Rough and Ready

by Cathleen Ross

  Why should she trust anything Hugo said anyway?

  She stabbed the button of the elevator in the foyer, keen to sit beside her mother’s bedside.

  The elevator doors opened, and Janelle stepped out and gripped her by the arms. “Alice. Thank goodness you’re here. Have you heard the good news?”

  “What?”

  “Matron’s been trying to call you. Your mother opened her eyes.”

  Alice threw herself into Janelle’s arms and hugged her. “That’s wonderful. Can Momma talk?”

  “Yes. She can’t remember the accident. She’s a bit confused, but she’s responding. Go straight up there.”

  “Oh, thank God,” Alice said, her hand moving over her heart in relief. She saw the elevator doors starting to close and dived in.

  “How’s that big hunk of a man you’ve been looking after?” Janelle called out.

  A lump caught in her throat. Stricken, she stared at Janelle, glad she wore her sunglasses. The elevator doors closed before she could reply. Relieved, she jabbed at the button, and the elevator rose to the seventh floor. She couldn’t talk about Hugo.

  Misery caught her like a tornado, wrapping around her, leaving her helpless. Her chest heaved, and she started to cry. No amount of wiping her tears would hold them in check. She took off her sunglasses and fiddled in her handbag, searching for a tissue. It was the short, vicious ending. No civilized goodbye. Hugo. She took in a great, shuddering breath.

  Telling herself not to be ridiculous and to get over him didn’t seem to be working.

  Tears rolled down her cheeks, and she wiped them away, trying to get a grip on her emotions in case the elevator stopped before her floor. She wanted to keep hating him, but somewhere, underneath the torment of his betrayal, she knew he was right to intercept the rocket launcher.

  Hugo was right.

  She could see it now. Daddy would have unleashed chaos, which would bring in police, followed by the news crews, and the gates of hell would reopen.

  He was right, but he’d sacrificed her in the process. If he hadn’t pursued her, if he’d kept his distance, his betrayal wouldn’t hurt so much.

  She should have known she couldn’t do a fling. She wasn’t that tough. When the doors of the elevator reopened, she ran down the corridor into the Intensive Care Unit. Momma was lying in her hospital bed, awake.

  “Momma?” Alice flew over to her mother’s bedside and gripped her hand.

  “Darling,” her mother said, squeezing her hand weakly before closing her eyes again.

  “Momma, look at me,” Alice ordered, mentally checking through the steps of her training on coma patients.

  Her mother opened her eyes again, frowned, and rubbed at her throat where the breathing tube had been. “How did I get here?”

  “You’ve been in an accident.” Desperately, she searched her mother’s face, looking past the bandages around her mother’s head and the deep purple bruising from her temples to her eyes. “Talk to me. What’s your name?”

  The nurse came over. “The neurologist has just seen your mother. Her pupils are dilating normally. She’s able to respond to commands, and she’s tracking. He’s ordered a CAT scan.”

  “So she can communicate?” Alice asked.

  “Yes. She was confused at first, but that’s normal,” the nurse said.

  “Thank you.” Alice turned back to her mother.

  “I have a terrible headache, dear,” her mother said.

  Alice sucked in a deep breath of relief. “Don’t worry.” She patted her mother’s hand. “They’ll give you pain meds, once they’ve done the CAT scan.”

  “Thank you.” She closed her eyes again before opening them. “Where’s your daddy? Why isn’t he here?”

  Alice pulled out her cell phone and speed-dialed her father’s number. No answer. “He’s not picking up,” she said to her mother, unable to lie. Fear rippled through her. This was not like her father. She had to find him, and she knew that there was one person who could help track him down, but she’d be damned before she contacted Hugo. There was no way in hell she’d ever have anything to do with that deceiving, heartless bastard again.

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Hugo knocked on the door of his parents’ house. It was more mansion than home, though his mother had made it homey once. What had started as a smaller Federal Colonial house now had wings added on either side befitting his father’s status.

