Paige was looking at a mountain with shaggy dark hair, and a spray of dark stubble across his jaw. His eyes were big, and dark, and they looked lonely, or sad…Shit! She wasn’t about to get sucked in by a gorgeous face. Look where that got her sister. She opened her mouth and then closed it again when she saw the scratches along the side of his face. He was three times her size. She couldn’t believe that she’d fought him like she had. He could have…she almost laughed when she thought “killed me.” She was pissed at him for stopping her from killing herself, yet she was worried about him killing her. She’d lost her mind. “Where did you take me?”

“You’re at the Sin City Flames clubhouse just outside of Vegas…”

Paige jumped off the bed and stood up. “Oh, no fucking way! I don’t do bikers…not anymore, and I sure as hell am not going to do one that knocked me out and kidnapped me. What the fuck is wrong with you anyways? Are you a fucking caveman?” Her head was pounding, and it only got worse the more she yelled at him. She reached up and rubbed her temples. She’d been at this clubhouse, more than once. She dated a Flame for several months a few years back. He was young, his body was hard, and that face…so freaking hot. He had eyes that melted the panties off women and she should have known what a bad idea that was. They hadn’t talked about monogamy, but since he spent so much time with her and acted like he couldn’t get enough, she’d just assumed they were headed in that direction. She felt like a complete ass for “assuming” the moment she walked into the poolroom at the clubhouse and found him naked with a big-titted blonde in his lap, riding him like a stallion. She should have just quietly walked away, but an involuntary gasp had come out and attracted their attention in her direction. Paige hadn’t even noticed there were others in the room until “her” biker flashed his hottest smile at her and said, “Hey, baby, have one of the guys get you warmed up. I’ll be done here in a sec.” She looked around then and the men that weren’t getting fucked or sucked were all eyeing her like she was a piece of steak, on sale dirt cheap. Paige had done the walk of shame back to her car and she’d avoided anything since where the Flames might be congregated…and now this. Fuck.

“Do you want some aspirin?”

She looked back up at the man who had basically assaulted her and then kidnapped her and was now offering aspirin and a look of concern over her headache. Maybe she was still dreaming because that sounded crazy even in her head. “No, I don’t want your fucking aspirin. I want to go home.” She started to head for the door and the mountain moved into her path. She put out her hands and pushed against his massive chest. It was as hard as a rock and her push didn’t faze him.

“You want to go home?” he asked in a soft, un-kidnapper-like tone.

“Yes!”

“Or do you want to go and finish what you started this morning?”

“Either way, it’s none of your business. I don’t even know you.”

He put out his hand. It was as huge as the rest of him and it was calloused from either work, or riding his Harley. “Garrett Banks, and you are?”

“Leaving!” She stepped around him and thought he was going to let her go, but he moved fast for such a big guy. He was in between her and the door again before she made it there. “What the hell is your problem?”

“Can’t let you go kill yourself.”

“Why? Is it your fucking job to monitor suicides this week? Did you know that Las Vegas is the suicide capital of the free world? Obviously, you’re doing a shitty job.” He didn’t move, and he didn’t speak, and that only frustrated her more. “You’re insane, do you know that? You can’t watch me 24/7…” Suddenly it dawned on her—what was he doing out there himself at three a.m.? “Oh my God, you were there to do yourself in and you have the nerve to kidnap me, to stop my suicide?”

“What makes you think I was going to do myself in?”

“Why else would you be out there at three o’clock in the morning?”

“It was almost four.”

“Oh my God, you’re fucking exasperating! Who cares what time it was? It was still dark, and it was closed, so there was no reason for you to be there, unless you were there for the same reason I was.”

“Maybe I went there to save a life.”

“Okay, boy scout, job done. I’ll be going now…”

He put up his big hand and said, “Paige, wait…”

“How do you know my name?” Garrett looked over toward the purse he’d brought up out of her car. “Really? You went through my purse. Who do you think you are?”

In a calm voice that she could tell he was forcing he said, “Look, I know that I can’t keep you here, or follow you around and make sure you don’t kill yourself…but maybe we can compromise.”

“Compromise? I don’t want anything from you, so how could we compromise?”

“Talk to me. Tell me what is so bad in your life that makes you think you’d be better off dead. If I can’t help you find a solution, I’ll let you walk out of here and get on with your death.”

Paige folded her arms. She was about to tell him to go fuck himself, but who knew how long he’d keep her here if she didn’t give him what he wanted? Besides, she didn’t have to tell him shit; she just had to make him think she was telling him what he wanted to hear. “Fine. I’ll tell you my sad story, and you tell me yours.”

A shadow, or a cloud, passed through his dark eyes and he swallowed what looked like a lump in his throat and then he said, “Fine, but if neither of us are dying today, maybe we should get something to eat first. I’m hungry.” Paige almost smiled. She believed it took a hell of a lot of fuel to keep his tank of a body running.

“Fine. I could eat.”

“Claudia probably has breakfast ready downstairs by now…”

“Not here. If I wasn’t already suicidal, this place would make me want to kill myself.”

For the first time since she met him, Garrett smiled. It was more of a grin, really, a crooked one. It completely changed his face and made her feel things that she didn’t want to feel. “Alright. There’s a hamburger place up the road. They have some killer cheese fries.”

“I hate cheese fries.”

She was planning on being obstinate at every turn, but when he said, “Okay, we can go wherever you want,” the ice around her heart melted…just a little bit.

