Chapter Twenty-Six
Ghost
When I walked out of church last night and saw Lyssa standing in the clubhouse, the sight initially filled me with rage. She had run from me, then suddenly shown up on my doorstep. There was only one reason a woman tracked down a one-night stand.
Only she already had a child in her arms. That fueled my anger more until I realized who the child was. Then the questions began to tumble through my head.
What was she doing here?
Why did she have Danika Sharpe on her hip?
Why had she asked for Gunner at the gate?
Why did she fucking run away from me?
Finding out she was Gunner’s baby sister?
Fuck. My. Life.
We all tried to stay on Gunner’s good side. The man had a fist like a sledgehammer. Hence the black eye I was now sporting, and the fucking headache I woke up with. Asshole probably gave me a concussion.
I wanted to talk to her last night, but Amber and Tank fucking blocked me from seeing her. Now I sat in the main room with a cup of coffee, waiting for her to come downstairs.
“Morning, Ghost.” Looking up, I saw Haizley wince.
“That bad, huh?” I asked, lightly touching the swollen eye socket.
“You should have Patch or Bane take a look to make sure nothing’s broken,” she suggested.
“He’s fuckin’ fine. Stop being a pussy. I only hit you once. And you fuckin’ deserved it.”
“Speaking of the goddamn devil,” I muttered.
Haizley sat down beside me and grabbed my chin, turning my face to look at my eye.
“Little lamb, you ain’t that kind of doctor,” Gunner pointed out. “Get your fuckin’ hands off him.”
“Shut up. Someone has to look after him.” She turned to glare at her old man. “You shouldn’t have hit him.”
“I shoulda beat his ass. He fucked my baby sister.”
“Didn’t know she was your sister.”
“Does that fuckin’ matter? She’s my fucking sister!” Gunner hollered
“You need to calm down.”
Gunner didn’t know the meaning of the word. Slamming my hand on the table, I yelled back, “She’s fucking mine!”
“SHE does not belong to anyone.”
Looking behind Gunner and Haizley, there she was.
My fucking princess.
“Lyssa, we need to talk.”
“Mellie, I want to know what the hell is going on.”
“Both of you, sit down and shut your cake hole! Jesus Christ, let the poor girl breathe.” Haizley turned to Lyssa and said, “Morning, Missy. Did you get any sleep?”
“A little, yes.”
“Bitch, we have a lot to talk about.” Haizley stood facing Lyssa, her hands planted on her hips. I dropped my mouth open at Haizley’s words.
“Did you just call my sister a bitch?” Gunner growled as he grabbed Haizley’s arm and swung her around so she was facing him.
“Gunner, knock off the big brother shit. We haven’t spoken in ten years. I didn’t even know you had moved, thanks for that bit of information.”
Lyssa moved away toward the food, ignoring the rest of us, but assured Haizley they would talk soon. Getting up from my table, I left Gunner to argue with his old lady and followed mine over to the food.
Make no mistake, she would be my old lady. Gunner’s sister or not, fate dropped her back into my fucking lap and I wasn’t letting her up.
Grabbing a plate before she could, I offered, “Tell me what you want.”
“I can feed myself; been doing it a long time.”
“Yea, but now you’re holding Dani, and she needs you. Let me help.”
Her eyes flared briefly before narrowing. “I don’t know what you think is going to happen, but it isn’t. I am here for Dani and for her only.”
“Lyssa—”
“Please don’t call me that. I used that because it was the first thing I thought of. My name is Melissa.”
I nodded and asked again, “What do you want to eat?”
With a heavy sigh, Melissa relented. “Pancakes. They’re her favorite.”
“Cakes.”
“Yes, baby, you can have pancakes.”
I put three pancakes on the plate, grabbed some butter and syrup, and followed Melissa to a table.
Sitting down beside her, I sat quietly, waiting while she cut up the pancakes for Dani.
“Can I get you something?”
Just then, a cup of coffee was placed in front of Melissa. She looked up at Haizley and smiled. “I love you.”
My gut twisted. I knew they were friends. Haizley told us last night they not only knew each other, but were best friends from college. But I wanted that smile directed at me. I wanted to hear her whisper those fucking words to me.
“Hey, Doc, can you give us a minute?” I asked hopefully.
“Nope.” Haizley sat down on the other side of Dani, and Gunner brought her a plate of food and sat down with her.
The front door opened, and Ryder, Ellie, and Tabby walked in. Looking at my watch, I noticed the time. Chrissy would be at school. Following closely behind them were Blade and Beck.
The clubhouse was filling up fast. Hanging my head, I wondered if I would ever get a chance to talk to her.
I watched Melissa as she helped Dani with her food. Ellie sat down with Tabby, and the way she looked longingly at Dani broke my heart. I reached over and put my hand on hers.
“He’ll be ok.”
“You don’t know that. We haven’t heard anything in weeks.” Ellie looked up at Melissa. “Please, can you tell me anything? Do you know how Danny is?”
“I don’t know anything,” Melissa answered, shaking her head.
“Officers in church in fifteen minutes. Mellie, would you please join us?”
She looked up at King and nodded. Her face solemn. It was clear she didn’t want to be here.
“Princess?”
She snapped her gaze to mine and inhaled sharply.
“We need to talk.”
Closing her eyes, she pleaded, “Can’t you let it go? Just forget it ever happened?”
Gunner growled from the other side of the table, and I looked him in the eye when I said, “Not a fucking chance.”
