Chapter Fifty-Two
Ghost
Melissa followed Danny into church. I knew they still had shit to work out, but I didn’t want to be standing here without her. I wanted to pack up my room and get the hell out.
It wasn’t easy being in the clubhouse without my cut. Without my brothers. I felt unprotected. Out in the cold.
“Prospect, find me some boxes and meet me in my room.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Hold up, Prospect,” King said.
Shit. I knew this wouldn’t be fucking simple. My eyes rolled at King’s attitude.
“You don’t get to come in here ordering the prospects around. Not without your cut. You plan on putting it back on?”
“I already answered you this morning.”
Fuck this shit. I walked past King, shoulder checking him. Something I would never fucking do with my cut on. But I wasn’t a brother anymore.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I unlocked the door to my room. Slamming it behind me after I entered. Sitting on the bed, I held my head in my hands, my elbows perched on my knees.
This was harder than I thought. And it didn’t help that King wanted to be a dick.
The door opened and Jingles walked in, carrying a stack of boxes under his arm.
“Hey, man. Thanks.” Taking the boxes, I leaned them against the wall, pulling one of them from the stack.
“You’re really leaving?
“Yup.”
“Can I ask why?”
Looking at my friend, my fellow enforcer, a man I knew had my back always just as I had his, I didn’t know if he would accept my reasons, but it didn’t really matter. They were mine.
“I gotta, man. She’s needs to know someone’s willing to choose her over everything else.”
“Did she ask you to choose?”
“She didn’t have to ask,” I said, unfolding the box and setting it on the bed so I could throw my clothes into it. “King should have let me go to her yesterday. If he hadn’t tried to keep me from her, I wouldn’t have had to make a choice between her and the club.”
“Gonna miss you, man.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me in for a hug, much like Jack did yesterday. Fuck, I was gonna miss these guys.
Jingles left me alone, and I got to work packing up my shit. When my door opened again, I closed my eyes in defeat. I swear I was almost at the point of putting the fucking thing on my back just to get a break from this asshole.
“Nothing has changed.”
“You’re right. This is still yours. Put it on.” He tossed my cut on the bed.
“I don’t take orders from you anymore. I’m done. I told you that.”
“Why are you being a fucking dick?”
I turned around and looked at King. “Me? I’m being a dick? You’re the asshole who can’t take no for a fucking answer.”
“You’re damn right I can’t. There’s a fucking war coming to our front door and I need you here.”
“And I’ll be here. Danny and Dante are staying in town, so Melissa and I are, too. You need me, you call me. But I can’t wear the cut. Not anymore. She’s more important.”
“Goddamn magic pussy,” King muttered.
I laughed, “Damn right it’s fucking magic. But you don’t get it. It’s not about her fucking pussy. It’s her. I can’t explain it, man. That first night, when she walked into that bar, I had no intention of approaching her. I knew she was too fucking good for me. But I couldn’t resist. She pulled me in and I was done.”
I picked up the cut and ran my hand over it reverently. I’d worn it for ten years, since I was a prospect at the club in Little Rock.
“She’s worth it?” he asked, watching as I hesitated.
“Ain’t even in the same ballpark,” I answered, pressing my cut into his chest.
There was a light tap on the door. When I turned, Melissa stood there looking wrung out.
“You ok, Princess?”
Her smile lit up the room and eased the ache in my chest that started when I handed my cut back to King.
“Yea. King, can I talk to you?”
Confusion marred my brow as I watched my woman walk out of my room with my former president. King pulled the door closed behind them, and I quickly moved across the room.
With my ear to the door, I tried to listen, but these damn solid wood doors were thick. I could hear the muffled sound of conversation, but it was too quiet to distinguish any words.
When the doorknob finally rattled, I jumped back. Melissa walked in holding something in her hands that confused me even more.
“King said, if you take this off again, he will kick your ass. And if he can’t do it, he’ll have Big Ben hold you down while Angel comes up here and does it for him.”
“Princess, what are you doing? I left the club.”
“Did you ask me if I wanted you to leave the club? Did you ask me what I wanted at all?”
I stared at her, my cut held to her chest as she waited for my answer.
“You said you couldn’t be with a biker.”
“I did say that,” she agreed. She sat on the end of the bed, my cut laid out over her legs. Her fingers traced over my name and title. “When I was a little girl, I was scared all the time. Until one night I finally screamed. And my brother came running. He killed the monster I was afraid of. And then he slept in my room with me every night.”
I didn’t say a word. I couldn’t. I was overtaken by rage like I had never felt before. I wanted to hunt down the man that had hurt my woman. But he was already gone.
