Halligan To My Axe (The Heroes of The Dixie Wardens MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

“Alright, give me a minute. I think I know someone that could help. Don’t know where the fuck Silas has been for the past three days, but he sure as fuck’s pissing me off.” I growled before hanging up and dialing a number that Sebastian had handed me earlier.

  It rang three times before a rough male’s voice answered. “Hello?”

  “This is Tiago Spada. I got your number from...” I started to say before the man interrupted me

  “Know who you are, man. What can I help you with?” Jack said with no bullshitting.

  Jack was a member of Free.

  I’d met him only a few times before, due to Sebastian’s sister being married to one of the men that worked at Free.

  Jack and his wife, Winter, were the computer whizzes of the Free foundation, and could find anybody, anywhere, at any time; or so I’d heard. Most of the time faster than Silas’ contacts could. From what I could gather, Jack and Winter were computer hackers.

  Although they were the ‘good guys’ they still did illegal shit. But I didn’t give one flying fuck at that moment; all I wanted was my woman. Now.

  “I need the whereabouts of someone.”

  Twenty minutes later, I was printing out directions off Google Earth of Adeline’s coordinates, and walking to my bike when Trance stopped me.

  “If you’ll give us an hour, we’ll ride with you. Wouldn’t mind a short ride, if you know what I mean.”

  I turned and eyed Trance. “Got some groveling to do, man. Not sure I want you to be witness to the shit I’m going to have to do to get her back.”

  Trance waved a hand in the air as if to clear it. “We’ll wait outside until you got that shit squared away. With luck, we can be back tomorrow morning, at the latest.

  ***

  Adeline

  “How long are you going to lay around and eat like that?” Viddy asked me over the phone.

  I looked down at the caramel covered popcorn in my hand and shrugged. “As long as I fucking want.”

  “You shouldn’t curse like that on Christmas Eve-Eve. It’s not very nice.” Viddy said as I heard fumbling and shuffling while she moved around in the background.

  Viddy was a klutz. When her other senses were focused elsewhere, she forgot to pay attention to her surroundings.

  “How’d you get there?” I asked, turning my attention back to the Sons of Anarchy TV show I was watching.

  I didn’t know why I was watching it. It just somehow made me feel closer to Kettle. That, and maybe I was torturing myself.

  I shouldn’t have read the letter after realizing what it was. I knew within the first three lines that I shouldn’t be reading it, but I was so horrified that I kept reading until the end of the page, not stopping to think until I’d finished it.

  Paul had invited Viddy to his parents’ house for Christmas Eve-Eve, and accepted, even though he’d refused to let me come. Not that I would’ve gone anyway. I was too deep in my wallowing to think of anybody but myself right then. Oh, and I was in Florida, nearly ten hours away.

  “Called a cab,” she murmured.

  I rolled my eyes. Of course she called a cab. Paul was a world-class prick. What else did I expect? He wouldn’t come pick her up. It was Christmas Eve-Eve, and Paul was busy. Why would anybody expect him to go pick up his blind girlfriend for their first Christmas with his parents?

  I couldn’t stop the snort of amusement. “Your boys a real winner.”

  “Yeah?” Viddy asked. “Well yours is a real winner, too. Who kicks his girlfriend out of his house in the middle of the night when he knows she has nowhere else to go?”

  “He was upset.” I said lamely.

  “Whatever,” she said. “Listen, I’ve got to go. I’m here. Wish me luck.”

  “I love you, Viddy. Merry Christmas. Good luck.” I said before hanging up, and then curling up on my side for a good cry.

  I told myself I was crying so much because of my period. In reality, I was feeling sorry for myself.

  He’d tried to call me within an hour of me leaving and to apologize, and I’d sent him a reply text to fuck off. He’d then told me to calm down, and it went downhill from there.

  Now I was in a hotel room in Florida, spending Christmas by myself, eating three different flavors of popcorn and watching my new favorite show.

  Oh, and ignoring Kettle’s calls.

