Red Eyes MC: Books 1 - 3

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Red Eyes MC: Books 1 - 3 Page 43

by Grey, Blair


  And besides, if Ray wasn’t already pissed enough with me after Monday’s meeting, he’d be irate if he heard that I’d attacked Lex in the diner, especially while Belle was in there. He’d probably kill me, even if the sheriff didn’t get involved.

  Knowing all that didn’t make me feel any better, or calmer, though. I was halfway out of the booth before I even realized I had moved.

  Leila turned to look over my shoulder, curious as to who I was looking at. Then, she frowned. “Dad?” she asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

  I froze.

  32

  Leila

  Wednesday

  It had been a long time since I had seen Dad, but he still looked just the same as ever. Just as slimy, just as rat-faced. He might have a couple more tattoos now than he had the last time I had seen him, but he was definitely recognizable. There was no mistaking him.

  I hated to see the way he was looking at Marcus. Like he was sizing him up. Like he was going to pulverize the man.

  Which was fucking hilarious, because where the fuck had he been for the past few years? Did he really think he could just swoop back into town, forget all about the stupid past, and come protect me? I didn’t need protection, and I wasn’t Daddy’s little girl. I had long-since learned that I had to look out for myself and make my own choices. I didn’t need his interference in my life.

  I saw Marcus looking back at him in almost the same way. There was an unmistakable tension between the two of them that I couldn’t ignore. Almost like they already knew one another. I wondered if Lex had already gone after Marcus for sleeping with me. If he was trying to protect me or something.

  And for a moment, I was tempted to let Marcus deal with getting rid of him. He’d win over Dad, I was sure. Unless Dad decided to fight dirty.

  I didn’t really want the two of them to fight anyway. I just wanted Dad to stay the hell away from me. So I got up, placing myself between the two of them.

  “Come on, sweetheart,” Dad said, grabbing my arm and hauling me off to the side, where Marcus couldn’t hear us. Marcus looked livid, but I shot him a warning look, and he held back, his arms folded across his chest.

  I didn’t know why I was defending Dad—if defending him was really what you would call it. But I had an inkling that if Marcus beat the crap out of Dad, Marcus would be the one to get in trouble. And I didn’t want that.

  I was livid, though. Dad didn’t belong here. I didn’t want him anywhere near me. Anywhere near my life. I had made that clear enough the last time I had seen him. I had been so relieved when he had finally agreed to leave Las Cruces. I had thought that would be the end of him, the last I would ever have to deal with him.

  I should have known better. That was the thing with cockroaches: they just kept coming back.

  Still, I would have thought that he would have better sense than this. I didn’t know the full list of his enemies, but I knew he hadn’t left Las Cruces on good terms. I knew there were people who wanted his head. Motorcycle guys, guys he had screwed over.

  Or maybe those things passed, after a while. Maybe if you left for long enough, people forgot that you had fucked up their lives. There was a new sheriff in town, too. He was going after some of the criminal shit that happened here in Las Cruces. Maybe it was safe for Dad to come back because all the people he had pissed off were behind bars now.

  That was pretty hard to believe, though.

  Maybe he had been laying low, though. Maybe the only reason he was showing his face now was because he wanted to ruin whatever chance I might have for happiness. He couldn’t know about the pregnancy, but he must have seen me hanging around with Marcus, and he must have come to break us up.

  Because “his little girl” deserved better. I wasn’t his little girl anymore. I hadn’t been his little girl in decades now.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I hissed at Dad.

  “What the hell am I doing?” Dad scoffed. “What the hell are you doing? You know he’s with Red Eyes, don’t you?”

  I stared at him for a minute, feeling my heart sink. It was as though all my worst fears had come true. I glanced over at Marcus, dismay written all over my face. Red Eyes? Really? I didn’t know much about the motorcycle club, and everything I knew about them was pretty outdated by this point. But I knew Dad had made enemies with them a long time ago.

