“That explains the bikes I saw out front.Some of you are here eating.Um, can I get directions?I really need to talk to him.”
“Tell you what, girlie.Eat up and we'll escort you,” he told her.“I'm Axel.”
“Oh, um, thanks.I'm Sophia.”
She watched him walk away and admired the view.That didn't mean she was going to just blindly trust him.
“What do you know about those bikers?Are they… trustworthy?”she asked when her server returned with her food.
“Oh yeah.They're rough around the edges but they don't hurt women or kids.”
“Thanks.”
Knowing she could trust them made it easier for her to enjoy her food.She kept an eye on the bikers—or more specifically Axel—while she ate, and once she'd finished and paid, she slowly approached their table.
Before she could speak, Axel beat her to it.
“Ready to go, girlie?”Axel asked.
“Yes.Thanks again for the escort.And just so you know, I'm not just blindly trusting you.I asked the server to make sure it was safe.”
“Smart girl,” one of the others said.
“Thanks.”
She was antsy as she followed the bikers away from the restaurant out of town.When they turned onto a driveway, she took a steadying breath and followed them.She'd come this far, she wasn't turning back now.
After turning off her beat up Chevy and getting out, she followed Axel and the others inside.
“Wait here, I'll go get him,” Axel said, and so she waited, feeling weighed down by the fear of the unknown.If he turned her away, she wasn't sure what she was going to do.Without him, she was utterly alone in the world.
She was just starting to fidget when a man with sandy blonde hair approached, a buxom blonde bombshell right beside him.
“Who are you?”the man asked, and her nerves ratcheted up.
“Um, my name is Sophia Redding.Sylvia Redding's—”
“Daughter,” the man who was obviously Dax McNeill, cut her off.“Why are you here?”he asked.
Sophia sighed.“Is there somewhere we can talk?It's a bit of a story.”
“We can talk in my office.Follow us.”
It wasn't a suggestion.It was an order, and Sophia swallowed before she followed him and the blonde through the building and then down a hallway to what was apparently his office door.
“Have a seat.”
He motioned to a sofa before he pulled a chair over, sat down, and tugged the woman down onto his lap.
“Now, tell me what I need to know.”
Sophia sat and folded her hands in her lap.
“All my life, it's been just me and my mother.Over the years, I've asked her about my father.At first she would make things up about him.It was always a different story.My favorite was that he was in the military.
“As I got older, she became evasive.Then she started getting angry when I'd ask her things about him.
“Finally, one day she told me he wasn't in my life because he didn't want me.He never wanted me.I was twelve and it broke my heart.
