“That’s my daughter, and nobody messes with her, okay? Not you, not any biker, nobody with a fucking dick goes near her.”
He shrugged. “I mean, I was just gonna say hi, man. Didn’t even know you had a daughter. You got a wife too? What about Caroline?”
I jabbed a finger at his chest. “I don’t have a wife, and it’s none of your business. It’s nobody’s business, so I’d appreciate you not mentioning her to anyone. I don’t want the likes of Stag sniffing around her.”
Rocket snorted, turning to grab a pile of papers that really needed to be properly organised, but he was an untidy fucker. I snatched them from him, tucking them under my arm as he laughed.
“You’d think you’d be nicer to me as you ask me for a favour, huh?”
“I’m about to organise your fucking paperwork for you, so take it as a thank you for your silence. Got it?”
He nodded, and waited until I’d reached Leah before he called out again.
“Oh, by the way, does it have to be Grease who does our security? I can’t stand the fucker.”
Leah giggled again, and I shot her a glare. Why did she always roll her eyes when I tried to act like a father, for god’s sake?
“Yes, it has to be him, and no, it’s not up to you, and stop swearing around my fucking daughter!”
“Dad-”
“I know. Now, while I eat this lukewarm lunch, thanks to that idiot, tell me what’s going on with you. How’s your mum and uh… I wanna say Mike?”
She wrinkled her nose at me. “Dad joke time, huh? You know his name is Matt. It’s always been Matt, and it always will be.”
I grinned as I unwrapped my burger. “Oh yeah, that’s right. Mitch.”
“So what’s going on back there? Is he one of your brothers from the club?” I stopped in the middle of biting into my burger. The club? What the fuck. I chewed rapidly and swallowed without tasting my food at all.
“Club?”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, dad, it’s obvious you’re with a biker club.” No it fucking wasn’t, because I’d kept her and her mother, and my club life so fucking separate, it should be impossible to know.
“I’m not.”
She reached under the counter and lifted out my cut, smoothing her fingers over the VP patch. Fuck me. Because it was a surprise visit, I hadn’t hidden it like I normally did. And of course I’d sat her behind my counter, to hide her from Rocket. Once again, it was all that prick’s fault, wasn’t it?
“I uh…”
“VP? That’s a big deal, right? It looks new.” Yeah, it looked really pristine and new compared to the other patches, even though the cut itself was new from the patchover. I set my burger down, wiped my hands over my ass, and took the cut from her, tucking it back under the counter.
“You didn’t see that, you know nothing, and you’ll keep quiet, okay?”
She leaned on the counter, fiddling with the edge of my burger wrapper.
“Are… they’re not bad people, right? Mum said biker clubs are full of bad guys, and that I should be careful here in case you have them around.” Well, fuck. It seems even an amicable split can lead to bitchiness at some point. I wasn’t sure how Avrilfucking knew about that side of my life, but I had a feeling it had to be Rocket’s fault too.
“I promise you these are good people, even that prick over there, and yes, I know I just told you he’s not, but… fuck me, I didn’t expect to be explaining about this today.” I looked across the shop to see Rocket watching me, and I knew he was listening. Nosy fucker. I glared at him, and turned back to Leah, my little girl, the one person I’d do anything to keep club life away from. I thought I’d succeeded until now. At least she hadn’t found out when I was in the Rogue Riders. They were exactly the reason why I’d hidden this side of myself from her. Phoenix were different though, weren’t they?
“Dad, if you’re the VP, then they must be. I know you wouldn’t be in charge of a group of assholes.” I glanced at Rocket again, because the jury was still out on that one.
“Look,” I said, picking up my burger again, although it was stone cold now dammit, “Yes, I’m a member of an MC, and yes, some can be really nasty pieces of work. Phoenix MC arenotthat kind of club. They’re decent guys,we are. We’re decent, we love motorcycles, hanging out at the clubhouse, and working together. That’s why Rocket’s setting up in the back there, to do custom resprays, because our customer bases overlap.”
“There’s a clubhouse?” She sat up straight, and I heard a bark of laughter from Rocket, and fuck me, why today? Why throw me for a loop today? Everything had been going so well.
“No. As far as you’re concerned, there’s no clubhouse. There’s no anything. You stay away from bikers, and I mean that.”
“Even-”
