CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Ky
I walk into the house I built next door to Chains and Zoe, and frown when the quiet hits me, and I realize it’s empty.
Where the fuck did she go?
And where was Finn? I furrow my brow as I search the house. I should be out there searching for Sera and her kid, but Ink and I had almost gotten into it again, and as my pops’ Sargeant-At-Arms, his rank trumps mine, so I was told to stay behind to wait for Kon’s arrival and to look after my kid and Mariah.
Opening the door to the bedroom Mariah used, I was expecting to see her inside, but the only one there was Finn, who seems dead to the world. I rush over and try to shake him awake. I fight down the panic threatening to overwhelm me as I scramble for my phone and call Everleigh. Dad said she was home resting, and I hated to bother her, but this was an emergency.
She answers on the third ring, and I thank whoever was up there looking down on us for watching over my boy.
“Hey, Ky, what’s up?” she asks, I could hear the exhaustion in her voice, but I needed her help, she could rest after I’ve woken Finn. I don’t beat around the bush, fighting to keep my voice calm.
“Hey, Eveleigh, I’m really sorry to be calling you, but I can’t wake up Finn.”
“What do you mean, you can’t wake him up?” she demands, more alert than she was just minutes ago.
“Everyone’s gone to search for Sera, and I’ve stayed back to watch over Mariah and Finn. I’m here at the house, there’s no sign of Mariah and Finn is asleep. I can’t wake him up. You don’t think the bitch has given him something?” I wouldn’t put it past Mariah to drug me, but to do it to her own son. It was unthinkable.
“Put him in a cold shower. I’ll be there in a few,” she replies before ringing off.
Swiftly, I lift him into my arms, my panic intensifying as I realize how limp and lifeless he feels against me. Rushing to the bathroom, I turn on the cold water in the shower and step underneath, uncaring that I’m fully clothed.
Mere minutes later, Everleigh bursts through the bathroom door, the sound of her hurried footsteps filling the room. In my arms, Finn sputters and then gazes around with confusion before breaking into tears. I never thought I’d want to hear my boy crying, and my knees suddenly go weak.
Everleigh spreads her arms expecting me to hand him over to her, but I don’t, I need to feel his tiny body in my arms.
“Lay him down on the bed,” Everleigh instructs, and I do just that, but I lie next to him as she looks him over, his tears gradually subside.
“Whatever he ingested doesn’t seem to have left him with any lasting damage.” My relief at the news was instant, but my rage against the woman that did this grows exponentially. If she returns from wherever she’s been, I’m going to fucking ring her neck, and I’m going to enjoy it.
Just then, the woman herself walks through the door, without a care in the world, carrying Sera’s little girl, Willow. A look of shock that Everleigh and I are in the house, on her face.
I open my mouth to let rip on her, but snap it shut, knowing the kids were going to hear everything. Turning to Everleigh, I pin a tight smile to my lips.
“Would you mind taking the kids back to your place? I need to have a little chat with Mariah. You can take some dry clothes for Finn from his dresser,” I tell Everleigh without taking my eyes from Mariah.
I wait as my dad’s woman quietly collects the clothes and the kids as they walk out of the house, and wonder how I could ever have been so wrong about her. She’s perfect for my father, and the perfect First Lady of the DCMC.
Once we’re alone, Mariah steps up to me, licking her lips, obviously not reading the situation for what it truly is. She brings her hand up in a move as if to touch me, but I take a step back and pin her with a dark stare, my top lip curling in a sneer.
“Where the fuck have you been? What have you fed to Finn, and why do you have Sera’s kid with you without Sera?” Three questions I demand answers to, my eyes narrowing at her.
Mariah sees that I’m not in a joking mood and wipes the flirty smile off her face.
“What the fuck’s the problem? I found the little brat, that should account for something. And as for Finn, I gave him a dose of sleeping pills, I always do, so that I could leave the house,” she explains, as if it was the most normal thing to drug a child.
I stand there, staring down at her for a moment, finally recognizing the madness in her eyes before I react. In an instant, I’m on her, pinning her against the wall with my hand around her neck before she can even register what’s happening. But all she does is smile wildly up at me, saying,
“Oh goody, are we roll playing now? Are you going to choke me?”
I keep her against the wall, tightening my hand slightly around her neck, and her eyes widen in surprise.
Leaning down, I whisper in her ear, “I could kill you right here, and no one would bat an eyelid that you’re finally gone. Not even our son.”
She snorts. “Finn isn’t yours,” she spats. I reel back as though she’d physically hit me, but I shouldn’t really be surprised that she would deny Finn was mine, I was doing a DNA test to prove just that fact.
“So, is that why you were drugging me all this time? To get impregnated by me? Who the fuck are you working for?” I growl, almost losing control as I tighten my hand farther, watching as her face turns a nice shade of red.
She struggles, using her hands to scratch desperately at mine, but I don’t let up.
“Tell me what I wanna know, then maybe I’ll let you go,” I growl.
“Fine, fine. Let me go and I’ll tell you everything.” She wheezes.
Not a chance, bitch! Without removing my hand, I take out my phone from my pocket and shoot off a text to Rogue, one of our newest members. He’s stayed back to keep an eye on things at the clubhouse.
