Page 35 of Shine: Sins of the Father (Evil Dead MC: Second Generation #8)

Shine—

Reckless drags a ragged hand through his hair, his eyes hollow. “Fiona’s been in a car accident, brother.”

Everything in me goes still, and I feel a surge of adrenaline race through my veins. I grab his shirt. “The baby…?”

“I don’t know. He was in the car. If he was strapped into his car seat, maybe he’s okay.”

“I need to go. I need to see Fiona. Is she okay?”

Reckless puts a hand on my chest, holding me back. “I don’t know. Shine, you can’t go. The guys… they don’t know you’re the father.”

I shove his hand away. “I don’t give a damn. Show me the way to this fucking hospital, Reckless. Now.”

We barely make it a few blocks when we pass flashing lights. We roll to the red light, and I survey the vehicles.

Reckless points to a car being lifted onto a flatbed tow truck.

“Fiona’s,” he yells over our idling engines.

My heart drops to the pit of my stomach. The car looks like it was put in a can crusher.

The light turns green.

“Go,” I yell.

Reckless gets the point and roars down the road, weaving between cars to get me to the hospital.

Fifteen minutes later, he turns into the parking lot, me on his tail. When we come through the sliding doors into the emergency room, it’s crowded with our brothers. Many turn when the two of us enter. One of them is Wolf, who’s talking to Cole.

“How’s Fiona?” Reckless asks.

I bypass the men standing in a group and go straight to admitting. “A woman and little boy were brought in from a car accident. Fiona and Dylan. I need to see them.”

“I’m sorry, sir. Only immediate family is allowed back.”

“I’m the boy’s father.”

Silence falls behind me as every one of my brothers shuts up.

“All right, sir. It’s bay five.” She presses a button and buzzes the doors open. I dash through, not carrying what chaos I just unleashed behind me in the waiting room.

Shouts carry through the doors, and I spot a couple of security guards moving that way.

I find the bay and through a parted green curtain, I spot Fiona on a gurney, holding a child.

Her mother stands next to her.

Fiona’s eyes get huge when she sees me, but I ignore that and the probable heart failure I’m giving her right now.

“Baby, are you okay?”

“Yes. What are you doing here?”

“I heard my son was in a car accident. Where else would I be?”

Crystal’s mouth drops open, but she recovers, patting Fiona’s hand. “I’ll be in the waiting room. Text me if you need me.”

“Wait, Mom,” Fiona protests, but she’s already gone.

I walk closer and take in my son for the first time. He’s blond, like me, with long lashes framing beautiful eyes that stare at me. He looks drowsy.

“Is he okay?”

“They sent him for imaging. He was just brought back to me. They had him sedated.” She strokes the top of his head. “The doctor should be in any minute to tell me if they found any internal damage.”

I stare at the boy in wonder. My son. I reach out and stroke his blond curls. He seems fine, and I can only pray he is. My eyes lift to Fiona, and I cup her cheek. She turns into my touch, and that means the world to me.

“What about you? Are you okay?”

“While he was in pediatric radiology, they took me down for an x-ray. I’m fine. No fracture, just bruising.”

“That’s wonderful news. Are you in a lot of pain?”

“It’s uncomfortable. They gave me something for the pain.”

“Is it helping?”

“A little. It took the edge off.”

“What happened?”

She tells me everything about the car accident, then frowns.

“How did you find out?”

“Reckless asked me where I was. I told him I’d been waiting at that park for you, but you didn’t show. Five minutes later, he pulled up on his bike and told me what happened. I raced right over. Reckless tried to stop me, but I wasn’t having any of that.”

“Did my father see you?”

“Babe, the waiting room is filled with leather cuts. I breezed right past everyone and went straight to the nurse, demanding to see you. When she said only immediate family was allowed back, I told her I was Dylan’s father.”

“Reckless told you?”

“Babe, Reckless told me the morning you cut out on me.”

“You knew? All this time you knew? Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I was waiting for you to tell me. I wanted to hear the words come out of your mouth.”

Her face falls in shame. “I tried to tell you. A million times, but I was afraid. I was going to tell you that first night, but then my father started hollering in the hallway. And then at the diner, but I chickened out.”

“What were you afraid of?”

“A million things. I was afraid of how my father would react, and the longer I waited, the harder it got. Plus, I was afraid of that man who shot at us. I can’t put a target on our son’s back.”

I look at the child, thinking about what she says. Then look at her. “I swear to you, Fiona. I’m not going to let that man anywhere near you or our child.”

She gets tears in her eyes and nods, then looks toward the waiting area. “Does my father know?”

“He heard me tell the nurse, and before she buzzed me back, I saw the look on his face; pretty sure he wants my hide nailed to his clubhouse wall.”

“This is such a mess.”

“I don’t give a damn about that. I want to be a part of our child’s life, Fiona. I know you’re capable of raising him. I’ve seen the way you built that business from nothing. You’re a strong woman, but you don’t have to do this all alone. Not anymore.”

She tears up again, and the baby fusses.

“Can I hold him?”

