King of Regret: An Academy Surprise Baby Romance (Boys of Almadale Book 2)

by Jacie Lennon

  “Anyway, how is that part more important than my life being endangered?” I ask, and they stop arguing, looking at me.

  “Because being a dad is for life. Doubt you’ll be running from the Lions for that long,” Corbin points out.

  “It’s not even a sure thing,” I say, picking some toppings off my slice and dropping them on the plate. Pizza mutilation is preferable to eating it right now.

  “What isn’t?” Bodhi and Corbin ask at the same time, and I heave a sigh, dreading this part.

  “That the kid is mine.”

  Silence again.

  “Dude. WTF?” Bodhi says.

  “Just say what the fuck, not that acronym shit,” Corbin says, and Bodhi kicks him underneath the table.

  “Didn’t know you knew what an acronym was,” Bodhi counters.

  I swear, it’s like talking to a bunch of toddlers.

  “Scholarship,” Corbin says, and Bodhi shrugs.

  “So, who is the second baby daddy?” Bodhi asks, and I grimace.

  “Drake,” I finally say and brace myself for impact.

  Bodhi jumps up again, clasping his hands behind his head at the same time. “What the actual fuck, Brock? What the fuck? You aren’t serious.”

  “Yeah,” I say and lean back.

  Corbin’s mouth is hanging open, half-eaten food about to fall out. He knows what this means. He knows all about our life.

  “Speak of the devil,” Corbin says as soon as he swallows, tilting his head in the direction behind me.

  I swivel my neck and then really wish I weren’t sitting here. Bodhi walks off, shoulder-checking Drake as he passes him, and I wait for a fight to break out, but Drake only smirks and continues walking toward us.

  He and his jerk-off friends stop right in front of our table, and Corbin and I both lean back, the picture of ease while, inside, my heart is pounding.

  Fuck.

  If he’s here, the Lions know where I am. I thought we would be safe outside of Loredo. Looks like I was wrong.

  “Montgomery,” Drake says and then narrows his eyes even further if it’s possible, looking at Corbin. “Henson.”

  “Portley,” I say since we are going by last names at the moment.

  “It’s a good thing we ran into each other,” he says, placing one hand on the back of the booth and bending down a little, a creepy grin still on his face. He doesn’t say anything after that, clearly wanting me to ask, but I won’t. I want to get the hell out of here. “I have a message for you.”

  “Don’t want it. Don’t care,” I say, bringing my water to my lips and taking a sip even though I’m not thirsty.

  Drake slides into the empty spot Bodhi left while his cronies assume a threatening position in front of the table.

  “Don’t cross us.”

  “Who is the us you are referring to?”

  “Don’t play dumb with me, Montgomery. I know you’ve seen her. I know, for some twisted reason, she is warning you about stuff. That won’t be happening anymore. I’ve made sure of it.”

  Something about the way he said that last sentence causes my blood to run cold.

  I can’t help but ask questions now.

  “What has changed?” I lean back, spreading my arms along the back of the booth and smirking at Drake even though a pit of dread is forming at the bottom of my stomach.

  “Your warnings. You now get one warning. Don’t cross us.”

  “Noted,” I say, and Drake slowly rises. I don’t know what comes over me then, but I feel cornered, and I don’t enjoy the feeling, so I strike out with words. It might be stupid in the long run, but at the moment, I don’t care. “You can tell the fuckin’ Lions that I’m not scared of them.” I stand and stare Drake down.

  “You should be.” He walks off, and I take a step before Corbin’s hand wraps around my arm, holding me back.

  “Let them go. We have a problem.”

  “A problem? That right there is our problem,” I say, still looking at Drake and his friends’ backs.

  “No, Bodhi texted me and said to get outside—fast.”

  I throw some money on the table, and we take a side door to the alley, so we don’t run into the assface motherfuckers again. Bodhi is thankfully standing right outside, but he’s not alone.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, walking up to Bodhi. Then, I recognize the guy standing next to him. “Mooney?”