“The burger joint is fine. I’ll have the chicken strips, they’re not bad.” As she and Garrett made their way out to the car, Amanda’s voice popped into her head, “Always the bad boys, Paige. Why? What’s the attraction?” She started to argue with her sister’s disembodied voice, and tell her this was different. She didn’t choose this guy, he kidnapped her. She wasn’t dating him, or hanging out with him, or fucking him. She was having a meal, telling him a story and then she’d be on her way. There was one thing that she couldn’t deny, though…she did feel an attraction to him. It wasn’t like he’d ever know, or anything would ever come of it. As soon as she could get away from him, she planned on finishing what she’d gone out to the dam to start.

* * *

Garrett toyed with his cheeseburger and Paige picked at her food and neither of them spoke. It was Garrett who broke the silence at last and said, “Do you have family?”

He saw Paige straighten her spine, and her eyes widened. Something about his question alarmed her and for several seconds she looked like she was breathing her way through the beginnings of an anxiety attack. At last she said, “A mother and father. You?”

Garrett popped a fry in his mouth for the express purpose of stalling and then he said, “My Pops is still around, and I have a daughter.”

Paige raised an eyebrow like she couldn’t imagine him as a father, and Garrett was slightly insulted but not surprised. “How old is your daughter?”

“She’s almost four.”

Paige smiled slightly. “That’s a fun age. I used to teach Sunday school at my church; the three- to five-year-olds were my favorites.”

Church…Garrett wondered if he could use her faith to talk her out of taking her life. “Yeah, it’s a great age. She soaks things up like a sponge. She’s so smart.”

“What about her mother?”

“What about her?”

“Is she in the picture, somewhere?”

“She’s my daughter’s mother, and she takes good care of her. She’s not in my life otherwise, if that’s what you’re asking.”

Paige cleared her throat. “I guess I’m just wondering why a man with a child would kill himself. I mean, won’t that be hard on your daughter to know you committed suicide?”

He nodded slowly. “I imagine it will be, but I think she’ll be better off in the long run. She’s got a great mother and stepfather. They’ll make sure she grows up okay.”

“Hmm.”

“Hmm, what?” Garrett was about to take a bite of his cheeseburger when she said:

“Seems kind of selfish to me.”

It was his turn to cock an eyebrow. He put the burger down and as he was wiping his hands he said, “What about you? I mean, did you think about how it would affect your parents to lose a child? Especially, in such a horrible way?”

Paige almost winced, like he’d hit her, and then she said, “They’ll be okay. They’ve been through worse.” Garrett wondered what could possibly be worse than losing your child. He couldn’t imagine it.

“Sounds a little selfish to me,” he said. She jerked her head up to look at his face, like she was going to be angry. But Garrett was smiling so her features softened and she smiled back.

“I guess I had that coming. It just seems different when there’s a kid involved.”

“You are someone’s kid, though.”

She sighed. “So are you…although it is hard to imagine you as a child.”

He chuckled. “I was born four-foot-tall and two hundred pounds.”

She giggled. “Your poor mother.” They ate again in silence for a while. Garrett really wanted to hear her story. Something about her interested him and even if it hadn’t, he felt strongly that she’d been put in his path that night so that he could save her. He knew people might think he was odd if they knew…but he was kind of hoping that God had sent her to distract him from the task of suicide, or even better as retribution for at least some of the horrible things he’d done. When Paige was finished eating, she pushed her plate aside and said, “You don’t seem suicidal.”

He cocked an eyebrow and said, “We never really established that I was.”

“Oh, give me a break. Nobody hangs out at the dam at three a.m. for kicks. You were going to jump until you saw me and then your Knight in Shining Armor complex kicked in.”

He chanced a small smile and said, “A little bit ago I was a kidnapper.”

“Well, technically, you are. But you’re justifying that because you think you’re saving my life.”

He shrugged. “I guess you can call it whatever you want. I just couldn’t let you go through with that.”

“You’re a hypocrite, though. You were going to do the same thing.”

“Maybe. But I doubt you deserve to die.”

She pulled her brows together. “Why on earth would you think that? You don’t know me. You have no idea what I’m guilty of.”

“True. Tell me your story and I’ll tell you if I think you deserve it or not.”

She rolled her eyes. “First off, that wasn’t the original deal, and second, why on earth should your opinion matter to me?”

He smiled again. “I reckon it shouldn’t. But I guess either way, you still owe me a story.”

He watched as a shiver ripped through her body, and a lump formed in his throat when he looked at her face and saw the pain in her eyes. Maybe he shouldn’t have pushed her. He was just trying so hard to stall for time until he could think of some way to convince her that she didn’t want to die after all. He knew he was probably giving himself too much credit. He hadn’t even been able to convince himself that he wanted to go on living. How on earth did I expect to convince this woman I don’t even know? He kept watching her as she looked around them at all the other people in the place like she’d just noticed them. It was a popular hangout for the locals. In Las Vegas, there weren’t many places that hadn’t been invaded by the tourists, but this was one of them. The breakfast crowd was packing itself in now and the tables on all sides of them were full and getting loud. When she looked back at Garrett, he got the feeling that she was forcing herself not to cry as she said:

“I can’t talk about it here. Can we go somewhere else?”

“Sure. Wherever you want to go. My place isn’t far from here…”

She shook her head hard. “No…” Then she said, “If I promise not to jump, can we go back to the dam?”

Garrett chuckled. “Sure, but you have to pinky promise.” It was something Jessie made him do sometimes. He felt a surge of blood to his constantly aching heart when he thought about Jessie. But he was happy when he looked at Paige’s face. The idea of the big man making a “pinky promise” had made her smile and it was genuinely a beautiful sight.