“Of course sweetheart,” she cooed to me as she pulled the phone down and explained how to do it. “Take your time,” she offered as she moved to leave the room.
The phone rang twice before my mother picked it up. “Lucy? Is that you?”
I really didn’t want to speak to her, but it looked like I had no choice. “I need to speak to dad,” I told her in a strained voice.
“Did you get a new number? I don’t recognize the one that popped up on caller ID.”
“Put my father on the phone!” I growled, losing my patience with the woman.
I heard her huff and then my dad’s voice boomed across the line. “Lucy?”
“Daddy,” I whimpered out, because just hearing his voice made me ache.
“Lucy, baby, what’s going on?”
“I’m in the hospital, and I need you. Someone has to be here for Toby until I’m released.”
“What are you doing in the hospital?”
“I, um,” the tears were coming hot and heavy now and I wasn’t sure I could get through the story without breaking down again completely. “Please, just hurry. I’ll tell you everything when you get here.”
“Lucy, I’m going to need to know now.”
“Jordan, he attacked me. He took Toby, but they found him. Toby. They found Toby. Jordan wasn’t with him. I don’t know where he is and I’m scared. I still haven’t seen Toby. The police went to get him.” The words tumbled out of my mouth in a jumble.
“Jordan? He hit you?”
“No dad, he beat me until he ran out of energy and couldn’t hurt me anymore,” I admitted. In return I heard a horrible animalistic noise come over the line.
“This is my fault,” he whispered.
“Dad?”
“No, listen, I’m going to set everything right, the way it should have been, baby. You hang in there. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” The line went dead and I was left to stare off into space until my son was brought to the room. Thankfully, he didn’t appear to have been hurt at all. He was just scared, and very sad when he saw what I looked like. The staff allowed him to curl his little body up next to mine where he fell asleep while I worried over what the hell I was going to do. Jordan knew where my family lived. It was obvious I couldn’t stay in Florida, but I wasn’t sure I would be able to go home to South Carolina either. What would the man do now that I’d pointed the finger at him?
Chapter 16
(Lucy – age 24, Double-D – age 27)
We were about to head out on a run up to South Dakota to assist the club up there when a truck came careening into the parking lot. I recognized it immediately, even before the driver jumped out and started running toward me as if to attack. That didn’t seem right though. I hadn’t done anything to piss him off. Hell, I hadn’t even been near him since he closed his business down. I ignored the man and fastened my chin strap on my helmet instead. This was going to be our president’s last run while he was in charge. Once we got back he would be stepping down and Merc would be taking over. The men had decided that fresh blood was needed to bring our club into the future. Surprisingly, all the older members agreed. Either that or none of them wanted the responsibility they’d seen their friend shoulder.
Merc tapped my arm and I glanced up to see him pointing to my left. When I turned around it was to see Jack Carter standing there with his ball cap clenched in his hand, twisting the damn thing like it needed to be rung out. The nervous gesture didn’t sit well with me, because that – more than the fact that he was here at the clubhouse – meant that something was wrong. “What the hell are you doing here?” The gruff question shot from my lips before I could pull the words back. I wasn’t supposed to care anymore. I promised myself it was time to move on. I lied to myself often over the past few years.
“I messed up,” the man admitted forcing me to do a double take.
“Okay, well, go tell someone who gives a shit old man,” I growled as I started backing my bike out of the spot I’d put it in the night before.
“No, you don’t understand!” He shouted and the hysteria in his voice is the only thing that stayed my feet and had me dropping the kickstand.
“I guess you better get to explaining then, because right now you’re holding up a fuckin run.”
“It’s Lucy!” He quickly shouted out. Just hearing her name was a punch to the gut, but I promised myself I wouldn’t let it affect me anymore.
“Then go tell whatever man she moved on to. She stopped being my problem when she ran and never looked back. Remember, all the times I came to you begging to know where she was and you gleefully told me about how she was happy now, with someone else, how I needed to let it go? Well, I fuckin’ let it go.”
The man hung his head, and if I didn’t know any better I would swear the look he wore was one of shame and guilt. “She’s in the hospital.” His voice was so quiet when he spoke I almost missed the words.
“What did you say?”
“She’s in the hospital right now. The man she started dating he…” Jack choked on the emotion I could see playing across his face. “He beat her so bad she probably won’t be released any time soon, but the bastard is still out there. I’m worried he’ll come back for her and for…” he stopped himself there. Jack glanced from me to Timeless then. “I know I have no right to ask, but I need the club’s help getting her back here and making sure she stays safe until the bastard is caught.”
I didn’t know what to think or feel. Everything came to a standstill and I knew my brothers were waiting on a response from me. Part of me, the bitter, jealous part, wanted to tell him she made her choice. The other part of me – the one that hadn’t been able to let go if I was being honest with myself – wanted to rush to her side and make sure she never had to hurt again. “She know you’re asking this of us?”
He shook his head. “She just called from the hospital less than an hour ago. I didn’t get to talk to her long. I have my stuff packed up in the truck,” he pointed back towards where he’d parked so that the entrance to our lot was blocked for the most part.