  “He stopped me, thinking I was you,” Bodhi says, and I stare at him for a second, taking in Bodhi’s nose ring and different hair.

  “It’s dark, but I see the differences now,” Mooney says. “Your faces are the same.”

  “We know. Get to the point.” I’m about fed up with surprise visitors.

  “It’s Peyton,” he says before looking over his shoulder. “She’s missing.”

  If I thought I felt dread before, it’s nothing compared to the lead stone in my stomach now.

  “What do you mean, missing?”

  “She hasn’t come around the bar for a week now. She was supposed to text me the night she left and tell me she got home. Never did. Drake and his friends had been at the bar earlier that night, and I have a feeling they know something about it, so I followed Drake and those guys here. Never thought I would run into you.”

  “You haven’t heard from her at all?”

  “No. She’s missed all her shifts, and she hasn’t been at home when I’ve gone there. Have you heard from her?”

  “No. I thought she’d ghosted me. Have you alerted the cops?”

  “Nah. Pointless in Loredo. The Lions have them in their back pocket,” Mooney says, and I run one hand down my face.

  “Fuck,” Bodhi says, and I remember he and Corbin are there.

  “What do you think they did? You think Drake took her?” Bodhi asks, and I groan.

  Perfect.

  “Seems the most logical explanation. Never did like that boy much, but Peyton didn’t say anything bad about him.”

  “If they took her, where would they go?”

  “The only place I could figure is the compound,” Mooney says, furrowing his brow. “Yeah, I don’t know of anywhere else he could get away with it.”

  “The compound. Are you fucking with me?” I whisper-yell, and Mooney glares at me. That place is no place for a pregnant woman.

  “Don’t believe I am,” he says, looking over his shoulder again.

  “We can’t go to the Lions’ compound, waltz in, and ask for them to hand her over,” Bodhi says.

  “No shit, dipshit,” I say, cutting my eyes at him.

  I’m worried now, knowing Peyton is not getting the care she should. The care I could provide for her if only she had come with me when I asked.

  “How do you even know she wants out of there?” Corbin asks, raising a very good question.

  I look back at Mooney, and he shrugs.

  “I don’t. But don’t you think if she were there willingly, she would at least let me know?”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Girls are weird.” I kick a rock that was underneath my shoe. I want to drive my fist into the concrete wall next to me.

  “Look, this is serious shit, man. We have to have a game plan because they have guns, and they will use them.” Corbin lifts his chin as he crosses his arms.

  “Well, there is no way to know if it’s voluntary or not,” I say, and Bodhi looks at me, mouth stretched wide. “What are you smiling about?” I ask.

  “It’s good to see you care about someone other than yourself,” he says.

  “I don’t. I mean, it’s not like that.” I flounder. Because I kind of wonder if it might be like that between me and Peyton now. Maybe I do care more than I usually do.

  “Uh-huh,” Bodhi says.

  “What do you know about the compound?” I turn to Mooney, ignoring my brother.

  “There’s a main building. Not sure what’s in there, but I might be able to find out. I have some contacts. There is a smaller building in the back and a garage-type place across from it,
also behind the main building. There might be more, but you can’t see it from the road if there is.”

  “Is there a fence?”

  “Yeah, high-tech shit, barbed wire on top, like a prison,” Mooney says before grunting.

  “Great. Just great,” I mutter.

  “So, are we doing this?” Bodhi asks, rubbing his hands together.

  “We aren’t doing anything,” I tell him, and he points at me.

  “Nope. We are in this with you now. You go in; we all go in.”

  “Exactly why I didn’t want to tell you,” I say.

  “Tough shit. It’s not up to you now. It’s up to us,” Corbin says, pointing at our little group.

  I reach up and rub my eyes.

  “Okay. Fine. Mooney, give me your number. Find out all you can about the Lions, their compound, and whether Peyton might be there. We will meet tomorrow night and talk locations then.”

  “This is straight spy shit,” Bodhi says, whooping a little.

