Luca took a deep breath and stood there holding her, reassuring her he was there and wouldn’t let anything or anyone hurt her again. When she settled down again Luca glanced over at Grace.
He dug his keys out of his pocket and handed them to her. “You’re driving.”
She nodded and went around the vehicle, getting in behind the wheel. Luca went to the passenger door and sat down. Holding Bella in his arms, he buckled them both up and just stared straight ahead.
Grace drove them the twenty minutes to his house and when she pulled up she got out and looked through his keys for the front door key. Unlocking the door, she turned on the lights and watched as Luca and Bella came in. Her tiny arms were wrapped around Luca’s neck tightly. She had her eyes closed but both Grace and Luca knew she wasn’t asleep.
“Can I help her with her pajamas or something?” Grace asked softly.
Luca shook his head. “She’s fine just the way she is.” He gently kissed his daughter’s forehead and held her close. “Sorry about dinner tonight but I’m just gonna hold her for a while. Maybe we should call it and try another night?”
Grace nodded. “Do you want me to stay for a while?”
Luca smiled sadly but shook his head. “Nope I got this.”
Grace nodded. “Well you have my number if you need anything.” She came closer to where Luca and Bella were sitting and brushed Bella’s hair away from her face. Kneeling down she made eye contact with the child and said something quietly to the little girl before she brushed her lips over Bella’s forehead.
Standing up she glanced at Luca. “I’ll just let myself out then. Call me tomorrow and let me know how it went.”
Luca nodded and watched Grace gently close the door behind her. Fucking Adam Peterson.
Luca laid his head against Bella’s. “It’s ok baby, daddy’s got you. No matter what, daddy’s got you.”
The house was filled with an uneasy quiet. Luca gently rocked Bella in his arms and found himself thinking about his brother, Aiden. He didn’t see him tonight with Bowie and the rest of the guys. Maybe he’d been too hard on him telling him to get clean on his own. Addiction was a hard thing to kick, especially without support. Feeling extremely guilty, Luca called his brother to check up on him but got no answer.
“Where the hell are you, little brother?” Luca whispered to himself, trying not to startle Bella. He’s survived the past few years without me, Luca rationalized while pacing the house. He brought Bella to her room. What’s another night?
Chapter Seven
Luca woke up to the sound of screaming.
He was standing up and running to his daughter’s room before he fully realized he was even awake. Fearing the worst and already scolding himself for not having a knife or hell even a flashlight by his bed he grabbed the only thing he could find in his mad dash. Armed awkwardly with a small fan he’d taken off his dresser, Luca flicking on his daughter’s light switch and saw that she was just having a nightmare.
“Fucking hell,” Luca whispered through a big exhale of relief. He leaned against the wall, needing a moment to calm his racing heart. He’d been frightened before especially when there were guns drawn and people were about to die, but this… This was an entirely different kind of fear. The fear that his daughter was in danger was so much worse than anything else he’d experienced.
Now that he wasn’t going to have a fucking heart attack, Luca forced himself off the wall to comfort his thrashing daughter. Bella flailed and whimpered with the worst night terrors Luca had ever seen.
Jesus, what could’ve caused this kind of reaction? Luca wondered, setting the fan down and sitting on the girl’s bed. Bella had slept fine the night before.
“Hey, Banana. It’s OK. Daddy’s here.” Luca forced the freshly-woken gravel from his voice to sound as soothing as possible. He gently grabbed her shoulder and softly jostled the poor girl from her nightmare.
“Pete!” Bella whispered hoarsely, snapping her eyes open and thrashing to get away.
“It’s OK, Banana. It’s Daddy. You’re OK.” Luca waited until Bella was able to shake off her dream enough to recognize him, then pulled her to him in a big hug. Crying, she squeezed him like she was holding on for dear life.
“No one is going to hurt you. I have you. It’s OK,” Luca repeated, comfortingly rocking the girl. All the while, his brain was on fire with one burning question.
Who the fuck is Pete?
