Saving Scout

by Khloe Wren

  “It’s okay, Ariel. Cars make that noise when they’re turned on.”

  For the entire trip home I explained about how motors worked and why they made the noises they did. By the time we pulled up in my driveway, her little hand was wrapped around one of my fingers and she was intently watching me as I spoke.

  Kid was a sponge and clearly wanted to know more. I could easily see her with me at the shop, helping strip down a bike motor. With a grin, I pulled my hand free and undid her seat belt as Marie opened her door.

  “Here we are, little darlin’. Home sweet home.”

  Keeping an eye on my girls, I climbed out and moved to follow them up the path to the front door. I patted my pockets and bit back the growl when I didn’t find anything. I still had no fucking phone, hadn’t had time to get a new one, and Marie had my keys. Glancing around the yard and house, I waited as Marie unlocked the door and led Ariel inside. As Marie punched in the code, I spoke up.

  “Stay here for a minute. I want to do a quick check.”

  Marie rolled her eyes but didn’t say anything as I took off to do a sweep of the house to make sure no one had been inside. I couldn’t help but wince when I got to Ariel’s room. I’d been right and it was like a pink and purple bomb had gone off, covering everything with color. As much as I was sure Ariel would love it, I was glad I wouldn’t have to sleep in there. It was enough to give a man nightmares.

  Finding nothing out of place, I made my way back to my girls.

  “All clear. Ready to see your room?”

  Ariel gave me a nod as she clung to Marie’s hand. I couldn’t wait for her to be comfortable enough with us to talk. There was something unnatural about a small child being so damn quiet.

  I trailed behind them as Marie took her down the hallway toward her new bedroom. As we went, Marie explained how the room had been her mother’s years ago. Her little head did another nod, then when we got the room, she stopped short and I moved so I could see her face. I smirked at her wide eyes and open mouth.

  “Go on in, Ariel. This is your space, you can do whatever you like in here. If you don’t like anything we’ve put in here, just tell us and we’ll fix it up.”

  She slowly stepped into the room, running her fingers over the books on the bookshelf before she went over to the bed that was made up with a pretty unicorn blanket and at least half a dozen various shaped pillows. Marie moved over to my side and I wrapped an arm around her shoulder to pull her in against me. My heart swelled as we stood there watching Ariel pull out her rabbit and dolls from her bag to sit on the bed. Standing here, watching my daughter settle into her room, it occurred to me that in this moment all was right in my world, now that I had both my girls here in my home with me.

  Now if we could just catch this fucker who had tried to blow us up, I’d be a completely happy man.

  CHAPTER 13

  Scout

  The next morning I woke up feeling better than I had in a week. I’d rapidly gotten used to sleeping with Marie in my arms and it had fucking sucked to not have her with me while I was stuck in that fucking hospital bed. Not that we did a whole lot of sleeping when I did finally get her back in my bed.

  Ariel had worn herself out with all the excitement by mid-afternoon and had laid down in her bed and fallen asleep. So I’d tossed Marie over my shoulder and carried her off to our room to make good on my earlier promise. Then after we’d eaten dinner, we’d all sat together on the sectional sofa and Marie read Ariel a story before I had to carry the sleepy little girl up to her room. Clearly, sitting in the back of the car with her had won me some serious points because no way would she have let me pick her up and carry her like that before now, yet she happily clung to me as I took her to bed, then tucked her in under all the blankets. I’d pressed a kiss to her temple and wished her good night. She still hadn’t spoken, but I had gotten a little smile out of her. Marie had then given her a similar kiss and followed it up by reminding her where our room was and that if she got scared she could come find us at any time. She also reminded Ariel of the night light in the hall and bathroom so she could find her way in the dark.

  That reminded me, I needed to buy stuff to set up an alarm of some kind so we’d know if she was about to come interrupt us. Last thing I wanted was to scar the poor kid by having her walk in on me working over Marie one night.