  “Shut the fuck up,” I say, glancing at the end of the alley, where two people have stopped and are staring at us.

  Mooney rattles off his number once I have my phone out and then gives me a grim look.

  “Brave of you to do this when you don’t even know if it’s yours,” he says, something like respect on his face.

  “It’s nothing,” I say while Bodhi snorts beside me.

  I don’t think he’s grasping the gravity of what we are about to attempt. Maybe Peyton will show up between now and our idiotic rescue attempt.

  One can only hope, for the baby’s sake.

  13

  Brock

  I glance around Mooney’s office, vaguely surprised that Peyton isn’t standing opposite me, mad about something, like she was the last time we were here. I can remember the way her cheeks flushed from her neck up to her temples, making her look fucking amazing.

  “Montgomery?” Mooney’s voice draws my gaze away from where we stand, and I give him a curt glance.

  “Right, so what do you know?”

  Corbin is leaning against the wall, arms crossed and one foot up, while Bodhi lounges in the computer chair behind the desk. Mooney is standing beside me, a rough drawing of the layout of the compound in front of him.

  “Right here,” he says, gesturing to the main building, “is where she is.”

  “You know this for sure?”

  “Yeah, my guy knows his stuff. I trust him.”

  Right now, I don’t have anyone else to trust.

  “Okay, so what’s our plan?” I reach back to the waistband of my jeans, where I placed a Glock 45, and set it on the map in front of us.

  Bodhi sits up. “Fuck, man. A gun?”

  It’s the one I usually keep in the console of my car, the one I hadn’t touched until I had to the day I was chased by crazy motorcycle-riding madmen.

  “You want to go in there empty-handed?” I turn to him, leaning my hands on the desk, and blow out a breath. “This is ridiculous. Why are we doing this?”

  “Um, because someone is being held against her will,” Corbin says, pushing himself off the wall and coming to inspect the gun I lay down.

  Mooney moves to a drawer in the desk and takes out a sawed-off. Bodhi’s mouth drops open again.

  “I am so fucking excited,” he whispers, reverently running one finger down the metal barrel.

  “This isn’t one of your video games,” I say, and he jerks his gaze toward mine.

  “I know. But this sure beats our normal Friday nights.” He gives me a smirk, and I’m happy to have my brother I know back. I can’t deal when he’s in a funk, like he was last night.

  “Okay, the plan is to take my truck,” Mooney says, picking up his map and gun.

  I put mine back in my waistband. He hands a pair of wire cutters to Corbin, and Bodhi grabs the toolbox from the floor.

  “We park a mile away and walk to here.” He points at a mark on the map, where the fence is. “Cut here, get in, get her, get out.”

  “That simple, huh?” I ask.

  “Never,” Mooney says.

  After a mile walk, we are crouched down outside the south perimeter of the compound. The tall fence rises above us, at least twelve feet high and rimmed with barbed wire, and I shudder, thinking about what we would have done if Mooney hadn’t brought the cutters.

  He’s currently working on cutting the chain-links as quietly as he can, but they still sound like gunshots in the night air, and I flinch each time, convinced someone is going to find us. This might be a fool’s errand. She might not want to get out. Maybe she picked Drake.

  My heart drops, and I shake my head, clearing the thought. I can’t think that way right now. Not here.

  Bodhi is sifting through the toolbox, and he raises a crowbar, a smile on his face.

  “Let that motherfucker at me,” he says, and I roll my eyes.

  “I don’t think we want to run into anyone tonight,” I tell him, and he shakes his head.

  “I wouldn’t mind letting him get what he deserves.”

  I think back to our history with Drake. Not many people know about it, as we’ve kept it under wraps, working hard to bury our connections, but that’s all going up in flames. I think our past might come back to bite us in the ass.

  “Do you think she’s here?” Bodhi whispers, and I know who he’s talking about—it’s not Peyton.

  “I don’t know. I hope to never see her face again,” I say, and he frowns, his confusion and then anger playing out across his face.

