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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

HENDRIX

T he same question raced through my mind over and over again.

How the hell could I have left Anna unprotected and so vulnerable?

Ace had marked her as mine years before, so I should have anticipated she was in danger. The reason behind Ace taking Addie and the ensuing wild-goose chase should have pinged much earlier than it did, and I felt sick because it was my job to make sure Anna was covered.

I’d been dealing with these mind games for years. When Ace left the club, I didn’t know who was a friend and who was an enemy. Friends and brothers were turning on each other left and right. At the time, the last thing I wanted was for Anna to witness or get involved with the conflict because I felt like I’d failed.

I made a lot of excuses—some valid—for not going back for her until it was too late, but recent events proved my actions had been justified, at least in part.

Gambit and Iceman were putting on their riding jackets as Blade barked orders.

My veep’s eyes narrowed. “Prez, you take the GMC with Gopher; he’s a medic. Bones and Freya are on their way back from their shift. The boys will head out on their bikes. At the first sign of aggression, you shoot to kill. Ace and Daisy have crossed the line, and I don’t wanna hear any shit about her bein’ a woman. She’s still a threat.”

Iceman nodded, his jaw ticking with anger. “Shoot to kill, brother. No more holding back?—”

As he said the words, a large truck came speeding up the lane and came to an abrupt stop by the hotel steps. Dad jumped out, hauling a battered Tweety with him.

My chest burned with the need to take my Glock out, hold it to his temple, and pull the trigger. Another fucker had betrayed my club, and I wouldn’t let it stand.

Diablo turned his head to the side and spat on the ground. “Fuckin’ traitor. You better talk and do it fast ‘cause I’m gonna start slicin’ off body parts. One every three minutes, fingers, toes, ears, then dick. It’ll take me just over an hour, but looking at your bitch ass, you’ll sing like a damned canary after five minutes.”

A strangled gargle left the prospect’s throat, and his head lolled to one side. He was so badly beaten he couldn’t even stand up properly.

Dad pulled him up by the scruff of the neck and threw him toward me. “One punch, then go,” he snarled.

I grabbed Tweet by the collar, pulled my arm back, and smashed my fist into his nose. Blood spurted everywhere, and Tweet let out a loud groan as he crumpled to the ground.

“No more,” Dad said. “Diablo needs him awake, and you boys need to get on the road to find our girl.”

I looked around the parking lot, watching as Trick, Fletch, Picasso, Rockabye, and the others all ran for their bikes, putting their helmets on as they went.

Pyro approached, grabbed Tweety from me, and dragged him toward the steps. “Imma help D slice and dice. I need to brush up on my knife skills.”

Dad gave me big eyes. “I better keep an eye on them, Son. Or else they’ll finish him off before he talks.”

I gave him a nod, my lungs feeling like they were on fire.

“I’m with you, Prez,” a deep voice said from beside me. I turned to see Gopher swinging into the driver’s side of the GMC.

“I’m drivin’, Prospect,” I muttered.

Gopher lifted his chin proudly. “With all due respect, Prez. If we get word where Anna is, you’ll need to be ready. I’ve driven Army ambulances through war zones to get to my brothers. Trust me to do it for Anna. When we find her, you’ll need to be ready to deploy ‘cause she’ll need you to get to her.”

I glanced at Blade, who was smiling proudly at the prospect.

“Right.” I clapped him on the back. “Thanks, Goph.”

He dipped his chin respectfully and turned for the SUV.

“Prez,” Trick called out.

I stopped and turned to see my road captain and some other brothers sitting astride their bikes, waiting for the signal to head out.

“Blade and Colt will sort the teams as we ride. As soon as Diablo gets what he needs for us, we rescue Anna as one unit. If Ace or Daisy rear their heads, mine, Iceman’s, and Gambit’s team will go after them. You see to Anna with Gopher as backup. Picasso’s team will ride home with you at your six for protection.”

I nodded as I threw the passenger door to the GMC open, slid inside, and wound my window down. “This is war, Blade,” I called toward the steps where my VP stood, glaring at Tweety as Pyro dragged him inside. “If they’ve hurt her, I’m goin’ down to Ace’s HQ, and I’m gonna blow it to smithereens with all those fuckers in it.”

