Chapter 16
It’s been a day, and I haven’t heard from Finn. I don’t know if he dealt with Corey, or if he’s still working on the shit that forced him up there. Joey’s been at my side since I left my parents’ place last night. His cousin drove my car back to my apartment, and Joey drove me in a town car. I didn’t put up a fight. If it got back to Finn that I declined the protection, it would not only piss him off, but also hurt him. I don’t want him to think I’m rejecting his concern, and frankly, I feel a fuck ton better with Joey so nearby.
I’m in the doctor’s on call room and about to heat up a can of soup. I have three hours to catch some sleep. Between what’s going on with my family and four extremely challenging deliveries, I’m wiped. I want nothing more than to curl up in my bed. This sofa will do, but it’s hardly as nice as my mattress. But I’ve crashed here plenty of times. I even keep a pillow and blanket in my locker.
When the microwave dings, I bring my soup over to the sofa and kick off my clogs. My surgical cap is on the table in front of me. It’s the flamingos today with pastel pink scrubs. I wiggle my toes in my boring white ankle socks. By the time I’m done eating, I’m practically nodding off. It feels like only a minute after I fall asleep that I’m lifted into the air. My eyes snap open, and I’m staring into Finn’s emerald orbs.
“Daddy.”
If I’m dreaming, then this is perfect. I try to curl in a ball, but I can’t. I open my eyes again because he’s definitely holding me right now.
“Cailín.”
I sit up and gaze into his eyes before we can’t keep our hands off each other and our lips apart. His hand cups the top of my neck just below my braids. His fingers rub at the knots, and the pain is soothing. The tension’s easing. His other hand continues to roam over my ass and tits. When he tries to pull back, I fist his hair and press his head forward. He relents and devours me. I tried to take control, and now he’s reminding me who really has it. I love it.
When we absolutely have to come up for air, we pant, looking at each other. He presses gentle kisses to my forehead, the tip of my nose, and my cheek. I sigh with happiness. I’m so damn content that I never want to get up. I glance toward the door, knowing someone could walk in at any time.
“How’d you get in here?”
“I know my way around this hospital, and I’m patient. I follow people through the security doors.”
“How?”
“I look like I’m on my phone, then like I’m rushing to slip through the doors since they’re already open. A grin makes people think I belong.”
He cups my jaw and kisses me again. This one is so damn tender. I’m so into him. I don’t want to let go. I don’t want to get up. I wish we could stay like this. The only thing better would be feeling him inside me.
“I missed you, little one. Any free moment I had, I thought about you.”
“Same. I’m so glad you’re back. What I told you didn’t make you leave early did it?”
“No. I finished what I went up there to do. I couldn’t resist coming to see you, but how much longer is your shift?
I glance at my watch. “Forty-four hours.”
He groans, and I’m echoing him in my head. I want to strip and ride his cock. I want to make him come. I want to feel his hands on my bare skin and his tongue against my nipple. I really want to feel his cock. It’ll be another two days before I can do that. There is no real privacy in here, and I would never fuck at work. It’s not worth the risk.
“How long do you have right now?”
“Two-and-a-half-hours.”
“I know you were sleeping, and I hate waking you. But I need to talk to you, and it can’t wait.”
Trepidation fills me. “Should we go for a walk, so no one can interrupt this? You shouldn’t be in here, anyway.”
“Yeah.”
I get up, slipping into my shoes before I put my lab coat and surgical cap back on. When we get to the door, I open it and peer down the hallway in both directions. We slip out and make our way to the elevator. There’s an enormous courtyard in the center of the hospital complex. There’s plenty of room for people to talk without being overheard.
“Are you okay to be out here?”
“I have my pager.” I pull it out of my lab coat pocket and clip it back on to my scrubs’ waistband.
Finn slides his hand into mine as we walk to a secluded area. He waits for me to sit on the bench before he takes a seat, too. I wish I was on his lap. Instead, our hands rest on his thigh.
“Thea, whose woman were you?”
