Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sitting in the little window nook, my face hurts from all the crying I’ve done. I knew my dad wouldn’t approve of Bullet and me getting together, but I didn’t expect him to act like this.
It’s not fair. Especially since he’s been pretty much absent since Mom died.
Now he wants to be present after all this time?
I shake my head. It doesn’t work like that. If I had my way, I would have just walked away from him and called it quits. I don’t give a damn about his opinions and his approval.
Bullet does, though.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
“Harlee, I made lunch. Why don’t you come down and eat with me?” Dad says from the other side.
As petty as it is, I don’t respond.
After a few minutes, he gives up and walks away, his footsteps retreating down the stairs.
I pull my phone out of my hoodie pocket and tap on the screen.
No new notifications.
Goddamn Bullet and his morals. After all this time and everything we’ve been through, I didn’t think he would really listen to my dad and not reach out. For the first time since we exchanged phone numbers, he doesn’t respond when I call or text him.
I miss him. I miss him so much it hurts.
My phone starts to ring in my hand, and for a split second, I’m excited.
It’s him.
That all changes, though, when I see her name flash across the screen.
Adalyn.
“Hello?” I answer reluctantly.
“Harlee?” She sobs on the other end of the phone.
“What do you want, Adalyn?” I ask through gritted teeth.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know what he had planned.”
“If you did, would you have told me?”
“I don’t know. I would like to think I would have, but I don’t know.”
Sighing, I look out across the yard and stare off into the distance. As mad as I am at her, I know it’s not completely her fault. She’s stuck between a rock and a hard place.
“Why are you calling, Adalyn?”
I hear her sniffle over the line. “I need help. I need out of here.” She lowers her voice. “He hit me, Harlee. He wasn’t happy after the rally and took it out on me. One of his friends had to pull him off of me. He would have killed me.”
My breath catches at her words. He hit his daughter? His own flesh and blood just because he didn’t get his way?
“What do you think I can do?”
“Help get me out of here. Please, I’m begging you. Just help me get away from him and you’ll never have to hear or see me again. I don’t want to die, Harlee.”
I opened my mouth to tell her I’ll think about it when I hear somebody in the background.
“Adalyn…you know you can’t hide forever. You were a bad girl and needed to be punished,” a mocking voice says in the background.
That can’t be…surely it’s not him, right?
“Adalyn, come on out. You know Daddy doesn’t like it when you make him angry,” he says, making my blood freeze.
“Adalyn, tell me where you are right now,” I demand.
Before she can say anything, though, the line goes dead.
Oh my god.
I jump off the window seat and rush to the door.
“Dad!” I yell as I run down the hall.
“Harlee, what are you doing? You know you’re not supposed to run in the house,” Dad says as he walks toward me.
Breathing hard, I shake my head. “That’s not important right now. Adalyn is in trouble and needs our help.”
His face scrunches. “Adalyn, who’s Adalyn?”
“My friend, you know, the one who’s William Danver’s daughter.”
Recognition crosses his face. “She’s fine. Now come eat lunch.”
He turns to walk away, but I grab onto his arm.
“She’s not fine, Dad. He said he was going to punish her. I heard him,” I tell him through clenched teeth.
“It’s none of our business, Harlee. Now leave it to rest and come and eat.”
I shake my head as he walks away.
Un-fucking-believable.
If he doesn’t want it to help, I’ll find somebody who will.
I head back upstairs and slam my bedroom door behind me. I grab my phone from off the bench where I dropped it and scroll until I find his number.
“Come on, pick up. Pick up,” I mutter to myself.
When he doesn’t answer, I immediately call again. I call five times before he finally picks up.
“You know you shouldn’t be calling, Harlee. If your dad catches us talking…” Bullet says as soon as he answers.
“Jacob,” I say, using his real name to get his attention.
“What’s wrong? Is it your dad?”
“Fuck my dad,” I say vehemently before launching into what I heard while on the phone with Adalyn.
In true Bullet fashion, he waits until I’m done telling him everything before he speaks.
“Where are you?”
“In my room.”
“Meet me outside, and I’ll take you to Reaper. I can’t promise anything but…”
“Thank you,” I tell him as I tear up.
“Don’t thank me yet,” he mutters before hanging up.
Quickly, I dash around my room gathering everything I need. Once I’m ready, I head to the window. Just like many times before, I sneak out, my dad none the wiser.
A few minutes later, Bullet rolls up to the curb. He stops long enough for me to jump onto the back of his bike before he takes off.
We make it to the clubhouse in record time. When we walk into the clubhouse, everyone turns and looks our way.
“You two aren’t supposed to be together,” Reaper says.
“Your dad’s gonna lose his shit,” Wrath tells us.
“We have a problem,” Bullet says.
“Tell me,” Reaper says.
Bullet turns toward me, making everyone look my way.
I open my mouth, and everything spills out of me.
I tell him about Adalyn calling and how scared she sounded.
And I tell them how William said he was going to punish her and how she told me he hit her.
By the time I’m done, I’m breathless, and the guys are looking at each other with concern.
Before Reaper can say anything, the clubhouse door swings open, and we all turn toward it.
“You. I told you to stay away from my daughter,” my dad says harshly as he marches in.
“Dad,” I hiss.
“I’m going to bury you alive so far in the desert, and no one will ever find you,” Dad says for everyone to hear.
“Enough!” Reaper yells.
Two of the brothers step in, cutting off my father’s approach.
