Nomad's Bride (Death Skulls MC Book 2)

by Rachel Cade

  Some of the eight men he had with him chuckled as they entered Amber Falls.

  Chapter Fourteen:

  Where Is The Love?

  Lyndie knew she was going to have to keep her head on straight to make it through this.

  She walked into the old bingo hall; the last time she was here, she’d been running out of the door with Max after Noa had found out who his father was.

  But she didn’t let the memory hold her long. She needed to stay focused.

  “Ashley, good afternoon.”

  Ashley’s back was to her as she stood near a table full of notebooks and what looked like fabric samples.

  The woman’s shoulders slumped a little bit and Lyndie imagined her face followed suit.

  When she turned around to face her, Lyndie realized she was wearing a bit more makeup than usual, likely to cover the bruise on the side of her face.

  “Lyndie Hargood.” She smiled in that seller way. “Thanks for coming.”

  “Of course.” She’d left Max at home with Vicky, who stared hard at her when she told her where she was going. “Whatever I can do to help.”

  “Yes.” Ashley nodded.

  “Lyndie.” Mary Lee popped out of nowhere near her shoulder. “It’s good to see you, girl.”

  It was?

  “Isn’t it wonderful how the good Lord spared Mr. Langley? And we’ll all be able to get together and celebrate.”

  Lyndie smiled. “It is.”

  “I saw you in a new car,” Mary added. “Very new.”

  Ashley tilted her head at the news. “Wow, missy. How did you get your hands on that?”

  “Auction,” Lyndie quickly responded. “I lucked up.”

  “That car must go a million miles an hour,” Mary chuckled. “Why would a mom need a fast car like that? It’s so crazy.”

  “Max loves riding in it.” Lyndie kept her smile.

  Mary just nodded. “I’m sure he does.”

  “What was the name of the auction?” Ashley asked. “I had no idea one was going on around here. I usually here about those types of things.”

  “It was out of state.”

  Ashley nodded as well. “Pass along the name, though, Lyndie. Maybe I’d like to see if I could luck up too.”

  “You already have a car.”

  “Maybe I want another one.”

  Mary stood between the two women with her eyes bouncing from one to the other.

  “Ash.” Craig’s voice cut the air as he walked through the door. “Some cake dude is outside said you need to sign for something.”

  “Coming,” she called.

  Lyndie quickly excused herself from Mary before any more probing questions were sent her way.

  “You read the forensics report?” Will had his hands in his pockets at the bedroom door of his future father-in-law.

  Hugh didn’t answer right away.

  “Where’s Scott?”

  “I don’t think he’s here.”

  “Find him. Bring him back.”

  “It was just an accident, Hugh.”

  The old man tossed the report on the bed.

  “A half million dollars in damages over a joint! A half million!”

  Will wanted to suggest he use the biker’s money to restore his house, but knew it wouldn’t go over well. He kept his smile internal.

  “Hugh. Can’t you just be thankful you’re alive? What’s yelling at your son going to do? He was in the house with you too.”

  “I coddle my children too much,” he answered. “I just gave them things and made the mistake of not teaching them the value of hard work.”

  Will agreed but stayed silent.

  “Getting yourself upset isn’t good for your health. You’re supposed to be recovering.”

  “Putting the town back in order is going to help me recover. How have you been getting along with our new people while I was in the hospital?”

  Will wasn’t in the mood for questioning. He should have gotten Scott and let him face the brimstone.

  “I still don’t trust them. We’ve been keeping on eye on them in all honesty. The citizens are concerned.”

  “The citizens? Or you and Mitch Rigetta.”

  “Hugh-”

  “I want a sit down.” Langley’s suit was laid out on the bed, a crisp pristine white in contrast against the blue linen. “You, me, Mitch, and the bikers. Before the celebration. I want everything put on the table so we all can hash out how we’re moving forward.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “I wasn’t asking for your input. And I still give the last word on what goes on around here.”

  Will raised his hands to his hips.

  “One last thing.” The man’s rasp stopped Will when he turned to leave.

  “Lyndie Hargood.”

  Will stayed focused on Langley. “Yes.”

  “She has your child.”

  Will’s brows lowered.

  “Making her your baby mama, as they say.”

  Will’s nostrils flared out.

  “You have one child with a woman you’re no longer with and you’ve been dating my daughter for close to a year. I won’t talk about that messy business, but she tells me she’s trying to conceive. If you think my grandchild’s going to be born out of wedlock, you two can be married. Soon. My celebration would be perfect.”

  “What?” Will stared at the man like he’d lost his mind.

  “Ashley agrees.” Hugh cleared his throat softly. “Now that that business is taken care of, have one of your officers bring me my boy.”

  How in the fuck was he going to get out of this?

  *

  “Hey.”

  Lyndie smiled. “Hey,” she answered, hearing her husband on the other end of the phone.

  “Just wanted to check on you and make sure you made it home okay.”

  “Yes, we’re both here. We’re fine.”

  “I miss you at the trailer.”

  Her smile widened. “That’s sweet. But you have Lucy.”

