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

one, unfortunately.
     
    “You’re right. I can’t find a job, and I live in a dinky dirty one room efficiency that has a bathroom in the hallway that all the people on that floor have to share, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to make sure you aren’t doing this alone.”
     
    She couldn’t be sure, but he looked like he was pleased by her words and her desire to help him. He started nodding, but he still didn’t say anything.
     
    “Are you alone?” she asked quietly because she didn’t know where she stood. It wasn’t like her to just bombard into someone’s life, but she had a vested interest, and she really didn’t want to see this go badly. She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she was involved in his demise or even his beat down.
     
    “I’ve been on my own for a long time, Ella. I’ve made problems for myself, and I will get out of them myself. I don’t want you to be involved. Don’t you want to get your life together? You have better things to do than get yourself hooked up with someone like me.”
     
    “Whatever, Tyson, what‘s the plan?” She wasn’t the simpering miss he somehow thought she was, and she was going to help him.
     
    He took a deep breath as if he’d thought it through and knew that she wasn’t going to give up. She liked that he was intelligent enough to know when he needed help. Even if that wasn’t the reason, he was letting her stick around for a while.
     
    “There is a race tomorrow night that is a sure thing. I’ll get my all of the money I owe to The Reapers, and I’ll have a few dollars for myself to get out of town. I may not get the bike shop that I wanted from the start, but I’ll work at it.”
     
    “This is the plan? Bet again? What if it doesn’t work? What if the horse stumbles or the shoe falls off; I’ve heard that can happen. You’re going to be in the same predicament you are in now.” She was out of breath by the time she finished with all that, and he was looking at her like she had grown another head.
     
    “I appreciate your concern, but that’s about all I can do right now.”
     
    “How much money do you have now? Maybe you can just leave with what you have… that’s a good idea right?”
     
    “Honey, I know you want to help, but I don’t want to spend the rest of my life running… looking over my shoulder never knowing if someone is coming for me. That’s no life at all.” He looked like he wanted her to understand, but she just didn’t. He didn’t have any family; she couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just change his name and start all the way over. As a matter of fact, that shit sounded so good, she may do the same damn thing when she got the rest of her money. Money that she wouldn’t get by trying to get the man she was looking for escape town. This was making her dizzy.
     
    “I understand that, but if you don’t get the money the people who are looking for you are going to make sure you don’t have a life at all. Wouldn’t you rather have a life that you had to look over your shoulder with than no life at all?”
     
    “Sometimes I think that’s maybe what has to happen, but that’s not what I want. My goal is to pay back what I owe and walk out of this place with my head high.” He stood up from the couch and pulled Ella up with him. “I think we need a change of venue because you can’t seem to think of anything but this doom and gloom stuff.”
     
    She wasn’t going to argue with him about that because it was true. It was nice having a purpose and something to think about other than the shabby state of her affairs.
     
    When he got back to the room, he guided her in first and then walked in behind her. Although she knew what their final destination was going to be, she didn’t know how he planned to get her there.
     
    “Want me to tell you what I know about you?” he said as he helped her out of the borrowed tee shirt he’d given her to wear. For whatever reason she was