Longest Night (New Adult Biker Gang Romance) (Night Horses MC Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

you talked your way into taking me out like that.”
     
    “Parents are terrified of sheltering their kids and then sending them off to college,” he said. “They’ve been told for years that if they do that, they’ll end up with the kid who needs their stomach pumped at the first party. Or, you know.”
     
    He grinned.
     
    “The kid who goes on a date with a guy who maybe sells stuff that isn’t weed.”
     
    I rolled my eyes.
     
    “Come on, it’s not like I’m going to be hanging out with you while you do anything illegal,” I said. “Right?”
     
    “Of course not,” he said. “I made my choices. I’m not dragging you into them. You’re a nice girl, and I like you.”
     
    Merle liked me.
     
    He thought I was a nice girl, which, I don’t know, might be bad, he maybe thought that I was boring.
     
    But…
     
    Merle liked me.
     
    I grinned at him.
     
    “I like you, too,” I said.
     
    I was pleased with the slight red flush that spread across his cheeks.
     
    “Even if you think bluegrass makes good slow-dancing music,” I said.
     
    He looked indignant and launched into what he declared a ‘musical history lesson.’ The moral of his story seemed to basically just be that bluegrass was awesome.
     
    I loved watching him get so passionate about it.
     
    We had an excellent lunch. No more talk of dope or gang tattoos. Just about each other.
     
    It turned out that we had a lot in common. We both loved silly comedies and neither of us liked horror movies (“What’s the point of paying money to be scared?” he asked).
     
    We were both dog people. We both liked to read. He showed me the Kindle app on his phone and let me scroll through to see what he’d been reading.
     
    I clicked on a story with a half-naked couple on the cover and held it up to show him.
     
    “Romance? Really?” I asked.
     
    “I like a happily-ever-after,” he said. “No shame in that.”
     
    "Who doesn't?" I asked.
     
    Secretly, I was delighted. I read romance novels and sappy fanfiction and watched silly movies where everything always came out okay. I loved them, but I tried to keep them a secret.
     
    I had no idea that men read them too, let alone that a tough guy like Merle would.
     
    That was pretty cool.
     
    The waitress came by then to take our plates. She glanced down at the napkins I'd drawn on and frowned.
     
    "Sorry about the mess!" I said.
     
    She smiled.
     
    "Oh, no problem, senorita!" she said. She flashed both of us a wide grin.
     
    Merle took me home, driving the long way, past the river, telling me stories about running around as a kid, climbing the trees and feeling like he was king of the world, the biggest pirate captain the world had seen.
     
    I loved picturing Merle as a kid. I wondered if his eyes were as piercing and dark, and for a moment, I felt a stab of sadness.
     
    I couldn't picture a kid with eyes as deep or sad as Merle's. What had happened to make his look that way?
     
    He pulled up in front of my house.
     
    "I probably shouldn't go in. Someone, not naming any names, made my black eye a lot more obvious," he said, peering at his face in the rearview mirror.
     
    "Thanks for the lift," I said. "Thanks for lunch."
     
    "My pleasure," he said.
     
     

 
     
    That night, my nightmare began.
     
    I was in my room, asleep. It was two in the morning, after all, and I didn't usually stay up late... the night before was an exception, not the rule.
     
    I woke up to a hand over my face, pressing a rag into my mouth.
     
    I started to scream, and a fist dove into my gut.
     
    "Shut the fuck up," a man's voice, accented but understandable, hissed.
     
    "Are you awake?" he demanded.
     
    I nodded, eyes wide over the hand covering my face.
     
    "Are you looking at this?"
     
    In the dim light, I saw a blade.
     
    I nodded. I couldn't look anywhere else.
     
    "If you make a sound, we're gonna take this knife and a gun and we're gonna kill your parents. Do you understand?"
     
    I nodded