Can my heart lurch and stop at the same time? There’s no clinical diagnosis for that, and it defies human anatomy. But mine just figured out how to do it. I can’t breathe. I feel entirely frozen. He spoke to Corey. I should have known it wouldn’t be as simple as him putting a bullet through the bastard”s heart. That’s my past. One I’d hoped not to relive, but I’ve always known I would tell Finn. I just didn’t think it would be so soon or like this. I’m slow to look up at him. I don’t realize I’m crying until he swipes tears away with a feather soft touch.
“Finn, I don’t want to do this right now when I have nearly two straight days of work left. But I also can’t fear what’s going to happen for two days. Why did you come here to talk to me about this while I’m at work? What happened that made it so urgent?”
I watch him. There’s a hard set to his jaw. His gaze isn’t cold, but it’s distant. I don’t like any of this.
“Are you jealous?”
“Of course, I fecking am. But that’s not why I came. Corey made it sound like he’ll send whoever was in your past down here to get you. He kept saying you have responsibilities up there, that you were a?—”
He really doesn’t want to say it.
“A Mama.” I hate that term and think it’s so stupid. But that’s one thing a biker chick— a biker’s woman —is called. It’s the most benign.
“That wasn’t the one he chose.”
Now it’s my turn to harden my gaze and clench my jaw. I take a deep inhale, hoping it’ll calm me. It doesn’t. “He called me a Sweet Butt, didn’t he? He made sure I heard that name all the fucking time.”
Finn hesitates, and I can guess what he’s debating.
“No, they didn’t pass me around. No, I didn’t whore myself out to Corey’s men. I wasn’t a stripper, and I never lived at their clubhouse. I didn’t even hang out there. I wasn’t a lay, either. I didn’t have quickies with the men.”
“Thea, I didn’t think that. That wasn’t what I was going to ask.”
“Really?”
“Really. I was going to ask if anyone forced you.”
“Oh.” I open my mouth to say something— what, I don’t know, so I shake my head.
“Help me understand. I came straight here because I’m scared someone’s going to hurt you. I didn’t want to make you miserable for the next two days if we can’t talk this out right now. But I need to know if there’s a threat besides Corey.”
“Only if Corey orders it.”
Fucking hell. I feel my pager buzz.
“Do you have to go?”
“Yeah. It’s urgent too. Finn, I’ll do what I can to get out of the rest of my shift. I promise, I will tell you absolutely everything. But I have to go.”
We stand, and he gives me a quick hard kiss, then I’m dashing back inside. I’m focused on the newborn in distress, but the moment she’s stable enough to get to the NICU, my mind is on Finn again.
This is going to be the end.
That was the longest forty-four hours yet. I couldn’t switch with anyone, and I’m glad I didn’t. I can’t keep doing it, and who knows? The day I switch for might have something even worse happen, then I really wouldn’t be able to get out. Ted’s waiting for me in the lounge just outside the unit’s security doors. Fallon was here yesterday.
“Dr. Gallagher, am I taking you home?”
“You can call me Althea or Ally.”
The look he shoots me tells me that’s never happening. Is it protocol for all women, or is it Finn would kill him for being too familiar? I don’t know. I’m too tired to think straight.
“She’s coming home with me. Take the night off, Ted. Thanks for protecting Thea.”
I spin around when I hear the first word. Finn’s waiting by the elevators. Even though Ted’s right there, I sag into Finn’s embrace the moment the doors shut. I close my eyes and let him hold me up. Between the emergencies and my fear about this inevitable conversation, I could fall asleep on my feet.
There’s a town car waiting in the basement parking garage. I don’t know the guy who gets out and opens the door for me. Finn slides next to me. The moment the door shuts, I’m pushing my pants down, and he’s pulling them off my legs. Then he’s fumbling to get his trousers unfastened. I’m taking his cock into me the moment he frees it from his boxer briefs.
“Daddy.” It comes out choked as I struggle not to cry.
“Nothing you tell me is going to push me away.”
“Yes, it will.”
His tone changes, and it sends a shiver through me. “I have my cock inside your cunt. I’m going to fill it with my cum. I’m going to carry you inside my building and into my bedroom, so not a bit drips out of you. I’m going to lay you on the bed and fuck you hard enough that you’ll probably safe word. You are mine. Unless you tell me this is over, you remain mine.”
