Sinner's Kiss: A Dark Bad Boy Romance

by April Lust

  He peeled them off and looked at them lying in his trash can. Weird how even trash was different with a child. What were they doing right now? Still watching TV? Having an after dinner snack? Getting ready for bed?

  He had an excuse to call her. Once he got a new phone—who knew where his ended up—he’d call her and meet her to take back the clothes. He’d pay her whatever he could until he sold his junk bike for parts. He’d definitely do that. No doubt about it. Especially if she’d taken the day off work to care for him.

  That kiss had to mean something, right? Something like maybe she had feelings for him, too? Maybe they could start something. He missed her already. He thought of his microwaved dinners sitting in his kitchen and how they’d taste even worse now. How he wouldn’t see her face in the different lights of the day. Though, morning was still his favorite. It had made her skin glow like sunlight. Maybe he could be what she needed. Maybe she could be his.

  But first, he had to get this thing with the Ghost Reapers settled. He wouldn’t endanger her or Sara. Tomorrow, he’d talk to his club and they’d figure it out. Revenge was called for and that meant they needed a plan and a lot of weapons, and plenty of man power.

  Chapter Four

  Isabella drove to Jeanine’s with the morning sun light shining bright in her eyes. She’d been up a little late cleaning. Jace had been right. The blood hadn’t come out of the car’s seats. Or the blanket, or her sheets, where he must have bled through his bandage. They’d all have to be trashed. The car’s interior she covered with Sara’s car seat and hoped she wouldn’t notice. Maybe it would fade over the years by the time Sara didn’t need the booster anymore.

  They knocked on Jeanine’s door, Sara gripping her little pink bag of animals tight.

  “Mommy, when is Jace coming over to play again?”

  “I don’t know. Now that he’s all better, we might not see him again.”

  “I liked playing with him,” she whined.

  “I know, sweetie.”

  Jeanine opened the door and Sara ran inside to set her things down.

  “How’s your mom?” Isabella asked.

  “Doing okay. She’ll be home tomorrow. It was a close call, though.”

  “Glad she’s doing well. I should be done the usual time today.”

  “We’ll see you tonight, then.”

  Sara ran to her and squeezed her legs before Isabella went to her car.

  Had Sara gotten attached to Jace that quickly? She’d asked plenty of question after he had gone, and Isabella had plenty of her own questions. Had she herself gotten too attached? What did the kiss mean? What did she want it to mean? Was he even the bad boy type if he was so kind and considerate and did so well with Sara? Maybe he was into something bad and maybe he was a fighter, but did that make him instantly like her ex. And the biggest question of all—what now?

  He’d said he’d call and return her things. She was glad they had that excuse out there to talk again. She had no way to get a hold of him. No phone number, no address. Just his name. He could be halfway to California for all she knew. But he knew where she lived and had her number. He could get in contact with her anytime he wanted. Would he?

  She parked and entered the gift shop. After talking things over with Sue, she went about her work for the day, straightening displays and ringing up customers. After a few hours, Sue called her to the back, where the office was.

  “Thanks for this note in the inventory items,” Sue said, pointing to the note Isabella had left when she’d closed the last time she worked. That felt so long ago now. Like part of another life, pre-Jace.

  “Sure. I wasn’t sure if you planned to order them or not.”

  “I was thinking That maybe it’s time you learned to do the inventory and ordering. You’ve been doing so well and it would take a lot of work off me.”

  “I’d be glad to learn.”

  “I knew you would.” Sue smiled at her. “Is your friend doing better today?”

  “He is. Thank you for covering for me. I wouldn’t have done it if he wasn’t hurt so badly. But he couldn’t even walk by himself most of the day.”

  “It’s no problem. I think that was the first time you called off anyway. I appreciate your reliability.”

  Sue showed her the inventory form, then took her out into the store to show her how she liked to track the counts. After a few minutes of instruction, she watched as Isabella checked and tracked a display of mugs.

  “Perfect,” Sue said. “Well, I’ll let you get on that, then.”

  Isabella happily went through the store, checking item counts and marking them down. She’d worried that calling out to care for a sick friend would put her in a bad light, but now that Sue was giving her a new responsibility, and one an assistant manager would do, it seemed that she still had faith in her after all.

  Isabella looked up when the bell over the door rang, as was her habit. She watched for a moment to see where the man headed and if he looked like he needed help. He walked through the store, not pausing to look at the items. Something in the way he looked around with determination in his eyes put her on alert. Her heart jumped and she walked quickly to the back room.

  But from there, she couldn’t see into the store. She waited several minutes, waited for her heart to calm. This is silly. It’s just a customer. He probably knows what he wants is all. Sarah was at the cash register and she’d ring him up and it’d be fine. She listened to see if she could hear Sarah talking or the cash register printed a receipt. After several minutes, when she’d felt officially stupid for hiding from this customer, she took a breath and went back out to the floor.