When she’d stopped sobbing he’d asked her several times in as many ways who Pete was, but Bella clammed right back up. Luca didn’t press it, especially after he realized she was so scared that she wet the bed. The last thing he wanted was to traumatize his daughter any more than she already had been.
At least she could talk, Luca took some consolation in that then scooped her up and brought her to the bathroom to clean her up. He’d been worried since he met her that she might not physically be able to. That was a big relief. He’d ask Grace if she knew any good counseling or therapy that might be able to help Bella. If she could speak then maybe, she could overcome whatever happened to her.
Maybe she’d eventually be able to tell Luca who Pete was and what he’d done to her to scare her so bad that she refused to speak.
And when that happened…
There’d be hell to pay.
Luca wasn’t ever going back to jail, but that only meant he wouldn’t let himself be caught. He didn’t care who it was that did this to Bella. He was going to find this Pete and tear him apart. No one got to hurt his little girl and live. It just wasn’t going to happen.
After Bella had been washed off and changed into new pajamas Luca made her some warm milk and a cookie, then let her spend the rest of the night in his bed with him. He’d deal with her dirty bedding tomorrow. They both needed a good night’s sleep.
The sugar crash and the night terror exhaustion mixed with her feeling safe with Luca knocked Bella out pretty quick. Luca just stared at ceiling, his mind going a million miles an hour with concern over his daughter’s trauma and how the hell he was going to take care of her when he couldn’t even land a damn job. It was a long time later when he finally winded down enough to fall asleep.
It felt like only moments later when Luca woke up to the sound of a car screeching to a stop outside his house. As he slowly started to sit up in his bed Luca also heard a few men angrily talking and then what was definitely something like a body crashing onto the mulch and gravel that made up the majority of his front yard.
What the fuck now? Luca fought to keep his growl from stirring Bella and carefully got out of bed without waking her. Looking around, he reluctantly grabbed the small desk fan again and made his way to the front door.
First peering out one of the entry windows, Luca saw a few guys kicking the crap out of someone on the ground. He gripped the fan as menacingly as he could and whipped the door open.
When the three men saw Luca they all got into a black pickup and took off, leaving one broken, battered form behind. It was too dark to make anyone out or spot the license plate of the fleeing vehicle, which caused Luca to curse himself again for not having a flashlight anywhere.
“Hey, pal. You all right?” As Luca cautiously approached he saw the shine of the leather vest first, then realizing it was a brother he rushed over. Rolling the bloody form over, he saw which brother it was. “Oh, shit!”
Aiden had been beaten to within an inch of his life, but was still faintly breathing. He was bleeding from at least a dozen wounds and at first glance Luca could tell that his left hand was completely broken.
“Aiden! Stay with me man. I’m going to get help!” Luca ran back inside and called an ambulance.
“I owe you one for this, bro.” With his free hand, Luca clasped Bowie on the shoulder. Bella, extremely tired but still awake shifted on his other arm. Luca cradled her into a comfortable enough position then followed Bowie into the clubhouse.
“Don’t worry. We’ll find the bastards that did this,” Bowie grumbled.
Luca nodded gravely then asked, “You got a spare room I can let Bella sleep in?
“Spare room?” Bowie scoffed, making his way behind the bar of the club’s events room. “Your room’s down the hall. Last on the left. You’re still a member.” Bowie shook his head again and snorted as he dug something out behind the bar. “Spare room…”
“Thanks,” Luca smiled, feeling like he should’ve known better. Of course he had a room here, all the members did. He took his daughter down the hall to the room with his rank on the door, Enforcer.
When he opened the door he found it modest, but a hell of a lot nicer than his prison cell so he wasn’t complaining. It didn’t take much to put Bella down. Between her nightmare, the ambulance, hospital and now here at the clubhouse, the little girl was exhausted from all the activity.
With the first rays of dawn filtering through the curtains, Luca had given up on sleep for the night. He’d have stayed at the hospital watching over Aiden if he didn’t have his daughter to worry about. Still he felt better knowing the Veins had two prospects guarding Aiden’s room in case someone came to finish the job they started.
