Page 22 of My Single Dad Biker

This is not rational. This is not smart. Louis is expecting me and I'm sitting outside Katherine's house with blood on my knuckles because I need to see her.

I turn off the engine and get out.

Walk up her front path. Climb the three steps to her porch. Stand there for five seconds looking at her front door.

Then I knock.

The porch light comes on. The door opens and Katherine is standing there in yoga pants and an oversized sweatshirt with her hair damp and pulled back. She's barefoot and holding a dish towel.

She looks at my face and then at my hands and her expression changes immediately.

"What happened?"

"Can I come in?"

She steps back without hesitation. I walk inside and she closes the door behind me and locks it. We're standing in her entryway and I can smell whatever she was cooking and underneath that the scent of her shampoo and I'm still too wired to think straight.

"Are you hurt?" she asks. She's looking at my hands.

"No."

"Your knuckles are bleeding."

"It's not bad."

"Let me see."

I hold out my hands. She takes them gently and turns them over, examining the split skin across my knuckles. Her touch is warm. She looks up at me.

"What happened?" she asks again.

"Warehouse off Route 9. Marrow was staging product there. Half a mile from the elementary school."

Her face changes. I watch her process it. How close that is. What it means. "That close to the school."

"Yes."

"Is it still there?"

"No. We burned it."

"Was anyone hurt?"

"Sully was on site. I put him down. He got away. Two prospects. One ran, one's going to need medical attention but he'll live."

She's still holding my hands. Her thumbs are resting against my wrists and I can feel my pulse hammering against her skin.

"You came here after," she says.

"Yes."

"Why?"

I don't have a good answer for that. Don't have an answer that makes sense. "I don't know."

She looks at me for a long moment. Then she says, "Come with me."

She leads me through her small living room into the kitchen. Sits me down at her table and goes to the sink. Comes back with a damp cloth and a first aid kit that looks like it gets regular use.