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“Fine, but there is nothing happening between us. That night was one and done.”

“One and done,” he agreed.

His acceptance of my position appeared genuine. But deep in my soul, I knew it was bullshit. I knew that because my proclamation of it being one and done was bullshit.

I didn’t want to be done with him. Just standing next to him, no loud music, no alcohol to lower my inhibitions, and I still felt that connection. That spark. No, a wildfire spreading through my body. I wanted to spend the rest of my life with this man, feeling like I did right then.

Only I couldn’t.

He was a biker.

And I had decided ten years ago, I would never trust a biker again.

Every biker I knew had let me down.

Chapter Thirty

Ghost

My hand found her lower back. That spot just above her ass, the curve with the dimples hidden by the clothes she wore. The ones that haunted my fucking dreams.

I led her outside, and as soon as we stepped off the porch, Dani squirmed. Melissa set her on her feet and the little girl ran.

“She’s changed so much from when she was here last,” I observed. “You did that.”

She took a heavy breath. “Dani did that. I just showed her how to get there.”

“Don’t do that.”

“Do what?” she asked, looking up at me.

“Don’t diminish yourself. You worked hard to get where you are. It couldn’t have been easy.”

“It wasn’t.” She turned her focus back on Dani, who walked around the compound looking for something.

“What is she looking for?”

“Bugs,” Melissa said with a big smile that lit up her face. The way she looked at Dani had me concerned. It was clear she loved the little girl, and I wondered what would happen when Sypher and Pippen returned.

“What is your plan?” She looked at me again and I wanted to find a way to keep her focus on me forever. “When they come back?”

“To go with them,” she replied, her manner serious.

“I don’t understand.”

“When they come back to get Dani, they will move her to New York. I’ll move too. I’ve already sold everything I had in Oklahoma. I’ll start over in New York and build my practice there. New York has millions of people, which means there are a lot of children. And let’s face it, it’s New York. Those children have trauma. Many of whom have never had any help dealing with what they have gone through.”

She wasn’t wrong.

New York was a hotbed for crime. That crime spilled out onto kids, whether it was absent parents who had been killed by any number of incidents, drive-bys, muggings. Those are just the ones you couldn’t control.

Then you had the families that were involved in crimes being thrown in jail or disappearing without a trace because a Mob boss, or let’s face it, the Soulless Sinners, made them disappear.

The men and women who were kidnapped and trafficked. Not to mention the sexual assaults on children every day. People like Melissa were needed. But they were needed elsewhere too.

Including Diamond Creek, Nebraska.

Tabby would benefit from working with Melissa. Ryder said she had started using a few words here and there, but she was still as silent as a mouse at the clubhouse.