Scoundrel

by Keira Blackwood

  I trotted over to the door before realizing I’d have to shift to open it. That was not ideal in full morning light, even though the lot butted up against the edge of the forest.

  A familiar scent caught my attention before I had a chance to thoroughly scan for onlookers.

  “Where the hell’s my truck?”

  I turned and found Brick trudging over to me. He opened the door, and I shifted as soon as I was safely inside.

  “So?” Brick crossed his arms.

  “It’s a long story. Let me grab some pants and I’ll tell you all about it. Get Hawke. He’s going to want to hear this.”

  Brick narrowed his eyes and nodded. “Boardroom in five.”

  “Yeah.” I jogged past the bar, where Shaundra watched me with a look of amusement and interest. Thankfully she didn’t try to strike up conversation as I headed up to my room.

  There, at the head of my bed was a pink backpack—Evie. It wasn’t just war I had to worry about. I hadn’t made it back to Paige’s place last night. I hadn’t even called.

  It didn’t matter that I had a damned good excuse. I’d fucked up, and they deserved better than that.

  I’d apologize, and hope it would be enough. I could explain, but not until I’d talked to Hawke.

  My mate and my daughter might hate me, but they were safe. The pack wasn’t.

  I threw on some clothes and headed back down to the business side of the building. I could sense Hawke and Brick were already inside the boardroom waiting for me.

  Hawke was at the head of the table, his fingers steepled together as he watched me enter. Brick sat beside him, his face and posture stiff as stone.

  I took a seat across from Brick.

  “What the hell happened?” Hawke was cutting right to it.

  “I never made it to Briggs,” I said. “Security drugged me in the elevator, threw me in a trunk, and drove me to the middle of nowhere.”

  “Fuck.” Brick slammed his fist against the table. “Now they know we’re coming. We should have ambushed those bastards when we had the chance.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  “Now there’s no way we’re getting close to Briggs,” Brick said between gritted teeth. “Not without a whole lot of firepower, storming the shit out of that fucking tower.”

  Hawke raised a hand, his gaze never leaving me. “Do they know who we are?”

  “Possibly,” I said.

  “I can’t believe this shit.” Brick stood, knocking his chair to the ground.

  “Sit.” One word from Hawke, and Brick obeyed. The vein in his neck pulsed, and his face was red, his anger barely contained.

  I turned to Hawke. “I gave them my card.”

  Brick grumbled but didn’t say a word.

  “No mention as to who I was representing,” I said. “Only that I needed to talk with Briggs about what went down between their pack and the Silent Butchers.”

  Hawke leaned back in his chair. “It could be worse.”

  It could. They could have known what chapter I was from, and where to find us. All they had was my name and my phone number. It wasn’t like I was in the phone book.

  “As it stands, Briggs doesn’t necessarily know anything about us. The next step—”

  “One more thing,” I said. I felt like an ass for having to admit this. Brick was right, I’d fucked up. “My phone was in my suit.”

  “Which is now in the Greenville pack’s possession?” Hawke raised a brow.

  I nodded. “Along with Brick’s keys.”

  “Mother fucking...I can’t believe I let you borrow my fucking truck.”

  “It’s not parked in their lot,” I said. “They won’t find it right away, if they look for it at all.”

  “We can use this to our advantage.” Hawke rose from his seat.

  We both turned to him. Brick had to be thinking the same thing I was...how the fuck could he spin this shitshow from a burden into a boon? Not that it was a surprise—twisting reality was one of Hawke’s specialties.

  “You have the locator app turned on, Jett?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Good. We’re going to track your assailant. See if we can pinpoint a weakness,” Hawke said.

  Brick’s eyes lit up. “We’re going to war? Finally going to give these assholes the beating they deserve?”

  “I can’t see any other way forward.” Hawke looked to me, as if waiting for answers.

  I wished I had something to offer.

  Hawke turned to Brick and nodded. “Looks like war.”

  Shit.

