Page 15 of The Biker’s Guilty Pleasur

A few days later, Grace was standing in the bubble tea shop, and she hated to admit it, but she was a little depressed. She didn’t want to be feeling this way, and yet she was, and she had a horrible feeling it was because she hadn’t seen a certain biker.

Even though she had gone to the women’s shelter, each time she did, she either just missed Reaper, or he hadn’t turned up, which shouldn’t bother her. It really shouldn’t, yet that was exactly what was happening.

She hadn’t seen him, and she couldn’t stop replaying that pie in her mind. It wasn’t like it was even a very good pie. It wasn’t. Well, that wasn’t accurate. Any sweet pie with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream was heavenly. The company just happened to be more so.

She ran fingers through her hair and released a breath. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t even funny. Reaper was a biker, and she should steer clear of him. Only, he was a good biker. She sensed it, which was crazy. All bikers were bad. All of them had terrible reputations, and she didn’t want to get involved in that kind of crazy. She didn’t want to end up like her sister.

Grace glanced over at the time, which was just after eight at the bubble tea shop. It had been another hot day, and seeing as the tea shop offered a variety of drinks from hot to cold, as well as baked goods, she had been on her feet since ten that morning. She was tired. Her feet hurt, and she wanted to go home. Today, she wasn’t going to the shelter.

As she made her way to the door, to flick the sign to CLOSED, she frowned. She must be going crazy, or there had been a spate of black SUV purchases in the past few weeks. She was sure that was the exact black SUV she’d seen near the women’s shelter, and even around her home. Only, she hadn’t gotten the license plate, so it was probably her imagination.

Grace liked to think she could trust her instincts, and right now, her gut was telling her to be careful, something wasn’t right. She looked toward that SUV, and she didn’t like it. What if it was some kind of stalker? What if it was a shelter admit ex-husband or boyfriend?

Working at the women’s shelter, she always knew there was a risk to her life. She heard a couple of tales of some of the workers being beat up, or even killed, but it was for a good cause. Women deserved to have people who were willing to take that risk, and to stand up to the bullies that threatened them.

Although, that black SUV was terrifying her.

This was insane.

She turned off all of the lights and decided to continue to clean up, seeing as she was on a closing shift. That would take her at least an hour, and then it would have moved on. So, for the next hour, she cleaned the entire shop, mopped, doing more than she usually did, forcing herself not to look outside. By the end of the hour, when she feared she would end up being on the late shift because the whole shop was clean and sparkling, she forced herself to go and look.

The black SUV was still there and she could see the shadow of a person.

“Shit!” She didn’t like to cuss, but every alarm bell was going off inside her. She was scared. The streets were dark and lonely at this hour.

There was one person she knew she could call, and it was a long shot. She started with putting a call in to Gena, and she tried not to alarm her, but she told her what she knew. Gena didn’t even stay on the line, but told her to stay at work, not to leave the shop, and she would send help. Grace didn’t know what that meant. She was aware of the shop’s security cameras that were stationed within and outside, that worked twenty-four seven.

Minutes later, her cell phone rang, and she looked down to see it was Gena.

“Hello?” she asked.

“Reaper is on his way. Stay in the shop. Keep the lights off, and just wait. He’s coming to get you.”

“I think I might just be overreacting.”

“We can never be too careful in these situations. It’s best to do it this way. I’ll get a report soon,” Gena said, and then hung up.

Grace kept looking at that black SUV. What if it was completely innocent? What if he was waiting for someone at another business?

Grace didn’t know how much time had passed, but it wasn’t long before she heard the beautiful rumble of a bike, and then she watched the SUV immediately pull away, and she frowned. What the hell did that mean? She went to the shop door, unlocked it, and stepped out.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Reaper asked.

“It drove off,” she said, pointing in the direction where the SUV had taken off. She couldn’t even see the red lights.

“What?”

“Before you arrived, it literally drove off.” She looked toward Reaper who was staring off down the road. “I’m so sorry. I must be going crazy and just worrying for nothing.”

“Or, it heard me approach and knew I was coming for you,” Reaper said, and then he took off, going across the road.

“What?” she asked, holding tightly onto her bag and following him.

“Someone was waiting here and for a while as well,” Reaper said.

There was a pile of used cigarette butts that had been flicked out of the car. Their ends not stubbed out but burned down, and it stunk like an ashtray.

“Someone’s watching me?” Grace asked, and looked toward Reaper. “Why?”