  I was doing that very well.

  In fact, I’d left my phone charger, and had nothing left but the room phone, which had worked out well in my favor since my sister told me that he’d attempted to track my phone, but had come to a dead end somewhere in Alabama where my phone had died.

  Once withdrawing three grand from my 401K, I took it and drove to Florida, paying in cash for a weeks’ worth of groceries and a hotel room that overlooked the beach.

  Lucky for me it was the holiday season and it was discounted greatly. Otherwise, I would’ve had to settle for the crappy place across the street that didn’t have an ocean front view and no cable internet.

  My room phone rang, and I picked it up with annoyance.

  “What do you want? Jesus, I told you I’m fine!” I growled to my sister.

  The same sister who’d called me five times in the past four hours to make sure I wasn’t hanging myself from the hotel shower stall or trying weed for the first time.

  “Really? Well I’m not. Let me in.” Kettle growled from the other end of the line.

  I slammed the phone down in the cradle and glared at it before deciding the best course of action was to take a shower and ignore him until he went the hell away.

  Glancing at the lock to ensure it was properly placed, I started stripping out of the short shorts and tank top I’d bought at Wal-Mart earlier that morning on my popcorn run.

  I smiled when I saw the bathroom, thinking that when I finally had enough money, I was definitely going to be buying a showerhead like this one.

  After I paid back my 401K loan, and got a new apartment. And new clothes. And shoes. And food.

  Damn, but I was broke. I still had student loan debt to pay off, and I really shouldn’t have come to Florida. I was mad though; that’s my only excuse.

  Yanking my hair out of the messy bun on the top of my head, I stepped into the shower and directly under the heated spray.

  The water felt divine as it flowed over my face and head, before cascading down my body in rivulets.

  Reaching my arms up, I started to lather the water through my thick hair, sighing in pleasure.

  Then two arms slithered around my body, and I was eased backwards into a smooth, hard body. Laying my head back, I let myself be held by Kettle, letting my dreams flair to life, and then I viciously smothered them right before I turned in Kettle’s arms, reared my fist back and let it fly.

  I hit him in the eye.

  The bastard didn’t even flinch. Not even a single inch of movement.

  “I hate you,” I said before the tears started flowing.

  Kettle’s eyes closed as if in pain, finally, but not from my fist.

  He opened his eyes and watched the tears flow from my cheeks, trying in vain to wipe them away with the pads of his thumbs.

  “Please,” he said hoarsely. “Please stop.”

  I shook my head quickly. “I can’t. You really hurt me.”

  Then I disconnected from his strong arms and exited the shower. Grabbing the only towel off the rack, I briskly dried off before tossing it at him where he stood, dripping on the mat.

  He caught it with a forlorn expression and watched from the bathroom as I roughly started shoving my legs into a pair of sleep pants and shrugging on one of Kettle’s sweatshirts.

  Then I thought better of it, took the sweatshirt off, and threw it to the floor before going to the bag of new clothes I’d bought and pulled a tank top on instead.

  His eyes, watching the whole show, took in the act but didn’t say anything until I was fully clothed. Then he went about pulling a pair of jea
ns up over his naked, wet legs. Then proceeded to zip, but not button them, totally ignoring the underwear, t-shirt, socks, and shoes.

  I sat on the bed, and wrapped myself up in the comforter on the bed like armor.

  “Tell me everything.” I said softly.

  His head hung.

  “My baby was four weeks old when Rosalie’s boyfriend, at the time, found out the baby wasn’t his. The man fucking flipped, threw my baby across the room like a goddamn rag doll. S-she didn’t make it, but the guy continued to mutilate her little body. Then he beat the shit out of Rosalie. At first, they’d tried to pass it off like the baby never happened. It would’ve worked, too, if Rosalie hadn’t tried to act like the kid didn’t even exist to me. I called my mother, because I didn’t know anybody else to call. She went over to the house and didn’t see any sign of her grandkid. She was able to get to the police before my dad caught on, and they launched an investigation.” He said woodenly.

