too.” From the set of his jaw, I knew that was his exact plan. “If you do that, you’ll scare the shit out of her!” I screamed, terror for Amaryllis hitting me square in the chest until I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“She’ll be back with you soon, and then she’ll know everything is well.”
“You’re taking her away from her father—”
“That piece of shit scum ain’t fit to be her father!”
“Isn’t that for me to decide?” My hands flared to either side of my head before they balled into fists I longed to ram into this dumb fucker’s head. “Look, whatever you think you’re doing—”
“I don’t think, I know. I’m saving your ass. Been trying to do that for a long time, but you were always a few steps ahead of me.”
Yeah, well, that didn’t reassure me.
I’d only told Axe last night that I’d believed one of the Rebels had been tracking Ryan and me with the intent to kill us… but had it been a Knight? Only, their intent hadn’t been to kill but to ‘protect?’
Only, protect against what?
The gravel crunched beneath his feet as he stepped toward me. As he approached, I scented his aftershave first. Lime and mint. As I took him in, I saw that he took care of himself—he was heavily muscled, clean-shaven, and his hair had just been cut.
Was he trying to impress me?
His clothes looked new. Everything except for his cut at least. There was no cleaning those things. Wiping them down with a baby wipe was about as much as any brother would let you get near them, even if they probably needed bleaching every damn day.
“What’s happening here?” I asked. “Please, leave her where she is and let me go home.”
“That place was never supposed to be your home.” His jaw tensed. “I was gonna wife your mother, Lucie. I was. But I didn’t have any money for a ring, wouldn’t have any until I went on this run. Except we got caught and I was locked up.” He lifted a hand and ran it over the back of his head. When he cupped his neck, I saw the pain in his eyes, knew it was real, when he whispered, “Next thing I fucking know, she’s Bomber Steeler’s old goddamn lady and she’s pregnant. I knew something was fucked up, knew it and when I asked some of my boys to check shit out? The second I got a glimpse of you, I knew you were mine.”
My throat worked as I stared at him. He bled sincerity, and somehow, that terrified me more than anything.
Bikers weren’t sincere.
They weren’t honest outside of their MC.
They were dirty and rough, but this man? My father whose name I still didn’t know? He was pleading with me for understanding. Pleading with me to—what?
Accept him?
When I didn’t say anything, he dropped his gaze to the ground. “I had brothers check in with you every now and then. When you were four, your mother went missing. He told everyone she’d run off, but Maria would never have left you behind. Ever. Especially not with that sick fuck.”
“I think he murdered her.”
Pain flashed through his light green eyes. “Yeah, I believed that for a long while too. When she died, I had more eyes on you. Whatever had made him get rid of her, I was scared he’d do the same with you. Only, he didn’t. It wasn’t like I had a right to you. Getting my boys to watch over you was asking more from them than I should. I hadn’t made her my old lady, and I’d kept her on as a side piece for a while, so no one even fucking knew she was my woman.”
“She was nothing to them,” I said dully, knowing exactly what he was talking about.
Each club had rituals. Old ladies were inducted with our version of a marriage ceremony. It wasn’t binding and legal outside of the club, but that was all anyone needed. Wifing a woman was down to the biker. Unnecessary but not frowned upon.
Unless a woman was an old lady, she meant nothing to the club. They wouldn’t even go out of their way for the clubwhores who serviced them on the regular. They were loyal only to those who’d been claimed by the MC, and because Maria hadn’t, by proxy, I hadn’t been either.
“You seemed safe enough,” he continued with a nod. “Wasn’t much I could do from behind bars, but try to gain influence.”