Point of Return

by Stacey Lynn

  “Dad needs to talk to you. Knows about what happened with Travis earlier, and I think it’s time you come clean about the rest.” I felt her stiffen in my arm again as I whispered it in her ear, so no one else could hear above the music.

  If she were looking at me, she’d be shooting daggers with her eyes at me. I didn’t give her a chance to argue as I moved her through the tables. At least she didn’t argue until we were out of earshot of everyone else.

  “Jesus, Daemon. I’m not some animal you can push around and make me go wherever it is you want me to.”

  Her words lacked the fight in them though, so I smiled at her. “Didn’t see you diggin’ your heels in any out there, Liv.”

  “Yeah well,” she huffed. It was cute as sin. “I didn’t want to embarrass you in front of your friends.”

  “Thanks, Mom,” I teased. I stopped walking and faced her. “Your dad needs to know what’s goin’ on with you and Travis. I figure now that you’re back here, you’re back for good and based on the way those tits of yours are growin’, you’re not gonna be able to hide it much longer. It’s better he finds out from you then somewhere on the street.”

  Her arms crossed over her chest and she made another cute huffing sound. A bit of fire was growing in her eyes. I followed her arms because her tits were growing. And they looked fucking fantastic.

  Eventually, the fire receded and she agreed with me by saying nothing but leading the rest of the way to Bull’s door.

  I knocked once and opened the door without waiting for an answer. I only hoped he and Vicki were still fully clothed. I breathed a sigh of relief when I found Vicki reading a book, leaning back on Bull’s bed and saw Bull comin’ out of the bathroom.

  “You’re here.” His voice was kinder than usual. I took that to mean he was going to attempt not being a complete asshole.

  Liv crossed her arms and planted her booted feet stubbornly into the carpet. I knew that by the way I felt her back muscles tighten under my hand. “I am.”

  “You good?”

  Her nose twitched and I saw her fighting a smile. “Better.”

  “Good.” He took a few steps toward us and his smile grew soft. Liv took a step back into me and I dug my fingers into her waist, the only way I could tell her I was there for her.

  “I can’t undo the last five years. I can’t make amends for the shitty things that happened to your mom on my watch or some of the ways I treated her. I’m not sure it’d do any good if I tried, anyway.”

  He paused, and I think all of us watched Liv for her reaction. She could either blow up and demand an apology, or she could walk out and never talk to him again. Instead of that, she lifted and dropped one shoulder.

  “Your point?”

  “My point,” he said, sounding a bit relieved he wasn’t being screamed at, “is I’d like for us not to forget the past and everything that’s happened, but maybe, work to let it go. I’d like to start today and just let time see where we can go from here.”

  I wasn’t sure that was enough for Liv, but I felt her relax under my hand. “Sure.”

  Bull frowned. “You good with that?”

  “Not much I can do except to be okay with that. You’re not going to apologize, and I’m not sure I’d believe you if you did, so there’s no point in wasting your breath. I can’t hate you forever. I’ve tried for five years and even though I wanted to, you’re still my dad and I’m not capable of creating that much hate and anger in me. Seems to me the only thing to do is move on and see what happens.”

  I was pretty sure my wide eyes at her acceptance, matched Vicki’s and Bull’s.

  “Okay, then,” Bull said it with a smile I had only seen him give Liv. It was indulgent.

  “One more thing,” she said, pointing a finger in the air.

  Bull’s eyebrows pulled in. “Yeah?”

  “I’m pregnant.”

  All my breath left me with an audible whoosh, and Bull’s eyes immediately pinned me to my place. They flashed in fury.

  “Not mine, brother,” I hissed at him. Jesus. What kind of dick did he think I was?

  “It’s Travis’s,” Liv said and Bull let loose a growl. As for their idea of starting over and seein’ where things ended up, I wasn’t sure Liv was getting off on the best foot by dropping that bomb so casually at her dad’s feet. “And I’d like for you not to kill him.”

  Shit. That bomb was goin’ to go off.

