by Ali Parker
I waited until the door closed behind me to move under the roof and answered the phone. "It's Johnny."
"It's Maria. We couldn't find Jason, so we went over to your place, Johnny and he's not there either." She was frantic, and her crying was making it hard to understand her.
I wanted to bark into the phone that he was her fucking problem and remind her how much of a pain in the ass the kid had been his whole life, but my timing was off. She was beside herself.
"I'm headed to the house."
"I'm scared to go into the bedroom, Johnny. He's not in there, but there's blood all over the sheets." Her voice broke.
"It's alright. I'll be there and I'll find him. Just go back to your place and lock the doors, okay? That fucking kid is into all kinds of things that would make my childhood look like a day in the park."
"Please be careful."
“Right. I’ll see if I can find him, if I can save him."
"He's not yours to save, Jon. Roberto wasn't either." Her voice was soft, compassionate, which was something I didn’t deserve.
“I’m the oldest brother in the Moretti family, Maria. Everyone is mine to save.”
I dropped the call. Who knew where Jason was, but if I had one guess, I'd have pointed right to Tanner King’s house. The fucker was after me, and what better way to get to me than using my family and friends? He knew how I felt about Jason namely because of the suffering he enjoyed when I broke down at Roberto’s funeral.
Fury boiled in my stomach as I walked back into the lodge to grab my keys and my shirt.
"Hey. You alright?" Hyde moved up beside me, walking fast and keeping stride with me.
"No. Jason's missing again. I'm headed to the house to find him. If he shows up here or you guys hear anything-"
"We'll call right away." Axel tossed me my keys and my shirt. "We got your back, Ryder. It's what we're here for. Stop pushing us away mother fucker. You set the tone for this club. Only you."
I nodded. "Thank you for the reminder. I'll be in touch."
"Good." Axel gave me a single nod before I turned on my heel and jogged back out of the lodge. The rain had let up a little, but not enough to make the ride home safe at all. At least not at the speed I went.
***
By the time I made it home, I had imagined the worst possible scenario. As mad as I was at the kid, he didn't deserve the life I'd lived. Neither mine nor Roberto's. Someone had to save his ass, and it seemed like it was going to be me.
I parked the bike, locked it up quickly and jogged up the stairs. Darkness greeted me when I walked into the house, which wasn't at all unusual.
"Jason? You here, man?" I walked to the back and turned into his bedroom. The smell of weed slapped me in the face, but I ignored it. I'd toked up as a kid too. His drug problem was the least of my worries as of late.
I pulled the cover back to find the sheets bloody. "Fuck."
The tracker. Either he or someone else had tried to get the damn thing off of him. There wasn't an easy way to do it without taking off some skin. After searching the house and coming up empty, I got on my bike and drove back up to the playground where the little bastard usually hung out. Nothing.
The warehouse was empty too. I parked outside of it and got out, walking into the dilapidated building and moving around the room. There was no reason to call out to him, he wasn't there.
My phone rang while I was looking in one of the closets, filling up the place with an annoyingly loud sound. I pulled my phone out and relief flooded my chest.
"Dani," I whispered into the phone. "There you are."
"Sorry." She sounded a little hoarse. "I just got back home, but realized that Jason's tracker has been deactivated. Is he okay? Did he run?"
"I don't know where he is, but I'll find him." I paused, not liking the weariness in her voice. Something was off. "You alright? You need me to come over?"
"No," she bit out a little too quickly.
"Alright, well, I'm here if you need me."
"Thanks. I'll be in touch." She dropped the call without another word.
I stood there in the darkness and turned in a circle as something inside of me broke. The deep screams that welled up inside of me were terrifying. I was trapped in my old life and there was nowhere to run. I could help Tanner King once again, or he'd take everything I loved.
My only other option was to get the guys to band together with me and blow him and his boys to hell. Getting blood on our hands was something I'd promised myself as President that I'd never allow. Death seemed like the easy answer, but there was a price to pay for taking a life.
Freedom.
The law would come and take away our freedom, a sentence worse than death.
But wasn't a part of my freedom already gone? I was without a choice and being forced to hand over my nephew to Tanner's MC and give up the only girl who'd helped me want a different future.
Fuck. Maybe prison wasn't so bad after all.
Chapter 18
Dani
It was harder to move the next morning than it had been any other day in my life. My body hurt from all the shit the day before, but my heart was destroyed.
Johnny and I weren't much of anything - yet.
It was the yet that had me choking back tears and trying to come up with a new solution. Maybe he had fucked Candace in the same storeroom as me, but it was before me. Not after. It would be like me showing him a video of me and Seth together in a similar situation. My past only had the power to ruin my future if I let it. And I couldn't.
"But the shit with Tani." I sat up and groaned loudly as pain laced the back of my head. "I need to know what's going on there."
After a few minutes on the side of the bed, trying to decide what the fuck to do, I finally got to my feet. Tanner King was a much bigger bastard than I'd given him credit for. He wasn't only involved in sex trafficking and drugs, but in turning ordinary, good people into puppets.
He would do it to me, and from what I could tell, he'd do it to Johnny too.
