Fear the Beard (The Dixie Warden Rejects MC Book 2)

by Lani Lynn Vale

  “Because he looked all lonely,” she murmured. “I also invited…oh, here he is now.”

  I turned to see Ghost stalking towards me.

  They’d all, of course, come to my parents’ house, but this was one of the rare times I’d seen them come knowingly into my mother’s presence.

  Apparently, my mother had no qualms when it came to butting into her adult son’s love life. She also extended the same love and concern over love lives of the men in my club as well, which was why they rarely, if ever, came to my family’s functions if my mom was going to be there.

  Not that I blamed them. If I could get away with not coming, I’d do the same, too.

  Three hours later, I found even more of my club brothers showing up at my parents’ house, further surprising me.

  “Who was that?” Tally whispered to me as she dropped down into the seat beside me. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever caught his name.”

  “That's Ghost.”

  “Who is Ghost?” she asked. “Why does he seem so…I don’t know, separate maybe, from y’all?”

  I looked back at where Ghost was disappearing out of the yard, and shrugged. “Ghost is Ghost. He is more of a nomad, no real home. I don’t think he’s ever settled here. He’s living half a life, and I feel like maybe he’s in limbo, always waiting for the other shoe to drop.”

  She blinked. “That sounds kind of sad.”

  I shrugged. “Ghost has a story, and only one person knows that story.”

  “Who?” she whispered, leaning forward like I was about to tell her a juicy secret.

  I grinned.

  “Ghost.”

  She growled.

  “Can I talk to him?” she questioned.

  I didn’t know why she wanted to talk to him. He was pretty standoffish. However, we could all see the pain in his eyes. The hurt and sadness that he tried to conceal.

  “Ohhh, I’d like to get in on that.” Imogen, New Guy’s old lady, added.

  I looked over at the two women who were nodding their heads excitedly in agreement.

  “I guess you could try. He’s not very talkative.”

  Tally grinned. “I’ll just give him Tallulah. That’ll make anyone talk.”

  Then I watched as the two women disappeared around the side of the house to where the party was happening in the backyard.

  “What’s…”

  I held up my hand, and Sean halted what he was about to say as he watched me pull my phone out and answer it.

  “Hello?” I answered, looking at my watch.

  It was seven in the evening on a Saturday. Who on earth would be calling me from the hospital on a Saturday when I wasn’t on call?

  “Mr. Tomirkanivov?”

  It was Lucia.

  “Yeah?” I asked, covering my opposite ear and walking away from Sean and Aaron in a vain attempt to hear her better.

  The party was loud, and my sister didn’t care one bit that her music was spilling into the front yard for all to hear.

  “I’m sorry to say this but…”

  I lost what she was about to say when two police cruisers pulled up.

  “I’m sorry,” I interrupted Lucia. “I will need to call you back.”

  Hanging up my phone without listening to her reply, I headed down the driveway to the officers that had just exited the police cruiser.

  “You coming for some dinner, Big Papa?” I asked, offering him my hand.

  Big Papa took it, but his eyes weren’t right.

  “I need to speak with you. Privately.”

  My brows rose, and I turned to find Sean and Aaron had followed me down the drive at having spotted the police cruisers.

  “What’s going on, BP?”

  Big Papa gestured to the other side of his cruiser, and I followed, unsurprised to find that Aaron and Sean had followed as well.

  I leaned against the hood as I waited for him to get whatever it was off his chest out in the open.

  My eyes flicked up the driveway to see Ghost holding Tallulah, on his way down the driveway, with a worried looking Tally following close by his side.

  “What’s up?” I asked.

  Big Papa’s jaw clenched.

  “There’s a young woman who is accusing you of rape.”

  Chapter 21

  My biggest fear is that I’ll find a man who I adore with all my heart, and then he’ll ask me to go on a diet with him. I love Chipotle. It holds a piece of my heart. What do I tell him if he asks me to choose? I’m sorry, but burritos taste better?

  -Tally’s secret thoughts

  Tally

  “She’s lying,” I snapped, my eyes hot, as I stared at Big Papa with anger written all over my features.

  My back was stiff, and my hands were clenched at my sides.

  Imogen was on one side, and Ghost was on the other, as we watched Tommy willingly walk away with his hands cuffed in front of him.

  The other officers who had come to ‘assist’ as Aaron had just said, were watching them with matching frowns.

  “They’re pissed that Big Papa didn’t cuff him like a criminal,” Aaron murmured. “And I know she’s lying. He was with you the day that the alleged ‘rape’ happened.”

  “Did they say who the victim was?” Ghost broke in, lifting his arm up a little higher to find a more comfortable position with Tallulah in his arms.

  I offered to take her from him more than once, but he’d shook me off. Three times.

  “Some girl at the school was all I heard,” Aaron, aka ‘the New Guy’, grumbled.

  He was looking down at his phone, brows furrowed, as he read a message from one of the other cops.

  “Markeep is the one who took the victim’s statement.”

  The whole group at my back groaned.

  “That’s fucking unlucky,” Ghost grumbled.

  “What’s unlucky?” I whispered fearfully. “Is this ‘Markeep’ a bad cop?”