  “What the fuck are you talkin’ about, girl?” Bull bellowed, and even I had to fight the urge to not step back or shrink under his lethal glare. I saw Vicki climb off the bed and go to his side. For a club bunny, she had a shit ton of respect and had been with Bull for years. I went to reach for Liv, wanted to pull her back to my chest, and ask her what in the hell she thought she was doing.

  She must have sensed what I was thinking because she took a step away from me, and directly toward the ticked off old man in front of her. I blinked and then I stood proudly behind her.

  I loved her like this, hot as fire and able to stand against the toughest of men. She had a toughness to her that she kept hidden below her beauty and kindness, but when she let that tough girl shine through? It was glorious and a total turn-on.

  I adjusted the crotch of my jeans. Now was not that time.

  “I get that it’s club business,” she started to say and Bull’s eyes bounced from mine to hers before settling back on his girl. “And I get that I don’t have a say in what’s going to happen. You’re going to make the call that needs to be done, and my opinion won’t much matter.” She waved her hand in the air and took a breath. “I’m telling you this because, regardless of what happens, I understand the outcome. He told me today to get rid of the baby, said it was a bastard and he didn’t want anything to do with it, if it was going to be raised around the club. So I’m sure it makes you happy that I’m back here, and you and I are letting things go or whatever.”

  She took another step forward and lowered her voice further. It wasn’t angry. More like pleading. I wondered if this was the voice she used to get Bull all wrapped around her little finger enough to buy her a fuckin’ lime green bike with a hot pink helmet when she was fifteen.

  “All I’m telling you is when decisions are made, I’d like my baby’s dad to be alive. Or if he’s not, and when my kid asks what happened to his dad, I’d like to be able to look him in the eyes and not lie to him about who was responsible for making that happen.”

  She faced me and grinned, fucking grinned, like she was having fun with this! I wanted to lock her in my room for hours.

  Bull, on the other hand, looked calm and confused at the same time.

  Although I wouldn’t lie, I had waited years for Liv to accept what happened five years ago. Now, not only had she done that, she’d done it while being strong enough to stand up for what she wanted, too.

  The word perfection was created the day Olivia Masters was born because she was hot and sassy and sweet all at the same time. Absolutely perfect.

  “This is a lot to take in,” Bull finally said. I didn’t miss the calming way Vicki’s hand rubbed the back of his neck. Slowly, his posture relaxed and his jaw loosened, while he calmly looked to me. “You knew about this?”

  “I did.”

  “Didn’t think you should tell me?”

  “Not sure it was his news to share, Dad.” Liv took a step back closer to me. It took everything I had to not pull her to my chest and wrap my arms around her. “Wasn’t club business, it was my business.”

  Bull seemed to consider this again before he finally nodded. He opened his mouth to speak, but he didn’t get a word out because the door to his room flew open, slamming into the wall behind it. All four of us jumped at the intruding sound.

  Finn barked out one word. “Fire.”

  Bull and I were walking, girls’ hands in ours, before Finn finished. “Salvage yard is on fire. I’m not sure what happened, but two of the prospects were on patrol tonight. The whole thing is lit up.”
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br />   “Shit. Let’s go,” Bull said. He gently kissed Vicki’s forehead and whispered something in her ear right before he turned to Liv. “We’ll talk more about this… situation later.”

  “You know what I want and you’re going to do what needs to be done. I’m just letting you know I’m keeping the baby, and if you do what I don’t like, I get why and won’t hold it against you.”

  Bull closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and when he opened his eyes, there was a peace in them I hadn’t seen in years. “Best gift you could give me, baby girl.”

  Before she could say anything to him, he leaned forward and pressed his lips to her forehead, too. I watched Liv’s eyes flutter closed and a soft smile touched her lips.

  “Be right behind you, Prez,” I told him and waved him off down the hall before I took Liv’s arms in my hands. “You need to stay here. In the club or in my room, but you do not leave until I come back. You hear me?”