I kiss along his neck. “But are you going to stay mine?”
I can’t stop the tears that fall. I don’t want to cry. I shouldn’t be. But the whirlwind that’s torn through me since Finn woke me has my emotions flying all over the place. His fingers bite into my hips. He yanks me closer.
“Take that fecking shirt off and get your bra off before I burn it. Now, Thea.”
To anyone else, he’d sound like a controlling asshole. To me, I want to come just listening to him. I whip the shirt over my head but struggle with my bra clasp. I’m all fingers and thumbs. But I get it off. He pinches my nipples so hard I shriek. He latches onto my right one and bites. Not enough to break the skin or anything, but enough to shoot pain through my chest. His hand rains down a hard spank on my ass, jerking me forward on his dick. My clit rubs against his pubic bone, and I don’t stifle my moan.
“That’s right, cailín. I know what you like and what you need. You like the pain because it matches your mood without you thinking about what terrifies you. It reminds you I’m in control.”
He presses me to lean against him, and my head goes to his shoulder as he massages my sore nipple and breast. He’s flexing his hip to press his cock deeper into me while I roll my hips.
“Sleep, leanbh. Traffic’s going to make it at least half an hour before we’re home.”
We’re home.Not my place or my condo or even the condo. He makes it sound as though we both live there. Like it’s completely natural to think of it as ours.
He strokes my back, and I’m asleep before I know it. When I wake, I immediately register the feeling that he’s inside me. He’s still hard. His thrusts are a little harder than before, and I’m moving my hips more. But it doesn’t feel like we’re fucking. He’s just making sure he can stay inside me.
“Thea, we’ll be home in ten minutes. It’s time for me to fill you with my cum.”
It’s like he’s saying it’s time to grab my stuff before we get to his place. Like it’s time to put away small hand-held devices, stow trays, and return my chair to the upright position. I nearly laugh. Then he turns us, so my back is on the seat. He thrusts deep, and I’m moaning, not laughing. We move together, and I can’t get enough. Warming his cock was comforting. This is life giving.
“Daddy, I need to come. Please.”
“You don’t have to ask. Come as many times as you can. I want to see you. I want to get off from getting you off.”
My fingers dig into his back as I feel my first orgasm. I’ve come more than once with other men, but never like with Finn. The second is usually not as strong. Every orgasm with Finn feels like an out of body experience. He doesn’t let up until I’ve come three times. Then he surges into me one more time before holding himself in me. I watch his abs ripple as he comes.
“Thea, you know it’s more than just getting off.”
“I do.”
“Then I need you to believe I won’t turn against you. I don’t want more secrets or lies than there have to be. I don’t tell you things for your safety, not because I don’t trust you. I need you to trust me, too.”
“I do, Finn. I’ll tell you everything I know.”
He helps me get my clothes back on, and he’s true to his word. He carries me into his place, but we stop in the living room. His couch looks like the most comfortable one I’ve ever seen. He has a massive TV mounted on the wall.
“We like rugby.”
He reads my mind as I look up there. I assumed it was something like football. I bet you’d think you were on the field watching any sport on it. I notice the library he has. It’s an eclectic assortment of books, from academic and professional to travel to classics. His kitchen could rival Martha Stewart’s.
“I’m the best cook.”
He sits down with me in his lap. I really wish I could nap more. Maybe later. He’s quiet, letting me collect my thoughts. This is probably going to be a long ass story, but I start at the very beginning.
“I remember Uncle Corey coming around sometimes when I was really little. I remember the sound of his motorcycle more than I do him. My dad would leave with him, and it used to upset me because he wouldn’t be home in time to tuck me in. He did that every night. As I got older, that happened more infrequently, but when it did, my mom would never tell any of us where Papa went or when he would come back. Now that I know you, maybe my mom didn’t know. When I was twelve, my parents felt I was old enough to ride on the back of my dad’s bike. Neither of my brothers were allowed on it before they were twelve. Mom and Papa believed we understood the danger and took holding onto our dad’s waist seriously. I loved it when he’d take me out. We’d ride near the Charles and over the bridges. We’d do a loop around Boston Common, and I’d see all the houses in Beacon Hill. I used to imagine I’d become some world-renowned surgeon at Mass General and have a home there.”
