He headed to the office after our dinner, and skipped out before dessert came. I ordered his favorite: cheesecake with whipped cream and strawberries. I had the waiter pack it up for me with a couple of forks.
When I was a little kid and I couldn’t sleep, I would sneak down to the kitchen and always find Dad having a late night snack. He would hand me a fork, and we would talk about our days over cheesecake. He’d give me advice and make me laugh.
I hoped by going to him now, cheesecake in hand, he would remember that time. It was a small gesture, but a peace offering nonetheless. He couldn’t just cast me aside because he wasn’t happy with my choices. If he would have allowed me to make my own choices as I was growing up, maybe I would have been better prepared for the ones I made. But, we would never know.
I grabbed the cheesecake and headed into Dad’s building. It was a three-story building, just outside of Black Hills. It was in a good location near the hospital, making it convenient for Dad to be in both places when he needed to be. I still remember when he purchased the place. Martha cooked us a huge dinner as if it were a holiday. We pigged out on turkey and mashed potatoes in celebration.
It’s funny how certain memories stand out brighter than others in your mind. How you clung on to some while others faded. Seems to me, it was always the simplest ones that had the biggest impact on my life. Who would have ever thought that something so mundane as sharing a piece of cheesecake with my father would have left such a lasting impression? I chose to hold onto the good ones. The ones that made me happy and brought a smile to my face.
I let the good memories stay front and center, while I took the stairs to Dad’s office. As I walked down the hall, I heard voices drifting out from one of the exam rooms.
I detected Dad’s first. It was loud and clipped. “You better keep your end of the deal,” he said, and I pressed my body against the wall, listening closely. What deal was he talking about? And who was he in there with. “We’re through.”
“We’re through when we say we’re through,” a loud gruff voice said.
“Enough! I said I would take care of it and I meant it.” The voice was familiar, and my heart stopped when I realized it was Cash. “As of tonight, you’re done with the club.”
Done with the club? What did my father have to do with the MC? Did he and Cash know each other before this afternoon? Is that why Dad was so mad? Because he knew Cash?
“Just remember. This works both ways. We’ll cut ties with you, but that means you can’t come back to us, either. You get yourself ass deep in shit again, and you’re on your own. No more loans. No more selling your drugs and reaping the rewards. You got it,” Cash said.
Daddy was selling drugs to the club? Is that what Cash was saying. That couldn’t be true. My father wasn’t that type of man. He was a law-abiding citizen. He wouldn’t be mixed up in the MC. That’s why he was so hard on me because he wanted me to be like him. Wanted me to make all the right choices and do all the right things. Build a life I could be proud of, and that others could admire.
I needed answers, and I wasn’t going to get them standing on this side of the door. I pushed off the wall and went to walk.
“Did you hear that?” the gruff voice said.
“It’s well after hours. No one should be in the building.”
The door flew open and, before I could react or even scream, a hand wrapped around my mouth. The cheesecake fell from my hand and thudded across the floor. A gun pressed to my head and visions from that night ran rampant in my mind.
The guys hand on Cash’s throat, the life being sucked out of him. The blood…
I clawed at the hand holding me, now desperately trying to break free. I didn’t take a man’s life to lose mine only a short time later. I bit down on his hand as hard as I could, and he loosened his grip. I shoved away from him, but he was quick and turned the gun back on me.
“Panty girl?” he said, with a squint of his eyes before laughing.
“What’s going on?” I whispered, not wanting Dad or Cash to know I was there until I knew what the heck was going on. “Why are you here? What does my dad have to do with your club?”
Kade scratched his temple with the barrel of his gun. “Sorry, sweetheart, but that’s not my story to tell. But, what I can tell you? You have my boy all fucked up in the head.”
“Who? Cash?”
“He had a death wish today after whatever went down with you two. He could have gotten himself fucking killed if I didn’t take him down. Luckily, he only got a bullet to the arm.”