  Marie, with Ariel trailing behind her, walking into the kitchen caught my attention and brought me out of my thoughts. Damn, my woman was beautiful. She’d looked so worn out yesterday but today she looked a lot more refreshed and happier, like maybe she hadn’t been able to sleep without me by her side either. Comforting thought that I wasn’t the only one in this relationship that was so fucking far gone.

  She looked around the room with a wince.

  “What’s up, babe?”

  “If I’m moving in here, we’ll need to update this kitchen. It’ll take me forever to do all the cafe baking with these old appliances.”

  “Yeah, about that. I never did get to tell you about that surprise I had for you, did I?”

  She pulled down a bowl and showed Ariel the cereal options that hadn’t been there last week.

  “No, you didn’t. To be honest, with everything that’s happened, I’d forgotten all about it. So, what is it?”

  I grinned when Ariel pointed to the tiger on the blue Frosted Flakes box. Only a child would pick her cereal based on the fact it had a cute picture on the box. Marie poured it into the bowl, added milk then seated Ariel at the table like she’d been doing this mom thing for years, not days. Fuck, she was such a natural.

  She frowned over at me. “What’s that goofy grin for?”

  “Just sitting here enjoying watching you do this mom thing like a pro, babe.”

  A blush colored her cheeks as she flustered around putting the milk away and wiping down the already clean bench. I decided to cut her a break and take the focus off her for a bit.

  “The surprise was a new house.”

  Her head snapped over to look at me and her eyes were wide open. I couldn’t help but chuckle as Ariel gave me the same look.

  “There’s a couple places on the market on the same street as Mac, Eagle and Taz. I know this place is old, and I haven’t put the time into keeping it maintained over the years. Also, there’s safety in us all buying places close together. We’re hoping eventually we’ll own all the houses on the street. It’ll also mean we’re closer to the other kids, for when Ariel is ready.”

  Ariel frowned and returned to eating her cereal as I’d spoken, but Marie was smiling.

  “That sounds wonderful. Are you sure you want to leave this place? I know it’s your family home. We can easily fix up the things that need it.”

  That had me grinning again. She was so fucking sweet. “This is just a house, babe. It’s having you and Ariel in it that makes it a home. I’ll call the agent this morning and see if we can go around and have a look later today.”

  Ariel was still frowning and I wasn’t sure what had her worried. This no talking thing was highly fucking aggravating when it came to working out what the kid was thinking. Before I could figure out something to say there was a knock on the door so I rose to go answer it, leaving Marie with Ariel.

  I opened the door to find Keys had come baring gifts.

  “Hey, brother, good to see you back on your feet. Got some stuff for you.”

  “Come on in. The girls are in the kitchen. Want a coffee?”

  “Sure. If Marie’s moved in, there’s a chance it’s not the shit you normally stock your kitchen with.”

  “Bastard.” I gave him a light punch in the arm as we made our way back to the kitchen. He was right, Marie had stocked the kitchen with all sorts of goodies I hadn’t bothered buying in years.

  “Hey, Keys, how are you doing? Want a coffee?”

  “I’m good, and coffee sounds like heaven if you’re making it.”

  He went over and gave her a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before he moved t
o sit next to me at the table.

  “Quit flirting with my woman, already. You said you had presents?”

  I fucking hoped he had a new phone for me.

  He raised an eyebrow at me. “Cranky this morning, aren’t you? Thought you’d be in a better mood, considering.” His gaze zeroed in on Ariel. “And how are you this morning, sweetheart? Did you like your new room?”

  She gave him a quick nod before focusing back on her breakfast. She’d finished her cereal and Marie had put a small bowl of cut up fruit with some yogurt in front of her. The doctor had explained that we needed to keep her eating lots of healthy food so she would hopefully catch up to where she should be, size-wise. The way she ploughed through food had me thinking we weren’t ever going to have an issue getting this kid to eat. Keys gave her a sad smile before turning back to me.

  “Right, so here’s your new phone. Same number. When those f—ah, men wrecked your phone, they didn’t damage the SIM so you have all your old contacts and stuff.”

  I tried not to laugh at Keys trying to not swear as he spoke. It was good to know I wasn’t the only one struggling to clean up my language.

