I nodded, apparently still not able to form a coherent sentence. He gave me a gentle smile and then turned and walked down the hallway toward Austin's room. I walked down the hall and into my room, stepping into the bathroom and turning on the shower. The room quickly filled with steam and my senses slowly started coming back to me.
I got out of my clothes and stepped into the shower, letting the warm water wash down over me. I stood underneath a stream of water so warm, it was almost scalding. The heat of the water stung my skin – it was slightly painful but felt good at the same time. If nothing else, it was clearing my head.
By the time I stepped out of the shower and toweled off, my skin was bright red. But at least I was thinking straight again. I threw on some old scrubs and tied my hair back into a ponytail before heading down the hallway.
Damian's voice drifted down the hallway of my quiet little home. I stopped in the doorway, folded my arms over my chest and leaned against the frame, a small smile touching my lips. He was sitting up in bed with Austin snuggled up next to him. Damian's large body absolutely dwarfed my son's and made him look even smaller than he was. But he read to Austin with enthusiasm, using different voices for the different characters – something I didn't even do.
And Austin looked positively thrilled. He looked happy. Not that he wasn't happy with me, of course. But I also knew that he lacked a strong male presence – a role model – in his life. And while I wouldn't really consider Damian to be a good role model, considering what he did and who he ran with, he was a strong presence. And Austin looked really attached to him.
Which was a good thing – and a bad thing.
“The end,” Damian said and closed the book softly.
Austin yawned and looked up at him with adoration. “Again?”
Damian laughed softly – and looked like he might just give in to my son's request. There was a gentleness – a sweetness – I saw in Damian when he was with Austin that I never would have expected. It was surprising, to say the least.
I cleared my throat and stepped into the room. “Maybe he'll read it for you again tomorrow, sweetheart,” I said. “But right now, it's time for you to go to sleep. It's late.”
Austin groaned but yawned again. His eyes were already half closed by the time he laid his head down on his pillow. Damian pulled the blanket up over him, and then surprised me again by leaning down and planting a soft kiss on his head.
“Sweet dreams, buddy,” he said quietly.
Damian made sure to turn on the nightlight before he followed me out of the room, shutting the door softly behind him. I was still trying to reconcile the image of this big, burly man – a man given to a life of violence – and the gentleness he'd displayed with my son. Not only that but the look of near worship Austin had on his face whenever he looked up at Damian.
It was two worlds I'd worked hard to keep from ever intersecting – and yet, here they were, colliding, despite my best efforts.
We walked into the kitchen, and he pulled a chair out for me at the table. I gave him a small smile and took my seat.
“The babysitter dropped Austin off early,” he said. “She thought you were going to be here. I wasn't sure what to tell her, so I just told her I was your cousin.”
I laughed and shook my head. With everything going on, I hadn't even considered the possibility that Mandy was going to run into Damian.
“My cousin, huh?”
He shrugged. “Best I could do at the time,” he said, giving me that lopsided grin. “Sorry. I hope I didn't screw the pooch too badly.”
I waved him off. “Least of my concerns at the moment. Mandy isn't going to be a problem. She was probably hoping—”
I almost finished that thought but managed to refrain. Like Julia, Mandy had been pushing me to find a man. At least for a night. So, seeing a good-looking man in my house had probably made her happy. I was going to need to correct her about the nature of my relationship with Damian though – and assure her that his presence here was a temporary thing. Very temporary.
“Good,” he said, choosing to not press me to finish my last sentence. “Anyway, I made Austin some dinner. Thought you'd be hungry too, so I kept a plate warm for you.”
I looked at him, stunned. “You made dinner?”
He looked at me and laughed. “What, you don't think I know my way around a kitchen?”
“I–I'm just surprised is all.”
He just smiled and shook his head as he opened the oven. The smell that drifted out – I had to admit – was pretty amazing. My mouth watered and my stomach growled so loud, it echoed around the kitchen.
“Skipped lunch today, huh?” he asked.
I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Yeah, I suppose I did.”
He set the plate down in front of me. “Careful, the plate is hot.”
I looked at the meal he'd prepared and was floored. Lasagna and fresh garlic bread topped with mozzarella. It looked amazing. Seriously amazing. Perhaps – too amazing.
I looked up at him and grinned. “Did you order take out from Giordino's?”
Damian looked at me and smirked. “I'm not sure whether to be offended by that or take it as a compliment. It's made from scratch.”
I looked at him closely, trying to determine whether or not he was telling me the truth. And he certainly looked like he was.
“Seriously?” I asked.
“Seriously. Did you want a salad?”
