He snorts, laughs, and sobs at the same time. “What, even when I’m like thirty?”
“Thirty, forty… Fifty might be pushing it, as I’ll be damn near eighty. But until then, you’re going to have your old man sticking close to you.”
“That will kind of cramp my style.”
“And?”
He pushes me away, and moans an elongated and exasperated, “Da….d.”
He’s here. He’s healthy. And one way or another, I’m going to make sure he’s alright. Part of me was serious. Ace might be my son, but with his skills, as these events have shown, he’s also a valuable commodity to our enemies. It’s something he needs to understand. Going forward, he has to keep quiet about his abilities and not speak of them, not even in front of someone who claims to be family or anyone else who gets close.
My thoughts lead me to Toni. Feeling Ace has become steady, I hold him at arm’s length. “You’re going to be okay, yeah?” When he gives me a definite nod, I push him toward the doorway. “Go inside and wait for me. I’ll be in in a moment. Oh,and Ace?” I toss my phone at him, and he catches it in one hand. “Go call your nana. Just tell her you’re okay and that you…”
“I lost my phone. Don’t worry, I’ll keep it short.” He pauses and offers a grin. “Don’t want her turning up with her shotguns.”
As he leaves, my eyes follow him. Then I realise Trixie, Tempest, and Toni are standing a few feet away, waiting on me. The sergeant-at-arms, I notice, is hovering behind Ace’s aunt. I see from his expression that he’s waiting on me for direction, but fuck knows how I want her treated. She’s a pathetic sight, her broken arm, temporarily doctored – another service selflessly performed by the woman who literally saved the day.
Toni catches me looking at her and steps forward, putting her free hand on my arm. “I’m so sorry, Freak, I’m so sorry. I don’t have the words to apologise enough. I was taken in by Candyman. You don’t know how persuasive he could be. I’d never have gone along with his plans if I knew who he really was, or about his MC. I’ve nothing left, no home, no job. I gave up everything. But I did that willingly, when I truly thought I was rescuing my sister’s son.” She swallows and bats her eyelids in the way women do when they want to get a man’s sympathy. “I know now he lied, Freak. But perhaps deep down, I always knew something was wrong because I had to fight the feelings I had for you. It tore me in half when I thought I’d never see you again, but he’d convinced me I was doing the right thing for Ace. And however much I cared for you meant nothing when balanced against saving that boy.”
A strangled feminine snort brings my attention to the woman I owe the fucking world to, making everything else, including Toni, disappear. The one whom I have a strange compulsion to take into my arms and hold tight, and repeat that earth-shattering kiss. The emotion that floods through me takes me by surprise and roots my feet to the spot as my brain questions, are my feelings just gratitude, or something else?
But when her eyes meet mine, she preempts me, again seeming to read my mind. “I was glad to help, Freak. I need no payment other than knowing Ace is happy.” After an uncontrolled sneering look toward Toni, she brushes off her hands. “Well, my work here seems to be done. I’ll bid you goodnight.” She spins on her heels and disappears into the clubhouse. And, like a fool, I don’t follow her or call her back.
Tempest grunts and jerks his head toward Toni, who he’s still standing behind. “You got this, Brother?”
I wouldn’t be the enforcer if I couldn’t handle one woman, and one who’s injured at that. Which reminds me, if I’m not going to kill her, I’ve got to get her arm seen to. “I got this.” Thoughtfully, I watch the entrance to the clubhouse as he trails in Trixie’s footsteps.
I’d forgotten Toni’s hand was still on my arm. I’m reminded when she squeezes her fingers and picks up what she was saying before Trixie spoke. “You offered for me to come live with you and Ace, here in Arizona.” She gives me a smile. “Well, there’s nothing stopping me now…” Her voice falters when she gets a look at the thunderous expression on my face.
“You think I can move past this, Toni? When you betrayed me in the worst possible way? You misled me, you lied. You didn’t trust me. You never let me know what was going on. You never gave me a chance to tell you about my club. You just listened and believed the lies Candyman fed you.” At the surprise look on her face, I enlighten her. “Yeah, Trixie was on comms. I heard fuckin’ everything in that room. How Candyman made us out to be the bad guys when the MDMC are a hundred times worse. You know they’re heavily into sex trafficking? What do you think would have happened to you if we hadn’t gotten you out of there?” Now I’ve started, I can’t seem to stop, and all my worst fears spill out. “They’d have tortured Ace until he agreed to help them, would have broken that kid’s spirit. They knewwhat an asset he’d be. That’s why they groomed you. And it was fuckin’ easy, wasn’t it? You were so damn set on having a family to make up for the one you lost, that you fell for Candyman’s lies without a second fuckin’ thought.”
Her mouth drops open. “He was convincing. He showed me his birth certificate?—”
“Which can be easily forged,” I interrupt. That’s why I hadn’t taken hers at face value and had had Pippa check it out. “You fell for it hook, line, and sinker. You know what Trixie did? She knew there was something not right about you. She didn’t trust you from the start…”
“Because she wants you for herself.”
What? “Because she was looking out for my kid,” I correct. “She put a tracker on him in case you pulled some kind of stunt, and thank fuck she did. I don’t even want to think about what might have fuckin’ happened if we didn’t know where to start looking. Your selfishness in wanting Ace to yourself put my son’s life on the line. You think I can ever forgive you for that?” I’m one second away from putting my hands around her neck and throttling her. I’m starting to wonder why I didn’t protest more when we extracted her from the MDMC compound. I should have just left her there to lie on the bed that she’d made for herself. And now I’ve got a problem. What the fuck do I do with her?
“You wanted to start a relationship with me,” she tries. “Now I understand your club better, I want that too.”
I’m going to fucking lose it if I’m not careful. I’m hanging on to my temper by a thread. “You understand my club better? You haven’t got a fuckin’ clue. And you got close to me because you wanted my son. Every fuckin’ move you made was fake.” I can’t bring myself to include whether that included her orgasms. The truth might dent my manhood.
“I did what I had to do,” she retorts. “He’s my nephew. I owed it to my sister to make sure he was doing okay.”
“You owed it to the woman who tried to fuckin’ kill him?” My vehemence makes her take a step back.
“What on earth are you saying?”
“I’m saying mental illness runs in your family, and if I’d been a minute later, Ace would have died at six months old. And tonight, if I hadn’t gotten there when I did, he’d have had his skin flayed off his back. Both you and your sister are fuckin’ bad news.”
Her face hardens, and I get a glimpse of the woman underneath. It sends me back sixteen years to another time, and her twin. Then, like the sun appearing out from behind a cloud, the mask covers her features again. “My sister would never have done anything to hurt her child.”
“You didn’t even know her.”
Her mouth works, her jaw twists, showing she’s struggling, as she finally admits, “True. ButIlove Ace. I want the best for him. And he likes me too. Are you going to deny him a family? I’ve got nothing now. I lost my mom without knowing her, lost my dad. And after tonight, I don’t even have a brother.” A sob comes from her.
And there it is. “Your so-called brother would have destroyed Ace!” I roar. “Can you fuckin’ hear yourself? You say you love my son, yet you delivered him to a monster.”
