Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Kyra’s heart pounded in her throat.
Why the hell was he following her? Couldn’t he take a hint? A very obvious one at that.
She should’ve left the second she spotted MC cuts. That was when it dawned on her that the jubilee was a fundraiser for the Walker Foundation. A charity that the Dirty Angels held near and dear.
As they should.
The thick crowds also proved that the foundation was important to the residents of western Pennsylvania, especially those living in and around Shadow Valley.
The only reason she didn’t hightail it out of there was because she’d come with someone else—a man she only recently started seeing—and if she told Glen she wanted to leave only minutes after arriving, he’d have questions.
Questions she wouldn’t want to answer.
She should’ve pretended to get sick.
But she also didn’t want to disappoint Ledger since he’d been hyped about coming. In the car, Glen had asked her son if he wanted him to win one of those humungous stuffed teddy bears. Of course, Ledger got so excited that if he hadn’t been buckled in, he would’ve bounced right out of his car seat.
So, she sucked it up, knowing she might run into bikers she knew and only hoped Zeke wouldn’t be one of them.
As always, her luck when it came to the pain-in-the-ass president of the Dirty Angels was the worst.
Her pulse quickened when she saw Glen waving at them and holding up some cotton candy.
Great. Not only was Zeke stalking her, but Ledger might soon be overdosing on pink spun sugar.
“Who’s that motherfucker?” The words had been growled from behind her.
“Leave me alone, Zeke. My life isn’t your business.”
“Guess you didn’t wait too long to find some new dick.”
He had some damn nerve.
“Too long? It’s been almost four years,” she hissed over her shoulder. “You probably spent most of that time in jail.”
“No jail.”
“Oh, I meant prison. Tomato, tomahto.” She stopped dead.
She’d prefer Zeke didn’t meet Glen, and if she continued on her current path, that was going to happen.
Again, that might raise too many questions. One of them being why a tattooed man wearing a DAMC cut was following her and Ledger through the fairgrounds. If she lied and said he was only an old friend, Zeke was sure to open his big trap and tell him otherwise.
Ledger tugged on her shorts again. “Mommy, twain.”
Twain? She glanced over to where Ledger pointed. Yes, it certainly was a train. It was one of those kids’ trains that didn’t need tracks and was pulled by an electric engine.
Kyra did a double-take when she glanced back and saw Glen taking long strides toward them, wearing a huge smile.
Oh shit.
In the short time they’d been dating, he’d been great with Ledger. He’d probably make a great father figure. Unlike the man lurking behind her, who could hardly take responsibility for himself.
Glen’s smile slipped as his gaze shifted to the dark cloud trailing her.
Probably because Zeke was now crowding her, giving off a possessive vibe.
At first, she had thought bikers acting like that around their women was cute. Then she learned it was more about misogyny. Claiming women as club “property,” rather than being protective.
Funny how that possessiveness didn’t work both ways and they felt free to cheat.
“We’ll go on the train in a few minutes, buddy.” As soon as I scrape off the unwanted man behind us.
Or more like the man now next to her.
She groaned under her breath.
“Zeke, go away!” she whispered fiercely.
Of course she was ignored.
“This your kid?” Zeke asked Glen.
Holy shit! “Zeke!”
Glen’s eyebrows pinned together, probably confused on why some stranger was asking. “No.”
“Glen, you don’t have to answer any of his questions. Just ignore him.”
“Whose kid is he, Glen?”
“Some loser.” Glen’s head tipped to the side as understanding filled his eyes. “Is that loser you?”
Oh no. They needed to get away from Zeke before he went all caveman alpha asshole and caused a scene. Ledger didn’t need to witness that. No one did.
“Come on, let’s go get on the train.” She gave Ledger’s hand a squeeze and gave Glen a look she hoped he could read.
Ignoring Zeke’s stiff body and concrete-like jaw, Glen handed the cotton candy to Ledger. “Here you go, kid. Doesn’t a train ride sound like fun?”
“Yeah!” Ledger yelled, getting all twitchy with excitement.
Just wait until that sugar hit his veins. But with everything going on, she wasn’t going to take it away from him. Not yet, anyway. She’d let him have a little of it, then when he wasn’t paying attention, she’d toss the rest.
Or Glen could finish it.
Either way, she didn’t need her three-year-old bouncing off the walls.
“What do you say to Glen?”
“Skank you!”
Kyra coughed to hide her laughter. “It’s ‘thank you.’”
Ledger tried again. “Spank you!”
“Close enough.” She injected some enthusiasm in her tone. “Let’s go! I can’t wait to get on the choo-choo!”
“Choo! Choo!” Ledger crowed, then took a big bite of the cotton candy, making his mouth, chin and nose a sticky mess.
With a hand to Kyra’s back, Glen steered them away from Zeke and toward the “train station.”
Not that his actions stopped Zeke, of course. “Kyra, I need answers.”
“I don’t owe you anything. My life has nothing to do with you. Not anymore.”
When he went to grab her arm to bring her to a stop, Glen slapped a hand against Zeke’s chest. “Leave. Her. Alone.”
Oh shit.
She quickly glanced around to see if any other bikers were close by to help control Zeke.
Of course not. When you wanted one, they were never around. And when you didn’t…
She glanced back over at the men to see Zeke grabbing Glen’s hand and twisting it to the point it almost snapped his wrist. “Fuck you.”
This was what she hoped to avoid.
