The Biker's Teacher

Rogue agent

CLAIRE

The storm hit right at dismissal, turning the afternoon sky into a bruised, violent sheet of nimbus clouds. Within minutes, a torrential autumn downpour turned the academy courtyard into a flooded maze of concrete and rushing water. I stood beneath the shallow concrete overhang of the main entrance, clutching my bag.

My sedan sat a hundred yards away in the furthest row, its headlights dead, completely stalled after the engine swallowed a wave of standing water on my way to the lot.The lights inside the school hallways flicked to their low evening settings behind me, leaving me isolated in the damp, freezing gloom.

Then, the heavy vibration began.

The black SUV cut through the sheets of blinding rain, its customized engine emitting a low, predatory growl that rattled straight through my bones.

The door opened. Levi stepped out into the storm.

The rain immediately soaked his dark hair, plastering it against his forehead and sharpening the striking, lethal lines of his jaw. He moved with a lazy, terrifying confidence that completely ignored the downpour, his massive, broad-shouldered frame eating up the distance between us until he stepped under the overhang.

"Your car is dead, little teacher," he murmured."Get in."

Two weeks had bled away since she dropped little Leo into my front row, and the thought of them together—of their history, their past, their skin against each other—had been burning through my veins like pure venom. I was drowning in a roaring, uncontrollable jealousy that left me physically nauseous. The sheer humiliation of my own weakness brought a violent repulsion towards my own mind because I couldn't stop this madness. I had fallen for the target, and the mere assumption that the boy staring at me every morning was his son made me want to burn everything to the ground.

"I am not getting into your car, Levi," I spat.

"You're shivering, Claire," he whispered, entirely ignoring my resistance. His hand wrapped around my wrist. "And the school is empty. You're coming with me."

A second later, he slid into the driver's seat. The SUV idled in the dark, the heavy rain drumming violently against the roof while the windows quickly fogged up, completely isolating us from the rest of the world.

Levi leaned back against his seat, turning his head to lock his obsidian eyes onto mine. That maddening, arrogant smirk slowly crept back onto his lips, his gaze tracking the frantic, furious rise and fall of my chest. He was back to his usual shenanigans.

"What is wrong with you?" I hissed, turning sharply in my seat to glare at him through the gloom. "Why are you here? Go back to your Vixen, Levi. Go back to Veronica and your perfect little family."

The lazy smirk on his face slowly vanished, replaced by an intense stillness.

"Drive your fancy SUV back to the woman who actually belongs in your life, and stay the hell away from me," I venomously pressed, the words tumbling out. "I see him every single morning, Levi. Leo. He sits in my classroom with your exact face, staring at me. So don't play these pathetic games with me anymore. You have a son."

Before I could draw away, he leaned across the console, his large hand gripping my jaw.

"He's not my son, Claire," he growled, his warm breath brushing softly against my lips, delivering a twist that completely knocked the wind out of my lungs. "Leo is my nephew. He's the only remaining piece of my younger brother. The one who was murdered by the same people Veronica works for."

My heart completely stopped. The words echoed in the tight, fogged-up cabin of the SUV, shattering the toxic illusion of my jealousy and leaving behind a cold, hollow cavity of pure shock.

"What do you mean, people she works for?" I pressed."Levi, what happened to your brother?"

His heavy, calloused fingers remained locked around my jaw, his thumb tracing a slow line along my skin. His obsidian gaze searched my face, drinking in the frantic, unmasked questions in my eyes.

"You're a very curious schoolteacher, Claire," he murmured.He leaned in closer, his lips mere inches from mine, his dark eyes narrowing. "Always so eager to dig into things that don't belong to your life. But some ghosts are best left buried, little teach. Otherwise, they tend to start digging graves for the living."

Ting.The sharp, high-pitched electronic chime cut through the dark, heavy silence of the cabin.

Levi’s gaze shifted instantly. His eyes locked onto the left side of my jacket.

"What was that?" he whispered, his voice dangerously smooth.

"Nothing," I choked out. "Just an alert on my phone. Let go of me, Levi."

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LEVI

The rain continued to assault the glass of my study windows. I stood before the mahogany desk, entirely unmoved by the storm outside, my eyes fixed on the digital terminal glowing against the shadows of the room.

I leaned forward, tapping a sequence into the secure console to activate the digital receiver.

A single line of decoded text bloomed across the black screen of my desk terminal.

OPERATIVE TWENTY-SEVEN: STAND DOWN ACTIVE INFILTRATION IMMEDIATELY. EMERGENCY EXTRACTION ACTIVATED. REGIONAL HEADQUARTERS REQUESTING YOUR IMMEDIATE PRESENCE FOR FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS.

"Agent Twenty-Seven," I murmured to the empty room, a wicked smile spreading slowly across my face.

So that was her number. The agency had finally lost their patience with their little puppet.

I leaned back in my leather chair, my fingers steepled under my chin as I stared at the flashing red extraction code on my monitor. They thought they could just pluck her off my board and disappear into the shadows.

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CLAIRE

The downpour was deafening, masking the sound of everything.

"Going somewhere, Claire?"

Max was standing right over me in the pitch black.He was dressed in entirely civilian clothes.

The metallic click of a silenced pistol safety disengaging echoed sharply between us as the barrel pressed directly into my ribs.

"Max, what the hell are you doing?" I hissed. "The extraction order—"

"I have been following you since the day you entered this town," Max murmured, a dark smile cutting across his face as his grip tightened."It's just I didn't make myself aware. I've been sitting back, watching, and seeing you warming up to that damn arms dealer."