  I always knew he was affected more than me, but I didn’t realize he had been holding on to those feelings.

  “Do you remember it?” he asks, and I shrug.

  I have one picture of her, holding Bodhi and me when we were about two. We lived in a small apartment. Dad was determined to make his own way in the world and not live off his parents’ money. He didn’t take over the company and grow it to billions until after Grandpa died when we were eight. Mom had thought the grass was greener somewhere else and left all three of us when we were about three years old.

  I dig my foot in the leaves, smashing them down as I grind my jaw.

  “A little,” I say, not wanting to go down this road right now. I try not to think about her or what she did to our family. Or the family she has now.

  “A little help?” Mooney grunts, and I’m thankful for the distraction. He has a half-moon cut out, not enough to slide through, but I help him pull it back a little, so he can continue working on the rest of it.

  “So, what’s the plan once we are inside?” Corbin whispers, and Mooney pauses, squinting through the fence.

  “My contact says she’s in a room on the south side of the main building; that’s why we are coming in here. Hopefully, extraction will go quick. Keep hold of that crowbar,” he says, gesturing to Corbin’s hands. “She has boards over her window.”

  “What the fuck?” I growl, and Mooney stiffens.

  “I know,” he says, his tone saying everything without needing to say it.

  “They shouldn’t be able to get away with this,” I growl, and they all grunt in agreement.

  “They won’t,” Mooney says, and I cock my head to the side.

  “What do you mean?”

  “My contact on the inside? He’s … working on it.”

  “What does working on it involve?”

  “I can’t say much more than that. But he will help us as much as he can without giving himself away.”

  I anxiously rub my hands together and feel Bodhi pacing behind me. Mooney snips the last few pieces of fence and hands the cutters to Bodhi, and suddenly, we are all staring at the hole, which is begging us to enter.

  Peyton

  I finally hear the sounds of a party starting up early evening, and I smile, realizing my good luck. No one will be able to make out the noise I make in here with loud music and shouting going on in the main area. Thinking about it last night, I decided that I had to be at the Lions’ compound; it’s the on
ly thing that makes sense, and when I peek back out my window, pushing the board out again, the fence I can glimpse confirms my suspicions.

  I take a shower. I had washed my clothes and laid them to dry last night since no one had seen fit to give me anything else to wear. I’m burning these once I get out. I don’t want to see them again. I don’t have shoes, since they took them when I got here and never returned them, but that’s a problem for later. I guess I’ll tear up the bottom of my feet, but if it gets me out of here, I don’t care.

  I put my ear to the door, making sure no one is outside, and I start working the boards loose again over my window. I finally have two off, and I think I could squeeze between them, so I put my fake crowbar up and then peer out. I don’t see anyone, and I note that it’s getting darker. Pretty soon, I should have food being delivered, and once they do, I’m taking what I can and getting out.

  I sit on the bed, tapping my bare foot against the floor to the beat of the music outside. I wonder briefly if Drake will try to come visit today but then decide he won’t.

  Why would he?

  He hasn’t stepped foot back in here. I guess I’m supposed to exist for his every whim, but he’s got another thing coming if that’s what he thinks. I’ve got his torture and castration plotted out if I ever have to see him again.

  Finally, I hear a knock at the door. I wait for it to swing open, followed by the tray being shoved through, but to my horror, it keeps opening, and a man steps through, holding my food. I haven’t seen him before, but he wears a leather cut, showing he’s a member of the Lions MC. I sit up straighter as he lays the tray on the end of the bed and then stands back up, leveling me with a look. He’s young—maybe my age or a little older. I wonder if he’s friends with Drake.

  I try not to look at where I dismantled the chair or at the window, hoping he’s at least hammered enough so he won’t notice. My heart sinks when he glances that way, taking it all in before focusing back on me.

  He crosses his arms and taps one booted foot before speaking, “You’ve been busy.” His voice is gruff and gravelly; it doesn’t fit him.