Embracing Everly (2 page)

I shrugged, pretending like I didn’t get it, but I did.

“It’s not Chris I need you to watch over. It’s Everly.”

“Everly? Why? What the hell went down? Where is she?”

He sighed so heavily I could hear the trepidation behind his unspoken words. “College.”

“Where?”

“A small school in North Carolina, Charlotte to be exact.”

“How soon and does she know?”

“She’s my next call. I wanted to make sure you could do this for me, for her.”

“I’ll need to call a meeting, but it shouldn’t be a problem. I could put her on lockdown to keep her hidden.”

He snickered, and it brought a small smile to my face. “I’ll be gone way too long for that. Besides, she needs to stay in school. She can’t know where I’m going or why. She thinks since I work for the DEA that makes me some kind of hero.” He paused to take a drink. “Dawson, I’ve been undercover for over three fucking years. I’ve killed to keep that cover. She doesn’t know shit because she’s been gone. This is her last year, and she only has one semester left. Is there any chance you can go there and take care of her without warning her? Just watch from a distance?”

I shook my head unable to grant his request. “I can’t leave for that long. I got commitments to my company. You want her safe. She goes on lockdown, which means she finds out.”

“That’s it? That’s all you can offer?”

I knew I could do more. I couldn’t go, but we had a young newbie who I thought of like a son and could keep her safe.

“What?” he asked his question full of hope. “I can tell you’re thinking.”

“I might be able to give her a month or two of college but that’s probably it. I got a guy, young, a new recruit that would work. I could place him there, have him make contact with her, befriend her if that would be better? He’s a tough kid.”

“You trust this guy?”

I snorted. “Yeah, I trust any one of my boys. How dangerous is this? And more importantly, why does she need protection?”

“You need to be the one to pick her up if something goes down. I don’t trust anyone with her. She’s my life, Dawson. She’s all I got left.”

I tapped out a cigarette and lit it as I listened to his words. Asking the next obvious question, although painful, had to be done. “Where’s Cristina?”

“Dead.” He said stony-eyed and emotionless.

Shocked by his news, but unable to hide the fact that I was bowled over, I stubbed out my cigarette. “Jesus Christ. When? How?”

“Just over three years now. Cancer. That’s why I did it. I took the job to keep myself busy. Chris died, and Everly was off at school and I knew I’d go batshit crazy staying behind the desk. I got the offer of a lifetime. I infiltrated an entire club, and it took time, a lot of time, Dawson.”

“You could’ve called. I would’ve been there.” He didn’t respond, and I could just picture him holed up, alone and miserable not moving on if it weren’t for that job or taking care of Everly. I scratched my head still barely grasping the curveballs he’d been throwing. “Who the hell did you nail?”

“It’s bad man. I was undercover deep. I took down almost an entire charter of the Grim Reapers up in Maryland.” He took my pack of smokes and pulled one out and lit it. “No one knows about Everly. I’ve kept her hidden since she was a little girl. Private schools and now gone off to college. She’s never home, I always go to her. But if someone digs deep enough, another charter maybe, they might figure it out and go after her to hurt me—to draw me out. People are looking for me, and when they can’t find me they’ll go after my family. I can’t have anything happen to her.”

“I said I’d take care of it.”

“Her, not it, Dawson. She’s your goddaughter—family. Your little club is all about family right?”

“Yeah, but Thomas, you haven’t been my family for almost fifteen fucking years. I barely remember her. Not to mention, I never even got one damn thank you for all the birthdays I sent something to her. Nothing. You kept her out of my life.” The first part was a lie. I had a picture of us all together that Christina sent me a few days after the showdown. And whenever I was down I’d look at it wishing I had the balls to call him. The birthday money I sent went unspoken of. Every year no matter what had been going on with me, I had always sent her something and never heard from any of them. My head wrote her off, but my heart never forgot her.

