“Do you remember it?” I asked.
“Uh huh. It was about a sad prince in a wooden castle in the forest.”
I dropped my spoon into my coffee as I cleared my throat.
“What else did that story have?” I asked.
“The prince didn’t want to see anyone until a princess arrived. She yelled at him until he let her inside, and the prince liked her a lot. But then the princess left and the prince got really angry, but then the prince decided to leave one day. He left until he got tired, and then he knocked on a door and it was the princess’s house!”
I swallowed thickly as I turned my head towards my son.
“How did the story end?” I asked.
“They lived happily ever after. All stories have to end that way, Mommy. It’s the rule.”
My hands trembled as I grabbed my coffee and held on tightly to his glass of milk.
“Here you go, honey,” I said.
“And then we went to the park and I met a friend. Rock pushed me on the swing, and slided down the slide with me--”
“‘Slid’, sweet boy. It’s ‘slid’.”
“Okay. And we had pizza for lunch! Can we get pizza for lunch today?” Gavin asked.
“If you’re a good boy for me today, then we’ll order some for dinner. How does that sound?” I asked.
“All right!”
I was taken aback by the bedtime story. It sounded an awful lot like the story of Rock and I. Dumbed down for a kid’s imagination, sure. But a wooden castle in the forest? That was the lodge. And the princess yelling at him until he let her in? That was practically what I had to do that summer with Rock to get him to open up to me just the smallest bit. And he was a hell of an angry young man when I first found him. Very, very angry. All the damn time. I sat there and sipped my coffee while Gavin continued to rattle on about his time with Rock, and part of me wondered if this was a sign.
If this was the moment I needed to tell Gavin that Rock was his father.
“Is that your phone?” Gavin asked.
“Huh?”
“Your phone,” he said. “What’s that noise?”
I listened intently before I heard it. The faintest ringing from my cell phone upstairs. And it was the ringtone I’d set for Rock.
“I’ll be right back, sweet boy,” I said. “You eat up now, okay? You and I have some playing to do today.”
“Okay!”
I took the stairs two by two and burst into my room. I picked up the phone just before it was shot to my voicemail and held it to my ear. Should I ask him about the story? Should I ask if it was purposeful to give that story some sort of a happy ending?
“Piper?” Rock asked.
“Hey there. Sorry. Zoned out for a second. I didn’t think I picked up the phone in time,” I said.
“Are you, all right?”
“I’m fine. Just a little winded. I was downstairs.”
“Running to take my calls, I see.”
“I can hear that grin of yours. Cut it out.”
“You’re no fun,” he said playfully. “I wanted to let you know that I’ve got some plans for my day. But I want to see you and Gavin for dinner tonight. Is that possible?”
“If you’re up for pizza again. I promised him pizza delivery if he was a good kid today,” I said.
“The fuck kind of question is that? I’m always up for pizza.”
“I should’ve known,” I said with a grin. “That’s fine, then. You know where to find us.”
“Good. I’ll see you guys tonight, then. Seven sound good?”
“We’ll be here.”
“Great. I’ll talk to you then. And Piper?”
“Yeah, Rock?”
“You’re so cute when you snore.”
“If you were here, I’d hit you with my pillow,” I said.
“Trust me. You’d never win that fight.”
I smiled over the phone before Rock and I said our goodbyes. But the second I hung up the phone, nervousness hit me square in my chest. What was Rock handling? I vaguely remembered something about him going to see Brewer. Was something happening with the club? I hoped he wasn’t getting himself into trouble again. That maybe it was something simple at the mechanic shop or whatever.
But something in the pit of my gut knew better than that.
I tucked my phone into the pocket of my robe and started back down the stairs. I sat down and ate breakfast with Gavin, listening as he continued to chatter on about Rock. But instead of listening with a curious sort of happiness, I listened with dread. Would Rock bring trouble to my doorstep tonight? Would I get some sort of a phone call telling me his ass was in jail again? The last time it happened, Brewer had been the one to call me. To inform me that he’d been hauled off and that it wasn’t good.
Did I need to expect another phone call like that?
Either way, I’d decided. This was not the time to tell Gavin that Rock was his father.
“What do you want to do today?” Gavin asked.
“Well, since you had such an exciting time with Rock this weekend, I figured we could watch a movie. Maybe bust out the inflatable pool and fill it up with water and bubbles. Possibly have a water balloon fight?” I asked.
“You’re awesome, Mom. I love you.”
My heart soared with joy at those words.
“You’re pretty awesome yourself, honey. And I love you, too.”
I cleared the table and stacked the dishes into the dishwasher, then ran upstairs to get cleaned up. I settled Gavin on the couch with a movie before heading up so I could have a moment to shower. My mind swirled with all the things Rock could be doing. The trouble he could be getting himself into and the consequences of that trouble for Gavin and myself. For a few brief hours, I had allowed myself to think that things could change. That Rock could leave that life and come be a father to Gavin and a lover to me. But every time I turned around, there was a reminder of the reality of his world. Of the life he had chosen for himself. Sure, it had been fun when I was younger. Sure, it had been action-packed and full of adrenaline. But I had to grow up after I found out I was pregnant. I had to put all of that petty nonsense behind me and conduct myself like an adult.
