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Fox (The Road Rebels MC Book 4)

Page 11

by Savannah Rylan


  I unlocked my phone and began my Google search for her, pulling up all the information I could. There were plenty of articles about her asshole father, but not much information was there on her. I had to scroll through three pages of endless bullshit before I came to what I wanted.

  “Right Path Family and Marriage Counseling,” I said.

  I clicked on the ‘staff’ tab, and there she was. With her radiant eyes and her blossoming smile. She glowed in her picture. Full of life and happy to be doing what she was doing. Unaware of the darkness that was about to consume her because of me. Because I couldn’t keep my dick to myself. Because I couldn’t let the mystery die with her.

  Because I’d fallen into her innocent little trap.

  I started down the stairs as I made my way back towards my bike. I saw another car roll past, and I looked up towards the driver. He made eye contact with me, nodding and grinning before he turned his eyes up towards Harlow’s apartment.

  My blood was boiling with anger as I slung my leg over my bike.

  I typed the address to Harlow’s work in my phone before I attached it to my handlebars. I backed myself out of the space, debating between going to her work and following the car that had just cased her place. But I needed to make sure she was okay. That was the major thing right now.

  I could slaughter all those assholes later.

  Chapter 18

  Harlow

  After lunch with my father, he invited me back to the house. He told me that mom was anxious to see me and hear all about my first week at my apartment, so I relented and followed him back home. I was still uneasy around him. I still didn’t have the greatest feeling in the pit of my stomach. I had picked around on my plate and eaten a few bites to keep him off my back, but all I wanted to do was throw it up. My father was being shady. Dodgy. Talking around the truth instead of giving it to me straight.

  It was so unlike him, and it made me worried for him.

  I pulled up into the driveway of my childhood home and sighed. I had loved this place as a child, but now that I had my own place it resembled a sort of decadent prison. A place where my father had total control and my mother and I went along with things. It was so weird, how just one conversation could shed a new light on a place someone thought they knew so well. My childhood home had gone from a place of fantasies and dreams to a place of questions and unresolved issues in a matter of a couple of hours.

  “You want some wine? I have your favorite stocked,” my father said.

  “Actually, wine sounds really nice,” I said.

  “Come on. I’ll get you a big glass.”

  “But not too big. I have to drive home in a bit.”

  I could see the sadness that rolled over my father’s eyes when I said that. He was trying everything in his power to get me to move back in. I wasn’t sure why this was so hard on him. I mean, I’d lived with him for the better part of half my life. I was an adult. A fully employed adult with health benefits, a car payment, a paycheck, and a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree. What did he expect from me? To live with him and Mom until they died of old age?

  I watched my father pour us both a glass before we sat down at the breakfast nook. It was my favorite place in the entire house. It overlooked the massive backyard my parents had, and my mother always kept up the garden. No matter what she had to plant, it was always blooming with life. This year, she’d gone with roses, daisies, sunflowers, and some scattered tulips. She had hung up hummingbird feeders and set out a few last-minute plants that catered to the bees and the butterflies. Our backyard had always been buzzing with life, and as a child, I enjoyed running through the rows of flowers and giggling at all the animals.

  “Your mother will be so excited to see you,” my father said.

  “It’ll be nice to see her, too,” I said.

  “She misses you, you know.”

  “I miss her as well. But I’m glad to be out on my own.” I saw another wave of sadness and concern wash over his face.

  “Are you sure this apartment is what you want?” my father asked. “Because if it’s not for you, then we’ll do whatever you need here. We can put you in the guesthouse out back. I’ll have a driveway for you paved right up to it. You won’t even have to cross through the house to get to it. If you want to feel authentic, we’ll even charge you rent for it. No curfews, no required family dinners. Nothing like that.”

  “Dad, you have sad this all before. I know you and Mom mean well. And I know you guys have kept a tight hold on me for many reasons. But this is healthy for me. You raised me to be strong and… and independent. That’s something to be proud of. Not stifle,” I said.

  “I’m not trying to stifle you, honey. I’m just trying to keep you safe.” Safe? What was his obsession with keeping me safe?

  “What? Because of your job? Daddy, you defend people who are innocent, right? Why are you all of a sudden so insistent on the fact that I’m not safe? What have you gotten yourself into?”

  I watched a bit of shock roll across his features before his phone rang out on his hip. I sighed and sank into the nook, trying to distract myself with the wildlife growing outside. My father mumbled into his phone a few times before hanging up, and I knew exactly what that meant.

  “I need to step out to the office, princess,” he said.

  “I know. I know what those phone calls sound like now.”

  “I’m sorry. I really had a great time with you at lunch,” he said.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done Dad, but be careful,” I said.

  “I haven’t done anything, sweetie. Everything’s fine.”

  “You’re not acting like things are fine. I’m a psychologist, Dad. And that comes with some territory even you can’t get away from. You’ve been panicked and on edge all day. So unless something’s going on with you and Mom, it’s work. So just… listen to me for once and be careful.”

