by Addison Jane
I leaped out and caught her just as she threw herself from the concrete step and into my arms, pulling her against my chest and burying my face in her hair.
After losing Kim, I’d let myself fall into an abyss of drinking. Alcohol seemed to be the only thing that could numb my emotions. At one point, I’d even considered joining Kim on the other side, hoping that by some miracle the world would be in my favor and send me to heaven where she was waiting, as opposed to the hell that I knew would like to swallow me whole.
“Daddy!” Macy giggled as I layered kiss upon kiss to her baby soft skin.
This was the only thing that had kept me here. My friends and my family had shown me that Macy deserved more. She needed a father, someone who would watch out for her, scare the bogeyman away and create the life that Kim would have wanted her to have.
Carly stood on the front step, her criticizing eyes watching as I carried Macy back toward the house.
“Macy, you shouldn’t run out like that,” she said softly but sternly as I stepped through the doorway and into the house. I could navigate this house with my eyes closed. It was the same one Carly and Kim had grown up in.
The same pictures on the walls, more seeming to be added monthly as Carly’s own kids grew and grew.
“Hey, Uncle Leo.” I ducked my head into the dining room area where Carly’s eldest sat at the table, her books spread across the surface.
“Hey, Meyah. How’s school, kid?”
She shrugged. “It’s okay… I guess. Be glad when it’s over.”
Meyah was seventeen and a senior at Athens High School. I adored the kid, she had a good head on her shoulders. Carly always boasted about her prospects for the future, but Meyah would never confirm nor deny any of her mom’s wild ideas about how she would become a doctor or a lawyer. I dropped Macy to the floor and walked over to Meyah, placing a firm hand on her shoulder in a show of support. “You can do it, girl.”
She smiled up me. “Thanks.”
“Leo, Leo!” Denver, Carly’s other child skidded into the room, sliding across the floor on his socks. Macy giggled and attempted to copy him as he pulled up in front of me.
I scruffed his hair. “How’s it going?”
“Can you take me for a ride on your bike today?”
I cringed and looked over him to where Carly was shaking her head softly. “Not today, man. Another time.”
He sighed in disappointment. “Mom-m-m.”
“No motorcycle riding. You know that,” she scolded softly. Carly would never let me take the kids out on my bike. Meyah’s senior prom was coming up, and she had asked if me and one of the boys would take our bikes with her and her date on the back. I hadn’t had an issue with it, but Carly was firm with her no response.
“Bike!” Macy said excitedly, bouncing on her toes.
Denver screwed up his nose. “Even Macy gets to ride on the bike. It’s not fair, Mom!”
“Denny…” Carly warned.
“Luke Leighton told everyone today that I didn’t have a dad and didn’t get to do cool stuff like he does with his dad.” Denver pouted, and my heart sank. Denver was eleven, he and Meyah had different dads, neither of which had manned up and stuck around for their kids. I’d tried my best to be there for them as much as possible, but Carly was so over protective of them, that she never gave in to my offers to take them around the club for family shit or on runs or camping like we sometimes did.
She wasn’t a fan of the Brothers by Blood MC. She never hid that fact.
“Luke sounds like a douche,” I muttered, earning me a sharp glare from my sister-in-law.
“Meyah, take Macy and Denver upstairs, I just need to talk to Uncle Leo,” Carly said quietly, moving through the doorway and into the kitchen. Meyah gave me a soft smile as she herded the two young ones out the door, their footsteps trudging slowly up the staircase.
“You shouldn’t be using that kind of language around children.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m an adult, I’ll use whatever language I want.”
“Macy called one of the kids at playgroup today a bastard,” she said, hitting me with a hard stare. I fought against the smile I felt creeping onto my face.
“What’d the other kid do to her?” I knew it wasn’t the right response. Okay, so a three-year-old shouldn’t be using that kind of language. But every kid at some point tested these things out. Tried to see how far they could push it.
I wanted Macy to be strong. She was my daughter. And my daughter wasn’t about to take shit from anyone. She was surrounded by men who held their heads high and stood up for themselves and their families.
“You really want to raise your daughter like that?”
“Like what? You mean… like a biker?” I threw back, trying to keep myself calm.
Carly gripped the edge of the counter in frustration. “She will grow up hard. When will she get to be a little girl? When will she get to figure out who she is, and who she wants to be? Because right now, the only choice you’re giving her is curse words and leather.”
I wanted to tell Carly to fuck off. I wanted to take Macy and storm out the door. Carly and I had never seen eye to eye. Kim and her parents had passed away in a car accident when Carly was just nineteen, and Kim was fourteen. Carly had taken over custody of Kim and raised her from there.
Kim and I started dating when we were juniors. The connection we had was undeniable even with her being the girl next door and me being the local bad boy. The shitty part was, I knew even though I didn’t want to hear her opinion on how I was raising my child, deep down, she really just wanted what was best for Macy.
We both saw Kim in that little girl. She was our link to the woman we’d both lost. So I needed to try and listen and take her opinion because Kim would have wanted Macy to have her family together.
