Chapter 14
Nate
Ilifted my bike enough that I could get my leg out from underneath it before pushing myself to my feet.
Nothing was broken, I knew that. I’d have a few ugly bruises on my leg and blood dripped down my hand from a gash across my forearm.
Riding a bike was dangerous. Despite that my engine was loud and my lights were bright, I knew I was harder to see than a car.
I didn’t believe for one second that getting run off the road the same day I met with the cops about Liz’s stalker was a coincidence though.
The car had come up on my left like it was passing me.
Then it hung out in my blind spot rather than passing.
That should have been my first clue that something was off.
I caught a flash of silver in my peripheral vision before my back tire was hit by the car’s front bumper and I went skidding into the ditch.
That fucker was after my girl. I had to get home.
After all the shit that went down between Regina and I, I hadn’t pictured finding someone new.
Trust was easier to break than it was to build and sharing my life with someone new meant sharing Paisley’s too.
Single parents didn’t have the luxury of casual dating, not in the same way I would have if I wasn’t a dad.
I cared about my daughter first and foremost, but now I was falling for Liz.
Liz, with her goofy sense of humor and her willingness to try, fail, and try again had broken down all the walls I’d built after Regina.
More than that, I’d torn some of them down myself just by being around her.
Paisley really liked her and so did I. I might even be getting to a place that was more than just like, but there was time for that later.
Right now, I had to make sure she was okay.
I may have just found my new forever person; I wasn’t about to lose her.
I stood my bike up and examined the damage to its side.
It was a little scratched up, but drivable.
That was all that mattered, I could deal with the cosmetic stuff when there wasn’t someone out there who meant Liz harm.
I threw my leg over the seat and started the engine, relieved to hear it start up without issue.
Just as I was watching for a break in traffic so I could merge in, I saw a flash of red and blue lights.
A cop car came to a screeching halt next to me, and Brock leaned out of the window. “What happened? Are you okay?”
“We have to get to my place, something’s wrong.” I revved the engine and peeled into traffic. I could hear the police siren behind me as I squeezed my bike between cars, desperate to get home as fast as I could even if I had to break a few traffic laws to do it.
Liz’s car was in my driveway where I expected it to be, but the asphalt sparkled where the streetlight gleamed off broken glass.
I was going too fast to make the corner into my driveway and my bike fishtailed out behind me, sliding on the slick grass of my front lawn.
I was off the bike and running before it even hit the ground, ignoring the protests from the leg I had landed on earlier.
I scanned my eyes over the driveway in the yellow glow of the streetlight.
The door to her car was open, there was glass everywhere, and her purse and cell phone were on the passenger seat.
Fuck. Where was she?