Page 14 of Havoc

“If that’s what you want.” He shrugs, and I try to spot his ulterior motives in his gaze.

But he seems genuine, which makes even less sense than if he were only here to try and get in my pants.

“You’re serious?” My eyebrows knit. “You’re a biker… I think. Or you ride a bike at least. We have nothing in common.”

“You won’t actually know that until you agree to coffee. Or lunch? Dinner?”

“Coffee.”

He grins, standing up tall. “Why yes, I’d love to grab coffee with you, Aimee Landry.”

“You’re ridiculous.” I shake my head.

He ignores my insult, circling my car and inviting himself into the passenger seat. I hate that I can’t take my eyes off him. I hate how his smile makes my insides liquid.Worse, I hate how easy our conversation is when it would be simpler if I were right and we had nothing in common.

A biker doesn’t belong anywhere near the carefully crafted plans I have for my life. Especially one who looks like him.

My throat burns as I close my eyes. As I fight the knot in the center of my chest, thinking about the girl I used to be. A girl who still had dreams.

I wonder what she would think of what I’ve become. A girl who can’t sleep without a barricade locking her in her bedroom.

The sheet bunches in my fingers, and I wish I could forget the teenage version of myself because it makes me feel like such a disappointment. But more than that, I wish I could forget that version of Levi. The one who smiled at me like I was the center of the universe before he knew anything about me. The one who took me for coffee, and then lunch, and then so many more lunches after that. The one who started showing up at my school multiple times a week just so we could spend time together.

The one who was my friend because I stayed true to my words and wouldn’t date him or kiss him or sleep with him.

And even if we didn’t make sense, we also did. The rich girl and the biker. With Levi, there were no expectations, and he was my escape as much as I was his.

That was another lifetime.

Another version of Levi and Aimee.

If alternate realities do exist, I wonder if they ended up together in one of them.

The house groans, and my eyes fly open as I listen for the answering moan of the roof. The sounds are the same every night. A whisper of the breeze whistles through the crack in the window.

Except a third creak follows the familiar sounds, and I push to sitting.

It’s so quiet, I might not think anything of it until a car door slams out front. It could be the neighbors, but then the gate creaks again, dragging for a few seconds too long this time. It’s followed by a thump at the back of the house, and I’m out of my bed in an instant.

I hurry to the window in time to catch a shadow stretching across the backyard. It slips closer, followed by two others.

And then the alarm rings out through the house.

5

Havoc

Aimee stirs in myveins like an infection that’s been dormant for the past decade. While the occasional reminders of her would come to the surface over the years, I managed to keep most thoughts of her at bay.

At least, that’s what I wanted to think.

Like the hourglass tattooed on the back of my ring finger, her walking back into my life is proof I’ve been lying to myself. She’s the phantom that’s haunted my every decision. The reason I’ve never entertained a real relationship.

She’s the girl who broke me for all others, and now she’s back in the flesh.

Beautiful, scarred flesh at that.

It’s been two days since our conversation at the safe house, and I can’t get that rugged scar off my mind. While I was in LA, I was able to put just enough distance between us that I didn’t have to think about why shemight have disappeared when I enlisted. Or why, when I found her again, she was being held in a cage by the Iron Sinners.