by Sophia Gray
“I don’t need you to do things like this.” I dropped my hands to my side. Knowing the battle was good and lost. “It’s legal?”
“If you ask me that again, I’m going to feel offended, and if I feel offended, we are going to have an issue.” He stepped closer to me. The man smelled of power, and looked like sex. Not exactly an easy trait to go up against. “Do we have an issue, Beth?” The question wasn’t posed in such a way that any answer I gave other than the one he wanted would be acceptable.
“So…totally legal, then. Got it.” I took a step to the side and made my way to Madison before he could reach out and grab me. The grin on his lips countered the low growl he let out when he didn’t get his hands on me in time. “Let’s get in and go home.” I opened the back door and was only partially surprised to find a brand new booster seat for Madison already installed. “What was wrong with the old one?” I asked while I helped her get situated.
“I liked this one better.” He popped my ass while I was bent over buckling Madison and then opened the front passenger door. “Come on, get in.”
“I don’t even get to drive?” I made a face as I tossed my purse onto the floor of the front seat. I had to admit the cushions on the seats felt good. My car really had been on its last legs. The car even had the new car smell I’d heard so much about, but never truly experienced.
“Not when I’m in the car.” He laughed and shut my door. I watched him round the front of the car. When he sat down, I noticed his gun tucked under his kutte. A reminder of the sort of life he led, and the sort of life I needed to be better about protecting Maddie and me from.
“I’m tired anyway. I just want to sleep forever.” I leaned my head back against the headrest and took a deep breath.
“I’ll grab us a pizza on the way home, then.” He started up the car, and I had to admit it was nice to hear a soft hum as opposed to the sputtering cough my old engine produced.
“You don’t have to do that,” I found myself saying again.
“Madison, you want cheese pizza?”
“Yeah!” She clapped her hands. I rolled my eyes and looked out the window. He laughed and put the car in gear.
“Rough day?” he asked after a few minutes of driving in silence. The sun had already begun to set and a light drizzle started to fall. It would make the perfect night to veg out on the couch and watch a movie. Maybe a bowl of popcorn. I wondered if Rafe was a chick flick tolerant kind of guy, or would he insist on some violent crap that would keep me up all night worrying.
“Yeah. A bunch of college kids decided to have a kegger this morning. Twelve of them ended up in the ER with alcohol poisoning. Apparently it’s best to chase down a shot of tequila with a full mug of beer.”
“Stupid kids.” He laughed. “Like they would even have the tolerance to get through one round of that crap.”
“Yeah, and it’s stupid for adults, too.” I gave him a pointed look.
His grin showed his playful side, and the little creases around his mouth when he smiled only made him look more boyish than devil. “I don’t do tequila. And getting shit faced lost its appeal years ago.” I supposed that was a good thing. Jeremy loved his beer, and he never passed up an opportunity to hang with his friends at the bar all night long. One too many times I had to explain to Maddie why Daddy was sleeping on the front lawn instead of inside the house. Apparently, his friends were kind enough to take him home, but not bring him inside.
“Mouth.” I nodded toward Madison in the back seat. She’d already fallen asleep. “The daycare said she didn’t nap well today, she’s probably exhausted. I don’t like keeping her at the center this late, but Mrs. Olsen couldn’t take her today.”
“You could have asked me,” he pointed out.
“Yeah. Uh. No. Besides, weren’t busy today?”
“Sort of. I worked a little at the garage.” He cleared his throat and readjusted himself in the seat, like he couldn’t get comfortable. How could he, the man was a mammoth and the seat in the Ulitma looked almost puny in comparison to his build.
We pulled up to a red light, and he looked over at me with a serious expression. “One of the members died last night.”
My heart sank. “Died, or was killed?” I clarified in a soft voice.
“Killed.” Flat answer. At least he was being honest with me.
“Is it connected to your friend?” Drama. More and more drama. How many more red flags did I need before I got my head out of my ass and ran for the hills?
“Jason? I think so.” He nodded. “Jason was pretty close with Tristan. Sort of saw him as a little brother.”
“And you were close to Jason.” My head swarmed with worries and alarms. If his friends were being killed one by one, who was to say he wouldn’t be next. And if he was next, having him with us put us in danger, too. He kept telling me that I was safe with him, that he would protect us, but if he was the target, how could he think to do that?
I looked back at my little girl sleeping in her new car seat. How can I keep her safe when I was sleeping with the VP of Anarchy’s Reign?
“What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” He drove through the intersection. The rain started to come down a little harder, so he flipped on the wipers and pulled up to another red light.
“How do you know—” I was cut off by a loud popping sound and my window shattering. Glass poured over my lap, Madison woke up and started screaming.
Rafe cursed and peeled out of the intersection, wheels squealing as he drove us away from whoever broke my window. “Fuck. Babe, you okay?” He turned to look at me then back to the road, and then over his shoulder.
