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Lexi

A cheesy grin spread across my face as I hugged my newest signed paperback. The author’s name was scrawled in a bold, looping signature across the title page, and I had to keep myself from squealing with delight.

Nova shot me a teasing look, which I promptly ignored. I was in heaven at the Motorcycles, Mobsters and Mayhem author event. Rows and rows of tables filled the massive conference hall in Frisco, Texas, each one manned by a romance author or cover model who I’d only ever seen online or plastered across my Kindle screen.

Lots of noise, bright banners, lines of excited readers chatting and fanning themselves with bookmarks, I was breathless and a little sweaty from the sheer press of bodies, but none of that mattered. It wasn’t every day that I got to meet a hundred authors I practically worshipped.

Cover models strutted around in leather, showing off tattoos that made me flush from head to toe. Nova kept raising an eyebrow at me every time my eyes lingered on a particularly muscular torso.

“Smutty,” she murmured as we shuffled forward in another line. Nova had a special bookish nickname for me. “You look like you’re about to combust. Do you need a minute?”

A laugh escaped me as I adjusted my glasses and tucked a dark lock of hair behind my ear. “What can I say? I’m a book nerd, and these guys look like they just walked off the page. It’s…too much.”

She rolled her eyes in amusement, but I caught a hint of shared enthusiasm in her smirk. I knew Nova loved being here almost as much as I did, especially since we’d both devoured these Motorcycle Club Romance novels in college as our guilty pleasure. Something about the outlaws, the freedom, the headstrong, take-no-prisoners kind of alpha guys. I’d always found it thrilling in fiction.

Fiction , I repeated to myself.

Real-life bikers probably weren’t anywhere near as romantic. More likely, they were dangerous assholes. And I’d had enough cautionary tales from my mom, Diana, growing up to know that the biker world could be downright terrifying.

Still, seeing these gorgeous cover models dressed in leather cuts and tight jeans, hair slicked back or braided, a shit ton of tattoos rippling across arms and chests. I couldn’t help but swoon a little.

Hell, I was swooning a lot.

Especially now that I’d finished law school and passed the bar, I was determined to soak in a little fun whenever I could. I might’ve been a newly minted lawyer, but I was still a sucker for a bad boy with a deep voice and a nice ass. Even if it was just for my imagination.

I’d been waiting for this weekend for months. Studying, I'd barely had time to breathe, much less indulge in my biggest passion, reading smut. If someone asked me where I was going after my big win, this was it. Stepping into that conference center was as if I was stepping into my own personal Disney World, except instead of fairy Godmothers and princes, there were authors and cover models, the place full of the kind of worlds I loved to lose myself in.

“God, Lex, check out that walking snack over there.” My best friend, Nova, nudged me. She kinda secretly pointed out the hot, ripped model in the black shirt. Tattoos of dragons, skulls, and flames covered his arms, from wrists to shoulders. He was chatting with a bunch of giggling women in "Reading is my Favorite Position" T-shirts. “They should rename this place Men, Muscles & Mayhem . I’m in trouble already.”

My eyes wide, I radiated. Because I was experiencing a little flutter of my own at the sight of so much male eye candy. It was impossible not to. “Down, Slutty,” I teased. I had a nickname for her, too. “We just got here. You can’t jump the first hot guy you see.”

Nova rolled her big blue eyes. “I can’t? Challenge accepted.” Her long dark-blonde hair poured over her shoulders, and her bright red lipstick gave her that extra bit of sass she carried so well. “I am definitely looking for trouble, Smutty.” She was tall, model-thin, and drop-dead gorgeous. She’d been engaged once, but that relationship imploded, leaving her with a vow to never settle for anything mediocre again, especially not in the bedroom.

Nova and I were halfway through the line to meet another author when my phone rang. The caller ID showed a California area code, which was strange enough to get my immediate attention. I stepped out of line, placing my large tote of books on a nearby chair.

“Hello?” I said, pressing the phone to my ear.

“Lexi?” a raspy voice croaked. My mother. “It’s mom.”

“Mom?” My eyebrows shot up. Diana, AKA Dirty Diana , as she called herself, was the last person I expected to hear from right now. “Where are you calling from? You never call me out of the blue.”

She coughed, like she was trying to clear a scratchy throat, and paused and I could imagine her looking over her shoulder. Woman was paranoid even when she wasn’t on drugs. “I’m in California, baby. You know, at a…well, I guess you’d call it a biker rally.”

