Page 59 of Havoc

“Two hours ago.” I set my phone on the table. “I’m guessing you had a late night?”

He grunts, reeking of smoke, booze, and body odor. “Get to it. I know damn well you didn’t come here to make me fucking breakfast.”

I rest my elbows on the table, trying to temper my irritation. “I need to ask you something.”

“Yep.” He takes another sip of vodka.

“You remember the girl who used to hang around Kings Auto when I was a kid?”

No one except Dad knew of Aimee’s existence. And he only knew because it was impossible to hide her from him when he was at the shop almost as often as I was. Thankfully, he considered my interest in her too pathetic to bring up with the guys at the clubhouse, so it ended there.

“The girl you chased like a pathetic pussy-whipped bitch?” He huffs. “Yeah. She was always too good for you.”

Some days, his verbal jabs get to me. Others, I brush it off.

With my mood this particular morning, I find myself too disappointed in what he’s become to bother being insulted, so I lean back in my chair and don’t respond.

“I heard the club found her in some cage at the Iron Sinners property.” Dad shakes his head. “Or I figured it was her, given the guys said you turned down all the pussy in LA and only one cunt ever made you—”

I slam my fist on the table, barely holding it together.

Dad smirks, finally meeting my gaze. His comment landed exactly how he wanted it to.

After I grew into myself and he couldn’t beat me like he used to when I was a kid, he started to throw his punches in other ways. Just like now.

Flattening my palm on the table, I try to compose myself. I take a deep breath and remind myself that even if he’s a piece of shit, he’s my father. My brother by patch. I can’t lay a hand on him without forcing other issues.

“What about her?” Dad takes another sip, ignoring my anger.

“I just found out that a year after I enlisted, the Iron Sinners raided her house. They took her and her father hostage.”

“And she’s still around to talk about it?”

My stomach drops. “I need to know if you remember any whispers about it back in the day. Did the Iron Sinners make any demands about Aimee or her father?”

Steel didn’t remember anything, but since my father was sitting as a ranked member at the time, he might know more.

He shakes his head. “Nope, they were pretty quiet when you left. At least, until Percy took a bullet and we realized they were just biding their time.”

I wasn’t around when Steel’s father was killed, but I felt it around the world. Percy looked after me when Dad was too drunk to. He cared about his club, and he treated his son’s friends as if they were his own. Percy was a good man and a good president. We lost him too soon.

“Although.” Dad leans forward; his eyebrows knit as he stares through a slit in the curtains. “I think I saw her a couple of years after you left. Or maybe it was a few years before you returned. Somewhere in there. It was during your re-enlistment.”

“Where?”

“Outside the shop.” His gaze finds me. “At least, it was some girl who looked like her. Shorter hair, maybe. A little meaner than she used to be. She glared at the guys in the bays for a second and left. She wasn’t a customer.”

Aimee came back.

At some point, she came back looking for me. But I re-enlisted, so I wasn’t there.

“Guess that explains that look on her face.” Dad thrums the table with his fingers.

“What look?”

“Darkness.” His fingers pause. “There was something haunted in that girl I saw. It’s why I wasn’t sure it was even her. But if she’d been with them… with Titan…” He shakes his head. “How long?”

“Eleven months.”