  I met my father’s eyes before he nodded his head. He downed the rest of his wine in a few well-timed gulps, then took his glass to the sink. I sighed as I listened to his footsteps recede down the hallway, resolving myself to a moment of silence in a home that now felt more like a cage.

  “You really should wait for your mother,” my father called out. “She’d love to see you.”

  “Wasn’t planning on leaving,” I said as I sipped my wine.

  I closed my eyes as I listened to my father’s car crank up. Tears sprang to my eyes along with uncontrollable emotions with an origin point I still wasn’t aware of. How had this day gone so wrong so quickly? I woke up in Fox’s arms, I was probably going to see him tonight, and in between, I was supposed to have a good conversation with my father over a really nice lunch.

  What the hell had happened?

  My phone rang again in my purse, and I sighed. I just wanted one moment of fucking peace. I ripped my phone from my pocket and saw Fox was calling, and I debated on not picking it up.

  But he had already called so many times today, and a part of me wondered if he was okay.

  “Hello?”

  “Harlow. Hey. How are you?” Fox asked.

  “I’m okay. Just sipping on some wine. How’s work going?” I asked.

  “Same old, same old. Listen, where are you?”

  “Uh… I’m at my parent’s house. Why?” I asked.

  “Just wondering. I was wondering if I could come by and see you.”

  “You seem a little out of breath. Are you riding on your bike right now?”

  “Work ended a bit early. Some easy problems to solve. Figured we could spend a little more time with one another.”

  “I could call you once I’m done visiting with my mom.”

  “I kind of want to see you now.”

  He sounded a bit on edge, but I couldn’t help the smile that crossed my cheeks. He wanted to see me as quickly as he could, and it made me feel special. I grinned as I sipped on my wine, listening to his bike roar in the background. I wished I was on the back of it with him. Riding with
the wind in my hair and my arms slinked around his strong body.

  “Sure. That’s fine,” I said. “Do you want directions or the address?”

  “Address is fine. I can punch it into my GPS. What is the address of where you are?”

  I rattled off my address to him before I hung up the phone. Excitement bubbled in my gut as I finished off the rest of my glass of wine. Daddy had just left for work, and my mother wouldn’t be back home for another little while. She was either out with her friends or out shopping, and either activity usually kept her out until around four. That gave Fox a couple of hour’s worth of a window where we would be alone.

  And thoughts I had never dreamed of before were beginning to run through my head.

  I thought about having sex with him in my childhood room. My parents had a massive walk-in shower and a jet tub. I bet the two of us could fit into those nicely. I thought about the plush carpet in the guest bedroom. How soft it was underneath my toes.

  I bet it would be soft underneath my knees as well.

  I was excited to see Fox, but I didn’t know why it had to be now. I was flattered he wanted to see me, but there was an urgency in his voice that didn’t sound good. I pushed the thought away as I slipped into the bathroom, cleaning myself up a bit and putting on some lip gloss. I didn’t have any other makeup with me so I would look pretty plain, but it was better than nothing.

  Besides, Fox did just get off work. Maybe he sounded urgent because things hadn’t gone as smoothly as he was saying.

  Like my father had been at lunch.

  I cursed myself as I sat down on the couch. I tried to calm the swirling thoughts in my mind as it ran away from me. Connections Fox could’ve had with my father and how he could somehow be wrapped up into what my dad had gotten himself into. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes as I sighed, relegating myself to the fleeting voices that wouldn’t fucking shut up.

  I wanted to see Fox, but now I was starting to debate whether or not he should’ve been coming over. I kept replaying our conversation in my mind. The urgency of his voice and the insistence that he see me now. Was Fox in trouble, too? Was it the same kind of trouble that my father was in? Men were shit when it came to keeping their worries and fears under wraps. My mother had been the best at it, but even when things got hard for her, she cracked underneath the pressure.

  I wasn’t sure if I could take any more vaguely-answered questions today.

  That was it. I was going to call Fox and tell him he couldn’t come over. I would tell him to meet me at my place once I was done talking with my mother. I knew my mother would help me settle down a bit. She would probably have answers as to why dad was acting the way he was, then I could turn my attention towards Fox.

  But as I went to pick up my phone, I heard a bike rumbling down the road.

  It pulled right into the driveway of the house.

  And all of my worries melted away.

  Chapter 19

  Fox

  I hung up the phone with Harlow and followed the directions my phone was giving me. She was at her parent’s house, and there was a part of me that wondered what I was walking into. Were her parents there? Was this some sort of weird meet-up with them? Was she alone? Had someone followed her there? My mind was swirling a thousand times a second as my phone guided me to her place.

  I was only fifteen minutes away from it at her place of work.

  I had left her apartment and went straight to her office. And just like I thought, they were closed on the weekends. I had knocked on the door anyway, just to see if someone was there in their office, but no one came to the locked door. I was so relieved when Harlow had picked up the phone. When I had heard the heavenly lilt of her softer-than-silk voice. It had relaxed me instantly. Filled me with a warmth I got every time she spoke my name.

