Even now, nearly four years later, he was still in some sort of limbo. Not really living and using my daughter as his lifeline to his wife.
Just the thought of losing the love of my life turned my blood cold.
I couldn’t go through that again. I hadn’t loved Zoe, but watching her die was heartbreaking. Watching Jason after Zoe died had been just as hard. His grief was so real and so raw. Just the thought of going through that myself was torture. Left with a blonde reminder of her mother to raise alone, like I’m doing with Shiloh—fuck, no way could I do that.
I knew a conversation was going to happen between the two of us about this issue, but for now, I just needed to get my kid ready and dressed for her road trip with her mummy.
“Okay, Squirt, you be good for Mummy, okay?” I said to my daughter as I buckled her into the huge-arse kid car seat Booth had in his Ford F150. She had everything she needed for the long trip—her colouring books, pencils, and her Tour of Duty discs. Snacks were tucked into every pocket and holders of the massive car seat.
Why the fuck we all had ridiculous big seats in our trucks was laughable. Of course, I blamed Darth since he’d gotten them as a package deal when he did a security job for some rich business owner. So the business owner got Darth’s muscle for three days, and in return, Darth came back with six state-of-the-art baby car seats, all complete with harnesses and cup holders, and they looked like a goddamn space shuttle chair.
Leaning over, I pressed a kiss to her forehead and then her cheek.
“See you when you get home, baby girl.”
“Okays, okays, Daddio. Lets me talk to Darf,” she demanded of me.
Fucking Darth.
“Yo, Darth. Squirt wants you,” I shouted out to the big man, who jogged straight over to the truck.
I went to Charlie and wrapped her in my arms. Despite her earlier upset reaction to my stupid comment about having kids, she melted right into me, and everything felt right again—for then at least. She and I needed to have a talk about my fears of her giving birth.
“Sweetness, when you get back, we’ll talk, okay?” I whispered into her hair before taking a hit of her smell of peaches. Goddamn, she was my happy place.
I felt her nod against my chest. I took her hand that was resting on my chest next to her cheek, and I kissed her diamond.
“It’s just my stupid shit. We’ll sort out something.”
“Okay, honey.” Her reply was soft and sad, but she still smiled my smile at me, reassuring me that she wasn’t running.
“I love you,” I said, needing her to say it back to me more than ever.
“I love you, too, honey.” Her eyes were soft and full of love for me.
Thank fuck.
Taking her lips in a soft kiss, I gave us that moment to reconnect. It seemed to be our thing that after any kind of emotional disturbance between us, we took time for us to make sure we were okay, that we were still us.
“Deck, they gotta get going if they are going to be back before dark,” Booth told me, interrupting our moment.
I held my arm up over Charlie’s head and looked at my watch. I was surprised to see it was eleven thirty. Fuck. At that rate, they wouldn’t be back until five that afternoon.
I felt uneasy about the girls being out on the road with the rogue soldier still out there, but I couldn’t forbid the outing even though my inner caveman was screaming at me to do exactly that.
I laced my fingers with Charlie’s and led her to the passenger side of the truck. Her diamond was digging into my skin, reminding me she was so close to being mine forever.
Placing my hands on either side of her waist, I very easily lifted her up into the seat, making her smile widely at me.
“You should be my pas de deux for my next dance,” she joked as she settled herself into the luxury seat. When she reached for the seatbelt, I gently batted her hands out of my way.
“Here, let me,” I said quietly, my eyes never leaving hers.
I could hear all the noises around us—Booth giving Stella strict instructions for the GPS and the Bluetooth system, and Darth at the rear passenger door, listening to Shiloh talk a mile a minute about what she planned to draw on the trip for him—but my focus was all on my woman.
“Text me as much as you want, okay? Call me every time you stop. And be alert, okay?”
“Okay, honey.” She always said it softly as if to soothe me, and it did. But I still saw the hurt in her smiling eyes. Fuck, there was no time to fix it right then.