  “Jett, bring me your laptop. Brick, where’s that prospect?”

  “I sent him on a beer run.”

  “The bar needs more kegs already?”

  Brick smiled.

  “All right,” Hawke said. “As soon as he’s back, bring him to me.”

  “Done.” Brick nodded, and left the room.

  Tracking my phone and figuring out if there was any useful data was a perfect job for Ray, the prospect. That kid was fantastic at programming. He’d had a job in Silicon Valley at twelve, then after he turned eighteen, he gave it all up to follow his dream to join the ranks of the Silent Butchers. There was a draw to this life, something special about riding with your brothers, and being a part of something bigger. It was similar to being a shifter with a pack, but in this brotherhood, our bonds were deeper. I wouldn’t give them up for the world...or at least I’d never considered it until Paige.

  Now I questioned everything about my life as it stood. Maybe it was too much to expect to have a family of my own and the Butchers. The pain of that thought lingered like a frog in my throat, an ache in my chest.

  I rose from my seat and headed for the door. I needed to get this done so I could return to Paige and Evelyn.

  “Jett.” I turned, and met Hawke’s gaze. “If we can avoid bloodshed, we will.”

  I nodded and headed for the stairs.

  But something drew me toward the bar...a feeling that I couldn’t quite explain.

  And when the door opened, I knew why.

  Standing in the threshold was my mate, and holding her hand was my daughter. Evie looked absolutely delighted and waved at me, until she looked up at Paige. Then her smile slid into a frown.

  Paige’s eyes were red. She looked me over, and her expression hardened. “I’m glad you’re fu—freaking alive.”

  “Paige—” I needed to fix this. I needed to say something.

  She balled her fists and sucked in a deep breath, waiting for me to explain.

  I didn’t. I couldn’t find the words. “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t know what you’ve been doing. You know what? I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. When you have a kid, you don’t get to not show up.”

  One of the bike bunnies came out from the hall, in nothing but a thin tank top and a thong.

  Paige’s eyes went wide. “This is no life for Evie.”

  She turned and walked out the door, pulling Evelyn with her.

  But Evelyn stared back at me, her arm outstretched. “Dad?”

  She called me Dad. I opened my mouth and snapped it shut. What was I supposed to say? I had to say something. My voice was brittle when the words came out. “I’m sorry, Evelyn.”

  My heart broke into a thousand pieces, and I didn’t do a fucking thing. Not because I didn’t want to, not because I didn't want them, but because Paige was right.

  Chapter Eleven

  Paige

  My eyes stung with unshed tears. I held them back and bit my tongue, determined to be strong.

  Jett Greyson wasn’t worth it. Not if this was how he treated us. Fate was a fucking bitch.

  This man was not my mate, no matter what my heart told me. He didn’t care about me, he didn’t care about either of us. He’d spent his night fucking someone else while I took care of his kid. That’s what I was to him—the babysitter.

  I ran to my car, as fast as I could get Evie to run without knocking her down. I opened the back door
for her and then climbed into the driver’s seat. The car was a barrier, a wall between me and the world, between me and Jett.

  With my fists clenched on the wheel, I mustered the courage to look back to the door. I expected him to follow, to try and explain his way out of this mess. He didn’t.

  He hadn’t even bothered to try. Part of me was glad that the confrontation was over, and I didn’t have to talk about it or listen to excuses. But as I sat here, I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to try. That felt just as messed up, if not more so, than everything else.

  Here was my article—Love Hurts. That was a song, though, right? How about Love is a Rusty Blade Puncturing Your Heart. It had a nice to ring to it. Ha.

  “Aunt Paige?” Evie’s soft voice pulled me from my bitter reverie. I tilted the rearview and met her gaze in the mirror, trying my damnedest to plaster on a smile.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Of course, sweetie. We’re just changing plans is all.” Better not to stay any longer in the parking lot or I was just as likely to go back inside and start yelling as I was to drive away.

  I sucked in a deep breath and started driving. Where exactly we were headed...I had no idea. I couldn’t go sit in my room. I needed distraction.