“Cash got shot?” Panic rose inside of me, every worst-case scenario popping in and out of my head. I thought I heard his voice, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t seriously injured. Didn’t mean that he wasn’t…dying? What if the bullet nicked an artery? Was that why he was here? Was Dad treating him? I had so many questions, but the most important one came out first. “Is he okay?” I asked, taking a deep breath and preparing myself for the worst.
“He’ll be fine, but that’s not the point. The point is, you fucked with his head.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“It doesn’t matter whether you meant to or not. What matters is, you fix this. I’ve only seen him snap like that once before, and it was when his old man died. It was fucked up, and I thought I’d lose my best friend. We’re not going to go through that shit again. So, you will fix this.”
I thought about that night at Cash’s house when I asked him about his father. How he tried everything in his power to avoid answering my questions, and how explosive he became we he finally did. I couldn’t even imagine how he was after it happened. The pain was still so fresh in his eyes that night you would have thought his dad died only days prior. It was painstakingly clear that Cash loved his father immensely and his loss was devastating.
I could barely calm him down that night. I didn’t know what to do. I was completely out of my element. All I knew was that I wanted to be there for him just as I did now. The only problem was I had no idea how to do that. Not when my own father could barely look at me.
“I don’t know how to fix it. I’m between a rock and a hard place.”
“All I’m saying is, figure it the fuck out. You coming?” he asked as he headed back toward the exam room.
I shook my head. “No, and don’t tell them I was here.”
“Why should I lie for you?”
“Because I just heard things on the other side of that door that are making me think that my entire life has been a lie. I just want a chance to find out the truth on my own. And, I don’t think ambushing my dad and Cash at the same time is going to help. I need to talk to them separately. Please.”
Kade didn’t say anything. Instead, he bent down and picked up my cheesecake, handing it to me. “You dropped this. I’m going back in there. It’s best if you get lost.”
I didn’t know what to expect from Kade; if he was the type of guy that could care less about other people, or if, beneath the leather and biker boy badass façade, there was a man with a heart. He just stripped the leather away and showed me his heart. “Thanks,” I said as he nodded toward the hall. I turned on my heel and hurried away.
I couldn’t leave, though. Cash was here. I could talk to him. Piece together the bits of information I heard with all that he knew. With what I had just heard, I wasn’t ready to talk to Dad yet. I wasn’t sure when I would be, but I knew it wasn’t tonight.
The hallway went to a T, and I stood on the side that led to the exit. Cash and Kade were bound to come this way eventually. I heard muffled voices coming toward me, and sent up a silent acknowledgement of gratitude.
As soon as they turned the bend, I stepped out. Kade, without a second’s reaction, held his gun up and pointed it directly at my head. Again.
“Aubree.” Cash smacked Kade’s hand, forcing the gun down. “Put that thing away, would you?”
“I thought you were leaving?”
“Thought she was leaving? You knew she was her
e?” Cash asked.
Kade held his hands up. “Look, I’m not getting caught up in this. You two have shit to discuss. Can you give him a ride home?”
“I can.” And, because I knew he was giving me the opportunity to speak with Cash like I had said I wanted, I added. “Thank you.” He flashed a half-hearted smile, and took off toward the exit.
“Come on,” I said to Cash, taking in the bandage on his arm, the blood soaking his shirt and pants. “How are you feeling? Does it hurt?”
“What are you doing here, Sunshine? And I’m not talking about being in this building. I’m talking about being here with me right now.”
His green eyes were heavy lidded and tired. He was pale, and my guess was that he lost a lot of blood. His hair was a matted mess, and he looked like he had been through hell and back, yet he was still the sexiest man I’d ever seen.
I swallowed down the desire to take him in my arms. To crash my lips to his. “We need to talk.”
“You already made you decision. There’s nothing left to say.”
“There’s plenty left to say.”
“No, there isn’t.” Cash pushed past me, but I wasn’t going to let him walk away so easily. I had questions, and he was the only one who could answer them. He was the only one I trusted.
