“She’s worth it,” I muttered as I left the room, heading toward my vehicle. I hadn’t brought my bike because we were hoping to stay as discrete as possible, so I was in a rented SUV that was quite luxurious. Looking around the inside of it I smiled when I thought about how much Sam would love the gadgets and shit inside it, and it would keep him and Piper safe as well.
I headed home with a sense of purpose now, I was going to buy my first family vehicle. One that would be big enough for other kids too. My family was safe now, and it was time for us to actually be a family. I’d fucked up and lost four years with them that I’d never get back, but I could make sure that from now on, we had the life I’d always dreamed of for me and Piper.
Pulling up into the driveway to my house, I burst out laughing when I saw the bike that Sam was riding on. I hadn’t had the chance to see it when it was first delivered because I’d been in a hurry to get Sam to my parents and then head into work. Now that I saw it, it was the cutest thing ever. The normal black kids bicycle had been turned into an identical version of his dad’s motorbike, it even had a fake gas tank on the front of it with the Indian emblem on it. The little leather saddle bags at the back even had his initials on them and his license plate matched his dad’s bike.
“Mama,” he screamed as he came to a screeching halt in front of me and almost dropped his bike on the floor in his hurry to get to me. Jumping from the car, I watched as he caught it just in time and put the kick stand down before running toward me.
I’d been scared that he’d see that I’d been sick, but I’d put some makeup on earlier and I had to admit I didn’t look too bad given what I’d been through. Dropping carefully to my knees, I held his little squirming body tightly breathing in the special smell that was all Sam.
I was just enjoying the feeling of having my baby in my arms when Hunter’s bike engine started to vibrate the floor slightly as he pulled up beside us. I hadn’t heard him until that minute, I’d been so caught up in holding Sam, but that might be why he’d been squirming.
Pushing away from me, he ran up to his dad who caught him and swung him onto the seat in front of him. Revving the engine as much as he could, he squealed and burst out laughing when the alarm on my dad’s truck started going nuts. Shaking his head as he laughed, he took his keys out of his pocket and hit the unlock button.
Looking at them, I thought about all of the kids still missing, lying there afraid at night and I knew that we still had to do something for them. Just because one was gone, it didn’t mean that there weren’t more operating in his place. In fact, we knew that there were.
I needed to ask Hunter to call the guys together so that we could discuss how to move forward with helping the Ghosts and The Knights with the trafficking. It would also mean less drugs on the streets and less guns too.
This was definitely something that we could do and it suddenly became incredibly important to me to get the ball rolling on making it happen.
Pulling up in front of the Valiant property, I got out of the beautiful black SUV that had been delivered that morning with a massive red bow on the hood. Sam and I had just stared as it came up the drive toward the house, followed by a white car. When it had stopped and a man in a uniform had gotten out asking me to sign some paperwork, I’d had a moment of panic, a brief flashback wondering if this man was here to hurt us or take us. That’s when I’d seen Aron sitting on his bike across the road obviously watching over us. He’d nodded at me confirming that it was okay and I’d signed for the car.
Sam had run up to it and had opened the door screaming when he saw the little screens hanging down from the roof behind the front seats. On the steering wheel was a card with my name on it in Hunter’s messy scribble. Opening it, I almost burst into tears when I saw the message inside.
The first Black family car…
Love you both to the moon and back,
H xxx
I’d moved Sam’s seat from my vehicle across to the new SUV and we’d driven to the property to thank Hunter for our amazing new vehicle.
“I love it,” Sam screamed and clapped his hands as he jumped out and slammed the door shut behind him.
I was looking down and holding his hand as we walked toward the door when a throat cleared and I looked up. In front of me were a group of men that I didn’t recognize and I felt the beginnings of the panic that had hit earlier before I saw words on the vests that they were wearing that meant something to me – The Knights. The man closest to me had President on his, this was Preacher Ripley.
“Fuck me, Pres,” the guy behind him with VP on his vest said. “First time they’ve ever panicked and then calmed down when they saw your badge. Normally they see the face, then see the badge and freak the fuck out.”
The guys started laughing, but a beautiful blonde woman stepped in front of them and turned around to give them a glare that scared the hell out of me. “Watch your mouths,” she gestured toward Sam. Unbelievably, Preacher turned around and gave them a smug smirk as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the blonde woman who had turned to me. I took a step back as she stepped toward me and looked back at Preacher for reassurance. “Kai,” she held her hand out.
Blinking I looked down at her hand and then back up at her. “Piper…and this is Sam,” I gestured toward my son who was looking up at the beautiful woman with his mouth wide open.
“I know who you are,” she said, squatting down in front of him and giving him her full attention. “You look just like your daddy.”
Those were the magical words for my son, mention that he was like his dad and he was putty in your hands. Stepping forward, he lifted his hand and turned on the full force of his charm. “You’re pwetty!” Deliberately mispronouncing his r’s to tug at her heart strings.
