“But—”
“Dad, seriously. Drop it. You’ll go into overprotective mode.”
She had a point there. When she’d been getting dressed for the junior prom, he’d used the time to grill the boy who was taking her. Poor kid. After a few minutes of questioning, the pimply teen had nearly pissed his pants. “While you’re at school, it wouldn’t hurt to look around, see if there is anyone there you like.”
“Are you actually pushing me to get a Mrs.?”
Captain heard the term before. Back in his day, sometimes women attended college, so they could meet smart, successful men in the making. Once they’d secured an engagement, they dropped out of school. “Hell no. I want you to get your degree, but I don’t want you to miss out on any good prospects.”
Where else would she find a pool of men who were young, single, and getting a college education? He worried she’d end up with a biker, like him. Then she’d spend the rest of her life lookin’ over her shoulder –whether it was the feds, or a rival gang.
Lex bit her bottom lip. “Honestly? I don’t know if I’d be interested in some college guy. I’ve tried dating them before and zero sparks.”
“Why not?” He thought someone in school would be better suited to her. They’d have somethin’ in common and when she started spouting all her fancy pants Freud talk, at least the guy would understand what the fuck she meant.
She stared up at him, eyes widening and then stared at her feet, flustered. “You know why.”
He patted her hand. It was fucking sweet as shit, but he couldn’t let her end up with an asshole like him. “I don’t want you to marry someone like me, baby girl. You deserve a guy who isn’t an outlaw. Someone who’s a professional, who makes an honest living.”
“And what’s so bad about you?” she asked, lifting her chin. “You aren’t exactly Jesse James, Dad. You help people.”
“I do, but there are plenty of guys who help people in legal ways.”
She shrugged. “I’ll think about it.”
That meant she’d consider it a second or two and then promptly discard it, in favor of her own opinion. “Why? Have you been thinkin’ about dating a brother? Have any of the guys been hitting on you? Who is it? Steele? Is it Steele? Because I will shove a fucking grapefruit up his nose.”
“Breathe!” she said with a giggle. “You’re starting to turn colors. It was only some idle flirting, I promise. Leave him alone. I’m not…dating a Horseman.”
That was a long, suspicious pause. What the fuck did that mean?
She might not be dating one of his brothers right now, but she wanted to? Shit. That’s all he needed, his daughter as an official old lady. And God help the poor fool, because he’d have to lay down the law. The hard way.
But he didn’t press it, for now.
“Grapefruit?” she asked, after a moment. “Why a grapefruit?”
“It’s an expression,” he lied. “Are you trying to give your old man a heart attack?
“Just keeping you on my toes. But enough about me.” Lex changed the subject and he couldn’t say he blamed her. “Is it true? You’re seeing Miss Eddie?”
He got awfully tight-lipped. Fucking club gossip. “A gentleman never tells.”
“Good thing you aren’t a gentleman. Tell me about Eddie.”
He loaded his gun, placing the bullets in methodically, before shutting it and throwing on the safety lock. “What about her?”
“Dad!”
“What?”
“Tell me how things are going with Eddie.”
“What have you heard?” he asked, with a shrug.
She smirked. “Just a rumor or two. And I wanted to let you know, I think you should go for it.”
Now that shocked the shit out of him. “You do?”
She nodded. “Yeah! I mean come on, I’m over the whole I want my parents to get back together phase. I love Brad. He’s a good guy. You and mom are happier apart then you ever were together.”
He couldn’t refute that. The last few months had been fucking awful for all of them.
“Mom has been married for what? Like a decade, now? It’s about time you started dating. You aren’t getting any younger, you know.”
“Hey!” He smoothed his hair back. Sure, he had some greys, but he didn’t look that old. A man in his forties was still in his prime, right?
“Well, you aren’t.”
“I guess.” Lex liked Eddie, and she didn’t mind if he dated her. It made everything a bit easier. “And if we became an item, it wouldn’t bother you?”