  “Thanks, brother. You get a look at my bike and cage?”

  “Yeah, your bike needs a lot of work but it’s fixable. You’ll have her back on the road in a week or so at my guess, but your cage is toast. They somehow managed to climb under the front end and plant that bomb up against the engine. Sorry brother, but there’s no fixing that shit.” He winced at Marie after he swore. “Sorry, Marie. Trying to not curse.”

  “I know, Keys. You’re doing good.”

  I ran my hand through my hair. “Well, that’s going to be fun to explain to the damn insurance company.”

  Keys shrugged. “This is a rare occasion where, since the police were involved, we have a police report for the insurance guys. You’ll be all right.”

  Yeah, wasn’t that the truth. Normally when one of the club’s vehicles got written off, it was because it was involved with something it shouldn’t have been. Hard to explain bullet holes and shit like that to an insurance company when you don’t have a police report to back shit up.

  I looked up at Marie. “What are your plans for today, babe? Mind if I head over to the shop and check out my bike?”

  Not that I didn’t believe Keys, but I was hoping it wasn’t as bad as he’d said it was.

  “Donna, Rose and a couple of the other old ladies are going to drop by this morning. We need to finish arranging things for Friday. But aside from that, I figured a quiet day at home was what Ariel and I needed today, so I don’t mind at all if you need to go do your thing.”

  Friday was the funeral. I had no idea how Ariel was going to cope with saying goodbye to her mom. Was four years old too young for her to understand about death? I had no idea, and there wasn’t much I could do about it right now.

  I turned my attention back to Keys. “You bring a cage or bike?”

  “Since I figured you’d want to head over to the shop, I brought a cage.” He gave me a smirk. “Although, you riding bitch on the back of my bike would be a sight to see.”

  I gave him another thump on the shoulder for being an asshole, and froze when Ariel cringed back into her seat.

  “Hey, Ariel. It’s okay, I didn’t hurt Keys, just gave him a little tap for teasing me.”

  Keys jumped in fast to try to help ease her. “That’s right, kiddo. I was teasing Scout and he gave me a tap for it. It didn’t hurt because he didn’t do it to hurt me. Okay?”

  She nodded but didn’t exactly look like she believed us. I made a mental note to try to curb the rough-housing with my brothers around her until she got more settled with us. After that, I decided it would best if Keys and I got out of Marie’s hair asap.

  I rose from the table and went to kneel down beside Ariel.

  “I really am sorry I scared you, sweetheart. I promise you I will never hurt you, and I won’t ever hurt my friends, either. We just play fight a little here and there.”

  I leaned in to press a light kiss to the top of her head as I stood, then I moved to Marie and pulled her in for a tight hug and deep kiss. With a groan I pulled back, said goodbye to them both then followed Keys outside. Once we were in the vehicle, Keys spoke up again.

  “You doing okay, brother?”

  I ran my hand through my hair. “Yeah, it’s just—well—fuck. My world has been turned on its fucking head in the past two weeks. I’m just trying to catch up.”

  He nodded silently for a few moments. “Taking on a child is a big commitment, especially one with issues.”

  “You did all you could for Emma, brother.”

  Emma was Donna’s daughter who Keys had taken on the role of father with. Then last year, her biological father, a bastard from the Iron Hammers, got to her and convinced her to help him snatch Zara out from under our noses at our clubhouse. He paid her for her help by killing her, leaving her body for us to find.

  “I know. Still eats at me, though. I don’t think you ever get over losing a child, no matter how old they are or how stupid their decisions were. You love ‘em regardless, always holding out hope they’ll see the light one day. Once they’re gone, there’s no hope left.”

  What the fuck was I going to say to that? I stayed silent, just listening to the noise of the road under the tires until Keys chose to break the silence.

  “But it’ll be different with Ariel. There’s no sperm donor out there waiting to come snatch her out from under your guard and fuck with her head.”

  “Felt good taking those pieces of shit out. But we didn’t take out enough of them, it seems.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “It took me a few days to remember everything that happened before the blast. But now I do. I know who the fucker is who set those charges. It’s the youngest of the three we let the cops take in. Donald warned me he was looking like he might come for revenge when he came to tell me he had to let the three of them go.”

