by Ada Stone
But even as these thoughts raced through my head, another and much clearer thought reminded me of the rest of that story.
I’m not happy here. I’m not happy with my father. He has spent my whole life controlling me, dictating who I can and cannot be. And now that I’m not perfect, he’s threatening to cut me out of his life completely. I owe nothing to this man anymore.
Lifting my chin high, I stared my father down. “We all do what we have to do. I’m only making the choice that I can live with. I know that you’ll do the same.”
For just a second, my father seemed to freeze. Like he was having his own internal war, debating if I was serious, if I would follow through with it. I didn’t know what conclusion he had come to, but he made his features soften. He offered me a small, conciliatory smile and came to sit on the edge of my bed. When he reached for my hand, I jerked it back, away from his grasp. I no longer wanted anything to do with this man.
He held up both hands, palms forward to show me that he was backing off, that he wasn’t trying to cause problems. “Alright. Let’s talk about this. I…I was being too rash when I said that. I was angry and concerned. For you.”
I scoffed at him. “Please. You’re not concerned for me, just your image as mayor.”
He shook his head. “No. I know that it looks that way, but I promise you that it’s not the truth. There’s so much more going on and I know that I’ve failed as a father in that respect. I should have been more encouraging, more open with you emotionally. And I know that now it’s difficult to believe this, but I’m on your side.”
I stared at him incredulously. What the hell was he going on about? Who was this man and what had he done with my father? “If you’re really on my side, then you’ll let Luke go. You’ll call off the cops.”
He hesitated for half a second, then gave a quick nod of his head. “Alright. Done. If that’s what it takes for us to be a family again, then I’m willing to let him do as he pleases. After all, you’re the important thing.”
Something in my heart swelled. I’d spent years starved for my father’s love and affection, for his approval. He had worked so hard to groom me into this thing that would meet his standards and I’d fought tooth and nail against it. But secretly, I’d always hoped he was proud. I’d always hoped that in the end he honestly loved me and would love me for who I was.
Hearing him say those words to me now, like he honestly meant them, like he was really willing to sacrifice something that he didn’t agree with simply for the sake of me…well, it was almost enough to bring tears to my eyes.
Almost.
There was a wiser part of me that reminded me how he was all about appearances, how he would never be okay with any of this. But really, what could I do right then? I was in the hospital and Luke was on the run. To get Luke out of trouble, I was going to have to trust my father at least this much.
I worried at my lower lip for a moment, thinking it through. “You really mean that?” I finally asked, hesitant but hopeful.
He smiled at me, one of those smiles that were reserved only for my mother. I hadn’t seen one since her death and it made my heart ache seeing it now. He waved over my secretary, keeping his gaze on me even as he spoke to her. “Call the police. Tell them that I’m dropping the charges, that the…young man isn’t who they’re looking for after all. Do it immediately.”
His secretary looked just as surprised as I was. Despite being hopeful, I didn’t honestly think he would really do that.
Offering a small smile, I said, “Thank you. He really is a good man.”
His smile was strained as he gave me a quick nod of his head. “I’m sure he is. But I think we need to go home and talk about this, don’t you? Especially since all this stress is clearly not good for the baby.”
I hesitated. What I really wanted was to go back to Luke. I wanted us to be okay, to be together and safe. And now there was all this other stuff to talk about—did us being stepsiblings change things between us? But my father was right. The stress of everything was taking its toll on me and whether my father and I agreed on anything, he was right to say that we at least had to talk about it.
Maybe I’d never been able to get through to him before, maybe we could never seem to make the other see it our way, but I still had to try. And for once, he seemed open to listening.
With a steadying breath, I nodded. “Okay, Dad. Let’s go home.”
Chapter Sixteen
Luke
I made it out of the hospital and down the front steps. I even managed to sling one leg over my bike to straddle it, but before I could dig out my keys to start the damn thing, the cars pulled up and blocked my exit. The two cops who had been trailing me inside the hospital burst through the doors and drew their weapons, pointing them directly at me. There were two cop cars, sirens blaring, and the cops of course.
Well, this definitely isn’t good, I thought grimly.
I had known this would be a possible outcome. The police had been after me and the mayor had been the one to send them. I had hoped that maybe he hadn’t really had the time to get them into the room and catch me, but clearly I’d been wrong.
Frowning, I finally took a moment to think about it. How did her father even know she was there? Her father, my stepfather, I thought, weighing the guilt of sleeping with my sister against the fact that I had stronger feelings for her than I ever had for anyone else. Thankfully, I didn’t have a lot of time to dwell on it. The police surrounded me and advanced on me, ordering me to put my hands on my head and get off of the bike.
