Page 10 of Biker's Babygirl

Maybe… maybe Lucas didn’t send him after all. Is he… actually trying toprotectme?

That would be a first as far as I’m concerned.

Well… I’m dead either way, eventually, right? So why not go out fighting? I won’t have an expensive headstone or a big funeral, but my bones will show a story of a girl who went down swinging!

Fueled by a surge of strength—funny how fear does that—I face the wild wolf-like creature snapping his large teeth. A frisson of dread runs through me.No. I can do this.My doubt propels my gaze once more to the tall, handsome stranger who is wearing a fearsome look on his face as he squares off against the animal.

Maybe it will take me and leave him. Then my life will have meant something, at least.

I bend my knees, trying my best to mimic his posture and start growling, adding my noise to his. Then I open my mouth wide and howl. Whether it’s hunger, or insanity, or the fact thatI finally have an outlet for the fear-based adrenaline I’ve been running on for weeks, I find myself swept away into this role. Iama wolf. And I am going to make this other smaller, lesser animal my next meal.

Without being aware of what I’m doing, I begin to roar at the animal.This is it!I crouch and lunge.

Then, to my utter shock and amazement, the animal literally turns and bounds off in the other direction. And I would be totally stoked about my animalistic prowess if, at the exact moment I’d lunged, the sound of a gunshot hadn’t rung throughout the woods.

That’s fine. Who cares? I’m still a badass.I stand up and wipe my palms on my dusty, dirt-covered pants, only at that moment realizing how sweaty they are.

I’m still taking credit.I jut my chin in the air.

And that’s how I’m standing when the two men from earlier race toward us.

“Hey! Duke, is everything okay?”

“Yeah, we’re all right, thanks to the kid here.” He hitches a thumb in my direction, and I just barely manage to hide a smile. “It went that way.”

The two men take off running, their guns pointed toward the sky.

Then the stranger, who I’d found tall and even handsome, moments ago when I’d been sure I was about to die, turns toward me again. In just one glance from his piercing eyes, my bravado fades.

“Come here.”

I can feel myself shrinking. “Oh. Um, I?—”

He reaches out and takes me by the arm, gently tugging. But that tug, gentle or no, is enough to force my feet to go where he wants them.

“Oh!” I squeak, digging my heels in. But surprise at the pain in my arm overtakes surprise at his easy deflection of my evasion attempt. I look down and gasp at the nasty cut streaking down my flesh. It’s a jagged tear with bright crimson blood bubbling at the edges. I get transfixed by the sight of it and can’t stop staring.

“Hey.” His voice is suddenly soothing, and that too is a surprise.

How can he do that?I wonder, suddenly feeling light-headed and off-balance. Is it his voice, or the sight of blood?Be so mean one minute, then turn nice? He can’t work for Lucas. Lucas can’t even spell nice, and he makes sure none of the goons he hires can, either.

“Hey, kid. Stay with me, kid. This is nothing. Kid, you’re gonna be okay, trust me. Hey, are you listening? You’re gonna be just fine. I’m a doctor.”

“I’m…” I struggle to answer as my head spins. My vison is going dark at the edges. “I’m not a kid,” I manage to answer before my knees crumble.

CHAPTER FOUR

Duke

Oh, shit, oh, shit, oh, shit!Panic blazes across my brain when the boy crumples in my arms. I gently lower him to the ground and my instincts are in a full-blown panic as I check the pulse. It’s slow and thready, which is odd.

Pale face… slow pulse…I’m running over my mental checklist when the sound of playful banter makes me lift my head.

Shep and Elvis have returned, and from the looks of the limp coyote slung over Elvis’s shoulder, their mission was a success.

“Shit, Duke.” Shep lets out a low whistle when he notices the boy’s lifeless form. “What’d you do?” His eyes are focused on the long scratches left by the coyote.

“I didn’tdoanything,” I snap, narrowing my eyes. “We found the coyote.”

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