  “Yeah, well, in Donald’s defense, it’s a little hard to charge someone for something when all the evidence is blown to hell. Not that I’m arguing with how we handled it. That drug needed to be completely destroyed, no fucking doubt about that.”

  “Don’t suppose you can use your skills and get me some information on him?”

  “Already done, prez. I had Nitro take photos of every man out there on his phone when they were lined up out the back waiting for you. I did a quick search on all of them, but I did a deeper look into the three we left alive while you were in the hospital. Figured it would be a good idea to keep an eye on them for at least the next year or so.”

  “So spill. Who is this fucker and where is he?”

  “His name is Simon Haus, and at a guess, the reason he’s so pissed is because his big brother was one of the men we took out. As to where he’s living, I don’t have that. The other two stayed at that cheap-ass hotel in town for one night, then they left town. I found them on some security feeds catching a bus from Houston up to Dallas. I don’t think either of those boys will cause us any trouble. But Simon has been keeping a nice, low profile. I can’t find any trace of him. Mind you, I didn’t realize he was causing shit. Now I do, I’ll try some other things to track his ass down. Don’t worry, I’ll find him.”

  I scrubbed both my hands over my face before running my hands over my head. The bandana might be gone, but the habit of adjusting it had just morphed to running my hands over my hair now.

  “Get Nitro to arrange more brothers to spend more time out and around town. I want our colors all over Bridgewater until we find this bastard.”

  “I’ll give him a call from the shop and get it sorted. You want a smoke? Pretty sure I got a pack of yours in here somewhere.”

  That had me chuckling. “You know what? I haven’t even thought about lighting up since I got rescued.”

  Pretty sure it was because now, when I wanted to release some stress, I did it by lovin’ on my woman, not smoking up some nicoti
ne.

  “Good thing, considering Marie would kick your ass if you tried to smoke around her or Ariel.”

  “Damn straight.”

  We pulled up to the shop and I slipped out of the car as soon as it stopped. My wounds were all healing well, but they still didn’t like having pressure on them, and sitting seemed to put pressure on all the wrong spots. Not that I’d say that out loud. Marie would find out and force the painkillers she’d gotten for me down my throat. Those fuckers knocked me out all night long, which I wasn’t having. Nights were for lovin’ on my old lady, not sleeping like a passed out drunk.

  As soon as I saw my poor bike, all other thoughts left my head.

  “Those motherfucking assholes!”

  They hadn’t just shoved my Harley off the road to hide it. Nope, they’d taken a knife to everything they could. The paintwork was fucked too, but I’d already figured that would be the case. I ran my hand over the leather of the seat, over the rips in the fabric. This was gonna take some serious work to fix. It would take me at least the rest of the day to assess what parts I needed to order, and then it looked like Keys was gonna be proven right in it taking about a week to get it back on the road. It could even take longer, depending on how long it took to get parts in.

  Rolling up my sleeves, I got ready to get to work. The sooner I got it started, the sooner I could get it done. And once I had the parts all ordered, I needed to head over to the clubhouse and pick up one of the club’s cages, then go and buy another booster seat. Moving the one Marie had between cars was going to get old fast. I had no idea how long the insurance would take to pay up on my cage, but with my bike out of action as well, I needed some way to get around till I got it sorted.

  Marie

  I’d had a great day so far, relaxing at home with Ariel and a few of the other old ladies. Ariel seemed to be comfortable around Donna and Rose now. When Silk had come over with little Raven, Ariel had been curious enough about the baby to forget about the fact she’d been scared of Silk earlier. It helped that Silk had worn a long sleeve shirt that covered her ink. For some reason her sleeve tattoo freaked the girl out. It seemed strange to me, because she didn’t seem to mind the men and their tattoos. By the time we’d sat down to lunch, Ariel had been smiling and pulling faces at Raven, making the six-month-old grin. I thought I’d seen Ariel lean in to whisper a few times, but couldn’t be sure.