“Yeah. Yeah. I’m fine.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and climbed into the back seat to get to Madison. She wasn’t hurt, but she was still screaming. I unbuckled her and pulled her into my lap. “Shh, it’s okay. Mommy’s fine.” I hugged her to me and rocked back and forth as Rafe took a turn too sharp and we rolled against the door.
“You’re bleeding, Mama!” Madison wiped her eyes then pointed at my cheek.
“What?” Rafe looked back at us and cursed again. “We’re almost there. Hold on.” I looked out the back window and didn’t see anyone behind us; whoever had blown out my window wasn’t following us.
“I’m fine, baby girl. Let’s just get home and we can order that pizza, okay?” I could feel the sting start to turn into a slow burn on the side of my face, but I didn’t dare reach up to touch it. Better to leave it alone until I could see clearly what sort of mess I was dealing with. Instead I focused on Maddie, wiping away her tears and snuggling her closer to me. “I heard that you had a brownie for snack time today.”
“Yeah. It was Jacob’s birthday.” She took to the change topic easily and went on to tell me all about the birthday song, and how Jacob got to wear the birthday crown. By the time she was finished telling me everything Rafe had us parked in my driveway.
The door swung open and Rafe pulled Madison from my arms before yanking on my arm to help me out of the car. His rough hand cupped my face, turning it one way then the other and giving me a scowl. “Let’s get inside.” He lowered his voice, deeper than I’d heard him use before. If he was mad at me, he could go fuck himself.
Once inside he put Madison on the couch and flipped on the television. “Bathroom.” He pointed his finger at the hallway, like I needed him to direct me where to go. My face was on fire; the blood had already begun to drip on to my shoulder. Another set of scrubs ruined!
I flipped on the light and stepped up to the mirror. Turning my face to one side I could easily make out the ugly gash on the side of my face. Right in front of my ear, about an inch long, the open wound was already starting to slow bleeding.
“Let me see.” Rafe burst into the bathroom and spun me around.
“Stop manhandling me like I’m some thug. I didn’t do anything. I was just sitting in my damn seat.” I tried to shove his hands away but he wouldn’t be stopped.
“Do you think you’
ll need stitches? Should we go back to the hospital?”
“No. Now let me go.” I shoved him gain and he dropped his hands. “I’m just going to clean it up and use those butterfly Band-Aids. Like I did on your shoulder.” I jabbed my finger into his shoulder and finding myself disappointed that he didn’t even wince at the discomfort.
I gathered up my supplies and began working. He watched me in the mirror and I had to stop him from getting in my way several times. “Let me help,” he insisted, tearing the cotton ball from my hand. “You can’t even see the damn thing.” He poured more antiseptic on the cotton and began to dab at the wound in the same way I had been. “There’s no glass.” He answered my question before I could ask.
“Rafe.” I held up the Band-Aids for him. “Were we just shot at?” I asked with a heavy feeling in my stomach, already knowing the answer. Everything was about to get worse once he answered the question. Because I knew the answer, and I knew what it meant for me and Maddie.
“Yeah. I’m pretty sure.” He answered softly. Like he knew, too, what that meant for us. He took the Band-Aids and began to apply them like I told him to. I didn’t pull away when it hurt, instead I focused on the pain. Physical pain I could deal with; it was easy to get through. Mind over matter, but when it came to emotional hurt, that was harder, and I didn’t want to feel that yet.
“What’s going on?” I finally asked when he finished patching me up. I didn’t look at him, couldn’t bring myself to see him yet. Instead, I focused on cleaning up the mess in the bathroom. “Is it because of Jason? Because you’re trying to find his killer?”
He leaned against the counter and dragged both hands through his hair. “I don’t know. Maybe.” I looked up at him and saw the worry in his face as he looked at me. “Your face.” He said in a tormented tone and pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly to him. “Are you hurt anywhere else?”
“No.” I mumbled into his chest. His arms trapped me, but I wasn’t ready to struggle for my freedom quite yet.
“I’m going to find who did this, and he’s fucking dead.” The vow was spoken in a deep growl. It sounded as though it came from someone else, someone not holding me so tenderly.
“Rafe. It’s your vengeance that’s making this all worse.” I did push away from him then to look at him. “An eye for an eye doesn’t work. It only leads to a bunch of blind men running around.”
“I’m not going to let whoever did this get away with it.” His brows nearly connected his scowl was so deep.
I took a deep breath. “Rafe.” Tears began to puddle in my eyes and I had to look away to get my nerve back up. “Rafe, you can’t be here. You can’t be around us. Not while you’re on this revenge mission.”
“Beth—”
“We were shot at, Rafe! Look at my face.” I pointed to the bandages now covering up part of my cheek. “My little girl was in the car!” The more I thought about the danger she’d been in the hotter my blood began to run. “I never should have let you come here. I should have just left you alone in the hospital.” I shook my head and took a step back from him until my back was pressed against the wall.
“I told you I would protect you.” His hands fisted at his sides.
