Rough & Real

by Hayley Faiman

  I laugh at his words, but I know he’s just trying to make me feel better about the situation. “I wouldn’t say that guys that go to the strip clubs are cheating, and that’s watching. I want to believe your justification, but I can’t.”

  “If he went to the strip clubs every day for hours at a time, and never came home, then yeah, I would consider that maybe not cheating, but not a devoted husband either,” Brian announces.

  My bottom lip trembles before I speak. “I thought I was so sure we were over,” I whisper.

  Chad sits down next to me and wraps his arm around my shoulders, tugging me against his side and I press my cheek against his chest. “Maybe this is the wakeup call you both needed. Look, it’s happened. You can’t take it back, but what you can do is grow from it.”

  I nod as more tears fall down my cheeks. He’s right. I can’t take it back, and he can’t take anything back. The only thing we can do is move on from now, and whatever that means I’m going to have to accept it. Even if it means that he doesn’t want me anymore.

  “Okay, it’s time to work this stress out,” Brian announces. I nod in agreement and Chad stands, holding his hand out to me and helps me up.

  “Training is on the house today,” Chad announces.

  We spend the entire morning working out. When it’s lunchtime, Brian goes and gets something healthy from this great little deli down the street, and we eat together. I spend the day with my friends, even though there are probably about a million and five things I need to do at home, I put them aside. I can’t spend any more time alone and inside of my own head. I’ll continue to berate myself and cry.

  “Who is this guy?” I ask.

  Riley parks her car in what seems like the furthest spot from the mall’s entrance as possible. I watch her, and wait. Glancing behind us, I look for the prospect that was assigned to watch us for the day. Riley lost him, totally and completely lost him.

  Her dad is going to lose his shit when he finds out. Then again, so is my dad. We’ve had someone protecting us for weeks, but Riley said it couldn’t be that big of a deal because we aren’t on lockdown. So, as soon as she could, she lost her tail and now we’re at the mall to meet some guy she’s been secretly seeing.

  Riley smiles widely before she starts to gush. “We met online. Oh my gosh, he’s so freaking cute. He’s twenty with blond hair and blue eyes. We’ve been talking, texting, and Facetiming every day for three weeks.”

  My eyes widen at her words. Riley isn’t really one to date much. Mostly because of who her father is. I have a feeling I’ll be in her same shoes in a couple of years. Boys at school are either afraid of our dads, so they pretend we don’t exist or they think we’re hoes. Not that any of those boys matter to me. I only have eyes for Bailey.

  “He’s bringing a friend for us too,” Finley grins.

  My mouth gapes open a little and my face heats with embarrassment. “They know you’re thirteen, and Benny has a little brother so he’s bringing him along. He’s going to love you, Rosalie,” Riley grins. I don’t respond to her, choosing to stay quiet. Doesn’t she realize, I don’t want any other boys?

  Once we walk inside of the cool mall, I see them. I don’t have to know anything about them to spot the group of boys across the food court as the ones we’re supposed to be meeting. There’s a tall blond, a shorter brunette, and another blond. They’re all wearing boots, jeans, and leather jackets. Even from a distance, I can tell that they’re trouble.

  “I don’t have the best feeling,” I murmur tugging on Finley’s hand.

  Finley smiles widely. “Don’t worry, babe. They’re cute right?” she laughs. “We’ll have fun and Bailey won’t even know. Besides, you need a little practice before you dive in head first with my brother,” she winks.

  The three of us walk toward the three of them, and I feel nothing but dread with every step we take.

  I’m sucking down an ice-cold protein and fruit smoothie in Brian’s office, late in the afternoon when my cell rings. I reach for it, from its spot at my side on the sofa and read the name of the person calling. It’s Mary-Anne and I assume she wants to drop Rosalie off from her shopping date with Riley and Finley, or maybe have me come and pick her up.

  “Hello?” I murmur as I answer the call.

  I hear a sob and heavy breathing. “Mary-Anne, what’s wrong?” I yell as I stand.

  Brian looks up at me from his paperwork and must read the panic written all over my face because he quickly stands as well and hurries to my side.