“I feel ya, brother,” he called back. “And I vow to you. If they’ve harmed a hair on our girl’s head, I’ll build the fuckin’ bomb myself, grab Pyro, and we’ll work as a trio.” He gave me a loose salute before turning and following Diablo, Dad, Colt, Pyro, and a fucked-up Tweety into the hotel.

“She’ll be okay, Prez,” Gopher told me reassuringly as he clicked his seat belt into place. “Anna will be in good hands with me. I won’t let you down. Got a lotta love for your woman. She’s kind and funny, and she makes sure I’m eating, and I get enough rest. My ma worries, ya know? And Anna talks to her on the phone and calms her nerves.”

“My Anna’s beautiful inside and out, Gopher,” I muttered, throwing him a glance. “Why don’t you move your ma up from Texas?”

He started the truck and put his foot on the gas. “Money. My dad left her in debt. I’m helping her pay it off. As soon as she’s straight, I’ll find her somewhere.”

My brow furrowed. “You should’ve come to me, Prospect. I can help you out.”

“All due respect, Prez. I’d feel better sorting it myself. Got about six months left, and then we’ll be home free. You don’t need to worry about me, I’m a grown-ass man, and I’ll take responsibility for my mom. You concentrate on Anna ‘cause she’ll need all you’ve got to give her after today. Never trusted Daisy, never knew Ace, though I’ve heard all the stories about the asshole.”

My heart began to race at the thought of my ol’ lady and the shit they could’ve done to her. They’d been gone about three hours, and I knew as well as anyone that anything could’ve happened during that time.

Over the years, she’d always been in the back of my mind, haunting me.

My heart always told me we’d be together again one day, and it was right. But what if I was about to lose her again? What if Ace and Daisy had done irreparable damage to her and our boy?

After what I’d seen and witnessed in the military, not much in life frightened me, but the thought of a world without Anna was terrifying. There was no meaning to anything without her. If the unthinkable happened to her or my kid, my life would be over.

My guts scalded with a sense of fury, and I pulled my Glock out, checking it was locked and loaded. If they’d touched a hair on Anna’s head, I’d blow their faces off.

My thoughts went back to the night I first had her, the same night she became mine. She was so open and honest, so fucking vulnerable. She gave me her heart and soul in that bar, and then later, she gave me everything else, and despite time, distance, and other women, I’d never given it back.

How did I screw everything up so badly?

I jumped in my seat as a call came through on the Apple Car Play system. My eyes jerked toward it to see Blade’s name flash up.

Clicking the answer button on the screen, I barked, “Yo.”

“Well, that didn’t take long,” my VP drawled. “Daisy’s got Anna holed up at your aunt’s old house down by the river.”

I scraped a hand down my face. “Fuck!”

“On it,” Gopher muttered, screeching the brakes on and turning in the road. The rumble of bike engines filled the air as my brothers did the same as us and turned their rides around. The dirt track leading to the section of the river where my aunt and uncle lived was about a mile back. I reckoned we’d be there within minutes.

With a pounding heart, I demanded, “Thought the car was seen heading into town?”

“It was,” Blade muttered. “He drove up there to put us off his scent. He was always gonna drive up there, then hide out for a while and take Anna back to the house. Unlucky for him, a deer ran into the road. He swerved to avoid it and fuckin’ crashed, which left them without getaway wheels. That’s why he was out hotwiring a car when your dad found him.”

“Fuckin’ useless idiot,” I spat.

“Yeah,” Blade agreed. “And now Diablo’s fuckin’ furious ‘cause he only got halfway through one pinky before Tweety ratted himself out and fainted. D took the finger anyway for one of his jars, but he really wanted to—and I quote—chop a cock.”

“Jesus.” I shook my head. “He’s getting obsessed.”

“Daisy’s been spying for Ace since he left the club,” Blade informed me. “It’s how he knew about your woman and the baby. Sorry, brother.”

I sighed resignedly. “Nothing I hadn’t expected.”

