Chapter Three
P resent Day
“Still no change?” Angel asked.
“No.”
“It has only been a day.”
“And Anthony has not left the hospital,” Lash said. He moved to sit on the edge of the bed, and he ran a hand down his face.
He was getting old, and right now he felt tired. There was a meeting with the Billionaire Bikers MC in a week. They needed to talk.
“What are we going to do?” Angel asked.
“Tomorrow, if I have to, I am going to physically remove Anthony from the hospital. He is going to shower, get changed, we will feed him, and then I will see.”
“He will not leave Daisy, not for long. You know this and so do I.”
Lash felt his wife at his back, wrapping her arms around his neck.
He should have known this was coming. Anthony had been too ... complicit the last year. He knew his son hated the association with Monster Dogs MC. He knew Anthony would opt for the shittiest jobs to get out of going, or at least he had the five years Simon had been out of Tabitha’s life.
He put his hand on top of his wife’s arm. The Monster Dogs MC had it coming. The club didn’t know the finer details the Billionaire Bikers MC had told him.
The Billionaire Bikers MC was a group of ten rich-as-fuck men with a lot of money, a lot of power, and a serious vendetta against all human traffickers in the world. Many years ago, they had approached not just him and Chaos Bleeds, but several other MCs, including the Trojans, Saints and Sinners, and Dirty Fuckers MC, but the details got lost. They wanted to give an opportunity to all those willing to help. As long as Lash could remember, the Skulls and Chaos Bleeds had faced enemy after enemy, had lost good men and women. His own wife had lost their first child, and that had sent her into a psych ward for a short time. The kids had been shot at. The clubs had nearly been wiped from existence, and against the odds, they had been able to bounce back. It hadn’t been easy. None of what they had done had been easy. It had been hard work.
Billionaire Bikers MC offered them a solution. They get out of the criminal life and work with them. Aligning with them allowed the law to get off their back. Their suspected criminal dealings would be over. They would instead help save women and children, even men. They stopped the kidnapping, selling, and distribution of trafficked human beings. It wasn’t an easy job, and each task came with risks.
All they had to do was stay out of trouble and not turn their back on the agreement they had made. Lash saw this as the lifeline it was. The club would not have survived without it.
He was done burying club members. He was done hearing his wife’s screams, and worrying about his children. He was through with it all. This was not cowardly. Deep down he knew Tiny would never have done it, but Tiny nearly got them all killed. Lash would not get them killed. He wanted them to live.
Fighting for innocent lives did not make them cowards. They were doing the right thing, and he had seen the power of the Billionaire Bikers MC. The damage real evil bastards could do. Selling children like they meant nothing. Pimping out women for sick games. Lash had seen it all.
There was some stuff he would never even tell his wife about. The Skulls still killed people, especially those that deserved to die. And the Monster Dogs MC was on the Billionaire Bikers MC radar.
When Ryan raped Tabitha, Lash had every intention of wiping that club from existence until the Billionaire Bikers MC told him what they knew. Monster Dogs MC was known within the trafficking world. The club moved from city to city, hunting down women, finding and kidnapping any and all that would bring in a good price. They paid people to find the best. Even going into schools and finding girls who didn’t have parents that cared. Stalking them, then taking them. They were a target of the Billionaire Bikers MC.
They needed the Skulls to form an alliance with them, an agreement that would not impact either club. Lash had to make the Skulls appear to be the guilty party, and he couldn’t allow Devil to know. He couldn’t allow anyone to know.
This secret was all on him. And he alone could figure out where they were going and what they were doing, saving as many lives as possible. But he also had to make sure some of them slipped through the cracks. He hated knowing there were women and girls hurting because he had to play it safe, but the Monsters Dogs MC were also part of something bigger.
Billionaire Bikers MC wanted to get to the center of it, wipe it out, and they were so close, only now that was gone.
There was currently only one surviving member of Monster Dogs MC, and Lash had him chained up in a secret location. No one knew he was alive.
Luke was the one and only son of the president himself. And so far, Luke was not talking.
