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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

ALANNA

“I know you don’t want Alanna to leave the clubhouse, but we seriously need to get to the office,” Rebel declares, hands planted on her hips, facing off with Cy. “I already cleared my court dates with the courts, but I have meetings that I can’t push. And I need Alanna for those.”

She’s not wrong. We have another meeting with the group we met with just a few days ago. They were supposed to be coming to the office to finish up discussions and come to an agreement. All of it surrounds land ownership and property lines. What’s so important about it is that this land butts up against Willow’s grandfather’s. He asked Rebel to take the case because he knows she’s ruthless and is known as a viper in the courtroom. She doesn’t back down, and he didn’t want some developers coming in and buying the land. He’s even offered the owner of the land to buy it out. Buy it out because he owns a quarter of it, having been left in a will by the previous owner.

The whole thing is confusing and a pain in the ass. It’s why we’ve worked hard to keep things going smoothly and why I’ve been with her at each meeting. If she keeps me going to meetings with her like this, I hate to say it, but she might need to hire someone else to help at the office. It’s not easy handling both things. But I do it.

Yesterday, we stuck around the clubhouse. The roads were icy, and everything was pretty much still closed because of it. It was fine. Charlotte had a blast. Cy took time from doing whatever it is he does and took her outside in the snow. The guys ended up having a snowball fight with the kids. I watched them from just inside. I hated cold weather. It reminds me of home, and I do my best not to think of that place if I can help it.

“I don’t give a shit if you have to go to the office. I don’t want Alanna out there where I can’t get to her if something happens,” Cy retorts harshly.

Besides when Cy is spending time with Charlotte and me, which was most of yesterday, he snuck me to his room, where he would have his way with me. A lot of times he did things to me and did not let me return the favor. All of them left me weak-kneed and unable to think right after. All I could do was feel. Twice he took me hard and fast. One of those times had been against the wall. The other, I was bent, hands on the bed.Cy woke me up by being inside me. It was a completely different experience.

The times he wasn’t with either of us, I knew he was working in what they all called his cave. What he didn’t do was stay away from us for long. He worked but came to check on us . . . a lot.

“Cy, she’s right,” I speak up, reaching up to touch his bicep. “This meeting is important.” We couldn’t tell him why, but for us to make sure everything works out as it’s needed to, it’s important we make this meeting. “If we don’t get to the meeting, Rebel could lose all the battleground she’s gained.”

“This meeting more important than your life?” he queries, dropping his gaze to me.

I bite my lower lip while holding his gaze. I wouldn’t say it’s more important than my life, but you could put it down to others life could be screwed with and, in turn, end up screwing with the club’s VP’s life because it could affect Willow’s family. But how do I explain this to him so that he can understand and it’ll all make sense? ‘Cause even in my head, it doesn’t fully make sense. It’s just how it is, I suppose.

Cy’s eyes drop to my lips, he looks back at me and shakes his head. “Fine, but someone’s going with you.”

“Thank you.” I smile and wrap my arms around him.

“Don’t thank me yet,” he grunts. “Charlotte’s staying here. When you get done, you’re to come right back after the meeting. I’m not playing games about this shit.”

“We’ll come back after the meeting,” Rebel agrees. “Rogue can go with us.”

I glance at her as she brings her husband into the conversation. It’s all I can do not to laugh at the matter-of-fact tone in her voice or the way he gets an annoyed look of his own. What’s even cuter is how he’s got Jett curled against him, head on his shoulder.

“Princess, I already told you I was going with you. I don’t know why you gotta be a pain in the ass about it. Could’ve just told Cy I was goin’.”

“What fun is it if I don’t get into it with him? He’s my cousin, after all.” Rebel laughs and shakes her head. She moves closer to Rogue, arms lifting at the same time the front doors make a creaking sound as they open. “Now, give me my baby boy so I can get him to . . .”Her voice trails off, her body going tight. Her arms dropping as she whirls around Rogue before I can fully register what is going on. “What are you doing here?”

I blink and stare at the entrance to see who she’s talking to.

My body goes taut, and I find it hard to breathe at the sight of the two men standing just in the room.

“The fuck do you think you’re doing here?” Cy demands, in his own way, repeating his cousin’s question.

What I want to know is how they know who they are.

“Just following the Easter eggs left for us to trail as you wanted.”

I close my eyes, a shudder going through me at the sound of his voice. Davis. It’s been so long since I’ve heard it. The deep, grating, coarse sound seems almost deeper now.

“How do you figure I left you Easter eggs to follow?” Cy’s voice was nearly just as deep but also filled with fury.

