That was the beginning of the end of her teaching career. Still, her parents had stuck by her. Just when it seemed she was getting her life on track, she’d gotten involved with Trader.
He’d frequented the strip club and had befriended her. She’d thought he was her soul mate. He’d always been so understanding. Until he’d alienated her from her family and moved her to Washington State.
Digger stroked her cheek and she looked up, finding him looming over her. He smiled gently, his anger about the lie she’d told evaporating. “You not a whore, so it’s cool, girl.”
“Her name’s Albany.”
“No, Mrs. Hamilton, Albany a fucking city in New York. Her name’s Bunny.”
“Bunny was the name her cheerleading squad gave her, Mr. Banks,” Virginia persisted, hands on her hips. “The name she took on the stripper pole. Which is where she met Trader. She forgot about the local modeling gigs she had. She forgot about her now-useless teaching degree.”
Her mother blurting to Digger about her past made Bunny cringe. It wasn’t that she wanted to impress him or that she made it a secret from him. She just appreciated her new persona, that of Meggie’s assistant and Little Man’s Bun-Bun. She appreciated that Digger didn’t seem concerned by what she had been and only who she was now.
Before Bunny could decide whether or not to leave and never contact her parents again, Virginia spoke again. “Where’s Trader?”
Digger smirked, still standing protectively at her side. “Trader never bothering Bunny again. I told your ass that already, so chill with asking dumb ass questions.”
Even though Gabe had taken the money they’d given him to open his tattoo shop and followed her to Hortensia, it was Bunny they hadn’t forgiven. It was a double insult as a matter of fact. Falling for a law-breaking biker and stealing their baby boy away, though her parents had always encouraged Bunny and Gabe to be close and watch out for each other.
“You will respect my house and me, Mr. Banks, or you’ll get the hell out of here. We have no times for the likes of you and the company Albany prefers. If you want to stay here overnight, you’ll keep your filthy comments to yourself.”
“The company she prefers, huh? You don’t know me. How the hell you know what type of company I am for your daughter? I could’ve grown up in a fucking California mansion, having motherfuckers wait on me hand and foot.”
“Doubtful,” Virginia scoffed, although Bunny knew that was exactly how Digger had grown up. But Virginia’s response reminded Bunny of her mother’s quickness to pass judgment. That was one reason she’d been so determined to make her own mistakes with Trader.
“Why don’t you fucking ask me who the fuck I am before you turn into a fucking self-righteous cunt,” Digger growled.
Bunny gasped and got to her feet. It was time for them to go. This had been a bad idea from the start. Getting here by subterfuge had started the trip off on a wrong note.
“How do you know my daughter?” Virginia spat out. “What’s your profession? Where are you from? Who are your parents?”
Looking her mother up and down, Digger’s eyes twinkled, as if this was some big joke and not a serious situation. “Is this a form of meet the parents or some shit?” he taunted around laughter.
“I’m giving you the chance to explain your background,” her mother responded, her eyes sniping at him. “Giving you the benefit of the doubt. If there’s any hope of a reconciliation between my daughter and I, I want to make sure she isn’t making the same mistakes again.”
“In other words, fucking a biker.”
“Dating a biker,” her mother corrected.
“Who she going to fuck,” Digger pressed.
“Well, let’s hope she no longer has indiscriminate sex.”
Desperate for Virginia to drop the conversation, Bunny jumped to her feet. “Luckily, that’s not an issue. Mark isn’t a biker.”
He stiffened as if she’d offended him. Throwing her a disgusted look, he walked to the refrigerator and opened it, pulling out a Dr. Pepper, before straightening and leaning against the counter again. Once he popped the top and took a long swallow, he cocked his head. “They her mistakes to make, right? Unless she going around killing other motherfuckers for no fucking reason. Or hurting people for no reason, but your daughter not like that. She’s sweet and loyal and brave. You just need to give her a chance. By the way, I’m not getting in her pussy, so your fucking questions don’t apply to me.”
A gamut of emotions ran through Bunny at Digger’s defense of her, and if she hadn’t been so confused over her lack of feelings toward Trader, she might’ve admitted Digger stole a tiny piece of her heart in that moment.