“What are you going to do?” Angel asked, bringing him back to their room, where he held onto his wife’s arm.
“Keep it together, it is all I have to do.”
Whizz and Lacey were currently not talking. They were dealing with their daughter hanging on by a thread in a hospital room.
He’d taken his son’s patch, along with the young children who had come so close to earning their patches. Even the outsiders that had become friends with their kids. They had all been so close to earning everything, and now that was all gone.
For the first time since being in charge of the Skulls, he finally understood what Tiny felt. The man had once been in over his head, and Lash had thought he was incompetent, but right now Lash didn’t know what the next move should be.
****
“I ’m not leaving,” Anthony said.
“You smell like fucking shit, and I don’t recall asking for your permission to leave,” Lash said.
Anthony looked up at his father. He had been inside Daisy’s room all night, and the moment Whizz and Lacey arrived he stepped out and took his stance on the floor outside.
He’d left long enough for a bathroom break. He didn’t know when the last time he ate was, or when he last drank. It didn’t matter. All that mattered was there was no change in Daisy. She hadn’t improved, but she also hadn’t gotten worse.
Anthony went to look back at the floor, and then he was suddenly hauled off. It had been a long time since he was thrown across his father’s shoulder. He was a grown man, not light by any means, and yet Lash without a word carried him as if he didn’t weigh anything. This was the man who had once snapped a man’s neck with his bare hands.
“Dad, put me down.”
There was no way he was going to wriggle. There was a chance the old man would throw him across the room if he pissed off his father, and he didn’t want that. He had no choice but to be carried out of the hospital like he was child.
Once they were outside, Lash shocked him even more by placing cuffs around his wrist.
“What the fuck?” Anthony asked.
The cuff was attached to Lash’s wrist. “We’re heading home. You’re getting a shower, changed, and then you’re going to have something to eat.”
“I need to be in the hospital with her. She could wake up at any moment.”
“And until she does, you’re going to take care of yourself.”
“No,” Anthony said.
Lash laughed. “Do you think I am going to take no for an answer? If you want to play this game with me, then you and I will play, but trust me, Anthony, you are going to lose.”
He stared at his dad and had no doubt in his mind that his father had something up his sleeve. There was a chance he would make it impossible for him to get to Daisy, or he would do something to make it difficult.
Anthony glanced back at the hospital. “I can’t leave her.”
“You’re not. Daisy would not want you to kill yourself while waiting for her,” Lash said.
He took a deep breath. Anthony didn’t like this feeling. In the last twenty-four hours, it was like he was making up for the twenty-four years of his life when he didn’t feel anything. Anthony missed the lack of pain.
He didn’t want to feel this way, but each second Daisy was alone in that hospital bed was like his whole body was being torn open. Layer by layer, he was being stripped of what made him, him. This was all wrong. He wanted emptiness. To not feel anything.
Then he saw the knife sliding straight into Daisy’s body, and he couldn’t do anything to stop it. He knew he had fucked up. Daniella had plunged the blade into Daisy’s chest, but she didn’t kill her, not yet.
“Daisy can’t die,” Anthony said.
“She is not going to die, and you and I are going to take care of you. It is what Daisy would want.”
He wanted to fight and argue. Looking back up at the hospital, Anthony could finally agree that he hated these buildings. Chained to his dad, he had no choice but to follow. It was the last thing he wanted to do. His dad hadn’t come to the hospital on a bike, but in a car.
Anthony had to climb through the driver’s side to get into the passenger seat as he was chained to his father. This sucked, big time. Glancing down at the cuff, he knew there was no getting away from this without his father’s permission.
Rubbing at his temples, he tried to rid that feeling from his chest. He stroked a hand across his heart, and that pain kept slicing through. Not only was it a pain in his chest, but his gut twisted. Anthony had never felt fear, not once. Not when he walked into the mess that had once been Daisy’s father. He had taken control, even though she had seemed panicked, and he had known what to do. It was pretty easy, finding one of the guns, lining it up with what was left of his head, and pointing it at the right spot.
