The officer let out a deep sigh and tapped his pen against the pad in his hand before pointing it at Caleb. “You and I both know that even though Forever Midnight didn’t do anything here tonight, your presence speaks volumes to the fact that they are somehow involved.” With that, he took a deep breath and put his pen and pad away. “I’ll send a patrol car around to check up on you folks every couple of hours. If these guys return, I want you to call in straight away.”
“No need, Tom,” Caleb said, confirming my guess that he was already acquainted with the officer. “They won’t be staying here.”
Sophia glanced at me. “I’ll call Ben. My fiancé,” she added at the blank look on Caleb’s face. “We can stay with him in Twin Cedars.”
“Not a fucking chance,” Caleb growled. “I need you somewhere the brothers can protect you.”
Sophia looked as though she was about to say something, but I put up my hand to stop her. “We can talk it through and figure out the details,” I said.
“Well,” Tom gave Caleb another pointed look, “keep me in the loop and let me know what you decide. The offer to have a patrol car come around is still on the table.” He crooked his finger at Caleb and motioned him to step aside. “A word.”
Sophia watched them as they moved away but I couldn’t keep my gaze from her face. This was meant to be the happiest time of her life. In a few days, she was set to marry, after that she was jetting off to the Bahamas for her honeymoon. Sophia and her parents had done so much to help me over the years, and I couldn’t be more grateful, but for now, I had to distance myself from them to keep them safe. I only wished I could send Charlie away with them, but that would be too much to ask, and I couldn’t bear to be without her. No. It was time to tell Caleb everything.
I followed Sophia’s gaze and turned my attention to Caleb and the officer, Tom. They were still talking, but every so often Caleb would glance my way. He gave me an almost imperceptible nod and a smile. He’d been holding things together since I’d told him about my attack, but now just as I had then, I could feel the anger and frustration coming off him in waves. He was ready to kill Leo, and God help me, I was ready to let him.
“He’s more intense than I imagined,” Sophia said, drawing my attention back to her. “Like a tight coil ready to spring.” A sly smile played at the edge of her lips. “Bigger too. You never did tell me just how big, chica,” she said and gave me a playful nudge with her elbow.
Despite everything, I laughed. Sophia always had a way of bringing a smile out of me even in the direst of circumstances. I wish I had her positive outlook on life.
She sighed and I turned to face her. “Maybe we should go inside. I could quickly check in on Charlie while we wait for them to finish talking,” I said.
“That’s a good idea.” Sophia linked her elbow in mine before dragging me inside. “I’ll put the coffee on. I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”
While Sophia headed to the kitchen, I slipped into the bedroom. Caroline was lying on the bed cuddling Charlie. She lifted her head and made to move when I entered.
“Don’t get up,” I said, not wanting to disturb them. “I’m just popping my head in to check that everything’s okay.”
Caroline stroked Charlie’s head, brushing her blonde hair away from her forehead. “She’s a little angel,” she said. “She stirred a bit, but went straight back to sleep with a cuddle.”
I smiled. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
“No, seriously. Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you, Franc, and Sophia over the years.”
“There’s no need for any of that. The two of you are family. Anything we’ve done has been done out of love.”
“I know, and that’s even more cause for thanks.” Charlie stirred and Caroline made cooing noises at her and stroked her head again. “I’d better go. I’ll come back as soon as I know what’s happening.”
Caroline nodded, and I left ready to face Caleb with dread forming a rock in my stomach. I found both Caleb and Sophia talking together in the kitchen. She handed him a cup of coffee and poured another as soon as I entered.
“Everything okay?” she mouthed while handing it to me. I smiled and nodded, conveying more than my thanks for the coffee. “I guess it’s a bit late for introductions, but just in case, Caleb, this is Sophia. Sophia, Caleb.”
“It’s good to meet you,” Caleb said. “Though the circumstances could have been better.”
Sophia laughed. “Your brother, Cane said much the same thing this morning.” Caleb smiled at Sophia, while she gave me a quick wink.
