Although I’d reassured Caleb last night that Charlie would love him, worry had set in as I tried to sleep. There was always the possibility I would be wrong. There was even the possibility that Caleb had thought things through himself and had decided that taking on the responsibility of a child was a big ask, especially when that child might not be his. And then there was the question of our relationship. It was easy to be in his presence and know I wanted to stay there forever, but were we really just picking things up where they left off? Too much had happened for that.
I reached for my phone and called Sophia to check in and tell her I was fine and for a bit of advice.
“I don’t know Caleb at all,” she said as soon as I mentioned my worries. It was easy for me to forget that she’d only met him for the first time yesterday. “But I trust Thea when she says that he still loves you, and if he looks at you anything like his brother looks at Thea then I think you’re good. Besides, nothing you’ve ever said about him would make me think he’d change his mind about something like this. You always said family was everything to him and that included all the members of Forever Midnight. Not all of them are blood related, so maybe that’s not what family means to him.” She snorted a faint giggle over the line. “Listen to me all wise and knowing, chica. But trust me, I think Caleb and Charlie are one thing you don’t have to worry about right now.”
“You’re right,” I said.
“You bet your sweet behind I am. Now you just focus on staying safe and letting Caleb sort all this mess out so you can make it to my wedding. I don’t know what I’d do without my best friend by my side.”
“I’ll do that,” I said and ended the call.
I looked at myself in the mirror again, huffed, and shook my head. Sophia was probably right. Besides, the worst thing that could happen was for Caleb to send us away. If that happened, things would be no different than they were the day before yesterday. At least, that’s what I tried to tell myself.
I dragged myself away from the mirror and called Charlie over to the bed, pulling her up onto my lap when she got there.
“There might be some new people downstairs,” I said.
“Aunt Caroline, Aunt Sophia, and Uncle Franc too?”
“No. They won’t be there. But do you remember Aunt Sophia’s friend, Thea, and her friend Cane, the one with the pictures on his body.”
Charlie pulled Teddy tight against her chest. “He made Mommy sad.”
I smiled and kissed her forehead. It was easy to forget how children notice everything. “He didn’t make Mommy sad,” I said and pushed down the nerves tightening my chest. “You remember how I told you all about Mommy’s old friend. The one who used to take her on rides on his motorcycle?”
“Yes. Motorcycle.” She bounced up and down on my lap. She loved my stories about Caleb, especially the idea of riding on his bike.
“Well, Cane is his brother, and I was surprised to see him, that’s all.” I lifted her down from my lap and held her hand. “Cane might be downstairs, and his brother too. Isn’t that exciting? Would you like to meet him?”
Charlie nodded, pulled her grasp from mine, and ran to the door. I laughed and caught up with her, taking hold of her hand again. A part of me wondered if I should have told her he was her Daddy, but what if he had changed his mind? Where would she be then?
I sighed, plastered a smile on my face, and went downstairs with Charlie. As voices and other sounds came from the kitchen, that’s where we headed.
The sweet scent of apple and cinnamon hit me and made my stomach rumble as soon as we stepped through the door.
I spotted Thea, pulling a batch of muffins from the oven. “Good morning,” she said and nodded her head towards the doors, leading outside.
“Morning. Those smell delicious.”
“Breakfast muffins,” she said as she put them on a cooling rack.
Charlie raced toward her. “Charlie want one, please?”
Thea crouched down to her level, an act I was more than impressed with given the size of her pregnancy-belly. “Charlie can have one. But I’m sorry, we have to wait a little while until they are cool enough to eat. Okay?”
“Okay.” With that, Charlie scanned the rest of the room. My heart damn near stopped when she spotted the doorway, and I saw Cane outside. She didn’t hesitate in running toward him.
I followed, racing to catch up with where she was headed. As soon as I stepped outside, I noted Caleb sat on a wall that surrounded a raised flower display in the garden.
Charlie had spotted him too, and made a beeline for his location, stopping only when she was right up close.
A wide smile lit Caleb’s face and he leaned over to talk to her. Before he had the chance to say anything, Charlie tugged on his hand and tried to pull him to his feet.
“Want ride on your motorcycle,” she said while grunting with effort.
“You’re too little to ride on my motorcycle.” Caleb lifted her in his arms and nodded towards me. “But maybe if we talk to your Mom, she’ll let you sit on one for a little while.”
She bounced in his arms. “Yay. Sit on motorcycle.”
“Excuse me, young lady.” I placed my arms on my hips and pretended to be angry. “Did you ask me if it was okay?”
“Mommy mad,” Charlie said to Caleb.
He laughed. “Mommy’s not mad. Mommy just needs to sit on a motorcycle too. Let’s go find one. Mine isn’t here, but there should be a few that belong to your uncles for you to try.”
I tried not to cry and walked along beside them. Caleb put his arm around me while carrying Charlie in the other, and just like that, we took our first step as a family.
Chapter Eleven
Caleb
I had a daughter. Charlie-baby, I heard Amber call her, and that’s what she became, my Charlie-baby. I had a million and one fucking regrets about the whole situation. I should have never given up looking for Amber, I’d quit far too fucking soon. More than anything, I should have realized something had happened.