  “Aunt Paige?”

  “Yes?”

  “Did I do something wrong?”

  I swallowed hard and tried my damnedest to maintain my composure. “Of course not, Evie. Why would you think that?”

  “You said I was going to be with...my dad.”

  My heart broke even more for her than it did for me. After everything Evie had been through, she assumed somehow she could be to blame when something went wrong.

  “You’ll see him soon,” I said, not knowing if that was true or not. “But first we need to go to the store.”

  “What store?”

  Good question. “Well, how much did your Aunt Sylvia pack for you when she dropped you off?”

  “I packed myself.” There was pride in her words instead of sadness. Good.

  “Awesome,” I said. “What did you pack?”

  “My favorite pajamas.”

  “What else?”

  “This shirt and pants.”

  “Great. Anything else?”

  “My backpack?”

  Not so great. But, that gave us something to do. Focus on the positive.

  “Sounds like you need some clothes.”

  “But I have clothes.”

  “Not much with you, though you did do a great job packing.”

  “Oh.” She sank in her seat. “I should have brought more.”

  “No. Aunt Sylvia should have brought more.” Sylvia shouldn’t have brought her here at all. She should have called me.

  “Are you mad at her?”

  “A little.”

  “I didn’t want to leave.”

  “I know.” It was an impossible situation. I parked the car in front of the only department store in town and turned around in my seat. “Maybe we should try to call your grandma and see how she’s doing. What do you think?”

  “Yes!”

  After a few calls, I tracked down the nursing home Linda was staying in for her physical therapy. While I was getting connected to her room, Evie was doing flips in the back seat.

  “Hello.” Linda’s voice was hoarse.

  She didn’t sound like herself at all, so much so that I wasn’t sure they’d connected me to the right room. “Linda?”

  “Who’s this?”

  “Paige.”

  “Oh, hi, dear. How are you?”

  “I’m hanging in there. How are you?”

  “The doctors never have anything good to say. It looks like I’m going to be stuck here for a while, and the food’s terrible. But I’d love to hear about Evelyn. Sylvia told me she sent her to her father, and that you were going to visit. How is she?”

  “She’s standing on her head with her tongue out, right now. Do you want to talk to—”

  Evie snatched the phone before I could finish my sentence.

  “Grandma! I miss you.”

  “I miss you, too.” Linda replied. “I hope I get to see you, and your new home sometime soon. Is it nice? Aunt Sylvia said it was nice.”

  Evie looked at me, her eyes wide. She shook her head, not knowing what to say. Then she looked down at the floor and squinched up her face. “I’m not coming home when you get back?”

  “I wish you could. Can I talk to your Aunt Paige?”

  Evie handed me the phone. The excitement she’d mustered had faded once again.

  “I’m here.”

  “If it’s not the life Sylvia said it was, I need you to look out for that girl. I can’t do it anymore. I might not ever get out of here. Promise me you’ll look after her.”

  Evie was staring out the window, with glassy eyes and a quivering lip.

  “I promise.” My chest was tight, but I kept my voice even.

  “Be patient with her,” Linda said. “Sometimes she makes bad choices. Sometimes it seems like she’s misbehaving just for the sake of causing trouble. But if you give her time to reflect, keep your cool, and talk to her about what she’s feeling, you’ll see through to the vulnerable person who just wants to be loved.”

  It was great advice that could be applied to not just Evie, but her father, too. “I will. I promise. Linda, can I ask you something?”

  “Anything.”

  It had been driving me crazy that Marla had told me she’d talked to Jett about the pregnancy, so I had to ask. “Did Marla tell you about coming to Ashwood when she found out she was pregnant?”

  “Oh. You mean about talking to Jett.”

  “Yes.”

  “She was too embarrassed to tell you. She saw him with another woman and fled. She never told him about Evie.”

