Chapter Three
Smokey spent the ten minutes it took to get back to the clubhouse trying to control his temper and try to think this through. Why hadn’t she come to him? He would have taken care of her and Carter. But she’d married Rod instead, and now look at where they were.
He couldn’t imagine letting her go back to that asshole, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t stop her. But what he could do was stop her from putting his son back in that situation.
Smokey took a deep breath and forced himself to let it out slowly. Tania hadn’t fought him when he’d said he was taking her. She’d done nothing but help him. Did she want out?
The only way he would know would be to sit down and talk to her. They had a few things to do before they had time for that.
“How much stuff do you have at the house that you want out?” he asked, addressing Tania for the first time since they’d left Jeff’s.
“Not much. I need our clothes and a few of Carter’s toys. Just his favorite ones that he can’t seem to sleep without.”
“None of the furniture?”
“No, Rod paid for it all. I don’t want anything more from him than I have to accept. If I had the money to replace all our things I’d say to hell with him and walk away from it all.”
“I’ll take care of whatever you need, Shell.
” He fell into the old nickname as if it was all he’d ever used.
It was a shortened version of her middle name, Michelle, but as far as he knew, he was the only one to call her by it.
“But I don’t have bottomless pockets, so let’s take advantage of what you do have.
Can you make a list and text it to me? I’ll get your keys and send a couple of guys over with the list after we get to the clubhouse. ”
He glanced at David, who nodded.
“I’ll grab Dax and we can go as soon as we get this thing unloaded.”
Smokey wanted this done as soon as possible before that fucker got home and realized Tania and Carter were gone and not coming back.
But he wasn’t going to say it in front of her.
His phone vibrated as they pulled through the gate and into the yard around the clubhouse.
They were in the process of making this place more of a compound, somewhere safe for their families, but it would take time.
For now, he would make sure his family was secure in the clubhouse.
“Where are they going?” David asked as he popped the trunk. “Where should I put all this shit?”
“My room. Take it all up to my room. I’ll figure out what to do with everything later.”
“You got it,” David said, looping his hands through the handles of the grocery sacks.
“Groceries go in the kitchen as always, though,” Smokey called after the prospect. Who knew what he would have found if he hadn’t clarified that. Prospects weren’t known for being the brightest.
He let Tania pull Carter from his car seat, then put a hand on her back and steered her inside.
He wanted to hold on to his son, he’d already missed the first eight months of his life, but this was new to her and he got the feeling she would be more comfortable if she was holding their son and knew they weren’t trying to take him away from her.
Smokey had no intention of taking Carter away from his mother, but at the same time, he also wouldn’t let that piece of shit she’d married have a chance to hurt the baby in order to hurt her.
Inside, he guided her out of the walkway as David would be going back and forth as he hauled things in. Then he reached for Carter.
“Here, let’s get you two out of your coats.
It’s plenty warm in here and then they’ll be next to the door when you’re ready to go out.
” He lifted the baby out of her arms and started wrapping him while Tania unzipped her coat.
She had her coat off and handed it to him as she took Carter back, finishing stripping the jacket off, she handed that to Smokey as well.
Smokey hung the jackets then reached for her scarf, unwinding it from her neck and hanging it beside her coat.
“Smokey!” Raven called from across the room. “My office! Bring her too.”
“Come on, Shell. Better see what he wants.” He used a hand on her back to guide her through the common room. “I’ll introduce you to everyone here when we’re done with Raven.”
“Why does he get to order us around?” she asked.
“He’s our president, babe. He’s in charge.”
She nodded once, but slowly, as if she understood his words but didn’t really get it.
He knocked on the open door when they reached it.
“Come on in,” Raven said, looking up from whatever he’d been looking at on his desk and leaning back in his chair to watch them.
Smokey ignored the scrutiny as he guided Tania to a chair and made sure she and Carter were comfortable before he sat and turned his attention back to his president and made the introductions.
Raven glanced back and forth between the two of them.
Smokey turned to Tania to see how she was taking it and realized she still wore her sunglasses.
Without saying anything, he reached over and slid them off.
She blinked at him as he folded them and hung them from the collar of his shirt to give back to her later.
Raven’s gaze lingered on her face and then flicked down.
“I take it this is the husband’s doing?”
“It is,” Tania said, her hands fisting in Carter’s clothes as she held the baby on her lap.
“I want to say you can stay as long as you want, but I have others I need to think about, others I won’t put at risk unless I have to.”
“I totally understand, sir. I don’t want to put anyone out.”
Raven glanced at Smokey and then back at Tania.
“Do you have any intention of going back to him?”
“No. I would have left months ago, but I had nowhere to go and no one willing to help.”
“Your family wouldn’t help?”
“Daddy picked Rod for me. And Momma does whatever Daddy tells her to. I couldn’t even tell them what was going on. Well, I could, but it wouldn’t have done any good.” She glanced up, meeting Smokey’s gaze for an instant before dropping her eyes again.
“If we take you in, protect you, are we going to have him claiming we kidnapped his child?”
Tania shook her head.
“While I can’t rule it out, I’m going to say not likely.”
“Why? Didn’t he want the kid?”
She picked Carter up and turned him so he faced the room instead of her. “Because he did this to me when he realized Carter isn’t his.” She lifted her gaze to meet his. “Rod’s got blue eyes. Darker than mine, but still blue.”
Smokey watched as she met Raven’s gaze, waiting until he realized what she was saying.
He couldn’t help but grin at the way she straightened her back and met these questions head on and with honesty.
Looking to Raven, he saw when the older man made the connection he had made almost the instant he’d seen the boy.
