Free PARANORMAL: Tamed By My Alpha Vampire (Vampire Billionaire Alpha Male Paranormal Romance) (BBW Multicultural Mail Order Bride Short Stories) by KELLY IRIS Page B

newborn to take care of and bills to pay. You don’t have to sleep with him, but you’d be doing me a favor if you take him off my hands.”
    It didn’t feel right, but I was out of options. Axel leaving had finally backed me into a corner.
    “Alright, alright, he can stay here,” I said.
    “Good, it’s done then. I’ll talk to him tonight and he’ll be there in a couple days. Are you going to be alright until then?”
    “Yeah, we’ll be fine.”
    “Good. Oh, and Jackie?”
    This was the part where she lectured me about what I had done wrong. She was wise, but I swear sometimes I thought she was more of a mother to me than my real one ever was.
    “Yes, Lisa?”
    “I want to meet that baby. We have a lot of catching up to do.”
    She always knew how to make me smile.

Chapter 4
     
    Axel
     
    I wasn’t the only one who dodged the draft, but I still saw my face on the news and on the digital billboards. They cycled through pictures of all the dodgers, offering a reward to anyone who turned them in. They were ruthless, trying to get other people to do their dirty work. I kept my face hidden, wore a hat and sunglasses everywhere I could.
    I stuck to small towns where the gas stations still existed anyway. I looked for work, or any way to make money, but I soon learned that people would rather turn me in instead of hiring a draft-dodger. I had already given everything I could spare to Jackie when I left. The only money I kept was for gas and food, but even that was running low.
    Just like my money, I knew my luck was going to run out eventually. They had an entire broadcast channel running the names and faces of all the people who didn’t report for the draft. My fortune turned for the worst at a gas station in some no-name town just west of nowhere. I had to pay with cash; it was too easy to track cards. That meant going inside and paying, something I always dreaded doing.
    I made the walk to the main building and pulled open the glass door. A bell clanged against the glass as I was hit with the stale and cold breeze that seemed to exist in every gas station. The teller sat behind a counter, his face buried in a magazine as I casually browsed the candy bar aisle.
    I checked for exits like usual, just in case I needed to run. I walked back to the ATM and looked at the bulletin board. The owner had flyers up with lists of the dodger’s names. That wasn’t a good sign. I could always bail and head to another station, but I didn’t think my bike would make it. I walked back up to the counter and saw the magazine lower. A tattoo revealed itself from beneath his sleeve as he set the magazine down.
    It was an emblem, military if I had to guess. No wonder he had a list of draft-dodgers, he was veteran. This was all way too risky, but I wasn’t about to run out of gas on some stretch of road in the middle of a blistering desert.
    “Twenty on pump two,” I said.
    His wrinkled eyes glanced up at me and then back to his register.
    “You look familiar kid,” he said.
    “I’ve just got one of those faces,” I replied.
    He pressed a few keys on the register and the drawer popped open.
    “Take off the glasses and the hat,” he said.
    “Sorry, what did you say?”
    He picked up the crinkled bill from the counter and placed it in the register. His hand came back out with a revolver. It had a long silver barrel that gleamed as he turned its gaze on me.
    “Did I stutter?” he asked.
    I pulled off the glasses and the hat. I slowly lowered them onto the counter and let him stare at me with his piercing eyes.
    “Why’d you do it?”
    “I have a family,” I said.
    He chuckled. “So you run and leave them behind?”
    “Better than fighting a war we can’t win.”
    He pulled back the hammer on the revolver.
    “Watch your tongue. Now you just stay real still until they come to get you and we won’t have an issue.”
    “Please, just let me go! I can pay you double the reward!”
    “I’m not interested in