I see Mia walk up behind Ryan. She looks up at him and tugs on the back of his jeans. “Ry,” she says. Ryan’s eyes light up and he bends down to pick her up.
“Well, well, who is this pretty girl?” Paisley asks and walks up close to them.
“Her name is Mia,” Myra says, grinning. She walks up and stands beside Ryan. Ryan kisses the top of Myra’s head.
I grin at Ryan. Paisley’s mouth drops open.
“Well, Unc, I never thought I’d ever see the day,” Paisley teases and then hugs Myra. “Welcome to the family.” That’s my sweet girl. Myra’s face lights up even more.
“Time to go down!” Kyle yells, and all of the women hanging around file down toward the basement. I grab Paisley’s bag, while she is walking beside Myra, chatting with her. My baby girl was raised here, surrounded by family. Family doesn’t have to be blood; family consists of the people who would take a bullet for you and love you.
Liam became a full-pledged member right before he left for the Navy. He kept a close eye on my girl after she got attacked, and I know he cared for her, but he needed and wanted to make something of himself.
I hate to fucking say it, but I know as soon as he gets back, he is coming for my girl. If someone deserves her, it’s him. Not because he is a good guy, but because he will take care of her and protect her above all else.
The three years I knew the kid, I learned he had a fucked-up childhood until he moved in with Braelyn and Ethan. Ethan pounded some fucking good values into him. Once he has served his country, he will come home to us and be a part of the MC.
I walk inside of the room and set Paisley’s bag on the table when Ryan comes in with multiple bags.
“This door will be locked behind me. Chrystal knows the code and knows not to open it unless it’s for us. The building will be locked, the gate as well. Prospects will be outside of the building keeping guard. They will not be inside, but at all the entrances,” Kyle explains to the girls, and they all nod.
I walk over to Kayla, tilt her head back, and look into her eyes. I wish she could see me. She may not be able to, but her eyes are showing her love. I kiss her softly, a kiss promising I will be back. I then kiss her forehead and pull her into a hug. “I love you, sweetheart. I’ll be back in a bit.” I hear her sniff and then she nods.
“I love you, too, Torch.”
I pull away and it’s killing me to see the anguish on her face. I’m glad she can’t see mine. I would do anything to protect my family. This is for her, my brothers, and their futures. The future of the MC. These kids are who will be taking over one day; these boys will be the leaders, my kid, Jean’s kid, Kyle’s son.
I look at Kyle and Ryan. They share the same expression as me.
It’s go-time.
We walk out of the room our lives are in. Kyle shuts the door behind us and locks it.
Walking up the stairs and into the kitchen, we lock the door to the basement, then the freezer door.
“Prospects OUT!” Kyle yells, and the prospects scramble out of the building. “Two of you at every entrance and corner. You let someone get inside, your life will be forfeited,” Kyle says in a deadly tone.
They all nod.
Lane and Noah are standing by their motorcycles. They nod at us, and we walk over to our bikes and get on.
The police won’t do shit to us, even if we are caught, because we have all the chiefs of police in our pockets. Now, they won’t ignore it if we do something horrible, but the moral of the story is we are taking out some fuckers that have been terrorizing and hurting people, taking girls.
Kyle pulls up in front of us, Noah and Lane directly beside us. They lift their hands in the air and point forward. Go-time.
Kayla
We hear them leave. I close my eyes and try to not think of the what ifs.
“It won’t always be like this; and this is all for you. Those men aren’t the normal kind of men, but when they love, they love with all their heart. They will do anything to keep you safe. The Devil’s Rejects have messed with too many lives. Kyle told me they have kidnapped thirteen-year-old little girls.”
I cringe at the thought of what could be happening to those girls. Their childhood taken away, their innocence stripped.
“I hope they pay,” I tell Chrystal. I’m angry. They don’t deserve to be on this earth.
“And they will.” I can hear the sinister lilt to her tone.
“I want them out of my life. They had my baby at gunpoint and I shot the person who did it. I want her safe, by any means necessary. These men aren’t conventional, but they get shit done,” Myra pipes in.
