Chapter 5

E arl's Place was a dark, rectangular building with a flickering red neon sign that had seen better days.

As she entered the parking lot, two motorcycles drew up. Most of the spaces were taken up by motorcycles, from huge Harleys to smaller ones, like the racing bike Dylan owned. Music filtered out of the door as two bikers opened it.

She drove around to find a space in the back, saw an outdoor area with a makeshift bar surrounded by leather sofas and bikers lounging on them. One biker had a hound dog stretched out on the sofa. The dog stretched and yawned, making her smile. The vibe was friendly, and her shoulders lost some of their rigid tension. The music sounded lively, lyrical, and she caught the sound of an acoustic guitar.

She hoped Jace was inside. The sooner she got this over with, the better.

Kara took a deep breath and entered the bar. She stood at the entrance, trying to adjust to the darkness. A string of Christmas lights hung from the back of the liquor shelves, adding a festive touch. She studied the unique decorations on the wall—motorcycle parts, an antique bicycle wheel, even a plastic doll dressed in leather.

No one turned to stare at her. The patrons were too busy talking or listening to the band in the back of the bar. Standing in the dim light to adjust to her surroundings, she saw Jace at the bar. An empty stool was beside him.

Jace waved a beer bottle at her. She joined him, glancing at the crowded bar.

"Have a seat, babe."

The familiar, loving nickname from the past caused butterflies in her stomach, the same way as it used to do when he uttered it. A memory fluttered in her mind—that time they made love as soon as she'd walked through the condo door. He couldn't wait to kiss her, breathe her in as if she was oxygen and he was gasping for air.

"Babe, you're the only sweetness in my life right now," he'd said roughly, pulling to her to him. "I am having a bitch of a time with my latest assignment. You're my reason for getting through each day."

She had given him everything he'd needed, and fulfilled her own needs as well, for she had spent every waking moment anticipating seeing him again...

A lump formed in her throat. Kara swallowed past it. "Jace." Her tone was formal and stiff, belying the feelings inside her. "I was hoping for a table with a little more privacy. A table where we can talk without being overheard."

His smile dropped as a guarded look came over him. "Sure."

He dropped a few bills on the counter, then beckoned to a bartender. "Sam, I'm headed to the booth in the corner."

As they started for the empty booth far away from the band, he added, "Sam owns the place. Great guy."

"The sign says Earl's Place."

"Earl's his hound dog. Earl runs everything." Jace grinned.

As they sat, she wondered how to deal with him. Conversation had never been difficult with Jace. She'd always felt free to discuss anything with him. He'd been an honest, ethical man with a courteous manner and generous attitude, treating her as if she was priceless. She had truly loved him and thought he loved her with the same passion.

Kara set down her purse and gazed at him. "Any reason why you changed your last name?"

A slight lift of those broad shoulders. "Needed to escape from the past. Thanks for keeping that on the DL from Dylan, by the way. My brothers in the club don't know, either, and I'd like to keep it that way. Fresh start, so to speak."

Sensing a story there, she wanted to know more. "No worries on keeping it on the down-low, Jace, but I'm curious. What have you been doing since we broke up? Other than joining a notorious biker gang and working as a mechanic. Any new hobbies, like goat yoga? Gardening? Scrapbooking?"

His mouth quirked and amusement danced in his blue eyes. "I forgot your delightful sense of sarcastic humor. Nope. My job and the guys in the club keep me busy."

"Too busy to date?" Kara bit her lip. Hadn't meant to let that out, but she itched to know.

He blinked. "Yeah, I've dated, but no one now. Some women who wanted more than I did."

"Situationships," she said, guessing. "Those relationships that are more than friends with benefits, but one-sided."

"Situationship." He grinned and she gave a little laugh. "Guess you've been in one or two as well."

"Caught me." Her smile dropped. Her "situationships" weren't merely with guys who liked having sex with her, and were more emotionally committed than her. Kara enjoyed their company, but something kept holding her back from further commitment.

Not that she'd admit to Jace it was memories of how good they'd had it that put the brakes on moving ahead with another man.

He gave her a long, thoughtful look. "They always wanted more and I didn't, so I had to break it off gently. No hurt feelings."

