“Jesus Christ!” Jamie and I exclaimed at the same time.
He gently set me down before yanking his jeans up with a snarl. “You better start runnin’ now, boy.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Grey: October 2016
“Your girl’s got a strong kick,” Bear groaned. “My fuckin’ balls are still lodged somewhere in my throat. The fuck you grinnin’ about? You think this is funny?”
“I think it’s funny as fuck that a woman half your size took you down. Might have to change your name to Cub, ‘cause you’re losin’ your touch.” I couldn’t fight the smile that was plastered to my face, and it had shit all to do with Dakota’s well-placed kick.
She knew I was alive.
Granted, I’d been busy trying to keep her cop boyfriend from bleeding out and had only managed to get one word out of her before she saw the blood and blacked out on me, but I’d live on that word for the rest of my life.
Dad.
Celia had been right to question the Blake family’s motives. Proving that some men never learned, they’d gone after Dakota again. This time though, Blake’s idiot son had been stupid enough to kidnap my daughter, taking her to a facility that I owned.
He and his father would pay for that, but first I had to deal with one of my own.
“Goblin,” I called out, and he came running.
“Yeah, Pres?”
I sat on the edge of the desk in the back office of our warehouse, scratching at my jaw. “Thought you said she ended things with the cop.”
His brown eyes widened, and he stuttered, “S-she did! I swear it. I was on her like peanut butter on a sidewalk, boss. Ain’t no one could’ve done a better job than me.”
I shook my head with a frown. The kid was shit with analogies. “See, that don’t add up for me because the cop’s fuckin’ ass over teakettle for her and plans on poppin’ the question.”
A line of sweat ran from Goblin’s hairline down the side of his face. “That don’t make no sense! We broke up with him because we don’t need no man… even one that looks like Thor. We go to the gym twice a day, and she only cries in the shower. We made motherfuckin’ progress, Pres!”
My lips twitched, but I fought it, wanting to see how far the kid would go to get himself out of trouble. I lasted all of three seconds before I was doubled over, wheezing with laughter. “Goddamn, son. I’m just fuckin’ with you. I’ll talk to Mikey, make sure this guy, Zane, knows how to keep his fuckin’ mouth shut.”
I couldn’t have stayed mad at Goblin if I tried. He’d kept my daughter safe and shown her how to defend herself using the kung fu shit that he and Celia were so fond of.
Considering she’d just shot her soon-to-be fiancé, I might’ve spent a little more time showing her how to use a gun, but it was a start.
He laughed nervously. “Oh, yeah. See, I knew you were just fuckin’ around, boss. That’s how we do, right? You got me, and now I gotta come up with somethin’ to get you back—”
“Goblin?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“Get the fuck out.”
“You got it,” he chuckled. “I’ll just be out here, beatin’ the shit outta the Blake kid if you need me.”
Bear watched me from the couch with an amused smirk. “Jesus Christ. Kid runs his mouth more than me. So, how’s it feel to be back from the dead?”
I stood up. “It feels fuckin’ amazing. Walk with me. I lost my shirt, tryin’ to keep the cop alive and I feel fuckin’ naked without at least my kutte, you know?”
We passed Goblin, happily pistol-whipping our prisoner and moved outside. “We any closer to findin’ our rat?”
Bear shook his head. “Jarvis is lookin’ into it, but between our guy and whoever they got inside the department, they’ve covered their tracks. It’s like a fuckin’ game of cat and mouse, only I can’t figure out what the goddamn prize is.”
I sighed. “I’m startin’ to feel like this Saint guy ain’t real. Only person who copped to knowin’ jack shit about him was Hawk, but I ain’t seen a goddamn thing that proves he’s out there.”
“Serpents were spotted outside of Houston. Got some of our Nomads trackin’ to see where they lead.”
I ignored the pang in my chest as I thought of Slim. Three years later, and it still didn’t feel real. Every day, I expected him to walk through the door of the clubhouse, bragging about how he’d pulled off the world’s most epic prank.
