Rough Rider 2: Bad Boy MC Romance (Fast Life) Read online

She broke my heart that night in her bedroom, with her tragic story about her sister. It was really clear how much they meant to each other.

  I couldn’t get the image of poor Angela, strangled to death and left under a bench.

  Who would be that cold?

  I was working on Trinity’s car, still thinking about Angela and the way she died, remembering what a sweet person she was.

  She didn’t deserve to die like that. She was too young and too good.

  Her face kept flashing in my mind, and sometimes when I imagined Angela being dead, I saw Trinity instead.

  It was creepy, and I shook my head to clear the image. They looked so much alike, obvious to me now, and again I was surprised I’d not made the connection sooner.

  I felt bad that I didn’t tell her that I knew her sister. I didn’t want us to have secrets from each other—secrets always have a way of coming out.

  But somehow, it felt like I’d be betraying her if I admitted it.

  Besides, I told myself, I need to find out what Drake knows.

  He told me she moved away. Why would he say that if she had been murdered…unless he knew something about it?

  I hated even suspecting him. Drake and I had been best friends for years. Just like with Angela, we were unlikely together.

  Yeah, I put up a bad boy image, and I could race bikes and kick the shit out of anybody who came my way.

  I wasn’t rich, and I’d probably be called white trash by the sort of people who lived in Trinity’s neighborhood.

  But Drake was all that and more. He was rougher, tougher and dirtier. He wasn’t gentle when the situation called for it. He didn’t know how to turn off the bad boy thing. It was who he was.

  Still, did he have it in him to commit murder? I doubted it.

  He put on a good show, and could do some crazy shit if he wanted to at times, but I didn’t think he would go that far.

  Especially not with a girl like Angela, who wouldn’t hurt a fly. My brain wouldn’t let me think it.

  “Hey, stranger.”

  I had to smile when I heard her voice. It was like she read my mind and knew I was thinking about her.

  Her and her sister, of course.

  “Hey, yourself,” I said as I stood up and turned to her. “What’re you doing here?”

  “Uh, that’s my car you’re working on, isn’t it?” she smirked. “I thought I would stop by between classes to see how it’s going.”

  “Oh, this thing? Yeah, I’ll get it working. But it’s gonna take me another couple of days. When was the last time you had any work done on it? I mean, like even an oil change?”

  “Oil change?” she said, with a question in her voice.

  I sighed, thinking that explained everything about the condition of her car, but she laughed.

  “I know what an oil change is, silly. Give me a little credit…I was just kidding with you. Jeez.”

  “You have to take care of your car,” I said, smiling, but speaking seriously. “Ongoing maintenance costs money, but it’s better than having it break down on you.”

  “Yes sir,” she said, giving me a salute. “So, it’ll be a couple of days, then?”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry about that. I’ve got some parts coming.”

  She shrugged, “I’ve been without it for so long now, I’ve kind of gotten used to it. It’ll be great to get it back at all.”

  She looked around like she had something to say, but didn’t know how to say it.

  I took a second to look at her. She could wear a pair of jeans better than anybody I knew.

  I remembered the way her body felt when I touched her, and wondered when I’d be able to touch her again.

  “You okay?”

  “Oh, yeah,” she looked around again. “Um, do you have time to talk, maybe?”

  “Maybe? Yeah, maybe.”

  She smiled. “Like right now? Do you have time for a break?”

  “Sure, I’m due.” I tossed the rag aside and took off my coveralls. “What did you have in mind?”

  “Coffee?”

  I nodded and shouted to one of the guys that I was taking a break and would be back soon.

  She didn’t talk as we walked, so I waited until after we sat down with our drinks.

  “What’s up?” I asked. “What did you wanna talk about?”

  She looked uncomfortable. Her cheeks went red. “I—well, I was wondering about your friend, Drake.”

  I almost spit my iced coffee all over her. “What?”

  Why was she asking about him, now? Did she already know something? What would she do when she found out I knew her sister?

  “Yeah, Drake. That’s his name, right?”

  “Yeah. Why?”

  The last thing she needed to do would be to follow in her sister’s footsteps. What was she getting at?

  “My best friend has a crush on him. Maggie. She’s the one I was going to meet at the party, when I ended up meeting you.”

  “Yeah, I remember,” I said with a grin.

  She blushed again. “Well, anyway, she’s driving me nuts about it. So you know…what’s his story?”

  I was relieved she wasn’t asking about him in connection with her sister, at least. But that didn’t make it any easier to answer her question.

  “Drake’s not a good guy to get involved with. Especially for nice girls like you. I’m sure your friend is a nice girl, too.”

  “What do you mean? What’s wrong with him?”

  I shook my head. “A lot. Too much to go into right now. Just…leave it at this…he’s no good for women in general. That’s it.”

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean your friend Maggie should steer clear of him, that’s all.”

  She frowned again, but I wasn’t going to give her an answer she liked no matter how much she frowned at me.

  She already lost her sister. No way was I going to let something happen to her best friend, too. Especially if there was any chance Drake was involved.

  I hated even thinking of him in that way, but it was the only thing that made any sense.