I grabbed his good arm, and spun him back to me. His eyes met mine, and I could see his defiance waning. He reached out, his hand resting on my cheek, and pulled me close to him. His lips were a mere whisper away from mine, but before I could succumb to my desires, I needed to know. “How do you know my dad?”
Cash
Aubree looked at me with those big brown eyes, waiting for a response. My relationship with her father was complicated. It was a web of lies, deceit, and the breaking of too many laws to even keep track of. Keeping the doc’s secret was what gave us leverage, but now, with our new deal, we wouldn’t need that leverage anymore. However, that new deal was made so he could keep his family in the dark of his shady dealings.
I shouldn’t care. Shouldn’t give two shits about airing the doc’s dirty laundry, but it was more than that. What I knew. It could destroy everything that Aubree ever knew. She would learn that the life she had been living was a complete and total lie. Her father wasn’t the man she thought he was. And I wasn’t sure if I was man enough to ruin her life.
“Cash, please. You’re the only one I trust to tell me the truth.” The desperation in her voice damn well undid me.
I grabbed her hand, and yanked her down the hall. “Not here,” I muttered, and guided her out to her car in the parking lot.
We got in, and she turned in her seat. “Talk.”
“It’s not safe. Your dad’s inside. He can come out any minute and see us. Go to my house. I’ll tell you everything when we get there.”
“Promise?” she asked.
I took her hand in mine, lacing my fingers through hers. I pressed a kiss to her knuckles. “Promise.”
The drive to my house was short, and I wished it lasted a little longer. I wasn’t ready to let go of Sunshine’s hand, and I sure as hell wasn’t ready to turn her world upside down by filling her in on her father’s misgivings. She pulled up in front of my house, and threw the car in park. She was out of the car, and standing at my front door, before I even had the chance to open the door.
Sunshine wasn’t the same girl who hopped on the back of my bike that night. The events over the past few weeks had changed her, and I knew, once she heard what I had to tell her, she would never be the same.
So, while I was in no rush to get in my house, she stood impatiently on my porch, tapping her foot. I wondered, if she would be so anxious to hear about her father, if she really knew what I had to say about him. There was no use delaying the inevitable.
I lit up a cigarette, and walked up the porch steps. I leaned against the railing, and took a long drag before opening the door. I held the door open for Aubree and, as she walked in, I flicked my stog.
Aubree spun toward me. “We’re completely alone now,” she said, then started laughing manically. “Unless some gun wielding psycho is hiding out in your bedroom.”
Past the laughing, I could see the fear hiding beneath the surface. It showed in her eyes. Eyes that had once been bright and filled with a love of life had turned dull and lifeless. Fear that was never a part of her would probably be imbedded in her soul, and stay with her forever. The laughing continued giving way to small bouts of sobs. I watched her with trepidation. She was stronger now, but she had fucking killed a man to save my life in this very house. I didn’t know if she had really dealt with it, or if she pushed it to the back of her mind. I told her to forget about it. Convinced her to forget, and only keep the knowledge that I was the one who took the kill shot. Had she been able to do that? Put it out of her head? Or were these rounds of laughter and sobs she was experiencing now her way of trying to purge herself of the memory?
The crazy laughter gave way to silence, and I took her in my arms. I pushed her hair out of her face, and urged her to look at me. I needed to know that she was okay. “How have you been doing?”
She abruptly pulled away from me. “I’m fine. Stop trying to get off topic. How do you know my dad?”
“I can’t sit here and talk to you about this shit storm unless I know you’re okay.” I sat down on the couch, and held my hand out to her. She slipped her fingers into mine, and I slowly pulled her to me until she was on my lap. I ran my hand down her cheek, wanting to feel the softness of her skin. “Before I tell you what you want to know, I need to know that you’re okay. Need to know that you are going to be able to handle this.” I drew her forehead to mine, linking my fingers behind her head and drew in a deep breath that was all Sunshine. .