  The man walked up beside her and Isabella almost jumped across the room. Her heart pounded as she kept walking.

  He leaned in and said quietly, “You need to be more aware of your surroundings.”

  Then he brushed past her and left the store. She stood there for a minute, watching. She stood there so long that Sarah asked if she was okay.

  She shook it off and went back to her inventory. But her mind wouldn’t settle, even if the jolt of adrenaline had started to. Who was he and what did he mean be aware of her surroundings? What wasn’t she aware of?

  Well, it seemed she would listen to him whether she wanted to or not. For the rest of the day, every customer, every little sound, made her look around. She felt paranoid. This had to be connected to Jace, right? Or could it be Craig hunting her down? Had he only been waiting? Had it taken him this long to find them?

  That night, she didn’t sleep well and she started to wonder if maybe she shouldn’t have her own gun and learn how to shoot.

  ###

  Jace stood at the head of his basement, looking out at his boys. They all wore their Crimson Hawks leather jackets, like they always did. He’d need a replacement as soon as possible. It wasn’t right for the leader to be the only one without it. Still couldn’t believe those bastards had trashed his. He’d had it for years. It was all broken and perfect and everything.

  “I don’t know how much you’ve heard or how much you’ve assumed,” he said, “but let me set the record straight. Lionel was pissed when I started making cheaper deals and taking his coke business. He was pissed before that when we recruited so many new members and grew to have ten more than he does. And the other night, he took his anger out on me. Him and six of his guys set me up and beat me, leaving me for dead.”

  “We thought you were dead, man,” Alex said. “Why didn’t you call anyone?”

  “Couldn’t. Didn’t have my phone and I could barely move.”

  “So what’s our plan?” Derrick asked. “They won’t stop when they find out you’re alive. If they wanted revenge, they’ll just keep going until you’re dead.”

  “You need protection,” Aaron said.

  Jace nodded. “We’ll need to hit them where it hurts. The Ghost Reapers aren’t like the Crimson Hawks. If we take out Lionel, they’ll fall apart.”

  “They’re barely together now,�
�� Alex said.

  “Exactly. It’ll be easy to take down anyone else who comes at us if Lionel is out of the picture,” Jace said.

  “Who were the other six?” Aaron asked.

  “Not sure. I only saw two or three of them and I didn’t know them. I might recognize them, but at this point, I want Lionel. We’ll worry about decimating the rest of the club once we get him.”

  “And I already decided I’m staying here for a while,” Aaron said. “You need one of us with you at all times. You should’ve had someone there that night.”

  “You’re right,” Jace said. “I want you to all be in teams as much as possible until we get this settled. Who knows when he’ll attack next or where or who he’ll come after this time. I’ll be laying low for a while. Hopefully he won’t know I’m still alive until he sees my gun in his face.”

  “When are we doing this?” Derrick asked. “I see no point in waiting and drawing it out.”

  “No,” Jace said. “But we do need a plan. Do we get him alone like he did to me, or just gang up on a few of them? Where do we do it? And where are we going to put the bodies? All this needs to be planned before we can act. When we just go off and kill someone, that’s when people get caught. I’m not drawing it out, Derrick, but it needs to be done right.”

  Derrick and several of the guys nodded.

  “So, let’s make a plan,” Aaron said.

  Jace listened to them talk, but his mind kept drifting. Was Isabella still at work? She’d driven by him pretty late that night. Did she always work that late? Was there any way Lionel knew about her? Maybe he should call just to see if she was okay. He should probably wash her clothes first, so he had that as an excuse. He didn’t want to scare her into thinking someone might come after her.

  “So, if one of them attacks first?” Alex asked.

  “Obviously you do what you gotta do,” Aaron said.

  “Let’s make a plan for that right now, too,” Jace added.

  How quickly could he get the money to her for the car and his damages? If he sold his bike this week, which he would and had already talked to a guy about it, then if he pulled off a few more deals, he could hand her a stack of cash like he wanted to. He could wait a few days to call her. Her number was saved in his new phone and he’d almost texted her or dialed it when he entered it. But he hadn’t.

  Actually, maybe he should text her. She didn’t have his phone number and if something did go wrong, she might need to contact him. He took out the phone and went to her name. He typed a quick and simple message. Hey, this is Jace. Just wanted you to have my number in case you ever needed it.

  Her response came back much quicker than he expected. It was only a simple, Thanks! but knowing she’d typed it made him feel close to her again for that second. He put the phone back and saw Aaron giving him a questioning look.