“Not at all!” she said quickly. “You know I like her. She’s always been kind to me. And I already know you’re in love with her.”
He tried to appear aloof. Fuck, how’d she get so observant? Must be all that psych stuff she studied. “How do you know?”
“Oh, come on. I have eyes. I’ve seen the way you look at her.” She widened her eyes and batted her lashes.
“I don’t stare at her like that!” He grabbed all their gear and headed out of the range, with Lex in tow. “You look like you’re havin’ a stroke.”
“Oh, shush!”
Captain chuckled.
She sighed, pressing a hand to her chest as they arrived at his bike “You look at her like she’s the only woman on the planet. That’s how Brad looks at mom. Someday, I want a man to look at me like I’m the only woman he sees.”
Charmed, despite himself, he pulled her into a hug. “See that you do, baby girl. Don’t ever date a man who doesn’t treat you as well as I do. You make sure he thinks you’re the moon and stars, too. Promise me?”
She bit her lower lip. “Promise.”
“Unless a biker looks at you that way,” he joked. “If he does, tell me, and I’ll shoot him, and then you can find another guy to date instead. Deal?”
“Dad!” Lex said, but she snickered.
They got on his Harley and took off for milkshakes at Hades.
***
After dropping Lex off at campus, he rode back to Hell. But as soon as he got in the city limits, he got picked up by the local police and brought back to the same goddamn interrogation room. Again.
Deja fuckin’ vu.
This time he only waited twenty minutes. He crossed his arms over his chest as Warner walked in. “Good to see you, Captain. Thanks for joining me on such short notice.”
“Didn’t have much of a choice, since you sent out the welcoming committee. Am I bein’ charged with something?”
Warner shook his head. “You’re a person of interest in an ongoing investigation, so I thought we could have a little chat,” he said, sitting down.
“Sure we can. As soon as my lawyer gets here.” He’d called Jane as soon as he’d gotten pulled over, and she was on her way. “I’m not answering shit until then. And maybe she’ll have a conversation with a judge about FBI agents abusing their authority, haulin’ innocent people in without chargin’ them with anything.”
“Oh, I’m sure a federal judge will bend over backwards to help a convicted felon like yourself. And, anyway, I don’t want you to talk, I want you to listen.” He opened the file. “I’ve been going over your club’s old RICO case to get some perspective on you and the Horsemen.”
Fuckin’ hell. The agent had it in for the Horsemen. No way this would end well.
“Since you took over, things changed. They used to run drugs and guns. Anything that turned a profit. But not now. You’re in the vigilante business. Helping the helpless.”
He said it with a smirk and Captain itched to slap it off his fucking face.
“That has to be your influence, right? Let me guess, when you started prospecting, you found out this club wasn’t what you thought? You had a romantic vision of the life, but you found yourself working with a bunch of thugs. And you didn’t want to live that way.”
Captain put a fuck you on his face.
“According to your tox report at the time, you were clean. Most of them were junkies. Maybe you had a cl
earer head. And you changed the club for the better.”
That notion had been in the back of his mind, but he hadn’t had any power as a prospect. Frankly, he’d been ashamed of the shit they did. He’d spent a lot of sleepless nights contemplating quitting and walking away.
“What kept you here? It would have been easy to cut and run. Money?”
Captain laughed. Prospects don’t make shit.
Warner got closer, leaning over the table, staring at him, as if he could snatch the secrets right out of his head. “No, it had to be more than that. Something personal. Love?”
Captain glanced away.
“That’s it, isn’t it? You fell in love. And you stayed…my bet is, she’s still here. Or you’d have moved on. But who? Not Sailor, she’s married. No, it’s the other one. Edna Rollins.”
“Eddie,” he said automatically. She’d been named after her father. He schooled his features into a blank mask, but his fists clenched.
“Yeah, that’s it. You fell for Eddie, who happened to be married to…wait.” He paused, checked the file again. “Joker Rollins. I believe he got shanked in prison. The woman you loved was finally free of her bastard of a husband. All of the dickhead brothers behind bars, so you could start the club from the ground up.” He whistled. “You caught a real lucky break.”
