by Lane Hart
His fist punches my shoulder and then he asks, “Can we talk?”
“I’ve had a DNA test already,” I say, knowing that his first thought would be to deny the possibility. “There’s no doubt he’s mine.”
“So when…how?” he asks again. “And you know exactly what I mean! You were married!”
“I’ll be back later,” I tell Lexi before I remove my hand from Liam’s back to go upstairs again, then outside with Chase following me. I think this is going to be a conversation that requires fresh air.
“You cheated on Kennedy?” he snaps as soon as we’re in the empty back parking lot.
“No. Well, technically, yes, but it’s not what you think,” I try to explain. “It just happened once, the night I was drugged with a cocktail of Viagra and roofies. What are the odds, right?”
“The night you were drugged? The bachelor party? Jesus! Those are some fucked up odds,” he agrees.
“I didn’t believe it at first either,” I tell him. “The daughter of the man who was blackmailing me gave birth to my son the same week Kennedy…the same week I lost Kennedy? Seriously? But the dates add up. Kennedy got pregnant on our honeymoon and was due any day. Lexi got pregnant a week before the wedding and Liam was born after his due date. The idea that I got two women pregnant by accident seems…impossible.”
“Wow,” Chase mutters as he shakes his head and runs his hand over his beard. “This is just bizarre. I mean, it’s sort of like God’s giving you a second chance and shit.”
“Yeah, one I don’t deserve,” I grumble. “What if I fuck it all up again?” I ask him.
“You won’t,” he says. “You’ve learned from the past, and you’ve killed the fucker responsible. Now, maybe you’ve overcome all the obstacles that life planned to throw at you.”
“It can’t be that easy, that simple after the hell I went through, right? How could I just step into the role of a father or someone’s old man again when it seems wrong to do it without Kennedy?”
“Old man?” Chase asks. “You want that shit with Lexi?”
“No,” I answer right away. “That’s what I’m saying. I never imagined going through that loss again for anyone; but at the same time, now I have to figure out how to be part of Liam’s life, you know?”
“Just Liam’s life? Not his mother’s?”
“I don’t think so,” I reply. “I mean, Lexi’s a sweet girl and I was wrong about her all this time. At least I think I was. We won’t know for sure until we get the prospects in here later today and make them take a polygraph.”
“No shit? A real polygraph?” he asks.
“Yeah. Reece bought one that he says is just like the kind pigs use for suspects and shit.”
“Huh. Then I guess it’s time for us to get some answers.”
“Yeah, it is,” I agree. “And I wanted you to be here for this.”
Because I have no fucking clue what the hell we’re gonna do when we get those answers.
Chapter Eighteen
Lexi
“If you saw the prospect that was working for your father again, do you think you would recognize him?” Torin asks when he suddenly appears in the doorway of the small apartment. He takes up the entire height and width of it with his massive body. Unless I’m changing, I like to have the door open because it makes the space feel a little bit less like I’m a prisoner. Torin may have politely asked me to stay, but I get the feeling that he wouldn’t have let me walk out the door with Liam if I had refused.
“Probably,” I answer his question. “He was pretty non-descript, but I think he had brown hair that was sort of shaved on the sides.”
“I want to bring you into the chapel when we’re meeting, introduce you to everyone, even the prospects, and see if you can identify him,” Torin says.
“Okay,” I agree.
“Bring the baby too,” he adds. “I’ll come get you in a few.”
“I’ll be here,” I say since there’s nowhere else for me to go. I don’t have a car or know anyone around here. In fact, I’m pretty certain that the other members of the Savage Kings don’t like me or trust me because of who my father was.
While Liam’s napping, I go into the bathroom to run a brush through my hair and then close the door to change into a dress instead of my pajamas. First impressions are important, even if I’m just looking for a traitor.
Outside the door, I hear the voices of several men before it gets quiet again and then there’s a knock. Like the impatient man that he is, he doesn’t wait for me to open up but just comes right on in.
