Point of Return

by Stacey Lynn

  “I know,” I exhaled slowly. “This just feels like the last step before it’s all real.”

  Jaden gave me a strange look, like he didn’t know what in the hell I meant, but I knew he’d figure it out.

  “You bring the gas can?” I asked as I started moving boxes around, shuffling them to the side. He grunted in response and helped me stack everything as we slowly made our way to the back.

  My hands shook as I ran my hand over the tarp. Jaden took a few steps away.

  Slowly, I lifted the tarp and flung it on the floor behind the bike.

  “You were always such a girl; fuckin’ lime green bike, Liv. I still can’t believe your dad did that for you.”

  I laughed softly as Jaden spoke. I could hear his amusement in his words and my eyes swelled with tears as I remembered the look on my dad’s face on my sixteenth birthday when I woke up to this bike sitting in our living room.

  She was exactly what I had wanted since I was ten years old.

  She was perfect.

  And it was time she rode again.

  Jaden rode his bike behind me and just off to my left as if he expected me to lay it down on the sandy gravel to my right at any moment.

  He couldn’t be more wrong. Riding a bike was… well, like riding a bike. The minute I swung my leg over, sat down on my lime green baby, and revved her up, I reveled in the familiar feel of her beneath me and the way my thighs hugged the metal body on the turns.

  It was freeing.

  It was home.

  I couldn’t have wiped the smile off my face if I tried. I loved that the breeze from the fresh air instantly cooled the heat of the sun on my skin as we rolled through town, engines blazing. Jaden laughed at every stop when I looked back at him. It was a true laugh—one that was rare from a man like him. He grinned, showing a mouthful of teeth and I saw laugh lines shoot out from the corners of his dark brown eyes. He looked almost as happy as I felt free.

  I laughed with him, knowing he didn’t do it much anymore. With Jaden next to me, I felt like the teenager I used to be. No problems. No fear. No worries about what the next day would bring. There was only the thrill of a life where you were allowed to play hard and then play harder.

  I was enjoying the ride more than anything else I could remember enjoying in the last few weeks. Hell, in the last five years.

  Being on my bike was what I knew.

  Full of smiles and vibrations under my legs and the wind in my hair, I felt invincible as we made one of the last sharp turns on the country road out to Daemon’s house. He wouldn’t be there yet. Jaden’s text to him told him there was shit to handle at the salvage yard the club owned and he’d watch me until we met up at the clubhouse later. I had hours to get ready to see him again.

  To prove to him that I was back. Just like he wanted.

  But the adrenaline rush, the excitement, and the feeling of freedom crashed all the way to my toes as soon as I saw a police cruiser pulled over to the side of the road.

  The familiar body standing, arms braced against his chest, as he rested against the back of his car.

  My heart jumped into my throat.

  What in the hell did Travis want, and why would he come all the way out here to say it?

  To my left I saw Jaden pull up next to me. He instantly began shaking his head, his lips pursed as if to say ‘no way in hell are you stopping for him’.

  I didn’t listen. I was sure I heard Jaden swear a string of curse words at me over the sound of our bikes. He followed me, though, just like I knew he would.

  Stopping a good ten yards behind the back of Travis’s car, Jaden jumped off his bike and had a hand wrapped around my elbow before my kickstand was down.

  “We are not talking to him. Not here, Liv.”

  I pulled off my helmet, hung it over the bars on my bike and shook out my hair, never once taking my eyes off Travis.

  He carried no expression. No surprise at seeing me on my bike or with Jaden. He gave away nothing. It didn’t matter what he had to tell me, I was pretty sure I was going to rock his world with what I had to tell him.

  I shook Jaden’s hand off my elbow as I pulled my leg over my bike and hopped off. “He won’t hurt me, not with you here.”

  “Fine, but I’m staying with you.”

  I rolled my eyes behind my sunglasses. I stopped walking when I was a few feet away from Travis. His body never once moved and he didn’t take his eyes off me to look at Jaden once.

