“Why would I not want to see my only child?” he asks, brow furrowing. “Just because I haven’t been in your life doesn’t mean that I don’t care about you.”
Lips tightening, I say nothing to that. The waitress comes over, and I order myself coffee.
Palmer leans forward and lowers his voice. “When your mom said that you had gone missing and left with the president of the Knights of Fury MC, of course I was worried. Why are you with them?”
He then slides me a note.
It reads: If they’re listening to this conversation so you can’t say anything and you need me to help you, scratch your nose now.
I blink slowly and shake my head. “I don’t need any help, and I mean that. I wasn’t being forced to say I’m okay when I’m not. I’m genuinely okay, and I will be going home soon.”
“Okay.” He nods, brows drawn together in confusion. “So you’re willingly hanging around bikers?”
“Yes,” I say, sighing. “I am. And I’m fine. So you don’t need to ask around about them, and you can report back to Mom that you saw me and that I am indeed fine. They’ve done nothing wrong, and you don’t need to start any shit with them.”
“I want no trouble with the Knights. I just wanted to make sure that you were safe.” He pauses, and then adds, “And I don’t want any trouble with you, either.”
“We don’t have any problems here,” I reply, eyes narrowing slightly. “I mean, I’m still in shock my father isn’t exactly working a nine-to-five job, but it is what it is.”
“I’m a legitimate businessman, Abbie,” he assures me, not flinching.
“Just on paper?” I press, rolling my eyes.
“I’m surprised by your judgment, with the company you keep,” he fires back. He looks like he wants to say something else, his mouth opening and closing, but then he shakes his head and sighs.
“You’re beautiful...you have my eyes,” he says, smiling sadly into his coffee. When he looks into my eyes, I’m shook. It’s like I’m looking into a mirror. I was so mad at him when I came in, I haven’t really looked at him.
I’m still staring when he continues, “I just had to make sure that you were okay.”
“I want the story. I want to know why this is the first time I’m meeting you and why up until a few days ago, I thought my father’s name was Cohen Pierce.”
“Cohen Pierce is my birth name,” he admits. “A name I don’t go by anymore, and haven’t in a long time. Your mom is the only one who still calls me that name.”
I nod. “Why am I only meeting you now?”
He grimaces, and I’m not sure if he’s going to answer me honestly or not. “It’s complicated... When are you going to go home?” he asks, studying me.
“Soon,” I reply. “There’s a few things happening, things I don’t want to bring home with me.”
“What kind of things?” he asks, frowning. “What have you gotten yourself into?”
I hesitate before telling him. I don’t know if I’m going to regret this or not, but it can’t get any worse, right? “There are some guys after the MC, and for some reason they seem to have targeted me. And I’m trusting you to not tell Mom about this, please. I don’t need her calling me and having an anxiety attack.”
“I won’t say a word to her,” he assures me. “Wait. Who is after the MC?”
“Hired men. Mercenaries. At first we thought you hired them, but my mom told me she only called you after they attacked us. Twice. Umm...that’s sort of why I’m here...”
He looks at me curiously.
I take a deep breath. “I don’t know if I want to know what your business dealings involve or who your associates are, but do you think you can help?”
Grayson’s eyes pop out. I can’t tell if he’s surprised by what I asked him or by the fact that I actually asked for his help. “Do you know who hired them?”
I nod. “Yep. My friend’s mother. Skylar’s mother hates us, and wants to end us, basically. I have an enemy and she’s out to get me.”
His brows draw together. “Skylar?”
I nod again. He looks confused and I would be too. What normal people have mothers who hire people to kill your family? I decide to end the conversation here. Even though he’s a kingpin, I’m sure he didn’t expect his illegitimate daughter coming into his life asking for help from people trying to kill her and her friends. “So can you help?”
“Abbie... I—I mean, I don’t know. I don’t think this is a good idea. There’s something you should probably know—”
All I hear is no. “You know what? Never mind. I better get going. Temper is in the car, just in case you tried to kidnap me or something.” Not knowing what to do, I offer him my hand. He takes it and we awkwardly shake. “It was nice finally meeting you.”
“You too, Abbie.”
He looks like he wants to say more, but I get up and leave, feeling overwhelmed with the whole experience.
When I get back into the car, I can see Temper is visibly relieved. I tell him what he said, and even he seems surprised. “So he just wanted to make sure you were okay?”
“Yep. And I’m as surprised as you are. I was expecting some type of bullshit to go down, but no, he genuinely thought you guys were keeping me against my will and forcing me to say that I was okay.”
“Our reputation must be really shit if a drug dealer is concerned,” he mutters, and I have to agree.
Is this the last time I’m ever going to see this man? I don’t know, but for now I’m just going to leave it as it is. I never needed him growing up, and I sure as hell don’t need him now.
“He wouldn’t help,” I say to myself. “I asked and he said no.” I don’t know what I was thinking. Why would he want to get involved and jeopardize his operation over little ol’ me? His daughter.