“So, this fiancé of yours. I’ve been talking it through with Tom, and I think it might be a good idea if you do go stay with him, with a couple of the brothers tagging along for protection.”
Sophia took a sip of her coffee and gave me a look over the rim of her cup, no doubt wondering where that left the whole business of Caleb not knowing about Charlie. She shouldn’t worry, I’d already made my mind up on that front.
I pulled out a chair from the kitchen table and sat before taking a long swig on my coffee. The hot liquid sluiced down my throat and hit my empty stomach, making me realize how hungry I was. I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, and that had been before seven this morning. I looked at the clock and noted it was almost ten at night. Strange how much life could change in such a short space of time. You’d think I would have learned that lesson years ago.
“Sophia,” I said and placed my cup carefully on the table in front of me. “You, Franc and Caroline should go to Ben’s. I don’t want to cause you any more trouble and I’m hoping it won’t follow you if I’m not around.”
Sophia remained quiet, staring into space, which was very unlike her. She could be as stubborn as Caleb at times and the fact she wasn’t protesting had me a little worried.
“Can you still send a couple of brothers to watch over them?” I asked Caleb.
“Of course. It’s the least I can fucking do.” He eyed me with curious relief, as though he knew I’d decided to stay with him but was afraid to jump to say anything for fear I’d change my mind. “Let me just make a call.” He stood and pulled his phone out of his pocket. “Cane,” he said and walked into the living room while I turned my attention back to Sophia.
“You okay?” I asked because she still had a distant look on her face.
She huffed out a breath and sat at the table opposite me. “You sure, I can’t persuade you to come with us?” she asked, and I shook my head. “Didn’t think so. What about...?” She raised her eyebrows, but Charlie’s name remained unspoken.
I reached over and grabbed her hand. “I’ll tell him as soon as he gets off the phone,” I whispered.
“Okay.” Sophia stared at our hands for a few seconds before pulling away and reaching into the pocket of her robe. “I wasn’t sure whether or not to tell you about this,” she said and pulled out a piece of paper before putting it on the table.
My stomach churned at the sight of it, even though I didn’t know what it was. From the look on Sophia’s face, it couldn’t be good. “What is it?” I asked.
Sophia glanced through the door at Caleb still talking on the phone and then back at the piece of paper. It sat like a rattlesnake between us.
“It was tied to the rock thrown through the window. I didn’t tell the cop about it.” She shook her head. “Damn it. Maybe I should have. I don’t know what the hell the right thing to do is.”
“Telling me and me alone was the right thing.” I reached for the paper, my hand shaking, Before I had the chance to pick it up, Caleb slammed his hand down on top of it, and pulled it away.
His face became red and mottled after he unfolded it and read the message it contained. His teeth clenched and the veins on his head damn near popped.
“What does it say?” I asked, but Caleb crunched the paper between his hands and shoved it in his pocket.
“I’m gonna fucking kill him,” he said and
stormed from the room.
I chased after him and tried to pull him back. “Please,” I said. “Caleb. What did it say? Don’t do anything stupid.” He stopped abruptly and turned to face me, pulling me tight against him, and smashing his lips against mine as though it was the last kiss he’d ever give me. “Please, don’t go,” I said, when he pulled back, even though he’d left me breathless.
“I have to.”
He pulled away and jumped on his bike, speeding down the street as though cops were chasing him.
Sophia stood in the doorway to the bungalow. “What did it say?” I asked, my voice distant to my own ears.
“It said, ‘Since last time I fucked your girlfriend didn’t draw you out’—” She swallowed heavily and cleared her throat “—‘I’ll be sure to make the next instance far more fucking eventful. Meet me at Ta-Towhee Bar & Grill. Now.’”
I bent double and tried to take deep breaths to stop myself from throwing up. It took a few seconds, but my worry for Caleb overrode my worry for myself. “Thea,” I said. “We have to call Thea.”
Sophia ran inside. She was already on the phone and dialing when I joined her. I snatched it from her hands. “Thea,” I said as soon as she answered. “It’s Amber. I need to speak with Cane.”