“That was your choice, Dawson. You could’ve said no to Christina. You should’ve said no to her.” His voice grew deeper, harsher as he continued. “Don’t think I don’t know how she looked at you. I knew she thought about you, and I hated it, but I loved you like a real brother. Then you went and started some damn club and turned a blind eye to the law, especially knowing that I am the law, well it kind of hurt me,” he gritted the last part out, poking his chest with his finger. “We were partners.”

We went to high school and then to the same college, and we continued as the dynamic duo all the way to the Police Academy. When he left for the DEA’s office, I walked. I didn’t want to do it without him. It was never really the life I saw for myself anyway. I hated letting certain cases slip through our fingers because we didn’t have enough evidence. Like a woman’s beaten face wasn’t enough to nail them. I decided to take matters into my own hands.

“Don’t start with the lectures now, Thomas. You seem to have no problem when you need protecting. You’re here asking for my club’s help, aren’t ya?”

“I’m not asking you to protect me. I’m asking you to protect her. The only real family besides me that you have left. Please, I’ll beg if I need to. I can’t disappear with her. It’s too dangerous.”

He knew I’d do it. For him, but most importantly for Everly. I might have walked away for a different life a long time ago after what happened, but I loved them. Hell, they were the only ones I’d ever really loved to this day.

“I want every fucking detail there is about her, and Thomas you better make sure she knows about me. I don’t need her flying off the rails, screaming and shit if I have to move in and take her. It has been a long time. She ain’t gonna recognize me.”

“She’ll know to expect you someday soon. She understands portions of my life. When the time comes, well, if it comes, tell her what you need to. But, Dawson she doesn’t know or understand your life. Please keep her away from your… let’s just say… extracurricular activities. She’s a good girl, man.”

Of course, I’d keep her away, but I always enjoyed rattling his feathers a little bit. At least I used to. “I’ll do my best.”

“And, Dawson, do not let one fucker in your club touch her. Do you understand me?”

“I can’t promise shit when it comes to that, Thomas. My men…”

“You fucking promise me not one of your thugs touches her.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t just say that since I’m doing you a favor. A big fucking favor. As I said, I’ll do my best to keep her clear of the clubhouse.” And, I would, I just wouldn’t tell him that. Besides most of my boys were pretty tame these days. Hell, we’ve even been doing runs for kids, buying bikes and delivering them to the poor who couldn’t afford anything. We had been becoming a little too soft these days if you asked me.

He pulled a large manila envelope from under his coat. “I’ve going everything right here that you’ll need; burner phone, photos, money, and Everly’s birth certificate. All that shit. You call me only if and when something bad happens.”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll call a quick meeting and get back to you.”

“And, D?”

I smiled hearing him call me his old nickname. “Yeah?”

“I owe you my life for this.”

I wanted to respond, but apparently I hesitated long enough to eye him throwing a twenty down before he walked out without so much as a backward glance.

Damn! I grabbed the beer off the table and took a quick swig before lighting up another cigarette on my way out. I let the smoke billow out slowly debating if this could actually work, or if I should make an executive decision and bring her in for safety measures. I’d never forgive myself if something happened to that precious girl. More importantly Thomas would never forgive me.

Everly? I hadn’t seen her sweet little face since she was a little girl, maybe four or five years old. A real smile spread across my face at just the possibility of seeing her again. Wondering whom she ended up looking like because if she resembled her mom I was in trouble. I would never lay a finger on her, but I couldn’t speak for every other man out there, especially the one I was sending in to protect her. He loved the ladies, but I knew he was the right choice—the only choice.

Once I pulled in the lot on my bike, I hauled my ass to the main room. Everyone tended to linger in the office, aka clubhouse after work hours. For the most part, we were all certified bounty hunters, living the life we wanted. We started out as a small four-man deal working our way into the Tampa scene. We were considered the best at what we did and had bondsman who paid us real well to get the job done by any means. We also did the odd job here and there when called upon. That was one of the things we were more known for. Doing things the cops couldn’t. We’d leave our certifications home when we did a favor. It started years ago, a friend of a friend needed some domestic help, and we stepped in. We kind of saw ourselves as local Guardians. We helped when we could regardless of the danger or the outcome to us.