“Of course.” She passes him to me.

We only have a moment before Wolf, with Crystal on his heels, bursts in.

He and I stare at each other, and Wolf points at me. “I want to see you back at the clubhouse.” Then he looks at his daughter. “You should have told me, Fee. You should have fucking told me.”

He walks out, and I see the guilt wrack her face. A moment later, she bursts into tears, burying her face in her hands, and I’ve never wanted to tear a man apart more than I do Wolf at that moment.

Crystal puts her arms around her daughter. “Oh, honey. It’s all going to be okay.” Then she looks at me and her grandson in my arms. “Are you going to want to be a part of Dylan’s life? A permanent part?”

“Yes, ma’am. I have no intention of going anywhere.”

“My husband is pretty upset.”

“I think that’s probably an understatement.”

She nods. “He has reason, though, doesn’t he?”

“I admit, this could have been handled differently, but—”

“It’s all my fault, Mom. I’m the one who didn’t tell Shine about Dylan. I’m the one who wouldn’t tell Daddy who the father was. I’m the one who messed this all up. If he’s pissed at anyone, it should be me, not Shine.”

“Sweetheart,” her mother says, stroking her back. “He is pissed at you, but you he will forgive. What he’s having a hard time with is that Shine and you hooked up and Shine never told him.”

“Shine didn’t know I was anyone’s daughter, Mom. He had no clue.”

“But eventually, he found out, and he didn’t come clean.”

“Can you blame him?”

“No, but the club has its own code.”

“Your mom is right, Fiona. I need to go talk to him. I’m not afraid to face that music, but there’s no way he’s keeping me from you or our son.”

She reaches for me, grabbing my wrist. “I need you. You can’t let him drive you back to Nevada.”

“There’s no chance in hell of that happening, sweetness. Don’t even think it.”

“I’ll give you some privacy,” Crystal says, then walks out after kissing her daughter’s head.

Fiona studies me holding our child. “That’s a lovely sight. I’m sorry I robbed you of all these months. I should have told you long ago.”

“That’s what you were coming to tell me at the park, wasn’t it?”

“Yes. I knew I had to stop putting it off. I knew you either had to forgive me for keeping it from you for so long or we’d never get past it. Do you forgive me, Shine? I’m so sorry.”

“Why didn’t you get word to me? I would have come to you immediately.”

“I was scared, and I think what I was most afraid of was that you wouldn’t care. And that would have hurt ten times worse.”

***

Wolf—

I stalk outside to the parking lot where I find the club gathered, smoking cigarettes.

Cole looks up. “Any news, brother?”

“Fiona has some bruising around her ribs, but no fracture. The doctor hasn’t come back to tell us the results of Dylan’s scans.”

He nods.

My eyes move around the circle of men, all who now know Shine is the father of Fiona’s baby, and I see their nervousness, all wondering how I’m going to deal with it. My gaze stops on Reckless, and I jab a finger at him.

“You. You knew about this, didn’t you? I bet you knew about it from the very fucking beginning.”

He looks guilty as hell, and I want to drive my fist into his face. Hell, I need to punch something; why not him?

I take a step, and Cole puts a fist in my shirt, shoving me back. “Cool off, Wolf. Your problem is with Shine, not any of these boys.”

If any other brother had done that, I’d punch his face, but Cole is my president, and I still have respect for that patch he wears.

I clench my fist. “When he comes out here, I’m gonna beat the shit out of him.”

“Hey, you know what?” Green walks over grinning. The sight of that alone makes me want to hit him. There is nothing about this situation that should have him smiling.

“I had a revelation,” he continues. “Last time Shine was here was when he stayed up at the cabin. So…” Green raises his brows at me.

“That means Fiona was the girl at the cabin, the one he was bragging to us about. And…” He draws out the word like the finale we’ve all been waiting for. “You high-fived him.”

He bursts into laughter, and I feel my face heat with anger.

“You high-fived him for banging your daughter.”

I rear back and punch Green right in the face. His head snaps back and his hand flies to the bridge of his nose, pinching where blood already streams from his broken nose.

“Yeah, I heard it once I said it out loud. I deserved that.”

Jake pushes Green off, and Shane steps into my way.

“Back up,” Shane lifts a brow at me when I don’t budge.

I shake my head at Green and turn, but it was the release of rage I needed. I feel like I can think a little straighter now.

Stalking toward Cole, I hear Jake behind me.

“That was dumb as rocks, Green. Even for you.”

“Meh, he looked like he needed a release,” Green replies.

Leave it to the man to egg me on because he knew I needed a punching bag. He’s an asshole, but he’s a good brother.

I spot Crystal stalking out toward us. My ol’ lady flings a hand out and glares at Cole. “Why are you letting this go on? For God’s sake, this is a hospital.”

“Well, technically, it’s the parking lot,” Rafe tells his mom and gets a scowl in return.

“Crystal, sweetheart,” Cole begins. “Wolf needed to punch somebody, and Green volunteered.”

The men collapse in laughter around us.

“He ain’t wrong,” Red Dog chuckles.