Dark Guardian (Black Hoods MC Book 3)

by Avelyn Paige

  “If we talk to you, do you promise not to take us away from Mr. Judge?” Natalie asks, pulling her hand from her brother’s to stand beside me.

  Grace turns to her, giving her a smile that melts me a little inside. “I promise, honey. I just want to know what’s going on, and to make sure you and your brother are safe.”

  Natalie stares at her for a long moment, and then nods. Taking Grace’s hand, she leads her to the closest picnic table. Once they’re both seated, Kevin grumbles something under his breath before taking a seat across from them.

  “What do you want to know?” Natalie asks, her enormous eyes filled with hope.

  “Everything,” Grace replies, looking to Kevin. “Start from the beginning.”

  Kevin’s shoulders slump in defeat, and his defiant attitude fades away. “The beginning sucks.”

  Grace smiles sadly. “I’m sure it does. Why don’t you tell me about it?”

  Kevin looks to me, and I nod, giving him permission to tell her.

  Sighing, he digs his fingernail into a groove on the table, sliding it back and forth, making the groove a little deeper with each shallow pass. “Our momma wasn’t a very good one,” he tells her. “She drank a lot. She had men over all the time, and they would make us go in the bedroom so they could do drugs and stuff.”

  “Did those men ever touch either of you?”

  Kevin shakes his head. “No. A couple of them wanted to, but Momma threatened to hurt them if they tried.”

  Grace nods, but says nothing.

  “One day, when Nat was eight, and I was twelve, she said she had something to do. She told us she’d be back in an hour, but she never came back. We found out later that she died.”

  Kevin’s knee bounces as he tells the story, and he doesn’t make eye contact with any of us. Instead, he stares off into the distance as he speaks.

  “They didn’t even tell us how she died. My uncle just showed up one day and told us the police had been to see him. They told him Momma was dead, and that we had to go live with him now.”

  “And how did you feel about that?” Grace asks.

  Kevin’s jaw tightens. “Momma hated Uncle Randall. Said he was a pervert. We didn’t really know him at all.”

  She turns her attention to Natalie. “And how did you feel while all of this was going on?”

  Natalie shrugs. “I was just little. I mean, I was only eight years old. I just knew that Kevin would take care of me, so as long as we were together, I’d be okay.”

  Blair looks at me from across the table. She knows as well as I do what went on at Uncle Randall’s house.

  “So how was it living with your uncle?”

  “He was a pervert,” Kevin bites out. “He kidnapped little girls and kept them in his basement. Gross smelling older men came over every night and gave him money to be alone with those girls. And then someone would come and get them to take them somewhere else, and he would kidnap a couple more.”

  Grace swallows. “Did he…” She clears her throat. “Did he make you guys go into that basement?”

  “He took Natalie down there every night, but he never sold her. We had a deal. I would bring him new girls whenever he needed them, and he wouldn’t let any of those men do anything but look at my sister.”

  A tear slides down Grace’s cheek, but she doesn’t give any other indication of her own heartbreak. “That must have been incredibly scary.”

  Natalie wraps her arms around herself as she trembles. In that moment, I wish I could bring Randall back from the dead so I could wring his fucking neck and kill him all over again, just for making my girl feel this way.

  “That’s how we got to be with Gene,” Kevin continues. “He saved us and took us in. He bought us new clothes and gave us the nicest home we’ve ever had. Everything with him is amazing.” He eyeballs Grace. “Until you came along.”

  A heart-wrenching sob rips through Natalie's throat. “Please, don’t take us away. I want to stay with Mr. Judge. He keeps us safe. We need him, and he needs us.”

  Grace’s tear-stained face turns to me and our eyes meet. For the first time since she stormed into that bar with a giant stick up her ass, I feel relief. She gets it. She finally gets it.