  He listened to the conversation. He hadn’t missed anything. He must’ve been smiling. He really needed to get a hold of himself. This crap with Lionel was too important to mess around with. His life was at stake here. He couldn’t be thinking of Isabella all the time. He had to be on guard and paying attention at all times. Hard as it would be, he had to try to keep her from his mind. And the sooner he got this cleared up, the sooner he could go chasing after her, hoping to make her his.

  ###

  Isabella stared down at her phone, wondering if she should call him. Or text him back. Was the guy in the store that big of a deal? Was she overreacting or was this something he needed to know about? She paced in her living room for a few minutes, watching Sara sleep through her open door.

  She really had no weapons in the house and the deadbolt might not be enough. If they wanted to come after her, couldn’t they kick down the door or shoot through it? Was there any way they could climb up and get in the windows?

  She yawned and felt the burn in her eyes. She hadn’t slept well last night and tonight might be a repeat, though now it was out of fear. After checking the deadbolt and the lock again, she slid the couch over in front of the door. She’d have to slide it back before Sara saw it. Or maybe she could say she was just cleaning behind it and forgot to move it back.

  She scooped Sara into her arms and set her down in her bed. That way she wouldn’t have to worry about her being in the next room. Sara would be right there beside her all night. Before getting into bed, she swept the house, checking the locks on the windows, peeking out through the curtains to see if anyone was out there or if anything suspicious was happening.

  When she had checked all there was to check, she got into bed. But soon after she closed her eyes, she knew it wasn’t going to go well. She kept seeing the man from the store, following her, telling her to watch out. After an hour of lying there, worrying, she grabbed her phone. She could just text him. If he was asleep or busy, he wouldn’t have to be disturbed. He could get back to her when he could.

  She thought about what to say. Hey, there was a strange man in the store today and now I’m totally freaked out. No matter how she put the words together in her mind, they sounded lame and paranoid. In the end, after typing out, then deleting an entire message, she set the phone back down without sending him anything.

  It would be fine. He’d only told her to watch her surroundings. Maybe he was even trying to help her. And she was watching her surroundings now. Watching them like someone was out to kill her.

  ###

  She awoke tired, which was not a shock. All morning she dragged. Every step of getting Sara ready and getting them out the door seemed to take twice as long. She was running late and rushed Sara into Jeanine’s before speeding off to work.

  She was watching now, not only for cars that might be following her, but for cop cars hiding. The last thing she needed was a speeding ticket. But she also didn’t want to be late after Sue had increased her responsibilities at work. Finally, the gift shop came into view and she let out a sigh of relief. Her clock said she was only two minutes late and there had been no cops.

  She hurried inside and dropped her things in the backroom before settling to look over her task list for the day. Finish the inventory and start the ordering were at the top of the list. Isabella let out a big yawn and rubbed her eyes. Come on, coffee. She took a long sip from her travel mug and hoped the caffeine would kick in quickly. She needed to be able to focus today. She could not mess up her first inventory and order.

  Lunchtime came and went and Isabella was starting to feel even more sluggish. Of all days, why did she have to end up on the early shift today? But, tomorrow, she was closing so she could sleep in. Thank goodness. She desperately needed the extra hours of rest.

  She went to the backroom to get fresh coffee and nearly dropped her mug. Standing there, watching her approach, was the man from yesterday. Her hand shook as she went into the backroom and poured the coffee. She sat for a minute at the table they used for breaks and meals. Her whole body felt trembly. He was back.

  But she couldn’t just sit there all day until the end of her shift. She went right to the front counter, where Sarah was. She looked back and the man was still watching her from across the shop.

  “Has that man been here long?” she whispered to Sarah.

  “I’m not sure, why?”

  “He’s watching me and it’s starting to creep me out.”

  Sarah looked at the man, who quickly looked away. “Maybe he just thinks you’re pretty?”

  “I think it’s more than that. Just keep an eye on him, okay?”

  Isabella picked up her clipboard and went to do the final item for inventory. She tried to ignore the man watching her. An hour he stayed there, hovering, watching. She thought about calling the cops, but he hadn’t actually done anything except watch her. Was that a crime?

  Finally, he left. She felt the relief wash over her and continued on, placing her first ever merchandise order with precision. At least one thing good had come of him showing up. She no longer felt tired or sluggish. The adrenaline had her wide awake and focused.
>
  By the time she left for the day, she was feeling much better. The exhaustion was starting to return, but she was heading home. She could even take a quick nap if she wanted to. As she walked to her car in, she saw him again. At first, she wasn’t sure. The day’s light had faded into evening, and he was in the shadows, but his eyes were on her as she moved across the parking lot. Her stomach plummeted and instantly she was shaking.

  She got into her car and drove off, checking her rearview mirror constantly to see if he was still there, standing at the edge of the parking lot, leaning against a black sedan. She did her best to memorize the car. Then, through her entire drive, she glanced in the mirror, panicking, expecting him to show up at any moment and attack her.