Chapter 78
CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
“ Y ou think they’ll go for it today?”
Moon shrugged at Viper’s question. “We’ll know when the truck arrives. We’ve set the stage; that’s all we can do. Either way, they won’t make their move until the truck gets here. You don’t have to stay. I’ll text you when it does.”
“All right. I want them to see me walking to the clubhouse.” Viper stood up, preparing to leave. “Shade, you staying?”
“Yes. I want to make sure the brothers are where we need …”
Moon’s eyes went to his cell phone lying on the desk, missing what Shade was saying to Viper. When he picked it up, he frowned at the message Larissa had sent. What the fuck? She had never sent him a message like that before.
Glancing at the clock on the wall, he turned to Viper before he could leave. “Larissa needs me to come home. Can you send for Reaper to take over here until I get back? I should only be gone for an hour.”
“You want to leave?” Viper scowled.
“Something’s going on with Larissa. I need to go.”
Viper gave him a reluctant nod. “Go, but hurry the fuck up. I’ll stay until Reaper gets here.”
“I’ll be as quick as I can.”
As he rushed out of the security room, he thought about calling Larissa, but if something was going on with the baby, he didn’t want to distract her. She had never asked him to leave work in the time they’d been together.
Striding past Train and Rider as they worked on one of the bikes, he got on his bike without speaking.
He sped home, his mind going through scenarios of what could have happened for him to have to come home so urgently.
Jumping off his bike, he hurried inside.
He was about to head to the bedroom, when he saw Larissa sitting at the dining room table. The utter silence in the house sent tendrils of warning down his spine.
“What’s up?” he asked, walking toward the table, noticing the pallor of her skin. “Are you sick?”
“No.”
Moon came to a stop in the front of the table, seeing the pain-racking look in her eyes.
Larissa’s hand came out to send the folders sitting in front of her skittering across the table toward him. “Can you explain the documents inside to me?” she asked in a voice void of all emotions.
Moon looked down at the folders then back to her. “It would be hard to do since I haven’t read what’s inside.”
“Then look.”
He took a step forward and opened the folder closest to him. He only had to read a couple of sentences. Leaving the folder open, he reached for another, then flipped open the remaining two. “What do you want to know?”
“How much is your fee? According to these files, I can’t afford you.”
“If you want to talk, we’ll talk. But I’m not going to have you cutting snips at me while I am.”
Moon winced at the bitter laugh coming from her lips.
“Only you would expect me to mind my P’s and Q’s after you’ve bankrupted me and my whole family.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“How am I exaggerating?”
The total lack of emotion in her voice made him wish she would go back to snipping at him.
“Listen, I know you’re upset. I can explain this afternoon after work.” Raking his hand through his hair, he gave a frustrated sigh. “I have to get back.”
Larissa stood up and placed her hands on the table. “Why am I not surprised? Of course, you don’t have time to spare to explain how I owe you thousands of dollars for rent not on this house but the one I thought you had bought. You have manipulated me from day one since I came back to Treepoint. God, how much you must hate me.”
Moon moved down the table toward her at the broken sob she stifled with a hand over her mouth.
Seeing him coming near her, she raised a hand. “Don’t you dare come near me. There’s nothing you can say that’s going to make this all right.” Hunching over, she wrapped her arms around her stomach.
Moon took a couple of steps back to give her space.
“You must have laughed your head off at me with The Last Riders when I signed those papers.”
“They don’t know.”
“Don’t lie to me anymore. Please .”
His jaw clenched shut, giving her the opportunity to unload on him.
“I haven’t felt this na?ve since I talked my mom into giving me permission to go home with one of the students from school.”
“What happened?”
She sent him a tortured look. “Why should I tell you anything more about myself? So, you could use that against me, too?” Larissa sat back down as if she didn’t have the strength to hold herself up any longer. “You know what told more than those documents did?”
“No,” he clipped out. “What?”
“I packed your things before I texted you. Do you know how long it took me?” She didn’t wait for his answer. “About three minutes.”
Her bitter smile, which was so out of normal for the natural gentleness he always saw on her face, made him want to jerk her into his arms. Instead of doing what he wanted to do, he held back.
