Chapter Twenty-Eight
Ghost
“Why the fuck did you go there?” Gunner asked, standing from his seat. “You were never supposed to go back there,” he rasped, his voice was laced with guilt, and I remembered the story I’d heard about his baby sister being assaulted at the club.
I needed to find out who it was. That fucker was dead.
“Because you never told her you left, asshole. She went looking for help from her goddamn brother who was fucking gone,” Jingles said, slamming his fist on the table.
Jingles was still dealing with his own source of guilt and shame over what happened to Ellie. The two brothers had more in common than they realized.
Gunner fell back into his chair. His elbows landed on the table with a thud, and he buried his face in his hands.
I squeezed Melissa’s hand and encouraged her, “Go on, Princess.”
Gunner growled at the endearment and I looked at him with a shit-eating grin.
Get used to it, asshole!
“What did the note in El Paso say?” Jack asked.
“ It’s your fault ,” Melissa answered. “Up to that point, the notes didn’t seem threatening, and I still wondered if they were from Danny or Dante. But from what I had learned about both of them, neither one felt like they would play games with their daughter’s life. So, I drove to Arkansas.”
Melissa looked at her brother and, with a voice filled with resentment, said, “Steele told me about the move.”
“Mellie, I’m so fucking sorry. If you’d just let me explain.”
“This isn’t about you right now,” I growled at the man I considered a brother. A brother I wanted to beat the shit out of. “Go on, Princess.” My fucking heart soared when for the second time she ignored the endearment. I told myself it was because she loved hearing it.
“After Steele told me where you were, I decided to come here, but the notes had stopped. It was almost a week before I got the next note in Albuquerque that said, ‘She’s mine.’ Then three days later outside of Vegas, another note said, ‘You stole her.’ I need help keeping Dani safe. I can’t do it alone. I don’t know what happened to Danny or Dante. I have no idea if they are coming back. But until they do, that little girl is mine.”
“Princess, Danny was in an accident,” I said.
Her hands went to her mouth.
“Is he ok? What about Dante?”
“Ghost,” King barked.
“The other old ladies here know about the explosion,” I reminded him.
“Mellie isn’t an old lady.”
I clamped my lips together to keep me from putting my foot in my mouth. But the fuck she wasn’t. It might not be official yet, but this woman was mine. They all knew it. Hell, I’d done nothing but talk about her for months. They all knew I wasn’t sleeping with the club girls anymore. I may not have had any way to find her, but fate stepped in and fucking figured it out for me.
“Mellie,” King started. “Danny was in a building when it exploded. He made it through, barely, but now no one knows where he and Dante are.”
“They’re dead, aren’t they?” she whispered.
“We don’t know that.”
I rubbed her back, doing my best to comfort her without pushing. What I really wanted to do was pull her onto my lap and wrap my arms around her. Keeping her there and never letting her go.
“Here’s the footage from the office.”
Melissa stiffened under my hand and glared at Nav.
“How did you find that? I erased it.”
“The footage uploads into the cloud every night.”
“Do you have Dani’s sessions on there?” she asked, her voice raising higher. “Erase them,” she snarled.
“Melissa—”
“Erase them, Zach. I mean it. You didn’t say anything about keeping the recordings. You said it reset every night.”
“Why have cameras if you’re gonna erase the footage?” Jack asked.
“So, if anything happens during a session, she can pull the footage that day before it erases,” Nav answered.
Melissa looked up at the screen. “Wait. That angle is different.” Turning on Zach, she asked, “How did you get another camera in my office?”
“Danny installed it before your first meeting. When he asked me about finding someone to work with Danika, I suggested you. He knew he wasn’t staying. He wanted to check in on you and Dante while he was gone.”
“You told him not to tell me, didn’t you?”
“I did.”
“You bastard!” Melissa stood from her chair and headed for the door.
“I won’t apologize. Danika needed you. So did Sypher and Pippen,” Nav argued.
“That wasn’t your decision to make! How many others?”
“What?”
“How many others were there that you sent to me, completely disregarding my wishes?”
“None,” he said, his eyes on his computer.
“Bullshit. How many?”
Zach sat back in his chair, eyes locked on Melissa, and without a hint of repentance, he answered, “All of them.”
Melissa turned and walked out the door.
“What the fuck?” I shouted.
“They needed her. She is the best at what she does,” Nav argued, trying to justify the trust he completely destroyed.
I looked over at Gunner, who didn’t appear as outraged as I was.
“Are you gonna say anything?”
“No.”
“You both are assholes,” I yelled.
Turning for the door, I wanted to follow Melissa, make sure she didn’t do something stupid like leave. Obviously, someone was following her and Dani. They were in danger. They needed to stay here where I could protect them.
“Ghost, sit your ass down,” King ordered.
“I need to go to her. Make sure she doesn’t try to leave.”
“Key is on the gate; she isn’t going anywhere.” Turning toward the screen, he said, “What have you got, Nav?”
“Not much. Whoever he is, he knew where the cameras were in her office, but obviously not this one. He turned toward it multiple times, but he’s wearing a mask. I can run facial, but it will take a while with just eyes.”
“Run it. Until we figure out who this creep is, Melissa and Dani are confined to the clubhouse.”
“Good luck with that,” Cash muttered.
“What do you mean?” King asked.