“Cobra with them?” I asked, pushing my grief back down.
“Haven’t gotten confirmation on that, but as soon as they know, we’ll know.” Bear kicked at stray pieces of gravel with his boot, sending them rolling across the parking lot.
In two years, the Sons had wiped out the Outlaws and recruited most of the local gangbangers to their cause, but no one knew exactly what that cause was. Torch’s Ol’ Lady had turned up dead after overhearing something she shouldn’t have, but the notes she’d left behind had led nowhere.
As much as I wanted there to be a connection between Cobra and the Sons, the evidence wasn’t there. It seemed that, despite what Hawk had wanted us to believe, no puppet master was pulling at strings to get to my wife.
I’d been looking for hidden meanings and chasing after loose ends when it could’ve been nothing more than a turf war. Most ended as soon as they began, but the Sons had been smart and infiltrated my clubhouse.
“Sullivan’s here.” Bear pointed at the truck pulling in. “Bet you never thought you’d live to see the day that he was the one with his head on straight,” he chuckled.
“What do you mean?” I asked carefully as I retrieved my kutte from where I’d left it hanging on the chain-link fence, tucking it under my arm before meandering back toward the warehouse. Comedian had snagged Blake Sr. and with the way Goblin was working Junior over, I knew he wasn’t going anywhere.
Plenty of time for me to find out what exactly Bear knew, and how.
He looked around before leaning in. “I mean, out of the three of your kids, he’s the only one who has his shit together.”
Dread wrapped its icy fingers around me, and I swallowed. “You know about that?”
Bear nodded. “Pres, I got two eyes and been ridin’ with you for years. You and I both know the conversation that’s gonna have to happen. You know how hard it was for me to tell Ricky I wasn’t his old man? To see the hurt in his eyes?”
“You two are good now, though, right?”
“I don’t know. We’re brothers in the same club—whether he’ll ever see me as his dad again? Who the fuck can say? You know, me and Molly had a one-night stand not long before she ended up with the gangbanger. When I found out she was knocked up, I had this stupid thought that maybe the kid was mine.”
He paused, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “Only I used a rubber and that prick didn’t. Some of the other guys gave me shit, sayin’ that she was gonna try to get me on the hook for child support, but I was so fuckin’ gone for her by then, it didn’t matter.”
“Did she?” I’d been so preoccupied with taking out Los Dictadores back then that I’d missed out on the drama taking place within my own club.
Bear shook his head with a grin, lost to his memories. “Nah, she straight up told me the baby wasn’t mine; tried to push me away. I showed up to every goddamn doctor’s appointment and was the first one to hold him when he was born—fuck, what am I tryin’ to say? Just don’t wait too long. Hell, maybe if I’d been honest from the beginning, things would’ve turned out differently.”
I clapped him on the shoulder with a jerk of my head before walking back inside. There was nothing I could’ve said to make things better. Bear and I were in the same boat; both stuck, wishing our boys could see who we really were.
Mikey looked to me when I walked in and snapped, “You wanna tell me why I’m down here?”
He wasn’t pissed that he was getting called in to clean up another mess for the club; he was mad that he’d had to leave home. Thoughts of Slim filtered through again as I stared
at my son, finally seeing that he’d been right the entire time.
A woman had come along and settled Mikey’s ass down.
Lauren was a force to be reckoned with, and there wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she and Celia could run the fucking world if they ever teamed up. The girl was a spitfire who took shit from no one, least of all my boy.
I sighed with the realization that I couldn’t call Slim up or ride down to buy the bastard a steak dinner before telling him he was right.
After issuing orders for Goblin and Crossbones to deliver Blake Jr. to the clubhouse, I found a prospect to start mopping up the blood and directed Mikey into the back office.
“Let’s talk in here.” I sank down onto the desk again as he dropped onto the couch where Bear had been only minutes before. “He fuckin’ took Dakota tonight, Mikey.”