“Hey, Sweetness, when you get home, I will explain myself, okay?”
Damn, I didn’t need an audience for this. I wanted her under me, naked except for her diamond and sated from being worshipped by my mouth and cock.
“Yes, honey. I’m fine, really. We can talk when we get back.” She wasn’t running. My heart calmed slightly.
“Okay, Sweetness,” I agreed and leaned in to give her one last kiss.
When Stella started up the truck, the V8 engine roared to life, and a deep rumble filled the air, breaking the spell between Charlie and me.
“I love you,” she said again, her small hand coming out and gently caressing my unshaven cheek. She loved me like that. Sexy scruff she called it. I didn’t give a fuck what it was called. I just left it that way for her.
I turned my head slightly and kissed the inside of her hand hungrily. “I love you, too. Now Dundee will be behind you the whole time. You got a problem, you signal him by putting on your hazards for ten seconds. Got it, Stella?” I said the last bit for Stella. I knew Booth had probably already told her, but I needed to say it.
“Got it, Deck,” she answered without a hint of sarcasm. She had been around the club long enough to know how things were done.
Looking closer at Stella, I noticed there was another yellowing mark, only this time on her temple.
What the fuck?
Was someone hitting her? Before I could say something to Stella, Charlie squeezed my hand in a warning. With just a look, I knew she had it. She would find out who we had to kill.
“Let’s go, people,” Shiloh suddenly shrieked from her car seat, making us all laugh.
One last kiss and I closed the door—before I ripped Charlie out and carried her back to our room to fuck her senseless and wipe away my comment fuck-up regarding children.
“They will be fine, brother. Dundee has it under control. I planned the route so we know exactly what roads they are on at all times,” Creed said as he came up beside me, and we watched the SUV and the bike as they moved down the road before finally rounding the bend and disappearing out of my sight.
Fuck, I hated that feeling.
“Yeah, Creed, I know. All right, we got some shit to go over in the war room. Gather everyone, including Ford,” I ordered, putting my fears of this road trip aside.
They would be fine.
Booth was already in the war room when we made it there—after I stopped first at the kitchen to get a coffee and a few of Stella’s shortbread biscuits.
“Stell’s?” he asked, raising his eyebrow at my tempting treats.
“Who else,” I confirmed. The woman had mad skills in the kitchen as well as being a freaking cleaning machine, keeping the club well organised.
I got a curt nod from him. Booth wanted Stella—of that, I had no doubt—but his issues were so deep, so fucking raw, I wasn’t sure if he would be able to make it work with her.
Ford walked into the room, and the look on his face had me instantly on alert.
“What?”
“I got a fucking print from one of the photos the cunt left for us to find of Charlotte and Shiloh.”
All of us were asking questions at the same time.
“Where?”
“You run it yet?”
“Who is this fucking cunt?”
“Hold it,” Booth boomed from his position at the head of the table. “Ford, go.” Booth’s glare at us told us to remember who we were and what we were.
“
It is a partial thumb, but my guy at the department says it will be enough for an ID. He is running it now. Could be a few days until he finds something. He can access shit I’m not comfortable going into and not leave a trail,” he admitted.
“What does he want for this?” I asked. They never did anything for nothing.
Ford smirks, looking at Mannix.
“He wants a week’s worth of unlimited free lap dances from Rainn.”
Mannix shook his head.
“Fucking perv,” he muttered with a grin on his face. The club was going to have to bear the brunt of the cost of this douche’s request. We might own the strip club, but Rainn didn’t dance for free. It would probably cost us a couple grand since she was our best-rated dancer. The woman was as good on the lap or pole as Charlie was on the stage.
“Okay, thanks, brother. There isn’t much we can do until those prints come back. So I suggest we stay vigilant. Keep eyes on the girls at all times and watch our backs. This cunt will be found. And his identity.”
Standing up, Booth left the war room via his private entrance, but I noticed he swiped the plate of Stella-baked goods. It reminded me of a more serious matter.
