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  “I know, I’ve been busy. You know, living up life in my twenties without having to worry about tomorrow.” I grinned, but he looked concerned.

  “You know, I would appreciate hearing from you, just to let me know you’re okay,” he said.

  “I’m okay, Dad. I’m smart. You know I’m not going to do anything stupid,” I said with another smile. The fact that he said nothing bothered me. I knew he already thought I was stupid for moving out of the house – out of town, in fact – but I tried not to let that bother me.

  I was able to take care of myself. And, I could do it without him breathing over my shoulder every step of the way.

  “Even still. When there’s activity going on, I need to know you’re okay. You know things can happen when you least expect them to, and what would you do then?”

  “What are you talking about?” I asked, curious. Usually, I had an idea of what my father wanted before he approached me, but I hadn’t heard anything about any sort of activity.

  “A few Flags have been seen about,” he said. “I’ve heard rumors of them being in the next town, and even a few rumors of them coming this far South. It bothers me to know that they are on their edge – or even out of – their turf.”

  “I hadn’t heard anything about that,” I confessed. “What makes you think that it’s them?”

  The look he gave me told me plainly why he thought it was them, and I knew better than to argue. Of course, my father had more men about the town keeping an eye out for rivals than he had actually making the MC a better place. He would rather spend his time defending his turf than expanding it.

  Yet another part of the politics I didn’t understand, and something I didn’t think I cared to. I didn’t want to get involved with anything my father was doing, and the more interest I showed, the harder it was for me to stay out.

  Suddenly, the thought hit me.

  What if Zach was one of the Folded Flags? Maybe that’s why he left without so much as a word to me. I mean, it would make sense. But, why didn’t he say anything about it when we were talking? We talked about motorcycles enough, if he was part of something like that I would think that he’d say something.

  Then again, maybe he knew being on the edge of his territory that it would be a bad idea to bring it up. Maybe he just didn’t want to talk about it?

  Shit! I want some answers.

  I could feel Lynne’s eyes on the back of my head, and I had a feeling she was thinking the same thing. But once again, I silently prayed my father wouldn’t be able to read my thoughts, and I sighed.

  “Well, I haven’t seen anyone who I would think was part of that group,” I said with a shrug. “You know I’d stay away from them if I did.”

  My father looked at me long and hard. “I don’t know that, which is why I really want you to check in with me. I need to know you’re safe, Vanessa. Really.”

  “I’m fine!” I insisted again.

  “Then why can’t you bother to come see your Old Man every now and then? You know I miss you!” he shot back. I sighed. Clearly, I wasn’t going to get out of this until he got what he wanted. He wasn’t going to invite me to dinner, however, that was something I’d have to bring up.

  “How about I come over and have dinner with you at some point this next week? I’m going to be getting off work an hour earlier most days, and I’ll have the time to come see you,” I said. “You can even invite Vance.”

  “That would be great,” he said. He didn’t say anything about my extended invitation for my twin brother, but I wasn’t surprised by that. I knew they didn’t have the best of relationships, and though I would rather my father bother him than me, he was always going to pick me over Vance.

  “Great,” I said. “I’ll figure out what my schedule looks like and send you a text. We’ll make it work.”

  “I’m going to hold you to that,” he said. He gave me another hug before letting me sit down.

  “I’ll be there,” I promised. He nodded and headed back out of the shop, leaving me shaking my head at Lynne.

  “Talk about controlling,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “You’d think I was fifteen, not twenty-five.”

  “Do you think Zach was one of the rivals?” Lynne asked. “I mean, it would make sense.”

  “I really don’t know,” I confessed. “The thought crossed my mind as soon as Dad said that there were men over there, but what would he be doing this far south? That doesn’t make any sense. And, why didn’t he mention it to me when we were talking?”

  “Why did he just up and leave like that?” Lynne challenged, not letting me make excuses.

  “I don’t know,” I shook my head again. “But I’m going to find out.”

  “How?” she asked. “All you have is his name.”

  “I don’t know,” I said again. “But I’m going to figure it out.”

  She was right. All I had was his name. But, I knew what he looked like, and I was determined to get some answers. I couldn’t get him out of my mind, and though I’d had plenty of one-night stands before, he was the first one I couldn’t shake.

  That had to mean something. And if my father was worried about what the Folded Flags were doing, that was even more reason for me to be on my guard. Hell, for all I knew, it could have been a mission. Some sort of plan to sneak into town and sleep with the daughter of the biggest rival for his club.

  Still, with the way Zach had treated me, that didn’t make sense, either. I wasn’t going to have any real answers to my questions until I was able to talk to him. I had to talk to him.

  But first, I had to find him.

  5

  Zach

  The sizzling burgers splattered grease as I flipped them, but I’d learned how to stand far enough away from the grill I never got anything on my clothes. It had taken over a year to find just the right method to making the best burgers in town, but I prided myself on the fact that we did.

  Hell, I did most of the time. I had several employees working at the diner, but I still showed up to handle the cooking most of the day shifts throughout the week. My father never bothered to show up to help out around the place. Though his father was the original owner, my father was happy to point out I was the one the place was left to, not him.