  She rolled her eyes. Christ. She didn’t do anything half way. Now that she was back, she was clearly all in, too. Complete with biker attitude to match.

  “Don’t worry about me, Daemon. Just go.”

  I pressed my lips to hers. She was delicious and sweet and I pulled back before I could get lost in her for the night. “That… what you said to your dad? It wasn’t only the best gift you could give him; it was the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”

  I didn’t know what to say to my dad anymore. He had never been a gentle man while I was growing up. There was always a distance that separated us. I never knew if it was because I was a girl and he wanted a boy. Maybe it was because he carried himself as an emotionless shell of a human being and nothing touched him. He rarely smiled. I hardly remembered him grinning wide enough to see teeth. Mostly, I would see a slight tilt of the left side of his lips. They would curl up into a lopsided grin, and that was generally when my mom danced in our kitchen in only her robe wiggling her finger, trying to get him to dance with her, or during holidays and birthdays when it was required you looked happy.

  But tonight I saw a side I had forgotten about. He might not have smiled. He might not have been a happy man, but that didn’t mean he didn’t feel things. I recognized it immediately when his eyes flashed, when I said I was pregnant, and then softened the more we talked.

  It painted a reality I could no longer hide from.

  My dad loved me, even if he didn’t know how to say it or share it.

  After I paced around Daemon’s room for no more than ten minutes, my head swimming with the realization I had basically given the green light—not that they needed it—for Travis’s demise, I headed out to the bar area to see what women were left hanging around.

  There weren’t many. Club bunnies tended to take off as soon as the men did, so the only women who were sitting around pretending, but not really watching the television where Storage Wars was playing, were old ladies like Marie and Xbox’s old lady, Tammy.

  What startled me, and caused my feet to trip over the edge of the flooring, was when I saw Melissa sitting at the bar by herself, staring blankly into an empty glass.

  My shoulders dropped as I took her in. It wasn’t jealousy that flowed through my veins when I saw her, it was compassion. I could have held the fact she’d had sex with Daemon against her, but in reality, I knew what the club life was like. More than that, I knew what her life had been like. I spent enough time in her house, and around her and her mom, to know her dad beat both of them whenever he wanted. He was a sick, greasy man who could never hold down a job so he spent most of his time sitting in a worn out chair in their outdated living room, drinking beer in a rocking chair, demanding his “girls” bring him more. If they weren’t fast enough, the consequences were painful.

  I caught Marie watching me from the leather couch in front of the television when I rounded the corner to the bar. I threw her a smile to let her know it was all good.

  Then I pulled Melissa’s drink away from her. Her head pulled up to face mine and I pressed my lips together, sliding a full beer back to her.

  We stared at each other for a beat until her eyes went to her drink and she broke contact. I wasn’t sure what I was going to say, but I felt like I had to say something.

  My fingers drummed against the countertop trying to find the words I wanted to say that wouldn’t put her on the defensive.

  When she looked at me warily, I grinned. “Should I have asked for your I.D. before I gave you that?”

  “You know I’m not that old.” She took another small sip and set the glass down. “What do you want, Olivia? I don’t hang out here to get bitched out by some biker’s old lady.”

  “I’m not an old lady so you don’t have to worry about getting bitched out. I’m just wondering how you’re doing.”

  “Life sucks and then you die. Not sure what else there is to say.”

  “You still in school?”

  She shook her head. “Graduated last spring.”

  “College?”

  “Can’t. There’s not enough money to go, and Dad won’t let me.”

  I let that settle between us and my heart went out to her. I wanted to help her, but what in the hell did I know? I was a college dropout myself.

  “You know, Melissa,” I started and leaned forward with my elbows on the counter and lowered my voice so no one would hear. “If you want to go, I could help you fill out the paperwork and financial aid forms. You deserve a chance to get out of here and make something of yourself. Are you still into designing and all of that?”

  “Why would you help me?” she asked, her eyes wary as she raised the glass to her lips again.

