Bad Boy's Baby: Wicked Angels MC (13 page)

The front door opened and closed again and there was a rapid patter of footsteps. Thinking it was Jenny, I perked up and looked around the side of the open gate. But it wasn’t Jenny; it was her mother. She was striding towards me with her jaw set and her thin lips in a narrow line.

“Mr. Mayer,” she said softly. “I had hoped the guard would work, but I see I’ll have to deal with you myself.”

“Where’s Jenny?” I bristled in anger and reached out for her, completely forgetting that twenty minutes ago my goal had been to win over Jenny’s parents once and for all. “Where is she?”

“She’s not available right now,” Jenny’s mother said softly, in the same direct tone her bodyguard had used. “I don’t think she’ll be available for the near future, Tristan. Jenny’s going to be a very busy little girl. She’s going off to college soon, and she’ll have a whole new set of challenges away from home.”

I balled my hands into fists and shoved them in my pockets. “I just need to talk to her,” I said, trying to keep my voice as calm as I could. “Don’t you get that?”

Jenny’s mother sighed. She straightened up and for the first time, I realized just how little resemblance there was between mother and daughter. “I’m sure the two of you don’t have anything to talk about,” she said in the same sweet but firm voice. “Now, if you won’t mind leaving, I’m just about to go out and run some errands.”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving until I talk to Jenny,” I said firmly. My jaw was already swelling and talking was painful. Sweat had broken out all over my body and in the chilly morning air, I felt goose bumps rise on my exposed skin. “I mean it,” I said softly. “I just want to talk to her. Ten minutes.”

Jenny’s mother shook her head. “This conversation is over, Mr. Mayer,” she replied. “Now, if you’ll excuse me.”

I protested loudly but she turned away, walking back towards the house with the click of her heels. The bodyguard was standing there, watching me. He grinned and when I held up a fist, his face sobered.

“Leave,” he said. “Leave or you’ll regret it.”

The blood was pounding hot in my ears as I walked around and climbed in the driver’s seat of my car. I didn’t know what had happened, but it must have been something bad. I knew that I had to get someplace private and call Jenny, lie and say it was her college admissions department or something. Anything. I knew I had to try. I couldn’t let Jenny go away and disappear forever. After all, she was mine. Mine, and I had to take care of her, protect her from people like her parents.

Driving home, I felt the nervous feeling from that morning settle over me like a fog. By the time I pulled up in front of the shack where we lived, my heart was pounding again. I had a bad feeling, like everything had gone off the rails.

“Mom?” I called out when I let myself inside. “Are you home?”

There was no reply, only the sound of the door slamming behind me. Fear rose in my throat like bile as I raced into the kitchen. Mom was slumped over, still seated at the table. Her face was smashed up against her hand and I realized she wasn’t breathing by the time I got to her side. She had simply given up, gone to a better place.

I laughed bitterly. So far, today was the worst day of my life. It wasn’t even noon, but I had the greatest sense of loss I’d ever felt.

I shook my head slowly, trying to clear the memories from my murky mind. I hated thinking about that day. Every aspect made me sick, from the way Jenny had refused to see me to the way my mom had died as soon as I’d left home. I felt like a complete failure, even now. Like all of this was my fault.

“That’s not true and you know it,” I said forcefully into the mirror. But despite the heavy sentiment behind my words, I didn’t feel very convinced.

Even though it was only the middle of the day, I found Rod in the kitchen and told him I wanted to go to the bar.

“I need to get out of here for a while,” I told him seriously. “I need to talk to you guys about something serious.”

Rod nodded. “Jenny?”

I nodded without replying. “Call Andy and Wolf,” I said darkly. “I want all of y’all to hear this.”

Half an hour later, I was slipping into the Wicked Angels’ favorite haunt. I’d called one of the prospect members to watch over Jenny and Phin. She’d had the nerve to ask me if she could go to work in the morning. It was ludicrous; every time she stepped out of the house, she was in danger. And yet it was like she didn’t care, or didn’t understand just how dire things were.

“What’s up?” I hadn’t seen Andy or Wolf in a couple of weeks, and they seemed bigger, scruffier to me. Andy’s voice boomed across the bar as he greeted me and I couldn’t help but grin. Being around my guys, no matter how bad things were, always made me feel a little better.

“I need to talk to you guys,” I said darkly. “Rod told you about that girl staying with me, and her son?”

Andy and Wolf nodded.

“She’s an ex of mine,” I said. “We dated when we were kids. It was serious, we were in love.” Andy and Wolf burst out laughing. Even though I couldn’t blame them, I frowned. They were used to me being hot shit and fucking who I wanted. Neither one of them had ever seen me with a girlfriend. When they realized I wasn’t joking, they both sobered up.

“What happened?” 

I shrugged. “She left me,” I said flatly. “The morning after her eighteenth birthday I showed up at her place and she wouldn’t see me. Her mother tried to pay me off but I didn’t take the money.”

“You should have,” Andy said. He swigged back most of his beer in one gulp. “Don’t you think things would have been better that way?”

“Fuck no,” I said, downing a shot of whiskey the cute waitress had placed in front of me. “Definitely not. I was trying to win her parents over, not buy into their schemes.”

“Fuckin’ parents,” Rod said darkly. He drank some of his beer and wiped his hand with the back of his mouth. “Always wantin’ to lock up their daughters away from us outlaws.”