  The door opened, and his mother peered up at him, older now, smaller too than he remembered, her face containing lines that hadn’t been there when he’d left at seventeen, ten years ago. She’d told him he was a change-of-life baby, when she thought she couldn’t conceive. A gift.

  He was more vengeful devil now.

  “Hugo? Is that really you?” She held out her arms to him.

  “It’s me.” He bent low and kissed her on the cheek. Pain was stamped on her face, aging her far beyond her years. The urge to punch, to fight overcame him. His mother had been good to him, and she deserved a better life than misery.

  “But you haven’t been home since that dreadful night. It’s been ten years.” She pulled him inside the house.

  He stepped over the threshold, his body stiff with anger. He got straight down to business. “He still beating you?”

  Her face crumpled. “Oh darling, I don’t want to talk about that.”

  “Well, I do. You should have packed up and left. I sent you money to leave him.” He couldn’t say the word father. The general hadn’t been there much when he’d been young, and when he’d been home, he hadn’t done anything except beat the crap out of him for any slight misdemeanor.

  Rage boiled inside him, needing a vent to explode.

  “I’ve missed you so much my heart could break.” She hugged him, and he held her.

  Her words rang in his ears. It was only now, when he saw her again, that it hit him how worried she must have been. Like Alice, desperately worried about her dick of a father. How the light had gone from her eyes when she’d learned he’d betrayed her. “I’m sorry, Mom. None of this is your fault.”

  Try as he might, he couldn’t respect her choice to stay, but his salary then hadn’t been much. He’d packed a lot away in the past few years. Things were going to be different. “I’ve bought a nice condo off the plan in Westminster.” Just for a heartbeat, he’d thought that he and Alice…

  His mother’s eyes filled with hope. “Are you coming back to live here?”

  “No,” he said bluntly. No Alice. No settling. Not a chance. “I want to know you’re safe. That’s the only reason I’m here.”

  His mother’s deep blue eyes widened. “But darling boy, I don’t want to leave my home. I know your father’s done wrong, dear, but I love him. I love you, too, but you left me. I didn’t want to be alone. That’s why I didn’t leave all those years ago.”

  He looked at her, aghast. “You should have.”

  “That’s for me to decide.” His mother was tiny, like a bird, her hands fluttering in front of her. “I want you to know I didn’t spend a dime of your money. I still have it to give back to you,” she added, changing the subject.

  He didn’t want the subject changed. He didn’t want to make peace, but he didn’t want to hurt his mother, either.

  He’d caused enough pain. An image of Alice’s tear-stained face came to mind. His gut turned. “Where’s the general?” His hands clenched into fists.

  Just then a sleek-looking Cadillac pulled up in the driveway, and Hugo strode outside to meet it.

  His father stepped out of his Cadillac, wearing his army service uniform complete with cap, crisp white shirt, and tie. Medals hung off his broad chest. Impressive. His green-eyed gaze met Hugo’s. Hugo wanted to punch him in the face.

  “Son.” His father opened his arms and enveloped him in a bear hug.

  “Get off me, you rotten bastard.” Hugo shoved at his father and stepped back. “You think you can make things better by hugging me?”

  “I
’m so, so sorry I beat you.” A sheen of tears dampened his father’s eyes. “I ruined our lives. Our family. Everything.”

  His father was a tough, uncompromising man. Of all the things Hugo might have expected, it wasn’t this. An apology and truth.

  His mother had followed him out of the house. “Your father is a different man now, Hugo.”

  Hackles raised on his neck as he stared down his father. “Do you still hit her?” This wasn’t about Hugo. It never had been. He could look after himself.

  His father swallowed and shook his head. “I went to counseling.”

  Hugo almost choked. “You?” There was never anything wrong with his father, or so the asshole had always maintained. Hugo wanted to wrap his hands around his throat, but for the first time, he didn’t think his father would fight back. Instead, the asshole stood there like a block of wood, his face bleached.

  “I did wrong. I’m ashamed of what I did to your mother and to you. I wrote to you. Many times. Apologizing.”

  “I binned everything,” Hugo said bluntly.

