As I contemplated his words, I thought about how once I had gotten over my initial fear, the open road had felt so peaceful. “No, it’s fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, I’m sure.”

He handed me a helmet, and I slipped it on. After I slid across the seat, my arms froze before I could bring them around him. It all felt so wrong—touching him as intimately as I had Deacon. When Archer glanced over his shoulder, he gave me a sad smile as if he knew exactly what I was thinking. With trembling hands, I finally reached forward and brought my arms around his waist. He gunned the engine, and we took off.

“Where we going?” he called.

“Haynes Road,” I shouted back.

He nodded. There was only one place I could think of where I wanted to escape to. I couldn’t go back home. It held too many unpleasant memories. I would go to the one place that gave me purpose—the school.

When we arrived, it was a little after three. All the students were gone except for the ones in the after-school program, which was housed in the gym and cafeteria. After we pulled into a parking space, I eased off the bike and handed the helmet back to Archer. I couldn’t begin to imagine the looks I was going to get from the teachers who remained in the building. Sure, some of them knew I was involved with a biker, and by now I’m sure they knew he was dead. I’d called my principal to ask for a few days off.

Thankfully, I’d remembered my keys, so we were able to slip in one of the side doors, rather than going in the front. When I started into my classroom, I noticed that Archer’s feet seemed rooted to the floor. His posture seemed as if he were on high alert.

Even though I already knew the answer, I asked, “You don’t want to come inside?”

He shook his head. “I’ll wait out here.”

“Okay.” While I should have felt comforted with him keeping an eye on things, I also didn’t want to be alone. Not even in my classroom, with its cheerfully decorated bulletin boards and posters. I slipped inside and closed the door behind me. Whoever they’d gotten to be my sub was obviously trying to survive with fifteen five-year-olds, because the room was a wreck.

With a renewed sense of purpose pumping through me, I went to the closet and grabbed the necessary cleaning materials. I don’t know how long I spent washing down desks and chairs, scraping off clumps of glue, and reorganizing my bookshelves and centers. Ironically, it seemed to do me a lot of good. For that brief respite, I was able to forget that the man I loved more than anything in the world had been killed yesterday.

Defeated by the painful cloud of grief that swelled around me, I walked over to my desk and collapsed down into the chair. Cradling my head in my hands, I wept openly and unashamedly. As I cried, images of Deacon and me together played through my mind. Him with Willow. Him with his brothers. Him in those last moments as he walked out the door to the horrible fate that awaited him.

Once I began to recover, I swiped my arms across my moistened face. A tissue came into my line of sight. “Thank you, Archer,” I murmured, as I took it to dab my eyes.

“You’re welcome, Miss Evans.”

I jerked my head up at the stranger’s voice. Every molecule in my body seemed to flare in distress. Although I wanted to scream for help, my vocal cords twisted in fear to where I could do nothing but squeak. When my gaze darted to the classroom doorway, the man held up his hand. “Don’t worry about the prospect. He’s only being momentarily detained. I didn’t find it necessary to shed his blood today.”

“W-who are y-you?” I stammered.

He flashed me a wicked smile. “I’m sure you already know the answer to that question, Miss Evans. You are a smart girl, being a teacher.”

“Sigel?”

With a flourished bow, he said, “The one and only.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I see you’re a woman who doesn’t beat around the bush. I’m glad to see that. I hate when my time is wasted. I’ve come here to pay my respects for the loss of your dearly departed boyfriend.”

My fists clenched in my lap. Anger outweighed my fear, and I felt like at any minute I might launch myself at Sigel.

Cocking his head, Sigel seemed to be weighing my body language. “I hope you will believe me when I say I had no idea Deacon would be anywhere near Case’s house.”

“And I hope you will believe me when I say that is utter bullshit.”

Sigel’s deep blue eyes widened at my statement. “I can see why Deacon liked you so much. You’re like a hellcat, aren’t you, Miss Evans?” Nausea washed over me at Sigel’s use of the word “hellcat.” It was one Deacon had used to tease me.

When I refused to answer him, Sigel shook his head. “The plan was to take out Case, which would enrage Deacon enough to come after me. I would then be able to get my personal revenge. Trust me that having him taken out in a simple explosion served no purpose for me.” His expression darkened even further. “He received far too quick and painless a death, considering what I had in store for him.”

While it was still hard to imagine that Sigel hadn’t planned on taking Deacon out, his words certainly gave me something to think about. “With Deacon dead, I can’t imagine what you could possibly want from me,” I said in a low voice.

“You were once a very valuable commodity to me, Miss Evans. I’m sure that was made clear to you when you spent some time with my former associate, Crank.”

Jerking my chin up at him, I said, “If you for one minute think you can use me to get to Willow, you might as well kill me right here and now. As long as I have a breath left within me, I’ll keep that child safe!”

Sigel made a tsking noise in his throat. “You once again have missed the mark on this one, Miss Evans. I don’t want Deacon’s brat. While I’m sure her death would greatly affect Rev and some of the other brothers, it would do little for me, considering her father is now dead.”

“Then what do you what?” I demanded, my voice shrill.

“You know, they say it’s a small world, and I wouldn’t have actually believed how small it could be until you came into Deacon Malloy’s life.”

“I don’t understand.”

“No, I don’t suppose you do. So let me refresh your memory. I’m sure you might’ve heard that cocksucker you spread your legs for mention that I had a son. A son that he murdered.”