Tempted to ask why he didn't want more, she bit her lip. Too tempting to find out if Jace had felt the same way she did—unable to move forward, still caught in the past and how they had loved each other.

"What about you, Kara? Store doing well? Dylan says he enjoys working for you and you've cultivated quite the reputation in town for estate sales."

A waitress in black pants and a form-fitting black T-shirt appeared. "What do you want, Jace? Sam told me to take extra special care with you as thanks for fixing his bike last week."

He ordered a beer and glanced at her. "Another beer. And get her whatever she's having. Gin and tonic, Kara?"

"Just the tonic," Kara replied. "I never drink and drive."

As the waitress walked off, he blinked. "I forgot about that. You always were so careful on the road. More than the average person."

As she relaxed with the praise, her ego deflated as he added, "Driving like you were eighty-three instead of twenty-three. I swear it was a miracle you got to work in less than eight hours."

Kara gritted her teeth. "I didn't come here to be insulted, Jace."

He leaned back against the wall. "Why did you come here?"

She glanced around. Satisfied no one was watching them, Kara dug the last reminder of their relationship out of her purse. "To give you this."

Jace's jaw dropped at sight of the diamond ring on the table. He took it, the light from the little lamp at the table winking in the stone. Emotion clogged her throat as she remembered the day he'd proposed at the beach, on one knee, the lacy waves swirling at their feet.

"What the hell..."

"I never did return it to you, obviously." She struggled for a reason why, and settled on the truth. "I really didn't want to see you again. But I figure you could use it now."

"Use it? You know something I don't? Am I getting married to someone else?"

The thought of him marrying someone else made her heart lurch. Kara had always envisioned their wedding day—Jace standing at the altar, looking resplendent in a silk tuxedo and a wide smile as she swept down the aisle toward him, clad in her mother's wedding dress.

The dream died, but still haunted her once in a while. When it did, she usually threw herself even more into work.

"No. Your life is your business. I thought...I just thought..." Kara bit her lip and finally looked at his face. "It cost a lot of money and you can pawn it."

He stared at her for a full moment and then began to laugh. "You think I need money. Because I'm working in a garage."

"You had an amazing job on the ground floor with a well-known investment firm, Jace. You could have fast-tracked to real financial success... You were never the outlaw biker type. What happened?"

He scowled, his expression turning stormy beneath the well-trimmed beard. "Stop. Stop it. My past is my past. I have my reasons for what I'm doing and they're none of your business."

Jace reached out, took her hand. His fingers were calloused, but warm, and the touch sent an anticipatory shiver down her spine. Just like in the past, when he'd hold her hand and she'd gone warm inside from the contact.

Gently, he turned over her palm and placed the ring into it, and closed her fingers.

"When I gave you the engagement ring, I told you it was yours. Keep it."

Jace sat back, his expression inscrutable.

The transformation was too great to ignore, but he'd made it clear she had no right to ask questions. Kara placed the ring back into her purse. "I apologize if I insulted you. You're right. It is your life and I have no part in it anymore. I just..."

"You just what, Kara? You didn't come here merely to drop off an engagement ring. Why are..."

The arrival of their drinks cut him off. Jace nodded his thanks at the waitress, raised his bottle.

"To the past and what we had once."

Kara didn't lift her glass. "I can't toast that, Jace. It's too painful."

"And you want to be here, with me, because you like pain? You could have called and told me over the phone, Kara, instead of ripping the scab off the wound."

His anger was justified. Kara wrapped her hands around her glass. "No. I didn't intend to insult you. I never wanted... Please believe me, I just thought you should have it back..."

So much for good intentions. After priding herself on being good at reading people, she'd totally underestimated him. This. What they'd had between us.

Kara's voice broke. "I'm sorry, Jace. I'm sorry for what happened with us and if I hurt you."

Anger faded from his expression. "It's not your fault."

"It takes two to break up, Jace. It wasn't you. Or me. It was both of us."

Too upset to continue, she sipped the tonic water the waitress had brought over, the cool liquid sliding down her tight throat.