  How had I not known? I tried to remember. Marla had told me she was going to tell him. And when she came home she said it was over. She said she’d seen him. She’d given short answers, and I’d let it go. She’d led me to believe she’d told him, but I guess she’d never said the words. I wished I could tell her that it was okay. She never needed to lie to me, or to pretend anything. I loved her. But in learning the truth, a weight lifted.

  “Thanks for telling me. Take care, Linda.”

  “You, too, dear.”

  I hung up and climbed out of the car. It was up to me to make sure Evie was cared for. We could return to my apartment in Murrayville. Maybe that was the best move, but even if it was easier, I couldn’t go back. Not yet. Not with the way I left things with Jett. He had an explanation...didn’t he? At the very least, he should have some say of what happened to his daughter. More than that, I didn’t want to give up on a man I knew was my mate, even if that made me a fool.

  I opened Evie’s door for her. She slid out slowly, her whole body sagging as she dragged her feet. I walked slowly to accommodate the intense moping. I felt a bit like that on the inside, myself. But with Evie, everything was right there on the surface.

  Once inside the store, I grabbed a cart. “Want to ride?”

  She looked up at me, and I could see a spark there, pushing back against the crappy hand life had thrown at her. She nodded.

  She climbed up between me and the handle. I reached around her and pushed.

  “I’m thinking we need to start in the candy aisle.” I couldn’t see her face, but I looked down anyway.

  “Candy?” I could hear the smile in her voice.

  “Oh yeah. I need some chocolate big time.”

  “Me, too!”

  In the candy aisle, I grabbed a big bar of one of my favorites, caramel and peanut butter stuffed. Evie grabbed an arm-full of boxes and bags. Her little eyes sparkled, and she smiled at me. “Please?”

  “Throw it in. We’re doing girls’ day right.”

  “Yes! Thank you, Auntie Paige. You’re the best!”

  If only taking care of a kid was always that easy. Hell, not just a kid, but life in
general.

  “Hop on,” I said. “Time for clothes.”

  Evie did as I said, and I pushed the cart. There were racks and racks of kids’ stuff, and I had no idea what to pick, let alone what size she wore. Thankfully, Evie knew exactly what she liked. She ran over to a shirt with a sunglass-clad racoon on it.

  “It’s perfect!” She pulled on the shirt, struggling to get the hanger from the rack.

  “It really is,” I said. “Do you know what size you need?”

  She shook her head.

  “Let’s check.” I looked at the back of her collar. 6/7. The shirts on the rack only had a single size, not two put together. The sleeves of the shirt she had on were about two inches too short, so I guessed we should go a size up. “I’m going to say 8.”

  “Just like how old I almost am.”

  “Yes, it is.” I guessed that’s how kids’ sizes worked. I had a lot to learn, but we were doing it, figuring it out, one racoon shirt at a time.

  She ran around, weaving between the racks and hiding up inside a few of them, giggling when I pretended not to know where she was. After the third time in the same shirt rack, Evie popped her head out before I ‘found’ her.

  “Hey, Aunt Paige.”

  “Aww, I found you!”

  “No. That doesn’t count. It only counts if I don’t come out first.”

  “I don’t know. Seems like it should count to me.” I crossed my arms in mock sternness.

  Evie shook her head. “I was just thinking. You said cake isn’t something you need.”

  “That’s true.”

  “But you also said you needed chocolate. Those are both treats.”

  I shrugged. “True, true. You caught me. But, sometimes needs change.”

  “I’m going to remember that next time we go to the bakery.”

  I laughed. “I’m sure you will.”

  Evie picked a few more shirts, and some stretchy pants—because she had great taste and comfy pants were the best pants. I insisted on underwear and socks, because like an animal, Evie seemed perfectly content without.

  After clothes, we hit the groceries. There wasn’t much to choose from, but I figured we needed something healthier than pizza to eat. And the chocolate wasn’t going to cut it. The bed and breakfast provided meals with the cost, if we were there on time, but not snacks, so I picked up some mixed veggies and nuts. Evie picked apple slices.