Emma stared up at the man who loomed over her with a frown on his face, his brow furrowed, and hands on his hips, just waiting for her to spill her secrets.

“Can I get dressed first?”

“No.”

She raised a hand to her cheek. “Can I wash my face?”

“No.”

“Are you always this bossy?”

His lips twitched slightly, then he grunted, “Fuck yeah.”

Great. She sighed. “Where should I start?”

“The beginnin’.”

“Maybe you should take a seat then,” she suggested, waving a hand at a worn leather recliner nearby.

“Fine where I’m at.”

“I’d prefer you sit down.” She didn’t need a big tattooed biker standing over her as she tried to tell him a story that was painful. “Please,” she added softly.

A look she didn’t recognize crossed his face, then he finally gave her a sharp nod and settled into the recliner that faced the couch. At least now there was some distance between them and she might be able to think a bit straighter.

She cleared her throat. “I have a daughter.”

“Know it.”

She frowned. “Are you going to let me tell you?”

His lips twitched again, and he sat back. “Go.”

She took a deep inhale and began to speak. “I was eighteen when I met him.” Because of her grades and her SAT scores, she had received a scholarship and some grants to attend a college she wouldn’t have normally been able to afford. Especially since her grandmother who raised her couldn’t help her financially, either. But it was a college where her future husband’s family had no problem footing his bill. “I was a freshman and met him at a frat party—”

He leaned forward with a jerk. “Him?”

She shot him a look.

His eyes widened as if he hadn’t realized he’d spoken out loud, and he said again, “Go.”

“Handsome, smart, from a good family...”

His fingers curled into fists on his thighs. “He beat you?”

“Dawson,” she chided him for interrupting again. “Do you want to hear it or not?”

“Sorry. Go.”

“I was too young to realize that I was too young to make life-altering decisions. Like marriage and family and...”

“And?”

She blew out a breath. “I thought I was in love. Anyway, long story short, by the time I graduated college, we were engaged, living together, and I was expecting.” She sat back and chewed on her bottom lip as she remembered how she felt when she found out she was pregnant.

Excited. Elated. Hopeful. That’s how she felt. She couldn’t wait to be a mother. Even though her career would be put on hold for a little while, she thought it would be worth it.

“And then Lily was born.” She would never forget the moment the nurse placed her newborn in her arms. “You can’t know how precious... what a gift...” She glanced up and saw Dawg’s face was as tight as a drum.

No, he couldn’t know how precious bringing a life into the world could be. He never had the chance to see his daughter being born, to hold her during that first breath. To watch her take her first steps. Hear her first words. To create that bond with a life that was a piece of yourself. Her chest ached for his loss. For never knowing the love that you felt as a parent.

Because he was never allowed to be one. He’d been denied that opportunity. Most likely because of who he was and where he came from, how he chose to live his life.

He had been treated as a mistake that needed to be erased.

And that was downright cruel.

She swallowed the lump in her throat. “After Lily was born, our marriage suffered, but I didn’t know why. I mean we were young and being new parents was stressful. But something else was going on and because I was so caught up with taking care of my daughter, I missed it. Maybe it was my fault, for being blind, for not paying attention. I don’t know...”

“Emma.”

Her name on his lips and the way he said it drew her attention. His green eyes looked dark, troubled, his jaw tight.

“He cheat on you?”

“It was worse than that.” Because it was oh-so worse. Never in her wildest dreams could she imagine what the man—who she loved, who she married, who she had a child with—was plotting.

In fact, even now, she had a hard time wrapping her head around it. She couldn’t imagine what kind of human being did what he did. A selfish bastard, that was who.

“He have a kid with someone else?”

She made a noise before she could stop it. She pressed her fingers to her lips to prevent anything else from escaping. Closing her eyes, she pictured her baby girl. Her daughter in her crib. Wobbling across the floor taking her first steps. Smashing the cake from her first birthday into her mouth but missing and getting it all over her chubby chin and cheeks as she laughed with glee. Then the cake from her second birthday and the third. Even the fourth.

And Emma had no idea what was going on all that time. None.

In the end, all she knew was that she failed her daughter. She had been too blissfully unaware.

“Emma,” Dawg urged, his voice low and tight, no more than a rough whisper, spurring her to continue.

“No, that’s the funny part.” Which really wasn’t funny at all. “He didn’t have any other children. They couldn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

Emma lifted her gaze to meet Dawg’s head-on. “The woman he was... seeing for years behind my back couldn’t have children. Though they tried. And tried. So they...”

Emma squeezed her eyes shut, stinging tears threatening to spill once more, her throat closing up. She didn’t know if she could continue. It was like ripping the wound open all over again to expose something that was painful, raw, unbearable.

“Betrayed me,” she finally finished, her voice catching.

“How?”

Saying the words made it feel like a knife being shoved into her heart all over again. “They... stole my daughter.”