  Noa laughed on the other line. “Lucy is not you or Max. One day soon we’ll be in the house together.”

  “That sounds really nice.”

  “The guys are having a barbecue tomorrow night. We’re having a little thing of our own.”

  “Are you all coming to Langley’s party?”

  “No. I doubt we’d be welcome. And it’s fine, you know. It’s the deal we made. We stay away from town unless we need to be there.”

  Lyndie didn’t like it.

  “So you want to come hang out? Be an honorary Death Skull for a night?”

  “What?” Her mouth widened. “I have to get a sitter for Max.”

  “No. Not really.”

  “Why not?”

  “Max… he was requested by the guys. They’d like to see him again.”

  “Requested?” Lyndie covered her mouth. “I’ll ask him about it when he wakes up, but I doubt he’ll turn down the invitation.”

  There was a tiny knock on front door. When Lyndie looked up, she could see Will’s silhouette through the glass.

  She swallowed, but maintained her voice. “You know, I should probably get in the shower and get to bed.”

  “Alright. I won’t hold you up, then. Love you, Babygirl.”

  It hurt to lift the corner of her mouth. “I love you too.”

  Lyndie tugged on her uniform as she moved to open the door.

  “It’s late, Will.”

  He was in regular clothes, jeans and a white t-shirt. “Yeah. I know. Can I come in?”

  “What do you need to talk to me about this late at night?” she asked. “I just got home from work. I haven’t even got the baby settled.”

  “Can I come in?” he repeated.

  She stepped back.

  Will came inside and walked to the living room.

  “Where’s Max?”

  “In his room.”

  He glanced around the living room where toys were scattered on the couch.


  “I heard you got a new car.”

  Lyndie raised her hands to the sides of her neck.

  “I heard it’s pretty nice.”

  “You came here in the middle of the night to question me, Will?”

  “What if I did?”

  Lyndie lifted her hands up to the sky. “I’m tired, Will. Fuck. I am tired. I’m not doing this with you anymore. Every time I see you, I don’t know what to expect. You hate me and shame me, then you want to give me money. Next you want me to listen to your problems. Then you want to be a father. After that, you tell me you actually cared about me this whole time. I can’t. I’m not going to do this with you anymore.”

  She was going off script and she knew it, but her mouth wouldn’t close.

  “You humiliated me in front of this whole town because I made the mistake of loving you.” She felt drained just from saying it. “That’s what this has all been about!”

  Will folded his arms listening to her. The longer he spoke, the more his eye contact shifted.

  She was probably ruining her plan to get close to him, but her gut pushed her to speak for herself, to say her truth to the person that needed to hear it the most.

  “I told you earlier I made a mistake.”

  “A mistake?” Her face grew hot. “We were together for five years, Will! You made me think I was the mistake, that Max was the mistake.”

  Will sucked in a deep breath over her words.

  “I was just thinking about myself,” he answered. “I was trying to get everything I wanted. What I thought I wanted.”

  Lyndie’s face scrunched. “What do you want? Forgiveness? You want me to let everything be in the past and just trust you again like snapping my fingers? I have Max to think about now. And I have myself, too. I deserve better.”

  Will nodded, lowering his arms. “I could be better for you, Lyndie.”

  “Don’t lie, Will.”

  “I’m not lying.”

  It seemed like the more she pushed him away, the more he pushed toward her.

  “You’re engaged to someone else. And I’m here alone with my baby. How is that better?”

  He stepped toward her. “I can fix all of this, just give me a little time. Me you and Max. We can be a family, just like you wanted. I’ll keep you safe, along with the rest of the town.”

  “How?” she asked. “I want you to tell me.”

  “The only thing you need to know is that it’ll get done.”

  Lyndie gnashed her teeth. Will moved closer to her until their bodies were touching.

  “Five years is what we had, Lyndie, and we have a kid together. That day I picked you up from the gas station and gave you a ride home, you had the saddest look in your eyes; I remember it. I tried to tell you some jokes to make you laugh. And you had the most beautiful smile I ever saw.”

  He pressed his forehead to hers.

  “I kept this.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket. “You’re the main reason I beat out Davis to become sheriff.”

  Lyndie stared down at the pen, which she’d completely forgotten about.

  “How are you going to fix it, Will?” she whispered.

  “It’s going to be us again, Lyndie. I know you wouldn’t try to replace me. Because deep down you know you can’t.”

  “When we made it work, we used to listen to each other. Why can’t you just tell me what’s going on?”

  “Because I’m thinking about you and Max. I’m thinking about you guys. And I will be from here on in.”

  Lyndie looked up at him, seeing the sincerity in his eyes. She kept her nod short.

  Chapter Fifteen:

  Who’s the Boss?

  “How are things goin’ out there?”

  Tin’s voice was good to hear on the other line.

  It was early morning and Noa was already up. He had a decent night’s sleep but he knew he’d sleep even better once he was free to live with Lyndie and Max.

  “Kind of quiet to be honest.”

  “No more unexpected cop visits, I hope.”

  “Nope. I’m glad, ‘cause I’d probably just shoot first and ask questions later.”

