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Diamond

“This is the only time I’ll warn you, Snow, your daughter belongs to me.”

The old man’s craggy features twisted in contempt. “Don’t be so disgusting.”

He’d crashed into his office and now faced the man sitting at his wealthy desk like he was Don Corleone.

“She’s having my baby. We live together.”

“That was an interim to ensure her safety.” He snapped. “We’ve asked her several times to move into the townhouse.”

“And she’s said no. Because she’s happier with me, where she doesn’t get dragged into your crazy mobster bitch bullshit.”

Snow’s scowl softened a bit when the truth hit, but he still couldn’t keep his mouth shut.

“You’re no better than I am. You’re beneath my daughter, and she deserves someone of a higher class, not a biker who tramples through the dirt. You forget, I know your MC is far from squeaky clean.”

“No, I’m not better,” Diamond answered evenly. “But I’d throw myself on top of Joelle to protect her and our baby when her fucking house blows up. Can you say the same? Joelle is my priority, Snow. And I get the impression she’s never been that to anyone. Least of all her family.”

He turned red, face muscles twitching with restrained anger. “That’s not true. I love my daughter.”

“Pity you don’t show it.” Diamond slid both hands down into the front pockets of his jeans. “I’m not here to barter for her. Joelle is mine and staying mine. I’m here to tell you to back the fuck off from trying to get that weasel Trent back in her life. She ended that relationship for a reason. If you were any decent father, you’d know that reason. If he calls her again on your say-so, I’ll be the one to step in. And it won’t only be Trent, I deal with.”

“That sounds like a threat.” Snow narrowed his eyes.

“Take it however you want to take it. You don’t like me or my club, Snow, though you’ve paid us enough over the years. I don’t like you, either. We have Joelle in common, and whether you approve is here nor there, your grandchild is due soon. How you proceed from here determines if I let you see my kid.”

Snow could take that as a threat, too.

Snow’s pale pallor and tense jaw made the warning resonate deeply.

“I expected nothing less than a threat from someone like you.”

“I’m glad you recognize who I am exactly.” Smirked Diamond. “It’s the difference between you and me, Snow. I protect what’s mine. I bust my balls to make them happy. Whether you’re in Joelle and my kid’s life means jackshit to me. But it does to her. She’s chosen me, so this is your only chance to do better. I won’t allow you to treat her indifferently anymore. Just give me a reason to cut her ties with you, and I’d fucking love it.”

On that note, he turned on his heavy biker boots, trekked across the carpet, and exited the office, giving the worried secretary a wink to show he was harmless.

There was tension when he entered the clubhouse doors.

Diamond couldn’t see anything immediately that was wrong, but something was up for sure. He jutted his chin at the newest prospect, and the guy sauntered over.

“Who does the new bike outside belong to?” he asked Price.

“Dunno, boss. Some big dude. Had a face like the iceberg from that movie that sank a ship.” Then Price lowered his voice and indicated to Scarlett, Kylie, and Nina, sitting with a younger girl he didn’t recognize. “And he came in holding that chick’s hand. He told her to wait. Then he went into the office with the Prez and VP.”

Diamond nodded. “Get back to work, probie. The garage needs cleaning top to bottom.”

The other man groaned but slunk off to do his grunt work.

If Axel needed him, someone would come for Diamond, so he helped himself to a coffee and then parked his ass at the bar. The old ladies were chatting as usual. The new girl was mid-twenties, maybe, and appeared nervous.

When Splice came in from the workshop, he grabbed a can of soda from behind the bar and sat next to Diamond.

“Did you see who turned up earlier?”

“No, who?”

“Atom. No word of warning. Just blazed through the gates while I was working on a sweet as fuck Bentley. He had a chick riding backpack, too. Didn’t even stop to chew the fat. He got in a huddle with the Prez and VP, and then they went into Axel’s office. They’ve been there ever since.”

“For real? Shit must be happening.”

“I agree.” He turned around on the stool and smirked. “Look at the tiny thing he brought. I wonder if she’s a gift. Isn’t she cute?”

Diamond snorted. “If the girl came in with Atom, he’s likely to rip your eyes out for looking at her like you are, my brother.”

Splice chuckled and rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand, eating the girl up. It was his funeral. “No harm in looking. I’m off sex, anyway.”

Diamond nearly choked.

Out of all the crap Splice could have declared, that was the most strange. He did all his flirting with his junk out and claimed he’d never met a woman he didn’t want to sleep with. From way back, he’s been proudly owning the title of loveable manwhore and swears he won’t change.

“Sure, my Pinocchio brother. Can I interest you in buying some flying pigs?”