“Right now we don’t have time for your family drama, Honk. We have more pressing matters that you haven’t been present for that we need to deal with,” Reaper tells him before turning to me. “We’ll help save your friend. Or at least we’ll try to.”
“Thank you,” I murmur quietly as tears pool in the back of my eyes.
“All right, boys, let’s get to church. We have a plan to make. It’s all hands on deck,” Reaper tells everyone.
Everyone heads toward the chapel, and the clubhouse becomes eerily quiet. I walk over to the couch and sit down and take a deep breath.
And for the first time in a long time, I pray.
Please, God, make sure the club and Adalyn stay safe. Please put a stop to William Dansworth and the shift he has set in motion.
Hands down, this might be the stupidest thing I’ve done to date.
When we were making the plan on how to get Adalyn out, I thought the guys were joking when they said that Honk would be paired with me.
Sure, why not pair the two guys who are at odds with each other together? Makes sense, I think sarcastically to myself.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watch Honk shift.
“Stop moving, or they’ll see us,” I say through clenched teeth.
We’re sitting outside waiting until it’s time to move.
I’ll give Dansworth credit, he has guards surrounding the place.
We’ve been monitoring the place for a while, and he has a habit of having his team switch it up when they least expect it.
With no rhyme or reason. Which makes planning a rescue mission no help.
“Fuck this, I’m tired of waiting.”
“Wait, what?”
Honk jumps up and rushes toward the door.
“Goddammit,” I hiss as I scramble after him.
Harlee is going to kill me if something happens to her dad.
For an old man, he moves fast, and it takes me a minute to catch up with him. He’s got one dude in a headlock, taking him to the ground.
A guard comes up by his side with a blade in hand. Before he can stab Honk, I get in his way. He manages to slice me on the side right when I kick the front of his kneecap, making him fall to the ground.
The man opens his mouth to scream in pain but doesn’t get a chance when Honk grabs him by the head and twists. Snapping his neck.
“That’s going to piss my daughter off,” Honk mutters as he looks at my side.
“Yeah, I don’t think she’d be too happy if either of us died today, so how about we try to stay alive, huh?” I snap.
Honk ignores me and makes his way inside without a care in the world.
“I should put you on a leash,” I say under my breath as I trail behind him.
Once again, I have to save Honk’s ass when a dude comes up from behind him.
“Seriously, if you’re going to come marching in here like fucking Rambo, at least clear the room first. You have a gun, use it. This hand-to-hand shit isn’t necessary. You’re acting insane. I know you don’t care if you live or die, but some of us do.”
Honk scoffs. “Don’t pretend like you care. If I’m out of your way, you’ll have my daughter and the club. Don’t think I don’t know about you living in my home while I was gone, playing house with my daughter.”
“It wasn’t like that,” I grit out.
Honk spins on his heels and heads up the stairs. Cursing under my breath, I rush after him.
“I think Trigger said from thermal imagery that there was a heat signature in the room at the end of the hall on the left,” Honk mutters to himself.
He takes off down the hall, not bothering to check any of the rooms as we pass by. The sound of steps coming from every direction fills me with ease.
My brothers are here. At least now I’m not stuck in this hellhole alone with a loose cannon.
“Honk, we need to check this room,” I hiss.
Honk’s only focus, though, is saving a girl he doesn’t even care about.
As I stand next to the shut door contemplating what to do, it swings open and catches me off guard.
“What the fuck!”
Before I can even get my hands up to defend myself, the man hits me in the side, pushing me into the wall. At first, I don’t even register the pain.
The guy draws back, and I feel a burning sensation. I look down and watch as he drags a blade out of me. I watch in horror as he stabs me again, sinking his knife to the hilt.
Once again Honk comes up and snaps the guy’s neck without pause. As Honk throws his dead body to the side, I slide down the wall, my eyes still stuck on the blade in my side.
Everything hurts.
“Bullet, stay with me,” Honk says as he crouches down. “Jacob, talk to me, dammit. You promised my daughter you would come home.”
His daughter. Harlee.
I’m gearing up when I hear the door open. I look over my shoulder and see her.
“You shouldn’t be in here.”
“I know, but I can’t let you go without seeing you first.” She steps toward me hesitantly.
Fuck it.
Reaching forward, I pull her body into mine and slam my mouth down onto hers.
I love you. I want you and only you. I’ll make this right.
Harlee kisses me back just as fiercely and only pulls back when there is a knock on the door.
“Bullet, it’s time to roll out, brother,” Hades says from the other side.
“I’ll be out in a minute,” I tell him without looking away from my girl.
Only when we hear the sound of retreating footsteps does Harlee speak.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too. Just remember, this is all temporary.”
She gives me a sad smile. “I know. We shouldn’t talk about this right now, you have other things you need to be focused on. Make sure you come home to me.”
“I will.”
“And my dad.”
“I will, Angel,” I promise.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
“What the hell happened here?” Reaper demands pulling me out of my memory.
“He was bum-rushed. We need a medic,” Honk tells him as he applies pressure to my side.
When did he start doing that? How did I miss him putting his hands on me?
“Jacob, stay with me,” Honk says with fear in his eyes.
“I love her. Tell her I love her,” I choke out.
“I know you do, kid, and you can tell her yourself. Don’t do this to my girl,” Honk pleads.
I open my mouth to say something, but nothing comes out.
My last thought before everything goes black is that she has his eyes.