Outrage pinched her mom’s features. “Is this some type of joke, Albany?”
“No, Mom. Mark and I are friends. Besides, I’m almost twenty-eight, way past the age where you have to give him the third degree.”
“Yes, well, your previous lack of common sense makes it my duty to ask the questions I’m sure you overlooked.”
Bunny growled. “This is the reason I’ve always hesitated to contact you.”
“Yet, here you are, Albany.”
“Here I was,” she said briskly and stomped to Digger, snatching his can of soda away and setting it behind him on the counter. She grabbed his hand. “Come on, Mark. We can find someplace else to stay while we’re here.”
“Albany?”
Just as she started to turn and drag Digger with her, her father’s incredulous voice boomed through the kitchen. Dropping her hold on Digger, Bunny spun and met her father’s incredulous look. They stared at each other and, for the first time since arriving, tears rushed to her eyes. Her ex-cop father and current private investigator stood there with a wide gaze.
“Dad,” she said quietly. “I was just leaving.”
Irritation settled into Digger’s face and he shifted, his hands falling to his sides. She knew he carried a gun and the fact that they wouldn’t have anywhere to sleep seemed to agitate him.
“Dad, this is Marcus Banks. Um, Mark, this is my dad, Walt.”
Her dad pulled his attention away to focus on Digger. Her dad’s narrowing eyes didn’t bode well. Neither did the recognition dawning in Digger’s face. But how would they know each other? As far as Bunny knew, they’d never met.
“I don’t fucking believe this!” Digger snarled, pacing. He banged the microwave oven. Both Bunny and her mother jumped. “Fucking Meggie, man.” He scrubbed his hands over his eyes. “Interfering little fucking cunt!”
Digger pulled his gun just as her Dad raised his, interrupting her intentions to defend Meggie. She had no clue why he’d made such an outburst. That, however, didn’t seem as important as Digger and Walt on the verge of blowing each other away.
“Lower your weapon,” Walt ordered.
“Like fuck,” Digger snapped back, then turned the barrel toward her mother and cocked. “You’re gonna pretend you never saw us, Riley.”
Riley? As in the club’s private-investigator-Riley? The Riley serving a club filled with bikers? That Riley? The same man who’d turned completely away from her the last time he’d seen her because she’d chosen to date a biker?
No fucking way! That Riley couldn’t be her dad. Her dad couldn’t be Riley. Absolutely not.
No way her clean-cut father was the club’s private investigator.
“Walt?” her mother said in a trembly voice, earning a glare from Digger.
Bunny hurried to him and grabbed his hand. “Don’t hurt her, please,” she cried.
“Why not?” he sneered. “Is it because I’m not a biker, Albany? Or because you can’t be involved with a fucking biker and live your own goddamn life? A biker would hurt her, right? A biker is somebody to fuck in the dark and ignore in the light.”
She’d hurt him, when she hadn’t meant to. She’d just wanted to find a solution.
“Why the fuck should I worry about a manipulating cunt like you?”
His use of the word sen
t reminders of Trader through her head and the way he’d christened her with a new name, he called her ‘cunt’ so often.
“I was the stupid motherfucker, thinking you different from Peyton.”
“And I was stupid to believe you’re different from Trader.”
His eyes widened at her comeback and he winced.
“I’m sorry,” she continued with as much dignity as possible. “I shouldn’t have pretended Mom knew you were with me, but I just wanted CJ safe.”
“Save your lies,” he snapped, affording her the extra incentive she needed to never involve herself with him. Even temporarily.
During their entire exchange, he hadn’t lowered his weapon, holding it steady and ignoring her dad’s. If he got jumpy, Digger might pull the trigger and hit her mother, while her dad fired his own weapon and hit Digger.
As an ex-cop, Walt had firing skills. As a member of the Death Dwellers, so did Digger.
“What are you doing here with my daughter?” Walt demanded, urging her over.
“Stay put,” Digger ordered, halting Bunny’s movement toward her dad.
“Where’s CJ?” Walt demanded.
“Don’t worry about the kid,” Digger ordered coldly, his hand steady. He sidled a glance to Bunny. “You ever tell Meggie about your folks?”