“What the fuck!” Dawg bellowed, jumping up from his seat, his face a mask of pure unadulterated rage, his hands clenched tightly into fists. “What the fuck you talkin’ about?”

Emma dropped her face into her hands and shook her head. She couldn’t talk about it anymore. She couldn’t put it into words. Those words cut her like a million shards of shattered glass.

Dawg rushed over to her, dropped to his knees, grabbed her face in his big hands and forced her to look at him.

His furious expression, the hardness in his eyes, his flaring nostrils made a shiver of fear skitter down her spine.

He gave her a slight shake. “Emma! What the fuck you talkin’ about?”

She breathed, “They took her.”

“Who?”

“My husband and his... his girlfriend.”

“When?”

“A year and a half ago.”

“Why didn’t you stop ‘em?”

If it had only been that easy. “I couldn’t.”

“What do you mean?”

“He snuck out in the middle of the night and disappeared.”

Though, her husband was kind enough to leave a note explaining why and that she shouldn’t be worried, that her daughter would be safe with him. And, by the way, not to bother looking for them since she’d never find them. Bastard.

“Where?”

“I don’t know!”

“What do you mean you don’t know!” he shouted.

“Exactly what I said,” she shouted back in frustration. “I have no idea where they are.”

“What the fuck! That’s impossible. Hire someone to find ‘em.”

“I did! I fucking did, Dawson! I spent all of my money on investigators. On attorneys. I did...” She ground the heels of her palms into her eyes and took a shaky breath.

“Have to be somewhere...”

“No. They left the country. They disappeared somewhere other than the States. The trail went cold in South America and I ran out of money. I lost my house. I lost my car. I lost everything because I spent every cent trying to find them. Trying to bring my daughter home.”

Dawg sat back on his heels, dragged a hand through his hair and blew out a breath. Then he pushed to his feet and began to pace restlessly.

“That is why I need this job, Dawson. I need this job. I need cash.” She rose to her feet and stepped into his path, gripping his leather vest within her fingers and shaking it. “I need to find my daughter!”

Dawg stood staring down at her, his breathing fast, his eyes narrowed. “You’re fired.”

“What?” That was the last thing she expected to come out of his mouth.

“Gonna find your daughter.”

And that was the second to last thing. “How?”

“Know people. Cops. A lawyer. Men who are good at findin’ people who don’t wanna be found.”

Emma shook her head. “I can’t let this become your problem.”

“Too late.”

“Why’s that?”

He cupped her cheeks in his hands and stared down into her face. “Knew the minute you walked into my club, baby girl. The second I looked into those eyes when you were in my bed, when my dick was inside you... you were mine. I take care of my girls...”

But she wasn’t one of his girls, he... “You just fired me.”

“An’ I take care of my girl.”

His girl? What was he saying? “I’m not your girl, Dawson.”

“The fuck you ain’t.”

“I need you to be my boss not my... boyfriend.” Even the word tasted weird on her tongue. “I just need a chance to earn enough cash to rehire the investigator. So he can continue—”

“No.”

Her head jerked back. No? Just no? “No what?”

“No, got it covered. Got you covered. Gonna get your daughter back.”

Emma tried desperately to tamp down the hope that bubbled up from his words. He sounded so confident. Like he could do it. Like he could actually find Lily and bring her home. But he was a biker. A strip club manager. What kind of connections could he possibly have?

What could this man do that the police, the FBI and even INTERPOL couldn’t? He was delusional to think he could do something they haven’t been able to.

“I don’t want to be in debt to you, Dawson. I can’t be.”

“No debt. Doin’ it for you. For your girl.”

“But you don’t even know me.”

“Fucked you. Know you.”

They had sex once and now he knew her? Really? “That simple?”

“Yeah. That simple, baby girl.”

“I can’t afford—”

“Already said you ain’t payin’ shit, baby girl. Got you covered.”

“I can’t just allow you to help me and not do anything in return.”

“Ain’t gonna strip. You’ll chase away my customers.”

She blinked at his honesty. “You don’t sugar coat anything, do you?”

“Fuck no. You need to pay me back, you’ll do it in a different way, got me?”

“What do you mean? How?” He better not had meant sex. She was not going to sell her body, even to get her daughter back. Not to this biker or anyone else.

Though, she had to admit, during her most desperate times she’d considered it. Even though she had been appalled at the thought, she’d considered anything that would mean getting her daughter back. Anything.

So far, the police hadn’t been much help, FBI could only do so much, and INTERPOL didn’t have her missing daughter at the top of their priority list. What was more, the investigator she had hired didn’t work for free.

“Gonna rehire you,” he finally said with a frown.

“You just fired me,” she stated, surprised.

“Yeah, as a dancer. Gonna hire you as a hostess. Wear a sexy dress, show some cleavage, get the girls to show you how to wear some makeup to highlight your girl-next-door look, nothing slapped on too thick. Work the room, make sure the girls are doin’ what they’re supposed to be doin’, make sure the customers are happy. Comp ‘em a drink if they’re tippin’ heavily. Flirt, smile, but no dancin’. Make ‘em feel welcome.”