“We’re ready,” Torin declares.
“Let me just try to pick up Liam without waking him up,” I say. I know better than to try and talk Torin out of bringing him to the meeting for whatever he has planned. Slowly and gently, I pick our son up and lay his head on my shoulder.
“Did you change clothes?” Torin asks.
“Ah, yeah. Why?” I whisper when I face him. I catch his green eyes looking at my cleavage a second before he lifts his gaze back up to mine.
“Nothing,” he grumbles before he turns around. “Come on,” he snaps over his shoulder, so I follow him even though I want to kick his ass that fills out his jeans nicely for not lowering his voice around a sleeping baby.
“Listen up,” Torin says, standing beside the long wooden table and commanding the attention of the tough-looking men sitting around it, all wearing the same leather cut. There are also two young men standing at the back of the room, one of which I immediately recognize as the guy who worked for my father. “Some of you have already met her, but I wanted to formally introduce Lexi Cruz to the table,” he says to the group.
I’m certain I’m not imagining the hostility rolling off the men. It’s evident in their narrowed eyes and lifted eyebrows that they are wary of me, most likely because of my last name. And I can’t say I blame them after what my father did to Torin.
When Torin goes and takes a seat in the chair at the head of the table, the attention that was on me suddenly all shifts to him, like he just did something remarkable.
“I misplaced my flash temporarily, but luckily Chase found it,” Torin announces as he holds up a patch between his two fingers for the group to see. “And as your president, I hereby name Lexi Cruz a friend of the club.”
I have no idea what that means, but several jaws actually drop.
“She’s not only a friend of the club, but she’s also the mother of my son, Liam.”
There are more surprised and confused expressions around the room at that announcement.
“I don’t owe anyone in here an explanation, but I will say that Lexi is not our enemy and I expect you all to treat her well. If you don’t, you’ll have to answer to me. Understood?” Torin asks, receiving nods and verbal agreement. “Now, introduce yourselves to the woman,” he adds.
“We’ve already met,” says the bearded man on Torin’s right. “I’m Chase Fury, Torin’s brother. I’ll bring my wife by later, so you’ll have at least one woman in the building who doesn’t hate your guts.”
“Chase,” Torin snaps.
“What?” his brother asks. “It’s true. She’s not only related to Hector Cruz, but she’s female and you just declared her a friend of the club, a member who doesn’t wear a cut, a higher ranking than a prospect or an old lady! The girls upstairs are gonna be pissed.”
“I’ll talk to them too,” Torin agrees. “Abe?”
“Um, hi. I’m Abram Cross,” the man with a black beard tells me, followed by the rest of the men at the table, including a few that I’ve already met with War and Cooper, Reece and Miles.
“Prospects, you may speak,” Torin directs them.
“Hi, I’m Holden Yates,” the one with his hair shaved on the sides says before the second one makes an introduction. I don’t hear whatever it is he says because I’m too busy trying not to forget the rat’s name.
When the room goes silent, I realize that they’re all looking at me.
“Well, it was nice to meet you all,” I tell them.
“Prospects, leave, but wait just outside the door. We have more business to attend to later,” Torin orders them, and they start moving right away. He pushes his chair back and gets to his feet before he comes over to me. “I’ll take you upstairs to meet the girls,” Torin says to me. Then, “Chase, you and Reece get everyone up to speed with our plans for the afternoon until I get back. We’ll need everyone to stick around after the meeting too.”
Once the prospects, Torin and I are out of the room, Torin shuts the door behind us and then places his hand on the small of my back to urge me forward toward the stairs. It’s just a small touch, but it may be one of the first from him that wasn’t harsh.
“I don’t know if you understand how MCs work or not,” Torin says as we walk up the stairs. “My brothers can hold some serious grudges, so I just gave you protection and ordered my men to take a bullet for you if it comes down to it,” he explains.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I tell him.