I shook my head. “No, this looks great.”
I took a bite of the lasagna and felt my eyes roll back into my head. It was as amazing as it looked. I couldn't believe it. I tore into the food like I hadn't eaten in weeks – I was that hungry, and the meal was that good. By the time I pushed my plate away, I was stuffed, and the plate was empty. I'd eaten every last crumb of it.
“So, I take it my cooking isn't half bad?” Damian asked.
“Yeah, it was okay,” I said and laughed. “Seriously, that was incredible. Where did you learn to cook like that?”
He shrugged. “You pick things up here and there, I guess.”
Damian reached over and took my plate. “No, don't worry, I can wash my own dishes.”
“You sit down and relax. I got it.”
I sat back as he took my dishes to the sink and washed them, carefully setting them on the rack to dry. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It seemed like such a contradiction. He was a big, rough around the edges biker. He was an outlaw. He looked like the kind of man who hurt people for fun.
And yet, seeing him with my son, seeing that warm, tender side to him, had thrown me for a loop. A loop that had been deepened by the fact that he'd not only cooked me an amazing meal but had done all of the dishes as well. I was seeing a completely different side to him.
It wasn't what I'd expected from somebody like Damian. Not even close.
When he was done, he grabbed a soda from the refrigerator and sat down at the table. He looked across the table at me as he took a drink.
“Thank you,” I said, my voice soft. “For everything.”
His smile was small and grim. “You're welcome. But we're gonna have to talk.”
Chapter Twenty Two
Damian
It was strange sitting across the table from Cara. Back in the day, I'd been interested in getting in her panties, but that had been about it. Back then, she'd been a challenge. A notch on my bedpost – not that I ever actually got to carve that notch.
But now, sitting with her in her kitchen… it just felt different. It was hard to explain, but playing the domestic for the evening with Austin, fixing dinner, reading a story to him, and now sitting with Cara and talking to her – it just felt good. Maybe good wasn't the right word for it, but somehow it just felt… right.
I wasn't making sense, and there were a thousand different thoughts swirling through my head.
But I was going to have to wait to sort through everything in my mind. Now was not the time. I needed to get my shit straight and foc
us on the task at hand. And the task at hand was keeping Cara and Austin safe. Getting Mendoza out of their lives once and for all. The fact that they'd not only showed up at the hospital to rattle – and possibly abduct – her was one thing. But that they knew her real name was something else entirely.
It was a really bad turn of events. And it meant that I needed to figure some things out really, really quickly.
I had Cara go through the story again for me once more. Not that I expected anything to change, but I thought since now she was a bit calmer, maybe she'd have more details. She didn't really. But I didn't really need more. I had enough. Enough to know that things were going sideways really fast.
“I talked to Mills today.”
“You did what?” she asked.
“Relax. Crank brought my bike to me, and I rode out to the clubhouse.”
“Damian, you're not supposed to be doing anything like that until you're all healed up.”
I shrugged. “Can't really wait for that at the moment. Not with the Fantasmas breathing down your neck. I've got to get you clear of this.”
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again. She knew that I was right.
“What did he say?” she asked softly.
“He said that the Kings would back me, whatever my play was.”
“And do you have a play.”
I smiled ruefully at her. “Not yet,” I admitted. “I know that I need to get Mendoza out in the open. But I'm afraid he's going to see through any attempt I make to set up a meet.”
“I know if I'd shot you four times, I'd probably be a bit leery of meeting up with you anywhere.”
I laughed. “Yeah, probably. Which is my problem. How am I going to draw him out?”
We sat in silence for a moment, each of us pondering what to do. Mills' idea of using Cara as bait was still rattling around in my head, but I kept rejecting it every time it rose to the surface. It was too dangerous. Too much could go wrong. And there was no way I was putting her at risk.
“I just don't know, Damian,” she said. “I'm afraid that sort of thing is outside my area of expertise.”
I nodded, a small grin touching my lips. “Yeah, I know. But you're smarter than I am, so I was just hoping you'd have an idea.”
She was quiet for a moment before it looked like something had come to her. “Actually – I have an idea,” she said. “It's not one I'm real thrilled about, but I think it would be workable.”
“Yeah? What's your idea?”
She was looking down at the top of the table, running her fingertips across its surface. “Since Mendoza seems a little – fixated – on me, why not use me to lure him out. As bait or something?”
I shook my head. “No. Absolutely not.”
“Damian, it might be the only way to smoke this guy out of his hole.”
“I'm not going to put you in any more danger than I already have,” I replied. “No chance.”
She sighed and sat back in her seat. “Then I've got nothing.”
