Chapter 2

Lasso

I was confused as hell and all my Spidey senses were tingling in warning, telling me that shit stunk to high hell and it had nothing to do with the German shepherd next door. Standing on my porch, looking as lush and sexy as she had for one hot night in San Diego, was a girl—a woman—I hadn’t seen in almost two months. “Uhm…hey Rocky. What’s up?” As I stood there, ready for whatever bomb she was about to drop, another thought occurred. What if Rocky was a stalker? The Reckless Bastards had enough of that lately.

“We need to talk,” she said, her tone serious and somber. I braced myself, knowing nothing good ever came after those four words. “Can I come in?” The way she looked over both shoulders, scanned my residential neighborhood, set me on edge and I stepped back, waving her in.

“Are you in some kind of trouble?” Because that would be just fucking perfect. I meet a hot girl and we have one fun night together and now she thinks the big bad biker can swoop in and save her.

“Kind of. Do you have any water? I’m so thirsty but I didn’t want to stop for the bathroom so, please?”

All types of warnings clanged around my brain at her words and how they didn’t fit together, not with her tone and her actions. But I got her a glass of cold water from the fridge and shoved it in her hands. “There. Start talking.”

She didn’t look worried at all, just gulped down half the glass and set it on the table, keeping her fingers curled around the bottom. “Thanks for that. I needed…oh shit.” One hand smacked over her mouth as her green eyes flashed wide. Worried. She was on her feet seconds later and before I could register what the fuck was going on, Rocky was emptying her stomach in my kitchen sink. On and on she went, making the most sickening sounds while I stood in my own damn kitchen feeling helpless as fuck. “Sorry about that.” Her smile was sheepish, her expression contrite.

But now I was on the verge of fucking panicking. “You want to tell me what the hell is going on here, Rocky?” I refilled her glass and shoved it her hands, forcing her to sit back down before she collapsed on the floor. I wet a kitchen towel and put it on the back of her neck. I didn’t know why, I just remember my own mama doing that to me when I made it to the kitchen table with a hangover. “Are you all right?”

“Yes. No. Probably not,” she answered softly and then burst into tears, grabbing one of the many scarves around her waist and drying her eyes.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

I hated tears. Nothing made me feel more helpless, more useless than a woman with tears in her eyes. I vowed, after leaving my family and my hometown of Rose Petal, Texas, that I’d never feel that way again. And now, look at me.

Fuck.

All I could do was wrap my arms around her and hold her close while she cried her eyes out, clung to me and left my t-shirt a soggy mess. Thankfully she didn’t have any makeup on so I was just wet. “Ah shit, Rocky.”

She took my words the wrong way, pulling back and sitting tall in the wooden kitchen chair as she wiped away all traces of her tears. “Sorry. Shit, I’m really sorry, Dallas.” She stood, her legs a little wobbly as she walked the few steps to the sink, rinsing out her glass and the sink itself, finding cleaning products under the sink. “Seriously, I’m sorry.”

“Should I ask again?” It was obvious she needed help just as it was obvious she didn’t want to tell me why. Or ask for my help.

Her southern California tanned skin, paled and she shook her head as she sat. “No. I’m not dying. Not right now, anyway.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Remember that guy you saved me from the night we met?” I nodded, how could I forget that neck tattooed freak with bad hair and worse fucking manners. “He’s a henchman for my ex. Ex employer and ex-lover. Genesis.”

I snorted. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. Anyway they’ve upped their bullshit since we last saw each other but at first it was just dumb but inconvenient shit. Slashed tires and a vandalized apartment. I can handle that. I know they thought I’d get scared and go running back to Genesis, but I didn’t. But now, they’ve attacked Kody.”

“Your boyfriend?” She’d said nothing about a boyfriend during our night together, but they could have gotten together in the two months since. The thought fucking rankled. It shouldn’t have, but it damn well did.

She laughed. “No, Kody is my friend. The first real friend I’ve ever had, actually, which is why seeing him with that black eye really messed with my head. But Kody is …great. He’s a sensitive guy. A chef with a boyfriend he plans on marrying soon, but it doesn’t matter. They’ve ruined that friendship, so I had to leave.”

An ex who couldn’t take rejection wasn’t that big of a deal, even if he was a gangster, so none of this told me why it was my door she’d knocked on. “So why did you have to leave?”

“Because, Dallas.”

I winced at her use of my given name. No one ever called me Dallas. Hell, I didn’t even know why I introduced myself to her like that. The name was a reminder of everything I’d left behind, everything I hated about home. Family. “Lasso. Call me Lasso.”

