“Are you—”
I shot him another look and he drew in a deep breath through his nose.
“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” he whispered harshly.
“Trust me, I’m just as pissed as you are right now. She’s putting everything in jeopardy. But there has to be a reason. I know there’s something she isn’t telling me, and I think it has to do with why she left in the first place.”
“You told us she was captured when she was younger.”
I nodded. “After she was kicked out of her parent’s place. Look, it’s a long and complicated story. But Amberly had plenty of resources if she’d just come back to school. And she didn’t. Her parents kicked her out, and she stayed gone. Does that sound like a scared eighteen-year-old to you? A scared and sheltered eighteen year old?”
He shrugged. “I went through some rough shit at eighteen years old.”
I rolled my eyes. “Never mind.”
“Look, I get it. I get what you’re saying. But this is fucking serious. Is she about to turn on us? Is she about to tell him some shit she shouldn’t be? Why is she reporting to this guy? And where the fuck did she learn how to ride a motorcycle?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m hoping to get some answers simply by looking.”
The both of us turned our attention back to Amberly. And the more she paced, the more worried I grew for her. Yes, I was upset. Yes, I was struggling with all this. Yes, I kind of wanted to pop out, throw her over my shoulder, and drag her the fuck back to the warehouse. But I needed answers.
And I had a feeling this encounter would give them to me.
“So, we just gonna hunker down and wait?” Ryker asked.
“Yep,” I said, popping the “p”.
“You know how long we have to be waiting?”
“If you’re going to keep asking questions like this, I’ll be good on my own. Just try to fend Diesel off once y—”
Loud classical music went off in the distance and paused. Ryker furrowed his brow, and I noticed that Amberly stopped pacing. Every single part of her perked up. She kept looking around, whipping her head from side to side. As if it were on a desperate swivel. She recognized that music. She knew what was coming. And as I turned the engine of my bike off, I slipped away from it. Crouching behind the truck just in case I had to run after her.
Then, a gaudy-ass red SUV pulled up.
“Yep. Looks like the mafia all right. Way too much money, and not enough sense to use it,” Ryker murmured.
“Shh,” I said.
I put my gun on my holster as Amberly started trembling. Even from a distance, I saw her shaking. My heart ached for her. Even though I was pissed off with her, I still wanted to pull her close. I still wanted to soothe her. I still wanted to tell her it’d be okay. And as I watched some grimy, black-suited motherfucker climb out of the SUV, my blood boiled.
“Easy does it, Saint. If you want answers, you can’t kill the man yet,” Ryker murmured.
I wished to fuck on high I could’ve heard their exchange. Their conversation. But all I could do was read Amberly’s body language. She was frightened but determined. Cowering away, yet standing her ground. It was the strangest dichotomy I’d ever witnessed, and I figured this big secret had to be important. Worth giving her life over. And there were only a few things in the entire world I could conjure in my mind’s eye that were worth giving my life over.
“Nah, it couldn't be,” I murmured.
“What?” Ryker whispered.
I watched that mafia maniac touch Amberly and I tensed. I gripped my gun and pulled it out of its holster, only for Ryker’s hand to come down against my forearm. It damn near knocked my gun to the ground and I shot him a deadly look. One that told him he really needed to watch his fucking ass.
“Chill out. Take some breaths. You’re about to ruin your quest for answers, man.”
“I don't like him touching her,” I grumbled.
“Should we intervene, then? Because I got you if we do,” he said.
Then, I heard a door rip open off in the distance.
“Mommy!”
I whipped my head back around and watched a kid leap forth from the SUV. And when I saw him, my jaw dropped open. My eyes widened. Amberly sobbed from a distance as she wrapped her arms around the kid, burying her face into his dirty blonde hair. I couldn't catch my breath. I watched the two of them embrace as Amberly tried picking him up. She grunted and groaned, holding this kid next to her as he clung to her. Tightly. Calling her the one thing I never would have suspected was part of all this.