  “It’s the girls. We can’t-we can’t-we can’t find them,” she blubbers. “The prospect, he can’t find them.”

  All of the blood drains from my face. “What the fuck are you talking about? Where’s Rosalie?” I demand.

  Brian takes the phone from me and places it at his ear. “Calm down, honey. I’m Brian from Ivy’s gym. Now, tell me what’s happened,” he murmurs soothingly. “Okay, I’ll have her at the clubhouse in just a few minutes. Please tell me though, are you driving there yourself? How about you do me a favor, sweetheart, and stay put. We’ll come and pick you up on the way.”

  I’m standing frozen in fear, my body trembling slightly as Brian ends the call. “Okay, now we’re going to go and get Chad. I’m going to close down the gym, and we’ll all head right on over to your girl’s house,” Brian calmly explains.

  My eyes meet his and I can tell he’s worried, which scares me. “I need to call, West,” I whisper.

  “How about I call him, Ivy? I got a little more information from Mary-Anne and I don’t think he needs to hear your panic and fear right now,” he offers with a smile. I give him a jerky nod as he goes about his business of closing down the gym.

  A few minutes later Chad and Brian are both in the office and I watch as Brian punches some button on my phone and places it to his ear. What seems like hours later I hear Brian talk. “Hey, West it’s Brian from Ivy’s gym. Look, can you give me a call back when you get a chance. I have Ivy with me so just call her phone.”

  Chad wraps his hand around mine. “C’mon, let’s go.”

  “Tinker is my driver, he’s in my SUV we can just take that. I have to call my mother-in-law,” I ramble.

  Brian hands me back my phone as we walk toward the SUV. I ask my mother-in-law if she can take the boys for one more night. She asks me if everything is okay, and I lie, really badly. She doesn’t believe me when I tell her everything’s fine. She doesn’t push me either. She agrees and ends the call.

  “Tinker we need to pick up Mary-Anne and go to the clubhouse,” I announce as I slide into the passenger seat of the car.

  Brian and Chad silently climb into the backseat and Tinker turns around to look from them to me. “What the fuck is going on here?” Tinker barks.

  I shake my head. “I don’t know. Mary-Anne’s daughters and my daughter, are missing,” I whisper. Tears fill my eyes as my bottom lip trembles and I start to shake in fear.

  My baby, my baby is missing.

  Tinker doesn’t say anything else, but he drives like we’re on a racetrack. I don’t care, the quicker he gets Mary-Anne, and the faster we get to the clubhouse, the sooner we’ll know what the fuck is going on.

  When we pull up to Mary-Anne’s, I watch as she sprints from the house. Her guard is already on his bike when she opens up the back door. Mary-Anne climbs over Brian’s lap to sit in the middle.

  “Go, go, go,” she screams at Tinker.

  Tinker presses his foot to the gas pedal and we shoot out into the street. I’m thankful that the clubhouse isn’t very far from MadDog and Mary-Anne’s. It only takes us a few minutes to get there, and the gate is already open when we arrive. When Tinker parks, we open the door and silently file out of the car, running toward the club’s entrance.

  The bar is quiet, but full of men when we arrive. I look around frantically for West but he isn’t there. MadDog runs toward Mary-Anne and I watch as he pulls her into his chest for a tight embrace. She clings to him and begins to sob
against his chest. It’s too intimate to watch, but I can’t look away. They’re so in love, and so attuned to each other that even in tragedy, they’re beautiful together.

  “Do we know anything?” I chance asking MadDog after a few minutes.

  He glances over at me and his face goes hard. “Not yet. We’re getting footage from the mall’s security cameras. Hacker is getting into their system as fast as he can.”

  Chad tugs me against his side, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and I let out a sigh. Hacker will find out whatever needs to be found out. He came to us last year, he was military intelligence and he’s the smartest computer guy I’ve ever met. He’ll find my baby. I know he will.

  My phone rings a-fucking-gain. I’m only a few hours from home so I ignore it. Then, Soar’s phone rings and my brows tug together. He sits up and fumbles with his device before he places it at his ear and barks a hello. I glance at him and notice that he’s turned toward me his jaw hard and his face unreadable.