Red brows rose dramatically. “Considering what that says about me, I’ll pass. Anyway I had to leave because who knows what they’ll do now and my situation changed about the same time Kody showed up with his black eye.” She sighed, wringing her hands in the fabric of her orangish-pink skirt. “I’m pregnant, Dallas. It’s yours but that’s not why I’m here. I just need…just…a few days to make a plan.”

Pregnant? Pregnant. Pregnant? The word sounded in my head until it had absolutely no meaning, other than what it meant for my life. My future. She was still talking but I’d stopped listening, just watching her lips move but the sound didn’t register. Lush pink lips moved, occasionally her fingers ran through thick red hair but otherwise she just talked.

“I know this is a lot to take in, Dallas and I am damn sorry for that, but I was acting on instinct. I don’t need money. I just need to lie low for a few days. No one knows you and could connect us. Please.” Her brows dipped low and her shoulders fell. Resignation.

“You’re pregnant?” Words finally came and they were…idiotic.

“I am. You’re the only man I’ve been with in two years, but like I said, I’m not asking for anything else. Not cash, not your belief, or your protection other than a few days’ safety of this unknown place.”

“How long?” The words came out harsher than I meant them to, but it was the first thought that came to mind.

She sighed, disappointed but again, resigned. “Right. Maybe a week or two, but let’s just say three days? Can you give me three days?”

Shit. What the hell kind of shit was she involved in that she wasn’t cursing me out for not offering more help? She said she was carrying my baby, shouldn’t she be demanding my protection and my financial assistance? “Is this a scam or some kind of game?”

“No,” she laughed bitterly. “It’s neither of those things but you don’t know me to know that. I get it,” she said with a casual shrug that told me she did get it. Her green eyes were sad but determined as she finished her water and stood. “See you around, Dallas.”

No. Hell no. There was no way I’d fall for this trick. This little game meant to tug on my emotions. Good thing I didn’t have any emotions because I didn’t trust anyone but my brothers. A few of the old timers were married, some had permanent old ladies and even some of my friends had gotten loved up, but I didn’t trust them. I liked them, but when the time came that they dicked over my brothers, I’d be the first in line to make sure they paid the price.

Still, I felt like an asshole. She was pregnant and had an angry ex after her, and I was turning her way. But what if she isn’t pregnant? That was the question my conscience kept poking and prodding my brain with. The practical side of me wanted to know what if she was, and that thought had me on my feet at the front door just in time to see her pull the door open on an old black Chevy Blazer with matted paint. “What kind of trouble are you in, exactly?”

She didn’t turn around, didn’t look up at me to try and plead her case one final time. If this was a game, giving up wouldn’t get her anything, would it?

“Do you need my help?”

She did look up then and what I saw was fatigue. And fear. Her gaze slammed right into me, blank and bright green even from fifty feet away. “Nah, I’ll figure something out.”

“Where are you staying?”

Her smile was sad, wistful even. “Wherever I stop next.” She hopped in the Blazer, started the ignition, and pulled away. Exiting my life just as quickly as she’d entered it.

Except this time she was carrying my kid.

Probably.

Maybe.

Shit. I had to go after her.

***

I’d caught up to her at a burger joint and convinced her to come back to my place. “The car, is it stolen?”

“No, it’s not stolen. I’m not a car thief. But I took the long way here, stopping to trade my car in for something a little bigger and a lot less conspicuous.” She was right, the red Mini Cooper she had on the night we met was an eyecatcher, but the redhead inside? Impossible to ignore.

“What are you running from exactly?” She’d said an ex had sent his men after her. Henchmen, she said, which meant he was more than a low-level gangster.

“I already told you. Goons who want to drag me back to a life I already left behind.” The way she sighed and her shoulders slumped reminded me of my own demeanor when I left Texas for the last time. She scraped every last bit of sauce and cheese from the lasagna on her plate, and then rinsed it in the sink, readying herself to say something. “I appreciate the dinner, Dallas, I do. But you don’t have to do this.”

“Do what?”

“Pretend you care. I dropped all this in your lap unexpectedly and you’ve handled it like a champ, but you don’t owe me anything. I’m sorry if I made you feel like you did.”

Goddammit this girl was determined to make me get in touch with my sensitive side. “I don’t do anything I don’t want to, Rocky.” Including her.

“Right,” she said and pushed my hand away as I slid a plate of chocolate cake in front of her. “Stop trying to feed me if you want me to believe you’re as tough as you appear.” But she sliced her fork through a corner, bit it and moaned low and deep.

“And don’t try to distract me with that sex moan. Just tell me what I want to know.”

