Page 39 of Priest’s Sunbeam (Renegade Souls MC: Next Generation #2)

“Well? Does someone want to explain why you’re all staring at me like I grew a second head? Is this an intervention? Did I fuck something up in the shop?”

That’s when Preacher started pacing. And because Rider’s office wasn’t all that large, his father’s long legs ate up the space in four steps before he turned around and started again.

“I should’ve killed him.” He grated in a dark voice.

The only time Preacher lost his shit was when he was in protective mode over their family.

Other than that, he was the most amenable guy, so to see him seething, his two meat-sized fists clenched at his sides, got Seb ready to ride into fucking battle with his father.

He didn’t need a reason. If Preacher was this angry, Seb was by his side.

He stalked over and stopped Preacher from pacing.

He met eyes that didn’t look like his, but they didn’t make the man any less like his father.

Some even joked that they had the same mannerisms and speech patterns and that Seb must be his secret kid.

“Dad? Is it trouble?”

“You could say so, son,” answered Rider. Then. “Lawless, you’re up.”

“I finally got a hit on my face recognition program,” Lawless explained, showing Seb he was holding a stack of pictures. The first few he dropped on the desk he’d seen on his phone screen. They were of the man who had approached Sunny, but the pictures were clear and not blurry this time.

“You know who it is?”

“Should’ve put a bullet in his fucking skull.” Burst Preacher again, and this time, it was Grinder, Preacher’s best buddy from long ago, who stepped up and told the road captain to cool his shit.

The following photos, laid out on the desk by Lawless, were prison mugshots of the same person, taken decades apart in age.

Seb’s brows pinched in the middle. “I don’t recognize him. This is who’s been fucking with me? What the fuck for? I at least thought I’d know who it was.”

As big as he was, in both shoulder width and height, Preacher muscled through Grinder and Lawless and came to stand at Seb’s side, glaring at the photos just like Seb was.

But there was pure hatred in Preacher’s green eyes.

He stabbed a finger at the black-and-white image of the younger version. His voice was like granite.

“This is Dwayne, your piece of shit birth father.”

The shock felt strange for different reasons.

Seb prided himself on rarely losing his cool, so surprises over the years were far between.

But this one.

It hit him like a frozen sledgehammer to the solar plexus.

They were words he couldn’t have expected to hear.

Dwayne.

His birth father.

They were foreign, and his brain took seconds to catch up, to put shit in order so he could crank his head back.

A killer had walked up and spoken with his Sunny.

Seb couldn’t get his head around that. How dangerous it made him feel.

“He approached my wife .” He ground his teeth. His voice was kept low because if he let go of his anger, he would erupt like an atom bomb. “He breathed the same air as my wife .”

He’d been disassociated from his past for a long time.

Sure, Ruby still talked about his birth mother—her sister—and he liked those few stories, but he hadn’t ever felt attached to them like she was.

He felt bad that she died so horribly, but he’d always tried to forget it and didn’t want to remember his earlier life.

In his heart, Ruby was his mom. She had been there for every significant event in his life.

Dwayne’s murder conviction was long ago, and that, too, had been something Seb didn’t associate himself with.

It was as if it happened to other people.

So had Dwayne been a random murderer out for some giggles fucking with a member from the Renegade Souls, Seb could have accepted that.

Pissed off, sure, but nothing like the tempered rage boiling his blood beneath his skin to know his DNA giver had put himself right in Sunny’s path.

He met the eyes of his president, ever watchful and commanding.

There was only one question he needed to know.

And his frame was ice cold when he faced the men he trusted.

“How do I find him?”

“How do we find him?” Rider amended. “You don’t go into this shit alone, Priest. If I have to make it a gavel order, I will. I can see how this has landed on you, so don’t go off half-cocked, you got it?”

Seb gave a tight nod. He respected the club’s order but couldn’t give a definite promise about this.

“Lawless has compiled a list of places he could be. We’ll get this guy, Priest.” Rider assured.

“So much for a family reunion,” Tanner spoke, and Seb met his eyes. His brother looked equally pissed off. “The asshole couldn’t come to your door and ask to talk to you. He had to fuck with you instead. I’ve got your back, Seb.”

Another nod. Seb wasn’t sure he could force words up his windpipe. But then his father flanked him and touched Seb’s neck like he’d do when he was younger.

“This is my mistake, son. I had the chance to kill him years ago, and I didn’t take it.” Preacher looked sick with regret.

“It’s no one’s doing but his, Dad. He could’ve been a decent human being and left me the fuck alone, but he chose chaos. So, I will end it with the same fucking anarchy.”

He brushed off the hand, icy to the bone; grabbing the list from Lawless, he headed for the door. His club family followed.

Before he exited, he stated. “No one mentions this to Sunny yet. I don’t want her worried.”

The hunt started that night.

Dwayne wasn’t at the ex-con hostel where he was court-ordered to stay. That alone could get his ass thrown back in jail, but Seb wasn’t interested in sending the fucker to a comfortable cell.

“Are you okay, bro?” Tanner asked, catching up to Seb’s long stride through the clubhouse.

“I’m fine.” He replied. However, he didn’t know if he was fine.

For long days, every avenue turned up cold.

More days went by, then a week and two.

Seb was becoming increasingly frustrated.

He couldn’t just forget about it and hoped the jerk would get bored and disappear. Dwayne had deliberately put himself in Seb’s life. He could deal with the consequences. And if he was hoping for a father/son reunion, he was shit out of luck.

Every night, he lay awake while his wife slept against his ribs. His mind was a whirl of what-ifs and plans for what to do next.

Instead of working in the garage, Seb and whoever tagged along with him that day searched every part of Armado Springs, their search taking them further afield outside Colorado.

And each night, he came home to eat dinner with his girl, fucking her with unhinged need in his body until she fell into a sated sleep.

He wouldn’t rest until Dwayne was dealt with. For good this time.