Page 78 of Ghost

“You called him Travis,” she answered.

“Oh. We met at a bar in Oklahoma. It was months ago.”

Amber chuckled and I swear I heard her mutter, “This is going to be fun,” before she opened the door.

“Absolutely not. You are not bothering her. Dani is asleep, and Melissa is going to bed as well. You can talk to her in the morning.”

“I just need a minute, Amber.”

Travis.

His voice had haunted my dreams for months. What were the freaking odds he would not only be in a club, but in my brother’s club? He wasn’t just friends with my brother, they werebrothers. If I hadn’t already known we wouldn’t work, there was no question now.

Travis and I were not compatible.

Our lives were polar opposites. His was filled with drinking, fighting, and fucking. Mine was filled with children battling trauma that was often caused by drinking, fighting, and fucking.

“Amber, please.”

“No, Ghost. Get gone.”

“Back off, Ghost,” another deep voice said.

“Fuck off, Tank.”

“Brother, don’t make me do something that will have your right eye matching your left. King said to leave the woman alone.”

“Goddamn fucking cockblockers.”

I rolled my eyes at Travis’ voice. Did he really think he was going to come into my room and I would just drop my pants and fuck him with someone else’s child in here?

Even without Dani sharing a room with me, that wouldn’t have happened. Just another reason why we would never work. Travis was great for a hard and fast fuck in the bathroom of some seedy bar outside of town. He was the type of guy you experienced a wild night with.

He wasn’t the type of guy you built a life with.

I heard him stomp down the hall, and Amber poked her head back into the room.

“I’ll lock the door. Try to get some sleep. I’ll have King post a prospect outside your door so no one bothers you.”

“That isn’t necessary. The prospects do what they’re told. Gunner can just as easily tell him to take off.” I waved my hand at the door for emphasis.

“Not if King posts them. I promise you; you won’t be bothered tonight.”

“Thank you, Amber.”

She winked and closed the door when she left. I sat in the same spot for an hour. I couldn’t move. I just laid there thinking about how my life had become a clusterfuck.

For ten years, I lived my own life. I did what I wanted. Dated who I wanted. Had sex when I wanted. I chose the people I surrounded myself with. One phone call from someone I foolishly trusted changed it all.

Now I was locked up in a room in my brother’s clubhouse. I’d come face-to-face with the one man I never expected to see again, and I was running from some invisible danger that I couldn’t identify.

I would have to tell Gunner. I would have to tell all of them what I knew. Which wasn’t much. Maybe they had some answers. Clearly, Danny and Dante knew them. His friend was married to one of them.

How did my life become this?

I finally dozed off, but Dani slept fitfully. When she woke up, I brought her to bed with me. Amber had no way of knowing Dani slept with me, or why. Ever since Dante left, she had been having nightmares.

They lessened when she slept next to me. I knew I was crossing a line, but this wasn’t a normal patient-doctor relationship. For all intents and purposes, as far as anyone was aware, I was her mother.

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