I smile and shake my head as I picture those rides with my dad.
“By the time I got to med school, I knew I didn’t want to be a surgeon. I also knew I would never live in Boston again. When I was thirteen, I developed a crush on this boy. I was in seventh grade, and he was in high school. I knew him through Uncle Corey. He’d started coming around again, but he never came inside the house. I remember Papa wouldn’t allow it. I was walking home from school, and this boy was there. I thought he was so cute. I thought he enjoyed talking to me. He was distracting me, so I wouldn’t interrupt Papa and Uncle Corey. We talked for like an hour, and I was in love. Puppy love. When I glanced over at the house a few times, I thought Papa was talking to his uncle and two of his men. I didn’t realize until much later they were keeping my dad from getting to me. That Uncle Corey had a gun pointed at my dad’s heart and would have gladly shot him if he’d called out to me. I didn’t know there was a man behind me with his gun pointing at me and would have killed me right before Uncle Corey shot Papa.”
I close my eyes, a vivid picture of that day replacing the happy ones of riding on my dad’s bike with him.
“The high school let out thirty minutes before the middle school, so Chris would walk me home. I thought I was the shit because girls who barely noticed me started asking about him. But Jamie found out and lost his ever-loving mind. He’s three years older than me and knew the guy from school. He told me the guy not only drank and smoked, but he also tagged people’s houses and businesses. He said he got into fights and used a knife to win them. I didn’t want to believe him, but the more Jamie told me, the more I realized it was all plausible. I tried to be polite when I told Chris I didn’t want him to walk me home anymore. He didn’t take it well. He started yelling at me outside a convenience store that had six bikes parked out front.”
Another memory I wish I didn’t have.
“The two men who were with Uncle Corey the day I met Chris came out when they heard him screaming at me. Rather than stop Chris, they laughed at me. They called me a cock tease and a slut. I was thirteen. I barely knew what those meant. I was so ashamed. The only person I told was Jamie. My brother was three inches taller than Chris and at least twenty pounds heavier. They had gym the same period. I don’t know what my brother said, but I know he got in Chris’s face and made sure he understood he better stay away from me. Chris’s younger brother was in my grade. A couple months after Chris left me alone, Jared started following me around. His friends never sat at the same lunch table as my friends and me, but he kept coming over. He’d just stare at me. He and his friends would hang out near my locker when I got to school, and they’d follow me out of school. I told Jamie, and he started walking me home. After that, no one paid attention to me for like a year-and-a-half.”
Then I sprouted tits and an ass.
“When I started my freshman year, I’d developed a lot over the previous summer. A few guys asked me out, but my parents didn’t allow me to date until I was sixteen. After six months, no one asked anymore. I figured I’d said no enough times no one wanted to bother. I still think that’s a lot of the reason why I dated so little in high school. I got a reputation for being a prude even though I always explained my parents wouldn’t let me. That was the same time Uncle Corey came around the house again. He and Papa had some horrible arguments. Papa even pushed him out the front door the one time Papa allowed him in. I don’t know what they argued about, but Papa said something one night because when Uncle Corey walked past the living room— they’d been in the basement —he looked terrified. Papa looked furious. The next morning, Chris and Jared were at my locker. They told me they’d beat the shit out of my younger brother, Rod, if I didn’t hang out with them that afternoon. Jamie was home sick, so I couldn’t go to him. Rod was still in middle school. I believed Chris and Jared, so I agreed to meet them at the park across the street from school. I figured it was close enough that I could scream and run to safety.”
I swallow and curl into a ball. Finn holds me tighter, kissing my forehead. His hand runs over the outside of my arm and up and down my back, soothing me.