“I can’t believe I missed it. Everything in this house, I brought here, except for what you bought for the baby.”
“I didn’t bring much crap, because I don’t have much. I’ve never been someone who buys a bunch of useless shit to have it sitting around or in a drawer. I’m used to traveling light, going back and forth between the clubhouses. When I’m not there, the rooms are used by different brothers. I got in the habit of making do with what I need, and when it wears out, get something new. Me not having enough to fill a suitcase doesn’t mean I don’t consider this my home.”
“Do you?”
Moon thought about lying about it, but she deserved the truth. “No. It’s okay for now, but it’s too small for me. I’ve been confined to small bedrooms at the clubs, and I want more space. That’s why I want us to go out to dinner tonight—so we can discuss switching houses with your family now that Jace is getting older.”
“You actually think I believe that?”
“Whether you believe it or not, it’s the truth. It was the plan before I moved in here and your mother sold her house, remember? But I can’t just be a jerk and make them move since there are more of them than us, which is why I’ve been putting it off.”
“Did you really think I would go along with that after I found out about this?”
“You weren’t supposed to know. I fixed this shit weeks ago.” He swept his hand out, knocking the folders to the floor. “If the firm your mother hired was any good, it should have been in there that both mortgages have been paid in full, and ownership of both houses are in your name, free and clear.”
“My mother isn’t the one who hired them; Lana did. And it doesn’t matter if you did or didn’t fix anything. You did it in the first place. I bet you’ve hated every second you stayed with me … I looked through the paperwork; the balloon payment would come due around Jace’s birthday. That’s when you planned to leave me. Jace would be weaned, old enough for you to get full custody, with me without a home, and none of my family having a place, either. You planned it meticulously. God, I won’t stand a chance in court with you, will I? You crossed every T and dotted every I. That’s why you refused to be seen around town with me after Jace was born, why you won’t take me out on your motorcycle.”
“I haven’t taken you out because …” He broke off, shoving his hands in his back pockets. “I don’t know why, but I’ve become paranoid about Jace’s safety. I can’t explain it … this feeling I have,” he admitted, feeling foolish. “That’s why I stay on you about the sock when he’s sleeping. It’s worse when you take him out. A voice in my head tells me he’s in danger. The only reason I let Kendra leave the house with Jace is because she’s going directly to your office and back. That, and no one would dare mess with Jace around that bitch. She’d gnaw their hand off if anyone dared to touch him.”
“Is that why you put cameras all over the place?”
“Yes. That way, I can watch him when I’m at work. I also put a tag on your and Kendra’s cars so I know where you are when you do go outside with him.”
Larissa nodded at him, showing she believed him. “Then you were telling the truth about not wanting to get in a wreck with both of us on the motorcycle?”
“Yes. The thought of Kendra raising my son without one of us gives me nightmares.”
Neither said anything, and then Moon’s cell phone ringing broke the momentary silence.
“Yeah?”
“The truck is ten minutes away,” Shade informed him.
“I’m on my way.”
Disconnecting the call, he picked the folders up off the floor and set them back on the table. “I have to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
“I’m going out to run some errands and find a place for Jace and me to eat. I would appreciate it if you would come, take your things, and move back into The Last Riders’ until my family can move in here. It shouldn’t take long for them to get their things moved in. Tomorrow, I’ll find a lawyer to come up with a custody agreement that we both can agree on. We’ve said all that needs to be said. I’ll text you my lawyer’s number tomorrow. Unless it pertains to setting up a time to see Jace, I prefer you not send me any further communication. In case you’re not getting what I’m saying: we are over. I’m sorry to beat you to the finish line. You’ll just have to be satisfied with succeeding in hurting me since that was your goal all along.”
He raised his cell phone in order to call Viper and tell him that he was needed here when Larissa’s expression broke.
“Please leave.”
“Dammit. I’m going, but we aren’t done talking, not by a long shot.”
“Yes, we are,” she stated firmly. “I’m done making concessions with you, Moon. Anything else, you’ll have to fight for.”