A typical Saturday night greets me as soon as I walk through the door: loud music, smokey room, drunken laughter, and feminine giggles and moans. The club’s whores are all in attendance, along with a few ol’ ladies and girlfriends. A few of the sheep try to grab hold of me as I walk toward the bar where Colt has his phone pressed to his ear. Shrugging them off, I keep going, glancing around for Raven on the way. If she’d gone home then that’s where I’m headed too. At least until the run tonight.
Seeing me, Colt tosses his phone aside and leans against the bar. His expression is dangerous and I slow my steps. Of the four Hannigan brothers, Colt and Jet are the most alike. If I’ve learned anything, it’s that when one of those boys has that look in his face, it’s never good. Men have been left bloody and broken after facing down that look. “What’s up?” I ask cautiously, wondering who I have to take down to keep him from killing someone.
Colt tilts his shaggy blond head to the left, nodding toward the pool tables in the back. “Moose’s ol’ lady just fucked you over, boss man. Raven knows.”
My jaw constricts as my heart makes a dive for my stomach. Raven knows? No fucking way! Raven couldn’t know. I’m not ready for her to know, dammit. “What, exactly, does Raven know?” I bite out.
That dangerous look never leaves Colt’s eyes. “Not much. Just that you got a kid. That you left for that kid. That you didn’t tell her. So, enough to destroy her.”
“Where is she?”
Colt nods behind him. “Back there. She’s been in there a few minutes now. Might want to be prepared though. I think there are a few knives in the sink.”
I flip him the finger and hurry into the back room. I know Colt hadn’t been kidding about the knife thing, but Raven isn’t even close to the sink. Her hands are empty as she sits down on the edge of the short couch against the opposite wall from the sink. Her face is pale, her eyes empty as if all the life has suddenly been sucked from those green depths. Her hair clings to her damp face, and I realize that she’s been crying.
Fuck! My heart stops at the sight of Raven crying. I cross the room to her and crouch down in front of her. “Raven …”
Her body stiffens, having not even noticed my presence until now. “You have a kid,” she whispers in a voice that’s full of dark emotion, those green eyes staring accusingly up at me.
“Yes.” I’m not going to lie about it. This is not how I had wanted to tell her, but now that she knows I have to confess everything. “A daughter.”
“A daughter,” she repeats, lowering her eyes. “How old is she?”
I push her hair back away from her beautiful face, drying the fresh tears with my thumb. “Lexa is three.” She jerks at the sound of my daughter’s name but nods her head.
“Colt said her mom died. That she was in the Vegas club …”
I grit my teeth at the thought of the woman that had given birth to my precious little girl. Tasha had put Lexa through so much in the few years she had custody. I hadn’t even realized how bad things were for my little girl until I went to pick her up. Hadn’t realized because part of me didn’t really want to know. I sent the support checks and considered my parental obligations taken care of. “Yes, Tasha is dead.” May her soul rot in hell, because I know that's where she was right now! “Yes, half the club was taken out during a raid of their warehouse.”
“Which was why you left.”
I close my eyes, knowing that the answer is complicated. I had left to get my daughter and stayed away out of cowardice. Jet had already filled my head with all kinds of shit, and I never felt worthy of Raven Hannigan. So I chose to stay away, to raise my daughter away from the life I’ve always known and away from the woman I loved. Until Jet had called me from prison.
“It wasn’t like that.” I cup Raven’s chin, forcing her to look at me. “I didn’t leave you for her. I swear to you, that isn’t how it was. Lexa needed me.”
“And I didn’t?” she whispers, new tears gathering in her eyes.
“Have you ever needed anyone, Raven?” I ask, feeling a little defeated because I can tell she’s already pushing me away in those eyes I love so much. “You’re the strongest person I know. I’ve never known you to need anyone.”
“Everyone needs someone, Bash. They can’t always be the strong one. Sometimes even I need someone to hold me.” She pushes my hand away and stands, turning her back on me. “I was sure that you loved me. You acted like you loved me … but maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see.”