Holy fuck, Amberly had a son.
“Saint?” Ryker asked.
“I see,” I said flatly.
“That wasn’t what I was gonna ask.”
I slowly holstered my gun. “‘I don’t know’ is the answer to your next question.”
I ran my eyes over the boy as Amberly pulled away. And when she smoothed his hair back, even I saw the keen resemblance. The shape of his jawline. The length of his legs. The way his shoulders stood so broadly, even for a child. The kid even had the same small hump at the base of his neck that I had. A physical deformity that would only be physically covered up by muscle, should he want to cover it up as an adult. His legs slightly bowed like mine. His hair was thick and wiry, like mine. Even his damn lips were shaped like mine.
Holy fuck, that child looks just like me.
I stood there, unable to get my bearings as I watched Amberly hold this child. Cradle this little boy as if it were her life’s force. She cried. He cried. They both cried together as they spoke with one another. And again, I wished to the heavens I knew what they were saying. It broke my heart, watching the scene unfold. Hearing Amberly’s desperate sobs rise above the chaos of the restaurant parking lot made me want to put a bullet between Vlad’s eyelids.
It all made sense now.
“Holy shit,” I whispered.
“Yep. I see why she kept that from you now,” Ryker murmured.
I elbowed him in his ribcage, wanting nothing more than for him to shut up with the sarcastic remarks. I hadn’t asked Toxin to come on this mission with me for a fucking reason. But damn, if Ryker didn’t sound just like him right now.
“How could she not have told me?” I asked.
Ryker sighed. “Dude, you said it yourself. She got kicked out. She was probably already in the hands of Vlad and the mafia by the time she figured out she was pregnant.”
I shook my head. “No. No, no, no. She told me she went back to her parents.”
“Say that again?”
“Amberly told me she went back to her parents. Went back to try and beg for them to take her back. I know for a fact now she did that because she found out she was pregnant. It’s the only thing that makes sense.”
“You don’t know that for sure. For all you know—”
“I know her.”
Ryker sighed. “You slept with her. There’s a difference.”
I gripped Ryker’s arm before whipping him around. I pinned him against the truck, glaring at him with a force unrecognizable to even myself. His hands fisted my leather jacket, keeping me as bay as I leered at him.
“I’ll put a bullet in your thigh if you don’t settle down,” he said in a warning tone.
“I. Know. Amberly. I know she went back to her parents because she figured out she was pregnant. And if she went back to them, she could’ve come to me to talk. She could have at least done me that courtesy.”
I shoved Ryker into the truck before I let him go.
“And what would you have done if she had? Hmm? An eighteen-year-old flunk-out of high school with no plans for college? You really telling me you would’ve taken on some random pregnant chick and a kid back then, Saint?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. But I guess know we’ll never know. And that’s the fucking point.”
And as Amberly’s voice hit my ears, I heard it turn to desperation again. I whipped around, only to see Vlad reach
ing for that child. I pulled my gun and aimed it at his fucking head. I cocked it, feeling the metal settle into the palm of my hand. But before I could shoot him, Ryker wrestled the gun away from me. He ejected the magazine and stored it in his pocket while Vlad and Amberly went back to talking.
“Cool. Your fucking. Jets,” Ryker murmured.
My emotions were all over the place. And I didn’t know what the hell to do about any of it.
20
Amberly
“No. Please. Stop, please!” I exclaimed.
I held tightly onto my crying boy as Vlad reached for his shirt. He tried wrestling my son away, but I threw all my energy into keeping him with me. Mason cried out for me. He wrapped his hands into my shirt and shrieked as loudly as he could. And the second Vlad smacked his hand over my son’s face, I wanted to rip his fucking throat out. Mason’s eyes bulged. Tears soared down my cheeks. He wrestled my son away from my grip and I dropped to my knees, begging Vlad to let him stay.
“Please! I’ll do anything. Just tell me what to do to get more time with him!”