He sighed. "I'm sorry we had to break up, too, Kara. And if I did anything to hurt you as well."

"What happened to us, Jace?"

Anger died on his face. He rubbed his beard. "I don't know. Things change, Kara. Or don't."

"It was the motorcycles, wasn't it? They meant more to you than me and I resented you for it."

His expression became guarded. "They didn't mean more to me, Kara. But your demands that I sell my bike and stop riding were unreasonable. You knew how much I enjoy my motorcycle."

"They're dangerous." She didn't want to argue but had to press the point. "Jace, I worried constantly about you when you took it out. If you'd skid from an oil slick on the road, or someone would turn in front of you because they didn't see you..."

She couldn't voice the real fear still lurking deep inside. If you get into an accident and get killed like my little brother did.

He took a long gulp of beer, set down the bottle. "Kara, I told you. I'm careful. Always careful. I never set out to ride in the rain or bad weather. I gave up some runs so we could be together, and do other things. I asked you to go with me, understand this was something I loved, a lifestyle that was only part of my life, one you knew about when we first met, but you refused."

Kara sighed. "I never understood your love for motorcycles."

His gaze grew dreamy, and distant. "I tried to tell you what it was like. It's more than the freedom of riding. It's the sound of a V-twin engine blowing out that classic Harley rumble for everyone to hear. Feeling the bike surge beneath you, pure power. The outdoors is clean and fresh and in your face."

Kara had to smile. "And the bugs in your teeth."

He grinned. "Which is why my helmet has a visor. But that's a small inconvenience compared to the feel of a bike beneath you, and everything opening up in a way you can't feel when you're stuck in a car. Taking the turns on a long country road, the ultimate feel of being outside, like you're flying."

For a moment, she felt wistful, wishing she could join him in this bliss he described. Then she recalled the horror of her accident, the screams and the stillness...

"Your bike seemed more important than I did, Jace."

He shook his head. "No, it wasn't. But you kept hoping I'd give it up. It was like you hoped I would change to suit your needs."

"I didn't want you to change. Only give up the bike. Everything else was fine."

The deep timbre of his laugh had once enchanted her. Now, it carried a note of bitterness.

"Give up the bike. If that isn't change, what is? You've got a strange idea of change, Kara."

Her fingers curled around the cold glass. "You know how I felt about your rides, Jace. You spent more time with your bike than me."

Blue frost. His eyes became colder than a winter's day in Michigan. Kara felt the chill down to her manicured toenails.

"I spent time on weekends on runs because you were so busy with your social calendar. This gala for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. That gala for that charity you insisted on chairing. All those charity balls and charity work. It got to the point where I had to pencil myself into your schedule, dammit."

She struggled with her rising temper. Jace had no clue she'd thrown herself into charity work to make up for what happened to her brother. Teens Advocating Safe Roads, TASR, was the principal charity she supported. When the board of directors asked her to join, she eagerly responded and threw herself into fundraising work in what little spare time she had.

It meant less time for Jace, but the work eased her guilty conscience—a conscience that couldn't talk about the accident to anyone but her therapist. Jace had no clue about her past.

Maybe if I had joined TASR when I was seventeen, Conner would still be alive and so would that biker.

"It wasn't only the bike, Jace. It was the secrets you kept. You were always honest and open with me about everything except your family. You kept being evasive when I wanted to meet them..."

His gaze darted away. "I told you, my dad was dead and my mother moved away."

"To where? The Artic? I would have gladly hopped on a plane to meet her, but you kept shutting me down."

Now, he did look at her. "You shut me down as well, Kara. That time when I joked with you over dinner about us being only children? I don't know why your mother got up from the table, or why you changed the subject. What gives?"

Guilt filled her. She never had the strength to admit to Jace what happened with Conner. Sometimes her family found it easier to pretend he never existed, rather than that he would never return to them.

Once more, she evaded the question and changed the topic.

"There were problems we couldn't seem to resolve, Jace. I was into my society functions, but I gave up some of my functions to be with you. I would have done more, but you made it clear your bike was too important."

"It wasn't but, dammit, you never even wanted to try riding with me. Not even to the grocery store. You shied away from my bike as if it were poison." He threw back his head and stared at the ceiling, where photos of motorcycles had been plastered there among the tiles.