“Fill you in on the rest when you get back. Good luck with Anna. Keep me posted. Over and out.”

The line went dead.

“We’re nearly there,” Gopher pointed out, nodding further up the road toward the turning we needed to hit the track that took us to the house.

“You got your weapon ready, Prospect?” I asked.

He jerked a nod, spinning the steering wheel to take the turning at speed. “Always, boss. Now, hold on ‘cause I’m not slowing down.”

I grabbed hold of the ‘Oh shit’ handle and held on for dear life as Gopher bumped us over the grass toward my aunt’s old house.

My knuckles turned white as I gripped tightly, trying to hold my shit together. We approached the house from the back, where the windows glowed with what appeared to be candlelight.

Motorcycle engines growled as we pulled up outside the house, and I jumped out of the car. I didn’t wait for the others; I sprinted for the house while reaching inside my cut for my Glock and pulling it free.

I tried the door, but it was locked, so I lifted my booted foot and kicked hard three times until it flew open on its hinges.

I surged inside, pointing my gun into the room to see it was deserted. “Clear!” I shouted before moving swiftly into the dining room next door and repeating the process.

Nothing.

Heart sinking, I moved into the living room and carefully aimed my gun inside. “Anna!” I hollered, but nobody answered. All I could hear was the stomping of boots as the boys entered behind me.

“I’ll check upstairs,” Iceman’s voice muttered.

“It looks clear,” Gambit called out.

Dropping my hand, I scanned the room, my eyes falling on something shoved in the corner. I moved closer, getting down on my haunches to examine the leather.

“It’s Anna’s purse!” I shouted. Pulling the zipper open, I scanned the contents, seeing her money wallet, keys, lipstick, a small perfume bottle, and the small picture folder where she kept her baby scans.

I stood up, and my eyes caught on the carpet. “What’s that?” I asked.

Gopher dropped down, touched it, and grimaced. “Vomit.” Neck twisting, his eyes lifted to meet mine. “Looks like there’s blood in it, Prez.” He turned back, and his fingers went to another dark spot. “That’s blood, too.”

My throat constricted painfully.

“Prez!” a voice called.

My head whipped around, my jaw clenching so tightly I thought it would shatter. “What?” I barked.

Picasso stood outside, his head sticking through the window. “This was open, and the ground outside’s been disturbed. I think she came out this way. Gonna start tracking her movements.”

“That’s good, right?” Gopher said, glancing at our brother. “Anna may have escaped.”

“We need to find her.” I turned back the way I came and stalked through to the kitchen, my prospect at my side.

Within seconds, we were back in the car, and Gopher was bumping us over the grass toward the trees in the opposite direction of the river.

“This way leads to the clubhouse,” he pointed out. “She was moving in the right direction.”

The car swayed precariously on the uneven ground, and I grabbed the handle to steady myself. My eyes automatically scanned the horizon, but all I could make out through the headlights of the GMC were trees and bushes.

Motorcycle pipes roared behind us, and I checked the side mirrors to see my boys catching up.

“Sit tight,” Gopher called out. “This could get bumpy. Can’t see much in the dark.” As he said the words, he accelerated, and we headed up a grass slope leading to some trees. Then, suddenly, he jerked his head closer to the windshield. “Is that a car?”

My gaze followed the direction his finger pointed, and I saw the moon lighting up a silver SUV in the distance.

“Looks like an Explorer,” Gopher muttered.

My chest twisted.

I jumped out of my skin as gunfire punctured the air, but it was a distance away, and it wasn’t coming from the SUV that was fleeing from the scene. Somebody was firing on the car, not from it. I could pick out the tiny flashes of light coming from the thick cluster of trees in the distance.

“We won’t get through there,” Gopher called out. He drove as close as he could get and skidded to a halt.

“Thanks, brother,” I called as I jumped from the car and flagged one of my boys down.

Picasso pulled up next to me, his back tire kicking up dirt and grass. “Get on!” he yelled over the pop of the engine.

I jumped on the back and held on for dear life. Cass turned the throttle, and we shot off into the trees toward the area where we saw the flashes.

Clouds covered the moon, and the light faded until all that guided us was the headlamp of Picasso’s motorcycle.