I knew it was fury I was hearing because since knowing Cy, I’ve heard him speak a lot . Never have I heard his voice like this.

Stepping around Cy, he doesn’t let me get farther than his side before tucking me into him, almost in a shielding maneuver. I meet the gazes of the two men and whisper, “Davis, Willis.”

Both my brothers look directly at me. Neither of them looks the same as I last remember them. Their features have hardened. No longer did they hold any of the boyish look to them.

Looking them both over, I noticed right off the scar that ran along Davis’s neck. My stomach tightens as I have to wonder how he got it. There are only so many ways to get a scar like that. None of them are good. Willis looked like he was ready to kill someone at a moment’s notice.

“Hey, Pipsqueak.”

I nearly jump out of my skin at the gruff tone of Willis’s voice.

Cy’s arm tightens around me, and he curls me more into him as he asks, “What are you doing here?”

“Momma, Cy,” Charlotte cries excitedly, getting everyone’s attention.

My stomach tightens as Cy spins us to see her racing toward us. Cy lets me go in order to catch her when she gets close.

“Darlin’, what did we say about running through the clubhouse?” Cy murmurs, hiding his anger from her.

“Sorwee,” she says, oblivious to what’s going on around us. “I wanted to tell Momma sumtin I thought was weally cool.”

“What’s that, sweetheart?” I ask, taking her from Cy and setting her on her feet.

“I was helping Auntie Willow, and she asked me what I wanted to get you for your birfday. I told her I already gots for you. Cy being your prince. Then I thought more abouts it and wanted to make you a cake too.” Charlotte turns toward Cy. “Can we gets Momma a cake too?”

I ignore the snorts and chuckles while staring at my little girl. God love her, but she can be silly.

“Yeah, Lots, we’ll get Momma a cake. Now, you need to get back to Auntie Willow. In a little while, we’ll talk about what we’re gonna do, and I’ll take you outside to play. Sound good?”

Charlotte nods to Cy and dives into him, hugging his legs.

She takes off back the way she came, of course, running as fast as her little legs will take her.

It’s only then that I realize we’ve been joined by Hammer and a few others. Rebel now had Jett in her arms.

“Someone want to fill the rest of us in on who our guests are?” Hammer asks.

“They’re my brothers,” I answer before anyone else can speak.

The tension intensifies around me.

I look to Rebel as a question pops into my head. “How did you know?”

I’ve never shown her a picture of them before.

“Lanna, you know me, and you know I’m damn good at what I do. You trusted me, but I had to know I could trust you,” she says cautiously, eyes soft. “I had to look into you. But I promise you, like everything else, I’ve kept it to myself.”

She looked into me. She knew my secrets all along, yet not telling anyone.

I don’t know whether to be hurt or not about it. Regardless, she’s been there for me in a way I’d never let anyone be there for me before.

“Can we get to the matter of why the fuck we’re here to begin with?” Davis’s gruff voice penetrates before I keep down the rabbit hole of thoughts.

“Yeah, I’d like to know what the fuck you’re doing here myself,” Cy grumbles.

“Got word from our mother that our sister had been found and that she was bringing her back where she belongs,” Willis answers, anger vibrating off him.

Those very words are enough to knock the breath right out of me. “What?”

“That bitch ain’t getting her hands on Alanna.” Cy snarls, his fingers digging a bit into my hip. “Or Charlotte,” he adds with a growl.

“If you two are here on behalf of your family, get the fuck out of my clubhouse,” Hammer states far too calmly.

“We left a fuckin’ mission when we heard word about our mother. Got to the States in time to hear the bastard sent someone for her. Both of them have some shit reasons for wanting to find Alanna and Charlotte,” Davis says, eyes darting around the room, lip curled slightly, showing his disdain. “We’re here to see that neither that bitch nor her sick bastard of a husband get either our sister or niece.”

“Does someone want to explain why her mother wants her back?” Malice demands.

“That would be because she doesn’t like to lose what she deems hers. All three of us thought she wasn’t a motherly mother. She deems us her children and refuses to lose what, as she claims, created,” Willis answers. “She’s nearly as fucked in the head as that husband of hers.”

I couldn’t agree more with him.

“How do you expect to keep your sister safe?” Rogue bites out. “You haven’t done shit for her in all this time while livin’ your own lives.”

“We know what our mother intends to attempt in order to get her back. We’re going to stop her from doing it,” Davis states and looks to Rebel. “It’s why we’ll be attending the meeting today regarding the property.”

Umm, what?