Daisy’s real father had been a piece of work no one could stand. No one was going to miss him, and no one would care how he died. He didn’t do anything. He wasn’t responsible for anyone, he was nothing.
When he fought at the Quad, there had been no feelings. Hurting people was easy to him. When he saw them in pain, it meant nothing. The girls he rejected meant nothing to him. The only person who meant anything to him, where he felt that lightness, was his brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. His Daisy. His love.
As far as he was concerned, Daisy had and would always be his. Without Daisy there was no reason to live, to breathe.
“Daisy can’t die,” Anthony said.
“She is not going to die,” Lash said.
He turned to look at his father, but Lash stared straight ahead. “If Daisy doesn’t make it, please kill me,” he said.
This made Lash veer to the side of the road and pull over.
“What the ever-loving fuck are you talking about?”
“I know right now everything is a mess and that I caused it. If Daisy doesn’t make it, there’s no point for me. I don’t want to live in this world without her, I can’t.”
“Damn it, Anthony, I want you to stop this.”
“She is everything, Dad. Imagine trying to do anything without Mom,” he said. He knew it was a low blow for his father. There was a time Lash did have to survive without Angel, when she had no choice but to be admitted to a psych ward.
“Don’t, Anthony.”
“I would rather you do it, but if not, I’ll get Devil, because he knows ... he understands.”
“I fucking understand!” Lash slammed his free hand against the steering wheel. “Don’t you get that? It’s okay for you and Devil to just end your lives and think it will be fine.” He took a deep breath. “But life does not offer that kind of luxury to everyone. Taking your life is the cowardly way out. Daisy would hate if you did that, and she would hate that you would leave the club alone.”
“They have you,” Anthony said.
“And who are they going to have after me? Conner? Miles? Markus? Huh, who will lead them?” Lash shook his head. “Do you even hear yourself right now? I thought you were a guy I could count on. I get it, okay, I get the fucking darkness. I’ve been there.”
Anthony stared at his father. “You’ve been in the darkness, but have you lived there? When you kill a man or a woman, does it bother you? Do you feel anything? Or do you feel nothing as long as the people you kill are hurting your people?”
Lash held his gaze. “I get you.” He spoke the words slowly. “The difference between you and me is I hid it a lot fucking easier, and I also know you’ve got to live. Hiding behind it only lasts so long. I get it, Daisy is the only thing you care about. She is the only one you want. She makes the whole world feel a little brighter, seem a little ... easier to play the rules. She wouldn’t want you to die.”
“What’s the point?” Anthony asked.
“There is every point, because you’ll do everything in her name.”
And with that, Lash pulled the car back onto the main road, and Anthony expected them to go to the clubhouse. They didn’t. They went all the way back to their main home.
“I don’t want to see Mom right now,” Lash said.
“Your mom’s at the clubhouse, dealing with shit. She knows you need your time.” Lash pulled the car into park. “I think what you need to do is give your mother the benefit of the doubt. She’s not there to make your life hard, okay?”
Anthony nodded. He did, in fact, love his mother. He knew Angel was special, not someone to be hurt or messed with. Angel had always been sweet and kind. When Lash had to take over, several people didn’t think she had what it took to lead, but Angel proved you didn’t need to be cruel or mean to lead.
With the help she had given over the years, the loyalty built. Angel didn’t make enemies. She made friends. She made people want to stand by her, and in turn, stand by Lash. They knew she would always have their best interests at heart.
Anthony also knew that deep down, Daisy adored Angel. The woman was a beacon of life, hope, and joy. The darkness that had once swallowed the club was no more, and Angel never once allowed it to take her—apart from a small fraction of time, but no one held that against her.
Losing a child had broken Angel, but it hadn’t kept her down. The club had been there for her. Everyone would always be there for her, and so would Anthony.
In the back of his mind, it was like he could feel Daisy telling him to stop being a dick. To get himself together, to get himself clean, so when she woke up, she wouldn’t have to hug a stink bomb.
****
A Time No One Knows About
“Tabitha knows?” Daisy asked.
