Reese gently closed the door. I turned around and looked everywhere but at Phoenix. I had no idea what to do with myself. I couldn’t recall ever feeling so uncomfortable. I started rubbing my palms together and had no desire to try and stop myself.
Phoenix took a step closer to the bars. I instinctively took a step back, or tried to. Apparently, I was already plastered to the wall. “I knew your mother.”
I gasped. “You what?”
He continued, his voice thick with emotion, “I was in love with your mother. Wanted to marry her. Was going to marry her.” He swallowed hard. “We had been dating for almost a year when she finally gave herself to me, which happened to be the night before I was deployed. I joined the Marines right after high school, just like my dad. It had always been my plan. Annabelle said she understood that. Said she would be there when I came back,” he paused for a moment and cleared his throat. “Damn, this is harder than I thought. I came back for her, to marry her, and, and she was gone. No trace of her. I went to her parents’ house and they were gone, too. No one knew where they went or how to find them. I looked for her. Searched everywhere for her. Never found her. I kept looking for her until I was deployed again. After that, without Annabelle, I just didn’t want to come back here. And I didn’t until about eight years ago.”
I was fascinated to meet someone who knew my mother. I knew nothing about her except for her name and how she died. As much as I wanted to hear more about her, I didn’t understand what this had to do with the situation at hand. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Let me ask you something first. Do you know what a Phoenix is?”
“Yes, I do.” I was beginning to wonder if this man was mentally stable. He kicked everyone out to speak to me about a private matter, yet he’s asking me about my knowledge of mythical birds.
“Good. Okay, so, your mother’s name is Annabelle Rose Burnett. My name is Phoenix Black. Do you see where I’m going with this?”
I thought my knees were going to buckle. I placed both of my hands on the wall to stabilize myself. The dots were starting to connect, but I needed him to say it. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying that with your mother’s name and your date of birth, there’s a very good chance that you are my daughter. Your name only adds to the likelihood.”
The room spun and I felt myself falling. I heard Phoenix yelling something just before everything went black.
CHAPTER 5
Dash
I was waiting with Carbon and Reese in the hallway. I honestly don’t know why I was there. I could claim it was because I had the key to the cell, but I could have given it to Carbon. I could say it was because I wanted to make sure Ember was okay, but I wasn’t ready to admit that to myself.
The silence in the hallway was broken when yelling and some sort of clanging noise sounded on the other side of the door. I rushed in, Carbon and Reese right behind me. Phoenix was yelling and shaking the bars of the cell with every bit of strength he had. “Help her!” he screamed, pointing to the floor.
I followed his finger to see Ember crumpled on the floor in the far corner of the room. I tossed the cell keys to Carbon and went straight to Ember. I scooped her up and ran upstairs with her held tightly to my chest. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than making sure she was okay as fast as possible. “Patch! Somebody get Patch!” I yelled as I ran toward my room.
I gently laid her down on my bed and smoothed her hair out of her face. She was breathing, but her eyes were closed and she wasn’t making any attempts to move. Damn, she looked white as a ghost.
Phoenix plowed through my door, breathing heavily, eyes wildly scanning the room. “What the fuck happened?” I demanded.
“I’m not sure. I think she fainted,” he panted.
“Why do you think that?” I asked. He wasn’t making any sense to me. Healthy young girls didn’t just drop to the floor without something being seriously wrong, did they?
Phoenix looked uneasy, “Uh, well, because I told her I think she might be my daughter.”
“What?!!” shrieked Reese. Fuck, it wouldn’t be long before the whole damn club was in my room.
Phoenix turned and looked behind Reese, “Carbon, get Patch.”
Reese sat down on the bed beside Ember. She gently picked up her hand and started murmuring to her.
Patch entered the room moments later. “What happened?”
“I think she fainted. She might have hit her head. Be easy with her, she’s skittish, Patch,” Phoenix blurted. He really needed to get a handle on himself.
Patch focused on Reese, “You her friend?”
“Yeah.”