Splice only rolled a shoulder, gave a crooked smile, and rose off the stool. “I gotta get back to the Bentley. A classy cougar has paid for a rush job.”

The pair brushed knuckles, and Diamond watched him leaving.

After over an hour, Atom and the rest exited the back office. Axel didn’t look happy. Neither did Chains. The girl rushed to her feet and didn’t stop moving until she was standing in front of Atom, immediately grabbing hold of his cut. They looked comical. Atom was six feet six, and the girl had to be five feet tall.

Diamond didn’t know the Nomad all that well. He’d been a wanderer even before Diamond joined the club and only rolled into Laketon several times a year. He was mainly on the road, doing recon missions for the MC. No one had seen him in a while.

He still had a face set like frigid thunder, like he was permanently pissed off at the world and didn’t mind letting people know about it.

The woman’s sudden outburst made Diamond stop beside Chains and Axel.

“No! You promised. You promised, and now you’re fucking lying! I can’t stay here, I won’t!”

He cocked an eyebrow at Chains, who mouthed. “Trouble.”

Oh, fuck .

Diamond folded his arms and watched the conversation between Atom and his woman. Was she his woman? Diamond couldn’t remember Atom ever having a girlfriend or anyone special. People thought he was gay because he never gave in to the flirty advances from the sweet bottoms.

With their height difference, Atom bent his neck. “I told you I’d sort it, didn’t I? Listen to me, Brogan, this is happening, so get the fuck on board and stop pouting like a little girl, or I’ll give you something to pout about.”

Shit . That was a threat to kill her, or it was some weird foreplay.

Axel gestured for Scarlett to come to him. The club queen left her seat, skirted around the arguing couple, and nestled into the Prez’s arms, where he bent his head, speaking only for her.

Atom sighed a few times, scraping ring-covered fingers through his hair, and then their heads angled in together. Some of the conversation was too low to overhear.

It was weird that they hadn’t caught wind of Atom getting involved. The gossip network within the Diablos was legendary.

But then, Diamond thought, only three people knew about his Joelle.

Something he had to rectify because he didn’t like the secret shit.

He knew he’d get some pushback from certain brothers, who wouldn’t trust a member of the Snow family to be among them and not try to weed out Diablos’ secrets.

But Joelle was not like that, far from it.

“I don’t want to be here without you,” the woman said, her lower lip wobbling. Atom caught hold of her chin, tipping her head back.

“But you’re gonna do it without complaining, aren’t you?”

She took a while, but she nodded. Then she rushed into Atom’s chest and bawled her eyes out. If they were together, Atom’s body language was odd when he awkwardly patted the woman’s back like he wasn’t used to touching her.

“You’ll come back for me, won’t you?”

Atom only grunted. And with little fanfare, with the girl trailing behind him, he exited like an apparition, climbing onto his bike. Once he left, Scarlett took over with Brogan, leading her to the back rooms.

Diamond was still confused as hell.

The details Diamond found out later in an emergency church meeting blew everyone’s minds and put every brother on high alert. It was suggested that they didn’t even mention Atom had been in town. As far as anyone could know, the last time they’d seen their brother was a couple of years ago.

Well-meaning questions like, “Is it safe to bring my old lady here now?” were asked and answered. For such a big decision, they had to take a vote.

It wasn’t unanimous. But the Ayes had enough.

This meant that, for the foreseeable future, Brogan Morales would live at the clubhouse under the Diablos’ protection. No one was to talk about her to anyone.

Climbing into bed that night next to Joelle, he pressed his chest against her back, curling an arm around her sleeping form. Worry clung to his mind. In Atom’s position, he knew he would do the same thing for Joelle.

There wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for her or to protect her.

They were about to become a little family of three.

His world had changed the moment he stepped into hers.

He’d always be a biker, but he was something more now. A different man with stronger connections and priorities.

He was Joelle Snow’s man. And soon to be a daddy. Diamond didn’t deserve a woman like her or to have a baby with her. He hadn’t seen it coming, but someone was handing him paradise. He wouldn’t question a good thing. She was a treasure he would cherish and adore for the rest of his life.

And if he died first, he’d haunt any motherfucker who tried to sniff around his rainbow woman. He wasn’t above doing poltergeist shit, either.

She murmured in her sleep, turning toward him, and he captured her lips softly.

“River?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Go back to sleep.”

She was already nestling in, sticking her cold feet between his calves. “Love you,” she muttered, dropping back into sleep.

Leaving Diamond wrecked from the inside with euphoria.

She loved him.

Fuck him . How could he find sleep now while he was longing to push his grateful cock inside his heaven and have her warming his shaft all night?

Grunting, Diamond buried his face in Joelle’s neck.

“I love you more, Bluebell.”

Never had something been so undeniably true.