Chapter Thirty-Nine
Melissa
I walked out of church on Dante’s arm, and before we went to Dani, who was once again on the couch with Tank and Charlie watching cartoons, I pulled him over to the bar.
“How are you doing, Dante?”
He assured me he was good, but he wouldn’t meet my eyes. Calling over the prospect, I ordered a glass of wine for us both.
“Dante.”
I waited as he kept his gaze on the prospect who poured the wine. His eyes never lifted as the glass was set down in front of him. Taking the wineglass in his hand, he lifted it, swirling it around and taking a sip.
“This is good.”
“Dante, talk to me.”
“I can’t. It’s different now. Too much has happened. We’ve already pulled you in more than you should be.” He turned to look at me, and the regret in his eyes had mine tearing up. “I had no idea you were connected to the club. I’m so sorry.”
My hand landed on his forearm, and I rubbed it, trying to comfort this sweet man I had gotten to know so well. Some might say I should be just as angry at him as I was at Danny, but I couldn’t find it in me.
Dante only left because Danny was in trouble. He didn’t leave his daughter to help the club. He left her with someone he trusted to help his husband.
That was love.
Dante had been put in an impossible position, forcing him to choose between the love of his life and the daughter he had just found. Danika was safe. Danny had not been.
“I knew you didn’t know. When you told me about the clubs and who you both were, I assumed Danny had looked into me. But the way you talked about Ellie being connected to the club but never mentioned my brother, told me you had no idea.”
“Just one more thing Danny lied to me about.” He lifted the glass to his lips and took a heavy drink. I leaned my head on Dante’s shoulder and smiled.
“Fuck him. Divorce him and marry me. We can have a lavender marriage.”
Dante looked down at me, seeing the smile on my face, and threw his head back and laughed.
“God, I needed to laugh. Problem is, he’s great in bed.”
“Fine, keep him as a side piece,” I offered.
“And Ghost will be your side piece?” he asked.
Sitting up, I looked at Dante. “What are you talking about? There is nothing between me and Ghost.”
Dante tilted his head, lifting a brow. “He calls you princess.”
A heavy breath swished out of my lungs. The glass of wine in front of me suddenly becoming perversely important.
Bumping my shoulder, Dante pressed, “Talk to me.”
“We met in November at a bar. We had a... moment in the bathroom.” Searing heat crept up my neck as Dante grinned, clearly understanding my inference. “When we left, and I saw the motorcycle, I ran.”
“Because he was in your brother’s club?”
“I didn’t even know then he was in a club, much less that it was my brother’s club. He didn’t wear his cut. I just assumed he rode. But even that was enough to have me running for the hills.”
“So now what?” he asked.
“What do you mean? There is no what.”
“You don’t think it means something that all this shit brought you back together?”
“Dante Sharpe, are you a closeted romantic?”
“Melissa, I have never been a closeted anything,” he scoffed. “He clearly has feelings for you.”
Hiding behind my closed eyes, I shook my head. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t be with a biker.”
“You just asked me to marry you two minutes ago.”
“That was purely selfish.” I gave him a weak smile.
We were both quiet for a moment before Dante spoke again.
“I won’t take Dani away from you.”
“Dante, you’re her father.”
“And you’re her mother. She’s never had one. She never even had a chance until you. Danny and I haven’t talked about it yet, but we’ll find a way to make it work. Dani needs you in her life.”
My eyes burned with tears, and I tried to smile. Dante put his arm around my shoulders, and I leaned into him.
“Not a great idea to make a beautiful woman cry, Intern. Especially when her brother is a giant son of a bitch.”
“Fuck off, Bane.”
The older man, who sat a few stools down from Dante and I, nursing a glass of what looked like whiskey, slammed the glass on the bar and glared at Dante.
“You didn’t hear? I’m not an intern anymore. Got my own fucking brand thanks to Kansas and Storm.”
Bane barked out a laugh. “I bet Montana is fucking pissed. Serves the bastard right.” He emptied his glass and tapped it on the bar for the prospect to refill.
“Are you part of the club?” I asked him.
“Not this one, no. Dante here and I are brothers now, I guess.” He tipped his glass toward Dante and it sloshed over his hand. I watched him for a moment, observing as he downed his glass again.
When the prospect returned with the bottle, he snapped, “Just fucking leave it.”
The prospect jumped, and when he set the bottle down with a crack, I thought for sure it had broken. But Bane picked it up and poured more of the golden liquid into his glass.
I wanted to chastise him for his brash treatment of the young man who was only doing his job, but Amber stepped up with Dani. She stood between Bane and I, and Dani leaned over, reaching for the grumpy man.
Bane snatched her from Amber’s arms and settled her on the bar. My nose scrunched as she grabbed at his glass and he slowly removed it from her grasp as though it were nothing more than a glass of sweet tea.
