As she stared at her daughter and her friend, she knew Maci had missed out on a lot in her short young life. She missed out on meeting her aunt and grandfather. But even though her friend had missed out on her daughter’s young years, she was certainly catching up. When Anya and Maci arrived, Coco was ready, she had her bags packed, and they left straight away. On the road, Coco explained what the plan was.
“My father has rented five hotels across the BC for the next month. He is planning to get us a house as soon as possible, and then we will go there. He has security, the best in the business trailing us. We will never be alone until this is all over, we have them watching our back. Until then, we act like this is a vacation, with your long-lost sister, since that is what I am. I have nothing going on that I can’t postpone, plus my father is footing the bill.” Coco had said which made Anya laugh, but still feel like crying because she felt like she had come home. Anya was only missing one thing, and she could never have it, though.
Turning back to look over the city again, Anya thought about Max; it was only times like these when she was alone, that she let herself think about him. If not, she would think about him every second of every day when she looked into Maci’s little face whether she was mad, or serious. So she kept Max in a small little box and stuffed him in the back of her head, only to bring out at special times.
She had met Max when he stopped to help her fix a flat tire she had on the way to work. It was a fluke really; he had been driving by, on his way to check into his new unit. At the time, Anya had been on the verge of crying when the motorcycle had pulled in behind her truck. At first, Anya admitted she was hesitant to speak to the biker since she had totally watched SOA. But when she saw the handsome biker all those thoughts went out the window.
“Have a problem?” the gruff voice asked, and Anya nodded and pointed to the tire.
“Flat,” she said miserably. “I know they said I had a spare, but for the life of me, I can’t remember how they told me to get it out. It’s under the car, I mean, who the hell puts the spare tire underneath a car. It’s not logical, is it? It had to be a male who designed this because no woman would ever do that. I have crawled under this stupid thing, and can’t figure out how to get the tire down.”
Even while she was ranting, Anya knew that the stranger probably thought she was nuts. But she was so frustrated, so annoyed by the whole thing. She thought her new truck was so awesome, but right about now, she really wanted to kick the shit out of it.
When she looked at the man, she saw his eyes filled with laughter, and then she looked at his mouth and saw how he was fighting it. Great, she looked like a dork in front of a hot biker. “Okay, I don’t know what else to do. So, can you help me or not?” she said, finally deciding she had made enough of a fool of herself.
The man chuckled and then smiled. Damn, he was gorgeous. “Sure, babe, I can get you all fixed up.”
Anya laughed loudly and said, “Wow, great line.”
The man grinned and held out his hand. “Max.”
That had been the beginning, and from there, they had been almost inseparable when Max wasn’t on a mission. They moved in together, and when all this happened, they had only been living together for a few months, everything was new. They had dated for a year before they moved in together, and Max had worked for it. Max had established himself into her life so Anya could never imagine her life without him. And when she had to, it had been a mess.
When the witness protection program moved her to Nebraska, for the first two months, Anya didn’t leave the house, she was paranoid and lost. Her days were spent staring at a television without actually watching, thinking about Max, wanting to call Coco. Honestly, that time was a blur, when her handler, whose name was Celia, finally had enough, she came to Anya and laid it out for her. Either get her ass up and find a job, get on with life until all of this got sorted out because she’d put everyone she loved in danger by going back. Anya knew she had no choice and so she did what they asked of her. But never did she forget Max, she wondered what he would do if she found him.
After all this mess, she knew that she was going to need to find him. Maci deserved to have a father. Coco, with her hair dyed a deep purple, and wearing her normal bohemian dress, jumped next to her and bumped her with her shoulder.
“Hey, Maci wants to go swimming, what do you think?” Coco asked, and Anya sighed and looked at her friend.
“Has your father called yet?” she asked and wanted to cringe when she heard what her voice sounded like, shit.
“No,” Coco said and looked back into the room. “He said he would call if they found Max.”
It was the only thing she asked for when Coco’s father asked if she needed anything.
Chapter Three
Torch road back down the road where the safe house was. He had been gone for hours but had finally gotten his head sorted for the first time since he had seen Anya’s file. It messed with his head like nothing else could. Since Anya had left him, Max the good ole boy ceased to exist and in his place was Torch, and that was who he really was. It wasn’t just because of her leaving; it was because of the timing of her departure. Torch had come back from a hard mission; it had ripped him apart that they lost some good men. And when he found out he lost his woman, it changed him. Torch refused to count on anyone when he went on missions after that; he had done it solo.
He got off the bike and walked into the rundown house and instantly could hear Loki and Ox arguing. Torch put his hand up to his nose and pinched it, his shoulder was still hurting, and fuck, he had no patience for Loki’s normal shit.
“No cable?” Loki was yelling. “Are you fucking serious? How in the hell could you have not hooked up the cable?”
“Safe house does not mean cable; it means a safe place for us to go, there was nothing mentioned about cable,” Ox snapped.
“Okay, well, at least you could have gotten a DVR or something, I need background noise, it’s too quiet, and you breathe too loud, I can’t focus,” Loki yelled.
“Dude, you are just playing on the computer,” Ox returned just as loudly.