“Everyone knows Viper cooperated, turned witness for the prosecution,” Captain blurted out. Fuck, he shouldn’t have said anything. It sounded defensive.
The agent nodded. “Yeah, but that only happened after the FBI showed up at the drug warehouse. What I don’t understand is, how the RICO case got started to begin with. How did the agents know where the meet was going down?”
The agent stared at him.
And he stared right back. He made sure he didn’t so much as fucking flinch.
“Well, I’ll have to do a little more digging, maybe talk to the case agent at the time.”
“Knock yourself out.” Captain said it like he couldn’t fucking give a damn.
Thankfully, Jane walked into the room and shut the interview down. But Captain left the precinct shaken.
Chapter Twelve
A text message made Eddie’s pocket vibrate. When she dragged her phone out, she saw it was from Captain.
Captain: Let’s go for a ride tonight, Killer Queen.
Damn, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been on the back of a Harley. Well, with a man she wasn’t related to, anyway.
Eddie: Count me in.
Captain: Was hoping you’d say that. Pick you up later.
And just like that, she had another date. Hopefully, they’d make some progress. She glanced up from her phone to see Ryker standing in the doorway of her office.
His handsome features were pinched. Oh, shit. She had a good idea what he wanted to talk about…Captain. They were about to have this out.
“What’s up, kid?” she asked.
He shut the door and twirled one of her chairs around before he straddled it. “You’re smiling.”
The tone was accusatory and she raised a brow. “Yeah, I do that sometimes,” she quipped. “I’m tryin’ to quit, but they don’t make a patch for that.”
“Is it true? You’re dating him.”
“You heard the rumor, huh?”
“Yeah, well, everyone loves some good gossip.” He shook his head. “They said he’s stayed at your house the past two nights. Apparently, Axel’s quite the matchmaker.”
Eddie had a feeling her boys were about to have a conversation, the kind with fists. She kept the information short and sweet. “Yes, he’s been keepin’ an eye on me. And, yes, I’m dating him.”
His jaw clenched. “Why, Mom? You could do better.”
“I’m dating, not getting married,” she huffed. “And it ain’t like I’ve got ‘em lined at the door, kid. I like him. He likes me. We’ll see where this goes.”
He raised his chin, nostrils flaring. “I don’t like it.”
Okay, time to lay down the law. “You don’t have to, because my personal life doesn’t affect you.”
His nostrils flared. “He’s a man whore, Mom. When we’re out on a run, he fucks around. You want to be with a guy like that?”
She flushed. “His prior sex life is his business. Now, that we’re going out, he won’t be screwing around.”
“But—”
She rubbed one of her throbbing temples and tried to control her temper. “But what, kid? It’s my life.”
“But—“
“I’m not finished. Besides,” she reminded him, “You, of all people, shouldn’t be casting slutty stones.” At one time, Ryker had been the reigning man whore of the club. He’d taken a crack at every new hellion in the group.
Oh, bad choice of words.
He turned red, from embarrassment or anger, she couldn’t say. “That’s different, I—”
“In what way? Because we aren’t talking about you?” She understood his concern, but she wouldn’t tolerate hypocrisy. “What if Elizabeth let your reputation stop her from dating you? If I recall, you didn’t have much to recommend you at the time.”
At the time, his idea of a relationship had been banging hellions in the back of the bar. He didn’t even have the decency to take them to his place to screw around.
“Okay, I get what you mean.” He crossed his arms across his chest. “But I still don’t like it. Or him. And I’m not on board with this.”
“Fair enough.” But she could see through all of his bluster. “Why don’t we talk about the real reason you’re so damn tetchy?”
He looked up sharply. “And what’s that?”
“You don’t want me to get hurt.” Her boys had been her protectors for years, stepped into the role Joker hadn’t been able to fulfill any more.