“They led me to the far side of the park. Way farther away from the school than I wanted to be. I tried to turn back, but they each grabbed my arm and pretty much dragged me. There were a dozen bikes parked on the street, and I recognized several of Corey’s men. This guy, Mark, came over and scared the shit out of me with the way his eyes ran all over me. He kept looking at my chest, trying to make me uncomfortable. I refused to show how terrified I was. I looked down my nose at him, which made the other men laugh at him. He reached out to slap me, but this senior I recognized caught his arm in time. He pushed Mark out of the way and told Chris and Jared to fuck off. I didn’t trust him, but I was relieved. I’d thought Chris was cute, but Elijah was Shemar Moore level hot. He offered to give me a ride home, but I refused. Not a fucking chance in hell, even if he was fine.”
When I said Elijah wanted me on his bike, I felt Finn tense. I stroke his chest, and he relaxes.
“I still don’t know how the rumor spread so fast, but Chris and Jared told people I slept with them at the park. They said the men watched us. I’d gotten a new watch for my birthday a few days earlier, and they claimed I got it as payment for fucking them. I told my parents. I explained everything that had happened and that I’d been too ashamed to say anything to anyone but Jamie. They understood that, but they were pissed. My dad left the house that night and didn’t come back for two days. When he did, his knuckles were raw. The rest of him was fine, but his fists showed he’d been in a fight. He was gone on a Wednesday and Thursday. That Friday, Elijah told me what happened with my dad.”
And this is when shit got complicated.
“Elijah said Papa showed up at the clubhouse— some dive bar in south Boston —and threw a chair at Chris and Jared’s dad. It smashed into the guy’s head. Before anyone could stop him, my dad had the splintered leg and whaled on this man to within an inch of his life. People tried to pull Papa off, but he swung the chair leg like a club. He broke one guy’s nose and shattered another guy’s cheekbone. Elijah said Uncle Corey pulled a gun on Papa, so Papa threw the chair leg at his uncle. Apparently, it hit him square in the forehead and knocked him out. My dad spotted Elijah and insisted he tell all the members how Elijah and his cousins, along with Chris and Jared, targeted me— a fifteen-year-old girl who still had braces. Papa accused Chris of grooming me. He called me jailbait. I guess Elijah’s dad was there too, and he used to be super close to my dad when they were growing up. Elijah’s dad lost his shit because Papa accused Elijah and the others of planning to assault me. Elijah’s the one who calmed his dad down, but not until after Papa broke two of his ribs with another chair leg.”
I recall how sick I felt while Elijah recounted this story to me. How I wanted to run straight home and hide. I was certain all of it was my fault. I knew something was off all along, but I still left school with Chris and Jared. I could have called my mom to pick me up or asked one of my friends’ parents to give me a ride. But I didn’t.
“Elijah appointed himself my bodyguard. He knew I wouldn’t get on his bike, and my parents would never allow it, so he’d give me a ride home every afternoon in his car. I played volleyball, and Jamie had a job, so we didn’t leave school at the same time most days. There were a few times Elijah said he had to run an errand on the way to my house. He wouldn’t let me stay outside in the car, so I went into the stores with him. I didn’t know until way later that he was collecting Uncle Corey’s protection money. Uncle Corey and Elijah’s dad were training him to be an enforcer. I was upfront with my parents about getting rides from Elijah. At first, they weren’t pleased. But no one came near me again. Summer came, and I figured I wouldn’t see Elijah again because he graduated. I was a summer camp counselor at another school. It wasn’t walking distance, so he started giving me rides in the morning and the afternoon.”
I sit up, so I can twist and see Finn better. I suspect he has some idea of where this story is going since it’s so cliché.
“Elijah was my first kiss. I was still fifteen, but he was nineteen. I thought I was so cool to have an older boy interested in me. I knew it probably toed the line of statutory, but I never planned to go all the way with him, and I didn’t. It was at a party Jamie let me go to with him. Elijah was with friends I didn’t know. Jamie knew them, so it seemed fine. I didn’t drink, but I didn’t care that everyone else around me was. I had fun, anyway. Elijah had his arm around me nearly the entire time, and I felt so special. He kissed me off to the side of the house before Jamie took me home. There was so much I didn’t understand.”
