Chapter 1

The light barely streamed between the slats of the blinds in my bedroom when I rolled over with a groan at the knock on my bedroom door. "Yeah?"

"Time to get up, Blakely. Pancakes are ready," my foster mother called.

"Okay."

Flinging the covers off, I sighed as I climbed out of bed. One of the best parts of winter break was being able to sleep in, but I knew I wouldn't get the chance to today.

While everyone else was excited to get up early to open presents, I didn't have much to look forward to. I'd been lucky with my foster home placement, but Christmas morning had lost much of its meaning after my dad went to prison. The Davidsons were nice enough to me, but they didn't exactly go all out on holidays. At least not for me. Their son was a different story.

Bryan was a twenty-four-year-old senior in college, but they still treated him like a little kid. Patti drove four hours twice a month to do his laundry and restock his fridge and freezer with home-cooked food. She kept a calendar of his assignments and reminded him when everything was due, even helping to finish the ones he didn't bother doing. Not that I blamed her that much when her son was in his sixth year of college with his parents paying the entire way. She had to be chomping at the bit for him to finally graduate.

Since they had a whole lot more to look forward to than I did, everyone was already seated at the kitchen table when I made it downstairs.

Bryan scooted out the chair next to him. "Merry Christmas, birthday girl."

I'd always gotten a weird vibe from him, but at least he'd already moved to college before his parents took me in. He'd been in an off-campus apartment since his sophomore year, so he didn't come home for summers. This meant that I usually only had to put up with him during holidays, thank goodness.

"Umm, thanks."

Patti's brows drew together as her gaze darted between her son and me. She shot her husband a worried look, but he just shrugged. My foster father wasn't much of a talker, but I liked that about him.

After we finished breakfast, I did the dishes while Bryan started opening his presents. He still had a huge stack to go through when I wandered into the living room. Instead of reaching for one of his, though, he handed me a package from under the tree. "Here, this one's for you, Blakely."

In all of the holidays I had spent with his family, Bryan had never gone out of his way to make me feel included, so I found it odd that he was being so nice to me today. I felt uncomfortable as I reached out to grab the wrapped gift, muttering, "Thanks."

His gaze drifted toward my chest as he murmured, "You're welcome."

I padded across the room to sit as far away from him as I could while I opened my present, a pair of pajamas. Patti didn't give him the chance to hand me the other two gifts she and Scott had gotten for me, which I appreciated because I didn't want her son anywhere near me.

Unfortunately, my luck ran out later in the afternoon when Bryan stepped into my bedroom, where I'd been hiding out ever since we finished eating lunch. Swinging my legs over the edge of my bed, I asked, "What're you doing?"

"Making my move." His gaze slid down to my boobs, and he licked his lips. "Been waiting a long time for you to finally be legal."

Gulping down the lump in my throat as I crossed my arms over my chest, I shook my head. "I don't understand."

"Pretend as much as you want, but I've seen the hot looks you've given me every time I came home." He shut the door behind him and flipped the lock on the knob, totally freaking me out. "Now that you're eighteen, I can finally give you what you've been asking for all this time."

Shaking my head, I hopped to my feet. "I don't know what you're talking about, Bryan. I swear, I've never looked at you as anything other than the son of my foster parents."

"Kinky." He wagged his brows. "If you wanna call me your brother while I'm pounding you into the mattress, that works for me."

My stomach churned, and I made a gagging noise. "That's never going to happen."

"Wrong," he growled, prowling toward me. "You're what I want for Christmas, and we both know that I always get what I want."

"You can't just—"

My words were swallowed by a gasp when Bryan wrapped his fingers around my wrist in a grip tight enough to leave a bruise and yanked me off balance. I stumbled into his body and pushed my palms against his chest, making him back up a few steps. Then I jerked back, trying to pull away from his hold. I cried out when he wrenched my arm toward him. "Stop!"

Patti pounded on the door and yelled, "Why is this locked? What's happening in there?"

"You better let go," I warned. "I might be eighteen now, but that doesn't make what you were about to do legal."

"Open this door right this minute or else," Patti threatened from the hallway.

I narrowed my eyes at Bryan. "You heard her."

"This isn't gonna go how you think it is." Releasing my arm, he smirked at me. "You should've just given me what I wanted without kicking up a fuss."

Free of his hold, I stomped over to the door, flipped the lock, and yanked it open. Patti shoved past me, and as soon as she spotted her son, she shrieked, "I knew it!"

"I'm sorry, Mom."

I whirled around, shocked that Bryan was so quick to apologize for what he'd done, but I was stunned to see that he'd yanked open the top three buttons on his shirt and ruffled his hair. Patti arrived just in time to make sure nothing happened—thank goodness—but Bryan proceeded to lie his butt off.

"I was trying to let Blakely down easy, but I never should have let her drag me into her bedroom." He shook his head with a rueful sigh. "I don't know how, but I must've given her the impression that I was interested in her as more than just my foster sister. She wanted to, umm…you know…umm…"

The jerk had the nerve to pretend to be too embarrassed to explain how I hit on him when he was lying through his teeth.

"What?" I shook my head. "That's not at all—"

Patti didn't let me finish explaining before she gripped my arm in the same spot where her son had grabbed me. I winced and cried out, but she didn't care that she was hurting me. "I should have known that you would try to get your filthy hands on my boy. I tried my best to raise you right, but it was already too late when you came to us. Dirty biker sluts like you don't know any better than to use your feminine wiles to try to get what you want. You're not going to ruin my son's life on my watch. Pack your stuff and get the hell out of my house."

"But you said I could stay until after graduation," I protested.

"That was before you tried to seduce my baby boy," she hissed. "You have ten minutes before I call the police and tell them you're trespassing."

"Told you," Bryan murmured as he strutted past me.

Nine minutes later, my heart was heavy as I stumbled out of the house that I had called home for the past six years. I had no plan for where to go since I'd expected to stay for five more months. Unlike most kids in the system, my foster parents hadn't been in a rush to kick me out when I aged out. Not until their jerk of a son got butt hurt and wanted me out of their house. On freaking Christmas Day. Barely a week after my eighteenth birthday.

After I tossed the last of my bags into the back of my truck—which I treasured because it was the last time I'd really felt as though Storm cared about me—I climbed into the driver"s seat and rested my head against the steering wheel. "What am I going to do?"

Checking into a decent hotel wouldn't be easy between my age and lack of a credit card. And I couldn't call my dad because the jail had specific hours when prisoners could use the phones.

Bryan stepped onto the front porch, crossing his arms over his chest as his lips curved into a smirk. The part of me that was my father's daughter wanted to get out of my truck so I could go kick his butt, but I knew it wouldn't accomplish anything except for me getting arrested. I needed somewhere to sleep…but not badly enough to wind up in jail.

Pressing my lips together as I heaved a deep sigh through my nose, I started the engine and backed out of the driveway. I drove aimlessly for about an hour before it finally dawned on me where I could go.

The Westland Riders' VP, Jagger, was running the club since my dad couldn't do it from jail for the long term. But from what he'd said during my visits—which I'd had to keep a secret from my foster parents—the guys refused to replace him because they continued to think of my dad as their true leader.

I hadn't been around any of them much since he went to prison because Patti was not a fan of bikers, but that didn't mean the club didn't still see me as family. If I showed up at the gate of the compound where I'd spent so much time growing up, they would take me in.

If Storm had kept the promise that he'd made to me all those years ago, I'd have another option. But he hadn't been there for me since he'd gotten out of the military. Heck, I'd barely spoken with him over the past two years. So much for not leaving me alone just like everyone else in my life had done.