I rolled my shoulder and let out a long, deep breath. I wished Dad could be here to meet his namesake. She had his eyes. They were the same deep brown I also shared with Cane.
Charlie giggled and ran around the yard, chasing Cane who’d stolen her Teddy. He’d make a good dad when his own little one arrived. Something I never would have considered until he met Thea. Maybe I’ll be able to step up to the plate the way he has.
I smiled as Amber sidled up beside me and slipped her arm around my back. “Tom’s due to arrive any minute,” she said.
“Are you sure you want to go through with this?”
“I should have done it years ago.” She made a strange gasping sound, so I turned to look at her.
“It’ll be okay. I’ll be right there with you.”
“I know. It’s not that. Just... look at them.”
Cane had curled into a ball around the Teddy, and Charlie was climbing all over his back, trying to reach it.
“Uncle Cane,” she giggled. “You’ll squash him.”
He uncurled and fluffed the bear. “Are you saying I’m too big?” he asked and pulled a funny growly face. Charlie squealed and ran in a circle around him, giggling.
“You’re both so good with her,” Amber said and wiped the tears from her eyes.
“That’s cuz she’s family.”
“Caleb, Amber,” Thea called from inside the kitchen.
I turned and saw Tom step into the room behind her. “There’s still time to change your mind,” I said.
“I’m not going to.”
I turned her around and we both went to talk to Tim, while Thea went outside to help Caleb with Charlie. Not that he needed any help.
“What’s all this about?” Tom asked as we moved our meeting to the living room.
I asked him to take a seat and shut the door. He looked a little nervous and despite the situation, I stifled a smile. A small child hadn’t shown me the faintest trace of fear, but Tom looked like h
e might piss himself if I said boo.
Amber sat on the couch opposite him and I joined her. “We need to report a crime that happened around four years ago,” I said and raised an eyebrow when Tom seemed to sag in relief.
“Four years, that’s a very long time ago. What sort of crime are we talking about?”
Amber reached out and grabbed my hand. I squeezed hers in reassurance. “A sexual assault,” she said.
When Tom nodded, she proceeded to tell her story.
I listened as the fucking details grew. The story she gave Tom was more in-depth than she’d given me, and I wanted to storm from the house, find the fucker Leo, and pummel him into the ground. I swallowed the anger and rage building inside and told myself that wasn’t what Amber wanted. I had to try things her way. I had too much to lose if I didn’t.
“Caleb,” Amber said and rested her hand on my arm.
“You need a break?”
She smiled. “I’m fine. You’re just hurting my hand.”
I looked down at my hand clasped in hers and realized I’d been squeezing a bit too hard. I let go and my fingers crunched when I tried to straighten them. I turned my attention to Tom and noticed how white he had gone. Amber’s wasn’t a pretty story by any means, but it couldn’t be the first time he’s heard or seen worse.
He dropped his head in his hands and looked for a second as though he was about to puke.
“Tom,” Amber said, her voice full of concern for him when things should be the other way around.
“I am so fucking sorry,” he said and stood to pace the room.
I stood. He backed away, lifted his hand to ward me off, and flicked the safety off his gun holster.
“What the fuck is going on, Tom?” I asked while pulling Amber to stand behind me.
“You gotta understand if I had known any of this I would never...”
My muscles tensed. I wasn’t sure if he intended to shoot us or from the look on his face, himself. “What would you never have done?” I asked, trying to keep my tone soothing.
He paced the room like a caged lion. “You gotta understand. I didn’t know. I mean, I knew you and the Feral Sons had some issues, but I thought it was just petty crap, like who gets to go to which bar and shit. When they threw the rock through the window, I knew something was fucking up, I just... I never thought this.”
“What did you do?” I asked again.
“I got some gambling debts.” His hand hovered over his gun. I pushed Amber tighter into my back. “A lot of fucking gambling debts. I owe Leo Saunders a lot of money. He said that as long as I kept him updated on any place I saw you, he’d give me some space in making the payments.”
My nostrils flared and not caring that he had a fucking gun, I charged across the room and pinned him to the wall. “That’s how he knew where to find Amber.”
“Yes. I didn’t know! I swear!” His pale face became slimy with sweat. He was shit scared, as stupid as hell, and a fucking waste of space as a cop and as a human being. I should have fucking killed him. Instead, I pulled him from the wall before slamming him back into it.
“Does he know where we are now?” I asked.
“No. I swear. I haven’t told him anything about you being here. I didn’t even know that you were. I just thought I was coming to see Ms. Gerald, and he never mentioned her to me.”
“But you mentioned her to him.”
He nodded. “I told him I’d seen you visiting an old friend. He asked who, and I told him. I only started to wonder what the hell was going on when the brick was thrown through the window.”
“But you could tell him where I am,” Amber said, surprising us both with the steel in her voice. “You could call him and say you saw me and Caleb here together.”
“I would never—”
“But maybe you should.”
Keeping a firm grip on Tom, I turned to face her. “What are you saying?”
