10. Tate
10
TATE
I lost the bet.
It was the only time in my life when I didn’t mind being wrong.
Even my toes are sore today because they remained in a curled position for far too many minutes.
“I see Wylder outdid himself,” Gigi says to me as soon as I walk inside Inked.
“I stubbed my toe.”
My cousin looks me up and down and laughs. “Ride a horse last night after you stubbed your toe, too?”
I give her the middle finger, hobbling toward the front desk a little after one. “I feel like I did.” I ease into my chair, feeling like I sat on a hot poker. “Damn,” I whisper.
Gigi smirks, watching me like a hawk. “I remember those days. Great times.”
“Doesn’t feel so great,” I mutter.
“I really like Wylder. The last one was so…”
“They know each other.”
Gigi’s eyebrows rise. “They do? How?”
“Wylder’s brother is in the same MC as Rowdy.”
Gigi gasps, slapping the desk with her flattened palms. “Get the fuck out of here. The same one that wanted you dead?”
“Yep.”
“Fuuuuck,” she hisses. “That’s a clusterfuck.”
“He and Wylder already had some tense words over me.”
“Was he the one who ordered the hit?”
“No, but he didn’t do anything to stop it.”
“Well, duh. Once an order is given, no one can pull it back but the prez. I know that. Is he an asshole?”
“He wasn’t before they tried to kill me. I always got along with him, but it’s hard to let go of the memory when someone would’ve put a bullet in your head.”
Gigi nods. “Girl, that’s bananas. What are you going to do?”
I shrug. “They don’t get along, so it’s not like I have to be around him. Am I being an idiot?”
“About the brother?” she asks me.
“All of it,” I say, dragging my hands down my face. “The brother. The fact that Wylder’s more than a decade older than me. He’s a single dad. There are so many things that should have me running for the hills, but I can’t stop myself from wanting to be around him. One look, and he sucks me right in.”
“Does he treat you like shit when no one’s around?”
“Oh my God. No. He’s amazing.”
“Older single dads are hot, girl. Guys like Rowdy are a dime a dozen, but Wylder… He’s like the holy grail. Mature, responsible, attentive, kind.”
“A great fuck,” I whisper, but loud enough for her to hear.
“We’ll move that to the number one descriptor.”
And as if he can hear us talking about him, my phone rings, his face popping up on the screen. It’s the photo I snapped of him when he was undressing, and good God, it’s just as hot as watching it in real life.
“Lord,” Gigi mumbles. “Good job, girl.”
“Thanks,” I say, giving her a smile as I pick up my phone and answer. “Hey, baby.”
“Hey, princess. I’m going to be gone all day. I got a call from the camp, and Hazel fell. They think she broke her collarbone, and she’s at the hospital now. I’m going to go get her and bring her home.”
My stomach drops, thinking of little Hazel hurt and alone.
“Oh my goodness. That’s horrible. She has to be so scared.”
“Maddy’s with her. She said Hazel’s taking it surprisingly well. The summer of freedom may be over, and we didn’t really get a chance to start.”
“It’s okay, Daddy.”
“I don’t know how I feel about that word coming out of your mouth.”
“Sorry,” I say, cringing. I’ve never been with a real daddy before, and what used to be a sexy little nickname doesn’t hit the same when he’s an actual father. “Want me to come?”
“I know you have clients today. Stay here. I’ll get her and bring her home. Swing by after work if you want. If you get there before me, the key’s under the mat.”
He and I are going to have to have a conversation about safety. Leaving a key under the mat is a no-no. I thought everyone in the world knew that, but obviously, when you’re a man, you don’t put that much thought into your safety, or you figure it’ll never happen to you.
“I want. Give her a kiss from me.”
“Will do, princess. Later.”
“Later,” I tell him as he hangs up.
“What’s wrong?”
“Hazel, the youngest, fell at camp, and they think she broke something.”
“Damn,” she mumbles. “Bye-bye, summer of fun.”
“It’s okay. We had a few nights, and I love the girls. They remind me so much of myself when I was younger. I just hope she’s okay. I know I’d be scared to be hurt without my dad around.”
“I’m such a sucker for my dad. He was the only one who could keep me calm when things were going to shit around me.”
“Me too,” I breathe, trying to ease my stomach. “I’m going to cancel my last client so I can be free when they get back.”