  He lied to me about Angela and I could only conclude that he must have had something to do with the murder.

  It would be wrong to let another girl around him just so she could be hurt, too. Or worse. And Trinity didn’t need any more heartbreak than she’d already had.

  In a matter of moments, guilt had set in. I didn’t know where I got off thinking I was any better than he was.

  I drank my coffee, wondering when I’d become such a hypocrite. I didn’t care about the girls, either…at least not before I met Trinity.

  I had always fucked them and moved along when I was finished, just like him. They meant nothing to me.

  Trinity was different. She was changing me, and what was weird is that I sort of liked the person I was turning into.

  Someone who wanted to protect her. That was all I wanted...to take care of her.

  She was a little reckless. She went into things head-first. I had to make sure she didn’t get hurt because of that. Somebody needed to.

  “Shoot,” she said, checking the time on her phone. “I have to go. I have class this afternoon. I’ll never make it if I walk.”

  “The subway will get you there on time…I’ll walk you to the stop,” I offered.

  We left in a hurry. This was another thing I liked about her, the way she was worried about being late for class.

  Like it really mattered.

  She was a good girl, like her sister. I never cared too much for good girls before—I thought they were stuck up, that they all looked down on guys like me.

  But Angela, and Trinity, they taught me different.

  We came to a red light just across from the station. I took Trinity’s hand, not even thinking about it, just wanting to touch her.

  With everything I knew about her, I needed to touch her as much as possible. She was even more precious to me now than ever.

  She looked at me and
smiled, squeezing my hand back. I loved that she was happy to hold my hand.

  My chest sorta puffed up and everything. I was proud to be seen with her.

  The light turned green, and Trinity stepped off the curb without looking.

  Maybe it was because she was in a hurry, or maybe she was distracted by me. All I knew was, she stepped off right into the path of a guy about to speed through the red light on his bicycle.

  I jumped off the curb to block her from the bike and held out my hand to stop the guy before he knocked us both over.

  Trinity screamed a little and jumped back up onto the curb.

  “What the fuck is wrong with you, asshole?” I screamed at the guy.

  My hand didn’t even hurt. I was just pissed. The idiot could have run her down and seriously hurt her.

  “I’m—I’m sorry, bro.” He looked like he was about to piss himself.

  I was glad. Maybe he would think twice about trying to run a red light next time.

  “You fuckers on bicycles are always doing your own thing—thinking you don’t have to follow the rules of the road like everybody else, right?”

  Even as I said it, I knew I was condemning myself as a hypocrite. I street-raced fucking motorbikes for God’s sake.

  But this was different.

  Trinity could have been hurt, and that was the last thing I wanted to happen.

  Chapter 5 - Trinity

  “Don’t you look both ways before crossing the street?” he sounded just like my father. I shook my arm free.

  “I’m fine, thank you for helping.” I was thankful, but didn’t appreciate his tone.

  I was also scared witless, but didn’t want him to see how shaken up the close call had left me.

  “There are stupid people like that asshole everywhere,” Tyler said, taking my arm again. “You can’t trust other people to be on the lookout. You have to take care of yourself.”

  “Okay, okay. I get it, alright?” I tried to shake him off, but he wasn’t letting go.

  “You can do all the right things, but there are still careless people out there. You have to look out for them, too. Okay? Do you hear me?”

  He shook me slightly, and I yelped. He’d never been angry at me before, and he was kind of scary.

  He was also kind of worried, I could tell. I felt very small, the way he was yelling at me—who did he think I was, a child?

  But I felt warm inside, too, knowing he cared enough to go overboard like that. There was no missing the fear in his eyes.

  He wanted to protect me.

  “I’m sorry,” I murmured. I meant it. When I saw how worried I’d made him, I felt guilty for being annoyed.

  Instead of replying, he pulled me to him and kissed me.

  Suddenly, it was as if the world stopped moving, and only he and I were left. Just like when he kissed me before the race.

  My knees went weak, my heart pounded in my chest, and I melted into him. He undid me, and just the pressure of his mouth on mine left me breathless.

  An ache started between my legs and grew, consuming me. I needed more. I moaned into his mouth, just as he thrust his tongue between my lips.

  Yes, I definitely had to have more.

  It was agony, wanting him as much as I did. It never went away…it only got bigger. I needed him…and he needed me, too.

  The hardness of his cock was evident as it pressed into me as we kissed.

  Feeling that, knowing how hot and hard he was, only exacerbated my problem, making me wet.

  We broke the kiss, and I shuddered. I had my forehead pressed against his. His arms were still around me, holding me up.

  Good thing. I didn’t know if I could stay on my feet otherwise.

  He leaned in, whispering in my ear. “Tonight…you’re gonna be mine.”

  I shivered, and knew he meant what he said. He pulled away, staring into my eyes. I nodded in agreement.

  That night, he would make me his. I walked away on shaky knees, wishing we didn’t have to part ways.

  It was so hard to be away from him. The night couldn’t come fast enough.

  ***

  That afternoon, I had a class with Maggie.