“I have always loved you, Raven.”
She doesn’t turn around, but I see her shoulders slump a little. “Empty words now.”
“No!” I don’t mean to shout, don’t mean to sound so harsh, but I can’t help it. “No. I loved you when you came to me at sixteen and told me you were mine. I loved you at seventeen and it was driving me crazy not to be able to touch you. I fucking loved you the first time I kissed you, made love to you, branded you as mine. I loved you when I left and I loved you every day I was gone. Maybe I never said the words but I loved you, Raven. I still love you!”
She doesn’t say anything, just walks away as if I didn’t just rip myself open for her. Muttering a curse, I turn around and punch the wall. I don’t feel the sting of the wood splintering as my fist goes through the wall, don’t feel the throb as knuckles break and flesh tears.
All I can feel is the ache in my chest because I know Raven hates me.
The door opens and Colt sticks his head inside. “She’s gone. Are you going after her?”
I shake my head. “No. Let her calm down a little.” She needs to let it all sink in a little more. Maybe she’ll understand that Lexa was a scared little baby that had needed her father.
“So, you giving up?” Colt steps inside closing the door behind him. “My sister is stubborn. If you want her, then you have to fight for her. Thought you knew that by now.”
I clench my hands into fists. “I’m not fucking giving up! I will fight for that girl until the day I die. She’s mine. Then. Now. Forever. Understand?”
Colt raises a brow, but gives me a cocky smile. “Yeah, boss man. I feel you.”
Hawk
I’m worried that I have to leave Gracie home alone as the time to meet with Bash and the Club draws near. I hate the thought of her all alone at my house all night long.
When Raven storms into the house looking pale with her eyes wild, I’m both relieved and hesitant to leave Gracie with her, but I have no other choice. “I have to do a few things,” I tell Gracie as I pull on my cut—a leather vest with angel wings inside of a diamond and a halo over the diamond. The wings are white while the halo looks like it was on fire. There are several patches on the front of my cut that show my position within the club, as well as a few other things that I really don’t want to explain to Gracie.
Like the patch with the black eight ball that has the number sixty-nine on it. Yeah, I don’t want her to know about me having sex with some random girl while my club watched. I’m positive she won’t like me once she learns what it means.
Gracie smiles up at me. That look of trust in her eyes sucks me in, and all I want to do is fall down on the couch beside her for the rest of the night. But I have to take care of this, have to make sure those fucking frat boys know not to mess with any female like that—and especially not my female …
Okay, what the fuck?! She isn’t my female. I have no business thinking of her like that. Gracie Morgan is too sweet, too innocent, and too fucking perfect for a fuck up like me. That doesn’t mean I don’t want her to be my female. Because, dammit, I want that girl like something fierce.
“Okay.” Gracie pulls the throw blanket I had placed over her lap earlier closer to her chest. “Be careful, okay?”
Unable to help myself, I trace a finger over one soft cheek. A soft blush fills her face, but she doesn’t look away. “I’m going to be late getting back. Don’t wait up. My room is yours as long as you need it. Promise me you’ll sleep there tonight.”
“No. My bed. Okay?” My finger’s still on her cheek, and without thinking I let it trace down her slender neck. Gooseflesh pops up on her arms right before my very eyes, and my body stiffens in reaction to her response to my touch. “Raven is here, so let her know if you need anything.”
“Alright, Hawk,” she murmurs softly. “I’ll sleep in your bed.”
Reluctantly, I leave her sitting there on the couch and head out through the back door. Raven’s sitting at the kitchen table with a bottle of Snapple Apple in front of her, but hasn’t so much as opened it yet. Beside the Snapple is a bottle of Grey Goose vodka. The vodka gives me pause and I stop to really look at her.
“What happened?” I demand when I see she’s on the verge of tears. Raven isn’t a crier. She rarely lets anything touch her emotionally. If she’s crying, then something heavy must have happened.