“What’s up with the mom?”
“Well, she’s…” I spend the rest of the hour explaining everything that happened with Katie. I go into every gory detail I know from my family and from Wylder himself. When I finish, Gigi looks dumb struck.
“What in the actual fuck? Who does that shit to their own kids?” is her immediate response.
“A psycho.”
She nods quickly. “I want to track her ass down and put my fist right into her face.”
“That’s my plan if I ever lay eyes on her. And the girls—” I shake my head, trying to tamp down my anger “—are the best and cutest things you’ve ever seen. They’re sweet, smart, and a little mischievous. If I could design two little girls for myself, they would be it.”
“If shit works out between you two, they may be just that. She’s out of the picture, so you’d be their mom. Could you handle that?”
“I think so,” I tell her truthfully. “I’m sure it wouldn’t be easy, but I’d give them all the love I have to give.”
“Kids are easy. Mouthy as fuck sometimes and full of attitude, but food, water, love, candy, and voilà, happy buggers.”
“Is it really that easy?” I ask her.
“No.” She chuckles. “But it’s the lie I tell myself. I just want them to grow up and be happy. I don’t want to be the reason they’re in therapy as adults.”
I can’t stop the laughter that bursts from my lips.
“What are you two laughing about?” Pike asks as he walks into the shop, his shirt lifted a bit as he scratches his stomach. His hair is wild as hell like he rolled out of bed and stalked into the room. I can see why my cousin fell hard for the guy. He is mint.
“Not wanting to traumatize our kids so they end up in therapy.”
“You’re the best mom,” he tells her as he leans over, kissing the top of her head.
She casts her gaze at him, smiling with so much love it makes my heart ache. “You’re a good liar, baby.”
I’ve always wanted a love like theirs, and for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m the closest I’ve ever been. I can picture Wylder and me ten years from now, and it would be this. The girls would be grown and maybe out of the house, living a crazy life at a college in a warm and sunny location.
“There’s something different about you today,” Pike tells me as his eyes search my face.
“The girl got dicked down properly,” Gigi tells him.
I want to climb under the desk and die. Who says shit like that? My cousin. And the only person worse than her is another one of my cousins, Tamara. The mouths on those two are ridiculous.
“Well, okay then. That’ll do it,” he says with a slight chuckle as he walks to the back of the shop.
I smack my cousin on the shoulder, but not with any anger or hatred. “Stop telling people about my sex life.”
She brushes me off like I am a tiny gnat bumping into her. “He’s not people. He’s my husband, and the man knows what a proper dick down means. It’s how he made me fall in love with him.”
“Some things are meant to be private,” I tell her, pushing away from the desk, ready to start the day.
“Then don’t walk like you still have his cock lodged in your vagina. It’s hard to ignore the telltale signs of a great dicking, baby girl.”
I give her the middle finger again, the conversation dying as soon as a customer walks in the door.
Thankfully, he’s there for Gigi, and his wife is getting inked by Pike. I have fifteen more minutes to get my shit together and figure out a way to walk like a normal human being.
The sun has set by the time I pull in front of Wylder’s house. The lights are on, but the Scout isn’t there. I hope the truck didn’t take a shit on the way home again. That would suck.
Maybe he ran out so fast after the phone call, he forgot to turn off the lights. I do things like that all the time when I’m in a panic and moving faster than my mind.
Wylder last texted me two hours ago, letting me know they were within a few hours, so I figured he’d be here by now.
When I make it to the front door, it’s cracked open, and music is coming from the back of the house where the kitchen is.
“Hello,” I call out as I push open the door and look around, seeing and hearing no one. “Anyone here?” I wait a moment for a reply before stepping inside.
I push the door closed behind me, not bothering to lock it. If they’re not here, they will be any minute.
“Hello,” I call out again when I hear the scraping of something in the kitchen.
This is how so many horror films I’ve watched start out before one of the boneheaded characters is offed by a psychotic murderer. I always laugh and think of how stupid they were for falling for it, but here I am, doing the same shit.
I grab a metal candleholder off the coffee table and tiptoe toward the back of the house. If someone is here, I’m not going to be empty-handed.
And when I round the corner, I see something I haven’t prepared myself for.