  Grace

  Dinner. Why did I agree to dinner at his place? I rub my hand over my face in frustration. I shouldn’t be doing this, seeing him again. Seeing the kids who are still classified as runaways. Yet here I am, on my way to his house to see what life is like under his roof. What is it about this man that seems to draw me into his life when it only complicates mine? He makes me question everything. My sanity. My job. My morality. Nothing is safe when it comes to Eugene Grant.

  A horn blasts from behind me. Shit. How long has the light been green? With a polite wave to the person behind me, I press my foot on the gas pedal and drive until his house comes into view. It’s a small home nestled up on a small street with a few older homes on either side. His Harley is parked in the driveway near a large pickup truck. The white siding stands out against the more historic homes surrounding it.

  An older man stares at me as I pull into the drive and exit my car.

  “Evening,” I greet him with a wave, and he waves back politely.

  I knock on the door a few times, but no one responds. Odd. I try the doorbell, and that’s when I hear running footsteps barreling toward the door. When the door opens, I find Natalie’s face beaming up at me.

  “Miss Grace. You’re here!” she chirps excitedly.

  “Hi, Natalie.”

  “Come on in. Dinner’s almost ready.”

  Stepping through the door, my eyes grow wide. His home is neat, with little decoration outside of the essentials. A large, black leather couch takes up most of the front room, facing a flat screen television on the opposite wall. A few books lie stacked on the end table next to it. Kevin sits on the couch with a game controller in his hand.

  “Kevin, looks who’s here.”

  “I know who she is, Natalie,” he retorts, his attention on the game.

  Grabbing my hand, she leads me through the room and into a mid-size kitchen. Eugene’s back is to me as he stirs something on the stove.

  “She’s here, Mr. Judge,” Natalie announces once more. He turns, and my mouth falls open. Around his waist is a bright pink apron with cats all over it. A slow smile spreads across my lips as I look him up and down.

  “Nice apron,” I giggle, making him laugh.

  “It came with the house,” he jokes. “Hope you’re not hungry.”

  “I’m starving.”

  “I apologize in advance, then. I’m not the best cook.”

  Smiling, I offer, “I’m sure it will be fine.”

  Natalie tugs at my hand and pulls me to a table near the back of the kitchen. After I take a seat, she settles into the one next to me. Eugene, clutching a pan of food with matching bright pink pot holders, sets it down in the middle of the table. The smell is intoxicating. He’s obviously better in the kitchen than he lets on.

  “Kevin!” he yells out. “Food!”

  Kevin comes in from the front room and plops down into the seat at the farthest end of the table. Training his eyes on me, he watches my every move as Natalie yaps away next to me. Joining us, Eugene reaches out for my plate, fills it with servings from each dish, then hands it back to me. When I look at the food, it takes everything I have not to drool on it. Mashed potatoes, country gravy, green beans, and a steak that takes up over half the plate. I have a good appetite, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen this much food outside of the buffet line.

  “Thank you. It looks great.”

  I try to focus on the meal and the conversations at hand, but my gaze continues to shift over to Kevin. He’s not eating, just pushing the food around on his plate as if something’s on his mind.

  “You okay, bud?” Eugene asks when he notices.

  “Yeah,” Kevin replies. “I’m not hungry. Can I be excused?”

  “Sure.”

  Takin
g his plate to the refrigerator, he places it inside before leaving the room. I hear footsteps as he ascends to the second floor.

  “He’s mad at you,” Natalie mutters. “He thinks you’re going to take us away from Mr. Judge. I tried to tell him you wouldn’t, but he doesn’t believe me.”

  My heart sinks. Kevin’s been in the system so long, he understands what my job entails, and knows what I do to families like this. I’m an outsider, someone who can ruin the good thing they’ve got going here. Am I capable of his worst fears? Am I really going to break up yet another happy family because Eugene doesn’t share an ounce of blood with these kids? I look over to Eugene, who stops chewing mid-bite. My lips thin as I try to think of a way to answer her.

  We eat in silence a few minutes longer, until Natalie pushes her plate away with a satisfied smile on her face. “Do you know anything about make-up?” she asks, her question coming out of left field. “I’m trying to learn how to do that whole cat-eye thing, but I can’t figure it out.”