  I shook my head. The things coming out of Kettle’s mouth seemed so surreal, as if it was a movie or something. Things like that only happened if they were made up for a movie line. That didn’t happen in real life!

  “So what happened?” I asked sadly.

  Kettle shrugged. “My dad had to act like the grieving grandfather. On my mother’s part, I feel like it was actually genuine. The detectives launched an investigation. Rosalie’s boyfriend buried our baby in the backyard and then started a compost pile on top of it, just in case.”

  My heart hurt for him. I knew he could really use a hug right now, but we weren’t finished. We had a few more things to discuss before I even contemplated the possibility of being together again.

  “Why isn’t this something you were willing to discuss with me?” I asked as I plucked an invisible piece of lint off the comforter.

  His sigh was audible as he took a seat beside me. Not touching, but close enough I could reach out any touch him if I wanted.

  “I thought it was the talk of the town, honestly. I thought you knew already. It happened right in the middle of Benton and everybody and their brother still looks at me as if I might break if they’re not careful about what they say in front of me. It’s not an enjoyable thing to talk about, and it makes me so goddamn mad that I can’t see straight. Always has and always will. I’m only talking about it now because you need to hear it.” He explained roughly.

  I nodded. I could see that.

  “Did you read the letter?” I looked at him.

  He shook my head quickly. “I’m not going to, either. I don’t want to ever speak to her again.”

  “Would you like me to tell you what she said?”

  He thought about it for a couple seconds before shrugging. “I can’t promise that I’ll like what you have to tell me, but I’m willing to listen to you until I can’t handle it anymore.”

  “There wasn’t really much to it. She got out of prison last month. She’s sorry for what she put you through. And she was diagnosed with terminal cancer a few months ago. Really, that was about it. She just wanted to apologize for what happened to your daughter.”

  “So she didn’t say anything about what happened before that?”

  “No, she talked about the man that did it, and how sorry she was for lying to you about it. She wished she could’ve told you the truth at the time, and wished for you to forgive her if you could.” I said softly.

  At the shake of my head, he told me everything. Absolutely every single detail of what happened leading up to him joining the army, and what happened after that when he found out about his daughter’s death.

  “Your dad sounds like a huge dick.” I said into the silence afterwards.

  “Massive.” He said dryly.

  “You haven’t spoken to either one of your parents since?” I asked, finally turning to him.

  He looked sick. His eyes were haunted. His skin was pale and clammy. His fists were clinched so tightly that I was worried for the state of his knuckles if they got much tighter.

  Going on instinct, I reached out from my comforter cocoon and touched first one, and then the other fist with one hand, which he relaxed immediately.

  “My mom, one or two times around my birthday. My dad’s pretty opinionated though, so it’s rare if she breaks through his hold on her and works up the courage to call. I always talk to her though.” Kettle explained.

  “So where does your sister fit into all of this? How did she get kicked out?” I questioned him.

  “My sister’s really flighty. She’s a great girl, and I love her to death, but I don’t know. I guess she didn’t conform to my father’s wishes on not talking to me or something. He told her it was the trust fund or me. Of course, she was stupid enough to choose me. She’s one of the best people in the world, once you get to know her.”

  I nodded at him. “Your sister must be special to give up something like that. She must really care about you.”

  “She does, and I care about her.” He nodded in agreement.

  Moving out from under the comforter, I crawled to him until I was straddling his lap. My front plastered to his. It wasn’t sexual though. Not then.

  Looking into his eyes, I framed his face with my hands before leaning in slowly and kissing him softly on the lips.

  “Don’t shut me out again. Please,” I whispered against his mouth.

  He shuddered. “I won’t. I love you.”

  I smiled widely and hugged him a little harder. “I love you, too.”

  “I need to tell you about your brother. It’s what I was doing after my father dropped off the letter.” He said hesitantly.