  I was nearly bursting from the need to tell her what Tyler said about Drake, but I got there too late to have a conversation.

  It was torture waiting for class to end. The minute it was over, I started rapidly recounting everything Tyler had told me.

  “It’s too dangerous,” I finished. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  “I appreciate that,” Maggie said. “Now you know how I feel about you.”

  “Yeah, yeah.”

  “And you know how frustrating it is for me when you ignore my advice.”

  “Wait, what?” I stopped walking and stared at her. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

  “I’m not. I think we’re on the right track here, if Tyler is trying to warn me away from Drake. That means he has to know something, right? Maybe Drake hurt a girl in the past, or something. He might even have a record. The closer you get to Tyler, and the closer I get to Drake, the more chance we have of finding out what happened to your sister.”

  “When did this become ‘we’? And did you—or did you not—just mention a possible record against women and getting closer to him in the same breath? Are you insane? Do you want to hand yourself over to him to be hurt?”

  “Listen, sweetie…no man hurts me.”

  She tossed her curls over one shoulder, defiant. I knew she took self-defense classes, but I was skeptical of their usefulness against a big, strong man like Drake.

  I remembered the dark circle around Angela’s neck and shivered.

  “No. Just no. I swear, if I find out you sneaked around behind my back…”

  “You’ll what?” Maggie smirked playfully at me.

  “I don’t know. I’ll tell my dad.”

  “Right. And incriminate yourself at the same time. Forget it. He couldn’t do anything to me, anyway.”

  “Maggie, please.”

  She threw her hands into the air. “Fine, forget it. Just don’t say I never offered to do anything for you.”

  “Thank you. I feel much better now.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” she grinned. “Hey, I need a new pair of running shoes. Mine are falling apart. Come with me to get a new pair?”

  I shrugged in agreement, having nothing better to do.

  While we were in the car, cruising along with the windows down and the soft spring air coming through, I could almost feel lighthearted.

  Like I was just a normal girl, out with her friend on a random afternoon.

  Until Maggie asked another question. “Why don’t you ask Tyler to help you with this?”

  “No way,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t know if I can trust him, yet.”

  “You don’t know if you can trust him, but you almost had sex with him in your bed? Under your father’s roof? Your father who will kill him if he finds out he’s been anywhere near you?” she scoffed.

  “I wasn’t thinking clearly,” I grumbled, folding my arms. “Besides, if I ask him for help, he might not trust me anymore. I won’t be able to take it back, you know?”

  What I didn’t want to explain was my fear of losing him. I knew Maggie wouldn’t want to hear it, so I kept that part to myself.

  If he knew what was going on in my head, he would drop me. Then what? I would be alone.

  Even though I’d only known him for a short time, I knew I would miss him. Not just the way he made me feel—which was reason enough—but his presence in my life.

  I couldn’t risk it.

  “I wonder if he knew her.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t know. I never thought about it. But you’d think when he saw her picture and listened to me talking about her, he would have said something.”

  “Maybe. Or maybe he felt guilty,” Maggie pointed out.

  Damn. I hadn’t thought about that, either. I was grateful to have Maggie’s good sense, but h
er questions were treading dangerously close to my heart.

  She was bringing up possibilities that rocked me to the core, and were inconsistent with Tyler remaining a part of my life.

  We got to the store, and I was brooding as Maggie walked through the aisles. She chattered on and on about the latest half-marathon she was training for.

  I tried to pay attention…she deserved a friend that was fully present. My heart wasn’t in it, though, and all I could think about was Tyler.

  The two Tyler’s—the man Maggie had described in the car, and the man who had pulled me out of the way of an oncoming bicycle—didn’t work together.

  And that’s not even counting the part about him vowing to make me his tonight. I was miserable.

  Unfortunately, things were about to get worse.

  I heard the ringing of the bell at the door, signaling the entrance of a customer. I didn’t look over at first.

  It was the voices I heard, the harshness of them, and the language they were using that made me turn my head.

  My jaw nearly hit the floor when I did. It was Marco, with a bunch of guys. I would have recognized his sneer anywhere.

  My palms immediately went sweaty. What were they doing here?

  I never pictured people like them going shoe shopping, yet—rolling my eyes at my own naiveté—I acknowledged the obvious fact that they weren’t known to be barefoot, so obviously they bought shoes somewhere.

  Of course, they did. But why did it have to be here? And why now?

  I turned my attention to the shoes in front of me, examining them, and trying to blend in.

  I prayed he hadn’t noticed, or if he had, that he didn’t recognize me. It had been two days since the race, and it had been dark out when we had crossed paths.

  No such luck. My heart sank when I heard a voice behind me. “Hey, don’t I know you?”

  I turned just enough to see him from the corner of my eye.

  My skin crawled as I replied, “No, I don’t think so,” and quickly turned back to the shoes.

  “Sure I do. You’re Tyler’s new girl, aren’t you?”

  “No. You’ve got the wrong person.”

  I walked away, moving one aisle over. Maggie was there, and from the look on her face, I knew she had heard the conversation.

  I shook my head quickly. She looked back at the shoes she was trying on.