  “Um, kinda? I’m no professional, but I know a thing or two.”

  Judge shakes his head. “You have homework, kiddo.”

  Her smile turns to a frown. “I know. Maybe later?”

  “Tell you what. You get your homework done, and I’ll see what I can do.”

  “Promise?”

  “Of course.” I beam at her, marking an X over my chest. “Cross my heart.”

  Happy with that, she shoves away from the table, gives us both a wave, and then follows the same path her brother took.

  “Eugene—” I start, just as my cell phone rings. Retrieving it, I see my supervisor’s name on the screen.

  “I’m sorry, but I have to take this.” Getting to my feet, I head back into the living room and answer the call.

  “Hello?”

  “Where are you?” Eric snaps. “I need an update on the Tucker case. It’s been days since they approved the removal order.”

  “I’m taking some comp time, but I assure you, I’m still working on the case.” In a sense. If he knew where I was right now, he’d lose it.

  “You’re still working on it? Grace, do your job.”

  “I am doing my job, Eric. I couldn’t have predicted the kids would take off when we tried to execute the order. Had the police not been so hell-bent on escalating the situation with Mr. Grant, we would’ve had them by now.”

  A white lie if I ever told one. Pushing the blame back on Aaron seems harsh, but it’s true. His insistence on stepping into the middle of their club caused a ruckus, but I can’t reveal that I know where the kids are just yet, especially with not having all the cards out on the table with their case. The real cards. Not the ones the courts have on paper.

  “I want results, Halfpenny. Find them.” The line goes dead, and I turn to find a fuming Eugene behind me.

  “How much did you hear?” I ask nervously.

  “Enough,” he growls.

  “It’s not what it seems.”

  He takes a few steps toward me, the mom chic apron he had on earlier gone. His tight black shirt sticks to his torso like glue, highlighting his muscles. I look at the bulging vein at his temple as he stops short of crashing into me.

  “After everything I’ve told you, what the kids have told you, you still want to take them away from me, don’t you?”

  I’ve never been on this side of his rage, and it takes a mere two seconds to understand how he can command such a large motorcycle club with one glare. He’s intimidating, but my body responds unexpectedly as my core ignites.

  “It’s my job, Eugene. You know that.”

  He presses his index finger against my breastbone. “I had hoped that somewhere in this chest of yours, you had a heart.”

  “My heart breaks every fucking time I have to take part in ripping a family to shreds,” I bite out. “I barely sleep at night because all I see are their faces when I close my eyes. I hear their screams as they cry out for their parents or guardians.”

  “Break the cycle,” he challenges. “Walk away from the case and leave these kids with me.”

  I shake my head. “I can’t. If I don’t, someone else will come.”

  “These kids fucking belong to me. You can’t come into my house and make all these promises you know you can’t keep.” I can feel his hot, heavy breath cascade over me.

  “I know that!” I scream, the truth finally spilling from my lips. “Don’t you think I know that? If I had a magic wand, I would just wave it and give you custody, but I don’t. Their criminal father has legal rights in the eyes of the court.”

  That gets his attention. “Criminal?”

  “When I called to talk to him about his missing persons report, I requested a background check on him. He has a rap sheet a mile long. Possession. Intent to sell. Breaking and entering. Pending charges for assault. He’s not a good person.”

  “That it? I can handle their father.”

  “How? By making him disappear like you did with their uncle? Murder is not the answer. You can’t just kill anyone who opposes you.” The words feel foreign leaving my lips, and he doesn’t flinch once. For a normal person, this would sound absurd. For Eugene, though, it’s probably everyday decisions, and I don’t know how I feel about that.

  “That’s how you see me? A savage bastard with blood on his hands? I’m not the boogeyman underneath your bed, Grace.”

  “Then what are you?”

  He prowls toward me, his eyes still filled with anger. A smart person would back away, but maybe I’m not as smart as I think I am, because as he gets closer, I can only stand there, frozen in place.