Blushing furiously, she stood back up only stopping when Sam held his arms up. Picking him up, she sat him on her hip like she was an expert.
“Holy sh…” one of the guys stopped when she turned to glare at him, “shoot. The kids got Kai blushing. I never thought we’d see the day!”
There was that name again, Kai. Why was it familiar?
I was distracted from that thought by what she was saying to my son. “Your daddy is a great warrior, did you know that?” Sam nodded his head with a huge grin on his face as he coyly put his head on her shoulder and listened to what she said next. “We fought together and he even saved my life.”
Sam sat upright so quickly she almost dropped him. “You got an owey?”
Nodding her head, she showed him a scar that must have run down her hairline so it was only visible up close, and then showed him one on her neck. The VP, who was standing on the right of Preacher, his face clouded over behind them as he looked at where she was pointing and when I looked over at Preacher, his face was equally pissed off.
I was trying to figure out the relationship between the three. Standing back while she spoke to Sam and made him laugh, I saw some similar features between the woman and Preacher, but there was a different look on the man wearing the VP’s patch all together.
An arm going around me tore me from my observations, but I didn’t panic and knew why immediately.
“Hey baby,” Hunter rumbled in my ear. “Our boy has a new girlfriend I see.” He chuckled as Sam stroked the woman’s face. “Good choice. Kyle’s a good woman.”
“Wait, her name’s Kyle?” I might have said it a bit too loudly, but who the fuck has a daughter who looks like a fairy princess and then gives her a man’s name?
“Me,” Preacher said, and I realized as the guys around us started laughing that I’d asked that question out loud.
Laughing, Kai or Kyle walked up to us still holding my son who chose that moment to launch himself as his dad.
“Sorry, I should have made that clear. I’m so used to the guys,” she gestured to some of the guys who weren’t wearing the black leather vests, “that I forget how to speak civilian sometimes. Let’s start again,” she held her hand out and I t
ook it. “My name is Kyle Ripley, also known as Kai to these guys. I’ve served with Hunter on numerous occasions over the years and have heard all about you. It’s an honor to meet you and your adorable little boy.”
“Piper Hill,” I said just as Hunter said “Black,” and we looked at each other and grinned, forgetting about our audience for a second before Kyle burst out laughing.
“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, future-Mrs-Black. I would introduce this motley crew behind me, but you’d forget all of their names by the time I was done,” all the men looked at her with slight looks of hurt on their faces, but she just dismissed it with a shrug. “You wanna meet the beautiful woman, you introduce yourselves.”
Hunter wrapped his arm around me and pulled me tightly toward him. The men had started to take a step toward me, but stopped when they caught sight of the expression on Hunter’s face which I assumed must have been grim. Grinning, the Ghosts all gave brief waves and headed off in whatever direction it was that they needed to go in. The Knights all shook their heads and rolled their eyes.
“Daddy,” Sam squealed and clapped his hands. “I got a new car!”
Chuckling, Hunter walked us over toward the new SUV. “Did you, bud?”
“Yup, awesome. Wanna watch TV with me?”
“Tell you what, Elijah just got the biggest TV that I’ve ever seen. Wanna go see it?” Putting him down on the ground, Sam didn’t wait for his dad; he just took off toward the door, both of us watching him until the door had closed behind him.
Turning, I moved my body into his and grinned up at him. “Thank you for my new car.”
Grinning down at me, he leaned to peck the tip of my nose. “It’s our car. The first Black family car.”
Garrett had been walking past us as he said this and cleared his throat. He raised an eyebrow and looked down at his dark arm and then walked away leaving us watching after him wondering how the hell we were going to navigate this.
“He’s right you know,” I whispered to Hunter.
“Fuck me,” he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. “When Dad called us that when I was a kid, it sounded cool. Now? Well shit! I don’t think we can get away with calling ourselves the Black Family, baby; it’s offensive. We’ll have to think of something different.”
Sighing, I grabbed hold of his hand and moved toward the door that our son had gone through not long before. As we walked into the property, I asked Hunter something that had been bugging me. “Hey, you know how The Knights have their compound?”
“Yeah?”
“What are you gonna call this?” I gestured around us.
“The McVanshion,” one of Hunter’s men, Jackson, said as he walked past us with a bowl of popcorn in his hands. Sam was sitting on the comfiest looking couch that I’d ever seen in my life and was holding his hands out for the bowl.
“We’re calling it Valiant,” Hunter shrugged. It made sense so I nodded and stored that info away for future use.
“Jackson, are you okay to look after Sam for a bit?” I shouted to him across the voices from Valiant, the Ghosts and The Knights.
Not moving his attention away from the cartoon playing in front of them, Jackson waved a hand and pulled the leaver on the footrest of the couch and got comfy with Sam as they fed themselves handfuls of popcorn. These guys were too much! You never would guess that they were hardened Marines who had fought hard for their lives and their brothers lives. Well, and sister if you count Kyle.
