“What’s wrong, Willa?” Leanne asked, shifting Caroline to her other hip.
“Nothing,” she prevaricated. “Caroline and Chrissy are ready for their naps. Let’s get them home.”#p#分页标题#e#
Charlie and Leanne moved toward her minivan, but Sissy held back. “You like him, don’t you?” The observant seventeen-year-old stared at her with pity.
“Of course not,” Willa denied.
“Good, because I don’t think he likes you back.”
Willa’s chest filled with hurt. Sissy wasn’t being ugly; she was actually trying to be nice to her for the first time.
Willa turned away from her, wishing with all her heart she had reacted differently when he had stared at her. She had acted like the frightened virgin she was. Now Lucky was probably inside, laughing his ass off at her.
She bundled the kids inside her van before driving them home, and all the while, her mind played the last few minutes in the diner over and over. Had it been a figment of her imagination? For a second, she could have sworn she saw a spark of desire in Lucky’s eyes. If it was desire, though, what was she going to do about it?
What she always did when she became frightened—run.
Lucky returned to the table where Razer, Shade, and Viper were sitting. He motioned for the waitress to reheat his coffee.
“What did you say to her to send her running like a scared rabbit?” Shade asked after the waitress left.
“Nothing,” Lucky pretended innocence, which he knew damn well didn’t fool any of the experienced men surrounding him.
Shade wasn’t about to let him get away with it, though. “She reminds me of Lily whenever I frightened her.”
“There’s a big difference between Lily and Willa,” Lucky said, taking a drink of his hot coffee and nearly burning his tongue off.
Shade arched a brow, waiting for an explanation.
“Lily was afraid of her sexual attraction to you because of her past. Willa doesn’t want to be attracted to me because she doesn’t like the type of man I am.”
Shade gave a bark of laughter. “Lily hated me at one time. She definitely didn’t like the man I was when she stumbled into that Friday night party.”
“Willa’s attracted, all right, both to the good and bad in you. The question is are you going to do anything about it?”
“No.” Lucky threw some money down on the table then got to his feet, leaving the restaurant before Shade could ask more questions he didn’t want to answer, either to them or himself.
Instead of going to his bike, he crossed the street to the police station. The older woman sitting behind the desk gave him a wink. She had overly-tanned skin that had the appearance of dried leather. She was at least sixty and was wearing a tight dress that showed she weighed maybe ninety pounds. When he had been a pastor, she had attended church regularly, her behavior always respectful. However, since he had re-joined The Last Riders, she stared at him like he was one of Willa’s cupcakes.
“The sheriff isn’t busy; he’s in his office.”
Lucky avoided her appraising look, briefly knocking on Knox’s door before entering to find Knox sitting behind his desk, staring at a computer screen.
“What’s up?” Knox leaned back in his chair.
Lucky didn’t beat around the bush. “Have you found out any information on Georgia and Lewis’s next of kin?” The only way he could help Willa was to try to get the children off her hands.
Knox folded his hands across his stomach. “Found Lewis’s ex-wife, the younger three children’s mother. She’s in a state mental hospital. She can’t take care of herself, much less the kids. From what little her doctor told me, Lewis practically beat her to death when he found out she left him. She took off with the kids, but Lewis found her, took the kids back, and left her for dead.”#p#分页标题#e#
“Why weren’t charges filed against him? The son of a bitch should have been sitting in a jail cell instead of terrorizing Willa.”
Knox’s face was grim. “No witnesses and she refused to press charges.”
“What about Leanne and Sissy?”
“Georgia never told anyone who the fathers of the girls were.”
“Fuck. No other relatives are able to take the kids?”
“There aren’t any. The only other relative we know about is Georgia and Lewis’s half-brother, Clay Meyer, whose mother took him then disappeared years ago. She died twelve years ago in Tennessee. I’m trying to track Clay down, but it’s like he’s disappeared off the face of the earth. I have a couple of men searching for him, but so far, they aren’t making any progress.”