“You stay. Everybody else, leave,” Patch ordered.
I growled, “No fucking way, brother.” We were in my room and I’d be damned if someone else was going to come in here and tell me to leave. It had absolutely nothing to do with the gorgeous little creature in my bed.
Patch shrugged, “Fine. Just stay out of the way.”
He proceeded to examine Ember. It didn’t seem like he was doing a whole lot of anything except running his hands all over her body. I decidedly did not like that. I was on the precipice of planting my fist in his face when he determined she would be fine and backed off.
“Really? Then, why hasn’t she come to yet?” Reese quirked her head and narrowed her eyes, “Do you know what you’re doing? Have you even had any training?” she asked snarkily.
Patch snickered, “She has come to. She’s just playing possum.” He winked and leaned closer to Reese, “I’m trained in a lot of things, pretty girl. Medicine happens to be one of them.”
Ember’s eyes shot open and made a sweep around the room. She shrunk back toward Reese when her eyes landed on Patch, “Who are you?”
“Name’s Patch. I take care of the medical stuff around here when I can, seeing as how I’m medically trained and all. You had anything to eat today?”
Ember slowly shook her head. Patch looked to me, “Feed the girl. She’ll be fine.” Then he was gone.
“Prospect,” I yelled, inadvertently startling the girls. Jamie appeared in the doorway. “Bring her something to eat. Actually, bring something for both of them.”
Ember looked around the room, “Where am I? Where is everybody?”
“You’re in my room. Brought you up here when you fainted. The others stepped out when Patch came in to take a look at you.”
“Your room?” She started to sit up. “I’m, um, just going to go. I’m sure there’s somewhere else I can…”
“No,” I stated firmly. “Stay put. You need to eat and rest.”
She glared at me. “I don’t want to be in your room, okay?”
Ouch. That kind of hurt. I guess I couldn’t blame her for feeling that way. “Look, I’m sorry about earlier. I was just following orders. You were perceived as a potential threat.” I paused for a moment, trying to find the right words to convince her to stay in my bed, I meant in my room. “Nothing is going to happen to you. You were perceived as a threat and all I did was detain you. None of us hurt you. We would never do anything like that to a woman, even if she was a legitimate threat.”
She rolled her eyes, “I seriously hope you don’t think I believe that load of crap that just came out of your mouth.”
She was frustrating the hell out of me, in more ways than one. “Will you just stay there and rest for a bit? At least until you have something to eat?”
“If I stay, will you leave?” she asked, one perfect eyebrow arched.
I smirked, “It’s my room.”
She blew me away when she grinned at me. I felt that grin deep in my chest. What was this girl doing to me?
Our moment was interrupted by a knock at the door. Phoenix was there, holding plates of food and drinks for her and Reese.
He hesitantly placed it on the bedside table for them and turned to leave.
She pushed herself up, “You don’t have to leave, uh, sir.”
He turned t
o face her, “Just wanted to make sure you were okay and see that you got something to eat.” Phoenix glanced to the floor and back to her, “Uh, you can call me Phoenix.”
Ember smiled like the cat that ate the canary, “Oh good because I thought calling you ‘maybe daddy’ would be weird.”
Phoenix chuckled and shook his head. “Right. I’ll stop by a little later, give you some time to eat and rest.”
CHAPTER 6
Dash
When the girls finished eating, I turned on the television for them. Settling into a chair in the corner of my room, I started messing with my phone. I had no interest in the girly shit they were watching, but I had an inexplicable need to watch over Ember.
As my fingers tapped away at some mindless game, my thoughts were of nothing but Ember. The girl had my undivided attention. I had never met anyone like her. She was beautiful, in a different way than most of the girls that came around the club. She wasn’t overly made up, she wasn’t dressed like a whore, and it appeared that all of her body parts were the ones God gave her. In short, she wasn’t trying to be attractive, she just was.
