Free Original Sin (Dark Saints Motorcycle Club Book 1) by Amy Love

The poor things were probably scared that coming into contact with her was a direct line into a world of gang violence.
     
    Well, they wouldn't be far off the mark. “Let's get out of here.” Sliding from the booth, Liam tossed a few dollars on the table as a tip before holding a hand out to her with a small smile. “I know a great taco place around the corner with a more intimate atmosphere.”
     
    His joke drew her lips into curving upward.
     
    Taking his hand, she let him help her from the booth, and they left the restaurant to walk down the well-lit street, past the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood around them. As they neared a boulevard famous for its plethora of food trucks, Vicky found herself pausing at the corner, her hand still in Liam's. When he realized she wasn't moving forward, he stopped as well, gazing back at her with a brow arched.
     
    She shouldn't.
     
    She shouldn't break his calm by interrogating him now, but Vicky had to know. If she was going to continue to be with a hunted man, she needed to know why the Eagles were after him. If Darren ever found out that he was a former member of a gang that had stolen Saints’ weaponry, burned their warehouses, and personally taken out more than twenty of their members, he would, quite literally, blow a fuse.
     
    Plus, at the end of that madly jerking electrical connection would be Liam, his body burned to a crisp.
     
    The thought made her queasy, and she swayed slightly on her feet.
     
    “What's wrong?” Liam was at her side, her arm in his strong, gentle grip.
     
    When Vicky gazed up at him, she saw a blinding hope for her future. Did she really want it dashed by delving into his past? There was an overwhelming possibility that he had a vendetta against Darren or the Saints and had joined them as some sort of perverse way to carry out his revenge. Maybe she herself was even part of the plotting.
     
    “The Saints,” she found herself demanding lowly, insistent over the traffic that passed them, “why did you join them? Why do you need protection?”
     
    At her inquiry, Liam's face fell. His green gaze immediately became serious, and he let go of her hand to expel a long breath, running his hands through his hair in distress. “Well, fuck. I should have known this was coming.”
     
    “You should have,” she agreed neutrally, continuing to stare at him in expectation.
     

CHAPTER FOURTEEN
     
    When her gray gaze didn't waver, Liam knew that he was stuck. His expression grim, he turned back in the opposite direction, gesturing for her to follow him. “Not here.” His request was simple and short. Without any further explanation, he simply made back for the restaurant's parking lot to retrieve his bike.
     
    When he handed her his spare helmet, she put it on and straddled the hulking behemoth of a machine. Surprisingly, though her brother was the head of the most bad-ass motorcycle club on the West Coast, Vicky had never ridden a bike until Liam.
     
    The thrill couldn't be described in words.
     
    She knew that when they got to wherever they were going, he would tell her something that perhaps she didn't want to know.  However, as she clung to him, the engine of the Harley roaring between her legs as they sped through the streets, she'd freely admit that she'd never known any greater exhilaration. It had been wrong of Darren to rob her of this. Perhaps he wanted to protect her from the drug busts, the guns, and the perversion of his men, but the pure joy of clinging to a hard man and zipping through the streets with the world at your feet? There wasn't one iota of harm in that.
     
    Liam drove them through the busy streets of LA until high rises and apartments turned into suburban neighborhoods. They kept going until the streets grew quiet and you could hear the crashing of the nearby ocean beneath the darkening sky.
     
    Then, before an overgrown path leading through a growth of brush, he stopped.
     
    Parking and locking the bike, he