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CHAPTER TEN

CY

“I need someone to go back to my truck and get all the bags out of the back seat.” I should’ve remembered them earlier. I shouldn’t have left them in the truck. Charlotte was going to need her stuffed animals. I wanted her to have her damn snacks. Alanna didn’t need anything, she could sleep in one of my shirts, but I’d seen the little sleep sets. I guess you can put it down to selfish reasoning on that part.

“I went ahead and sent out the prospects to get the truck to the garage,” Malice announces from his spot next to Hammer. Both of them were watching me closely.

Alanna was in my room with Honor, getting checked over to make sure she was good and nothing else was wrong except for where she’d hit her head against the dash. I still wanted to find the fuckers responsible for this and put more than just a bullet in a damn shoulder.

“Wanna fill us in on what happened? You ain’t one for wreckin’ a vehicle and that truck of yours, you treat it just like you do your bike,” Hammer remarks.

“I know,” I grind out. I’m pissed I wrecked my truck the way I did. It shouldn’t have happened.

“You said something about the airbags and brakes,” Malice grunts, crossing his arms.

“Yeah.” Nodding, I roll my shoulders, working the tense muscles there. “We stopped at the store on the way here. Once we got back on the road, I kept my eyes out for any cars following. Didn’t see anything right off. Something happened with my truck. Started sliding. Out of nowhere, a car came up behind us, hit my rear, and the truck fishtailed. Semi was coming from the opposite direction. Couldn’t get the truck to get back in the right lane. I had no choice but to go off the road.”

“What else happened?” Hammer asks. “I saw the blood in the snow. It wasn’t yours or Alanna’s.”

No, it wasn’t.

“Two men, they wanted to take Alanna.”

“Why?” Malice growls.

I shake my head, not wanting to share until I have more, but they gotta know some of this bullshit. “Charlotte isn’t Alanna’s little sister like we were all told she was. She’s her daughter.”

“I figured that girl was her daughter.” Hammer shrugs.

“Yeah,” Malice agrees.

“I’d done a DNA test on the two of them ‘cause it didn’t make sense to me,” Dagger admits, speaking up for the first time.

“You did what?” I shoot a glare at the other man.

“Ease up, I was just wanting to find out if my hunch was right or not. I wasn’t gonna say shit about it.” Dagger grunts and goes back to stitching my cheek back up.

Evidently, I’d hit the steering column hard enough to slice my cheek wide open.

“So, Lottie’s Alanna’s daughter, doesn’t change things,” Malice grumbles.

“No, it doesn’t,” I agree with my VP, it doesn’t change a thing about the woman or child. “What you gotta know is that after she had Charlotte, the nurse told her to come here. Not just this town, but here, to our club.” I give them a brief run down on what Alanna shared with me. About how Badger’s ol’ lady told her to come to us. I share with them a little about her past and how she came about getting pregnant with Charlotte.”

The air in the room shifts, fury radiating off them.

“Her own father was raping her,” Dagger snarls, lip curling, eyes narrowed, seeming to calculate something in his head at the same time. He’d done a DNA test on the two of them. If they were more than just mother and daughter, wouldn’t it show in the results?

I clear my throat and shift slightly in the chair as Dagger gets back to work. “According to what I heard those two fuckwads talking about tonight when they thought they could take Alanna, she’s not his real daughter. I was planning to do a dive into this shit, find out what I should have been looking into two years ago.”

If I had, we wouldn’t be in this situation we’re in.

It’s what I get for wanting Alanna to trust me.

I give them the last of what I heard tonight and wait for Dagger to finish.

“Want me to give you something to help you sleep tonight? You know how you get, brother,” Dagger remarks, one brow cocked.

Oh, I knew what would happen if I didn’t let him give me something. I wouldn’t sleep. I’ll be at my computer working away and not giving my body any time to heal.

Fuck.

“Give him something. He needs to sleep tonight. Tomorrow, he can start looking,” Hammer mutters the order.

“Whatever,” I tell them all.

Dagger does his thing and gives me a dose of pain meds.

“Now, go rest. We’ll get the bags to you after the prospects get back from gettin’ your truck,” Malice says, stepping toward me, hand coming to rest on my shoulder. “We’ll make sure nothing happens to Alanna or Charlotte, brother.”