My eyes drifted to her form stretched out on my bed. It was probably wrong of me to shamelessly stare at her body while she was sleeping, but I never claimed to be perfect. She was a tiny little thing, maybe 5’1 or 5’2 and no more than 110 lbs. Even with her small frame, she had nice full tits, I would guess a D cup, and an ass that was begging for my handprint. Her long blonde hair framed her gorgeous face, perfectly complimenting her big blue eyes and pouty pink lips. I wondered if her nipples were the same color as her lips. I bet I could…
Duke walked in and halted my thoughts in their tracks. Damn it. I wanted to keep imagining her naked, writhing beneath me as I…
Duke cleared his throat, “You busy?”
“Nah, man. Have a seat.” I gestured to the other chair I kept in my room.
“How’s she doing, brother?”
“Not sure. She fainted. She ate. Then they fell asleep.”
“Did Reese get something to eat?”
“Yeah, Phoenix brought both of them more than enough.”
“You think she’s Phoenix’s kid?” he blatantly asked.
“Don’t know. Didn’t hear much of what happened. I’ve been in here with Ember and Reese since Ember fainted.”
Duke nodded, “Ah, well, Phoenix was talking about it out in the common room. He said Ember claims to be the daughter of a woman named Annabelle Burnett who died during childbirth.” He looked at me pointedly. Every member of the club had heard of Phoenix’s Annabelle. “Ember turned 18 today. According to Phoenix, if his Annabelle got pregnant the one and only night they had sex, the baby would have been born around this time of year 18 years ago. He’s convinced she’s his kid because of the dates, her mother’s name, and her name.”
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest. “Could be. Annabelle isn’t a common name, especially around here. As long as I’ve been around Croftridge, I’ve never heard of another Annabelle. It still doesn’t explain why he couldn’t find Annabelle when he came back. He was only gone for seven months. If Ember’s story is true, Phoenix and Annabelle were both in Croftridge when Ember was born.”
Duke nodded thoughtfully. “I hadn’t put that together. It will be interesting to see what Byte comes up with.” He paused, glanced at the girls, then, lowered his voice, “You know anything about this orphanage she grew up in?”
I shook my head. “Never heard of it. Only thing I know of across town is that creepy as fuck dairy farm.”
“Same here. I didn’t know there was an orphanage in Croftridge. I heard Phoenix telling Byte to dig into that, too.”
“We shouldn’t have to wait too long. Byte is fucking quick when it comes to that shit. How’s Phoenix? Any better than he was earlier?”
“He’s all fucked up over the way he treated her at first, thinking she was here to fuck with him or cause problems as soon as she mentioned Annabelle. Thing is, only a few people outside of the club know about Annabelle, and he knows that. I think he just didn’t want to believe it. Annabelle’s disappearance tore him apart and it took him a long time to put himself back together. Now finding out that she had his kid and she died…” he trailed off and just shook his head. “That fucks with a man. I’m not sure how I would handle it.”
A throat cleared behind me. We both turned to see Phoenix standing there, arms braced on the door frame. “I’m fine, brothers.”
“No disrespect, Prez.” I didn’t want him to think we were back here talking about the shitstorm that just blew his way for shits and giggles. I was truly concerned about the man. Phoenix had always been strong and steady, nothing like what we’d seen from him today.
“I get it, but I’m okay. I grieved for Annabelle a long time ago, accepted that she would never be mine. I loved that woman and a part of me always will, but the past is the past and can’t be changed.” He paused, glancing at the bed, “That girl in there is likely mine and she’s here because she needs help. If it turns out she isn’t mine, I’m still going to offer her the club’s protection and help her in any way I can. Seems like she’s had a shit life so far. It’s the least I can do.” He poked his head a little further into the room. “How long have they been out?”
“About an hour or so. Soon as they ate,” I replied.
“Let me know when she wakes up. After all the shit today, I never did find out exactly why she came to me for help, other than wanting a new ID. She’s 18 now, she should be leaving the orphanage anyway, whether she wants to or not. She shouldn’t need a new ID or help to ‘get away from the place she grew up’ as she put it. Something doesn’t add up.”
