by A. E. Fisher
Anna shrugged. “No reason.”
“Don’t worry,” Kay said as she slipped into an opposing chair. “She hasn’t been formally charged with anything yet.”
“Formally?” My interest piqued.
“Yet?” Anna scoffed. “Never will I ever.”
Kay shook her ginger head. “What’s the problem?”
Anna peeked around the room as she settled into her chair. “Where’s the little monster?”
“Upstairs napping,” I said, thinking how right Hunter had been when he had said the pair of girls had fallen in love with my charming little boy. I was beginning to think his way with girls was genetic.
“I didn’t mean that one.”
“Oh.” I chuckled, then remembered my list and scowled. “That monster has gone shopping.”
“You didn’t go, too?” Kay asked.
“No, I don’t go.” I shook my head. “I sent him with a list.”
“Don’t go or won’t go?” Anna turned her attention fully on me.
“What?”
“Not once have I seen you leave this place, aside from the club eat-out you were forced to go to. Though, you didn’t even make it over the threshold conscious. You scared to go out or something?” Anna leaned her elbows on the dark glass table, her eyes seeming to eat up any tell I was showing, which made me panic. I knew I had loads of tells, but I had no idea what they were, so I couldn’t hide them.
“No,” I lied, feeling guilty. “I don’t want to be with Hunter right now.”
Anna scowled, not satisfied with the answer, but thank the universe for Kay. Her aged, gray eyes seemed to flicker down to the note and get the gist of my annoyance from my tone. The woman was so perceptive.
“What’d the boy do?” Kay asked with a laugh, slouching back in her chair as if it were common to talk about Hunter being on my naughty list. Literally.
I inwardly scoffed at the “boy,” too. By no means was Hunter a boy, but I supposed by Kay’s standards, who seemed to be Hunter’s age or older, she might have known him as a kid in this small town.
Instead of reading the list out loud, I turned the page around and pushed it across the table for the two to feast their eyes on.
Anna had a whole second on top of Kay when they burst out laughing.
“Hey,” I said. “I’m being serious here.”
Anna wiped a tear from under her eye. “Oh, God, this is too good.”
Kay kept chuckling as she handed the list back to me. “I don’t think there’s anything for you to worry about.”
“I’m not worried. I’m frustrated.”
Kay gave me a gentle smile, and Anna started laughing again.
“Stop laughing.” I groaned, balling up my list and throwing it at her. Anna batted it away, but began to calm down. “Honestly, it’s like having the devil in one chair and an angel in the other.”
Anna grinned. “I take that as a compliment.”
Kay shook her head. “I think it’s more of a definition.”
“Okay, we get it. If the shoe fits or whatever.” I sighed, wondering if it was the right idea to bring outside counsel into my problem. “But that still doesn’t change the fact that he won’t let me touch him.”
“Did he give you the envelope?”
Anna had caught me off guard. I turned toward her, wondering how on earth she had found out about—
“Who do you think got Hunter those kinds of tickets?” Anna scoffed, gathering my thoughts quicker than I could.
“Seriously, girl, what kind of connections do you have?” Kay asked, shaking her head.
“Don’t say that when you’re the one who suggested I get them for him.”
“I feel like I’m being left out of something,” I interjected before they could get into a debate. According to Hunter, the two women’s verbal battles were a sight to behold, but the type to behold from afar.
“I was the one who suggested Hunter give you the choice,” Kay confessed. “He didn’t know what to do with his feelings and planned to keep you captive here without giving a damn what you thought.” She shrugged. “Figured I might as well give you the chance to choose. That is, if you do choose to stay here with us.”
I thought back to the envelope in the dresser drawer. I could feel the yes still sitting on the tip of my tongue as it had since Hunter had given me that envelope, yet I couldn’t seem to say that tiny, three-lettered word.
Anna quickly stood, moving straight toward the kitchen where she pottered around for a while before returning with a mug. She almost broke the thing when she slammed it down in front of me.
“Drink,” she said. “Tea is the British way of calming down. Should work for you, too.”
“Um … Okay, thanks.” I brought the mug to my lips and took a sip. I didn’t find the appeal in tea compared to the richness of coffee, but Anna was right. When I put it back down, I felt a little more relaxed. It was also at this point when I realized they weren’t trying to pressure me. They were simply being honest.
“Sorry about that. We shouldn’t have said anything.” Kay covered my hand with hers. “The decision is up to you. What we say shouldn’t have any effect on that.”
“Does this mean I can’t be biased and hypnotize her into staying?”
“No,” Kay said, without even looking at the blonde.
“Wait,” I said. “You can do that?”
Anna only answered with a smile.
The mood was cut short when the sound of shattering glass resounded through the house. An echoing bang made my heart drop. I recognized the noise. The cliché movie sound effects had the noise down to a tee.
Gun fire.
“Get down. Now!” Kay hissed, pushing Anna and me out of our chairs. She pressed her hands down on our backs, keeping us low as she shoved us away from the windows. “Faster.”
I had no idea what was going on. I could hear men shouting outside, and then more glass breaking and more guns going off. I didn’t know how many of them were out there. All I could think about was my little boy as a horrible panic took hold in my chest.