We steered clear from Southern Florida not wanting to step on any toes to keep safe since the club wasn’t real popular from a big bust down there we had been a part of. A lot of our business was to hunt the bad down and bring them in. Let’s just say we could retire in a few short years dealing with the scumbags down there alone, but chose not to. We had been running Northern Florida, Georgia and Alabama for over fifteen years, and that was the way we liked it. Thomas thought we were some crooked arm of the law and in some ways we were. If any one of us ever thought we were in danger, we fired first then asked questions later. I had gotten lots of blood on my sleeves over the years, but I didn’t regret a single one I took down in the name of all that was good. Hell, we looked at it like we were doing society and the law a favor.

“Meeting in five, boys,” I hollered out as I reached the bar to grab a fresh cold one. One of the ladies handed it over as I scouted the room for any new ass left lingering. We always had women hanging around looking for a little danger. The new girls were always the young, naïve, and more than willing to erase any stress that built up during the day. They were usually chicks who ran away from their crap life and wanted a real man to take care of them until they moved on to something better, more permanent. The older ones were used up but knew their way around our little fun house and around a cock so we kept them around.

We only had one guy married off, Fuzz. His wife, Beth had been a blessing to the club. She cooked for us, and she handled all the non-essential things like cleaning, laundry—you name it she did it without question. She also taught the young ones what was expected of them if they wanted to come here and hang with us. We took care of the ones who stuck it out. We paid them a small stipend to keep coming back. Once or twice a girl left saying she felt like a hooker, but we didn’t mean it that way. We just felt responsible for them and fed them, clothed them, paid their bills. If we had normal lives maybe we wouldn’t need these girls sticking around, but with our life, never being around it worked. And we were men, after all. Having nice looking girls hanging around all the time, easy access was a very beautiful thing.

None of us lived there, but there were several rooms set up for the boys to crash in after too much partying or waiting for a job to come in. I lived the closest to the clubhouse in a two-bedroom ranch with my dog, Styx. He was one hundred and forty pounds of slobbery fur, but one hell of a watchdog.

I paced before taking my seat. All eyes were on me, waiting to see why I called the meeting.

“What’s up?” Fuzz, my right-hand man, asked. Fuzz had been with me since the beginning and was my most trusted man.

“I gotta ask a favor of you all. My niece needs a little watching over for some time, and I offered a place within our family if you all agreed. I know some of you know my history and think shit of Thomas Moore, but I can’t turn my back on her. He’s in pretty deep right now, and she’s got no protection. Fucking didn’t even call me when his wife died. He didn’t call for that but called for this. I’m thinking she needs our help.”

“How old is she now?” Johnny, one of the youngest of our group grins, smacking his hands together obviously not understanding how much Everly means to me. Otherwise, I knew he’d never make presumptions.

“Don’t even fucking think about it. She’s just about twenty now, and you’re too old anyway. Look, I know you don’t care for him blowing me off years ago, but I love that little girl regardless.”

“Man, do we have time for babysitting duty right now? We got so much heat up our ass with that last blow back.” Our newest recruit, Mick O’Malley fucked up big time, and we had been cleaning up after he botched a job. In his defense, I would’ve pulled that trigger too.

“Speaking of Irish,” I looked around seeing no sign of him. “Where the hell is he?”

“Probably up in some chick’s ass as we speak. Didn’t answer his phone,” Fuzz added with a smirk on his face.

“I’m asking you to vote without him. She’s in college, and I need someone young who could fit in, and look the part. Irish is the only one. If shit goes bad, I’ll pull her out and bring her back here. It’s an easy job, and it’ll keep him off the grid and out of our hair while we finish covering his tracks.”

All hands flew up but one. I looked over to Tuck. “What?”

“You sure about him, man? He’s like a pussy hound in heat.”

I stared him down, contemplating if I could trust Mick even with a stern warning from me to keep his dick in his pants. “It’s done. I’ll let him know to pack up and get on the road.” I hoped to God I didn’t regret this, and nothing happened to that little angel who I used to know. But he needed this too whether he knew it or not. He had been out of control of late, and the breather would do him good.