Havoc chuckled, shaking his head. “What the fuck are you gonna do?”
“About what?” I asked, wondering if we were still talking about the kid I hadn’t confessed to having.
He rubbed at the back of his neck. “We’re shining a light on your life, and I can almost feel you skittering back toward the shadows. Is your ass still gonna live here tomorrow? Or are you gonna take your… Popsicle stick houses and ghost us?”
Good question. Sasha needed help. I couldn’t put Hailey and Mama in danger. I didn’t know what to do. So, I called in a lifeline. “What would you do in my position?”
He chuckled. “I’m probably the last person you want to ask, brother. I’ve never run from a fight in my life. I sure as hell wouldn’t hide from one.”
I laughed. “No, I can’t imagine you would.” Glancing at Julia, I asked, “But what if she was in danger? What if you needed to run in order to protect her?”
Havoc looked at his wife with so much emotion that not even a fool could mistake the love they shared. “Then I don’t deserve her.”
Taken aback by his response, I stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“I could stash Jules away somewhere and keep her to myself, but how fuckin’ miserable would she be? She’s a gem; she was born to shine. She hid herself away when it was necessary, but she has me and the club at her back now. It’s not my job to keep her from the world. It’s my privilege to walk beside her and guard her back. Your… person deserves an opportunity to shine, a chance to make a life filled with friends and family, people he or she can grow up with and trust. You’ll never find that on the road, running from one threat or another. You can’t keep anything hidden forever; all secrets come out eventually. Let us help you protect what matters most to you.”
He was asking too damn much, and I didn’t know how to respond.
“By the way, Morse told me to pass on a message. He’s got eyes on your house.”
“I bet that motherfucker does. Tell him to keep his eyes above the waist. If he sees the size of my junk, he’s gonna need therapy, and I’m not payin’ for it.”
Havoc and Julia both laughed as he pulled a helmet out of his saddle bag and started to put it on her. She grabbed his hands, stopping him, and leaned in for a kiss. I thought it was just going to be a quick peck, but apparently I wasn’t the only person trying to traumatize a brother. The two of them went at it like a couple of horny teens on prom night. I didn’t need to see that shit, so I headed back into the house.
I couldn’t stop thinking about what Havoc had said. Hailey did deserve to shine, but gems were easy to break, and even easier to steal. The sergeant at arms didn’t have a child. He had a wife who’d proven she could take care of herself. It wasn’t the same.
By the time I returned to the basement, Sasha was fast asleep. I grabbed a pillow and a blanket and made her comfortable, then I sat at my desk, started up my laptop, put in my earbuds, and checked the audio feeds from Buzz’s house. The data was uploaded and stored on the cloud, allowing me to listen to it at my leisure. Since it only recorded when there was sound over a certain decibel, I didn’t have to go through hours of dead air, but I did have to listen through plenty of drunk broads cackling and screaming in the next room.
Nobody came into the office looking for Sasha until close to midnight. Intrigued, I turned up the volume and closed my eyes so I could concentrate on his deep, angry voice. “Danielle, get your ass in here!” he shouted.
Seconds passed, and then she answered. “What? You’re interrupting my party.” Her words slurred together, sounding almost like a song.
“She’s not in here. Where the fuck did you and your bitches put her?”
“In here. I swear, Breaker.”
So, this was the asshole who’d been fucking with Sasha. I opened a browser and searched his name, landing on a social media profile that made me cringe. Buzz’s oldest looked like a fucking neckbeard, like a hipster who’d let his beard and hair get out of control since that seemed to be the cool thing to do nowadays. I scrolled through profile pictures of him drinking beer and manhandling women. He put all his shit out there on social media like he was proud of the fact he’d never had to work an honest day in his life. His icy blue eyes made him look detached from reality, unhinged. He looked every bit the sociopath Sasha had described.
“Look at the window. She must have climbed through it.” Danielle said, bringing my attention back to the conversation in my ears.
“I brought her here to get her ass kicked. She shouldn’t be able to climb out no damn window. Chloe! Get in here!”
I stopped on a close-up and stared into the face of the man who’d drugged Sasha, taken advantage of her, toyed with her, and thrown her to the wolves, encouraging them to rip her apart. Shitheads like this gave men a bad rep and kept me awake at night worrying about my daughter’s future.
“Da fuck you want, asshole?” Chloe asked. “We’re tryin’ to have fun out here.”
“Don’t play with me, bitch. Where’s Sasha?”
“Hell if I know. She was right there. See the blood?”
“I see the fuckin’ blood. What I don’t see is her. You need me to remind you how to kick someone’s ass so they can’t move to leave?”
And now, he was threating a woman. I wasn’t normally a violent man, but sometimes violence was the only thing people could understand. This motherfucker made me want to speak his language.
“Maybe your little cunt couldn’t hang.” Chloe sounded cowed, frightened. “Maybe she called someone to come and get her?”
“You were supposed to watch her ass!” Breaker shouted.
