Demented Sons Series Volume One: Books 1-4 (Demented Sons MC Iowa)

by Kristine Allen

  “So what do you know about this guy?” I asked, hopeful that he had something to shed some light on why she seemed so secretive and desperate about me meeting her. I fucking hated the thought of her with someone else, but what had I expected? That she would stay alone the rest of her life? Pining for me, maybe?

  “He’s a detective. He’s quite a bit older than her, but he has a great record and seems to be pretty well liked. Like I said, I don’t see them much, and that’s my bad. Let me know what’s up. You want me to go with you tonight?”

  Shaking my head, I told him no, I would be okay. “Look, I have to run. My buddy came down with me, and I promised him I would take him out for supper tonight.” We both stood, and he stepped around the table to walk me to the door. When I turned to tell him goodbye, we looked at each other, paused, and hugged each other like the long-lost friends we were. “I’ve missed you, Christian.” My muttered words had him slapping my back and pulling away. He didn’t meet my eyes, but he nodded in affirmation.

  As I stepped out the door and slid my shades on, I saw Hacker on the phone in the front yard. A sense of pride hit me as I observed the patch on his cut as he paced and talked. The same one I had recently earned. He was wearing his cut because we were using my uncle Gunnar’s and Javier’s rides to travel around with while we were in town. Mine was locked in the saddlebag of Javier’s Street Glide.

  Javier was a member of our club’s chapter in San Antonio. It meant a lot that they trusted us with their bikes, but besides being blood family, we were all brothers through the club. If you couldn’t trust your brothers, who could you trust?

  “You know him?” Christian’s tense question had me turning to meet his eyes as I answered. The expression on his face was one of judgment, and I found it raising my hackles. The cop was coming out in him, and he was profiling like a motherfucker. I could tell right away. God, that shit pissed me off.

  “Yeah. He’s my former battle buddy and my brother in the club. Why?” Tension rippled down my spine as I awaited his answer.

  “You’re a fucking gang member? Are you fucking shitting me, Kayde? Your uncle and now you too?” My nostrils flared, and my hands clenched into fists at his censorious tone.

  “No. It’s Joker, and I belong to a motorcycle club. We’re not a fucking gang. ¡Jesús!” At his snort of derision, I turned my back on him. “See you around, man. Thanks for the offer to help the fam. Give my best to your pops.”

  “Yeah. Will do, and no problem.”

  Never bothering to look back at him, I walked to the bike, unlocked the saddlebag, and pulled out my cut.

  Shrugging into my cut, purposefully ensuring Christian got a good long look, I nodded to Hacker, and he ended the call. “Everything okay, bro?”

  “Fuck, I don’t know. You remember Kassi? From the Shamrock?” Duh. Of course, I did. This dumb fucker had been hooking up with her for a hot minute and just kept stringing her along. Hollywood, Reaper, and I could all see he was head over heels for her, but thanks to his bitch of a girlfriend in college and then the shit that we went through during a few of our deployments, he didn’t think he deserved her. It pissed me off because she was a sweet girl and hot as hell. Not that she compared to Sera, but shit, I was a man. I could appreciate a beautiful woman.

  “Uh, noooo.” My sarcastic answer had him shooting me a dirty-ass look. “Of course I do, you dumb fuck.” His look screamed I’m gonna fuck you up, which just made me laugh at him as I set my shades on the seat long enough to pull the helmet on.

  “Yeah, well, I didn’t tell her I was leaving, but I think I need to cool things with her. So I called Bo. I just wanted to check on her to make sure no one was messing with her at the Shamrock. He said she’s good.”

  Rolling my eyes, I straddled the bike, straightened it, lifted the kickstand and started her up. Revving the engine, I shook my head at his ignorance. He flipped me off before we pulled out together. In my mirror, I caught Christian standing on the steps, arms crossed and lip curled.

  Fuck his judgmental attitude. I’d lived ten years without him, I could live another ten.

  After supper, I dropped Hacker at the hotel and drove the short way over to the cathedral. The sun was starting to drop lower in the sky, but it was still hot as fuck. Thankfully it was easier to find somewhere to park a bike than a cage, so I was able to get a spot pretty close to the cathedral. Hanging the helmet on the handlebar, I ran my hands through my hair to straighten it as best I could. Leaning down to look in one of the mirrors, I saw it was pretty hopeless. Oh well.