Simply reacting, I ran for the stairs, not bothering to duck under the window’s view as I hurtled over the child gates, up the steps, and down the hall toward my room.
I shoved the door open, finding Adair’s bed empty.
I couldn’t breathe. My world seemed to stop. My heart didn’t beat. My brain didn’t function. My lungs didn’t work. I was numb from the top of my head down to the tips of my toes.
I was certain I had died.
“Momma?”
My soul came crashing back to earth when Adair’s little blond head peeked out from under the bed.
“Adair!” I cried out, rushing toward him and scooping him into my arms. I squeezed my face into his neck, needing to feel the sound of his pulse, feel his breath on my cheek.
He is here. He isn’t hurt. He is okay.
“Momma, what’s going on?” Adair said with a hiccup.
I pulled him away and saw the small tears gathered at the edge of his eyes and his trembling bottom lip.
“I—”
The door burst open, and when I turned, expecting to find Kay or Anna there, I didn’t.
A tall man in black stood in the doorway. He was massive, filling the entire doorframe in a stance that looked everything but friendly. His face was covered with a balaclava, but that wasn’t what held my attention. In his hand was a gun. A gun pointing right at us.
I had a second. A small fraction of a moment to turn away from the danger and wrap my body tight around my son before I would hear the echoing crash of the gun.
I prayed the bullet wouldn’t go straight through me. Prayed that my body could be a shield and protect my little boy from harm. I prayed the bullet would miss completely.
What I hadn’t prayed for was for a different gun to go off first.
A few seconds after the sound of the bang, I realized no pain had followed. I considered being in shock or the adrenaline flooding
my system had numbed the pain, but when I turned toward the doorway and saw the unmistakable Black Angel emblem scrambling on the floor with the man in black, I realized I had been saved.
Adair was a rigid board against my still curled form; my head only turned enough to see a fist fly and the man in black finally go limp.
The Black Angel turned, and I could finally see the face of my savior. At first, I thought it was Hunter, but that would have been too convenient. This Angel had dark hair, deep eyes, inked skin across his body, and a look of fury that made my blood run cold.
“Wipe that stupid look off your face, Jax,” Anna snapped, lightly slapping his cheek as she barged into the room, followed by Kay and another biker. I remembered meeting Jax and the other biker, who had introduced himself as being the one to find me when I had knocked myself unconscious at the playground.
“My bad.” Jax shrugged, that southern accent peeking out as his face melted into a reassuring smile that instantly put me at ease. I didn’t like the way he was forced to bury the angry emotion, and I couldn’t help the shiver that ran up my spine as I thought about it.
“Hey,” Anna said, crouching down in front of me and softly touching my knee. “You okay?”
I turned to look at her and saw Kay assess me and Adair for injuries. Luckily, we had none.
“I think so,” I said. Even I could hear how weak my voice was.
“I think you’re in shock,” Anna said, looking down at Adair, who was completely silent as he clung to my shirt with all his might.
Kay sighed, pulled out a pack of tissues, and began dabbing my face. At first, I had no idea what she was doing, but when I saw the drenched tissue, I realized I had been crying.
Then Anna reached forward and pulled me and Adair into a tight hug. That was when Adair began bawling, and so did I.
Chapter Seventeen
Hunter
I had promised to protect her, yet only seven fucking days had passed since then, and already I hadn’t been there for her.
I could barely hold on to my sanity as I raced my bike down the road. I was aware of the other bikes on my tail, but I didn’t wait for them as I sped around the last corner to my house.
I left black tire marks up the driveway as I screeched to halt, barely remembering to flick down my kickstand as I hauled ass off the seat and up the concrete path.
I could see the broken glass of the kitchen window and two other windows over the stairs as I rushed up the steps.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I kicked down the door and immediately yelled, “MALLORY!”
“I’m here.” Mallory’s soft voice came from my side. She sat at the table, her skin a few shades lighter, eyes red and puffy, and her hands ever so slightly shaking as she held a mug in her hands. Mallory had Adair wrapped tightly in her lap, his small body curled up in silence as he clung to my shirt she was wearing.
I was on my knees by her chair in seconds, cupping her face as I looked into those soft, brown eyes, needing to hear the words from her mouth.
I had gotten the call from Jax, relaying what had happened and assuring me they had gotten to Mallory and Adair before anything had happened, but I still needed to hear it.
“Mallory, are you—”
“I’m fine,” she said softly, her eyes meeting mine. “I’m fine.”
Without taking my eyes off hers, I asked, “Adair—”
“Is a little shaken up, but fine. We both are.”
“Uncle Hummer,” Adair blubbered, blindly reaching for me and near falling off his mother’s lap as he grappled my neck.
“It’s okay, little man,” I whispered, wrapping my arms tightly around his small body. “I’m here now. I got you.”
I was aware of the sounds of multiple bike engines pulling up and shutting off outside the house, followed by the cavalry squeezing through my front door. It only took a few minutes to fill my house wall-to-wall with Black Angels.