“It's okay. I'll figure something out.”
And I needed to figure it out quickly. There was no way of knowing when Mendoza was going to make another play to grab her. Which meant that I needed to get her some protection.
“I'm going to have a couple of the MC's prospects watch you,” I said.
She shook her head. “No way. I don't need a babysitter.”
I locked eyes with her, trying to show her just how serious this was. “Actually, you do. The fact that Mendoza is sending guys to rattle you like that shows that you're obviously still on his radar. Fixated on you, like you said. Which means, he's going to try to grab you again.”
“We don't know that for sure. He may just be trying to rattle me to make sure I stay quiet about what I saw when his guys tried to kill you.”
“I don't think this has anything to do with me anymore,” I said. “Not after what you told me he'd said the night they grabbed you. No, this is about his fascination with you. He's like a kid with a crush.”
“Gross.”
“Yeah. And don't forget, this is a kid with a crush who has guys who will snatch you off the street at his command. Which makes it necessary for me to have eyes on you at all times.”
Silence descended over us once more, and I could see that she was worried – and doing her best to avoid showing me that she was. But the way she was fidgeting with her hands and chewing on her bottom lip, told me another story. She was scared. And she had every reason to be. Not only for her but for her son as well.
I reached across the table and took her hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. She looked up at me and gave me a small smile.
“We're going to get you clear of this,” I said. “I swear it. I'm going to keep you and Austin safe.”
She nodded and squeezed my hand in return. I looked at down at her small hand in mine. She looked so tiny. So fragile. It made me want to protect her all the more. She didn't deserve any of this. And I was going to get her clear of it even if it killed me.
But as I looked at our hands, our fingers intertwined, I took a moment to enjoy the sensation of her soft, warm hands on my skin. I was again struck by how good and how right this all felt. In the back of my head, I started to imagine what a normal life with her would be like. Coming home to her and Austin after a day at work. Sitting and talking to her. Making dinner or whatever it was that normal couples did.
And I would have been lying if I said I didn't see the appeal in it. If there wasn't some part of me that craved that sort of life. I'd been in this outlaw kind of life for so long that spending a couple of days out of it was a shock to the system – but it was a shock in a good way. For the first time, I started thinking about a life outside the MC. A life with Cara and Austin.
But then, the part of my mind that dealt only in reality intervened and shut down that line of thought entirely. What did I know about a normal life? I was a King. I collected “taxes” and punished those who didn't pay. I ran drugs. I hurt people – and in some cases, really enjoyed it. I lived a life well outside the law.
No, there was never going to be a white picket fence, normal and boring suburban life for somebody like me. Most of all, because I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve somebody like Cara.
“Don't worry, I'll make sure the prospects are in normal clothing,” I said. “I can't promise they're going to look all that respectable, but I'll make sure they can blend in. And that their association with the Kings is hidden.”
She sighed and looked down at our hands – I noted that she still hadn't pulled hers away. “Okay. Thank you.”
I shook my head. “No need to thank me,” I replied. “You got dragged into the middle of something you never should have been. If anything, I'm sorry that you were.”
She gave me a small smile. “It's not your fault.”
She finally pulled her hand away and got up from the table. Walking over to the refrigerator, she got herself a bottle of water, twisted off the cap, and took a long drink. When she looked at me, I could see something in her eyes – something I couldn't quite place. I suddenly wanted to know what she was thinking. But then she looked away and whatever it had been disappeared.
“Did you find out about this Mills guy setting you up?” she asked. “Do you think he did it? Or are you just being paranoid?”
“No, I'm pretty sure he set me up,” I said with a sigh.
She shook her head. “What are you going to do?”
“Nothing right now. First things first. And the first thing is getting you out from under all of this. I'll deal with Mills later.”
She leaned against the counter and looked at me. “Can I ask you something?”
I nodded. “Shoot.”
“What are you going to do with Mendoza?” she asked. “Assuming you can lure him out.”
The last thing I wanted to tell her was that I was going to put two in his head. She didn't need to know the details. And I didn't want to share them. I didn't want her thinking a
ny less of me than she perhaps, already did.
“I don't know just yet,” I lied. “But I promise you that he'll never bother you again.”
She gave me a tight smile, and I sort of figured she knew what I meant. Knew what I'd planned to do with Mendoza – probably before she'd even asked the question. Which made me wonder why she'd asked in the first place. Maybe just to see how honest I'd be? I didn't know. But there was a little something behind her eyes that told me she didn't particularly object to Mendoza disappearing for good. And given what he'd put her through, I didn't blame her.
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