A woman stands dead center in the kitchen, apron on, mixing something up in a giant bowl. She screams when she sees me, nearly jumping out of her skin. “Who are you?” she asks, pointing the giant wooden spoon at me. “Get out of here before I call the cops.”
I stare at her, dumbfounded. “This isn’t your house. Who the fuck are you?”
She moves around the small island, dropping the spoon, and grabs the knife she must’ve left there when prepping whatever the hell she’s making in a kitchen that isn’t hers. “This is my house.”
“Listen, lady. I don’t know where you think you are, but this isn’t your home,” I tell her as I take steps backward, trying to make my way to the door to run. “This is Wylder’s house.”
She sneers at me, matching me step for step. “I know. He’s my husband,” she says, turning up her nose.
I blink in confusion. “Katie?” I ask, my voice low and unsteady.
“Yes, I’m Wylder’s wife.”
“Ex,” I say, but my feet don’t stop moving.
If she didn’t have a knife in her hand, I’d be a little more challenging, but I’m not about to go toe-to-toe with a knife-wielding nutjob.
“You gave up that title when you married someone else.” I don’t know why I’m engaging with her. I have a feeling it doesn’t matter what I say; she has her own loony version of the story.
“I’m back now. Who are you?” she asks, looking like she stepped out of that Hitchcock movie where the person is stabbed in the shower.
“You’re back?”
She nods. “I am. This is my home. My husband. My kids.”
“Um, you may want to talk to Wylder about that.”
She lunges forward, the knife nicking my arm. I lurch back in pain, pulling my arm against my chest as I scramble backward faster than before. But before I can get too far, the front door bursts open.
“What in the actual fuck,” the loud, booming voice says as my back collides with their front. “Katie, you fucking crazy bitch.”
But then, I’m pushed to the side as Thumper, not Wylder, hurls himself at Katie, grabbing the knife right out of her hand. He doesn’t hesitate a single moment before putting himself in harm’s way to disarm Katie and rescue me from a situation that could’ve very easily ended another way.
“I knew you were fucked up in the head, but I never would’ve pegged you for a knife-wielding killer. Jesus fuck,” he hisses as Katie stares at him, her mouth almost foaming around the corners.
“She stole my family!” Katie screams straight into Thumper’s face.
I hold my arm, watching the entire show taking place right in front of me. Who would’ve ever thought Thumper would’ve saved me? Weird shit happens all the time, and this is a testament to that.
Before Thumper can do anything else, Katie lunges at him, jumping into the air like she’s part of the circus. Before she’s on top of him, he reaches his arm out, clocking her right in the face.
The furniture rattles as Katie hits the floor, knocked out cold from Thumper’s fist.
“Holy fuck,” I whisper.
She had that one coming. I don’t like when men lay hands on a woman, but Katie deserved that. I’m not sure there would have been anything else that could have stopped her from continuing the assault on him—or me, for that matter.
“I didn’t want to do that,” he says to me, like I’m judging him for doing what was necessary.
“I think she lost her mind. She wasn’t going to stop otherwise.”
“Where the fuck is Wylder?”
“Hazel broke something, so he had to go pick her up at camp. They’ll be back any minute.”
“Damn it,” he seethes, dropping the knife on the small side table near the couch. “I’m getting her out of here before the girls come home and see their mom laid out.”
“Where are you taking her?”
“The compound.”
“The compound?” My eyebrows rise. Nothing good happens there, but I suppose she doesn’t deserve a stay at the Ritz.
“I know a doc. I’ll see if he can do a psych commit on her for a few days to see what the hell is going on. I’d hate to call the cops, because well…”
“Criminal aspect seems to get in the way sometimes, huh?”
Thumper chuckles as he bends down, grabbing Katie’s limp body like she’s a sack of potatoes. “Something like that. You want her arrested?”
I shake my head. “No. The girls don’t need to hear about this.”
His gaze dips to my arm. “Bandage that up before they get back. Wash it first to clean it and then stop that bleeding. You don’t want that shit getting infected.”
“Okay,” I tell him, still in shock over everything that happened.
Thumper stalks across the living room, Katie hanging from his shoulders with her arms swaying with each step.
“I was never here. She was never here. Got me?”
“Got you,” I say as he disappears into the night, closing the door behind him.