  “Yeah. Okay,” he grunts before ending the call. “How far away from the clubhouse are we?” he asks.

  I glance down at the clock before I look straight ahead. “About four hours,” I murmur. “What’s up?”

  “Pull over, I’m driving the rest of the way,” he announces.

  I almost tell him to fuck off but there’s something about his insistence that has me following his demand. I pull the empty truck over to the side of the highway.

  Without a word, I swing the door open and jump down. We switch seats and when we’re back on the road, Soar tells me what the fuck is going on.

  “Rosalie is missing,” he announces.

  My entire body locks up tight and I turn my head slowly to look at his profile. “Come again?” I mutter.

  “She went to the mall with Riley and Finley this morning. They’re all missing. Apparently, Ivy and her gym buddies have been calling you all day. Hacker just got the video feed from the mall’s food court and watched her and the others being led out of the mall by three punk asses.”

  The blood boils in my body, and it takes everything inside of me not to scream. My baby, my daughter, is gone. “Do they know who the kids are?” I calmly ask.

  Soar clears his throat before he continues. “Hacker’s trying to get into the government’s facial recognition program. He says he may be able to get something there if any of them have records. I can guess that it has to do with that punk who confronted Mary though. She said he was young.”

  We don’t speak again for the next four hours, and I keep my phone close. I listen to the messages, two from Brian, and one from Ivy. She sounds small and scared, and my doubts of being the man for her come forward again. I should be there for her right now. I should be out looking for our daughter, but I’m stuck in the cab of this fucking truck.

  I feel like a caged animal. Thankfully, the back of our truck is empty. Soar pushes the speed limit, and I know if we get pulled over, we won’t get hauled into jail for having anything illegal with us. When the clubhouse finally comes into view both Soar and I let out a collective sigh of relief.

  I open the door and jump out before he’s even put the truck in park and I spring toward the main clubhouse doors. When I wrench the door open, I search for Ivy. I find her sitting at a table, her friends Chad and Brian on either side of her and her girls across from her.

  She must sense me because she looks up and I watch as her eyes widen. I stay planted where I am as she stands and then it’s as if all of our shit just melts away.

  I hold my arms out for her and she launches herself at my chest, wrapping her legs around my waist and shoving her face into my neck. I hold her tight, feeling her warm body against mine as her tears touch my neck.

  “It’s gonna be okay, baby,” I murmur against her ear. “Everything’s gonna be okay now.”

  Ivy’s trembling in my arms so I carry her over to a sofa and sit down, her body still attached to mine.

  “Our baby,” she whispers against my neck. I run my hands up and down her back soothingly.

  “I know. Have faith, baby, we’ll get the girls back, and we’ll hunt those fucks down. I’ll take care of one myself, swear to fuck,” I whisper.

  She lifts her head and looks at me in the eyes. Her face is red and splotchy but she still looks amazingly beautiful.

  “I love you, West.”

  Her words are my undoing and I feel my own eyes water. I shake my head and choke back the tears, my hands fisting in her tank top. “We’ll work everything out, baby.”

  “Promise me?” she begs. “Promise me that we’re going to be okay, no matter what.”

  Lowering my head so that our foreheads rest on each other’s I whisper just loud enough for her to hear. “I promise, Ivy. I fucking love you, baby. Nothing will keep us apart, not ever again. We’ll get our girl back, then we’ll get us back.”

  I mean every fucking word too. I’ve been thinking for the past four hours about my life, about my family. I’ve realized a few things, and one of them is that I fucking love my family. They’re all that matters. I’ve been a selfish prick. That shit stops now.

  Ivy loves me, and all I can ask her to do is give my desires a try, and if she’s got some as well, I’ll give them a try, too. But, at the end of the day, I love her too much to ever walk away from our beautiful life together. I was telling myself a handful of lies when I thought I could.

  She’s mine, forever.

  MadDog barks my name and I peek around Ivy to see his furious gaze pointed directly at me. I’m not foolish enough to think that he’s angry with me. His daughters are missing just as much as mine is, and I know what a terrified parent looks like when I see one. Shifting Ivy off of my lap I press my lips against hers before I stand.

