AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The supplier’s place was a rundown warehouse on the edge of town. I parked my bike and walked in, my senses on high alert. The guy running the place, a weaselly man named Tony, looked up as I approached.
“Boiler, what brings you here?” he asked, his voice shaky.
“We’ve got a problem, Tony,” I said, my tone cold. “Your last shipment was short.”
“Must be a mistake,” he stammered. “I’ll make it right.”
“You better,” I said, stepping closer. “Or you’ll have more than a mistake to worry about.”
He nodded frantically, and I left, satisfied that he’d get his act together. Sometimes all it took was a well-timed threat to let them know we were on to them. It was a routine day in the life of an enforcer, but my mind was still on Tank.
I decided to check on my son at Lisa’s place. Max was playing in the yard, his laughter soothing to my troubled thoughts. Lisa came out to join me, handing me a beer.
“Want to talk about it?” she asked, sitting down beside me on the porch steps.
I took a swig of the beer, feeling the cool liquid calm me a bit. “It’s this girl. Well, not a girl.” Tank was a few years younger than me and I was thirty-five. “A woman, to be clear. Things got... complicated.”
Lisa raised an eyebrow. “Complicated how?”
“We spent the night together, but now she’s acting like it never happened. Says it was a mistake. We were drunk to be sure, but not that drunk.”
Lisa sighed, her expression softening. “Sounds like she’s scared.”
“Scared?” I scoffed. “Tank’s not scared of anything.”
“Tank… Maybe not on the outside,” Lisa said gently. “But everyone’s got their demons, Tom. Maybe she’s afraid of getting hurt.”
Her words hit home. I knew all about demons. My past was full of them. Max’s mom, Sarah, had been one of them. She’d left us when Max was just a baby, too caught up in her own world to care about the family she’d abandoned. It had taken everything I had to pick up the pieces and be there for my son.
“I don’t want to lose her, Lisa,” I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. “There’s something about her. Something under her hard act.”
“Then don’t,” she said, her hand on my shoulder. “Fight for her. Show her that you’re worth the risk.”
I nodded, feeling a renewed sense of determination. Lisa was right. I couldn’t let Tank slip away. I had to show her that she didn’t have to face her demons alone. Whatever they were.
Chapter 9
Tank
Sunlight poured in through the window, making everything too bright. I’d had sex with Boiler. Shit tons of sex. I had lots of sex with lots of guys but nothing like last night. And Boiler had a crotch goblin, I mean a kid. Sweet kid, I reminded myself. Max had run back out to watch his cartoons, leaving his dad and me to face this. This mistake. Boiler had a freaking kid. I knew nothing about this biker.
“Tank, you okay?”
I turned to him, my expression hardening. “This never happened, Boiler.”
“What?” I could see the bewilderment and pain on his face.
“You heard me. This,” I gestured between us. “Never happened. It was a mistake.”
Boiler sat up, scrubbing his face. “A mistake? Tank, we—”
“No, Boiler,” I interrupted, my voice sharp. “It can’t happen again. I have a business to run. I have my own life. I can’t get tangled up in this... in you.”
Before he could say anything else, I was up, gathering my clothes and getting dressed. I needed to leave before I lost my resolve. “There’s nothing to talk about. I need to go.”
With that, I was out the door, leaving him behind. As I sped down the road on my Harley, the wind whipping against my face, I tried to push the night from my mind. It had seemed genuine, his feelings, us, but I had been sorely mistaken.
Arriving at Doghouse Delights, I unlocked the door and flipped the sign to “Open.” The familiar scent of baked treats and the sight of wagging tails should have brought me comfort, but my mind was elsewhere. I went through the motions, saying hi to customers and their cute pets, but all I could think about was Boiler.