I nod my head, agreeing. I was shot at, almost kidnapped.
I sit here and wait.
“This won’t be forever, girls. It’s just a bump in the road to your forever,” Chrystal ends the talk. Then we wait.
Torch
We stop in the next town over. Lane’s. He takes the lead and rides slightly in front of the other presidents. This is him showing this is his town.
Once we hit the middle of town, we split in halves. Half of Lane’s men, half of the Souls, and half of Noah’s. Kyle is with us, and Noah is with Lane.
We thunder down the road.
The house is located on a back road. I pull my gun out of my vest and click the safety off, noticing the others doing the same. We pull to a stop outside. Butch, Techy, and Trey run to the back, so the fuckers have no way to escape. I climb off and walk side by side with Kyle and Ryan, while the guys of the other MCs and the rest of ours are coming up behind us.
We walk up to the front door. Ryan kicks it in and we charge inside. Spotting a member in the corner with a gun, I lift mine and shoot him directly in the forehead.
Ryan is throwing off a succession of shots. When I see a man coming down the stairs, I lift my gun then walk farther into the building and shoot any gang member I see.
They fall around us yet keep coming like fucking rats. Once there is one, there are fifty.
After what seems like an hour, the gunshots fall silent.
My breathing is ragged from the adrenaline. Kyle touches my back. “We need to search this place for any girls.”
I walk down the hallway and see a door we haven’t checked. Ryan comes up beside me. I try to twist the doorknob, but it’s locked, so I take a step back and kick the door in. It’s pitch black. I take my phone out of my pocket and use the flashlight to see wooden steps leading down into black nothingness.
“Let’s go.” Ryan follows down behind me. I reach the bottom of the steps and shine my light against the walls, hoping to see a light switch, then spot one next to the step.
I click on the light.
The sight that assaults me will never leave me.
Ten-, eleven-, twelve-, thirteen-, fourteen-year-old girls along with some older women are in cages on a cement floor, naked, shivering from the cold in the basement.
That could be my little girl right there.
Rage like I have never felt before burns through me.
“Kyle!” I call, making the girls flinch. Fuck.
I hear a thunder of footsteps. A few girls start to cry. “We are here to rescue you.” I start to walk over slowly to the first cage when I spot the keys on a hook on the wall.
I grab them and walk over to the cage then unlock it while Techy walks up beside me with a blanket. The girls inside step out of the cage and into the opened blanket, her ribs sticking out of her fucking sides, her hair matted to the side of her head. Fuck.
Techy covers her up. Her hands twist in the blanket before she bursts into tears. “Can I go home to my daddy now?”
“Yes, baby, who’s your daddy?” I ask her soothingly.
“Lane Evans,” she says. Everyone in the room stops breathing.
“Is he the president of the Grim Sinners?” I ask her, and she nods, her eyes lighting up.
“My daddy is the president. My mommy said I couldn’t see him, because he didn’t want me, but if he is like yo
u, I want my daddy. Mommy is mean, too, so I want Daddy. They didn’t hurt me like they did the other girls, because they wanted something from him. Mommy gave me to those guys, because they promised her money from what they got from him,” she explains, her big doe eyes staring at all of us. Then she picks up a letter from the top of the cage.
Fuck.
She is Lane’s fucking kid? I didn’t know he had one, and if he knew, he sure as fuck wouldn’t have let her go.
“Kyle.” I stand up and look at him.
“How old are you, sweetheart?” Kyle asks and bends down to her eye-level.
“Eight.”
I close my eyes and grit my teeth.
“What’s your mom’s name, sweetheart?”
“Marie.”
“I’m going to go call your daddy now,” Kyle tells her, smiling.
Kyle
How can Lane have a fucking kid? Maybe it was a one-night stand? Holy fuck. No. Lane was in a relationship with this woman for like a month until her true colors came out. He got rid of her once he saw she was stealing from him and used heroin. He walked in on her shooting up.