"You never understood the freedom, the joy I got in riding. You never wanted to understand. You only condemned my love of motorcycles as if I were a member of a criminal gang."

She gave him a pointed look. "And now?"

Jace shook his head. "What if I asked you to give up your estate-sale business? Or your love of seafood? Or how much you enjoy the ballet?"

"The ballet never killed anyone," she blurted. "And you know my business isn't my life. I had to make it into my life after we broke up because everything became so empty."

Oh, dear. She hadn't meant to confess that. Give him a nugget of power over her, let him know how deeply she'd been hurt by their separation.

But instead of him gloating or looking as if she'd empowered him, Jace's expression filled with regret.

"Maybe if we'd had this discussion earlier, before we broke up, things would have been different."

"We can't return to what we were, what we had. In any case, you've changed for good, Jace. Now look at you." She glanced around the bar. "You've changed. Gave up a promising career path to be a biker. I don't understand you. You didn't flirt with the lifestyle. You married it."

He wasn't paying attention to her, his sharp gaze centered on the bar's entrance. Suddenly, he reached over, clasped her hand and raised his voice. "Kara, sweetheart, you're killing me. All I want is one date. Is that too much to ask? You agreed to meet me here, giving me hope. Give me a chance. I'll make it a night to remember like we once had."

Kara reeled back but did not tug her hand away. Jace made no sense. One minute they were having a conversation about breaking up and now, he acted smitten with her...

Her gaze flicked over to a few rough-looking bikers who'd entered the bar and headed for the counter. Even in the smoky darkness, she could clearly see them study Jace.

His friends. She recognized them from the parking lot. Utterly disgusted, she started to pull away when Jace shot her a warning look. "Don't," he said quietly. "Play along with me. Please."

She didn't understand, and wanted to get up and head outside, erasing him forever from her life. But something in his eyes nudged her into trusting him.

You owe me for this, Jace.

Kara leaned forward as if absorbed in his every move, every nuance of his soft expression. "A night to remember sounds like a night I can't pass up. Very well. But you'd better make it worth my while, because I'm a busy woman."

"I'll keep you busy all night if you clear your schedule for me," he said in a teasing tone.

A small smile touched her mouth. How well she remembered their times together like this, when they'd both been absorbed in their work and would meet for a quick drink at a favorite waterfront restaurant bar and flirt as if never seeing each other before.

It kept the magic of their romance alive.

It wasn't enough to keep their relationship alive.

"Let me know if you can make it."

He winked at her, and then, reflecting the Jace she remembered well, he lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. His lips were firm, warm, and a shiver raced through her. How much she'd enjoyed his kisses and missed their long, intense lovemaking.

Focus, Kara . Giving him a smile, she tugged away her hand, slipped her cross-body purse over one shoulder and slid out of the booth. Her heels clicked on the ancient wooden floor as she headed for the exit, aware of Jace's new friends eyeing her as she strode forward. Staring at the door, her heart thumping as hard as the beat of the drums from the band, she gathered all her courage and confidence.

Now, she knew what it felt like to be a deer studied by hungry wolves. She reached the door, and a man standing nearby opened it for her. Kara thanked him with a smile and slid out into the dark night.

Not relaxing until she was behind the wheel, she barely managed to start her sedan. Kara inhaled a deep breath again. Good thoughts. Remember the first time you met Jace at that cocktail mixer, and the light in his eyes as you talked about how much you adored traveling in Rome and Greece, and meeting different people and learning about different cultures?

Deep breaths.

Finally, she managed to start the car. Kara drove quickly out of the crowded parking lot.

At a red light, she drew in another deep breath. That had to be the strangest conversation she'd had with Jace. What was he involved in with these bikers?

Her phone pinged a message. Kara glanced at it. Jace.

Hey, sweetheart, I promise you will have a great time with me. Give me a chance.

Frowning, she set down the phone. Not worth answering.

I don't know what kind of mind game you're playing Jace, but I'm not interested.

Yet she couldn't help but wonder if something else was going on here. Something odd and definitely more dangerous.