Page 5 of Razor (Road Reapers MC #4)

“No problem,” he said, smiling at Violet as she climbed into the back of his truck and into her car seat.

She buckled herself in and tossed her tiny backpack onto the seat next to her.

And when she sighed and sat back as though she had had a day of it, he couldn’t help his smile. She was so much like her mom.

“See you tomorrow,” Ms. Penny said to Violet.

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” Ms. Penny said. “Is there anything that I can do?”

“Okay, well, I guess that I’ll see you when you get back home, Violet,” Ms. Penny said. “You’ll let me know if there is anything that I can do?”

“Of course,” he agreed. “See you soon.” The teacher backed away from his truck, and he shut the window, slowly pulling away from the curb.

“Daddy,” Violet said from the back seat.

“Yes, pumpkin,” he answered.

“Why did I have to leave? I missed recess today,” He checked the rearview mirror and found his four-year-old daughter pouting at him.

Razor couldn’t help himself when she pouted at him that way—he always gave in.

But this time, he couldn’t because if he did, he wouldn’t be able to keep her or Ella safe, as he promised.

“We’re going to go on an adventure, honey,” he promised. Her face lit up the rearview as she smiled back at him.

“What kind of adventure?” she asked. “Will there be princesses?” His daughter loved her princesses. She watched them every day, and because he couldn’t seem to say no to her, she had a room full of princess dolls.

“I’m sure that we’ll find a few along the way,” he lied.

“Can I bring some of my princesses from home?” she asked.

“Sure,” he agreed. “We’re going to go back to the house and grab some of our things that we’ll need for our adventure. Then, Uncle Spade is going to meet us at the house, and he’ll bring a new friend that I want you to meet. I think that you’ll like her, honey. Her name is Ella.”

“Oh, like Cinderella,” Violet insisted.

“Sure, just like Cinderella,” he lied again.

Razor just hoped that their new version of Cinderella was able to clean up a bit and find some clothing that wasn’t soaked in blood.

He knew that Spade would have his back and not want Ella to show up at his house in blood-soaked clothing.

He knew that it wouldn’t be good for Violet to see that kind of thing.

“I can’t wait to meet your new friend, Daddy,” Violet squealed. He had a feeling that Ella was going to like meeting Violet, too. Because to him, Violet was one of the coolest kids that he had ever met.

“She’s excited to meet you, too, honey,” he lied.

Razor had no idea how Ella felt about kids.

He didn’t even know if she had any kids herself.

They didn’t get into specifics, like whether she was married or with someone when he took her statement.

He knew absolutely nothing about Ella. Maybe that should have sent up some red flags for him, but it didn’t.

For some odd reason, he trusted Ella and believed her story without any proof—and he was a very untrusting person.

Since losing Tori, he didn’t trust any other soul on the planet, well, except for Violet.

His daughter was so pure and innocent—he just hoped that she stayed that way once she reached her terrible teens.

Some of the guys in the Road Reapers had teenage girls and were going through hell trying to keep them on the right track.

The guys all liked to help each other out—keeping an ear to the ground for any news or gossip about the teen girls, and their system seemed to work.

Most of the young girls were too afraid of the big, bad bikers to cross the line between behaving and misbehaving.

Razor wondered if he’d have that same backup when Violet hit her terrible teens.

He pulled into his garage and found Spade standing by the door with Ella.

They were early, but that worked for him.

Hopefully, they’d all be able to pitch in and get him and Violet packed for their road trip.

The safehouse was about a five-hour drive, and in another state.

He wondered if Ella would be okay with leaving the state, but a part of him didn’t care because, as he had told her earlier, his number one priority was to keep her and Violet safe.

He wasn’t ever going to let his guard down again and let the Devils get close to his family.

Ella wasn’t his family, but the same rules applied.

She had been through hell and back, and while he pitied her, he also respected her immensely.

It took balls to do what she had done just to survive and get away from her captors.

And if something like that happened to her again, he’d put his money on Ella winning the battle.

She seemed to be as tough as they come, and he knew that she was going to probably give him trouble every step of the way.

