“If Phoenix doesn’t answer at the set check-in time and we can’t leave here, we will leave everything as is in the cabin and go to the underground bunker. I will show you where it is and how to get in it if I’m not able to go with you right away. In the bunker, you will find a satellite phone with a few numbers already programmed in it. One of those numbers belongs to Copper, President of the Devil Springs chapter. He’s also Phoenix’s cousin, yours, too. You call him and say, ‘This is Phoenix’s Spawn. Code Flame.’ He will know what to do. You stay in the bunker until Copper calls you back on the phone and says, ‘Flame extinguished. Phoenix shall rise.’ This means the problem has been taken care of and it is safe for you to come out. Now repeat that back to me.”
I did as he asked and I think I surprised him that I was able to recall everything he said after just one explanation. This wasn’t my first time dealing with strategic planning. At least some of Octavius’s crazy was coming to be of good use.
“Well done. We will go over it again tomorrow and every day until we can go back to Croftridge. Tomorrow, I will show you where the bunker is located and also where we have a stash of weapons. Do not, under any circumstances use anything that sends out a signal of any kind, no phones, no internet, basically no electronics whatsoever.”
“Got it.”
“That’s it? No complaints, no comments, no questions?” he asked, surprised.
“I came from a life where this was a part of my daily routine. Octavius wanted us to always be prepared to defend ourselves. As I got older, I thought he was suffering from extreme paranoia and a bit mentally unstable. Now that I know he is involved in some more than questionable activities and dealings, it makes more sense. To answer your question, no complaints, no comments, no questions.”
He pulled me to him and planted a kiss on my temple. He didn’t say anything else, just held me for a long while. Finally, he softly murmured, “Let’s get some rest. We never know what the next day will bring.”
CHAPTER 19
Phoenix
They had been gone a week. A week and I didn’t have much more than I had when they left. Byte hadn’t been able to find much with the names we got from Ember, Reese, and Jamie. So far, the parents of those kids turned out to have records for multiple drug-related charges. It made sense that they would have lost custody of their kids, but the kids would have been taken through the county for temporary placement or placement with extended family, not sent to an orphanage. I thought maybe we needed to dig further into the past. The farm was up and running way before I was born. Was it just a dairy farm at one time or was it always a facade to hide other activities? I didn’t know, but I knew just who to ask.
I picked up my phone and dialed a number I should have dialed much more often. He answered on the second ring, “Phoenix, my boy! How are you?”
“I’m good, Pop. Sorry it’s been so long since I have called you and Gram. Things have been busy lately and I’ve got a lot on my plate at the moment.”
“You sound stressed. You need my help with something?” That was my Pop, always looking out for me and willing to lend a helping hand without knowing the need first.
“Maybe. I have a few questions I want to ask you, but first, I have some news to share with you and Gram. Is she around?”
“She is, but before I get her, I need to know, is this going to upset my love?” Another reason why I loved this man, the way he loved my Gram.
“I don’t think it will upset her, but it will come as a shock to you both. Probably should be sitting down for it. I almost fell on my ass when I found out.”
“Oh, hell, did you knock up one of those club whores? You’re Gram has been waiting on babies from you for a long time, but she won’t like that this is how they’re coming to be.”
“No, Pop, nothing like that. Just get Gram, put me on speakerphone, and both of you take a seat,” I instructed.
Moments later I heard my Gram’s sweet voice. “Phoenix, my sweet boy, how are you?”
“I’m good, Gram. Got a lot going on right now, but it ain’t all bad. That’s part of the reason I called,” I paused and cleared my throat, “I have some news to share with you and Pop.”
She squealed with delight. “Oh, please tell me I have a great-grandbaby on the way!”
It was harder than I thought it would be to tell them about Ember. I’m a grown ass man. It’s not like I was going to get in trouble for having an 18-year-old kid I knew nothing about, but I was worried they would be disappointed in me. I’ve always wanted to make them proud and I wasn’t sure this would.