  The cathedral was dark after the bright sun from outside but thankfully cooler. Adoration would be starting in a bit, so I looked around the dim pews for her honey-colored head. I almost missed her because she had her head bowed to the side. She looked like maybe she was sleeping.

  For half a minute, I had to just drink in her presence as my stomach churned at the thought of her marrying someone else, again. Then again, who the fuck did I think I was trying to be pissed off at? Her? Him? Or myself, because I fucking ran that night instead of dealing with my shit and talking to her about everything? It could have been you, the voice in my head whispered.

  Taking a fortifying breath, I stepped closer to her, every nerve in my body tingling the closer I got. Never in a million years would I have expected what would greet me when I stepped up to the end of the pew she was sitting in.

  Like old times, my hand cradled her head and slid through the silky length of her hair, causing her to lift her head. When she did, I realized she hadn’t been sleeping at all, but talking quietly to a little boy. His head lifted at my presence and his light blue eyes, dark unruly hair, and dimple when he smiled up at me were a sock to the gut. Rapidly doing the math, my heart stuttered and then picked up pace at maybe about a hundred miles an hour. It brought back that night in all its splendid glory—the night we hooked up and didn’t use protection. Oh shit.

  Swallowing the baseball that had suddenly lodged in my throat, I looked in her caramel-apple eyes and croaked, “Jesus, Sera, is he… is he mine?”

  “Fracture”—Red

  THE ABSOLUTELY SHATTERED LOOK on his face threw me for a loop. Belatedly, his question registered in my overloaded brain. “Oh shit—shoot! No!” Glancing quickly at Ty to see if he caught my slipup, I breathed a sigh of relief when he seemed oblivious to me and instead was fascinated with the larger-than-life man standing next to our pew.

  His wide eyes left his perusal of Ty and returned to me. “Then how? Who? You need to explain this one, babe.” Kayde calling me “babe” had my heart pitter-pattering, and warmth bloomed across my face and chest. Shaking my head to clear it, I took a breath and motioned for him to sit next to me. Opening my phone to Ty’s favorite game, I handed it to him while he lay with his head on my lap. Making sure he was preoccupied with the game, I quietly began to tell Kayde my story. Well, as much of it as I was willing to share.

  “It’s a bit of a long story. First of all, I was pregnant when you and I… um, you know.” Heat blazed on my face again. Clearing my throat, I resumed my story. “So, T—um, he and I were… God, this is harder than I thought. We were going to get divorced. It was amicable, but we found out I was pregnant, and you can’t divorce in Texas if the woman is pregnant. We planned to stay together until the baby was born and then divorce. Then, shortly after we had made the decision, he was….” My eyes darted to Ty. He still didn’t understand that he would never know his daddy because he was gone forever. Kayde nodded in understanding, so I continued. “Anyway, the guys from the force would check on me periodically. Initially, my brother was supportive and spent a lot of time with me, but it got harder for him. He wasn’t dealing well, and I think he separated himself from me for both my own good and his piece of mind. He was in a really bad place.” Filling my lungs with air, I let it out in a rush.

  “Anyway, this detective was following up on the case about a year later. At first, I thought he was there to tell me they found the guy responsible.
But it was just more of the same questions. Then… Kayde, I messed up. I was just so tired of being alone. I agreed to have dinner with him. We dated here and there. He kept talking about us moving in with him. My lease was almost up, and I was so tired of living with Tyler’s ghost. It was tearing me down, shredding my heart and soul piece by piece, to the point where I cried myself to sleep night after night.” Tears welled in my eyes at the thought, and my chest felt hollow, caving in on itself. The comforting pressure of Kayde’s hand slipping in mine and squeezing my fingers sent my emotions into overdrive, causing tears to slip free and cascade down my cheeks. He surprised me when he reached across his body, canting himself sideways in the pew, to catch my tears. When he raised our joined hands to his perfect full lips, my entire being felt on the verge of imploding. Only this man did that to me. None of the very few boys I dated in high school, not Lawrence when he was still luring me in… not even Tyler in the very beginning.