  I sat back, putting some distance between us, but he didn’t like it and wrapped his arms around my lower back and pulled me back into his chest.

  “Okay,” I said cautiously.

  His huge hands rubbed my lower back soothingly as he started explaining. “It’s a major clusterfuck, but as far as we can figure...your brother’s right there in the middle of this whole fucking thing. The boys that were responsible for your apartment decided to play the blame game and tell the big boss that it was entirely your fault. He recognized your name immediately. Your brother owed him for some drug habit he couldn’t support fully, and his price was to be the go between with him and the makers. And you.”

  “Me?” I reared back.

  Kettle nodded. “Yeah. Gustavo Amadeus can’t let one of his employees get narked on and let it pass. He was set to make an example of you by putting every criminal in Northern Louisiana on your trail to bring you in, but then your brother’s debt fell in his lap, and he charged your brother with bringing you to him.”

  “Jesus.”

  Kettle nodded. “Your brother was supposed to meet Silas the next day but never showed. Silas is working magic on his end, but other than just starting to turn over rocks, we’re not real sure where to find him.”

  My head collapsed on his chest, and I shivered in dread.

  “You were right about the danger.” I rasped.

  His arms went around my middle and pulled me in tight. “I won’t let anything happen to you, I promise. They’ll have to get through me, and the entire Dixie Warden MC to accomplish that, and that sure as hell won’t be happening.”

  ***

  “Will you come home and spend Christmas with me and my family?” Kettle rumbled against my ear.

  I didn’t know why I was trying to get out of going home. Maybe I was afraid that if I did, things might change.

  “I already paid for the week here.” I tried. “It’s nonrefundable.”

  He laughed softly, making me bounce lightly against his chest.

  “I already took care of it. They only charged you for two nights. If you get out within the hour it’ll only be one.” He explained.

  “I didn’t buy anybody any presents.” I tried again.

  His mouth widened from a lip tilt to a grin. “I know damn well you did that weeks ago. You’ve been shopping on th
e internet for a while now.”

  I scrunched my nose up at him. “They’re probably really mad at me.”

  My laugh was audible now. “They actually think I’m the dumbass. None of them has any negative opinions about you, I promise.”

  “I drove my car.” I said weakly.

  My lips went from his ear, down his jaw, and settled on his lips.

  “I drove my bike, but I think we won’t have a problem getting your car back, honey.” He said as he stood up, walked to the window that overlooked the driveway and the beach beyond, then pulled the blinds backward.

  “Holy shit,” I breathed.

  Every single one of the men that belonged to the Benton Chapter was on the beach.

  The driveway was absolutely filled to the brim with bikes. Some even had to park in the sand. “How the hell are they going to get that bike out of the sand?” I asked worriedly as I saw one bike in particular buried midway up the wheels.

  Kettle’s eyes flitted to that particular bike and shrugged. “It’ll happen... eventually. There’s enough manpower.”

  Baylee was sitting on the tailgate of Sebastian’s pick-up feeding her daughter, and when she looked up and spotted me, she waved furiously.

  I returned the wave and dropped the window treatment before turning back to Kettle. “Thank you, Kettle.”

  He crowded me until my back was plastered up against the window and leaned forward. He was so close that I could see the striations in his beautiful blue eyes.

  “So, will you come home with me?” He rasped.

  At my nod, he smiled. “I love you, Addy.”

  My eyes filled with tears. “I love you, too, Tiago.”

  He leaned forward, closing the last bit of distance between the two of us and gave me a scorching kiss I felt to the tips of my toes before pulling back abruptly.

  His heat left me, and I stumbled forward with the loss of his body.

  Following my movements, I watched as he walked quickly across the room and stopped beside a large box, picked it up, and returned to the window that I was leaning against.

  “I had these made for you. I knew it had to be something different, since you can’t be seen walking into school with a huge ass ‘Property of Kettle’ patch across your back like all the other old ladies wear. Minnie spent a ton of time on these, and I really hope you like them.” He said as he took the lid off the box.