She nodded, still not understanding why Digger seemed to be blaming Meggie for her father’s involvement in the club.
Walt’s searching gaze roamed from Digger to Virginia and finally to Bunny. “Did you tell her you missed us and how you regretted your behavior?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
Digger and Walt shared a look before Walt heaved in a breath. “When the club needed a PI, Outlaw went to the brothers.”
“Put it up to vote and asked the members if they could recommend someone,” Digger added.
Bunny remembered Trader mentioning this around the same time she’d confided in Meggie.
Walt’s weapon wavered. Digger’s didn’t.
“Meggie discovered my occupation,” her dad continued, staring at Digger’s trigger finger. “She tried to talk Outlaw into hiring me. When he finally did get a PI, she didn’t know my identity, although I’m sure he took what she wanted into consideration.”
“That’s why she’s an interfering little cunt and Outlaw a stupid motherfucker for listening to her,” Digger burst out.
“They needed people they could trust,” Bunny told him. “Right? Isn’t that why he asked you for recommendations? Did anyone come up with anything better?”
“That’s not the point. Trader was the motherfucker who suggested this motherfucker,” he snapped, indicating her dad with the gun. “He thought he was doing something. I did, too. Fuck, we all did, but it had nothing to do with us. It was Meggie all the time.”
“Trader suggested Walt Hamilton. Just as Meggie did,” Bunny’s father cut in. “Not Riley with no last name.”
Digger threw him a dirty look. “We were all supposed to check our contacts, then take a vote. Two weeks later, Outlaw was putting the vote to have Riley…” His voice trailed off and he glared at her father. “Walt,” he spat. “Two weeks later, we voted him in. Now, I fucking know why he didn’t take nobody else’s suggestions.”
“How many other suggestions were there?” Walt asked, shoving his weapon back into the holster at his side.
Scowling, Digger did the same. “Fuck all. But that’s not the point. The point is Meggie not a fucking club member, yet she running that motherfucker.”
“You’re an asshole,” Bunny fired back, tired, fed-up, and wanting a shower, a meal and a place to sleep. “Meggie saved your stupid life. Trader,” of all people, “vouched for my dad. Outlaw must’ve seen him as trustworthy and felt he was within the network to put it up to vote. Besides, he didn’t just arbitrarily approve my dad,” she yelled. “He had you all vote to approve him.”
“What if this motherfucker had talked? Ever thought of that? You defending Meggie girl, but she need to keep her nose out of men’s business. You do, too!”
“You’re a jackass,” she hissed, suddenly so furious she could punch Digger. “You unfairly resent Meggie.”
“Because Peyton was right!” he snarled. “Every time I think about the bad shit, it’s Meggie’s fault. Just because she’s fucking alive.”
“Obviously, you’re blaming her for your situation. But it isn’t her fault. It’s yours. You were too stupid and arrogant to know better or to do better. You wanted to fuck them over because you were jealous, so, congratulations, not only did you succeed, but you fucked yourself over, too, genius.”
Walt cleared his throat. “Er, kids…?”
“That’s the way you fucking see me?” Digger barked, ignoring her dad’s attempt to interrupt. “As some weak, pathetic motherfucker?”
“If the motorcycle boots fit,” Bunny returned sweetly. “Outlaw’s a grown man and he puts Meggie in her place when he has to. With them, it works both ways. If he didn’t want my father as the PI, he wouldn’t have hired him, no matter who told him to. You and I both know that.”
“Maybe,” he conceded. “Maybe not. What I do fucking know is you bitches stick together, so fuck you.”
“Fuck you right back,” Bunny screeched, ignoring her mom’s indignant gasp. “You’re such a fucking meanie!”
Digger rolled his eyes, then brushed her mother aside to open cabinets. “You got some vodka around this motherfucker?”
“Walt?” Virginia cried, her eyes wide with uncertainty and hurt. “How could you? After all our arguments to Bunny about her motorcycle man. You’re working with them.”
“I’ll explain everything later, honey,” Walt promised, wincing at the tears in Virginia’s eyes. He cleared his throat. “There’s vodka in the den, Digger.”