  It was my job to make sure there were plenty of staff members around to take care of the place when I was gone, and I’d done that as quickly as I could. Though I was happy for the job and didn’t mind working at the place, I wasn’t going to get stuck there all the time.

  My grandfather had spent most of his life at that diner, flipping those burgers and chatting with the people who passed through, but that was his life, not mine. I didn’t want to be stuck. I had things to do.

  As long as I had the money to keep the place going, I was happy.

  The back door opened, and Nathan Springer walked in. He didn’t work for me, but he still felt free to walk into the kitchen whenever he liked. I didn’t mind. He was part of the MC, one of the youngest members at twenty-three, and I often thought of him as an annoying younger brother.

  He was also an ex-SEAL. He had his own trauma and PTSD to deal with, and there were many times I felt he had it worse than me. Though I had been through some shit overseas and was still in therapy trying to recover, at least I’d come home with all my fingers and toes.

  Nathan had been shot by an assault rifle, taking most of the damage in his left arm. It had to be amputated right at the shoulder, leaving him with limited options, even when it came to prosthetics. With the bad attitude he had about everything in life, the loss of his limb came as a real blow.

  He didn’t want to deal with any prosthetic and would get pissed at anyone he caught staring at his lack of an arm. Even still, I thought of him as one of the best kids I knew, and I was rooting for him in life. I hoped he’d make it through the trauma he had to deal with, and PTSD wouldn’t be any more debilitating to him than the loss of his arm.

  “Hey, man,” he said as he sat at the break table. “H
ow’s it going?”

  “Another day, another dollar,” I shrugged. “Nothing exciting going on in here.”

  “I’d think every day would be exciting with that hottie you’ve got running the trays. I saw her when I walked up. Damn, it’s not fair how hot she is.” He shook his head as he looked over his shoulder, and I shrugged again.

  “I don’t fuck my employees, so it doesn’t matter to me if she’s the hottest thing on the planet,” I said. I knew exactly who he was talking about. Meagan, a blonde I’d hired over the summer, was a crowd favorite. She never quite buttoned her uniform all the way, and her cleavage was a welcome peek for most of the men who came through.

  She knew how to pass it off well, however, and always remained just covered enough to keep wives and girlfriends wondering if they would be crazy and jealous if they said something.

  I didn’t care. The girl brought in huge tips, and since I let the employees divide those among themselves without taking any myself, I was glad she’d found a way to jack up their pay day to day.

  Nathan, like most who came through, openly stared at the girl and dreamed of what might happen if he worked up the balls to ask her out. I told him more than once just to give it a shot. But, like so many who came through the diner, he was too worried about rejection to take the risk.

  It didn’t matter to him how much I called him an idiot for his fears. He wasn’t going to break, and I wasn’t going to ask her out for him. It was his problem, as far as I was concerned, and I would leave it at that.

  “Noble, but I still don’t see how you can get any work done with her prancing around back and forth,” he continued.

  “Mostly, I focus on the food and money. Which is the whole reason why I’m here,” I replied dryly. “I don’t show up for the hell of it.”

  “I do. Well, the food, anyway. I mean, she’s great to look at, but I can’t say I’m here just to appreciate that beauty,” he said.

  “What’re you having?”

  “Is it too late for the House Breakfast? I see you’ve got burgers going now,” he said.

  “For you, it’s not, but you better keep it to yourself that I made it for you this late,” I said. I didn’t like making bacon and eggs all day, but I would make the exception for Nathan. But, I didn’t want him to tell anyone and have it become habit.

  It was hard enough keeping up with all the burgers that were flying through the doors during the lunch rush. I didn’t want to have to deal with drastically different orders while I tried to keep up.

  “My lips are sealed,” he said. “You’re awesome.”

  I flipped a burger and smashed it on the grill before grabbing the eggs and three slices of bacon out of the fridge. There were still some leftover biscuits I was planning to take home with me that night, but it was easier just to give those to him and make him shut up than toss a fresh batch in the oven.

  Yet another thing I didn’t want to deal with was all the extra biscuits I had day after day. But, it was hard to know how many we were going to sell. Some days they flew out the door faster than I could keep up with, other days they sat while pancakes were the dish of choice.

  I cracked the eggs on the grill then turned my attention back to the burgers. The buns were dressed and ready to go, I just had to get the patties on top.

  “Speaking of hot girls,” Nathan said after a few moments of silence. I turned my head to speak over my shoulder.

  “You are the only one talking about hot girls,” I said. “I’m thinking about burgers.”

  “Yeah, but you might find this interesting,” he continued. “A pretty brunette came into work earlier this morning, like around eight, and was asking for some guy named Zach.”

  I nearly dropped my burger. “Really?”

  He nodded, watching me. “She described this person, and I thought they sounded remarkably like you.”

  “What else did she say?” I tried not to be too interested in the situation. I knew Nathan liked to talk, and I didn’t want the word to get out in the MC that this girl was looking for me. If they were to find out who she was, shit would hit the fan.