“Bash has a daughter,” she grits out, finally opening the Snapple and taking a big drink before placing it back on the table and reaching for the Grey Goose. She fills the Snapple to the top with the vodka before placing the lid back on and shaking. “She’s fucking three years old and I am just now finding out about her.”
I suck in a deep breath. Fuck! I didn’t know about Bash’s kid until a few weeks ago, when Jet had told me that he was turning everything over to Bash. We had a meeting on the whole fucking thing just the week before and told everyone that no one was supposed to say anything until Bash was ready to tell Raven himself. Looked like someone’s been running their mouth.
Now Raven is all kinds of twisted inside and I don’t have time to even hold her. Muttering a curse, I drop a kiss on top of her head. “We can talk about this later. I have to get going. Don’t do anything stupid, Rave. Go talk to Gracie. Call Flick. Don’t fucking shut yourself up in your room! Do you hear me?”
“Fuck off, Hawk.” She opens the Snapple-vodka mix and downs half of it in one gulp. “Go do what you have to do and leave me the fuck alone.”
“Call Flick. Now.” I toss the phone at her as I slam the door behind me.
Whoever had spilled the beans to Raven is now number one on my To-Be-Killed list. Because, yeah … I may have lied to Gracie earlier this morning. I have killed a few men in my time.
I arrive at the bar as the last of the sheep pile into someone’s car. I ignore their calls and go into the still crowded bar. Every member that isn’t already out on a run is present and accounted for except for the Originals. The old men aren’t going to be happy with what I’m planning, but I have Bash backing me so they can’t do anything about it.
The Originals promised the university bigwigs that we’d keep the peace with their students when they built the university twenty some years ago. As long as no one made trouble for Angel’s Halo, then the club wouldn’t cause trouble on university property. The frat house is technically their property, but my way of thinking is those fucking frat boys started it.
It doesn’t matter to me that it had only been two of those frat boys that tried to rape Gracie. No one helped her when she was screaming, so every one of those fuckers are guilty in my book.
That frat house is going to be nothing more than ash by dawn.
Chapter 14
Bash
Hawk comes into the bar looking more pissed than he’d been that morning. I figure he’s seen Raven and is gunning for me. Instead, he stands in the middle of the bar and waits until everybody else stops running their traps and faces him.
“Who told my sister?” he demands in a calm voice.
Calm voice plus wild eyes does not equal a stable Hannigan. Everyone tense. Colt comes from around the bar and whispers something in his brother’s ear, and Hawk turns that wild gaze on Moose. “You couldn’t keep your trap shut to your ol’ lady? Don’t you know by now that bitch can’t keep her mouth shut any more than she can her legs?”
I watch as Moose, a lifer that had gained a pot belly while losing his hair over the years, tenses. I could see in the older biker’s eyes that he wants to say something. Moose is smart though. He knows that to challenge Hawk on anything—especially anything that concerns Raven—will only leave him bloody and broken, if not dead.
“You keep that bitch out of my bar until I say she can come back, you feel me Moose?”
Moose nods twice and that’s the end of it. I’m just as pissed off as Hawk is, but I’m not going to hold a grudge over something that’s all my fault. I should have told Raven before I had made her mine. I should have just picked up my daughter and hauled ass back to Creswell Springs, made the three of us a family instead of running away like the coward I am.
I turn my focus on the run we’re doing tonight. Hawk is throwing out orders, glancing my way for confirmation from time to time, and I nod my head. This is his show tonight, and I’m only there to show my support. I would have burned the frat house down myself if Raven hadn’t calmed me down the night before. I was so enraged I could have killed that fucking pretty boy jock and then burned the place to ashes then and there.
When everyone is briefed and given their jobs for the night, we ride out with Little John, the cager, leading the way, driving our war wagon full of all the supplies we needed tonight. I ride at the back of the pack with Colt, Raider, Hawk, and Spider right behind me.