Telling him to bring some rope. My plan was to truss her like a pig.
“Nice try.” I scowl down at her.
How could I have been so stupid where this woman was concerned? I let my dick take over from my brain, forgetting that she had left the first chance she got the first time we were together. And came back with a kid? Seems farfetched. But there’s no way I’m going to leave Finn in her care ever again. I’ll make damn sure of it.
Since she walked through the door, not once did she ask how he was, and just allowed Everleigh to take him.
When Rogue walks in mere minutes later, a frown mars her forehead.
“What’s he doing here?” she demands.
“ He’s gonna help me take you back to the clubhouse.” I give her more than she deserves.
She fights me, screaming at the top of her lungs, but I quickly overpower her, tying the rope around her wrists with ease.
“Wait. If you kill me, he’s going to rain down hell on all of you. But first he’s going to kill Sera.” She seems to enjoy the fact that we’re chasing our tales.
It’s then I know she knows more than she’s letting on. About who has her and where she is.
I grab her hair and wrap it around my fist, pulling her toward me, getting in her face. “Who?” I growl. “And where the fuck is Sera?”
She gives me a self-satisfied smile on what I thought, until today, was a pretty face. But I can now see the ugliness that lives inside her.
The evil.
If she thinks I’m going to go soft on her when she bats her eyelashes at me, she’s got another thing coming. It’s then I realize what’s going on, and who it is that has Sera.
Angelo Bianchi. The fucker.
I turn to Rogue. “Get the bitch down in the basement. I’ll be there just as soon as I change,” I tell Rogue, who nods, and without asking what happened, pushes Mariah roughly out the door and back to the clubhouse.
“Wait! No! You can’t do this,” she screams, trying to dig her heels into the floor, but it won’t work. Rogue picks her up, fireman style, and walks out with her over his shoulder.
“Cool your heels a bit in the dungeon, and then you’re going to tell Kon and pops everything,” I call out, unable to stop the chuckle.
“Dungeon!” she screeches, but her voice gets softer the further away from the house they got. To learn that Mariah was in cahoots with, most probably, the man who had kidnapped Sera, sent my mind reeling. Turning on my heel, I walk to the bathroom to take a quick shower, and dress in dry jeans and a gray long-sleeved Henley. Kon was supposed to be arriving today, because we needed his expertise in dealing with a motherfucker like Angelo Bianchi. I was more sure than ever it was him that did this.
He thinks of Sera as his property, to do with as he sees fit. He’s crazy enough to sell her on instead of keeping her himself. I wouldn’t put anything past him.
He had an unhealthy obsession with her back when I’d met her and thought she was his wife. And that was the beginning of the end for us. Until I’d finally gotten my head outta my ass and tried to make things right with her. Then Mariah came back and ruined things all over again.
Everything that has happened since was a little too convenient for my liking, come to think of it. It only stands to reason that Mariah was working with Angelo. Most likely feeding him information about her. Did she know the asshole when we were seeing each other way back when?
Trying to make sense of everything, I walk across to Everleigh’s place, and am immediately met by my son and Sera’s baby girl.
“Daddy!” Finn lifts his arms, wanting to be picked up, and I readily oblige, just as the sound of sleds, and Kon’s sleek black Merc entering the lot, can be heard.
“Grandpa’s home,” he squeals, and I can’t help but smile.
“Yeah, little man. Grandpa’s home.” Looking across at Everleigh, I can see the dark circles under her eyes, but she’s pretending that everything is alright.
I hate what she is going through, and I hope they come out stronger on the other side. She is holding a shy Willow by her tiny hand, the little girl’s big brown eyes even wider when she sees all the motorcycles.
“Ink!” the little girl exclaims, her voice filled with excitement, as she breaks away from Everleigh and sprints towards my brother. Something akin to jealousy takes a hold of my heart and squeezes when I see them interact, but I clear my throat and don’t let it show.
That could’ve been me, but I’d fucked things up by ignoring her mother and her for months. Letting my brother slide in to take my place.
He better treat her well, is all I’m saying. Because I’ll be the one taking care of them from now on. I just needed to find Sera for that to occur.
I spy my pops and Kon, my uncle, determinedly walking towards the house, and I make my way outside to meet them.
“Hey Kon.” I greet my Uncle with a shake of his hand. “What’s going on?” I ask, noticing both have tight expressions on their faces. I open my mouth to tell them about Mariah, but my father lifts his hand to stop me, calling out to all the brothers and the women milling around. All as one, the other ol’ladies appear on the doorsteps of their homes, looking at us.
“As of right now, the clubhouse is on lockdown. Kids, women, everyone needs to stay on clubhouse grounds. No exceptions. Bianchi has started a war by kidnapping one of our women.” He gives me a warning glance when he says this, and an irrational anger overcomes me. I don’t want to think about Ink and Sera being together, but maybe I’ll have to come to terms with that fact sooner rather than later.
“Church. ASAP. We’ll tell you everything, but not out here.” He grounds out, his eyes moving past my shoulder to look at Everleigh standing on the porch with the kids, a worried look on her face. But a surprised one morphs on his face when he notices Willow.
“I’ll tell you in Church,” I say, as we make our way inside the clubhouse.