He walked right out of her life and never looked back.
That was nine years ago. He was just straight out of basic training.
Fuck, man.
I dial Lane. I hate to fucking tell him we found his daughter in the bottom of that basement and was planned to be used for ransom.
“Everything go okay?” Lane asks as soon as he picks up.
“Yeah, man, but I have to tell you something,” I say and pace in front of the house.
“What is it, Kyle?” Lane asks in a deadly calm voice.
“There is a little girl down here in the basement who’s is eight years old, saying she is your daughter and her mother’s name is Marie. They were planning on using her for ransom. Marie handed her over to these fuckers.”
“I have a daughter?”
“Yeah, man, I guess so.”
“FUCK!” he roars.
“I’m on my way there now. If she is my kid, I will know.” He hangs up, and I put my phone in my pocket.
I walk back downstairs and look at all the little girls. Torch has taken his shirt off and gave it to Lane’s daughter. Now that I take a good look at her, I realize she looks exactly like Lane. Dark brown hair, with the same cowlick at the top of her head, her green eyes, the cleft chin; she even has the same nose as him. Fuck, she’s his kid.
“Jack, load the girls up and take them to where the police are waiting for them.”
“Come on, ladies,” Jack says to the girls, and they follow behind him.
Torch grabs another blanket off the wall and wraps it around the girl named Tiffany. Her name is Tiffany. She holds it tightly around her. “I’m going to take you upstairs, but you have to close your eyes, okay?” She smiles and says, “Okay.”
Because someone is coming to meet you.
Torch
We are all left reeling at the little girl. She looks exactly like Lane now that we know there could be a possibility she’s his kid.
Kyle picks her up and covers her head with a blanket so she won’t be able to see all the bodies that are littering the floor.
We walk outside, where I sit down on the edge of the porch. Kyle sets Tiffany down, and she walks over to me to sit down beside me. I wrap my arm around her instinctually. She hides her little face in my chest. I tuck the blanket tighter around her.
“You think he will like me?” she whispers. I look down at her. All I can see is her green eyes.
“Yes, baby, I know he will,” I reassure her, and that’s when we hear a motorcycle and see him flying up the drive. I step down from the porch and onto the ground. Tiffany is now completely hiding her face.
Lane pulls to a stop and gets off his motorcycle. He looks at all of us and then the little girl. Once he sees her, he doesn’t take his eyes off of her.
“Come on, sweetheart.” I turn to Tiffany and help her off the porch. She looks up at me and then at Lane, who stops dead in his tracks. He takes a few steps to her before falling down to his knees.
“That’s my daughter,” I hear him whisper. Then Tiffany drops the blanket and runs over to him but stops when she is in reach.
“Come here, baby.” He reaches forward and pulls her into a hug. She wraps her arms around his neck and starts to cry. I look down at the ground, because I couldn’t imagine not raising my daughter and missing out on so much of her childhood; and this little girl hasn’t had a good one so far.
“Can I live with you now? I don’t like Mommy’s house,” she asks him. I look up at Lane. His face is filled with fury.
“Yes, baby, you won’t ever have to see her again,” he promises; and he means it.
“Okay,” she whispers.
“Can we go home now?” she asks again, and Lane looks at all of us.
“The guys left before you came to go join Noah. He is taking out his town now. We thought it might be a good idea if we stayed behind and helped you.”
“Thanks, man. I need to get her some stuff, clothes. Fuck, what do little girls need?”
“Let me call Myra. My woman. She is a doctor. I can get her to pick up some stuff on the way. I will go back and get her,” Ryan offers. Lane nods and then picks up his daughter, holding her to him.
“I’m going to take her home now. Meet me there? My VP, Sergeant at arms and enforcer will be around also. We have to take care of the Marie situation,” he says, and we all nod.
Marie needs to stay away. She won’t be hurt, but she won’t be back in that little girl’s life.
Ryan climbs on his motorcycle and is off.