“That clubhouse is not the place a little girl should grow up, Leo. She sees all those men swearing and drinking. And the women you have there…” her face contorted into a look of disgust, “… being promiscuous and wandering around half-clothed.”
“Those women have helped raise, Macy. They look after her and watch over her.” My mind drifted back to seeing Hadley holding Macy tightly in her arms as she searched for me through the crowd. She could have walked away, Macy wasn’t hers to worry about or deal with, but she took the time to make sure that she was safe and come find me.
“When are you going to settle down, Leo?” The question surprised me. Carly had never talked about me moving on from Kim or finding someone else. I always thought that maybe she liked the idea of me relying on her for help.
“Macy needs a home. Somewhere she can be comfortable, somewhere she can grow up.”
A part of me wanted to argue, but even I knew that she had a point. It was something that I’d been thinking of more and more recently.
I did want to give Macy a home.
I wanted to give her stability.
Somewhere that she wasn’t being shuffled from person to person every time I was called away to church or X-Rated or to deal with problems. Being the Sargent at Arms, the safety of the club fell on me. I had to make sure things ran smoothly, deals were set up right, and every person with links to the club was looked after and kept safe.
Blizzard and I were also watching over the relatively new security firm we’d created, and at the moment it was booming which was why I had recently spent ten days away in Troy. Kit had seen the success of the venture, and I’d gone down there to help them set up their own part of the firm.
My life was crazy, and as much as I’d like to think I made time to spend with Macy, I had been slacking.
“I’m gonna make more time for her.” The words sounded so sure and confident coming from my mouth. But even I knew it was going to be hard.
“You have a good day, Mace?” I asked as I drove to the clubhouse.
“Yes!” she called. “Pway with MeeHa, went to pwaygroup!”
I smiled. Macy had come out of her shell over the pas
t few months. I wasn’t sure if it was just her getting older, or if she was finding more confidence with having Harlyn and Jayla around. For a while, she’d been the only kid in the clubhouse. But now my brothers had their daughters there too, and the three of them were a whole lot of trouble.
“Were you nice to the kids at playgroup?” I asked carefully.
“Yes.” Her voice had softened.
“You sure you didn’t call one of the boys a bad word?” There was silence. I looked in the rear vision mirror and met her eyes. Her nose was crinkled. It was cute, but I had to stay serious. “You know bad words are only for adults, don’t you Macy?”
Her lips pursed too, screwing up her whole face as if she’d just sucked on a lemon. “Yes.” Her answer was quiet and low.
She knew. She wasn’t stupid.
Macy was bright.
She went to preschool a few days a week, and to Carly’s on the others. Her teachers there had commented on how vast her understanding was.
“No more bad words?”
“Otay Daddy.”
“Good girl.”
We pulled up to the clubhouse, and I parked my truck. Op had texted just before I’d left Carly’s to say that church was on, so I needed to find someone to keep this kid entertained until I was done.
I caught Blizzard just inside. “Rose or Chel around?”
He shook his head. “They went to pick up Harlyn from school.”
“Harlyn’s back at school?” Harlyn had had some issues at school the last few months. The teachers weren’t doing their jobs, and the kids were little assholes.
“Yeah, none of us really knew what to do with that home-school bullshit she was doing, so Op enrolled her in the public school in town,” Blizzard explained. “No thanks to fucking Sugar.”
I scrubbed my face. Harlyn’s mom, Sugar was off the charts. She’d tried to force Op to keep Harlyn in the school where she was being bullied. Op had pulled his hand and taken over, but so far, Sugar hadn’t made any kind of move to be more involved in her kid’s life.
Nobody knew what the fuck was going on with her, but I hoped someone figured it out soon.
“Damn. I need someone to look after Mace while we’re in church.”
“I’ll do it.” Blizzard and I both looked over to see Hadley stepping out from the kitchen area. She had her sweatshirt rolled up to her elbows, and a sexy torn denim skirt showed off her long tanned legs. “I just finished prepping dinner, so I’m free as a bird.” She smiled.
I looked at Macy, who was sitting on my hip quietly. She seemed to be studying Hadley like she recognized her but wasn’t quite sure from where. When Hadley had picked her up the other night, Macy had been half asleep. So it didn’t surprise me that she was a little confused.
“You wanna come to the playground with me?” Hadley asked Macy as she came a little closer with a gentle smile. “You can show me which part is your favorite.”
With those words, my girl was sold and began to wiggle furiously from my arms.
Her curls bounced freely as she waved her hand at Hadley. “Come! We can swide!” Then she was gone, her little legs carrying her at high speed out the patio doors to where the kids had a playground set up.
“I’ll catch you in there, brother.” Blizzard patted me on the back and disappeared down the hall to the meeting room where we held church.
Hadley gave me a smile as she moved to pass. I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her back. She stumbled a little and clutched my cut in her other hand to steady herself as her body met mine.
“I won’t be long,” I told her gruffly, my eyes looking down into hers.
She seemed a little stunned for a minute, taking time to lick her full pink lips and rub them together before she answered, “No problem. Take your time.” That simple movement had a feeling stirring in me. I wanted to taste her. I wanted my tongue on those lips, forcing them apart, hearing the gasp I knew would come as I pulled her body flush with mine.