I took in a deep breath and then released it before glancing over at Timeless. “This is your call to make,” I informed him as if he didn’t already know. “You’re still Prez until we finish this run.”
“Whether she knows it or not, Lucy is the daughter of the MC’s President. She is an MC Princess and is due the protection of one. It doesn’t matter that she was kept away in order to maintain her safety,” Jack pleaded his case. He kept his voice low, not wanting the others to hear his words. It didn’t matter. I’d let that particular cat out of the bag a while ago when I was in one of my snits about not being able to find her.
“My call as President of the Charleston Chapter of the Aces High MC is that my daughter is under the club’s protection. She always has been and always will be until she takes her last breath. Double-D, follow Jack down there and go get our girl. Bring her back here where we can keep her safe.”
“Follow Jack down, huh?” Guilt swamped my President’s face. “You knew where she was this whole time,” the last was a statement not a question. He’d just made it obvious that he had known.
“Lucy was never supposed to be an active or even noticeable part of this club, Double-D. I told you that before.”
“Did you help Stiff set me up in order to make sure she got cut out of the club again?” I had to ask; because now I wasn’t so sure whom the hell I could trust.
“Fuck no! Fuck you for even asking that. I never interfered while she was here, but once she was gone I made sure she stayed gone and hidden.”
“So it’s your fault she’s in the hospital then?” I asked petulantly. “I would have never laid a hand on that woman in anger. Hell, there would have been 20 men deep here waiting to kick my ass if I had.” I scoffed at him. “You were so fuckin’ worried about how dangerous your own fuckin’ club might have been for her that you forgot what civilians are like.”
Timeless looked absolutely
defeated then. “We don’t have time for this. I need to leave,” Jack interrupted.
“Go with Jack,” Timeless ordered again. “This is why the club is turning over into younger hands. I’m man enough to admit I fucked up, so did Jack. You’re just going to have to get over our fuckups so that you can help protect our girl. That’s my final order as Prez of this club. You will be personally responsible for her. Now, go.”
Well fuck. I guess my plan to try to move on now was royally screwed because I couldn’t disobey that order. I also wouldn’t be able to turn Lucy over to be someone else’s responsibility once I started either. Yeah, I was well and truly fucked. Luckily, I was already packed for a trip, so I turned my bike around and got in behind Jack as he aimed his truck toward the highway and I followed.
It took a little over seven and a half hours to drive from Charleston to Apalachicola thanks to an accident along the way. I could have weaved through the traffic on my bike, but Jack couldn’t get his truck through, and the bastard refused to give me the address. Hell, even when he did, he failed to mention she wasn’t at the house anyway. She was still in the hospital awaiting discharge. The hospital was refusing to send her home until they knew she had someone she could trust there to help care for her.
When we pulled up and finally got parked outside of the hospital Jack started talking. “There’s something I need to tell you before you head up there.”
“What room is she in?” I asked, cutting him off from whatever it was he felt needed to be said.
“No, you need to listen,” he started. His words were choked off when I wrapped my hand around his throat and tugged him up against the cab of his own truck.
“No, you listen! I went through hell and back because of some shit that was done to me. Never something I did. I asked you for your help. You refused. I have to do this thing now; after I reconciled the fact that I needed to start getting the fuck over her and moving on only to have you come and stir more shit up. Now, I have to deal with whatever mess she’s gotten herself into all because you fuckers thought I wasn’t good enough. FUCK YOU! What’s going to happen is that you’re going to tell me her room number, and then I’m going to get on up there and see when Lucy will be ready to travel. Until she is I’ll stand guard outside her room if I have to. Then we’ll take her by her place to pack whatever she needs now, and she’ll be sitting shotgun with you in your truck while I pull security on the way back to make sure no one is following. Now what the fuck room is she in?”
I let go of his throat and listened while he sputtered before his eyes came up to meet mine. They were full of regret and sorrow, but intermixed was a healthy dose of fear. I chalked the last up to the fact that I just had him hemmed up by the throat. I wasn’t sure what the rest meant. I didn’t much care either.
“533,” he answered and then I was off to go find Lucy and get this shit over with. At least, that’s what I told myself as I rushed into the hospital.
When I got to room 533 I leaned into the door where a little window gave me a glimpse into the small room. She wasn’t alone, though I couldn’t really wrap my head around what I was seeing. My Lucy was lying there in the hospital bed with another body curled around hers. I nearly fell to my knees at the sight. When her father had told me she’d moved on there was a part of me that never believed it, but there before me was the proof that she hadn’t waited long to do so. A tiny little boy’s body was curled into his mother, her hand stroking gently up and down his back ignoring the fact that she had an IV stuck in the same hand she was using for the gesture.
“I tried to warn you,” Jack whispered from somewhere behind me. I swallowed the emotion that was building inside, because this wasn’t the time or place to lose my shit. She had been through enough. That was plain to see by the bruising on every part of her body that I could see. “You need to know,” he started speaking again. I put a hand up in the air indicating he needed to stop talking, and he followed that order for once. Instead of standing there in the hallway dwelling on what could have been I took a deep breath and then clicked open the door.
