Free Within Sight (New Adult Biker Gang Romance) (Night Horses MC Book 5) by Sarah Sorana Page A

cursed everyone.
     
    Merle had told me that he couldn’t have me living with him and going to high school. I’d be too easy to follow. Too easy for someone else to find how to enter the biker compound.
     
    If I stayed with him all the time, I’d be bait.
     
    I didn’t want to be bait.
     
    The apartment was nice. It was a little bare, the walls were a little thin, but it was clean. The cockroaches I feared were nowhere in sight.
     
    I had a bed, a small fridge, a microwave and a hot plate. A couch, even. Merle had made some guys haul up a desk and a chair for me, somewhere for me to do my homework.
     
    I almost cried.
     
    They were rough men, they cussed and smoke in the apartment, they leered and scratched themselves and joked about slapping my ass – but I liked them.
     
    When I thanked one of them for hauling it up, he grinned at me.
     
    “Shit, girl,” he said. “I fucked up in every class I was ever in, and if I could, I’d beat the shit out of myself when I was fifteen. You’ve gotta get that fuckin’ piece of paper and get the fuck out of this shithole.”
     
    The other guys nodded.
     
    “Merle wants to fuck you, but he doesn’t wanna fuck your life up,” another said, nodding solemnly.
     
    I blushed bright red and Merle socked the guy in the arm.
     
    “Enough,” he growled. “I can’t take you motherfuckers anywhere.”
     
    School was hell.
     
    No, school was worse than hell. School was purgatory.
     
    I shuffled from class to class. I did my work.
     
    I didn’t talk to anyone.
     
    When teachers asked me questions in class, I stared at them until they called on someone else. When they held me after class and tried to talk to me earnestly, I nodded at what they said and walked away while they were still talking.
     
    I excelled on every test. Got A’s on every paper.
     
    There wasn’t a whole hell of a lot to do in my tiny apartment but study.
     
    Even with my collection of F’s in class participation, I wasn’t worried about passing.
     
    Merle stopped by a few times to take me out to dinner or hang out on my couch and make out, but he was clearly distracted.
     
    When I asked him what was wrong, he’d just smile thinly and say that there were some issues that only he could work on right now.
     
    Gang stuff.
     
    I thought about pressing the issue, about telling him that I was brave enough and strong enough to handle that part of his life.
     
    The trouble was, though, that I wasn’t.
     
    I didn’t want to know.
     
    I wanted to pretend that everything was okay, that I hadn’t been kidnapped by a different gang, that my boyfriend didn’t sell heroin and brand people and live in a world of violence.
     
    Sometimes, it even worked.
     
    Only during the day. At night…
     
    At night, I woke up screaming.
     
    It took almost three weeks to start coming out of my haze.
     
    Finally, when a teacher spoke to me out of class, I looked at her. I listened.
     
    “I’m okay,” I finally said, interrupting her.
     
    Two months ago, I’d never have interrupted a teacher like that.
     
    Two months ago, I was a very different girl.
     
    I didn’t expect the reaction I got.
     
    A long look. A small nod.
     
    “Yeah,” she said, finally. “Yeah. If you’re not, you will be.”
     
    “I hate this place,” I said.
     
    Her eyes softened.
     
    “What happened?” she asked.
     
    I was abandoned on prom night. I met Merle. I got kidnapped, almost raped. I escaped. I spent an amazing night with a biker. I got kicked out of the house. I got an apartment.
     
    “My parents kicked me out for dating someone they didn’t approve of,” I said, very carefully.
     
    “That sounds like a brilliant way to deal with it,” she said, acid coating every word. “Very compassionate. Extremely effective, obviously.”
     
    The grin on my face felt… unfamiliar.
     
    Welcome.
     
    The bell rang. Neither of us moved.
     
    “It’s my work period,” she said. “If you want to stay, I’ll