  “Because you don’t belong here.” I was certain of it. I also noticed how she ignored my question about her designing. As a girl and even after she was old enough to outgrow playing with dolls, I remembered Melissa hiding in her room, cutting fabric from clothes she’d outgrown, and turning them into outfits and dresses for her dolls. She didn’t play with them, she spent her time designing and creating, and the things she could make fit onto a Barbie doll with only a needle and thread was amazing.

  “That’s rich,” she said, laughing once drily, “considering you’re here and acting like you own the place.”

  “The difference, Melissa—”

  “Missy.”

  I nodded. “The difference, Missy, is you don’t belong here. You had dreams growing up to be something, to get out of here, and make a name for yourself designing clothes in New York City. You wanted to leave to follow a dream. I wanted to run because I was too afraid to stay. This is my home and somehow in the last few weeks, I’ve learned it’s where I belong. But this isn’t your home, Missy.”

  “Well, my home sucks.”

  “Then go make a new one. You don’t owe anyone in your family shit. Your mom stays because she’s too stupid to do anything else, but you’re not.” I slapped my hands on the counter and pushed back. “All I’m saying is there’s an offer to help if you ever want to take me up on it.”

  I left her at the bar to consider all I’d said, while I joined Marie on the couch. She made a few other women I had just met that night scoot over and threw her arm around me, pulling me to her like I’d spent the last decade of my life curled up and watching a TV show while we all sat around, mostly just waiting and worrying about our men and if they were okay.

  “How do you do this?” I turned, whispering to Marie. She frowned at me. “Waiting to see if they’re okay every time they get some sort of call.”

  “Our men are strong. They’re fast, they’re brave, and they’re smarter than anyone who’s ever messed with them. The more you see them come back fine, the more you trust they know what they’re doing.”

  I didn’t argue with the “our” men comment. Daemon wasn’t mine. At least not yet, even if I was realizing how desperately I wanted him to be mine. To be able to climb on the back of his bike or wrap my arms around him whenever I wanted him.

  Which meant… shit. He was mine. Or, at least,
I was his. And I was pretty sure I always had been.

  My phone buzzed in my pocket right as one episode of Storage Wars was ending and a new one started. Who could have guessed a show about bidding on people’s forgotten junk could be so popular? It was addicting watching the people argue over the sheds and then wondering if there was anything inside worth the money they spent.

  I smiled at my text from Gunner.

  Found a new place to lease. Two blocks east of GetInked. Will open in a couple of weeks if you still need a job.

  I replied instantly. Name the time and place.

  The room was dark when I opened my eyes and I wondered what had caused me to wake up when I felt the small bed in Daemon’s room at the clubhouse shift slightly.

  With one eye opened, I rolled over and saw Daemon crawling under the covers of the bed with me. My first thought was I should tell him to get out. My second thought was that I was glad he was back safely.

  My third thought. Holy crap he looked amazingly sexy and more muscular than I’d ever imagined—not that I’d been imagining him—when he was dressed only in his boxer briefs. And that was lie. I had imagined him. And it had been my first thought.

  A distant fourth was telling him to get out of the bed he owned.

  “You’re back.” My words came out scratchy and groggy.

  He raised an eyebrow. “And you’re in my bed.”

  “I can leave,” I said, propping my head up on the palm of my hand, my elbow bent on the pillow.

  “You’re also wearing my shirt. Again.”

  My lips curved in a teasing grin. “I could take it off.”

  Heat flashed in his eyes and he fell back on his pillow, exhaling loudly with a loud groan. “God, Liv. Don’t even tempt me.”

  “Sorry.” I laughed and pushed his shoulder. “I was kidding anyway. What happened at the yard?”

  Daemon moved his head to the left and then right, slowly, cracking his neck back and forth. “Fucking prospects, Jimmy and Johnny, are twins and new to the club. Probably only been around about six months or so. Anyway, when they’re apart, they’re pretty damn good. Good at cars and the best shooters I’ve ever seen.”