Page 14

“You ever think about having one of your own?” Emma asks softly, and I clear my throat, struggling to hold it together.

“Naw, not really in the cards for me.”

I glance up at her, and she’s staring at me, her head cocked to the side as she studies me. It makes me uncomfortable.

“I think you’d be an amazing dad.”

“Yeah, am I just gonna conjure one out of thin air? I’m only one part of this equation,” I say, trying to joke with her even though I’m right on the verge of losing my shit. Images of her flash through my head – my girl – but she’s gone, and it’s my fault. Because of my endless arrogance, I lost her forever.

“You’ll find someone, Storm. You’re too good of a guy to spend your life alone.”

“Whatever you say, Em,” I choke out. Thankfully, she doesn’t say anything else, and I close my eyes, desperately grasping at my self-control. The pain in my chest intensifies, and I know I’ve got to get out of here. Just as I stand from my chair to hand Grady back to Emma, Nix walks in with a tray of food in his hand.

“You’re in luck, Sweetheart,” he says, setting the food down on the table, and Emma sniffs the air, her stomach growling.

“Is that bacon?”

“Bacon mac and cheese. The nurse was just bringing food for us, and I ran into her in the hall.”

“Gimmie,” she demands, and we both laugh as Nix takes Grady from my arms and transfers him to his little bed next to Emma’s before doing the same with Corbin. I start to back away toward the door.

“I’ve got to get going but ya’ll just let me know if you need anything, ya hear?”

Emma smiles softly, almost like she can see that I’m losing it but I know that’s impossible. “We will. Tell everyone else we said hi?”

“You got it, little mama.”

They say good-bye, and I duck out of the room, my breathing harsh as I stomp down the halls, needing to get out of this place before I suffocate. The last time I was here…

Shaking my head, I push that thought down and burst out of the double doors into the Louisiana sunshine. I walk to my bike and jump on, firing it up. The rumble of the engine drowns out some of my thoughts, and I’m able to breathe for the first time since I looked down at that little baby’s face.

Pulling out of the parking lot, I let the road take away everything – all the pain, all the memories, and everything that pulls me down into the darkness where I now reside. It’s not going to do me any fucking good to dwell on that shit so I just need to rebury it and move on. By the time I reach my house in Baton Rouge, I’m back to normal. Or as normal as I get, anyway.

Stomping up my front steps, I head for the door, and stop short when I see the plain white envelope leaning up against it. I glance around the neighborhood, my instincts telling me that something is up, but I don’t see anything out of the ordinary. I reach down and grab it, ripping it open, and pulling out the contents. There is a three-inch thick stack of photos of me, doing everyday shit – washing my bike, hanging out at a bar with Kodiak, and driving one of the women we rescued to safety.

I flip through some more photos, getting angrier with each new photo. Someone has been following me for a while, and it pisses me the fuck off that I don’t know why. This is so fucking bad. If any of the husbands or boyfriends we rescue these girls from ever found out where they are, they would be in grave danger.

Stuffing the photos back into the envelope, I run to my bike, and shove the photos in my back pocket before starting it up and backing out of the driveway. As I race over to the clubhouse, I try to figure out who the fuck would be following me. It could be totally random. Just one of those guys trying to find his girl and he just happened to pick me. Either way, we’ve got to put an end to it. We won’t let any of these bastards get close to their girls again.

Images of the last girl we saved flash through my mind, and I shudder when I think about the fact that we almost didn’t get there in time. He came home early and caught her packing up. We usually always come early, just in case, but there was a huge accident and we got stuck in traffic. By the time we reached her, her whole body was covered in bruises, and he had left her for dead. We drove her two counties over to an emergency room, and we’ve got guards on her at all times until we can get her out of the state, but she’s got a helluva long road to recovery.

I’d love to just end any man that puts his hand on a woman but we mostly stay on the right side of the law now. I met Blaze when I was working at the motorcycle shop that the club owns and for a while, I never really thought about joining. But after the night that I lost everything, Blaze came to me and explained that he wanted to take things in a new direction, become more legitimate. At the time, I had nothing else to live for. In the years since, I’ve gotten a sense of purpose from the work we do and the women we save, and I couldn’t imagine doing anything else. Til they lay me in the ground, I’ll do whatever I can to make sure these bastards never touch a woman again. There’s a special place in hell for men like them.

Pulling into the compound, I clear my head of all the shit that I’ve seen in the five years that I’ve been a member of this club and pull into a parking spot. Kodiak is sitting on one of the picnic tables, smoking, and I nod to him as I turn my bike off and swing my leg over. As I walk over to him, I pull the envelope out of my pocket.

“You seen Blaze?” I ask, and he nods.

“In his office,” he says, motioning to the clubhouse behind me. His gaze drops to the envelope in my hand before looking back up at me and blowing out a stream of smoke. “What ya got there?”

I look down at the envelope and shake my head. “Nothing good, man.”

Without another word, he tosses his cigarette on the ground and stomps on it before following me into the clubhouse. Kodiak and I usually work together when we transport a victim, and he’s a solid dude, always down for whatever needs to be done, and I know he’s got my back. We walk inside and music is blaring over the speakers. Chance and Smith are sitting at the bar bullshitting, and Moose and Fuzz are playing pool off in the corner. I nod a hello to Chance, and he nods his head at me. I met Chance when we were kids, and after I joined up, he wanted to join, too. I’m not sure that he really had any idea what he was getting into but we both found our place here in the club. I make my way through the club and reach Blaze’s office door, knocking.

“Yeah?” he calls out, and I shove it open, striding into the room as Kodiak pushes it closed behind him.

“We got a problem, boss,” I say, and he looks up from the papers in front of him and pulls his glasses off, setting them on the desk. He studies me for just a second, his gaze lingering on the envelope in my hand.

“What kind of problem?”