“I’m good,” she assured me. Her hands came up to mine, and she removed my hold on her. She stood defiantly in front of me, making it clear that whatever I had to say she would handle.
“A few years back,” I started. “Your dad came to the club. He had made a few bad investments. Lost a shit ton of money. He was desperate. He wanted to strike a deal with us. Your dad is a very smart man. He knew our game, and he said he could help. Prescription drugs are a big business on the streets. Pills go for ten times what they’re worth on the street. One Vicodin pill at retail is something like a dollar fifty. On the street, you can get anywhere between five and twenty-five dollars a pill. Your dad wrote false prescriptions, and we filled them. Sold them on the street, and gave him a cut of the profit.”
Aubree stepped back, stumbling into the chair across from me. Shock tainted her beautiful face. Her entire life was crumbling before her, and I was the goddamned wrecking ball that was doing it.
“Want me to stop?” I asked, concerned it was all too much for her.
“No, keep going.”
“Are you sure?”
Her face went void of any emotion. “I said, keep going.”
“He had access to the shit at the hospital, too. Made it easy for us to sneak in and out, taking what we could without anyone noticing.”
“How long?” she asked. She blinked up at me, her brown eyes now full of so much shit I couldn’t tell what she was feeling. “How long?” she ground out.
“It started a little over four years ago.”
“My college tuition,” she mumbled. “That son of a bitch. I got notified by the admissions office that there was a problem with my check. I called him, and he told me it was a misunderstanding. That he accidentally sent a check from an account he just closed, and that he would take care of it. I never thought to question him further. I believed every word he said. I trusted him.”
“Of course you did. He’s your father. If you can’t trust your old man, then who can you trust?” My old man might have been on the wrong side of the law, but he was one of the few people I had trusted with my life. I understood what it meant to put your faith in someone completely, but I had no idea what it felt like to discover that same person was a complete and total liar. That ev
erything you thought was the truth wasn’t.
“I did. I trusted him and for what? He’s a criminal. He won’t even talk to me since I was with you because of what you are. But, who is he to make that judgment? He’s no better. If anything, he’s worse because he took the Hippocratic Oath to uphold certain medical standards. How does selling drugs uphold those standards? Damn it, how can he pretend to be so above you? Act as if you’re low life scum, and well beneath him, when he’s doing all the same things. What gives him that right?”
I shrugged. “He’s a doctor, Aubree. It doesn’t matter what he’s done. He’s educated, has a real profession, so he’s still better than me.”
“No!” she exclaimed, and shot to her feet. She came to me, dropping to her knees, and taking my hands in hers. “He’s not. You’re telling me the truth right now, and not trying to cover it up with some bullshit story. In my book, your honesty and integrity make you far superior to him. My father is nothing more than a lying drug dealer.”
“He lied to protect you.” The words came out, and I had no idea why I was defending him, but she was right. I wouldn’t lie to her, and, because of that, she needed to know the truth from both sides. “It was the only way he knew how.”
“That’s bullshit!” she yelled. “It’s bullshit, and you know it. He was trying to cover up his own ass. Hide his mistakes by making bigger ones. And for what?”
“I don’t have the answer to that,” I said, squatting down beside her. “Only he knows that.”
A tear slipped down her cheek, and she swatted at it angrily. “I’m not going to cry. He’s no longer worth my tears,” she uttered.
I wanted to take her into my arms and comfort her, but the wild look in her eyes made me keep my distance. She didn’t need me right now. She needed to figure this shit out on her own. “It’s okay to cry.”
“No, it’s not! I’m not weak. Not anymore. Not after everything I’ve been through, and everything I know.”
“It won’t make you weak,” I said, and she blinked up at me. I could see a crack in her wall, so I tucked her hair behind her ears, cupping her face.
Warrant (Righteous Outlaws #1) Page 14