Page 20 of Serendipity

She did look damn beautiful. I could admit that. But she was also trouble, and that I couldn’t have in my Club. She’d been here a day and already she’d caused two of my Brothers to be arrested.

She stopped at the top of the stairs, gazing at me warily like she knew my thoughts about her at the

moment ranged from horny to disgruntled and back again. Slowly, because she was either brave or stupid, she walked down the steps, her eyes shuttered and cautious. Brave it is then.

“Where’s Cain and Sol?” she asked softly, her voice low and smokey, seductive even though she didn’t mean it to be.

I shrugged. “Probably still locked up. It is easier to free a pregnant woman who was falsely detained than two bikers. They are probably looking for long lost warrants to keep them there and make it seem like they weren’t beaten under the guise of being arrested for nothing.” They wouldn’t find any. We changed our legal names every twenty years or so, and we paid a lot of money in clean-up over the years to ensure that nothing ever came back to us. Still, they’d hold them for as long as they could.

I looked over at Goliath, who was staring straight ahead but kept sliding looks at Serendipity, and nodded. “Wait for them. Pay McCool. Head straight back to the Clubhouse. We need to hold Church and we’ve had enough fucking excitement for one day.”

Goliath didn’t nod, didn’t acknowledge the order in any way, but I knew he would do as I asked.

He was an ornery bastard, but he was loyal.

I passed Serendipity a helmet, and pointed to the back of my bike, my eyes daring her to say no. I hopped onto my bike, waiting. Her jaw tensed but she took the helmet and slammed it on her head.

She climbed onto my bike like she’d been doing it her whole life, and held my waist with a firm but impersonal touch.

Good. I didn’t want her to get any ideas. Her warm body wrapped around mine meant nothing.

I kicked over my bike and it rumbled to life, the low hum reverberating through my blood like always. I flicked my sunglasses down, and eased into traffic. I let myself get lost in my thoughts, my bike like a trusty steed, moving me toward where it thought I needed to be. Of course, my bike wasn’t actually alive, it was my subconscious directing that lump of metal. Either way, we didn’t hit the highway, the fastest way back to the Clubhouse, but I didn’t second guess myself. I just let the bike hug the road as the woman behind me hugged my back. She seemed unfearful. Content even.

But I needed answers.

Even when we pulled into an abandoned rest stop, a boarded up gas station in the background, she didn’t seem worried. That told me more than any words she could utter.

I kicked the stand on my bike, and she slid off the back without me asking. She walked a few feet away, her gaze wary but not fearful. I could see her hand subconsciously cupping her stomach, which told me that she was more worried for the baby than for herself.

This woman was an enigma that I intended to solve. Right fucking now.

I slid my sunglasses off and stared at her, like really looked. I looked past her beauty and her pregnant stomach. I looked past the standoffish stance and her fight ready fists. I looked into her soul, and saw her soul looking back at me.

“What are you?”

Her eyebrows rose high. “Excuse me?”

I tilted my head to the side, letting it crack as I sucked in a deep breath through my nose, a breath that inhaled her scent on the wind. “I said, what are you?”

She narrowed her gaze, like she was trying to figure out if I saidwhatare you instead ofwhoare you on purpose.

“I am what I am. Unemployed. Knocked up.”

“Not human.”

She stared at me stonily, neither confirming or denying. No outrage. No quick lies. Just slow,

deliberate appraisal.

Then she shrugged. “Not human.” She took a step closer, which told me that whatever she was, she was used to being either the top predator in the pyramid, or she was invincible. “What about you?

Throwing accusations like that around tells me that you aren’t exactly 100% dyed in the wool sheep either.”

I quirked an eyebrow. This wasn’t how it worked. I was asking questions and she was answering them.

She let out a long breath. She ran her long fingers through her hair and huffed out a sigh. “There’s no real name for me. Well there is, but it would be inaccurate. I was the only one, until now.” She ran her palm across her stomach. “Or maybe this one is a different beast altogether. I don’t know. So much I don’t know.”

My heart was thudding in my ears at her words, but I kept my features blank. Stoic. Show nothing.

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