  His cold and calculated expression rattled me. Whatever he had to say wasn’t going to be pleasant. I knew it instinctively.

  Nervous, I pushed my hands into the back pockets of my jeans. “What are you doing here, Travis?” My tone was friendly, curious.

  The way his lips twitched wasn’t.

  “Fire marshal’s been investigating the fire at Gunner’s. Got word that you can get in tomorrow to get out anything that’s salvageable. There won’t be much, most of it’s water damaged and some smoke.”

  “Okay…” I said slowly and shifted my weight on my feet. This wasn’t new information except for the speed in which they were working. “And?”

  “He found something he thought I might want to give to you personally, before anyone else saw it.”

  My eyebrows jumped as I rifled through what could have been so important. I came up blank.

  Until Travis unwrapped his arms and all I saw in his hand was a flimsy piece of white paper in his hand. His eyes fell to it. He only looked for a few seconds before he looked at me but those few seconds felt like a million hours.

  From next to me, I heard Jaden curse softly and pull out his burner phone. I paid him no attention to what he was doing as he walked away. My eyes were glued to the tiny little piece of paper that I knew held the truth of what I’d been hiding from him.

  And where I’d had it taken.

  Because I knew as soon as Travis saw it, he would have seen the small words “Two Harbors Pregnancy Clinic” printed clearly next to my name on the upper right hand corner. And no one went to the Two Harbors Clinic and left in the same physical state they entered.

  “Is it mine?” he asked through bared teeth. I watched his chest heave and fall as he fought to control his breathing. His anger and disappointment rolled off him so strongly I felt it hit my chest as if it was my own.

  “I didn’t—”

  “Didn’t what, Olivia?” He barked my name out with a dark and venomous tone I had never heard him use before. I took a small step forward and then stopped. “Kill our child?”

  “No. I couldn’t.” My voice was small and tears filled my eyes. But I owed Travis this moment to unleash all the anger I knew he felt. At me for keeping the news of his baby from him, for knowing things were over between us, when it had been far from what he wanted.

  He dropped the piece of paper to the gravel between us and I watched it slowly flutter to the ground before I stepped out and pressed my foot on it.

  Bending slowly to pick it up, I froze at his next words. My blood ran cold and how I managed to stay standing, I had no idea.

  “Get rid of it, now. I don’t want anything to do with you or that kid.”

  I shook my head. “You don’t mean that, Travis. I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be, but I was going to tell you. Soon, I promise. I just needed some time to sort it all out in my head.”

  “Sort what out?” He hissed at me as he closed the space between us to tower over me. I wasn’t intimidated easily, but in that moment, my body shrunk inside itself. His fury rolled off him in palpable waves. “The fact that some other man, the man who took you from me is going to be raising my baby? Gonna happen over my dead body, Liv.”

  Jaden’s chest was suddenly against my back and I sunk into him. “You threatening her, Larson?”

  Travis ignored him, kept his glare on me.

  I reached out to touch him, to soothe him, but he jerked his arm away from me. “I know you’re upset, Travis. I’m truly sorry for everything that’s h
appened, but I want you involved in this. This baby will be your child too, and I’m sorry, but I can’t get rid of it. I won’t.”

  His eyes slowly raked down my body in a way that made my stomach roll. And it wasn’t the pregnancy causing it. “That ain’t my kid. It’s a bastard.”

  I gasped, but he didn’t say anything else. Without another word or a backward glance, he climbed into his car and slammed the door. Jaden turned my back to the car as the rocks spit gravel at us as Travis peeled out onto the road.

  “You okay?” he asked, rubbing my arms once the air around us was silent again.

  I shook my head. “I need to lie down.”

  “What the hell kind of shit was that you pulled on me, brother?” I ran my hands through my hair, frustrated as hell at Jaden.

  Sending me on some wild fuckin’ goose chase to the salvage yard could only mean Liv put him up to something. “And what the hell was that text about? Shit. Is she okay?”