***
“She will be fine. She is underweight and will need a lot of hot, hearty meals, but is otherwise okay physically. She hasn’t been fed a proper meal in a long time,” Myra explains to Lane. “Eight-years-olds don’t need as many things as small children, but we’ll need all the necessities. Clothes, shoes, bathing products.”
Lane looks lost and almost afraid. “Hey, man, I raised Paisley alone since I was eighteen. I can help you.” I pat him on the back. He looks over at Tiffany, who is fast asleep, clutching a blanket.
“Also, I recommend her seeing a therapist. There is an amazing one I know in town. Her name is Braelyn; she works at the center. You can bring her there, and Braelyn would be more than willing to see her,” Myra suggests and pushes a strand of hair off her face before looking at Lane. “This little girl is precious. You’re a lucky parent”
Lane jolts at those words as it sinks in he is now a dad.
“I am going to wake her and help her get changed. Maybe you want to take her with you to get some things, yes?” Myra says and stands up from the couch. Lane’s house is huge, and he owns almost as many businesses as we do, though we have been up and running a year or two longer.
“Thank you, Myra.”
“No problem.”
She wakes Tiffany, who then follows Myra out of the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Kayla
One by one the men return home. When Ryan came and picked up Myra, the rest of us stayed inside the safe room. I held a sleeping Mia, who is sitting in my lap with her head on my chest and blanket tucked under her neck.
Five minutes ago, we were let out of the room and into the main room. I am guessing it’s all over. I sit here in silence waiting for Torch. For him to hold me and let me know he is okay.
I feel Mia waking up as she starts wiggling in my lap. I shift her and cover her back up. She stops moving, so I know she is going back to sleep.
“I can take her,” Ryan whispers into my ear. I jump for a second but then nod. He moves his hands under her little body and lifts her out of my lap.
“Where’s Torch?” I ask him and stand up. I twist my hands together in front of me nervously.
“I’m here,” Torch says, and I close my eyes. My knees buckle, and then I am in his arms. I lay my forehead against his shoulder and breathe in his scent.
“Is it over?” I ask him.
Torch stops his hand that is moving up and down my back. “Yes, baby, it’s all over.” I let out a sigh of relief. No more gangs, no more worries.
“Daddy!” Paisley yells. I pull out of his arms and hear him step away from me as Paisley comes running over. “I’m glad you’re okay,” I hear her say and smile.
“Yes, baby, it’s over and done.” I hear him kiss her and smile again. Torch loves his daughter. He raised her alone; yes, he had help; but still, he was the one who got up each night changing her diaper, feeding her, loving her. Fixing her hair, dressing her.
It’s hard to believe I got so lucky to have someone like that. With the gang gone, there won’t be any more worries.
Or so I thought.
Torch
Later that night
Kayla is lying on her back with my head on her chest. I am palming her baby bump. Paisley is asleep in her bedroom. She’s staying until she goes back to college in the morning.
“Torch?” Kayla asks, and I lift my head from her chest and look at her.
“Sweetheart?” I push her hair out of her face and she smiles. If she only knew how beautiful her smile is.
“I would like to adopt Paisley.”
My eyes widen at her words.
Kayla chews on her bottom lip nervously, and I push myself up so I am sitting on the edge of the bed.
“I know I wasn’t around for the most important years, but I want to be her mother. As much as Paisley would let me,” she explains. I can’t stop the smile that crosses my face. Kayla is everything and so much fucking more I could have ever imagined.
“I would want nothing more, baby, but ask her in the morning?” I suggest and lie down onto the bed. I clap my hands, turning off the lights. “All right,” she whispers and snuggles into my chest. I kiss the top of her head and stare up at the dark ceiling.
***
“Yes!” Paisley cries and walks over to Kayla, hugging her. Kayla wraps her arms around her while Paisley cries into her shoulder.
Fuck, I can’t handle all this fucking crying.
Kayla just asked Paisley if she could adopt her. And Paisley said yes. It fucking hurts that my baby girl wanted a mom for so long and never had one. I wanted to give her the world, but I could never give her that.
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