  Actually, I didn’t know how many of the current guys would recognize him now, though. That had been a long time ago. There had to be other people in the city who would recognize him, but Dad would know to stay clear of those guys. He would want to fly under the radar as much as possible.

  Which begged the question of what Marcus was doing with me. Did he know who my father was this whole time? Was he using me to get back at Dad for something he had done last time he’d been in Las Cruces?

  Marcus suddenly had had enough. He pushed Dad, sending him stumbling. But he didn’t attack him. Instead, he just grabbed me by the shoulder, manhandling me out of the diner.

  “What the hell?” I snarled once we were out there. I tried to pull away from Marcus, but he wasn’t having it.

  “Just calm down,” he said through gritted teeth. “The last thing we need is for the sheriff to get involved.”

  “The last thing you need, maybe,” I snapped. “As far as I’m concerned, I was having a polite conversation with my dad when this brute decided to kidnap me.”

  Marcus gave me an unimpressed look, but he let go of my shoulder. “You want to run, run,” he said.

  I stared up at him for a long moment. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked. I had suspected it, of course. Sort of. I knew that he rode a motorcycle, and I knew he was involved in some sort of risky business. But all the same. Why hadn’t he told me he was part of the most powerful MC in New Mexico? I would have known to stay away, if so. I didn’t want any part of this life.

  I didn’t have any choice in it now, though. I was pregnant, and the child was his. Fuck, this was all so wrong.

  “I didn’t want you to be involved in any of this,” Marcus said, shoving his hands in his pockets. “I didn’t want to put you in danger.”

  “A little late for that,” I scoffed. Because, Jesus, when it came to MCs, I had been in danger since birth.

  I remembered all those terrible nights when all the men had gathered at our house. How I had started to slip off to Rachel’s house just to get away from them. They had never really done anything to me, but they were big and mean and usually drunk, and sometimes they would fight right out there in the living room. They weren’t well-behaved bikers, if there was such a thing.

  Marcus had me believing that maybe there was, but now wasn’t the time to dwell on it.

  The point was, I had been educated from a very young age that there were bad people out there, bad people who might come after me if I got too tangled up in my father’s business. And I had learned to steer clear of all of that shit.

  At least until a sexy body and a smart tongue had made me fall head over heels in love with the last person that I should be in love with.

  “Yeah, well, you weren’t exactly truthful with me, either,” Marcus snapped. “Lex is your father?”

  I wished that his clear surprise made me feel a little better. At least I knew he hadn’t just been using me to get back at the man. But instead, I just felt hollow. Marcus is in Red Eyes. He really is just like my father.

  “When were you going to tell me that?”

  “I didn’t know you knew him,” I said, shaking my head.

  “Oh, come on,” Marcus said in disgust. “What’s his plan, huh? How is he going to take over Red Eyes? You’re part of it all, aren’t you?”

  “No,” I whispered, shocked that he would even think such a thing. “I haven’t seen my father in years,” I told him. “I didn’t even know he was back in Las Cruces. Last I knew, he was in California or somewhere.”

  “Bull-fucking-shit,” Marcus said, shaking his head. “You’re a fucking liar. Bu
t hey, I guess it’s like father, like daughter, right?” He spat off to one side. “And I guess your baby is going to be just the same. Just like the two of you. I’m glad I never got involved in that.”

  It hit me like a punch to the gut. I took a couple steps back, staring up at him in horror. I’m glad I never got involved in that. It just went over and over in my head. What if he knew? What if I had told him that this baby was his?

  He wanted nothing to do with the kid. Just like I’d suspected. I could never tell him that this kid was actually his.

  I turned and ran, needing to put as much distance between myself and him—and myself and my father—as I could. By the time I made it to Rachel’s house, I was gasping for breath. I took a moment to compose myself, knowing that Gavin was probably there. I didn’t want him to see me like this.

