Twisted Scars (Comanche Sons Motorcycle Club Book 1) by Sophia Hampton Page B

life is a job.”
     
    She shrugged. Sure, she wanted to live. That’s why she kept moving. It was the only thing that kept her safe all those years. But she’d long ago removed all emotions that she felt about this particular matter. This was just a part of her life. She’d accepted it, embraced it. She didn’t waste too much time worrying about the hows and the whys. If she did, she would go insane. After all, there was a history of mental illness in the family. A father who regularly beat his family and a brother who killed his parents and wanted to murder his sister weren’t sane, even if the world didn’t declare them insane. She didn’t want to end up like them. So, she kept her emotions tightly locked and worked on autopilot. If she didn’t allow herself to feel strongly, she wouldn’t ever lose control.
     
    Maybe it was a strange kind of logic, but it worked for her.
     
    “I don’t need a man to tell me how to do things, Chance. I’m fully capable. Make no mistake about that.”
     
    “And we saw plenty of evidence of that when he came calling this time. If I wasn’t there, he would have gutted you with that knife.”
     
    “If you weren’t there, I wouldn’t have been out. Before you arrived in my life, my routine was pretty simple. I went out for work and came back home. There wasn’t a chance for anyone to break into my house.”
     
    He curled his lip. “That’s just stupid. He would’ve broken in when you were at work. You were just damn lucky that I came into your apartment with you…if you’d come in alone…” He suddenly stopped, and his eyes clouded. She was amazed to see that his hands shook. Seeing her glance at them, he took them off the counter. He didn’t want her to see how shaken he was by the incident. She was strangely touched by this emotion. No one had ever cared that much for her ever before. “I don’t want you to get hurt, Riley. Please. It’s not a big deal. If you’re not comfortable staying in the same room as me, I will set up an extra bed for you in the guest room. It’s not a problem. Just stay there until it is safe again.”
     
    If he’d remained angry, she would’ve continued to argue. However, seeing him upset, all the fight left her. She sucked in a deep breath of air, as tears swam in her eyes. No, she wasn’t going to cry. “Fine. Ok. If that makes you happy, I’ll do it but only for a short time. I’m going to leave this place soon.”
     
    “What do you mean?”
     
    She couldn’t bear that anguished look on his face. She didn’t want to feel guilty for putting it there, but she was responsible. “I can’t stay here. He has found me, so I must disappear.”
     
    He looked at her for such a long time that she became disconcerted. What the hell was he thinking? Sometimes she could take a look at him and tell exactly which direction his mind was working, but sometimes it was impossible to read his thoughts. “How long have you been moving from city to city?”
     
    “Since I was eighteen…so about nine years.”
     
    “And he finds you after some time?”
     
    “Sometimes in a few months, sometimes it takes year. I was able to live in Maryland for two years before he came. Luckily, I saw him one day as I looked out of the window. He’s careful, but he’s just a guy. He has to do surveillance, so if I am careful, which I usually am, I always check the scene out of the window before I step out. He’d kept an eye on my building, so that day when I saw him, I disappeared in the middle of the night,” she said in a proud voice.
     
    “Don’t you wonder how he finds you?”
     
    She bit her lips. “Yes, but I have no clue.”
     
    “We must figure this out. Riley, you can’t keep running away. This is a problem, and you need to find a solution for it.”
     
    “There is no solution. The police have to catch him. Once they do so, he will go behind bars, and I will be free for a few years. Or else he has to die.”
     
    Much to her