“You can’t protect us from bullets, Rafe. What if that glass had cut up Maddie? What if the bullet had actually hit one of us?” I covered my mouth at the mental image of my daughter hurt by flying glass or worse a stray bullet.
“You are safer with me than without me,” he said in a hard tone. “That’s the truth of it. And maybe you should have left me in the hospital. Maybe you shouldn’t have gone in that back room with me to begin with, but you did. So now you’re stuck with me, Beth. You don’t say when this is done. You don’t say when you’re done with me.”
“Fuck you!” I slapped at his chest. It was hard enough to make the decision to get him out of our lives. “You can’t be this asshole. Don’t be this asshole.”
“When this is all over, when the fuckers are caught and dead, and you’re safe again, then you can decide to throw me out or now, but not right now. Not when you need me, not when I need you.” He reached for me, pulling me to him even as I tried to shove him away.
His captured my chin in one hand and before I could stop him, before I could think to jump away, his lips crashed down on mine. The touch I needed at that moment, the electrical heat of his body pressed against mine, making me forget my fears and my protests.
I parted my lips at his command, and his tongue brushed against mine. His hands moved to my shoulders, holding me to him as he deepened the kiss. My insides melted against him, my body wanted his touch, craved it even while my brain tried to tell me to get away from him.
“You’re dangerous,” I whispered against his lips when he released me. “Too dangerous.”
“Let me keep you safe, then you can kick me out of your life. But not until I know your safe.” He wiped a tear that had fallen from my cheek. It hurt, and the burn in my chest increased. With regret? With hope? I wasn’t sure, but I did know that he wasn’t going to leave. He wouldn’t just leave us, not when he thought we were in danger. I both loathed and loved him for it.
Loved him? Could I love someone as dangerous and stubborn as him? Madison could have been killed, I could have been killed. That should have been a huge warning sign. A neon flashing light screaming at me to put Madison in the car and haul our asses out of town. But the way he looked at me, the gentle, firm way he held me, made me start to think he could do what he vowed. He could keep us safe.
“Mama?” Madison’s little voice interrupted our stare down. “Mama. After our pizza, can I sleep with you tonight?”
Rafe released me so I could scoop her up. “You bet you can.” I hugged her tight, giving Rafe one more glance before I headed out of the bathroom. “Rafe can sleep on the couch.” I called over my shoulder so he would hear me.
Chapter Fourteen
RAFE
I watched my girls eat their breakfast while I was deliberating what to do first. I’d put a call into Gray after they went to bed the night before letting him know what happened. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I’d bet my bike he wasn’t as surprised as he pretended to be about it.
I meant what I told Beth; I was going to find who hurt her and end them. I couldn’t track down Javier before, but I had a good lead on where to dig him up. After I dropped Beth at work, and made sure Madison was safe at that daycare, I was heading right over there. If Jason was right about Javier getting back into the drug runs with Hell’s Spawn, he may have made contact with our club as well. Jason never would have let that happen.
“I just need to get my purse, and I’m ready to go. Maddie, go grab your little blanket. It’s in the dryer.”
Maddie stuffed the last bit of her pancake in her mouth and jumped off her chair, running from the room. I didn’t think it was possible to become so damn attached to a kid, but that little girl could ask me for anything and I’d move mountains to get it for her. That went double for her mama.
The shooting the night before scared the hell out of Beth. Fuck, scared the shit out of me, too. When I looked back and saw the gash on her cheek, I just about lost it. As much as she was right, her attachment to me was putting her in danger, it didn’t matter. Even if I bowed out gracefully, it was too late. If they wanted to get to me through her, they would do it now even if she did throw me out of her life.
I wasn’t going to go anywhere until the heat was gone and the two of them were completely safe. I knew it was my fault, them being in danger, but I couldn’t think about that too much. I needed to figure out who the fuck was behind everything and stop them. My first gut feeling had been Javier fucking with the club, but then Tristan was killed. His murder was more personal, more connected to Jason than to any drug trafficking. Tristan wasn’t even part of the club back when we tried to work with Javier.
“Ready?” Beth stood at the door with Madison’s hand tucked in hers. Her hair had been pulled back into a tight bu
n at the base of her neck. Her purple scrubs didn’t hide her curves from me, and my body wanted to be inside of her again. Madison slept in her bed last night, leaving me on the couch having more wet dreams about her than when I was in high school.
“Yeah. Ready.” I snatched the car keys from the hook by the door and headed out into the bright morning sun. After the girls had gone to bed the night before I went back outside and cleaned out the car from the broken glass. I never found shell casings or a bullet hole anywhere in the interior. It didn’t look like a kill attempt. One shot only? If someone was trying to kill us, they would have shot more than once, and they sure as hell wouldn’t have let us just drive away. A warning shot? Maybe my looking into Jason’s death was pissing someone off. I hoped it was the killer, because fuck him.
I took a look at Beth’s cut when she got out of the shower, and helped clean it and re-bandage it. She wasn’t thrilled about going to work with the white bandages on her face, but she didn’t give me any trouble about keeping them on.