Was Rock capable of doing the same thing?
Because as it stood, I didn’t see how his life of danger and darkness could ever mesh with the light I struggled to keep Gavin in on a daily basis.
Chapter 21
Rock
“Ready?” I asked as I walked around the side of the restaurant.
“Who the hell were you on your phone with?” Brewer asked.
“I called Piper real quick. Asked her if she had dinner plans for tonight.”
“Planning on a family dinner after this family tragedy?” he asked.
I hopped onto my bike and mounted my phone on my newly-minted handlebars.
“I’m hoping so,” I said. “Either way, we gotta get going. He’s already two miles ahead of us, so we’ve got a good lag behind him.”
“Let’s nail this son of a bitch,” he said.
We rode out of the restaurant parking lot, keeping side by side on the road. Brewer followed my lead on every turn we made, and when Mick stopped we pulled off and charted where he had gone. I’d tap my screen and pull up the address, then I’d take a snapshot of the map while Brewer wrote down the address. We did that for every fucking stop that asshole made, and most of it was useless. The bank. The post office. The grocery store. Fucking hell, he stayed in that store for almost two hours. We followed him around town while he made every fucking errand run in the damn world.
Just when I was about to tell Brewer we should give up, things got interesting.
“He’s taking some back roads,” I yelled over to Brewer. “Stay with me.”
I darted onto a side street and picked up the pace, worried that I might lose signal. Some of the backroads in Redding didn’t have good cell service, and my location tracker was only as good as the service that asshole stayed in. We c
ame within a mile of him before his signal dropped off, and I cursed as I pulled off on the side of the road.
“Fucking hell. These back roads are thick with absolutely nothing. What the fuck’s back here?” Brewer asked.
“Nothing. There’s a whole lot of nothing. The only thing I can think is--”
“That Mick’s covering his damn tracks,” he said.
We struck up our bikes and headed back towards the main road. Five miles was a good enough stretch for us to ride around town until we picked up his signal again. Brewer and I rode the outskirts of town, dipping down small roads and making our way through the forest. We drove around until almost five fucking o’clock before I picked up his signal again.
He’d dropped off the map for almost three damn hours.
“I got him,” I said. “Follow me.”
“Where is he?” Brewer asked.
“If I’m reading this map right, he’s at a damn ice cream shop.”
The more I looked at my cell phone, the more I worried about the fact that I might not make dinner with Gavin and Piper. But the second we rode by the ice cream shop and peeked inside, we saw Mick sitting there with a very familiar face.
“Holy shit,” Brewer said. “That’s Axe!” Axe was one of the older members of The Black Saddles. Neither of them were wearing their cuts, but I knew Axe’s face.
“Keep driving,” I said.
“We have to do your listening thing. We have to do it now.”
“Not in broad daylight and not with a shit ton of people around. If those assholes get spooked and start shooting, innocent people are gonna get hurt.”
“He’s with a Black Saddle, Rock!”
“You think I don’t see that!?”
I pulled over into an alleyway two miles up from the ice cream shop.
“You think I don’t wanna ring that fucker’s neck until his eyes roll out into the street? I saw him sitting there with Axe. It’s proof of what he’s fucking up to. But we have to do this in an area where no one’s gonna get hurt if they start popping off fucking bullets. You have to keep it together, Brewer.”
“I want to kill him, Rock. I want to unload my gun into his fucking chest.”
“You and I both. But we have to do this right. We keep our asses out of it, we keep our families out of it, and we do this where no one’s gonna fucking get hurt. You hear me?” I asked.
I’d never seen my best friend so angry. But I’d never felt the kind of anger that was flowing through my veins. It was an anger that ached. An anger that made me want to throw caution to the wind and rip his head off. It was the kind of anger that made me rationalize torture in all of its various forms.
But mostly, it was an anger that saddened me to my core. A man I’d considered a brother for years was nothing but a sorry excuse for a rat. A betrayer of the worst kind. A man I’d trusted. A man we’d all trusted.
And he was playing for the other team.
“What do we do?” Brewer asked.
I looked down at my blinking map and saw that Mick was on the move.
“We keep on his tail until he heads to their lodge,” I said. “No matter how long it takes. We get him talking with them at their lodge, and there’s no denying what he’s doing. Think you can put that bloodlust on hold?”
I peeked over at Brewer as he drew in a deep breath.
“Let’s go,” he said. “I’m ready to nail this son of a bitch to a wall.”
We left the alleyway and stuck to side streets while Mick cruised up the main road. But I could tell by the route he was taking that he was headed home. I ducked down another alley that pulled us back to the main stretch through Redding, then I pulled over at a diner that only sat a mile and a half from Mick’s place.
“You hungry or something?” Brewer asked.
“Mick’s headed home,” I said. “And knowing him, he’s probably got shit to cook for dinner, judging by how fucking long that grocery run took. We sit, get a drink. Bide our time until he moves again. Because once night falls, I’m pretty sure he’ll head to where we want him.”
“What about dinner with Gavin and Piper? You going to let her know you won’t be there?” he asked.
