Jackal (Heartlands Motorcycle Club #12)- Frankie Love Page 0,2

too clean cut for that, for us. Makes me wonder what he's here for at all.

"Hey, I'll leave you to it, seems like you have this under control,” I tell Maddox, squeezing his shoulders. "See you around, okay?"

Maddox doesn't even hear me — his focus is on the ladies before him and I let him have them. They were never of any interest to me.

I walk straight for her. I heard she was coming, but seeing her here upsets me. This isn't where she belongs and the guy she's with is not the kind of guy she needs. He looks like trouble, the kind of trouble that could hurt her, break her.

That's not what she deserves. She needs someone to protect her. I walk right over to them without any hesitation, and when they notice me approaching, the guy glares. Lydia's eyes reach mine, silently thanking me, at least that's what I'm telling myself.

"Jackal," she says, her voice soft, wispy like she could float away, like she's an angel, like she's way too good for this earth. All things I know to be true because I've been watching her this last year.

Not in a stalkerish way, but in an I'm worried about you way. She's too trusting of people and that's going to get her in trouble, especially with a guy like this.

He thinks his money and his good breeding will get him places, but that's not true. He thinks he's charming enough to win her over and that his designer clothes and his fancy sunglasses will make her feel special, but they won't.

They couldn't, because this jackass can't offer Lydia what I can.

Lydia

Grant cornered me the moment I got here. How did he even know about this party? It's not that I dislike him, I'm just so dang sick of him. All of senior year, he tried to get me to go out with him and I always had to come up with excuses for why I couldn't make it to the movies or to his killer party at his dad's mansion or on the spring break trip to Tahoe. I was constantly making up excuses and still, he was relentless. He thought I was playing hard to get when the truth was I wasn't playing at all.

I’m just not interested in a guy like Grant. How could I be?

While he may match me in some ways, in others, not at all. Outwardly, I’ve played the part of the good girl, just like I was while raised by my preacher of a daddy who turned out to be a con artist. I was raised with values that kept me in line. Kept me wearing pretty pearl necklaces and white lacy blouses and skirts that hit my knees.

I have always been the good girl. And it’s not like now I’m looking for trouble, but I am ready to stop playing by other people’s rules. I am going to play by my own. The things I feel inside don't match my outside. That doesn't mean I'm going to get a ton of piercings and tattoos and start wearing leather bondage outfits. I'm just saying maybe for once I could take off the pearls and replace them with diamonds.

It's hard with a sister like Ruby, who is the poster child for perfection. She is precious and perfect, an amazing wife and now mother as well as a sister. I didn't want to disappoint her and Ranger. They've been so good to me since I moved here to the Heartlands but I feel like the girl I've been isn't the girl I could be.

A guy like Grant, well, there's a reason I've been saying no all year long. There's a reason that when he corners me at this party, I don't step closer. Instead, I step back. There's a reason that when Jackal walks over to us, approaching me with a look so dark, it's not chills that run up and down my spine. It's desire.

Jackal is dangerous in a way that sets my heart on fire. He is mysterious in a way that makes me feel safe. I lick my lips, waiting like always for him to say something, anything, but he never does. Every time I come into the shop and try to get him to talk to me, he shakes his head and says he's got work to do. Every time I see him in the parking lot that the mechanic shop shares with the bar, he has a reason