“Come!” A little voice called from the doorway, breaking the trance between us.
Hadley giggled softly. “Take your time,” she repeated as she slowly stepped away, my grasp on her hand slipping apart.
I growled deep in my throat as I watched her jog out the door, calling after Macy and laughing. “Gonna take my time all right,” I mumbled.
“Hurry up, asshole, you’re late!” Optimus called from the hall doorway.
I rolled my eyes as I walked toward my scowling president. “If you ain’t in there that means you’re late, too.”
“See this patch?” he asked, pointing to his cut as we walked down the hall. “This says I get to do whatever the fuck I want.”
“That’s a lot of words for a patch. I thought it just said… President.” I smirked.
I took my seat at the table next to Op, Blizzard across from me in his VP chair, and the rest of my brothers filling the room. There was one noticeable absence, though. “Where’s Wrench?”
“I’ve got him looking into some shit for me,” Op answered cryptically. I raised my eyebrow at him, expecting an explanation. “When I know more, so will you.”
I frowned but accepted the answer.
“I talked to Skins this morning,” Blizzard started, drawing the attention of the room.
Skins was a member of the club that Hadley had come from. If you could really call a bunch of undercover agents a club.
How they had gone about creating Satan’s Sanctuary MC was smart. I had to give them that. It was a hard task nowadays to infiltrate a motorcycle club in hopes of getting information and bringing them down. We had rules and regulations out the ass for that kind of shit. But creating a whole club, one with chapters around the entire United States, that took balls and a hell of a lot of work.
The only reason we were privy to this knowledge was because Blizzard’s mom was a part of it. And after his woman, Rose had gone in and helped rescue one of them, they had come to us for help protecting Hadley while they went after one of their own.
The answer had been no. But when Hadley offered to become a club girl, knowing that we would lay down our shit to protect anyone who belonged to the club, we’d soon become open to the idea.
Blizzard continued, explaining his conversation with Skins. “Boxes have been coming a couple times a week to Hadley’s old address. They’re from her husband.”
“What’s in the boxes?” I asked curiously.
“Daisies and a note. The first note said, She loves me not.’ The next contained another daisy with petals missing and a note saying, ‘She loves me.’”
A few of the boys at the table laughed. “Man, I used to do that to girls at school when I wanted in their pants,” Camo chuckled.
“Yeah well, we’re thinking this is slightly more serious than your underage cock wanting some lovin’,” Optimus said dryly.
“Skins said they don’t know why the packages started coming all of a sudden. They have been trying to work with their men up the line, but getting nothing back,” Blizzard continued. “As long as they’re still being sent there, we’re good. But I get the feeling this guy isn’t stupid. And he has resources behind him. He’ll find her, then we might have a problem.”
“For now, eyes on her always. Leo, get Ham on babysitting duty for when she leaves the compound,” Op ordered, looking to me. I gave him a sharp nod in acknowledgment, but my brain was focused on Hadley.
This guy was coming after her. His little messages seemed sweet and innocent. But I couldn’t help feeling like the man behind them was anything but.
“Why did we agree to have her, when we knew she was bringing some kind of baggage?” One of the boys asked from the end of the table.
“Most of our club girls come with fucking baggage.” I scoffed. “You guys don’t complain when you’ve got a warm hole to slide into whenever you fucking want it. These girls look after us, and they’re loyal as fuck.”
“Exactly,” Op agreed. “Hadley has been good around here. She’s on
e of ours now. And we fucking protect what’s ours. So if you want to keep fucking her, you watch out for her.”
There was no response from the room.
But there was a response from inside my gut.
Hadley hadn’t been around long, but I could already see the respect in the men's eyes when they looked at her. She was the perfect mix of sweet and sexy. She didn’t hide away, holding herself with confidence, but she also wasn’t in your face like some of the other club girls.
The way her ass moved as she’d walked out the door just minutes ago played on my mind. It was round and toned. My hands twitched as I thought about how it would feel in my hands.
“Leo.” My daydream was cut short as Op addressed me. “Anything else you want to bring up?”
I shook off my haze. “Kit and the boys ride in Wednesday morning. Got in extra security from the firm for the gate so our boys can have some time hanging out with the family and brothers.”
Op nodded. “Good plan. We could all use it.”
The boys from Troy were riding in to celebrate Op and Chelsea’s baby news. It was always a good time when other brothers came in. The club was like an extended family.
“Rose said Chelsea’s still concerned about your monster baby coming out her snatch.” Blizzard laughed.
Optimus groaned. “Gonna be the fucking death of me,” he mumbled. “All right, get out.”
Laughter followed out the door and down the hall, as I went in search of my baby girl and the woman who I couldn’t help but feel intrigued by.
I wanted to know more about her.
Everything about her.
Including how that ass would feel in my hands.
“Shhh!” I tried to hush the two giggling girls as we hid inside the tunnel on the playground.
“Macy?” Leo called for the second time, this time he was closer though, just outside the entrance to where we were huddled.
I held my finger up to my lips and Macy and Jayla both covered their mouths, attempting unsuccessfully to smother their laughter.