“Playing? You think this is playing? I am running specific programs to find the chick,” Loki said, and that was when Torch walked into the room and stared at the two men squaring off against each other.
“Really, ‘cause it looks to me like you’re playing some idiot war game while you click a few buttons to search,” Ox growled and pointed to the computer. “Don’t lie, man; I can see that shit.
“Really?” Loki snapped. “You know nothing of the creative computer mind; it needs to be constantly stimulated so I can do what I need to do, in order to find the woman and kid. And for your information, this is not just any war game this is THE war game. Warcraft: Reign of Terror is nothing to make fun of.”
Ox laughed loudly, and Torch rolled his eyes, he needed a drink and fast.
“Shut it, both of you,” Torch said grimly. “Loki, get this shit sorted, we need to know where we are looking. Ox, get on the phone and see if your contacts here have heard any more chatter. If her name was released, they could find that she is here, the same as us. Which means we are working against the clock to get her and keep her safe.”
Loki nodded and began typing. “Oh, her name was released, it may not be publicly announced, but the people we don’t want to know do know. I also got a briefing and, asshole, you should have just told me who she was. Now I get why you’re a dickhead and shit. I do have good news, no man in the picture, like at all. Which is strange since she has a kid, but from what I can see, she hasn’t even gone on a date in the last four years, at all. She lived in some small town in Nebraska, boring, worked at a grocery store, once again boring. Fuck, she didn’t even own a damn car. And since we found her best friend, I am sure the bad guys can too. The thing is, for just being a pampered kid of a star, this chick knows how to hide. Never seen a normal person be able to erase their trail.”
Torch frowned and then said, “Look
at her friend’s parents, how popular are they?”
Loki turned and stared at Torch. “Dude, her father is the lead singer of Raze, Tommy Love. Hell, his daughter, Coco Love, has her own clothing line.”
Torch shrugged and said, “Sorry, I only listen to country. I have no idea who you’re talking about, now if you said Rascal Flatts, sure I’d know them. I hadn’t even met Coco Love; she was supposed to be visiting when I got back from the last mission, Anya was gone, end of story. I didn’t look her friend up. I didn’t give a shit who Coco Love’s father was.”
“Oh my God, how are we even brothers?” Loki snapped and shook his head.
Torch rolled his eyes. “I am not here to meet one of the rich and famous; I am here to help a woman and her kid not get dead.”
Loki stared at him for a minute, really stared at him, and then shook his head and said while he looked down at the keys on the computer, “You keep telling yourself that, brother, maybe it will become true.”
Torch frowned and then pulled out his phone and called. Fling. When his President answered the phone, Torch said, “Hey, we are here, is there any updates?”
Fling sighed. “The Marshals are chasing their fucking tails; we pretty much have free reign to get Anya and her kid, and bring them into custody. The handler who was supposed to be checking in with Anya, her name is Celia Blanchard, was found last night in her house, bound and gagged, and shot in the head, execution style. So yeah, someone knows she was in protective custody. If they followed the trail like we did, I would assume they are either there now, or on their way. But either way, we need to figure out where Anya, her friend, and her daughter are and then plan a way to get back over the border without anyone knowing.”
Torch nodded and said, “What other information do you have on Anya? I mean, she lived in fucking Nebraska and shit, her best friend is where she went I am sure. But what the fuck is really going on?”
Fling was silent, and Torch stood up straighter, shit, what now? Torch waited it out; he could almost hear Fling thinking over the line.
“Brother, I don’t know if I should be the one telling you this,” Fling said slowly and then continued, “but I also know you need to know what you are looking at. So, they sent her complete file to us, along with others who are going to be hurt if this asshole isn’t found and stopped. You know Anya saw something on base she wasn’t supposed to. According to the files, though, when she entered into the WITSEC she was already pregnant. Kills me to say this but, Torch, your name is on the birth certificate. Maci Ann Merlin is yours, hell, Anya officially gave her your name even though she was in WITSEC.”
“What?” Torch whispered, and Loki looked up when he felt the vibe in the room. Ox had just come back into the room and was staring intently at Torch as well.
“Fuck,” Fling whispered and said, “hold it together, man; you need to find them first, then we can sort all this shit out.”
“Mine,” Torch whispered and closed his eyes. “I have a daughter?”
“Yeah, brother, and I am sorry to be the one to tell you that you lost almost five years with your daughter, she turns five in two months,” Fling said.
Torch was silent as he tried to process this, it wasn’t like someone told him that they found his lost keys or something. This was his kid, and he had lost four years with her, almost five. What did she look like? Why didn’t Anya at least to tell him? Get a message? What the FUCK!
“I will get back to you,” Torch said and hung up, staring out the front window not focused on anything in particular just thinking about Anya.
“Baby,” she whispered into his ear after he made her come the second time.
“I missed you,” he said back, and he felt her smile against his cheek.
“Think I am getting that,” she laughed softly trying to catch her breath.