“He just left,” she said. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Caleb. He’s in trouble.”
“Okay. Hang tight. I’ll see if I can reach him.” With that, she ended the call. I paced the living room, unsure of what to do. A part of me wanted to jump in my car and race after him, but I knew that would only cause more trouble.
“We should call the police officer, Tom,” Sophia said.
I looked at her earnest face and knew exactly what she was saying and all that it meant. “Okay,” I said.
Chapter Six
Caleb
Ta-Towhee Bar & Grill was off the I-25 close to Woodmoor. The patrons who frequented it had spilled out into the gravel parking lot out front. Most of the men wore denim. I lasered in on the few who sported biker leathers, but none bore the lion’s skull insignia of the Feral Son’s. The women were dressed in short skirts and cropped tops with an equal mix of leather and denim alike. Their drunken chatter filling the night air along with the incessant bass of the music within.
Despite Ta-Towhee’s reputation as a dive bar, the wood siding looked like it had been freshly stained and the sign announcing its name gleamed bright red and unblemished in its spotlight, with a newly painted picture of the Towhee bird sat next to it. It wasn’t known as a hang-out for bikers, least of all the fucking Feral Son’s. Maybe that’s why Leo had chosen it for our meet-up. There was less risk of someone I knew being there to provide a helping hand. Who fucking needed one? I was ready to rip his head off and spit down his throat for what he’d done to Amber.
As I gave a cursory glance to the eight motorcycles parked in the lot, I wondered why the hell Leo had chosen now to act. He’d attacked Amber damn near four fucking years ago. Just the thought of him being near to her had my hand wringing the handlebars of my bike as though they were Leo’s neck. What was he playing at now, and how the fuck did he know she was back in town?
I shook my head and stifled the growl building in my chest. I needed to keep all my rage-fueled energy locked in until I faced the fucker. If Leo wanted to have it out once and for all, then so be it. I didn’t need to survive a beating from his brothers, I just needed to make sure I took him out first.
After resisting driving my bike straight through the door and into the building, I pulled to a stop as near as I could to the bar, set my jaw, and allowed all the rage I’d felt over the last four years, all the fucking pain amplified by Amber’s revelation, to build like an inferno inside me. Adrenaline rushed through my body and my heartbeat thumped in my ears, but my vision became focused, laser beamed on one task: finding Leo.
The exterior of Ta-Towhee may have had a face-lift, but the familiar stench of sweat, alcohol, and cigarette smoke filled the renovated interior. Despite the smoking ban for indoor places, it hung in the air over the patrons like a thick lung-clogging fog that seemed almost alive as lights pulsed to the beat of the music, setting it aglow.
No wonder people were spilling out into the parking lot; the place was fucking packed with people crammed together like sardines, and the noise at a got-to-shout level. I wasted no time in barreling through the shifting crowd. Then I spotted him.
Leo.
As a rule, I’d tried to keep my distance from the Feral Son’s. Leo was a prick and tried to wind me up, push my buttons, but out of respect for his Dad and the friendship he’d once shared with mine, I’d kept my cool. That cool was all fucking gone now.
It was as though time had slowed and all the other people had faded from my senses. Their voices and the booming music became nothing more than a muffled pressure in my brain. I zoomed in on the only fucker I needed to see.
Leo smirked. His mouth opened, ready to speak, but I wasn’t here to waste my time on fucking pleasantries. Besides, there was nothing he had to say that I wished to hear. My fist clenched and slammed into his face with a satisfying crunch that I felt more than heard. His head flew backward, and I laid into him again, grabbing him by the T-shirt and tugging him close to stop him from falling to the ground.
The vague notion that a woman screamed close by flashed through my mind, and then another. The crush moved away and the space around us opened. Even with the blood dripping from Leo’s nose, and the cut on his lip, he still looked at me with mocking eyes.