“Do me a favor? Make sure while I’m out of it that Alanna doesn’t try to take off. She’ll run if she gets the chance.” I could feel it in my gut. If I don’t keep a close eye on her, she’ll run far and fast.

“We got her for you,” Hammer agrees. “Let’s get you to your room. I’m sure Honor’s finished with Alanna.”

“Charlotte can stay with the triplets while?—”

“No.” I shake my head, interrupting Malice. “I want her in the room with Alanna and me.” At least for tonight that is.

“We’ll grab one of the toddler beds and put it in your room,” Hammer states rather than suggests.

Nodding, I get to my feet, already feeling the pain meds taking effect.

My brothers help me from the room and down the hall to the stairs leading up to where our rooms are on another floor. They get me to my room, open the door, and step out of the way for me to stagger in.

“What did you do to him?” Alanna asks, eyes wide as she rushes toward me.

“Hey, Short Stuff.” I grin and wrap an arm around her when she gets close.

“Dagger gave him something for the pain. He’s going to pass out in about a minute or two. It’s the only way he was gonna let his body rest. If we hadn’t, he would’ve ignored the pain and kept going,” Hammer states. “Let’s get him situated, and we’ll get out of the way.”

“Where’s Charlotte?” Alanna asks.

“We’ll bring her up as soon as we get him in bed,” Malice states, coming up behind me while I shift around Alanna.

“I can just go to her.”

“We need you to stay with him. Make sure he doesn’t die on us,” Dagger was quick to say.

“Wh-what? Die? He’s not going to . . .”

“Baby, I’m not gonna die. Just pass the fuck out. Nothing more,” I mutter, slightly slurring my words. At the side of my bed, I toe off my boots. I’d already lost my shirt, cut, and holster with my gun. Dagger had me remove them earlier while making sure I didn’t bust any ribs. I’d seen Malice grab my cut and gun on the way out of Dagger’s medical room.

“He’s gonna be fine, Alanna,” Dagger grunts, moving for the door.

“If you need one of us, just come find us. We’re all staying here tonight,” Hammer says.

“Prospects will be by to drop some stuff off that Cy wanted from the truck.” Malice sets my cut on the dresser and goes to my gun safe, which is set up next to my dresser. He unlocks it using the pin and puts my gun inside. Only he, Hammer, and Axe have the code for it.

I fall onto my bed, ignoring the tinge of pain. I look at Alanna standing at the foot of the bed, her eyes wide and mouth slightly parted. Out of the corner of my eye, I note my brothers leaving my room.

“We’ll get the bed and bring it in, then someone will grab Charlotte for y’all.” The door closes behind Hammer on those words.

“You okay, Short Stuff?” I ask, watching her closely.

“Umm.”

My cock thickens at the sight of her licking her lips. It has better ideas for what she can do with her mouth.

Shit.

Now isn’t the time for that.

I could feel myself getting closer to passing out, and before I do, I need to change out of my jeans.

Sitting back up, I stumble slightly and make my way to my dresser. I grab first a tee for Alanna to sleep in, then a pair of sweats for myself.

I twist toward Alanna to find her watching my every move. Smirking at her, I toss the shirt. “Here you go, baby.”

She catches the shirt easily enough. “Is this for you?”

“You need something to sleep in,” I tell her and put my sweats on the dresser. “You can use the bathroom to change if you want.” I wasn’t gonna bother going anywhere else.

My hands go to my belt, same as her eyes.

She doesn’t say anything while I unbuckle the belt and start unfastening my jeans. Only when the zipper is all the way down does she turn on her heels, rushes to the bathroom, and slams the door behind her.

Laughing, I drop my jeans, grab my sweats, and pull them on. All while ignoring the hard-on I have for the woman just feet away from me.

Once I have my sweats in place, I climb back into the bed, drawing the blanket up. The meds were kicking my ass, and I knew I wasn’t gonna be able to last much longer.

I should have told Dagger to hold off and give me a bit before dosing me up.

Closing my eyes, I do my best to wait for Alanna to come back into the room, but by the time she does, I’m knocked out.