Temper grabs my hand and squeezes it. “Our time together is running out,” he says, risking a glance at me before bringing his eyes back to the road. “Do you know how long you’re going home for? I mean, are you going to come back? I will come and visit you every chance I can get...if you want me to.”
We haven’t had this conversation yet, but it’s about time we discussed it all. I have no idea what’s going to happen when I leave, which is probably why I’ve just been in denial and trying not to think about it. I don’t want to lose him, and I do want to make this work. I just don’t know how.
“I don’t know,” I admit. “I mean, of course I want to still be with you, and for us to try to see each other when we can, but I don’t know when I can come back. I need to make sure Mom and Ivy are sorted, and that they can manage Franks without me.”
“Once that is all sorted out, you could always finish your law degree here,” he says. “I’m going to be honest, Abbie: I want you here. In an ideal world, you’d be here with me, living with me, being my old lady. The distance thing is going to be shit, but I want to make it work with you. Whatever it takes.”
Whatever it takes.
“We can make it work,” I say, smiling. “As long as we’re both dedicated to doing so, we can make it happen, I know it. But yeah, it’s going to be hard to leave you. Not going to lie.”
He exhales deeply. “Can’t tell you how glad I am that you’re not running off and never looking back.”
Laughing softly, I ask, “Did you really think that I’d do that?”
“After all the shit I’ve put you through? I don’t know,” he admits. “Maybe you’d decided to settle down with a banker or something, someone with a nine-to-five and some stability. Someone who you won’t have to worry about every time they leave the house.”
“Where’s the fun in that?” I tease, grinning and squeezing his hand.
I can’t deny that the thought has entered my mind, but there’s only one Temper.
And he’s mine.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“This is where she lives?” I ask Skylar the next day, eyes going wide in surprise. We decided we’d drive out to have a chat with Neville, to see if we can get some inside information on what’s going on, anything that can help us and get us a step ahead of Georgia. When I was told that she lives out in the country, for some reason I wasn’t expecting some cute-ass farm. I imagined whoever lives here to be wholesome farmers, dressed in overalls or something, not Hammer’s ex–old lady, but here we are.
“Yeah, I know. She even gardens and shit,” Skylar replies, turning to Temper. “So, I’m going to go in and speak to Neville, see what he knows about where she is, and then tell him that his wife is a psychotic sociopath who has hired a bunch of hit men to kill my family, probably with his money?”
“Exactly,” Temper replies, not batting an eyelash.
“You sure you don’t want me coming in with you?” Saint asks for the third time. “I don’t know how I feel about this, Sky. Just let me come, say you wanted to introduce me to your stepdad or something.”
“You’d intimidate him,” she says, frowning. “I need him to be comfortable to tell me the truth, and to believe what I tell him. You standing there next to me, being all big and badass, isn’t going to work in our favor. Besides, we’re pretty sure Georgia isn’t here, and Neville wouldn’t harm a fly. He has always been much nicer to me than she was and has always made me feel welcome here at the farm. I want to make sure he’s okay with everything that’s going on as well. It must be a pretty shitty feeling to realize the woman you married and loved is actually a monster.”
“Fine.” He sighs. “The second anything feels off, you’re out of there. And if you’re not back in twenty minutes, I’m coming in.”
“Fine,” she agrees, kissing him, and then hops out of the car and speed walks to the front door.
I don’t know what they hope to get out of this, but I’m intrigued to see how it goes. “Is this a good idea?” I ask Temper.
“We just need to test the waters and see what information we can get from Neville,” he explains, lifting my hand to his lips and kissing my knuckles. “Don’t stress, she will be fine. From what we’ve heard from Skylar, Neville is actually a really nice guy; he’s nothing like Georgia.”
“How can he be nice if he’s with someone so evil?” I ask, glancing at the farmhouse and waiting for Skylar to reappear.
“She puts on a good show,” Saint says from the back seat. “I’m talking Oscar-worthy performances. She’s the master manipulator. I don’t think you’d believe it until you see it for yourself.”
“Intelligent and crazy isn’t a good mix,” Temper adds, his eyes never leaving the door that Skylar disappeared through. “She also looks extremely approachable and friendly, like a little petite, mother-type figure.”
And I thought I had parent issues. The fact that Skylar turned out how she did even with a mother like that is a true testament to her character. She’s amazing, and she should be so proud of herself to have become such a strong, kind woman even though she didn’t have that example.
Twenty minutes pass, and Saint is about to leave the car to retrieve her when she walks back through the door. He gets out, opens the door for her, and kisses her as she reaches him.
“How did it go?” he asks her after she closes the car door.
“She doesn’t live here anymore,” she tells us, shaking her head. “Her and Neville aren’t together at all and haven’t been for a few weeks now. She emptied their joint bank accounts and left him.”
“Holy shit. So he saw her true colors when it was too late,” Saint adds.
“Yeah, and he’s pissed,” she says as we start to drive back home. “He was upset, but more pissed than anything. I never saw him angry, but I guess if my spouse cleaned out my bank accounts and left me and then I hear that she hired people to kill someone with that money, I guess I’d be angry too.” She shrugs.
“Savage,” Temper mutters under his breath.
