Page 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Summerville Lex

D ani hasn't left the guest room in the presence of Lex or Colt since she came to the house, but Lex has heard her leave the room and go to the bathroom. And based on the bottled water missing from the fridge, she's hydrating. Food, though, hasn't been consumed. Lex knows the poor woman needs space to process everything that happened to her, but at some point, food will need to be consumed.

Colt left to spend the day with Dax, who has not stopped texting and calling since they brought Dani home with them. It'll be good to have him focusing on something other than the wife he doesn't have at home. He didn't really have her when she was at home, either, so it's not really here nor there.

“What are you making?” Dani asks.

She snuck into the kitchen so quietly that Lex jumped. “Pancakes right now. Bacon's in the oven. I know it's not as good as on the stove, but I hate cleaning up the grease splatter. I'm also thinking about frying a few eggs when the pancakes are done. Want some?”

“Please.”

Dani sits at the table, and her eyes glance all around the room. As much as Lex wants to look at her and ask her how she's doing, she just pretends like it's totally normal for the President's wife to live at her house and wait for breakfast.

“Colt's out with Dax right now,” Lex says after the fourth time she catches Dani's head cranking to look all around the area.

“Where are your kids? I heard you have two.”

Smiling, she nods. “Yeah, two. They're with their grandmas for the week. We went to a wedding in Griffin's Beach, and Colt's mom watched the kids. Between her and my mom, they're having major grandbaby withdrawals and asked to keep them for the week. Which works out pretty well since the last thing you need is two rambunctious kids running around screaming.”

Lex pulls the bacon out of the oven, and she finishes the pancakes before cracking a couple of eggs into a pan. When everything's finished up, she makes up two plates and sets them on the table. She grabs the butter and syrup, setting them in front of Dani before pouring two glasses of orange juice.

“This looks good,” Dani says as she digs in. “Really good.”

Smiling, Lex just thanks God the girl is finally eating. “Well, thank you. I don't usually make big breakfasts without the kids around, but that's because Colt doesn't usually let me get very far if I try.”

“You two really love each other.”

“We had a few issues a little while back, so we're kind of making up for lost time.”

Her eyes lock on Lex. “What kind of issues? If you don't mind me asking.”

“No, it's fine. I'm basically an open book about my life. Just a heads up that if you want to open this door, you'll probably get more than you bargained for.”

She laughs, and it's the first time Lex has heard it. “That's okay.”

“We split up, actually. He went through a dark period, and, as many of the men in the club do, he thought he could handle it alone. Which went super well, as you can about imagine.”

Swallowing another bit of food, Dani sets down her fork. “What happened to cause the dark period?”

“He lost a guy during a fight with the Savage Slashers. He sacrificed himself for Colt, and he was a year younger than Colt's brother would have been. Really fucked with his head, but he never let me in. At least, not until it was too late.”

“Oh, man.”

“Yeah, he missed birthdays and anniversaries. But the real kicker was a twat from Black Valley telling me she was going to take him from me. That she was sleeping with him. When I got the worst care package in the world, complete with pictures of an ultrasound and him lying on a bed naked, I knew it was time to leave.”

Her jaw drops, fork midway to her mouth. “Colt knocked up a club bunny?”

“No, it was a fake ultrasound. No, wait, it wasn't fake. It just wasn't hers. They never slept together, even though she tried, but the fact is, he put himself in a position for me to doubt him. Worse than that, he made me doubt us. And I was losing my fucking mind. I think it's hard for women, especially after we've given birth once or twice, not to blame ourselves when shit happens. I thought about getting plastic surgery. That’s when I knew I was bordering on needing some type of intervention.”

“Trust me, you don't need surgery.”

Laughing, Lex cups her chest. “Thanks, but I wouldn't mind doing a little something to the girls, though. A lift, maybe. Breastfeeding was hell on these puppies.”

Setting her fork down, Dani leans back. “Dax and I used to talk about kids.”

“If you ever want a kid fix, I got you.”

She nods and forces a smile. “What's the deal with the patch over? I know you kind of explained it before, but the basement time was all a blur.”

“Uh, the Drifters had an issue with the Slashers, and the Hellraisers came to offer support and assistance. It started as a connection for business because they worked their way out of their other business. You know, car parts instead of pharmaceuticals,” Lex says, and Dani laughs. “Mac and Finnegan approached Griffin's Beach with the patch-over idea if things went well with the ‘helping’ or whatever.”

“Mac and Finnegan went over Dax's head?”

“Well... Dax wasn't really Dax anymore. At least, from what they say. I think they were trying to save their lives by having him accountable to other people equal to or above him, depending on how you look at everything. His grief took over, and he got reckless.”

“How'd he handle that?”

Lex shrugs. “From what I understand, he didn't really care. Went with it because the rest of the Hellraisers wanted it. He even offered to step down if that's what they wanted, but they didn't.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “I saw my headstone. It's so weird seeing it.”

“I can imagine. I have a friend in Griffin's Beach who had one, too.”

“Did they bury someone else instead of her, too?”

“Nope, hers was empty. Thought she was lost when she was driven over the bluffs on fire. Showed up a year later, surprising us all. But, you also have a hell of a memorial tattoo on Dax's back. Daphne did a hell of a job.”

Dani looks out the window. “It's so surreal to know there's a headstone out there with my name on it. And a death date. I'm also memorialized on Dax's back, but I'm not dead. I'm not alive, but I'm not dead.” She pauses, and Lex waits for her to say something else. “Your friend who came back from the dead. How's she doing now?”