Leading me to his office, Hunter closed the door and nodded toward the couch that hadn’t been there the last time I’d been here. “S’up?”
Settling beside him, I asked him the burning question. “Are you going to continue working with The Knights and Ghosts on the trafficking ring?”
Hunter, who had been in the process of getting comfortable, froze and turned to look at me with his eyes wide. I watched as he raised his finger and started itching his damn ear and rolled my eyes to the ceiling and back down again.
“Okay, let me rephrase that,” I said watching as he gave it one last itch. “I would like for you to continue working with them on it.” Turning on the cushion, I lifted my leg so that my knee was resting against his thigh. “I also want to help.”
He was already frantically shaking his head. “No, no way, Piper. You can’t go into…I can’t…”
“What? No!” I burst out laughing at the look of panic on his face. “No, I’m not saying that I want to go riding in at the crack of dawn with my sword drawn. I’m saying, I want to help y’all with it. Behind the scenes.” I stressed the word to help explain what the hell I was trying to say to him.
The relief that crossed his face had his body almost sagging in two.
“Jesus, Piper.” He scrubbed his hands over his face while he took deep breaths. “To answer your question,” he faced me again, still looking slightly spooked, “Yes, we are going to continue working with them. We’d just been meeting with them over a report we’d gotten this morning of a couple of kids who were snatched last night.”
Discussing the details of the missing kids, I broached the other part of the trafficking. “What about the guns and drugs?”
“We’re setting up as a unit to assist with all sides of the trafficking ring,” Hunter said hesitantly.
“Thank God!” I huffed, confusing him. “Less drugs means less guns,” I explained. “It makes the world that bit safer with…” I searched for the right word, but couldn’t think of one so I went with the same one, “less of both.”
Grinning at me, Hunter pulled me onto his lap. “I fucking love you, Piper soon-to-be-Black.”
Kissing him, I whispered against his lips, “I fucking love you too, Hunter Black.”
It had been four days since Piper had spoken to me about continuing to work on the trafficking ring and our counter-operation was getting stronger and bigger. I’d just gotten off the phone with Jagger who told me that some other chapters and MC’s had agreed to assist. It wasn’t going to be enough to take them down, all at one time, but it would make blocking transport routes and intercepting that bit easier.
Noah had been continuing his search for Bo with the help of Kai’s guy, Data. They’d been pouring over records and footage, but so far nothing had shown up. I was starting to worry about Noah because he didn’t seem to be sleeping or eating; all he did was make call after call and sit around looking at shit on his screen. Piper said he was running himself into the ground and had tried talking to him, but he was so engrossed in what he was looking at that all he did was grunt.
I’d just reached the room that he was in when my cell went off again. Sighing, I got it out my pocket and blinked when I saw Data’s name on the screen. He was in contact with Noah all the time, so why wasn’t he calling him?
“Yeah?”
“Hunter, you got a minute?” He asked, his voice tense.
Taking a couple of steps back, I opened the door to my own room and went in. “Go ahead.”
“We got Bo,” his voice was shaky with either excitement or stress. I was about to ask why he hadn’t called Noah with this information, when he said, “You need to mobilize now, Hunt. Get the guys together, Kai already knows so she’s readying our team and no doubt Jagger is getting some of his in too.” Fuck, we were lucky to have these guys.
I walked into the hallway and yelled for the guys to meet as I headed toward the room where we held what we now called ‘church’.
“Hunt,” Data growled down the line and I shook my head at the realization that I’d switched off to make the plans for what we were about to do. I couldn’t have made many without info, but I knew who was going to come with us and who was going to stay behind to watch over Valiant, Piper and Sam. “I need you to listen.”
It was anger in his voice, definitely anger. “I’m listening.”
“Alcado has her.”
The guys who had been filtering in all heard my swift breath in at this news. “Fuck me.”
I looked over at Noah wh
o must have had a gut feeling that this call involved Bo because his face was even tenser than before and his body was so frozen in place that even when Elijah accidentally knocked into him getting to his seat he stayed in place.
“Yeah. We’ll get her man.” Data said down the line, but we all knew that it was going to be tough. Hanging up, I tried to figure out how to break the news so that Noah wouldn’t go off half-cocked and either get himself or Bo killed.
Alcado was well known in Central and South America, fuck he was very well known to our government too. He had inherited the position of head of the Ojo de Diablo, or OD as they were also known, three years ago when his father had been killed. His dad had been a heinous fucker, but Alcado had him beat. Fuck, he probably had Satan beat.
Bo being with him was not good news in any way. He had a proclivity for sadistic torture of a scale that would make even the most hardened man cry. Torture normally was sadistic anyway, but not like this; this was beyond depraved. If she was still alive, the question now would be what state would she be in when we found her.
Compass (Valiant MC Book 1) Page 16
