Rough and Ready (More Than A Cowboy #2) - Vanessa Vale Page 0,28

to replace it.

This block was my past. My fucked-up childhood. Rough streets, rougher home life. In my mind, I saw my father’s angry face, heard his vicious words, felt the hot sear of his belt. There was no forgetting my mother’s drunk gaze as she let it all happen. The gym was an hour from here, but it could have been a world away. It was my life now, yet this shithole still close enough where it could easily come back to haunt me. I didn’t want to be back, but I couldn’t shake the two men who’d camped out in the gym’s lot. They’d done nothing, just sat there and watched us then eventually left. One minute they were there, the next time I turned around, gone.

It couldn’t be just a one-time thing. Not a chance in fucking hell.

Gray had shit with his dad. Old shit. I’d never met the man, but I knew he called Gray out of nowhere just to fuck with him. The asshole had him watched. Followed. He bet against his fights. And that was all since Gray returned from his army deployments. What happened when he was a kid… he didn’t speak about it any more than I shared my own past, but it had been fucked up.

But after last summer’s deal with Emory and the drug dealer who’d gone after her, the man had left Gray alone. Supposedly, Quake Baker had something on the dad, enough to make the bastard afraid. Afraid enough to leave his son alone. It helped that the older man was president of the No Holds Barred MC. I couldn’t see Gray’s dad stirring shit up now out of the blue. That left me. The men in the car had to have been there for me. But why?

My dad was dead. I’d seen to that. My mother had died a few years ago, her liver finally giving out on her in some women’s shelter. The crowd I’d run with back in the day weren’t part of a gang, at least they hadn’t been years ago. The men in the car? Not gang members.

This place was tainted. I was tainted, and I’d taken Harper’s call from here, staring out and seeing my past. When her name lit up my cell, I felt… happiness. Happiness in this hell hole. It only made me see all of the differences between us. Privilege and poverty. Brains and brawn.

I wanted Harper. Fuck, any man alive would see her long legs and wish they were wrapped around his waist. It was more than that. I wanted to hear her voice, see her smile. Make her fucking happy.

I’d told her I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I hadn’t been, never considered myself more than an easy lay for a woman who wanted a good time. Now, that held no appeal. No woman interested me but Harper. Somehow having her far away, unattainable, made me change my thinking. I may not have been looking for one, but a relationship had found me. I wasn’t walking away from Harper or her shit ton of problems. I’d take them from her, make them mine. They couldn’t be worse than anything I’d seen or lived through. I could handle it. Did that make me whipped? Fuck, yes. I had no idea how it happened or why I’d changed my thinking so damn quickly, but I wanted more from Harper.

A car passed, a cigarette flung out the window, the red glow of the tip the only color on the street. Harper deserved more than this. She deserved a guy from the country club who wore golf shirts and played squash on the weekends. A lawyer or some other high paying, career-driven man who could give her the lifestyle she was accustomed to.

This? Me? A fighter from the other side of the tracks who had a record and earned his salary with his fists? As I glanced one last time out the window before driving off, I had to wonder, would I ruin her?

12

HARPER

Cam: Where are you?

My brother’s text ruined my morning. His three words had me distracted, and I offered nothing to the meeting I was in. When my colleagues had turned to me for a response, I’d offered a fake smile and blamed my lack of focus on jet lag. I had slept after I’d talked with Reed, surprisingly, but morning had come too quickly. The three cups of coffee I’d had did nothing to make me alert. But one