“I don’t want you to feel like you’re a prisoner or like you have anything to fear from my men,” he replies. “They would never lay a finger on my son, but you…Chase is right. You’re the daughter of a man who declared himself an enemy of the club. That would’ve made it impossible for you to ever get any respect around here.”
“Just because you said a few words doesn’t mean that they’ll respect me,” I challenge him as we step into the main part of the bar and he closes the heavy door behind us.
“Yes, it does,” Torin says confidently. “I’m their leader, and what I say is final. They follow it or there will be severe consequences, just like for the prospect.”
“What are you going to do to him?” I whisper, since there are other people sitting around the bar.
Turning his back to the room so no one can even read his lips, Torin says softly, “He betrayed this club, and he betrayed me personally. What the fuck do you think is gonna happen to him?”
“No, Torin. Please don’t,” I beg him. “He’s just a kid! You can’t kill him…”
“You don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do,” he grits out through clenched teeth.
Lifting my chin in defiance, I say, “Unless you swear to me that you won’t kill him, I won’t tell you which one of them is the rat.”
Torin smirks before he responds. “We have a polygraph all set up. I don’t need you to tell me. I was hoping you would so that I could be certain, but I’m willing to take my chance on the polygraph test.”
“You can’t be serious! What if you get it wrong?” I ask him still in a hushed whisper.
“Tell me.”
“No,” I reply.
“Then I guess we’ll just have to take our chances…”
“Please, Torin. Can’t you just consider another option? I get that the decision is yours to make. And that’s exactly what worries me,” I explain. “Once you make that decision, you’ll be the one who has to live with it on your conscience for the rest of your life.”
“Then you better tell me who he is, so we don’t make a mistake,” he whispers.
“No. He’s just a boy,” I reply. “A boy like ours with a father and a mother, maybe a sister or brother.”
“He’s a boy who helped blackmail me and more than likely told your asshole father when my wife was here so he could kill her and my son! He ruined my goddamn life!” Torin says, raising his voice loud enough that Liam jerks awake.
“I know and I’m sorry,” I tell him as I try to bounce Liam back to sleep. “But sometimes showing a little mercy when you didn’t get any could be the difference between whether or not you’re a good man or if you’re no different than my father. Yes, the traitor deserves to be punished. Severely. Just please don’t take his life. You don’t need any more regret on your shoulders. You’re already carrying around enough, don’t you think?”
“This discussion is over. Tell me his fucking name, Lexi,” Torin growls. “You owe me this.”
He’s right, I do owe him for what my father did to him, and I would hate for the other guy, the innocent one, to suffer.
“His name is Holden,” I whisper.
Giving me a satisfied nod, Torin turns to the rest of the room and says, “This is the woman who fucked me the week before I was supposed to get married, and surprise, now we have a kid! Try and be decent to her even if she is damn difficult all of the fucking time. I must be out of my mind because I declared her a friend of the club and under our protection.”
With a final glare at me, Torin goes over to punch in the code and then disappears down the stairs with a slam of the door.
“Hi,” I say pleasantly to the women and men who are all looking at me like I’m the shit they dragged in on their shoe.
“Kennedy was the best and you fucked her man behind her back? What a slut,” one of the girl’s states.
“I didn’t know he was getting married,” I inform them.
“You’re lucky he didn’t throw your ass out on the street,” another says.
“Yeah, I’m just so damn lucky,” I mutter before I go over and punch the code I learned yesterday into the panel beside the basement door. But it doesn’t work.
Crap. They change the codes all the time and Torin didn’t tell me the new one.
“Anyone know the code?” I ask the room and get nothing but angry glowers.
“Great. Guess I’ll just wait up here for someone to open it,” I reply on a sigh before I go over and take a seat on one of the barstools.
Chapter Nineteen
Torin
“Sit down,” I grunt at Maddox while crossing my arms over my chest and leveling him with a glare. Chase is standing next to me in Reece’s apartment, mimicking my posture. He’s gonna play bad cop and I’m playing good cop in our little experiment. While we have no reason to doubt Maddox’s loyalty, you can never be too sure.