  Tin’s sigh turned into a laugh. “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but I know sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do.”

  “How are things with you?”

  “Brother’s on bed rest. We got to talk, which was good. Buried some old hatchets.”

  “When you get a chance to do that, you gotta take it,” Noa replied.

  “Yeah… so while I was out here, I did a little work lookin’ into Mitch Rigetta.”

  “You always find time for work, don’t you?” Noa sat on the bench by his trailer and fed a few crickets to Lucy.

  “Aztecs just had a pretty big bust in Guadalupe. You know that’s one of their strong holds. About thirty guys got arrested, a good seven figures out of their rotation.”

  “Shit.” Noa rested an elbow on his knee. “Big risk and big loss in the drug game.”

  “Keep your eyes open out there, you hear?”

  “You got it, boss.”

  “The town wasn’t even on the map.” Tin’s gruff voice shifted on the other line as he stretched. “That’s why I picked it.”

  “And we’ll make sure you keep it.” Noa peered through the glass as Lucy stalked her meal. “It’s Death Skulls territory now.”

  “So you and your dad are running around making wedding plans behind my back?”

  Will had no idea how he kept his feet on the ground. The sight of Ashley made him want to throw her off the side of a building or a cliff.

  She was sitting at her vanity in a nightgown, applying makeup to her face despite it being nighttime. Did she always do that shit?

  “No one’s doing anything behind your back, Will,” she answered softly.

  “No one asked me about it, but agreed it’s happening. How is that not behind my back?”

  She turned on the white furry stool to face him.

  “We’re engaged to be married.”

  Will pushed his hands in his pockets. “The celebration is for your father. We shouldn’t be trying to shoehorn a wedding on top of it.”

  “Will.” She smiled like she did in photos. “Are you getting cold feet? Not after I made so many sacrifices to make this work. I welcomed your child into my life despite the sentiment not being returned. I even looked the other way on your not-so-ethical dealings with Mitch.”

  “What?” Adrenaline heated his blood but he feigned stupidity. “What are you talking about?”

  “The department working with Mitch Rigetta,” she answered. Then lifted her hand to quote. “‘Moving product’ is how they say it on TV.”

  Will collapsed the space between them, hovering over her with daggers shooting out of his eyes. “Shut your mouth.”

  “Or what, baby? Are you going to leave me and go back to the waitress? And make my daddy mad?” Ashley stared up at him. “The marriage can be a new start for us. No more hiding anything. No going behind each other’s backs. And no more Lyndie Hargood.”

  Will backed away, scrunching his face as he rubbed his fingers against his eyes. “That girl has become too much of a nuisance. Have you seen her driving around in that car? I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t a prostitute or something.”

  “Ashley-”

  “I don’t care something is off with her. She’s not fit to raise your son. I know I could be a better mother than her.”

  She stood up. “You’re going to get custody of Max for us. And you’re going to get rid of her.”

  Will let his tongue touch the roof of his mouth.

  “Get rid of her.” He stared hard at his fiancée. “You’re right.”

  Lyndie had barely slept after Will left.

  She was still rattled by the whole visit. She couldn’t lie to herself.

  How dangerous was this going to get?

  And in spite of it, she had to keep her focus and stay the course.

  For herself and for Max.
r />   And Noa too.

  She didn’t want him to get caught up in Will’s schemes. He wanted them gone and he’d do anything to see it happen. The clock was ticking now, especially with Langley out of the hospital and moving around.

  The look on Ashley’s face when he told her about the theater had to have been priceless.

  She must have crumbled into salt at the realization that someone that wasn’t her was getting what they wanted.

  Lyndie would feed that old man a thousand doughnuts if she had to in order to stay in his good graces. He seemed to feel bad for her being a single mom as well. It was crazy that that predicament was working in her favor for once.

  But amen.

  When the afternoon lull hit and Jeff took his break, she used the opportunity to go downstairs.

  The small room where Mitch kept his office was open. She usually only went inside to drop of receipts or to store the daily take in the safe.

  Mitch had trusted her a lot over the years with responsibility. She’d worn many hats in this little place outside of waitress but not too many knew it. He should have paid her more.

  She should have demanded it.

  One good thing about the space was she could hear cars when they parked close to the property, so she’d know if anyone was coming. Lyndie commenced to quickly look through all of Mitch’s unorganized business files, starting with the cabinet.

  Most of what she found was pay receipts and invoices for food. He had a few personal bills from home laying around. An empty food carton in the trash gave the room a bit of a musk.

  Lyndie sat in his desk chaired and tried the desk drawer, which was locked.

  “Damn,” she whispered.

  Where would a drug-dealing diner owner keep his key?

  At home because he’s smart, she thought with a sigh.

  Defeat wound her up to the point that she rubbed the back of her neck. One of her hair pins fell on the ground.

  Lyndie reached down and grabbed it from the floor.

  Would it work like the movies?

  On a whim, she moved the jagged end into the lock.

  For a few minutes, she worked until coming to terms with it not working.

  Quickly she snatched it out.

  A paperclip was on his desk, so she tried that out next.