Raven stepped back, waving me in. “We can talk in here without being overheard,” she assured me as she caught Max around the waist and deposited him in his pack ‘n play.
The toddler screamed unhappily and gave his mother a mutinous look that she only smirked at before flopping down on the end of her bed. “Quinn has Lexa and a few other kids in her room. I don’t want her to hear any of this.”
I nodded in understanding as I took a seat in the chair by her bathroom door. “I figured you wouldn’t want many people to hear this conversation anyway.”
“Flick is coming, actually.” She checked her phone just as there was a knock on the door. Standing, she answered it, waving her best friend in before shutting and locking the door.
Flick sat beside Raven on the bed, both of them watching me closely as I just sat there, trying to figure out exactly what I was going to say to Calvin when I made this phone call. I needed something that would catch his attention, make him want to send his latest fuck buddy back to Creswell Springs so Raven could have her face-to-face with the elusive Bubbles.
Tossing her hair over her shoulders, Flick gave me a long, sweeping appraisal. “I’m glad you didn’t turn on the guys,” she finally said after a long moment. “I like you and wouldn’t have wanted to kick your ass if you had.”
“Um, thanks?” I rolled my eyes when she grinned. “Whatever. I need a place to tell Calvin to have Bubbles meet me. What will be best for this showdown?”
After a few moments of considering it, Raven gave me a few different locations she thought would work, and I swiped my thumb over my rat bastard of a father’s contact. It rang for several seconds before he answered. “You got something for me?”
I squeezed the bridge of my nose with my thumb and forefinger. Just the sound of his voice irritated me. He was why my life was a total shitshow right now. It was one hundred percent because of him that I was in this situation. But to him, I was expendable. It hadn’t mattered that I might have gotten caught or killed if I did what he wanted. Lucky for me, I still had some sense of self-worth and had come up with a Plan B for Mom’s sake. “Maybe. I’m not sure. I need to confirm it. How well does that girl you sent up here not long ago know these people?”
There was a pause on his end where I heard him moving around. Moments later, he lowered his voice. “She knows them extremely well. Is this something big?” I could practically picture him rubbing his greedy hands together, imagining all the things that could possibly happen to pay back the MC for what his warped mind thought they did to Kevin.
“Potentially,” I assured him in a bored tone. “Send her up here so I can confirm it before I take this to that DA creep. I don’t want him snooping around and making things difficult for me if it’s not.”
“When?”
“Sooner the better, right?” He grunted an agreement. “Tell her not to come to that hotel again. Someone saw me there last time, and I don’t want people asking questions if they see me there a second time.”
“Where, then? I’ll send her up there tonight. I want those sons of bitches behind bars as quickly as possible.”
“That just might happen.” I gave him the address of the place Raven and Flick both decided worked the best. “Midnight. I’ll say I’m going to work and meet her there.”
“I’ll make sure she’s there. Good work, Kellianne.”
My eyes widened at the praise. When had my father ever said those words to me? Never. Not until right then. Gritting my teeth, I said goodbye and hung up, hating him a little more. If he thought that something so small so late in the game might make me switch sides, he was out of his mind. Now, after everything that had gone down, the only side I was on was my own. Fuck him and everyone else.
“It’s done.”
“Not quite,” Raven said as she got up and lifted Max out of his pen. He immediately ran and threw himself into the arms of Flick, his favorite person, jabbering to her excitedly. “You’re going with us tonight.”
I shrugged. “I was expecting to go with you.”
“It’s just going to be the three of us. If shit goes south, I need you to have our backs.”
I leaned forward, my gaze never flickering from hers. “I thought you trusted me.”
“I do, but I’m not stupid. I want your promise that if something goes wrong, you’ll shoot Bubbles in the head.”
“Done,” I assured her without hesitation, not really expecting to have to follow through. Raven wasn’t going to let anyone touch Bubbles, least of all give me a chance to shoot that cunt in the back of the head.
Standing, I headed for the door. “Until this is over, keep your stupid-ass brother away from me. He seems to think that just because he says he’s sorry, I’ll forgive and forget. But as soon as this shit is over, I’m out of here.”
“Really?” Flick sounded skeptical, and I glanced at her over my shoulder with one hand on the doorknob. “You’re just going to walk away? Isn’t that the easy way out?”
I shrugged. “I’ll take easy over having to watch my back, wondering when he’s going to pull that crap again. Not that you can talk. You walked away from this place and your man, if memory serves.”
“True,” she agreed, looking sad. “But I still missed everyone who loved me.”
I turned my gaze back on the door in front of me, my heart aching so badly it burned. “See, that’s where we’re totally different, Flick. You have people here who loved and missed you just as much as you missed them. There’s no one but maybe Quinn here who loves me.”
Raven made a sound of disagreement, but before she or Flick could argue, I opened and walked out the door. My eyes burned at the realization of just how few people in the world cared about what might happen to me. Before, the small number hadn’t mattered. Nothing had back then because I knew the only person I could rely on was myself. Now, even though that was still the truth, I ached to have someone care about my outcome in the world.