  Ghost’s dark eyes came to mine.

  “She’s not a bad cop, but I wouldn’t say she’s one who I would count on to be on my side, either,” he said bluntly. “She’s a serious bitch, and has some bone to pick with Mooresville PD. Every time we have to collaborate on something, it ends up going to hell in a handbasket.”

  Wonderful.

  “And she won’t tell you who the girl is?” I asked nervously.

  But there was something niggling at the back of my brain. Something was shouting at me to figure it out already, but I couldn’t quite grasp the threads.

  I would, though. Hopefully not too late, however.

  My phone rang in the pocket of my bag, and I ignored it for the fourth time.

  “You should probably answer that,” one of the men suggested.

  I’d also noticed that he hadn’t answered my question.

  I looked up to see Sean staring at my purse, and then me, in worry.

  “Why?” I asked numbly.

  “It’s not making anything better by ignoring the outside world. Just deal with your shit, and eventually we’ll figure it out.”

  I swallowed thickly, and pulled my phone out of my purse, stopping only when I saw who it was that was calling.

  “It’s my friend. She’ll hold,” I murmured.

  I didn’t have the time nor the patience to deal with Hadley’s shit at the moment. I knew that she was likely just trying to get attention.

  That, or wanted to be picked up from some party, which I wasn’t able to do right now and wasn’t something I was willing to listen to her bitch to me about again.

  I still hadn’t figured out why she didn’t have a driver’s license. I mean, she had a damn car!

  “Let’s get you home.” Aaron took my elbow. “You want me to take you to your house, or Tommy’s house?”

  I bit my lip.

  Although everything inside of me screamed to go to Tommy’s house, to be surrounded by everything that was him, I knew that I sh
ould go to mine. That was where all of Tallulah’s stuff was, as well as all my stuff. Not to mention that Tommy would know exactly where to go when he got out.

  “Mine,” I murmured.

  Aaron gave one nod, and offered one elbow to me, and one elbow to Imogen.

  “Ladies.”

  I took Aaron’s hand and walked stiffly as he led us to my car.

  Ghost followed at my heels, walking Tallulah to her side of the car and strapping her all the way in without a word.

  “You’re good with her,” I observed over the hood of my 4-Runner.

  Ghost’s eyes caught mine.

  “Thanks.”

  With that he left, leaving my heart hurting for him as I watched him leave.

  As I drove home, I thought about Tommy.

  Thought about how his life would change now that he’d had this bullshit accusation thrown at him.

  And I knew I had to do something. Anything.

  I would not let some piece-of-shit liar ruin my man’s career, even if I had to ruin mine in the process of saving his.

  Now, to figure out who this piece of shit liar was.

  ***

  Tommy

  I walked out of the police station, my head held high, and went straight to my bike that my brothers had made sure was there.

  “Mr. Tomirkanivov, would you like to make a statement to KETP about the rape of a Mooresville College student?”

  I turned my glare to the woman who’d asked that asinine question, and growled. “No comment.”

  People continued to yell and scream at me, but I got on my bike, shoved on my helmet, and started the bike up with an angry roar.

  I was still just as angry now as I’d been twenty-eight hours ago when the accusation had first been hurled at me.

  I rode straight to the hospital five miles over the speed limit to make it in time for my shift, riding right past all the reporters, and barely resisting the urge to flip all those motherfuckers off as I hit the employee parking lot.

  I shut off the bike moments later, angrily yanked the helmet off my head and slammed it down so hard on my bike seat that the entire thing shifted slightly in the gravel underneath the tires.

  The moment Big Papa opened the staff door, he waved me inside.

  “Anything?” I asked him.

  He shook his head. “Nothing. The lawyer’s your best bet for now. I have a man on it, but the stuff he’s found is hidden under a layer of red tape it’s taking him some time to decipher.”

  I ground my teeth and stared with jaws clenching and unclenching as I tried to compose myself.

  “Well that’s just fucking unfortunate.” I grumbled. “They tried to fire me.”

  “At which place?” Big Papa asked as he gestured for me to follow him.

  I did, unsurprised to find the rest of the men in the staff break room.

  Thankfully, it was empty of any other staff besides the club.

  “At the school,” I murmured. “The hospital can’t afford to lose me…yet. Though, they did try to say if I didn’t come in today they’d find a way to put me on probation.”

  “Fuck them,” Sean grumbled, bringing a can of Dr. Pepper up to his lips and taking a healthy pull.

  Aaron snorted.

  “I’ve questioned Hadley’s friends on her whereabouts that night. Elba McGinnis, Jessica Silkerson, and Janna Maddox. They said they’d already given the same statements to the other cop. Apparently from their knowledge, she was at work. The boss is checking things on his end and is getting back to me.”

  “Hadley Dunston,” I shook my head. “I knew she was a bitch, but I never thought she’d stoop this low.”

  “I was able to pull up some details.” Big Papa said. “Got one of my boys on her background check. Drugs. Depression. Psychiatric problems. You name it, and she’s fucked up by it.”

  “Just perfect,” Aaron murmured, leaning back and cracking his knuckles, an evil gleam in his eyes. “I’ll have some ideas. I might go shake a few trees, see what I can scrounge up.”