  His mother slid her small hand into his. “We both love you, darling boy. Every family event, you were never there. Oh, Hugo, you leaving, it cut my heart in two.”

  He turned toward his mother. “How could I stay? You think I could stand by and watch you being hit by this monster? I left so I could earn money to take care of you, so you could be free.”

  Tears rolled down his mother’s face. “I don’t want to be free. I love your father. I know he did wrong, but he’s never touched me again. But I love you, too. So much. I want my family back together. It’s all I’ve ever wanted. My beautiful boy, home.”

  His father put his hand on his shoulder. Hugo tensed.

  “Even if you can never forgive me,” his father said, “I want you to know I understand I did wrong. Every day I pray to God that you’ll forgive me, that one day you’ll be my son again.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  After lunch, when her mother was resting, Alice drove out to the club in the Lower Ninth precinct, determined to get answers. She’d handed her key to her father the night of the fight, but she still had her remote door swipe card for the gate. If she was lucky no one would have deregistered it. She hoped she didn’t have to scale the fence.

  At the gate, she wound down her window and waved her card in front of the control panel.

  The gate slid open, and she drove down the road, parking in the back. She looked around. Something was off. No shining Harleys. Instead, there were several old bikes, too beat up for general usage.

  She tested the back door. Locked. Damn. She was about to hammer on it when Cain, the Enforcer, opened it. “Saw you come in on the monitor. Your daddy’s not here.” His breath stank of booze; he had bad bruising on his face and one arm in an unprofessionally knotted sling.

  Every neuron in her nervous system lit up. Something was wrong. For Cain to be this injured there must have been a hell of a fight. “Where is Daddy?”

  “Where the Slayers left him.”

  Alice swallowed. “What do you mean?”

  “We were ambushed. They were waiting. All of ‘em. Beat the shit out of us, took our bikes, our phones, and our fucking boots.” A mix of saliva and blood foamed at his mouth.

  But Hugo had intimated her daddy was alive. He wouldn’t lie to her about that, would he? Her heart thudded every time she thought of him, and her treacherous body longed for his touch.

  “Why didn’t you call me?” Mentally she made a list of the medical supplies she needed.

  “We don’t want your help. You made it clear what you thought of me. What you think of the brothers. What we do.”

  “Daddy needs help,” she said. If he would only tell her where her father was, she’d go straight out there.

  His eyes narrowed suspiciously, and his top lip rose in a snarl. “Someone informed on us.”

  “Well, it wasn’t me. I know nothing about club business. You’d think I’d betray my daddy? Cain, please.” She gripped his arm, and then she saw it. The tattoo of the serpent, on the back of his hand and wrist. Her stomach dropped to the floor.

  Hugo, that downright lying bastard, had done something right. He’d promised he’d find out who’d hurt Momma, and she was staring straight at him. But what had happened to Daddy?

  “Don’t come here again, or I’ll put a bullet in that pretty little skull and feed you to the gators.” Cain slammed the door on her face.

  The moment she got back into her car, she hit Hugo’s cell phone number.

  “Alice?” Hugo picked up on the first call.

  Just the sound of his voice sent shivers of pleasure throughout her body, but she wasn’t calling him to get him back into her personal life. She was done with him. “I need you back here now.”

  He’d made her a promise.

  He owed her.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “Glad you called,” Hugo said to Alice the moment she opened her apartment door mid-afternoon. He strode past her to her bedroom, dumped his duffel bag on the floor, and unzipped it, shuffling his clothes aside to get something. An unopened packet of condoms rolled off the top of the clothing onto the floor.

  She crossed her arms. If she didn’t need him so badly, she’d kill him. If he was even possible to kill. “Don’t get comfortable. You know I didn’t call you here for sex, you treacherous bastard.”

  He raised his eyebrows and stared at her with those piercing green eyes of his. “I made you a vow to help you. I mean to keep it.” Something softened at the sides of his mouth as he gave a quick glance at the packet of condoms. “It’s always good to be rewarded for my hard work.”

