Riding the Night Read Free

started to cloud over. A storm was coming. He pressed down on the accelerator, hoping he could get Teresa back home before the shit hit the fan.
    Losing her was going to kill him.
    “Where?”
    His gaze drifted to hers. Silvery tears slid down her cheeks. His stomach hurt. “Where what?”
    “You said you had places to go that I couldn’t go with you. What places?”
    He inhaled and let it out, hurting so bad he thought he might be sick. But he was right to do this. He loved her.
    “Dark places, Teresa. Really dark places. Places I have to go to alone.”

ONE
    PRESENT DAY
    “WE COULD ,BE WINDING THROUGH THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS BY now instead of sweating our asses off at a truck stop in the middle of nowherefuckingville, Missouri.”
    AJ arched a brow at his best friend, Pax. “This is my hometown you’re insulting.”
    Pax shrugged. “It’s still in the middle of fucking nowhere. And it’s August. And it’s goddamn hot here.”
    AJ laughed. “Quit whining. We were headed this direction anyway, and I thought we’d stop by and see a few people.”
    Pax sat on his Harley and took a swig of water, slanting AJ a dubious look. “And where did this sudden pang of homesickness come from? You’re about as dedicated to home as I am. Your parents don’t even live here anymore, do they?”
    “No.” Thankfully. AJ could maybe tolerate his mother. Maybe. But he’d mostly given up on her after she married Dale, the man who thought AJ wasn’t good enough—for anything. And AJ had spent six years of his life proving Dale right. “My parents moved to New York to be near his family. But some of my friends might still be here.”
    “You had friends?” Pax arched a brow.
    “Smart ass. Yeah, I had a few. A long time ago.” People who cared about him no matter what, people he could count on. Like Joey. And Joey’s sister, Teresa.
    Though Teresa had been much more than a friend. But that wasn’t what had brought him back here. It had been ten years since he left. By now, Teresa was probably married and had three kids or something. She’d gotten over him. It wasn’t like she’d pine away for him or anything.
    But he’d like to see Joey again. He and Joey used to be tight, had shared a lot of secrets—and a lot of trouble. They were close friends, kind of like AJ and Pax were now. AJ had never thought he’d make friends as an adult, had thought himself a badass loner who didn’t need anyone. It had surprised the hell out of him when he and Pax clicked when they joined the Wild Riders. But they’d both had major chips on their shoulders, and maybe they both had been licking teenage wounds, too. Close enough in age, they gravitated toward each other and formed a bond that ten years later hadn’t yet been broken.
    They did everything together, even took off and vacationed together.
    A vacation that had been a long time coming, and for AJ, vacation meant climbing on his Harley and riding. He had two weeks to do whatever the hell he wanted.
    They’d taken off from Dallas—Wild Rider headquarters—after filing the paperwork on their last case with General Grange Lee, the man they reported to, the one who’d plucked all the Wild Riders from the dregs of their lives as troubled teens and turned them into decent human beings. If it hadn’t been for General Lee, AJ would probably be pacing the confines of a prison cell at twenty-nine instead of living the free life and riding his bike. He had a lot to be grateful for. Grange had taken a half dozen raw, angry, messed up teenage criminals and turned them into capable undercover agents who could slip into any street situation and get the job done. The Wild Riders blended well as a team, which was surprising considering their less than stellar backgrounds.
    Grange had taught them combat the right way, which meant that every battle didn’t have to end with someone dead. He’d taught them how to handle weapons, and he’d worked their asses off, mentally and physically,