Chapter One

Bethany

Iunlocked the front door at Effortless Events and rushed to turn off the security system. Being a single mother wasn't easy, but I hated disappointing the nice older man who gave me a job working as an administrative assistant when I was down and out. The least I could do was be on time for work. I was one of his few employees and he was training me to be an events coordinator. I keyed in the code and waited impatiently for the machine to beep.

Then I went to the break room to start a pot of coffee. Reginald Archibald may lead a charmed life but without his morning brew the man was anything but charming. Then again, I wasn't a fountain of creativity until at least my second cup of java either. As soon as a steaming cup was in my hand, I took the first sip. As always, it was heavenly.

I made my way to the office and sat down at the smaller of the two desks. Setting my coffee aside, I started by pulling together invoices remitted by all the venders from last night's bash at the Alacroy. A prominent local couple wanted to make a splash for their fiftieth wedding anniversary and only the fanciest hotel with the only ballroom in town would do. Coming from a humble background, it was more glamourous than any event I had ever been to.

The invoices were piling up fast though. Just the receipt from the hotel for catering was astronomical. The florist blanketed the tables in fancy flower arrangements to the tune of thirty thousand dollars. I kept scrambling around my desk and found receipts for the open bar, parking attendants, quartet who performed instrumental music for the event, and dozens more invoices for less critical items.

I took a sip of my coffee and filed them all alphabetically in a manila folder for my boss to review. I needed a steady income to support my daughter and this job turned out to be a gift from the gods. I would have worked any old job if it meant providing for my kid, but I was blessed to have one I actually enjoyed.

I glanced over at my little one's picture sitting across my desk. My Nessa was coming up at three years old. She's the spitting image of me when I was her age, with dark hair and brown eyes and olive skin. I gazed at her picture, and for the millionth time I tried to see if I could see any of her father in her. The dimples were a dead giveaway, I always loved Lucas' cheeky smile. However, the other person who could be her father, the man I tried not to think about, wore a beard, so I had no idea what lay beneath it.

Just then I heard the front door chime. Before I could answer it, Reggie stumbled past the office door, groaning, "Need coffee now."

I finished filing the invoice I was working on, and then went back to the break room to check on him. I found him standing in front of the pot making a cup of warm milk with a dash of coffee in it. Reggie called it a latte but there wasn't enough coffee in the cup to qualify as a true latte. I didn't tell him that though, because he thought his morning drink was the best thing ever. I reached into the fridge, pulled out the whipped cream and put it on the counter. He sprayed a mound on the top and sprinkled that with cocoa. Looking all too pleased with himself he brought the cup to his lips and took a tiny sip. The look of joy on his face made the extra step of putting fresh coffee on each morning worth it.

I snagged the canister of whipped cream and slid it back in the fridge.

"Thank you, Bethany," he stated before taking another sip of his latte. I forced myself not to smile at his whipped cream mustache. My boss was a dignified man, and I didn't want to embarrass him. He must have had some idea, because he surreptitiously wiped the back of his sleeve across his mouth. Walking towards the office he asked, "Anything unusual going on with the invoices from the Stollings event at the Alacroy?"

I shook my head and fell into lockstep behind him as he entered the room and dropped down into his seat at the larger desk. "No, every invoice closely matched the original estimate. It looks like we came in well under budget."

He grinned at me and quipped, "That's why they pay us the big bucks to manage their lavish parties."

I smothered back a smile, "There was something I wanted to talk to you about this morning."

Leaning back in his chair, his silver-streaked hair gleamed in the overhead lighting. "Shoot. Tell me everything."

Lifting up our appointment planner I explained. "I noticed that we're double booked for December twelfth."

He shrugged. "Yes. We have an event in the morning and another in the late afternoon. I've done that before. One is the annual mayor's luncheon and the other Stephanie Perkin's wedding."

"It's the second one that's going to be a problem. Ms. Powers, the wedding planner, left a message saying she'd canceled the venue and booked a huge ski lodge with a majestic view of the mountains, apparently her client had an idea to get married on the slopes."

"She can't do that. It's in our contract," he stated flatly, clearly not impressed with the young lady's love of majestic winter landscapes.

"Do you want me to break the bad news to her? You know she's going to throw the great grandaddy of all fits. When she demands to speak to my supervisor, I'll transfer the call to you." I suggested.

"Naw, I'll deal with Stephanie and her wedding planner. She clearly thinks she can run all over me because we used to belong to the same country club. So long as she knows that the four-thousand-dollar non-refundable venue deposit is coming out of her daddy's pocket and not mine, then we're good," he muttered as he took another sip of his coffee.

I slid the manila folder across his desk. "Here are your invoices from the event at the Alacroy. I filed them all alphabetically."

"I actually prefer them to be present in descending order beginning the most expensive."

"Duly noted for future reference, Mr. Archibald."

He shot me a chagrined look, "I don't like it when you call me that. It makes me feel ancient."

"I'm really sorry, Reggie." I replied respectfully. It was hard separating home from office life. Ours was not the most conventional of relationships, given I was living in his pool house. "You're not old. You're in the prime of your life."