I shake my head and look down at my lap where my hands now rest. I’m a lot older and lot wiser now. If only my fifteen-year-old self knew what my thirty-three-year-old self does now.
“The first couple of weeks after that party, Elijah would sneak a kiss when he picked me up and when he dropped me off. My parents knew he was still giving me rides. When Elijah asked me out on an actual date, I didn’t tell my parents. I knew they would never go for that. I lied and said I was going out with a friend. I considered him a friend, so I justified it wasn’t a lie. I saw it as a selective truth. He took me to the movies, and we sat in the far back. We made out the whole time. It was all over the clothes, but I thought it was amazing. When we pulled up to the clubhouse— which was more like a roadhouse bar —after the movie, and I figured out where we were, I refused to go in. He guilted me into it.”
One of so many things he guilted me into. I feel the old anger bubbling within. I don’t think of my teen years often, but when I do, I’m usually able to do it without the rage I once felt. I might not make it through this story without wanting to throw something.
“I recognized the guys from the party who I didn’t think were affiliated. I found out later Jamie had no idea either. They offered me drinks, but I refused. Elijah tried to guilt me into that. When he insisted, I got up and walked toward the door. I could hear the men taunting Elijah about getting his Ol’ Lady in line. He flicked them off over his shoulder and wheedled his way into getting me back to the table. But I felt like an idiot with the men taunting me. The next morning, when Elijah came to pick me up, I thought I dumped him. It pissed him off, so he tried to yank the screen door open. I’d made sure I locked it before he arrived. I wouldn’t go outside with him. Jamie took me to and from work for the next week. Elijah would call when he knew I was home, but my parents weren’t. I could see it was him on the caller ID. I’d pick up the phone, then hang up. He followed a group of my friends to the movies. He sat next to me. I was still angry, but I missed him. When he slid his hand up my leg, I moved my popcorn to keep the other girls from seeing him cup my pussy.”
Finn’s stayed quiet through all of this. His arms are wrapped around me, and he’s nodding his head from time to time. I can’t tell what he’s thinking, but apparently he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“Thea, tell me the rest or stop now. Whatever you want. Either way, let me hold you. I may not always show my emotions, but it doesn’t mean I don’t feel them. I want to know the rest, but I won’t push you. But either way, I’m not okay with this. Holding you is the only thing that’s keeping me from losing my shite.”
That makes me seriously consider not saying another word. But if I don’t get the rest out, he’ll wonder what I didn’t say. And as shitty as all of this is, telling Finn is cathartic. I take yet another deep breath.
“I asked my parents if I could go out with Elijah, and it was an immediate and emphatic no. They said they trusted him to give me a ride, but nothing more. I found out later, the only reason they agreed to it was because Elijah saw what happened to his dad when he spoke badly about me. Elijah didn’t take it well, but I wouldn’t defy my parents again. No matter how he tried to guilt me about that, I wouldn’t go on another date with him. I wanted to. I really did, but I feared the consequences too much. Once I turned sixteen, I didn’t need any more rides. Jamie was off at college, so I got his car. Two weeks after my birthday, Uncle Corey sent men to talk to Papa.”
I cock an eyebrow. He knows Corey didn’t want his enforcers to chat.
“They followed my dad from work to a gas station. Security cameras captured the entire thing. They jumped my dad, and he beat their asses then called the cops. That didn’t go over well with Uncle Corey. Go figure. Elijah showed up and said he would smooth everything over if my parents agreed to him dating me. My dad laughed and shut the door in his face. The house got egged that night, and a brick went through my bedroom window.”
Sounds familiar.
