Tempting Trouble (Highway Reapers Motorcycle Club Book 1) by Sophia Hampton Page A

fast and going slow at the same time, and Ella tried to think of possibilities that would get everything to be the way it was supposed to be—Tyson safe from harm and debt free, and her with money in her hands, but it just didn’t seem likely. She looked over at him, and his eyes were trained on her face. He was good at reading people, but he didn’t know her well enough to figure out that she was all messed up right now. Oh he knew she was having a problem, and she knew he thought it was about all this drama that he was going through, and he was right, but it was her involvement in his downfall that was fucking her up completely.
     
    He grabbed her hand. “The race is getting ready to start.”
     
    She watched all the horses line up in all of their gear while she hoped and prayed harder than she ever had in her life. “Which one is ours?”
     
    He quickly turned his head toward her and studied her face like he was surprised she’d claimed the horse as their wager instead of just his. “It’s the one in green, and her name is Speedy.”
     
    “Well let’s hope she lives up to her name.”
     
    The gun was fired, and the horses took off in a scramble. She could see the horses were all in a dead heat until they hit the first curve. Then Speedy took off in the lead, and Ella could barely contain herself as she jumped out of her seat and clutched her fingers into tight balls just hoping that this would actually work. Coming into the home stretch the wide strides of Speedy somehow got tangled up in something, and she fell down in a spectacularly horrid fashion. The rest of the horses quickly sped by her as she and the jockey lay on the ground.
     
    That was it. The race was over, and it hadn’t gone the way that either of them had wanted. She had no words for this, and she didn’t know what to do next. The death warrant was in her hands, but maybe if she could get him to get out of town before anything irreversible could happen, it would buy him a little time. They may be upset but he’d be alive and at that point that’s all that mattered.
     
    “How about you get out of town for a while? Maybe go to the east coast and work on your craft?”
     
    He looked dejected but not defeated, and she knew that he probably thought he could work on a few more of his plans here. Little did he know they were coming for him tonight, and if she didn’t get him out of here they were probably both doomed.
     
    “I’m not leaving Ella. The Reapers won’t catch me for a while, and I’m sure I can have their money by then. Plus we just met, and I plan on being around long enough for you to get tired of me.” The smile didn’t reach his eyes, and she knew he was trying to keep the despair from touching her but that was going to be impossible.
     
    “Let’s go home and think about what to do next,” she said as they stood up and walked among the rest of the losers trying to get out of the place that had sucked all but their life’s blood from them.
     
    “Sure,” he said looking at her with a gentle fondness in his eyes that she didn’t deserve, “let’s go home.”
     
    They held hands on the way out, and she felt like such a fraud. The feeling was starting to overwhelm her, and she felt trapped. Not by Tyson, but by her whole life. From the family who gave no shits about her when she left at 15 years old to the like-minded kids who had helped her survive on the street until she’d found an old shack of an apartment that was given to her by an elderly grandmother type who just wanted to see her off the street. She had always been a taker, but now something had changed and she just wanted to be the good person most people thought she was on sight.
     
    “Tyson?”
     
    “If this is about what’s been bothering you today, why don’t we just let it go until tomorrow? It’s been a rough day, and we both could use a meal and a bit of rest.” His indulgent smile was almost her undoing, but the buzzing in her pocket