Hades and Persephone had come from separate worlds, and she’d simply divided her time between the two. His world had never started to bleed over into hers.
Until now.
The kids we’d fought to keep safe were now in the middle of a war, being used as pawns by our enemies. I’d always thought my biggest challenge would be getting Mikey sober and clean and keeping him that way.
It turned out, the secret I’d been keeping was the only thing that had saved him from becoming a target. Bear was right though. It was only a matter of time until our enemies noticed the similarities between us and put two and two together.
Jackson Blake had insisted he was in love with Dakota, and I’d been too blind to see the truth. If I’d missed that, then none of them were safe. Our enemies had disguised themselves as friends.
I spun my skull ring before admitting, “I’d agreed to their marriage months ago; thought it was a win-win situation for everyone. The Blake family has transported for us for years. After seeing Lauren on your wedding day, though, I had second thoughts. Dakota deserves the same happiness that you have, and Jackson would’ve made her miserable.”
Lauren looked at Mikey the way Celia looked at me; like we were something worth fighting for. Kate and Dakota deserved the same.
“I backed out of the merger, and he called off the wedding. I thought that was the end of it until he took Dakota tonight. I guess he thought that he and his fucking pal, Bill, would use her as leverage to get what they wanted from the club.”
He blinked up at me with furrowed brows. “So, the blood?”
“Dakota has a broken nose, and Zane got shot in the shoulder, trying to protect her.”
In reality, Dakota had been the one to shoot Zane, but I wasn’t up to arguing semantics.
Mikey winced, no doubt seeing the millions of ways it could go south. “What’s the story with them?”
The grin returned to my face. “He fuckin’ loves her—”
“Great. I can use that. Okay, what if we use the cop angle and run with it? It might be enough to keep suspicion low as long as Masterson plays along. What about the Blakes?”
I ran a finger over my throat, adding, “They’re thinkin’ of fleein’ the country once it comes out that they’ve cooked their books.”
Their deaths would be slow and painful; a reminder to anyone else who’d had similar thoughts of going after my kids.
Jarvis fell into the door on the way into the office, and I sighed. If he was here, it meant he wasn’t with Kate. “Slight problem,” he panted.
“I know I was supposed to keep an eye on Kate, but I got busy with club shit and she—um, well she’s in Vegas.”
He had the same look of panic on his face that Goblin had, but for an entirely different reason. I’d put the kid through college and gotten him a job as a realtor for the real estate company I owned, and he’d repaid me last year by taking my daughter home and fucking her.
The only reason the fucking ginger was still breathing was because it had only happened the one time, and then Kate had gone out of her way to avoid him.
It didn’t mean I’d planned to let it go unpunished.
Trouble was, the prick had fallen for my baby girl, and I realized that him being forced to watch her day in, day out was better than any of the shit I could’ve doled out.
Sensing he was about to hyperventilate himself onto the floor, I casually said, “So, she’s safer there than she is here. She’s a grown woman, Jarvis. I think she’ll be okay.”
He shook his head. “Well, she’s with the doctor and based on their credit card trail, I think they’re getting married.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose at the same time Mikey did. “What do you mean, married? Celia said they weren’t even serious.”
My phone vibrated against my hip, and I quickly answered when I saw it was my wife. “How’s our girl?”
She sniffed, and I knew she was crying. She had every right to because it shouldn’t have happened. I’d put measures in place to keep them safe, and it hadn’t meant shit.
“Hey, Jamie. Dakota’s got a broken nose, but she’s okay. Zane came out of surgery with no problems. It’s just—she, uh, she wants to get to know you—” Her voice cut off in a soft sob.
I ran my hand over my face, fighting back the tears with a smile. It no longer mattered who the fuck was in the room with me. My daughter knew I was still kicking and wanted a relationship. “Darlin’, that’s the best fuckin’ news I’ve had all night.”
Celia hiccuped loudly. “That’s not why I called though.”
“Believe me when I say I’m takin’ care of this—”
“She’s pregnant, Jamie.” Except for her ragged breaths, the line was silent.