Abruptly, the noise of slamming doors halted.
“Outlaw threatened harm to you if I decided to quit and then run to the cops. Or just plain run to the cops,” Walt explained in the ensuing silence.
Bunny shook her head. “He doesn’t hurt women.”
“I didn’t know that at the time. But I do know I’m a dead man if I ever betrayed him.” He nodded to Digger. “Which means your presence has put me in a helluva situation. I can’t very well call Outlaw and alert him that you’re here when you’ve brought my daughter home to me in one piece.”
“He still shouldn’t have hired you. Trader might’ve known you, but he didn’t.”
“I think I might understand, Digger,” Bunny answered because her dad seemed at a loss for words.
“I’m not fucking talking to you,” Digger fired off.
“That’s because you’re an overgrown child.”
Walt cleared his throat again. “I accepted because I could keep tabs on Albany. At first, I intended to get her away.” He shrugged. “Outlaw never held a direct conversation with me about her. He’d tell me Megan and Bunny planning another fucking party…”
Amusement lit Digger’s eyes and Bunny giggled at Walt attempting to imitate Outlaw.
He smiled. “You took care of his wife, which meant nothing and no one could touch you. Ever. Even if I got on the club’s bad side.” He dropped his gaze to the floor. “My way of making amends to you, Albany. I’ve regretted that last argument between us. We made you choose and you did.”
“I did, Dad, but I chose wrong.”
“We didn’t know that. Trader presented himself as a decent man. You could’ve been right, but we never gave him or you the chance.”
“They’ve separated, Walt,” Virginia inserted.
Walt gave a half-smile. “Indeed.”
With that one word, Bunny knew Outlaw had told her dad about Trader.
“Get something to eat,” Walt said, backing toward the door. “While I excuse myself for a moment.”
“No fucking way!” Digger exploded, grabbing his gun again.
Her mother wrapped an arm around Bunny’s waist and hugged her close, as if she were trying to protect her. It wa
s the first time since she’d hurt Virginia to the core of her soul that her mom had hugged her.
Bunny squirmed away and faced Digger. “What are you doing? Didn’t you hear—”
“The moment he walk away he’s ratting me out to Outlaw.”
Walt raised his hands. “I won’t,” he promised.
“Fucking liar,” Digger yelled.
“Give him a chance, Digger,” Bunny said frantically. “For me.”
Where had that come from? It wasn’t as if they were lovers.
“First, I let Little Man go for you. Now, you’re asking me to do something else for you. What do I get in return?”
“Whatever you want from me.”
That got his immediate interest and he lowered his gun.
“Virginia,” Walt began, “show Albany to her room. I’m sure she needs rest. Digger and I need to talk.”
“Dad, don’t do anything stupid,” she warned.
“Hush, Albany!” Virginia ordered, then slinked past Digger toward the door. “Come with me.”
Throwing Digger and her dad last pleading looks, Bunny did as her mother instructed, hoping she didn’t regret her decision.
Digger looked around the small office with a u-shaped metal desk where a computer and a landline phone sat, along with a banker’s lamp. The scent of air freshener didn’t mask the odor of cigar smoke. Two chairs sat on the other side of the desk and a bookcase with photos stood right next to the window. Near the copier stood a trashcan and, above it, a shelf with a projector aimed at the bare wall on the other side of the room.
“Have a seat,” Riley…Walt invited, after clearing his throat and indicating one of the beat up chairs.
Folding his arms, Digger shook his head. “I’ll stand.” In case he had to fire and make a quick getaway.
Bunny’s lie and her adamancy that he wasn’t a biker pissed him the fuck off. If she wanted to hide the real her from her prissy momma, so be it. He didn’t appreciate her hiding the real him. Besides, pretending she’d told Virginia that Digger would be with her could’ve turned out terribly. They might’ve been turned away after their long-ass journey that had taken all his cash. If Virginia decided to throw them out, they’d end up homeless and hungry, with not even enough money to return to the club if Outlaw allowed it.
Death Dwellers Motorcycle Club:: Fifteen Bad Boy Biker Books Page 253