Andy and Wolf sniggered into their drinks.

“I woulda done right by her,” I said. “But all that’s over now.”

“So why is she hangin’ around?”

“Remember Darius?” I hadn’t met my guys until after Darius and I were no longer friends, but he’d come up loads of times. After all, he was the chief outlaw in Centreville. The Wicked Angels had spent a lot of time trying to corral him and keep the rest of the town safe. It was something that was like a never-ending job; Darius always had a few tricks up his sleeve.

The guys nodded. Andy let out a low whistle. “Yeah, man. Is he fuckin’ with your girl?”

“She’s not my girl,” I said quickly, downing another shot. “But Darius is fucking with her, yeah. He sent some thugs to scare her at her job, and I just happened to show up. I heard them talking about attacking her at this bar and I followed them. I didn’t think they were gonna fuckin’ do it, but they were about ready to kidnap her and drag her off on one of their bikes.”

Andy’s jaw dropped. Rod nodded sagely; I had the feeling he knew just how serious this situation was. Even though we didn’t have a lot of heart-to-hearts, Rod was always good at reading the situation for severity.

“And then what?” Wolf raised his eyebrows. “You tellin’ me that these guys just wanna fuck with her, to what, get to us? How is that gonna work?”

I sighed. “She’s staying with me right now because she needs protection,” I said. “I stuck one of the prospects with her.”

“She has a kid,” Rod added darkly. “An eight-year-old son. Y’all can’t tell me you disapprove of protecting a little kid.”

“Yeah,” I said, grateful that at least one friend had my back. “I think it’ll all blow over sooner than later, but for right now, we need to be cautious.”

“So why does this matter?” Andy leaned back in his chair and eyed me levelly. “I mean, she’s an ex. Why does this matter now? Who cares, man? She fuckin’ left you!”

Anger boiled up in me and I had to consciously fight the urge to deck him. If it had been me in his shoes, I probably would have said the same thing. But that was no excuse for ignorance. And what happened to chivalry? Sure, the Angels weren’t the masters of civility, but we knew how to treat and protect women. After all, it was like part of the job.

“She’s vulnerable and alone,” I said sharply. “And I gotta look out for her.”

Andy nodded. “Fine,” he said. “What else?”

Rod and Wolf looked at me.

“Have you guys heard anything else about Darius? I want to find out exactly what his end-game is here,” I added.

“Well, y’all were friends when you were younger,” Rod said. “And he hated you for succeeding when he never did. Do you think he’s just trying to pull us down? Distract us with Jenny and then sink his teeth into our Achilles’ heel?”

It was a black thought, but Rod was probably right. “Probably,” I admitted. “I’m sorry, you guys. I didn’t think it would blow up like this. After all, we were friends ten years ago.”

Andy frowned. “What happened?”

I shrugged. “He hated me for not being an outlaw,” I said. “He hated me for wanting to do right by Jenny. We were friends when I was dating her, and he hated how important she was to me. It was like I couldn’t let a few hours go by without talking to her and making sure she was okay. Darius knew how important she was to me, and he exploited the fuck out of that. And when I didn’t drop her, he got fed up with me.”

“But she dropped you, man, why didn’t you just go back to being friends with him?”

My stomach turned and I was reminded of the scene I’d thought over before meeting up with the guys. Jenny leaving, Mom dying, all in the same day.

“A lot happened at once,” I said finally. “And I didn’t feel like I could deal with being friends with him again. He didn’t trust me, and if I was broken up over Jenny, well, I didn’t want to admit that he’d been right. He always told me that she was too good for me and that one day would come when she’d realize that. And I didn’t want the bastard to know the truth.”

The guys nodded. The silence between us was comfortable, but I still felt like I was oversharing. Even with Rod, my best friend, it seemed like I was saying way too much.

“So, she’s been attacked twice,” I said cautiously. “We need to keep an eye on her until we’ve subdued Darius. He must have his guys watching my house, because the second time was right after she snuck out.” I glared at Rod, still not entirely having forgotten about the incident. “And she shouldn’t have been outside alone, but she barely got twenty feet alone before those thugs showed up and tried to snatch her.”

“This is more serious than I thought,” Andy said. “How you want to get him back?”

“I don’t know,” I said, frowning. I steepled my hands on the table and rested my forehead on the hot skin of my fingers. “I mean, I told him to leave her alone. I threatened that I’d hurt him. But that was before the second time she was attacked. So obviously he didn’t listen, and obviously he wants to keep fucking with me.”

“And what about the kid? Don’t you think that’s a liability, man?”

I blinked. Andy, Rod, and Wolf kept their eyes trained on me. “He’s mine,” I said finally. “She was pregnant when she left, and she never told me. She never thought to get in touch and tell me,” I said. The words were hard to get out; it felt like I was choking on the severity of the situation. “His name is Phin, and he’s my son. Well, mine and Jenny’s. And he doesn’t know I’m his dad, yet.”

Rod nodded. I could tell he’d basically guessed as much from our conversation. I met his eyes, silently thanking him for not giving me up to the others.

“And you can’t tell a damn soul,” I said seriously. “If anyone finds out about this kid, or my past with her, that’s an easy way to exploit me. I’ll be in trouble, and so will they.”

The guys all promised not to say anything. After that, the air hung heavy between us. I didn’t want to keep talking about it, so I ordered a round of shots and watched Andy pull the cute waitress down on his lap.