As the day turned into night and they lay together exploring each other’s bodies, Tammy knew she had found her soul mate. Everything about Lynx fit with her perfectly, and there was nothing she didn’t want to tell him.
She told him of how she longed for a family, and he agreed with her. He explained how he had always felt the same and couldn’t wait to have one of his own. He opened up about his past and his childhood, confiding in her about how he had been treated badly, abused by his guardians, and eventually fled when he was fifteen and found himself in Slate Springs without a penny to his name and not a clue of how to look after himself.
“What happened?” Tammy asked him with eager eyes.
“I met one of The Forsaken Riders,” he smiled as he ran his fingertips through her hair. “They took me in, put a roof over my head, gave me a job… They saved my life.”
Tammy had no idea how it must have felt to be so alone in the world. Even though she missed her mother dearly every day, she had always had the love and support of her father and Dean.
“I’m sorry that happened to you,” she whispered before she gave him a single kiss on his chest.
“I’m not anymore,” he said. “If it hadn’t of happened, I never would have wound up here with you.”
Even though he was right, she still couldn’t help but feel like a lot of his life had been either traumatic or wasted being locked up in jail.
“Who were you protecting, Lynx?” Tammy blurted the words out before she even knew she was going to say them.
He sat up and rested his forearms on the tips of his knees.
“I can’t tell you that, Tam,” he said gently as he turned to look at her.
She felt herself stiffen and she knew that if he ever wanted her to believe a word that came out of his mouth ever again, then he didn’t have the option… He was going to have to tell her.
“All you’ve been saying since the moment we met is that I have to trust you,” she said as she pulled herself up. “Now don’t you think it’s about time you trusted me?”
He looked thoughtful for a moment before he took hold of her hand.
“Isn’t it obvious?” he asked.
Tammy searched his face for an answer, but she would never be able to guess. She shook her head and he dropped his.
“It was Reid, babe…” he said with a sigh. “I was protecting the only man who ever really took care of me.”
Tammy felt the blood rush into her head, and she felt dizzy. Reid, Lexi’s dad, had murdered someone and Lynx had protected him and done the time.
“But why?” she asked with confusion.
“Reid was the one who took me in when I found myself here at fifteen,” he shrugged. “He’d already been away and done time, and he wasn’t well…” He stopped for a moment and Tammy could see the tears welling up behind his eyes.
“It was my fault he did it in the first place. I botched up a job, we got caught. It was either Reid shot the guy whose shop we were turning over, or we were all going down.”
Tammy shivered.
“I couldn’t let him go back inside,” Lynx said. “It would have finished the old boy off…”
“But he’s sick now?” she said, her confusion mounting.
“The cancer came back,” he nodded. “I’m glad he didn’t spend the last years of his life rotting away in some jail when it was my fault he would have been there in the first place.”
He sniffed and then smiled.
“So now you know everything,” he concluded. “But you can never tell Lexi…or King, for that matter. The code of The Forsaken Riders is one that can never be broken, and King wasn’t around when all of this went down. Okay?”
She nodded and reached out to stroke his arm once more.
For a man who had lived on the wrong side of the tracks since he was a kid, Lynx was wise and full of integrity. When he confessed his darkest secret to her, she knew why she loved him… He was just like her underneath it all. Under all of the muscles, the piercings and tattoos, and the scent of booze and smoke, he was a kind-hearted man, and he had won her over with his honesty.
She looked up at him, and he pulled her close to him. She knew her life was never going to be the same again. She had met the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with. He was going to be the father of her children, and she was never going to be looked at the same in Slate Springs ever again. Less than a week before, Tammy had barely even laid eyes on any of the Forsaken Riders, but now she and Lexi were in deep, and they were beginning the lives they had always dreamed of in their own unique ways.
She was no longer going to be sweet, innocent good girl Tammy. She was going to be Lynx’s woman, a wild cat just like him. And she was going to make sure that they fought for each other, their family, and their right to their love over and above anything else...
THE END
Read on for a preview of book 3 in the series, STEEL