She could do that! And she didn’t have to get naked!

“Gotta learn to walk in heels. Gonna set you up with one of the girls to go shoppin’.” He lifted his hand before she could interrupt him. “Gonna cover your expenses like your clothes an’ heels. Any makeup you need. Got me?”

“Yes, so how much is this going to pay?”

“Nothin’.”

“Nothing?” He expected her to work for free? That wasn’t going to happen. Not as long as she was in her right mind.

“Gonna get your daughter back. No matter what it costs. This is how you’ll make it up to me. Got me?”

“But... I have rent... expenses.”

“Nope.”

What? “Uh, yes.”

“No. Gotta spare room. You’re movin’ in. Livin’ expenses will be covered ‘til we get your daughter back. Once we do, can find your own place again.”

“Wait.” She lifted a palm and glanced around the living room. “You want me to live here?”

“Yeah. Gotta spare room.”

He already said that. That didn’t mean she was just moving in! Into a stranger’s apartment. Someone she’d only known for not even a couple of days. “Yes, but—”

“No shit, woman. Wanna find your daughter?”

“Yes!”

“Willin’ to do whatever you gotta do to get it done?”

“Yes!”

“Then gotta do what I say. No lip. No backtalk. No nothin’. Got me?”

“Uh...”

“Gonna get some prospects to move your shit into storage if you got too much. Basics come here for now.”

“Um...”

He lifted his hand again to stop her. “No lip. Got me?”

No matter what he wanted, she was asking this question: “You don’t expect me to sleep with you?”

“Bedroom door will be open. You wanna climb into my bed an’ fuck me, ain’t gonna complain. You don’t, ain’t gonna complain. Ain’t takin’ payment out in sex. Never needed to pay for pussy an’ ain’t gonna start now. You wanna climb on my dick, it’s on you. Do it ‘cause you wanna, not ‘cause you gotta. Yeah?”

“Yeah,” she echoed him on a breath, her heart racing at everything he just said.

She just got a job, sort of, a free place to live, sort of, and this man, this biker, stated he was going to get her daughter back. She hoped that wasn’t “sort of.”

This couldn’t be real.

None of this could be real. She had to be caught in some sort of alternate reality. She was just having some weird dream.

She reached into the black leather vest with the dirty patches he was wearing and pinched him.

He jerked. “What the fuck?”

“I’m just making sure this is all real.”

“By pinchin’ me?”

“Yes. I can’t very well pinch myself, right? If I’m dreaming, I’d only imagine myself doing it.”

He snorted. “You’re crazy, woman. But got a better way for you to tell this is all fuckin’ real.” With that, he dropped his head, jerked her closer and crushed his lips to hers.

He took advantage of it when she gasped, slipping his tongue in between her lips and exploring her mouth thoroughly. She clung to him as her knees went weak. His rough beard scraped against her skin, his tongue took control of her mouth, his erection pressed into her belly. He grabbed one of her hands and shoved it between them, curving it over his hard-on. He lifted his head slightly, his lips just above hers.

“Real enough for you?”

“Yes,” she whispered, his heat, his hardness making her squeeze her thighs together.

He let her go and stepped back. “Good. Door will be open at night. Your choice what room you end up in. Got me?”

“Got you,” she answered, her voice a bit breathless at the thought.

“Not obligated to do anythin’ but be the club’s hostess, baby girl.”

“Okay.”

“Can help keep shit clean ‘round here, though. Ain’t gonna bitch if you do.”

“Okay,” she repeated as if in a trance.

“Got the rest of the night off. Go home an’ pack. Need your address. Prospects will be there first thing in the mornin’ to grab your shit. Party at church tomorrow night. Will get Moose to run the club. Gonna take you an’ introduce you ‘round. Gonna talk to Diesel an’ Kiki. Maybe even Bella’s ol’ man, who’s a pig.”

She had no idea who he was talking about. And before she could ask, he continued.

“Cover yourself up for the party at church. This club you can let it all hang out. That club, no. Got me?”

She shook her head. “I’m confused.” This club, that club. A church. A pig. She had no clue what the hell he was talking about. Her head was spinning.

“Won’t be for long, baby girl. Promise. If you got a lease, break it tomorrow an’ let me know how much I need to pay.”

“But—”

“No lip.”

Right. No lip. She wasn’t allowed to argue with anything he said or did. But he was going to get her daughter back. That’s what he said. So for now, she’d follow his rules.

Then once she had Lily back in her custody, she could go on with her life as scheduled. Find another teaching job, find her own place. Tip her life back right-side up.

She could deal temporarily with his overbearing bossiness.

Who knew her savior would be wearing a leather vest, big black biker boots, worn jeans, a bunch of clunky silver jewelry and sporting a heavy beard, as well as a plethora of tattoos?

Not her.