  I nodded my head and went to my locker.

  Once there, I yanked my t-shirt off—the same one I had been wearing for nearly forty-eight hours now—and traded it out for a scrub top.

  I followed suit with my pants, and nearly had them up over my hips when the staff door room opened and closed.

  Two arms wrapped around me from behind, and Tally buried her face between my shoulder blades.

  “I’m so glad to see you,” she whispered fiercely.

  I turned in her arms and wrapped my arms around her neck, pulling her in tight to my chest and dropping my mouth to the top of her head, inhaling deeply as I did.

  “Fuckin’ A, you smell good.” I murmured desperately.

  The door to the room opened again, and I looked up just as it closed behind Sean.

  That was about the time she burst into tears.

  “It’s okay,” I murmured softly. “Shhh.”

  She hiccupped. “Whatever stupid bitch did this to you is in for a serious ass kicking.”

  I pulled her face back so I could see her eyes, and my heart clenched at the devastation I read in them…for me.

  “It’ll be okay, baby,” I murmured. “She won’t stay hidden for long.”

  I wasn’t going to tell Tally of her friend’s betrayal. Not with her exams being right around the corner, and not with the stress of a sick child on her hands.

  I’d tell her, soon…that was if she didn’t figure it out on her own. But in the meantime, I was going to let her be blissfully unaware of all the problems that were swirling around her.

  “Now let’s get to work before the hospital finds a reason to bench me.”

  She rolled her eyes.

  “I think there’s at least four nurses and one PA who would all go on strike if that were to happen.”

  I found a grin.

  “That may be true, but the patients would suffer. Not to mention my paycheck.”

  She winked.

  “Yes, Sir, Mr. Teacher, Sir,” she said as she turned out of my arms and flounced toward the door.

  I caught up to her before she could open it and pinned her to the heavy wood with my body.

  “What were you saying, Student Smartass?”

  She turned her head and looked at me over her shoulder. “Nothing.” She batted her innocent eyes at me.

  Chapter 22

  This sandwich was not made with love.

  -Note on Tommy’s sandwich the next day

  Tommy

  “What’s wrong?” I asked Tally the moment I saw her the next day.

  She looked just as haggard as I felt.

  I’d been working a double shift—much to the chagrin of the hospital board—and she’d had her final exams.

  Today was her second to last shift as a nursing extern, and I found myself gleeful.

  The last two months had been hard.

  Hell, the last two days had been the longest of my life. Fighting for my jobs and career had been enough to age me a hundred years.

  I wanted to pull her into my arms, but technically, she was still my student—not to mention I was on the way to the proverbial principal’s office, aka the dean’s office.

  She looked beautiful, though.

  At first, I was determined to keep Tally close, but after everything I’d experienced over the last two days, I knew that I couldn’t add on to that worry by taking something that I wasn’t allowed to have yet.

  Which inevitably caused both Tally and I to be miserable last night when the only thing either of us wanted was to spend time with each other after the shit night we’d had the previous twenty-four hours.

  There, however, was an end in sight.

  One that was only a week away.

  Graduation day for Tally.

  “Hadley,” she grumbled. “I don’t know what her problem is. One second she’s happy and smiling, and the next I’m sitting
there watching her walk away from me with anger written all over her face.”

  I gritted my teeth to bite back the retort that was on the tip of my tongue that came to mind when that lying little bitch was brought up.

  “What happened this time?” I asked carefully, feeling like shit that I’d kept this hidden from Tally.

  “This time?” she snorted. “This time I was two doors down, taking my exam in the library, and she tried to cheat off of me.”

  I blinked, then blinked again.

  “She what?” I barked.

  She nodded in commiseration.

  Then sighed.

  “I think she’s been doing it for a long time,” she murmured. “I wouldn’t have noticed this time had she not leaned over in a weird way, causing me to look at her.”

  “What was she doing?” I asked, imaging the scene in my head with very little effort on my part.

  “She managed to convince the therapist that she needed to have an alternate testing location due to something traumatic…” she shook her head. “At first, I thought she was just getting more comfortable. But when I looked over, she was staring at my computer and didn’t even try to hide it.”

  “What about the aide. What was she doing while Hadley was doing this?” I demanded.

  “We’re in the corner. You can’t see Hadley at all, but you can see me.” She shook her head. “She’s always looked at my papers that we turn in, but I’ve never thought that she was copying them. I thought she was just checking her answers.”

  I wanted to pull her into my arms.

  “She must change them enough that they seem original, because I would’ve caught the cheating had she copied you word for word,” I informed her. “She’s obviously trying to be inconspicuous about it. If I didn’t spot it, then that means she’s a freakin’ master.”

  She shrugged and bent forward.

  “I mentioned it to my Med Surg teacher once I was done with my test, and she said she would look into it. I’m just scared that by her looking into it, she’ll be implicating me as well.”

  “She won’t,” I promised.

  And promise her I would. If anyone was going down for cheating, it wouldn’t be Tally.

  Tally was well liked, and it was more than obvious that she tried and succeeded in everything because she worked hard for it.