Maybe under different circumstances I might have tried to make a break for it. But what was the point here? There was no way I was going to elude two cop cars and two police officers without even having my own motorcycle started.
No, I was unfortunately going to have to play this the legal way. Which was probably not going to go in my favor.
They came to me, guns pointed at my chest, my hands still placed on top of my head. They yelled at me not to move, informed me that I was under arrest. One of the cops from the building cuffed me, jerking my wrists together harshly until I felt the cold metal digging into my wrists.
He shoved at me, urging me into the back of one of the squad cars. When he closed the door after me, I knew unequivocally that I was toast. No way I was walking away from this one with a clean and clear rap sheet.
As we drove away, I couldn’t help but wonder just how things had gone so very wrong.
…
It took them two days to process me, meaning I was squished in a tiny pod with far too many people as I waited to be moved to a prison outside of town. I wanted to think that they wouldn’t have enough evidence to really put me away, but I knew better. They’d find it if they wanted it bad enough, and clearly they did.
Worse still, the more I thought of it, the more I became positive that the cops coming to find me that day in the hospital wasn’t just a coincidence. How had her father known it was her? Had it been an insurance thing? Had the hospital called him? I didn’t think so. Since she was legally an adult, they couldn’t call anyone unless her life was at serious risk or she gave them permission to do so.
I highly doubted she encouraged them to call.
There was the chance that someone had seen me and recognized me. Although I hadn’t watched the news, there was a chance that my picture was taking up some airtime on it. I’d been warned that the police were still looking for me, though they said mainly that it was “for questioning.” I had doubted then that that was all they wanted from me, especially given that they’d chanced me halfway through Mount Rose before I lost them. Now I was positive they wanted more.
If a nurse or something saw me and recognized me, they might have called the police. But if that was the case, then why let me in to see a pregnant woman in the first place? Yes, I’d claimed and was the baby’s father, but they still could have put their foot down on it. I wasn’t related to the woman—oh, the laughability of that now—and the
refore had no right to see her by claims of being a relative. Maybe Lia had insisted, but she’d been in there for a while before they finally caved and let me see her.
It all made me think that in the end no one had recognized me.
So then how did he find out? Because the only people who knew where I was headed were the Road Roses from the cookout that day.
I didn’t want to go down that road, but it was hard not to. While I was being transferred by bus to the prison—I would be arraigned back here in Mount Rose in a month or so, they promised—it was difficult to not consider that option.
The Road Roses had known that I was evading the police. And while there were many I trusted within the motorcycle club, more than before I’d met Lia, there was no doubt that some of my men were still unhappy with how things were being run. More importantly, they were unhappy with me being in charge. The dissention in the ranks was dwindling, but I knew for a fact that Armand was still eager to cause problems for me.
But could he sink low enough to turn me into the police? About the only thing worse than a cop and a traitor was a snitch, which really fell under traitor anyway.
I wanted to believe that it wasn’t possible, but as the bus arrived at the prison and we were escorted out, I couldn’t help but suspect that the police just weren’t smart enough to have caught me on their own.
Damnit, Armand, I thought, anger flowing freely through me.
As I was put into a cell, lucky enough to get one all to myself this time around, I couldn’t help but wonder just how much I’d fucked this all up. I’ve got to get out of here, I thought. There was no way that I was going to stay in prison while my baby grew up out there without me.
I just couldn’t let it happen.
…
Several weeks went by with little correspondence from the outside world. I’d gotten a visit from Garrison, who explained that my lieutenants had put a restriction on anyone coming to visit me. I knew instantly why. Right now, they couldn’t prove that there was a direct association to a lot of my guys, which meant that if I had the misfortune of going down, I wouldn’t necessarily take down every member of the Road Roses with me.
He also explained that Armand was saying that we needed a temporary leader—that maybe wasn’t going to stay so temporary. Just in my absence, he claimed, but Garrison was grim as he explained the tone in Armand’s voice. Eager and malicious both.
It worried me that I wouldn’t be able to do anything about him from in here, but it mattered surprisingly less to me than a pretty little blonde girl who was had to be getting bigger by the day.
I followed the story on the news while I was in the slammer. Mostly, they didn’t let us watch the news since it told us too much about what was going on with the police and who was likely coming in. Something about not wanting to spark rivals or cause more problems than there already were. But every once in a while, we got to watch a little bit of news, usually when it was some feel good fluff piece.
I didn’t think Lia’s story was a fluff piece myself, but they didn’t know the whole story.
Sitting in the common room, I watched the large screen as she was escorted out of the hospital by her father. She looked a little pale still, but otherwise in pretty good shape. She looked like she was working hard to keep her expression blank and when people shoved mics in her face, she told them a quiet, “No comment.”