“Phoenix?” Pop sounded worried, “You still there?”
“Yeah, Pop, sorry, this is just hard for me to say,” I rasped out. My mouth was suddenly dry. Grabbing the bottle of whiskey sitting on my desk, I took a huge pull and relished the burn as it went down.
“You can tell us anything boy. You ought to know that by now. Man up and spit it out,” Pop ordered.
“I recently found out I have an 18-year-old daughter. DNA tests confirmed she’s mine.” Silence. Nothing but silence from the other end of the phone.
Finally, I heard a sniffle. Damn it, Gram was crying. Pop softly asked, as if he already knew the answer, “Who’s her mother?”
Pain stabbed at my chest. It always did when I thought about her. It had been 18 years and it was just as sharp as it was the first time I realized she was gone. I choked out, “Annabelle.”
I heard gasps and more sniffling from the phone. I knew Gram was gearing up to fire off 50 questions before I could even answer one, so I quickly spoke again. “Let me tell you what happened and how I found out about her. I think that will answer most of your questions.”
“Sure, son. Go ahead.”
I spent the next 30 minutes filling them in on how I found out about Ember. Gram interrupted here and there with random questions about her physical appearance, her personality, etc... It was Pop’s silence that had my nerves on edge. I’d left out the parts about the suspicious activity at the dairy farm, the tracking device in Ember’s neck, her getting shot, and how she was hidden away in the hills with three of my men for protection. Gram didn’t need to know about all that right then, if ever.
Gram sounded like she was about to explode with glee. “When can we meet her? We can come there. I can book us a flight for tomorrow or the next day. Do you have a picture of her? Send it to your Pop’s phone for me. Oh and what…”
“Gram,” I interrupted, “now’s not a good time for you and Pop to visit. Like I said, she came here with her friend looking for a job; she wasn’t looking for her biological father. She needs time to accept that her whole life was a lie and we need time to build a father/daughter relationship before I go throwing more unknown family members at her. I’m sorry, Gram.”
“No, no, sweetie. You’re absolutely right. I’m just so damn excited about this. I can’t wait to meet her. Please tell her that and even though we haven’t met her, we love her already.”
“I will, Gram.”
“Send that picture to your Pop. I’ve got to go. I have to call all of my friends and tell them I’m finally a great-gram! Love you, sweetie!”
“Love you, too, Gram.”
I heard rustling and then Pop’s voice filled my ear, “It’s just you and me now so cut the bullshit and tell me the truth.” And that’s why my Pop was one of the best lawyers in the United States. He could smell bullshit from a mile away and he got straight down to business.
“That orphanage where she grew up, it’s owned by the man that owns the dairy farm on the far side of town. It’s located on the same land as the farm, just on the other side and surrounded by other buildings. She didn’t come here looking for a job. She came here looking for help escaping from that place because she found out she was being sold on her 18th birthday.”
Pop pulled in a large breath and slowly blew it out. “You gotta be shittin’ me.”
“There’s more, Pop. It’s the reason why I haven’t call
ed before now to tell you about her.”
“Go on,” he urged.
So I told him everything I knew at that point. Everything except where she was. We were talking on a secured line, but I still wasn’t risking her location being discovered. “This leads to the other reason I called. What do you know about that dairy farm? Anything that might help me find out what is going on there and put a stop to it?”
Pop sighed, “Phoenix, you better take a big swallow of whiskey and sit down. Now it’s my turn to tell you a story.” Oh shit.
I did as he said and braced myself for whatever he was about to tell me.
CHAPTER 20
Ember
We had been at the cabin for a week and, surprisingly, it had been a very busy week. Each day we went over the various plans in place, practiced target shooting with various guns, and walked the grounds. That was my favorite time of the day, walking hand in hand with Dash through the mountain forest surrounding the cabin. Sometimes we would silently enjoy each other’s company, but most of the time we shared stories from our pasts and things about ourselves.