“Um, okay,” the kid says with a grin before he lowers his ass down into the seat that’s facing Chase and me. Glancing over his shoulder at the table where Reece is sitting with his computer equipment and polygraph shit, Maddox says, “Cool. What’s all that?”
“Polygraph test,” I answer.
“Look at us, not him,” Chase warns him, causing Maddox’s head to snap around. “If you lie, we’re gonna light you up. Don’t lie to us.”
“Yes, sir,” Maddox assures him.
To Reece, I say, “Hook him up.”
“Sure thing, boss,” Reece replies. He brings one of the sets of probes attached to the polygraph over and clamps them on two of Maddox’s fingers. According to Reece, those will monitor his heart rate and sweat output. Next are the blood pressure cuffs that are secured on each of his arms for tracking his blood pressure. The prospect stays relatively calm during all of that, but his face pales a little when Reece wraps the two rubber tubes tightly around his chest and abdomen.
“He’s ready,” Reece says when he sits back down behind the desk. “Start out by asking him a few obvious yes or no questions like his name, age, and gender so I can get a baseline.”
Nodding in understanding since we’ve previously discussed the procedure, I ask, “Is your name Maddox Holmes?”
“Yes, that’s my legal name,” he answers with little twinge of a squeak in his voice.
It’s an odd way of phrasing his answer, but Reece gives a thumbs up so I go on. Following that question up I say, “Are you twenty years old?”
“Yes,” Maddox agrees.
“Are you secretly a female?” Chase asks since Reece needs a definite no response to chart before we get started.
“No,” Maddox mutters with an indignant scoff.
Behind him, Reece gives us another thumbs-up that he’s all set for the tough questions.
“Are you loyal to the Savage Kings?” I ask. It’s a vague question, which is what Reece said for us to avoid, but we have to start somewhere.
“Yes.”
Reece holds up his index
finger, telling us to wait before he finally gives a thumbs-up that we can keep going.
“Did you have any loyalty to the former Ace of Spades MC?” Chase asks.
“Hell no,” Maddox replies.
Reece gives the confirmation on that one too.
Pulling out the Taser from his pocket, Chase buzzes it once as an intimidation technique and asks, “Have you ever worked for Hector Cruz or any of his associates?”
“Fuck no,” Maddox replies with a shake of his head which earns another thumbs-up from our polygrapher.
“Have you ever violated any of the rules of being a Savage King prospect?” I ask.
“No,” he answers.
“Are you aware of any violations of the Savage Kings' rules by your fellow prospect Holden Yates?” Chase asks.
“Ah, no,” Maddox answers, and I know it’s a lie even before Reece flashes us a thumbs-down.
He’s covered for Holden at some point. And that was a trick question; because if he rats on his boy, he’s a snitch. If he covers for him, he’s lying to us. Maddox was fucked either way, but he took the best path as far as the MC is concerned. The first rule of membership is that you never rat out your brother to anyone. The only person in the club exempt from that rule is a prospect’s sponsor, so that we can weed out the weak chumps.
“Light ‘em up,” I tell Chase.
“Gladly,” Chase says before he puts the Taser to Maddox’s neck and gives him a jolt.
“Goddammit! Fuck!” the kid curses and winces. It stings for the first few seconds, but the pain quickly fades. I know because we’ve all tried it out on each other.
“Have you ever witnessed Holden violate one of the Savage Kings' rules?” I ask him again.
“Nope,” Maddox lies again, so he gets another zap from Chase.
“Last chance to tell the truth. Your patch is on the line here,” I threaten him. “Do you have first-hand knowledge of Holden breaking one of the Savage Kings' rules?”
Maddox hesitates before he eventually shakes his head. “No,” he replies softly as he cringes in expectation of the Taser.