“She’s had a great day with us,” Kayla said. “Not a single tear.”
Bailey bounced her. “Ana is a good baby. Aren’t you a good baby? Yes. You. Are.”
Kayla had already packed up Ana’s diaper bag. Now she hurried to collapse the Pack ’n Play and stow the toys. “Thank you so much for coming to get her.”
“Not a problem, Kay-Kay. Stay as long as you need to. I’m home for the evening.”
Bailey knew that Kayla wanted the hours, and Kayla was grateful. Her sister was in nursing school and probably needed to study, but Bailey always worked it out somehow.
Kayla said goodbye to her sister and kissed Ana, then went into the back to take a load of towels from the dryer and fold them up. Her phone buzzed in her pocket and she answered it without looking at the screen. Nobody ever called her but the women in the salon and her sister. “What did you forget, Bailey?”
“I know where you are,” a man said. “I know what you did.”
Kayla’s heart dropped into her toes as fear crawled up her spine. “Who are you? What do you want?”
The man laughed. “You’ll soon find out. Oh, and nice shoes you’re wearing today, Kayla. Not too good when you want to run though, are they?”
Her heart was a mad thing in her chest. Fear chewed her from the inside out. “Y-you followed me. How do you know me?”
“Your sister is still banging, too. Sweet tits on that babe. Too bad she got away. She’d have made a lot of money for us with that hot body. She’s too much trouble though.”
Her blood ran cold. He was one of them. “I’m hanging up now.”
“Better not,” he said casually. Menacingly.
She gripped the phone in both hands and forced herself to breathe. “What do you want?”
“What you owe the club, bitch.”
“I don’t owe them anything.”
“I think you do. And you’re gonna pay, one way or the other.”
“I don’t have anything of value. Leave me alone.”
He laughed. “You have the kid.”
Ice cracked inside her. “No way. Never. I’ll call the police if you dare—”
“Really? An unfit mother like you? You sure you want the police involved? They might take her into state custody.”
Outrage and fear flooded her system at once. She fell into a chair and gripped the phone tight. “Come for me and I’ll kill you,” she growled.
The line went dead. But not before he laughed again.
Chapter Two
Neo was nursing a beer when Kayla walked into Dirty and Chloe’s backyard pushing Ana in her stroller. His senses snapped into high alert. She wore a pair of cut-off jean shorts that clung to her perfect ass and a breezy white cotton tank top that showcased her luscious tits. Her blond hair was in a ponytail, and his gut twisted at the thought of wrapping all that hair around his fist and tugging her head back so he could plunder her mouth and throat before burying his cock deep inside her pussy.
He shifted in his chair and turned away to get a handle on his reactions. He wanted to go to her, and he also knew he shouldn’t. She didn’t need the uncertainty of his life clouding hers. Kayla was a mother, and her baby was her first priority. God knew she’d been through enough with her ex and the motorcycle club he’d been a part of. James Dunn had manipulated her, imprisoned her, and tried to take her baby away. He’d put a haunted look in her eyes, and Neo wanted nothing more than to take that look away.
But he couldn’t. He couldn’t guarantee that he wouldn’t put her through a different kind of hell if they got involved. It took a special kind of woman to put up with an operator’s life. He didn’t doubt that Kayla was special, but she’d been through enough.
“She sure is pretty,” Corey “Shade” Vance said, and Neo’s hackles rose.
“Yeah, but she’s got a baby to take care of and no time for the likes of you.”
Shade made a noise of disbelief. Neo turned to meet his gaze.
“I was talking about that one right there. The brunette.”
Neo followed the jerk of Shade’s chin to Avery McCarthy, Chloe’s boss at the salon. She was also the woman who’d owned this house until Dirty and Chloe moved in together and made her an offer. She was a leggy brunette, dressed in a pair of jeans and a white button down tied at the waist. Polished compared to Kayla, with perfect makeup and hair.
Neo liked Kayla’s messy blond locks, her simple clothing that often had spots from where Ana dropped food on her. Avery was an uptown girl. Kayla was the girl next door.
“She’s pretty,” Neo said. “And recently single.”
“Yeah, I know.”
“So ask her out.”
Shade took a sip of his beer. “Too soon.”
Neo didn’t ask questions. He didn’t really want to know why Shade cared how long ago the breakup was.
Ryan “Dirty Harry” Callahan and Alexei “Camel” Kamarov strolled over and flopped into chairs while the women gathered around Kayla and Ana, cooing over the baby and talking about whatever it was that women talked about at picnics.
“Man, I’m starved,” Dirty said. “Chloe said ten more minutes. She’s almost done with the chicken.”
Neo couldn’t wait to have Chloe’s fried chicken. And her dessert, whatever she’d made today. Living across the street from Dirty and Chloe, he was the lucky recipient of her cooking quite often. He wasn’t complaining.
Soon, Chloe leaned out the back door and yelled at Dirty to come help her. He shot upright and disappeared into the house. A few more minutes and they were carrying out fried chicken, corn on the cob, green beans, biscuits, and that strawberry pretzel dessert that