"No apologies needed. Thomas says you are just about the loveliest person we know. I gotta say I agree with him." Thomas was his best friend, and on again off again boyfriend. At the moment they were firmly on, and I saw Thomas' car in the driveway most nights.

"I'm just grateful for all that you've done for me. You found me on my worst day and gave me a hand up. I'm never going to forget that. It's because of you that I have a decent job, somewhere to stay, and child-care I can trust."

My boss-cum-landlord-cum-uncle figure waved his hand in a gesture that communicated it was nothing. But to me it was everything.

"It wasn't a problem at all, honey. Since my mother disowned me because of what she called my lifestyle choice, I'm never going to need it for her."

"I'm sorry she rejected you over something as run of the mill as your sexual orientation."

He smirked at me. "In her own defense, she did try to pray the gay away. How do you think I ended up with Thomas?"

"What? I don't get it."

"Thomas was the youth leader who was supposed to get me on the straight and narrow all those years ago. Imagine her surprise when we hit it off."

I laughed before could stop myself. "You're lucky you didn't give the poor woman a heart attack."

"I was known as the devil in a three-piece suit in my local community for a long time. Then I decided to move here, to be closer to Thomas."

"That was clearly a good decision. You two have been dating for what, twenty years?"

"Twenty-three to be exact. He's taking me to Vegas next week. That's why there's nothing on our schedule for that time."

"Twenty-three years and no ring?"

Reggie looked from left to right as if checking that there was no one listening in, which as we were the only two in the office was unnecessary, and leaned close conspiratorially, "I'm thinking he might have something planned for next week."

"Wow!" I exclaimed, "Well, you two make a wonderful couple. And if I haven't said so before, you've both made a huge difference in mine and Nessa's life."

He smiled, "You did say so before."

"And I mean it from the bottom of my heart."

Taking another sip of his latte, he paused as if trying to decide what he wanted to say. "I don't mean to pry, but what about Nessa's father? Why isn't he paying his share? You wouldn't have to struggle so hard if he was paying child support. You've never said much about him, or why he's not in the picture."

Maybe someone else would have been offended that he was talking about my personal life, but Reggie and I talked about my life choices a lot over the last couple of years because he's more than just my boss. We'd gotten really close and he'd kind of adopted me into his chosen family.

"You know I've been through a trauma." Glancing away, I admitted the truth I'd never had the courage to tell him, "I was attacked by a man who turned out to be a wanted murderer. It was awful. I barely escaped with my life. A man by the name of Lucas Reyes stepped in to protect me."

After taking a gigantic gulp of his coffee, he asked, "The man who attacked you wasn't the man who fathered your child, right?"

"Oh God no."

"Then Nessa's father must have been the other man, Lucas Reyes."

"I don't know how to explain my situation," I said. Even thinking about that night terrified me, much less talking about it with anyone.

"Was there another man?" he asked.

Staring into his confused face, I just blurted out the rest like tearing off a band-aid. "Yes. After we'd been dating for almost a year, a biker from rival club attacked me and it was traumatizing."

My boss' expression darkened. "How serious was the attack? I hope you weren't hospitalized."

I paused, trying to put the words together, "Let's just say, I wasn't strong enough to fight him off."

Reggie immediately leaned forward and put his hand on my shoulder. "Oh God, Bethany, I'm really sorry that happened to you. I hope the bastard ended up in prison or worse."

I glanced away, "No. Instead of going to the police, I ran like the coward I am."

"You weren't a coward. You put yourself first and did what was right for you."

"I just couldn't face everyone knowing what happened. I didn't want to become known as little Bethany Marks, the girl raped by an outlaw biker. That would have been a hard reputation to live down in my small hometown."

"That's your decision to make. Don't ever feel bad about doing what you have to do to survive."

A short silence spun out between us, and he finally spoke, "If this Lucas was as good a man as you say, he wouldn't have held that against you. He would have stood up for you and taken care of you."

"Lucas was a good man, kind, decent. Unfortunately, at the time I was confused and had a lot of garbage floating around in my head. First of all, I resented the motorcycle club Lucas loved because if not for them, I would have never met the one who hurt me."

"I think staying away from outlaws should be considered self-preservation 101," he responded.

"Plus, they were also fighting with some mafia guys from LA who were trying to set up shop in Griffinsford. It was just a whole bad situation all around, if I told him what happened with the other guy, then it might have started an all-out biker war. Starting over was easier, even it costs me the man I love," I added.

"Still, if this man loved and cared as much about you, as you did him, he would have stepped up if you'd given him a chance."

"Maybe, but I also had it in my head that I was flawed in some way the drew those attackers to me. That they saw some vulnerability I hadn't learned to hide. Truth be told, I felt like some kind of rapist magnet because I had been attacked twice in a year. I figured that couldn't be a coincidence. And there were other instances of men you would call ne'er-do wells gravitating to me. After a while it messes with your mind, ya know?"

"A lot of men in this world are shitty. You can't let that effect how you feel about yourself, honey."