Max had been gone for a month, the mission should have only been a week long, but shit happened, and they had to stay and clean up a mess. It had been a long month, one he seriously didn’t want to repeat. The only thing he could think of was getting home, and honestly, it wasn’t something a soldier should be thinking about when in the field. Max knew it, and yet he still couldn’t stop himself. Which led to his next decision, which was retirement. He had been in for six years, he planned to be a lifer in the military, but that was before.
Now he had Anya, and he was ready to find out what life on the outside was like. Plus, three of this team had talked about opening a security office, he was ready to buy into it. And since he had four months until he had to re-up, Max needed to wait to tell Anya, it was classified, and she wasn’t technically his spouse, but Max was going to rectify that, and soon.
“So, there is something I want to talk about,” Max whispered, and Anya chuckled.
“Now? I feel like doing something else right now; maybe we can wait and have that talk after I get to express how much I missed you,” she whispered and then bit his ear gently. Max smiled and pulled back and looked down at her.
“I think maybe we should…” Max’s phone rang, and he groaned and then rolled to the side and answered it. Anya didn’t let that slow her down. While he talked on the phone, she began to kiss her way down his chest.
“Sir, yes sir,” Max said, and Anya stopped and leaned back frowning. She knew that tone, his superior was calling, and there was no way his superiors would be calling at this time of night unless there was something going on. She had been through this more times than she could count in the last six months, and only two months of living together, yeah she understood. “I will report in three hours,” Max said and hung up his phone and looked down at Anya who was just staring at him. “Sorry, baby,” Max started, and she shook her head.
“Honey, I knew what I was getting into, so don’t apologize for doing your job.”
Max sighed and leaned down and touched his forehead to her and he whispered, “I will try to make this quicker.”
Anya smiled and said, “Honey, you are not Superman. You do what you need to and come home to me. Then we will have a nice meal and talk all you want.”
Max leaned back and sighed. “That is a deal, now, I have three hours and my go bag is already packed with fresh clothes, which means I have about an hour and a half to get ready and report. What do you think we should do in the house if we aren’t going to talk?” He smirked.
“Well, what I had in mind would take, I don’t know, about seven or eight minutes,” she said seriously, and his head popped up, and his eyes narrowed.
“Really?” he growled and then pressed his cock into her, he was hard already. Anya moaned a little and wrapped her legs around his waist.
“Well, you can always prove me wrong,” Anya whispered, and Max kissed her deeply. Damn, leaving her again.
“Is that a challenge?” Max asked.
She opened her passion filled eyes and whispered, “More like a request.”
He said, “Well, good thing I follow orders real well.”
Fuck, he thought and then turned around and threw the phone that was still in his hand. Loki didn’t flinch, but he did stop what he was doing and turned and looked at him. Ox just kinda leaned against the wall, very calmly, but he was on alert, his eyes were bright, and he was ready to contain Torch if he needed it.
Loki said softly, “Wanna tell us what the fuck is going on now?”
Torch glared at his brother and ran a hand through his hair, and he yelled loudly at the ceiling just releasing his frustration and anger, so he didn’t grab one of his brothers and beat the shit of them.
Both Ox and Loki waited him out, realizing they had to because Torch wasn’t in the headspace to talk to them right this second. Finally, he looked at his brothers, and both saw the pain in his eyes when he said, “The kid is mine.”
Loki’s eyes got wide, and he said, “Fuck.”
“Yeah,” Ox said.
Loki looked down at his computer and said, “And it’s a girl. Brother, you are in for a world of fucking heartache.”
“Goddammit, find my fucking kid,” he roared, and Loki rolled his eyes.
“Brother, look at you getting your ‘Daddy is Pissed’ voice on,” Loki said. “Though just a suggestion, you may want to tone that shit down a little, I mean, that is a good voice for boys ‘cause we are dicks, but girls, nah, you would make them cry and shit if you yelled like that. Maybe you should get a ‘My Little Pony’ movie or something, Ox.”
Ox slapped him on the back of the head as he moved toward the living room, pausing only to stop next to Torch and the man said, “You know, some people would be happy to be in your predicament. Sometimes you need to look past the reason, and look for the ending.”
Chapter Four
“Sweetie, you need to take a deep breath and let this shit go. It was nothing, we were swimming, and a man was staring at Maci, it doesn’t mean he is one of the bad guys you know. We are safe; we have five guards around the hotel right now. They are paid to do that, so don’t take that away from them,” Coco said, and Anya looked at her.
“I know, I am on edge. You can’t tell me that you aren’t,” Anya whispered, and Coco sighed and then shook her head.
“I am because I don’t want you to disappear again. Not talking to you for so long was fucking sucky. But for the other stuff, I’m used to having the guys follow me around; Dad makes sure of it. Not this many of course, but still. Just saying, I have lived through this, and if you don’t want to go crazy and paranoid, let them do their jobs and don’t think about it.”
Anya nodded and then leaned down and kissed her daughter’s cheek and stood. Motioning for her friend to follow her out into the main room. Coco followed, and Anya pulled the door closed, leaving only a crack in case Maci woke up.
“I know; it’s just too hard for me to stop looking over my shoulder. I have been doing this since that day on the base when I saw those assholes. They only got one over the years; there were five,” Anya said, and Coco nodded.
Scorched (Furies MC Book 3) Page 3