She angrily reached into her purse, pulling out her cell phone. “If you want to relive old memories, call Sleeping Beauty; maybe she hasn’t woken up and discovered you’re an asshole.” She tossed him her phone.

Cash barely managed to catch the phone she threw at him. He felt each word slap him in his face, her hatred blasting at him from across the room as she left him with a look of total disgust.

Damn, he had forgotten calling Cheryl ‘Sleeping Beauty.’ Rachel was obviously not happy with his choice of nicknames. He had been a stupid prick fucking around with Cheryl. Damn.

He had forgotten the only piece of advice his father had ever given him, downplaying its importance as he had moved from one woman’s bed to another, not believing its value.

When he had been sixteen, he had broken his first girlfriend’s heart. It hadn’t bothered him, just made him impatient because she kept calling him. He had learned after that he didn’t have to say he was in love to fuck them.

His father had seen him hang up the phone, shaking his head.

“She won’t quit calling,” Cash had told his dad.

“She will.”

“Not soon enough,” Cash had said without pity.

“Son, make sure you want her to quit calling because a woman has a breaking point. She’ll stand by you if you kill someone, but when she finally reaches her breaking point, she’s done with you. There’s no getting her heart twice.”

“It’s not her heart I want.” His young, arrogant voice still sounded in his ears after all these years.

A sad look had come over his father’s face. “Make sure, Cash, or you’ll spend the rest of your life wanting something you can’t have.”

Chapter 17

Rachel was sitting on her bed, making notes on her computer when a knock sounded on her door.

“Come in.”

She thought Mag would open her door; instead, Cash stood leaning on her door frame.

“Busy?”

The pinched look on his face showed he hadn’t fully recovered from his accident.

“No, do you need something?”

A brief silence met her question before he answered. “There’s a swap meet going on in Jamestown. Feel like giving me a ride? I want to look for a new bike.”

Rachel started to mouth off and ask why he didn’t ask Bliss; instead, she slid off the bed and put on her shoes. He probably didn’t want any of his women seeing him when he wasn’t able to hold himself up much less them. Rachel blocked the image of him holding Bliss from her mind. She had been right; it wasn’t an image she had been able to forget.

In her car, Cash slid the seat back as far as it would go then leaned his head back on the headrest.

“Did you take anything for pain?” Rachel asked as she drove toward Jamestown.

“No. I would have smoked some weed, but I was too scared of what your brother put in it.”

Rachel stifled her laughter.

“I didn’t take you for a coward,” she teased.

“I’m not. I just don’t want to smoke cat shit.”

Not able to hold back, her laughter filled the car.

“You’re not going to tell me you were kidding around?”

Rachel took her eyes briefly off the road to see his head turned toward her. “Sorry, Tate and Greer are both vindictive a-holes.”

“Tell me something I don’t know. Tate’s still mad over a girl dumping him in high school because he thinks she dumped him for me.”

“She did. He had saved his money to rent a limo to take them to prom. He hadn’t slept with her. He had planned a big night only to find out you had beat him to sleeping with her.”

“She told me he had broken up with her.”

“She lied,” Rachel informed him.

Cash remained silent the rest of the drive.

When Rachel glanced over again he was sleeping. His vitality was so overwhelming it was easy to look over the fact he was still healing from an almost fatal accident. Instinctively, she reached out to touch his arm but then drew back. She didn’t want to wake him needlessly.

Her hands gripped the steering wheel. The powers that had helped save his life were gone. She had prayed they would come back to no avail. She had used everything she had to bring him back. However, it was a decision she didn’t regret; she only wished she had it now so she could help with the pain he attempted to keep hidden from everyone.

Cash took his loss of strength as a weakness while she saw it a completely different way. Even without her help, he would have lived. Cash was a survivor who didn’t give up easily; his recuperation was a testament to that fact. He had proven the doctors wrong about his walking. Now he forced himself not to limp in front of others, but when he thought no one was observing him, he moved slower and with a slight limp. Rachel knew he wouldn’t stop until nothing other than the scars from his accident remained to remind him of his brush with death.

Cash woke as she parked at the packed motorcycle swap meet.

“Looks like every biker in three states is here,” he remarked, stretching as he closed the car door.

Rachel gazed at the rough looking crowd of men and women walking around, examining the motorcycles on display. Several were for sale and some were just being shown off by their owners.

She moved closer to Cash’s side as they walked through the heavy crowd.

“Nervous?”

“I really don’t know what to think,” Rachel admitted, coming to a stop next to him as he paused in front of one bike. Its gleaming chrome and appearance attracted Rachel, and she didn’t know a thing about bikes. Cash, on the other hand, moved along to other motorcycles.

“Are you just browsing or looking for one in particular?” Rachel asked.

“I have a couple I’ve been thinking about, but I haven’t made my mind up yet.” He stopped at one black monster that was huge to Rachel, but when he sat on it, he took the machine over. It suited him.

He climbed off and then took a step back, looking it over. “Sit on it.”

“What?” Rachel cleared her voice.

“Sit on the bike,” Cash repeated.

Rachel tentatively climbed on the back of the bike, sitting there self-consciously as he took out his phone and took a picture. She climbed off.

“Why did you take a picture?” she snapped.

“So I would have something to remember the day I bought my bike,” he said, taking several more before putting his phone back in his pocket.

Rachel watched as he bought the bike. She noticed the surprise of the seller when Cash paid him in full for it.

“You’re not going to test drive it?” Rachel asked.

“No, I drove it yesterday when I was here with the brothers but couldn’t make up my mind. I just needed to see one more thing before I decided to buy it.”

“What?”

“You on the back of it,” Cash stated.

He set up the delivery and then moved her to where a large crowd was standing, watching several motorcycles racing. On the opposite side of the track, Rachel saw Sex Piston and her crew cheering.

The motorcycles were flying by so fast Rachel couldn’t see the riders’ faces. However, after the race, Rachel saw Stud take his trophy while moving away from the woman in a short red dress, who was trying to give him a bottle of champagne.