I pitched to the side, losing my grip on him. Someone had barreled into me. Two fuckers tried to grab my arms, but I swung them together. They clunked heads before falling back. A sudden gush of sharp pain lanced up into my guts as some fucker speared me in the back with a kidney shot. I sucked in a harsh breath. It hurt like a motherfucker but didn’t bring me down. Besides, from experience, I knew it wasn’t hard enough to see me pissing blood for a week. The fucker who blindsided me was too much of a pussy to land a blow like that.
I fought off fucker after fucker. My muscles tightened under the strain. Blow after blow landed on me, but a strange numbness stopped me from feeling them. I tried to keep my eye on my goal, but Leo pulled back, leaving the bar, and leaving his brothers to deal with me. The fucking coward was too much of a pussy to take me on himself.
My knee buckled under an unseen blow to the back of my leg. I fell to the floor, crashing. With Leo’s departure, my senses clicked back on as though someone had flipped a switch. My face felt as though someone had hit me with a brick ten times, and my ribs didn’t feel much better. All the fight rushed from me like water down an unplugged drain. Once again, I’d failed Amber.
Time slowed again. Nothing mattered anymore. My only hope was that Cane would reach her and keep her safe.
At that thought, an image of my brother swirled into view. He speared the fucker in front of me with a punch to the head. Other voices shouted and footsteps pounded, but the noise was hollow and distant to my ears.
Cane grabbed me by the arm and pulled me to my feet. I was surrounded by several of my brothers from Forever Midnight. The last of the Feral Son’s had fled as my back-up arrived.
“What the fuck were you thinking?” Cane asked.
I guess that was the problem. I wasn’t fucking thinking. “Amber.” Just saying her name had pain lancing through my jaw.
“She’s fine. You’re lucky she fucking called.” Cane shook his head and pulled me through the bar to the exit.
Chapter Seven
Amber
“No. Don’t want to.” Charlie kicked her heels against the kitchen counter she sat atop.
“We have to baby,” I said. “The window is all smashed and we have to leave the house while the repair men come and fix it right up.”
“Go with Aunt Caroline.”
I huffed out a breath. Knowing how hard and confusing this was for me, it had to be a million times more so for her, and my worry and unease
wasn’t making her mood any better.
Caroline brushed Charlie’s hair behind her ear and stroked her cheek. “There’s not enough room at Ben’s for us all to stay. But we’ll see you at the wedding in a few days.” She lifted Charlie’s teddy bear from the counter, waved it in Charlie’s face, and pretended it was speaking.
“I’m coming with you,” Teddy said in a voice made to imitate that of Yogi Bear. “You can cuddle me and talk to me and have picnics with me. We’ll have lots of adventures to share with everyone.” With that, Caroline bopped Charlie on the nose with the teddy.
Charlie kicked the counter again, but this time giggled as she did so. She pulled the bear in for a hug but gave Lucky a weary look out of the corner of her eye.
The few minutes we’d waited for Thea to call back had been the longest of my life, and the relief I felt when the phone rang and I answered to find that she had caught up with Cane made me light-headed.
Thea had given him Sophia’s number so he could save time and speak to me directly. As soon as I explained the situation, he told me to hang tight, and that he’d send Lucky and a few other brothers to pick me up and take the Cortez’s to Ben’s. From the look on Lucky’s face when he arrived and learned that Charlie would be coming with me, Cane hadn’t fully briefed him on my situation.
Sophia carried two garment bags into the kitchen and draped them over the back of a dining chair. You’ll need these for the wedding, she said, and gave me a tight smile. She knew I’d do all I could to make it, but no guarantees were on the table.
“I guess that’s everything,” I said.
“Yep.”
Caroline picked Charlie up and gave her a big hug. Franc pecked her on the cheek and pretended to steal her nose.
“What? You need this?” he said while sticking the tip of his thumb between his knuckled fingers. “I’d better put it back then.” He did so with a popping sound.
Charlie laughed and a wave of love washed through me for our adopted family. I shook back the tears forming in my eyes for fear of Charlie seeing them and gave both Franc and Sophia a hug.
Forever Midnight MC Collection: Books 1-3 Page 19