Riding to Sunset by Jaci Burton

Author:Jaci Burton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2019-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

TEN

Elena didn’t believe it. Not for one second.

“My mother is an only child.”

“No, she’s not. I’m her brother.”

“Bullshit.” She pushed off and stood, then started toward the house. Grange stopped her by stepping in front of her.

“Elena, your mother is my sister. She was born Carla Suzanne Lee on January twenty-fifth, 1957.”

“Easy enough information to obtain.”

“Ask me anything about your mother.”

“Who was her best friend in high school?”

“Trick question. It was Bobby Ross. She befriended him in study hall freshman year. They never dated, became best friends and were inseparable throughout high school. Bobby was a war-protesting, antiestablishment, pot-smoking hippie, just like your mother right up until he got accepted to Harvard. Then he had a complete turnaround and decided he wanted to be a lawyer. And not a people’s lawyer, either, but a corporate one. Your mother was devastated because she lost her best friend.”

Elena eyed him suspiciously, still not convinced.

“Keep talking.”

“Despite her big talk about communing with nature, she loves meat, especially hamburgers. Her favorite is smothered in steak sauce with cheddar cheese on top. She hates tomatoes and is allergic to peanuts. She has a purple birthmark on the back of her neck and a scar on her scalp where her hairline meets her forehead, on the left side. It happened when we were kids. She was eight, I was twelve. We were playing on some equipment at the gym and your mom was a tomboy when she was a kid, so she always played with the boys. I pushed her, she fell and hit her head on the edge of the cement. She got sixteen stitches and a concussion, and I got grounded for two weeks.”

“She told me about the scar. Said one of the boys in the neighborhood pushed her. And she never told me she had a brother.”

“Because it wasn’t safe for her.”

Elena frowned. “Who the hell are you?”

“I’m a retired U.S. Marine general. I work for the government running an undercover operation. Jed works for me.”

Of course he did. And she’d been just a job.

Ignoring the hurt of that revelation, she asked, “What kind of undercover work?”

“I run a crew of Harley-riding operatives. They do some down-and-dirty special ops work as bikers, usually infiltrating biker gangs involved in smuggling, gun running or drug operations.”

“Sounds fun.”

He laughed. “It can be an adventure, but also dangerous. And in my line of work and the things I’ve done both in the military and in my special ops work over the years, I’ve made a lot of enemies. It caused me to cut ties with my family—with your mother—because I didn’t want anyone using her—or you—to get to me.”

She stared at him, at this man who looked so hard. Could he have that much of a soft side? “You cut yourself off from us to keep us safe?”

“I tried to. I stayed in touch with Carla to the best of my ability so I could make sure you both were taken care of. Our parents died. She had no one to take care of her and didn’t exactly do the best job taking care of herself.

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