Anthony looked out toward Daisy. She had sent him a text asking to meet at the lake. It was cold as fuck, but that didn’t seem to bother her. She had wrapped up in a thick jacket, boots, gloves, and even a scarf.
“She knows he had a little visit by me. Other than that, she doesn’t know anything, unless you tell her.”
He watched as her gaze fell to his lips, and then she looked down at the ground. Was she thinking about their first kiss?
The moment he got the text to meet her here, he had put aside his homework and simply climbed out of his window.
It was a cold night, and he tilted his head back and breathed in the icy-cold air. Nights like this were a comfort to him. The sting of cold air made him feel alive. Also, it helped that the brunette before him always made him to feel that way as well.
Her father was dead, gone, and he wouldn’t be hurting her anymore. Daisy being a bitch was not natural to her. The stress of her father’s blackmail had been clinging to her for far too long, and Anthony had a suspicion she also tried to hide that he would hurt her. The very thought of it was enough to anger him, and he wished the bastard wasn’t dead just so he could enjoy hurting him. Unlike Daisy who took a shovel to the back of the head, he would gladly have kept him alive and torn him apart piece by piece. Then again, Anthony always had the patience when it came to that shit.
“Do you think we should tell your parents?”
“No.”
“They found him.”
“I know, and as far as anyone is aware, the man shot himself in the head while drunk and cleaning his gun. Stop worrying about it.” He got off his ass and went to her. Much like that day, he captured her face and forced her to look at him. “Stop. I’m telling you, he is not worth you worrying for a second.”
“It was wrong.”
Anthony shrugged. “It was wrong of him to sell his daughter to an MC club because he couldn’t be bothered to take care of you. It was wrong of him and your mother to always send you to school in dirty clothes, and hair that wasn’t even brushed.” He reached up and stroked her hair, which was nicely brushed and smooth to the touch, back behind her ear. “There is a lot they shouldn’t have done, but they did it, because they are evil fucks and didn’t give a shit. He was going to keep using you, Daisy. He was going to keep exploiting you.”
He saw the tears in her eyes. “But I shouldn’t have gotten the shov—”
He had heard enough. He was tired of hearing what she should or shouldn’t have done. He kissed her, and this would make it their second kiss.
Anthony had never kissed another girl. The only person he had ever wanted to kiss was Daisy. Sure, there were girls at school who wanted a piece of him, but he wasn’t interested. They could flash their tits at him, shake their asses, and even try to suggest he could do anything to them. They were not who he wanted.
Some people would say his feelings for Daisy weren’t right, or stable, or even sane. Again, he didn’t give a shit, because to him, his feelings were exactly where they needed to be. He loved this girl. He had loved her from the first moment he saw her, dirty hair and clothes, the works. Anthony couldn’t understand why he felt this way, only that he did.
Breaking the kiss was hard to do, but in that moment, at the lake, it was just the two of them.
“We’re going to have to stop doing this,” Daisy said.
“Why?”
“Because ... Tabitha is ... I don’t know, always saying something.”
“You know, Tabitha doesn’t need to know everything.”
Daisy sighed. “She’s my best friend.”
“And I’m your best friend, your boyfriend, and your protector.”
She laughed, but it wasn’t a natural sound, almost forced. “Protector? I think I have proven I don’t need a protector.”
“Oh, you need one, babe,” Anthony said.
“Babe?” This time, it did make her laugh. “What are you talking about?”
“Don’t you like it?”
Daisy rolled her eyes, but the smile on her lips lit his very soul. “I didn’t say I didn’t like it. I do, I like it a lot. I think I even like it a little more than I should.” She then went on her tiptoes. “What is this?”
“You and me, for life, babe.”
“Are you teasing me right now?”
“No, I’m just stating facts as I see them. Tabitha doesn’t need to know everything.” He cupped her cheek. “Unless of course you’re ready to tell her everything, about how I kiss, how it feels to be alone with me. Are we going steady?”
“Stop,” Daisy said.
“You can tell her, or you and I can enjoy this. There is going to be time later on.” And with that, he kissed her one final time.