“Is that her with Uncle Spade?” Violet asked.

“Yep,” Razor said, looking Ella over as she stared him down. When she realized that he was watching her, she seemed to become uncomfortable, making him feel like an ass for all the dirty thoughts that were currently running through his mind.

“She’s pretty,” Violet assessed.

“Yeah, she is,” Razor agreed. She had cleaned up well, and Spade, the asshole, had found her the tightest-fitting jeans and T-shirt that he could possibly find. And from the way that Spade was smiling at him through the front windshield, he knew exactly what Razor was thinking about Ella’s outfit.

“Why aren’t we getting out of the truck, Daddy?” Violet asked, snapping him out of the trance that Ella seemed to put him in.

“Daddy just needed a minute to think,” he said.

It wasn’t really a lie—he was thinking about how he was going to walk into his house without everyone noticing the boner that he was sporting.

He needed to remind his dick and himself that Ella had been through hell, and the last thing she needed was a man whose only idea was to offer her a hot night of sex.

She deserved more than that—especially since she had been raped by her last “Owner”.

The thought of some asshole taking her against her will made him want to forget his whole plan to keep Ella and his daughter safe and find the man who did that to her. He’d kill the fucker all over again.

“Come on, honey,” Razor said, “we need to pack up some things and then, we’re going to start our adventure.

Violet seemed to take to Ella immediately.

That was no surprise to him since she constantly asked him if she was ever going to get another mommy again.

He tried to tell her that she only got one of those in a lifetime, but she didn’t quite understand.

What four-year-old would? She missed her mother, even though she only remembered her through photos and the stories that Razor shared with her about Tori.

Violet told him that one of her classmates, Sam, got a new mom, and he was so happy.

Sam was really fucking up his life by sharing his good news with Violet.

She didn’t seem to stop talking about Sam and his happy family, but that wasn’t in the cards for him or Violet.

He’d have to date a woman, any woman, in order to end up married and give Violet what she so desperately wanted.

There were days when he wondered what that might look like for him—a wife to come home to, stability—the whole nine yards, but he just didn’t have it in him to even think about dating.

He was happy when Ella agreed to help Violet pack her things for their trip.

That gave him free time to pack for himself and go over the plan once again with Spade.

“Are you sure that you want to do this, man?” Spade asked.

“We can get a plainclothes officer to keep an eye on her. Hell, we can get one of them to take her to the safehouse and stay with her. You wouldn’t have to uproot Violet that way.

” He knew that taking his daughter out of school and moving her to a safehouse out of state wasn’t ideal, but he had made Ella a promise, and there was no way that he'd leave Violet for possibly what might turn into months away from home.

“I’m sure,” he said. “There’s something about the sadness that I see in her eyes—it reminds me of the vacant stare that I found on my wife’s face after she died.

They just left her lying on the kitchen floor, a knife in her gut, and that fucking vacant stare looking back at me.

I’ll never forget it, man. Today is the anniversary of her death, and I guess finding Ella is bringing back all the bad memories. ”

“I’m sorry that you had to go through all of that,” Spade said.

“I wish that I had known you better back then. I would have helped you pick up the pieces. I couldn’t imagine anything happening to Cynthia.

” Razor used to say the same thing. He could never imagine anyone hurting his wife, but the Devils took Tori away from him, and he’d never be able to get her back.

“She was pregnant,” he admitted. “That’s something that I’ve never told anyone.

” Razor swallowed past the lump in his throat and continued.

“She was about three months along. We didn’t know about the baby at the time of her murder—at least, I didn’t know about him.

We were going to have a boy, and the Devils took them both from me.

I never got the chance to meet my son, and my wife lost her chance to watch our daughter grow up.

Now, I have to figure out how to be a dad and mom to my little girl.

That’s why I want to do this. I want to make the Devils hurt the way that they made me hurt. ”

“You are playing a dangerous game, man,” Spade insisted.

“I know, but I’m not going to change my mind. They’ll want her back, man. You and I both know how the Devils work. They will come after Ella because they believe that she’s their property.”