“Well fuck me,” Raven said, turning to Smokey. “You shit in it this time, didn’t you? What are you planning to do?”
“They’re mine. Not just Carter but Tania as well. I’ll keep them safe, set her free of him, and make her mine.”
Raven watched him with lifted brows. After a moment, he turned to Tania. “How do you feel about that?”
“I’m good with it. What do I need to do to free myself and my son of Rod forever?”
“I’ll get Hawkeye and Pike to look into it. Will he come hunting for you?”
“Maybe. Probably. He hates to lose. He hates to look bad in front of anyone and me leaving, taking the baby, even if Carter isn’t his, will make him look bad to the people he works with.”
“What does he do?”
“Rod manages the hotels at the Northern Lights Resort north of town.”
“I’ll let my guys know. We should probably do the divorce legally then.
First thing will be to contact an attorney.
I’ve got a couple we’ve worked with for the club, so I’ll reach out and see what they say or who they recommend if they can’t take you on.
Next, we need to document your injuries.
” Raven picked up his phone, tapped the screen a couple of times and set it aside.
“Taylynn is on her way. She may grab the other old ladies to help, if that will make you more comfortable.”
Smokey looked at Tania and found her holding Carter close, as if he was her teddy bear and she needed reassurance. He wanted to pick her up, set her on his lap and hold her close but he was afraid she wouldn’t take it well, especially after she’d so obviously been manhandled by that fucker.
“What about Carter?”
“I’ll take him,” Smokey offered.
“Or if you’re more comfortable taking him with you, we’ll make that happen too. We’re not going to do anything to hurt you here.”
Some of the tension seemed to drain from her.
Smokey fought the urge to pick her up and set both of them in his lap.
He would wrap his arms around them both and protect them against anything that came their way.
But he knew things didn’t work that way, and he’d likely scare her so he stayed where he was, waiting for Taylynn.
A moment later, a woman appeared in the doorway to the office. She didn’t knock or hesitate as she came in, moved past him and Tania, and went to Raven.
“You needed me?” She stepped up beside the president, leaned in and dropped a kiss on his mouth. She looked nothing like the woman the Fallen Angels had picked up on the side of the road a few months before.
“Always, little one. I have something I need you to do.”
“You know I’ll do anything I can. What do you need?”
“I need you to take Tania upstairs and get pictures of every bruise and injury she’s got. Make sure Hawkeye gets them.”
Taylynn turned and looked at Smokey and Tania for the first time.
“You didn’t do this to her, did you?” Taylynn narrowed her eyes at Smokey.
“No. He didn’t,” Tania spoke up. “Smokey is getting me out of a bad situation. I screwed up and put me and my son in danger. Smokey has been wonderful.”
Unable to resist, Smokey reached over and took one of her hands. He gave it what he hoped was a reassuring squeeze. “Our son, and I’ll always take care of you, baby. If you’ll let me.”
She looked at him for a moment but didn’t say anything before she let her gaze drop again.
“Come on, let’s get this over with.” Taylynn moved around the desk to stand next to Tania. She paused and looked at her husband. “Where should we do this?”
“Pick a room, I don’t care,” Raven said.
“Use my room,” Smokey spoke up. “The things we pulled out of her truck are up there, and it’s where they’ll be staying.” He glanced at Tania. “You want to take him or you want me to keep him until you come back?”
“You won’t give him to anyone else? You’ll have him when I come back?”
“If I give him to anyone, it will only be with me right there. I won’t let him leave my sight. I promise.”
Tania stared at him a moment longer. He wished he knew what was going on in her head, then maybe he would know how to reassure her. As it was, all he could do was wait.
After what seemed like an eternity, she stood and handed him Carter. “He’s my everything. Remember that.”
“You got it, Shell. I won’t let anything happen to him.”
Taylynn touched her arm. Together, the two of them left the room. Once they were gone, Raven sighed and turned his attention back to Smokey.
“How the fuck did you mess with a married woman and end up fathering her kid?”
“I’ve known her all my life. And she wasn’t married when Carter was conceived.
She showed up at my door one night, drunk.
I wasn’t too sober myself, shit happened.
” He turned his attention to his son, and found himself telling the rest of his story in the higher pitch so many people use when talking to babies.
“I noticed she was drinking water at the wedding, and thought she must have turned up pregnant, but didn’t think too much about it, at least not at the time.
” As he told his president about it, a mental image of the night Carter had been conceived popped into his head.
Tania stretched out under him, her hair spread across his pillow and desire clouding her eyes.
He remembered the way she’d tasted, the way she’d cried out his name and the way her body had clamped down around his as he’d driven her through her first orgasm and into another.
“Fuck. That was that wedding last year you had to go to. The one I had to assign a prospect to be your driver for the night.”
Smokey blinked, bringing his mind back to the man in front of him. “Bingo. Speaking of. I’m not trying to tell you how to run the club, but Dax has been a prospect for a while. Have you thought about taking it to the table about patching him in?”
“Yeah. I realized not too long ago it’s time.
We’ve just had so much going on that it had slipped my mind.
Fuck, and he’s in Bozeman with Spider right now.
I’ll see about putting it to a vote at the next meeting.
That means I’ve got to see if I can get Spider on the phone to get his proxy.
” Raven let his head fall back against the back of his chair.
“He’s not doing well. He’s been refusing my calls the last couple of days.
The only way I know what’s going on with him is Dax and Thorn. ”
“Damn. That’s not good. Is he talking to Fletch?”
Raven looked up, his eyes wide. “I hadn’t thought to check. I’ll do that. but that’s not a right this minute problem, your woman is. Go show off your kid, I’ll reach out to the attorney and see what I can find out.”