Luca doubted it would come to that. Whoever they were could’ve killed Aiden whenever they wanted, but they dumped him at his brother’s house instead. They wanted him to be found. They wanted to send a message.
We don’t want you here anymore.
After he was sure Bella was asleep, Luca quietly closed the door behind him then went back out to talk with Bowie.
Bowie had made coffee and was just pouring two massive beer steins with black liquid when Luca sidled up to him across the bar. Bowie held up a bottle of Kalhua but Luca waved him off. Luca had too much shit to do today to hide in a drunken stupor, besides his tolerance was still way down from prison. A heavy pour of that would put him on his ass.
“Aiden going to be OK?” Bowie asked, topping his mug off with the coffee liqueur.
“Fuck, man. I don't know.” Luca slouched forward and ran both hands over his face. “It's hard to say. He's stable, but they really fucked him up... the doctors are hopeful, but we're just going to have to wait and see when he comes out of the coma.”
Bowie shook his head solemnly. Neither man was a stranger to this kind of violence, but that never made it any easier. If anything, the mindless repetition only made the heartache worse.
“What's our next move?” Bowie asked, fully ready to go to war at a moment’s notice.
“I don't know, man.” Luca felt crushed by the weight of the world. All he wanted to do when he got out was go straight, especially now that he had a daughter to take care of.
At heart, Luca was a simple man. All he wanted was a mindless labor job to pay the bills and to take his little girl to dance classes and watch football or work on his bike during the weekends.
Why was that so hard? Why couldn't everyone just leave me and my family the fuck alone? Why did people make it so goddamn difficult to do the right thing?
“Fuck!” Luca stood up abruptly knocking the barstool over and smashed his balled up palm down on the bar hard enough to shake both glasses. The mounting emotions he'd been hiding away so as not to frighten Bella erupted out of him. “I'm so fucking sick of this shit! And fucking sick of Adam Peterson fucking with my life!”
Bowie waited patiently for Luca to vent his frustration, then added, “We've got a tail on him, but it's not looking good. He just has his guys pull us over every time he spots us.”
They both knew it was Peterson's guys that fucked Aiden up, but they'd never be able to prove it, even if they found the individual guys that Peterson sent to put the hurt on his little brother. Retaliating meant going to war with the entire White Rock Police force and most of the Santa Fe police force. If they did, it would only get even worse for the Steel Veins once Peterson was elected Governor. The whole state would be gunning for them and maybe more beyond even that. Peterson would have his own army to command in the National Guard.
Not even the Steel Veins could stop the National Guard from wiping them out.
Luca took a moment to breathe and relax, feeling a little better now that he'd gotten that out. He righted the stool, sat back down and idly swept a hand down the bar to clean the spilled drops of coffee, before sitting back down. He didn't offer an apology and knew one wasn't expected. He could be as angry as he wanted but what was that going to fix?
Luca needed to focus on problems he could actually solve.
With no other options on the table and with a bank account that was accumulating tumbleweeds, Luca finally swallowed his pride and did the one thing he was trying to avoid.
“I need a job.” Luca looked up at Bowie with heavy eyes. He desperately wanted to be able to do all this on his own, but he knew now that wasn't possible, especially when Peterson was out there making his life hell.
“Done,” Bowie replied immediately.
Luca nodded in thanks, then shook the man's hand. Bowie wasn't the chapter Pres in that moment, he was just a concerned friend that could help. Luca appreciated that.
There was a loud rapping on the front door, then it was gently pushed open. No members would've ever knocked before coming in. Whoever this was, they weren't Steel Veins. Both men rose instinctively from their chairs, ready to confront the stranger that walked in. Although he couldn’t see Bowie reaching for the shotgun under the bar, Luca could sense that he was. Luca’s thoughts abruptly shifted back to Bella and his protective instinct went into overdrive.
Whoever this was picked the wrong day to come here looking for trouble.