“This is your daughter, Intern?”
Dante sighed next to me. “Yea,” he confirmed and then whispered, “The drunk bastard will never stop calling me intern.”
“How old is she?”
“Just turned two in December.”
“She’s small.”
“She was neglected the first two years of her life. She was malnourished. But she’s actually put on a lot of weight, thanks to Melissa.”
“It’s the cookies and pancakes,” I said, smiling at the contrast between the cheerful little girl and the grumpy old man. Dani slapped his cheeks and Bane smiled, bopping her nose.
I wondered about Dante’s parents. Like Dani, he’d been born at the Trick Pony, and I wondered if there was any way to find out who his parents were.
Surely Danny could find that information. That is, if he was as good as everyone said he was. He found Dani, and no one even knew she existed.
The church doors opened, and Danny approached us, sitting at the bar on the other side of Dante. We didn’t speak. I would have to make peace with him if I had any chance of staying in Dani’s life.
“Is there a lawyer in this town?” I asked the prospect.
“Uh, Matlock’s a lawyer. He ain’t here right now, though.”
“What do you need a lawyer for?” Amber asked.
“Their divorce,” I said, my head clicking toward Dante and Danny.
Dante snickered beside me.
“What the fuck is she talking about?” Danny grumbled.
“Melissa wants me to divorce you and marry her. Don’t worry, babe, she said I can keep you as a side piece.”
Amber barked out a laugh beside me as I smiled at Danny. The hairs on the back of my neck raised instantly when I heard the low growl behind me.
Looking at Dante, I winced. “Please tell me that’s my brother behind me.”
“’fraid not, Princess .” My eyes narrowed at the sarcastic glee in Dante’s tone.
Travis growled again, the sound immediately settling between my legs. My mind went back to the night we met and the way he growled and threatened the man who put his hands on me on the dance floor.
“What’d I tell you about playing with fire?”
My hands reached for the bar and in that second, I didn’t know if it was to spin me around to face the man behind me or brace me in place to prevent me from seeing the heat in his gaze. The choice was made for me when firm hands spun me around.
“Hi.”
“Get him, girl,” Dante whispered in my ear as I slid off the seat with Travis’ help. My eyes bugged out at my friend in a silent plea to save me from the growling man. Dante just laughed. When I looked past him at Danny, his eyes were focused in front of him, but the smirk on his face said he knew exactly what I was in for.
One look in Travis’ eyes and I knew what he had in mind. The raw hunger directed at me was enough to have me coming without even being touched. And if he got me alone and put his hands on me? It might just make it impossible to walk away from him when Danny and Dante went back to New York.
My hand in his, Travis all but dragged me from the room. I followed silently as we walked up the first flight of stairs, then the second to the third floor.
The only sound in the hallway was the squeak of the hinges as Travis opened his door, holding it for me to enter first. Letting go of my hand, he stood wordlessly while I grappled with the decision I had to make.
Stepping into that room right now meant accepting my fate. For ten years, I’d avoided bikers. At least, I thought I had. Knowing now that Zach had sent me numerous patients connected to the MCs was a bitter taste in my mouth.
Had my life ever really been my own? Had fate decided when I was born that this was to be my path, whether I wanted it or not? Could I trust this man, who waited patiently for me to decide if I wanted him, not to hurt me like every other biker in my life?
“There is no choice. The destination is inevitable. The only question is, how long will you fight fate?”
His words rang true.
A chance meeting in a filthy dive bar I never would have considered had it not been for the hard day at work. Receiving a call that a child I had testified for had been returned to his parents, only for the abuse that had been evident to continue, ending in his innocent life being cut short with a single blow.
I had needed an escape. Something to turn off the invasion of my every thought. Feelings of failure and inadequacy, of not being convincing enough to keep him safe from the abuse that he had suffered for years.
It had worked.
I had ignored every warning, every red flag that waved in my face when Travis caught my eye. Thinking only about him and the distraction he could provide in that moment.
Until I saw his bike. And I ran.
Only to find myself once again in the path of the man I couldn’t forget when I was given the responsibility of another child’s safety and well-being. Peering through the door, I knew what waited for me.
For the past two nights, I had slept in this man’s arms. I had experienced my own sense of safety and well-being wrapped in the cocoon of the one man I hadn’t been able to forget.
Fate was a cruel bitch. I wanted to believe the choice was mine. That I could decide to walk away. That I could control the trajectory of my path.
I was a fool.
Fight or flight. The answer was the same. I could fight against the attraction I had with this man, only to eventually be worn down and succumb to the passion that burned between us.
Or I could run away like I had before. Knowing that staying in Dani’s life meant being on the outskirts of the MC. Over and over our paths would cross until we burned the world down around us.
There was only one clear choice.