“Darth,” I called.
“Yeah, Deck.”
“The night the girls got drunk, and you took Stella home, did you notice anything unusual about her?”
Darth looked at me for a minute, his eyebrows raised in question. “Not really. She was pretty upset, but then Booth had been a real dick to her. Asked me to drop her at her friend Lucy’s place. I don’t particularly like that bitch, but she is friends with Stell, so I did as Stell asked. What is this about, Sarge?”
Blowing out a frustrated breath, I peeked at Booth’s door to make sure it was closed. The war room didn’t have cameras or listening equipment installed for security purposes. We didn’t want anyone to have access to what we said in here and use it against us.
“I have seen Stella twice now with yellowing bruises. She is hiding them under makeup, but I know what I saw.”
“What the fuck?” Darth exploded. “Are you saying someone is hitting her?”
“Calm down, brother. I don’t know for sure. She could have fallen or bumped into something,” I reasoned. Everyone had seen Stella stumble or fall clumsily more than once, so I didn’t want to fly off the handle without cause. I also didn’t want to get Booth in on it in case it was nothing. Unleashing that kind of crazy required a lot of thought.
“Agreed. Okay, I will keep my eyes open and put more of a watch on her when she isn’t here at the compound. Are we getting you-know-who involved on this?”
“No, not yet,” I answered straightaway. “No point until we find out if something is going on. The stupid bastard may be playing some kind of fucked-up game with her, but if Booth finds out she is being hurt deliberately, there will be no place safe for any fucker.” And holy shit, what a shitstorm that would be. Steel stepped up to me, a hard look on his face. The VP had something on his mind.
“Agreed. Now speaking of that night when the girls got pissed as farts and drunk-called us, did Creed take Mia home and leave? Or did the unsmiling prick stay the night with her?”
Fuck this. Giving Darth a chin lift, I knew what was coming, and I didn’t want any part of that shit storm.
“See ya, brother. Got shit to do,” I said hastily as I made my getaway. I took the easy way out of the situation. I knew Creed had stayed with Mia that night, but I just didn’t know in what capacity.
I walked out to the hall and heard a crash.
“Fuck,” was roared from the war room.
Yeah, I wasn’t getting involved in that shit. No way.
45
CHARLOTTE
I looked into the back seat and saw Shiloh had her noise-cancelling headphones on. Her favourite show Tour of Duty was on, and her eyes were glued to the screen. She loved the war show about the Vietnam War. She and Darth both did.
We had been on the road for about fifty minutes or so, following the route Creed created for us on the GPS. He took us off the main highway and put us on the back roads. It would add about another hour to our travel time, but the men of the Wounded Souls were still very concerned about the rogue soldier, which was why, every time I looked into the side mirror, I saw Dundee following close behind us.
Settling back, I took a deep breath. I wanted to catch Stella off guard when I asked what I was about to ask, and I really didn’t want Shiloh to hear.
“Who has been hitting you, Stella?” I asked softly. I kept my eyes on the road ahead and waited for the answer to my question.
“Wh-what are you talking about?’ Stella stumbled over her words, and her grip tightened on the steering wheel.
“Sweetheart, my mother used to hit me in my younger teenage years. I know what a bruise looks like.”
“You got hit?”
Nodding my head sadly, I decided to tell her what I hadn’t even told Deck yet.
“My mother hated me, still does, in fact. She wanted boys only, and when I came along, and she found out she couldn’t have any more babies after my birth, she was furious that I’d ruined her plans. I have two brothers who are controlled by her and her money, but she wanted more.” I stopped and shrugged my shoulders. “Her dream for a male empire was in tatters with my arrival into the world,” I joked.
Normally, I didn’t like speaking of my mother. There was nothing maternal about her in any way, at least not towards me, but I thought Stella needed to hear my story. Then, hopefully, that would give her the courage to tell me who was hurting her so then the club could go find them and hurt them.