She sighed. “If he has one cop reporting to him, how many others are there? How many judges or lawyers? Doing things legally isn’t going to work. We have to deal with Leo your way.”
“Are you sure?”
“I am. We have our family to protect.”
I smiled and released Tom, being certain to take his gun away from him. “Sit,” I told him and pointed to the couch.
“Baby, fetch Cane for me, will you?”
Amber left and I sat opposite Tom to keep an eye on him.
“I’m sorry,” he said again.
“It’s not me you need to apologize to.”
We sat in a tense silence for a few minutes before Amber returned with Cane. She must have told him a little of what was going on as he looked ready to rip Tom a new one.
“Leave it,” I said. “Tom knows he made a mistake and he’s going to help us fix it. Ain’t that right?”
Tom gulped but nodded.
“What’s the fucking plan?” Cane asked.
Amber answered him. “We’re gonna set a trap.”
“Here?”
I thought about it for a while but decided this wasn’t the best place. We didn’t know the area well enough. “Call the guys in,” I said. “We’ll figure out where and how as soon as they get here.”
~
Bono, Jameson, Lucky, and Rex arrived within the hour, as well as a few more of my brothers. They were fucking built like that. If anyone needed anything, they’d be there for them. It had pissed me the fuck off when they’d sided with Cane against me over Thea. At the time, I’d let my hurt and anger regarding Amber cloud my judgment, and though she was a spoilt fucking princess slumming it with my brother. I couldn’t have been more fucking wrong. About both situations. But I should have trusted my blood-brother. The pain I caused him and Thea by telling her stepfather their location would be something I’d regret to my dying day. Maybe that’s why I was willing to give Tom a shot at redemption. Sometimes mistakes are too fucking easy to make.
I remembered the day I met each and every one of my brothers. Rex and Lucky, we’d known since childhood. Rex was that geeky kid in school who spent more time on his fucking computer than bothering with anyone around him. He had one hell of a passion for mechanics too.
“Check this fucker out,” Cane had said when we’d visited the junkyard looking for an FXDWG seat.
Rex was on the floor surrounded by parts. We watched him in silence as he gathered his pieces together, made notes, and drew up some plans. We came back every fucking day for a week and watched him build a whole, working bike from that scrap. Thirteen years old and he’d done something very few grown ass men could fucking do. Hell, Cane and I were only a year and two older than him, and we only knew how to build a bike as dad had taught us how from near enough birth. Rex book-taught himself. Said he thought it would take him longer and he wanted to be ready for when he got his learner’s permit.
His parents were none too fucking pleased when he started hanging out with Forever Midnight, but Dad soon put their minds at rest. In the end, they decided that at least he was out and not in his room twenty-four-seven. Still, everyone believed he was destined for greater things. Dad even pushed him to go to college, but Rex insisted there was too much to learn and college would only touch the surface of the things he wanted to know. He’s a self-taught man, and he has a hell of a lot of respect for it. He and Lucky are the smallest out of the lot of us. They’re still packing some fucking muscle but tend towards the leaner side.
Lucky’s older than me by a good ten years. His father had been in the club, and I can’t remember a time he wasn’t around. After his Dad died, he became fucking crazy protective of his Ma. He’s fucking awkward as fuck, but he’s got the best heart, even if you do have to dig beneath the slimy front, he puts on to find it. His real name is Eric, but any fucker who mentions it gets a fist in the face.
That left Jameson and Bono.
I glanced out the window into the back yard. Bono was talking to Cane and Thea. He was a big-fucking guy. Not as big as Cane or me, but somet
hing in his bearing made him seem larger. Maybe it was the haunted look he carried in his eyes. Who knows what the fuck he saw in the army? He didn’t like to talk about it. He’d grown a bit of facial hair in the last few months. Nothing like Cane’s. He was far too much of a pretty boy for that.
There were times I envied the relationship he shared with my blood-brother. They were as fucking tight as two peas in a pod. But that was my fucking fault too. After Amber left, I’d blamed her leaving on my decision to stay with Cane and not go away for a break with her. I’d allowed my fucking resentment to put a shadow over our relationship.
Fuck!
There were so many things I’d done wrong. But I’d been working on putting them right.
Jameson leaned into the fridge and pulled out a soda. He had to bend to reach inside. The fucker was six-foot-seven and had to crouch to fit through most doorways. He was the one I knew the least about, but I still trusted him with my fucking life.
He walked into the bar one day about seven years ago. All buttoned up fucking tight in a suit. Walked like he had a fucking stick shoved up his ass, but he was close to breaking and anyone who looked at him knew it. He ditched whatever fucking life he was running from and never looked back. There’s a history there that’ll come back to bite him on the ass at some point, and when it does, we’ll be there for him, just the same as he’s always here for us.
Tom sat on a breakfast bar stool, afraid to speak or look at anyone. I moved opposite him.
“You fucking swear to me that you want to make things right with me and with Amber,” I said.
“Shit. Of course, I do.”
“Then stop looking as though you are about to piss yourself and grow a fucking pair. If Leo spoke to you in the state you’re in now, he’d instantly know something was the fuck up.”
Forever Midnight MC Collection: Books 1-3 Page 22