  “Not much, just that she met a guy at a club and wanted to find him. She was pretty vague on a lot of the details, just wondering if someone by that name liked going for clubs a couple of towns over. I told her I know way too many people to be able to say with any certainty the Zachs I know are any she’s looking for.”

  He was still watching me as he spoke, but I turned my attention to the burgers. I flipped them once more, getting as much of the grease from the grill as I could with them as I put them on the buns. It was one of the secrets to making them great.

  They might be messy, but there was no denying I made some of the juiciest burgers in town. And damn, they were a hit.

  But, I had to force myself to concentrate as I put them on the buns and set them in the pickup window.

  That brunette had to be Vanessa. It was far too much of a coincidence for it to be another. How many brunettes would be looking for a guy who looked like me from a club? Especially one who were vague about details. She had to know something about keeping a low profile about what we’d done, but at the same time, the fact she was even looking for me bothered me.

  She could get herself in a lot of trouble without even trying if she crossed his far into my father’s territory. Thank God, she had the brains not to say anything to Nathan about MCs.

  He would seem safe enough, I imagined. He worked at a convenience store on the edge of town. He saw a lot of people coming and going in his day, especially working as early as he did. Most days, his shift would start around midnight or one in the morning, and he didn’t get off until ten or eleven.

  It was likely he had just come from work himself, stopping by the diner to grab breakfast for dinner before heading home to sleep the day away. He liked it that way. His social life was next to nothing outside the club, but with his arm, he didn’t want to have a social life.

  “Well, hopefully, she finds him,” he continued, trying to get another reaction out of me, but I just shrugged.

  “Too bad that’s such a common name. I can’t imagine I’m the only Zach with a lot of tattoos,” I said flippantly. Anything I could do that would throw doubt into his mind. I didn’t need him speculating or talking about this with anyone else.

  Nathan seemed satisfied that I didn’t really care about this girl and dove into his plate of food, talking about work and the other shit he had going on. But, I was still relieved when he finally left. I was even more relieved when my shift came to an end and I was free to get out of there.

  There was one person on my mind, and I had to talk to her before she got herself in some deep shit. She might not know it, but she was playing with fire, and I didn’t want to see her get burned.

  I hopped on my bike and flew back to her apartment as quickly as I could. It was late afternoon and I didn’t know her schedule, but I hoped for the best when I saw the car in the driveway. I parked the bike and headed to the top of the stairs, knocking twice.

  The door opened and Vanessa’s mouth fell open. She looked at me as though she had just seen a ghost, and I pushed past her, disappearing inside. I didn’t want to draw any attention to our interaction. Anyone could be watching.

  “We need to talk,” I said.

  Vanessa crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a defiant look. Suddenly, I was hit with lust. She was hot as hell – unfairly so – and I would have happily fucked her again for the sake of it, but she was even hotter when she gave me that look.

  Clearly, this wasn’t the kind of girl who would let me push her around. And that was a turn on. But she said nothing, which didn’t help my case any. If we were going to talk, we both had to talk. But then, I was the one who had left the other day, and she might think it was my job to get the ball rolling.

  I sighed as I ran my hand through my hair. “I told you the other day that my name was Zach, right?”

  She nodded.

  “Well
, it is. It’s Zach Painter.”

  I wasn’t sure the kind of reaction I’d get out of her, but I didn’t expect her mouth to fall open as it did. She clearly knew the name. Her face turned white as a sheet, and she sputtered, steadying herself with her hand on the wall.

  “Zach Painter?” she repeated. I nodded and she just shook her head.

  “Fuck!” she said. “Fuck!”

  6

  Vanessa

  “This is bad. This is really, really bad,” I said. My heart pounded in my chest and my thoughts raced. My mouth had immediately gone dry, and I felt lightheaded. I was sick to my stomach, and I wanted to run to the bathroom. But, nothing was going to change the fact that I’d fucked up.

  Dear God, had I ever fucked up.

  I began pacing back and forth in the living room, trying to figure it out. It wasn’t fair. This man who had been so perfect, so sexy, so primal, and exactly what I wanted, was somehow connected to the leader of my father’s biggest rival. Dad would kill me if he found out what happened.

  Now, I was even happier I hadn’t been forced into telling him. I sat down on the couch, my hands shaking as I tried to keep my head clear and my voice calm. I had to get more information to just hope to piece this together. As much as it sucked, I wanted to know what was going on.

  “So that would make Carl your…” I let the words hang in the air. Zach was standing in front of my rocking chair watching me, but I could see by the look on his face that he was just as freaked out by what was going on as I was.

  “Dad. He’s my dad,” he said.

  “Shit!” I exclaimed, louder than I meant to. God, I was going to Hell for sure. If my father ever found out about this he’d not only exile me, he’d probably lock me in the basement and throw away the key. There was no way he could find out about this, ever.

  I didn’t care what it cost me to keep it a secret, it couldn’t happen.

  “Is that why you left?” I asked. “Without saying anything to me?”

  “I saw the jacket in your kitchen the morning after and, well…” Zach ran his hand through his hair again. It must be some sort of nervous tick he had. If he had been a SEAL like he had mentioned briefly the other night, I was sure he had a lot of those, though this was the one I saw most.