by Sadie Savage
Tommy seemed to sense the panic in Jake’s voice and ran toward the car as Jake dialed the rescue squad. Tommy didn’t bother to adhere to the speed limits as they drove through town toward Jake’s house. Jake was the vice president of the Motorcycle Club. Everybody knew better than to get on their case. They were outside the law, for the most part. The MC was powerful.
Tommy was the last person he wanted to be with in a crisis. All Tommy did was talk to hear himself talk, and he seemed to talk even more when things were tense. “So how about that Michelle chick, eh?” Tommy asked, glancing at Jake with a lewd smile on his face. “Is she something or what?”
“She’s half our age, Tommy,” Jake sighed. But the truth was that he had noticed Michelle- on many occasions. Her legs went on for miles, and her face was the perfect combination of sexy and sweet. She hadn’t been hardened yet, like the rest of the people Jake spent his time with. And those eyes! He would kill to have a few moments alone with her, just to ask her what she was thinking about that made her eyes glitter the way they did.
“Still, man! She’s like movie-star hot!”
“Whether she is or not, she’s Kent’s daughter. What would he do to you if he knew you were talking about her like that?”
Tommy sobered at the thought of the MC’s president finding out what he was saying, and Jake couldn’t help but smile grimly.
“I won’t tell, Tommy,” he promised.
They finally reached the street where Jake’s house was and his heart hammered in his chest. Red lights were flashing and there were several cars parked outside. It looked like the whole goddamn neighborhood was there. Was his son all right?
“Shit, what happened here, Jakey?” Tommy said. He let out a low whistle as an ambulance and a police car sped away, and two police cars stayed behind.
“Are you the parent for this household?” the first officer asked when the men got out of the car. “What’s your name?”
“If you don’t mind, this is Jake fuckin’ Desmond, all right?! Vice president of the Pythons. Or haven’t you heard? And he’d really like to go and see if his son is all right,” Tommy said, stepping a little too close to the officer.
“Gentlemen, that will be enough,” the second officer said, stepping between Tommy and the cop. “There was a little trouble here and it just seems that under most circumstances, negligence like this could lead to some serious issues. These are both really young kids, you know. We just don’t want to see anything happen to them.”
Jake felt sick. If his wife were still alive, none of this would be happening. Or maybe if his hours at the MC weren’t so god damn demanding and unpredictable. Either way, something had to change. He had known it for a while now. But what?
“I understand officer, and thank you for the concern,” Jake said, mustering as much of his calmness as he could. He hated the cops of Henderson county, but he was grateful that somebody had been able to be there to comfort his kids until he arrived. “Where is Mary?”
“She’s in the ambulance with her brother. They were both pretty excited about the ride. One of the paramedics is looking after her.”
“Thanks,” Jake grumbled. “I’d like to head to the hospital now.”
“All right,” the officer said, sticking his notebook back in his pocket. “But I just want you to know that if this were anybody else, you’d have some reckless endangerment charges on your hands. We’re going to let you off with a warning though. Go be with your kids. And hire a babysitter or something next time, would you?”
Jake glowered, but he couldn’t say anything. The officer wasn’t wrong. He had been being a bad parent. He was going to need to have a talk with his boss about this. He nodded at the officer and Tommy took him by the arm back to the car. Nobody in the MC could stand the do-gooder cops here, but it was even worse when they had a point.
Jake and Tommy headed to the hospital and Jake stared out the window darkly. Something had to give. He just had to figure out how.
Chapter 2
“Michelle, I need you to bring us some coffee.”
Kent, the President of the Python MC and Michelle’s father, poked his head out of his office to look her sternly in the eye.
“Fine,” Michelle sighed.
One would think that being the daughter of the MC’s president would be an enviable position, but the reality was that she hated waiting on bikers left and right. She couldn’t see herself ever enjoying the company of such brutish men, and it made her miserable to feel obligated to serve them just because she was the president’s daughter.
She felt trapped there and longed for better things, like a college education and a smart, sophisticated boyfriend. But her father always had a way of driving away her dreams and getting her to do his bidding. She couldn’t help but do as he asked, because she loved him deeply. Dealing with the MC was the only way she ever got to spend any time with him.
Outside the MC, her father never had time for her. When he did, it was just to ask her to do things for him. But she was almost 22. Wasn’t it time for her to pave her own way? What would she do for the rest of her life? Serve coffee and beer to angry bikers?
Michelle grabbed a few cups and put them on a tray with a full coffee pot. She didn’t know how many people were in the office this time. Her father was a very popular man.
“It’s just that my kids need someone there with them and I can’t always find someone on such short notice!”
Michelle stopped in her tracks. She would know that voice anywhere. It was Jacob Desmond, her father’s second in command. He had been around since she was a kid. She remembered really liking him the first time she saw him, but she lost interest after seeing his temper rear its ugly head. Jake was a scary man- the epitome of everything she hated about the Motorcycle Club.
To make matters worse, she was pretty sure he was involved in some hard drug pushing. Everyone swore that Jake had nothing to do with it, but Jake’s wife overdosed on heroin and died just a few years ago. It had worn Jake down, you could tell by his eyes, but he was still just as rowdy as ever. But now he came and went, and Michelle’s father was often complaining about how unreliable Jake had become. It made perfect sense to Michelle though, if Jake was a heroin addict like his wife had been.
“Here’s your coffee,” Michelle said loudly before walking into the room. She locked eyes with Jake and glowered. It had never done her any good to pretend to be nice to the men at the MC. They just took it as a come-on. He held her gaze for a moment, electricity crackling between them.
“Thanks, sug,” her father said. “Mind pouring us a glass?”
“I can’t keep working like this,” Jake continued as if Michelle wasn’t even there. “It’s not good for my kids, and it’s not good for the MC. I need to figure something out. Either give me steady hours, or I don’t know. I can’t keep doing this.”
Kent was quiet for a moment. “I have an idea.”
Michelle glanced up at her father and sat the coffee pot down. There was no way he was just going to let Jake take more time off from the MC. It was the busiest it had been all year and his father had a lot of plans in the works.
“Well hell,” Jake exclaimed. “I’m open to all suggestions. But I can’t put work before my kids anymore. JJ broke his fucking elbow yesterday because you had me run after that bag of weed the Raptors stole. My kids are still just fucking kids, you know. I can’t let anything like that happen again.”
It was surprising to Michelle to hear Jake speak so fervently about his children. He never mentioned them much before- at least, not when she was around. What kind of biker liked to keep a picture of his kids in his wallet? Not the kind her father employed, that was for sure. Emotion made you weak.
“No, I think I have the perfect solution for you. What if we got you kind of like a live-in housekeeper. Or someone from the MC who knew exactly what was going on and when to leave so your kids wouldn’t be alone ever again.”
“How would we ever possibly arrange that?�
�� Jake grumbled. “You think I want a bunch of wily bikers watching my fuckin’ kids? Really?”
“Well what if it wasn’t a wily biker? What if it was Michelle?”
“What?!” Michelle exclaimed. “What makes you think I’d be any good with kids?”
“Oh please, honey. I’ve seen you with your little cousins. You’re a natural. You’d be willing to help Jake out here, wouldn’t you? What do you think Jake? Would you trust my kid with yours?”
Jake was quiet for a moment, staring darkly at the coffee pot in front of Michelle. She felt heat rise to her cheeks. She couldn’t imagine herself in this man’s house, let alone near his children. What the hell was her father thinking?
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