  “She’s fine, D. But we had a run in with Travis and it didn’t go so well. You might wanna get your ass back home. She hasn’t come out of her room in hours.”

  “Ten minutes.” I bit out before I could ream his ass for whatever game he was playing. The only thing I wanted to know was what that prick cop did to Liv.

  Ten minutes later, I kicked the stand on my bike down and rushed into my house. When the front door slammed behind me, Jaden barely looked up from his place on my couch.

  I hoped his ass felt safe because it was gonna hurt when I was done kickin’ it later.

  “What happened?” I growled.

  Jaden looked up and shook his head. “He knows about the baby; was pissed as fuck.”

  “And?”

  Jaden couldn’t look me in the eye when he said it. If shit was hard for him to say then it had to have been ten thousand times worse for Liv to hear.

  “Called the kid a bastard and said he wanted nothing to do with it. Not if it was gonna be raised in the club. Told her to get rid of it.”

  Shit. Why was he still alive?

  “Get rid of him. Tonight.”

  Jaden almost rolled his eyes. I almost punched him in the face. “Plan’s in place. It’ll happen in a couple weeks when we’re at Sturgis, you know this, D. If we’re out of town we don’t have any blowback on us.”

  Like I gave a shit about blowback. I flipped him the finger and headed up the stairs.

  I could tell when I hit the steps at the top of the stairs that the light was off in the bedroom where Liv had been staying.

  My old room was the one place that reminded me of ‘us’ when there was an ‘us’ more than anywhere else. I only hesitated at the door for a half second before the urge to comfort her and protect her from any and all bullshit took over.

  “Liv, babe.”

  She rolled over to her side, facing the window with her back to me. Not fast enough for me to miss the tears that lined her cheeks, though.

  “Wanna tell me about it, or do you just want me to kick his ass and settle this shit?” I watched her shoulders shake in silent laughter but she shook her head.

  Screw the distance I was trying to keep for her sake.

  I climbed into the bed behind her and pulled her to my chest, her back to me, and her head settled right underneath my chin. Her muscles tightened but she didn’t make a push to get away. Not that I’d let her.

  With one hand, I brushed my fingers through her hair and tried to settle the rage in my bones.

  “What’d you think he was going to say, Liv? You broke his heart, ticked him off, and went straight back to the club. I haven’t been a friend to Travis since before you took off, but just bein’ a man I know his pride is stung. He’s hurt and he’s not gonna be nice to you now. Maybe not ever. That doesn’t mean he won’t come around about the baby, though.”

  She sniffed and settled closer into me, relaxing her back against my chest.

  Heaven. Fucking heaven. I could smell her girly shampoo and it hit my brain, making my dick twitch in my jeans. I shifted on the bed so she wouldn’t feel it, forcing myself to give her what she needed.

  And what she needed right now was for me not to be thinking with my dick.

  “It just hurt,” she finally said. My hand around her waist tightened, holding her close. “I knew he was hurt, and I knew he’d be upset when I told him. But I wasn’t expecting… God, Daemon. The way he looked at me, was like I was trash. He doesn’t want anything to do with the baby, that’s one thing. But it stung that he looked at me like I was nothing.”

  “We’re taking care of this, you know; the club. I didn’t answer you earlier, but we’ve got a plan in place. And when we’re done, there’ll be no trace of us on it, and Travis won’t hurt you anymore.”

  “Daemon—”

  “Shut up Liv. Not trying to be an asshole right now, but we’re not talking about this again. Wish I could speed it up for you, but there are too many things at play to make this clean. The club always has your back, you know. Someone comes against you like the way he’s done, the way he did to Gunner’s shop; Travis isn’t stupid enough to not expect retaliation from it. He’s been in this town too long, fightin’ against us for too long, to not know somethin’ is comin’ his way.”

  The only thing I heard was her breathing. It started out faster and then the longer I waited for her to say something, it slowed and relaxed. I gave her the time to process all that I said, but it was the last time I was gonna bring it up.