“I was so na?ve back then. After a few weeks, it seemed like everything died down. I started going out with this guy, Tyler, who was in my grade. He was so sweet and so much fun. I really liked him. We’d been dating about three months when someone slashed my tires in the school parking lot. A month later, someone broke into his car and slashed his seats. My parents wound up paying for the repairs to keep his parents from filing a police report that would inevitably name me as a witness. Needless to say, he and I were through. Something similar happened with every guy I dated between sophomore and junior year. I rarely went on dates because I was afraid. I’d try it when I thought long enough went by that they’d lost interest. They hadn’t. It was the perfect shitstorm. Uncle Corey couldn’t strong-arm Papa into riding with him like he did when my dad was in his twenties. Elijah couldn’t control me and make me defy my parents. And Papa humiliated one biker after another when they came for him. My senior year, one of my friends heard about a cool place to party. The moment we pulled up, I told the girls we had to turn around. I told them this was the worst place we could be. I recognized it immediately and had no interest in going inside the clubhouse. I warned my friends, but they got out anyway. I couldn’t just let them go. In the two minutes head start, I walked in to find them surrounded by guys in their forties and fifties. They all knew who I was when I walked in. The mood shifted in a second. They converged on me.”
That rage that’s been building is crawling up my throat like bile, burning me from the inside out. I don’t know how I didn’t piss my pants or shit myself that night. I believed they would rape and kill me.
“I spotted Elijah against the back wall, just watching what was happening to my friends and me. I fumbled around in my purse, and when three men stepped forward, I pepper sprayed them. I’d never used it, so the can was full. I shook it and sprayed it toward anyone who came near me. I’d nearly backed out of the bar, and I knew my friends were already outside when I ran into someone. My fucking luck. Uncle Corey blocked the only door. Maybe it was some miniscule sense of family duty or morals, but he didn’t let any of his men touch me. But I had to stay until my dad got there. He came in calmly, but the men started lobbing insults about me, my mom, and my dad. They all had to do with our skin color— that my dad and I thought we were too good for the club because we aren’t as dark as my mom. He and I ignored them, but a guy grabbed my arm and tried to pull me away from my dad. It was like he went from Bruce Banner to the Hulk in a blink. He broke the guy’s nose. When he bent over in pain, my dad plowed a right hook into his temple. It knocked him backwards, and his head hit the corner of the bar. I knew he was dead. My guess is my dad’s punch severed an artery in his brain, but the biker’s head was also bleeding profusely. Alcohol consumption makes it harder to clot. Anyway, men tried to mob him while I kept pepper spraying anyone who got close. Through it all, Elijah didn’t do a fucking thing but watch. My dad grabbed a bottle from the bar that was near us. He shattered it against a man’s head, then jabbed him in the throat with the jagged edges. Where he struck was no accident. He got the guy’s jugular. He pulled me behind him and withdrew a gun. I knew they banned anything inside but a knife because people lost their tempers too fast for club members to be in an enclosed space with a weapon like that. After that night, no one came near me. I watched my father kill two men to protect me. My friends assumed my father and I would get out alive and took off without me. I couldn’t even be mad because it meant they witnessed nothing they could tell the cops about later. Obviously, the bikers wouldn’t say shit to the cops.”
“When I saw Corey the second time, he said you have duties and responsibilities that you needed to go back to.”
Wonderful.
“Uncle Corey came by the house the next day. He came alone, which he’d never done before. He walked up to the stoop but didn’t try to come inside. He said that after the previous night and whatever my dad did in the past to protect us— I got a feeling it was a shit ton more than what Elijah told me —they would leave us alone. But only until I was eighteen. Then I was fair game. If I wanted to protect my parents, I would ride with them. That I would be a Sweet Butt with whoever wanted me. My dad shot Uncle Corey in the kneecap. That’s why he limps now.”
“I thought he was just fat.” Finn grins at me, and it lightens things for a moment.
“I graduated early to get away from Boston before I turned eighteen. My mom’s family is from Jersey, so they would come down here to see me. I’d stay with my grandmother during school breaks. I went straight from college to med school to residency. My parents moved down here the week after Rod graduated high school. I’ve been back once, and that was to watch Rod’s graduation. I think part of the reason my brothers and I moved to New York was to get lost in the crowd. Until now, Uncle Corey rarely came near Papa. But he collects monthly to let my parents keep it that way. This is his way of getting back at my dad and me. I don’t know how he found out Papa lost his job.”
“Thea, he got your father fired.”