My fingers tightened on the back of his leather jacket, and I tried to brace myself. I took deep breaths through my nose in an attempt to slow the adrenaline pumping through my veins. After seeing the blood back at the house, my gut filled with so much fury and disgust that I struggled to contain my emotions.

Anna had been hurt, and I didn’t know what to do with that knowledge. I hadn’t allowed my thoughts to go there for fear of losing my shit and not being able to focus on getting her back. Since we left the house, I could only feel and react, and it made my brain feel like it was about to explode.

I sucked in more air, trying to regulate my heartbeat, when the clouds moved across the moonlight, and its light beamed down again.

That was when I saw them.

Two figures.

Picasso must’ve spotted them, too, because he changed his direction slightly and headed straight for them. The roar of bikes went up behind us. Everyone began laying on their horns, sending up an almighty din.

One of the figures attempted to stand and wave, but quickly fell back down onto their knees. I could tell it wasn’t Anna. For a start, they were too tall and built to be my woman. My stare dipped to the other figure who was lying on the ground, and I knew by the extended baby bump that it was my ol’ lady.

What appeared to be a dude was crouched over her, and her head was in one of his arms as he waved at us frantically.

As the bike pulled closer, I felt a stab of recognition, and my face twisted in disbelief.

Charlie?

Picasso’s bike began to slow, which allowed me to jump off and sprint toward my woman. On my approach, I skidded across the ground on my knees until she was there, in my arms. “Baby,” I murmured, smoothing her hair back from her ghostly white face.

“She needs help,” Charlie cried. “She’s losing blood.”

My eyes swept down her body and zeroed in on the area between her legs where the dark liquid was oozing into her jeans.

My body locked, and my heart shattered into tiny pieces.

The baby.

–––––

An hour later, I stared out the window into the midnight sky, and I did something I hadn’t done since I was a six-year-old boy.

I prayed.

Back then, my prayers were to bring my mom home, to make her turn up at the door full of tears and apologies for leaving me behind, and to make her love me enough to stay.

Now, my prayers were to ask, beg, and plead for Anna to stay, too. If she left this world, there’d be nothing left of me. I’d be an empty vessel, a bag of bones and blood.

A ghost.

You feel like mine.

I closed my eyes, the words floating through my mind. The same words I whispered to her the night I first had her. And she did; she did feel like mine from the first moment I looked into her kaleidoscope eyes and saw the beauty in her soul.

My ears pricked up as I heard the door to the medical room open and close with a soft click. I craned my neck to see Bones, dressed in scrubs, walking toward me.

Within seconds, Dad, who hadn’t left my side since they’d taken Anna into surgery, was up on his feet to take my six. His hand clasped my shoulder, and the one word he spoke was loaded with grief.

“Doc?”

Bones gave us a tight-lipped smile. “Freya’s finishing up the surgery. Congratulations, you have a small but seemingly healthy baby boy. We’ve put him straight into the incubator because he’s seven weeks premature, but it’s to help him along, not keep him alive. He’s breathing on his own, and he’s had a crying jag, so his lungs are working just fine. The incubator is simply a precaution.”

Dad’s hand squeezed. “That’s good, Doc. But what about Anna?”

“She suffered a placental abruption,” Bones explained. “The car crash, the beating she took, or both, tore the placenta away from the uterine wall. Once the placenta detaches, it limits the oxygen and nutrient supply to the baby. Without oxygen, the baby could suffer brain damage, so that’s why after taking all the facts into consideration, I thought it was best to do a C-section. As for Anna, she’s lost a lot of blood. We’ve already given her a transfusion. She’ll likely need more, and we have to keep an eye on her kidney function, too. Another worry is that she’ll hemorrhage, so that’s something else we have to watch closely. I’m hopeful she’ll make a full recovery, Hendrix, but it’s too early right now to promise anything.”

My eyes cast downward, and I nodded through the searing pain.

“Hendrix. I’m sorry—” he began, but I lifted my hand to stop him.