“He dropped out of school at sixteen so he could work while I was at school and be home when I was home at night. Our parents didn’t care about whether we ate or not, had clothes to wear. When he was twenty-one, he met King. And he joined the club. He got an apartment and worked out his prospect hours with Steele so he could be home with me at night. If he couldn’t, Cash was there. I was only thirteen, but he forced our parents to sign over custody. And even in the apartment, he let me sleep in his room until I felt safe enough to have my own.”
Tears streamed down her face as she talked, and all I wanted was to pull her into my arms and take away the pain.
“When I was eighteen, I was so excited about getting into college. I couldn’t wait to tell my brother. I had been told not to go to the clubhouse unless he or Cash or King were with me. But this was a special occasion.”
Her fingers continued to run over my name, like she was in a trance. Not realizing what she was doing.
“When I got there, I walked in confidently. Not thinking about what could happen. These were my brother’s friends, and Cash was like an older brother, even though he was six years older. And King was like a dad, always so serious.”
“Don’t let him hear you say that.”
She smiled, but still didn’t look at me.
“Someone grabbed me as soon as I walked in. He pushed me against the wall and held my hands over my head, rubbing himself against me.”
“Give me a name, Princess.”
Her eyes finally met mine. “Gunner beat the shit out of him.”
“He should have put him in the ground.”
“He would have. But he was pulled off him, and then he carried me out. A few days later, he set me up in an apartment in Oklahoma City until the semester started.”
“I want his name.” The man didn’t deserve to walk the Earth.
“It doesn’t matter. He’s dead.” She shook her head when I opened my mouth. She wouldn’t give me any more information, but her brother would.
“I was so angry at Gunner for so long. And then Danny and Dante showed up with Danika. I fell in love with that little girl. Then they left, and I became her mom.”
Her shaky inhale was mirrored by an equally shaky exhale. Her tears had dried, but the streaks still showed. I wanted to reach out and wipe them away.
“When the notes started, I assumed they were about Danika. What else could they mean? Danny and then Dante disappeared without explanation. Dante was scared when he left. Worried about his daughter’s safety.”
Melissa moved from the bed, holding my cut to her chest as she stood in front of me.
“I was so caught up in being angry at my brother, them, the clubs they were a part of, I didn’t realize that what I was going through had nothing to do with the club at all. The club wasn’t the source of my danger. But they were the source of my safety. When I walked into the clubhouse, everyone dropped what they were doing. For Dani and me. They didn’t hesitate. And they did it because I was Gunner’s sister and Danika was Danny and Dante’s daughter. We were family. And family doesn’t walk away without a damn good reason. Even if it is misguided.”
She twirled her finger, telling me to turn around. Then she helped me put the cut on my back. When I turned back around, her eyes glittered with fresh tears.
“You don’t walk away from family for a woman. Even if that woman is incredibly hot and a whore in bed.”
That damn giggle got me every fucking time.
“Princess—”
Her finger pressed against my lips, shushing me.
“This is our family. Yours and mine. We can’t walk away.”
“Are you sure? ‘Cause I will, for you.”
“I know. And that means more to me than you could ever know. I love you, Travis.”
“I love you, Princess.”
My lips crashed into hers, and I pulled her into my chest. I walked her backward toward the bed. Wanting nothing more than to lay her out on my bed and devour her.
“We need to go downstairs,” she said against my lips.
“Why?”
“Welcome home party.”
“You’re fucking joking!” She couldn’t be serious; I took the damn thing off for less than forty-eight hours.
“You know bikers and their parties. Any excuse.”
“Fine, then this is gonna be hard and fast. ‘Cause I ain’t takin’ you downstairs until you’ve come at least twice.”
I shoved her to the bed and made good on my promise. Forty-five minutes later, we finally made our way to the main area.
The room erupted when I entered and everyone saw the cut back where it belonged.
King walked up behind me, and growled in my ear, “You pull that shit again, I’ll pull that officer patch and every man here will get a turn beating the shit out of you. Including the fucking prospects.”
“Understood.”
He could threaten whatever he wanted, but if at any time my woman came to me and wanted to run, I’d make the same goddamn decision.
Every. Fucking. Time.
King’s phone rang, and he pulled it to his ear. I couldn’t hear him over the music, but a few moments after he disconnected, the front doors opened and two men stepped in.
The man in front was like me. He was the muscle despite the expensive suit he wore. The man in the back was the leader. He looked around the room, his eyes catching on Amber, who held Danika.
Throwing Tank a look, I hitched my head in Amber’s direction and he put himself between her and the men that were here for no good.
Diesel, Aspen’s dog, growled low. He stood in front of Aspen, teeth bared in their direction. That was enough for us to know something was wrong. Someone cut the music, and Bane stood from the bar.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Sinclair?”
This is not the end! To find out why Sinclair is in Nebraska and what the repercussions will be for the Silver Shadows be sure to read