“My what?” She choked as she swallowed another bite.

“That sex moan. Believe me, I remember.” Her cheeks turned an adorable shade of pink, especially considering all the dirty shit we’d done together that night.

Rocky rolled her eyes and pushed the plate away. “Okay, the short version is that my dad is—or maybe was—a bank robber. We learned one day a long time ago that I had a knack for planning heists, which meant I had no choice but to do them.

At first it was fun, you know, drawing and spending time with my dad. But then it became a job and two months before I turned seventeen, I left Florida behind. Hopped on a bus, stopping here and there to wait tables and gather more cash for wherever I landed. When I got to California, it was my first taste of freedom,” she inhaled deeply. “It was so intoxicating, all the sunshine which I was used to, but the freedom. It was great!” She smiled and for a moment she looked like the sexy redhead I’d met on the beach, looking hotter than anyone should in plain black slacks and a fitted white shirt.

“I know a little something about that. After the military I went back to Texas and my family and their oppressive fucking expectations. When I made my escape, it was to here. There was no ocean but that smell and that feeling of freedom, yeah I know exactly what you mean.” It was like being released from prison or gaining eyesight for the first time.

“I was waiting tables and selling my crafts on the beach when I first met Genesis. He was good looking and he had that charm that really young seventeen year old girls find appealing, and I was a really young seventeen year old.” She rolled her eyes with that self-deprecating smile that tugged at my own mouth. “I didn’t realize what he was at first. I mean, my dad was a crook but not that kind of criminal, at least I didn’t think so. Anyway, by the time I realized what kind of man he was, it was because I owed him money.”

“Your own boyfriend?” I shook my head. That guy was a fucking asshole.

“Yep. See, a few of us were getting together for a bachelorette party and I thought it’d be nice to have a little pot for the night, but Genesis said this was a grown up party and that I should bring coke. I’d done a line here and there but nothing real serious. He gave me some so I took it. It wasn’t until the next day he told me I owed him $1200. ‘Ass or cash,’ he said.” Her gaze darkened as she relived the memory and my fingers itched to pound that fucker’s face into the cement. “Then a few days later he magically remembered how I used to help my dad.”

“Wait, what? Seriously?” She just nodded sadly. “What a fucking prick.” The guy was an asshole but he was smart to take advantage of such a fantastic and unknown tool.

“Yeah, but after the first heist went so well my debt was cleared which was a relief. But then he started to pay me. Cash, zanies and vicos,” she said, casually tossing out the street name for Xanax and Vicodin. “I had this little one-bedroom apartment with plenty of light in the living room. My craft room was my living room and I had this long table by the balcony where I had an almost unobstructed view of the Hollywood sign.” She sighed wistfully, her green eyes someplace else, that happier time I assumed. “I was in a happy bubble, stoned and crafting, planning two or three heists a month for a fat bundle of cash. I kept doing it, not even thinking about it at all, Dallas, not until I gave up the pills.”

“Why?” I needed to know if I had to worry about having a junkie in my house and carrying my kid.

She shrugged. “I was over it and I preferred the way I felt with pot, a little spacey but not enough that I could ignore my conscience. And I started thinking that if I was going to do this with my life, I could at least be with Dad.” A laugh erupted out of her. “Okay, so not really the short version, but there it is, the whole story.”

“And you think that’s why he wants you back?” She rolled her eyes, swiped her phone screen a few times and shoved it under my nose. I frowned at the room on her screen, filled with bins of yarn, tubes of glitter, fake flowers, beads and plenty of other shit that the old ladies in Rose Petal would love. “What the hell am I looking at?”

She laughed but the sound was harsh and bitter. “Prison. Genesis wants to keep me high and planning heists for him. Whether I want to or not.”

“And you’re not tempted, not even a little?” If she was going to change her mind in a few days, I couldn’t get involved. If I landed myself in the middle of some on and off couple, I would send her on her way right damn now.

“Hell no. I mean, I get why he might think I’d come back, but I’m not the girl too naïve and too blind to see the truth anymore. And honestly, there’s nothing quite like being on my own.”

“No, there isn’t.” The desert air made it easier to breathe than the thick, suffocating air in Rose Petal.

“So yeah, I’m not going back. But I need a plan and to make a decent one, I need time. For some reason, I’d thought you might help, but it’s okay if you won’t. I always land on my feet.”

Shit. I couldn’t let her go now, knowing she was pregnant with a gangbanger after her. “One more question, who does this Genesis run with?”

Rocky stood and grabbed her bag, heading for my front door again. “The Killer Aces. See ya, Lasso.”