“Did she do it often?”
“No, not really. Just a few times a year, I suppose. Her main weapon was her evil tongue. She would yell and scream at me all the time. Hateful words, nastiness constantly. I could never do anything right. My childhood wasn’t fun.”
Stella was looking everywhere, but at me, I could see the tears gathering at the sides of her eyes, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was being abused. Badly.
“Sweetie,” I prompted.
Looking nervously in the rear-view mirror, Stella looked at Shiloh. Her face was torn between relief that I knew and fear of telling me more.
“Not yet, Charlotte. Please,” she pleaded, looking again at Shiloh.
“Okay, Stella, I understand. But I can’t keep this from Deck for too long. Those men are part lie detector. I swear, I can’t hide anything from him,” I joked again. But I wasn’t really joking. He could read me like a book. At the compound, he knew I was upset, and he even knew why without me saying a thing. Either I had a major tell or that man had magical skills.
“Why were you upset before we left? Deck seemed desperate to get you to smile. Did he do something to hurt you?” Stella asked, changing the subject away from her, and I didn’t mind. She needed to gather herself and wasn’t comfortable talking about any kind of violence in front of Shiloh despite Shiloh’s headphones.
“He didn’t hurt me. We were talking about marriage and stuff, kidding around with each other, then I mentioned about him getting me pregnant, and he pretty much insinuated he is happy with just having one child.” I took another quick peek at my girl again. Her raven curls fell about her face as she started to nod off to sleep. I was surprised it took her that long. After last night’s performances and this morning’s early rise to get off at a reasonable time, my girl needed to catch up on her rest.
“Oh, I see. So you want to have your own babies?” Stella asked, not taking her eyes off the road for the sweeping bends that were coming up.
“Yes, I would love to carry a child one day,” I answered honestly. There had always been a desire in me to have a child of my own and raise him or her better than I had been. To shower a daughter with love or to teach a son what it was to be a true gentleman. And Deck more or less admitting he didn’t want more sort of took the wind out of my sails a bit. Getting engaged, then married, and then babies were steps I had been in
tent on following.
But loving Deck and being with him was something I didn’t want to give up. So I agreed with him that we needed to talk when I got home. I also needed to make a stop at a chemist.
“If Shiloh is all I can have, then I will deal with that. She didn’t come from my body, but she is mine, make no mistake about that,” I said firmly. And I believed my words. The pain of not carrying my own child would lessen with time, and he hadn’t actually said no outright, so there was still some hope. And this whole worry may be a moot point, anyway, I thought as my hand automatically went to my stomach. Again.
“Of course, you are—— What on earth is that man doing?” Stella stopped what she was saying to me and looked in the rear-view mirror, but this time, she was looking at the prospect following us.
I took a look myself in my own side mirror, and I saw him weaving all around the road with his headlight on high beam and his horn sounding. Just as I was about to question the man’s sanity, I saw a dark blue SUV sitting close behind Dundee’s bike, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end all at once.
It looked like the same SUV that had followed Shiloh and me at the park a few weeks ago. As I took a closer look, I saw there was one of those flashing lights that sat on the roof of the cab.
“Should I slow down?” Stella asked me, looking from the road to the mirror over and over again.
I felt the car slow down just a bit, but just as she did, I heard the horn of Dundee’s bike honking madly.
“What does he mean?” Stella cried as she started to panic. And truth be told, so was I. I had my daughter in the car with us, so panicking was not an option. Deck trusted me with her life, and there was no way I was going to let him down.
I looked in the mirror and saw the prospect making a go motion with his hand.
“Go, Stella. Don’t stop. Speed up,” I urged, trying to keep my voice calm and quiet so I didn’t call attention to myself. Shiloh was still asleep in her seat, and I wanted her to stay that way.
Stella did exactly as I said and pushed down on the accelerator, the powerful motor roaring as it picked up speed.
HIS SWEETNESS Page 25