I took a long shower and got dressed before leaving the house. A bagel and a cup of coffee on the way to the station were as good as it got. Even though I was forced to work for King until he was satisfied, I still had bills to pay and a life to live.
"A pathetic one." I got in the cop car outside of my apartment, grateful I had one sitting there. My Honda was at the bottom of the river on the other side of town.
My mind worked in overdrive as I made my way down to the station. I had to make it look like I was wooing Johnny back to me only to turn him into King. There were lives at stake, and I wouldn't doubt for a moment that all of the vile promises Tanner spewed from his lips were truth to him.
He had no problem getting more girls off the street or stealing them from their beds. He was perfectly fine killing my father, Johnny, and Jason. Nothing mattered to a man like him except power.
***
"How can we take his power away?" I asked the captain as I sat in front of his desk.
His eyes were wide with surprise. "He kidnapped you?"
"Yes." I leaned toward him. "Jack. I have to figure out how to take him down. We have to figure this out."
"Fuck." He bolted up and paced the floor behind his desk. "We have to catch him. That's part of the fucking problem. Every time we get close to him, he up and disappears. That or we can't link the act to him specifically."
"I have a tracker inside of me. I would assume it's iodine based." I stood and crossed my arms over my chest as my phone buzzed in my pocket. "And I'm telling you now that I'm going to do what King is forcing me to do. His promise to kill everyone I love if I don't is more than enough to force me to."
Captain nodded and turned my way. "What's he asking of you, Dani?"
"I have to get Johnny Moretti to him in a few days or so." I reached up and ran my hands over the top of my head. "He's Jason Moretti's guardian."
"Your parolee who's been acting up?"
"Yeah." I turned and walk
ed to the door. "We'll figure this out, right?"
"Of course we will. You're not handing over another human being to Tanner King. We'll get a group on it now. Hang tight and make it look like you're doing what you need to be doing."
"For him or you?" I forced a smile and walked out without an answer.
My phone buzzed again. Jason. His tracker was removed and inactive.
"Shit." I jogged toward my desk and dropped down, pulling up the program on my computer that would help me locate him. The tracker was still on the move, which was weird. Was the kid keeping it as a souvenir? Or was he playing bait for me to follow?
No. Tanner had his time with me. There was no way he was luring me out of the city to follow after Jason. That would make no sense.
"Dani." Johnny's voice surprised me, and I bolted up to my feet. How the fuck had he gotten past Margie at the front desk?
"Fuck. You scared me." I pressed my hands to the desk and stared up into his handsome face. "Jason is on the move. I have to go after him."
"You're not going without me." His deep blue eyes narrowed. He wasn't asking.
"Fine, but this is police business. You're going to ruin your reputation being seen with me all the time." I grabbed my keys and walked toward the door with him in tow.
"I'll take my chances." His voice was nothing more than a whisper. Maybe I wasn't the only one that Tanner had by the throat.
I glanced back as he held the front door for me. "We're taking my car."
"Not a chance. We're taking mine." He reached up and snagged my keys from my hand. "There's no way we're driving a cop car into purgatory. You realize how ridiculous that would be, right?"
I paused and glanced around as he jogged down the stairs to the parking lot. The hair on the back of my neck stood up. Someone was watching me. Watching us.
"Danielle. Let's go." He turned to face me.
"Right." I moved down the stairs and walked beside him until he stopped at a sleek, black Mustang. "This yours? Where's the bike?"
"I have a lot of toys." He got in the car and started it as I glanced around one more time.
I bet he had a lot of toys. Candace King was one of them. Was I?
"We need to head toward Jersey from what I can tell." I got into the car and yelped as he reached out and half-dragged me into his seat. His fingers sunk into my hair and his lips pressed tightly against mine.
I fought against the kiss for a moment before relaxing against him and opening up. I hated myself for letting him have me the minute he wanted to. Nothing good was going to become of us, and the minute we finally had Tanner King in the ground, Johnny would most likely be back to his old life of loving and leaving.
And where would that leave me? Right. Left.
Ignoring the sadness building in my chest, I pressed into the kiss and reached up to slide my fingers down the side of his face. The moment felt so right, so damn good. Like we were meant to be together somehow even though the odds were completely stacked against us. There was no way we would survive intact and willing to build something together. Not after I had to use him as bait to get to King.
"Where have you been the last few days?" He kissed me again and brushed his nose by mine.
I flinched as his fingers tightened around one of the many bruises on the back of my head. "My car flipped off the bridge by your house. I've been at the hospital."
"What?" He jerked back and studied my face as he cupped it. "Fuck, Dani. Why didn't you call me?"
"Because I didn’t want to bother you.” I pulled back and got into my seat. I missed his warmth immediately. "Look, I don't know what's going on between us, but maybe-"
"Don't." His tone was mean. Angry. "Let's find Jason, and we'll figure it out, but don't minimize how good it feels when we're together. Period."
I nodded and sunk down into my seat. I didn't know how to be a liar, how to trick someone or pull them into a web. I was one of the good guys. All I knew was how to infiltrate the madness and bring light to the darkness. It's all I ever wanted to do.