  But when Rachel opened the door, looking at me with concern, the tears started to fall.

  33

  Marcus

  Thursday

  I had fucked up. I knew that. I had really fucked up, and now I couldn’t get Leila to talk to me.

  I couldn’t stop remembering what she had said at the diner the previous day, either. Before Lex had shown up. Before her father had shown up. She had said that she liked me. She clearly wanted to figure things out between us.

  And I had been all set to have a serious conversation with her. She had been so jealous when she had seen me chatting with Belle, and I don’t know, it had brought everything into perspective. I didn’t agree with the idea of her getting artificially inseminated. But that didn’t mean I was ready to write her out of my life. I liked her just as much as she liked me.

  I might even love her. In the time I’d known her, I had definitely fallen head over heels for her. She was cute, she was attractive, she was smart as a whip, and she was a hard worker. She was everything I could possibly have wanted in a woman.

  So was it any surprise that the universe was fucking with me? Jesus, Lex, the leader of the Unknowns, was her father. Because of course he was.

  I didn’t know how I had missed hearing about it. It seemed like something I should have known. But it had totally blindsided me.

  I hadn’t reacted the right way. I had been so shocked by the whole thing that when Leila got angry at me, it was easier to just get angry right back. I still couldn’t believe I had accused her of being in on her father’s plans. It was Leila we were talking about. Leila, the sweet and shy nurse who just wanted to help people. Leila who had never been anything but caring toward me, even when I was being a jerk to her.

  She could stand her ground, sure. But she wasn’t the type to get caught up with the Unknowns and their scheming.

  And when I’d said that about the kid, god. I wished I could take it back. She’d looked absolutely devastated. She’d said that she didn’t plan on going through with the artificial insemination, so it wasn’t like there really was a kid. But by making that comment, I was basically telling her that she had no future, that no matter what she did, she was always going to be her father’s daughter.

  That was such a dick thing to say. But she hadn’t given me a chance to apologize. She had run away, and I had known I needed to give her time to cool off before I talked to her again. I just hadn’t expected her to freeze me out.

  Between her and Ray, man, I was making a total shitshow of my life.

  I headed to the bar and got as drunk as I could. On Thursday, I headed over to Ray’s.

  When I got there, I had to take a deep breath before I knocked on the door. I had been tempted to go back to the diner to see Belle, to see if Ray had mentioned anything during their dinner the previous night. But I’d been too chickenshit to do so. What would Belle make of everything from yesterday? My conversation with Leila hadn’t been going that well even before Lex showed up. And afterward, it had only gone downhill.

  It hurt me. It physically hurt me, knowing I had hurt Leila. I hated it. And I hated Lex even more for making me feel this way.

  It was slightly irrational; I knew it wasn’t really his fault that I had fallen in love with his daughter. Nor was it his fault that I had waited so long without telling Leila that I was part of Red Eyes. But it was easier to blame him than it was to blame myself for all of this, so that’s what I did.

  Ray didn’t look pleased with me when he answered the door, but at least he stepped back to let me in, rather than just slamming the door in my face.

  “I’m sorry for Monday,” I said immediately, as I crossed the threshold.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ray said, shaking his head as he led me down the hall to his office. “But Belle tells me you saw Lex yesterday at the diner.”

  “I didn’t fight him,” I said immediately. I grimaced. “I wanted to, but I knew you would kill me, even if the sheriff didn’t get involved.”

  Ray’s eyes glinted with amusement, just for a moment. “Yeah, Belle vouched for you,” he said. “Otherwise I would have been pounding on your door last night.”

  “I have a plan to get the sheriff off our backs, though,” I told him. It was something I’d thought of the night before. It would be risky, but it would work.

  Ray shook his head, though, his mind clearly on other matters. “This woman that was at the diner with you. Lex’s daughter. Is she this mysterious woman that you’ve been spending all your time with lately? Belle wasn’t sure.” He paused. “She did say that whoever the woman was, she was pretty jealous about your conversation with Belle, though.” He looked amused, and I couldn’t help grinning back at him as I remembered the way Belle had defensively showed off her ring.