Blowing out a pent-up breath, I walked through the clubhouse and into the kitchen. This room always seemed to be occupied by at least one person cooking at all times. With as many mouths to feed as there were in the building, someone was hungry every minute of the day. Rory and Gracie were at the sink, washing vegetables for salad and sandwiches.
“Hey,” Gracie greeted with a welcoming smile. “You hungry? We haven’t seen you all day.” She offered me one of the sandwiches minus any lettuce or tomatoes, and I took it.
Adding a little deli mustard to the ham and cheese, I took a hungry bite and leaned back against the counter beside her. On her other side, Rory was throwing the green and red peppers she was washing into the strainer, her jaw clenched as she took out her anger on the poor produce.
“What’s with you?” I asked after half my sandwich was gone. “You look like you could chew nails into bullets.”
“Just pissed at Matt,” she mumbled. “Don’t mind me. I’ll get over it.”
“Why should you have to?” I asked with lifted brows. “If he did something stupid that pissed you off, just kick him in the junk and tell him to fuck off.”
She exhaled slowly, her shoulders drooping as she wiped her fingers on a dishcloth. “Because I don’t want to kick him in the junk or tell him to fuck off. Hurting him isn’t something I want, even though his past does nothing but hurt me. I just want to erase the last three years and make it so that my dad’s BS didn’t separate us to begin with.”
“I’ll get right on finding someone to make us a time machine,” Gracie said with a soft smile.
A ghost of a smile teased at Rory’s lips. “Let me know when that happens. Maybe then I could at least stab a few bitches in the boobs if nothing else.”
The swinging kitchen door opened, and Quinn walked in with Raider right behind her. Seeing me, Quinn’s eyes brightened. “You’re up. I was hoping we could go over to the house together and grab a few things. Raider is going to drive us in my car.”
I stuffe
d the rest of my sandwich in my mouth, nodding. “Good idea. I need to get the rest of my things packed up. I’m leaving tomorrow.”
The light in my best friend’s eyes dimmed. “I really wish you wouldn’t.”
Hearing the sadness in her voice made the burn in my chest ache more, but I couldn’t stick around just because the alternative would make her sad. She had other people to stand by her through whatever life threw her way. She was going to be fine. But I needed to get away from this place and these people before someone else succeeded in eviscerating me completely.
I didn’t tell her that, though. Instead, I gave her a grim smile. “I really need to get back and check on my mother. Maybe if I’m around more than once a month, she will start recognizing me more often than not.”
“True.” Quinn still looked upset, but she gave me a reassuring smile. “Well, let’s go get your things, then.”
Raider was already at the door, Quinn’s keys in hand. He gave me a long, hard look as he held the door for us, but he didn’t say anything. I thanked Rory and Gracie for the sandwich and followed after Quinn. Outside, I got into the back seat of my friend’s little Honda and stayed silent as he drove us back to the house we were technically still renting. Every few minutes, he would look at me in the rearview mirror.
Less than two miles from the house, I was fed up with his grumpy silence and judging looks. “What?” I demanded, meeting his gaze in the mirror. “Just spit it out and get it over with.”
Quinn shot him a look that told him to be good, but his eyes were still on me and he didn’t see her. “I don’t get you.”
“I don’t really give a fuck. You don’t matter to me.”
“Back at ya. But you matter to Quinn, and that’s what matters to me. Your leaving will upset her, so I’m not just going to sit back and let you hurt her when you walk away.”
“Raider,” Quinn tried to cut in, but neither of us paid her any attention.
“I’m sorry that my leaving will hurt Quinn. I don’t like it when she hurts any more than you do. But I have a mother sick in a nursing home who rarely even recognizes me. I think taking care of her is more important right now.”
“She’s right,” Quinn interrupted before we could get into the heated argument that was already charging the air in the small car. “I know what it’s like to have a sick mother. That can take up your entire life. Leave her alone, Raider.”
A muscle ticking in his jaw, he lowered his gaze from the mirror. She reached over and took his hand, giving it a squeeze, and I turned my gaze out the side window. As irritated as I was over Raider trying to butt in where he had no business, I was glad Quinn had someone who would do that to try to make her happy. I still wasn’t a fan of the manwhore, reformed or not, but as long as he took care of Quinn and their baby, I wouldn’t have to cut his favorite appendage from his body.
The house was still a mess. Neither of us had been back to the house for longer than needed to pick up a few essentials since the Italians had shot it up. Inside, glass and bullets still littered the floor. Bullet holes decorated the walls as well as the furniture. How no one had been hit by one of those bullets was still a mystery to me. It was a miracle, that was for freaking sure.
The door to my bedroom was usually locked, but it had been kicked in. I figured whoever had come to look for the USB drive had done it to get in. Ignoring the splintered doorframe and the size-fourteen boot print on the door itself, I crossed to the closet and pulled out my largest suitcase. Without bothering to fold my clothes, I dumped them into the case, hangers and all.
Once it was full to the point of bursting, I struggled to zip it closed and then grabbed the matching smaller case, doing the same. The whole process took less than twenty minutes, before I was going into the bathroom and grabbing all the things that belonged to me, which took even less time. I kept my makeup and most of my hair products in my gym bag for work, but I still had a few things here that needed to go with me.