After just one week, I felt like I knew so much more about Dash, like his real name. Reed Lawson was 27 years old. He grew up in Devil Springs. Like most of the other Blackwings members, he joined the military after high school. He didn’t stay in as long as some of the others did, but he was deployed twice before coming back to Devil Springs. Once home, he planned to prospect for Blackwings, but Phoenix had moved the club to Croftridge. He happily moved, too, leaving his mother and younger sister behind in Devil Springs. He didn’t say as much, but I got the feeling that he didn’t have a good relationship with either one of them.
After our walks and talks, I would make dinner for all of us while Dash, Jamie, and Pete checked weapons and secured the cabin for the night. After dinner, we would climb into bed together and fall asleep wrapped in each other’s arms. This was usually preceded by a lot of kissing and roaming hands. Well, Dash’s hands roamed. He would hardly let me touch him. We hadn’t done much more than what we did in the canoe. He had touched me down there, but not on the inside. He would just rub my clit in circles until he made me have an orgasm. Then, he would get up and take a shower. I knew what he was doing in the shower, because I watched him one night. It made me want him to play with my clit all over again. I didn’t know if he was waiting for my stitches to come out before he went any further or if he thought I wasn’t ready yet. Either way, it didn’t matter. I got Jamie to help me take my stitches out on our sixth night at the cabin while Dash was in the shower. I had no stitches and I was ready for the next step. Really ready. I just didn’t know how to tell him.
I stretched and looked over to Dash. He was softly snoring beside me. I took a minute to just look at him. He really was a handsome man, but looking at him in that moment, seeing how peaceful he looked while sleeping, made me realize how much tension he had been carrying around with him every day. I gently ran my hand down the side of his face and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead.
I got out of bed and made my way downstairs to make breakfast for everyone. I was doing it at the clubhouse, so I continued to make meals for the guys that were here. I had discovered wireless headphones and an amazing stereo the first day we were at the cabin. I used them every morning while cooking breakfast. Sometimes for the other meals, too, if the guys were outside, but I left them off if they were inside so we could easily talk.
I had gotten to know the prospects better, too, or one of them anyway. Jamie was the same age as me and very friendly. He liked to joke around and keep things upbeat. He had also attended Croftridge High and, surprisingly, went to prom with none other than Reese Walker.
Pete was probably a little older than me, but I wouldn’t know because he didn’t talk much. He kept to himself most of the time and never smiled. I got the feeling he didn’t like being at the cabin very much. I also got the feeling that he didn’t like me, but I couldn’t really say why. He hadn’t said or done anything to me; it was just the way he looked at me sometimes. I figured I was probably just being paranoid. If he was really acting strange, Dash or Jamie would have noticed it. It was hard to maintain your sanity when you didn’t know what was going on back home other than someone was out to get you while you were hidden away in the mountains.
I grabbed my trusty headphones, cranked up the volume, hit play, and got to work. I was dancing around the kitchen while cooking, like I did every morning. Every other morning, I finished making the food and had time to go back upstairs and change clothes before anyone else woke up. That morning was different. I was standing at the stove, shaking my butt and finishing the last of the eggs when I was grabbed from behind. My muscles moved from memory, no input from my brain required. I threw my left elbow back until it made contact, leaned right, and swung my right fist until I hit what felt like a cheek. My attacker hit the ground with a thud. I quickly grabbed the large knife I was using to chop vegetables.
In the fray, the headphones must have been knocked off my ears because I heard Jamie yelling, “Ember? What the fuck? Dash?”
Dash? Huh? I looked down. Oh, crappity crap. Dash was on the ground looking every bit like a pit viper ready to strike.
I dropped the knife on the counter and took a step back. “Dash, I’m so sorry. I didn’t hear you come up behind me and it scared me.” I looked up to see Jamie holding a gun pointed at Dash, but looking back and forth between the two of us. Prospect Pete also had his gun drawn, but it was pointed at me, yet again!