There’s a party going on at the frat house. Not surprising. Frat houses are a lot like a club. They have wild parties every weekend, but this party won’t stop us. If anything it’s going to make this even more interesting.
We park our hogs half a mile from the house and pull our black bandanas on over our faces. With us wearing our colors there’d be no denying that it had been Angel’s Halo that committed the crime. With our faces covered and the chaos that will ensue, there will be little evidence of who’s present and who’s not. Plausible deniability.
Criminals, we may be. Idiots, we fucking aren’t.
I pull my hair into a low pony tail and tie a second bandana over the dark locks. “Light it up, boys,” I call as we neared the house from the east. “I want this place engulfed and our asses halfway home before I hear the sirens.”
Devilish chuckles fill my ears at my command, and I grab a milk jug full of gas and start pouring it over the back porch. This house is old. It’ll go up in no time. We don’t see anyone outside as we continue to douse the house in gas, kerosene, and diesel. When our jugs are empty we just leave them to melt when the fire starts.
Five minutes later, as we all watched from a good distance away, Hawk loads his cross bow with an arrow that has an old rag tied to the tip. The rag is soaked in diesel. Spider flicks his lighter and the rag ignites instantly. A minute later, the arrow crashed through a window in the frat house.
A few screams greet our ears and then the smoke starts bellowing from the broken window.
“Let’s ride, boys!” I pull my bandana off my face and turn toward my bike. “I think we’re done here for now.”
Hawk stands for just a minute longer until the explosion of the first set of windows blowing out from the heat and pressure echoes in the distance. I nod at him and he climbs onto his bike.
The sound of the sirens in the distance greet us as we reach the city limits. The long way home has never been so amusing before. Evil smiles are on each member of Angel’s Halo as we pull into the parking lot of our warehouse.
Some of the sheep are already waiting on the guys. After a run like this, where adrenaline is high, dicks get hard. I ignore the females and go up to my office. It’s nearly three in the morning and my head’s pounding. The excitement of the run has nothing on the shit I’m feeling over Raven.
I pass Colt, already stripping a new sheep near the pool tables. Raider’s on one of the many couches, two females already fighting over who gets to blow him. Spider’s nowhere to be found, and Hawk is hot on my heels as I climb the stairs to my office.
Either he’s really pissed at me or he’s really into that Gracie chick.
Turning in the chair, I face Hawk. He’s still standing, barely looking around the room that had once belonged to his brother and his father before that. The room probably holds too many memories for him. Fuck, it holds too many for me as well. But there was no way in Hell I’m going to stay downstairs for the orgy that’s already starting. If that gets back to Raven I’ll lose my balls.
“Raven was downing vodka when I left,” Hawk informs me.
I clench my jaw. Raven can drink with the best of them. Her drink of choice has always been Jameson. Good Irish whiskey. But vodka? That shit is her kryptonite. She can drink it all night and not feel it. Until the next morning. Then the hangover emerges … along with the bitch from Hell.
“I’ll talk to her.” I assure him.
“Fuck right you will!” Hawk explodes. “You should have told her about that kid when you started messing around. Instead you left it too long and now my sister is an emotional mess. Do you know how hard it is to get Raven to this point, Bash? It’s near fucking impossible!”
If it had been anyone else talking to me like that I would have already torn his head off. But it’s not. It’s Hawk. A man that’s family to me. A man that I want as my brother-in-law. So I don’t call him on it. “I love her, Hawk. I’ll fix it.”
“Fix it now!” he roars, slamming his fists down on the desk. Papers scatter across the room, dust flying in all directions. “I will not sit around while my baby sister has her heart ripped out for the second time. You thought Jet was bad? Fucker, you will be begging for his mercy by the time I finish with you. President or not!”
Before I can open my mouth Hawk is gone. The office still vibrates from the force of the slamming door as he storms down the stairs and out of the warehouse.
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