  Or moaned it in bed, for that matter.

  I knew going to her parent’s place was a massive risk. Especially with who her father was. But I figured Harlow was smarter than that. If she was with her parents, she wouldn’t let some tattooed, leather jacket-wearing man roll up into her parent’s driveway. Deep down, I knew she was keeping this a secret. Living her own life under the steep radar of her father. The security system in her apartment told me enough about him because Harlow sure as hell didn’t strike me as the kind of girl to install something like that in her home.

  That was all her father.

  Which meant he knew the shit show he’d kicked up was bad.

  I ignored calls from both Snake and Mac. My club was trying to get in touch with me, but I wasn’t ready to deal with their shit. I’d already lied to them so many times that I wasn’t sure which ones to keep in the air any longer. And I wasn’t ready for all of those parts to come crashing down just yet. Harlow was the more important thing right now. Making sure she was safe and no longer being watched was a priority. And it wasn’t just priority for the club.

  It was a priority for me.

  When I hit the last stretch of the journey to Harlow, I turned off my phone. I knew the club would worry, and I would deal with their backlash later. I’d come clean, accept my punishment, and put all this shit behind me. But at that moment, I wanted unadulterated time with Harlow. This was a rare opportunity I had. I was going to be entering the home of the man that was making our lives a living nightmare.

  And I could learn a lot about him if I kept my eyes peeled.

  As I raced down the last stretch of road, I kept kicking myself. How the fuck could I have brought her into this shit? I was a risk. I knew I was a risk. I’d always lived my life as a fucking risk. It was the reason why I kept women at arm’s length. It was the reason why I never got attached. It was the reason why they never stayed over or had another encounter with my cock or any of that shit. I treated them well when they were with me. Paid for their food on the nights they met me. Then we had a tryst, they sucked a bit of cock, we got ours, and they left. They always left.

  And there was a reason why they always left.

  I didn’t lead the kind of life that allowed me to treat a woman the way I knew she deserved. I didn’t live the type of life that allowed for a home and a white picket fence. I didn’t live the type of life where I could keep a family safe from harm. Any children I had would be a target for enemies I made. Any woman I fell in love with became a way for someone to gain leverage over me. It took me months to erase myself from my father. To be nothing but a monetary provider for him so he could live out his days in the nicest nursing home in the state.

  I didn’t even go fucking visit him anymore. That was how much of a risk I was.

  My father had been threatened one time. And one time was all it took for me to instate precautions. One of our drug suppliers had miscalculated the load we needed to be shipped in, and we were short an entire fucking crate of drugs. We went back and forth with him for a while, and things got heated between him and Mac. Our President did what he was good at-- threatening the suppliers and making sure they knew who they worked for.

  But this asshole decided to get funny.

  He thought that threatening our families would get us to back off the lost crate. We all received some cryptic fucking letter about women they had screwed or people they had seen. But that asshole sent me a picture of my fucking father sitting on the porch of his nursing home.

  Just… a fucking picture. With an ‘X’ through his fucking body.

  That had been it for me. Mac and I took care of that asshole, and he had found another drug supplier who was willing to make up the crate that man cost us, and I started the process of peeling myself away from my father. I stopped visiting him as much and opted for sending him gifts. Then as his condition worsened, I backed off the gifts. I kept paying for his nursing home expenses and making sure his bank account was filled with money he needed for things. I had toiletries and shit he needed on an automatic shipment from a bank account that didn’t have my name on it.

  I made sure I erased every connection of myself to him
in order to keep him safe. Which killed me inside, but I knew it was the best thing for him.

  And now that I’d allowed my cock to rule my world for one night, this beautiful little creature I’d come to enjoy was in trouble.

  How could I have been so reckless? All I needed to fucking do was get up and leave. I ate her pussy, knew what she tasted like, and I could’ve whacked off to her in the shower when I got back to the lodge. But no. I had to fucking stay. I had to let her soft skin entice me down under the covers with her. I had to let my cock make all the decisions, and waking up with her just once was enough evidence the KG9’s needed to assume I had feelings for this fucking girl.

  The problem?

  I did have feelings for her.

  At first, she was just a little bit of fun. A wild ride with a sheltered woman who had never been on the back of a bike. A little bit of kissing. Maybe a quick cock sucking break in the middle of the desert, then we were done. That was all it was supposed to be. She wasn’t supposed to mean anything. They never fucking did. But there was a pull to her. A pull that kept me at her side. A pull that forced me to smile down at her when the sunlight came pouring through her apartment windows. A pull that warmed my chest every time I heard her fucking voice.

  I knew I was supposed to be keeping her around for information. But it was becoming harder and harder to remember that.

  She had gotten underneath my skin. Wiggled her way into a space I didn’t understand to exist. There was a light she shined into my life I hadn’t felt since I was a teenager. Immune to the darkness of the world and bright-eyed with dreams. I had no idea if it was her innocence or her passion for wanting to live her own life on her own terms, but I couldn’t get enough of her.

 

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