"When is the last time you were with Candace?" I turned my face toward him as my heart ached. I couldn't let him know that Tanner got to me or all would be lost. I had to figure things out on my own, and I would.
He glanced my way as he pulled out of the parking lot. "A few days before you and I met. She's the one woman I couldn't refuse."
"Couldn't or can't?"
"There's no way in hell I'd touch her again now that I've met you." He reached up and pulled down the visor. A pair of dark sunglasses fell into his hand. "She's my past, Dani. The only woman I've ever loved."
"And do you still love her?" I tugged at the seatbelt, feeling quite uncomfortable with the conversation.
"I love the memory of her." A smile played at the edge of his mouth, which pissed me off. "She was innocent when we met, and I was too. Tanner was my best friend in school. I've known that fucker all my life."
"What happened to him? Has he always been a horrible person?" I let out a quiet breath I didn't realize I was holding and tried to relax. We had a little bit of a drive from what I could tell.
"No." He shook his head and took a deep breath. "He took a turn for the worst our senior year. His mother was caught up in a sex scandal. She was fucking ten guys on a regular basis and taking money from it."
"Prostitution?" I pressed my hand to my stomach as it turned over.
"Yeah." He glanced over at me, his stare a little prolonged.
"Look at the road, please. I don't want to die today."
"It's hard when you're next to me." He reached out and took my hand, pulling it into his lap. "The worst part was that his father was in an accident a few years before and paralyzed from the waist down, so he wasn't able to get it up. The bitch was running around on him while he sat there alone at night and waited for her."
I squeeze his hand as sadness raced through me. Not for Tanner, but for his dad. How could people be so fucking vile?
"Shit," I mumbled and shook my head. "Did Tanner find her with the guys or something?"
"No. His father found everything and wrote Tan a long note. I was there the night he read it. I've never seen someone so destroyed before. He was enraged beyond words."
"Where's his dad now?"
"Dead." Johnny glanced over again. "He killed himself that night and left the note on the table."
"Oh, God." I turned to look out the window. Not that Tanner King deserved an ounce of pity, but monsters were often created out of the need to survive past their own soul-shredding moments. It was no different with King. "And his mom?" I whispered softly as the air around me felt too hard to breathe.
"She's a sex slave in his organization last I heard." Johnny released my hand. "I knew he was a monster the day I found that out. Death wasn't enough for her, so he's making sure that she gets what she deserves every day for as long as she lives."
"That's horrible." I turned toward Johnny. "Please tell me you didn't get involved in that.
He jerked the car over to the side of the road and narrowed his eyes. "Are you really asking me that right now? I know you don't know me and shit, but really? Do I seem like the kind of man that would subjugate a women to anything?"
I turned and looked him in the face, studying the hurt in his eyes. He was a beautiful mystery, and one I wanted to belong to almost more than I wanted anything else in that moment.
"I don't know you at all." I reached out and touched his face. "Tell me your story. Help me understand. Let me in."
Chapter 19
Ryder
"Let me in."
I wanted to. Something about Danielle made me want to pull back layers and layers of a fucked up life and let her see all of it. Candace had seen it all. She'd been beside me through most of it and held my hand, loving me as best she could while the world burned around me.
Some part of me knew that Danielle would be the same type of woman, only with morals.
"Can you see where he is now?" I nodded toward he
r phone. The disappointment on her face was barely hidden as she nodded and turned away from me.
Whatever moment we almost had was gone. Maybe it was for the better.
"He's at a hotel in Jersey. With this traffic, we'll probably get there by afternoon. Let me call someone from that local precinct to go after him."
"No. We do this ourselves. No cops."
"I am a cop, Johnny."
"No, you're just playing a part right now." I glanced over at her and forced myself not to reach for her hand. She wanted me to share my past, and I would, but until then, it was unfair for me to expect her to share her body freely with me. "You're on the force to save women from predators like Tanner, but you don't belong in that fucked up bureaucracy."
"No? Then where do I belong?"
I'd obviously hit a pain-point by the tightness in her voice.
"I have no clue, but my mother used to always tell me that when you found your place, it would fit just right." I smiled as the image of my mother cooking in the kitchen moved through my mind. "And she was right. I belong as President of the Lost Breed. I belong at the shop with Axel, fixing cars and helping people change tires. I don't need a big office or a gang of badasses to feel like me." I reached for her hand, ignoring the warning bells going off in my head. "And whether it makes sense or not, I belong with you. It feels fucking good. I don't want to act like it doesn't."
She wound her fingers around mine and leaned her head back against the seat as her eyes closed. I could tell she was fighting back the tears. "I just need to know, you know?"
"Need to know what, baby?" I pulled her hand toward my mouth and kissed each of her knuckles softly as my cock twitched in my pants. We had a million things against us, but sitting in the car next to her made it fade for a little while. That's how I knew it was where I belonged. Nothing mattered for a few minutes because she was beside me. Everyone in my life would have laughed their asses off if I told them about her only after a week or so of knowing her, but not my mother.
