Chapter 25
Dirty
I walk into the common room with Ace and Tank, the room already full of brothers and old ladies, chatter echoing around us. Happiness radiates as the old ladies gush over the kids, I, however, feel numb.
I told Hol I’d give her a week. Three days in, I can’t breathe and regret giving her space.
I, fuck, I should have listened to the devil.
Don’t get me wrong, I had Lyra all weekend.
I’ve been having her every afternoon before Ace drops her and Caleb back off with Hol for the night.
But it isn’t enough. I need my woman—preferably in our home with our kids, but instead, they’re staying at fucking Matty’s and the fucker has decided not to help me this time, understanding his cousin’s mindset and I’m ready to blow. I really fucking am.
Fuck, we’re not even three months into this relationship, and I’m a goner for her and fuck if that isn’t a terrifying feeling to have.
“You need to breathe, brother,” Tank murmurs from beside me as we make our way to church, but I just shake my head, my body trembling.
“I should have just thrown her over my goddamn shoulder,” I mutter, and he snorts just as we hear, “Ace, sweetheart?” and my brother tenses.
Fuck.
Mama stands near the bar, wringing her fingers together, her sole focus on my brother, but he shakes his head at her, and she pleads, “It’s been months, Ace, please…”
Again, he ignores her and walks past without looking her way, and I sigh and squeeze Mama’s hand, following him while trying to ignore tears shining in her eyes.
She knows this is all her fault. I get that Dad was always busy with the club, and women threw themselves at him, but he still came home to her, always her, and now she needs to lie in the bed she made, and hopefully he’ll come around.
Whether that is before or after he catches an STD or worse, knocks someone up, I don’t know.
“You’ve got to talk to your mama at some point, son,” my dad says as he hands his phone to Buck, but Ace snorts, “Nah, I don’t.”
Dad swallows as he looks at Mama before heading into church, knowing he won’t be able to convince him to give Mama a chance. Once a month, the old timers join in to see if they have any ideas to add to help earn us more money.
“She made a mistake, brother, years ago, she hasn’t looked at another man since,” I try softly, and he glares my way.
“That we know of!” he reminds me and I wince before he asks, “And if it was Holly who fucked another guy around your kid’s conception and blurts out in front of said kid that he may not have been yours, fucking your kid up?
” I pause for a moment, allowing his words to hit me. Possessiveness rages deep inside me.
Yeah, okay, I get it, and the fact that we only found out because Mama lost it with Dad for trying to help Ash forgive Trigger, yeah, I completely get it.
“Get in church,” I groan, and he smirks, handing his phone to Buck, and I look at Mama one more time to see her looking down, tears trailing her face, and I flinch.
I love my mama, I do, and so does Ace, but her confession, something she clearly wanted to keep a secret, about what she did to Dad, has fucked my brother up more because there was a chance he wasn’t going to be Dad's.
Shaking my head, I hand Buck my phone and walk into church, rounding the table before taking a seat next to my little brother, patting his back, just as the door to church closes, and Doc bangs the gavel.
“Alright fuckers, let’s get this meeting started. Tank and I have a night shift tonight,” he states, and Tank groans, clearly forgetting he’s at the hospital later.
The brothers all grin while I shake my head with a guilty smile
I had him in the garage this morning. With how my mindset is lately, I’m fucking glad he was there—those five services wouldn’t have gotten done otherwise. But now I feel guilty, knowing he’s got to work all night and probably tomorrow morning too, knowing how the hospital is.
Fuck, I don’t think I’m going to relax until Hol is back in my arms.
This whole space shit is beginning to piss me off, even if I understand it.
I want my girl, but she needs space—even if it hurts. She’s at her limit but maybe if I pick up Caleb, I can use him as a reason to see her and convince her we don’t need a whole week apart.
Does that make me a jackass? Yeah. Do I care? No.
I miss my girl.
“Let’s begin with the diner, how are we looking with a new waitress, Ace?” Doc asks, and my brother sighs while I raise a brow at him as he leans further back in his seat.
Uh-oh.
“Four people came in for an interview. I kicked three out. The fourth got scared away from the cut—honest to fuck—he took one look at my patch and nearly pissed himself. The fucker actually ran into the door, breaking his own nose," he mentions, and I chuckle with everyone else.
“Why did you kick three out?” I ask with curiosity, and he winces.
“I already fucked them and didn’t need more drama,” he admits reluctantly, and I full-blown laugh, causing him to shove me while Dad sighs, “My son, gentlemen, the man whore where no woman will settle down with him because too many will come out of the woodworks.”
The brothers laugh while I laugh harder at Ace’s scowl.
“First of all, I relish in my player ways fuck you very much and second of all, like I told Dirty, I’m not the one for settling down.
I don’t want kids, I don’t want a wife or an old lady, I’m happy being the fun uncle,” he states and I try to calm my laughter but the more he speaks the more it comes out.
“If you find the one, son, you won’t be able to hold back,” Canine, Stone’s dad, informs him with a grin, but Ace just rolls his eyes.
The fucker really believes he won’t get knocked on his ass, and it’s fucking annoying, especially since he saw all of us fall—even me, when I was sure I wouldn’t.
Okay, he needs to be brought down a peg or two and preferably before his whoring ways come to bite him in the ass when he does find the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with.
“I bet you, a hundred bucks that this time next year, you’ll be happily married with a baby on the way, or fuck, even have a baby already,” Trigger says, clearly having the same thoughts as me, and I grin widely while my brother scoffs.
“That’ll be the easiest fucking hundred bucks I make,” he states, so I add, “Count me in on that bet,” and Ace grins wide and mumbles, “Two hundred bucks, perfect.”
Doc chimes in next, “You can count me in as well,” before Stone carries it on, and one by one, including the old timers, we all bet against my little brother, who rubs his hand together like he’s won the lottery.
“Thirteen hundred bucks, here I fucking come,” he mutters, and my shoulders shake with silent laughter.
“More like thirteen hundred bucks outta pocket…” Scar, Trigger's dad mutters, and Ace glares his way, making me cough over my snort before he decides to shoot me.
“Alright fuckers,” Doc laughs, “Ace, how are the finances in the diner?”
I lean forward as Ace starts on the diner's finances, typing in the numbers in the laptop as he reads them and forcing myself to concentrate instead of thinking of my girl.
Soon, fucking soon, I’ll be throwing her over my shoulder.
***
An hour later, I shove Ace as we walk out of church.
His face is like thunder from the brothers' ribbing over the 'I don’t want an old lady' comments, making him smirk at me despite his obvious anger but my smile drops when I hear, “Daddy!” and I look in shock toward Caleb, who should be in school, just as he crashes into me, sobbing his eyes out and I wrap my arms around him as everyone freezes.
What the fuck?
I look towards my girl, our eyes instantly connecting, hers tearing, but the thing that has my heart stopping is the lack of Lyra who would have ran into my arms by now.
Where in the fuck is my daughter?
“Hol?” I question with concern, and my girl, my fucking heart, tears my world apart as she chokes, “Lyra’s been kidnapped.”
Her legs give out, and I quickly pass Caleb to my brother and rush towards Hol just as Joe catches her from behind before she can hit the floor, Caleb’s sobs echoing along with my girl’s, all while I try to comprehend that my daughter, my baby girl, has been taken.