Standing from the table, I went to grab a coffee and slammed the church doors open, heading to my seat. King was the only one in the room and I heard him chuckle.
“What the fuck are you laughing at?”
“Every goddamn thing. Mark my words, there won’t be one single brother who doesn’t have a goddamn crisis when he finds his old lady.”
“That include you?” I asked, knowing he already found her.
“Ain’t no one for me,” he said, his eyes focused on the cup in his hands.
“Bullshit,” I murmured.
Before he could reply, the doors opened and the officers walked in, followed by Melissa who carried Dani on her hip.
“Mellie,” King began. “It might be better for Dani to sit out with Ellie.”
“No. She was entrusted into my care.”
“Ellie has known Danny and Dante a long time,” Gunner offered.
“That may be, but I don’t know her,” Melissa countered.
“Let her stay, Prez,” I said, having my woman’s back. She was right. For the time being, she was the mama bear, and she was protective.
“Ok, have a seat.” King motioned for her to sit and when she did, I moved from my regular seat and sat next to her. Gunner on her other side.
“Mellie, please tell us how you ended up with Dani.”
She glared at Nav, and the temperature in the room dropped ten degrees.
“Someone I thought I could trust asked me to take her on as a patient.”
“Melissa, I’m sorry. I know I should have told you everything, but I knew you wouldn’t take her on,” Nav pleaded his case, but Melissa just looked away.
“Wait a fucking second. How the fuck do you know my sister?” Gunner asked Nav.
“Hey, maybe we could cut back on the f-bombs with Dani in the room?” Jack asked.
“It’s fine. If she’s gonna grow up around bikers, she needs to get used to vulgarity and debauchery, right?”
The bite of condescension in Melissa’s voice had us all flinching. While she had a point about growing up around bikers, at the same time we all tried to watch our language around Jack and Ryder’s girls. We toned it down at least.
“To answer your question, Gunner, I only officially met Melissa last night. About three years ago, a friend living down south asked me to find someone for their kid to talk to. In my research, I found out your sister was a child psychologist in Oklahoma and I reached out. We got to talking and struck up a friendship. I send her referrals from time to time. So, when Sypher and Pippen showed up with Dani and they didn’t want to take her back to New York, I called and asked her to take them.”
Watching the emotion flit over Melissa’s face, I could see she felt betrayed by Nav. But I wasn’t sure why.
“Why is she pissed at you for a referral?” I asked, my gaze focused on Melissa.
She closed her eyes when Nav said, “Because I didn’t tell her they were in a club. She doesn’t work with patients associated with motorcycle clubs.”
That was when I knew.
She ran when we moved outside. She asked about my bike and even said she had ridden. My bike was a pussy magnet for everyone but the one goddamn woman I wanted on the back of it.
Leaning back in my chair, I closed my own eyes briefly before looking at Gunner. He was feeling much the same as I was.
“Mellie, please talk to me.” Gunner picked up her hand and held it to his chest.
A tear slipped down Melissa’s cheek and she whispered, “This is not what I am here for.”
Dani’s little hands spread out on Melissa’s cheeks and she whispered, “Mama, tears.” She kissed Dani on the forehead and pulled her against her chest. My heart shattered into a million fucking pieces at the pain on my woman’s face.
Standing up, I kissed the top of her head. “Gunner, Nav, let’s go.”
“Where?” Gunner asked without moving, his eyes still on his sister.
“Get the fuck out, now,” I snarled.
I walked over to the door and held it open. “You can fill us in later, Prez.”
My woman was hurting. If me being in the room was making it worse, then I would move my ass out. And take the other two fuckers with me.
Nav looked at King, then his eyes looked up to where we knew the camera was, and he nodded. With a sigh, Nav grabbed his computer and walked out of church.
“Gunner,” King called.
“No.”
“Gunner, get the fuck out,” King ordered.
“She’s my sister,” he argued.
Melissa said nothing. She just sat in the chair and hugged Dani to her chest. Her eyes staring straight ahead of her.
“Then where the fuck have you been the last ten years?” I growled. “Get your ass up and out before I go get your old lady.”
Gunner watched his sister for another moment before he let go of her hand and stood. I held the door until he walked through it and then I followed him.
Out in the main room, he turned and sucker punched me.
“What the fuck was that?” he asked.
Lying on the floor, looking up at the cranky giant, I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. Now, I would need Patch or Bane to check my eye.
“You need to give her some fucking space.”
Tank walked over and held out his hand. Grasping on to it, he hauled me up. Undeterred by most likely being put on my ass again, I got in Gunner’s face.
“Leave her the fuck alone and let her come to you.”
“Back the fuck off, Ghost. She’s my fucking sister.”
“And I told you, she’s my fucking woman.”
“Bullshit.”
“I don’t wanna fight with you, Gunner. But I will knock you on your fuckin’ ass if you don’t back off. She doesn’t want to talk to you. She doesn’t want to talk to either of us. Give her a fucking break!”
“He’s right, Gunner.” Haizley walked up and I took a step back, letting her get between us, and she put a hand on his chest. “She needs time. Missy never even told me she had a brother. She led me to believe her family was gone. I know what you told me, and I understand why you did it. But she doesn’t, and it has affected her deeply. She needs time.”
Gunner growled, and I braced myself for another hit. Instead, he turned and stormed out of the clubhouse.
“He’ll be fine. I’ll talk to him later. Patch has already left but go have Bane look at your eye.”
“Thanks, Doc.” I winked at her with my good eye and strolled off, looking for Bane.