“I mean, we all know what she’s capable of, and in the big scheme of all the terrible things she’s done this doesn’t even make the top five. But fuck, it was hard seeing Neville like that. He didn’t deserve that—he’s been nothing but kind, loving and generous to her.” Skylar sighs.
“It’s not on you,” Saint assures her. “You’ve done nothing wrong, and I know you feel bad for him, but come on. He was an idiot to stay with her for so long. He had to have sensed something was off with her. Not that it justifies anything she did—she’s a totally evil person—but you have no reason to feel guilty.”
“I know,” she replies. “What are we going to do now?”
“Well, now we know she’s living back in the city,” Temper says. “Which means the last few weeks she’s been right in our backyard, planning fuck knows what, which makes her more dangerous than we realized. We need to find out where she’s living, and what the hell we’re going to do to get her to back off. She’s got money, and no Neville to hold her back now. She doesn’t even have to bother with the nice girl act.”
“Yeah, and now she doesn’t have him distracting her,” Skylar adds. “She literally has nothing to do with her time other than be an evil bitch, sitting there with her stolen money. I can just picture her now. I bet she’s living it up in some fancy hotel, or already trying to get with another guy. Someone who has connections and isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.”
“Someone who can help her take us down.” Temper nods, agreeing with her. “She’s going to be looking for allies. Abbie, do you think Palmer will come through and help us? I called around about him, and he’s no small fish. He’s got money, numbers and power.”
“I don’t think so. I haven’t heard from him since we met at the café,” I say, looking back to Skylar. “How fucking lucky are we? You have a mother who is psychotic and whose sole purpose in life is to kill the people you love. My mother is a liar who hid my father from me, and my father is the biggest drug dealer in Southern California, who refuses to help me when I ask. We hit the parental jackpot.”
“Exactly,” Skylar replies. “When you put it that way, fuck.”
Fuck indeed.
* * *
It takes a few hours to get back to the city, which we make use of, singing along to songs and stopping for snacks. I can’t remember the last time I went on any kind of road trip with friends. The way here doesn’t count because I was tied up, and it definitely didn’t feel like I was with friends.
How things have changed.
We hear loud music coming from the clubhouse as soon as we park the car, and we all exchange glances.
“We’re gone for one day and they’re throwing a party?” I ask as I step out of the car.
“It seems that way,” Skylar mutters, walking with me to the entrance, the men behind us. The music gets louder as we open the door and step inside, and when we hit the living room, the sight before us has my jaw dropping.
Dee is sitting there, in nothing but his black briefs, with a bottle of whiskey in his hand dragging along the floor, and getting a lap dance from some woman I’ve never seen before, also mostly naked.
“Well, that’s more of Dee than I ever wanted to see,” I admit, glancing away from his crotch area.
Dee finally notices us, and instead of being embarrassed in the slightest, he simply grins and mouths along to the Cardi B song that’s playing. We leave him to his party and head out the back, where we find Chains and Crow, both sitting there with their heads together looking at something.
“No women for you both?” Skylar asks, pulling out a chair next to Crow.
“Someone has to be responsible,” Crow replies, lifting his head. “You know, just in case some mercenaries drop by. How did the trip to the country go?”
We give them the heads-up on Georgia.
“Great, for all we know she’s walking around in disguise or some shit,” C
hains adds, glancing back inside. “Did we take a proper look at that stripper?”
“I doubt she can transform her body into a twenty-year-old’s,” Skylar replies in a dry tone. “She’s not a witch. Well, I mean she is, but not in the magical sense.”
“Call Renny,” Temper says to Saint. “Let’s head out. Crow, you come with me. Chains, you stay with Dee and the women.”
“Wait, where are you going?” I ask, following him back inside.
“Going to go stake out the last place we saw Georgia. We thought we knew her home base back at the farm, but now we don’t, and we need to get a step up on her. Need to find out where she’s living, who she’s surrounding herself with. I don’t want to just sit around waiting for these men to try to jump us again, I’m not fuckin’ having it.” He lifts his T-shirt up and slides a gun into his jeans.
Shit.
“Okay, well, stay safe, all right?” I say, brow furrowing, eying the gun with worry. “Just remember, you have people here who love you and don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“Are those people you?” he asks, bending down to give me a quick kiss. “Because I love you too, Abbie, and don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’ll be back later tonight, probably.”
“Okay,” I say softly.
Renny arrives with Izzy, and the men other than Chains and Dee head out on their mission, while we’re stuck at home.
Again.
“So what do I need to be able to do to go out in the action, instead of be left home like a liability?” I ask Skylar, who laughs in return.
“Not be a liability?” she suggests, smirking. “The problem is that if we are there they are going to worry about us, and it’s going to put them off their game. It has nothing to do with them not thinking we aren’t capable enough. If we’re here right now it’s because they do think we can handle this life. You want to go spend some time in the gym? I can teach you a few more moves.”
“Sounds good,” I reply, needing the distraction. It’s nice that she said that, because I don’t want Temper thinking I’m some helpless damsel in distress, even though I know that I’m not as capable as them in these kind of situations.
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