"I just felt like if Lucas found out about me being attacked, he'd go after the guy and do something to him, that might cause him to wind up in jail. Or worse, the two biker clubs might end up in a conflict that could cause a bunch of them to get hurt. I didn't want that."

"Even if you didn't want to be with him, whoever fathered your child should still be paying for his daughter," he insisted.

"When I left, I didn't know I was pregnant. Then when I found out, I had a meltdown because I didn't know whether the baby belonged to Lucas or the man who wouldn't take no for an answer."

"Shit. I didn't think about that. I'm sorry you had to go through that, Bethany. It seems like the nice people in life always get ran over by the assholes."

I shot my friend a tired smile. "I can't tell which one of them is the father."

"Oh, that must have been awful, not knowing."

I caught his eyes and quickly added, "None of this affects how I feel about Nessa, even if she was the product of rape, I still love her."

"That's obvious to anyone, honey."

"Anyway, I have dark hair and eyes as do the two possible fathers. But she has Lucas' big heart and sweet nature. That's what makes me think she's his, that and her cute little dimples."

"The other guy doesn't have those?"

I shrugged, "He had a beard."

My friend smiled at me. "It sounds like you really liked this Lucas guy."

"Well, yeah. Lucas was really nice in a tough biker kind of way."

Reggie's eyes flew open, and he choked on his mouthful of coffee. "You mentioned he was a biker, but for some reason, I was thinking a casual weekend rider like Thomas on his sports bike. Mild mannered Bethany Marks with an honest to goodness biker? We're talking Hells Angels and Harleys?"

I laughed at his over-the-top reaction. "Yes, he most certainly was a biker, or he probably is by now. When I dated him, he was a prospect."

His eyebrows dropped into a frown. "Prospects are beginner bikers, right?"

I snorted a laugh at his phrasing. "They think of prospecting as being a proving stage. If they do a good job one of the brothers will recommend them to be patched in as a fully-fledged member of the club."

I just kept blabbing, because that's what we normally did in the mornings until we got a call, or a customer walked into the office. "The name of their club was the Dark Slayers MC. I always thought it had an ominous ring to it, but most of the members were ex-military so I don't know how dangerous they are."

Suddenly, Lucas' handsome face flashed through my mind. It might be cliché, but he was tall, dark, and handsome. When I'd known him, he was just starting to fill out and was well on his way to building the kind of muscles and bulk his club brothers were famous for. "I do miss him," I said wistfully. "But I don't know if I could ever be a biker's wife. Plus, if it turned out that Nessa was his, he would probably be furious that I kept her from him. You know how possessive bikers can be."

"No Bethany, I really don't. Why don't you explain it to me?"

Reggie's voice was so serious that it occurred to me that maybe he was upset with me for getting attached to a biker. I knew in my heart that I didn't do anything wrong, but I was starting to feel judged.

Thankfully, I was saved from answering his question by the front door chime. I rose from my seat and stated lightly, "Duty calls. As always, I enjoyed talking with you today and I'm sorry if you're disappointed that I fell in love with a biker. Please don't think bad of me, or my daughter for being his. I promise it wasn't as bad as it sounds."

His mouth fell open and he stammered, "I would never judge anyone because I know how hurtful it is, I was just worried about what you told me."

I didn't mean to make him so shocked and apologetic. So I rushed out to wait for our first customer of the day. That's how I solve every single problem in my life. I run away from them.

***

I tried to take my mind off the situation by throwing myself into my work. Unfortunately, my customer didn't like our prices, so he flounced out in a huff.

After my customer left, I stood staring after him, but my mind was on Lucas. He was that unique combination of tough and protective. He not only took good care of me, the sex we had was absolutely amazing. I'd been a virgin when I met him and there was nothing that man wouldn't do to please me in bed. God I truly did miss Lucas and his fine mouth and nice thick cock. Feeling myself blushing at my own thoughts, I went back to the office.

I wasn't particularly surprised to find Reggie had pulled up the Dark Slayer's MC website and was reading up a storm on the club. He had always been the curious sort. I left without saying anything, intent upon letting him appease his curiosity.

As for myself, seeing their club logo again after three and a half years did something to me. It set off a longing that was hard to wrangle back under control. I looked down at the promise ring he'd bought me because I had told him it was too early for an engagement ring. The promise ring was small, delicate, gold and set with diamonds. I hadn't taken it off since the night he gave it to me.

I felt sad that Lucas had been my one, and I had foolishly let him slip away because of my own fears and insecurities. While it wasn't as if we were on different sides of the country—he was literally an hour's ride away in Griffinsford—for all intents and purposes, he could be on the moon. Now, I was forever separated from the man I loved, and my young daughter would never know her own father. I didn't know' if Lucas would have wanted me to have our child or not. I think he would, but how could anyone be sure of something like that?

I was lost in pleasant reminisces for a little while, but then suddenly, the other face crossed my mind. Hateful and sneering down on me and I tried to blank it out. I wanted Nessa to be Lucas' so badly it hurt. She was such a lovely little girl, that bastard who raped me didn't deserve the title of father, if she was his.