“Loved her for years, Bones. Should’ve claimed her a long time ago, but instead, I pissed our time away with excuses and insecurities that a man my age should’ve dealt with. Barring Dad, I’ve lost everyone who ever mattered to me, so for the life of me, I can’t understand why I didn’t hold on tight to her. My track record speaks for itself when it comes to women, but from day one, Anna was different. She’s good and pure, and she keeps me straight and calms the demons. She looks at me like I can do anything, but she’s wrong because every bad thing that’s happened to her is on me. I let her down, and I let my boy down.”

Bones’ mouth quirked. “There’s nothing I can do or say to make you believe how goddamned wrong you are, Prez, so I’ll say this instead. If you think you’ve let her down, do better. If you think what happened today is on you, make it up to her. You’ve been given a second chance some of us will never get, so learn from your fuck-ups and don’t piss it away again. Be the man she obviously thinks you are when she looks at you like you can do anything, and instead, do everything .” He jerked his thumb toward the door. “There’s a boy in there who needs a parent. Anna can’t be that right now, Drix, so step the fuck up and be that parent for her. Then, when she wakes up, at least she’ll know her boy was loved and cherished when she couldn’t give him that. Trust me, if you take care of that boy in the way she needs, everything else will fall into place.”

“I don’t know how to be a parent,” I protested. “I need her to teach me. How can I hold that boy before his own mother? How can I be his dad?”

“That’s just it, Prez,” Bones threw back. “You do know how to be a dad.” His eyes flicked over my shoulder to where Pop still stood at my back before they drifted back to my face. “You’ve already been taught how to be a dad, and it was by the best. He taught you every day of your life because he never left. He stepped up, and instead of giving you anything you wanted, he gave you everything you needed .”

Fuck me if my eyes didn’t mist over at his words.

My skin began to tingle as the moment of clarity hit me like a Mack Truck.

Bones was right. My dad gave me everything. He gave me a home, he gave me security, he gave me friends and relationships. But more than anything, he gave me love, and that love was what I needed to draw on now and pass down to my son.

My body twisted, and I pulled my dad into a tight hug, relishing the strangled noise escaping his throat and reveling in the feeling of his hand shifting from my shoulder to my back and clutching me tight.

“Sorry, Pop,” I rumbled into his shoulder.

Dad let out a short laugh. “What for?”

“Taking you for granted.” I pulled back slightly, noticing immediately that it wasn’t just my eyes that had gone a little misty. “Seems I’ve been doing that a lot lately.”

“You know what, Jameson?” Dad began. “You were a good kid—a late bloomer, which you know I worried about, especially in the days of that Cilla Black lookalike. Thought you’d never pop your cherry. Then, you joined the military, and it was like you grew up overnight. I worried about you marrying that girl so soon after meeting ‘cause it was obvious you were looking for someone to fill a void, which was weird as fuck. Then you lost her, and I saw you fold into yourself and clam up tight like a drum. Imagine my shock when I turned around, and suddenly you’d become this cocksure, long-haired biker who’d covered himself in tattoos and had women hanging off his shlong twenty-four seven. I was worried about you then, too. Thought, this boy’s got some issues, and there ain’t enough psychologists in the world to sort his head out.”

My eyebrow cocked. “Is there a point?”

Bones chuckled.

Dad grinned and curled his fingers around the back of my neck. “Then you met Anna, and for the first time ever, you were you. Knew you were gonna fuck it up. You weren’t ready for what she brought to the table, but I also knew one day you would be. Over the last few years, I’ve loved watching you grow. I’ve loved watching you make mistakes but then think about them and learn. Watching you build something you can be proud of has made me proud . But more than anything, I’ve loved watching you fall in love all over again with a woman who’s worthy of you. Being your dad was my biggest honor, Son. Watching you be a dad is gonna be my biggest privilege.”

Emotion burned through my throat. “Gonna need you, Dad. ‘Cause you know I’m gonna fuck up again, right?”

“Course you are,” he agreed. “You’re an idiot. But as long as you learn and do better, you’ll be alright.” His eyes bored into mine, and he flashed a joyful smile. “Now, do me a favor, Jameson. Grow the fuck up and stop your whining. It’s time I met my new grandson.”