Pregnant.
In my mind, Dakota was still a baby, screeching that her favorite superhero was ‘For,’ because she couldn’t make the th sound. She wasn’t old enough to be having babies of her own.
Fuck, she wasn’t old enough to even be thinking about sex.
“She’s knocked up by a badge?” I roared, and Jarvis backed out of the office with his palms raised while Mikey shook his head with a wince. “I’m gonna fuckin’ kill him.”
I looked over at Mikey. “What are those charges you can get on someone for fuckin’ your kid?” I asked. “You’re a cop, you know that shit.”
He frowned. “Statutory rape? Grey, I think the age of consent is seventeen, and what is Dakota? Twenty-two?”
“Thought you’d know all about the laws regarding that,” Celia deadpanned through the phone. I didn’t need to be reminded of how young she’d been when I popped her cherry.
“I got one elopin’ in Vegas, one knocked up by a cop… the fuck is this world comin’ to, Celia? I think right now, the only kid I got that’s doin’ a goddamn thing right is—” I caught myself just before saying the words, not missing the way Mikey’s head shot up in expectation.
He knew.
The truth was looking me right in the eye, and I still couldn’t say it. “Well, I think it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious that raisin’ kids is like tryin’ to herd feral cats.”
“Did you just say that Kate is getting married in Vegas?”
“Celia, I can’t hear—think—breaking up—Call—” I pressed the end button with a sigh and leaned back.
When I worked up the courage to make eye contact with my son again, he was watching me with an unreadable expression. “You know, Grey, there isn’t an easy way to say this, but…”
Here it was.
Time to set club bullshit aside and come clean.
“Between Celia and the girls…” He grinned. “You’re fucked.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Celia: October 2016
“You’re shakin’, Celia. Here, watch this.” Rick thrust his cell phone into my trembling hands. “If this don’t work, we’ll go out back and…” He held his thumb and index finger up to his lips like he was smoking a joint.
“I’m fine—” At the sound of giggling, I looked down at his phone just in time to see a cat launch itself off a counter and into a wall. “How is this supposed to help?”
He tapp
ed the screen knowingly. “You watch a few minutes of this, and you’re chill as fuck. Most hilarious and funny cat videos, see? Says it right there. If this don’t work, we’ll break out the weed.”
My body tingled in anticipation, and I raked a hand through my hair, fighting to calm my nerves. Dakota had done surprisingly well with the revelation that her father was still alive; so well, in fact, that she’d insisted I come over to help her tell Kate.
Knowing what Jamie’s death had done to her, I was dreading every second.
“Look at this one,” Rick jabbed a finger into the screen again. “You think Grey would let us get a cat for the clubhouse? Man, I bet he’d be a great mascot… representin’ the club and shit. We could even call him Phoenix.”
I glanced up at the ceiling, silently pleading for help.
At the sound of voices in the living room, my mouth went dry, and everything in me fought to run away. Telling Kate the truth was only going to make things worse between us.
Rick took a bite of cereal from the bowl in front of him before cracking up, sending a stream of milk onto the table in front of us. I glanced at the video of a cat tangled up in blinds, wondering if being high was a requirement to finding cat videos funny.
“Holy shit, Hail Mary.” He looked up with a grin. “I thought I heard you in there. How’s it hanging?”
Yet another nickname that made no sense to me.
It was as if Rick was incapable of just calling them by their names.
“What are you two doing here?” Kate asked with a furrowed brow.
Patting my leg under the table, Rick answered. “Hail Mary, I’m always here. You know that. I got a little hungry, and Caparina gets the best cereal. What are you doing here?”
She glanced around the small kitchen as if searching for answers. “I—are you high?”
“Kate, it’s not polite to ask people if they’re high,” I said, more out of reflex than anything else.
“Mama, I’ll get to you in a minute. Little Ricky, answer the question.”
Protector: Silent Phoenix MC Series: Book Four Page 28