He met her eyes. “You’ve been through hell already. He’s not nearly good enough for you. You deserve better.”
She sighed, some of the tension draining away. “And would anyone be good enough?”
“Hell no.”
She rounded the desk and Ryker stood up, grabbed her up in a bear hug, lifting her up off her feet. “I hate to tell you this, kid, but I’m going to date who I want to date. Regardless of what you think.”
There, she said it.
“And do whatever you damn well please,” he said, setting her down once more.
“Yup.” She beamed at him.
“Fine.” His brow furrowed. “I guess I don’t have a choice. So I’ll roll with it. Do I have to like him?”
“No, but you have to be civil,” she cautioned. “I won’t allow any macho man bullshit.” The last thing she needed was a pissing contest between Ryker and Captain. That could get really ugly. “And keep in mind, he’s the president of the club.”
“Yeah, believe me I’m aware,” he said, with a groan. “It still won’t save him, though. If he hurts you, I’ll play a round of baseball with his kneecap.” Ryker made a show of cracking his knuckles.
“Holy shit, kid.”
He smirked. “Ain’t nobody gonna mess with you.”
Eddie bet he’d have some help. The brothers were protective of her. She didn’t envy Captain. If he broke her heart, they’d all come to her defense. Yet another perk of being Queen Bee.
“And, I’ll be your bodyguard tonight,” he offered. “Tell Captain you already have plans. We could order pizza, watch movies? I’ll come by when I’m done here.”
“Are you sure? You’ll be leaving Elizabeth alone.”
“Actually, she’s staying with Daisy and Cowboy. They’re getting up at the crack of dawn and going shopping in Dallas tomorrow morning, so, I’m all yours if you want me.”
That’d work out fine. She’d be free after the date, and it would serve as an insurance policy if she got too frisky with Captain. “Sounds like a plan, kid.”
“See ya later.” He kissed her cheek and walked out the door.
Axel and Ryker were on board now, for the most part. Tonight, she intended to loosen u
p and let Captain in a bit more. Yep, everything seemed to be falling into place.
This could work, but first she needed to pay a visit to Joker.
***
“Hey, baby, it’s me.”
Eddie snuck over to Jackson Cemetery on her coffee break and she brushed some dust from the top of the headstone as she reached his grave. She wished the caretakers did a better job.
“Sorry, it’s been a little while since my last visit.”
She tossed a blanket she’d pulled from the backend of her car on the ground and sat cross-legged on it. “I got something to tell you and you probably aren’t gonna like it.”
For once, she didn’t conjure an image of him, didn’t imagine what he’d say to her. It would be hard enough to get the words out. She stared at the cold stone for a long moment, trying to gather her thoughts, so she could say this just right. Rationally, she knew Joker couldn’t hear her, but she needed to say the words and get some closure, if she wanted to be free to pursue something with Captain.
She sucked in a breath and then blurted it all out. “I had a date with Captain. You know him, he was a prospect back in the day. I like him and I haven’t felt this way about anyone since…well, you. I don’t know where it’s headed, but I want to find out.”
Eddie idly ran her fingers over his name, trying to make a connection. “I’m sorry, baby, but I’ve got to let you go, so I can make room in my life. And I’m not talking about room for him, I mean me. I need space for myself, for my life in the here and now.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m sorry, but I need to start living.”
Tears sprang to her eyes and she swiped them away with the back of her hand. She stood up, grabbed the blanket, and then kissed her fingers and pressed it to the tombstone. “Bye, baby, I’ll see you at Christmas time.”
It would be the longest she’d ever gone without a visit, but it would be good for her.
She just hoped she could stick to it.
***
Later that night, Captain pulled up outside of Eddie’s place and killed the engine. He was about to walk in, when she came out onto the porch instead.
“Come on, Killer Queen, let’s go for a ride,” he coaxed as she slowly waltzed down her driveway to his bike.
Devil May Care (Four Horsemen MC Book 4) Page 12