  “She is,” I admitted. “Leila. We’re in a bit of a rocky patch, I guess.” I shook my head. “I didn’t know that she had any sort of ties to motorcycle clubs, let alone that Lex was her father. I would have been more careful if I’d known.”

  “That’s probably for the best,” Ray said grimly. “I think it would be best if you stopped seeing her.” He paused. “I know Lex. From a long time ago. I didn’t recognize him at first. I’m not sure if that was his intention or just that the years have changed him. It would make sense for him to have tried to disguise himself. It’s not the first time he and I have gotten into it here, and once I realized I knew who he was, it gave me a lot of information about how he would likely choose to go about his attack on our territory.”

  “And you didn’t choose to share that information?” I asked, raising an eyebrow at him.

  Ray flashed a grin in my direction but didn’t explain his reasons. Typical Ray, there was always a grand scheme there that was only revealed through time. Ray paused. “He and I are very similar in some ways. And because of that, I’m afraid that if he finds out that you’re seriously dating his daughter, he’ll come after us with a renewed vengeance. He won’t like the idea of her with you. Or with anyone else, for that matter.”

  “I can’t stop seeing her, though,” I protested. “I know I don’t know her all that well, but to be honest, I’m really falling for her.” I frowned and shook my head. “I know things’ll be tricky now that Lex knows about us. But I’ll be careful. The Unknowns aren’t going to find out anything that I don’t want them to know.”

  Ray slammed a fist down on the arm of his chair. “Damn it, Marcus. Do you ever listen to me?” he snapped. “I’m telling you that by continuing to see this girl, you’re only putting the MC in more danger.”

  I stared at him for a long moment and then sighed and looked away. “I hear you,” I told him. “And I wish that I could promise you that I’ll never see her again. But I’m not going to lie to you, and I’m not going to just tell you what you want to hear. The truth is that I really like this woman, Leila, and I don’t know if I can stay away from her.”

  Ray looked like he was going to explode, but I held up a hand. “I have a plan,” I repeated. “I think I have a way that we can solve all of the problems we’ve been having.” It had taken me long enough to come up with the idea, and it wouldn’t be without its risk
s. But it was the only way I could think of where I could continue to see Leila.

  And I wanted that. Even if right now things were rough between us, even if I was going to have a lot of apologizing to do. I only hoped it wasn’t too late. I only hoped that I hadn’t totally ruined things between us.

  Sure, I wished that things were easier. I wished I had fallen for someone else, anyone else. There were plenty of attractive, available women in Las Cruces. Why did I have to be drawn to the one woman who was totally off-limits, the one who was the daughter of my biggest enemy?

  It made me wonder about certain things as well. I had suspected that Ray might know Leila’s father if she had grown up here in Las Cruces and if her father had been a biker, once upon a time. But I had never expected that Lex might be her father. Now, Ray had just admitted to knowing Lex from before.

  Was that why he was holding out, why he didn’t want to fight Lex? Because of something from their past? Not for the first time, I wished I knew more about the early days of Red Eyes. Back when my father and Ray were still partners. But whatever the stories were, I wasn’t going to hear them now. They were locked away in Ray’s memories for the rest of forever, I was pretty sure.

  And when it really came down to it, it didn’t matter. I was done with all of this. I’d been on the edge of quitting for a while now. I just didn’t fit into this life anymore. I was becoming a liability for the MC; anyone could see that. Better that I do one final thing for the club and then extract myself from all of it.

  Focus on the next chapter of my life. With Leila.

  Ray stared at me for a long moment. “What’s this plan?” he finally asked.

  I took a deep breath. “Before I tell you the plan, you have to promise me something.”

  “I’m not sure I like where this is going,” Ray said, folding his arms across his chest.

 

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