  Part of being an old lady in the club was that you were protected. Always. Didn’t matter if it was club business or not that hurt you, women were our responsibility to keep safe. We’d failed the women in our club before. I wouldn’t let it happen again. Liv may not be my old lady, but she was club family.

  “It’s not that I don’t get it,” she said quietly, and shifted a little bit so she was facing me. My hand left her waist and using my thumb, I wiped away her smudged mascara. “I just hate thinking about it. I hate the idea of someone getting hurt, especially when it has to do with me.”

  I inhaled her sweet scent. This was what I had been missing for five years, Liv in my arms, and in my bed. I leaned down and pressed my lips to her forehead before I mauled her mouth with my tongue and fucked the moment up for us.

  “Shit’s got nothin’ to do with you, babe. None of the crap that goes down in the club has anythin’ to do with you. Doesn’t mean the fallout won’t hurt you any. You’ve always been soft.” I smirked at her and her lips turned up into a grin. I wanted to say anything to keep that smile on her face. “But you got thirty men in Jasper Bay alone who’d claim you as a daughter or a sister. A handful of old ladies who would do the same. I don’t want you ever thinkin’ you’re alone again. You need somethin’, there’s a family to help. All you need to do is accept it and take the blessing you’ve been given.”

  Her grin widened. “Does that mean you think of me as your sister?”

  Sassy girl; I loved it. I took the moment I had to let her know what I wanted from her, shifting her even further underneath me, I raised up on my arms and pressed my hips to hers. Her eyes widened and it wasn’t from fear or anger. I lowered my head and brushed my rough cheek against hers until my lips were back to her ear. “I’m not your brother, Liv. Never have been, never will be. Don’t mistake my waiting for you for patience or familial affection.”

  Then, before I took it too far, I rolled off her. It was just in time to hear her gasp and watch her eyes glaze over with need.

  “So,” I said, pulling her back to my side like nothing had happened. I winked at her when she gave me a wide-eyed look that said, ‘what in the hell was that?’ “Now it’s time for you to tell me about all the bullshit you and Jaden tried to pull on me today.”

  She tried an innocent expression and failed miserably. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  I bumped my hip into hers. “You can tell me or I can go downstairs, and throw Jaden up against a wall until he does. He’ll spill his shit in seconds.”
<
br />   She rolled her eyes. It was playful, though, almost happy. I could see the sadness that was in her eyes when I walked into the room disappear by the second.

  “I got my bike out of storage today. Jaden helped.”

  My heart thumped in my chest.

  “You kept it?” My voice registered my disbelief. I figured since Liv had declared all things club-related evil years ago, she would have sold the bike along with the rest of her shit that I knew she got rid of.

  “I tried to get rid of it.” She blinked and pulled her eyes away from mine. I didn’t let her. Shit this honest and true had to be said facing one another. This was huge for her. For us, maybe. “I could never do it when the moment came.”

  “Cause it’s in your blood, babe.”

  “Yeah,” she said softly and then shifted against me until I was forced to lay down. Her head rested on my shoulder, my arm underneath her wrapped around her neck, holding her head to my shoulder and my other arm wrapped around my stomach so it was resting on hers.

  How long until her stomach began to grow and I could see the baby? For now, it was easy not to think of the fact that she was pregnant. But it didn’t stop me from being jealous as piss that Travis knocked her up and I didn’t. Could I be with her—raisin’ another man’s kid—even if the man was a distant memory by the time the baby was real?

  “You comin’ to the club tonight?” I asked in order to get my head out of dumbass thoughts.

  She yawned and moved closer. “I’m tired, maybe later.”

  “I want you to come party with me. You can shoot shit with the girls while I get wasted.”

  “I’ll be your D.D. and you can ride bitch on my bike back home.”

  I threw back my head and laughed, and loved hearing the same sound coming from her throat. I pressed her head to my shoulder teasingly and let go. “I ain’t ever ridin’ bitch, babe. We’ll take the Mustang.”

  Her head jerked up and her eyes were bright. Just the reaction I was hoping for. “You finished it?”