“You remember what she was like? How many times did she sneak out of the house without Gunner knowing?”
“WHAT?” Gunner launched from his chair and slammed his hands down on the table as he glared at Cash.
“Still didn’t know about that, huh?” Cash snickered at Gunner.
“Why the fuck didn’t you tell me?”
“Because she was sneaking out to go to the fucking library.”
“How do you know?” Gunner asked.
“’Cause I fucking followed her.”
“Ok, enough. Ghost, go check on Melissa. Make sure she understands she can’t leave,” King ordered.
As I headed to the door, I heard Gunner ask, “Why the fuck him and not me?”
I closed the door on King’s reply, “She doesn’t want to fucking talk to you, asshole.”
Taking the stairs two at a time, I quickly put myself in front of Melissa’s door. Knocking softly, the door swung open and just as I thought, she was packing.
“Princess, you can’t leave.”
“Like fuck I can’t.”
Leaning against the doorjamb, I smiled at her. God, she was fucking adorable when she was pissed.
“Where’s Dani?” I asked, my eyes trailing to the empty crib.
“Downstairs with Amber.”
She continued to move around the room, grabbing items she must have unpacked last night. Straightening from the door, I pushed it closed and moved behind her. Wrapping my arms around her waist, I pulled her back against my chest, dropping my chin on her shoulder.
Feeling her body relax against mine was the best fucking feeling. I thought she would fight against me. Tell me to let her go. Leave. Something other than letting her body sink against mine.
“It’s not safe. For you or Dani.”
“I can’t stay here, Travis.”
“Why?”
Turning her in my arms, I looked deep into her hazel eyes. The color of copper with little green flecks. My question forgotten, I had a new one I needed an answer to. I needed confirmation of what I learned in church.
“Why did you leave?”
Her eyes dropped to the floor. She didn’t pull away, instead, with a heavy sigh, she rested her forehead on my chest.
“You’re a biker.”
“I am.”
“I can’t be with a biker. In the bar, I thought you were just a rugged guy. You didn’t have a cut or even a leather jacket. I saw the boots, but guys that aren’t bikers wear them to look cool.”
“Did you think I was just trying to look cool?”
She giggled, and my cock stood up immediately. “No. I ignored every red flag that told me to run. I made excuses in my head as to why you looked like you did. I even convinced myself you worked on an oil rig.”
“Until we went outside.”
“And the truth was staring me in the face.”
My hands went to her cheeks. Tilting her head up so I could look at her, I said, “Stay.”
She pulled away from me and sat on the bed. “I can’t.”
“You can. You came here so we could help you protect Dani. Let us help.”
“I’m more at risk here than I am out there.”
“Because of what happened in Little Rock? It’s not like that here. No one will hurt you.”
“Gunner already has. Zach has. It won’t take much for you to hurt me too. What happened in Little Rock was nothing compared to the hurt I felt when Gunner walked away from me. The betrayal of what Zach just told me.”
“Knock, knock.” Amber tapped lightly on the door before opening it. I knew I should have locked the fucking thing.
“Someone was asking for her mom.” Amber walked over, setting Dani in Melissa’s arms.
“Is this guy bothering you? ‘Cause I can get Tank up here in a nanosecond.”
“Tank isn’t here.” I stuck my tongue out at Amber, and she smiled.
“Big Ben, then.” And stuck hers out at me.
Dani laughed at our antics, which caused Melissa to smile. God, she was beautiful. I still couldn’t believe she was here. In front of me. Close enough to touch. And fuck, did I want to touch.
Every goddamn inch.
“Haizley wanted me to tell you she was downstairs,” Amber said as she walked back toward the door.
“Why didn’t she come up with you?”
Amber looked at me and then back at Melissa. With a salacious grin, she winked and said, “She didn’t want to interrupt.”
I couldn’t help my grin when I thought about what Amber said. I wish to God we had been doing something that could be interrupted. No, scratch that. I would fucking kill someone if they interrupted us if I ever got this woman back under me.
In fact, I was pretty sure she was holding the little cockblocker in her arms. Dani was a cute little thing. But I wasn’t sure I had much hope of getting my dick back inside Melissa when she was sharing a room with the little girl.
Maybe she would let Dani have a sleepover with Chrissy and Tabby. They were friends, right? Did a two-year-old have friends?
“I should go down and see Haizley.”
“Hey, you don’t have to right now. She’ll understand.” I sat down on the bed next to her and slipped my arm around her shoulder. Any excuse to feel her body against mine. When she laid her head on my shoulder, I felt like I won the fucking lottery.
“Thank you, Travis.”
“What for?”
“Understanding why I ran. Why I can’t be with you.”
Wait, what?
Cue the fuckin’ record scratch.
“Princess, I understand why you ran. But explain why you can’t be with me?”
She looked up at me with unshed tears in her eyes. I could get lost in those eyes. Drown in the chocolate river like that fucking German kid in Willy Wonka .
“I can’t be with a biker, Travis. I won’t.”
She stood from the bed and walked out into the hall, to find Haizley I presumed, and left me sitting there dumbstruck on how fucking stupid I could be.
She let me touch her, hold her. Comfort her. But she wouldn’t let me have her.
Fuck that!
I stared at the open doorway and smiled.
Game on, Princess!