  “I’ll be back when I can, I need to be briefed. You’ll be okay?” I ask, wrapping my hand around the side of her neck.

  She nods as she bites the corner of her cheek. “Be right back, baby,” I murmur.

  “Okay,” she whispers.

  Leaving her on that sofa is fucking hard, but I do it. Once I’m inside of MadDog’s office I’m surprised to see Grease, Hacker, Torch, and Texas standing around. “I’ve called Fury, Sniper, and Dirty Johnny over to help us. They should be about halfway here by now,” MadDog announces.

  I’m surprised to hear that he’s called his son, brother-in-law, and another member of the Notorious Devils from Idaho over, but at this point, I’m grateful for any extra help. I don’t care who it is as long as they help me find my Rosalie.

  “Texas, activate lockdown. I need everybody here as soon as possible. Get a couple of the Old Ladies to the store to stock up on food. I want enough to feed a fuckin’ army,” MadDog growls. Texas quickly leaves without saying another word.

  “Hacker, update me,” I demand.

  Hacker lets out a sigh. “There are thousands of faces that their system is going through. I just have to let it do its thing right now. I scanned the parking lot video and tried to find the vehicle, and license plate numbers, but they’re smarter than I gave them credit for. They covered the numbers of the white van that they put the girls in. All I have are three guys and a driver, all between the ages of about fifteen and twenty-one.”

  “Fuck,” I curse.

  “What about hacking their phones? Don’t they have GPS trackers on that shit?” Torch asks.

  Hacker grins. “That’s my next mission.”

  “Then get the fuck on it,” MadDog barks.

  I watch as he scrambles out of the office and closes the door behind him. “I’m assuming this shit has to do with the fuck who confronted Mary-Anne and the one who was hanging around Bullseye?”

  “I’d bet my life on it,” MadDog announces.

  I splash cold water on my face and take a paper towel to dry it off, looking at myself in the mirror. I’ve been in these sweaty, stinky, gym clothes for almost twenty-four hours but I don’t even care.

  The eyes looking back at me are tired, puffy, and rimmed in red.
I want my baby back. I want this ache I feel to go away, and I know that it will when I have her in my arms again.

  Sending up a silent prayer I hope that she isn’t being hurt in any way. I can’t let myself go there right now though. If I do, I’ll imagine the absolute worst, and I’ll just make myself fucking sick thinking about it, although I’m pretty sure I’m already just plain sick with worry as it is.

  I let out a sigh and head out of the bathroom only to have an arm wrap around my waist and pull me back into the hallway. My body is shifted and my back slams against the wall. When I look up at the figure pressing me against the wall my breathing falters.

  Derek is above me, his eyes glaring down at me and his jaw hard. “What the fuck, Ivy?” he barks.

  “What?”

  He shakes his head once. “You think I didn’t see you run and jump in his arms? Kiss him and hug him? What the fuck?”

  “Derek, please don’t. What we did, it was a mistake,” I whisper, I beg.

  Derek doesn’t say anything else, his lips press against mine, hard and I put my hands on his chest to push him away. A couple seconds later he disappears and I open my eyes to see West is holding him by the collar of his cut, almost to the point where his feet are dangling in the air.

  “What the fuck is going on here?” West growls.

  I don’t waste even a second. “It’s not what it looks like,” I quickly announce.

  “Fuck it isn’t. It’s exactly what it looks like you fuckin’ asshole,” Derek growls. I slap my hand over my mouth in shock. “You treat your woman like shit, and she’ll go sniffin’ around other dick, man.”

  I gasp at his words. This is a side to him I’ve never seen before and my stomach roils. West looks from Derek to me, then back to Derek. “You get the fuck away from my wife, my Old Lady,” West growls as he releases him. Derek scrambles away from us as West stalks up to me.

  He wraps his hand around my bicep and pulls me further down the hall until we arrive at his bedroom. He throws me in and I land hard on my hip against the floor. “You leave this room and I’ll punish you, Ivy. I’m focusing on Rosalie right now, and I’m dealing with your ass later,” he barks as he slams the door closed behind him.