  Placing his hands on my hips, he walks me back until I’m pressed against the wall. His breath fans across my face as he glowers down at me. “Why are you so goddamn infuriating?”

  I arch against him, shocking us both. His chest is hard against mine, and now my nose is mere inches from his. Panting, we stare into each other’s angry eyes.

  “Why are you such a brute?” We continue to stare at each other, our gazes imprisoned in the fire burning between us, the anger morphing into something far different.

  When his lips crash onto mine, I lose myself. My fingertips dig into his shoulders and pull him impossibly closer. Whimpering into his mouth, I raise up on my toes, trying to put as much of him against me as humanly possible.

  Holy Mother of God. The contrast between his soft lips and his rough beard makes my knees quake beneath me, threatening to fail me altogether.

  His kiss carries me outside of myself. Away from my job, my past. Away from everything but the fact that I’m a woman, and this is the first man to ever make me feel this kind of passion.

  Time stands still as he presses me against that wall. He pulls me closer, his fingers curling into my hips, sending a steady buzz of heady excitement all throughout my body.

  “Uh, Mr. Judge?”

  His lips pause, and for a moment, we stay that way, needing a second to compose ourselves and remember our surroundings.

  When he finally pulls away, I’m able to get a view of Natalie standing in the doorway, her eyes wide with confusion, her body trembling.

  Eugene moves to her in an instant, his thumbs wiping away her tears as they fall. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  Deciding she doesn’t care as much about what she just walked in on nearly as much as what brought her here in the first place, she shouts, “Kevin’s being a big fat jerk!”

  “Come here, sugar.” Opening his arms, she throws herself into him. “What did he say to you?”

  “I was trying to work on my spelling and I needed a little help, so I asked him. He just told me to get lost.”

  “I’ll take care of it, Natty Kat. Why don’t you go get your homework, and maybe Miss Grace will help you with it?” He looks over his shoulder, and I nod.

  She smiles up at me. “Really?”

  “Of course I will.”

  Pushing away from Eugene, she runs back into the living room, and I hear her taunting her
brother about how much trouble he’s in.

  Running back in with her book, she takes me by the hand and drags me to the kitchen table. Eugene watches us for a few minutes before heading into what I assume is a hard conversation with Kevin about his behavior. Turning my attention back to Natalie, she reads a few pages and stops, repeating a sentence over and over again.

  “See!” she exclaims. “How can the word there mean three different things? It’s so confusing.”

  I chuckle. There are grown adults who don’t know the difference between their, there, and they’re. “Their means belongs to them. They’re means they are. And there means the opposite of here. Like, over there.”

  She wrinkles her nose. “That’s still confusing.”

  She’s right. It is confusing. “Um... Let’s try them in sentences and see if you can figure out the right version of each word.”

  I watch as she writes out the sentences in scribbled handwriting, and for the first time, I realize that for a child her age, she’s extremely far behind in reading, and God knows what else. She’s going to struggle unnecessarily thanks to her upbringing.

  A noise draws my attention to the doorway where Eugene waves me over.

  “Keep going. I’ll be right back,” I tell her, pointing at the page.

  Slipping from the chair, I walk over to him. His face is nearly unreadable.

  “I have to go take care of something.”

  “Oh, I can go if you need me to leave.”

  “That’s not what I’m asking, Grace. I know I have no right to ask, but can you stay here with the kids?”

  “You’re putting that much trust in me?” It wasn’t too long ago that I was here to remove the kids. Now he wants to leave them alone with me?

  “You’re already here, and my niece Lindsey is at her night class. It would save me a lot of time if you could.”

  I really shouldn’t be considering it, but his eyes are begging me to accept. It would be nice to be alone with the kids again. Without his influence around, I might connect with Kevin.

  I give in. “Sure.”

  “It shouldn’t be long. I normally send the kids to bed around nine, but Kevin’s already in his room. If he gives you any trouble, remind him of our little talk.” He gives me a wink. “Nat, I have to leave for a bit. You be good for Miss Grace.”