I reached out for my son, watching as Vlad stopped in his tracks. The wild, mischievous smile on his face made me retch. Gag. Heave, in front of my son. But he released him back to me. Mason scuttled across the ground, wrapping his arms around me as I knelt there on my knees. I buried my face into the crook of his neck, my mind spinning out with emotions I no longer knew how to control.
“Please don’t let him take me away again,” he said, sobbing.
“I love you. I love you so much. Always know that,” I whispered.
“First, I need to hear from you that you agree to the plan. In full,” Vlad said.
“I’ve already done that,” I spat.
A hand twisted up into my hair and my head wrenched back.
“Mom!” Mason exclaimed.
“You backtalk me again and he’s dead. You hear me?” Vlad hissed.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Give me another chance,” I whispered.
“Good. That’s what I like to hear. I want you to repeat after me.”
“Okay. I will. Yes.”
“I promise to fulfill the tasks set before me,” he said.
“I promise to fulfill the tasks set before me,” I said.
“By my boss, from his boss,”
“By my boss, from his boss,”
“Until the tasks are completed and it’s time to come home.”
“Until the tasks are completed and it’s time to come home.”
“And then, at that time,” he said.
“And then, at that time,” I said as tears streamed down my cheeks.
“I shall return to my latent duties and reclaim my former position as a worker for the Norden Crime Family.”
Oh, no.
Vlad paused. “I can’t hear you, sweet girl.”
“I shall return to my latent duties and reclaim my—my former—”
Mason nuzzled tightly into me as Vlad grinned down at my face. There it was. The one thing he wanted to make sure of. He wanted to make sure I knew that I had to return back to him. That I had to come back and continue slaving away as some sex object for the rest of my days. I ran my fingers through Mason’s hair. I tried settling him down as I gazed up into the eyes of my captor. With his hand tightening in my hair, more tendrils came lose. More hair broke off, destined to create more bald patches of skin he’d eventually kill me over.
Since they weren’t “pretty,” and all that.
“And then, at that time, I shall return to my latent duties and reclaim my former position as a worker for the Norden Crime Family,” I whispered.
“Good girl,” Vlad said.
He shoved my head and I went tumbling to the ground. Mason came with me, settling on top of me as I laid there on the asphalt. He cried into my neck as I stared up at the sky, debating whether or not life was worth living any longer. I mean, what kind of life was Mason living anyway? Maybe we were better off dead.
Maybe the both of us were better off trying this again in another life.
“You’ll check in daily, or he pays the price,” Vlad said.
“Okay,” I said softly.
“You’ll update me on any physical ventures required for this job.”
“Okay.”
“And when all this is done, you’ll return to me. Where I’ll nurse you back to health before you start work again.”
“And get time with Mason?” I whispered.
I slowly looked over at Vlad and watched him nod.
“If you’re a good enough girl,” he said.
I knew he was just pulling a power play. Just to drive home the point that I was his and no one else’s. But I wanted more time with my son. I wanted more time to figure this out. And maybe, just maybe, the right opportunity might present itself. Maybe, just maybe, Mason and I could somehow get away from all this today. Away from Vlad. Away from Saint. Away from the biker gang and away from all this fucking nonsense.
Just me and him. Like it should have been in the first place.
“Mommy, what’s happening?” Mason asked through his sobs.
I kissed the top of his head. “Nothing, sweetheart. I’m just working, that’s all.”
“Then, quit this job. He’s mean, Mommy. You deserve a nice boss.”
Vlad chuckled and it made my stomach turn.
“I got a deck of cards if you guys want to play,” he said.
I sat up with my child and nodded my head. I held out my hand, feeling the cards drop down into my palm. And as we sat there on the asphalt, covered by the shadows of a restaurant, I held Mason in my lap. The two of us played all sorts of card games, even though we could see one another’s cards. We played Go Fish. We played through a game of Solitaire. We sat there, silently, trying to soak up as much time as possible with one another.