  A simple, soft touch of his lips to my hand had me unraveling. Why had I thought Tyler was my be-all end-all back then? Maybe because Kayde never made a move or showed he was interested, and I was young, naive, and excited about having Tyler want me when I knew any of my friends would kill to be in my position. Water under the bridge now.

  “Shh.” His head rested against mine, and he allowed me to just be for a few minutes. During that momentary silence, Ty decided he was bored with his game and the adult interaction was more interesting.

  Climbing up to sit in my lap, he inserted himself between me and Kayde to look with curious blue eyes at every feature of Kayde’s achingly beautiful face. It was obvious it made Kayde a little uncomfortable, but kudos to him, he let Ty continue to study him. When he nervously smiled at Ty, his dimple expressed itself long enough to catch Ty’s attention. Reaching a chubby finger up, he pressed on Kayde’s face where the dimple had been, then smiled and touched his own face where he had an exact replica, as his dimple was on the opposite side of his face as his father’s—just like Kayde’s. His fingers continued to touch upon each beautiful feature I knew in my sleep, and Kayde’s patience, despite the tremor I could feel in his hand and the twitch by his eye due to someone being so close to his face, overwhelmed me.

  “Hey. Same as me! Momma says iss my kissy spot, same as my daddy.” His little finger poked at Kayde’s dimple while his other hand touched his own. “Are you my daddy?” My heart lurched and dropped at my little boy’s confused look and oh-so-innocent words. It was the last thing I expected him to say. I mean, yeah, he was a bright boy for his age, but who would have thought at three years old he would pick up and process those types of details, arriving at that specific conclusion. Then again, I loved his little dimple, and I often kissed it or touched it and told him his daddy had the same “kissy spot.” I still couldn’t believe he had put so much together. But yeah, my mortification was complete.

  Kids truly said the craziest things. It was impossible to meet the eyes of the man next to me. Fear of his expression and how he was processing that little question had me not even looking his direction as I quickly gathered Ty up in my arms.

  “No, baby. This is Mr. Kayde.” Of course, I wasn’t thinking when I so blithely introduced him. My lapse in judgment had me pulling my bottom lip between my teeth and pressing my eyes tightly closed. As if that would erase the words I had spoken or prevent them from being spoken at all.

  “Hey! That’s me!” His pudgy little thumb proudly pointed to his chest. “Tywer Kayde!”

  If I thought Kayde’s eyes couldn’t get any bigger, I was wrong. They almost bugged out of his head at Ty’s first sentence. Then, in complete and utter shock, Kayde’s hissed-in breath gave away his continued shock before he smoothly swept it under the pews. “Is that right?” His deep, mellow voice gave away not a hint of his emotions. Whoa. That wasn’t exactly how I intended to tell him I had named Ty after his father and him. The two men I had loved in similar, but different ways. The two men who had each held special parts of my heart and always would.

  Gazing into the depths of my soul, Kayde tipped my head toward him to ensure I was his captive audience. “How about we take your little man to get some dessert or something, and I’ll see if Hacker will watch him so we can talk more—alone? Or is your fiancé joining us?” Alarm spun through me at his suggestion. Then the snarled “fiancé” settled into my head.

  “He’s definitely not… I’ll explain in a bit. And you want someone named Hacker to watch my son? Are you insane?”

  His chuckle was not comforting, and I was pretty sure he had lost his ever-loving mind. My next shock was when he reached for Ty and my usually-reserved-around-men little boy leaned toward him with arms outstretched without hesitation. His little arms wrapped tight around Kayde’s neck, resting on his shoulders. The biggest smile I had seen in a long time lit his sweet face up like the brightest sun ray.

  “Relax, hon. His name is actually Erik. He was my battle buddy in the Marine Corps. There isn’t a man on this earth I trust more than him. I can promise you, there’s no way I would trust a part of your heart with anyone I didn’t have explicit faith in. Hacker is his nickname, but I’ll explain later. Come on, babe.” Holy hell, every time he called me “babe” or “baby” it turned me to Jell-O. Like, was he even aware he was calling me that? Was it just a word that slipped out without thought?

