Hunter (King’s Men MC #1)

4. Ryleigh

4

RYLEIGH

New semester, new me.

If only I could believe that.

It had been three months since the alleyway incident.

The ruling for the court was sped up because it involved a key player from the notorious King’s Men MC—their VP—and it also involved the murder of a police officer.

I didn’t think anyone knew that police officer was corrupt, or if they did, it seemed they didn’t care much, considering who they locked up because of his death.

For once, my dad was smiling at me.

This was a massive win for him as judge, and he was hoping it would aid him in his bid for the State Supreme Court.

Mom was still worried, as usual, and it had taken all the time I took off from school to convince her to let me move into an apartment of my own.

Of course, my parents had an extra key to the apartment, but I was far enough away from them that I wasn’t really worried about it.

My nightmares had started back up again, only it was no longer just about my time at the cliff, but now included my time in the alley. Sometimes, it would come up all in one nightmare, where I would start at the cliff and end at the alleyway.

I didn’t tell anyone about it.

I didn’t want my mom to use this as ammunition to keep me at home with her.

I needed to get on with my life.

I needed to graduate and start living my life the way I intended to, not as Judge Hudson’s daughter, not as the former victim of a child abduction gone wrong, and not as the key witness to putting the VP of the King’s Men MC away.

My identity had been kept a secret.

I was referred to as Jane Doe in court because of who my dad was and who the man I sent to prison was.

Although I didn’t think it was enough to get him, the sentence had come through last week, resulting in the man serving twenty years without parole.

Roman Stone.

I shivered just thinking of his name.

And I hoped to God he never learned mine.

I looked around the small apartment I had just moved into.

It was a one-bedroom, one-bath apartment in one of the nicer neighborhoods in Berkeley.

It was also a ten-minute drive to campus, and what was more, there were no roommates.

Some boxes littered the hallway, and though I itched with the need to unpack, I didn’t have time.

I needed to get to the coffee shop before class, since caffeine was all I was running on at the moment.

I just wanted everything to be back to normal.

I drove to school on autopilot .

And as usual, the coffee shop was bustling in the morning, filled with students trying to get their fixes before class.

I suddenly had a sense of Déjà vu, back to that morning of the incident, when I had come to the coffee shop.

I hadn’t realized how much things could change in just three months—and for the worst.

And to make it complete, Kai was there.

I pulled up short when I noticed him.

Unlike the other time, he wasn’t surrounded by his so-called friends but alone.

A solidarity Prince, looking down at the kingdom he would one day inherit.

He was no longer the angry boy I empathized with but the boy associated with the club I wanted to stay far away from.

The heir to a criminal enterprise that was only getting bigger and bigger each year that passed.

The line moved up, and I turned away from him, keeping my gaze leveled with the menu hanging above the employees’ heads behind the cash register. However, I was still so aware of the boy who sucked up too much energy behind me.

Suddenly, the skin on the back of my neck burned.

Even before I looked, I knew that Kai was looking at me.

It felt more like glaring.

I quickly turned around.

Kai didn’t know me.

He barely knew I existed before the incident, which was how it should have remained, considering no one should know I was the witness to the case, yet he was looking at me…

He was looking at me like he hated me.

I snuck a glance back at him and quickly looked away.

He was still glaring at me, his lips set in a thin line .

I prayed for the line to hurry up, so I could get my coffee and leave.

I had half a mind to leave without the coffee, but then he would know he made me uncomfortable enough to leave.

And something about giving Kai that power didn’t sit right with me.

I got to the front of the line and quickly put in my order.

It wasn’t until I got my receipt for the drink that I realized he had left.

I let out a small sigh of relief and left for the waiting station for my coffee, yet the uneasiness didn’t leave me.

I still felt like there were eyes on me the whole time.