“She's good. Struggled a little at first, but it's partially because her husband, Tripp, didn't really know how to handle her. She hated feeling like she was made of glass about to break. Plus, he kind of had a kid with a club bunny we all fucking hated, so that didn't really help, either.”

“But she's good now?”

Nodding, Lex smiles. “Three kids. The one Tripp had with Melody. Fucking bitch. She helped try to kill Avery. Then they adopted Theo, who's the sweetest boy, and they adopted a redheaded little girl named Bonnie.”

“She got through it by talking about what happened to her?”

“Yeah.”

“I don't think I can ever talk about what happened to me,” she whispers, her eyes locking on Lex. “I don't want to relive it with anyone.”

Reaching a hand out, Lex takes Dani's and squeezes it. “I think you are reliving it. In your mind, alone. I won't force you to talk about anything you don't want to, but I think you should think about what holding it in means. How it keeps you a prisoner, mentally, because you're stuck in your own head. Honestly, being stuck there mentally instead of physically might be worse.”

“I suppose, but I'm just not... I'm not ready.”

“That's okay. You have a whole group of people ready whenever you are.”

“I like you,” Dani says and smiles. “You don't expect anything from me. You don't look at me like I'm a ghost and causing you pain. Plus, no one stands up to Dax like you did. When he got in your face, it was kind of scary.”

Waving her free hand in the air, Lex laughs. “That was nothing. Seriously. I knew he wouldn't hit me, but if he did, I have a mean right hook. Just ask our six-foot-something member, Ky Short. He fell backwards when I put my weight behind it.”

“You hit a member?”

“I've hit more than one,” she says and laughs again. “And many club bunnies. Can I just say, though, I fucking love the bunnies here. They're so respectful and not trashy. Do you think they'd be willing to come and teach the other bunnies?”

Her eyebrows lift. “You like the bunnies here?”

“Wait until you see the bunnies in the other two charters. Trust me, these women are saints compared to them.”

“Wow,” Dani says, leaning back and pulling her hand from Lex. “These are words I never thought I'd hear from an old lady. Tell me more about you hitting a member. Why'd you hit Ky?”

“He got pissed and threw my difficult relationship with my father in my face. Then he kept getting too close, and I just socked him. Knocked him on his ass, and everyone stared. No one moved. I seem to scare people sometimes. It's, you know, a gift.”

She laughs and shakes her head. “I heard you were a badass years ago, but I need to hear more.”

“What kind of story are you looking for? How I got myself kidnapped by a rival club that was coming after my girl, Lacey? I also took on a car to save Colt's sister from my ex-fiancé. Well, his goon, but same thing. That one fucking hurt, though. Oh, there was a time I shot a Devil’s Advocates member and helped dismember him in the bathtub. That was really gross. Gross but necessary.”

“You've killed for the club?”

“A few of us have,” Lex says with a shrug. To her, it's no big deal, but knowing how Hannah got time for running a rival over, it might be just her experience. “At least in Griffin's Beach. You don't wanna mess with some of the old ladies there.”

“Really?”

She nods. For the first time since she saw Dani in the basement, she didn’t look scared and ghostly. “There was also the time I got kidnapped with two kids of the club, and we had to get out. I killed the guy who took us, who happened to be the illegitimate child of the club member my now-mother-in-law cheated with. But it was him or me, so I chose him.”

“Wow.”

“Trust me, you're safe here with me. Besides, at the end of the day, I'm a pretty sweet target for others to take. I mean, I'm the daughter of the mother charter's VP, daughter-in-law of the Sergeant at Arms, an old lady, and a mother of the club. If we were in a lineup, Lily Hankinson and I are the ones most likely to be picked by an enemy.”

“So... why'd you move to Summerville?”

Leaning back, she looks up at the ceiling. “Because of my relationship with the officers of the club, I guess? My father and I have always had a difficult relationship thanks to the fact that I'm a product of cheating while his wife was dying of cancer. My half-brother, Zane, hates my guts, although he tries to hide it now that I'm back. He's the reason I hate my birthday.”

“Your brother sounds like an ass.”

“You'll get no arguments from me. We had a short-lived decent relationship when I kept his girl from bolting, and then took her place in the whole kidnapping thing because she was pregnant. But he's back to hating me for the most part. Granted, he'd probably come to my rescue if I was in danger. Okay, mortal danger, but it would have to be extreme.”

“But you like Summerville?”

She nods and smiles at Dani. “I do. There are a few reasons why I left my hometown, and I don't have the same issues here. It's kind of been freeing and really healing.”

“I'm personally glad you came here,” she says, and to both of their surprise, she laughs.

“I bet you are,” Lex jokes. “But seriously, I'm glad you're free. At least physically. I do think you should talk to Dax, though. The poor guy's grasping at straws, trying to know what you're feeling as well as trying to communicate how he feels. He feels helpless, and you know as well as I do that the last thing any of those guys can handle is feeling helpless.”

“Coming here was a good start at getting what I need,” she says. “It got so difficult because I know how much he hurts. How he wants to just hold me and know I'm there, but I'm not... I don't think I'm really Dani anymore. Not the version he wants and remembers. Nothing seems to register with him to see that. I'm not sure he can love the new me.”

Shaking her head, she smirks. “Trust me, babe, you don't have to worry about that. He loves you. He will always love you. The question is, is that love enough to get you through this?”

“I don't know,” she answers honestly. “That's part of what I have to figure out.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“You can start by telling me what you did to that club bunny who tried to take your man. I can't imagine you let her get away with it.”

Laughing, Lex looks at the ceiling. “I didn't, but you'll never believe the turn of events. She's an old lady now.”

“Wait, what?”