Jamie looked unsure of what to do. “Dash?”
“Put the guns down. Both of you and turn the fuck around,” Dash barked.
Both prospects turned and put their guns away. Dash quickly jumped to his feet. He was spitting mad. “Ember,” he growled, “upstairs, now.”
“L-let me just take the eggs off the…” I started.
He cut me off repeating the same order, “Now! The prospects can take care of the eggs. Upstairs! Go!”
I had never seen him so mad. I really wasn’t sure what I had done, so to prevent matters from getting worse, I did as he said and scurried upstairs to our bedroom. My hopes for a brief reprieve to gather my thoughts were dashed when he came through the bedroom door right behind me.
I turned to face him. “Why are you so mad at me? I’m sorry I hit you. I really didn’t know it was you.”
Through gritted teeth, he said, “I’m not mad about that.” Before I could ask what he was mad about he grabbed my wrist and pulled me into the bathroom. He flipped the bathroom light on and pointed toward the mirror. That was when I saw it.
I gasped and covered my face with both of my hands. “I had no idea. I’m so embarrassed.”
“You may not have known about the shirt, but you should have had some ‘idea’ about the shorts.” He made little quotation marks with his hands.
I shook my head. “I really didn’t. See.” I proceeded to unroll the waistband of my shorts, which lengthened them several inches. “I’ve never worn these before and they were too big. They kept sliding down my hips, so I rolled the waistband to make them stay up until I finished cooking. I was going to come back up and change as soon as I was done.”
He was still breathing a little heavy and his face was still red. “Stay here.” Then he turned and left. I heard him descend the stairs. There I was, standing in the bathroom because he told me to, just like the obedient women from the farm. Just do as you’re told and don’t worry about the reasoning behind it. Only, this time, it felt different. I didn’t mean to upset him with my see-through top and my indecently short shorts, but I had. I didn’t want to upset him any further. Not because I was afraid of him, I wasn’t, but because I wanted to please him by doing what he asked. Was that normal? At that very moment, I realized that I didn’t care if it was considered normal or not. It felt right to me and that’s what I was going to do.
And that’s how Dash found me when he returned. Standing in the bathroom grinning from ear to ear at my la
test realization. “You want to tell me why you think you have a reason to be smiling like that when you just showed your tits and ass to two prospects?” He placed his hand on my shoulder and gently turned me to face him.
“I’m smiling because I realized that I stayed right here where you told me to because I wanted to make you happy and not because I was scared of you. Then, I wondered if it was normal to think that way and decided that I didn’t care if it was normal because it felt right to me and that was all that mattered.”
He was on me in a flash. His body crashed into mine at the same time our lips met. One of his hands went to my hair and the other went to my butt and lifted. I wrapped my legs around his waist while both of my hands went to his hair.
He started walking. I went to pull back so he could see where he was walking, but he growled and tightened his hold on my hair to keep me in place. Well okay then, just as long as he wasn’t going to try to walk down the stairs.
He took a few more steps and then we were falling. I wanted to scream, but I couldn’t with his glorious tongue filling my mouth. Suddenly, my back hit the mattress, Dash coming down on top of me, never breaking the kiss. He took us to the bed. The. Bed.
He groaned and started kissing along my jaw toward my ear. “I need to make you mine, baby. Please let me make you mine.”
It was hard for me to focus on anything but him, let alone form coherent sentences. Panting aside, I managed to get out, “I thought I already was yours.”
Apparently, he liked that response because his movements became more intense and less controlled. He bit down on my earlobe and rasped out, “You are, baby, but I need to claim your body. I need to be inside you, baby.”
I loved hearing him say he needed to, not that he wanted to. He felt so good on top of me, pressing my body to the bed with his, ravishing me with his mouth. Before my nerves could get the better of me, I whispered, “Okay, Dash.”
Dash (Blackwings MC Book 1) Page 12