It was good to see her. And it was a relief to know that she was well enough to leave the hospital. But I didn’t like that it was her father escorting her out, and I didn’t like that not once during the whole news piece did they mention that she was pregnant.
Because her father is still hoping to make her get rid of it, I thought angrily, gritting my teeth.
I took solace in knowing that Lia wanted to keep the baby now. I didn’t know how things between us had changed so rapidly, but I was beyond grateful to know that I wouldn’t get out of here only to discover that I wasn’t a father after all.
I wasn’t sure I could think of anything worse than that just then.
The newscaster announced that Lia had fallen ill due to a very serious outbreak of influenza while visiting a nearby city where a close friend of the family resided. The friend had driven her home, hoping that she was only a little bit sick, but upon realizing the severity of the situation, she was rushed to the Mount Rose Memorial Hospital.
I snorted. They even found this so called “friend” and interviewed her. She was a pretty woman, middle aged, but still in very good shape. She was probably rich enough that a lot of the smoothness of her skin was bought with plastic surgery and Botox, but there was no denying that she was pleasant to look at.
Less so to listen to.
“I wanted to get her home, you see,” she explained, smiling prettily and looking a little vacant. I thought she was familiar, but couldn’t place her at first. “You always feel better when you’re home. And of course I knew the mayor would be worried. I didn’t want her father to worry, he’s such a dear, dear friend.” She continued to ramble like that, explaining that she grew more concerned as they were in the car and decided that the hospital was a better idea than going straight to the mayor’s very large mansion. “I was just so worried.”
It wasn’t until the woman finished speaking and turned to smile blandly at the camera that I finally put the pieces together. Why she looked familiar.
The Road Roses had sold drugs to her. And not just a little bit.
I let out a bitter laugh and shook my head. I was in prison for who knew what, but at least part of the charge had to do with drug trafficking. Meaning selling to people. People like her who ended up with Botox injected into their face and gave very moving speeches to newscasters about how terribly worried they were about a girl they hadn’t seen in god knew how long.
Oh, the irony.
I wanted nothing more than to go to Lia and see her. I hadn’t since being arrested. That hurt a little bit and at first I worried that Lia simply had changed her mind and no longer wanted the trouble that came with dating a Road Rose. Not just that, but the leader of the Road Roses. But Garrison had passed along some information that both eased my hurt and made me seriously worry.
“Since she got out of the hospital, no one’s seen her,” Garrison explained.
I snorted. “Of course not. It’s not like Daddy’s going to let her hang around with a bunch of bikers he’s been working like a dog to get out of his town.”
But Garrison shook his head. “No, I don’t just mean she hasn’t seen us and we haven’t seen her. I mean that no one’s seen her. Not even her little friends.”
“What little friends?”
Garrison took a moment to explain two of the little rich girls that stopped by Wicked Rose asking about Lia. They’d called her Amelia at first, which threw everyone off, but Sorenson had realized who they were talking about after a quick description. The pushier and less ditzy of the two had explained that they were concerned about her and wanted to make sure she hadn’t run off with “a bunch of crazy bikers” again. He swore that was a direct quote.
I would have laughed at her brazenness if I wasn’t so worried for Amelia.
“They hadn’t seen her?” I asked, feeling dread pool in my gut.
Garrison shook his head. “No. They came looking around the shop for her, hoping that she’d gone and run off again. When I said she hadn’t, they both seemed really worried. I asked them why and they explained that her phone was turned off and when they stopped by her house, her father wasn’t letting anyone in. They asked if she was home, but he wouldn’t answer, simply saying that the family needed some privacy.”
The frown that had been starting on my face deepened. If they were looking for her and her father wouldn’t say anything, there was a chance that Lia had taken off again, but I doubted it. If her father had escorted her out of the hospital, then there was no chance for her to take off. And since she’d already done it once, it was clear that she could try it again. Meaning that
her father probably had her on lock down at the house. Her friends were probably just incidental. He was keeping her from everyone, not sure which of her little rich friends might be willing to help her escape and come see me.
It gave me confidence that Lia hadn’t changed her mind, for all the good it did me. I was stuck in prison and Lia might as well have been, too. She might be in nicer accommodations, but no one was letting her move around on her own either.
“Has he gone out of town?” I asked Garrison, referring to the mayor.
Garrison shook his head again. “As far as anyone knows, no. He’s still in town. He’s given a few sound bites to reporters, saying how glad he is to have his daughter back safe and sound, but otherwise he’s stayed at the house. Hasn’t even gone into work.”
“He’s keeping an eye on her,” I said, and by the look Garrison gave me, he agreed.