Adair didn’t seem to care as he buried his head into my neck, but Mallory went stiff. Although she’d had a brief run-in with some of the members, she had yet to meet everyone and couldn’t seem to stop looking at each one with panic.
I set my hand on her knee and felt the full-force of her emotions as she looked at me. I could see the flight or fight instincts flittering behind those beautiful round eyes. For some reason, she was still terrified of going near the club, and now that the club had come to her, she didn’t know what to do.
I squeezed her knee when her eyes began to jump around again. “You’re safe, Mallory,” I reassured her.
She stared back at me for a long moment before she gave the slightest of nods and relaxed back into her seat. She held her arms out for Adair, and after a bit of prying, I managed to unhook him from my shoulders and hand him back to her. Then I stood and leaned down to press a small kiss to both Mallory and Adair’s foreheads before I headed over to where Wolf waited.
Wolf moved us out of sight from my charges and began to speak. “Talked to Pretty. He told me the rest of the men managed to get away on black, unmarked bikes. Jax managed to catch one. I sent a few of the brothers to take him back to the clubhouse.” He paused to look across at where Anna and Kay were moving over to talk to Mallory and Adair. “You were right to have Jax and Pretty watch the house while you aren’t here. I’d hate to think what would have happened.”
“I don’t even want to think about it,” I growled. “They shot straight through bulletproof glass. Whatever they had, they weren’t normal guns. There are holes in my goddamn walls.”
“Which is why you, your girl, and your kid are moving into the clubhouse. No buts. No nothing. It’s too dangerous to keep her out here. Whoever did this has an objective, and they didn’t fulfill it. They’ll be back.”
“What about the one you caught? Think you can get him to talk?”
“When he talks, we’ll learn what they want. Then we’ll go from there.”
I nodded, knowing too well it wasn’t a question of if they got him to talk. They would. I was club; therefore, Mallory was club, too. They had protected her like I had promised they would.
“I’ll talk to her,” I promised.
“Remember, Hunter”—Wolf clapped my shoulder—“this ain’t up for discussion. I expect you there in an hour.”
“I hear you, Prez.”
Wolf nodded then moved back into the crowd of bikers, shouting orders and clearing out the house before Mallory became too overwhelmed.
Adair had calmed down by now, but Mallory still had him tucked against her chest where the little blond looked content to remain. Anna and Kay sat at the table with them, while Jax and Pretty stood right by her side. I nodded at the two of them when I approached, and they got up and made themselves busy, along with Anna and Kay.
I pulled out the chair next to Mallory’s, then grabbed the bottom of hers and turned it until she faced me. She looked a little startled by the movement, but I had her attention.
“Hey,” I said, leaning in close.
“Hey,” she whispered, a small smile tempting the corner of her lips. Then they fell again, along with her eyes, that soft and vulnerable expression catching back up with her. Fuck, I hated to see her this wound up.
I pulled back a little to look her in the eyes. “We’re gonna stay at the clubhouse until this blows over.”
Mallory’s eyes rounded, and she opened her mouth to no doubt object when I stopped her.
“There’s no way we’re staying here when they’re firing off rounds that break bulletproof glass. I don’t know what they want, Mallory, but no way in hell am I letting you or Adair stay here and risk getting caught in the crossfire.”
Mallory snapped her lips firmly shut. She cast her eyes down to the little boy in her arms, and then to the rest of the house, seeing the huge chunks of wall missing and the broken glass scattered across the floor. “Okay,” she whispered.
I had expected a little more of a fight from her, but as she glanced over to where Jax and Pretty stood by t
he door, I could see she understood.
After Pretty and Jax had come to her rescue, I hoped she was beginning to believe in me.
We would protect her. All the club would.
Chapter Eighteen
Mallory
You would think being shot at with high-powered guns would remove any insecurities about staying on a compound surrounded wall-to-wall with big, tough bikers who would jump in front of a bullet for you. But when you considered they were the same tough bikers who ran guns through the state, did drugs, drank a lot, and had sex wherever and whenever they wanted, following the principle “the dirtier, the better,” you shouldn’t be surprised at the fact I didn’t want to step through that door.
I stood in front of the threshold, my nearly empty bag wrapped in my arms, looking down at where the asphalt changed into long wooden strips.
“We’re not going to eat you,” Jax said, looking at me with a curled smile. “Well, not unless you ask for it.”
Over the last hour, I had come to know that Jax was, well, a manwhore. It wasn’t hard to notice the type. Of course, he had also written his number on the window when I first met him. However, he didn’t push boundaries, settling for making the odd pass here and there as if I might change my mind.
It looked like I was more likely to kiss Jax than move five feet forward.
“Seriously,” Jax said. “You’ll be safe here.”
I could see I was hurting his feelings and his club’s pride by refusing to go in.
“That’s not the problem,” I muttered.
“What?” Jax leaned down to my height. “Did you say something, sweetheart?”
“Yeah, fuck off,” Hunter growled from behind me.
Jax stepped back, raising his hands with my pink suitcase hanging from one arm. The suitcase was now filled with my new designer boxers and shirts labeled “Hunter’s.” What a fashionista I had become.
“Pink looks good on you.” Hunter smirked at Jax. “Come into your inner feminism?”