  Ty had to throw his little two cents in. With a wrinkled little frown, he spouted, “Her’s not a baby. Her’s Momma.” Kayde was chuckling as he stood.

  Leaning down to grab my purse, I hesitantly followed him out of the church. Glancing nervously around the open area in front of the cathedral for familiar faces had me realizing I had taken a big chance meeting him here. Paranoia crept insidiously up my spine as I looked for Lawrence in every shadow. Because I had been so absorbed in my area inspection, when he touched my arm, he startled me and I jumped. “Hey, easy, babe. I was just saying I rode a bike here, so we can walk down to the Riverwalk to get ice cream or we’ll have to take your car.” The concerned expression that swept his face had me pasting a bright but artificial smile on my face.

  “We can walk. It’s cooling down a bit.” It was actually still quite warm, but my car was parked miles from here and I had taken an Uber to the cathedral, worrying the whole way because Ty should have been in a car seat. That, however, was something I wasn’t willing to explain in front of Ty. “Will your bike be okay here for a while?”

  “Well, it’s Uncle Javier’s bike, but yeah, no one would dare mess with it. It’ll be okay. I’ll come back and move it after we talk.”

  Nodding absently as I chewed relentlessly on my bottom lip, I followed him as he spoke softly to Ty. Whatever he was saying brought forth a giggle from my baby that infused a burst of sunshine through my body, head to toe. At my darkest, all it took was my son’s laughter to brighten my world.

  Until he paused and held his free hand out to me, I hadn’t realized how far behind I had dropped. The hint of a smile on his face was the last shot of euphoria my soul needed to be whole. Smiling, I finally realized something. After twenty-something years, it was clear in my mind: I would love this man eternally, and if I made it out of my current life situation alive, there would never be another man for me. We were worlds apart though, so I knew it would forever be just me and my son.

  Trust was another obstacle I would probably never overcome. Everyone I loved abandoned me, including him, whether any of them knew it or not. The only person I could ever count on was my dad, but I couldn’t ask him to help me, because it would put him at risk. Kayde was the only person I thought might be able to help me, since Lawrence didn’t really know about him. I just wished I had thought this out better, come up with a better plan.

  Clasping his hand with mine, our fingers intertwined and a peaceful calm settled over me. Tears pricked my eyes again, but I blinked them away. We walked down the stairway to meander along the Riverwalk. Kayde pointed out waddling ducks, iridescent-winged pigeons, and puppies walking along
with their owners to Ty, who was fascinated and giggling the entire time.

  “Have you eaten yet?” So engrossed in my thoughts about how he had effortlessly stepped into a father-like role with Ty, I belatedly realized he had been asking me a question.

  “Oh, umm, well, I made him a sandwich before we left. I wasn’t hungry.” Of course, my traitorous stomach chose that moment to betray me and let loose with a growl that rivaled a bear’s roar. My shoulders slumped, and I rolled my eyes in frustrated embarrassment. A burst of laughter was my answer before he kissed the top of my head, causing my insides to turn to mush.

  “Come on, Tinkerbell. Let’s get you two some food, then dessert. Then we talk.” At the use of his childhood nickname for me, my heart clenched again and a blush stole across my cheeks. Nudging him playfully with my shoulder, I smirked and shook my head at him.

  We came upon a restaurant with Texas flag umbrellas over the outside tables, and he stopped at the podium, asking the young girl working there for a table for three. It was like I was invisible, because she only had eyes for Kayde. In a way, it irritated me because, if we were a couple, she was ridiculously flirting with him. The green-eyed monster in me began to stir, but I beat it back, telling it I had no claim over my childhood friend.

  Settling us next to the water, so Ty could watch the ducks, she told us our waiter would be with us momentarily, then gushed to Kayde about how much his “son” looked just like him. Though I really tried not to, my eyes rolled at her obviousness. The green-eyed monster grumbled again.

  In the whole exchange, what surprised me most was how, without missing a beat, meeting her eyes, nor reacting to her obvious flirtation, Kayde thanked her and then placed Ty in the chair next to him at the table. Besides the fact that he didn’t seem upset about being confused for Ty’s dad, it was such a change from the rare occasion when we ate out with Lawrence, when I was instructed to keep him next to me in order to keep him quiet and under control.