I hopped off my bike and pulled out my phone, but something in the pit of my gut stopped me. I knew technology. I fucking whispered to it like an oracle or some shit. I knew how easy it was to track phone calls and clone phones and do all the shit we were doing in order to tail Mick. When I called Piper before, that was reckless. If there was any shred of a chance that our phones had been tapped--that somehow, someone had latched onto our plan--calling or texting Piper again would put both her and Gavin in danger.
And after seeing Mick fucking licking an ice cream cone with a Black Saddle? I sure as hell wasn’t taking chances.
“No,” I said.
“Wait, are you serious?” Brewer asked. “You're not going to text her or anything?”
“No. And you shouldn’t get in touch with Makenna either. Not until this is done.”
“What aren’t you telling me, Rock?”
I walked into the diner and headed straight for the back booth, keeping my eyes facing the windows of the establishment and Mick’s tracker pulled up on my phone.
“Rock, what’s going on?” Brewer asked.
“Everything we’ve done has been foiled up until this point,” I said. “So, I can’t operate under the idea that we haven’t already been made somehow. I know how this shit works. I know how easy it is to clone someone’s phone and see all the shit they’re doing. So, if I contact Piper and Gavin after seeing that asshole with Axe--”
“They’re in trouble if someone’s watching us like we’re watching Mick,” he said.
“Yep.”
“Then I won’t contact Makenna until we know what the fuck’s up.”
“Good. Because right now? I’ve got more questions than answers and I’m not ready to break away without knowing what the hell Mick is doing, what he’s saying, and how he’s being compensated.”
“Good thing I’m not on that damn pain medication anymore,” Brewer said.
“What’ll it be, boys?”
I looked up at the waitress who donned a less-than-appetizing expression.
“A large strawberry milkshake and a plate of fries,” I said.
“I’ll take a double bacon burger with cheese, ketchup, mustard, and pickles. With a side of onion rings,” Brewer said.
“Drink?” the waitress asked.
“Coffee,” he said.
“Actually, that sounds good. Strike the milkshake and get me a coffee, too.”
“No milkshake, just coffee. Want anything besides the fries?” she asked.
“Nope. Thanks.”
“Coming right up,” she said.
“We might as well have ordered the damn pot,” Brewer said. “Because something tells me we’re going to be up late.”
“We’ll stay up however long it fucking takes,” I said. “Diesel’s counting on us for answers and the stabilization of our damn family depends on it.”
“Fuck, what if Everly and Monroe are in trouble and they don’t even fucking know it?”
“That’s why we stay alert and awake until this mission’s done. We’ve got too many children and too many women involved at this point to half-ass this job. It took us long enough to get Diesel on-fucking-board with all this. We do this now and we go back with answers we all fucking deserve.”
“It hurts, Rock.”
I watched grief wash over my best friend’s face as he sunk back into the booth.
“He’s our brother. Our number’s guy. Our trusted clean-up crew. He’s our fucking backbone when we mess up our shit, and he’s doing this to us? Who can we trust?”
“You got me, and you got Diesel And you know damn well that Knox and Grave aren’t pulling shit like this. Mick’s always been a pussy. A brother, yes. But that man can’t shoot a damn gun or deal with blood to save his fucking life. He can clean it up, but he can’t draw
it. He can stay in the background, but he can’t fight. He dwells in the corners. In the shadows. He stays behind-the-scenes to cover shit up. That’s how he got this under our fucking noses for so long. But no more. His game stops now.”
“Here you go, boys. Coffees, a double bacon burger with all that stuff, onion rings, and a plate of fries,” the waitress said.
“You might as well sit the pot of coffee down for us,” I said. “We’ll be needing it.”
“I’ll get you guys a carafe then,” she said.
I looked over at my location tracker and saw Mick still at his place. Probably whistling to himself and cooking some dumbass dinner, thinking he’s still got the wool over our damn eyes. But if he thought for one second, he was safe, he had another fucking thing coming.
We knew what he was doing. We knew what he was up to. And if Brewer and I could get solid proof of it, these actions would be the last of his life.
Because the second we showed Diesel, he would accept nothing less than his head on a fucking silver platter.
That was how Diesel worked. Diplomacy and calm conversations until you double-crossed him.
Then? He was the most ruthless of us all.
Chapter 22
Piper
“Mommy, can we order pizza now?” Gavin asked.
“Give me five more minutes, sweet boy. Okay?” I asked. “Mommy’s gotta make one more phone call.”
“But you’ve been on the phone all night.”
“I know. Just one more time, okay?”
“Fine. But then pizza.”
“I promise,” I said.
I slipped off to the bathroom and called Rock for the fourth time. I had no idea what he was doing, but I was growing worried. He said he would meet us at seven o’clock, and it was now half past that. No calls. No text messages. No nothing. I held the phone to my ear while it rang and rang. I begged silently for him to pick up the phone. I didn’t care that he was late. I didn’t care if we had to wait another hour. Hell, I didn’t even care if he couldn't make it to dinner.
I simply wanted to know he was okay.
Rock (Dead Souls MC Book 4) Page 12