“Hello?” Grace asked firmly but with noticeable trepidation in her voice. It was taking her a lot of courage to actually come inside a place like this. “I’m looking for Luca Thomas.”
Immediately, Luca snapped a glare at pleading the man to not let her see the shotgun he had in his hands, but Bowie beat him to it and was already sitting back down.
“C’mon in, Social Worker lady,” Bowie hollered, hoisting his steaming mug of coffee. “We’re not dangerous until the second cup of coffee.”
Grace entered slowly cautiously taking in the pool hall and recreation area. She was obviously surprised that it wasn’t as biker-y as she thought it’d be. The Steel Veins clubhouse looked more like a meticulously maintained man-cave than the filthy dive bar or seedy strip club she’d had in mind.
“What are you doing here?” Luca walked over to meet Grace.
“A friend who works at the hospital told me about your brother. That’s awful…” The concern across her face was apparent. “Do you have any idea who did it?”
“We’ve got a few ideas,” Luca frowned but didn’t want to say much more. He found himself thinking more and more about Grace, and genuinely liked having her around. However, he couldn’t shake the realization that she still had the power to take Bella from him. So it didn’t matter how much he liked her, Luca couldn’t take the chance on actually trusting her. Luca chose his next few words very carefully, “But that’s on the police.”
“Good.” Grace nodded; pleased to hear that Luca was thinking of letting the police handle it and not enacting some kind of vigilante justice. The worry in her beautiful, fair, features deepened. “And Bella? Is she—?”
“Bella’s safe.” Luca was quick to interrupt. “She’s asleep in my room down the hall.”
“Speaking of that…” Grace’s mouth pulled anxiously to one side. “Having a badly beaten man get thrown on your property isn’t great for your case to keep Bella. Until the police investigation is over you’re not going to be able to take Bella back there.”
“Are you telling me I can’t bring my daughter home with me?” Luca felt his temperature rise, and was struggling to keep the bubbling anger from his mannerisms. First his job, then his brother and now his own fucking house?
Luca wondered how much more it’d take for him to finally snap.
“I’m sorry, but it’s obviously unsafe.” Grace offered apologetically. “At least until the police inv
estigation—”
Luca’s scoff at the mention of the police filled the room with an uneasy silence.
“He doesn’t need that place! He’s got a nice apartment.” Bowie finally piped up. He extended an arm toward the back of the building. “Luca’s got an apartment right above his new job.”
“New job?” Grace’s mood lightened. “That’s great, you found a job. What’re you doing?”
“I’m uh…” Luca turned back to Bowie with raised eyebrows. If this were a wrestling match, he was reaching over to tag his partner in.
“He’s the new lead mechanic in the Hell Hath No Fury bike shop in town.” Bowie crossed his beefy arms, grinning proudly.
“That’s not affiliated with the Steel Veins is it?” Grace asked skeptically, obviously worried about Luca violating his parole.
“Hey listen.” Luca quickly changed the subject, hoping to give himself a little more time to tackle the complications that his new job and apartment were going to bring. “I think we need to talk about Bella. She spoke last night.”
“What? Really? That’s amazing! What did she say?” Grace’s face lit up in a wide smile. Luca was struck by how gorgeous she looked when she smiled. Grace’s brightness faded when she studied Luca’s face. “You don’t look happy.
“I need you tell me everything you know about a guy named Pete.”
Chapter Eight
Luca finally crashed a couple of hours later, he found he didn’t have much of a choice. His body slowly drained of the adrenalin that pumped him up when he discovered his brother dumped in his front lawn. Not even the three cups of very strong coffee helped. Bowie ended up dragging his dumb ass down the hall to his bedroom where he dumped him down on the bed next to Bella.
Luca slept for the next five hours without waking up. He didn’t even notice when Sunshine opened the door to check on Bella then finding her awake getting her up and taking her out into the clubhouse. He didn’t know anything until a crash from the other room brought him from a dead sleep to complete wakefulness in an instant.
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