I sucked in a breath. Of course, she was at a biker rally. That was her scene, always had been, no matter how many times she promised to stay away from that life. “What’s going on?” I asked. “You usually text.”

“Yeah, well,” she said, her voice dropping to a whisper, “text messages leave a trail. I need…shit, I need some legal advice, Lexi. You’re the only lawyer I know.”

My stomach twisted into a giant knot. I’d been official for all of five minutes, and the thought of my own mother needing legal help, no doubt for something shady, instantly made me anxious. “What’s going on, Mom? Are you in trouble?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. There’s a man.” She hesitated. “Threatening me. He says he’s going to sue me, among other things. I just…I need your advice.”

I exhaled, pressing my forehead with two fingers. This was so typical. “Okay, can you give me more details? Who is he? What’s the nature of the lawsuit?”

“I can’t talk about it here. Too many ears. I just… I’m in Anarchy, California, at this big Kings of Anarchy rally. Please, can you come out here? I know it’s a lot to ask.”

I glanced around at the chaos of the book conference and my friend Nova’s curious expression. “Mom, I’m at an event, and I’m supposed to be at work next week.”

“You said you had some time off, right?” she pressed. Of course, she’d been fishing for that info the last time we exchanged texts. “Please, Lexi. I wouldn’t ask if I wasn’t desperate.”

My thoughts raced. I did have the next week off. Eight whole days after today. I’d asked for it after a long string of grueling nights at the office. The plan was to relax, catch up on reading, and enjoy this conference. But perhaps I could see my mother, figure out what was going on, and then come right back. “I guess…maybe I can. Let me talk to my friend. We could drive out there.”

She let out a shaky sigh of relief. “Thank you, baby. I’m sorry to do this to you.”

I ended the call, and Nova hustled over. “Who was that? You look pale.”

I stuffed my phone in my bag, ignoring the trembling in my stomach. “That was my mom. She’s in California at a biker rally. Says she needs legal advice. Something about a man threatening her with a lawsuit. She wants me to come out there.”

Nova’s eyes widened. “A biker rally in California? And your mom wants you , a brand-new lawyer, to help her?”

“Yeah, can you believe it?” I forced a cutting smile. “But she sounded really worried, Nova. I can’t just blow her off.”

She raised her perfect brows. “Your mom’s that wandering free spirit, right? A real wild child? I remember you telling me she used to run with bikers.”

I bit my lip. “Yes. She’s always drifting around, partying, hooking up with random guys, living off who-knows-what. She’s gone by Dirty Diana since I was little. She’s…well, let’s just say it’s complicated.”

Nova took my arm, pulling me away from the crowd to a quieter corner. “What are you going to do? She said she’s in trouble?”

I fiddled with my glasses, pushing them up my nose. “She wants me there, but I have no idea what kind of trouble this is. She’s been threatened before. She’s gotten mixed up with guys who want money, who do drugs, you name it.”

Nova nodded, crossing her arms. She had that thoughtful expression on her face, the one she got when she was weighing all the pros and cons. “Then I say we go,” she said finally, a grin tugging at her lips. “I mean, we planned on spending a few more days here, but we can bail. We’ve met most of our favorite authors anyway. It’s your mom. Let’s just do it.”

Her quick agreement surprised me. I hesitated, piddling with the straps of my tote. “Are you sure? It’s a biker rally, Nova. There will be, like, real bikers. Not these romance cover models who smell like fancy cologne and do push-ups for photo ops.”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “All the more reason. A real adventure.”

A trickle of excitement ran through me, despite my groan. I’d never stepped foot into my mother’s biker world. I knew only glimpses of it, the secondhand smoke, the leather, the sketchy bars she dragged me to when I was a kid before I went to live with my aunt. Still, something about stepping out of my comfort zone made my heart race. I was a grown woman, a brand-new lawyer, single, though I’d been practically married to my books for years. It was time for a break from the monotony.

“All right,” I conceded. “We’ll drive out after the event tonight.” I wasn’t going to miss this occasion for anything.

Nova clapped her hands. “Yes! Road trip!”

I mustered a laugh, but the flutter of nerves in my stomach wouldn’t settle. My mother had always been a drifter, hooking up with random bikers and coasting in and out of my life at her convenience. I’d spent considerable time resenting her, but my sense of loyalty remained strong enough to bring me when she required my presence. Maybe that was a weakness in me. But I had another weakness, the yearning to experience what I’d only read about.