Glen managed to free his hand, but didn’t step back. “Think that vest you’re wearing makes you tough? It only makes you look like a cocky douchebag.”
Apparently, Glen was not afraid to take on a biker. While she appreciated it, it might not be a smart move. Only, she doubted that Glen knew anything about the MC culture.
“Maybe cocky douchebag is the look I’m goin’ for.” Zeke’s arm shot out and Glen’s head snapped back, making Kyra gasp. But surprisingly, her date didn’t go down.
“Zeke!” she shouted, turning Ledger away from Glen since his nose was gushing blood. Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit. “Glen, are you okay?”
With one hand, she cupped the back of Ledger’s head to keep him facing her, using the other to dig into her bag for tissues or napkins. Having a toddler, she usually carried one, the other, or both.
She dug out a wad of tissues and held them out to Glen. He took them and pressed them against his nose.
She flipped her hand toward Glen, but turned on Zeke. “This, Zeke! This is why I want nothing to do with you!”
“Thought it had to do with gettin’ my dick sucked by a sweet butt when I was too plastered to make a better decision.”
She groaned. “It had to do with a long list of bad decisions.” She shook her head. “Only you can ruin what’s supposed to be a fun day, Zeke.” She glanced at Glen. “Do you need to see a doctor?”
Glen was pinching his nose and dabbing at the blood. “No. Luckily, he hits like a bitch so he didn’t break anything.”
Great. The last thing Kyra wanted was for Glen to keep poking the bear.
“Do you want to leave?”
“Good idea,” Zeke interjected.
“All of us,” Kyra clarified.
“No,” Glen answered. “I don’t want Ledger to miss out on his train ride and his giant stuffed bear.”
“Ledger,” Zeke repeated in a grumble.
Before Kyra could respond, they heard a sharp, “Hey!”
Kyra glanced over her shoulder to see a female police officer rushing over. Probably because they had drawn an audience.
“You okay?” the officer asked Glen, visually checking out his face.
“Yes,” he answered, swiping a trickle of blood away with the back of his hand.
“Do you want to press charges?”
“It was just a tap,” Zeke grumbled.
Kyra spotted her name tag. JAMISON.
Of course. There were so damn many of them, she could never keep track of them all.
Glen glanced at Zeke before swinging his gaze back to the cop. “No. He’s right. It was only a tap because he hits like an eight-year-old girl.”
The officer put her hand on her hip and shook her head. “What’s going on here, Zeke?”
With a muscle popping in Zeke’s cheek, he pointed at Ledger. “If that’s my boy, I got rights.”
You don’t have shit, Kyra wanted to scream, but bit her lip instead.
“That’s your son?” The cop didn’t mask the shock on her face.
“Tryin’ to find that out. Got a right to know.”
Officer Jamison turned toward Kyra with a question in her eyes.
“He’s my son,” she answered firmly.
The cop stared at her a few seconds before giving her a quick nod before turning back to Zeke. “There’s your answer. There are more civil ways of finding out whether he’s DAMC blood or not.”
The blood in her own veins froze.
DAMC blood.
Her son needed a freaking blood transfusion.
Officer Jamison waved her hand between the two men. “You two, go separate ways.”
“I ain’t—”
“You are,” she said in a no-nonsense cop voice. “Anyway, aren’t you on parole, dumbass?”
“You fuckin’ know I am, pig.”
One of the officer’s eyebrows rose. “I think you meant to call me cousin. In case your parole terms weren’t clear, by hitting someone, you broke them. Are you itching to go back inside?”
Zeke’s jaw worked for a moment before his eyes closed and his chest expanded as he pulled in a deep breath.
“You’re lucky you’re family. Otherwise, I could arrest you for battery right here and now. I don’t need the victim’s permission.” She turned to Kyra and Ledger. “Are you two good?”
“Yes, thank you for intervening. I just want to be left alone.”
She turned back to Zeke. “You heard her. Don’t harass her.” She tipped her head to the side as she studied her cousin. “By the way, about your phone…you’re welcome.”
“Coulda bought another one.”
She laughed. “Yeah right. I’m sure eight months in the slammer pays well. What did you make, like twenty-three cents an hour? Your retirement fund should be busting at the seams by now.”
Damn.
Go Officer Jamison!
“Do you need us anymore, Officer? Or can we go on our way? Ledger was excited about being here and I didn’t want him to be disappointed.”
Luckily, Glen’s nose had finally stopped bleeding. She needed to get these two men separated before something worse happened.
“Yes, you can go. But here’s my card if you change your mind about filing a complaint.” Zeke’s cousin handed her information to Glen.
He tucked the card into his front pocket. “As long as he stays away from us for the remainder of the day, I won’t need to.” The men stared at each other for a very long, uncomfortable moment, then Glen put his hand on the small of her back. Of course, drawing Zeke’s attention. “Let’s go.”
She smiled up at him, then said to Ledger, “Let’s go have some more fun.”
That was when she noticed almost all of the cotton candy had been scarfed down.
No wonder he’d been quiet the whole time.
As they headed toward the train, she heard Zeke yell, “Ky!”
They kept walking, but Kyra couldn’t resist lifting a hand over her head and flipping him off anyway.
Glen wasn’t the only one in the mood to poke the bear, even if she might regret it later. Because she doubted this would be the last she’d hear from the president of the Dirty Angels MC now that he knew she was back in town.