse to get into her husband’s loft since he was the son of a Columbian drug lord. Thank God she’d been right and they got her out of there before Carlos beat her to death. Unfortunately, they hadn’t been able to keep her safe in the Witness Security Program and she’d been on the run for a couple of years before she came to Lakeside and Brett had saved her.
The eldest scowled her opinion of being left in the dark while her sister was dealing with a psychopath. “Dammit, D, you shouldn’t have faced all of that alone.”
“I didn’t,” she denied seriously. “Brett was with me at the end.”
The older sister didn’t have all the details, but she knew that Dizzy had lived through sheer hell before she had escaped from her abusive first husband, only to find herself running for her life after he’d killed two Federal Marshal’s trying to get to her. “Brett had damn well better treat you right or there won’t be a hole big enough for him to hide in,” was growled in warning.
“You don’t have to worry about that, E,” she assured her sister confidently. “He gets me, ya know? It’s like we’re two halves of a whole. I don’t know what I did to deserve him, but I couldn’t ask for a better man.”
“After all the hell you’ve been through, you deserve the best,” the older sister assured her.
“I know it sounds insane, but I’d go through it all again if that was the only way I could meet Brett,” was admitted with a lovesick expression.
“You’re right. It does sound insane,” Easy agreed seriously and could not fathom anyone being willing to go through all of that. “You must really love him.”
“E, I hope one day you know exactly what I mean.”
“So do I,” the eldest agreed and would love nothing better than to find a man who could put that kind of sappy smile on her face.
Dizzy’s phone rang and it was Harley calling to make sure that Dizzy hadn’t shot Brett. She was relieved and amused to discover that the woman on the motorcycle had been Dizzy's sister. “I can't wait to meet her,” she enthused. “Make sure you bring her along tonight.”
“She's been traveling all day, so I'm not sure if she's up to it or not, but I'll try.” Dizzy agreed and ended the call. “That was one of my dearest friends, Harley Baker,” she explained to Easy.
“Matt's wife,” Easy nodded in recognition of the name. “Lord that is one lucky woman.”
Frowning in confusion, Dizzy asked, “You know Matt?”
“I stopped by a garage today to get directions and met him,” she admitted with a wicked grin. “He let me know real quick that he was happily married.”
She laughed and nodded. “If you knew all the hell those two went through, you'd understand why.” Dizzy assured her. “Anyway, they’re having a cookout tonight and she'd love to have you come if you feel up to it. Half the town will be there so you’ll get to meet some really great people.”
“Will there be any single men?” Easy asked with an innocent expression that didn’t fool her sister for a minute.
“I'm sure Matt's brothers will be there.” Dizzy said with a knowing smile. Easy had been a flirt since she was old enough to bat her eyelashes, but she was nothing like the bad girl persona she projected. Dressing in leather and acting like some hard core biker chick at rallies was just how she dealt with the stress of a highly demanding job. It was also a lot of fun since the only thing she loved more than her motorcycle was shocking people.
“How many are there?”
“Four, but Matt and Mark are married so you'll have to flirt outrageously with Luke and John.”
“Do they look anything like Matt?” She asked hopefully.
“All of the bad Baker boys are gorgeous.”
~~~~~
“Sweet Jesus,” Luke Baker breathed in awe as a walking wet dream strolled into view. From the tips of her spiky black hair to the heels on her biker boots, she was the hottest thing he’d ever laid eyes on. Her
tall, sensuously curved body was clad in mouth watering leather and his first instinct was to peel it off of her inch by inch with his teeth and devour every gorgeous curve he exposed. Just the thought of it had him rock hard and ready. Every cell in his body demanded that her claim her right then and there. This woman was his.
Matt looked up from the grill to see his brother staring at something as if he were mesmerized by the sight. Glancing over his shoulder he saw what had obviously caught Luke’s eye and couldn’t help laughing at the other mans reaction. Easy Grayson was a sight to behold alright, but she was not the type of woman his straight laced brother associated with. Hell, a woman like that was probably more than Luke could handle.
“Down boy,” he said with a bad boy grin and nudged his little brother to get his attention. “That’s Easy.”
His temper flared red hot, a sure indicator that his wild side was fighting to get loose and Luke was not in the mood to rein it in. It didn’t matter that he hadn’t even met the woman yet, or if his brother’s statement were true. He was all primal male right then and the woman was his. No one would insult her. No one. “What the hell do you mean she’s easy?” he growled, eyes narrowed and fists clenched.
Ah, hell. There were only two things that riled his brother’s practically non-existent temper. You didn’t mess with his family, and you never insulted a lady. “Her name is Easy,” Matt clarified as he flipped the steaks. “She’s Dizzy’s sister.” When Luke’s hungry gaze slid back to the woman, out of pure devilment he added, “She stopped by the garage today on a badass Harley.”
Jesus freakin’ God. The woman of his dreams was a biker babe named Easy. His wild side wanted to howl in triumph while his rational side nearly had a stroke. If this had been a dream it couldn’t have been any better. Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dream and every word out of Matt’s mouth turned reality into a nightmare from hell. Luke’s logical mind fought for control over his primitive instincts and barely won the battle. He couldn’t have her. Dammit to hell, he couldn’t have her! The knowledge was enough to make a grown man cry.