All while the restaurant emptied out, counting down the minutes until we had to part again.
“I love you, Mommy,” Mason said.
I kissed the top of his head. “I love you too, kiddo. So, so much. Always remember that, okay?”
“How much more time do we have?”
I peeked up at Vlad and he flashed me five fingers.
“Five minutes,” I whispered.
“It’s not enough time, though. You need more vacation,” Mason said, his eyes filling with tears.
“It’s okay. Hey, hey, hey. Sweet boy. It’s okay, I promise. Soon, Mommy will be spending a lot of time with you, okay? She’s got a lot of vacation time coming her way, where she’ll recuperate and things like that.”
I looked back up at Vlad and saw him shrug. Like he was thinking about not holding up his end of the bargain on all this. I wanted to wring his neck. I wanted to claw his eyes out. Never in my life had I contemplated murder with a smile in my heart.
But if I ever had a chance to kill that man, I would in a singular heartbeat.
While fucking laughing about it.
“Promise?” Mason asked.
I lip quivered as I kissed the top of his head again.
“Promise, promise,” I whispered.
“What the—”
In an instant, Mason was ripped from my grasp. He cried out for me, his hands reaching out as Vlad whipped him back around toward the SUV. Cards fell from my lap as I stood up, reaching out for him. And when I jumped onto Vlad’s back, he knocked me to the ground with a slap.
“Give me my son! Where are you going!?” I exclaimed.
“You’re an idiot for bringing that club here with you. The deal’s fucking off, you bitch,” Vlad hissed.
“What? What--what are you--?”
Heavy footsteps came for us and I whipped around. Saint and Ryker headed straight for me and I held my hands out. I tried to get them to stop. I tried to get them to go away. And as Vlad slammed the door on the SUV, I turned around to try and reason with him.
“I didn’t know. They must’ve followed—I didn’t know, Vlad! Please!”
“You’re done, d
o you hear me?” he glowered.
“Give me my fucking son, you raging psychopath!”
I lunged for him, but he shoved me to the ground. My head hit the asphalt, disorienting me as my son’s voice came into view. He shrieked for me, cried out for me. And as I tried pushing myself up off the ground, tired peeled out of the parking lot.
“No. No, come back. Mason. Please! Come back with my baby boy!”
I stumbled after the red SUV, listening as my son pounded on the window. Sobs fell from my lips as I fell to my hands and knees, retching with sickness in the pit of my gut. My shoulders shook with sadness. My chest bounced with sobs. I couldn’t think. Couldn’t speak. Couldn’t breathe, see, or hear anything except the slow, deafening fade of my sweet boy’s shrieking voice.
“Mommy! Don’t let him take me!”
“Oh, no,” I moaned.
I rocked back and forth as I settled my head in my hands. It felt like my world was crashing down around me. If Vlad killed my baby boy, I had nothing to live for. I’d never forgive myself. Bile crept up the back of my throat. I still tasted breakfast on the tip of my tongue. I tried getting up, but every time I did the world knocked me back down onto my knees. Typical, for the life I’d led. Every time I got a leg up, it smacked me off my balance and tumbled me back into darkness.
“Give me my son back,” I said breathlessly.
I finally stood up, getting my bearings as I gazed off in the distance. I heard the squealing of tires, and I looked around just in time to see the red SUV careening toward the highway. I stumbled toward the road. I wanted to go after them. I needed to get back on that bike and follow them, and not stop until that damn SUV had run out of gas and they needed to fucking stop.
Then, I felt a hand come down onto my shoulder.
21
Saint
I wrestled the magazine for my gun back from Ryder. I didn’t what the fuck he thought he was trying to do, but no one put their hands on Amberly like that. No one fucked around with a woman like that, ever. The things I witnessed from this fucking asshole weren’t going to fly with me.
And I got so angry I slammed Ryker against the damn truck.
Dead Souls MC: Prospects Series Books 1-5 Page 42