When I was done, I struggled to get the cases out of my room. Raider and Quinn were in the living room, and Raider grumbled something under his breath before moving forward to take the luggage from me. Lifting them both, he carried them outside, tossing them none too gently into the trunk of the car.
From the doorway, I paused and looked back at the house. From the beginning, I knew I wouldn’t be here long, but it had been the closest thing to a real home I’d ever had. Not even when my mother was in her right mind had I felt like I was really at home with her in our apartment. But this place, with Quinn and Colt to come home to at the end of my shift, had become a safe haven for me.
Swallowing hard, I forced myself to look away and turned to leave. Quinn stood right in front of me, her eyes full of hope. “You will always have a place to come back to, Kelli. Whatever happens down the road, I hope you will eventually come back to us.”
I didn’t want to argue or hurt her more than I already had, so I gave her a grim smile and nodded. “Yeah. Thanks, babe.”
Chapter 13
Colt
From the second I woke up again, I was pulled in a hundred different directions. Everyone wanted something, needed help with this or that and something else. All I wanted was to find Kelli and work out this thing between us, get her to forgive me so I could focus on the shitstorm the rest of my life was.
Gracie told me when I went looking for Kelli that she’d gone back to her house with Quinn and Raider for some things, so I hadn’t put up much of a fight when Hawk and Spider asked me to help out with a few things. She was with my brother, so I knew she would be okay. We could talk later, I assured myself as I rode across town on a couple errands so Spider didn’t have to leave Willa, who was still in bed more often than not from the whole blood pressure situation she was experiencing.
While I was out, I got a dozen more calls from not only Spider and Hawk, but Trigger and Raven as well. All of them needed something from somewhere, and I was starting to wish I’d taken one of the trucks instead of my bike. By the time I got back, it was dark and I was starving.
Grabbing a few sandwiches out of the kitchen, I went to my room to take another shower to get rid of the chill that had set into my bones while I was out. The weather was getting colder, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if it snowed later that night. On average, Creswell Springs got around ten to twelve inches of snow during the winter months. Nothing too major, but this year wasn’t going to be like all the rest. It was going to be a bad winter.
I heard Kelli moving around in our room as I stepped out of the shower, but as I wrapped a towel around my hips and walked into the bedroom, the door was closing behind her. A glance at the clock beside the bed told me it was only ten thirty. Gritting my teeth, I threw on clothes and grabbed my cut.
Out in the main room, I asked my brothers where Kelli was.
“Said something about going to work,” Uncle Ox told me with a shrug.
“Fuck’s sake. We went through this last night.” Scrubbing my hands over my face, I headed out the front door where I’d parked my bike earlier.
She must have hauled ass, because I didn’t catch up to her the entire drive out to Paradise City. Parking beside the club, I walked around back. The bouncer standing there frowned at me when he saw me coming. “She’s not here.”
I stopped and glanced over my shoulder at the other dancers’ vehicles, only then noticing that Kelli’s car wasn’t there. “What the fuck?” I growled to myself. “Where the fuck did she go, then?”
“No clue, man, but she’s not here.”
“Thanks,” I muttered, heading back to my bike. Pulling out my phone, I called her. It rang twice before going to voice mail, meaning she had sent me there on purpose. Biting back a curse, I drove back toward the clubhouse, retracing my steps. I stopped by her house, but it was dark, and there weren’t any cars in the driveway. Stopping at my own only yielded the same results.
If she hadn’t gone toward Paradise City, then she m
ust have gone in the other direction, because there hadn’t been a single sign of her car. There wasn’t much out that way, though. I tried calling her again. This time, it went straight to voice mail, telling me her phone was off.
The farther out I drove, the more my instincts were screaming at me that something was off. She wouldn’t come this way. There wasn’t a single damn reason for her to come out here. It was mostly just dirt lanes and old abandoned houses and a trailer park that hadn’t been inhabited in years.
The trailer park was on one of the back roads, completely out of sight of the main street. Something told me to check it out, though.
As I drove past, I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary. It was dark, too dark to see anything past the first few trailers near the road. I drove a little ways farther, then turned around and went back, deciding to go into the actual park itself.
All I could see was what was right in front of my bike’s headlight, and the farther I went, the more pissed I got at myself. Why was I even suspicious of her being out here? It was cold as fuck, and this place looked like it belonged on the set of some slasher thriller movie. There was no way Kelli would have come out this way, let alone to this spooky-ass place.
Shaking my head at my own idiocy, I began to turn my bike around.
The scream that suddenly filled the air, however, had my stomach turning to lead. I paused, holding my breath as I listened again. It was just some wild animal, pissed I’d disturbed its home, I tried to tell myself. Then the scream came again, and I knew it wasn’t an animal but a woman.
From the sounds of it, she was screaming for her life.
I drove toward the sound of the screams that were only getting more desperate. In the last trailer at the back of the park, I saw three vehicles and weak light coming from inside the run-down old mobile home. Two of the cars I recognized as soon as I was close enough to make them out.
Raven’s Challenger was the last car, parked behind a smaller car I didn’t recognize, blocking it in. The one in front of the unknown car was Kelli’s.
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