  “Don’t even think about it.” Every cell of her body prickled with attraction and irritation. He was so damned big. Hot. With more muscles than a man had a right to have. He also had a way of getting under her skin. “You haven’t done any work. You’ve made my life hell. Just tell me where Troy said the Slayers intercepted the Banderos. Daddy’s men have left him there.”

  A horrified expression crossed his face. “Let’s go get him. Got my truck parked on the street below just waiting for you.” He headed for her front door and picked up the first aid kit she’d put next to it, along with the bottle of water.

  Riled, she stormed after him. “I only called you because I need information on where to find Daddy, which you refused to give me over the phone. I’ll go myself.”

  Hugo stopped at her open front door and loomed over her. “Because you can lift an injured man by yourself?”

  “I’ll drag him if I have to,” she said, refusing to acknowledge his warm, musky scent.

  “While wrestling an alligator in the wildlife park?”

  Holy crap! “There’s alligators?” Her stomach dropped. “Oh God, we’ve got to get to him fast. He’s been out there for hours.”

  Hugo pressed the elevator button before turning to her. “I’ve missed you.” He reached out to take her in his arms.

  “Don’t touch me.” She turned on him with all the anger and vengeance that sat in her heart. “Missing me would require having feelings, which you don’t have. You’re nothing to me but a good hump with a heartbeat. Once I’ve got Daddy, I’ll never see you again.”

  Hugo looked at her and raised wing-like eyebrows. “Not like you to be crude.” The expectant expression on his face disappeared. It gave her satisfaction to see her words had hit home.

  “It’s called toughening up.” She’d cried in front of him. Sobbed. She had to be stronger than that. Meaner than that.

  A few minutes later, she sat next to him in his truck as he drove at breakneck speed, aware of just how damn good he was on a mission. He wore aviator sunglasses and a black cap, which hid his penetrating gaze. His determined jaw was perfectly shaved.

  She swallowed, determined not to like him, even though he was devastating.

  He flattened his foot on the gas as soon as they were on the highway. “The I-10 toward the Bayou Sauvage Wildlife Refuge s
houldn’t take us more than thirty minutes. Look for an abandoned overpass. We turn off before that.”

  “Why would they meet at a swamp full of birds and gators?” she wailed.

  “It’s not quite in the swamp. I needed to get you into my truck fast, and you argue too much. The ghost exit is quiet. They were going to turn the land into a megacity, then changed their minds.” He glanced at his GPS. “You have to know what you’re looking for. The place has a few dead ends.”

  Dead ends. Just like her and him. She fisted her hands, her nails digging into the palms, not knowing what she’d find when they arrived. “What will I do if Daddy’s dead? I know he’s a dick, but I love him.”

  “You’re not alone.”

  He said it so softly, she barely heard it over the noise of the engine. “Don’t. Don’t reel me back in because the sex was good.”

  “It was great. Not good. I want you back.”

  “No. I’m a biker’s daughter, and I know when I’ve been played.”

  “You’re as stubborn as a mule,” he muttered as he started to slow down, and she saw the overpass in the distance.

  “And tougher than a goat,” she came right back at him.

  They turned off the freeway onto a bumpy road, which nature was starting to reclaim.

  “Start looking out for your daddy. Troy DeLance said it was a few minutes’ drive in. For what it’s worth, Troy said the Slayers gave the Banderos a beating.”

  “That’s supposed to make me feel better?”

  “He said they didn’t kill anyone.”

  “As if I’d believe anything that came out of Troy DeLance’s mouth.” She looked him up and down. “Or yours.” She continued looking for her father, her gaze going from right to left, wildly searching in the scrubland as they drove along, refusing to be drawn back into Hugo’s web.

  His whole body stiffened. “I came when you called. Why would I lie to you?”

  “Don’t go there. Just don’t.” The bushes on either side of the road were clumped close together. It was impossible to see anything. “Cain said the Slayers took their bikes, their boots.” She frowned, thinking it out. “The Slayers couldn’t make off with their bikes unless they had a truck to put them in or rode two on one bike into the swamp, so someone could ride the Banderos’ bikes out. There should be signs of multiple vehicles.”