Her head snapped up immediately, attention settling on the door that burst open with a little too much enthusiasm. I hadn’t been able to get myself completely under control. “CJ?” was whispered from her lips as she stared at me in shock. Her voice must have roused the boy because he turned to look at me then and I swear my heart nearly slammed right out of my chest at the sight. That little boy was the spitting image of me when I was a kid. I turned accusing eyes toward Jack then.
“You kept THIS from me?” My chest rose and fell with as my temper soared. “I have a son, and you kept it from me?” My voice had risen with my temper and the only thing that stayed it was the tiny whimper that came from the body of a little boy who was no doubt, my child.
“You knew,” Lucy stated evenly after narrowing her eyes on me.
“Like fuck! If I knew I had a son in this world, that you had ever even been pregnant, nothing this side of heaven or hell could have stopped me from coming after you. I would have maimed and tortured whoever needed it in order to get that information.” With the last, I turned my gaze back to Jack. “You knew, and you let me believe she was with someone else almost from the beginning. You knew what happened to me, and I think it’s probably obvious now, that you never filled her in. You kept my family from me!”
“Sir, you’re going to have to calm down or we’ll have security escort you out.”
I ignored the nurse and turned back to Lucy. “I never knew,” I repeated. She watched, as I could no longer hold back the emotion that flooded my whole being. “I never knew,” I choked out again. Lucy’s eyes trailed the tear that ran from the corner of my eye, down my face, and to the spot on my kutte where the salty liquid bled into the leather there just above my name.
She cradled her son to her and then turned her eyes from my to her father. “You told me,” she started and then stopped. She was lost in her thoughts for a moment before she corrected herself. “Mom told me you said that his answer to me being pregnant was ‘since you wanted to be on your own so bad, keep the bastard on your own too.’ That’s what she told me he said to you when you told him I was pregnant.”
I spun so fast he never saw it coming. I snatched the man up right there in front of Lucy, her kid – our kid – and the nurse who was now yelling for someone to help and I promised the man the death he deserved for pulling the shit he had. “Your life is forfeit from this point forward. You fucked up, old man. Did Timeless know about this?”
He shook his head in the negative as much as he could. I placed him back on the ground and let go of his neck. When the hospital security came bounding in the room Jack waved them off. “No! It was just a misunderstanding. It’s fine.”
“No, it is not fine,” the nurse sassed back. “That man needs to be removed from this hospital. Our patient is here because of domestic abuse, she certainly doesn’t need to relive it or have more of it around. Clearly, this man can’t control himself.”
I turned scathing eyes on her. “I just found out this man has been hiding my child from me. He lied to his daughter, he lied to me, and it kept us apart. It kept us apart so much so that she ended up with another man who put her in here. That man, that piece of shit that would beat a woman black and blue was with my woman and my son, because of the lies this fucker told. You’re lucky he isn’t dead on your floor. If you’re removing anyone from this room it will be him and for his own safety.”
“Please, listen to what he says. That other man is nothing to me and I don’t want him here,” Lucy’s voice trembled with the emotion she was trying not to put on display.
“Lucy,” Jack called out to her.
“Get. Out.” Her tone was abrupt and left no room for argument.
“I’ll leave, but you both need to let me explain,” he started and when I took a step toward him, fists clenched, the security team stepped in and backed him out of the room.
“Ma’am?” The nurse q
uestioned Lucy while staring at me. She was a ballsy bitch.
“He stays,” was all Lucy said before she turned her face down and kissed the top of the little boy’s head. Another kick to the heart nearly took me to my knees when I realized I had a son, and I didn’t even know his damn name. I waited there by the door while everyone cleared out and then she moved the boy to a more comfortable position. His hair appeared slightly darker at the roots and at the height of its length it had taken on almost a golden blond tint. It was evident the child spent a lot of time outside in the Florida sunshine. He drifted off to sleep again as his mother started rubbing those soothing circles around his back as if it was something done often enough to be habit and not a new comfort.
Every little thing was twisting my heart. I had missed so much. I had missed seeing my Lucy pregnant with our child. I missed his birth, and the first few years of his life all because of a meddling old man who didn’t have the first clue what was really best for his family. She wasn’t even his blood. This boy was mine though. He would pay a hefty price for hiding my blood from me.
“Come, sit, and tell me everything from the start. I am beginning to believe everything was not as it seemed.”
I took a seat in the unforgivingly hard chair beside her bed and I started at the beginning, leaving nothing out. “I showed Merc my surprise for you before anyone showed up for the party,” I began, falling into the memory easily enough. “I had a kutte made special for you with a property patch on it, and I had hidden away an engagement ring in the tiny little zippered pocket.”
“You were going to propose to me?”
I nodded my head. “I told you before I planned on spending the rest of my life with you. I only waited until the deal for our house went through. I didn’t want to ask you to marry a man with no house. The clubhouse is just fine for gatherings, but it isn’t a place to raise a family.”
A Love So Hard (Aces High MC - Charleston Book 2) Page 16
