Patriot (Hades Abyss MC 6) - Harley Wylde Page 0,40

part of my life. I’d just thought I didn’t stand a chance of him seeing me as more than a kid. I was glad I’d been wrong.

It didn’t matter how many presents were under the tree because the most important gift had been his love. This wasn’t going to be just a good Christmas, but it was going to be an amazing one. All because of Patriot.

I only hoped one day he’d understand when I said I loved him, it was more than three little words. It meant everything.

Chapter Ten

Patriot

The club whore who’d thrown her drink at MaryAnne had been tossed from the club, but she hadn’t gone quietly. Blaire Wilcox was more trouble than she was worth. She’d thrown a beer bottle at Kraken, kicked Brick in the nuts, and raked her nails across Gravel’s face before we’d managed to toss her out the gates, right on her ass. She’d shrieked and cussed, promised she’d get even. Wasn’t anything we hadn’t heard before.

We just hadn’t expected her to follow through. And that’s where we fucked up.

We’d had two days of quiet before all hell broke loose. Not an avalanche exactly, more like a slow trickle of bad luck. A few bikes had flat tires when my brothers came out of the clubhouse after partying. We’d thought it was a coincidence until other things started to happen. We still hadn’t figured out who had let the air out of the tires. It had to be someone who still had access to the Hades Abyss compound. Wizard had been going through video footage trying to get a look at the culprit.

Phoebe’s car had had whore spray painted on the driver-side door when she’d gone to the store the next day, which had sent Kraken and Titan both on a rampage. Two nights after that, someone poured a gallon of bright pink paint across the driveway outside the gate and wrote pussies in it before it had dried. They’d been far enough from the gate, we not only hadn’t seen or heard them, but they weren’t caught on camera either. But I’d known it was Blaire who cut the fence line and destroyed my yard and outside Christmas lights when I found three slushie cups tossed into the grass nearby. Bitch hadn’t been as smart as she’d thought. Her DNA was all over the straws, and her fingerprints had been on the outside of each cup.

It wasn’t until Wizard ran her prints I realized we needed to start vetting the women we let into the compound. The webcam girls were one thing, but it wasn’t enough. We needed to vet the club whores too. Blaire was wanted in three states for prostitution, robbery, and had spent a year locked up for possession with intent to distribute. And her husband wasn’t much better.

MaryAnne sat at the table with a cup of hot cocoa, Christmas songs playing softly from the radio on the counter, as she stared into space. Hatter whistled along with White Christmas, while Archimedes lay out beside MaryAnne with his head on her foot. Even the kitten seemed subdued.

“You all right, Little Bit?” I asked.

“I’m fine. Just wish this mess with Blaire and her husband was over with. They haven’t caught him yet?”

I shook my head. The day he’d been headed to court for his hearing, somehow Walter Wilcox had managed to escape custody. He was still at large, and most likely off somewhere with Blaire, plotting their next move. She wanted revenge because I’d chosen MaryAnne and then humiliated her, and her husband hadn’t liked the idea of his wife spreading her legs for a bunch of bikers. Free of charge, of course. Had we been paying her, he likely wouldn’t have minded, since he appeared to be her pimp.

“Come on, Little Bit. Let’s go watch some movies and have some quality time together. Seems like with everything going on, we haven’t had a lot of time to just relax and enjoy each other’s company.”

She stood and gave me a wan smile. “All right, but I’m not sure how Christmas-y I feel right now.”

I took her hand and led her into the living room. I left the radio playing for Hatter, but Archimedes and the kitten followed us. The kitten climbed the couch and curled up in MaryAnne’s lap. I watched her stroke the little ball of fur while I selected a movie.

“I think you should name him,” I said. “He seems to like you best.”

She toyed with his little