So I could get a new attorney, I just didn’t like the way he wanted me to pay fees.

But right then, what I needed most was to change my tire, get back on the road, get my son to his father before it was too late and Aaron logged that on the list of things to use to make his ex-wife lose custody of her son and hopefully go away for good. After that, I needed to figure out how to get my tire fixed, or how to pay for a new one, and finally, get to my evening shift at the store.

I was just going to have to put my baby in the car and hope to God no one hit me or my vehicle.

I didn’t have good thoughts about this. I hadn’t had a lot of luck in my life.

Some of my bad luck was out of my control.

Aaron wasn’t.

That was on me.

That was my fail.

And it was a biggie.

I looked into Travis’s little baby face with his big pudgy cheeks and his dancing eyes that had turned brown, like mine, like his granddad’s, and he gurgled up at me, his little red lips wet and curved up, his little fist banging my shoulder.

Okay, so Aaron wasn’t a total fail. He gave me Travis.

“We’ll be fine,” I told my boy on a squeeze.

“Goo,” he replied.

I smiled. “Mommy can do this.”

“Goo, goo, gah.” Fist bump and twist on my necklace, pulling it hard against my neck.

I smiled bigger even though I still wanted to cry and started toward the car.

Then I heard a loud noise getting louder because it was getting closer.

I stopped and turned my head to the side.

That was when I froze.

I froze because I saw one of those bikers on his big, loud motorcycle riding down the shoulder my way.

And he wasn’t one of those recreational bikers. I knew this at a glance. His black hair was very long, too long, and wild. He had a full black beard on his face. It was trimmed but not trimmed enough (as in, the beard being nonexistent). He had black wraparound sunglasses covering his eyes, glasses that made him look sinister (as bikers, in my mind, were wont to be). He was also wearing a black leather jacket that looked both beat up and kind of new, faded jeans, and those clunky black motorcycle boots.

He stopped as I held my breath. He turned off the motorcycle and put down the stand before he swung a long leg with its heavy thigh and clunky boot off the bike.

Travis squealed.

Letting go of my necklace, he twisted in my arms and was pumping his fists excitedly.