He was right about that. “You know anything about this orphanage? Duke and I have never heard of it.”
Phoenix’s eyes grew dark, “Byte located it. It’s located on the same property as the dairy farm.”
Duke and I both started to speak at the same time, but Phoenix cut us off. “We’ll talk more about it at church. When she wakes up, get a prospect to show her to her room and get them something to eat. Her friend can stay in there with her for now. Then, we’ll all sit down and go over what we know.”
***
The girls slept for several hours. Duke stayed in there with me the whole time they slept. I thought it was odd, but didn’t comment on it. He seemed to be watching over Reese the same way I was watching over Ember. Since I was actively ignoring my feelings, I decided to actively ignore his, too.
When they finally woke up, prospect Jamie led them down to the room Phoenix had arranged for them. Duke and I followed them for some reason unbeknownst to me. What was known to me was how good her ass looked in those tight as hell jeans she had on.
Ember suddenly whirled around. “Have you seen my bag? I’m not sure when I lost it, but I really need it. Can Reese and I go look around for it?”
“Duke and I will go find it. You and Reese check out your new room and get settled.” Did she catch me staring at her ass? Did I really care if she did?
I figured she dropped the bag during one of the scuffles earlier. If she dropped it when she was fighting with Duke outside, most likely someone would have already found it and brought it inside, so I went to look outside of Phoenix’s office first. I turned the corner and spotted it immediately, on the floor right outside of his office. Well, that was too easy. I reached to pick it up and noticed the zipper had come undone, her crap sticking out the top about to spill everywhere. I shuffled it around some, trying to get her stuff to settle so I could close it for her when a distinct green caught my eye. I pushed the clothes she had on top to the side and dropped my jaw at the site before me. “Holy shit…” I breathed. “Duke, go get Phoenix, but do it discreetly.”
I stepped into Phoenix’s office and started carefully placing the contents of her bag on his desk.
Phoenix walked in, followed by Duke. “Holy shit. Where did that come from?”
“Ember’s bag,�
�� I replied, dumbfounded.
“How much is that?” he asked.
“Don’t know. You want me to count it?”
“Duke, you start counting. Dash, see what else is in there.”
I pulled out all of the stacks of cash, but the bag still felt heavy. No longer caring about her privacy, I tossed the clothes into a chair. I reached into her bag and pulled out a handgun from the bottom. I placed it on the desk and stuck my hand back into her bag, pulling out an even larger handgun.
“What the fuck is she doing with those?” Phoenix asked.
I couldn’t help it, I busted out laughing. Phoenix glared at me. “I’m sorry, Prez, but she is definitely your kid if she’s walking around with a Glock 19 and a Desert Eagle 1911 in her backpack.”
Duke chimed in, “And a little over a hundred grand in cash.”
Phoenix chuckled, but quickly sobered. “Something must have really scared her.”
My laughter died as well. “Yeah, and we’re going to find out what that was.” I paused for a moment. “You want me to take this back to her?”
Phoenix ran his hand over his jaw, “Take her the bag with the money and her clothes. Tell her we found the guns and put them in the safe. Carefully ask her if she has anything else on her.”
I took the bag down to her room. “Uh, Phoenix put your guns in the safe, but um, your cash is still in there.”
“You went through my stuff?” she accused.
“Yeah, we did, after I saw the money falling out of it,” I answered, trying to sound indifferent.
Her eyes widened. “Don’t worry, doll, it’s all still in there.” Relief washed over her face. “Now, I gotta ask, you got anything else on you we should know about?” She looked down and hesitated. “Not saying we’re going to take it. Not saying we won’t. But Phoenix wants to know.”
She sighed and pulled up her pants leg to show me the knife she had strapped to her leg. Then she did the same with the other leg. Damn, this girl just kept getting better and better. I whistled, “Nice.” She grinned impishly. “I suppose you can keep those for the time being. You want to keep the money with you or you want me to put it in the safe?”
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